AIM: astrocytednb

Hailing from London, UK and originally from Scotland, Astrocyte has been making music of some description for 17 years.
Starting out producing basic jungle, bouncy techno and gabba tunes using OctaMED tracking software and an 8-bit sampler on an Amiga 1200, this introduced him to sampling techniques and editing, as well as structure and arrangement of dance music.

Within a few years, PC technology was improving and he started using Propellerhead's ReBirth and Cakewalk music sequencer to make techno-style tunes.

After a few years hiatus, he played around with a demo of Propellerhead's Reason around 2001 which showed him the possibilities emerging in the home studio field. Around this time however, Astrocyte was heavily into punk and began playing the guitar very badly.

Around 7 years later, and heavily into drum and bass, he returned to music production armed with a copy of Reason. During this time he learned about synthesis and other important production/engineering techniques, picking up tips from various websites such as drumnbass.be and dogsonacid.com and eventually made the switch to Steinberg's Cubase (which he still uses).

Astrocyte enjoys the darker side of drum and bass, which comes across in his music. A few of his influences are (in no particular order): Prolix, Noisia, Teebee, Calyx, Ed Rush & Optical, other up-and-coming producers (who are a constant source of inspiration).

He also plays the mandolin.