Beagle is one of Gearwire's MVP Candidates, and anyone from the Cakewalk forums can tell you why. He's an engineer in multiple senses of the word, and he's also one of the most helpful forum posters you'll find out there.

What is your background?

I am an Electrical Engineer and I work on the F-22 state of the art Air Force Jet fighter as a design engineer. I can’t tell you more than that or I’d have to kill you. :)

How did you get started in music and what advice would you give to someone who just started?

I took piano lessons when I was young and I sang in church and in a boy traveling quartet. I also was choir director of a couple of churches when I was a young adult, but after that I became disinterested in pursuing music except for listening and dancing to it. I renewed my interest a few years ago when I joined the choir at church and started singing again, and my interest has skyrocketed since then!

The best advice I can give someone just starting in music is to be persistent. Consistency and persistence are the greatest attributes of ANYTHING worth achieving. If you don’t have those, then you won’t reach your full potential.

Who are your musical influences and what genre do you listen to most?

I have many, many musical influences, and many of which a lot of people (especially younger ones!) won’t have a clue who they are. Alan Parsons, for example inspires me not only as an excellent musician and songwriter, but as an engineer as well! He was the sound engineer for Dark Side of the Moon, one of the all time best sellers. I was also influenced by YES, Genesis, Kansas, Billy Joel, Journey, REO, as well as a lot of contemporary Christian artists like Steven Curtis Chapman, Dennis Jernigan, Jeremy Camp, Casting Crowns ... way too many to really list them all! Mostly now, I listen to Contemporary Christian, although I still throw in some of the old classic rock occasionally on the iPod!

What's your inspiration?

I write songs currently that are an inspiration from God. I am a devout Christian and my music is an extension of the inspiration I receive from my spiritual walk. Without Christ, I would have no inspiration!

What's your motivation for helping people out on forums?

I just really enjoy helping people. I do it in my job, I do it on the forums, I do it with my children and family. I get a great satisfaction when I have said something that allows someone to have that glowing elation when it works! It’s not about the appreciation I get, most of the time folks don’t remember to come back and thank those helping anyway. It’s just satisfaction that I get from solving the problem to get someone else moving along in their journey with their own inspirations.

What's your favorite piece of gear and why? What gear do you use?

I don’t have a lot of gear. Here’s my list:

• P4 2.8GHz 2G RAM with dual monitors and 4 hard drives
• M-Audio Delta 44
• Sonar 6PE
• Gigastudio 3 Orchestra
• Wusikstation
• Sampletank LE
• Several other software packages
• Behringer Eurorack MC1604A
• ART TPS II Preamp
• Behringer Truth B2031A’s
• Sennheiser HD515
• Audio Technica ATH-MF40S
• M-Audio Nova LDC Mic
• MXL 990/991 Combo
• MXL V69M LDC
• Several Audio Technica Dynamic mics
• Yamaha PSR-293
• Casio PX-310 Digital Piano

I guess my favorite out of all that would be my Behringer Truths. They’re the best value of anything I’ve purchased and I’d even consider them a better value than some higher end near fields like Dynaudio or Genelec. Those monitors may be better, but the price difference is NOT proportional to the quality!

What are your favorite sources for gear-related information?

Well, until I was nominated for this contest I would have said Sound on Sound, KVR Audio and several others were my “goto” sites for gear info. I did not know about Gearwire at the time. Of course, now I can add Gearwire to the list. However, I don’t rely on a sole source for all of my research! I guess that’s the Government Contractor in me! I tend to search the net for many sources when researching something. Usually you can find a lot of good info if you look in many different places!

What's the best music related advice you've ever given?

Wow! I really am not sure I can answer that! I have literally given out thousands of pieces of advice. Some worked, some didn’t. I guess the best advice I have given is some that I’ve given often. Which is: You shouldn’t buy something just because that’s what’s popular. Research and ask questions and find out what equipment and software is best for YOUR goals and YOUR specific needs. If you go and buy a Neumann U87 and you have never recorded anything before – what does that really get you? Prestige? Who needs that??? Research, ask questions, then do more research and figure out what you really need and always try to get the best VALUE for your money - not what everyone thinks is HOT!

What's the best music related advice you've ever received?

I’ve had a lot of mentors on recording and songwriting over the last several years and it’s really hard to pick out any one piece of advice that stood out over another. One in particular, however, sticks with me to this day and I’ve used it back on others since that time. When I first started writing songs, I would create a melody with the piano, or a sampled trumpet or sax or something and I would leave that instrument in the recording even after I recorded some vocals over the melody. So I would have the vocals and this other instrument both in the song with the same melody.

Well, one of the really good composers on the forums told me in a critique that I was creating music that sounded like I was in choir practice at church! You know, where the pianist plays the chords that the choir is singing instead of playing the accompaniment! Of course, that’s so that the choir can hear their notes to sing with. Later the practice would change to playing the accompaniment in choir practice, but this guy told me that I never did change out of PRACTICE MODE! That really hit home and I realize immediately that he was right! Commercial songs aren’t done that way! The melody is not doubled with another instrument – the voice is the only instrument singing the melody! Rude awakening is actually what I’d call it! And I haven’t done it since! And I’ve advised others that same advice since then as well!

What's the best and worst thing about being a musician?

Best – it satisfies my soul just to be able to play and sing. It’s an experience that only a musician or artist can feel.

Worst – dealing with those VERY FEW individual musicians who think they’re better than everyone else. I have little tolerance for egotistical musicians. NO ONE is perfect, so let’s just be humble about our talents! Confidence is OK, though, just not ego-maniacs!

What is the best and worst thing about online forums?

The best thing is meeting all the great musicians out there in the world that I never would have had the opportunity to meet. It’s still not the best because we aren’t face to face, but there are some really great people on the forums that I have grown to know and call friend – just as much of a friend as one sitting next to me!

The worst thing is that we CAN’T meet face to face and jam together! Occasionally you can run into someone local, but most of the time those you get to know and befriend are scattered across the globe! I have friends in Canada, South American countries, UK, Spain ... lots of places on the globe! Too bad we can’t have a great jam session in the garage!

What music-related topic do you think is most neglected on forums?

The very BASICS of helping newbies. There are a lot of folks who will write great dissertations on the differences between 16bit and 24bit recording, or music theory, or acoustic guitar recording techniques. But most of the people who struggle are those just getting started with brand new software and the absolute WRONG microphone to record with because that’s what the salesperson at GC told him to buy! I think that very basic recording needs to be addressed in very simple terms for people to understand. Then they can start arguing about 96kHz vs. 44.1kHz sampling rates!

What are the 5 forum posts/threads where you are most proud of your contributions? (Give actual URLs)

Honestly, I have probably FORGOTTEN the best ones already! I have written so many responses over the last year and a half just on ONE of the forums I frequent that I don’t know if I can remember FIVE of the best! Here’s what a search came up with:

• Can't Export MIDI Drums
• What do Cakewalk Products do?
• TUTORIAL: You may not have chosen any MIDI Inputs/Outputs...
• How to make stereo
• using the compressor

I’m really not sure these are my best. It’s difficult to search through 8000+ posts and find the 5 best ones – these are just some of the ones that seemed good in a search.

Anything else you would like voters to know? Any interesting music related stories?

What else would I like everyone to know? I also have a website where I point folks to when they ask for help on things that get asked a lot, like “which sound card do I buy” or “which microphone”? I’ve also got some great advice from myself and others concerning compression, EQ and recording tips. Here’s the url: http://homerecording.beaglesound.com

An interesting music related story:
I put together a singing group and we drove 5 hours to a church in southeast Texas for their revival. On the second time we lead the congregation in singing, there was a young girl, probably about 10 years old who started getting sick right in the middle of the set. I was watching her and her mother from the stage and her mother put her hand over the little girl’s mouth, but that only made things worse if you can picture what happened! Out of the 5 of us on stage, myself and one other singer were the only ones who noticed! Poor little girl…and the guy in front of her!!!!