As you hopefully know by now, the primary purpose of this column is to give you an inside perspective of the things that make our team truly unique in our industry in terms of customer service. Up to this point, my primary focus has been on giving you a tour of a week in the life of a Sweetwater Sales Engineer. You've had a chance to learn a bit more about the rigorous product, application and sales training that is an integral part of our every day routine here at Sweetwater.

In this issue, I'd like to begin to expand beyond the specifics of the Sales Department and give you a chance to meet some of the other wonderful folks we have in the house. I'd like to start with Daniel Fisher, our resident genius and the head of our Soundware Development Facility.

Those of you who have been part of the Sweetwater family for a while already know that soundware development is really what brought Sweetwater into the retail world. Back in the mid-'80s, Chuck had a happening studio and was trying to increase his sound palette by acquiring the latest and most powerful sampling workstation, the legendary Kurzweil K250. Being the kind of guy Chuck is, he started tweaking with and creating samples and before long was trading them with his studio friends and some pretty high profile artists. He even won contests for the quality samples he produced.

Chuck's acumen with the K250 and enthusiasm for the technology made selling the Kurzweil product line a logical step in his evolution from studio owner to studio owner/retailer. Kurzweil shortly thereafter became the first manufacturer we carried and is a key product line for us to this day! From those beginnings the momentum picked up and Daniel Fisher came on board in the fall of 1994 to head up the Soundware Development Facility. Daniel's background is extensive. He's played keyboard since he was a kid and majored in Electronic Music / Physical Acoustics in college (he offered to clean and maintain the synth room just to get a key so he could conduct late night experiments with the full sized Moog, Putney VCS3, Electro-Comp Modules, a knob based analog sequencer, and two Revox stereo 1/4" reel-to-reel tape machines).

After studying in the Army School of Music and a stint with the US Army Rock Band, Daniel took his talents and hunger for knowledge to Berklee, where he worked on a dual major of Music Production and Engineering and Music Synthesis. To celebrate receiving his degrees, he bought a Korg M1 and started a MIDI consulting company and spent time in music retail in the Boston area. By 1992, he was working at Kurzweil's Research and Development Facility as the QA Tester for the K2000 and was promoted to Soundware Engineer. In 1994, Daniel started doing freelance programming and was flown to California to be part of a 5-man team that completely re-voiced the Alesis QuadraSynth. He was subsequently hired by Alesis to do the General MIDI set for the QuadraSynth and new QS Piano+.

Since joining the Sweetwater team, Daniel has been involved with the creation of some of the best-rated CD-ROMs in the business, including Ultimate Guitars and Grand Pianos. The work he does is nothing short of extraordinary. Hearing him demonstrate his sounds is the primary reason I bought a K2500.

One of the other things that Daniel and his right hand man and Assistant Soundware Engineer, Gary Phillips, do is design and create value added packages for our customers. These could be something as simple as a "Top Ten" questions information sheet for a specific product or as complex as a complete ADAT test tape that includes standard Test Tones, Track Assignment Tests, High Frequency Test Tones, 1/3 Octave Test Tones, White and Pink Noise, Phase Tests, Digital Silence Tests, and Tuning Notes for Guitars, Basses and Horns.

Please note a new feature I've introduced to Sweet Notes in this issue, our "Employee Spotlight" — I firmly believe that the "Sweetwater Difference" is personified in the incredible people who work here. Some of these folks work behind the scenes and some work directly with our customers, but they are all dedicated to providing the highest level of customer service in our industry. I'd like to recognize these hard working (and sometimes very unique) individuals by providing you with a picture and a quick profile. I hope you enjoy meeting the members of the Sweetwater family as much as I enjoy working with them!

Rock and Roll!

Employee Spotlight

Name: Daniel Fisher

Title: Director of Soundware Engineering

Years at Sweetwater: Five

What were you doing before you joined the Sweetwater Team?: I was a Soundware Engineer at Kurzweil's R&D Facility and taught Music Synthesis and MIDI Composition at Powers Music School.

What in life best prepared you for the work you do at Sweetwater and why?: Two Degrees from Berklee College of Music, a B.M. in Music Synthesis and B.M. in Music Production and Engineering (both Cum Laude). Although music is its main focus, Berklee stresses all the things you need to know in order to make a living with music, regardless of which area your dreams lead you.

What did you dream about doing for a living when you were growing up?: Programming Synthesizers — honest. I used to cut out pictures of them in the mid-'70s and paste them into a scrapbook. I learned what the knobs were before I even got a chance to play a synth.

Describe the most dramatic situation in which you provided the "Sweetwater Difference" for a customer?: One of our customers had spent literally five months of sampling, programming and sequencing on a Kurzweil to create the music for a very large, live production. An accident made the internal hard drive unreadable thus trashing the entire show. I was able to call in a favor from a close friend in the industry and they were able to recover most of the data.

Favorite Hobby: Live performance on Keys and Guitars with my blues band, "Funk 'n Blues."

Most unusual/creative solution to a customer problem: Many of our K2000 customers were very disappointed that Kurzweil's KB3 Mode (B3 Drawbar Simulator) only worked on the K2500. Kurzweil at that time stated that it was impossible to do this on a K2000. Naturally this made me invent one for the K2000. We then released our SW_K2B3 file to the world (for free!) on our Web site. To date, it has been downloaded by thousands of Kurzweil owners.

What makes working at Sweetwater fun for you?: Being surrounded by a building full of people (including the Founder and Chairman) who get excited about the same stuff I do.

Favorite movie you've recently seen or rented: "Blast From The Past" — I love movies that say "What if . . ." and then actually go for it.

Guilty pleasure of choice: I have every Simpsons episode taped, first generation with no commercials. (That's right, I've edited every Simpsons since 1991 in real-time.)

Place you'd most like to visit on your next vacation: Hawaii, a dream my wife Joan and I share.

What is the most important thing you've learned at Sweetwater?: What people really want. What makes people happy with what they've purchased. (Not theories, but real-life examples.)

Favorite magazine: Keyboard Magazine

Real-life Hero: Joe Lester, Graphics Designer for Sweetwater (seriously.) He takes vague ideas that are given to him and quickly turns them into powerful, fully polished, graphic realities. And he does it a different way every time. I am humbled by his output.

How would your boss describe you?: He might say that I can always be counted on for an idea.