My Blog...by Neil Blake

When asked to begin this feature, I decided to go ahead - but not to rattle on about myself and what I'd been up to today, as that would bore you to tears as every day is the same here. Wake up – have breakfast – start programming new software – have dinner – settle down to do the orders for the rest of the afternoon – have tea – complete the days work then watch a DVD or do some other “family” stuff.

Much more interesting would be a regular column of tips, information or reviews. Wouldn't it!? PLEASE READ FURTHER DOWN FOR THIS.

Before I do that I will put everyone in the picture about the way we operate Style Disk Warehouse (and Strawberry Music Ltd).

Basically, it's not a "warehouse" at all. We run the business from home, as anyone who has turned up at our door has found out. We USED to have a business unit at Eastwood Trading Estate in Rotherham, but that got underused and was too expensive in the end. So home it is then, taking up most rooms and corners to my wife's annoyance!

I run the business myself, with the wife assisting with posting and packing, admin and database upkeep, besides endlessly running here and there for supplies, packaging, banking or post office business. I've even had the 2 children (2 girls: Tamisha aged 12 and Tiegan aged 10) helping out with filling envelopes, peeling off stickers and addressing flyers. Don't worry, they get paid! So it's very much a family business…and I'm very proud of what we've managed to build up over the years.

I think I made my first disk (free of charge back then for a customer of mine at Fox's Music) on the Yamaha EL90 way back in 1991. I never would have dreamed that 18 years on it would be my full time occupation, often starting at 8.30am and finishing after midnight. In recent years, acquisitions of Technote, Soundsoft and much of BCK's software have allowed us to expand and take the business even further. There is still much to do to bring all these businesses together and running smoothly, but we're getting there.

Future plans? We are upgrading ALL our Tyros 1 and 2 software to Tyros 3 compatibility, which will take many months. Then we will be working on the 2 websites, hopefully adding more useful content and a better search facility etc. We also now have a presence on eBay and will expand that, too.

That's enough personal stuff for now. Let's get some information on the page, starting with a subject that certainly needs addressing…what is software, and what can it do for you? But before that, just a few tips for Yamaha TYROS owners.

More to follow next time. Please EMAIL ME with any questions or future articles you’d like to see.