Terrance Reese x T.E.T-Reese
The Artist The Engineer
When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a rapper. I used to substitute my name in whenever Lil Bow Wow songs came on...I went by T-Wow. I know...it's terrible. As time went on, I learned to freestyle. My big brother used to play a DJ Screw song called June 27th every night before we went to bed. I would sleep listening to artists like Big Moe, Big Pokey, Youngster, and Hair Cut Joe to name a few. This eventually led up to me writing my first rap song in middle school...it was terrible. I knew nothing about writing songs or how to structure one, so it was just one long verse with a hook. When I got to high school, I got this studio simulator called Magix Music Maker on PlayStation 2. It was very simple but helped me get the gist of making beats...so I made one...it was terrible. But I was determined, so I wrote a song to the beat. This time I had the hook before and after the verse. That's growth. Then I proceeded to do something that discouraged me in a major way. I performed in front of my 6 cousins and my friend from the school...it was terrible. I almost took up comedy after that because of how hard I made them laugh. I then took a hiatus from my music career.
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In 2007 I joined the Air Force. Shortly after making it to my first base, I purchased my first laptop, computer mic, and speakers. I downloaded the free version of Fruity Loops and a DAW called Mix Pad. I got a foam-padded box from work and that was history. I made my first studio, started recording, and made my own beats. That was my first time being an engineer. The songs were a great deal above terrible...but still not good. At the time, my best friend and I started a rap group called Strictly Thowed. I bought a Sony mini DV camera, and we shot our first video. It was...funny. That moment was big for us. We were focused, and we were making music. We even performed in some small venues; but then the day job called. In 2009, I went on my first deployment. Not being able to record didn't stop me though. I kept writing and making beats on the free Fruity Loops program while spending every penny of my deployment money on new studio equipment. When I returned home, I claimed all my gear and plugged everything up. I was so excited, I couldn't wait. I just knew our sound quality was going to be on point...then it wasn't. At the time I knew nothing about signal flow, analog vs digital, or the computing power required to achieve my goal. Feeling like I wasted my money, I packed everything back up and let it collect dust. We started recording at a local studio that a guy ran out of his basement in Salt Lake City. I remember seeing his console and being blown away. I also remember how extremely reluctant he was to show me how anything worked. It's almost as if he was protecting trade secrets from a rival company, and rightfully so. If that guy would've told me how to connect my MXL mic to my analog mixer and Toshiba laptop he would've never seen us again.
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In 2011 I went on my first tour to Korea. It was only a year, but I decided to not worry about making music. Instead, I wrote songs and started buying beats from my high school friend Bobby. He, unlike me, did not have the free Fruity Loops, but the fully paid for version. When I returned to the states the next year and received all my belongings from storage, I took another shot at setting up my mic. But this time was different. I actually did some research. In about 10 minutes I found out I needed an interface and not a mixer. It's crazy because that one piece of equipment would've changed so much 2 years before that. But without worrying about how I spent a bunch of money without doing adequate research, I started recording. I released my first mixtape under the name T-Reese. That was a big moment for me. I was writing, recording, and mixing my own songs...on Pro Tools! YouTube taught me a lot; trial and error taught me the rest. I was happy.
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From 2012 to 2019 I wrote, recorded, and mixed my own music. Then I grew weary of the military and decided that I would start down the path of becoming an engineer...a real engineer. I enrolled and started my Audio Production degree Program in early 2020. It was there that I learned you don't add time-based plug-ins on the audio tracks that you record on. And that's it...that's all I learned. But seriously, my time at Full Sail taught me everything I needed to follow my dreams. I'm fully prepared to take on the industry and I'm proud to do so as a Full Sail Graduate.
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