Under the Big Tree:

A YouTube channel about electronic music (mostly)

Hi, and welcome to the web page for the Under the Big Tree YouTube channel. My name is Nicolas “Nick” Peck, and I’ve been lucky enough to make my living full-time in sound design, music composition/production, and audio direction for the last 25+ years.

I started this YouTube channel a couple of years ago to explore new outlets outside of the commercial realm for my creative energy. I wasn’t sure exactly what would work at first, but I quickly came to realize that people liked my thoughts, interviews, and tutorials on various aspects of electronic music, and since that has been my deepest musical passion since I was a teenager, it was a fit. There are lots of channels about the more commercial aspects of electronic music, and so I focus on the more esoteric aspects: modular synthesizers, experimental music, musique concrete, DIY electronics, the Kyma sound design environment, and vintage analog synths. I love going to synth meets around the world, interviewing the makers of these great tools, and learning about their products. I’ve posted presentations by such luminaries as Dr. John Chowning, “inventor” of FM synthesis, Buchla experts Todd Barton and Marc Doty, Carla Scaletti and Kurt Hebel, the inventors of Kyma, Johannes Schmoelling of Tangerine Dream, and many more. And, of course, there are plenty of recordings of musical performances from myself, and synthesists I have met in my travels.

I get up on my soapbox from time to time about other things I feel passionate about, but the vast majority of the videos on the channel are about the esoteric side of electronic music. You will never find any nastiness here; my goal is always to share what I know, learn together, and celebrate the rich tapestry of music, technology, and characters that make up this wonderful branch of music.

If you would like to know more about me, you can go to my composer website, nicolaspeck.com. And if you would like to hear my music outside of the YouTube channel, you can visit my Bandcamp page.

To quote myself: If you like what we are doing here on Under the Big Tree, please feel free to like, share, and subscribe. For now, this is Nick, signing off.