About us

Our site is the creation of a collection of creative artists and technologists, students and educators, professionals and enthusiasts. In the original spirit of the web, we share, exchange and publish knowledge for free. Our site is targeted at musicians, video makers, web designers, and artists and creatives of all kinds. Our articles teach essential concepts and knowledge to help them. Despite our .com domain (used because its easy to remember), Planet Of Tunes is a not for profit organisation. We carry Google ads to help pay our hosting costs. None of our contributors are paid for their work.

What is Planet Of Tunes?

Planet Of Tunes started life at the end of the 1980s as a recording studio and production company and has since evolved into this site, and the Planet Of Tunes Music Label which showcases some of our contributors music.

The Planet Of Tunes Free Resources web site was the idea of Matt Ottewill, an audio and digital media qualification writer and educator. With the help of new media designer and professional trainer Don Kallenbach, Matt created Planet Of Tunes Free Resources as a forum for all the activities that he and his friends, colleagues and students are involved in. The site includes contributions by a wide range of musicians, artists, students and lecturers working in the fields of new media development, sound recording and music technology.

How long has Planet Of Tunes Free Resources existed?

Planet Of Tunes Free Resources went live in 1997, and featured one of the first all animated Flash interfaces (created by Don). The site was re-designed in 1999 as a simple and ultra fast html interface for delivering content (nothing more than 2 clicks away) and you are now looking at the most recent CSS compliant version.

The site continues to grow and devour server space! Currently, approx 20 updates both small and large are made every month.

Our contributors

We are fortunate to host articles and resources contributed by a number of people. This page contains brief profiles of some of them. Others not profiled here include ... Robbie Stacey, Dane Ramshaw, Ed Cooper, Damien Soskin, Reza Younesi, Yonas Abebe, Jonathan Miller, Toni Ballantyne Clarke, Brad Kent, Alex Etherington Smith and Derrin Edwards. Thanks everyone.

If you would like to contribute an article send us a message.

DonDon Kallenbach

Don is one of our co-founders and was responsible for creating the original all Flash site. Don can be found most days training digital design professionals at Symbiosis in central London.

TobyToby Stack

Our all round computing and web development guru. We call on Toby for any back-end advice and guidance. His site is at .. kitsunemimi.co.uk

AlistairAlistair Banks

Alistair Banks is a director of business ISP, izR Solutions Ltd, MD of a community broadband company, New Forest Community Broadband Ltd, consultant in multimedia & networking technologies & related marketing, part-time teacher of technology at a local school, and investor in certain start-ups.

Alistair had worked for Microsoft Corp for 10 years until 1998 at their headquarters in Redmond, USA, having been Senior Program Manager & Evangelist in the Operating Systems group there. He worked for Microsoft on digital imaging, multimedia video & audio (Windows 95, Windows NT 3.x & 4, DirectShow, WDM Streaming in Windows 98 & Windows 2000), Windows Networking (including the creation of the "WinSock API" - the basis for most modern Internet applications on Windows.)

Alistair also worked with software companies as part of the team defining Windows NT's Win32 API, COM's antecedent API - OLE2, & Network DDE. Before Microsoft, he worked for 5 years creating PC-based financial trading systems in the City of London, and has been working with Windows-based systems since 1985, and also worked there with Vax/VMS, OS/2 & MS-Dos. He has a BSc Eng. (Hons) in Computing Science from Imperial College, London University.

Paul HazelPaul Hazel

Dr Paul Hazel's current research interests include a cluster of subjects related to new media theory and practice, particularly narrative, e-learning, digital literacy, and interface design.

His PhD project is entitled Narrative Structures in e-Learning, and investigates whether narrativized e-learning materials can be shown to improve the quality of the student experience. Find out more ... www.paulhazel.com

Matt OttewillMatt Ottewill

Matt is our co-ordinator. A musician, digital media designer and educationalist, he spends more time then is strickly healthy trying to figure out if different mic pre-amps actually make a difference. Find out more ... www.mattottewill.com

Robbie Stacey

Robbie has been a successful recording studio owner and record maker in a previous life. But then he discovered Dreamweaver and analytics, and now he is a successful web designer! Find out more ... stacystephens.co.uk

BenBen Henderson

Ben currently produces at Black Valve Studios in Surrey as well as being the director of Bump & Thumper Recording Co. The bump and Thumper group are a collective of artists, engineers, and producers working together to provide professional services to the music industry.

Ben regularly gives lectures on Music Technology and Sound Engineering at IMT, as well as Kingston College.

Formerly a member of the internationally successful band BOA, Ben was signed with Polystar in Japan and has had Album and Single releases in Japan, South East Asia, the USA and the UK. The song DUVET was used as the theme tune for "LAIN", the Japanese Manga anime, and remixed by D.J. Wasai on the"LAIN- SERIAL EXPERIMENTS" Album. Pioneer USA have recently released the Album "TWILIGHT" in the United States, amalgamating Tracks from the "TALL SNAKE" E.P., which was originally released in Japan.

Ben's regularly performs with his current band MOTH, and also sound engineers at various live venues in the UK. MOTH have performed to raise funds for the London City Mission, Oxygen, and Youth initiatives. Find out more .. Moth's website.