Daniel Fisher

Video

Oral History Information

Interview Date
Job Title
Director of Product Optimization
Company Name
Sweetwater Sound

Daniel Fisher has a long and interesting history in music, which began as a child when his parents discovered that he could play by ear at age 5. His education continued on a Hammond B3 organ when nuns taught Daniel in their convent and he began playing synthesizers starting in the mid-1970s. In 1980, Fisher studied on a Moog System 55 Modular Synthesizer at Northern Illinois University and later became the keyboardist for the United States Army Rock Band which toured Europe and the US. After getting dual degrees in Music Synthesis and Music Production & Engineering at Berklee College of Music, Daniel used his knowledge of instruments while working at the retail store EU Wurlitzer in Boston, which led to being hired as the beta tester for new Kurzweil K2000 keyboard and was soon promoted to Soundware Engineer. While working for Kurzweil, Fisher met Chuck Surack, the founder of Sweetwater Sound, where Daniel was eventually hired as Sweetwater's Chief Soundware Engineer. In 2000, Daniel became an Associate Professor of Music Synthesis at Berklee College of Music, where he taught for five years. In 2006, Chuck asked Daniel to come back to Sweetwater as the Director of Products Optimization, where he creates Sweetwater-exclusive bonus patches, QuickStart Guides, and other value-added products. He also makes many of Sweetwater’s synthesizer and keyboard videos and has been hired to do synth programming and manual writing for Moog, Roland, Kurzweil, Novation, Korg, Alesis, and Yamaha.