=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-MIDI CRAFT-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- NEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWS             Kevan R.Craft and Gareth R.Craft         a.k.a The Craft Brothers and MIDICraft         are currently in the recording studio         recording material for a CD project         to be released in first quarter of 1994                  NEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSNEWS The Craft Brothers, Kevan R.Craft and Gareth R.Craft, the Amiga musicans who regularly write articles and produce Music-X/MIDI and OctaMED Professional music as contributors to your favourite Amiga disk magazine - AM/FM are currently writing and recording musical material for a future proposed CD release. The working title for the CD project is called 'HEART OF THE MATTER' as we think this idea is reflected in our music. We quite like the idea of combining the working methods used to produce both the writing and recording of the music as both a HUMAN and COMPUTER or MAN and MACHINE concept so therefore, this theme has provided us with our working title - which as songs, we would like to think of as the lyrical and poetic side of the 'HEART', and 'MATTER' as the mechanistic computer aspect of the process - get it? Gareth has written a song called 'Heart of The Matter', but whether this title stays for the proposed CD remains to be seen! In the recording process we are utilising both analogue and digital methods of multi-track recording techniques. Using the Amiga and Music-X it is possible to sync the Amiga and the MIDI music to a SMPTE generator/syncroniser which locks the Multi-Track Tape machine to the Amiga and Music-X thereby facilitating the recording of Vocals, Electric and Acoustic Guitars, produced in the traditional analogue method using DI'd Guitars and digital signal processing, microphones for the Vocals and Acoustic Guitars. What this means, and this is 'The Heart of the Matter', is that, the human element is being utilised together with the machine where we as musicans sing our Vocals and Play our Guitars while the Amiga and Music-X provides the backing MIDI synth music just like a backing band. There's the CD title creeping in again! The only difference, is that, only analgoue recordings made are of the Human Vocals and various Guitars, the multi-MIDI synth instruments from the Amiga and Music-X are syncronized with the analogue tape and then mastered onto digital media via a Studiomaster Mixdown 16:8:16 mixing desk and various studio signal processing equipment. This syncronising of the anologue tape machine to run in time with the Amiga and Music-X software is facilitated by recording SMPTE Timecode:- HOURS: MINUTES: SECONDS: FRAMES From the SMPTE Generator/Reader onto track 8 of the tape machine. When you line up your Music-X song file with a 'Timecode' offset and configure the software to receive on MIDI Clocks at 25 Frames per second, the time at where the song begins in Timecode on the tape and the software will both correspond to each other. This simply means that when you press PLAY or RECORD on the tape machine the Music-X software will always begin at that point of the song. Therefore, if you have composed a Music-X tune, you play the tape and play the Guitar parts and Sing the Vocals along with the Music-X MIDI instruments feeding into the mixing desk all that gets recorded onto tape are the human Vocals and Guitars. Its only when the process is complete for one song that you then master onto digital media (DAT) and then you have a completed mastered track ready for cutting a CD. This process has to be repeated for each song until a complete DIGITAL MASTER, containing the complete music for the intended CD, has been produced. The digital master is then sent off to the pressing plant and converted from Digital DAT tape to CD! So, not only will the complex Synth songs and music by the Craft Brothers be available to hear, but with the addition of great Vocals and Electric and Acoustic Guitars as well! Everybody in the professional recording industry used this method until recently with the advent of Hard Drive Digital Multi-Track recording equipment! We sent a demo of one song which we recorded in October 1993, to John Atkinson of 'Technical Dimensions' called, funny enough, 'Heart Of The Matter', and he liked it, Chas Chandler liked it even a couple of studio engineers liked it, a meeting may be set up to discuss a future recording project under a commercial label! They haven't heard anything yet! Wait 'till they hear a full production of another song we've recorded called 'The Last Time' (appeared on AM/FM #10), containing full string sections, choir, brilliant drum programming, tight bass playing, Rock Guitar with Screaming Guitar Solo, Blues Lead Vocal and 5 part-Harmony Vocals - If you've ever heard of a band called ASIA then this'll knock you out!!! Another song we've recorded, which sounds like a Folk-Blues number called 'Rescue Me' is quite a favourite of mine and the tuned percussion sounds really sweet and clear along with the vocal lyric. I'm quite pleased with the results of this particular song. Indeed, we're both pleased with the overall results of other songs we are producing during the recording sessions at the moment. We're pleased all our hard work and effort is paying rewards! As our musical tastes tend to be wide and diverse, then the music, which will eventually make up the CD, will hopefully reflect this aspect in our songwriting and musicianship. Therefore, you may find some Pop, Rock, Soulful Ballads, Love Songs, Jazz, Jazz Rock, Reggie, Synth and Theme Music may find its way into the Craft Brothers CD. As yet, we still have quite a way to go in compiling a catalogue of material which we are currently writing and recording and will then decide which will feature on the CD later. As we have a back catalogue of songs this shouldn't present us with any headaches!! Equipment used in the recording sessions so far: Amiga 500 Plus 2Mb, 2 external drives and A570 CD ROM Commodore 1084 ST Monitor Amiga Serialport-MIDI Interface Software - Music-X v 1.1 and OctaMED Professional v 5.0f TASCAM 38 - 8 Track Reel to Reel 2 x TASCAM DX-40 DBX Professional Noise Reduction 1 Rack units STUDIOMASTER Mixdown 16:8:16 Mixing Desk J L COOPER PPS 100 MIDI-SMPTE Synchronizer/Event Generator ENSONIQ SQR ROLAND GR-50 Guitar Synthesizer ROLAND D-110 FENDER STRATOCASTER Guitar with ROLAND GK-2 MIDI Pickup YAMAHA Semi-Acoustic Guitar YAMAHA Steel String Acoustic FENDER Twelve String Acoustic Guitar 2 x SHURE SM58 Microphones ART SGE Digital Super Effector/Pitch Translator YAMAHA REX 50 Multi-Effects Processor IBANEZ HD/1000 Harmonics/Digital Delay JVC A-S3 Stereo Integrated Amplifier WARFDALE Stereo Monitors BEYER DYNAMIC DT-100 Headphones SONY MDR-P1 Headphones SONY WALKMAN Headphones The initial availability of the CD will be through mail order available from ourselves at our home address in the U.K. and hopefully, we can keep the cost price down to £10.99 English pounds for each CD. We may acquire distributors to sell the CD on our behalf at a later date. If there are any further developments concerning The Craft Brothers recording sessions and CD project then this will be announced in future issues of AM/FM. Until then, Take care..... Kevan R.Craft and Gareth R.Craft 12 Mount Road Halton Runcorn Cheshire. WA7 2BH England. U.K. Tel: +44 0928 563762 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-MIDI CRAFT-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-