Sequences & Other Little Ditties

by Kevan R. Craft & Gareth R. Craft













Sequences & Other Little Ditties is a rare oddity comprising of a collection of demos produced using the MIDI Sequencing software Music-X on an Amiga A500 Plus during 1991 & 1992. We invested in the Amiga and Music-X as this seemed the least expensive way of acquiring a computer and MIDI sequencer so we could get our hands dirty and learn this weird thing called MIDI..

The music contained on this album originated from a demo tape recorded to a SONY HD-F-90 cassette and as such wasn't intended for public consumption. The music contained here are demos, experiments and doodling trying to figure out how to sequence music using a sequencer running on a computer and using a couple of synths so the music could play back via MIDI.

The results contained herein are from just over a year of experimenting and fooling around with MIDI which for us was early days before we eventually recorded our A Drop in the Ocean CD so these tracks helped both Gareth and myself to develop a greater understanding of sequencing for MIDI and MIDI technology which we eventually put to use when we recorded our A Drop in the Ocean CD album in 1993.

The music here is quirky, mad and fun and some is quite simply bad but it is listenable to so enjoy and listen to it for the fun of it.. Not many musos release this kind of stuff instead the tapes tend to gather dust on their shelves but I enjoy listening to this collection of music presented here. I get a great deal of pleasure remembering what I did and how I did a thing and the memories of it bring a smile and an occasional giggle at the cookiness of it all..


























Music-X sequencer front end screen.







The Music-X sequencing page displayed graphically as a Piano roll.
Sequences & Other Little Ditties A Collection Of Works 1991 - 1992 Kevan R. Craft & Gareth R. Craft

Recorded from SONY HD-F-90 stereo mixdown cassette tape Audio: 44.100 KHz, 16 Bit, Stereo. Digital Restoration work carried out in Feb 2004

01. Jazz Funk
02. Chamelion
03. Tough Talk
04 - A Piece of Glass
05. Equicon Days
06. Get This!
07. Brain Drain
08. Equicon Days Again
09. Playing 5 Parts With 2 Hands
10. Six Part Ensemble
11. Son Of Mr Green Genes
12. Toccata For a Large Organ
13. The Magnificent 7
14. Postmodern Ism
15. Fruit Salad Surgery
16. Machine Man
17. Pork Pie Hat
18. If Your Happy Then You've Got The Clap
19. What?
20. Short & Sweet
21. Sticky Fingers 22. Mahavishnu (I Miss You)

Tape Hiss removed using Dart Pro 32 v1.14 DART Pro (Digital Audio Restoration Technology) is a sophisticated program for the restoration of archived audio recordings. It is capable of removing both impulsive disturbances (clicks, pops and record scratches) and wide-band noise (tape hiss, surface noise) - and does it in a fast and efficient way.

Audio Editor Program used Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge v6.0 Sonic Foundry Process Options used: 1. Channel Converter Setting: Stereo to Stereo - Swap Channels LEFT to RIGHT/RIGHT to LEFT 2. Volume - increased Left Channel by 2.6 dB both channels roughly same level now Direct-X Plug-in technology used: 1. Sonic Foundry Graphic Dynamics Setting: Mute Levels Below -35dB (Hard Noise Gate) Result = removes unwanted line noise in audio below the -35dB threshold 2. BBE Sonic Maximizer Setting: Contor = 6.0 Process = 6.0 Output Level = -4.3 3. Waves L2 Ultramaximizer Setting: Hi Res CD Master at 0.3dB Compressed to 128 Kps mp3 file format Audio: 44.100 KHz, 16 Bit, Stereo. One minute of audio compresses to a file size of approximately 0.91 MB (about 11:1 compression).

All MIDI tracks sequenced using a Music-X v1.0 Software running on an Amiga 500 Plus computer with a Roland GR-50 Guitar Synthesizer. All other tracks are performed using a Roland GR-50 Guitar Synthesizer, a Fender Stratocaster Guitar and a Roland GK-2 MIDI Pickup

Tracks 1, 4, 7, 13, 14, 16, 10, 21, 22, 23 & 24
by Kevan R. Craft © 1991 - 1992 Tracks 1, 5, 6, 8 by
Kevan R. Craft and Gareth R. Craft © 1991 & 1992
Tracks 2, 9, 10 by Gareth R. Craft © 1991 - 1992
Track 3, 11, 12, 17, 18 & 19
Arrangements by Gareth R. Craft © 1991 - 1992
Originally Mastered to Analogue Stereo Audio Cassette Tape Re-recorded into Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge v6.0 via Yamaha KX-390 Stereo Cassette Deck. Digital Audio Restoration achieved using DartPro32, Waves Restoration Tools on a Windows XP Professional PC System. Mastered using various Direct-X Plug-In Technology. BBE Sonic Maximizer & Waves L2 Ultramaximizer.

Audio burned to CD using Sonic Foundry's CD Architect v5.0