NEWS p) SINGER-songwriter Craig Wilson strikes a chord at home in the basement studio where he recorded his debut CD, Love Lies Bleeding. The project was done entirely on a Mac computer. Making CDs for a se Michael Becker News Editor michacl@nsnews.com NORTH Vancouver musician Craig Wilson’s do-it-yourself debut CD is a good example of how talent and tech- nology can come together to create a . professional product at very little cost. A guitarist and singer, Wilson has made music since he was a teen. He once played with Buick MacKane, a band thai included Don Binns and Don Short. The two Dons went on to form Sons of Freedom. Wilson designs advertising for a fiving, bur music has remains a constant in his life. “I've still been plunking away on it, writing the songs and staying interest- ed,” he said. In December he released Love Lies Bleeding. The disc was recorded with Michael Adams, Dean Amos and Fred Norman in the basement of Wilson’s North Vancouver home. The audio and visual components were produced entirely on Wilson’s home computer. He embarked on the project in August last year and esti- mates he spent approximately 200 hours to create the disc. Wilson works with a beefed up Power Macintosh 7500 at home. He usually uses the machine for freelance graphics jobs. But, he said, “I realized that I could record on it so I bought an audio media card and started experimenting with that. It made the analogue to digital conversions a lot bet- ter.” To record Love Lies Bleeding, Wilson borrowed some 45 YEAR: ORE: FOR %. microphones to mike up the drum kit. An Audio Technica 4050 microphone was used for instrument amps and vocals. To mix the recordings, Wilson used the ProTools 4 software program. °That's the software that actually come up on your screen. It has a little mixing board and you toggle as you would an analogue mtixing board,” he said. Wilson also used AudioSuite Effeets, a plig-in for ProTools 4. Said Wilson, “It enables you to do all the basic studio sound effects. It’s cheaper than buying the hardware. “T have a reasonable home-project studio, | can’t justify spending a whole lot of money. The Mac has paid pretty much for itself with che graphics I do. This is an added bonus. When it al] came together I couldn't believe it.” To put music to plastic, Wilson borrowed a CDR (CD recording device). Coupled with Adaptee Toast software he was able to “burn” recordable CDs (bought in butk for as littie as $3 a piece) on the Mac system. “The length of the CD is about 28 minutes. It takes half that time to burn a CD. I'd set an egg timer, go upstairs and watch TV. When the egg timer went off, I'd go back down- stairs and flip a new CD in. I did that 80 times actually,” Hc put his computer grapisics skills to work to design the CD sleeve. Photos snapped by North Shore News photog- rapher Terry Peters, when Wilson and band played the Hose Reel Festival a few years ago, provided some of the images. See Found page 32 Celebrating SC Years of Musical Thoatre The Greater Vancouver Operatic Society proudly presents the 1999 production of Seok end Lyrics by ALAN JAY LERNER Music by FREDERICK LOEWE featuring EOD WRIGHT ALEC BURDEN as Higgins as Doolittle RIMA BUSSE as Eliza DUNCAN BELL ANGUS STUART as Pickering as Freddy Set Designer STEWART FAIRLEY DirectoriChoreographer Musical Director JAMIE ZAGOUDAKIS EARL HOBSON February 12, 1999 -- North Shore News — 17 “984-4394 ©: 984-7191 Let North Shore's financial advisors help you build a secure financial future with tailored RRSP solurions like FLEXterm*. A favourite with our members, FLEXtersm guarantees you a premium race of return for 2 years. And, to give you complete flexibility, FLEXterm is fully cashable without penalty after 60 days. * Rates subject to change without notice. Available until March 1, 1999.