Craig Anderton

Craig Anderton got an early start in the world of music: by his 22nd birthday he had recorded three albums, toured most of the USA east of the Mississippi, and played Carnegie Hall.
He began his recording career as a teen-ager in 1967 with the Philadelphia-based group "Mandrake Memorial"--the same year his professional writing career got started by being published in Popular Electronics magazine. Working with producer/engineers such as Tony Bongiovi (who engineered for Jimi Hendrix and now co-owns The Power Station studio), Brooks Arthur (Neil Diamond), and Shel Talmy (Kinks, Who), Craig learned much about recording while composing songs for, and playing guitar and/or synthesizer on, all three Mandrake albums.
He invested the money he made with Mandrake into setting up an electronics lab, which paid many dividends. He was one of the first musicians to use synthesizers on stage, having built his first synth in 1968 and a second, more advanced version in 1969. During that same year he also developed several types of electronic drum sets, capped by the invention of a semi-programmable, all-electronic drum machine in 1970.
During the early 70s he played sessions on both guitar and synthesizer for Epic, Metromedia, Columbia, RCA, United Artists, and other labels, working with R&B/jazz session players such as Airto Moreira, Gordon Edwards, and Cornell Dupree. He has also produced three albums by classical guitarist Linda Cohen, was mixdown/production consultant on Valley in the Clouds by David Arkenstone (which, a year after its release, was still on Billboard's Top 20 new age chart), and mixed several cuts on Emerald (by Brewer, Tingstad, and Rumbel).
Craig has also done a variety of other musically-related projects, from scoring a rock version of Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream," to cutting radio spots, to performing as staff synthesist for the avant-garde dance company Group Motion Berlin. He even played a bit part in an Italian detective movie.
After moving to California in the mid-70s, Craig concentrated on building Microsound (a private studio/laboratory) and perfecting a variety of innovative recording techniques and electronic devices. One of these techniques, "synchro-sonic recording," was presented in a paper to the prestigious Audio Engineering Society and forecast the rise of rhythmically-synchronized dance music, as well as anticipated the technology used to make it possible. Several of his designs have shown up in products from Tascam, Peavey, PAiA, and other manufacturers; they've been used by bands such as Boston and the Motels, and individual artists like synth wizard (and ex-Peter Gabriel keyboard player) Larry Fast.
During the mid-70s Craig started writing extensively about music and electronics for a variety of publications including Guitar Player, Byte, Keyboard, Rolling Stone, Musician, Popular Electronics, A/V Video, and Mix. He has also been published in major British, German, French, Belgian, Japanese, Dutch, and Italian publications. Currently he is a regular contributor to Guitar Player, Keyboard, EQ, Pro Sound News, Transoniq Hacker, Professional Songwriter, Sound on Sound (UK), Pro Audio (Netherlands), and Les Cahiers de l'ACME (Belgium).
Craig has written several books, and Music Sales Corporation has published nine of these: Electronic Projects for Musicians, Home Recording for Musicians, Guitar Gadgets, The Digital Delay Handbook, MIDI for Musicians, The Electronic Musician's Dictionary, The Complete Guide to the Alesis HR-16 and MMT-8, Power Sequencing with Master Tracks Pro/Pro 4, and Multieffects for Musicians. Music Sales also published Digital Projects for Musicians, co-authored with Bob Moses and Greg Bartett. Warner Communications published 7 Simple Steps to Buying a Word Processor, and Miller Freeman books published Do It Yourself Projects for Guitarists.. Because of his ability to explain complex concepts in easy-to-understand terms, he has also been commissioned by several manufacturers to write owner's manuals for some of the industry's most popular and enduring musical instruments.
From 1974 to 1982, Craig was senior copy writer and musical arranger for a West coast ad agency specializing in computer advertising. In 1980 he became editor of Polyphony magazine, a small publication for electronic music enthusiasts. In 1983 he sold his share of the agency to concentrate exclusively on making, and writing about, music; two years later, he decided that the burgeoning electronic music market was not being adequately served by any existing publications, and was the main force behind transforming Polyphony into Electronic Musician, a more consumer-oriented publication with a wider appeal.
Mix Publications bought Electronic Musician in late 1985, retaining Craig as editor. During his tenure, Electronic Musician's subscriber base grew from 2,000 to 44,000+ readers, with additional copies sold over the newsstand. Career and Bibliography...

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