What are Twiddly.Bits

History of Gate FX

FAQs

Media Resources

The very essence of Twiddly.Bits is that the material is non-quantized and has been played by a real musician using the appropriate MIDI controller, i.e. drum pads for drums, MIDI guitar for guitar etc.

That sounds 'normal' and pretty obvious now, but we were the first people to do it and we still have the classiest collection of players who have contributed to our libraries.

Here’s a small selection of players we use and what they’re up to at the moment.

Gavin Harrison (Drums and Percussion, The Funk) From his earlier days with Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson to his 2015 work with King Crimson, Gavin must surely now be the first call drummer for prog rock. Meantime Hugo Degenhardt (Drums & Percussion), who spent many a happy month touring with Twiddly.Bits creator Julian Colbeck during their Steve Hackett days, has gone on to work with Robbie Williams, Bryan Ferry, Kylie Minogue, Rod Stewart and Jack Bruce.

Continuing on the percussive trail, Brazilian Rhythms leading light Alfredo Dias Gomes, who spent his early years playing with the likes of Hermeto Pascoal, Frank Gambale, and Ivan Lins, has just re- released 'Atmosphere' featuring some of these great names from his past. In 2015 Dias Gomes released ‘Looking Back,’ a CD of covers from his mentors and muses. Meantime 10-time GRAMMY nominee Michael Spiro (Latin Spice, Hot Salsa!) is now a professor of music at Indiana University. His album Bákini En El Mundo Nuevo was released in 2017.James Fiorentino, aka ‘Rubio,’ who created the intriguing (Colombian Beats), is now a senior professor at EMMAT, the newest member of Berklee's International Network, in Colombia.

Colombian Beats was co-ordinated by Josh Hinden, creator of (Future Beats), and the re-vamped (Gate FX). Josh has never been a man to stay in one place very long and is currently the brains behind Twisted Tools and is working out of Berlin.

We’re extremely proud that our very own Megan McDuffee (Dubstep MIDIKit) is currently blasting her way through the glass ceiling with a ton of game audio and film credits to her name. A Bandcamp interview with Megan about her Hostile Takeover score made it to the site’s front page in 2019. Check out this amazing talent at meganmcduffee.com.

Twiddly.Bits began life as an experiment to see if individual MIDI- recorded loops could live freely in anyone’s recordings, which of course they can, did, and do! One of the first guinea pigs was Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett (Electric & Acoustic Guitar, Country), himself a long-time experimental player and Roland Guitar Synth user. For the past few years Steve has been enjoying incredible success with his series of Genesis Revisited concerts and releasing both retrospective and new records such as A Life Within A Day / Squackett with Yes man Chris Squire, and Wolflight, The Night Siren, and At The Edge Of Light (2019).

Speaking of Yes, the legendary Bill Bruford (Packet Of 3) famously retired from active duty in 2009 upon publication of his peerless and essential reading autobiography Bill Bruford The Autobiography (Jawbone Press). But Bill is neither watering nor pushing up daisies just yet. Bill is now ‘Dr. Bill,’ receiving his PhD from the University Of Surrey in 2016. Bill continues to lecture and write about music with the same aplomb as he certainly appeared to have playing drums with Yes, ABWH, King Crimson, Genesis and Earthworks.

Fellow ABWH members included Julian Colbeck (General Instruments, Gate FX, Country) and Milton McDonald (General Instruments, Electric & Acoustic Guitar and The Funk). In recent years Milton has been recording and touring with Gary Barlow, Robbie Williams, Take That, Ray Davies, Will Young, Jamiriquoi, and most recently Jeff Lynne’s ELO.

Bass player Dale Davis, who we discovered as a twenty-something tear-away back in the 1990s, famously went on to join Amy Winehouse on so much of her short-lived but stellar live and recording career as both bass player and musical director. Dale worked on the acclaimed Amy movie and since 2009 has worked with numerous UK artists as varied as SsHh Liguz featuring Zak Starkey, and Lulu’s acclaimed 2015 album Making Life Rhyme and Emeli Sandé for whom he is her Musical Director.

Arden Hart, the man behind most of the stunning keyboard work on Jazz Piano Bass Drums, went on to work with such people as Massive Attack, James Blunt and William Orbit before enjoying a major stint as Musical Director on numerous top UK shows such as David Gest, X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. Arden has been commissioned as composer for ‘The Saint’ and is currently keyboardist with Sister Sledge.