Raf's History
Around The Beginning, and Before
Raf Cut Digital Studio was created around Midnight on New Year’s Eve, 2000 by Raf and Tarek Maraaba. But before RafCut Digital there were 10 years of Raf and Roll Production and before that there were even more years of Raf and his involvement in the Detroit music scene.
The Hardcore Years
Raf had been in the Detroit music scene for many years as a guitarist and music producer. He was the founding member of bands like The Deviants, Disorderly Conduct, and Cause of Pain (COP). Disorderly Conduct's lineup was Raf, Matthew Deveson, and Zuhaier "Zoo" Fakhoury from (NA) Negative Approach on drums. COP was composed of Raf on guitar, Cedric on bass, and Ted on drums. Raf started writing music for these bands and got into recording projects with different musicians from various Detroit bands, like Son of Sam, Wrong Verdict, Radical Left, and Shock Therapy.
Hip Hop, a DJ, & Trippy Beats
With the arrival of Hip Hop music in the early 80’s and the first Run-D.M.C record breaking record sales, Raf knew he had to get into that as well. Raf and COP bass player, Cedric, started that project together. As a hardcore guitarist, Raf didn’t know much about Hip Hop or Rap, but he knew he needed some drum tracks from a drum machine to back up Cedric on vocals. He looked around for people that were doing new things with drum machines in the local scene until he found exactly what he looking for. One night while hanging at The Liedernacht, Sterling Silver’s new nightclub at the time, Raf was introduced to the newly-hired DJ who impressed him with the quality of his craft, knowledge of good music, and high-quality live audio mix. This DJ was Derrick May. Raf began hanging with Derrick after his show ends at an abandoned cement factory on Detroit water front discussing quality music production and listening to cassett tapes from both of their collections . When Raf asked Derrick to help him with the Hip Hop/Rap beats, Derrick agreed and took Raf to friend's house where he was currently recording the wizard for the MOJO's show.He introduced Raf to the studio owner and producer (Juan Atkins). Juan was sitting in the corner in front of a first generation Commodore monitor and reading the manual of the first Digital recording software. When Raf asked him what he was doing Juan replied, " just fucking around with my new toy". Derrick grabed his drum machine from a shelf and both headed to Raf's hangout at Cass & Second ave to start recording. At around 2 AM Derrick took a few moments to program several beats and started running the machine while adding beats and grooves as it played. Raf pressed the record button on the tape recorder and what came out that night was true history.When the sun came out he drove derrick home and didnt think too much about it
Working with Derrick
Unknown to anyone at that time, the tracks Raf was recording with Derrick were the very first TECHNO tracks with multi-effects processors. Raf had connected one of the first generation multi-effect processors to Derrick’s drum machine to see what would happen: When Raf and Derrick listened to the tracks, what they heard blew their minds. Derrick was running a Roland 727 machine like a record - he was spinning & scratching the hell out of the beats and grooves. No one was doing that before. Raf could not believe percussion alone could sound like that, and hearing this totally changed his perception of what percussion could be. Shortly afterward Derrick left to England and went on to start Transmat Records – this was Derrick's promise to Raf.
The Dead
Raf started other projects after that using different drum machines and what he learned from Derrick to create and produce The Dead and other new bands. The Dead was a new concept in music and live performance. The way it started was Kurt Khol (from Wrong Verdict) putting rocks on a record player needle so he could slow down the record. Kurt was playing early Cure records. When he asked Raf to produce this concept using Raf's recording gear, Raf started recording the project the same day. The music combined great lyrics with music running backwards through multi-tracks, echoes, and slow delayed beats. The Dead had enough songs to go live and the first show was sold out. That show started the Death Music scene in Detroit and other cities afterwards. This was all before the Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, and Alien Sex Fiend. The live stage set for The Dead was designed with bat cave decor from hell, and audio signals in clean echoes and multiple reverbs that was exciting and very new to the music scene in Detroit at the time.
The Asylum
Afterwards, Raf realized that he needed a place to record and produce The Dead and other bands in Detroit, moreover he needed a place to try and revive the very depressing Detroit music scene. He got together with Kurt Khol and leased a warehouse on Cass & Willis in Detroit and called it - The Asylum. The space was a former Jeep factory but Raf used it to record during the day and booked bands and other functions at night to pay the bills. The Asylum grew to be the most successful Detroit underground music club and Raf was awarded the best promoter in Detroit. Raf built the largest stage and bleachers for that type of club in Detroit with the help of his friend Tim King, from Heresy.
Asylum Firsts
Raf booked the first hardcore bands from Finland and Italy - Riistetyt & Raw Power - into the Detroit area and also promoted all the local bands around at that time. He offered free admission to anyone who would help, build, promote, or donate items to the club. Many people showed up from all over the state for those events and Raf used public radio (WDET) to advertise the shows. Unfortunately, on Raf’s and The Asylum’s biggest night - other jealous and pissed-off club owners who had lost their customers to The Asylum, like St. Andrews, etc. – banded together and set Raf up to be shut down. The Asylum - the first and original one – was closed.
Raf and Roll Production
After The Asylum ordeal, Raf focused on recording at home with what gear he had and borrowed the multi-track machines from good friends like Derrick May, Juan Atkins, and Itchy from Shock Therapy. Raf and Roll Production was born at that time and started with 4-track tape machines and then moved up to 6 and 8 track recording. When news spread that Raf had been writing and recording decent tracks, friends and others came down to record their tapes and demos at Raf and Roll Production. Raf recorded many projects over 10 years ranging from Middle Eastern artists to Church artists as well as radio commercials, along with his own music projects. Up to this point, most of the studio recording gear Raf had used was analog.
RafCut Digital
When digital recording gear became available, Raf wasted no time in learning how to use it and quickly realized the endless potentials of digital technology. Raf decided to launch Raf Cut Digital Production at that time, with Gabriel Records CEO, Tarek Maraaba. Raf designed and built his first dual processor computer system to handle the heavy processing needs of the mixing and mastering software and started recording demo music tracks to get new artists in the door. Tarek asked Raf to start writing music for Gabriel Records artists to launch their careers as well. All was going well until Gabriel Records folded and Tarek moved to the D.C. area to join a major R&B label,( New Horizons Records). Raf worked with New Horizons and produced fresh tracks to submit to the Fresh Prince of Belair - Will Smith and Musiq - but afterwards New Horizon also folded. Raf Cut Digital kept working with new artists from around the Detroit area and producing music for those who need it.
RafCut Digital Upgraded Studio
After 15 years of operation at its old location – Raf Cut Digital has recently moved to the city of Warren and raf reconnected the new studio with a great vocal booth.With many upgrades to the gear, mixing & mastering software and an expanded sample library. Raf Cut Digital now stands among other great studios in the Detroit area for recording and mastering. Raf Cut Digital Studio carries one of the largest sampling libraries for all genres of music production and is able to bring studio musicians to work on ethnic or special projects when needed.