Indholdsfortegnelse for 10/2024 i Beat English

Jan Wilking Synthesizers, samplers and drum machines have defined his life for a good four decades. Inspired by the emerging Synth Pop of the early 80s, particularly the first concerts as a budding teenager like Depeche Mode, Nitzer Ebb and Shock Therapy shaped his further development, which led to the founding of the EBM/Industrial project STERIL in 1990, which was successful mainly in the USA. From the simple cassette recorder, Casio keyboard and mono sampler with mini-memory to the modern DAW with almost unlimited possibilities, Jan has witnessed the development of electronic music production, with his personal conclusion: Less is often more! Sascha Blach Passionate music nerd who likes variety as a listener, as well as a singer, musician and producer, because he thinks variety is what makes life interesting…

General 1 What is studio acoustics and why is it important? Studio acoustics is the physical manipulation of a room to optimize it for the use of loudspeakers or the recording of sound sources. This is done either through structural measures or modular products that are attached to the walls of the room. It is extremely important because without it, linear listening is not possible. It can also be very crucial for recordings, although there are sources that can be recorded in non-optimized rooms. 2 What are the differences between sound insulation and room acoustics? Sound insulation deals with how much sound enters or leaves a room, room acoustics deals with the sound response of a room. 3 Is acoustic treatment necessary in my studio at all? And which one? This is…

»At certain ponts in history, there‘s an opening for this kind of music: „E2-E4“, „Music for 18 Musicians“, … now „Ritual“.« Dreams, hallucinations, visions, out-of-bodyexperiences, drug-induced trances. In the world of physical objects, clinical diagnostics, and materialism, these are precisely defined phenomena produced by a clump of grey matter we call the brain. In Jon Hopkins‘ music, they are part of a continuum which extends from the spiritual cosmis into our daily lives. To Hopkins, the arts are the bridge between these two realms, and, on his new album „Ritual“, it leads us to places which are as alien and unfamiliar as they are intensely beautiful. He‘s not the first to visit these spaces. It seems like there are certain points in history when there‘s an opening and opportunity for…

Project info Material: Cubase Elements, Artist, Pro, optional: HALion Sonic 7 Collection Time required: From 30 minutes Content: Develop track ideas with Oriental flair. Difficulty: Beginners and Advanced 1 Gateway to the Orient For tracks with an Oriental flair, using typical instruments such as the Oud and Saz string instruments or the Duduk or Ney flutes are ideal. You can find some of these in the HALion Sonic 7 Collection [1], for example. But you can also create an oriental feeling with synth sounds or guitar sounds by playing them in the right way. 2 Select scale Choose a string instrument or a synth sound such as the Vintage Mini Lead preset from Retrologue 2 for a fast riff. Load the MIDI Modifiers plug-in as an Insert effect. With Match…

Vox from Uberduck and Speechify Finished rap from Uberduck Vocals from Voicemod Tuna 1 Rap lyrics Let‘s start with rap: the easiest access is offered by Uberduck [1]. There you can sign up for free and create a rap in three steps. Click the link AI GENERATED RAP and choose one of the available beats or the acapella option. With SAVE AND CONTINUE you get to the settings of the LYRICS. There you can insert your finished lyrics. 2 Enter text Alternatively, it is possible to provide the AI with the description of a topic, whereupon it will create its own song text - similar to ChatGPT on the previous page. Once the lyrics are entered, click SAVE AND CONTINUE again and select the desired rapper on the following page.…

Steinberg SpectraLayers 11 SpectraLayers is a Spectral Editor and Audio Restoration software. In Version 11, the separation of voices, instruments and background noise has been further expanded. The algorithm for creating stems from complete tracks has been audibly optimized. It can now also recognize Brass instruments and separate Lead and Background Vocals. With new tools like Transfer Brush, you can intuitively and non-destructively move areas that the algorithm has assigned to the wrong instrument. A split into Mid/Side Signals is also supported. The separated tracks can be dragged and dropped onto the desktop or into the DAW, which is particularly useful when using SpectraLayers directly in the DAW via the ARA interface. For post-production, Voice DeClip and Unmix CrowdNoise have been added, which can be used to salvage even very…

ÁSDÍS & Purple Disco Machine Pawsa Project info: Material: DAW, diverse Plug-ins Time required: 1 – 2 Hours Content: Reconstruct the sounds of popular Pop & EDM tracks. Difficulty: Advanced to Pro ÁSDÍS & Purple Disco Machine - „Beat Of Your Heart”: Lead w/U-he Hive 2 1 From Dresden to Grammy Tino Piontek from Dresden won a Grammy for best Remix in 2023 as Purple Disco Machine – for his even more disco-sounding version of “About Damn Time” by US singer Lizzo. Piontek has been producing under this name for over 15 years, and now plays at festivals the size of Tomorrowland. 2 Good things come… ..in time! “Beat of your Heart”, a collaboration with Icelandic singer ÁSDÍS, had been finished for almost two years when it was released in…

RAY from Lewitt is a true condenser microphone (1 inch). The cardioid polar pattern ensures that only sound waves that hit the membrane from the front are recorded. What happens behind the microphone is generously attenuated. Together with the low self-noise and a high sound pressure level, this ensures good recordings without unwanted background noise, even in desktop studios with less than optimal acoustics. But RAY has even more to offer in this regard. Lewitt‘s AURA technology dynamically adjusts the microphone to changes in the distance between the user and the microphone, balancing levels and sound. This is ideal for less experienced singers, speakers and musicians, as they can move freely during the performance without having to worry about sound loss or volume fluctuations. This also saves time-consuming post-processing. Another…

Project info Material: Ableton Live Suite 12, Ableton Push 3 Time required: 45 minutes Content: Creating two complex Effect Racks that animate static sounds, combining various devices, parameter settings and mapping, limiting parameter settings in the Macro Mapping editor. Difficulty: Advanced 1 Texture rack The first rack is good for short melodies or single notes. Load a Pitch Hack from the Live Pack Creative Extensions. Set Coarse to +12, Rate to ¼, Reverse to 36%, Recycle to 27 % and Dry/Wet to 100 %. To give the sound more size, load an EQ Eight behind it with a low cut at 225 Hz and a high cut at 7 kHz. 2 Make sound bigger Put an echo in the track and set Dry/Wet to 25 %. Then, add a reverb…

The common thread: Beat issue 10/2024 For many years, Beat has been inspiring its readers not only with practical and musical topics, but above all with the tight integration of editorial content. From the very beginning, Beat has been about creating, about the structured building of ideas and the common thread – in the magazine as well as in the tracks. This navigator shows you the highlights of this issue andallows you to see the big picture. Portrait: Galliano Galliano, one of the defining bands of the London Acid Jazz movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s, is making a surprise return after 27 years with their new album “Halfway Somewhere”. We conducted an interview with frontman Rob Gallagher and gained exciting insights into the reasons for the comeback,…

Beat / The most important question first. How come you’re celebrating a comeback 27 years after your last album? Rob / I’m not quite sure of the answer to that, but I think it’s got something to do with time travel and music being the best way to try and do that. It also has to do with getting together and playing a birthday party for fun and realizing it was interesting revisiting grooves with all that has happened to us in the last 27 years. Beat / What have you been doing in the meantime? Was it difficult to get the musicians from back then back together? Rob / The thing about older musicians is they are all involved in a million projects each, so trying to get everyone…

Project info Material: Fruity Loops Studio 21 Time required: 30 minutes Content: Compose a typical Slap House bassline Difficulty: Advanced 1 Rhythm is key Once you‘ve found a suitable sound for the bass, you can start with the most important part, the rhythm. It is important to use simple and catchy rhythms here. Also, make sure you leave enough rests between the notes and that the rhythm of the bass doesn‘t clash too much with the kick, which is played in 4/4 time. 2 Pitch it Now it‘s time to adjust the pitch of the bass to the rest of the music. If there is no other music yet, this is also a good way to lay the foundations. Harmonically, it makes a lot of sense to play the root…

Project info Material: Ableton Live Suite 12 Time required: 30 minutes Content: Use the reverse function to make melodies, vocals and leads more interesting and energetic, add movement via stereo width, reverse reverb tails and impulse responses and use them as a compositional element. Difficulty: Advanced 1 Reverse melodies Use the Reverse function to make melodies more varied and interesting. Duplicate the melody track and then the MIDI clip of the melody. Select the duplicated clip. To reverse the notes, go to the Utilities for pitch and timing section in the clip window on the left and click on Reverse. Then, freeze the track as an audio track. 2 Cut melody Select the audio clip and reverse it again by clicking on reverse in the Audio Utilities view. Now cut…

12 MAG ISSUES STARTING AT 71.90 EURO/YEAR ACCESS TO OVER 130 ISSUES IN THE ARCHIVE 1.2 TERABYTE OF INSTRUMENTS & SOUNDS PLUS GIFT OF YOUR CHOICE! Want it? Get your subscription here: www.plugins-samples.com CHOOSE YOUR GIFT Find your favorite subscription gift at www.plugins-samples.com SAVE $119 HEAVYOCITY MOSAIC NEON* Mosaic Neon offers an innovative sound palette that combines vintage synth sounds, glowing textures, and dynamic sequences for atmospheric tracks and retro-futuristic productions. This flexible Kontakt instrument allows you to layer three sound sources and edit and animate them in various ways to give your music a neon glow. www.heavyocity.com Gift ID: F1576 no additional costs SAVE 79 € D16 PUNCHBOX* Craft the perfect kick! With the modular PunchBox, you can flexibly combine up to three sounds from a high-quality sample collection…

Zampler Plug-in, soundset, audio demo and MIDI files: Download see Page 9 Deep House Industrial Trap Demo 93 TRAP KICKS, METAL DRUMS & TECHNO CHORDS At first glance, the Alpha Base is just a groove box, but on closer inspection it is an 11-part, multitimbral, sampled drum synthesizer. In any case, it is a living legend and anyone who has ever had the opportunity to work extensively with this luxury gear knows about its depth – and its killer kicks! It goes without saying that we recorded all of these, along with Bass, Drums, Metallic Percussion sounds and instant Techno Chords. www.zamplersounds.com Facts JOMOX ALPHA BASE for Zampler: ▴ 93 Trap Kicks, Metal Drums & Techno Chords▴ 32 chromatically playable Kicks & Drums▴ 30 Chord Patches▴ 21 Synth & MBrane…

We tested the entry-level model H1essential three months ago, and now we‘re taking a look at the flagship H6essential. The term “handheld” still applies here, because you can easily hold the compact recorder in one hand. However, you shouldn‘t drop the H6essential, because it is made of a lot of plastic and the hardware does not make a particularly robust impression. On the other hand, the recorder is lightweight and mobile. 32-bit float without modulation The big advantage over the previous models is the 32-bit float recording. This may sound very sober and technical, but in practice it offers a huge advantage: thanks to the high dynamic range, you don‘t need to pre-adjust the recordings. This feature is particularly valuable for mobile recording, where certain volume fluctuations cannot be estimated…

An alternative to incrementally growing backups, in which multiple backups of files also document changes to them, are Clones. These are one-to-one copies of a system. In principle, no files, folders or applications are excluded here. Clones, therefore, only require at least as much space as the system to be backed up. The big advantage of a Clone backup is that there is no need for a time-consuming restoration of the previously backed up data. If your Mac fails due to a defect, you can connect the medium with the Clone to another Mac, boot from it and continue your work seamlessly. Clones can be used as a replacement for a Time Machine backup, but then they should also be performed regularly. Instead of replacing the Time Machine backup, it…

Alienare: Lumen Alienare want to send the proverbial light in the darkness with their new album - with a green tint, of course, because anyone who knows the duo knows that green is part of the concept here. The two musicians from Hamburg and Hanover deliver a mix of Synth-Pop and Electro on their new album that sounds tailor-made for the Gothic scene. Names like Eisfabrik, Blutengel, Frozen Plasma or In Strict Confidence are musically obvious comparisons. Eisfabrik is certainly also obvious because their musical mastermind Gerrit Thomas also was involved as a producer. And indeed the sound is powerful, crystal clear and club-compatible. Vocally, Alienare sometimes seem a little one-dimensional, but voice and music fit together and the duo also provide one or two catchy tunes, e.g. “Green Light”…

96 connections for each rack in one patch panel The TT-Phone studio patch panel from Sommer-Cable offers an innovative solution for analog and digital music and home studios as well as broadcasting stations. The high packing density and robust design guarantee a long service life even under demanding conditions. The sockets are equipped with palladium-silver plated, self-cleaning contacts that ensure excellent signal transmission. Each socket has five solder lugs to enable flexible connections. For easy handling, the patch panel offers labeling devices at the top and bottom with 9 mm high paper strips so that you can always keep an eye on your cabling. An integrated strain relief bracket on the rear additionally protects the connections. The PBA1-TT96-S patch panel with only 1U (height unit) offers a space-saving solution with…

Project info Material: Logic Pro (Version 11.0.1) Time required: 45 minutes Content: Create a song with the Session Player and Chord Track. Difficulty: Advanced 1 Session Player Logic‘s Session Player section now features virtual bass and keyboard musicians, in addition to the familiar drummer, who can respond to your instructions and specifications, thanks to intuitive operating functions – and in a range of genres. We’re going to compose a Pop Ballad and create a session with a tempo of 80 BPM in C Major. 2 The chord track Before we let the Session Players play, we’ll create a Chord Track that our musicians can use as a guide. You can open the global tracks using the shortcut G. The Chord Tab is at the bottom. Click on the position where…

Project info Material: Bitwig Studio 5 Time required: 30-60 minutes Content: Make MIDI clips groovier with Note FX Difficulty: Beginner to Advanced Sound Example 1 MIDI programming The term „Programming” seems a little out of place when it comes to placing MIDI notes in the piano roll. It goes back to the early days of MIDI, when you almost needed programming skills to create a sequence in a sequencer or tracker. We make it easier for ourselves – we’ll program a beat and a chord sequence. 2 Drums and Keys In principle, you can use the Note FX variations with all software instruments. However, with electronic drums or many wavetable synthesizers, this „humanization” is rarely needed, as these sounds already sound like machines. But hihats, shakers and piano chords, in…

Flash Memory: deceptive speed Media based on Flash Memory, such as (micro)SD cards, USB sticks and SSDs, seem indestructible and score points with their fast access times. But on the one hand, Flash Memory does not have the best price-to-storage ratio and, on the other hand, it has a frequently overlooked limited lifespan, because the chips can only be written to a limited number of times. This period does not necessarily have to coincide with the warranty period. Although integrated storage management ensures that areas that are likely to fail are excluded from active use, even this system isn‘t error-free. Hard Disks: lots of space on “spinning rust” Classic hard disks in 3.5-inch format – or the more compact 2.5-inch format – offer the best price-performance ratio in terms of…