Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2018 i Computer Music

Whether you produce laid-back synth tunes or tearing dancefloor bangers, drums form the foundation of any track. Putting together a generic beat isn’t rocket science, of course – the tricky part is going beyond genre clichés in the search for a signature sound. “Take common rhythmic tropes and subvert them in creative ways…” Today’s cutting-edge artists take common rhythmic tropes and subvert them in creative ways… which is exactly what this month’s cover feature will help you do! Starting on p22, we’ll walk you through three essential areas of percussion production, with the aim of inspiring new beatmaking approaches. If you’ve previously shied away from unusual time signatures, or struggled with drum design, now’s the perfect chance to break away from your rhythmic routines and explore new percussive horizons. Another…

UNIQUE BEATS  Go beyond common beatmaking tropes and shape your style with our tutorials Read the full article on p22 2 Perfecting polyrhythms in Ableton Live 3 Combining meters to form polymeters 4 Programming a 5/16 ride cymbal part over a 4/4 beat 5 Creating polyrhythms using konnakol 6 Making mixed-resolution trap-style hi-hat patterns 7 Synthesising your own kick from scratch 8 Synthesising a layered snare sound 9 Advanced drum surgery for next-level customisation 10 Recording your own percussion sounds 11 Off-grid glitch percussion 13 Designing a unique beat from common presets 14 Customising drum dynamics with volume 15 Easy automation tricks for unique beats 16 Customising drum width with stereo tricks 17 Unique beats with lo-fi and distortion effects Bonus Three styles of extreme drum compression DEHUMANISER LITE Our…

iceGear Kronecker Looking for an iOS synth that runs like clockwork? iceGear’s Kronecker could be for you. What makes it, er, tick? A built-in mechanism that generates rhythmic, repeating sounds when you press a key. Speed these up or slow them down, then the sounds are generated using four emitters based on FM and noise, sending out sound particles. It costs £7.99/$7.99. www.icegear.net Bram Bos Perforator Another Bram Bos AUv3 processor is here: Perforator, a gating effect which snips, cuts, gaps and filters audio to make rhythmic patterns from sustained sounds. The slice envelopes can be tuned at will, for everything from trance gate sounds to a facsimile of pumping sidechain compression. It’s powered by a traditional AMP EQ gate. It’s available for £3.99/$3.99. ruismaker.com/perforator Klevgrand…

Those of a certain age will remember Tascam’s GigaStudio, one of the original software samplers. All seemed rosy for it in the August 2008 issue ( 128), as we reported on the launch of version 4. Just a few weeks later, though, Tascam announced that the product was to be discontinued, so maybe it didn’t sell quite as well as the company hoped it would. “GigaStudio didn’t sell quite as well as Tascam hoped it would” Staying with samplers, we reviewed 112dB’s Morgana, a new software take on the old-school sampler that could now be classed as an old-school plugin. We also brought you a massive drum ’n’ bass masterclass that featured contributions from the likes of Sub Focus and Chase & Status, both of whom have since gone on…

PLAN OF ATTACK Newbie producers aimlessly pile up sound after sound purely because they heard their favourite artist do it – hence why drum layering has a bit of a bad reputation. However, if you stack up a few complementary layers in a considered way, you’ll avoid phase issues and end up with a drum sound that’s infinitely more powerful than if you just ‘choose the right drum sample’. CHERRY PICKED If all your drum layers are sourced from, say, the same sample pack, they’ll probably all share common timbral characteristics. If that’s what you want, great. If not, try and gather together components from different places – for example, a punchy synthesised kick for solidity, an acoustic snare for ‘clang’, a recording of you clapping into a microphone, and…

Thanks to the creative scope within electronic music, producers have long tried to ‘one-up’ peers through the manipulation of recognisable sounds. It’s why hip-hop and jungle heads reach for the same palette of funk breaks time and again, and why house and techno producers wring the most out of Roland drum machine samples. Therefore, if you’re looking to make your mark within a genre, start with the staple drum sounds your favourite artists use, then spin them into fresh creations with programming, layering and processing.…

MEMORY LANE Give different sections of your drum track a unique sound by processing them using mixing techniques from different decades. Dialling in a 1950s-flavoured mono sound in the verse followed by a cutting edge, super shiny 2010s tone to the chorus will give your drum track an original twist. IN EFFECT Want to make your drums sound radically different for a breakdown? Try bouncing them to audio, uploading to Dropbox or similar, then record them being played back from your phone, speakers or car stereo. Simple yet effective! SUPER SHINY Looking to add brightness without high frequencies shredding your ears? Dynamic EQ is your friend. By using dynamic EQ rather than regular ‘static’ EQ, you can add high frequency sparkle that then reins itself in when treble heavy hi-hats,…

Last month, we showed you how to get up and running with VCV Rack, the free and open-source modular synthesiser modelled after the Eurorack systems that have become so very popular of late. Don’t worry – if you missed it, you’ll still be able to follow along with this instalment, though it’s well worth going back and having a look if you have a copy to hand or can grab a back issue. In round one, we created a basic patch that could play itself using a sequencer module. This month, we’re going to widen the gap between intent and output by dialling in a drone patch that requires no active input on the part of the user. We’ll explore advanced modulation techniques, using familiar modules in unfamiliar ways available…

It’s a simple concept: take the output of any device and feed it back into the input, where it’s processed before appearing at the output again… only to be fed back into the input, where the cycle continues. Whatever effect the device has on a sound, that’s what’ll be done to the signal, over and over again. A feedback loop, when not controlled, will cause a system to overload and spiral out to extremes. Feedback is the sound of screaming guitars, tension-building risers, vocal drops and mangled-up stuttering glitches. With a bit of caution and some careful fine-tuning, though, we can rein feedback in and use it to our advantage in a creative context. In electronic circuits, amplifiers (op amps), use feedback to create gain; delay effects can be controlled…

It’s not all about tiny electronic circuits and huge speaker/mic setups – synths have a few feedback talents of their own. The most legendary example is the Minimoog, whose feedback capabilities we’ll explore in the walkthrough on this page. With the hardware, the user would connect the headphone jack to the External Input, then switch the External Input on in the mixer. Owners of certain Minimoog emulations have it much easier, though. Other synths capable of feeding their outputs back into their inputs include the ARP 2600 and the Korg MS-20, whose output could be run back into its built-in preamp input for an even gnarlier sound. And taking these principles further, it’s not impossible to find software synths that can perform similar tricks. Down below, we’ll take advantage of…

Distortion plugins are essential for me. I mostly use them to fatten and thicken sounds with subtle drive but, beyond that, I experiment with them if I’m looking for some more unique outcomes. In this guide, then, let’s focus on using amp simulators, saturation and distortion plugins to produce a gritty, fat bassline. Although I try out many drive colours on different types of source material, I always come back to three main ‘go-to’ distortion plugins in my arsenal: iZotope Trash 2, FabFilter Saturn and Sugar Bytes WOW2 (a “creative multifilterbox”). They do similar tasks, but sound different depending on the task at hand. Many distortion plugins support split frequency ranges, allowing for multiband modulation and separation – far more flexible than full-range distortion, especially when processing full-frequency sounds. In…

Kate Simko grew up in a very musical family. One of her earliest memories is of her grandmother, who played piano and organ in the local church until the fine old age of 92. Her childhood was filled with Bach, Chopin, Mozart, scales, music theory, and lots and lots of practising – but at 16, there was a sharp left-turn. It was at an underground rave in her home city of Chicago that she came across a strange British record label called Warp. Soaking up the twisted grooves of Autechre and Aphex Twin, she began to form the germ of an idea. “At Miami University, I applied to study piano,” explains Simko, “but it didn’t take me long to realise that I was never going to be a concert pianist.…

Key to the successful adoption of Reformer Pro by professional sound designers, no doubt, is the ease with which they can import their existing, trusted sample sets and have them ‘Reformed’ for real-time play, just like the prefab libraries sold by Krotos. Fortunately, the whole process couldn’t be any simpler, and the results are generally excellent. Included with the plugin, Reformer Analysis Tool is a standalone converter for adding folders of samples to the Reformer Pro browser as libraries. You can specify any number of sample rates between 44.1 and 192kHz to convert to simultaneously, and give your library a name and thumbnail image if required. The app can be launched from the plugin, and the conversion takes no time at all. Indeed, the only speed bump is having to…

Half of Echo Farm’s 12 modelled delays are named emulations of vintage analogue and digital units, while the other six are in-house creations by Line 6 themselves. Clicking the question mark button on the GUI pops up a description of the currently loaded model. The vintage models comprise a diverse collection of tape, bucket brigade and digital devices: the Roland RE-101 Space Echo, Maestro Echoplex EP1-1 and EP-3, Boss DM-2, Deluxe Memory Man and TC Electronic 2290. The Line 6 models, meanwhile, are more task/effect-specific. Lo Res, for example, can drop the quality all the way down to 6-bit, Sweep Echo modulates a filter over the delay line, and Reverse plays backwards. Obviously, with only two custom controls for each model, Echo Farm’s emulations are in no sense ‘complete’. In…

529 EXCLUSIVE SAMPLES  including… 120 BPM-categorised loops 62 Tape-processed hits 93 Raw one-shots 115 Machine and Preset loops 63 Analogue one-shots 76 Digital one-shots DOWNLOAD Get these exclusive samples on your PC/Mac over at filesilo.co.uk/computermusic…

HYBRID SYNTHS Our synths have been created by the best software developers in the world to bring you a suite of sound-making tools for all music production scenarios u-he Zebra CM • Blendable oscillator waveforms • Super-programmable step LFOs • Slick delay, reverb and chorus • Original synth designed just for CM • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.u-he.com Enzyme CM • Scanned synthesis sound generator • Easy-to-use preset-based synth • Assign parameters to controls • Based on the full Enzyme synth • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit humanoidsoundsystems.com KV331AudioSynthMasterCM • Dual wavescanning oscillators • Multimode filter and built-in effects • FM/AM synthesis modes • Based on SynthMaster 2.5 • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.kv331audio.com Cableguys Curve 2.6 CM • Design-your-own-waveforms synth • New waveform capabilities for v2.6 • Phat 16-voice Unison mode • Based on Cableguys Curve…

PLOGUE CHIPSOUNDS The boffins at Plogue love their chiptunes! Few developers would devote four years to researching a comprehensive catalogue of classic computer and game sound chips. Plogue did, and stuffed the results into Chipsounds, a cross-platform synth that collects 14 circuit-level sound chip emulations, including a model of the venerable SID. bit.ly/chipsounds DE LA MANCHA BASIC 65 Developer of wicked Windows plugs, de la Mancha bring you Basic 65, a monophonic plugin inspired by the Commodore 64. In addition to the classic three-oscillator design of the original, basic 65 provides simulated low-res grit, tempo-synced LFOs and a pair of arpeggiators. It’s a bit long in the tooth, but it’s still a blast to play. bit.ly/Basic65 IGORSKI WEBSID The quickest, easiest way to have a play with a SID synth…

cm How does Gullfoss work? AT “There are two main components: the first is a time-varying equaliser designed to respect certain hearing properties. As a result, we can fix issues with precision in both time and frequency while preserving the perceived structure of the audio signal, so we don’t introduce audible artefacts. “The other is the computational auditory perception model, which helps Gullfoss understand problems in the audio signal like a human listener. The algorithm focuses on identifying audible elements in the mix, to be preserved. These are then classified as dominant or being dominated, depending on elements nearby. Recover and Tame are our two strategies to deal with strongly unbalanced domination. One focuses on dominated elements, the other on dominant elements.” cm Input signals vary wildly. How does Gullfoss…

Sculpt tone with envelopes Above, we used independent envelope shapes within a synth to sculpt the levels of individual oscillators – and this can modulate your synth’s filter and effects, too! For example, use a tight one-shot envelope to raise an EQ boost, filter resonance or distortion over only the transient of your drum hit. Shape spatial effects A drum hit’s transient should predominantly remain in mono (ie, the centre of the stereo field), while the body and tail can be more stereo. Use another synth envelope – this time with a slow attack – to lift up your synth’s reverb, delay or widener mix amount only after the initial transient has occurred. Expert macro tweaks Modern synths have freely assignable macro controls. When designing drums, hook these up to…

CM: How has drum production helped you cultivate a signature sound? TL: “I think the drum sounds I choose help me sit between a few genres. Roland 606, 808 and 909 samples are almost always present somewhere or another, but I’ll never make a track entirely driven by these sounds, or where they’re the focal point – there’s always some organic stuff in there, whether it’s an acoustic drum kit or field recordings. That helps when your sound is constantly tightroping between house, techno, indie and pop!” CM: What unusual perc sounds can be heard in your music? TL: “I don’t own many traditional percussive instruments, but I always want a live feel to the beat, so I’ll often use quite random objects. My new track Replace You is driven…

If you want your tracks to stand out from the crowd, having a professional yet distinctive drum mix is vital. With the ever-increasing amount of studio quality drum ROMplers, sample packs and bundled DAW content available for producers, there’s often less need to heavily process the different parts of your drum kit… unless you want to, of course! Discovering your own signature drum mixing and processing techniques will allow you to take any source material and impart your own sonic stamp using common effects such as EQ, compression, distortion and modulation processors. By building a toolbox of different mixing tricks, you can radically change the sound of your beats without resorting to messy layering, complex synthesis or the use of sample pack loops – ideal for both your creativity and…

Not your average Joe Shogun Audio signee Joe Ford makes some of the biggest bass sounds in DnB, so when he offered to share his filthy production secrets with at Shogun’s Brighton HQ, we jumped at the chance. In this Producer Masterclass, Joe focuses on a neuro DnB bassline: specifically, talking us through every step of its creation in depth. He’s also provided the project files so you can explore the results for yourself! Before we get started, let’s find out how Joe become such a bass-wrangling wizard… “I never copied what other people were doing; I had to do it myself” cm: Where does your love of music come from? JF: “When I was younger, I tended to look to my brother – he got me into metal pretty…

To most people, the word ‘synthesiser’ almost invariably conjures up the image of a keyboard instrument of some sort. Modular synthesists are, however, a breed apart, and many of them would never dream of attaching something so pedestrian as a keyboard to their monolithic machinery. To these waveform wranglers, an organ-style keyboard represents a backward, unimaginative interface that imposes an old-fashioned approach to making music. Though Robert Moog famously embraced the keyboard – knowing full well that it was crucial to draw in the traditional musos that would bring attention to his instruments – Californian Don Buchla had no interest in attaching any ivories to his instruments, and refused to do so for many years. Likewise, Peter Zinovieff, main man behind England’s most famous synthesiser company, EMS, had to be…

RISERS A rising white noise effect only goes some of the way to making your atmospheric ambitions come true – add a delay to that sucker and you’ve got yourself a more interesting two-layer sound, with an initial trailblazing rise then a second layer pushing behind it. Crank up the feedback for a multi-layered technicolour firework that can’t possibly be ignored. Bonus points if the feedback level rises with pitch. VOCAL EXTENDER Push up the feedback on a vocal phrase, and in return you’ll get an echo line that’s stronger and longer lasting – perfect for keeping the last word of a vocal echo going when every other element has dropped out of the mix. But a vocal echo effect this strong won’t be appropriate for the whole track. The…

Harmonic function… what’s that? Well, it’s not the big party after a choral performance! Instead, it’s the term used to describe the purpose of particular chords – the relationship that they have to the tonal centre of a piece, and why they work in a particular progression. Music taps into emotions, and harmonic function is the process by which, either by luck or by design, a string of chords combine to make the listener feel something. The basic theory of harmonic function has its roots mainly in Western tonal classical music, when composers would use chords in a certain way to convey an emotion or mood – but that doesn’t mean that we can’t apply the same principles to more current compositions and productions. It relies on grouping and labelling…

SUBTLE SATURATION SENDS Signals from softsynths or samplers can sound pretty dull and lifeless at times. Using parallel distortion in small amounts can give you a bit of warmth and analogue richness. I do this by calling up an auxiliary return channel, loading a saturation plugin on it, then sending the channels I want to fatten to this aux. This lets you balance your parallel drive at a level of your choosing, as well as giving you the option to create a custom ‘gluing’ blend of several channels at once. In my experience, this ‘side-by-side drive’ method works best on pianos, pads, organs and vocal tracks. Be aware of the distortion type or ‘model’ you use, and don’t overdo the drive amount. Tape saturation or tube drive works best to…

“When creating a full-orchestra string pad, I compose chords on the keyboard, then move the MIDI into Sibelius. You’ll get richer voice leading if you follow counterpoint rules and separate the string voices. Even if you don’t want to take the time to orchestrate in a notation software, I still believe you’ll get the best result if you separate the voices into separate string channels: violin, viola, cello, etc. “The next step is to choose the best bowing technique in the sample library. I’d highly recommend going by ear and not rushing this part, as you’ll save yourself a lot of time in the long run. Don’t feel you have to use the same technique on all the strings. For example, the sul tasto samples might sound great on cello,…

The majority of Spiff’s interface is taken up by a five-band sidechain EQ and its accompanying real-time frequency response graph. Utilising three switchable parametric/shelving/tilt bands flanked by high- and low-pass filters, the EQ influences the amount of transient cut or boost applied by Spiff across the frequency spectrum, rather than directly equalising it. Ie, instead of changing the gain, each band offsets the Depth parameter for the frequencies under its curve. So, you can use the filters to take extensive high and low frequency ranges out of the processing altogether, and shape the parametric/shelving/tilt bands to emphasise or reduce the effect in specific areas. Band frequencies and Q widths are adjusted by dragging and scrolling, or by twisting the Frequency, Q and Sensitivity knobs in the contextual pop-up panel. There,…

Plucked from the sample archives, and ranging from 85bpm to 120bpm, this bonus bounty of more than 250 drum loops will provide plenty of rhythmic inspiration. Some loops are strictly synthetic, while others bring the acoustic vibes. Owners of the print edition can find the pack in the Samples folder on the cover DVD, and all readers can log in to filesilo.co.uk/computermusic, register issue 258 and download the pack. 264 WAV SOUNDS  including… 34 Processed (95bpm) 20 Processed (120bpm) 10 SST loops (90bpm) 12 SST loops (105bpm) 11 SST loops (120bpm) 112 Funky loops 60 RnB loops…

To help you get the most out of our immense plugin collection, we’ve assembled the Plugins Tutorial Bank, containing over 100 guides and tutorials for our Plugins, specially selected from past issues. You’ll find Getting Started PDFs and videos for most of the individual plugins, along with tutorial PDFs and videos on using Plugins for sound design, mixing, and even creating entire tracks. You’ll find all of this as a handy download from FileSilo – go grab it now and start getting more out of your plugins! www.filesilo.co.uk/computermusic…

So how does your DAW know where to look for your plugins? Actually, it might not. Mac users have it easy, as there are OS-specified folders into which plugins are installed. These folders can be found by going to your Library folder (if you can’t find it, go to the Finder’s Go menu, hold Alt, and a Library option should appear). Find the Audio directory, and then the Plug-Ins folder within. There you will find more folders still. One will be labelled Components – this is where your AU plugins reside. Other folders will be found alongside it for VST and VST3 plugins. If you’re a Pro Tools user, you’ll find your plugins in an Avid or Digidesign folder. If your installers don’t automatically install the plugins into the proper…

Secure and safe online access, from anywhere Free access for every reader – print and digital Download only the files you want, when you want All the downloads from all your issues, in one place Get started 01 Register your FileSilo account and log in. Even if you have a subscriber ID, you’ll still have to unlock each mag separately or migrate your old Vault account (see step 3) 02 Head back to the Computer Musicpage (filesilo.co.uk/computermusic) and choose an issue to unlock. You’ll need to answer one question to prove you’ve purchased the issue 03 You can migrate your old Vault account over to FileSilo to retain the issues you’ve added – head to filesilo.co.uk/vault and enter your Vault email address. Reset your password via the email you receive,…

PLAY YOUR CARD RIGHT It’s probably never going to be a ‘serious’ music-making platform, but Nintendo Labo was used to great effect recently as Jimmy Fallon and Ariana Grande performed a version of Grande’s hit No Tears Left To Cry, using only Labo-created instruments. SUPERBOOTH SOFTWARE We went to Superbooth 2018 expecting to see plenty of great hardware, but it was a pleasant surprise to find lots of new music software there, too. It looks like the show is here to stay, and we’re very much looking forward to next year. PLAY YOUR CARD RIGHT, PART 2 You might think that you’ve got a cool business card, but we’re telling you now that it’s not as good as Tim Alex Jacobs’, who’s created one that, as well as providing his…

Zooming in on a sound and chopping it into separate bits can be a revealing exercise. If you find a drum sample you especially like the sound of, cut it up and analyse how the different sections work, both individually and collectively. How bright or weighty is the transient? How would you replicate the pitch curve of the body section? How long is the splashy tail? By asking yourself these kinds of questions while studying the signals with a frequency analyser, you’ll quickly gain a deeper understanding.…

STAY ORGANISED Searching through disorganised folders can kill your studio buzz. Curate your folders so that you can quickly access sounds in the heat of writing. Better still, build your own sampler instruments that can be triggered instantly, then save these within your DAW template. KEEP IT MESSY In contrast to the above tip, you may find a messy collection of samples will actually force you to explore the depths of said archives. This is a good approach when you’re lacking rhythmic ideas – you may just stumble upon a long-lost loop and kickstart a new beat. CONTEXT IS KING When laying down beats in isolation, you may reach for the most impressive samples first. This isn’t necessarily bad, but the ‘best’ sample is one that fits with other mix…

Reaching the limit Thrashing your drum mix through heavy limiting can give great results for heavy rock or dance music styles. Using the advanced clipping and transient shaping parameters offered by limiters like iZotope Ozone 8 Maximizer or DMG Limitless lets you clip overly spiky beats, or add the perception of transients back into a squashed signal. Parallel attack Parallel compression is not only great for bringing up the average volume of a sound without affecting the peaks, but can also add a ton of punch. Instead of having the attack set to 1ms or under, try making the attack time slower (around 30ms) – this’ll make the compressor let more of the transient through before acting, giving extra front-end smack. Hulk smash! If your backing beat (breaks, cymbals, shakers,…

JUSTICE, GENESIS “A chordal sound comes in on the second 16 of the drop and fills the third and fourth beats of the bar. Absolutely insane. Nothing catches my ear like a sick sound and a great riff, and this is one of the best.” bit.ly/justice_gen SPOR, KINGDOM “The drop of this tune feels like it explodes on the first snare hit. That combination of crunchy distortion followed by a bassline that sounds like it’s on fire is just so satisfying. Maybe my favourite DnB tune ever!” bit.ly/spor_kingdom KOAN SOUND, DYNASTY “Koan Sound’s sound design is as good as it gets in my opinion. During bars 3 and 4 of the drop, there are a series of wide sounds that compliment the bassline absolutely perfectly. Some of…

1 Connect a mic to one of your audio interface’s inputs and fire up Dehumaniser Lite. Open its Audio Settings and make sure your audio interface (or internal audio) is hooked up correctly, then switch the app On via the top-left power button. 2 Change the Select Input toggle to Mic/Line, then make noises into the mic – you should now see and hear signal coming in. Punch Record, then flip through the preset processing algorithms as you beatbox, scream, whistle, clap, breathe and hum out rhythmic noises into the mic. 3 Once you’re done, import the audio recording into your DAW. Scan through the file, cut out and warp loops to fit your project’s BPM, pan sounds around, and piece together your sonic adventures into some sort of unusual…

Sonus Dept Ringo Ring modulation is one of the oldest of electronic effects, and among the most recognisable, capable of instantly transforming any input signal into the sort of metallic, clangorous timbre associated with old-school electronic studios. Ringo is a classic ring modulator with a built-in oscillator, the latter of which can be controlled by CV input. Befaco Spring Reverb As we’ve already demonstrated, even a familiar effect like delay can become a rich timbral resource when controlled by one or more modulation sources – and reverb is another great candidate for modular mayhem. Spring reverbs are often found in modular catalogues; most, like this one from Befaco, offering mod inputs. Audible Instruments Texture Synthesizer The texture Synthesizer is a granular effect, capable of taking in an audio source (or…

Electric guitarists have always used guitar/amp feedback loops for creative effect. To the trained guitarist, this sound gives the music that ‘close to the limits’ atmosphere, making it feel like everything’s at boiling point and about to go stratospheric. Guitar feedback happens when the sound coming from a guitar’s amplifier causes the pickups and/or strings to vibrate sympathetically. The resulting signal is then returned to the amp, of course, reinforcing the original sound over and over again, until the whole concoction reaches the limits of the amp’s output. Of course, the signal belting out from the speaker cabinet has to reach a certain critical output level in order to push the pickups into sympathetic vibration – at levels under this, not much happens; at levels over it, feedback will start…

HARMONIC FUNCTION IN MINOR KEYS Tonic, dominant and predominant chord families still exist for minor keys as well as major ones, but there are some differences owing to the different diatonic chords that you get when you harmonise a minor scale. These are i, iiº, III, iv, V, VI, VII, where i, III and VI have tonic function, iv, iiº, and sometimes VI have predominant function, and V and VII have dominant function. INVERSION THERAPY Using inversions is a good way of smoothing out chord progressions so they don’t ‘jump around’ the keyboard too much, which can occur if you only use chords that are in root position, ie, have the root note at the bottom of the stack. For example, instead of having a tonic chord of C major…

Despite the obvious implication of the name, the vocoder is an ideal signal processor for transforming all kinds of source material, not just vocals. A vocoder works its magic by sending separate ‘carrier’ and ‘modulator’ signals through parallel banks of band-pass filters, then modulating the levels of the carrier’s filters with the output levels of the modulator’s filters to impose the rhythmic and harmonic character of the latter on the former. While the carrier is usually a sustained melodic/harmonic sound such as a synth pad, the modulator just needs to be something heavy on transients and with an interesting dynamic profile – ie, vocals, for the classic ‘singing robot’ effect, or… drums! Mixing a parallel vocoded signal in with a dry drum part imbues it with sense of pitched placement…

Acustica aren’t saying exactly which pieces of vintage British hardware have been sampled in the development stages of Cream, but a quick look at the manual does make it glaringly obvious. The Line and Mic preamps are from a 1970s EMI TG12345 console (EMI’s first solid state desk), while the Tube models draw on two EMI tape recorders – a rare 1967 one and a 1960 BTR 2 ‘green machine’ – and the EMI RS124 compressor. The EQ section is more straightforward in spec: the A models (represented by a green backplate) are all captured from SoundDrops’ clone of the EMI REDD valve console EQ, while the B filters are from the TG12345 again. Finally, the two Compressor models also take in solid state and valve-based processors for two distinct…

The Plugins collection is a suite of complete, limitation-free instrument and effects plugins. It’s an incredible resource, boasting more than 80 pro-quality plugins that you won’t find anywhere else, all for PC and Mac, in VST and AU formats. All of the included software is created exclusively for us by respected commercial developers such as D16 Group, u-he, AudioRealism, Ohm Force, KV331 Audio, Cableguys, XILS-lab, AudioThing, Vengeance-Sound, Rob Papen, zplane and more. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Enough talking! Where do I get these plugins? You can grab them all on the cover DVD with our print edition, or as a download from FileSilo (see p5 for instructions on how to access). How do I install Plugins? It depends on the plugin. Some have dedicated installers, while others just drop into your…

DYNAMICS Check out this huge collection of processors – from classic compressors to modern digital creations, we’ve got everything you need to shape your signals eaReckon CM-COMP 87 • Slick, punchy compressor • Mix knob for parallel compression • Limiter to keep the output in check • Clear VU- and LED-style metering • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.eareckon.com LVC-Audio Transector CM • Transient tweaking and saturation • Define and process envelope stages • Useful metering/display functions • Mix control for parallel processing • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.lvcaudio.com Audiority TS-1 CM • Flavoursome transient shaper • Set attack and sustain gain • Blend control for parallel processing • Based on the full TS-1 plugin • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.audiority.com Unfiltered Audio G8 CM • Get tight dynamics or creative FX • Includes advanced gating controls…