Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2019 i Computer Music

We’ve got a new system for downloading files. Whenever you see this icon, you can grab the files on your PC or Mac by going to filesilo.co.uk/computermusic. Tutorials featuring this icon make use of our own Plugins – find out all about them on p107. This icon means there are extra files to help you follow a tutorial feature: project files, audio examples, etc. There’s extra video content wherever you see this icon. computermusic.co.uk computermusic@futurenet.com facebook.com/computer.music.mag twitter.com/computermusicuk youtube.com/computermusicmag…

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,…

Korg Gadget 2 It’s a case of ‘grow Gadget, grow’, as Korg’s mobile DAW is being upgraded to version 2. This adds six new Gadgets, including semimodular and six-voice synths, a MIDI Out Control device and a bass effect processor. These will all be offered as in-app purchases – the update itself is free – but a redesigned interface and smooth tempo change and fade-in/out functions come as standard. korg.com Traktor DJ 2 With Traktor DJ 2, Native Instruments are promising a streamlined, easy-to-use mixing experience. The app is built on a new code base and has a corresponding desktop version, while also offering a fresh look and feel. Other feature enhancements include smart track recommendations, and the option to DJ with SoundCloud GO+ tracks. If you want…

We had something for hi-tech troubadours in April 2009: cm137’s cover feature was an essential singer-songwriter production guide. A lot of our advice remains as relevant as ever – we had plenty on recording and mixing – though we’re not sure that we’d still suggest that you try and promote yourself and your music on MySpace… “We’re not sure we’d still suggest promoting your music on MySpace…” We also presented a guide to Windows 7, which we suggested was a step up from Windows Vista – to be fair, that was a pretty low bar to clear – and offered a review of Steinberg’s Cubase 5. Of course, this wasn’t actually the fifth version of Cubase – that had arrived back in 2000 – but it’s probably best that we…

The same ‘human timing’ guideline applies to realistic kick drums as the rest of the kit: if you want your kicks to sound like they’re being played by a real drummer, keep them slightly off the grid. So, if recording your drums live on a MIDI controller, don’t quantise the part after – or quantise it iteratively if it actually needs correction. And when programming with the pencil tool, draw each MIDI note in away from the grid lines in the piano roll – to the left for a gentle increase in pace; right for a more laid-back feel.…

cm : What can you tell us about the 808 and 909’s original analogue circuits? “The TR-808’s kick drum sound is made using a resonating trigger pulse, similar in behaviour to the way that a drum head vibrates when hit. When a drum head is hit multiple times in succession, even using the same force, the way the sound resonates will change depending on the state of vibration from the drum head. The same is true with the TR-808 kick sound. The way it sounds changes by adding trigger pulses in at any given resonant state. “The TR-909’s kick drum sound, on the other hand, is composed of multiple circuits such as Enveloper, VCO, VCA, etc, like on analogue synthesisers. The initial attack portion of any percussive sound is, of…

Native Instruments TRK-01 £89 NI’s intriguing new Reaktor Player instrument is dedicated to generating kick drums and synth basses. The Kick engine comprises two layers, each hosting one of three highly focused synths or a sample player into which your own or any of the 80 included samples can be loaded. native-instruments.com Sonic Academy Kick 2 £50 Improving on version 1, Kick 2 features a cleaner synth engine and three ‘click’ sample layers, increased from one. The brilliant rendering dialogue is a highlight, and while the effects are a weak point, Kick 2 is an incredibly versatile source of electronic kick drums. sonicacademy.com Plugin Boutique BigKick £40 Combining a sampled ‘click’ (Attack) stage with a synthesised ‘sustain’ (Body) portion, BigKick is quicker and more straightforward to program than Kick 2,…

Back in the pre-digital days, mixes often required more than one pair of hands to make adjustments in real time as the song played. In addition to volume changes, it was often necessary to turn effects on and off, mute tracks at specific spots, move the master bus volume for a fade-out, and more. Remembering all the moves for a song wasn’t easy, and it was often necessary to run the mix multiple times to get it right. Today’s DAW software offers mixing tools that are light years beyond that. Now you can precisely automate virtually anything that’s happening in the mixer and effects plugins, opening up a world of possibilities. Beyond just balancing the levels of various tracks, you can use automation to add dynamics to a boring part,…

1 Automated EQ changes are handy for creative purposes, like changing the tone on a particular section; or corrective ones, like fixing harshness in a vocal sound that only happens on the chorus when the singer’s register is higher. Set the track’s automation mode to Touch. 2 Play the first song section you want to change, move the EQ band (or whichever parameter you’re automating) to the new value, then release it at the end of the segment. Repeat the process for other sections of the track. 3 To finish, flip your DAW’s automation mode back to Read, then reach for its automation editing features and correct any spots where your timing lacked precision – you’ll want to get any EQ changes perfect in the mix.…

ENHARMONIC EQUIVALENTS In equal-tempered, Western tonal music, notes that are spelled differently and yet sound the same are known note as enharmonic between C equivalents and ’ D can # be . For called example C # or , D the b # depending black D it on b as which the fifth key the tone we same re of in G : C b major in the . Played key of, on say so the , C C # major and keyboard D , bbut are , generates pitch regardless, said to be enharmonically equivalent. SPELLING SCALES How do we know whether to use sharps or flats when spelling out a scale? A properly spelt-out scale should feature each letter name only once, eg A, B, C, D, E,…

Our promise We bring you honest, unbiased appraisals of the latest computer music products. Our experts apply the same stringent testing methods to all gear, no matter how much hype or expectation surrounds it. What the ratings mean 1-4 A seriously flawed product that should be avoided 5 This product’s problems outweigh its merits 6 A decent product that’s only held back by a few flaws 7 Solid. Well worth considering 8 Very good. A well-conceived and executed product 9 Excellent. First-rate and among the best you can buy 10 Exceptional. It just doesn’t get any better than this! Awarded to products that challenge existing ideas and do something entirely new A product has to really impress us with its functionality and features to win this one If the product…

As demonstrated by the superb Phonec 2 and EchoMelt (10/10, cm248), Psychic Modulation are masters of retro instrument and effects design. Their new drum machine, PulseCode (VST/AU), “pays tribute to the gritty, lo-fi sounds from the late 1980s”, presenting a built-in library of 12- and 13-bit acoustic and electronically sourced drum, percussion and other (basses and FX) samples, in an interface that aims to replicate the layering techniques used by the producers of that era. On the Pulse At first glance, PulseCode’s crude GUI elements and dull colour scheme are a little offputting. Get past that, though, and the interface reveals itself to be practical and intuitive, governing a fairly deep architecture via two tabbed panes. The drum kit is made up of eight specific engines: Kick, Snare, Clap, Tom,…

In the original Xtrax Stems, you could only mix the three stems as they were delivered by the separation algorithms, with no influence over their actual contents. Xtrax Stems 2 introduces the Separation Balance control: an easy-to-use system for “reorganising the energy within the mix in real-time”, applied after the separation algorithms have done their thing. The control is a triangular X/Y-style ‘pad’, with each apex representing the Drum, Music and Vocals stems, and moving the central dot towards a stem increasingly isolates its content. Needless to say, this improvement in separation brings with it artefacts and audible ‘thinning’ of the target stem, as the process inevitably sends more and more of it to the other two stems, but Separation Balance is a very welcome addition to the software nonetheless,…

From its beginnings in Detroit through to the underground haunts of Berlin and beyond, the pounding sounds of techno are as popular as ever – and this issue’s sample pack is crammed full of ’em! Crafted by sound design artisans Cyclick and Groove Criminals, this exclusive collection – available from the print edition’s DVD or via FileSilo download – features a wealth of rumbling beats, hypnotic bass loops, noise-laden FX beds and much more. > Step by step  Three tips for using this issue’s Warehouse Techno samples 1 A system-shaking four-to-the-floor kick is the most essential element in any techno tune, and you’ll find a bunch of mix-ready options in this issue’s sample pack. The Cyclick >> Kick Loops folder comprises bass drums slathered in warehouse-style reverb – throw one…

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! 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…

If you’re reading a magazine about electronic music production, you’ve probably spent countless hours auditioning kick drum samples, processing them with effects, and tearing your hair out trying to get them to work in a mix. After all, the bass drum is probably the single most important element in any dance track. Nail this particular sound and the rest of your elements will fall into place; waste your time with an inadequate kick, on the other hand, and your tune is destined to fail. “Nail the bass drum and the rest of your elements will fall into place” With every subgenre (and track) demanding a different type of bass drum, each with its own particular combo of weight, attack, timbre and dynamics, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution – but with enough…

cm What’s your favourite Dune 3 feature? RH “The new wavetable editor and the dual filter offer a lot of new sound design possibilities. There are also many new effects – like the new graphic equaliser. But if I had to pick one, it’d be the Shimmer Hall, which is just a wonderful tool to create ethereal pads and string sounds.” cm What challenges did Dune 3 present? RH “The biggest challenge was to develop a good-looking, scalable user interface. Many producers these days work on Full HD, 4K or even 5K monitors, so a fixed-size GUI is no longer an option. The new Dune 3 skin is ready for such display resolutions, and future ones as well. A further challenge was to develop unique, high-quality effect algorithms like the…

When it comes to genre ‘correctness’, the sound of the kick drum is as important as the notes it plays. For example, house calls for depth and weight; hip-hop demands phatness and punch; a DnB kick should slam like a sledgehammer… you get the idea. However, don’t be afraid to experiment with kicks that appear ‘wrong’ for a given track. Who knows what new flavours you might cook up by mixing, say, the dark, subby tail of a techno kick with the clicky attack transient of a heavy metal drum sample?…

Sample packs There are hundreds of dedicated TR-808 sample packs available, including high-quality digital recordings from the original unit as well as 808 sounds that have been run through valve preamps, analogue tape and other processing. Goldbaby’s set of TR-808 libraries are a great starting point, as is the excellent 808 Warfare multisampled instrument for Kontakt. DAW/synth presets The majority of DAWs have a bundled palette of TR-808 style sounds that can work well in your own productions. Also, as the 808 kick was originally synthesised, it’s possible to recreate the sound fairly accurately using a softsynth –Synapse Audio’s Dune CM, free in Plugins, has a killer 808 kick preset, for example. Bass Engine CM If you’re after some fat-sounding, easy-to-use 808 kicks, you should check out our very own…

To the Maxsta In 2016, after several years as a successful grime MC, both in his own right and working with the likes of Wiley, Chipmunk, Tinie Tempah and Little Nikki, East Ham-based Maxsta decided it was time to move to the other side of the glass and get involved in production. The first fruits of his time spent learning the engineering ropes are 2018’s Maxtape 2 and the single Born On Your Own, featuring JME, which is the subject of this issue’s Producer Masterclass. We caught up with Maxsta at his home studio and started by asking him how he got involved in all this grimey bidness. “I’m originally from East London, so when I was 14, I met Wiley, Bless Beats, Target and all of them, and they…

Dynamics – the changes in level and intensity of musical parts, whether vocal or instrumental – are key to adding excitement and emotion to your music over time. A static song that stays at the same level, ‘density’ and intensity throughout is likely to have less impact than one that builds into choruses, drops down for verses and breakdowns, and generally changes over time. But because many musicians don’t think enough about dynamics in their arrangements or their playing, and because programmed parts tend to lack dynamics, you may be faced with a mix situation in which the only way to create sufficient excitement is to alter those dynamics with automation. You can globally change levels by automating the volume of the master bus. The changes should be subtle, as…

While Ableton Live Suite’s collection of synthesisers and Max For Live devices covers a massive range of synthesis types, there’s still a slew of exotic sound design techniques that fly under the radar of many producers. Some of these have been lurking deep within sub-menus for over a decade, while others are insider tricks for coaxing new forms of synthesis out of the existing tools. In this masterclass, we’ll take a deeper look at some of Live’s more esoteric synthesis options and explain methods for quickly applying them to your design workflow. Some of these tips may surprise even Live experts, as they’ve been available in the DAW for many years, but they require a little bit of thoughtful experimentation in order to unlock their full potential. Additive synthesis While…

When building a new project from scratch, I like to get ideas down as quickly as possible. I find starting with some kind of ‘concept’ helps me shape a song as I write. Immediately establishing a vibe also helps prevent boredom in the studio. This is why i prioritise workflow. Knowing your DAW inside out and constructing a template project will increase your productivity, spark inspiration and keep you motivated. So in this month’s Studio Strategies, I’ll explore several ways to speed up workflow within Steinberg’s Cubase. First up, I’ll create a template project with a tidy arrangement window and colour-coded folders. Pre-routing mix busses, inserts and send/return FX saves time, allowing you to move on to the more important activity of composition. Furthermore, using DAW features (such as Cubase’s…

Guy Robin – better-known to the public as Brit-nominated, platinum-selling pop producer Jonas Blue – has just got back from a trip to China. A few minutes before we arrive at his house in a very rural part of Essex, he walks through his front door, chucks his bag on a chair and tries to work out what the time is. Having spent the best part of a week travelling, playing to audiences of 50,000-plus, kipping in vans and answering questions, he’s beginning to wonder if it’s a good idea to launch into a detailed tech interview. It’s not hard to hear the exhaustion when we ask him about the China dates and the electronic music scene in East Asia. “There’s not really a scene,” he explains, shoulders sagging. “If…

The Flow and Fracture systems in PulseCode serve users with cyclical and manually controlled modulation. Flow is essentially a per-engine host-synced LFO for modulating Amplitude, Decay and Pan, cycling over 1-16 steps and triggered by pattern start or Accent steps. The Phase of the wave is tweakable, random deviation can be dialled in, and each engine is assignable to Modwheel by raising its individual Amount setting in the MIDI tab. Fracture control is a real-time fill generator that randomly messes with the Pitch and Step triggers of its host engine, snapping back to centre when released unless Latch mode is on. Pushed right, the pattern gets busier and pitchshifting is generally upwards; pushed left, the sequence thins and pitch changes mostly downwards. Pitch and Step modulation depths are adjustable, and…

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 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 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 audiority.com Unfiltered Audio G8 CM • Get tight dynamics or creative FX • Includes advanced gating controls…

HY-PLUGINS HY-SLICER Not on the market for the standalone ReCycle just yet? Grab a copy of HY-Plugins HY-Slicer. A cross-platform loop slider, it offers auto-slicing alongside resequencing and per-step parameter manipulation. Alter the pitch, direction, envelope stages, beat division and effects for each step. Try out the free version for a taste. hy-plugins.com/product/hy-slicerwin-mac MARCOS ALONSO SAMPLR A paltry ten bucks will put the superb Samplr on your iPad, providing you with some of the most inspiration that you are ever likely to wrangle out of your tablet. Beat slicing is just one of the many things that Samplr can do to an audio file, but’s it’s also one of the most fun thanks to the hands-on interface offered by the iPad. samplr.net REDSTEAM RECORDS FREECYCLE If you’re a Linux user,…

MORE FROM MIDI It’s official: MIDI 2.0 is happening. There’s no word yet on when it’ll be rolled out in software and hardware, but we do know that it’s going to be prototyped throughout 2019 and will be backwards compatible with the MIDI standard we currently use. YOU’RE THE VOICE With voice control now most definitely A Thing, it was probably inevitable that someone would build it into a music tech product at some point. Step forward Roland, who are releasing an Alexa-charged version of their GO:PIANO. AN OVATION FOR NOVATION Plenty of companies go the extra mile to spruce up their booths at the NAMM Show, but Novation’s, which went with a videogame arcade theme, was something else entirely. You could even play a version of Pong on a…

Early sampling was not easy. Recording, editing, looping, and mapping samples was performed on the hardware sampler itself, with little visual feedback, at most a 2-digit hexadecimal display! Fortunately, the sample-happy musos of yore could try Sample Wrench. Once a commercial product, this Windows sample editor allows users to import and export waveforms, perform a variety of edits and then spit them back out to the computer’s hard drive or to a hardware sampler. It’s decidedly dated, a little clunky and yet still quite useful, particularly if you’ve an old hardware sampler hanging around. dissidents.com/products.htm…

The kick drum, inside and out Starting off with the very basics, the kick (aka bass) drum is the big outward-facing tub at the front of the drum kit. It’s struck with a pedal-operated beater under the right foot of the (right-handed) drummer, and the larger the drum – in both diameter and depth – the louder, more boomy and more rounded it will sound. The vast majority of drum kits will hit the engineering sweet spot for both live amplification and recording, sporting kick drums that measure 22" in diameter and 16” deep. However, those numbers can range anywhere between 18-28” and 14-20”. “The role of the kick is to mark the main beats of the bar” The wood used in the manufacture of the kick also has a…

If you’re synthesising a kick drum using a softsynth like NI’s Massive, Xfer Records’ Serum or similar, you may find the synth’s natural phase irregularities over each note give the finished kick drum an inconsistent sound over time. To avoid this, try printing several kicks to audio before loading your favourite one into a sampler. As you’re triggering a one-shot sample rather than a synth, the sound will be totally repeatable with all the features your sampler offers available for further processing.…

It’s always useful to know the rules of thumb for a good low end mix – like placing your kick in mono – but sometimes it’s much more fun to break every rule in the book in pursuit of a unique sound. One example is stereo widening: most people would typically avoid using processing of this kind on a kick drum, but it can actually give your kick an unusual ‘3D’ feel. Try adding width to the kick’s bass frequencies to give a cinematic feel when listening on headphones, or coating a splash of high-frequency width in order to give a sparse drum track added stereo character. Another cool kick-processing method is to break a stereo kick down into mid and side signals before processing them separately. Try adding phasing…

Native Instruments Maschine Mikro Mk3 cm 264 » 8/10 » £199 “I looked at the MPC, and I looked at Maschine, and I just read everything and looked at what it could do. I thought, for one, Maschine goes with Komplete, which I already had… so definitely for sampling, I’ll be using Maschine.” native-instruments.com Native Instruments London Grit cm 246 » 9/10 » £44 “If you make grime and you want a concise pack that gives you the signature sounds – the claps that clap off, the kicks that ‘mmmm’, hi-hats that aren’t too tinny, just good grime effects – check out the London Grit pack.” native-instruments.com Waves CLA-2A £189 “I’ve got the UAD version [of the Teletronix LA-2A] as well, but at the moment I love the sound of…

Editing automation data can be tricky. Say you want to automate a track’s volume so that it dips by 3dB for a couple of beats, and then goes back to where it was. One way to achieve that would be to use your DAW’s line-drawing tool to draw in the change. Once done, you may notice that there was a node created at the spot where the attenuation began, another where it started to go back up, and one at the level you returned to. The nodes essentially function as ‘hinge points’ at spots where the line is changing in value. Here’s the tricky part: if you accidentally brought the automation curve up 5dB after bringing it down 3dB, then your volume would start at 5dB and gradually return to…

If you’re reading this mag, there’s a fair chance that you’ll have some sort of MIDI or piano keyboard nearby. Take a look at it, and you’ll notice the one thing about its iconic and functional design that’s remained true throughout its centuries-long history: the fact that it’s arranged with white keys at the front, and black keys to the rear. When first starting out on the keyboard, the white keys are usually the ones we tend to deal with first, with the result that the black keys can sometimes seem a bit intimidating. Without these sharps and flats though, music would be a very bland affair indeed, so what exactly are they, and why are they there? In Western music, an octave is comprised of 12 distinct notes, all…

MOVE ON! This is a vital tip for staying in the creative flow: be strict with your time! Recognising when something isn’t working is a skill in itself, which is why I don’t spend more than 30 minutes on one individual element. In the past, I’ve wasted hours on one particular part, only to realise it just doesn’t work in context. If something isn’t quite right for your current project, though, you should bounce the sound to audio and archive it for use another day – it could well become the perfect starting point for a different song. This tip also applies to entire projects. When working on the same song over and over again, I usually wind up getting stuck in a rut and making mistakes. In this case,…

“Even though my career has been spent in the box, I still have this fascination with live music. Specifically, soul and disco from the mid-70s, which is what I grew up listening to. About six years ago, I got started on a side project that involved recreating the sound of 1975. Philadelphia, Tom Moulton and John Morales. Trying to record everything like it was recorded back then. “With all the tech and plugins that we’ve got today, it’s tempting to think that you can stick anything through an analogue tape effect and it’ll sound 40 years old. Sorry, but it doesn’t work like that. You can’t take something sterile and revive it with a plugin. “One idea I quickly developed was limiting the number of tracks. Like the studios at…

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 u-he.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 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 2.6 • AU/VST/RTAS, 32-/64-bit cableguys.com Synapse Audio Dune CM • VA and wavetable oscillators • Powerful per-voice modulation • 12-slot modulation matrix • Based on the full…