Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2021 i Computer Music

A story about three effects pedals might not seem an appropriate one for our news but these boxes are produced by none other than plugin-boosting and emulating experts Universal Audio. The company, of course, started out with hardware but these UAFX pedals very much use current emulating tech to model classic reverbs (in Golden Reverberator), echoes (Starlight Echo Station) and modulation (in Astra Modulation Machine). Prices TBA. uaudio.com…

Austrian producers Fourward started making their successful brand of drum&bass back in 2007. They began as a four-piece comprising Dominik Rank, Ludwig List, Lukas Roher and Niklas Bruckne but are now producing as the duo with List and Roher, who pick up their story.… “We have been friends for years and also shared the same interests in music and DJing back then. “Over the years we’ve released music on labels like Shogun Audio, Elevate, Vision, Virus, Mainframe, Eatbrain, Subsonik Sound, Planet Funk or Fokuz. “In 2019 Dominik and Niklas left the group but we (Lukas and Ludwig) still keep pushing the Fourward sound and are looking forward to releasing fresh music hopefully this year.” Fourward have released three albums so far, including last year’s critically acclaimed Lose Control on Elevate.…

1 In our exclusive Producer Masterclass video, Lukas Roher from Fourward details how they put together their single How. First up it’s drums, with two kick drums tracks (1 and 2) providing a lot of the bottom end. 2 The first kick track was produced with Serum and has a little processing to give it low-end punch and a transient snap. (As Fourward we always use multiple instances of Serum for a wide variety of sounds.) 3 To liven up the first kick track, Lukas layers another kick drum against it. It was chopped out of a funk break and quickly adds more dirt and character to the proceedings. 4 Back to kick drum track 1 and Lukas puts its phase out by 180 degrees to avoid any phasing issues…

Bassline: from the sub to the synth 1 We’ll start with the sub bass and it’s our old friend Serum on call here with a typical analogue sine wave sub bass, with short attack and release to avoid any clicks from happening. It’s also set at mono so there’s no overlapping of the notes. Very important! 2 Lukas uses a high-cut EQ with not too steep an EQ curve, so he eats into some of the low-mid frequencies as well as losing the highs. 3 Next up is a low-end synth progression using – yep, you guessed it – Serum. We’re showing the chord progression rather than the synth; otherwise people might think we have shares in XFer! 4 Markus then breaks down the synth sound, homing in on one…

Many producers rely on single-hit percussion samples to create grooves. Synthesising your own hits from the ground up can open a range of possibilities for timbre shaping and expression. Synthesising bespoke percussion has many advantages, one of the highlights being the ability to customise and automate multiple parameters throughout the arrangement. As a result, the sound can be ever-evolving and keep the listener’s interest. Using a synth for your perc also opens up the chance to play a melody via your MIDI keyboard or a step sequencer. Let’s explore some different patching techniques for designing percussion. Most synths can achieve percussion sounds; we’ll use our trusted u-he Diva, but our methods can translate to many other synths. Adding expression plays a huge role when making percussion sound less static. Velocity…

AmpliTube 5 further closes the gap between the respected approaches of traditional guitar engineers and those hankering for a simpler, in-the-box solution. The addition of VIR technology (Volumetric Impulse Response) to each speaker in a cabinet essentially creates a 3D grid of uberspecific mic placements. With 600 IR measurements per speaker (1,200 for a two-speaker cab and 2,400 for a four-speaker cabinet) all physically captured via an automised, robotic measurement system. What we have here is nothing short of game-changing scope for virtual engineering, with a staggering 143,000 IRs captured. We were impressed by how the slightest mic tweak had a discernible – and realistic – bearing on our tone. This manoeuvrability is strikingly exact, particularly when compared to other amp suites. Tone can be shaped in interesting ways, especially…

Roland TB-303 Software Bass Line £sub 9/10 cm269 The original bass synth for so many dance music genres finally gets its official outing via original producers Roland on their Roland Cloud subscription platform – and it’s almost worth the monthly fee alone. “As much fun as you’ll ever have with a synth, and we can happily report that Roland’s virtual take sounds as close to the real thing as we’ve heard in software.” rolandcloud.com Klevgränd Knorr $29 8/10 cm278 A ‘bass vitaliser’ for desktop and iPad that is designed to add presence and edge to monophonic low frequency sources. “Knorr is an intriguing processor that, used in moderation, can deliver useful and flexible enhancement to melodic bass sounds.” klevgrand.se Toontrack EZbass £129 10/10 cm286 Two multisampled electric…

With every new plugin purchase, there’s usually that gnawing feeling that the abilities you’re paying for could also be achieved with something else from your arsenal, particularly those under-used tools we’ve all got stuffing up our hard drives. So when something comes along that clearly provides something genuinely fresh, and with an interface like no other, we’re extra contented that our money has been well spent. Just so with Dust, the first VST/AAX and AU granular synthesis plugin from the Montreal-based SoundMorph. The company have previous for industry standard sound design tools and libraries, including the expansive Sinematic series and the mind-bending TimeFlux. They have also loaned their expertise to HBO television series and AAA video games such as the Mass Effect franchise. Ashes to ashes Dust is built around…

Aside from the impressive science underpinning Paragon, another of its USPs is its ability to modify how much reverb from each channel interacts with another. Paragon point to this being a specific benefit for those working in audio mixing for television or film. It allows improvement of the intelligibility of dialogue by eliminating reverb from the centre channel and still maintaining a sense of space by sending the dry centre channel audio to the other reverb channels. This Crosstalk feature could be used in a music production context to highlight lead instruments in a dense mix, or enhance vocal clarity. It really does cry out to be experimented with. Using Crosstalk grants the ability to produce surround reverb from mono and stereo sources, too. Paragon is a plugin that allows…

When someone offers us “the highest quality results with the least amount of work” our laziness bones start rattling with joy, and that’s what the makers of new vocal aligning software VocAlign Ultra are claiming. Incorporating algorithms from Revoice Pro, it goes to town fixing both the timing and pitch of your performances. Other new features include a Tightness Control, a Match Pitch Section, 60+ Alignment presets, enhanced Waveform and Pitch Displays, a fully resizable GUI Window and Formant Shifting. RRP is £285. synchroarts.com…

This month we have a rather excellent giveaway. Bitwig Studio 8-Track is a cross-platform DAW for Windows, OS X and Linux and is an entry level version of Bitwig’s feature-packed DAW. But when we say entry level, all that means is that it has some intentional limitations such as overall track count, effects sends and bundled content. Beyond these it still looks and behaves just like the full version. This means you can take full advantage of Bitwig’s simple drag and drop workspace, its powerful modulation system and of course its blended timeline and clip launching options. The 8-Track licence authorises the Essentials software pack, which includes Bitwig-ready loops, various sound generating devices such as the excellent Drum Machine, FM-4 and Polysynth, and a bunch of Bitwig’s own processors. These…

1 Lukas demonstrates how to keep the snare tuning in line with the main harmonic content of the song. First of all he identifies the pitch of the snare’s resonant peak which in this case is a G. 2 He then uses (another) instance of Serum to play G whenever the snare hits adding a more coherent tuned vibe to the track. “The snare fits the harmonic and melodic content of your tune,” he explains. Now we move onto the hats. 3 The first hat (taken from Addictive Drums) plays on quarter notes and Lukas uses the Kilohearts Haas plugin to help spread it. 4 The next percussive sound is the tambourine and – as with the snares – Lukas uses a low cut and this time a slight nudge…

If there’s one element of any track that should demand the majority of your focus, it’s the vocal. The vocal, over and above anything else, draws the attention of the ear and thus is the first thing anyone listens to. An underwhelming vocal gives a poor first impression of the whole track from which there’s usually no coming back. The first and most important aspect of a vocal is the performance. If a singer delivers a passionate and believable performance, you can get away with imperfections in tuning or sound quality – but if they’re slightly timid in their performance, poor tuning, tone and timing are made all the more apparent. Getting the best performance out of a singer involves many considerations – psychological, aesthetic, technical, physical – and a…

In our last instalment, we saw how modular step sequencers might be used to create multipart musical passages. This month we’ll unravel some of the more advanced possibilities offered by step sequencer modules. Importantly, we’ll discuss how to break free of the metronomic march with which they are associated. Step sequencers are associated with – and criticised for – robotic, lock-step monotony. It’s easy to simply dial in an eight-note pattern and press Start, jamming over the top of a relentless and unchanging clockwork rhythm. Such unimaginative usage has provided grist for those who call electronic music emotionless. There is indeed quite a lot of electronic music that deserves the criticism, yet the tools are rarely to blame. In the hands of a clever synthesist, an analogue-style step sequencer need…

TIGHT PERCUSSION Percussion samples might have an excess amount of reverb and delay imprinted into the stem. A good processing technique is to use a gate. This will allow you to control the effect tails once they drop below the set threshold. SHORT STEREO DELAY FOR PERCUSSION If you make electronic music, the chances are, your percussion is programmed from single-shot samples or sequenced via a drum machine. In some genres, percussion can work OK being dry and raw, but in most cases, it would benefit from added spacial effects. Try using a short stereo delay; it can make your percussion appear wider and move it away from the forefront of the mix.…

Since 2009’s slickly rebooted, JJ Abrams-helmed movie, the Star Trek franchise has enjoyed a reinvigorated decade, with successive blockbuster movies, and two uniformly cinematic TV series hoovering up viewers and plaudits. Part of TV Trek’s new appeal is its sense of larger ambition, stressed by glossy, impressive scores. Jeff Russo is the composer responsible for the orchestral magic of both Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard and in collaboration with Orchestral Tools, now offers up access to his unique palette of sounds, while simultaneously shedding light on some of the innovative methods he uses for creating effective tensions and movement. As per Orchestral Tools’s product range, Modus’s 21 individual instruments were painstakingly captured at Berlin’s legendary Teldex Scoring Stage, as well as a range of orchestral ensembles, percussion sounds…

In a relatively short space of time, Baby Audio have gone from producing the quirky, simple and much-loved ‘New York sound’ I Heart New York parallel compressor to some of the best plugins in the business. Comeback Kid and Parallel Aggressor both got fantastic scores in and a cutdown version of the former – Baby Comeback – proved to be one of our most popular giveaways ever back in August last year. “We want to simplify workflow and make mix tools that inspires instant creativity and experimentation,” the company’s founder Caspar Bock told us then. “And where you don’t need to read a manual to get started.” That ethos is very evident in the company’s new plugin, Spaced Out, but it also follows a kind of ‘what if’ path, that…

Regardless of the fact that all of Dust’s parameters can be set manually, modulation invariably produces a much more dynamic sound. There are four main modulation options within Dust, and simply right-clicking on the specific parameter’s dial control opens a modulation panel where you can alter the parameter’s LFO, MIDI, Sequencer and Particle Property. The LFO options encompass the LFO shape, type, tempo, rate of oscillation, phase, pulse width, oscillation scale and offset, while MIDI allows you to map the parameter to the incoming MIDI note, and by its velocity if required. The Sequencer options provide control of the sequence length, direction and rate as well as whether it’s tempo synced or not. Finally, the Particle Property allows for more precise control over the particles, though many of their positional…

Mode Audio Flood£ 20 Batten down the hatches, break out the sandbags, and prepare your sampler for a wave of WAVs and a tide of tasty textures from the ModeAudio massive. For their latest pack they’ve put together a salty selection of ambient drones and nifty analogue noises designed to effortlessly wash over your productions. Ranging from one-second to two-and-a-half-minute stretches, these trippy pads, atmospheric tones, and deep, daring soundswells summon swirling sub sonics that immediately change the vibe of your tracks for the better. Take the plunge – each immersive sample in this monster 1.88GB set will set your arrangements adrift into a wide open sea of possibility. modeaudio.com 9/10 Sample Tools by Cr2 Slap House £15.99 All hail slap house – the newish EDM sub-genre that got…

The big news this year, of course, is the no-show of the NAMM show, the event where all the new music production gear is usually announced. But just because this annual Californian shindig did not happen, it didn’t stop the gear from being released and there have been more audio interface announcements than ever lighting up our email inboxes. First up is a debut offering from high-quality hardware outboard manufacturers Black Lion Audio. It’s a brave move for anyone to enter the somewhat crowded arena of the audio interface – as amply demonstrated by this news story – but BLA are going for it with some aplomb. In fact, if you were to believe the over-the-top press release, you’d think they’d invented some kind of hardware COVID vaccine. “Indeed, it…

cm How did you get into software? NK “I grew up in the Alpine countryside where there was little to do. Radio programs started to play Warp, Mouse on Mars, Funkstörung, etc; unless you got hold of a copy of a music tech mag, it was all shrouded in mystery. But that piqued my interest in building noisemakers in Reaktor. Computer science got me into music production and a few releases. After graduation, a friend of mine asked me to work on Native Instruments’ MassiveX with him. And after using Bitwig Studio since v1, I am now happily on the development team.” cm Tell us a bit about Bitwig… NK “It was founded in 2009 by four people who like technology that helps humans achieve musical results. Bitwig take a…

Vocal booth Used for recording dry vocals so your studio doesn’t have to be acoustically perfect. Just stick your head in there and sing Cubase Two screens run Cubase as Fourward’s main DAW plus, of course, those many instances of Serum, Fabfilter, Valhalla and more Behringer Poly D This Minimoog clone certainly doesn’t cost as much as the original. Less than £600 gets you a reasonable copy Prophet synth One of the best hardware synths money can buy teams up nicely with one of the best soft synths (in Serum) Mackie monitors Fourward are thinking of upgrading to HEDD monitors but they’re pretty happy with the results they get from these Mackies Audeze headphones It’s always worth having a good set of cans to A-B your mixes and these are…

1 Lukas demonstrates an important point when bringing together the percussion from the second walkthrough with the kick and snare of the first. First of all he has all the hats grouped and adds a Fabfilter Pro C2. 2 He then has the kick and snare trigger the EQ so that whenever they hit, the EQ ducks the hats. It’s a great way to make the kick and snare stand out more. 3 Next we move onto the clap sounds and the first one Lukas discusses is a reversed clap, used as an effect. It is processed with a flanger. 4 Another clap sound uses Valhalla’s Shimmer to great effect, adding a fantastic reverb tail to this second sound. Shimmer is a favourite plugin of Lukas. 5 With another neat…

We all know there’s a lot of trickery involved in studio vocal production, but it doesn’t all boil down to Auto-Tune and Melodyne. Among the myriad possibilities afforded us by DAWs is the ability to capture endless recordings, enabling us to record our vocalist singing as many versions of our song as we like and then cherry-pick all the best bits to make the perfect, dream ‘take’. This is what’s known as compiling or comping. Of course, the technique is applicable to any recorded performance, but in this tutorial we’re focusing on comping a lead vocal using Logic Pro X. Everything we’ll show you can also be done in any other DAW, of course. Comping criteria Obviously, the first thing you need is a set of vocal recordings – see…

When writing a song, whether you intend to or not, you’ll work in a particular key. You might start out by saying “right, this will be in C minor”, or you might just string together a seemingly random set of chords that, when analysed, happen to conform, to a particular key. Each key has its own set of seven chords that belong to it, from the seven notes of the parent scale of that key. These are known as the diatonic chords for that key. Although already a proven recipe for success for hundreds of thousands of songs, sticking to just seven diatonic chords runs the risk of becoming a bit limiting. What if you wanted to pep up your progression by straying off the beaten track and throwing in…

There’s no denying that the market for virtual amp sim suites has grown and grown over the last decade, as developers continue to bolster their packages with realistic profiles and tone-sculpting scope, but there’s still only a few out there in the professional sphere that would admit to relying on a virtual amp suite for all ‘serious’ production purposes. IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube has long been a prime exemplar of how to do amp simulation right, and with this fifth refinement, looks to solidify the software’s ambitions to be the last word in guitar sound processing. They might have just done it, too. Ample growth Coming nigh on five years since the release of the previous iteration, IK have been gradually rebuilding the AmpliTube architecture from the ground up. As with…

Winning an Emmy for his work on Fargo, and defining the aural universe of Star Trek since its return to TV in 2017, composer Jeff Russo’s limited time frame per episode resulted in a need for quicker routes to build his scores. Enter Orchestral Tools, who – working with Russo – developed Modus to serve not just as a commercial product, but as a personally-tailored workflow enhancer. Russo’s stamp is all over this pack, from his approach to unconventional articulations, the expressive performance options and the addition of patches that follow two instruments performing the same part – a typical Russo tactic. Not forgetting of course, that reliable choir of Klingons. What you’re purchasing here is more than a standard sample library, with its functionality geared towards helping one of…

From slick, sound-refining plugins such as the bass-sculpting prowess of Monofilter and the fastidious Visualizer, to their polished mastering assistant MasterCheck, and innovative virtual gadgets such as routing co-ordinator SigMod, Nugen’s wares this last decade have proven uniformly trailblazing. Though their spatially-oriented releases to date have been geared more at the post-production industry, the company’s first bona-fide convolution reverb has universal application, and – used in a production context – provides spectacular natural reverb straight out of the box. Its prospects become even more delicious when you factor in its bewildering power to manipulate these real room impulse responses in the same manner as a processed reverb. Location, location, location Paragon isn’t just a bold step for Nugen, then, with the plugin’s abilities affording it the honour of being the…

CHILLED PADS Chilled Pads We have a wintery theme with our two all-new collections this month – hey, spring doesn’t technically start until March 20! First up, Robbie from Cyclick Samples details his Chilled Pads collection… “These are some wintry pads to produce laidback soundscapes; not too much warmth dialled in, and just enough top end to give them an icy edge without scratching the eardrums. “20 synth pad patches were made with reverbs by Eventide (SP2016, Blackhole), UAD (EMT140/250, Lexicon 224) and Arturia (Rev Plate-140) plus modulation by Eventide (Instant Flanger and Phaser). EQ, exciter and stereo width was carried out by Neutron 2 or Ozone 8 plugins. The synths were mostly from V-Collection as well as the Kurzweil K2600r. Its output went through the Thermionic Culture The Rooster…