Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2016 i Computer Music

“Ah, a blank canvas for my sonic art!” By my reckoning, the typical modern synth has, ohhh, about a zillion controls. There are row upon row of knobs to twiddle, multi-segment envelopes to design, step sequencers at your command, sliders to be slid, and tons of toggles, switches and buttons. But the one that inspires me the most has to be the humble patch init button that resets the synth to a single oscillator, with filter wide open and no modulation in sight. Ah, a blank canvas for my sonic art! Whether I’m after a basic sawtooth bass or a massive multilayered pad, I know exactly how to find my way there from this most elementary of starting points. What if you’ve never been on that journey, though, or your…

Three years ago, Waves released version 1 of this synth, taking their first foray into the world of virtual instruments. We checked it out in 189 (7/10), praising its sound and calling it “an excellent workaday synth”, but finding ourselves wanting a little more for the money. “The real question isn’t whether it’s any good, but whether you really need it,” we reckoned. Element 2’s improvements mostly apply to its algorithms and sound, which were already more than up to scratch to begin with. The synth’s fundamental architecture appears unchanged, so users of the original can expect to experience no learning curve. Perhaps most interestingly, users of Element 2 can flip a switch in the corner to switch over to Element v1, retaining the sounds and functions of any patches…

“The mobile music scene can feel like my early days using a basic DAW” cm What’s your background in music and in programming? MH “I used to be a trance producer – back in its heyday – and had a few remixes on vinyl under my belt by the time I started studying Computer Systems Engineering at university. Convolution reverb had just touched down on the Mac, and my tutor agreed I’d impress him if I could make his office sound like a local cathedral in real-time on a PC. I used some of my own music gear to take some IRs from a local cathedral, wrote a basic convolution plugin over the Christmas break, and eventually got that smile from my tutor.” cm Reverberate 2 features Fusion-IR technology. How…

PSP Audioware’s take on the classic EMT 244 and 245 reverb hardware puts both processors into one plugin, allowing you to use the qualities of one or both at the same time. It wouldn’t be a PSP plugin without some mean tweaks to the original concepts, though, and for 2445, they’ve added a couple of shorter reverb times, input and output Gain controls, plus a dry/wet Mix level control. We’ll be putting it through its paces in a future issue, but for anyone wishing to dive right in, PSP2445 is out now in VST/AU/AAX formats, for $156. READ MORE www.pspaudioware.com…

DECK THE HALLS High street retailer HMV claim they sold a turntable every minute in the week leading up Christmas. And then, at CES, Panasonic announced that they’re reviving the iconic Technics SL-1200 series. If vinyl wasn’t back before, it certainly is now. YELLOW SUBMA-STREAM OK, you probably own or are very familiar with a lot of The Beatles’ back catalogue already, but it’s still nice to know that we can now listen to the whole lot on various streaming services. Whatever your musical persuasion, the Fab Four can teach you something. GROOVY GAME We’ve had Guitar Hero, so what about Programming Hero? OK, it might not have the same ring to it, but we were still quite taken with Roland’s free TR-REC app, which requires you to make beats…

When it comes to making big, bad bass sounds, soft synths offer a degree of precision and flexibility that can’t be beaten. Although some people will always claim to prefer the sound of analogue bass tones, it’s the difference between analogue hardware and the best virtual analogue software synths has become so small that it’s more a matter of taste than whether one is “better” than the other. And of course, soft synths offer far more in the way of sound generating and shaping features than their physical rivals. The downside of the soft synth’s enormous power is that it can be tempting to use every bell and whistle just for the sake of it. This can work well when designing mid-range sounds, which often benefit from lots of movement…

Invented by PPG founder Wolfgang Palm back in the late 70s, a wavetable synth uses a digital wavetable oscillator hosting a choice of preprogrammed waveforms to generate sound, rather than (or as well as) the conventional waveforms – sine, triangle, sawtooth, etc – that you get from an analogue oscillator. Essentially, this means that a wavetable oscillator can not only generate the usual synth waveforms you know and love, but also offers an extensive palette of raw source tones that can’t be easily created using other methods of synthesis. Although wavetable synthesis delivers interesting enough sounds right out of the gate, it becomes particularly interesting when you start using modulation from sources such as LFOs and envelopes to ‘morph’ between waveforms, opening up a whole new world of possibilities for…

Frequency modulation (FM) synthesis is a powerful way to create unique leads, pads, basses, and even drums. In contrast to conventional analogue synthesis, where a harmonically rich waveform is shaped by a filter, FM synthesis works by using a (usually) simple waveform – called a modulator signal – to modulate the frequency of another basic saw, square or sine carrier waveform. The resulting waveform becomes more elaborate as the modulator signal is manipulated, and this enables the user to create a huge variety of complex tones that aren’t typically possible using more standard analogue-modelled oscillators, including inharmonic sounds such as bells and percussion. FM synthesis was popularised back in the 80s by Yamaha’s best-selling DX7; although that instrument only had one programming control and was hard to use, it became…

“Back then I was quite a snob, and I only really wanted to play piano” Starting out as a jazz pianist hustling for cash in London’s bars and hotels, Hannah V has had a fascinating journey to becoming a producer, and has worked with an incredible array of famous names including pop princesses Rihanna and Jessie J, and underground stars such as broken beat legends Bugz in the Attic. We caught up with her at collaborator Alex Hayes’ East End studio, to uncover her production secrets and ask – given that she’s only the second woman to appear in Producer Masterclass – why there aren’t more female producers out there. “There just aren’t that many of us. The numbers are pretty shocking: under 5% of commercial…

Designed and developed by Native Instruments in conjunction with Berlin-based musician Errorsmith, Razor is regularly cited as one of the best, most radical-sounding virtual instruments ever made. In our review in 165, although “initially a tad sceptical about Razor, it being ‘just’ a Reaktorbased affair and entirely additive”, we were ultimately “duly humbled”, scoring it 9/10. A single-bank additive synth running in NI’s Reaktor or Reaktor Player shell, Razor gives you ‘en masse’ control of the frequencies, amplitudes and phases of its 320 partials, simulating all manner of analogue, digital and hybrid oscillators, filters and effects, via a familiar set of parameters and a powerful, expressive modulation system. That’s right: like the synth’s raw source signal, the filters and effects are also created at the additive level. In fact, the…

Owen Palmer As an in-demand dance music engineer, Owen’s worked with a slew of outstanding underground artists behind the scenes from his London studio. After years of meticulously studying what makes a great production tick, Owen has promised to share his most advanced and coveted techniques each month exclusively in . Get in touch with Owen about this month’s subject at… www.owenthegeek.com/cm First impressions are important, but human perception is a wonderfully complex and often mysterious thing. We think we know what we’re experiencing, but in reality we’re just trying to make the most of whatever information we have, and even that information is selectively filtered by our subconscious minds. As such, details we might consciously deem as trivial can turn out to be critical components of perception. Ever tried…

“The 500+ presets have been created by Melda’s user base” BAND EDITOR Define and monitor up six frequency bands, each one hosting a full module matrix MODULE MATRIX Select, route and insert plugin modules LANE ACTIVATORS Engage or disengage the six lanes LEVEL METERS Monitor the levels of individual bands, outputs and inputs, plus stereo width EFFECT DISPLAY Controls for the currently selected plugin module appear here MULTI PARAMETERS Define up to 16 macro controls per preset MODULATORS Click one of 16 modulator tabs or the arpeggiator to reveal their controls GLOBAL CONTROLS Sample rate, automatic gain control (AGC), limiting, MIDI assignments and snapshot settings MeldaProduction produce a vast array of high-end plugins, covering everything from the mundane to the marvellous, with most boasting an unashamedly complex design and fundamental…

Back in the halcyon decade of the recording studio – the 1980s – there was one dominant option when it came to de-essing: the DBX 902, a 500-series ‘lunchbox’ module commonly racked up in groups of four or five. The DBX ‘90’ range also included the 903 compressor, 904 gate and 905 EQ, but none of these were as popular as the 902 de-esser. There were two main reasons for this: the 902’s simplicity, and its effectiveness. LSR Audio’s plugin emulation of this classic, VLB 902 (AU/VST/RTAS/AAX), comes in a window that takes up two 500-series ‘slots’. A faithful replication of the original hardware occupies the left half, while a set of all-new listening modes takes up the right. The controls don’t take long to get your head around. The…

XLN Audio are best known for their Addictive series of sample-based drum and keyboard instruments, and one often-overlooked aspect of them is their excellent onboard effects processing. DS-10 Drum Shaper (VST/AU/AAX) is their first Addictive FX, a transient shaper that combines three drum-specific Modes (Kick, Snare and Bus) with a trio of shaping algorithms (Classic, Natural and Smooth). The Mode is selected using the three buttons at the top, and the detection and applied gain curve are optimised for the named drum type. Bus is the most general-purpose option, working well with stereo drum mixes, while Snare and Kick are tailored to the frequency content and characteristic transient nature of those drums. The three algorithms influence the overall decay style, with Classic (the same as Addictive Drums 2’s Shape processor)…

Soundiron Steel Tones $49 This deeply mulltisampled eight-tongue Hapi drum (Google it) for Kontakt 5 boasts a gorgeous scripted interface that lets you layer two independent instances of its core instrument, each with its own adjustable keyspan and sound-shaping controls. The arpeggiator and effects bring groove and glamour to the Hapi’s earthy, raw tones, while the icing on the cake is the set of 56 pads, ambiences and raw waveforms based on them. We’d prefer all of the articulations in a single NKI rather than split between eight, but nonetheless, Steel Tones is unmissable. www.soundiron.com 10/10 Samplephonics Liquid Gold £35 R&B and soul are the umbrella genres of this 740MB sample collection, but any contemporary producer could put its 255 loops and 170 shots to good use. The odd but…

Step 1 On your PC or Mac, go to vault.computermusic.co.uk, then either register for a new Vault account, or log in if you already have one. Step 2 Click ‘add a magazine’ in the top bar, select the issue you want to add to your Vault (eg, this issue is 227), and answer a few simple security questions. Step 3 Go to ‘my vault’ to see all your mags – click a cover and use the links to download! You can download as much or as little as you like.…

Our fantastic software, samples, videos and tutorial files are now available to download! To get access to this content, go to vault.computermusic.co.uk on your PC or Mac’s web browser. You’ll be asked to register and answer a few simple questions to prove that you’ve got the mag. You’ll then be given access to our content! You can sign in any time to register new issues and download more content. For more info, see our Vault FAQ: bit.ly/cmvaultfaq * Please note that the Producer Masterclass video is not available as a download via our Vault. See page 60 for viewing instructions, or watch on Apple Newsstand via built-in internet streaming.…

The Plugins collection is a suite of complete, limitation-free instrument and effects plugins. It’s an incredible resource, boasting more than 50 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 Ohm Force, KV331 Audio, u-he, Cableguys, AudioThing, XILS-lab, Vengeance-Sound, Rob Papen and zplane. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS What is Plugins? Is it just freeware from the internet? No, and neither are the plugins limited or ‘crippled’. It’s a set of virtual instruments and effects created by some of the best developers in the business just for us – you won’t find this set of plugins anywhere else! Where do I get Plugins? As a download from…

We’ve grown to expect new goodies from Rob Papen at the NAMM show, so what’s the Dutch synth master got for us this time? A new synth? More effects? No, actually. Prisma (VST/AU/AAX) is a free rack system for Rob Papen sound-makers. Users can combine up to four of Papen’s virtual instruments into a single sound source, setting up keysplits and velocity sensitivity to form coherent patches. You can’t load in Rob Papen effects plugins, which is a touch disappointing, although there are four effects onboard. It should be out in March, and it’s available for free. READ MORE www.robpapen.com…

New UAD software is out now for users of Universal Audio’s DSP system. First up, the Marshall JMP 2203 (pictured) sees Softube model the legendary 1975 guitar amp. It’s £149, though a discount is available for anyone who owns another UAD Marshall plugin. Next, Sonnox’s Envolution (already available for £170 as a VST/AU plugin) joins the platform for £189. Finally, Brainworx’ bx_digital mastering equaliser reaches v3 (£229 or $49 to upgrade), with updates to its filters, the addition of a Dynamic EQ, and newly boosted mid/side processing with a proportional Q mode. READ MORE www.uaudio.com…

For this free point update, Dune 2 (10/10, cm207) gets endowed with some extra analogue flavour. A new Analogue switch in the synth’s Filter/Amplitude Envelopes panel switches those two components into a circuit-emulated mode with a hardware-like response. A new filter type (Expander, available in 12dB and 24dB modes) employs oversampling for better resolution in its processing, and boasts better high-frequency resonance. Elsewhere, Dune 2.5 has additional preset patches, and is now available as an AAX plugin for Pro Tools users, in addition to the existing VST/AU formats. READ MORE www.synapse-audio.com…

“Our Burning Question was whether FireWire was on the way out” If we recall correctly, we were still getting the odd letter in 2006 asking why we didn’t offer anything for users of the Atari ST (a computer that, let’s not forget, was discontinued in 1993). Well, we shoved it right up the built-in MIDI ports of users of said machine in 97, as we showed you how to emulate the ST on your PC. In the News section, we covered Native Instruments’ Kore, the company’s curious plugin manager/hardware controller. The product itself never quite took off, and eventually got ditched altogether. NI never really gave up on its concept, though, returning to it with the Komplete Kontrol S Series keyboards in 2014. That month, our Burning Question was whether…

Roger Linn Design “I think the real question is how the notes will be arranged, which affects what the instrument will look like. There’s a good chance that it will use LinnStrument’s stringed-instrument note arrangement. In designing LinnStrument, I looked at all the modern and historical note arrangement ideas. For 3D expressive performance, pitch slides, isomorphism and polyphony, LinnStrument’s stringed-instrument layout – rows of consecutive semitones tuned in fourths – is the best one I could find.” – Roger Linn CME “Our focus is on making the MIDI controller keyboard more user-friendly with added mobility, so we have our Xkey Air series. It’s the world’s first Bluetooth MIDI controller keyboard compatible with all the popular computer platforms including Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Android and Linux. You can switch it on…

Bass is an important aspect of electronic music, but it’s uncommon to use two bass sounds simultaneously. This is because it results in what’s known as auditory masking, which makes the affected parts sound less loud and clear. However, some tracks, such as Renegade’s Terrorist ( bit.ly/RenTerr ), successfully use two bass sounds that play concurrently. This works in the case of Terrorist because the secondary bass sound (the bass stab) is staccato, which helps alleviate masking in the temporal domain, and has had its weighty low end curtained with filtering or EQ, preventing it from clashing with the sub-heavy main bass, which would otherwise cause frequency masking and/or phasing issues. Of course, another way to prevent auditory masking is…

01 GET CURIOUS In case nobody bothered to tell you, the standard way to hone your synth skills is to test a synth, feature-by-feature, with no special goal in mind other than to find compelling sounds and note the methods behind them. You’ll have plenty of “so that’s how they do it” moments, and maybe even the odd “now that’s a cool sound that I’d never heard before” moment. Armed with the synth’s manual, this is even easier, and you’ll come away feeling empowered and inspired. 02 TREAT IT LIKE A PUZZLE When you set out to make a sound, work your way through each section of the synth (eg, oscillators, filters, envelopes) as if you’re building a puzzle. Each section is a piece that adds to the big picture,…

Portamento is a pitch slide between two notes (overlapping or not, depending on the synth). Most synths will have a control marked ‘portamento’ or ‘glide’ that lets you control the speed of this slide, and by using it in conjunction with careful programming of note overlaps in the triggering MIDI part, you can utterly transform the feel of a lead line. It’s not only brilliant for making warm 90s-style rave pads and classic Dr Dre leads, but is also useful in modern EDM and trap sound design. A handy tip for making grimy bass sounds using a portamento-enabled synth is to program a long, sustained MIDI note, then place a few short 16th-notes an octave above it. This gives a funky note-to-note pitch-bending effect that can be tailored by adjusting…

Arpeggiators aren’t just great fun to mess around with – they’re also amazingly powerful creative tools, taking the hard work out of producing rapid runs of notes that fit in with a particular set of chords. All you have to do is hold down the chords in question, or program them into your MIDI editor’s piano roll, to have your arpeggiator step through their constituent notes rapidly in a predetermined sequence. The upshot is that with minimal input, you can effortlessly produce driving 16th-note basslines or complex, interwoven melodic sequences based on the chord you’re currently playing. The arpeggiator as we know it today first appeared as a built-in feature on various analogue synths of the late 70s and early 1980s, such as the Korg PolySix. The PolySix’s onboard arpeggiator…

Dave Clews In a studio career spanning almost 25 years, Dave has engineered, programmed and played keyboards on records for a string of artists including George Michael, Kylie Minogue, Tina Turner and Estelle. These days, in between writing articles for and other magazines, he collaborates on occasional songs and videos with singer/songwriter Lucy Hirst, aka Polkadothaze. www.daveclews.com Harmony is a wonderful thing, and there aren’t many musical parts that can’t be enhanced by the addition of at least one line of it. Even at its most subtle placement in the mix, to the point that you can hardly hear it, harmony gives a sort of psychoacoustic sweetening and thickening effect that the average listener will enjoy – often without being able to identify exactly what it is they’re enjoying so…

Ronan Macdonald Having previously served as Editor of drummer’s bible Rhythm as well as Computer Music, Ronan is clearly the right man for this particular gig. He’s been playing drums for over 30 years and making music with computers since the 90s. Continuing our surface exploration of the Latin percussion family, we come to its two most technical and tonally nuanced members: congas and bongos. The congas are a set of one to four long, floor-or stand-mounted (depending on whether the conguero is sitting or standing) drums made from staves of wood, like barrels, or fibreglass, giving a louder, brighter sound. From lowest to highest, they’re named tumba, conga, quinto and requinto. The conga is used for the solo option; conga and quinto for a two-drum setup; and tumba, conga…

“Like version 6, Ozone 7 lets you construct a mastering chain of up to six modules” FILE/EDIT Import WAV, AIFF, MP3 and FLAC, pick your audio driver and set myriad preferences WAVEFORM VIEW Navigate playback of up to 16 imported audio files with the cursor, and create fade-ins/outs MODULE SLOTS Load up to six freely rearrangeable modules, including third-party plugins PRESETS Presets for specific mastering/ mixing tasks to get you started TRANSPORT CONTROLS Includes precise playback position and total running time of all imported audio files HISTORY/SETTINGS/HELPS Compare A/B/C/D settings, view undo history, configure Ozone and open the PDF manual MAIN WINDOW Edit the selected module here, with detailed visual feedback for most of them METERS Set and compare input/ output levels with accurate RMS and peak monitoring AUDITIONING Bypass…

“EchoBoy is a modern studio staple, taking its lead from a range of hardware legends” PRESET MENU Browse, load and save presets, and A/B different settings SYNC CONTROLS Set the global tempo – you can still use modules’ individual Sync controls, too TWEAK MENU Access additional controls for many Soundtoys effects RECYCLE Blend the Effect Rack output back into the input for powerful feedback effects PRODUCT INFO Click the Soundtoys logos to read about the hardware that inspired each effect SIZE Resize the Rack to suit your display TOOLBOX Drag and drop effects into the main rack window EFFECT PRESET TOGGLE Open the preset browser for the individual effect EFFECT BYPASS CONTROLS Solo or Bypass effects units in the Rack New releases from Soundtoys are infrequent but highly anticipated, and…

Although invented with vocals in mind, the de-esser can be equally useful for sorting out certain other sounds of an overly harsh or bright nature. Drum loops that have gone through abusive processing can end up with overly sharp hi-hats and cymbals, and the 902 in HF-only mode aimed at around 1.8kHz does a great job of controlling the nastiness. The other instrument that can sometimes be saved by a good de-essing is steel-strung acoustic guitar, particularly if it’s one with new strings and/or when bar chords are involved and the player scrapes up and down the fretboard in between them. Use the Detector monitor on the 902 to tune into the scrapes, and the Range to reduce them to listenable levels. Occasionally, you might need to de-ess a full…

In 2010, LiquidSonics’ Reverberate convolution reverb plugin made a real impression with us, scoring 9/10 in 142. Now, almost six years later, we have Reverberate 2 (VST/AU/AAX). As with version 1, the key aspect of the plugin is its use of two impulse responses (IRs) at once (if desired). As of v2, though, Reverberate can also generate algorithmic early reflections and reverb tails from scratch, and take advantage of LiquidSonics’ new Fusion-IR technology (see Fusion Reactor). The interface is navigated via ten tabs at the top (the eight of v1 plus Delay and SplitMod). The IR1 and 2 Edit tabs contain controls for shaping the early reflections and reverb tail of each IR, including Predelay, Start, End and Stretch dials for adjusting the IR’s length, an ADSR amplitude envelope, and…

Drum Shaper’s bipolar Mojo control provides tailored shaping of its three Modes, and it has a pretty audible effect, even with the Attack and Sustain settings at zero. By comparing processed and unprocessed channels, we can establish that the Presence (Bus) and Tightness (Kick) options influence high and low frequencies respectively. In Kick Mode, you can achieve much tidier (positive Mojo) or more flappy (negative Mojo) low frequencies, while Bus Mojo enhances or curtails high frequencies. The Snare setting is the most interesting, though, with positive Mojo really bringing up the mid-range thickness and negative shortening the decay. XLN are fairly tight-lipped on what Mojo actually does, but they’ve indicated that it delivers frequency-focused transient shaping, and our findings certainly concur. Ultimately, Mojo complements traditional Attack and Sustain processing nicely,…

APPLIED ACOUSTICS SYSTEMS TASSMAN 4 An underrated masterpiece of modern modeling, Tassman works as an instrument or an effect, relying heavily on AAS’ physical modeling technology. It’s sat dormant for over a decade, receiving little or no attention from its developers. It’s still fun and inspiring, but desperately in need of an update. www.applied-acoustics.com NUSOFTING MODELONIA 2.0 NUSofting have taken the purist route with Modelonia – you won’t find any analogue filters here! Instead, there are models of blown-brass and plucked-string behaviour that can be combined to create new and unusual instruments. The unfamiliar controls might be off-putting at first, but it’s worth making the effort to learn them. www.nusofting.liqihsynth.com CHRISTOPHE DUQUESNE SPRINGSOUND One of the most interesting applications of physical modeling is the creation of entirely new musical instruments,…

OSCILLATOR SECTION Change the oscillator’s waveform, phase, tuning and gain FM/AM Apply LFOdriven amplitude or frequency modulation FILTERS Apply both Low Cut and High Cut filters, and adjust Resonance and Attack VOICING Toggle Legato and/or Arpeggio modes, and set Arp Speed and Glide values MASTER VOLUME Sets Enkl CMs overall output level DELAY A stereo ping-pong delay with Time, Feedback, Spread and Mix parameters ADSR envelope Tweak the amplitude envelope EQ A three-band EQ with adjustable crossover points STEREO WIDTH Crank up the knob to spread out the synth PITCHBEND AND VIBRATO Set Vibrato Speed and Depth, and adjust the synths pitchbend range If there’s one thing we at Computer Music know, it’s that our readers love a great-sounding synthesiser. That’s why we’re not only focusing on synthetic sound design…

With a new year to settle into, it’s time to take a look at the state of play of trackers in 2016. While the old favourite and original third-generation tracker Buzz ticked along nicely in 2015, its Linux clone, Buzztrax, has already seen an update in early January, with big-fixes galore. buzztrax.org. Our favourite modern and legacy format music-player for Windows, XMPlay, has also seen a new update, with HLS streaming and large file support among other things. With the ability to play anything from FLAC to MODs to OpenMPT files, this is the player you should be seen to be listening to specialised formats in. un4seen.com. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for the ‘Gold’ release of Renoise 3.1 – maybe next month? Here’s to a great year in tracking. “We’re…

In creating their new ROMpler, Virharmonic claim to have done something new. Instead of aiming for a mere virtual instrument, they’ve created a “virtual performer”, which responds to MIDI data and acts accordingly, apparently outputting an expressive performance without the necessity for in-depth programming and keyswitches. Part of the new Soul Capture series, Bohemian Violin is an ongoing development that will increase in price while getting larger, but once you do buy it, upgrades will be free. It’s kicking off at €149, and is powered by the free UVI Workstation. READ MORE www.virharmonic.com…

Generally speaking, a pad is a full-frequency sustained tone that’s used to fill up a mix – or ‘pad it out’, as it were. Pads are an important element of electronic music production, and over the next few pages, we’re going to explore how to create rich, full synth pad sounds using Xfer Records’ cutting-edge beast, Serum – as well as our very own Dune CM from synth masters Synapse Audio. By generating a sound with long attack, decay and release times, then triggering that sound using a chord sequence, we can create a dense, atmospheric tone that responds well to further processeing such as filters or effects like reverb, delay, chorus or flanging. Pad sounds became widespread in the 80s thanks to the advent of the polyphonic synthesiser. In…

As the name suggests, a lead line is the prominent melody in a piece of music which acts as a hook to keep the listener interested. Typically in electronic music, it will be made using a synthesiser and can be the thing that makes (or breaks!) a track. A prime example of a lead synth at work is the riff at the start of The Prodigy classic No Good ( bit.ly/ ProdNoGood ). This riff can be heard loud and clear whenever it’s playing, reappears at multiple points in the track, and is a great hook that sticks in your head instantly. Obviously, the notes that your lead plays are crucially important, but what about the sound? With modern electronic genres like…

Getting the MIDI routing right when using MIDI plugins such as Cream CM and Nora CM can be confusing, as the setup process varies from DAW to DAW (if in doubt, consult your manual). For example, to use Nora CM with Logic Pro X, you need to install and use the MIDI FX version of the plugin, loading it into the MIDI FX slot on the channel of the software synth you’re arpeggiating. On the other hand, to use Nora CM in Cubase, you have to create two MIDI tracks, the first with Nora CM loaded and the second hosting your soft synth. Route the MIDI output of the Nora CM track to the synth track’s MIDI input, then drop a MIDI file or record some chords onto the first…

Break Touted as ‘the DnB producer’s DnB producer’, Break – aka Charlie Bierman – has a discography that’s seen him sign tracks to the likes of Metalheadz, RAM, Critical and Shogun, as well as his own imprint, Symmetry. His latest album, Simpler Times, has just been released to rave reviews after smashing up festivals and clubs this summer. www.symmetryrecordings.co.uk Synth drums have been a big part of music for quite a few years, and there are many different approaches for creating them. Synthesising drums or percussion can be quite time consuming and fiddly when you start from scratch, so I often choose to use ready-made patches in drum machines. Despite this, the flexibility that comes from creating your own can be really beneficial when producing a track, as each element…

“Like a lot of young kids, I fell in love with music,” explains Montreal-born DJ and producer Alain Macklovitch, better known as A-Trak. “But whereas most of my friends chose the guitar or the drums, I chose the turntable. Scratching was going to be my musical weapon.” By all accounts, he made the right choice. In 1997, aged just 15, Macklovitch became the youngest-ever Technics/DMC World Champion, feted by legendary turntable names who were literally old enough to be his father. (You can check out that DMC-winning set at bit.ly/AtrakDMC; even after almost 20 years, it’s still jaw-droppingly awesome.) For a few years, Macklovitch doggedly stuck to the Technics, winning virtually every competition that he entered and scratching for emerging DJ software names like Serato. But with the encouragement of…

TABBED INTERFACE Edit Programs, apply effects, events and modulation, and even access scripted components of patches PARTS PAGE Edit the current Multi’s Parts list alongside specific Part components (Tree) and global Part settings (List) VIEW Swap between Main, Mixer and Performance tabs PROGRAM STRUCTURE View the elements of your sound in the Edit panel – Layers, Keygroups and Oscillators are shown at the top, and Modulations and Mappings are at the bottom BROWSER PAGE Browse Programs, Oscillators, Effects, Multi-effects chains, Events and Modulation sources MODULATION INDICATORS Modulation destinations include real-time indicators to show modulation activity Parisian developers UVI are best known for their free UVI Workstation sample-based synth and the many high-quality UVI Soundbank sample libraries that can be bought and loaded into it. Their latest instrument, Falcon (VST/AU/AAX/standalone), also…

“Faturator and Disperser can also be loaded into Multipass as Snapins” MACROS Eight knobs freely assignable to multiple Snapin parameters and available as LFO targets PRE FX Process the full-band signal prior to the band splitter MIXER For each band, control balance and pan, wet/dry mix, and the amount of signal sent via the Post FX to the output PRESETS Pick from plenty of bundled presets, and, of course, save your own MODULATION SOURCES Use any of the five modulation sources to bring movement to most Snapin parameters FX LANES Select Snapin modules from the dropdown menus in each band SIDECHAIN Route in an external signal for use as an envelope modulator and/or LFO trigger POST FX Add Snapins to process the final full-band signa. A good place to insert…

Fusion-IR is a new type of processing in Reverberate 2 that LiquidSonics reckon takes convolution to a whole ’nother level of accuracy and realism. Whereas conventional impulse responses used by (this and) other convolution processors capture the space or device being ‘sampled’ in a single state (ie, without any form of modulation or variance), a Fusion-IR samples multiple impulse responses from the source, then modulates between them on playback. The goal is to replicate the time-varying behaviour of top-end hardware reverb, giving a more detailed, lively, natural sound. Additionally, Fusion-IRs sample the early reflections and reverb tail separately, allowing you to balance the two. It’s powerful stuff, and to show their new technology off, LiquidSonics have created a set of Fusion IRs that can be downloaded from their website for…