Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2022 i Electronic Musician

Chinese effects creators Mooer initially carved out a niche as agile producers of small, budget clones of famous circuits and nano-sized pedals, before pushing into offering upmarket multi-effect units and, most recently, a new generation of ‘smart’ guitars. All the while maintaining fiercely accessible pricing. Now, the company have their sights set on the increasingly competitive audio interface market with Steep I and II, a pair of units supporting high-res audio up to 24bit/192 khz. Both interfaces also offer combination microphone, line-in, and high-impedance value instrument support and boast dual-channel outputs alongside a brace of USB-C ports for power and data. The Steep I and II also have dual LED input level indicators, 48v phantom power support, stereo direct monitor buttons, and typical input gain and master volume controls in…

The car test is an age-old method for road-testing a final mixdown. Just leave the house, jump in the car and bump it through your vehicle's stereo system to get a sense of how it might sound when you've made it big and they're playing your hit single on the radio. The practice has its pros and cons – stereo systems vary from car to car, and it's probably not a reliable basis on which to justify drastic alterations to your mix. However, there's certainly something to be said for listening to a mix on a different system that's closer to the way it might be enjoyed by the general public. Plenty of tracks will sound great on $10,000 Augspurger monitors in an acoustically treated studio, but if they hit…

If you are anything like us, you have taken the music technology route simply because it makes music production a lot easier. (Almost to the point that it's embarrassingly easy, but *whisper* don't tell anyone else!) We first started using and abusing computers for music because we couldn't play anything, or afford the gear to try and play. But also, we assumed at the time, that it would eventually help with one other distinct skill we lacked: singing! The human voice is probably the most distinctive, memorable, recognizable, flexible and any other word you can think of ending in ‘ble’ instrument ever. But in the wrong hands – usually ours – it can also be the most awful. So we've decided to take the voice by the microphones and use…

Regardless of how tightly in-tune your lead vocals, or how bizarre and idiosyncratic the treatment you apply to it, if a colossal synth lead is daubed all over it, or if pounding sub-bass renders it a mere distant echo in your mix, all that hard work will ultimately still lead to a disappointing, ineffective vocal. So it's critical we take the time to listen to our vocal within the overall sound of our mix. A primary question we need to ask from the get-go is whether we want our vocal to be the top-line element – as is traditional in most contemporary genres. We're going to assume this is the case, though we'll also look at effective mixing of vocals-as-instrument. Roll deep By the mixing stage, you should have already…

Major chords – we all love them, and even now they're still the cornerstone of most modern pop records. However, the fact can't be denied that they do have a certain nursery rhyme quality to them; a kind of childish feel that sometimes proves quite hard to get away from when you're trying to come up with a credible tune. So what can we do to make major chords a bit more relevant? One approach is to totally revoice them – take the normal ‘root-third-fifth’ formula that makes up your common or garden major triad and explode it, rearranging the notes within it into a totally different order, and adding a secret special ingredient. Well, in fact, it's not going to be secret much longer, as I'm about to tell…

REVIEW Nicky Romero/Cableguys $14 kickstart-plugin.com Strengths 16taskspecific curve presets Internalsyncmode MIDIandaudio external trigger modes Adjustablecurveshapes Bandsplitoption Limitations Nothing at this price Designed by Nicky Romero and developed in collaboration with Cableguys, Kickstart 2 (AU, VST, VST3, AAX) is the latest version of this excellent ducking effect. The plugin helps you create sidechain compression effects and is quicker and more precise than setting up a compressor. It's great for creating space for your kick drum, but is also ideal for adding movement to all manner of sounds, and is not limited to electronic music. At the heart of this concept is a tempo synced gain curve with a choice of 16 shapes and overall ducking strength (Mix). The curves are broadly grouped by tasks, including typical sidechaining, kick trimming, sub bass sidechaining…

There's no doubt MIDI options get a big uplift in Waveform 12, and we found both regular and advanced features add considerably to the user experience. There are simple additions such as the Event List Editor, Drum Grid, and a particular DAW favorite of ours, MIDI fold. This allows you to view just the used notes or those in the global key. They've even added a MIDI knife tool for quick position specific note splitting either in the MIDI Editor or within MIDI clips in the Arrangement Panel. As you would expect, this follows the selected snap value. More powerful new features include a Randomize option for velocity, pitch, start point and note length. Also in the MIDI editor you can set the MIDI controller data to follow notes, which…

For Bitwig's 4.2 update the attention turned primarily to more traditional effects with three excellent new modulations (Chorus+, Flanger+, Phaser+). Each effect offers four flavors inspired by different hardware processors, and as an example, Chorus+ includes a synth inspired mode, CE. You'll find the three new modulations are also available as modules inside Bitwig's Grid. Talking of Bitwig's Grid, v4.2 also added a new Note Grid device. Much like FX Grid and Poly Grid, this provides a modular environment where you can get creative. However, rather than sound generation or effects creation, Note Grid is all about generating notes, and this works either from an initial MIDI note input, like an arpeggiator, or even on its own using the various Data generating modules. Finally, to help showcase the Note Grid…

Oda Egjar Starheim and Øystein Monsen are the Norwegian-born, Berlin-based duo behind Soft as Snow. Their music has been compared to Fever Ray, on the softer side, and Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire on the icier side – all great reference points. But the truth is that Oda's vocals set their music apart from pretty much anything else out there, as does their production ethos, which is less about software and more about creating imperfections within a perfect digital world. The band's debut album, Deep Wave, was released in 2018 to wide acclaim and support from a host of media outlets. Follow-up Bit Rot was released this year and has already been described as startlingly original; a hugely powerful record. To further cement their leftfield image, the duo have produced…

Physical modeling synthesis refers to sound synthesis methods in which the waveform of the sound to be generated is computed using a mathematical model, a set of equations and algorithms to simulate a physical source of sound, usually a musical instrument. While a physically-modeled reverb could technically be considered an algorithmic one, you will find more meaningful controls to customize the sound of the reverb. For example, ARVerb Room uses physical-based modeling to create realistic sounding room reverbs. You can affect the properties of the sound in the room by adjusting Room Size, Pan Angle and Distance. Physical Audio take another approach with their plugin, Derailer, built from mathematical models of strings, bars and spring connection elements. All sorts of variations can be teased out by manipulating the various physical…

FROM THE ISSUE: Vangelis – An Appreciation Our lead keyboard column gets a slight revamp for this issue. In this installment, Jerry Kovarsky begins a two-part deep-dive into the playing style of legendary, sadly recently-departed, electronic icon Vangelis. Review: Page 32 FROM THE ARCHIVE: Auto-Tune In our cover feature, we're exploring ways that you can correct, edit, mix and master a vocal take in order to work around. For a more indepth look at using correction software, revisit our recent Auto-Tune masterclass. See more: EM452 (August) AROUND THE WEB: OB-X8 vs OB-X Are you as excited for Oberheim's return as we are? See and hear how the recently-revealed comeback synth, OBX8 compares to an original OB-X in the company's new comparison video. See more: bit.ly/EM_OBvOB…

IK Multimedia's new Beat Machines is a nostalgic tour through analog drum machine history, giving you the sounds of 100 classic boxes and more than 300 MIDI patterns to trigger them. It runs in both SampleTank 4 and the free-to-download SampleTank CS. Beat Machines takes in everything from early Ace Tone devices to the obligatory TR-808 and 909 kits, while also encompassing more esoteric and lesser-known models and even a few modern offerings. You get more than 200 kit presets to play with, all configured according to the General MIDI drum mapping standard, which should make it easy to mix and match kit components or to layer entire kits. In fact, there are also loads of ‘single element’ presets, so you can easily use SampleTank 4's Multi Mode to combine…

Waves are promising “instant vocal harmonies” from their new Harmony plugin, which can generate up to eight additional voices when given just one. You can adjust the pitch, formant, panning, delay, filtering and modulation (via drag-and-drop) for each voice individually, so it's possible to have both ‘male’ and ‘female’ backup simultaneously. There are also quick-harmony chord presets; designed for people who don't know music theory, these can help you generate voicings that you might not otherwise have considered. Harmony is also billed as a time-saver when you're working on complete vocal arrangements – voices can simply be drawn in and automated snapshots can move with the song. It's also worth bearing in mind that Harmony is designed to be used in real-time, so it could potentially be employed to create…

PERFECT VOCALS For many years, since the advent of recorded music, those lacking natural singing prowess would have to work extra hard to lay down their vocal takes – recording again and again until their caterwauling had been strenuously slotted into tonal alignment. The controversial appearance of Antares Auto-Tune in 1997 not only salvaged time back from end-of-their-tether producers and panicking, self-doubting vocalists, but opened up a whole new window on how the human voice can be worked with, irrespective of natural ability. Here in the future, 2022, there's no shame if you can't quite reach the high notes, if you're struggling with intonation or just not able to flawlessly imitate the confident character of the stars. As long as you've got a clean vocal take (from an audio POV…

IZOTOPE VOCAL SYNTH 2 MAC/PC $199 With five bendable, infinitely manipulable modules, Vocal Synth 2 presents one of the most focused ways to re-shape a vocal into something colossal. Its advanced spectral display responds to the characteristics of vowels, and reacts to your effect choices. It's a sure-fire route to instant vocal splendor, or ragged edge. izotope.com SOUNDTOYS LITTLE ALTERBOY MAC/PC $99 Garnering huge respect for their exemplary plugin range, Soundtoys are dab hands when it comes to vocal adjustment. Specializing in formant shifting, pitch adjustment and melodic tweaking, Little AlterBoy is a one-box pathway to a range of cool new vocal worlds, you can even use it as a hard-tuner, and layer your track with authentic saturation. soundtoys.com KLANGHELM SDRR MAC/PC $23 If you want your vocal to ripple…

Thanks to the blockbuster sales of the Yamaha DX7 and the costly computerized synthesis systems like those from Fairlight and PPG, by the time Oberheim's most mature instrument was released, its sound was already seen as passé. Anything digital was all the rage, and synth manufacturers found any excuse to scribble the word across the front panel of their next big thing. Analog synthesis was falling out of fashion in the mid-1980s, and though there were plenty of analog synths on the shelves, many of them were cut-price knock-offs of the Prophet-5, Jupiter-8 or Oberheim's OBXa. Even as Yamaha contented themselves with milking every last drop of potential from their take on FM synthesis, the backroom boffins at companies like Casio, Kawai and Korg were beavering away on the digital…

REVIEW Cherry Audio $59.00 cherryaudio.com Strengths Stunninglyaccurateemulation BeautifulGUIstyling and fully resizable Overdrivelooponboard Itsstunning in Polyphonic Mode Limitations No additional LFO for vibrato No onboard effects If there is one synth that is ubiquitous in all senses, it has to be the Minimoog. As a consequence, it'll come as no surprise to discover that it is one of the most reimagined synths to appear in software. Any new plugin incarnation is therefore going to require some pretty hefty calling cards to tempt people away from their favored versions, or indeed entice first timers into the Minimoog World. Mini for all So we must begin with the lowest common denominator; Minimode is priced at an extraordinarily low $59, the Cherry Audio ethos being that everyone deserves a Minimoog, and it is difficult to…

Kickstart 2 does not let you draw the envelope shape by hand. However, it does offer a number of ways to modify the preset curves. First up, you can simply shift the curve left or right using the course and fine-tune arrows. The course controls are set to a 1/16th of the curve length and the fine controls are 16 times this resolution for really super-fine changes. The second editing option you have is the slope adjust, which allows you to drag the slope section of the ducking curve left or right within the overall curve. In both cases the main graphic and preset button graphic update as you do this, and you'll find this specific plugin instance retains these new settings even if you switch to another preset, which…

ValhallaDSP Supermassive Free Super Massive is a must. It's free, it's fun and it pumps out unexpected sounds faster than the Millenium Falcon made the Kessel Run. Valhalla could easily charge $50 for Super Massive. It's an inspiration machine, flick through the extensive presets and you'll have a track starter in no time. valhalladsp.com Zynaptiq Wormhole $169 Also space themed, Zynaptiq Wormhole is perfect for sound designers and musicians looking for extremes. With a UI straight out of a Halo game, Wormhole gets you in the right head-space, and its multi effect processing and randomization options will take you to places where no one has gone before. www.zynaptiq.com D16 Group Toraverb 2 $70 D16 Group didn't set out to emulate any classic hardware or recreate algorithms of days past –…

NEW GEAR Following what you might call a soft launch at Superbooth, Eventide have revealed more about Misha, the company's unusual intervalbased Eurorack instrument and sequencer. This offers an intriguingly different approach to music making – each key enables you to move either up or down the selected scale by an interval (each key is labeled accordingly). This method is inspired by the twelve-tone composition technique, which places equal importance on all twelve notes of a chromatic scale, preventing emphasis on any one single note. Misha is designed to encourage and reward spontaneity, and comes with more than 100 factory scales, including Western and microtonal options. There's also space for 100 user/custom scales, along with support for the Scala standard. A flexible sequencer is onboard, while MIDI, gate/CV and waveform…

ARVerb is a new audio software company taking inspiration from real-world physics to direct the concept and development of their simple yet effective audio plugins. Their first full offering, a reverb plugin called Room, sets the trend for this attitude. Some traditional reverb parameters are seemingly omitted from Room's design in favour of more abstract, macro-like control. This becomes clear once you realize that Room is a physical modeling reverb plugin that simulates an exact room real-world room and allows you to place a source at mathematically exact locations within it. On a workflow tip, Room also contains some more advanced features such as automatic level and delay compensation, which promise to support you in making accurate mix decisions. 1. Settings A major part of ARVerb's ethos is keeping plugins…

OEKSOUND SOOTHE 2 MAC/PC $219 Oeksound's smart dynamic resonance suppressor is one of the finest plugins of the last decade. Fact. Using astoundingly programmed clever algorithms, Soothe 2 can isolate problematic frequencies and warring resonances on the fly, and trim them out before you even notice they're there. It can also take away the harshness of a close-miked vocal with ease. oeksound.com VALHALLA DSP VINTAGE VERB MAC/PC $75 To work with Vintage Verb's epic room, ambience and concert hall reverb can make you feel like you're delivering the hefty top-line to a massive power ballad. Taking its cues from the hardware digital reverbs of the 1970s and ‘80s, Vintage Verb's incredible range of spatial tones can lift even the flattest of vocal takes up directly into the stratosphere. valhalladsp.com UNIVERSAL…

Greek composer Evanghelos Odyssey Papathanassiou, better known to the world as Vangelis, loomed large in the field of electronic music and film scores. Over his lifetime he released 29 studio recordings, 28 compilation albums, 12 soundtrack albums and 42 singles. And yet most of his film score work was never released, and he often said he had much more music “in the vault” than he ever released. Many people only know of him through his biggest releases, like the theme from Chariots Of Fire, the soundtrack for Blade Runner, and his pop releases with Jon Anderson from Yes. But his work is deep and varied, as you're about to find out. Beginnings As a child, Vangelis was exposed to the piano, which he took to with complete abandon. Starting at…

Arturia Matrix-12v $199 As ever, one can count on Arturia to deliver the goods when it comes to emulations, and they don't disappoint with the Matrix-12V. Here's a one-to-one recreation that ups the ante by tossing a couple of effects insert slots into the signal path, adding studiograde effects that make the deep, lush sound of the Matrix-12 even richer. www.arturia.com KV331 Audio Synthmaster 2 $129 Countless virtual analog synthesizers ape the modulation matrix idea initially found in the Oberheims, and you've likely already explored a few of them. If not, you could do a lot worse than the popular SynthMaster from KV331 Audio. Voted best VST/AU synth of 2016 by MusicRadar readers, we called it a ‘desert island’ synth in these very pages. www.kv331audio.com discoDSP OB-Xd Free While not…

While some users may be tempted by the standalone version, it is probably fair to say that the vast majority of us are likely to use Minimode within the DAW. This being the case, it is quite likely that you may wish to automate certain elements, found within the synth's infrastructure. Thanks to some ingenuity from Cherry Audio, a MIDI CC routing section takes all of the hard work out of dictating which MIDI CC goes where. This is advantageous, for a number of reasons; you might be working on-screen with another synth, and wish to port across your filter movement and control, which you have already programmed using DAW-based automation. Without any need to change the parameters within your DAW, you can quickly and easily tell the Minimode which…

REVIEW Tracktion From $149 tracktion.com Strengths Revampedextended audio plugins Someexcellentnew additions to MIDI functionality Newaudioengine features improved CPU efficiency ExpandedMIDIinstrument offering Limitations More plugin presets please Tracktion Waveform Pro is a music focused DAW that over time has gradually combined its innovative object-based rack environment with more traditional DAW elements to create a quick yet powerful production system. It works on OS X (including Apple Silicon), Windows and Linux and, as we have mentioned before in these digital pages, it is one of the most cross-platform-capable DAWs available. There's also a very decent Free version and 90-day trial of the Pro version should you want to try before you buy. Building Blocks We last took a good look at Waveform Pro at version 11.5, and although this was only a point…

$400 bitwig.com Strengths Highlyflexiblenew delay plugin Excellentnewconvolution reverb Greatanalog-inspiredoscillator and filter additions (Polymer/Grid) NewNoteGrid feature Limitations Subs model won't appeal to all We last looked at Bitwig at version 4 and since then there have been a number of juicy additions in version 4.2 (see boxout) and the most recent version 4.3 update. As ever, these updates are free if you have an active upgrade plan, which will be the case if you've either bought Bitwig or renewed your plan any time in the last 12 months. The latest update adds some key features and the most significant is Convolution, which is a convolution reverb. Parameters include pitch (+/- 12 semitones), pre delay (up to 200ms) and brightness. You can adjust the impulse start and end points, and a 3-node…

In the next year, I will be doing some extensive traveling. That will require saying goodbye to my current live setup, which includes guitar, pedals, iConnect interface (that lets me play through a laptop and iPad simultaneously), Novation controller, a few pedals, and two amplifiers. I will be living out of suitcases, which will require a much more compact rig if I wish to continue performing music. Technology to the rescue. In recent years, the quality and quantity of music making apps for the iOS system has increased exponentially. Creating sounds, both classic and experimental, using a guitar and only an iPad has become easy and relatively inexpensive. There are a plethora of videos explaining how to play your guitar through an iPad, but most hover around creating classic rock,…