Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2023 i Electronic Musician

BEAT SEQUENCING Drums are the backbone of all the music we make (OK, not ambient music but you get our drift). As electronic musicians, the drum machine is one of our most important tools, and pretty much every DAW comes with at least one, or samplers packed with drum hits ready for beat creation. Over the following pages we'll take you on a journey through all of your drum machine options, from how history defined what sounds we use today, the fundamentals of basic drum machine programming, and examine an assortment of the considerations you'll need to explore when integrating drum machines into your studio workflow, whether in hardware or software form. Whether you're looking to fill the role of a ‘real’ drummer or create out-there sounds, we'll show why…

In just the same way that you would rarely compose or produce a rock track without the right type of electric guitar sound, the same can be said for the myriad of different drum sounds that we have available to us, thanks to the extraordinary age of access to samples and drum software these days. To amplify this further, there are so many genres and subcategories of commercial music, meaning the right choice for your drum sounds could make the difference between commercial hit, or designation to the download bargain bins. Finding your sound One or the most extraordinary factors when it comes to drum sound selection and choice is how in vogue certain sounds can be. In much the same way that fashions and tastes repeat every few years,…

KEYBOARD SOLO Elton John has been in the news a lot recently, as he continues to wind down his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. As of this writing, he just closed out his final US appearance with a two-night stand at Dodger Stadium, the scene of his now famous 1975 shows. It's amazing to think that he has been performing and creating hit songs and albums for over 50 years, with over 4,000 live performances, 70+ Top 40 hits, and over 300 million albums sold. I watched his final show from LA via a live stream and was blown away at how well he was playing. Age ain't nothing but a number, indeed! Here are my all-time picks of some of his most celebrated performances and partnerships over the years.…

Strengths Versatilesoundthat blends analog drums, samples and digital synthesis Highlycustomizablewith user samples and open-source synth and effect SDK Per-steprandomizationand parameter automation Limitations -Compacthardwaremeansa lot of functionality is hidden behind shift presses or menus -Severalinstrumentssharefront panel controls -Multi-enginecantbe played chromatically (but can be sequenced internally at different pitches) First announced in January 2021, Drumlogue is a - by now eagerly awaited - percussion-focused addition to Korg's popular Minilogue, Minilogue XD and Monologue. On paper, there's a lot that appears exciting about the Drumlogue. This is a hybrid drum machine that combines analog percussion synths with a multi-track sample engine and ‘Multi-Engine’, which is an open-source digital oscillator that can be updated with custom synths and effects. Now we finally have our hands on one, is it worth the hype? I was…

As electronic guitarists, we consider ourselves to be nothing if not modern, yet we play an instrument that is anything but. No one knows when the first guitar was invented, but there are pictures of distinctly guitarlike devices dating back something like 3,000 years. One reason we love this instrument is that even before it is electrified the guitar yields a wide variety of sounds through various string (gut, nylon, steel) and body materials (woods, metal). Once plugged in, the palette expands exponentially, with different pickups, pickup combinations, and amplifiers churning out a cornucopia of tones, from Wes Montgomery's to Eric Clapton's. Effect pedals — fuzz, wah, delay, etc. — further expand the already uniquely large number of sounds. Before the ready availability of synthesizers, both modular and compact, it…

SimuLathe Reference Edition is a new plugin from Tokyo Dawn Labs that shines a light on the complex process of cutting vinyl discs from within your DAW. Offering a complete simulation of the disk mastering process, SimuLathe aims to give producers and engineers a detailed and comprehensive insight into the art and science of mastering for vinyl and cutting records. This isn't a fully-fledged vinyl mastering plugin, like the manufacturer's SimuLathe Cut Edition, but instead an educational tool geared towards “audio engineers looking to get their hands on a disk cutting system (albeit a virtual one), and develop insight into the depths, beauties and subtleties of the vinyl record production process.” SimuLathe gives the user access to a virtual disc cutting lathe and several metering and analysis tools, enabling the…

The Rhythmicon, invented and developed by Leon Theremin and Henry Cowell in 1930, is considered to be the world's first drum machine. Despite this grand title, it was played rather like a conventional music keyboard, with each note triggering a set of notes to be played, which in turn generated rhythmic patterns. The resulting cacophony was a highly polyrhythmic affair, where it could play quintuplets against triplets, with a minimum of effort. It was calculated that it would take over 455 days to be able to play every conceivable Rhythmicon pattern, or combination of patterns, in completion. Not quite the drum machine notion that we're more accustomed to these days. In the tradition of the ‘round-the-piano-singalong, a market was beginning to reveal itself with a desire for rhythm generation units…

BEAT SEQUENCING In the early days of drum machines, drummers were particularly brutal with their views on the emerging technology. In their view, drum machines did not stand up next to the sound of a real drummer. In many respects, that's not really an argument because we have now stretched the concept way beyond that simplistic comparison. However, if you do yearn to sound like a real drummer, but with drum machine sounds, there are many things you can do to help achieve an appropriate outcome. You could try playing the drums yourself, in real time, in order to try and evoke the feel and groove that you want. If that doesn't work for you, try visiting companies such as Toontrack, who have a multitude of MIDI drum groove templates,…

$120 gforcesoftware.com Strengths NewMacrofeature PowerfulX-Modifiermodulation Fantasticnewpatches Qualitynewgraphics with resizable window ChoiceofOdysseyinspired skins Limitations - Nothing GForce Software were early to the game with their synth emulations, and it's fair to say their original ARP Odyssey-inspired plugin instrument helped cement their reputation as quality, forwardthinking developers with a healthy reverence for the hardware they clearly love. So here we are, some 21 years later, and the Oddity is getting an upgrade to version 3. Based around twin syncable oscillators with a tunable sub, Oddity3 (AAX, AU, VST, VST3, Standalone) works in monophonic, duophonic and polyphonic modes (with up to 16-note polyphony). You have highpass and lowpass filters, with the latter available in three flavors to match the three designs used over the life cycle of the hardware synth. There's also a…

Strengths RareSSLdesign in plugin form Controllablepre-ampsaturation Flexiblesidechain configuration Compressorincludesde-esser option SSL360integration FreeforUC1 owners Limitations - No perpetual licence option SSL has developed numerous excellent plugins, but with the arrival of their Native Channel Strip 2 and UC1 hardware controller they've taken things up a level. The latest addition to this system is SSL 4K B. Based on their rare early 4000 B series desk (only six were ever built), they've gone back to basics and used componentlevel modeling coupled with their own specialist know-how to deliver a vibey channel strip that's the perfect partner to the Channel Strip 2. So, what are you getting? Much like the Channel Strip 2, the 4K B is a full strip, based sonically and visually on SSL's hardware, but with plenty of software extras.…

On her new release for Texan imprint Western Vinyl, Hollie Kenniff explores the complex relationships between memory and place through expansive, emotive ambient music. Titled We All Have Places That We Miss, the record deftly captures the bittersweet tang of nostalgia through gorgeously layered instrumentals that envelop synths, piano and guitar in a carefully chosen palette of effects and sonic processing, resulting in a quietly moving tapestiy of sound that soothes and uplifts in equal measure. Working within a genre that's traditionally been somewhat male-dominated, Kenniff draws inspiration from fellow female artists within the burgeoning ambient experimental scene, including Rachika Nayar, Ann Annie and Madeleine Cocolas, among others. “A lot of ambient music that's been made up until recently has mostly been by men”, she tells us. “Hopefully, with more…

MUTABLE INSTRUMENTS SHUT DOWN OPERATION Having announced earlier this year that they weren't working on any more modules and that all existing ones would be discontinued, Mutable Instruments have confirmed that they have closed their doors for good at the end of 2022. A short statement reads: “The production of all modules has halted and Mutable Instruments will permanently shut down in December 2022. You can still contact us for support and repairs until June 2023.” Mutable have been respected and influential in the Eurorack market, releasing a string of now-classic modules like Plaits, Marbles and Rings, and open-source designs used in other manufacturers’ products (Arturia's MicroFreak and MiniFreak being two of the most notable). Back in April, Mutable founder Émilie Gillet said: “I won't design new modules and production…

Eigen is a room modeling reverb from Canadian developers Lese, which lets you set your audio source and listening position within a room with proportions of your choosing. Want to listen to a clap via a narrow hallway? Or a piano suspended from the top of a hall? You can do that. The plugin has a use case for both musical applications and sound for video. Going further, Eigen lets you set each of the six surfaces to different materials, and an inbuilt room resonant analyzer lets you spot problem frequencies in your made up room. Not content with that, it can also export an impulse response of the room you've designed, for use elsewhere. Uncharted Territory While there's a large number of innovative new reverb plugins breaking onto the…

With all this talk of classic kit, we have to make special mention for one of the most highly prized pieces of music software. ReBirth RB-338 first materialized in 1996 to huge critical acclaim, accompanied by extreme whoops of joy from dance aficionados. For the first time, ReBirth offered two TB-303s, a TR-808 and a TR-909, all in a single software application, and in a format that would give the exorbitantly priced secondhand market quite a run for its money. Okay, it didn't sound identical to the originals, but those of us who used ReBirth were too busy creating nostalgic sequences to worry. Support for ReBirth was withdrawn in 2005, but it remains an often mentioned piece of software and one that lit the touch paper for other software incarnations…

On paper, Lykke Li's childhood sounds like one long musical adventure. Born in Ystad, Sweden - the setting, of course, for Henning Mankell's Wallander books - Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson is the daughter of Johan Zachrisson, guitarist with well-known Swedish punk/ska/reggae band, Dag Vag. From Sweden, Zachrisson took his family and his studio to an isolated mountain top in Portugal, then to Lisbon, then India, Nepal and Morocco. Recording with local musicians, experimenting with strange new instruments. Young Lykke's world of sound. “As you said, this kind of childhood sounds great on paper”, laughs Lykke. “But the reality of that kind of upbringing is 11 different schools, very few friends, struggling to learn new languages… and a real sense of detachment. Anxiety and insomnia. Moving around like that takes away your…

Keyboard MAGAZINE CLASSIC Roland may not have offered up the first programmable drum machine - that distinction goes to kit company PAiA but they were the first to mass-produce one that didn't require soldering skills. Called the CR-78, it came out in 1978 and was heard on chart staples like Blondie's ‘Heart of Glass’ and Phil Collins’ ‘In the Air Tonight’. Unfortunately, the thing wasn't exactly easy to program, and required a now-rare optional add-on box to do so. Nevertheless, it was a hit and set Roland on their way to releasing their easier-to-grok classic beatboxes like the TR808 and TR-909. All of these boxes had in common their analog circuitry and a grid -based approach to creating beats. They were also priced out of the reach of most workaday…

Strengths Superbsoundsfrom the Roland archive Alotof the full Fantom's features for a lot less money ExpandableviaRoland Cloud Limitations -Noaftertouchonthe keyboard -ClassicRolandCloudsynth emulations don't come included -Workflowisntimmediately obvious and there is a learning curve Released in 2019, Roland's latest generation Fantom keyboards are excellent workstations, but they're big, heavy (particularly the 88-key model) and pricey. As such, there's definitely a gap in the market for a ‘budget’ Fantom range that offers similar tech but at a lower price point and in a more compact form factor. Fantom-0 is that range; comprising 61-, 76and 88-note models, the keyboards it contains are designed to be used in your studio and also taken to the stage. And, while they're significantly more affordable than their full-fat-Fantom siblings, they come with a lot of their stablemates’…