Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2023 i Electronic Musician

em WELCOME Welcome to the latest issue of EM. You may notice we've given the magazine a visual refresh – a new modern look to suit our digital format. Modern and digital is the name of the game this issue, as we're putting the focus on artificial intelligence. AI is a hot topic across all forms of media right now, variously seen as a gamechanging technology or the greatest threat to the creative industries, depending on who you ask. Realistically, right now it's neither of those things – at least not yet. But the capabilities of machine learning and intelligent algorithms are starting to be deployed throughout society in potentially revolutionary ways, and music technology is certainly no exception. There's no doubt that AI and ‘smart’ technology are already beginning…

Few instruments capture feelings of childlike wonder as well as the music box. Now, with a little help from Wintergartan's Martin Molin – creator of the magnificent marble music machine – Klevgrand has released one for your PC, Mac or iOS device. Known as Speldosa – the Swedish word for music box – this features samples from Molin's very own music box – the sonic signature of his bands Detektivbyrån and Wintergatan. “The sounds in Speldosa have been the secret sauce in my music career and I hope other musicians find it as useful as I have,” says Molin. “There is a special quality to this exact music box sound that lifts it above the novelty feeling of a toy and turns it into a real music instrument.” Speldosa offers…

em TUTORIALS NEED TO KNOW: Four considerations for a modern recording chain 1 MIC PLACEMENT If you're recording using a mic, the first step is microphone placement. Largely determined by the instrument you are recording and the type of mic you have, it has an impact on the signal level. If we're dealing with a particularly loud source or close mic placement, the mic signal can easily be too hot for the preamp. 2 PREAMPS The next step is to set the mic preamp. If you're using an analog desk (or emulation of one), the aim is to set the channel so that the average level of the signal hovers somewhere around the 0dB mark. However, most of us are probably using a standalone pre or the preamp built into an audio…

STUDIO TALK | CAMEO BLUSH John Dunk, better known under the alias Cameo Blush, is a London-based producer making highly kinetic electronic music: more than anything, his tracks feel like a spring, tightly coiled and loaded with energy, ready to pop at any moment. Though luminous synths, fluid drum patterns and deep sub bass form the core of his supple, shimmering productions, it's the vocals that steal the show. Dunk uses vocal samples the way many producers might use drums: chopped up into pointillist syllables, they're coated with a futuristic sheen through careful processing, and arranged into staccato rhythms that accent the groove while lending impact and emotional depth. Much like his friend and collaborator Ross From Friends – in whose live band he plays saxophone – Dunk lifts snippets of…

em REVIEWS REVIEWS | SEQUENTIAL TRIGON-6 CONTACT WEB: sequential.com KEY FEATURES 6-voice analog poly synth with analog distortion and digital effects; 61-note semi-weighted keyboard with velocity and aftertouch; 3 VCOs with 3/4 selectable shapes; Drive/Feedback and Vintage controls; switchable 2/4-pole, resonant, low-pass, ladder filter per voice; filter and amp envelopes with velocity modulation; polyphonic step-sequencer with 64 steps; arpeggiator with five modes Although Trigon-6 is sadly the last synth that pioneer and Sequential founder Dave Smith had a hand in, it's a suitably brilliant send-off. Not only is it an amazing synth, but it completes a trio of Sequential synths based on three of the finest brands in synth history. Trigon-6 follows the 2015 Prophet-6 and 2016 OB-6 and shares many features with its older siblings, but at the core of each…

REVIEWS | FABFILTER TWIN 3 Alongside Serum and Massive, Twin is one of the most common ‘favorite’ synths of the producers we talk to in Electronic Musician. Our first experience of it goes right back to its launch in 2005 – can it really be? – when we were instantly struck by its huge, often dance-friendly presets, easy workflow and high quality sound. All things that its makers Fabfilter have since become famous for. Twin 2 arrived in 2009 with extras aplenty, and now we have a completely refreshed version 3 (available as VST, VST3, AU, AAX and AudioSuite), a mere 14 years later. All new… but familiar Twin 3 has had a complete overhaul. There's a totally redesigned GUI, improved workflow, more oscillators and filters, an all-new drag and…

Tracktion say that Kult evokes the experimental sound of the West Coast Buchla modular synth systems, and we certainly go along with that. It's all about messing and twisting in real time, so much so that the presets are almost to be disregarded. You can simply load one up and quickly go into so many other directions that you'll come up with tens if not hundreds of ideas you might want to save. But we'll try and sum them up anyway. The bass sounds are often readily arpeggiated, so inviting you to start tweaking as the sequence of notes plays. Many of the other categories – Brass, Drone, Pad, and Lead in particular – tend to focus on the more edgy or experimental side of the sound, so end up being…

em NEW GEAR | NEWS Roland continue to update their SP-404 MKII sampler, itself an evolution of the original SP-404 hardware. The company have now dropped the version 3 firmware, which promises improved performance and various new features. Most notably, improved stability and syncing when playing long audio files means that you can now perform with multitrack projects from your DAW, adding another string to the SP-404 MKII's bow. There's also expanded motion recording – it's now available on effects parameters – and pad mute and pad mute automation. This makes it easy to mute/unmute patterns during performances and capture mute actions in sequences. Improved clock timing and adjustable delay on the MIDI clock output should give you tighter syncing with other gear, while the one-shot playback feature enables you to…

The Suzuki Omnichord was already having a moment, and it's now been confirmed that this quirky electronic instrument is coming back. “We have been receiving requests to resurrect the Omnichord for a long time,” says Suzuki. “And this year, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Suzuki Musical Instruments Manufacturing, we will reproduce the Omnichord! It's scheduled to be released in the fall.” Sadly, that's all we know at this stage – we're still waiting on specs and a potential price. Between 1981 and 1999 there were multiple iterations of the Omnichord, so Suzuki has plenty of inspiration to draw on. Whether its reboot will be a faithful emulation of a specific model, a ‘greatest hits’ package with the best bits of various models or a completely new…

FM BELLS Do you want that classic FM bell sound? Get started by setting up two operators, both sine waves, using the second to modulate the first. Offset the second operator [Pigments Osc 3 in our example] such that its ratio is around 0.3 (or about -20/-21 semitones). Increase the modulation amount until you hear a bell-like ‘gong’, then program a suitable amplitude envelope. Add chorus and reverb for further effect, and then play the patch in the upper octaves for a glassy DX7-esque bell tone. RING MOD Synths often feature a ring modulation control, which works by multiplying the signal with another. This can create weird digital sounds or even strange, bell-like tones. This can be great in pads if it's a peroscillator control, as linking a second or…

Now well into the 2020s, we're awash with ways to make release-quality music at home, via user-friendly DAWs, expansive sample libraries and fine-tuning mix plugins. But, despite access to tools that enhance audio and tackle the mixing and mastering process solo, these disciplines still call for some hefty prerequisite knowledge. While learning the intricacies of music production is something we're always keen to promote in this mag, companies like Zynaptiq and iZotope noticed that for the many time-devouring processes, the application of AI could not only provide footbridges over the numerous pitfalls of production, but also solve issues that human beings found a challenge. “The terms ‘AI’ and ‘Smart’ are really primarily used for marketing purposes, which is useful as the terms convey the product idea very clearly on a…

Next to its siblings, Trigon-6 does offer that bit more instant sonic tweaking. Yes, you get the Poly Mod section for extra modulation per voice, but it's controls like Feedback/Drive that deliver a surprising level of sculpting – and often dirtying – potential. Select Drive, for example, and the oscillator output is increased for added filter saturation. It's not always audibly obvious – you have to push it – but twist this control to the left, and you get much more drama. A feedback loop is set up between the filter output and mixer input with everything now possible: from basic distortion/saturation to gritty, industrial, and fluttery type effects. While experimenting, we couldn't quite predict what would happen – just by twisting the Cutoff, Resonance and Feedback controls by a…

Twin 3 really is a sound design dream. Start on the left hand side and simply introduce different oscillator types, sync values and tuning options by way of (usually) drop-down menus. The filter section too lets you easily select from the options detailed in the main text, but the real fun happens in the modulation section. Here you can introduce sources like LFOs, envelopes, sliders or X-Y pads, or external MIDI sources (mod wheel, velocity, aftertouch etc). You can then use a fabulous drag-and-drop feature to link these sources to destinations. You could, for example, create an XY pad and use the X position to control the reverb. Once you click and drag on the X source, modulatable options are highlighted. If you then drag over the reverb, its Time and…

REVIEWS A few months ago we were impressed by Luftrum's Vangelis-inspired soundset for Omnisphere 2. It managed to combine both patches that targeted very specific sonic references as well as those in the broader ‘inspired-by’ category to good effect. Playability was also a big factor, with some excellent use of modulation and real-time control. It was therefore with some degree of retro-edged anticipation that I took delivery of Lunaris 2. This is the second outing of Lunaris, and owners of version 1 can upgrade at a discounted price. Like its predecessor Lunaris 2 is focused on synth pads, and comes with 480 presets across 14 different categories – from those on the more obvious side (Analog, Digital, Strings, Cinematic) to the more enigmatic (Shimmer, Dusty etc). Dip into any of…

A mishmash of Roland's SH-101, TB-303 and MC MicroComposers, the MC-202 was a commercial failure when it was released in 1982, but history has been much kinder to it. Now the machine's story is being continued by Tubbutec, which has just released an upgrade kit that the company says turns the MC-202 into a groovebox. Out of the box, the MC-202 offers CV and gate jacks for sequencing your favourite analog instruments. It also has a built-in synthesizer that bears more than a passing resemblance to the SH-101, both physically and sonically, and its form factor has strong echoes of the TB-303. Tubbutec's MC-2oh2 is a pretty significant upgrade that replaces the original CPU, keyboard PCB and display. The sound, however, is said to remain the same. New features include…

Zenology Pro is the plugin home for Roland's flagship Zen-Core synthesis engine, which is used to power its finest software and hardware synths. It's now been updated to version 2.0, which adds a variety of new features. There are now 500 additional presets, while the refined user interface promises a new structure view, click-and-drag resizing, visual feedback and more. Zenology Pro's rather dated-looking and inflexible GUI was one of the things we criticised in our review, so here's hoping that this redesign will help to improve the software's workflow. Other pluses include a fully integrated browser view and a new reverb section with eight distinct algorithms. Elsewhere, the fundamentals remain in place. You start with 4,000 tones and 200 drum kits, expandable to a total of more than 10,000 via…

FEATURE | AI Had we been discussing artificial intelligence a decade or so ago, we'd have still been whispering in hushed tones, like the machines were listening, waiting to leap on us Terminator style, then rip us to shreds and take over the world, laughing in robotic Daft Punk-style voices. But that was a decade ago. Now AI seems to be part of our everyday lives, like the (irritating) phone systems we use when calling banks, the facial recognition software used on phones, the speech recognition used by Siri, plus endless other, frankly not that terrifying advances. Self-driving cars are probably not that far off, self-driving planes are already up there, and drones are developing minds of their own. And as scary as all this sounds when you type it…

TECH SPECS 1987 562 125 over100000 Roland MT-32 The reign – and legacy – of Roland's MT-32 began quietly. While professional musicians (as well as those with professional aspirations!) patiently awaited shipment on the company's blockbuster D-50 synthesizer, the consumer-friendly MT-32 was providing scads of users with many of its more famous sibling's features at a much lower price. Better still, it offered some things that were not available to the D-50. Released before the terms ‘ROMpler’ or ‘workstation’ had come into regular use, the MT-32 offered features of both in a compact, MIDI-ready desktop module. Its rakishly angled front-panel offered access to 128 preset and 64 (volatile!) user patches derived from the same ‘LA’ synthesis technique that powered the D-50's now legendary sounds. The idea was…

REVIEWS | TRACKTION/DAWSOME KULT Where to start with Kult? For a start, it's produced by Dawesome (aka Peter V and in conjunction with Tracktion). He produced the exceptionally well regarded Abyss and Novum instruments, and also appeared in the exceptionally well regarded Computer Music magazine last month. Kult takes the brilliantly colorful UI philosophy, applies it to Strange Attractor (or Strangely Attractive) oscillators, makes AM and FM synthesis easy, modulates madly, and adds effects and more aplenty. Pretty much before it gets out of bed… It is Strangely Attractive Peter is a bassoon and contrabassoon player, orchestral oddities in themselves. Kult is similarly, and maybe relatedly, an oddity for synths. And all the better for it. Spawned somehow from the mathematical theory of chaos (that's what it says in the…

Next in a long line of top-drawer releases from the happy campers at Audiotent is this full-size sample library of pounding techno drums and synths. Built around machine heavy grooves, classic chords and tough rhythms, this deep and dark collection of 500+ textured loops will add a fearsome pulse and driving atmosphere to your next dancefloor-destroying production. Divided into 134 and 136bpm camps, these hard dance samples are designed to slot into your like-minded tracks at any stage, but will yield the best sonic results as starting block foundation stones – especially the pumping drum sequences, as they're dynamite in their own right, and damn near transcendent when joining forces with the hooky top-line riffs and melodies bundled in this solid-as-a-rock collection. Sample Magic – Beat Alchemy From $7.99/month Strike…

TUTORIAL | UNIVERSAL TRANSLATION A trap that it's all too easy for the aspiring music producer to fall into is that of creating mixdowns that only work well on one kind of playback system. It's an infuriating problem, as we tend to assume that once we've got our productions up to a standard where they sound great on one system, they'll also sound good on headphones, in the car, or anywhere else. Sadly, this isn't the case, and we often find ourselves becoming so focused on the requirements of a particular type of system that we fail to consider how a project will sound in other contexts. This leads to disappointment when we test our music out elsewhere. While there's no substitute for experience in this type of scenario, the…