Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2017 i Future Music

AVP’s MBS-100 conjures up memories of Polivoks and Aelita Moscow-based synthesist AVP has announced its latest instrument, the MIDI Bass Synth (MBS-100). This bass-centric monosynth has a hybrid digital/analogue architecture featuring two voltage-controlled digital oscillators, each with four waveforms. Saw and square waves are joined by a pulse wave fixed at a 25% rate and another fixed at 10%, similar to the classic Aelita and Polivoks synthesizers. The MBS-100 is available now for 449 Euros, including free shipping to Europe and North America (USA/Canada).…

Classic Album Track by track with Simian Mobile Disco “Jas bought an Analogue Systems Modular synth off Nick McCabe from The Verve. At the time his girlfriend, who became his wife, drove us down there to pick this thing up, all the while going, ‘You know this is three months’ rent?’ He was going, ‘It’s great. it’s great. It’s gonna change everything.’ And when we got back and plugged it in she went, ‘You’ve seriously spent all that money on a machine that goes ‘blooop'?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah! But listen to how many ways it does it!’ [laughs].” Sleep Deprivation James Ford: “I remember all the bits and loops for Sleep Deprivation came from us trying to get sounds out of an Analogue Systems Modular synth. The tune…

Matti Bye This Forgotten Land Tona Serenad Records This Forgotten Land is the haunting, beautiful and ethereal new album from acclaimed Swedish film composer, Matti Bye. Across eleven tracks, the contemporary pianist creates a warm, introspective world completely of its own. Highly atmospheric, the record is at once serene, sublime and eerie with plenty of emotion and soul. There is a distinct timeless quality, aided by the undercurrent of crackling ambience that truly allows the listener to sink into his dream-like compositions. Gentle piano keys weave between soft, drifting melodies, warm bass, muffled tones and distant bells. Rich in beauty and dense textures, the album is awash with beauty, romance and human emotion, taking you on a long, meandering journey through your own mind; dreams, reflections and memories coming to…

THE ESSENTIAL DRUM MACHINE MASTERCLASS Be they synth or sample based, drum machines are the backbone of the club producer’s toolkit. Let’s coax some fresh sounds from them… In our humble opinion, an electronic musician that doesn’t love drum machines shouldn’t be trusted. Yes, synthetic percussion has been absolutely rinsed to death by now, and these sounds are often used in formulaic ways, but that’s why it’s so special when a producer actually does something fresh and unexpected with them. We love the 808’s booming kick; the machine-gun 909 snares; those ‘cowbells’ and ‘rimshots’; and all the other tinny ’80s drum sounds that evoke memories of late nights dancing to mechanical grooves. That’s why, over the following few pages, we’re going to break away from the norm to explore the…

The Essential Drum Machine Masterclass Tonic meets Moogerfoogers We run PO-32 drum hits through a trio of boutique analogue pedals, before sampling the results. Watch the video to see our session in action, and download the samples from FileSilo! To show you a fun way to create all manner of weird and wonderful sounds from a basic drum machine, we’re going to run percussion hits from a Teenage Engineering PO-32 Tonic drum machine through our chain of three Moogerfooger pedals. Let’s get started… It’s now time to punch in percussion hits from Tonic, and tweak as we go. To keep things simple, we’ll only adjust Tonic’s two main control knobs (Pitch and Morph), as well as Moogerfooger parameters. We won’t need to process with all three Moogerfoogers – we can…

In The Studio With Steffi Globe-trotting DJ, label owner and purveyor of pristine underground club sounds, Steffi, unveils exquisite new album, World Of The Waking State. Hamish Mackintosh suffers some serious gear envy at her Berlin music-making HQ © Joby Sessions Decamping from her native Holland to Berlin in 2007 proved the perfect accelerant for Steffi’s fledgling career. Signed up by legendary Berlin techno label Ostgut Ton, Steffi’s star rose rapidly with a residency at the Panorama Bar (in Berlin’s equally legendary Berghain nightclub who operate the Ostgut Ton imprint). Steffi’s debut album, Yours And Mine, showcased her burgeoning production skills and single, Yours (feat Virginia), filled countless dancefloors with its hypnotic brand of techno. There followed a slew of collaborations and remixes cementing a unique place within the global…

. .com YOUTUBE MORE UNMISSABLE VIDEO FEATURES FROM FUTURE MUSIC Meet our line-up of exclusive YouTube goodness. Head online for all this and more! Top producers go in-depth on the sounds, ideas and techniques behind their latest releases KSO, Nasty Kissy Sell Out invites us into his Shoreditch studio to find out how he put together this jump-up D&B-influenced track DON’T MISS: Muzzy, Spectrum We catch up with big room bass don in his Hampshire studio, to find out how he created the D&B monster from his Spectrum EP Dapayk & Padberg, Sink This Ship The German duo show us how they created their lush, synth and vocal driven track from thier latest LP. Black Saint, Could You Love Me? The London trio break…

Controlling external hardware with Maschine With the addition of external CC control, Maschine is now a far more capable hub for a hardware-heavy setup Maschine’s 2.6 update added the ability to send external CC messages to control external gear. This is a significant addition for hardware-centric producers; Maschine could always sync and trigger drum machines and hardware synths, but now it can fully integrate with them, sequencing and automating parameters within its Patterns. This is particularly good news for users of the Mk3 controller, since the built-in audio interface makes it much easier to pair it with a hardware instrument without the need for extra peripheries. To make this easier, NI have created presets for a host of synths and drum machines. Head to bit.ly/maschineccpresets  for downloads and…

TOOLKIT Vintage reverb We dial back the clock to a time when reverbs weren’t so pristine and ‘digitally transparent’ As in so many aspects of modern music production, we’re rather spoiled when it comes to the types of reverb we can add to our mixes. We can work with convolution reverbs, which use impulse responses recorded in real spaces to create formerly unfeasible levels of authenticity. Or, we can take our pick from a spectacular range of ‘artificial’ algorithmic reverbs, which use the lightning-fast capabilities of our computers’ CPUs to dream up similarly impressive sounding spaces; useful for everything from extreme special effects to perfectly tailored ambiences. As a concept, ‘artificially added space’ has been central to the sound of recorded music since recording itself became viable, so it’s no…

NonLin snare weight A classic ’80s reverb treatment can come into its own if you’re looking to add weight to mid-range drums and percussive sound sources. You may well be familiar with the concept of gated reverb. By putting an aggressive gate after a spatial treatment, as it decays, the sound abruptly ‘stops’. Once volume drops before a chosen Threshold in a Gate, it ‘closes’ altogether, stopping any more sound from being heard. It’s a powerful technique which shares a lot in common with the NonLin algorithm made famous by the AMS RMX16 reverb. This hardware reverb unit contains a number of algorithms but ‘NonLin’ became particularly synonymous with drum sounds after Phil Collins used it on the tom fill to his smash hit In The Air Tonight…

Reviews Analogue Solutions Dr Strangelove £255 Analogue Solutions take the nuclear option with their new desktop effect. Bruce Aisher presses the red button for a closer look It’s a shame that there’s no way to modulate the echo time other than by hand This is the second of Analogue Solutions’ synthBlocks we’re testing, after last month’s Mr Hyde filterbox. Here once again, the core principle is a (largely) analogue signal path, but this time signal mangling takes the form of ring modulation and lo-fi digital echo. The ‘mad scientist’ nomenclature is also maintained in the unit’s Dr Strangelove tag (a reference to the ex-Nazi nuclear war adviser in the Kubrick film of the same name), with parameter labels such as Fallout and Half Life following the theme. A supplied external…

Reviews Presonus FaderPort 8 £509 A compact, mechanised and yet somehow affordable DAW controller has landed from the US. Jon Musgrave takes a ride This compact table-top DAW controller includes native integration with Studio One (v3.3.2 and later) and supports both Mackie Control and HUI protocols for use with many top DAWs. It can also work in tandem with the original FaderPort, should you have one of those. At about a foot square and just over a couple of inches deep, it won’t eat into your table top space, and it’s also compact enough to sit on your lap. Just bear in mind it’s not USB powered, so it’s always trailing a USB and DC power lead. The layout is dominated by eight 100mm motorised touch-sensitive faders and a plethora…

DVD & DIGITAL Your bonus content… filesilo.co.uk/futuremusic YOUR DOWNLOAD CONTENT HAS MOVED! This issue’s DVD content and more is available to access from FileSilo. At the link above, login or register, then unlock over 10GB of goodies! SAMPLE PACKS Exclusive new sounds with every issue ON THE VAULT: GROOVE CRIMINALS PRESENT… Vocoded Loops 500 inspiring samples of instruments, drums and more fed through vocoder setups ON THE DVD: CYCLICK SAMPLES PRESENT… Dub Percussion 500 Get into the vibe with this colection of reverband delay-heavy percussion hits PLUS ACCESS THE FM SAMPLE ARCHIVE! Download the ‘Sample Archive’ packs and get over 8GB of loops, hits and instruments from our back catalogue of high-quality and royalty-free samples. From vintage synths and beats to esoteric sounds and FX – think of it as…

IK Syntronik comes to iPad Now on iPad, this sample-based app features 17 synths that, collectively, emulate 37 iconic and rare instruments, including models from Moog, ARP, Roland, Yamaha and Oberheim. In addition to a set of carefully captured multisamples, Syntronik features IK’s Drift technology, which emulates the behaviour of analogue oscillators. There’s a modelled filter section with seven types, each of which can be used within any synth. 36 effects can be inserted in a lunchbox-style interface, and you can create four-part layered Multi setup – 200 of these come ready-stacked. A free version of Syntronik can be had from the App Store, coming with 25 sounds from across the 17 synths; Syntronik Full can be had as an in-app purchase (currently £38.99); Individual synths are priced at £9.99/$9.99…

TALKING SHOP IAN CHANG The Son Lux drummer on his debut solo EP Since moving to NYC in 2007, Hong Kong-born drummer Ian Chang has performed and recorded with artists including Matthew Dear, Joan As Policewoman and Moses Sumney, alongside his role behind the kit with Son Lux. His debut solo EP Spiritual Leader – which sees him using his kit to trigger and tweak samples – is out now. FM: Tell us about your studio… Ian Chang: “Currently, my setup is in its nascent stages. It's just my laptop, a four-piece mesh head drum kit with Sunhouse's Sensory Percussion attached, a MOTU 4pre (this allows Sensory Percussion to communicate with my laptop) and a pair of DT770 pro headphones. “There's so much I'd like to change but it's a…

LIKE IT? TRY THESE… The Go! Team Thunder, Lightning, Strike Day-Glo debut from the Brighton-based rockers. Front woman, Ninja, would go on to provide guest vocals for the SMD tracks It’s The Beat and Hotdog . ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: Huddle Formation, Bottle Rocket, Ladyflash Toolshed Toolshed Experimental electronic supergroup of sorts assembled by 808 State’s Graham Massey, featuring SMD’s own James Ford on drums. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: Pazuzu, Mathematica, Wok & Goblet’ Simian We Are Your Friends Final album from Simian. Ironically, not really friends anymore. Still, it features Never be Alone , which would take on a remix life of its own. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: La Breeze, Never be Alone, Skin Simian Mobile…

Lindstrøm It’s Alright Between Us As It Is Smalltown Supersound Five years on from his last record, Norwegian space disco extraordinaire Han-Peter Lindstrøm is back with his shimmering, upbeat fifth studio album as Lindstrøm. It’s Alright Between Us As It Is finds the Oslo native heavy on cosmic, glittering disco vibes once again. Full of upbeat energy and warm analogue sounds, the album is a continuous mix of nine tracks, taking us on a club-focused, polyrhythmic and diverse excursion across many of the genres that have inspired Lindstrøm throughout his acclaimed career. Crossing boundaries between 70s synth disco, sparkling house, refined techno, cosmic electronica, jazz and Balearic, It’s Alright Between Us As It Is is a heady concoction of arpeggiated synths, warm and melodic basslines, soulful melodies and restless and…

Creative cowbell adventures Here we’ll transform the classic 808 cowbell sound into an extended, pitch-manipulated riff, drenched in effects for a completely new sound All of the TR-808’s drum sounds are iconic, of course, but aside from the thunderous kick, one stands out: that cowbell! Sounding absolutely nothing like a traditional cowbell, this synthesized hit has a ringing, nasal timbre that you either love or hate. Its tonal nature makes it a great candidate for all manner of processing – tune it to an appropriate pitch and use it as the basis of a sampled riff; drench it in endless ambience to fill out space behind a dry rhythm track; or wildly automate pitch changes for techno-style trippiness. In this first example, we’ve programmed a rhythmic 16th-note pattern to emulate…

The Essential Drum Machine Masterclass Creative melodic sequences and rhythms with Digitakt Elektron’s hot new digital drum machine isn’t just for drum programming. Let’s load up some esoteric samples and build a personalised loop To begin, we’ve loaded a bunch of samples from our previous PO-32 jam session into Digitakt via USB and the Elektron Transfer app. These sounds are strange knocks, tones, bleeps and glitches. We assign eight of these samples across the eight audio tracks. Next, to add variation to individual notes, we employ Digitakt’s Parameter Lock feature. By holding a step and then changing parameters, only the selected note is altered on that particular step. We ‘reverse’ one of the stabs by raising its attack on certain notes, and we pitch every other splash sound down. Another…

When drums meet delay Echo effects are ideal for spinning groovy rhythms and effects out of drum machine hits. Let’s go! While traditionally used for vocal ambience, sound effects and general repeating, delay effects can also be a fantastic creative tool when you don’t know where to take a sterile drum groove. Plus, with the sheer amount of feature-packed delay hardware and software available, you can quickly play around and spit out weird fills, stutters and embellishments that you’d never think to program with a mouse. Rendering and repiecing audio works well with these techniques, as you won’t be at the mercy of a feedback-heavy delay’s randomness. In this quickfire tutorial, we’ll start with a bog-standard drum machine groove. By firing percussion hits into creative delay plugins, it’s easy to…

THE TRACK Wehbba Fake Drumcode 2017 © Joe Branston Brazilian bombshell Wehbba (aka Rodolfo Wehbba) has been steadily rising up the ranks of techno royalty over his decade-long career, with releases on Tronic, Soma and Suara along the way. Most recently he’s appeared on Adam Beyer’s ubiquitous Drumcode with his trippy, ominous Fake which can be found on the compilation A-Sides Volume 6. FM caught up with Rodolfo in his Barcelona studio to find out how he created his Drumcode debut. How did Fake come about? “It came out of nowhere. I was just watching TV, and because I have the luxury of having a home studio. I was able to just run in there and get started! I had the idea of making this really…

PRODUCER’S GUIDE NI Maschine Get the most out of Ideas View, Bass Synth and more The recent release of NI’s Mk3 Maschine hardware has brought plenty of new functionality to the controller itself, but that hasn’t been matched by a significant update at the software end. Some users might bemoan the continued wait for Maschine 3.0, but in reality the application has already evolved massively since it hit version 2. Possibly the most significant change came last year, in the form of an arrangement view overhaul that added the Live-like Ideas View. This gives Maschine users a sleeker method of experimenting with track structures, one based around scenes and pattern variations. The launch of Jam brought a new perspective to the Maschine ecosystem too, with a focus on performance features…

QUICK TIPS 1 The ‘+ Routing’ option in Maschine’s Group browser can be used to dictate whether a Group preset will change existing audio or MIDI routing when it’s loaded into a Project. 2 When using Bass Synth with Maschine Jam, the upper row of the piano roll is used for engaging glides between notes. 3 File >> Manage Products is the quickest way to open Native Access, to add new Kontakt instruments or update products. 4 Jam or Mk3 users, try adding Perform FX to your Multi Effect groups for a cool way to further mangle, sweep or morph your existing effects. 5 Maschine’s Sampler Modes emulate the crunchy feel of classic samplers. These can be even better than a compressor or limiter for adding punch.…

FM CHOICE 6 vintage-style reverbs UAD AKG BX 20 | £149 Combines the immediacy of a spring reverb with a longer decay phase. UAD’s emulation matches the unique colour and density of the original hardware beautifully. Waves Abbey Road Reverb Plates | $249 These four pioneering plate reverbs have been modeled by Waves to give you the classic sound of five decades of recording history. Lexicon PCM Native Reverb Bundle | $720 Included in Lexicon’s flagship PCM bundle are a range of individual plugins, including the warm, lush tones of its Vintage Plate (pictured). UAD AMS RMX16 | £260 You’ll still see AMS RMX16 hardware reverbs in top studios. Perhaps its most famous algorithm is ‘NonLin’. As Phil Collins discovered in the 1980s, this + tom fill = hit record.…

Vintage Reverb Mix glue with vintage reverb treatments Through the following six steps, let’s glue a mix together with some careful vintage reverb choices 01 > Our track starts with kick and hats from Battery 4, a basic bassline and a pad from Spitfire Audio’s Phobos. The two more dynamic parts are a guitar loop and an auto-panning synth pluck sequence. There’s no reverb added to the mix at this stage; it sounds very dry. 02 > We start by sending the guitar loop to a treatment with UAD’s AKG BX 20 emulation. We use the EQ controls to thin out both treble and bass, whilst selecting a reverb time of around four seconds. As the frequency spectrum of the reverb is tamed, the overall sound feels more vintage. 03…

Interview Blondes Bright lights on New York’s electronic scene, Blondes return with mesmeric new album, Warmth, on legendary dance label R&S. Hamish Mackintosh caught up with the hardware-centric duo “After you release something, you’ve spent so much time on it that you often just want to work on new material” Blondes (aka Messrs Sam Haar and Zach Steinman) have spent almost a decade creating their unique blend of beats and hypnotica together. New album, Warmth, their third but first on much-respected dance label R&S, is a pulsing, rhythmic trip, awash with ideas, again highlighting Haar and Steinman’s love of hardware synths and outboard effects for fashioning their distinctive sound. Having garnered plaudits for 2012’s eponymous debut album, and for the equally sumptuous Swisher a year later, the New York duo’s…

NI Komplete Kontrol S61 MkII NI Komplete Kontrol S61 MkII £559 The second gen NI keyboards have arrived, with improved interface and integration. Jono Buchanan gets Konnekted Anyone familiar with the original hardware will see immediate changes on MkII Very few companies oversee a software product collection as diverse and comprehensive as Native Instruments. Over the years, its libraries and instrument collections have expanded to cover so many musical genres that musicians, producers and composers of all styles and descriptions have been seduced. Whilst NI have, through the years, also designed hardware to harness the power of some of their software titles, until Komplete Kontrol’s release in 2014, never had such an integrated solution been released. Now, Komplete Kontrol returns with a considerable list of enhancements, all driven by a…

Reviews Vox Continental 61 £1,769 Korg and Vox have revived, reinvented and colour-inverted these classic keys. Dan ‘JD73’ Goldman scrutinises the modern revamp You can also use the drawbars to EQ sounds and to change certain settings Originally launched in 1962, the Vox Continental become popular with many acts of the time, including The Animals and The Doors, largely due to its portability compared to Hammond’s super-heavy tonewheel beasts! It also had a very distinctive bright, edgy and charming character which allowed it to really cut through a mix against loud guitars. For the new Continental, Vox have gone for a complete reinvention, the only thing remaining being the tomato-soup-red and black colour scheme, along with a new take on the original chrome stand (while you don’t pay extra for…

Reviews Lauten Series Black LA-220 £239 Lauten Audio drop three new mid-price mics as ‘Series Black’. Robbie Stamp tries out the FET condenser model At the low-end there is plenty of heft without impinging on the upper bass region The LA-220 is flanked in the Series Black range by a small diaphragm condenser stereo pair and a valve condenser, all of which are eminently affordable. This does put them in a fierce and overcrowded market, but Lauten, with their Signature Series mics, have built a reputation that should give this range a head start. The LA-220 is fairly light and slim for a large diaphragm condenser, which is a good thing for mic stand and placement options (it comes with a standard shockmount cradle). Versatile mic The 1-inch dual diaphragm…

Tracking live bass What’s the best process for adding a real bass guitar recording to my tracks? Adding a spot of real bass to your recordings will bring a lot to the table in terms of vibe and soul. Before you even start recording, make sure you have your bass properly set up by a good tech so that it plays and functions optimally. It’s always best to try and record whole takes through your tune from start to finish, then comp one main take together from several runthroughs – this gives you options and takes the pressure off too! Subtle, or not so subtle, ways to provide bite and enough power to set up euphoric choruses. Here’s how it’s done… Firstly, decide if you’re going to run through an…

Waves turn 25, reissues three classic plugins Waves is celebrating its 25th anniversary by introducing revamped versions of three classic plugins: Q10 Equalizer, AudioTrack channel strip and L1 Ultramaximizer. Each one comes with new features, and can be used with its ‘legacy’ interface or a new GUI. The Q10 is a multiband paragraphic EQ that offers up to 10 bands. It's now got proportional Q filters among other improvements. AudioTrack, meanwhile, emulates a channel strip from a mixing console and gives you EQ, compression and gating in one plugin. The anniversary edition adds a focused EQ band display, separate meters for Comp and Gate gain reduction, and the same double precision 64-bit processing option as Q10. Finally, the famous L1 Ultramaximizer offers an advanced-level maximizer, look-ahead peak limiter and high-resolution…

CLASSIC ALBUM Simian Mobile Disco Attack Decay Sustain Release Wichita, 2007 Words by Roy Spencer When the fun is gone from making music, it’s time to call it a day. That was the dawning realisation for the psych pop outfit Simian as they finally descended into fisticuffs in a Texan fish restaurant. They’d had a good run, birthing two acclaimed studio albums and a run of successful singles, but the peculiar stresses of touring had taken their toll. Drummer James Ford and programmer Jas Shaw had already been tinkering away with what would become their Simian Mobile Disco offshoot, so shedded bassist Alex MacNaghten and vocalist Simon Lord, to concentrate on their increasingly carefree electronic music-based splinter project. Cheerful remixes with the Simian Mobile Disco stamp came thick and fast,…

ALBUM REVIEWS ALBUM OF THE MONTH Nic Fanciulli My Heart Saved Records A highly acclaimed and much-loved DJ, producer, and label owner for the last two decades, UK house and techno stalwart Nic Fanciulli finally unveils his polished and diverse debut album. One of the last electronic artists to break through on the strength of their DJing alone, Fanciulli has long been releasing standout EPs on the world’s premier labels. Now releasing his debut LP on his own Saved Records, the Maidstone-based artist showcases his underground, expansive and diverse palette as he touches on classic house, Detroit techno, UK bass, old-school synth-led workouts, wonky afterparty vibes, psychedelic electronica and downtempo with assured maturity and confidence. Fanciulli’s ability to merge deep, dark club-focused excursions alongside more laidback, cinematic tracks in such…

RECOMMENDED Rødhåd Anxious Dystopian Dark, brooding, atmospheric and intense, Anxious is the impressive long-awaited debut album from acclaimed techno DJ and producer, Rødhåd. The record finds the much-loved Berlin-based artist, real name Mike Bierbach, moving further away from the dancefloor-focused EPs that initially garnered him attention. Now favouring more experimental soundscapes that are rich in beauty, diversity and spatial freedom, Bierbach leads us along a mindbending, perception-shifting journey through a collection of offbeat techno. Alien tones skirt past curious melodies, futuristic FX and swirling textures as an undercurrent of pulsing grooves, throbbing basslines, dubby breaks and simmering synths sweep by with an unfriendly air of menace. The slower, more spacious soundscape gives Bierbach an even deeper and more hypnotic sound than before, giving individual sounds the focus to truly resonate…

The Essential Drum Machine Masterclass Transforming stock Roland TR-8 drums into weird loops Roland’s famous drum machines have been rinsed to death, so let’s take the sounds much, much further with creative signal processing We’ve put together this 124bpm drum groove using the TR-8. The loop comprises an 808 kick on the downbeat, 909 toms acting as bass, and the usual house-style clap, hats, cymbals and perc. This drum machine is great for on-the-fly experimentation, as we can pull down faders to mute individual hits. Time to engage the Ring Modulator, which multiplies the incoming signal with its internal carrier oscillator to produce dissonant partials. After a bit of tweaking, we turn the distorted loop into a clangorous, pumping groove. The kick and toms in the loop have become a…

The Essential Drum Machine Masterclass QUICK TIPS Although the Roland TR-8’s Scatter effect can sound a bit gimmicky over a regular beat, it can be a great source of glitchy percussion and effects when used purely as a sound source on its own. Ramp the knob up to explore its buzzy, granular-style tones, then quickly sweep the knob back to capture unique repeats and speed shifts. Electronic drums are awesome sound sources for FX design. Throw a kick through a cavernous reverb to create breakdown booms; granulise hats into background textures; and reverse percussion to make rubbery, bubbling elements. Bolster a synth line by layering a short, subtle hi-hat or rimshot over each note of the riff. This’ll add gentle front-end sharpness that may be lacking in the original synth…

The Essential Drum Machine Masterclass Building a personality-packed drum loop with Elektron’s Analog RYTM and processing To round up our drum machine adventures, let’s sample bits and bobs from Elektron’s drum computer to craft a bespoke groove To begin, we’ve completely reset the Analog RYTM to factory settings. Hitting play starts the default preset’s drum pattern. As expected, it’s a standard analogue drum machine groove – let’s run it out through some processing. Now back to the RYTM. The kick and toms sound nice and ‘pushed’ with this drive applied, so we hit RYTM’s mute button and deactivate all the rest of the drums to isolate these low-frequency parts. We then tweak our drive settings to find the perfect sweet spot of distortion. Next, for our high tom, we mix…

NI Maschine Let the Ideas flow The Ideas View was added to Maschine last year in version 2.6.5, expanding the software’s arrangement and composition capabilities pretty significantly. Rather than completely replacing the existing Arranger view, the Ideas View offers a space for users to experiment with Pattern combinations without affecting anything that’s been created in the Arranger. In essence, Ideas view is a software version of Maschine Jam’s Pattern triggering interface, but the approach will also look familiar to users of the clip launchers in Ableton Live or Bitwig Studio. In Ideas View, Groups are laid out in columns from left to right, as they are in the mixer window. Each Group has a column containing individual patterns in vertical stacks, similar to Ableton Live’s clips. Tabs along the top…

In The Studio With Vessels The Leeds-based band began with post rock before undertaking a remarkable career change, embracing electronic music using modular gear, synths and software. Danny Turner chats to Lee J. Malcolm and Tom Evans about their extraordinary transformation Tipped by Radio 1 in 2007 as one of the hottest new bands in the UK, Vessels flew to Minneapolis to record their debut album White Fields and Open Devices under the stewardship of Grammy-winning American producer John Congleton, who also produced their second album Helioscope (2011). Yet seemingly at the peak of their powers, Vessels risked the wrath of their fan base by moving from their post rock foundations to embrace the euphoria of the dancefloor. Motivated by the sound of synthesisers and a combination of live and…

QUICK TIPS 1 If you want to add a little ‘dust’ to your reverb chains, try a bitcrusher after your reverb. Setting this at 12-bit with a sprinkling of downsampling can take the ‘pristine’ edge off modern plugin reverbs. 2 Looking to add a gentle pitch wobble to long reverbs but don’t have a plugin which offers pitch modulation? Bounce your reverb as a ‘wet only’ audio file and load it into your sampler. 3 Tone-wise, vintage reverbs are often less transparent and pristine than their modern digital equivalents. If your chosen plugin doesn’t feature its own EQ, use a plugin after the reverb to contour bass and treble. Also, try other plugins such as saturators and tape emulators to further colour your reverb returns.…

MODULAR MONTHLY Come and take a chance! We delve into the world of random with Qu-Bit Electronix’s Chance Qu-Bit made a splash on the Eurorack scene back in 2013 with the granular sampler Nebulae, before going on to release a series of FX, modulation and control modules. Our personal favourite from Qu-Bit was the Nano Rand, which offered four switchable random algorithms and random gates that were always musical derivatives of the internal (or external) clock. It was fantastic for ‘musically random’ CV and gate signals, so we were delighted when we saw Chance enter the new Qu-Bit product line up. Chance is a one stop shop for random signals with noise sources, musically changing rhythms, random bursts, smooth or discrete stepped random and a random wavetable LFO that randomly…

KOMPLETE 11 SELECT With a purchase of one of the new Komplete Kontrol keyboards, you’ll receive a download link to Komplete 11 Select, containing Massive, Monark, The Gentleman, DrumLab, Reaktor Prism, Scarbee Mark 1, Retro Machines, Vintage Organs, the West Africa percussion library, Solid Bus Comp and Replika. Whilst it’s highly likely that you’ll be most interested in the Komplete Kontrol hardware if you’re already a Komplete 11 user, this comprehensive bundle is a great starting point if you’re not, with upgrade paths available to those who want to step up at a later date.…

NUTUBE, FX AND CONTROL Switching in the NuTube valve circuit adds weight and harmonics to all the sounds, and hopefully we’ll see this make its way into more upcoming Korg instruments. I’d like to be able to push the drive higher, and without incurring the level of background noise as I’ve experienced here. The onboard effects all sound very musical and warm and there’s enough onboard to cover most situations including a delays, reverbs, chorus, flanger, phaser, wah and compressor. Each of the sounds has its own preset effects, which can then be layered with the front panel global effects. You can control wah and volume using the included expression pedal.…

Reviews Stam Audio SA4000 $599 Bruce Aisher checks out this new take on the design of the classic stereo VCA compressor Despite the move to digital recording and in-the-box mixing, the need for external audio processing gear has never gone away… but it might have seen a shift in balance. 20 years ago there was still a profusion of low- and mid-priced units sitting alongside expensive high-end boxes. Whilst the lower-end has contracted, the high-end remains, now including both new designs and old favourites – after all, why use a cheap analogue unit when a better-sounding plugin can be employed. There has, however, been a growth in tribute-style designs, those that attempt to emulate older classics. We’ve seen plenty of manufacturers aiming to bring the past back into production. Stam…

Reviews Allen & Heath Xone:PX5 £1,149 Looking for a super-flexible, high-end, club-ready mixer? A&H’s latest aims to please. Roy Spencer is checking it out With few minor quibbles and many plus points, the PX5 achieves what it set out to do Pioneer’s DJM range of mixers are everywhere, and always have been. Perhaps they just appeared in spots around the globe, years ago, and people felt compelled to build DJ booths around them. Their ubiquity clearly riles the suits at Allen & Heath, who think it’s come time to dethrone king-of-the-club mixers like the 850 and 900 Nexus. Their dog in the fight? Enter the Xone:PX5. It’s a serious-looking machine. The grills on the side and front look ready to snort hot air like a bull, while the matt black…