Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2018 i Future Music

IK Multimedia unveil their first analogue synth UNO is a $200 synth to rival the Volca Bass or Arturia MicroBrute IK Multimedia are stepping out of their in-the-box box with the launch of the UNO, an affordable, portable analogue monosynth. This was created with the help of Italian boutique synth maker Soundmachines and Erik Norlander, one of the creators of Alesis’s whopping Andromeda synth and now part of the IK team. The UNO is said to be capable of creating both classic and modern sounds and offers plenty to both beginners and more experienced synth users. One hundred presets are included, each of which comes with its own arpeggio and sequence, and IK promises plenty of scope for hands-on tweaking. The all-analogue signal path includes two oscillators that can be…

Bastl unleash new modules and Thyme (finally) Timber and 1983 join the brand’s Eurorack line-up Bastl were showing off several new products at Superbooth in Berlin last month, with a clutch of new modules on display, along with the launch of a product we’ve been waiting on for quite a while… On the Eurorack front, the Czech brand had two new modules to show us, Timber and 1983. Timber is described as a ‘dual waveform lumberjack’. This is a waveshaping module that can produce rich timbres by adding harmonics to any signal, with both waveshaping circuits being controlled by the same parameters. A crossfader enables you to fade between the two shapers or between either one and the clean input signal. 1983, meanwhile, is a polyphonic MIDI to CV interface…

Hot sequencer action… There were a load of new sequencers at Superbooth, but two caught our attention. The first was the Electronic Sequence Designer from Pittsburgh Modular. This forthcoming Eurorack device is a four-channel, 32-step sequencer in a neatly laid-out package laden with faders and push buttons, designed to match the brand’s Microvolt synth, which we saw at NAMM. Looking forward to learning more. The other eyecatcher came from UK modular stalwart Tom Carpenter at Analogue Solutions. This device [pictured] is still in prototype stage, but already looking interesting. It features a MIDI input for synchronisation, the three-CV output channels and a gate output. It has 16 steps, each with rotary control. There are variety of CV inputs too for sync, transposition, tuning and transport.…

LIKE IT? TRY THESE… Sade Stronger Than Pride London Posse bumped Sade, hard. “We were into a lot of other shit," says Rodney. They even sampled her on Livin’ Pancoot ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: Love Is Stronger Than Pride, I Never Thought I’d See The Day, Turn My Back On You Demon Boyz  ‎ Recognition LP fam, right here, and another legendary crew who repped the UK back in the late ’80s and early ’90s ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: We Call Him DJ Devastate, Recognition, Rougher Than An Animal These Handz Starring Sparkii Ski and DJ Grazzhoppa The Hand Gets Swivey On The Wheels Sparkii’s new duo, with an extended 45 on Bournemouth’s super ill B-Line Recordings. More, please! ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: The Hand Gets Swivey…

Mo Kolours Inner Symbols Five Easy Pieces Inner Symbols is the laidback, groovy third studio album from eclectic beatmaker, Mo Kolours. The half British, half Mauritian producer, singer and percussionist’s balmy patchwork of styles finds a more low-slung aesthetic than we’ve seen before from him. Of course, the record is full of intoxicating drums and rhythms, but they’re set to a backdrop of languid grooves, lush, padded textures and smooth bass. The result is an album full of spirituality, that feels its way down an overgrown path with an easy-going flow. Seamlessly interweaving strands of hip-hop, dub, deep house, LA-inspired grooves, intergalactic funk and tropical field recordings, Mo Kolours creates an exciting melting pot. Created entirely on an Electro Harmonix looper using samples, live instrumentation and a Roland drum machine,…

DIY ‘pseudo-reverb’ processor What’s the difference between delay and reverb? The amount. Here we’ll go overboard with our delay plugins to splash in a sea of reverberant sound Reverb and delay – these production staples are often seen together… and that’s because they’re very much related. Here we’re going to use multiple delay lines, all fed back into each other, to build some sort of pseudo-reverb processor. We’ll be doing it in Ableton Live, because its sends and returns are very flexible, allowing for extra methods of routing signals. To start with, make sure you’ve got a limiter on your master bus. Next we’ll create a blank Return channel (Alt-Cmd-T), and we’ll stick a Simple Delay processor on it. Switch the left channel from host Sync to Time, set the…

Effects Inspiration: 7 creative hardware reverbs and delays When it comes to out-there space effects, the digital realm might be where the most cutting-edge technology is, but there’s still a lot to be said for having a hardware version in your toolbox. Here are some inspiring options Strymon El Capistan £268 > US brand Strymon’s stompboxes offer digital emulations of classic reverb and delay hardware. El Capistan focusses on tape echo, with three varieties of machine onboard, each with three variations. This is easily one of the most authentic sounding tape emulations we’ve heard. The only major downside is its single mono input: it’s aimed more at guitarists than studio use. Korg Monotron Delay £43 > The Monotron Delay is a compact, rough-and-ready hardware device that pairs a single oscillator…

DOS & DON’TS > DO: Experiment with filtering your delayed signal. This can give the original signal room to breathe while still keeping the perceptual ‘feel’ of the delay > DON’T: Dive into tweaking feedback unless you’ve got a limiter engaged. Many delay processors have them in-built for just this reason, but is yours switched on? > DO: Pan your delayed signals, and specifically, modulate that panning! By getting things moving instead of relying on static repeats, you’ll get a real sense of evolution, and a much wider sense of organic movement > DON’T: Just stick to your DAW’s stock delay plugin. It may be great, but there are plenty more tonalities to be found with a varied collection of tools…

Create glitch effects with delay plugins Once you get the principles behind the choppy buffer effect, you’ll be stitching together your own glitching processor for some creative fun Glitches came to prominence when computer music production really took off. By loading snippets of the played signal into a ‘buffer’, and then suddenly repeating this buffer with the active signal killed, you’ve created a glitch effect – a lot like an old, scratched CD skipping on playback… only by using your DAW, it’s timed alongside the existing music. The processing behind the glitch effect is actually easy to remake using a delay, since a delay is simply a buffer that stores the input sound and plays it back. By turning the feedback up to 100%, you’ll only play back the sound…

Effects Inspiration: 6 iOS effect processors Like wild, complex effects but fed up of the strain on your CPU? You could use hardware or a UAD-style DSP system, but what about using a mobile device as an external effects processor? Here are some great apps… Sugar Bytes Turnado, £19.99 > Over the past few years, Sugar Bytes steadily ported many of their acclaimed effects and synths to iOS. Turnado is a powerful multi-effects app which bundles a lot of audio mangling power into a simple GUI which makes smart use of macro controls for easy real-time manipulation. Great for adding rhythmic glitches to incoming audio. Positive Grid Bias FX £19.99 > Bias FX is an amp sim primarily aimed at guitarists, but there’s a lot to tempt studio users too.…

Rack ’em and stack ’em One of the earliest ‘rack’ utilities was Reason’s Combinator. The idea was simple: instead of having two separate instruments or effects ‘floating’ in the project in the normal way, group the two together by housing them in a Combinator. Once the devices had been united in this way, their parameters could be tweaked and the entire Combinator patch saved and recalled later. Custom instruments, channel strips, ready-mixed drum kits – you name it – could be used, saved, loaded, shared and even sold. A new ecosystem was born. We’ll show you exactly how the Combinator system worked at the bottom of this page. With the self-contained nature of a rack setup, it can often be possible to route the signal flow in a manner that…

Racks | Producer’s Guide To Build a complex channel strip with dedicated controls Let’s look at some of the basics of Live’s Audio Effect Rack for creative processing 01 > Here’s a track featuring a wideband patch from iZotope’s Iris 2 synth. We could just start stacking effects on here, but instead we’re going to drop Ableton Live’s Audio Effect Rack device, which we’ll use as a shell to host multiple plugins. 02 > We can load a couple of effects inside the rack to save and recall for later use. EQ and compression, for example. The rack will save the settings of the loaded effects as well. Nice and useful, but it’s nothing to write home about. 03 > Open up the rack’s Chain Selector (three horizontal lines icon),…

Chvrches In The Studio With Chvrches Since emerging in 2013, Scottish trio Chvrches’ catchy songwriting has taken the electronic pop realm by storm. Danny Turner talks to Martin Doherty and Iain Cook about their eagerly anticipated third album Combining catchy hooks and interlocking rhythms whose DNA can be found in the mid-’80s stadium rock aesthetic, Glaswegian band Chvrches have created their own modern-day electro pop edifice. Comprising Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty, their debut album The Bones of What You Believe brought immediate global success; surpassed two years later by the cleaner, yet more explosive, Every Open Eye. With their popularity now cemented, and having historically produced all of their music themselves, the trio faced the age-old risk of whether to change tack or opt for stability. Contemplating…

TOOLKIT FM synths Hoping to get to grips with complex frequency modulation synth plugins? Look no further... Last month we explored virtual analogue (VA) instruments, which use subtractive synthesis to generate electronic sounds. This month, let’s explore more complex methods of sound generation. In the 1980s, when digital synthesis technology came to the fore, Yamaha’s DX7 keyboard popularised a glossier, cleaner approach to sound generation: frequency modulation (FM) synthesis. Almost the complete antithesis to beginner-level subtractive, FM synthesis involves the modulation of an audible ‘carrier’ oscillator by an inaudible ‘modulator’ waveform’. The ‘fast vibrato’ analogy is a good way to parse how this works: wobble an oscillator’s pitch with a silent oscillator signal operating at a low speed (ie, an LFO), and you get a vibrato effect. Speed up that…

FM synth routing The key to cracking frequency modulation synthesis is sussing how your synth’s operators… er, operate! Let’s see how it’s done in three synths FM synthesis involves wiring various operators into others. It’s up to you to pick which are heard in the signal path (carriers), or in the background (modulators) – which is where an FM synth’s algorithm comes in. In FM speak, an algorithm is your current operator topology, or signal flow – ie, which can be heard, how one is routed into another, and so on. Many FM synths let you choose one from preset routings, while others let you create a custom setup via patch cables or modulation matrix. Setting your algorithm should be your first job when designing an FM patch. Say you…

Tracktion Waveform 9 Tracktion Waveform 9 from £109 Formerly known as Tracktion, Waveform is an underdog DAW with a serious feature set. James Russell gets you caught up Bought by Mackie and left in a desert of underdevelopment, in 2013, Tracktion was re-acquired by its original owners, who got straight back to work on it. When the DAW hit version 8, it was given a name change, and now we’ve just reached ‘Waveform’ 9. This latest version introduces a Chord Track, a Multi Sampler, some customisable plugin ‘Faceplates’ and more powerful racks. But forget the newest features for a moment – we at FM have been guilty for a while of not paying enough attention to Waveform (and Tracktion), and so this review serves as a real catch-up for all…

Universal Audio Arrow Universal Audio Arrow £435 The latest, smallest, most portable, most affordable UAD-2 system ever. Daniel Griffiths asks, ‘What’s the catch?’ Arrow is a tiny gun-metal box which slips under UA’s universally loved Apollos at the base of the range. It’s ideally suited to power-user music makers on the move or as the ideal entry system for those ‘going pro’ with UA’s plugins. As background, the UA universe is an ever-growing collection of world-class plugins most of which emulate classic bits of studio gear. These plugins are second to none, but require UA’s UAD-2 DSP hardware to take their strain and free up your computer for more audio and MIDI. It’s a luxurious way to make music but one that means shelling out for both hardware AND software.…

PATCHING & SEQUENCING With some patch cables and a little experimentation, the Treadstone’s sonic palette can be expanded considerably. Ins: External CV inputs for pitch (one via an attenuator), though fine adjustment is tricky. Duty – for modulating pulse width. External CVs for filter cutoff (one via attenuator which is very sensitive). Audio In. Clock In for the sequencer. EG Trig. Outs: Dedicated square wave VCO output. LFO square and triangle outs (good for vibrato and more controlled PWM). Envelope out - useful for creating pitch sweeps. MIDI Loop Sequencer: Despite its size, the Treadstone features a 16-note step sequencer. Tempo can be set via MIDI clock or incoming analogue clock, whilst notes are entered using MIDI note-on messages (with C#7 and C6 reserved for rests and ‘skips’ respectively).…

THE MM-1 While the DS-1 is a big, complex tool, the MM-1 is a model of simplicity that also achieves excellent results. Amount is like threshold, the parallel mix control is self-explanatory and limiter gain simply pushes more level into the very transparent master limiter. The five ‘style’ buttons do exactly what they say on the tin and so it’s really in the results that you can truly understand just how good this is. Whatever you throw at it, the MM-1 seems capable of dealing with it in an elegant, powerful manner. While it does exactly what you’d expect of a high quality maximiser on the master bus, it’s of great use on individual instruments as well, providing solid level control alongside excellent de-essing and the same ability to put…

THE MOTAS-6 SOFTWARE EDITOR As we hit the press, a software editor (for Windows/ Linux) was made available. Although this mainly reflects the look and feel of the front panel, it does make editing easier, especially where there are multiple options for a single parameter (such as LFO shape). While it’d be nice to be able to visualise all envelope generators and LFOs simultaneously, the sheer amount of screen real estate required could make this tricky to achieve. Nonetheless, the current editor – that also includes patch management capabilities – is most welcome, and shows a real dedication to improving the user experience.…

4MS Stereo Triggered Sampler 4MS Stereo Triggered Sampler £419 Eurorack samplers are coming out thick and fast right now. Phil Wise asks if 4MS’ latest has the clout to compete So far 2018 seems to be the year of the sampler in Eurorack. The latest from 4MS is a dual stereo sampler with a huge capacity, intuitive interface and high-quality sound. The module comes complete with a 16GB memory card packed full of samples from the likes of Moor Mother, Richard Devine and Baseck so you can start playing straightaway. Two samples can be played separately in Mono from the L & R outputs if you need to process the sounds independently, or they can both be played simultaneously in Stereo (with individual level control). Sampling is straightforward – just…

Erica Synth add three new modules and a Techno System Not content to demo just one or two modules, Erica Synth debuted a complete system at Superbooth 2018. The Techno System comprises 15 modules, designed with techno, industrial and EBM-stylings in mind. The system is driven by Erica’s button-laden Drum Sequencer, which first debuted at NAMM. This feeds into an assortment of drum, synth, sample and effect units, of which three are new modules making their debut at Superbooth. The first of these is the Sample Drum, a beat-focussed sample slicer with a host of CV triggering options and an SD card slot for user sample import. This is joined by the new Dual FX module, which packs two FV-1 chips for custom effect processing, with a pair of parameter…

Snazzy FX: new creative stompboxes There wasn’t much for guitarists at Superbooth ‘18, but – paired up with Erica Synths – Snazzy FX were doing a good job of representing for the stompbox world. The company had a trio of cool, creative-looking pedals to show off. First up, Wow and Flutter is a delay pedal with some cool modulation options. Tracer City, meanwhile, is a VCF with advanced CV control. Finally Mini-Ark is an audio-tracking monosynth which will follow and accompany an audio input. All three sounded great in our demos, and although they’re guitar effects, all seem like cool options for synthesists too. These pedals have been around for a while, but originally weren’t produced in big numbers, so Erica are linking up with Snazzy FX to help re-issue…

CLASSIC ALBUM London Posse Gangster Chronicle Mango, 1990 This is ground zero when it comes to UK hip-hop. It was the blueprint that showed British MCs that their own voice, both lyrically and musically, was as valid as any of their American counterparts. Rodney P and Bionic shook off the norm of spitting in fake Yankee accents, and flipped Cockney chat and Jamaican patois into a new style of original London slang. It was like they’d hit the reset button, and hip-hop in this country would never be the same again. “The album was a turning point in the sound of the music,” says Rodney P. “Most people thought it would sound shit in English – that was the common thought. We didn’t sound corny when we talked to each…

ALBUM REVIEWS ALBUM OF THE MONTH Kamasi Washington Heaven and Earth Young Turks Highly acclaimed Los Angeles saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist and producer, Kamasi Washington returns with his hugely anticipated second album, Heaven and Earthon Young Turks. His 2015 debut,The Epic, won instant and widespread approval from critics and fans alike for its innovative, expressive approach. Such was the interest that it garnered, Washington is now already seen as something of a virtuoso and his follow-up feels long overdue after an almost three year wait. Now here, this fascinating and eclectic double album unleashes over two and a half hours of colourful, immersive music that defies categorisation and bristles with ingenuity. Cosmic, spiritual jazz collides with bebop, soul, hip-hop, classical music and traditional African rhythms in a frenetic, heady fusion of intoxicating…

RECOMMENDED Leon Vynehall Nothing Is Still Ninja Tune UK producer Leon Vynehall delivers a highly atmospheric and immersive debut album with Nothing Is Still. Released on his new home of Ninja Tune, the record is a beautifully constructed piece that slowly evolves and unravels with true craftsmanship. The sprawling soundscape meanders with a soulful and laidback contentedness as each sound is given room to breathe. Memory and nostalgia come to the forefront across this highly textured album as Vynehall pays homage to his grandparent’s emigration from the UK to New York in the ’60s. Fuzzy electronics, emotive strings, warm melodies and tender field recordings play with your sense of space and time, helping you to drift away into Vynehall’s imagined memories. His sprinklings of woozy, deep house flecked with jazz…

Working with multitap delays These processors allow you to time your delay echoes to a grid, crafting and sequencing the perfect pattern for every occasion. Here’s how to get to grips with these very visual delay effects… In the digital world, almost anything is possible, and keen-eyed software developers have managed to harness this idea and rethink the concept of what a delay processor should be. Just as you map out your music visually in the piano roll, with multitap delays you can do the same thing for individual echoes (or ‘taps’) for the delayed signal. It’s time to get a grip on the power behind multitaps, drawing, spiking and ‘sequencing’ your own delay patterns to taste, for every track-building scenario. The bog-standard, ‘normal’ delay processor that we’re most likely…

Next-Level Delay Treating feedback delays in Late Replies Blue Cat Audio’s delay plugin will have you tweaking two feedback loops and individual taps to add effects wherever you feel like it Let’s have a look at the concepts behind multitap delay and feedback loop effects using Blue Cat Audio’s Late Replies plugin. In its initial state, Late Replies offers one delay, which it calls a ‘reply’. We can retime that reply, add more replies, and set them all to pop in at different times. The special thing about LR is that it can treat individual replies with their own chains of effects, including your own plugins. We start with four ‘replies’, which we can retime into a sequence. Each of those replies has a corresponding insert effect slot – let’s…

Connectivity conundrums… Obviously, if you want to process audio through your mobile device, you need some way to get sound in and out. The most obvious way to do this is to hook up an iOS compatible audio interface. There are countless varieties of these on the market, from affordable and portable options to pro-level interfaces. Check out Focusrite’s iTrack range or IK Multimedia’s iRig devices. Or for something more studio-level, Arturia’s AudioFuse is iOS ready. Another option for connecting your device to a DAW is an app like Zerodebug’s Studiomux. This allows users to stream audio and MIDI to/from an iOS device using nothing more than the standard lightning cable. If you want to keep things in-device, there are plenty of options too. Many apps are now AU-compatible, and…

Rack basics: the advantages of combination Check out the power as we use Reason’s Combinator to show exactly what we can get done using almost any DAW’s rack-style system What is it about rack systems that makes them so useful? We’ll show you in just three steps. Here we’re in Reason, demonstrating some classic rack-style workflow using Propellerhead’s vaunted Combinator system. When Combinators were first launched, the idea was still new and broke a lot of significant ground. Ever since, other DAW developers have been playing catch-up, but the nugget of what a rack (or Combinator) does is basically the same: house a few separate processors in their own ‘shell’, primarily for grouping, saving and recall, and then go further by mapping those devices’ parameters to master or ‘macro’ controls…

MODULAR MONTHLY Tonal destruction from India! Animal Factory have joined the world of Eurorack! Our synths are pleased The pedal world is known for its huge fuzz and distortion action – a book, one might argue, that the modular world could do with taking a leaf out of. Thank goodness, then, that Animal Factory Amplification are here to help, offering a wide range of drives and fuzzes – from warming through to not-so-subtle destruction – since entering the pedal market. Their two new modules are the Pit Viper and Baron Samedi, neither of which are just straight ports onto a Eurorack panel but improved new versions for the format, with CV inputs and more controls. It’s that CV input that makes these really exciting. Gone are the days of frantically…

QUICK TIPS 1 One wrong move can take an FM sound from amazing to awful. Modulator volume and mod amount has a massive impact on its effect – tread carefully while designing patches. 2 Transients are fast bursts of inharmonic noise. When FMing, use a modulator tuned to an inharmonic frequency in relation to the carrier, then use a super-tight envelope to introduce a transient-like noise burst over the front end of an instrument patch. 3 You don’t need a dedicated FM synth plugin to dabble in FM. Modern softsynths like Serum and Massive feature basic FM capabilities to expand your options – without a science degree. 4 When exploring FM synthesis, start small. Get to grips with how basic sine wave modulators and carriers affect each other, then gradually…

THE PROS & CONS Small, rugged, well built… and ‘affordable’ for a UAD-2 box One lead to connect and power, keeps it simple and sleek The best installation and management software in the business Great included plugin bundle with pay-to-play access to perhaps the best library in the world Thunderbolt 3 limits its ability to work with anything other than the latest machines Ultimately it’s a bit pricey for a simple two-in, four-out interface Only Solo-powered. Dual or Quad power would have been far preferrable…

THE ALTERNATIVES Doepfer Dark Energy III £420 Arriving imminently, the latest product in this popular range of patchable desktop synths could give the Treadstone some serious competition www.doepfer.de Moog Mother 32 £549 A tabletop semi-modular synth with built-in sequencer and Eurorack mounting option www.moogmusic.com Arturia MiniBrute 2S £575 Arturia revisit their highly-regarded analogue synth, this time with a second VCO and 48 point patchbay. This version has lost its keyboard, but makes up for it with better sequence control www.arturia.com…

DS-1 MK3 OPTIONS MENU Pressing the Options button gives access to three other pages of parameters. The first concerns the limiter functions starting with dithering and limiter type. Then comes a variable control to balance some RMS into the detection circuitry, giving you the option of balancing between peak and RMS. Next comes the preview control which allows you to set the preview time when fine-tuning fast attack envelopes, allowing for far more extreme settings of the compressor without messing up the low end. There are also controls to copy settings from stores A to B and copy channel settings L to R and R to L when in M/S or dual mono modes, plus the option of internal or external side chaining. Imagine this level of control applied to…

Moog DFAM via MIDI Clock? Can I clock my Moog DFAM over MIDI, so that pressing play on my DAW controls the DFAM? Absolutely! But you’ll need to think outside of the box! As the DFAM is a CV-only unit (it’s designed as a semi-modular/Eurorack device), there’s no MIDI in or out connectors nor USB. But don’t fret! Any sequencer that has a MIDI-clock input – and can simultaneously transmit CV – will do the job. The most obvious candidate is Arturia’s BeatStep Pro which can receive MIDI clock from you DAW, while spitting out CV info. The Roland JD-XA works here, as it can also send CV out while receiving MIDI-clock input. Here’s how... Firstly, load up a fresh project in your DAW and set it to transmit MIDI…

FILTER Could the Sequential Prophet X be the ultimate sound designer’s synth? DSI analogue processing meets ‘deep sampling’ from 8Dio Dave Smith have once again revived the Sequential Prophet name, launching a new flagship instrument to coincide with last month’s Superbooth convention in Berlin. The Sequential Prophet X is something of a departure from 2015’s Prophet-6, however, swapping out the analogue oscillators of its predecessor for a sample-based engine built in collaboration with multi-sample specialists 8Dio. In a nutshell, the Prophet X is a bi-timbral, eight-voice stereo (16-voice mono) synth that combines samples and synthesis. Powering this performance and sound-designing beast are two simultaneous 16-bit, 48kHz sample-based instruments and two high-res digital oscillators with waveshape modulation. The signal path is routed through analogue filters. Dave Smith says: “The Prophet X…

Twisted Electrons unveil a pair of budget chiptune synths hapiNES and µAcid8 are barebones instruments in the Pocket Operator mould Twisted Electrons have a couple of new retro synths to tell you about, both of which hark back to the ’80s. The cleverly-named hapiNES is a multitrack chiptune synth that’s inspired by the RP2A07 chip that was found in the Nintendo Entertainment System. There are four voices, meaning that you can use it to create complete tunes, and space to store 16 patterns. You’ll find 36 synthesised drum sounds, 16 arpeggiator modes, Arp FX, filter wobble and crush FX. Also coming is µAcid8, an eight-bit bassline synth that features a ‘characterful’ wavetable engine and a step sequencer. You also get the likes of transposition automation, filter wobbler, stutter and vinyl…

Âme Dream House Innervisions Fifteen years into a highly accomplished career, Kristian Beyer and Frank Wiedemann – aka Âme – finally release their debut full length album. The record sees the duo delving into the discerning, hypnotic, polished deep house sound that’s become their instantly recognisable hallmark. Spine-tingling synths, jangling melodies, grumbling basslines, elongated pads and thudding drums are the basis of this energetic but typically deep and underground record. From vocal tracks to ’70s-inspired German progressive tracks and onto experimental instrumentals, stripped-back ambience and club-ready rhythmic assaults, Âme deliver an expansive soundscape that builds throughout. Highly immersive, the rhythmically fluid bottom end sucks you far into the Germans’ subterranean world. However, for all its experimentalism and desire to wander the untrodden path, Dream House still has plenty of epic,…

THE JOY OF EFFECTS NEXT-LEVEL DELAY Are your echoes feeling a little repetitive? We’re here to give you the knowledge you need to get the most out of today’s state-of-the-art delay tools and techniques In a musical project, just as in a railway network, delays are an essential part of the experience. The idea of repeating a piece of audio, automatically and along with the music, has beenwith us for so long that we’ve become duly accustomed to it, and so too have our audiences. Today’s delay processors feel as sophisticated as an avocado in a Happy Meal. It’s so easy to load a delay plugin on a track – or just mindlessly send elements to the processor that’s inevitably part of a DAW’s template project – that you can…

Delay’s anatomy What are the common controls you’d expect to find on a modern delay effect? The most basic – used to tweak delays since the dawn of the echo processor – is the Delay Time control. From the distance between the playhead and repro head on early tape delay effects, to the digital variable set in modern software, this determines the length of time between the original signal and the first echo (that is, as long as the first echo is played!) Along with Delay Time, you may find a Time Base control, which allows multiples or fractions of the set delay time. Feedback controls the amount of the output (delayed) signal that is then fed back into the input to enrich the effect. This is usually found set…

Getting delays to hit out-of-sync with your notes Digital timing is basically perfect – but perfect isn’t going to float every production boat! Bend those delays out of shape every so often… When delay lines are synced to your host project’s tempo, everything lines up perfectly. It’s a brilliant way to keep things in line… but it’s not always actually desirable. Sure, those echoes hit exactly as other beats of the bar happen, but isn’t one of the goals of mixing to separate elements in the mix? By programming your delay processors in milliseconds, you can nudge things a little off the grid. To do this, though – unless your delay has an ‘offset’ parameter – you’ll need a little calculation. Your tempo is measured in…

In The Studio With | Detroit Swindle Detroit Swindle Dutch masters Detroit Swindle return to the fray with sublime second album, High Life on their own Heist Recordings label. Hamish Mackintosh talks organic machinery with Amsterdam’s finest funk-house-fusion duo If this year’s summer proves to be as stop/ start as previous summers then you could do much worse than to keep a copy of Detroit Swindle’s new album, High Life, close at hand, as it’s possibly the closest thing to audio sunlight you might hear all year. Amsterdam-based Detroit Swindle, aka DJ/Producers Lars Dales and Maarten Smeets, started working together in 2011 and made a name for themselves with the house-infused delights of The Break Up and The Wrap Around, both released on their fledgling Heist Recordings imprint. Lars and…

PRODUCER’S GUIDE Effect Racks If the recent history of music technology is a constant battle between analogue and digital, then racks are Team Digital’s surface-to-air superweapon. Thanks to the flexibility of digital, effect racks let us quickly achieve things that were painfully slow and frustrating in the analogue world. Most of us are used to loading plugins for individual use – instruments and effects that perform one function at a specific place in the signal chain. With racks, though, singular plugins combine to become far more than the sum of their parts. In recent years, we’ve seen almost every DAW get to a stage where it offers some sort of rack technology. Racks are truly state of the art, then, and here we’re going to inspect them in isolation. Over…

QUICK TIPS 1 Get the sidechain ducking effect in a snap: load a compressor and a simple drum machine as a trigger. Create a few macros, make the drum machine inaudible, and save the lot for later recall. 2 Load several analogue-ising effects (vinyl, tape, saturator, etc) into one rack, and assign macro controls for instant custom signal degradation. 3 Create a glitcher by mapping an input delay’s wet level and feedback controls to one macro. Follow it up with more effects. Don’t forget the limiter! 4 Design a custom multiband housing to create any multi-frequency effects that you like. 5 Build yourself a reverb switcher with several bypassed ’verbs, then switch between them in order to audition tones for a vocal.…

FMCHOICE FM synth plugins: from the entry level to the not-so-entry-level Native Instruments FM8 | £129 Still one of the most powerful softsynths around. Its Mod Matrix, Arpeggiator and MSEGs bring the sound design potential and the synth can even be loaded as an FX plugin. Arturia DX7 V | €199 This emulation of Yamaha’s DX7 takes everything about the much-loved ’80s synth and expands upon it with expanded mod matrix, a step sequencer and more. Ableton Operator | This type of synthesis is never easy, but Ableton have managed to make an instrument with an intuitive layout and workflow that’s the perfect entry point for newbies and experts alike. Asb2m10 Dexed | Free Known as possibly the best free FM synth out there, Dexed is another inspired by the…

Larry Heard Interview Larry Heard House pioneer Larry Heard, aka Mr Fingers, created numerous ’80s classics, heavily influencing Chicago house and nu-soul. Danny Turner catches up with the DJ-producer as his first new album in 15 years hits shelves A forerunner of Chicago-born house music, Larry Heard is best-known for releasing ’80s classics such as Can You Feel It?, Bring Down The WallsandMystery Of Love, released under the group name Fingers Inc with vocalist Robert Owens. Over the following decades, Heard continued to record both under his own name and through a catalogue of aliases. Heard’s immersive production style harked back to the early sound of disco, with polished, stripped-back percussion and soulful vocals a key feature. From the turn of the century, his lifestyle has largely been focused on…

THE ALTERNATIVES DSI REV2 16 £1,799 As a testament to how right Dave Smith got it first time around, the P’08 had an almost ten-year run. REV2 builds on this foundation, adding and improving in all the right places. www.davesmithinstruments.com Behringer DeepMind 12 £999 The DM12 broke the mould as far as sonics/features/price are concerned. It’s well regarded for its extended Juno-like sound, modulatable effects and deep mod facilities. www.musictri.be Alesis Andromeda A6 £2,000+ used This now sought-after 16-voice VCO poly remains the most powerful ever made. Think of it like a self-contained modular. If you can think of a feature, chances are it’s in the A6! Ebay, Gumtree…

THE DEALS OF THE DAY The Waveform Basic package costs $109 and is practically all you need to use every feature of Waveform 9 itself. It includes Collective (Tracktion’s sampler/synth instrument), Master Mix (a mastering plugin) and Celemony’s Melodyne Essential package. An extra $50 boosts you to the Waveform+ package, which adds Tracktion’s DAW Essentials package, a suite of 15 effects that are annoyingly named with a # at the start to appear at the top of your plugins list, but that are pleasingly also available in any other DAW. The Waveform Ultimate package, if Sir/Madam would like, is $259 and adds Tracktion’s Biotek synth ($159) as well as extra soundware loop content.…

Analogue Solutions Treadstone Analogue Solutions Treadstone £499 Analogue Solutions return with a new kid on the SynthBlock – the Treadstone synth. Bruce Aisher found out more I was expecting great things from this diminutive, but rugged, box UK synth stalwarts Analogue Solutions are back with the latest instalment in their ‘SynthBlocks’ trilogy, the Treadstone ‘Analogue Synth and Sound Maker’. These are small desktop units that sit somewhere between self-contained sound generator/processors and patchable modular-style building blocks. Treadstone (a Bourne novel reference) is the most knob/switch/ socket-laden of the SynthBlocks so far - a fact reflected in its higher price. I was expecting great things from this diminutive, but rugged, box. In simple terms, Treadstone is a patchable single oscillator analogue synth with MIDI and CV control. Power is derived from…

THE ALTERNATIVES Brainworx bx_XL V2 $329 A mid and side master compressor limiter with multiple tricks up its sleeve. Quite different from the DS-1 but just as capable of adding transparent power. www.plugin-alliance.com TDR Kotelnikov GE €40 Don’t be fooled by the price tag, this is an incredibly sophisticated stereo bus compressor with multiple and highly effective dynamic and harmonic shaping tools. It does lack a final stage limiter, though. www.tokyodawn.net Slate Digital FG-X Mastering Processor $129 With its smooth and transparent compressor and highly individual approach to loudness and master limiting, the FG-X is capable of delivery thundering level with great subtlety. www.slatedigital.com…

THE ALTERNATIVES Arturia Matrixbrute £1,595 Like the Motas-6, the MatrixBrute is a multi-oscillator monosynth with a range of filter types, powerful modulation capabilities and patch recall. www.arturia.com Doepfer Basic Starter System £1,099 If you want complete freedom when patching synth elements together, consider taking the modular route. However, building something with the modulation capabilities of the Motas-6 could be prohibitively dear. www.doepfer.de NI Reaktor 6 £169 If a hardware synth is too pricey, or you prefer working in the box, then software such as NI’s Reaktor offers completely free patching of modules (made even easier since its ‘Blocks’ functionality was added). native-instruments.com…