Innehållsförteckning för 05/2022 från Beat English

More fun, more groove & finish beats faster! Playbeat Lite + 88 XXL drum kits Playbeat Lite is the small version of the world‘s smartest groove machine: a plug-in with huge fun potential that lets you conjure up infectious and original beats for any type of electronic music in an instant. But that‘s not all, Playbeat also allows you to create an infinite number of exciting groove variations in real time. Included: 88 kits with fresh and powerful drum sounds. Download: see page 9 | Info: www.audiomodern.com win | mac 2000 Sounds à la Avicii, Zedd & van Dyk SynthMaster 2 Player Zedd, Martin Garrix, Avicii, Tiësto, Armin Van Buren, Axwell, Knife Party, Laidback Luke, Paul van Dyk, Robin Schulz… the list of SynthMaster users reads like a Who‘s Who…

With our online service, plugins-samples.com, we have set up a digital subscription service through which you can obtain BEAT in digital form. This includes all monthly software content as downloads and the digital magazine in German and English. The two annual subscriptions also include access to the complete BEAT archive with over 100 issues currently available. The software content includes several gigabytes of VST/AU plug-ins, instruments, effects, audio software, samples, loops, sound banks, and so on… Just „everything a producer needs!“. The monthly editions usually come with two plug-in highlights, which are either BEAT versions with slightly stripped-down features, but also sometimes include full versions of commercial software. The three available subscription models differ in duration and price, starting at 4.99 Euro per month. The models give you access to…

1 It needs vocals! The core of a song like this is the vocals, so we need those first. But not glitch vocals or semi-legal acapellas, but whole verses or passages. Thankful sources for this are Splice [1] and Tracklib [2], as well as our Waves CR8 sample pack, which you can find in the magazine downloads (see page 9). We found what we were looking for at Splice. 2 Chopping We load the Look At Me 124C.wav sample from Myah Marie‘s Vocal Pack into the DAW. To make the vocal a little cooler, we transpose it down two semitones to A#1. We also cut away „I Like“so that only „The way you look at me when we are in the club“and „…when you show me love“remain. 3 Some mysticism…

What hardware or plug-ins do others like to use, what do they pay attention to when producing their own music, how are their studios setup? When working with labels, producing remixes or at live events, one thing quickly became clear to our host Rüdiger Keller: everyone has their own style, not only musically, but also when it comes to creating. This led to the idea … hey… let‘s make a podcast out of it! Talking with musicians face-to-face The concept is simple: each show features a producer and three of their tracks, we talk about their approach to producing, tools and techniques and most importantly: the fun of it all. It doesn‘t matter how successful the guests are. Rather, it‘s what they have to say that counts. We talk about…

Orchestools Piano S Piano S is a VST instrument based on the 1 gigabyte sample library „Salamander Piano“by Alexander Holm. A Yamaha C5 Grand Piano was recorded in excellent quality, which is quite comparable to commercial plug-ins. You can get a first impression of the sound by watching the video that we have included in the review via QR code. Piano S allows extensive customization of this already very good source material. Your own creations can be saved, or you can fall back on the ready-made presets. Equalizer, compressor and convolution reverb let you put the piano in the right space and find the right dynamics and frequency range to integrate it optimally into your mix. You also have access to up to three different layers, for example, to edit…

The spectrum of synthesizers used for the sample libraries ranges from analog classics like Minimoog, Prophet-5 and Jupiter-8 to rare rarities like the LAMM modification of the Moog Memorymoog and the prototype Apollo, which was only built twice. Also, digital and hybrid legends like Yamaha DX7 and PPG Wave and lesser known examples like Ensoniq Fizmo and DK Synergy can be found in the portfolio. Samplers like Fairlight and Emulator have also been considered. The whole thing is rounded off by an extensive mix of drum samples, whose sources range from Minipops to TR-808 and 909 to Drumulator and the modern classic Alesis SR. 36 soundbanks for UVI Workstation and Falcon The UVI-Portal software supports you during the installation. Here, you can choose which of the 36 sound banks you…

While most granular plug-ins are designed as synthesizers into which you can load any samples, Efx Fragments is loaded as an effect and processes the incoming audio material in real-time. This plug-in comes up with three Granular modes with individual setting options: Classic, Rhythmic and Texture. The Classic mode is the most versatile, allowing the creation of tonal and atonal sounds, while the Rhythmic mode specializes in tempo-synchronous sound structures and stutter effects. Texture is the first choice for enriching the input signal with harmonics. Audio shredder With a granular effect, even minimal knob changes can have drastic sonic effects. This makes it all the more convenient that Efx Fragments offers Undo/Redo and History functions. „Freezing“the input signal, one of the classic applications of granular effects, is possible in all…

Recording with the Lenovo Ultrabook Comparison candidate Number 1 is a 14-inch Lenovo Ultrabook. Studio One was used as the DAW for the test. With a street price of just 350 Euros the laptop is priced far below the MacBook Pro M1; however, its office suitability, in combination with the Full HD webcam, gives us reason to hope for a good built-in microphone, since video conferencing is one of the everyday tasks for most users. The Lenovo Ultrabook‘s microphone is located at the top of the screen next to the webcam, making the laptop much easier to set up for audio recording than the Apple MacBook. After launching Studio One and setting up the tracks, it was time to record. The orientation of the microphone was based on the Mac-Book…

Despite the relatively low price for sequential standards, the compact synthesizer in the Pro 3 design is lavishly equipped and very flexible in terms of sound. While analog oscillators and the filter of the Prophet-5 provide vintage sounds, the extensive modulation matrix in combination with two digital effects and polyphonic step sequencer also allows complex and modern sounds. Modern design On the outside, the Take 5 doesn‘t necessarily look like a classic analog synthesizer, but more like a modern virtual analog or digital synthesizer. The easy-to-grip plastic pots are unobtrusively designed and initially very sluggish. This is known from other Sequential synthesizers, but after a few sessions this changes into a pleasant turning resistance. After some earlier attempts with endless control knobs, Dave Smith mainly uses classic knobs with clearly…

With subgenres as diverse as deep, minimal, tech, Tropical, Tribal, Disco, bass, and Future House, House is an enormously versatile genre of music. However, all sub-styles have something in common: the pumping four-to-thefloor rhythm, which already set the pulse of the first house productions from the USA in the mid-eighties. Influenced by Disco, Hip-Hop, Electro-Funk and Electro-Pop, the creative use of drum machines and synthesizers gave rise to a rhythm-driven and enormously danceable musical style. At the same time, house was commercially successful early on and left a clear mark on the mainstream in terms of sound aesthetics and production methods. And this is still the case today: The sound of countless hits, for example, is influenced by the commercial, radio-friendly version of deep house. Between dancefloor and charts Without…

Philosophers claim that you cannot dive into the same river twice. But you can, of course, still try. With his new project “Variat“, Dmytro Fedorenko returns to the brutal noise worlds of his early years, but the music seems almost hymnal, the effect euphoric, the structures like distorted, sinister cathedrals that wind epically into a blood-red sky. In a way, a childhood memory was responsible for this fascinating vision: „When I was seven, my parents moved with me to a new outskirt of Kiev. There were only a few finished houses in the middle of a huge, endless construction site,“he recalls. „I watched for hours as workers pounded concrete structures into the ground with massive hydraulic hammers. There were always three or four active at the same time, creating dynamic…

Beat / A lot of current music is charged with „big topics“. Why haven‘t we as yet seen a single new musical youth movement based around them - similar to how folk, rock, and techno once transported societal ideas? Charlotte / Maybe it is about maturing? I am not sure if I could have approached these subjects and written about them this way many years ago. It takes a while to not take yourself too seriously as a person I guess. I really hope the younger generation gets there, too. Social media probably have a play in this as well, they feed the ego and vanity. Vanity and humour don’t get along very well. Beat / On a first listen, Topical Dancer really does work like a pop record, it‘s…

Audiothing Noises If the noise oscillator gets boring again and the premium library seems too oversized, „Noises“by Audiothing provides a super start into the design of individual soundscapes and phrases - the noise as an instrument? The concept of Noises comes from Hainbach, a composer who is known to work experimentally and likes to explore rare lab machines. His texture instrument, developed together with AudioThing, has a pleasantly simple structure even at first glance. It offers 22 banks of 1.24 GB of sounds, mostly from unusual electronic sources. Otherwise, there is a multimode filter, a two-stage envelope, a bitcrusher and an 8-step sequencer featuring eight steps. Admittedly, you will first browse through the 118 presets of Noises and even come across some rhythmic and melodic patterns. It‘s even more effective…

Audiotent Artist Kicks Kick drums form the rhythmic foundation of any electronic music song and can determine the success or failure of a song. Therefore, the choice should be well considered during production. Audiotent has compiled Artist Kicks from 44 established artists, ten significant kick drums each. The artists include Robert Babicz, Stereo Express, John Tejada, Joyhauser, Affkt, GHEIST, Alex Stein, Bry Ortega and Cosmic Boys. Many of the samples are heavily focused on Techno, such as Joyhauser‘s board-hard kicks. Some bass drums are heavily saturated, others clean and mellow, or transient and treble-rich like Blueprint‘s kicks. Verdict Artist Kicks is a cross-section of bass drums from experienced professionals, suitable for different genres of electronic music. Even though the price of Artist Kicks is ambitious, the quality is an asset…

Videos are currently circulating on the web praising the new MacBook Pros with M1 Pro and Max processors to the skies not only for their processing power, but also for their integrated microphones. In this article, we have taken a closer look at the microphone of the new Apple devices and compared it with the mics of a MacBook Pro from 2014, a Windows laptop and a „real“professional transducer - sound samples are included. Apple is, at the same time, one of the most loved and hated manufacturers of hardware and software. Professional users of the bitten apple‘s products have often been disappointed in recent years. For example, Apple provided fewer and fewer interfaces on its devices and abandoned popular developments like MagSave on its in-house laptops. In addition, expensive…

The numerous improvements in the new Mac-Book Pro models are made possible not least of all by the two chips from Apple‘s own workshop that are now available for the choosing. As the names „M1 Pro“and „M1 Max“immediately suggest, they are based on the M1 chip that Apple introduced last year, together with the still current Mac-Book Air and Mac Mini, as well as the now actually obsolete, but still on sale, 13-inch MacBook Pro. It was clear that Apple would have to expand its M chip portfolio. That two new chips were presented at the same time probably surprised most people. As did the naming. While „M1X“or even „M2“were very popular in the rumor mills, only a few people would have guessed that it would be based on the…

1 Technics SL-1210G Among DJs, the 1210 turntable from Technics has been a club legend for 50 years. As a manual turntable with direct drive, it adopts all the proven and mature technical specifications of the SL-1200G. A smooth drive with a constant torque is also one of them. The hybrid control for speed regulation with Hall sensor controls the rotor position. The internally damped tonearm is robust on the one hand, yet also sensitive. The tonearm bearings provide fine movement to ensure detailed and distortion-free record scanning. The three-layer platter design provides effective damping of vibrations. There are also three speed settings (33 1/3, 45, 78 RPM). Verdict The black SL-1210G is a high-priced but accurate, stable turntable that ensures precise sound reproduction. Indispensable for professional DJ culture, albeit…

Simply super – Get your SUPERBOOTH22 tickets now! Under the motto „BE SOOPER - Electric Get to Gather“, SUPERBOOTH heralds the advance sale of tickets for the International Trade Fair for Electronic Musical Instruments. The fair will take place between May 12 and 14, 2022 at the FEZ building in Berlin. On these days, there will also be exhibition tents, bungalows, concert and presentation stages on the grounds around the FEZ. In the main building and around it, 150 exhibitors with electronic music instruments have presented themselves so far. The anniversary event SUPERBOOTH22 will be extended for the first time by SOOPERgrail, a trade fair for guitar enthusiasts. Techno and electronic music are the basis of SUPERBOOTH, but the symbiosis with the craft of other areas opens many new doors.…

1 Straight beat The 118 BPM fast beat of the hit relies on style-typical drum sounds. It‘s a good thing that there are countless samples in the magazine downloads [1] with our software highlight Playbeat Lite. The beat is kept simple, with the bass drum on all quarter counts and the clap sound on every second beat. In the chorus, open hi-hats are added on the even eighth-note beats. 2 Bass: Oscillators The most concise musical element of „The Motto“is the bassline. Also the bass sound is deep house typical. With Xfer Records Serum [2] we can definitely do that! First activate the voicing mode mono. We select the wavetable “digital > gritty” for both oscillators and tune the first one an octave and the second one two octaves lower.…

Again and again, we receive your reader e-mails with the wish for introductory reading for prospective musicians and producers with a home studio. With our free Studio Starter, this wish has finally come true and this is a permanent solution, because you will find the guide as a download with every Beat issue in the future. The e-book starts gently with an explanation of plug-ins and their components, illustrates basic information about microphones, audio interfaces and mixers and answers questions such as „What is a DAW?“or „Where are plug-ins installed?“, before continuing at a decent pace, for example with a double page on the topic of synthesizers and their sound generation methods, explaining how a sound is created. Helpful tips for beginners and advanced users But even advanced users will…

Further info: Info at: www.audiomodern.com License & password: www.serialcenter.de Load sounds On the left side of the Playbeat Lite interface, you can load four of the included drum samples or import your own. By the way, it doesn‘t always have to be drum and percussion sounds: You can also load other short sounds such as synth basses, effect sounds or found sounds to create wacky grooves. The die has been cast! One of the features that makes Playbeat Lite so special is the clever random number generator. By clicking the big red button, the active steps, as well as the parameters Density, Pitch, Volume and Pan are re-diced. But you can also use the dice to set only individual parameters to random values. Playfully program beats In the center of…

»Do you have a clear vision, in advance, of how a new album should sound?« Apparat / Initially, there are always big concepts. For my current album “LP5”, the concept was to create the greatest possible distance from our Moderat project. It always comes out different than you intend for it to be. You have to go with it. If you fight too much, you kill the essence. That‘s why the plans you had in the beginning always dilute after a while and the relationship between the songs is more likely to come from the sound design. In my song folder, there are a lot of basic ideas that you could easily turn into rock songs. It‘s only the electronici arrangements that give my songs that “Apparat feeling”. Haelos /…

Rob Papen DelSane With original ideas, DelSane brings a breath of fresh air into the world of tape delay effects. The delay times can be set either manually or synchronously to the host tempo of your favorite DAW. A practical feature is the Equal Feedback function, which equalizes the duration of the delay flags for both stereo channels. The delay signal can be processed in many ways. First, there is a duo of high-pass and low-pass filters with vocal mode for formant sounds. Furthermore, a distortion effect and a frequency shifter for metallic sounds are on board. Another specialty of DelSane is the „Disrupt-Sphere-Slider“, which allows you to affect different delay and effect parameters simultaneously. This can, of course, be automated in the DAW, but can also be modulated by…

1 The initial situation Since my MacBook Pro decided to fall off the desk, I had to get a new studio computer. Since I travel a lot, it should be a laptop again. At that time, the new MacBook Pros M1 Pro and M1 Max were just released. For this test, the 14 inch version with M1 Pro and 16GB RAM was available. By the way, the microphone is installed in the left speaker section. 2 Our setup The „MacBook Pro Microphone“acts as the input device and „External Headphones“as the output device. On the monitoring side, the beyerdynamic DT 700 PRO X were used. These are closed headphones which, due to their design, ensure that the monitored sound does not end up on the recording. The signal can be levelled…

available on 04.05.2022 Feature: Synthesizer 2022 Budget purchase or luxury item, synthesizers are a cool thing! That‘s why we‘re dedicating the entire next issue of Beat to them. But we don‘t just present the latest new releases, from desktop synths to full-blown workstations, we show their special features and strengths for daily use in your studio. We also explain all the important synthesis forms from granular to wavetables, understandable for all, with quickstart patches for fast use in your next track. Review: Nanobox Fireball & Lemondrop Although they fit in the palm of your hand, the super compact Nanoboxes from 1010music promise concentrated synthesis power. Lemondrop is a four-voice granular synthesiser. WAV files can be loaded via micro SD card, which can then be processed with the granular engine. Fireball…