Innehållsförteckning för 10/2023 från Beat English

Hypnotic arps à la Plaid Audiomodern Chordjam Lite You‘ve got a cool beat going and you want to complement it with catchy, yet fresh and original chord progressions, but all you can think of are the same progressions. Welcome to the club! But Chordjam Lite puts an end to the dilemma and makes creating rousing chord progressions a breeze, I promise. Download: see page 9 | Info: www.audiomodern.com win | mac All serial numbers safely accessible: The Beat Serial Center To ensure that none of your serial numbers are lost in the future (for instance, in the event of a new installation, Outlook crash or disk crash), you can now conveniently manage them online. The advantages are obvious: The editorial team can send you targeted software updates, you have access…

Beat / Playing Techno by hand has been done before. But I still think it‘s an intriguing concept because so much of this music was based on the premise that machines are “playing” it. What changes if humans reclaim the performative aspects? ATOEM / It is a debate about who dominates the other. Is it the machine that can „play on its own?“ Or is it that without a human the machine cannot express itself? We like to believe that human intervention allows the operation of the machine and not the other way around. We are fans of live music, and we would love to see more artistic projects going in this direction. Maybe with the democratisation of electronic machines we will see more electronic instruments on stage in the…

All Roads lead to the Dancefloor was the title of the last Carl Cox album, published in 2011. For quite some time, it seemed as if Cox had decided to take this literally. For an entire decade, he devoted himself almost exclusively to DJing, reviving the fortunes of his Intec label and shining a light on young talents. As a musician, meanwhile, he appeared to have retired. Then, out of nowhere, there was suddenly a full-fledged new album, aptly titled Electronic Generations. On it, Cox arguably sounds fresher than ever before. Mirroring the versatility of his DJ-sets, he whirls through pumping electro in the title track, churns out euphoric acid anthems just a few minutes later („Get After it“ as well as the positively unhinged „World Gone Mad“) and dives…

1 Big makes small We opened a session with a backing and vocal track and added a large Room Reverb to the voice. In particular, when voices are meant to sound powerful, these same large spaces can make for quite a washed-out sound and also overpower the instrumental. A first important step is not to put reverb and delay directly on the vocal track. 2 Bus on schedule We create two buses for reverb and delay. On Bus 1, we add the Space Designer along with the large reverb room. In our case, we used the preset „04.2s Grand Hall Two-OST“ as a starting point. For the delay, we use the stereo delay with a setting of 1/4 left at „Note“ and 1/8 right. We set the send controls for…

1 Riser base We start with a Cubase project at 135 BPM. The goal is an eight-bar buildup, with drum fills and a Riser effect. As a basis for Riser effects, held synth notes have proven themselves, like the pad sound PD Cleaned Up [1] from the Zampler expansion THE ICON [2]. We load the samples with the root C3 and C4 on different tracks. 2 Synth sequence To bring the samples to the desired length, we simply place them twice in a row and create an unobtrusive crossfade with the X key. Additionally, how about a fat synth sound that brings some rhythm into the game? For this purpose, we have created a Supersaw Sound [1] with Retrologue (Supersaw Stack). 3 Generate riser This one plays a syncopated sequence. That sounds…

1 Chords & Arpeggiator Thanks to PAD PERFORM mode, MPCs can fire off chords with just one pad; and the arpeggiator provides instant melodies and sequences when needed. For our desired Techno chords, we use both. However, the MPC generates the chords before the arpeggiator, feeding it with the notes of the chords. We need this reversed. What to do? 2 Search presets It‘s simple: you can either use a synth plug-in that already plays chords and then only use the MPC‘s arpeggiator, or you can sample a sound as a keygroup instrument. We did the latter, because it gives you much more creative freedom. Load your favorite synth and find a good preset. 3 Sample presets Deactivate any reverb effects, go to the SAMPLER by pressing MENU+PAD 9, select RESAMPLE L+R…

HOFA IQ-Series Transient With IQ-Series Transient, HOFA adds a specialist for processing transients and sustain to its popular plug-in series. These can be individually boosted or cut from each other. But the highlight is that this processing can be frequency-selective. Five fully parametric equalizer bands are available for both signal components, which can be adjusted in two large displays. With two Threshold controls, you can also determine the dynamic range in which transients are recorded and visualized in the Time Chart; for example, to exclude background noise from the processing. The Magic Boost function, which boosts quiet transients more than loud ones, is equally useful. Here, you can set the maximum gain (boost target) of the transients, so that the plug-in delivers good results even with difficult source material that…

Nemesis is digital from the ground up and doesn‘t even try to compensate for this by borrowing from virtual analog. Over twenty synthesis types that can be combined with each other cover a very wide range of digital sounds, including the classics like FM, additive, formant and wavetable synthesis, waveshaping, PWM, sync and ring modulation. The basis is formed by two oscillators, each with a carrier and a modulator wave and parameters such as detuning, drift, phase, FM intensity and feedback. NeoFM, a mixture of the phase modulation of the DX7 and others, and the FM of analog synthesizers, is particularly interesting. Besides the classic sine, other waveforms can also be used for FM, which makes the sound design more flexible and also allows for more slanted and distorted sounds.…

After Behringer had already launched a replica of the Moog Mother-32 with the Crave, it was only a matter of time before it was the turn of the other two synthesizers in the Moog trio. Due to the logistical problems and the lack of components in recent years, it took a little longer, but now our Edge, which we pre-ordered in 2021, has finally been delivered. Edge is inspired by the Moog DFAM. With the Spice the Subharmonicon clone has already been announced. Desktop instead of Eurorack Edge comes in the same case as Crave, this time painted in a dark pink or rather purple instead of dark yellow. Again, not everyone will like the color, but like with the Crave, there are already third-party overlays to match. While DFAM…

1 Connect microphone Connecting a dynamic microphone is no problem with Push 3. Both versions, including the controller version that can be upgraded later as a standalone thanks to its modular design, have a high-quality audio interface with two inputs and outputs each, as well as an ADAT connection. All audio settings can be conveniently made in Push. 2 MPE These include Sample Rate, Buffer Size and Preamp Type. Load various MIDI instruments, such as Drum Kit, Bass and Synth. For expressive instruments that take full advantage of the MPE functionality of the Push Pads, go to Sounds -> MPE Sounds. Depending on where and how hard you press a pad, variations of the sound will be heard. 3 Route MPE data Slides over one or more pads are also possible. You can…

When you think of vocals, you usually think of samples or professional recording sessions with all kinds of high-end technology. We‘re going to take a different approach. Sure, expert tools, recording tips and sources for good vox are also included, but we‘re taking an alternative route: away from the purely technical side and towards the fun and creative work. What does that mean in detail? In this special we work a lot with the ubiquitous artificial intelligence. It may be hated and feared by some, but used properly it offers many benefits and facilitations, and it makes good vocals accessible even to those who don‘t have vocal artists in the neighborhood. Above all, AI doesn‘t make humans obsolete, because it is a functional tool that wants to be used by…

Hands-on: Step 1 of the four-point plan Find inspiration & lyrics ChatGPT is very popular at the moment and Google‘s Bard is the next „questionable encyclopedia“. But the AIs not only know clever answers to all kinds of questions, they can also - as in our Melody Masterclass special in the last issue - compose melodies or entire works that can then be loaded into the DAW as MIDI files. But even this is not the end of the story, because the helpers can also write entire song lyrics and give inspiring tips when you‘re running out of ideas. Hands-on: Step 3 of the four-point plan How lyrics become vocals - part 2 Uberduck and Tuna use ready-made rhythms and melodies and are therefore a good introduction to the „virtual…

Beat / What does Valicon mean and how many studios does the company include? Bernd / The name Valicon comes from Tommy Remm and means various linked contacts. René / There are three main studios in total. These are Valicon Studio 1 in Berlin, Valicon Studio 3 and Klangweberei Valicon Studio 4 in Franconia. The Brix Studio 2 is currently no longer available. Beat / How did Valicon come about? Bernd / Valicon emerged from the Turbo Beat producer team founded in 1991 with Ingo Politz and Bernd Wendlandt. We joined forces with Brix, Matthias Ramson, Tommy Remm and Frank Kretschmer and a little later René Schostak as the Valicon team in 2003 in order to jointly master the volume of requests for new productions. Also in order to be…

20% As a Beat reader, you get a 20 % discount on all plug-ins from Audiomodern until 10/31/2023. Just use the code beat20 on www.audiomodern.com. [1] siehe Beat-Ausgabe 2022/05, nachzubestellen im www.falkemedia-shop.de 1 Plaid secret recipe The British duo, Plaid, is known for their abstract Electronica tracks with wacky beats and original chord progressions. Just think of „At Last“ „Ralome“ or „Zeal“. Chordjam Lite can deliver similarly fresh and surprising chord progressions and arpeggios. First, load a polyphonic synthesizer that you want to control. 2 Load sound A simple piano sound or a pluck sound is a good choice here. We choose Synapse Audio DUNE 3 using the „Sparkling Pluck RH“ preset. Then, load Chordjam Lite as a virtual instrument. Select the MIDI output of Chordjam Lite as MIDI input on your…

1 Check intonation After the vocal track is recorded, load the Tuner audio effect into the track. If you now play back the recording, you can follow the intonation of the vocals in the tuner. Here, you can see exactly whether the pitch was hit accurately or how far it deviates. The distance of an equal semitone is always 100 cents. 2 Isolate tones The Tuner displays deviations of up to 50 cents to the right and left of the determined note. Fluctuations around the central note are normal and are called intonation. Sometimes the targeted note is not hit and it sounds off-key. If you hear or see such notes, isolate them by making a cut to the left and right of them. 3 Interpret display To see more precisely how…

1 Chance would be nice Apart from Beat Map, Reason‘s players do not offer any inputs. So all parameters remain static unless they are changed by hand. It‘s boring, really, because when you‘re looking for new ideas, a few more or less random modulations here and there would be nice, wouldn‘t it? Yes! And with a little trick it even works! 2 Combinator works! The trick is called Combinator. Load one of these into your rack and into it an instance of Scales & Chords, as well as a synth. When you play a note, the synth is fed with the selected chord. However, we would like this chord to change randomly. To do this, open the editor in the Combinator and click ScaleChord in the left window. 3 Sources & Targets…

1 Arpeggio The Fender Telecaster is used a lot in genres like Rock, Country and Blues. Shreddage 3: Telos offers numerous suitable presets, but we feel more like Ambient Dream Pop. Load the snapshot „Telos Ambient World“, which is best suited for floating arpeggios. Use the key switch C0 to activate the desired sustain articulation. 2 Customize sound An overview of the playing styles can be found on the Articulations Page. The sequence shown here is a good basis for a small arrangement. On the Main Page of Telos, you can switch between the pickups with the Signal Switch and layer up to four guitar samples using Multi Tracking for a particularly dense sound. 3 Ambient sound clouds You like it even more atmospheric? Switch to the Console and load Galois Reverb into…

The previous versions already offered effects that are also included in FX Collection 4. At the beginning, there were emulations of legendary compressors, delays, reverbs, preamps and filters in the 3-piece bundle. In Version 2, they added three modulation effects including the classic Roland Chorus. There were also useful bus effects for group and master tracks, which, in addition to compressor and equalizer, included the universally applicable Bus FORCE combination effect, which was not modeled on any known hardware effect. Bus FORCE has currently been given a practical Overdrive Gain Compensation control, as well as adjustable oversampling together with the Spring Reverb 636. Version 3 also featured a homegrown product, Efx FRAGEMENTS, which is based on Granular Synthesis and can create Glitch, Stutter and Experimental textures from the simplest audio…

1 Choose sounds First, you need three sound samples. For these, you can use short samples that represent a sound at different stages, for example, a vocal tone that changes from the vowel O to the vowel A. Then, create a MIDI track with a Sampler. Load the sound that represents the final stage of the sound series into the Sampler. 2 Create a rack Select Loop Forward under Sustain Mode. In Live, go to the Sample Editor and select a suitable starting point. Next, set Loop Start and Loop End so that the sound loops as smoothly as possible while the pad is held. Group the Sampler and then open the Chain List. Drag two more Samplers into the Chain List, each as a separate Chain. 3 Tuning samples Load the sound…

Hip-Hop is more than music, Hip-Hop is culture – and an incredibly big one at that, which has long since outgrown the underground and, with acts like Eminem, has found a firm place at the top of the mainstream. In our huge feature, we interview the hottest acts and look over their shoulders as they produce and give you all the tools and tricks you need to write exquisite raps as well as for contemporary lo-fi sound and classic sampling & turntablism hip-hop with a 12-bit aesthetic. Test: IK Multimedia UNO Synth Pro X The third stage of UNO Synth eliminates some criticisms of the predecessors and offers more elements for intuitive control of the paraphonic synth with three oscillators and two filters as well as buttons instead of a…

Nautilus synthesizer workstation from Korg-now with aftertouch Nautilus AT is the latest synthesizer workstation from Korg, which now features a keyboard with aftertouch in addition to the Nautlus series model. The aftertouch model is available with 61 light-weight keys, as well as an 88-key variant with a hammer action keyboard. The sound generation is based on nine synthesis engines. Depending on the synthesis, up to 200 voices can be played polyphonically. Another difference from the Nautilus is that the existing presets have been reworked to allow for aftertouch control. Also on board are a 16-track MIDI sequencer and 16-track audio recorder, an arpeggiator, and 16 effects processors. A 7-inch TouchView display is provided for detailed operation of all settings. The number of analog outputs is six. A software bundle of…

1 Text from AI Let‘s start with the lyrics: Sometimes it‘s time pressure, sometimes a lack of enthusiasm or just Monday - the reasons why no lyrics come about are variable. But the cool thing is: it doesn‘t matter! Because sometimes others can work for you - in this case the AI. Whether you prefer to use ChatGPT or Google Bard doesn‘t matter for this purpose. 2 Few words lots of output Log in to the appropriate platform in your browser (chat.openai.com or bard.google.com) and start directly with your request to the AI. This could be a simple request like „Create hip-hop lyrics for a song about clubs, underground and urban culture“. So just a few keywords are enough, although more details always help. 3 Cool or not? Both AIs then deliver a…

Simply put, acapellas are pure vocals without instrumentation. These can be monophonic or polyphonic. The acappella style has been around for quite a long time. Its origin, as we know it, can be found in the polyphonic church music of the late 15th century. The term „a cappella“ is based on the Italian „alla cappella“. In origin, this means „in the style of the chapel“. Initially, this was understood as polyphonic vocal music, which was also supported by instruments, but whose accompaniment is largely identical to the vocal parts. Thus these served as musical supports or replaced missing voices. From the 17th century on, a cappella music fell increasingly into oblivion as a result of the cantata. Rediscovered in the 19th century, there was a misunderstanding about the name. Thus,…

Beat / How would you describe your interest in AI when it comes to music? Andrew Paley / My work in the space to date has been about visual accompaniment – images or video – but, as someone who produces and engineers and performs all at the same time, I love the idea of proactive mixing and editing assistants. Izotope has been developing products in this space for a while, though I have yet to feel like they’ve fully hit the mark for what I do. What matters to me – in music and everywhere else – is that these tools and techniques are aimed at human empowerment and expression and not human subjugation. I would love to see new ways for musicians to collaborate with AI in songwriting or…

1 Setup In the Channel Rack, we open Fl Keys twice with the Piano(Fl) preset. First, in the Piano Roll of the Sampler, we mark all the notes that we might use for our melody and, with the first piano, we create chords that will be the basis for our melody, which we then write with the second piano. 2 Ghost notes Let‘s start in the Piano Roll of the Sampler. It is important that no sample is loaded, so that we can use the piano roll completely without sound. Then, we select Minor Natural (Aeolian) with the Stamp Tool and copy these tones to each octave. This way, we can see which tones are in a key and can be used for the melody. 3 Focus and presence Now we write four…

1 Sample basics Melodic loops and samples that are at least one bar long and contain some movement or not just a static sound are well suited for this trick. If you already have appropriate sounds on your Digitakt, you can start right away; otherwise, you can find endless material in the booklet downloads. 2 Transfer samples Here, we want to use the Azhar - Mid-East Organic Beta Pack, from which we copy the subfolder Ethnic Flutes & Strings using Transfer to the Digitakt. On the Digitakt, we switch to the SAMPLES settings and load the complete folder into the current project using SELECT ALL and LOAD TO PROJ. Then, we select one of them for a free slot. 3 Sample slicing Once the sample is in, press FUNC+SRC, select SLICE mode and…

1 Load a stereo mix To try our remix hacks, you can use a song of your choice or our little Electro Pop track made from Studio One loops [1]. First, create a new project and activate the option Stretch Audio Files to Tempo. Then, load your track onto an audio track. Does Studio One not recognize the tempo of the audio file? 2 Determine tempo In this case, you need to determine the  tempo by trial and error so that the audio file is automatically synchronized to the project tempo by time stretching; even if you want to change it. To do this, activate the Loop function and adjust the project tempo until your track is in sync. Then, right-click on the audio loop. 3 Cut & arrange Enter the determined…

Here it is at last, the long-awaited second incarnation of the popular virtual piano, with a completely new user interface. This not only looks more elegant and modern, but is now also scalable. But what about the internal values? EZkeys 2 has been given a new core sound library for which an exquisite Fazioli F12 grand piano was sampled. This is one of the most expensive concert grand pianos in existence. Of course, it is a matter of honor that it was recorded with many direct and room microphones, whereby the hammers and strings were all miked directly. How does EZkeys 2 sound? While the grand piano from EZkeys 1 offered a treble-rich Pop sound, the new concert grand shines with a balanced and very detailed sound. In addition to…

Adam Szabo Solaris Solaris is an effect plug-in that can create a Shimmer Reverb. Shimmer is an unnatural reverb effect, as the incoming audio signal not only reverberates, but also changes in pitch. Even simple audio material can be transformed into atmospheric sounds, simple guitar chords into spherical pads and single bass notes into ambient drones. Solaris was created with the Flowstone modular system and is, therefore, unfortunately only available for Windows. But if you now think that the somewhat outdated basis is also noticeable sonically, you should pay attention to the developer name. This is because Adam Szabo has already proven, with his Access Virus-inspired synthesizer Viper, what can still be gotten out of Flowstone in terms of sound with programming skills and good ears. The first thing that…

The mixers and consoles of the renowned pro audio manufacturer are installed in hip studios worldwide and are known for their unique sound, which has shaped countless hits. For small studios, this sound was hardly affordable… until now. Fortunately, this has changed recently, thanks to virtual effects in your DAW. And even though the SSL UF1 is not an absolute bargain for a one-fader controller with a street price of just under 700 Euro, it should definitely be affordable for bedroom and desktop producers, too. The casing immediately leaves a very professional impression. It is solidly manufactured and feels valuable. In particular, the butter-soft gliding 100mm faders make a clear difference to inexpensive mixing consoles. The knobs and buttons provide enough spacing for comfortable operation, and the functions of the…

The AIRA Compact series started with three different instruments that are intended to complement each other: T-8 is a small groovebox and combines a TR drum machine with a bass synthesizer inspired by the TB-303 and a matching sequencer. J-6 is a four-voice polyphonic synthesizer based on the Juno-60 with various chord sets and arpeggios for interesting harmonies and melodies. Third in the group is the E-4 Voice Tweaker, which offers a variety of effects from vocoder to harmonizer and looper to a scatter for rhythmic chopping of the input signal. Inspired by the SH-101 The latest model in the series is based on the analogue mono synthesizer Roland SH-101 from 1982, which is known primarily for its concise bass and lead sounds. The SH-101 was not only present in…

The Mac Studio 2023 is here and has high expectations to fulfill. Apple‘s declared goal was, and remains, written into the product‘s name: This Mac is a computer for (almost) every kind of studio. For more than a year, I‘ve been enjoying the entry-level configuration of the first Mac Studio. I reply with a clear „Yes!“ to teasing from colleagues about whether I even know how to use so much power - but I secretly know that the chic aluminum cuboid is twiddling its thumbs virtually in everyday work far away from games, the hobby of „music“ lived out in Logic Pro, and breadless art in the form of photo and image editing - the Mac Studio is clearly oversized as an office computer. Against this semi-professional background, we ran…

While this resistance may not be as pronounced for an old home keyboard, the idea of improperly soldering professional vintage instruments with a soldering iron is an abomination for many. Fortunately, the veterans at circuitbenders.co.uk have come up with something very special for a number of Roland synthesizers. The Roland patchbox is handmade in the UK and, using the card slots for sample ROMs, allows noninvasive bending of classics such as the R8 and R8m drum machines, as well as the U110 and U220 sound modules (compatibility with the U20 keyboard and MV30 workstation can be assumed, but these have not been tested by the manufacturer and the devices were not available for this article). The inner workings of these instruments remain untouched. A card interface with SUB-D connector is…