Innehållsförteckning för May 2018 från Computer Music

 Any realistic or electronic instrument can now be called up in virtual form, and performed using any computer and MIDI keyboard. Why not conduct a software orchestra, or play a grand piano from your laptop? Yet all of this technology is wasted if your basic keyboard-playing skills aren’t up to scratch. Piano lessons are the usual way to learn, but the majority of teachers focus on classical music. “Hone your skills on the black ’n’ whites” That’s why, starting on p22, we bring you the definitive start-to-finish course, to help you hone your skills on the black ’n’ whites – from hand positioning and fingering techniques through to scales, chord playing, synth programming and much more. And every tutorial comes with a live-action video (that’s 15 in total!) so you…

“Producers are using our products in ways we never expected” cm What challenges do you face when designing sound-design tools for gaming, broadcast and post-production pros? MC “Our users need to be as creative as possible, at high speed, in high quality. Our design aesthetic is to make this process real-time, and to minimise the distance between a creative thought and a tangible sonic result. The tools need to be CPU-friendly, stable, intuitive and compatible with industry-standard processes.” cm How is Dehumaniser tailored for vocal manipulation? MC “The modules are a combination of traditional pitchshifting, ring modulators, EQ, compression, etc, combined with more experimental tools like granular processing, plus our own Spectral Shifting and Scrubbing Convolution creations. We wanted the user to be able to easily combine and route subtle…

There are many different types of keyboard out there. So when buying, you’ll need to consider exactly what it is you’ll be using it for. There are hardware synthesisers designed for live performance or for the studio. These generate their own sounds internally, and thus need to be connected either to a PA system for use on stage, or plugged into an audio interface so the sounds they make can be recorded into a computer. Then there are the personal home keyboards, generally targeted more towards the home entertainment market, such as Yamaha’s Tyros range, with hundreds of built-in sounds, auto-accompaniment features and built-in speakers for monitoring in a domestic environment without the need for any additional hardware or computer. It’s a fair bet that most readers of this magazine…

Belgian waffle Traditionally, Belgium has produced some of the battiest techno around, and carrying on that grand tradition is warehouse veteran Tom Hades. With releases on Drumcode, Suara and Harthouse, he’s established himself as one of the Low Countries’ premier producers, so naturally jumped at the chance to have him make us a complete track from scratch in his stylish studio. CM: How did you get involved in making electronic music? TH: “I began experimenting when I was 12 or 13 years old. I had a neighbour who had an Amiga 500, and we tried OctaMED, which was tracker software – we thought it was a game! The process triggered something within me. I was like, ‘Heck, it’s nice you can get something out of a computer! It’s not real…

It’s easy to dismiss your studio computer as just another piece of faceless electronic equipment but, as computer musicians, our production machines are not only our equivalent of a musical instrument, but also our way of expressing our creativity. Therefore, it’s vital that we look after our computer with the same care and attention that a guitarist lavishes on their priceless vintage Strat, or a drummer puts into keeping their kit tuned. As software becomes ever more complex and resource hungry, keeping your computer fighting fit and ready to roll is key to making the most of your music-making time. After all, nothing’s more of a buzzkill than audio dropouts, DAW crashes or running out of processing power! To give you a helping hand with keeping your studio machine on…

Ronan Macdonald Having previously served as Editor of drummer’s bible Rhythm as well as Computer Music, Ronan is clearly the right man for this particular gig. He’s been playing drums for over 30 years and making music with computers since the 90s. Liquid funk, or liquid DnB, is a form of drum ’n’ bass intended as much for listening as dancing to, characterised by emotionally stirring, jazzy melodics, rolling basslines and the frequent use of vocals. Renowned exponents of the form include Fabio (who ‘invented’ and named it in 2000), High Contrast, Calibre, Lenzman, DJ Marky, Nu:Tone, Logistics and Commix. The drums in liquid funk are similar to those of intelligent DnB and other less aggressive styles, with chopped-up breakbeats and sampled live drums taking precedence over electronically generated sounds…

It’s been four years since Live 9 ( 190, 9/10), was released, and two years since the significant 9.5 update, so expectations for version 10 of Ableton’s ubiquitous DAW couldn’t be higher. As ever, Live 10 is available in Standard (€349) and Suite (€599) versions, the differences between them being in the bundled sounds (10GB for Standard and 70GB for Suite), the number of devices included (47 vs 69), and the fact that Max For Live, which is now built into Live itself rather than effectively plugging into it (meaning increased speed and efficiency, multiple outputs and more), only comes with Suite. There are some real gems in Suite’s soundware libraries, and it’s safe to say that it continues to be by far the better option. Live 10 makes a…

Back in 2015, Japanese music tech megacorp Korg teamed up with ARP co-founder David Friend to bring back one of the most sought-after instruments in the history of electronic music. Created in response to the gamechanging Minimoog, the original ARP Odyssey analogue synthesiser found huge success in the 70s with its superior stability and feature set; and Korg’s 2015 hardware remake brought all of its sound and functionality, plus a few modern enhancements, to a whole new generation of players and producers. While that was happening, it looked like Korg’s Legacy Collection of software synth emulations was slowly dying on the vine, having not been patched for yonks, and requiring attention in terms of new OS compatibility and AAX support. Recently, though, not only have Korg updated the MS-20, Wavestation…

LIVE 10 LARKS Some nice lampoonery from producer Kill The Noise, who’s redubbed the Ableton Live cm10 trailer with a very different soundtrack. Watching earnest musicians pour their souls into CBeebies-style bleeps and pings never gets old. http://bit.ly/2CYWk9d CARD TIMES Who’d have thought 20cm18 would be the year of the cardboard musical keyboard? First Nintendo announced one as part of their Labo kit, then the origami-style, build-it-yourself Kami-Oto arrived on Kickstarter. Just be careful not to get it wet. GET YOUR FREK ON What happens when Ikea and Teenage Engineering work together? You get Frekvens, a new music range designed for “getting the party started”. Prototypes are currently in progress, and we can expect the results of this partnership to appear next year. SINGLE SPEAKER (PUT A RING ON IT)…

We may be teaching you how to Play Keyboard Like a Pro this issue, but this awesome MIDI plugin can do it for you! Built by RF Music, Scale Player CM is an AU/VST MIDI effect for Mac and PC. Rather than making any sound of its own, this plugin process MIDI notes, turning your input into an output that’s always in key. So what is Scale Player, and how does it do its thang? Well, instead of passing the right scale notes through to your DAW, the plugin uses a ‘current note’ value, with different key presses adding to, subtracting from or resetting what that note is. It’s a different way to create riffs and melodies, but once you get the hang of it, it’s…

If you’re new to string or brass arranging, the term ‘articulation’may be unfamiliar. It describes the use of a different technique to play the instrument, achieving a particular sound or effect in the process. With a violin, for example, there are many ways to play it – you can pick the strings with your fingers, play smoothly with the bow, bounce the back of the bow off the strings, and so on. Each of these techniques or articulations has a name, and can be indicated with symbols on a musical score to give the orchestra an idea of how to play the part. When composing realistic orchestral sounds in software, most samplers or ROMplers allow you to switch between different playing styles on the fly via MIDI, to quickly change…

If you’re reading a magazine like Computer Music, the chances are that you have a keen interest in music and technology. But when Dave Clarke – the Baron of Techno, as John Peel used to call him – was growing up in Brighton, music and technology became much more than an ‘interest’. This was his place of refuge: a safe haven. They offered sanctuary when his young life was being turned upside down. “My family situation was pretty hardcore,” explains Clarke. “There was a lot of stuff going on between my parents, and I wanted to escape from that. Even before the invention of the personal stereo, I used to walk around with this giant Ferguson tape machine. It took massive batteries, and only had one tiny earpiece. It was…

“V2 improves on many of the features that made its predecessor such a success” Way back in 160, the Pro-L limiter plugin, from renowned Dutch software house FabFilter, bagged top marks in our review thanks to its innovative level display, simple control set and amazing sound. Seven years later, version 2 improves on many of the features that made its predecessor such a success, and adds enough new ones to easily qualify as a generational advance. Pro-L plus The first thing upgrading owners of the original Pro-L will notice upon launching its souped-up sequel is the new widescreen GUI. Pro-L 2 (VST/AU/AAX/RTAS) still offers the same range of sizes and, of course, full-screen mode, but now includes three new view modes for the central level display for which Pro-L is…

Despite the fact that, sonically, the best of today’s virtual analogue softsynths are effectively indistinguishable from the real thing, the beneficial organic instability and immediately physicality of physical instruments continues to hold huge appeal to many electronic musicians. Attempting to bridge the gap between plugin convenience and hardware authenticity, Trueno, the innovative analogue-synth-on-a-USB-stick from WS Audio, is a remarkable product, but also something of a white elephant. Let’s start at the beginning… “This analogue-synthon-a-USB-stick is a remarkable product, but also something of a white elephant” True believers On paper, Trueno does look like a pretty great idea. A three-oscillator monophonic/paraphonic analogue synth stuffed into an eyebrow-raisingly small USB-connected aluminium ‘block’ (65x31x7mm), complete with filter, modulation and effects, and controlled via a software front-end loading as a standalone application or VST/AU…

Ghost Syndicate ShinobiBeats £20 Shinobi Beats is 818MB of ninjutsuinspired loops and shots, “blending together hip-hop and future beats”. Everything is at 170bpm but with a halftime feel to the drums and bass – high points of this fantastic library. The drum loops are fierce, hard-hitting and nuanced, while the basses make great use of distortion and modulation. The FX, atmospheres and synth loops provide plenty of great melodic and atonal material, and the only downside is the folder of ‘sword’ one-shots, most of which sound more like bells and finger cymbals than they do weaponry. www.loopmasters.com n9/100 Sample Magic Paranoid Techno £30 This chunky, funky library centres on 17 sets of stemmed drum loop variations (332 files) and 32 cone-pushing sub loops, serving as the backbone elements for all…

HYBRID SYNTHS Our synths have been created by the best software developers in the world to bring you a suite of sound-making tools for all music production scenarios u-he Zebra CM • Blendable oscillator waveforms • Super-programmable step LFOs • Slick delay, reverb and chorus • Original synth designed just for CM • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.u-he.com Enzyme CM • Scanned synthesis sound generator • Easy-to-use preset-based synth • Assign parameters to controls • Based on the full Enzyme synth • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit humanoidsoundsystems.com KV331AudioSynthMasterCM • Dual wavescanning oscillators • Multimode filter and built-in effects • FM/AM synthesis modes • Based on SynthMaster 2.5 • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.kv331audio.com Cableguys Curve 2.6 CM • Design-your-own-waveforms synth • New waveform capabilities for v2.6 • Phat 16-voice Unison mode • Based on Cableguys Curve…

Secure and safe online access, from anywhere Free access for every reader – print and digital Download only the files you want, when you want All the downloads from all your issues, in one place Get started 01 Register your FileSilo account and log in. Even if you have a subscriber ID, you’ll still have to unlock each mag separately or migrate your old Vault account (see step 3). 02 Head back to the Computer Music page (filesilo.co.uk/computermusic) and choose an issue to unlock. You’ll need to answer one question to prove you’ve purchased the issue. 03 You can migrate your old Vault account over to FileSilo to retain the issues you’ve added – head to filesilo.co.uk/vault and enter your Vault email address. Reset your password via the email you…

Grand Finale Originally released for desktop platforms at the end of 2017, Klevgrand’s Grand Finale has now arrived on iOS. Designed to put “the icing on the cake” of your productions, it comprises a set of pre-routed modules (including compression, stereo width, EQ and distortion) with adjustable parameters, and offering selectable algorithms. When combined, they can be used to finalise a single track, a bus or a complete mix. For a quick, easy ‘polisher’, this is just the thing. Grand Finale operates standalone, currently available for £7.99/$7.99 (half price). www.klevgrand.se Ableton Link It’s not easy to achieve widespread adoption of a new music technology standard, but Ableton have done it with Link. This syncing system – which enables you to hook up a multitude of iOS and desktop…

We put your mixes on a diet in April/May 2008 (CM125), explaining why trimming them down could make them sound bigger and better. A decade on, we’re considering fighting the musical flab once again: we all have to deal with middle-aged sonic spread sooner or later. In News, we reported on Apple’s decision to let third-party developers create iPhone software for their new App Store. What a game-changer this would turn out to be! In fact, we speculated elsewhere in the mag that Ableton, Steinberg and Cakewalk wouldn’t get involved with Apple’s mobile platform: wrong on all counts. Still, we did accurately predict that GarageBand would come to iPhone. We also heralded Windows Vista Service Pack 1’s arrival. Heady days indeed. In Reviews, we looked at Digidesign’s archly-named Eleven guitar…

Scott Powell “If I own the software after a set period of time, I’m totally down for it. But like with Slate, where I’m just paying and paying, that doesn’t interest me at all.” Lee Whitfield “It would be fine for a short-term lease of an otherwise expensive piece of software that you only need on occasion, and in short bursts (eg, for audio restoration), but not for continuous usage of workhorse plugins. I have software from tens of separate developers – it would cost a small fortune to rent from them all!” Matt Black “I think they’re great for samples, because you get to keep them. But with software, I only like the idea of ‘rent-to-buy’ – I don’t see the point of paying for VSTs for a number…

1950s Jerry Lee Lewis (Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer) Little Richard (Rock ‘n’ roll legend) Fats Domino (Blueberry hill icon) Ray Charles (Rhodes innovator) 1960s Thelonious Monk (Bebop legend) Oscar Peterson (Blues maestro) Ray Manzarek (Doors keysmith) Stevie Wonder (Pop/soul hero) 1970s Herbie Hancock (Jazz supremo) Rick Wakeman (Prog rock wizard) Elton John (Glam rock royalty) Jon Lord (Deep Purple) Keith Emerson (Emerson, Lake & Palmer) Chick Corea (US fusion giant) Joe Zawinul (Weather Report) Billy Joel (Pianist / Songwriter) George Duke (Genre-hopping jazzer) Bernie Worrell (Funk magician) Jean Michel Jarre (French synth icon) Geoff Downes (Asia / The Buggles) Tony Banks (Genesis) Richard Tandy (ELO) Jools Holland (Squeeze, Jools Holland Big Band) 1980s Greg Phillinganes (Session supremo) Billy Currie (Ultravox synthman) Jan Hammer (Miami Vice icon) Thomas Dolby (Mad professor)…

SLOW IT DOWN If you’re trying but struggling to capture a really tricky keyboard part, remember that technology is on hand to help. Using a DAW has the huge advantage of being able to slow down the tempo of your tune. Capturing more difficult parts at a slower tempo, then speeding things back up again, will make you look like one of Jordan Rudess’ lesser-known cousins. PADDY POWER Generating notes from a set of drum pads, (such as Maschine’s note mode or the MPCstyle 4x4 grid of pads found on Akai’s MPK series of controllers) can yield interesting results, as it divorces the normal relationship you hold in your head between note pitches and the piano keyboard and frees you up to create truly random phrases. LEARN YOUR SKALES Native…

Korg Volca FM “I love FM synthesis. It’s so techno; so unnatural-sounding. I usually dial in a blend of detuned, out-of-tune tones… but eventually it spits out pure techy vibes!” www.korg.com Access Virus TI2 “This epic VA synth is so versatile; it can do literally everything. It’s nicely integrated as a software plugin, which speaks to the hardware synth – but on the hardware side, you still have all the knobs that you need. It’s hands-on straight away.” www.virus.info Korg Minilogue “I bought this thinking I’d get some really nice pads out of it, but it has a really raw sound – surprisingly, I’ve actually got more lead sounds out of it. I like the step sequencer, as you can do all sorts of motion recording and hands-on automation with…

VINTAGE CONSOLE EQ The Vintage Console EQ brings the sound of Neve’s vaunted cm1073 to Logic. We see four bands including Low Cut (parametric, but with fixed gain reduction), Low Gain (parametric, shelving), Mid Gain (parametric) and High Gain (shelving). Like others in the collection, the output model is selectable between that of any of the three included units. VINTAGE GRAPHIC EQ This one looks rather like an API 560 EQ module turned on its side, though with the aforementioned Output Model feature added. On the face of it, it looks like a cm10-band job, and indeed that’s what it is. However, a Tune function will allow you to incrementally bump the affected frequencies up or down by a full octave each way. VINTAGE TUBE EQ No collection of vintage…

A looping drum groove quickly becomes repetitive. That’s why I like to design clever turnarounds, fills and edits – even simple switch-ups can add tons of interest. Once happy with my core drum groove, I usually review the rhythmic phrases at the end of eight- or 16-bar sections, then switch things up by altering the existing beats, adding in a new breakbeat or sample, or both together. In this tutorial, we’ll see this with two processed breakbeats. For the first, I’ll make use of Cubase’s audio editing features to slice, reverse, pitch and filter. I aim to splice the break so it fits the surrounding track perfectly. For the second drum break, I’ll trigger it via MIDI using one of my favourite virtual instruments, Spectrasonics Stylus RMX. This time, instead…

“I recently read a book called The Great British Recording Studios , and realised that British producers have often had to work with limitations. When the Americans had eight-track, we had four-track; when we had eight-track, they had 16-track, and so on. That meant British producers had to make decisions about the music there and then. If you were bouncing down the guitars to one track, you had to commit. “And I quite like that. Commit to your sounds and your song. A lot of the time, I sample myself fart-arsing around the studio, then I’ll layer that with something else and layer it again, resample it, and work with that new sound. In the computer, I can fiddle around with it to a certain extent, but…

“Aparillo’s 16 voices are really meant to be stacked for wild ensemble patches” As previous offerings Cyclop (9/10, 181), Obscurium (10/10, 223) and Factory (9/10, 235) make apparent, when Sugar Bytes set their sights on building a softsynth, the end product is invariably like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Their latest, Aparillo (VST/AU/AAX/ standalone), is billed as primarily intended for “cinematic sound design”, and one look at its unearthly interface makes it clear that this is yet another curveball from the German developers. Aparillo talk Aparillo is a 16-voice, two-operator FM synth, with the operator parameters accessed in the Synth page of the tabbed GUI. The Ratio and FM sliders control the harmonics and modulation intensity, while a choice of three algorithms enable each operator to run in parallel; Op…

Waves’ clearly successful partnership with Grammy-winning producer/engineer Andrew Scheps (Adele, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jay Z et al) continues with the release of this all-encompassing channel strip plugin. The design brief was to create a comprehensive modular suite of processors to deliver the “classic definition of a channel strip” along with the flexibility of a “mixing and matching” approach. Scheps Omni Channel (VST/AU/AAX) is hardly the first plugin to do either – or both – of these things, of course, but production legend Tony Visconti already rates it as his favourite channel strip, and we really liked Waves Scheps 73 (8/10, 203), so expectations are high. Omnipresent Scheps Omni Channel’s five main modules comprise Pre, EQ, Compressor, Gate and DS2 , all of which are freely reorderable by dragging. There’s…

DYNAMICS Check out this huge collection of processors – from classic compressors to modern digital creations, we’ve got everything you need to shape your signals eaReckon CM-COMP 87 • Slick, punchy compressor • Mix knob for parallel compression • Limiter to keep the output in check • Clear VU- and LED-style metering • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.eareckon.com LVC-Audio Transector CM • Transient tweaking and saturation • Define and process envelope stages • Useful metering/display functions • Mix control for parallel processing • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.lvcaudio.com Audiority TS-1 CM • Flavoursome transient shaper • Set attack and sustain gain • Blend control for parallel processing • Based on the full TS-1 plugin • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.audiority.com Unfiltered Audio G8 CM • Get tight dynamics or creative FX • Includes advanced gating controls…

MANX XS-4 One of the few remaining commercial synths taking cues from the Poly-800, XS-4 was, according to the developer, likewise inspired by the Siel DK-80 and Suzuki SX-500. All of the above drew upon DCOs and subtractive filters. They certainly sounded of their era, and the Windows-only XS-4 captures that character quite nicely. www.manxsynthesizers.com OSIRIS SYNTHS POLLY8 Another Windows-only affair, this has been around for yonks. Created with Jeff McClintock’s SynthEdit software, it has a strikingly similar feature set to that on the Poly-800, despite the fact that the developer facetiously insists on never having heard of the thing. While it may not be pretty, if you’re running an older machine, it’s worth a shot. bit.ly/osirissynths MORGAN VISCONTI MORG POLY 700 While dedicated Poly-800 plugins are few and far…