Innehållsförteckning för November 2018 från Computer Music

“We’ll take you through the iconic sonics of old-school gear” To call the digital era we live in ‘revolutionary’ is quite the understatement. Only decades ago, professional music was made exclusively in high-end studios crammed full of expensive music-making gear, but these restrictions are now but a distant memory – all the electronic instruments and processors that shaped music through the years can now be had in software form for a fraction of the original cost. And what’s even more exciting is the fact that we can go beyond nostalgia and marry those retro sonics with the sounds of the future! But to keep music moving forward, you need a solid understanding of what came before, which is why this issue’s cover feature (p20) is half history lesson, half technique.…

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 Musicpage (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 receive,…

Reason Compact Reason has always felt like a great fit for iOS, and Propellerhead have finally released a mobile version, Reason Compact. However, while this does contain a touch-friendly version of the excellent Europa synth, that’s all you get at this stage. You can record, edit and export patterns as audio or Reason 10 files, but complete track creation is out of the question. More tracks and instruments have been promised. It’s currently free, but we’re guessing that may change… propellerheads.se GotoEQ Klevgrand’s latest app, GotoEQ, has a more traditional than usual GUI. That’s because it’s an emulation of a hardware passive tube EQ unit; there are four controllable bands, with the inclusion of continuous frequency selection meaning you can tune each band as you wish, and a…

“The Cray CX1 contained 16 Intel Xeon CPUs and cost a mere $25000” In November 2008 ( 132), we noted that “dubstep is apparently the coolest genre out there at the moment”, while exploring this mysterious and dark style across a 12-page tutorial. Of course, it wasn’t too long before we entered the post-dubstep era – electronic music genres don’t stay cool for long. In News, we covered Cakewalk and Roland’s Sonar V-Studio 700, a multifaceted DAW hardware solution that was part controller, part audio interface and part synth. At $4000, it was also pretty expensive. Speaking of pricey, we also discussed what Microsoft and Cray were calling the world’s first “affordable” supercomputer. The Cray CX1 contained 16 Intel Xeon CPUs and cost a mere $25000, and could even be…

AD002 Audio Damage Ratshack Reverb $29 In the 80s, the Realistic Electronic Reverb was a staple for strapped musos in the US. Despite the name, it wasn’t a reverb at all, but a bucket brigade delay unit. Audio Damage have modelled this battered black beauty in intricate detail. audiodamage.com HoRNet HDD-1 €9.99 This diminutive delay is a dead ringer for Boss’ DD-2, the first digital delay pedal to come to market. HoRNet has all of the flavour of the original, with dead-on modelling of the feedback behaviour, as well as the saturation and hiss from the original’s analogue bits. hornetplugins.com TC Electronic TC2290-DT $349 An unusual inclusion in our round-up, as this plugin version of TC’s lofty, luxurious legend comes with a rather slick USB remote fashioned after the front…

D16 Group Fazortan 2 €39 If you’re in the market for some of that same sweet swirl that Jean-Michel Jarre used to wrap around his synths, you’ll be pleased with D16’s far-out Fazortan. Modelled after two different hardware classics of yore, this sleek silver stunner offers dual LFOs with six different waveforms, as well as multiple tempo sync options. d16.pl u-he Uhbik-P €149 (as part of the nineplugin Uhbik bundle) u-he know vintage sound, but they added all manner of modern touches to their phabulous phaser plugin, powered by an incredible 42 all-pass filters. A metallic modulation beast, Uhbik-P’s best feature is quite possibly the fact that it comes alongside eight other awesome plugins. u-he.com Audio Damage AD008 Phase Two $29 Audio Damage make the cut yet again with one…

Softube Mutronics Mutator $149 Meticulously modelled on the rare and coveted 90s classic, Softube’s Mutronics Mutator adds the usual modern niceties such as tempo sync and the potential for automation. The original stereo hardware was used and abused by Fatboy Slim, Radiohead and Daft Punk. Yeah, it’s pretty much the 1990s in a box! softube.com TAL Audio TAL-Filter II free TAL make some of the best 80s emulations around, both free and paid-for, so you’d expect them to have this filter thing down, and they do – and then some. Initially released with a built-in envelope follower, TAL-Filter II adds in an exquisite graphical envelope designer that can be used to modulate one of seven filter types, volume or pan. tal-software.com Moog Moog Filtatron $4.99 Moog have made waves with…

Waves Aphex Vintage Aural Exciter $299 Waves have taken an interesting approach with their Aural Exciter plugin. Instead of modeling a bog-standard Aphex box, they’ve faithfully recreated the original (and rare) tube-based Aural Exciter. A few switch and knob tweaks are all it takes to quickly brighten up your tracks and mixes. waves.com BBE Sonic Maximizer $199 (with the Sonic Sweet bundle) BBE Sound themselves offer a Sonic Maximizer plugin in the form of the D82, one of three distinct effects comprising the Sonic Sweet bundle. Additional Harmonic Maximizer and Loudness Maximizer plugins round out the pack. bbesound.com Universal Audio Little Labs VOG $149 Little Labs build hardware outboard modules for the popular 500 series racks found in so many studios. Their Voice Of God module is a favourite for…

HARDWARE: Apple Mac Pro Focal SM9 monitors Adam A77X monitors Yamaha NS-10s monitors Neumann KH 120 monitors NI Komplete Kontrol Pioneer Toraiz SP-16 Nord Stage 2 Fender American Deluxe Neumann U87 mic Neumann TLM 103 mic AKG C414 mic SE Electronics Gemini mic API 550b 500-Series EQ Purple Audio Action compressor SOFTWARE: Apple Logic Pro X UAD plugins Soundtoys plugins Waves plugins FabFilter plugins Native Instruments plugins Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2 Spectrasonics Keyscape Producers Choice 808 Warfare…

“There are a few other things in here,” states Brad.“A little music box thing from Omnisphere, just played in and bounced to audio, so I don’t know what processing I put on it. Probably 1176! Initially, I put some MIDI and sample pack horns in, but we replaced them. One was from a random sample pack, probably off Splice or something, and the other was from the Session Horns Pro Kontakt instrument, that I just played in, added some delay, AudioThing Vinyl Strip to make it sound old, then EchoBoy from Soundtoys.”…

With the recording and arrangement done, the session was handed over to Dom for the next stage of production. “I wanted to add some kind of higher frequencies that would cut through on big sound systems,” he remembers, “because the drums sounded really, really good, but I thought there was just this top layer that perhaps was… not necessarily missing, but was just [needed] to modernise it slightly and make it sound good in a club. I used Pioneer’s Toraiz SP-16 and played everything in by hand, just as audio, until it sounded right, then I cut it up on the screen. “For example, this snare is quite trap-ish – it’s got a lot of top end in it and it worked really well with Brad’s drums, just adding that…

The hoover is without doubt one of the most iconic synth sounds in the history of dance music. We asked AudioRealism DSP guru Mike Janney – creator of Alpha Juno emulation ReDominator (not to mention the amazing ABL3 Roland TB-303 emulation, which is put to use on p62) – to tell us more. cm: Originally designed using the Roland Alpha Juno synthesiser, the hoover sound is iconically rasping and downright nasty. What is it about the synth itself that defines this distinctive timbre? MJ: “Any plugin synth that has a multi-stage envelope should be able to do the job; NI’s Massive is one example, but keep in mind that the Alpha Juno envelope is unusual in that it has linear and exponential sections. Also, the PWM Saw [the Alpha Juno’s…

IN THE LOOP Using your sampler’s looping features, you can take even the shortest, most obvious rave snippet and turn it into a never-ending sustained tone ripe for modulation and effects – also a great technique for synth bass. OUT OF CONTEXT Why not try making a signature sound from this feature using a totally different synthesis technique? For example, instead of making a hoover using ReDominator, you could use a wavetable synth such as NI Massive for a very different result. TURN THE ’TABLE Carrying on the theme, you could always load any classic rave stab into Xfer Records’ Serum as a new wavetable oscillator. From there, you can create an entirely fresh patch that still has a little of that classic rave flavour. SAMPLE YOUR SAMPLE Capture that…

Splice Sounds www.splice.com Starting life as Splice Studio, a cloud app for online project backup and collaboration, Splice Sounds is probably the most well-known subscription service for royalty-free samples. Search, favourite and download samples using the Spotify-style web browser, and download them to the Dropbox-esque companion PC/Mac app installed on your computer for drag and drop to your DAW. There’s a comprehensive search function that lets you hunt down samples by key, tempo and style; and you can keep any sounds you download, even if you end your subscription. PROS > Splice offers 2.5 million sounds from respected soundware developers including mau5trap, Loopmasters and Sample Magic. > The search function is easy to use, yet offers plenty of scope for advanced searching, including the option to look for one-shots, loops…

I consistently reach for delay and echo effects, my favourite being analogue-style repeats. Why that particular flavour, you ask? For its versatility, of course – from degrading feedback to smooth, sultry chorusing and flanging, delay effects provide an enormous palette of sonic colours that will suit pretty much any track element. There are countless delay effects to be found in software form. My go-to plugin is Ohm Force’s OhmBoyz – I know it’s been about for a while, but I still use it in pretty much every project – although the techniques I’ll be covering transfer to any equivalent delay effect, so don’t worry if you’re not an OhmBoyz user. Join me, then, as I explore a range of creative echo techniques. First, I’ll smother a dubby vocal chop and…

The extent to which Pacer can be programmed is truly impressive, although the old-skool single-knob-and-alphanumeric-display interface is a chore to use. Each switch (and the encoder, outside edit mode) can output any of a range of MIDI messages – all CCs, note, NRPN, Program Change, Pitchbend and Aftertouch. A switch can be configured to send up to six MIDI messages at a press, either at the same time or in a sequence, advancing through them with repeated presses of the switch in question or one of the others. Ingeniously, each preset can also be assigned up to 16 messages that fire when it’s loaded, so a preset dedicated to a particular song, say, could activate and/or bypass multiple plugins when called up. Individual presets can be assigned to switches, too,…

To help you get the most out of our immense plugin collection, we’ve assembled the Plugins Tutorial Bank, containing over 100 guides and tutorials for our Plugins, specially selected from past issues. You’ll find Getting Started PDFs and videos for most of the individual plugins, along with tutorial PDFs and videos on using Plugins for sound design, mixing, and even creating entire tracks. You’ll find all of this as a handy download from FileSilo – go grab it now and start getting more out of your plugins! www.filesilo.co.uk/computermusic…

We’ve got a new system for downloading files. Whenever you see this icon, you can grab the files on your PC or Mac by going to filesilo.co.uk/computermusic. Tutorials featuring this icon make use of our own Plugins – find out all about them on p107. This icon means there are extra files to help you follow a tutorial feature: project files, audio examples, etc. There’s extra video content wherever you see this icon. www.computermusic.co.uk computermusic@futurenet.com www.facebook.com/computer.music.mag www.twitter.com/computermusicuk www.youtube.com/computermusicmag…

Read the full article on p20 1 Emulating the Roland Space Echo with Outer Space 2 Classic digital delay with PSP-42 3 Recreating a vintage mechanical reverb 4 Creating 1980s gated reverb effects 5 Mimicking hardware tape flanging 6 Exploring the Eventide Ultra-Harmonizer INFERNO CM How to use this month’s free analogue-modelled preamp plugin from Shattered Glass Audio Read the full article on p58 RAVE SOUND DESIGN The nostalgic sounds of 90s dance recreated using cutting-edge softsynths and samplers Read the full article on p60 1 Make a Dominator-style hoover with ReDominator 3 Emulating a rave piano with TAL-Sampler SAMPLE SUBSCRIPTIONS HEAD-TO-HEAD See us put Loopcloud, Splice and Noiiz through their paces in our hands-on video tutorials Read the full article on p66 1 Replacing stock drums using Splice Sounds…

“Some people in the industry told us it was nonsense” cm How did Audified start? LP “We started 20 years ago as DSound, creating some studio effects and models of guitar stompboxes as plugins. Some people in the industry told us it was nonsense; that guitarists will never process their sound in software. Then we did a lot of other work for installations, partners, etc, but after some time we renewed the development of our own effects and apps for musicians. Our specific approach is in close cooperation with universities, where we actively participate in research and teaching.” cm What makes MixChecker stand out? LP “We hope that the idea of it is really original in many aspects. Its predecessor was originally developed for students at the Janáček Academy of…

Eccentric, often cantankerous, and bursting with character, vintage effects processors are – like everything old in the music world – all the rage at the moment. It might be easy to dismiss this affection for ancient outboard gear as yet another example of empty nostalgia, but to do so would be to ignore the euphonic character imparted by these old circuits. Maybe it comes from the quality (or lack thereof) of the components used to build them, or maybe it comes from the aging tubes and transformers that push and pull the electrons through their innards, but the fact is that some old effects boxes have a special sound that was lost on the road to digital perfection. Software developers know it, and some of them have taken up the…

Sknote DDD $29 It’s hard to stare into the deep, dark image of Sknote’s dead-on Dimension-D doppelgänger and not wish we had an honest-to-goodness hardware version of DDD to spruce up our racks. The gorgeous GUI one-ups the original, but the sound is nothing short of timbral time travel. Four modes, fat knobs and chunky metres are joined by a switch for toggling between mono and stereo chorusing. sknoteaudio.com Native Instruments Choral $69 (in Mod Pack bundle) One of three modulation effects in NI’s Mod Pack, Choral doesn’t look like much, but don’t be fooled – it’s a versatile plugin offering four different chorus modes, including some that recall classic vintage kit. The Synth mode offers Juno-style chorusing with a few extra features, and the Dimension mode recalls the famous…

Legend has it that John Lennon once asked producer George Martin how Ken Townsend’s ADT worked. Tongue planted firmly in cheek, Sir George explained that, “We take the original image and split it through a double vibrocated sploshing flange with double negative feedback”. From that point on, Lennon demanded “Ken’s flanger” at every turn. Hardly a song on Revolver escaped it. Sir George’s nonsensical explanation wasn’t all gibberish. A flanged signal is indeed split into two, with one signal delayed by a small yet slightly varying amount. This creates peaks and troughs in the resultant frequencies much in the same way as a phaser. Flanging is in fact a type of phasing, but its peaks and troughs are harmonically related. Eventually, mechanical trickery would give way to dedicated flangers like…

Slate Digital VTM Virtual Tape Machines $149 Slate Digital’s designer extraordinaire Fabrice Gabriel has earned a much-deserved reputation for his obsessively accurate recreations of legendary studio gear, and VTM is one of his best. This digital doppelgänger recreates both a 16-track 2-inch machine and a half-inch stereo mastering machine down to the very finest detail. VTM’s character has endeared it to pro engineers. slatedigital.com HoRNet Tape €20 HoRNet’s Tape is a right old bargain, providing simulations of four different tape decks, all for a paltry €20. Useful features abound, including dual tape speeds for each deck, auto gain with three different targets, analogue hiss, and output compensation that provides a constant level in order to ensure that your ears don’t get fooled by changes in volume. hornetplugins.com ToneBoosters ReelBus 4…

THE NAUGHTY BITS We’ve discussed many classic digital effects processors in this feature, many of which are prized for the character imparted by their low bit-depth converters. It’s easy to mimic these qualities in software, as there are plenty of bit reduction plugins available – many are free, while your DAW probably has one. Used judiciously, these can recreate some of the grit of those early effects. PAY YOUR RATES Bit depth wasn’t the only thing that suffered in effects processors past. Lower sample rate converters were often employed to keep costs down. Many a budget reverb was released with sub-32kHz converters (we’re looking at you, Alesis), and this only added to their charm. Your preferred audio editor might be able to perform sample rate conversion via its resampling function…

While making your own rave sounds in the box gives very convincing results, sometimes the end product can sound a bit modern. Luckily, though, there are a few ways to add that realistic, ‘sampled’ feel to your rave design. One is to layer noise under the sound to make it appear as though you’ve sampled it from an analogue source – vinyl crackle, VHS video background noise and tape hiss are all excellent for this. If you want to bring a more subtle flavour to your fresh rave sounds, however, try adding some saturation using analogue preamp or tape emulation plugins. Another easy way to transport your sounds back in time is to reduce their bit depth to 12-bit with no dithering. This’ll instantly add the kind of unwanted quantisation…

Producers take the use of audio files for granted. Primitive hardware samplers were bulky, fiddly to program, and only allowed a limited amount of sound storage. Skip to today, and the software sampler is an effortless part of the computer musician’s setup. And let’s not forget DAWs, which all allow you to chop, sequence, pitch and manipulate an unlimited number of audio files using intuitive editing tools. Back in those early days of hardware sampling, loops and one-shots were usually ripped directly from other artists’ records, but as the copyright claims came flooding in, it became apparent that there was a market for purpose-made loops, drum hits and synth recordings that could be used to construct new tracks without those legal hassles. To cater to this demand, the sample CD…

STEREO SWEETENING Mono or narrow elements can sound lacklustre in a mix, but delay can help with that. For imperceptible stereo width, I like to use ‘Haas’ delay: call up a stereo delay plugin, set the feedback to 0%, then pull both the left and right delay times back to 0ms. This’ll only make the signal louder – until you offset the delay time of either L or R by a few milliseconds (up to around 15ms), whereupon the source signal will appear to spread out to the sides of the mix. I then blend the dry signal back in, and sum to mono to check for phase cancellation. Stereo delay can also be used to add more flavoursome stereo content, or even reverb-style ambience. To do this, I’ll experiment…

At the bottom of the interface are five global function buttons (including Bypass) and a pop-down panel containing controls for a couple of them. Activating Distortion simulates the distortion generated by the current device as if the input signal was arriving at the SPL set using the Distortion slider in Edit mode. Noise mixes one of 14 sampled real-world ambience noise loops in – Street, Park, Mall, Subway, etc – for ‘environmental’ auditioning. The Noise level is adjustable down to -30dB, and, crucially, it’s appropriately filtered when used with the headphone models. The Mono button switches the output to monophonic, based on the left or right channel, or both, or swaps left and right, depending on the setting in the Channel Mode menu. Lastly, clicking Auto sets the plugin cycling…

The Plugins collection is a suite of complete, limitation-free instrument and effects plugins. It’s an incredible resource, boasting more than 80 pro-quality plugins that you won’t find anywhere else, all for PC and Mac, in VST and AU formats. All of the included software is created exclusively for us by respected commercial developers such as D16 Group, u-he, AudioRealism, Ohm Force, KV331 Audio, Cableguys, XILS-lab, AudioThing, Vengeance-Sound, Rob Papen, zplane and more. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Enough talking! Where do I get these plugins? You can grab them all on the cover DVD with our print edition, or as a download from FileSilo (see p5 for instructions on how to access). How do I install Plugins? It depends on the plugin. Some have dedicated installers, while others just drop into your…

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…

So how does your DAW know where to look for your plugins? Actually, it might not. Mac users have it easy, as there are OS-specified folders into which plugins are installed. These folders can be found by going to your Library folder (if you can’t find it, go to the Finder’s Go menu, hold Alt, and a Library option should appear). Find the Audio directory, and then the Plug-Ins folder within. There you will find more folders still. One will be labelled Components – this is where your AU plugins reside. Other folders will be found alongside it for VST and VST3 plugins. If you’re a Pro Tools user, you’ll find your plugins in an Avid or Digidesign folder. If your installers don’t automatically install the plugins into the proper…

MIDI MATTERS Good news for fans of nailed-down MIDI standards: the MIDI Manufacturers Association has agreed a set of specifications for the use of MIDI TRS connectors, which should help to ensure full compatibility between TRS and DIN MIDI devices. Phew. LIGHTSHOW, CAMERA, ACTION Novation’s Launchpad controller hardware is the subject of a mini documentary that explores the Launchpad Lightshow phenomenon that sprung up on YouTube. Check it out here: bit.ly/padculture SEQUENTIAL RETURNS Synth icon Dave Smith re-acquired the Sequential name back in 2015, using it on their new Prophet synths. He’s now gone a step further and rebranded his company with the Sequential name, bringing a classic synth moniker back into full active service. MOOGER-GONER They weren’t quite as iconic as the company’s synths, but Moog’s Moogerfooger analogue effect…

We were a bit befuddled when SwarmSynth hit the market as a commercial synth. Indeed, its unusual synthesis method draws on a mathematical model based on flocking behaviour, a natural phenomenon seen in birds and insects – an odd basis for a synth! Yet we can’t deny that this Windows-only instrument has a sound all of its own: brash and buzzy, quite aggressive, and often unexpected and interesting. The developer eventually released SwarmSynth as freeware, and the source code has been made public as well, so there’s no risk in trying out this chaotic and cacophonous oddity. anarchysoundsoftware.co.uk…

Soundtoys EchoBoy Jr $99 Consider yourself an analogue aficionado? Then investigate Soundtoys’ EchoBoy Jr. A scaled-down version of the original EchoBoy, this offers seven classic delay emulations including clones of the Echoplex EP-3 and Roland RE-201 Space Echo. soundtoys.com Universal Audio UAD EP-34 £149 If you have a UAD-2-enabled interface or accelerator, you might want to check out the EP-34, a spot on recreation of the original Maestro Echoplex EP-3. UA’s version adds nifty modern features like tape sync and adjustable tape tension. uaudio.com IK Multimedia T-RackS Tape Echo €80 IK Multimedia have likewise looked to the original Echoplex for inspiration. Here, they’ve provided all of the grit and grime of the original, adding tempo sync along the way. Wow, flutter and even US and EU AC line hum are…

Valhalla DSP VintageVerb $50 Valhalla head honcho Sean Costello is obsessed with reverb, and it shows in the stunning quality of the developer’s catalogue of plugs. VintageVerb wears its intent on its sleeve, brilliantly mimicking many of the most sought-after classic digital reverbs of yore. valhalladsp.com Universal Audio AMS RMX16 $349 AMS’ RMX16 was the very first microprocessor-controlled digital reverb back in 1982, and Universal Audio have recreated it in excruciating detail. If you’ve a UAD-2 interface and long for the lush ambience of the 80s, this one is for you. uaudio.com Eventide Blackhole Reverb $199 Famed for their complex multieffects, Eventide have won praise for their lush reverb algorithms. First appearing in 1994’s DSP4000 Ultra-Harmonizer, the Blackhole reverb is now available as a plugin. Great for ambient musicians seeking…

Kuassa Efektor FL3606 Flanger $25 Kuassa have earned a considerable reputation among discerning guitarists, and it’s easy to see why. Their quest for the ideal tone has fuelled a collection of stellar plugins such as their FL3606 Flanger, which offers three distinct flavours, each based on a specific (unnamed) hardware flanger, along with modern niceties like tempo sync. kuassa.com Sinevibes Dipole $29 Sinevibes are responsible for Flow, one of our favourite flangers, so putting them in this list was a no-brainer. However, as much as we dig that particular plugin, it is in no way a retro effect. Dipole, on the other hand is a proper through-zero flanger that can provide a wicked whoosh. This one is, alas, Mac AU only. sinevibes.com Blue Cat Blue Cat’s Flanger free French developer…

Fuse Audio Labs TCS-68 $59 Before the rise of affordable digital recorders, manufacturers of home studio gear competed to provide the most bang-for-the-buck. Tascam did the unthinkable with their massive 688 Midistudio, cramming a full eight tracks onto a standard audio cassette and providing a comprehensive 10-channel mixer. The TCS-68 accurately models every glorious link in that chain. fuseaudiolabs.de Klevgrand DAW Cassette $13 iOS, $40 Mac/PC Cheap ’n’ cheerful, this one is certain to wow your flutters thanks to Klevgrand’s meticulous recreation of all the dirt, distortion and dynamics (or, rather, lack thereof) of cassette recording. Choose your favourite tape type and noise reduction technique (or opt for none at all if you’re not after those particular effects), and adjust tape, head and motor quality for the full compact cassette…

Rave Generator 2 FREE Not only does Rave Generator 2 have 147 great rave stabs on board, but you can also mangle them to your heart’s content using loop points, a self proclaimed “awful” delay, and even some authentic Akaistyle timestretching. blog.wavosaur.com TAL-Sampler €64 If you’re lusting after the sounds of old hardware samplers from Akai, E-MU and Linn, Togu Audio Line have got your back. Their sampler boasts the usual filtering, envelopes and looping, as well as DAC modelling for that realistic 80s sample fuzz. tal-software.com u-he Diva €179 Still holding its position as one of the finest analogue-emulating plugin synthesisers ever made, u-he’s monstrous Diva should be your first port of call for the kinds of warm basses, rich pads and big leads that classic rave records had…

It’s now possible to keep your entire sample library stored online in the cloud, as opposed to having it taking up a big chunk of space on your local machine. In principle, this seems great, particularly if you’re considering using a service like Noiiz to catalogue and store your sounds. However, there are several reasons why the local sample library isn’t dead just yet. First, for those of us who’ve been collecting samples for a decade or more, it’s easy to rack up a samples folder containing hundreds of thousands of individual sounds – cataloguing that lot by key and uploading would certainly cut into your precious studio time! Also, there’s the thorny issue of internet access – if you’re somewhere without a decent connection, your samples will be tantalisingly…

MAKE IT MELODIC Although the example in this tutorial makes use of runs up and down the corresponding scale for each chord, this is mainly to illustrate that all of the notes in the scale will actually work over that chord. When applying this technique in the real world, it often works better if you try to avoid just running up and down the scales if possible, and instead concentrate on forming proper melodies from the notes available in the scale. ELEVEN SHARP The raised fourth in the Lydian dominant scale makes it a great scale to use over standard dominant 7th chords. A 7#11 chord is another cool-sounding jazz chord, made by adding a sharpened 11th degree to a dominant 7th chord. The sharpened 11th is actually the same…

Drums and distortion go hand in hand, particularly in the electronic music arena, where drum machines and sampled sounds very often benefit from the application of analogue saturation and/or digital quality reduction. Although the immediate implication of the word ‘distortion’ might be the intense, super aggressive overdrive employed by rock guitarists, the technique has far more to offer than just that, bringing life, energy and weight to any sound when applied with a less heavy-handed approach. There are many types of distortion effects plugins available, from analogue-modelling preamps, waveshapers and tape emulations, to guitar amps, clippers and bitcrushers, each offering its own sonic characteristics and features – this month’s software giveaway, Inferno CM, is a magnificent example that’s now yours for free (see p58 for details). Like Inferno CM, most…

Introduced with Nuance 1.7, PatchCloud was originally a system for tagging and browsing the factory library, and buying and downloading official add-ons to it. All of that’s still in place, of course, but now it also offers tagging and searching (by name only, not properties of any kind) of your local sample and preset libraries. Drag as many folders of samples into PatchCloud as you like to populate it almost instantly with their contents. Right-click a single sample or multi-selection and select Edit to open a hierarchical tag editor, drilling down through Type, Category, SubCategory and Tag. A number of suggestions are already in place (‘Keys’, ‘SFX’, ‘Wood’, etc) and you can create as many new tags at each level as you like. Active tags appear at the top of…

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 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 2.6 • AU/VST/RTAS, 32-/64-bit www.cableguys.com Synapse Audio Dune CM • VA and wavetable oscillators • Powerful per-voice modulation • 12-slot modulation matrix • Based on the full…

SUPERWAVE TINY POPS Cheap and cheerful, this is a Windows-only option that offers the Mini Pops 7 sound, but with control over tuning, amp decay, plus resonant filtering with control over both frequency and resonance. And that’s per drum! You can also adjust each drum’s level, toggle sustain and send its signal to the main or multi outputs. www.superwavesynths.com BEN ANDERSON V-POPS If you’re on Windows and you’re dying for that Doncamatic sound, you can avail yourself of this percolatin’ percussion pluggie from Ben Anderson. It’s a bit long in the tooth, but the sound is classic Keio. Here, though, you’re not limited to just the prefab rhythms of the originals, as V-Pops provides you with actual pattern editing. www.vstplanet.com LOGIC-CAFE MINI POPS DRUM MACHINE FOR EXS-24 If you’re on…