Innehållsförteckning för February 2020 från Computer Music

01 Register your FileSilo account and log in. Even if you have a subscriber ID, you’ 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, and log in…

SONARWORKS REFERENCE 4 “For us, audio quality is the most important thing when we’re in the studio. We have calculated the perfect listening position, the right monitor position, and we’ve installed acoustic treatment to get the best balanced sound possible. However, that never takes you to 100%, which is why we religiously rely on Sonarworks Reference 4. It measures the frequency response of your monitors and then creates an EQ curve to correct any remaining dips or boosts that can be heard at the listening position. The results? An almost perfectly flat response, and no one’s getting fooled by room acoustics or variations in the speakers. A great bonus to this is that if we travel to another studio, we can quickly deploy a measurement before starting work, giving us…

Plate reverb First invented in the 1950s, plate reverbs like the classic EMT 140 mechanically create artificial reverberation and have been used on thousands of classic hit records since. An electromechanical transducer driven by an input signal vibrates a metal plate suspended inside the reverb unit. Contact microphones then pick up the vibrations, which are then output as a line level signal that can be mixed with the original dry signal. The thing that sets plate reverb apart from other reverb styles is the plate itself. That sheet of metal gives a ‘shiny’ sound, as the high frequencies take less time to build up and dissipate, and – unlike natural reverberation, which occurs in three dimensions and increases in echo density as the reverb tails out – can only vibrate…

Darren might be best known for his dazzling beatboxing skills and mind-blowing live performances, but he’s equally serious about his studio work. The second half of his main Producer Masterclass video sees him dissecting his new single, 6am (Ready To Write), which features dialogue sampled from video of American comedian Joe Rogan. Put together in another absolutely enormous Ableton Live project, it’s a straight-up banger that fully capitalises on Beardyman’s characteristic mad humour. “I know this is a weird tune,” says Darren. “If you’re going to be making some dance music, you wouldn’t do any of that. There are other mixes of this that follow more dance music tropes, and that are better for the dancefloor and all that kind of stuff, but it’s kind of a skit built around…

ShaperBox makes use of a neatly-designed, cloud-based preset system, giving users access to not only the presets that Cableguys have created, but also a growing library of user-submitted patches. In case this gets overwhelming, presets can be filtered by ‘approval’, so you can restrict the list to just officially-sanctioned creations. In either case, patches can then be filtered by name, the Shaper used or rating. There are preset packs to browse through too, which bundle effects into categories such as Compression and Instant Remix. One of the major bonuses of having the five effects housed in a single plugin is the ability to load and save presets making use of multiple shapers at once. Trawling through multi-effect presets does, however, highlight how context-dependent ShaperBox can be – a great patch…

The mighty Hammond B3 organ is a true musical instrument icon whose relevance hasn’t diminished in any way over the decades since its release. In fact, regardless of the genre you work in, a good Hammond emulation plugin should be prominent in every computer musician’s toolbox, so essential is its sound. There are many software models to choose from, so how does the Hammond B-3X from IK Multimedia measure up in what’s already a pretty crowded market? Developed over several years in collaboration with Hammond USA and Suzuki Music Corp of Japan, which owns the Hammond brand, it soon becomes apparent that the research and development that’s gone into this plugin is exhaustive. Based on various different models of B3 from different eras – you can choose tonewheel sets from…

Vocalist and producer Donna-Marie has recorded several vocals for cm, to accompany our huge vocals technique feature, starting on p22. Donna-Marie has sung on several releases on imprints including Ministry of Sound and Clubland, and also runs her own independent record label, Climbing Mountain Records. filesilo.co.uk/computermusic INCLUDES Buzz Ad libs and chorus vocals Everyday Vocal Moonlight Ad libs Moonlight Ad libs and Lead vocals Shine Ad libs, chorus and verse 430 industrial-strength samples from both Cyclick Samples and Groove Criminals. We have raw source samples and plenty of processed loops in a range of different tempos. These are all suitable for a wide variety of electronic genres, or any music where a bit of impact is required. filesilo.co.uk/computermusic INCLUDES 30+ Foley and raw samples from a number of sources including…

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…

Roland JX-3P The JX-3P was an odd duck. Released during the reign of Yamaha’s all-digital DX7, it was meant as a budget-priced poly for those who didn’t need – or couldn’t afford – a high-end machine such as the company’s Jupiter-6. But priced for less than half of what a JP-6 cost, the ‘3P was not actually a cut-down version of the former, nor did it slot in with the company’s budget-minded Juno series. The JX-3P was, in a way, a precursor of things to come – the first in a line of programmable polyphonic subtractive synths with spartan front panels and optional slider-laden programmer boxes. Like the Jupiter-6 it also sported the then-new MIDI interface, allowing it to interact with a growing number of other instruments and devices –…

Download this month’s videos: filesilo.co.uk/computermusic THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO PERFECT VOCALS All the advice, tutorials and power tips you need to produce amazing vocals Read the full article on p22 2 Removing spill from a vocal take 3 Tightening up double tracks 6 Vocal editing with Antares Auto-Tune 7 Vocal effects at work 9 Beatbox vocals cm Producer Masterclass BEARDYMAN Beardyman in the studio talking about both production and performance Note: this video is only available using the link on page 47 Read the full article on p46 JMG SOUND HYPERSPACE CM How to install and make the most of this fantastic free plugin Read the full article on p56 cm/experts Our resident music production gurus walk you through their specialist field every Read month the full EASY GUIDE WRITING…

cm Give us a potted history of Soundspot. RL “We founded the company back in 2014, the main objective being to create cool products that would make a difference to people’s productions. Things really came together for us because of the skillsets that my co-founder and I brought to the table. He was a mastering engineer that had gone on to learn how to code audio algorithms in C++, and I was a producer and sound designer who’d also worked in UX design. This meant we could not only design and build the products, but do so in a way that we knew the end result would sound great. “We were able to build a lot of plugins in a very short space of time, and being self-funded, we had…

Kushview Element One of the easiest ways to play with your plugins, Element’s source code is now yours to tweak If you’re reading this, then chances are you’ve already settled upon and gotten to know a particular DAW, and that it serves as the primary host for all of your plugin activity. However, you may yet find Kushview’s Element to be a useful tool, particularly if you need a customisable virtual rack in which you can instantiate the plugins of your choice and rearrange the signal path at will. Ideal for stacking multiple instruments or creating effects chains for live use, Element is quick, intuitive, and inspiring. It’s also not new. So why is it making its appearance in this month’s instalment of Freeware News? Simple. The developer has done…

XLN Audio XO €180 9/10 cm271 XLN have already made an acoustic impact with Addictive Drums (9/10 cm207) and XO covers a more electronic brief. It uses ‘XO Space’ to navigate around an expandable library of 800 one-shots which you can then easily sequence up and export as audio or MIDI. xlnaudio.com Thenatan Trax $50 8/10 cm267 Trax is designed for trap, EDM and other dance production, and includes 50 eight-part drum kits and more than 400 samples. Noise layers add an interesting twist and while it’s really more player than manipulator, Trax has big charm for little cash. “An impressive library,” we noted. thenatan.store Zero-G Beat Master £56 8/10 cm273 This Kontakt instrument is designed for groove manipulation, so comes with 4,000 pre-sliced drum and percussion…

1. Vocal setup 1 Unfold your mic stand and attach the microphone’s shockmount to the top of it, then place the mic in it with the capsule facing towards the vocalist. Attach the pop shield securely to the stand, so that it sits around two inches from the mic. Then plug your XLR cable into the base of the mic. 2 Plug the mic into your audio interface’s mic preamp. If you’re using a condenser, make absolutely sure that phantom power is turned off before you plug in or remove the cable to avoid damaging the mic. With the microphone connected, switch on phantom power. 3 The key to getting a crisp, clean recording into your DAW is good gain staging. Set the input level into the preamp so that…

1 Start by copying your vocal to a second track and pitching it up by one octave. This gives you a shrill high line that sounds a bit unnatural on its own, but can be mixed in at low volume to add sheen to the high frequencies. 2 The most commonly-used vocal harmony is the third interval, sitting three semitones above the main line. As can our track use are is in C, C D, Minor E b , F, G , the , A b and seven B b . notes we 3 Copy the vocal to a new channel and tune it up three semitones. You’ll notice that some of it harmonises perfectly, while other parts sound a bit out of tune. Move the out-of-tune sections to the…

Online freelance agencies If you’re happy to spend a bit of money to get your vocals sorted, freelance recruitment websites such as Fiverr can prove invaluable. There are hundreds of session vocalists on there from around the world, covering pretty all musical styles, and able to write and perform original vocals for you at a reasonable cost. fiverr.com Sample packs Royalty-free sample packs are a great source of original vocals. All the big soundware companies – Loopmasters, Splice, Sample Magic and so on – sell vocal packs covering most styles, and you can bag free vocal samples from various websites, including our sister site, MusicRadar. Why not start with your free Donna Marie vocals on this issue’s DVD? Vocal synthesiser If you want to keep things synthetic, give Yamaha’s Vocaloid…

The framework of the rig 02.08 Darren’s rig is an incredibly complex-looking combination of hardware and software that he’s honed over the last year to perfectly serve his exacting live performance requirements. “I’ve made a sort of live production system based around Ableton Live,” he begins, “and this is the fifth – or something – iteration of my live rig. It used to be hardware when I started out – I was using Kaoss Pads, other things like that – and my gear grew and grew, and got heavier and heavier, and more accident-prone and difficult to manage and use. And every piece of new hardware that I wanted the functionality of would degrade the signal path further. So I decided to make my own software with Dave Gamble, from…

Most reverb plugins deliver enough flexibility that two or three carefully chosen models will cover most of your requirements. Inevitably, then, any new option needs to earn its place on your hard drive. JMG Sound’s Hyperspace might well do that, as when we first encountered the full version ( 275 9/10) there was clearly something rather unique about it, not least the fact we could easily tweak its settings at algorithmic level and then modify this with plenty of familiar reverb parameters. The result is a plugin perfectly capable of run of  the mill spaces, but also great at creative and transformative spaces. No surprise, then, that we’re super excited to bring you our very own exclusive version – Hyperspace CM. Conceived with the plugin’s developer JMG Sound and available…

The first virtual synth from erstwhile effects plugin developers SoundSpot made quite a splash with its bonkers £6 launch price, before rising to its full tag in December. Hopefully, you picked it up then, because if you didn’t, you’ll be kicking yourself by the end of this review… Union, man Union is a three-oscillator synth with a couple of key points that set it apart. First, the interface goes out of its way to make programming quick and intuitive – to varying degrees of success, as we’ll see. More importantly, though, it enables ‘rendering’ of Oscillators 1 and 2 for use as a wavetable in Oscillator 3. Bouncing synths down and converting them to wavetables is a popular technique these days, so having it built into the synth itself is…

Cableguys’ Shaper effects line has been around for a few years now, and has proved popular with electronic producers from many a genre. This is thanks largely to its ability to add complex, custom modulation to any sound source in your DAW, and all via its easy-to-understand interface. Originally released back in 2016, ShaperBox is the logical evolution of the range, placing all of these sibling processors into a single, semi-modular multi-effect plugin. There are five processors included here – available to purchase either as a bundle or individually – all of which have been updated for the launch of ShaperBox 2. For those keeping track, versions included here are, VolumeShaper 6, TimeShaper 2, FilterShaper Core 2, PanShaper 3 and WidthShaper 2. The applications of each of these should, hopefully,…

Launched back in 2009, Novation’s original Launchpad helped set the standard for today’s grid-based MIDI controllers. It can therefore take a chunk of the credit – at the very least – for introducing a totally new way of programming and composing music with technology. Along with Akai’s APC40, Launchpad then paved the way for a flood of similar clip controllers and launchers, such as Ableton’s Push, Livid’s Base and Akai’s Force. However, things in this controller market have clearly moved on a lot since then, so how does the new Launchpad X measure up to the current crop of competitors? The range “The Launchpad can take some credit for introducing a new way of programming and composing music” The Launchpad X sits in the middle of the current Novation Launchpad…

The key to the traditional Hammond sound, the Leslie rotating speaker cabinet is almost as important as the organ itself. For the Leslie component of the B-3X, IK drew on their existing product range, employing the same speaker emulation technology found in the Leslie Collection for Amplitube and T-Racks. You get to choose the mic distance and orientation – 90 or 180 degrees – and adjust the balance, slow and fast speeds and acceleration and deceleration rates of the spinning horns and the rotating drum, all with surgical precision. There are seven types of amp (plus an eighth No Amp option), three of which – the 122, 122A and 147 models – offer a high-pass filter up to 200Hz. These can be combined with five different types of modelled Leslie…

Audiomodern Playbeat €49 (PC/Mac); £7 (iOS) Web audiomodern.com Format PC/Mac, VST/AU/AAX/standalone; iOS This friendly drum and percussion sequencer lets you load your own one-shot samples (none are included, unexpectedly) onto each of its four tracks, then either program your patterns manually or hit one of four ‘dice’ buttons to randomise the number and positions of active Steps, Pitch, Volume or all of the above. This randomisation can be applied to one track at a time or all four at once – there’s no way to select two or three, although you can copy patterns between tracks – and is apparently generated using “algorithmic and random procedures”. It all just seems, well, random to us – we certainly don’t detect the influence of any artificial intelligence at work, and if…

ROLAND JX-3P If you’re looking for a software clone of the JX-3P, you might as well look to Roland themselves. As mentioned in the text, they’ve added a JX-3P to their Cloud service, beefing it up with some welcome extras, not least being more modulation options courtesy of a second ADSR. There are also loads more effects in tow. rolandcloud.com ARTURIA JUP-8V Arturia’s ever-expanding collection of exemplary emulations has counted a Jupiter-8 knock-off for yonks, and though the name has changed, the qualities we’ve come to expect are all still firmly in place. Like the instrument that inspired it, the Jup-8V offers far more than did the JX-3P, but both are dripping with that awesome 80s aesthetic. arturia.com TAL SOFTWARE TAL-U-NO-LX TAL Software is something of a go-to resource for…

Plugins Install Hyperspace CM, plus the full suite of cm Mac and PC plugins Tutorial Videos See and hear exactly how it’s done with our expert video guides Samples Download this month’s exclusive packs and power up your tunes Tutorial Files Follow along in your DAW with WAVs, project files, MIDI clips and more Log in at filesilo.co.uk/computermusic Register this issue for instant access to our plugins, samples, videos and files on your desktop computer Free for digital readers, too! Read on your tablet, download on your computer…

Steinberg Cubase 10.5 The historic DAW’s latest update adds more than its numbering suggests No longer the mildly controversial move it once was, Steinberg have been providing paid point releases for Cubase for a while now, adding supplementary new features and functions to their stalwart DAW while not quite qualifying as full-on ‘new versions’. The latest, Cubase 10.5, adds a sizeable number of improvements and enhancements that certainly make it look like a compelling upgrade on paper. First, you get a whole new plugin in the shape of MultiTap Delay – a delay effect “made for musicians”. With up to eight position-, level- and pan-adjustable taps, a choice of character algorithms (classic, clean, etc), this looks to have the core functionality nailed, but it’s the 14 built-in effects – Reverb,…

The calendar has just rolled past the time when Blade Runner was meant to have taken place, so it’s fitting that we select a synth named after the android maker with which the movie is concerned. Initially pitched as a hardware synth, this collaboration between u-he and Amazona. de has found its way into many a plugin folder thanks to its classic dual-oscillator+multimode filter design. Throw in a pair each of LFOs and envelope generators, a mod matrix and a dollop of effects processing and you have everything you need to make nearly any classic synth sound. And as it’s a u-he synth, you know the sound won’t let you down.…

“We can use the proximity effect in the pursuit of a great vocal sound” Ever wondered why radio DJs often seem to have really deep voices? That’s down to the proximity effect. The closer a sound source is to a directional mic, the more the bass response is emphasised – up to a 16dB increase under certain circumstances – which can be both a blessing and a curse. Excessive proximity effect on a vocal recording can have the unpleasant effect of adding a boomy, muddy feel to the low frequencies, clashing with the bass and kick drum, and leading to mix congestion. Understanding how the proximity effect works lets us use it to our advantage in the pursuit of a great vocal. If you’re looking to give softly sung vocals…

01 RIDE THE FADER A great way to even out excessive dynamics in a vocal take is to use a utility plugin for manual volume automation, letting you dial back loud phrases or increase the level of quiet passages in a cleaner way than compression can. Don’t go overboard with this as it can amplify the proximity effect when one word has been turned up substantially compared to the others. A combination of manual automation and subtle compression is the best strategy. 02 SUPER SHARP ESSES You might find that using a de-esser to effectively control problem vocal sibilance has the side effect of dulling high frequencies across the entire take, particularly if the microphone used for recording has a very bright sound. A foolproof way to get around this…

JMG Sound Jason Gibbins cm How did you first get into plugins? JG “I have been a sound designer for quite some time, and in that line of work it’s common to push plugins to the extreme. I often found myself wanting to do something extra that wasn’t possible due to the limitations of the plugin. This is what sparked my enthusiasm to create my own.” cm As a fledgling developer why did you choose to focus on reverb? JG “I felt there were three kinds of algorithmic reverb plugins on the market. The classic hardware emulations that may not be particularly realistic but do have an undeniably beautiful sound; the accurate simulations, that make you feel like you’re really in that space; and then the creative stuff where the…

Union’s nine Master effects (four of which are also repeated as oscillator effects for real-time processing and wavetable rendering – see main text) are mostly derived from SoundSpot’s extensive range of dedicated effects plugins, the exception being the reverb, which is “modelled on analog hardware”. Comprising Filter, Equalizer, Delay, Dynamics (compressor), Distortion, Reverb, Phaser, Chorus and Flanger, each module boasts a full complement of adjustable controls, accessed via yet more modal windows, and its own bypass button (alas there’s no global bypass). Reordering the signal flow from module to module is done by dragging them left and right. The effects have their own modulation scheme as well, in the shape of four assignable LFOs, one – and only one – of which can be assigned to each parameter. Oddly, the…

Accessed via the Custom button, Launchpad X can store four custom layouts of MIDI controller messages across the pads, for control of any DAW or softsynth outside of the Ableton universe. This means you can use the pads to transmit notes and drum events, set them up as program change buttons, or configure them as virtual faders of the kind found in Mixer mode. Selected by the upper four buttons on the right hand side, layouts one and two are conventional drum and keyboard pad layouts by default, while three and four are empty, ready to be set up by the user. You can edit the factory layouts or create your own using Novation’s free Components app, a visually intuitive editor that’s easy to use and makes assigning controllers to…

When Klevgränd develop their innovative plugins, they quite often will do so with a pretty specific function in their minds – and their latest, Knorr (AU, VST, VST3, AAX, iOS), is no exception to that rule. This ‘bass vitaliser’ is designed to add presence and edge to monophonic low frequency sources such as bass guitars, bass synths and kicks. It does this using their own proprietary algorithm which uses a combination of filtering, amplitude modulation and frequency modulation. Check the boxout below for a bit more insight into what it’s actually doing to the signal. The interface is wonderfully simple (bear in mind it’s also available for iOS) and uses an XY pad for key parameters. The x-axis controls the processed frequency range (100Hz to 1kHz), while the y-axis sets…

Goldbaby SP1200 Collection $39 After the MPC60 Collection (10/10,cm 256), the veteran New Zealand samplesmith’s latest combines the previous SP1200 Vol 1 and 2 in a single comprehensive library, much of it remastered from the original files. A huge array of drums, basses, synths, vox and more from the eponymous legendary 12-bit sampler (and its SP12 sibling) have been captured through boutique and classic outboard, yielding more than 4000 one-shots, for use as is or within 39 kits and 17 instrument patches for Live, Maschine, Kontakt, Battery, Geist and EXS24. The sounds are so phat it hurts. goldbaby.nz 10/10 Loopmasters Bad Taste Recordings Vol 1 £35 The renowned drum ’n’ bass label puts four of its artists in the soundware limelight for this 1.7GB library (plus 900MB of…

To help you get the most out of our immense plugin collection, we’ve assembled the cm Plugins Tutorial Bank, containing over 100 guides and tutorials for our cm 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 cm 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! filesilo.co.uk/computermusic…