Innehållsförteckning för April 2020 från Computer Music

SSL 2 and SSL 2+ interfaces Get the sound of a silly-money console in your DAW for 150 quid! In a wholly unexpected move, legendary high-end British mixing console manufacturers and software developers SSL have released a pair of audio interfaces aimed squarely at the affordable end of the home studio market, and trumpeted rather hyperbolically as “more than just an audio interface… the centre of your new Solid State Logic studio”. The SSL 2 is a 24-bit/192kHz USB bus-powered unit, boasting two SSLdesigned mic preamps (on Neutrik connectors) that, it’s said, boast “unrivalled noise performance and gain range for a USB-powered device” – specifically, -130.5dB EIN for the former and 62dB for the latter. A pair of balanced monitor outputs is in place at the other end of the…

ABLETON LIVE 10 “Ableton Live has been our primary DAW for about the last decade. We just love the way it inspires ideas and encourages experimentation. We use Session View as a kind of sketchpad to get the basic elements of a track together, before moving into Arrange View to lay things out and add the final polish. We’ve found that this two-stage process stops us from procrastinating at the idea stage for too long! The bundled devices are fantastic. About 90% of EQ tasks are handled by EQ8, and we use Operator on pretty much every track – it’s the sub bass bad boy! Some of the new bits that arrived in Live 10 – like Wavetable – have seen some use, too.” 2CAUDIO BREEZE 2 “This is our…

Sound design, and in particular bass synthesis, is a big part of the bassline aesthetic. Whilst you can use sampled basses to great effect, making your own patches using a synth will allow you to adjust the synth’s tone as the track unfolds, creating interesting variations on your original sound. As the sounds in bassline are very dense and detuned, it makes sense to use a wavetable synth with multiple oscillators as your starting point. Wavetable oscillators generally offer more harmonically dense waveforms, which can be combined together to create the attention-grabbing, complex tones we’re after. If you’re still struggling for inspiration, you can always take signature sounds from other genres, such as 808 sub hits, jump up DnB bass hits or rave hoovers, and work them into the track…

One of DnB’s sonic signatures is the use of chopped drum breaks to create some, or all of, the rhythm track. Originally, the idea of using sampled breakbeats as the drum track came from hip-hop, with breaks used in hip-hop such as the Amen – sampled from The Winstons’ Amen Brother – and Think break – taken from Lyn Collins’ Think (About It) becoming staples for most DnB producers. Want to use breaks? A great tip is to find the best quality samples of the break you want to use. You’ll find that most songs containing well-known breaks are available on CD, so you can easily make a perfect digital rip. Another tip is to put your break into mono by picking one leg of the stereo pair, as most…

Part of making convincing trap music is getting the kick and bass sounding on point, both in terms of the pattern and also how the two sounds co-exist. A good trap kick/bass pattern will drive the track forwards and rattle the bass bins, while still keeping it danceable. It pays to work on this with some attention to detail, as the bass and kick groove lays the foundation for the musical and vocal elements to sit upon. As most trap tunes mainly use an 808 bass drum layered with a kick as a combined instrument, it’s crucial that the kick is pitched away from the bass, so that the fundamental frequencies of the two layers clash as little as possible. While getting the pitch right is vital, it’s also important…

As with any electronic music, effects processing can be used to really print your identity onto your UK garage productions. The sound of UKG is generally quite glossy and clean, so picking effects that fit in with this will help massively; more modern processing sounds more authentic than dialling in some 1960s-tinged Abbey Road effects, for example. If you listen to some of the example tracks we’ve mentioned earlier, you’ll hear that the effects used have an expensive, lush sound that works particularly well with the more musical, vocal-driven side of the UKG coin, but also works really nicely for more underground, minimal-sounding tracks such as Agent X’s club classic Decoy. To evoke the timbre of underground UKG classics even more, try drawing for some processing that emulates the kit…

> Step by step Various methods to get a solid and punchy house kick 1 Layering two kicks together is an oft-used but great trick for adding more character, with one for the ‘knock’ and another for more body. 2 The Fabfilter Saturn is used to add some bite to the mids of the second kick by adding subtle saturation. 3 Jansons uses two EQs when it comes to shaping the kicks, the first is his go-to Fabfilter Pro-Q 3 (in this case, the older Q 2 as this is an older project). 4 The other EQ favourite is Slate Digital’s FG-A and here Jansons uses it to boost at around 40Hz and also add some extras in the upper mids. 5 Native Instruments’ Transient Master is used to control…

> Step by step Excellent vocal processing tips to make your singing stand out 1 Jansons spent time automating the volume of the vocal by hand, manually reducing any peaks or increasing any troughs to level the vocal recording out. 2 In this case Jansons also took Nisha’s vocal, copied it twice, double-tracked it and pitched it 12 notes down, reducing the volume to add some subtle thickness to the resulting track. 3 After trialling the vocal in the club, Jansons decided he needed to process the vocal to make it punch through, so turn to Slate Digital plugins. 4 Soundtoys’ EchoBoy is another of Jansons favourite plugins for vocal processing, adding width to Nisha’s vocal. 5 Yet another Soundtoys favourite, AlterBoy is added to give the vocal more body…

As the new decade begins, we find ourselves smack-bang in the midst of a full blown synthesis frenzy. Never before have so many musicians had access to the tools required to make electronic music. There are more synths available than ever, and even the once lofty and unobtainable modular synth is now readily available for any and all comers. It’s easy to be overwhelmed and intimidated by the sheer number of choices and cryptic jargon, especially in the world of modular synthesis. So how does one begin to make sense of it all? Sure, a newcomer can make a pretty good show of randomly plugging in cables and twisting knobs until something interesting comes out. But wouldn’t it be better to take command of one’s tools, creating and shaping sound…

Steinberg’s Cubasis was one of the original fully-featured iPad DAWs, offering as near a desktop music production experience as you could wish for, and all with the wonders of iOS touch control. It’s always been an expensive option for iPad musicians – who are used to paying single figures for apps – but also one of the most pro; this is Steinberg after all. The latest version 3 includes many new features like Group Tracks, rearrangeable insert and send effects, a whole bunch of new effect presets and an improved mixer. But the biggest news is that Cubasis now runs on an iPhone. Steinberg claim that the experience on this device is as good as that on the iPad so that when inspiration strikes on the road, you can start…

Taking up considerably more space than it needs to in the middle of the Rhythmiq interface, the AI-driven Beat Assistant is a sort of ‘virtual drummer’ that essentially takes command of the Arrange, Reverse and Silence knobs for auto-accompaniment purposes or general generative shenanigans. The IQ Arrange knob sets a range within which the stem Arrange knobs automatically self-adjust in order to generate gently evolving patterns. Thoughtfully, it can be bypassed for individual stems, so you can ensure your four-to-the-floor kick or backbeat snare isn’t interrupted. Activating IQ Evolve hands governance of the Arrange and Reverse Evolve buttons over to the whims of the AI, which will spookily ‘click’ them whenever it decides a change is called for. IQ Reverse, meanwhile, is rather less impressive in its braininess. It just…

PercX’s MIDI editor is a full-on piano roll affair, but with the Y-axis representing each instrument’s enormous stack of robin samples, rather than pitched notes. By default, the editor gives a detailed view of the selected track’s MIDI data, but clicking the ‘All’ button switches to a multitrack view, showing the ‘flattened’ hits in place on all eight lanes, like a traditional drum editor. A track can house up to four switchable sequences, all running up to 32 bars in length, and you’re free to mix up sequence lengths and time signatures within a kit for polyrhythmic fun and games. The dedicated Velocity lane at the bottom works exactly as expected, and the track’s Volume, Pan and three Shaper FX can be modulated by velocity and/or a dedicated multistage envelope…

No matter what software you use, the results of all your music making must be heard through either accurate studio monitors or decent headphones. If your ’phones or monitors are not delivering your mix to you with this honesty, you’ll mix it incorrectly, and it will sound bad on any other playback system. That’s the theory. The other part of this theory is that ‘proper’ studio speakers cost a fortune. Luckily, that part of the theory has been challenged more and more over recent years… You can go cheap Recent monitors from JBL, Adam, Eve and others have proven that you can get accurate speakers at lower costs. Another company who have made bold claims on a budget are Presonus, and their Eris range certainly turned a few heads when…

Soundevice Digital Verbum Entropic Hall €119 Web unitedplugins.com Format PC/Mac, VST/AU/AAX The third plugin by Soundevice, under the United Plugins umbrella brand, is an algorithmic reverb effect inspired by vintage digital hardware, but equally able to deliver a clean, modern sound. Its other big selling point is its “advanced late reflections treatment algorithm”, which introduces ear-pleasing randomness to the tail. All the standard reverb parameters are in place, but you get two predelay settings – one (up to 250ms) for the early reflections, and another (up to 200ms, added to the ER predelay) for the late reflections. The LR decay time ranges from 200ms-10s; the Size control determines the perceived scale of the late reflections; and the Damp knob sets the rate of attenuation of high frequencies in the…

With so many plugin emulations available, at such wildly differing price points, it can be tough to know where to start. One well-established player is IK Multimedia, who, over many years, have developed a stable of awesome hardware emulations that range from guitar amps and pedals to reverbs, desk channels, mastering EQs and compressors. So, this month we’re very excited to be able to bring to you a proper taste of their work. Based on the famed industry standard Fairchild 670, Vintage Tube Compressor/Limiter model 670 (VC670) is their classic valve-based compressor/limiter and it’s yours for free (yes that’s right, completely free). So, to celebrate this and to help you make the most of the plugin we’ve put together an extensive tutorial full of tips, information and more. We’ll start…

526 from echo- Computer based samples Music’s own experts Cyclick Samples and Groove Criminals. Robbie from Cyclick describes these as: “explorations using analogue processing, effects pedals and a few digital delays as they can be cool.” Groove’s samples cover everything from delayed feedback to loops. On the DVD or at filesilo.co.uk Loopmasters cm 280 samples 01 Ghost Syndicate Journey – Minimal/ Atmospheric DnB 02 Blind Synthetic Cinema 03 Mootant House of Moo – Mood Deep House Tech 04 SmallPrint Ingredients 001: Primate 05 Loopmasters Landscapes Vol 1 06 LM Alvaro Smart System of Tech 07 Loopmasters Kaleidoscope Neuro DnB 08 Loopmasters Latin Afro 2…

Korg Minilogue This entry-level ‘Logue keyboard from Korg is one of the best budget synths on the market, offering some fine hands-on tweaking. Various DAWs With both Logic and Ableton Live loaded up, plus Maschine for more hardware sequencing, Jansons has DAW options aplenty. Star Wars Stormtrooper Mr Potato Head Available in several configurations, best price Amazon – 20 quid (including blaster). NI Maschine Jansons uses NIs’ finest to create loops, sculpt sounds and then exports the results easily and simply directly into a track in Logic. NI Komplete Kontrol Snuck behind the chair, it’s the familiar glow of a NI Komplete Kontrol keyboard; a favourite, as discussed earlier. DSI OB-6 With both OB-6 and Pro 6 in his studio Jansons can easily boast having two of the finest US…

> Step by step Some ways to make your percussion cut through 1 Start with EQ, although not so much compression if the source material is good. Take off the highs and the lows with the Fabfilter Pro-Q. 2 The percussion is also grouped to the same type of EQ (another Fabfilter) where everything below around 80Hz is rolled off. 3 Jansons’ secret weapon is Soundtoys Devil-Loc, a heavy compressor, distortion and saturator all in one, to add power and energy to percussion. 4 With the kick, bass and vocal punching through the middle of the mix, the percussion is spread around it using Ozone Imager. 5 Employing a Sonalksis filter on the hats allows for some gentle hi-hat movement to introduce the track. The same effect is employed later.…

The Mixolydian mode – sounds very exotic, but what is a mode anyway? If you think of your average digital radio, it might have a DAB mode, an FM mode and an auxiliary input mode. So you could say that each mode represents a different version of the radio – when you switch to a different mode, the radio alters its function. It’s the same for musical major scale modes – a mode is simply a different version of a scale, most often just played from a different starting note. When you do this, it alters the interval pattern between the notes in the scale, transforming the way it sounds – in other words, you’ve shifted to a different mode of the scale. Each mode has its own name, character…

“I often get asked if I think the music business today is better than the one in the 80s. I’m not sure that ‘better’ is the right word. Like everything else, it’s evolved, and that evolution has been fuelled by great developments in technology. It’s unbelievably brilliant that we are now in a position whereby everyone can make music. “Getting together the equipment you needed used to cost thousands. Now, you can get started with a few apps. And the quality isn’t too bad. Education has changed. There are courses out there where you can learn how to make beats. There is information online… and it’s all free information! “But there are still one or two things that the industry is trying to figure out. In the grand scheme of…

Cubasis 3 also features redesigns of its instruments including Micrologue (based on the Retrologue synth), MicroSonic (a workstation with 70+ instrument presets) and MiniSampler (for creating your own instruments). Micrologue in particular is now great to use with three main tabs for oscillators, filters and modulation so you can step through its Moog-like controls with ease. These three instrument options also sit alongside links to instruments from the ‘outside world’ via both Inter-App and Audio Units connectivity. Simply select one of these to list everything else you have installed that will run within Cubasis; in our case we could easily load up Arturia’s iSEM and Korg’s iM1 to play ‘within’ the app, albeit with some loading lag. You will, as you progress through instruments and effects, be offered several in-app…

One of the best features of Audiaire’s Zone synth (9/10, 265) is its brilliant sequencer, which not only generates note patterns, but also automates almost every one of its parameters. The company’s new plugin, Zenith, is that entire system extracted and repurposed as a VST/AU instrument able to output static, sequenced and modulated MIDI note, Continuous Controller (CC) and SysEx data to any plugin or hardware device capable of receiving it. Zen’ garden As with any plugin that outputs MIDI, setting Zenith up involves a bit of inter-track routing, the specifics of which will depend on your DAW, but are by no means difficult to negotiate. Logic Pro X is an exception to this, loading Zenith as a MIDI FX plugin directly on the target track. It’s also worth noting…

Roland’s Cloud is a subscription service that lets you enjoy ‘proper’ Roland virtual instruments – all programmed with exacting detail to be mostly great emulations of the original hardware – within your chosen DAW. Up until now, it has included some absolute classic synths and drum modules, including emulations of vintage analogue legends like the Roland Jupiter-8 synth and TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines, plus popular digital synths such as the late 80s D-50. The Cloud’s latest additions continue this more digital approach, with three highly-targeted sample playback modules – SRX Strings, Brass and Electric Piano – plus a recreation of a Y2K monster sound module, the Roland XV-5080. You’ll have to shell out £18.95/ month for a subscription to the Cloud but with these latest additions, you’re getting decades…

Loopmasters Original Jungle Breaks 2 £30 A huge collection of jungle-inspired drum loops, all freshly recorded using a real drummer, and divided up into tempo-based sets: 160-165bpm, 166-170bpm, 171-175bpm, 176-182bpm, and ‘Halftime’. Within each folder, variations on the headline loops give loads of variation, and the performances, drum sounds and production are exquisitely observed, from tight snares and retro ambience, to pushed grooves and skittish grace notes. Don’t want to skimp on junglistic authenticity by going beyond the ‘Amen’, ‘Think’, etc, breaks? OJB2 has superb alternatives. loopmasters.com 10/10 Sample Tools by Cr2 Drum & Bass 3 £16 Though you may associate Cr2 primarily with the four-square dance genres, they do have their bass music moments, too, as evidenced by the third in their series of DnB libraries. The…

BASSLINE 1 Building a bassline track 3 Bassline – designer drops DRUM & BASS 1 Creating a DnB-style track - a rapid-fire guide 3 Dress up your drums HIP-HOP 1 Beat-making and arranging 3 Setting the scene with a unique 4-bar intro TRAP 1 Through the trap door 3 808 bass with DopeVST’s Bass Engine CM UK GARAGE 1 Creating a 2-step UK garage track 3 Using effects as glue Download this month’s videos: filesilo.co.uk/computermusic cm Producer Masterclass JANSONS Watch along as the man behind 2019 house track Switch reveals all Note: this video is only available using the link on page 48 IK VINTAGE COMPRESSOR How to install and use your amazing free plugin! 1 Seeing IK Multimedia VC670 In use cm/experts Our resident music production gurus walk you…

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! filesilo.co.uk/computermusic…

Though there are a wide variety of DAWs, each with its own unique interface, there are similarities when it comes to loading up and using plugins, and most stick to one of two approaches. The first – as seen in Steinberg’s Cubase, Apple’s Logic, and Cakewalk’s Sonar – involves insert slots on a track or mixer channel. These are used in the same way as an insert effect would be used on a hardware mixer. In other words, the effect is placed ‘in line’ on that mixer or track channel. Plugins might be loaded in by use of a dropdown menu tree or right-clicking in the effects slot. Clicking in the insert or effects slot in some DAWs – Cockos’ Reaper, for instance – will reveal a dedicated browser from…

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…

Akai S1000 Gather ’round the fire kids, while grandad tells you a tale of a mythical creature known to us oldsters as the ‘rackmounted hardware sampler’. It was a fantastical beast, as white as Ahab’s whale, with massive ears and one great, rectangular eye. Given half a chance, it would swallow anything that would fit in its tiny guts, chopping it up and regurgitating it on command. Okay, maybe it’s not quite mythical, but the rack-mountable hardware sampler has indeed been relegated to the history books, with the last significant variant being produced in 2002. Yet once, such machines were seen as the very epitome of the cutting edge. Big name bands hauled ’em out on tour and an entire third-party industry was created to provide professional samples for users…

TAL-SAMPLER $60 TAL have just the thing for recapturing that vintage sampler vibe. TAL-Sampler recreates the sound and experience of classic samplers by modelling various vintage DAC converters that gave those old boxes their special sound, and the S1000 is among them. There are plenty of other features onboard, allowing you to twist your samples beyond recognition. tal-software.com STEINBERG HALION $349 Steinberg were early proponents of software-based sampling – which killed the likes of the S1000 – and that experience is on full display in HALion. Audio warping, granular synthesis – even wavetable creation are all here. There is a massive library of included content, too. HALion is really much more than a sampler – it’s a full-on electronic music lab. steinberg.net TX16WX FREE/€39/€99 Akai released the…

cm/free plugin IKM VINTAGE TUBE 670 How to install and use IK’s incredible Vintage Tube Compressor/Limiter model 670. DVD or download via File Silo (p93) cm/videos ESSENTIAL WORKSHOPS Tutorial videos from our Make A Track In An Hour features, expert workshops and much more. Download via File Silo (p93) cm/free samples ECHOS: cm COLLECTION We’ve got two packs of delay samples plus the best of Loopmasters. On the DVD or download from File Silo (see p93) cm/studio suite 94 FREE MAC & PC PLUGINS An incredible suite of instruments, effects and utilities, and yours for free. Download via File Silo (see p93)…

cm Tell us about the history of Emvoice. RO “Emvoice started in 2016 – I’d just moved to Thailand. I was working on a track and needed vocals for it, and there was no simple way to create vocals with plugins then, so my idea was to build a technology that makes creating vocals as simple as creating a drum track, or a symphonic strings track. I started looking for coders, and I realised that we couldn’t use off-the-shelf text-to-speech algorithms and adapt them as initially planned. So we built a new vocal engine from scratch. I wrote the algorithms and my first developer, Olivier Mohsen, coded them. “After some initial tests with a first, basic voice, it was clear we had something.” cm What’s the main goal with Emvoice…

Noizefield and CPS Stepinator Dream of pulsing, percolating wavetables? This Windows-based device might be for you Electronic musicians seem to be re-discovering the wonderful world of wavetable synthesis. With its ability to generate crispy, crystalline timbres, wavetable synthesis is an oh-so-digital diversion from the usual analogue waveforms, and hardware synths like Modal’s Argon8 and ASM’s Hydrasynth are flying off store shelves. Mind you, software developers have long known the power of the wavetable and many a classic plugin has been built upon this technology – Serum and Massive spring immediately to mind, as do the forward-thinking variants from PPG, the company that unleashed wavetable synthesis upon an unsuspecting music scene over four decades ago. As with the above-mentioned products, Stepinator combines wavetables with analogue-style filters and various modulation options. In…

Bassline music (also known as bass house) has been storming clubs and festivals worldwide over the last few years, with artists such as Holy Goof, Chris Lorenzo and Skepsis making music based on the classic sound of bassline tracks from the mid to late 2000s. Their technique is to then add their own twist, taking influence from production methods and sounds used in styles ranging from rave, techno and grime through to jungle and DnB. Bassline tracks are produced with the dancefloor squarely in mind, boasting EDM-style drops, weighty sub bass, extreme mid-range and detuned mid synth leads, all creating a sound that can be intentionally abrasive but never fails to cut through in the rave. As the original bassline sound itself took inspiration from speed garage and uplifting vocal…

DnB is a fast-paced style of music that has its roots in the 1990s London jungle scene. Early jungle records combined booming, reggae-inspired bass with heavily edited, pitched up funk breakbeats and samples taken from music styles such as hip-hop, ragga, jazz and techno. As jungle passed its peak in popularity a new take on the sound emerged, which was known as drum & bass. While the two styles of music are closely related in terms of BPM, structure and production style, DnB in comparison is typically more refined, both in terms of drum programming and overall production values. Great importance is placed on sound design, clever sampling tricks and making the low frequencies weighty, without compromising on loudness or brightness. Part of the undoubted appeal of DnB is the…

Originally a product of block parties thrown by pioneers such as Kool Herc, the Black Spades and Grandmaster Flash in 1970s New York, hip-hop became a cultural and musical phenomenon worldwide during the 1980s and 90s. To start with, hip-hop music was created live at parties by the process of cutting together two copies of the same breakbeat record using turntables and a DJ mixer, making a danceable beat out of a short loop. Rappers would then add their lyrics over the music, telling stories while getting the crowd involved through toasting and shout-outs. Hip-hop quickly caught on, and it didn’t take long for artists to start creating this music in the studio, using early sampling equipment from the likes of Akai or E-mu to take breakbeat or instrumental sections…

How you arrange a track makes all the difference to how it flows, and how it makes the listener feel too, particularly with sample-based music like classic hip-hop. A simple example of arrangement magic is Daft Punk and Pharrell’s 2013 hit Get Lucky; by trimming the six-minute album mix to a more concise four, the most striking parts of the song were given greater focus, creating a monster. So, how can you make your arrangements stand out? A great starting place is to analyse the arrangement of songs from your favourite artists. You can do this by placing the file in your DAW, and using markers to map out the different sections. Or, if you’re more of a visual person, try drawing the arrangement of your favourite song on paper…

Trap music is an offshoot from hip-hop music, and originated in the southern USA during the late 90s and early 2000s. Generally starker than hip-hop, both in its lyrical content and production, trap takes its name from the trap houses in which illegal dealings occur, with crime being a key lyrical theme. Unlike many classic hip-hop beats that major heavily on sampled breaks and one-shots for the rhythm track, trap instead uses classic Roland TR-808 samples for the drum track, often with the kick and bass combined into one musical, yet percussive element. Musically, trap records generally feature a lot of synth pads, drones and leads, with sampled one-shot stabs or loops also used in places. However, a basic trap rhythm track can work well with musical ideas from a…

First coming to prominence in the mid-90s, UK garage originated from artists such as mixing don DJ EZ playing house records at a faster tempo than originally intended. This new sound caught on, and became known as garage thanks to the likes of US innovator Todd Edwards, and their involvement with the legendary Paradise Garage nightclub in New York. The original UK garage sound, as pushed by the likes of 187 Lockdown and Ripgroove was labelled as speed garage, with the more breakbeat-driven sound that came slightly later being known as 2-step. As jungle’s cultural significance began to dwindle during the late 1990s, UK garage became hugely popular, combining danceable beats at around 130-140bpm with influences from styles including reggae, jungle, RnB and house all part of the mix. The…

If the phrase ‘country music’ instantly conjures up images of pickup trucks, good ol’ boys and songs about divorce for you, there’s now good cause for that opinion to be revised. Modern country music has shed whatever twangy, downbeat image it may have once had and been dragged bang up to date. High production values and levels of musicianship have always been key, blending guitars, piano, bass and drums with traditional country flavours such as banjo, lap, pedal steel and acoustic guitars, but country no longer shies away from modern production tropes like loops, drum machines and synths. What’s also notable is that the importance of the quality of the song remains at the core of everything, and strong chorus melodies and stacked harmonies, often in three-part, are stock in…

Jansons, aka Michael Jansons, had a massive breakthrough hit last year with Switch, a thundering house track which found its way to the heights of Radio 1’s major playlists. Jansons is also half of LoveHrtz – a production duo with releases on Knee Deep In Sound, Four Thirty Two and 8bit – and a DJ, with appearances everywhere from London’s Fabric to Watergate Berlin, and at festivals including Hideout and Snowbombing. In this month’s Producer Masterclass, he reveals how the track Switch came together, including details of how he recorded vocalist Nisha aka Dope Earth Alien, and weaved kick, percussion and bass around the results. Before that, though, it’s time to get a little background on the Jansons sound and production philosophy… cm : So, heading back in time, how…

On the kick “Here I’ve used a solid kick and layered it up with another one that is a bit more saturated,” Jansons reveals. “I use Fabfilter Saturn, a multiband distortion plugin, and I’ve boosted the second kick [with this] in the mids to give it a little more bite. Put them together and it just has a bit more of a ‘knock’ on the top of it. On the kick, I love the EQ FG-A from Slate Digital. I’ve really just boosted it a bit at 40Hz and on the upper mids as well. It just helps give that bit extra punch. My go-to EQ is the Fabfilter Pro-Q3. “I also always use transient designers [NIs’ Transient Master] on lots of my percussive stuff. Again, it’s very subtle; I’m…

> Step by step Processing tips for a great low end 1 On the track Switch, Jansons crafted a big part of the bass sound using Maschine and its amp envelope to shape the sound. 2 He then uses the sequencer within Maschine to program the riff using the hardware’s pads. In Maschine’s software, these notes are recorded as they would in any sequencer. 3 Then it’s just a simple matter of creating a track in Logic and dragging the recorded bass part over from Maschine to Logic. 4 Because so much processing is done in Maschine’s amp envelope, the bass just needs a little levelling from Slate’s Leveller plugin. 5 …although some EQ might also be needed from – what else? – Fabfilter’s fab Pro-Q. This time, it’s with…

Half-tempo beats seem to have found something of a niche in dance music in recent years, with a whole sub-genre of drum&bass built on the concept. Just ask last issue’s Producer Masterclass stars Ivy Lab, whose work can be considered among the core canon of the style. Examples can also be found in sub-genres of hip-hop and elsewhere in the electronic domain. You can even find a number of dedicated half-time sample packs on the soundware market. The actual technique of halving the perceived tempo of a groove by stretching it – whether it’s for use as a primary drum part, or in order to shift the temporal feel of a track down for a certain number of bars before ultimately returning to your main, full-speed drums – is as…

Our promise We bring you honest, unbiased appraisals of the latest computer music products. Our experts apply the same stringent testing methods to all gear, no matter how much hype or expectation surrounds it. What the ratings mean 1-4 A seriously flawed product that should be avoided 5 This product’s problems outweigh its merits 6 A decent product that’s only held back by a few flaws 7 Solid. Well worth considering 8 Very good. A well-conceived and executed product 9 Excellent. First-rate and among the best you can buy 10 Exceptional. It just doesn’t get any better than this!…

The latest plugin built on Accusonus’ proprietary machine learning-based drum kit separation technology – as previously deployed in Drumatom (9/10, 206) and Regroover (7/10, 240) – is a loop deconstruction and rearrangement instrument that “allows you to instantly jam with your beats”. Indeed, Rhythmiq (VST/AU/AAX) can even generate variations on imported audio loops all by itself. Brains and beauty “Indeed, Rhythmiq can even generate variations on imported audio loops all by itself” The three Stem ‘slots’ at the bottom of Rhythmiq’s gorgeous interface each host either a full audio loop or one of three stems auto-extracted from a full loop, and their mixed output is represented in the overview waveform at the top. A 365MB library of WAVs and preset Projects (see below) is included, with add-on packs available through…

As well as CC and SysEx data, Zenith’s sequencer also outputs MIDI notes, programmed via three dedicated lanes – Pitch, Velocity and Gate – which can be made visible on their own or above the modulation lanes. The bipolar Velocity and Pitch lane values are set relative to the incoming MIDI note triggering the sequence, Velocity offering +/-127 of offset, Pitch applying +/-24 semitones of shifting. Step values in the Gate lane – which determines the duration of the note triggered by each step – range from 0-101% of the step length. The same lane modification functions found in the modulation sequencer are in place, including the Arps and Scales menus, which offer a variety of arpeggio shapes and, well, scales. The Gate lane can load the same 35 unipolar…

The first deployment of erstwhile Kontakt developers Auddict’s new proprietary sample playback engine, PercX (VST/AU/AAX/ Standalone) is a multitrack percussion ROMpler currently aimed at soundtrack and media producers, with more pop/dance-orientated content in the pipeline, we’re told. Combining conventional one-shot triggering and MIDI sequencing in a hybrid interface, its headline feature is the unification of programmed loops and real-time performance and recording. ’X marks the spot “Huge taikos, booming bass drums, tight congas, vibey shakers, evocative dhols and darbukas, and more” First, let’s get the one big disappointment out of the way: PercX is a ROMpler in the truest sense, in that it can only work with its own bundled sample library and add-on expansion packs, with no way to import external sounds into it. Said expansions currently number four…

All three SRX expansions and the XV-5080 can be ‘opened up’ by hitting a central Edit button on their UI. This reveals a whole world of classic Roland menus, but instead of being buried beneath one another, as they were on the original hardware, each area is revealed with simple tabs. Each module has a simple Tone structure where a sound can be made of up to four Tones (each of these based on raw sample data), and you get an overview of their routing, envelopes, filtering, effects and modulation options under these different tabs. As these were hidden away on the original hardware, you’d often default to using the modules as simple playback units (albeit very versatile ones) and never really explored these many and varied options. Thanks to…

Unfiltered Audio Lion $199 9/10 cm277 Diverse oscillators, combined with incredibly flexible effects and modulation make this a beast of an instrument. “A powerful, individualistic, edgy synth for the adventurous sound designer, Lion is a welcome addition to the plugin zoo. It is an incredibly enjoyable, creatively liberating and truly unique synth with an appropriately bestial temperament.” plugin-alliance.com UVI Falcon 2 €349 9/10 cm277 With multiple synthesis styles, oodles of effects and devices and a more modular approach to unite them, Falcon 2 might not be for the beginner but it is an exceptional synth. We noted: “It is without doubt one of the most potent and inspiring virtual instruments money can buy. A stunning sound design and production platform of infinite potential.” uvi.net Native Instruments Super 8…

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,…