Innehållsförteckning för June 2020 från Computer Music

cm Tell us how United Plugins came to be. JT “We – SounDevice Studio, FireSonic and JMG Sound – worked on several projects together over the years, and the Internet knows no boundaries, so online collaborations led to the current state of United Plugins, where part of the team is in the Czech Republic and JMG Sound is in England. Prague’s music production scene is basically a village, so we were all kind of connected anyway. ” cm How helpful has having the involvement of MeldaProduction been? JT “Well, MeldaProduction is the catalyst. United Plugins uses some of their programming capacity and their licensing system, and a lot of their experience, too. Building such things from scratch could have been hard, causing all our initial enthusiasm to fade away before…

USE REMOTE STORAGE High-quality stereo audio files can be a hassle to send back and forth over the net due to their large size. If you change one part, you could just resend that bit, but it gets confusing fast, as the recipient loses track of what’s going on. Avoid all this hassle by using a service such as Dropbox to keep projects in sync across multiple machines and users. The default free allowance is usually enough for one project. BOUNCE WET AND DRY When you’re bouncing a channel with huge amounts of reverb or delay, it’s usually worth bouncing a version without those heavy effects as well. These kinds of things can, of course, be very subjective indeed. And it’s also easy for somebody to get frustrated with a…

1 Let’s make a piano stab that we can turn into a riff. Start by loading up your DAW’s stock piano. We’ll add a new MIDI clip, and draw in one-beat notes on E3, G3 and B3 to create an E minor chord, which is in key with the track. 2 Export the chord to audio, then reimport it into any sampler of your choosing. After muting the piano, import Piano Stab.mid onto the channel to play the chord stab back in a riff. You’ll hear the chord take on a slightly dissonant tone as the riff’s notes change. 3 To finish, we’ll add some characterful distortion to the sound using SoundToys’ Decapitator. Load the plugin, and set the Style to E (based on a Neve preamp). Push the Drive…

1 We can add some period-correct, crunchy distortion to our 808 bass using Rob Papen’s RP-Distort CM. Load the plugin onto the 808 Bass channel, then select the 909 Mackie Ch Dist RF preset. This is an emulation of the classic Mackie mixer that was used by many producers of the time. 2 The effect RP-Distort CM has on the bass sounds pretty great, but it’s a bit on the aggressive side right now. Firstly, turn the channel down to -12dB in order to stop the bass dominating the mix. To tame the distortion, we’ll set the Filter’s Low Pass dial to around 100Hz, rolling off the upper harmonics. 3 To finish, we’ll make an EQ notch in the 808 so the kick pops out. Call up DDMF’s LP10 CM,…

The end of the 80s sparked a watershed time for commercial dance music in the UK, with the joyously groovy likes of Inner City, Lisa Stansfield and Rebel MC charting high, and providing pop fans with welcome relief from the nightmarish dominance of Stock, Aitken and Waterman, then at the height of their powers. At the tip of the spear, however, were Italian production trio Groove Groove Melody, whose Italo house stormer Ride On Time, released under the name Black Box, held the Number 1 spot for six weeks and came in as the biggest-selling single of the year. GGM – comprising DJ Daniele Davoli, keyboardist and engineer Mirko Limoni, and classically-trained clarinetist Valerio Semplici – had actually made the Top 10 in August of the same year as Starlight,…

cm: What’s your take on the seismic changes in music technology that have taken place over the last 30 years? Daniele Davoli: “We’re kind of the living proof that cheap technology has helped people at home, the usual punters, to make music and enter the market. But back when we started, obviously, software was still quite small, apart from the Notator sequencer, which became Logic, and so on. You still had to buy a sequencer, or a sampler, or keyboards and a mixer, but even though they were not really cheap, as software is today, it was still not as expensive as owning a recording studio, with which you’d have to spent hundreds of thousands of pounds. “So the software became available in the early 90s and that helped a…

“When it comes to drums, I always work with audio. I take my kick and my snare, and I place them right there on the time-line. Why? Because MIDI is MIDI… it’s wobbly. It moves around. Believe me, there is latency. You won’t hear it at first, but try this. Put your drums in something like Battery, programme your loop and render it out. It will sound great. You’ve got some cool drums there. “But if you zoom in – and I’m talking about zooming in right to the very start of the bar – you will notice that some of the drums miss the start point. It’s not by much, but when your kick drum isn’t hitting its mark, it makes a big difference to certain types of dance…

THE AGE OF LOVE - THE AGE OF LOVE (JAM & SPOON MIX), 1990 A strong contender for the title of first proper trance track. A lot of the key elements here had been used before, but Jam & Spoon’s remix combined many of the components which we now take to be staples of trance: lush pads, relentless melodies, gating effects, pounding kick drums… an instant classic. PAUL VAN DYK - FOR AN ANGEL, 1994 Undoubtedly a high point of trance’s mid-90s heyday, from one of the masters of the genre. Simplistic piano riffs and pulsing synths are underscored by propulsive bass and drums, somehow ending up simultaneously blissed-out and energising. JOSH WINK - HIGHER STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS, 1995 Is this techno or is this actually acid house? Maybe neither.…

How often have you sat down at your studio desk to start a new track, come up with a great 4 or 8-bar loop and then… got completely stuck as to where to go next? It happens a lot more often than you’d think, with that initial burst of creativity lasting only for as long as it takes you to complete one short section of your song. It’s easy to get so lost in the groove as your initial idea cycles round endlessly, that your brain then flat-out refuses to entertain the concept that it might turn into anything else! So in this month’s songwriting process column, we thought we’d turn the spotlight on this common issue, hopefully giving you a few useful tools to get things moving again next…

CableGuys updated their modulation-focussed multieffect tool ShaperBox towards the end of last year, and now the developers are adding a new processor into the mix. CrushShaper is a bitcrusher designed to make use of the same customisable modulation tools as the rest of the ‘Shaper’ family. It runs within ShaperBox 2 and comes as part of the full ShaperBox bundle, but it’s also available as a standalone purchase. Seasoned producers will, no doubt, be fully familiar with the general principles of bitcrushers. These digital distortion effects reduce the resolution and bandwidth of the target audio to achieve effects ranging from a subtle lo-fi quality to full-on destruction. It’s a common effect, achievable via the stock plugins in most DAWs, so what does CableGuys’ take have to offer that others don’t?…

Edinburgh-based developers Krotos Audio are among the first ports of call for movie and videogame audio producers looking to create dynamic, ‘playable’ sound design elements. Thus far, however, their plugins – including Reformer Pro (Foley effects, animal noises, etc; 8/10, 258), Weaponiser (gunfire and associated noises; 9/10, 256) and Igniter (real and sci-fi vehicles and engines; 9/10, 269) – have been largely irrelevant to musicians, so it’s with no small degree of excitement that we fire up Krotos’ first ever softsynth: a two-oscillator virtual analogue going by the name Concept (VST/AU/AAX). Think tank Concept’s interface makes it immediately apparent that this is an instrument that wants to be your friend, no matter what your level of experience. Apart from the fold-out modulation controls, every parameter (two oscillators, amplitude envelope, filter…

ROLI Songmaker Kit Studio Edition £599.95 Web roli.com Format Mac/PC, iOS It’s hard to believe that ROLI have been making their unique touch-controlled hardware and software for over a decade now. In that time they’ve moved in price and size from super-expensive ‘five dimensions of touch’ Seaboard controller keyboards right down to the Block system that uses the same MPE touch system for some different ways to compose and play. The Songmaker Kit Studio Edition is like a ‘best of’ covering all of the above, including the Seaboard Block keyboard – a much reduced in size version of the original Seaboard – and both the Lightpad and Live Blocks. In truth it’s a bunch of already-present technologies all held together in a neat-ish magnetic ‘Snapcase’. It is, supposedly a…

This month in Computer Music, we have a fabulous set of pro samples for every reader worth $19.99! Synthwave Arcade is an incredible 4.4GB collection of drum and melody loops, hits, effects and construction kits designed for EDM, house, pop and synthwave. Sample experts WA Production have described the collection as “a modern fusion of old-school classic sounds blended together in a way that has never been done before. We’ve got the funk of nu-disco, the past future atmosphere from the 80s, and rhythmically thumping retro wave synths giving you this inventive hybrid spin on synthwave.” The download includes an extraordinary range of sample plus 40 Xfer Serum Presets, five templates for Ableton Live and five construction kits that include over 160 WAV, MIDI, and presets. “Don’t settle for being…

Welcome to a new inclusion in Computer Music where we bring you some classic samples from the mighty cm Vault, a huge hard drive stuffed full of all the audio that we’ve given away over the last two decades. Last month, we brought you the first half of Aquatic Adventures, so here’s part 2, a 1.37GB collection of loops, atmospheres, drum hits and more. Robbie from Cyclick Samples put the collection together… “This may be the most idiosyncratic of sample collections to date. It is made up of 15 multisampled instruments (in SFZ format for the Alchemy Player CM and anything else that can load SFZs), five drum/ percussion kits, loops and lines across four tempos, EFX loops/one-shots, and a set of Water Pad chords. The beats were made from…

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…

Tracktion Waveform 11 Pro The unique, underappreciated DAW gets a doozie of an update! Maintaining their annual update schedule, Tracktion Software have released version 11 of their brilliant Waveform Pro DAW, introducing a raft of new features. The new Edit Overview puts a full-length thumbnail of your Waveform Pro Edit (project) at the top of the interface, with a resizable ‘view port’ for navigating and zooming in the main window below, as well as the ability to click the playhead to any point on the timeline. Almost all Edit window panels can now be broken out into their own windows for secondary monitor placement, too, with saving of complete window states; and you can even set your second monitor to be the default display for all plugins. The Arranger Track…

Avid Link avid.com This is Avid’s platform designed for ‘creatives’ that use all of their suite including Pro Tools. Blend blend.io Collaboration site and app that allows users of most DAWs to make music in sync, and is also partnered with ROLI. Kompoz kompoz.com Website to find other musicians and discuss and make music in real time with anyone, anywhere. Looplabs looplabs.com Free cloud-based collaboration site and DAW that has partnered with Beatport. Procollabs procollabs.com A more pro site to find the missing part of your music-making jigsaw – producer, session musician, vocalist etc. Soundation soundation.com Record, mix and share you music, as well as use instruments and other tools. Soundtrap soundtrap.com ‘Your everywhere studio’ – a site that offers samples, instruments and loads of people to make music with.…

1 Let’s get the ball rolling by layering a couple of breakbeats up using TAL’s excellent Sampler. By using this instead of what our DAW has under the hood, we can instantly print a retro 1990s sound onto our breaks. Load TAL Sampler onto a new MIDI track, then create a one-bar MIDI region with a C3 note in it to trigger the sample. Now, let’s drop a break in. 2 Set BPM to 140, then open TAL’s Layer A tab. Import DF_BeatD_120-04.wav from the Beat Creation folder at filesilo.co.uk, then move the Loop End marker to the end of the break. Change the High/Low key to C3, so only one note triggers the sample. Timestretch the break to the track’s tempo by setting Stretch mode to Cyclic, with Stretch…

1 Let’s try and make a rumbling rave bass using Native Instruments’ classic synth Massive. Add Massive to a new MIDI track, with the file Bass.mid (from filesilo.co.uk) loaded to trigger the synth. Select New Sound from the File menu to reset the synth’s parameters. 2 Set all three oscillators to Sin/Square, with the Wavetable Position dials set to the left. Turn on Oscillator 2, then tune it down by 40 cents with Oscillator 1 tuned up by the same amount. You’ll hear the two oscillators phasing against each other, creating a cool modulated bass. 3 Turn on Oscillator 3, then tune it up by 12 semitones (one octave). This gives the bass an overtone that’s reminiscent of the beefy basses used in many a rave classic. Reduce Oscillator 3’s…

1 After loading in the tutorial files to a 140bpm project, you’ll hear that we’ve got three sections of the track to work with: the intro, piano breakdown and drop. We’ll kick off by extending the intro’s length to 32 bars, muting Break 2 for the first 16 to add suspense. 2 We’ll mute the 808 Bass for the first eight bars. Now, let’s double the length of the piano breakdown to 32 bars. Copy Break 1 and 2 over to the second 16-bar section, then mute Break 2 for the first eight. And mute the last bar of the breakdown entirely. 3 A vocal snip from Insideinfo’s CM194 sample pack adds some impact to the drop. Load in Coppa3.wav, and delete the second bar. Turn the channel down to…

1 Let’s start the mixdown by adding your DAW’s limiter to the master output, so we can drive the mix into it later on. Now, we’ll work on the piano. Start by reducing its volume to -1dB, so it sits more comfortably with the rest of the mix. 2 Add PSP’s cmDelay to a new return track, then turn off the dry signal, leaving just the wet effect. Set up a -6dB send to the delay return from the piano. We’ll sync the Delay Time, then set it to ¼ notes. Increase the High Pass Filter’s frequency to 300Hz. 3 The delay has added much needed flavour to the piano. We’ll move on to a little automation now. Add Vengeance’s VPS Philta CM to the grouped drums, then automate the…

No stranger to paying homage to certain beloved dance subgenres, Calvin Harris, has most recently turned his attention to that most sacred of styles: hands-in-the-air ’92-style hardcore rave – perfect for this issue of Computer Music then! Having made his name and fortune creating chart-bothering EDM, Harris’s latest project, Love Regenerator, sees him taking his sound back to the 90s. In fact, he says that “every synth and sound used is from that time period”. “Hypnagogic (I Can’t Wait) and CP-1 are the first tracks from my new project Love Regenerator,” says Harris. “I wanted to rediscover how I originally began producing music 22 years ago before I ever thought about how it might be perceived by outside forces. Just pure fun and experimentation… “The records are inspired by early…

Despite having been around for at least three decades, trance remains a bafflingly divisive and controversial genre. To some, it’s a hypnotic, euphoric style of music with deep, spiritual roots. To others, it’s a naff, cliché-ridden sound which repeats the same tired old formulas ad nauseam (or, as Dave Clarke memorably put it, “watered-down techno”). Here at Computer Music, we’re nothing if not open-minded. While there’s no doubt that the distinctive stylistic tropes of trance make it easy for producers to fall into the trap of cliché, it can be joyously vibrant and exciting when done well. Since emerging as a distinct genre in the early 90s, trance has waxed and waned in popularity, spawned countless subgenres – which we’ll get into – and provoked some strong reactions of love…

Building complex vocal arrangements is an enormously rewarding process. However, recording, editing and compiling the required vocal sessions can be an arduous and time-consuming task. Thankfully, sampling giants EastWest/Quantum Leap and their resident production gurus Doug Rogers and Nick Phoenix feel your pain, and to that end have over the years built a number of libraries tailored precisely for this task. Award-winning packages such as Symphonic Choirs and Hollywood Choirs have raised the bar for large group and choir sounds. Meanwhile the ‘Voices’ series provide solo or harmony voices with more targeted styles. Their latest endeavour, Hollywood Backup Singers, sees the return of CC White, who featured on last year’s Voices Of Soul, and she is joined by Durga and Lorelei McBroom. All three are experienced performers with credits that…

ShaperBox 2 added envelope followers for several of its processors, and that feature is carried across to CrushShaper 2. This tracks incoming audio, either from the main input or a sidechain routing, in order to apply the selected effect depth in a dynamic manner. There are individual envelope followers for each of CrushShaper’s four modulation-controlled parameters, each with attack, hold, release and threshold parameters for shaping the response. These can operate in a mixed manner with the custom LFOs too, allowing users to draw a modulation curve on the grid and then use an incoming audio signal to dictate the overall modulation depth. Envelope followers adhere to the effect’s multiband structure too, so can operate separately for the low, high and mid bands. Another winning feature of the ShaperBox design…

Audient made their name with huge mixing desks, which found their way into many high-end recording studios, but more recently have been gaining a great reputation for their small-to-medium sized interfaces – the ID range. These utilise some of the technology from those big desks – notably the ASP8024 preamp – for their high quality sound. At this year’s NAMM show Audient announced the EVO range of interfaces which are not designed to replace the ID range, but more to be a completely new and compact interface solution. Audient ask (rather than claim): is this ‘the world’s smartest audio interface?’. Maybe we can answer that for them… EVO more We have the 4 in on test here – the larger 8 (which doubles the inputs and outputs to four each)…

Below the four mod source displays sits a fifth, yellow fold-out panel, with a central ‘dice’ button suggesting some kind of randomising functionality. And indeed, that’s what the Tweak It system does, albeit with user input required. Like the modulators, Concept parameters are assigned to Tweak It by dragging their names into the panel, whereupon they’re added to the assignment list and given Depth sliders. Clicking the button then randomises all assigned controls around their set values, within their Depth ranges. The Master knob scales the randomisation globally, and it’s worth noting that randomisation is bipolar only. The obvious omission is the inability to trigger the randomise button via automation or a dedicated MIDI note, and/or have controls transition to their new values over a period of time, which would…

The Plugins collection is a suite of complete, limitation-free instrument and effects plugins. It’s an incredible resource, boasting more than 90 pro-quality Mac and PC plugins that, in most cases, you won’t find anywhere else, all in VST and AU formats. 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 p80 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…

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…

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…

It pays to have the right ingredients to hand when creating a 90s flavoured track. For example, those hi-fi sounding loops you’ve just bagged off Splice will probably be too shiny for a 90s rave homage, so looking at the sample sources used by producers at that time is a great way around this. As well as the obligatory signature sounds such as sampled funk breaks, techno stabs and classic Reece/808 basses, a lot of producers at that time took their sounds from the many sample CDs available at the time, including offerings from Akai that were included with their samplers as well as classic packs such as Zero G’s Datafile and our sister mag Future Music’s early sample discs. The best thing is that you can often pick these…

1 Let’s work on our drum mix. Start by grouping Break 1 and 2, so we can process them as one. Add Sonimus SatsonCM to the group, then place a utility plugin after it, set to -9dB gain. Now, increase SatsonCM’s Gain to 3 o’clock, adding some great-sounding analogue-style clipping. 2 Reverb will add lushness to our drum track. Call up Liquidsonics’ Reverberate CM onto a new return track, and select the Simple Drum preset. Set up a -9dB send from the drums group to the return channel. Next, we’ll roll the low end from the reverb return to add clarity. 3 Load DDMF’s IIEQPro CM onto the return, and set Band 1 to a HPF12 filter. Setting the Frequency to 200Hz and Q to 0.7 rolls off the boomy…

After that bona fide 90s tone for your mix? It’s worth considering the signal path that producers would have had in their studio. For rave music, this consisted of a hardware sampler, routed into a mixing desk with the final mix recorded to a DAT tape. As many samplers were either 12-bit or 16-bit back then, an easy way of kicking off is with a plugin like TAL-DAC to reduce the bit depth and sample rate of your sounds, taking away the high def sheen that many samples have out of the box. Then, apply some analogue saturation of some kind (our own Sonimus SatsonCM is perfect for this) to embellish the effect. Lastly, get the sound of an overloaded DAT machine by using a clipping plugin such as SIR…

: In terms of synthesis, are you now working entirely ‘in the box’, or do you still prefer the tactility of the hardware instruments you grew up with? Mark Limoni: “We still make use of some hardware stuff: Minimoog, Korg MS-10, sometimes a Roland Bassline, TR-808 and TR-606. We had a TR-909 – many of our old productions were made with it – but, sadly, it was stolen many years ago. We also have an Oberheim Matrix 1000, a Korg M1, a Yamaha TX802 and a DX7, which was responsible for the Ride On Time bass, the Everybody Everybody (Le Freak Mix) organ and almost all the Rhodes sounds since the beginning of Black Box. “The tactile feel actually isn’t very important for us – if virtual sounds good enough,…

01 SUPERSAW SYNTHS At this point, the supersaw synth is probably the single most recognisable sound of trance, dominating everything from psytrance to EDM. The Roland JP-8000’s supersaw sound is the granddaddy of them all, essentially an attempt to replicate the fuzzy, thick sound of seven sawtooth oscillators detuned against each other. The sound quickly became a staple of dance music generally, but trance producers adopted it as a mainstay, using it for pads, leads and even bass. The original point of the supersaw was to achieve something that would be difficult on a true analogue synth (you’d need dozens of oscillators to play a truly analogue supersaw pad). Nowadays, in software, that’s not a problem; most synths can do multi-oscillator supersaw-style sounds, whether via a dedicated supersaw oscillator or…

Korg Collection Triton $249 8/10 cm281 The Korg Triton is packed full of 90s sounds going back to Trinity range and this software ROMpler is neat, easy to use and sounds incredible. “If you need a one-plugin-fits-all solution for a huge variety of genres, and feel like taking a trip back a couple of decades to that crazy time, then Triton has all you need.” korg.com E-mu in software from £free E-mu were one company that had the hardware sound module market sewn up in the 90s. Sadly they just seem to make headphones now, but there are several ways to get the E-mu sound in software including the E-mu Systems Proteus VX sample player, Luxonix Ravity Windows ROMpler and Digital Sound Factory E-mu Proteus Pack, and all pretty cheap…

Last month, we looked at the basic functions you’d find in an oscillator: the signals they generate, how they can be manipulated and modulated and what the signal looks like. This month we’ll go back in and look at oscillator sync. Not to be confused with, say, MIDI or clock sync, oscillator sync is a function whereby one oscillator’s waveform cycle is forced to reset to that of an incoming oscillator’s waveform. Consider that a waveform is periodic, and that the period determines the frequency. Two wave cycles with different periods won’t match up, so forcing one to ‘restart’ whenever the master completes its cycle produces an irregular waveform that can be sonically interesting and more complex than either waveform on its own. Even more so when you add modulation…

WordBuilder’s phrase generator interface is incorporated in Play and with the corresponding patch (WB Multi) loaded, the WordBuilder button in the top left activates the window. The interface is split between word-specifying aspects at the top and a time editor at the bottom. WordBuilder uses three concurrent word modes, English, Phonetic and their own Votox alphabet. Once you type in a word or phrase, or load one from the library, switching the Text Editor mode lets you adjust things in different ways, creating vocal sounds that may not conform to regular words. The same system allows you to create and save words that aren’t in the dictionary, or create custom pronunciations of existing words. In use, each word responds to one MIDI note message. With further spaces between letters in…

We recently looked at Steinberg’s Cubasis 3.0 update and, one or two niggles aside with pinching and editing, concluded that it is still one of the best iOS DAWs around. It’s also one that now runs with some ease on an iPhone, delivering one of the most pro DAW experiences out there, on a device that fits in your pocket. However, while reviewing the update we became very aware of a multitude of optional extras that Steinberg are punting in various parts of the software, so it’s time to look at all of the various Cubasis options now available. Not just Steinberg There are several updates and options available, and not all of them produced by Steinberg. A Waves Plugin Bundle ($7.99 each or $19.99 for all three), that originally…

Sugar Bytes DrumComputer €119 8/10 cm281 DrumComputer is an eight-engine drum machine with onboard step sequencing, and a synth at its core which gives it mighty percussion power. We concluded: “With its unique, deep architecture, wild sounds, superb sequencer and inspiring parameter and pattern randomisation, this won’t disappoint.” sugar-bytes.de Accusonus Rhythmiq $149 8/10 cm280 Rhythmiq is a loop deconstruction and rearrangement instrument that “allows you to instantly jam with your beats”. It can even generate variations on imported audio loops all by itself and we found it a highly creative tool. “For genuinely live ‘remixing’ of drum and percussion loops, Rhythmiq is a productive, musical and very user-friendly solution.” accusonus.com Mixed In Key Captain Beat $50 8/10 cm279 Captain Beat is a sample-based drum machine aimed primarily at newcomers to…

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,…

Cyclick 90s Collection For our 90s special, our collection focuses on the dance sounds that emerged via acid house and rave in that decade. Robbie from Cyclick talks us through the tempo folders (for the gear he used, see below right): Arps “A set of arp runs and single 16th-note filter sweeps all created with the BassStation. The synth was run into the two Moogerfooger pedals, the XVive Memory delay and TC Hall Of Fame reverb pedal before hitting the dbx 166XL and JDK Audio R24 EQ. The pedals were tweaked for changes in tempo and source sound. The arps were created in MIDI in Nuendo and the sweeps controlled via automation sent to the BassStation.” Bass “BassStation all the way, mostly working from the Program 10 (12 and 13…

We’re working on getting as many of our Mac plugins in the cm Suite updated to run in the latest Catalina OS. Unfortunately, not all will make the transition as many smaller developers simply don’t have the resources. Please check the notes we have supplied next to each plugin to check the current status before updating to Catalina if you haven’t already, as, because of circumstances beyond our control, you may lose your favourite plugins. We will, however, update as many as possible, so bear with us!…

“…removed from physical contact, you’re free to explore the utter void…” As a music producer you’re naturally unfazed by the prospect of spending long periods secluded from humanity, so mental preparation is unnecessary… 01 Create some truly uninspired music When asked what inspires them, many pro producers will answer along the lines of “inspiration is a myth, bucko!” Well, now here’s your opportunity to prove them 100% correct by making some music that’s free from even the most basic sources of inspiration. Thankfully removed from physical contact with other human beings and nature, you’re free to explore the utter void that is your inner world, and make the most generic music yet heard by a human being. Be careful, though: art, literature and human contact are all available via the…