Innehållsförteckning för August 2020 från Computer Music

London-based Canadian Chloé Raunet is currently making music under the moniker C.A.R. (Choosing Acronyms Randomly), although has been involved in music production since the early 2000s when she was asked to produce some demos for Two Lone Swordsmen Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood. After a stint fronting the band Battant – with whom she toured and supported the likes of Ladytron – Raunet released her debut album as C.A.R. called My Friend in 2014, followed by PINNED (on Ransom Note) in 2018. Since building a reputation for producing “the weirder edges of electronic music”, she has also become an in-demand remixer and DJ, and it’s her remixing skills that we’re focussing on in this Producer Masterclass. Raunet runs through two remixes of tracks by Ride guitarist Andy Bell under his…

> Step by step From vocals to hardware 1 Here Raunet records her vocal, following the melody line of the guitar and creating a kind of pad sound in the process. 2 Chloé claims not to have a great voice but it certainly sounds the part with what she describes as a little wizardry, the first element being a gentle chorus. 3 Now to get some of that studio hardware in on the action! Chloé uses MIDI arpeggiations to trigger the Arturia MicroFreak and records the audio back in. 4 As well as triggering the MicroFreak with Ableton arpeggiations, she also plays another MF part and records it directly in onto another track. 5 The final main part in the remix comes by way of another lush guitar track to…

After the runaway success of version 1, the second iteration of this already-excellent plugin takes the dynamic EQ concept to new heights Released in 2016, the original soothe was billed as an “automatic dynamic frequency notcher” designed to effortlessly eliminate harshness and overly bright top end in any instrumental or vocal signal. It scored 8/10 in our review (cm239), where we praised its uncanny ability to transparently suppress uncomfortable mid-high resonances – as long as its application was driven by judgement and mixing experience. We would surmise, based on how often we see it in the plugins folders of producers at all levels, that soothe has been something of a hit. For the sequel, then, have Finnish developers oeksound added enough to tempt upgrades and increase the appeal to potential…

In addition to the included presets, Mixroom can create a target curve from an audio file, allowing you to match your current audio to an existing track or mix. To access this feature you click on the target icon next to the preset browser. This opens an additional panel from which you can load and manage up to 20 source files. By setting the respective DAW track to input monitor, source files can be auditioned within the plugin and this helps you choose which sections to use to create the target EQ curve. Multiple sections of the source audio can be highlighted, and once you’ve done this you simply hit the Create Targets tab below. Closing out the panel gets you back into the main window and from here you…

We have a cracking Computer Music free plugin this month, in the form of Baby Audio’s Baby Comeback CM! It’s a cut-down version of the developer’s Comeback Kid delay plugin, and includes the same delay engine and some of the different flavouring algorithms that can be found on its big brother. While it might lack some of the sculpting tools found on Comeback Kid, some of these effects are built into four ‘style’ presets called Wide, Saucey, Analog and Cheap (which sound anything but!). These have been specially crafted to offer a wide variety of sonic options, and you’ll quickly use them to get some great-sounding, warm and lush delays. The main delay engine in Baby Comeback CM has three BPM-synced modes called Straight, Dotted and Triplet which are pretty…

Lots of ideas… Dear cm Great idea to bring back readers’ messages! I always enjoyed reading them even though I felt my interests were often a bit different from most, ie to combine music technology with classical/contemporary/art music. One topic I’d love to learn more about is how exactly some composers (professional or amateur) combine electronics – already pre-recorded would be my preference, but live too, maybe – with traditional orchestral instruments, in their work. What software they use, etc. It would also be great to have a beginners’ series on how some people use/incorporate sounds/patches/effects made with music programming languages like PureData, Max/MSP, Supercollider, Chuck and so on in their music. Also, the descendants of Koan (the generative music software) could even be discussed. But I realise you may…

Mastering The Mix Tom Frampton cm Tell us a bit about your company?. TF “I started Mastering The Mix in 2014 with a goal to help music producers get better-sounding mixes. As a mastering engineer, I was well positioned to see what issues my clients faced when making music. I ended up giving the same advice time after time and wanted to create a solution that would enable people to easily identify their own mix issues. This is how our first plugin, Levels, came about, a metering plugin that identifies technical issues in a mix or master. It was warmly received by the audio community and we’ve continued to create plugins that solve the hardest challenges producers face in the studio, with Mixroom being the latest.” cm Tell us about…

Sub bass is a music production term typically used to refer to frequencies in the range 20-80Hz – the lowest limit of human hearing. Although many acoustic and electric instruments generate frequencies in this region, sub bass only really became a usable sonic tool in its own right in the 80s, when the booming kicks of the Roland TR-808 and single-cycle test tones of various Akai samplers became available to dance producers. This resulted in records like LFO’s LFO (bit.ly/1ooH3oo) and JJ Fad’s Supersonic (bit.ly/1sJhyOg). Subsequently, early DnB tracks like Urban Shakedown’s Some Justice (bit.ly/2Vs7Giv) and Kromozone’s The Rush (bit.ly/2Vqin5e) began to put sub bass gymnastics centre stage, and by the time dubstep rolled around in the early noughties, huge subs were de rigueur. Nowadays, even pop music has to…

> Step by step Remixing first steps 1 Chloé initially adds all the audio stems she is given – in this case quite a few – into an Ableton session. She finds the BPM using rekordbox DJ software. 2 She’ll then identify which of the audio stems she’d like to work with. In this case she was spoilt for choice but identified a great modular bassline. 3 She also chose some of Andy’s original atmospheric guitar parts which she took sections of to either loop or, in this case, pitch upwards. 4 Chloé then took out a slide guitar stem to be her main component, lessening its Ry Cooder character with Soundtoys effects. 5 Next up it’s time to lay the foundation of the track with a kick drum. Chloé…

> Step by step Remixing an unfamiliar genre 1 As The Imbeciles’ punk style is not usually part of Raunet’s universe she started off by choosing a simple and familiar drum part and looping it. 2 Using that drum segment to create a new loop with a different feel, Chloé then added a small part of the original bassline and looped that too. 3 Initially Raunet took snippets of the lead vocal, pitch shifted them and then recombined them to create a completely new chorus-like piece. 4 As good as that sounded, the label didn’t approve, so Chloé removed the pitch effects and went back to a standard vocal snippet, still forming something striking and new. 5 The warped synth sounds came by way of Arturia’s SEM, part of the…

APPLE LOGIC 10.5 The new point update has an incredible number of additional features and instruments, and some might be familiar… 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! Tracktion Waveform Pro Oeksound Soothe 2 Mastering The Mix Mixroom…

Metronomic in its regularity, this year’s Waveform Pro update introduces another round of new features to Tracktion Software’s innovative DAW, as well as general under-the-hood optimisation and stability improvements. We’ve been here many times before, so we’ll not waste valuable space going over the fundamentals of the software again – see the Waveform 9 review in cm257 for a synopsis, and/ or head to the Tracktion website and download Waveform Free to get a feel for its gleefully idiosyncratic perspective and workflow. Instead, let’s get straight into the new stuff… Making arrangements The new Arranger Track enables sections within the arrangement to be defined as ‘blocks’ for moving around. Simply create an Arranger clip, then drag it left or right to move or copy all audio and MIDI clips that…

soothe has always been a processor that requires a delicate touch, and with soothe2’s new Soft mode (the other mode, Hard, is more like the previous behaviour), the ‘intensity’ of the processing and operational sweep of many of the controls can be reined in, tightening the tolerance of the effect and making it harder to overcook. oeksound describe Soft mode as “more autonomous, easier to use and faster to set up [than Hard mode]”, and that perfectly sums it up – the shortened parameter ranges greatly reduce the potential for damage and speed up workflow, and the lowered sensitivity to input signal level results in greater transparency and preservation of transients. The ‘down side’, if you want to call it that, is less detailed control for narrowing in on specific…

Presonus Atom Producer Lab £175 Web presonus.com Gear Hardware/software bundle This bundle from Presonus looks, on the face of it, to be aimed primarily at beat makers, but actually contains just about everything you need for music production, and is especially geared towards those new to this most glorious of pastimes. Starting with Atom, this compact and sturdy, 16-pad grid controller has been around for a while, and has deep integration with Presonus’s own Studio One DAW; you get a cut down version of that (Artist) bundled with it. (Artist is one of the most filled ‘lite’ versions of a DAW that we have come across, giving you a very good flavour of the full Studio One, a DAW that really does deserve more praise and profile than it…

Baby Audio Caspar Bock cm How did you first get into plugins? BA “I’ve been making music since my teenage years and I soon began obsessing over gear and software. After failing to cut it as a music producer, I got into advertising and worked almost ten years for agencies in Copenhagen, Berlin, LA and New York. When I finally founded Baby Audio, it was like a perfect marriage between my obsession with music production and my professional background. “I was extremely lucky to randomly connect with some of the most talented people and establish a small team to create our first plugin, I Heart NY. That was in 2019. The plugin got a lot of press and word-of-mouth, and our next one, Super VHS, even more. It’s gone really…

For once you can agree with the hype. Apple have claimed that the latest Logic 10.5 update is the biggest since Pro X, but you could argue it’s their most important update ever. Heck, if you’re an Apple fanperson, this update might even have got you frothing that this is the most important update for music production – period! Of course it isn’t quite that, but 10.5 is one heck of an update which, Logic user or not, you do need to know about. It might just tempt you over to the Mac, or even the iPad if those rumours are true. First the non rumours; the cold, hard facts. Logic 10.5 is massive news. The update throws in a grown up version of the Live Loops found in GarageBand…

Arturia MicroFreak From Ancient (above) to modern, the MicroFreak is one of the best small-form synths around. By your command Analogue Solutions Impulse Command is a compact and great-sounding analogue semi-modular synth with an on-board sequencer. Bass and drums The MFB Tanzbär 2 is a great drum and bass synth while the Moog Minitaur supplied bass on the Glok remix that C.A.R. runs through. Prophet V Alongside the Moog Minimoog and ARP Odyssey, the Sequential Circuits Prophet V is one of the most desirable synths ever made… Get groovy A ‘classic’ Roland MC-505 Groovebox from 1998: a do-it-all, jack-of-all-trades sequencer, drum machine and synthesiser. Three modules Small but perfectly-formed modules from Elektron (left), Teenage Engineering (front) and a sequencer by Squarp Instruments. Oh yes. Apple Macbook Running Ableton Live along…

> Step by step Getting melodic with maracas 1 It’s as easy to go down rabbit holes when remixing as it is when producing and what Chloé thought might be the simple addition of some maracas ended up being a lot more… 2 Chloé starts with some atmospheric reverb by way of Valhalla’s VintageVerb: a ‘post modern reverb inspired by the hardware of the 1970s and 80s’, or so they say. 3 Chloé then adds some modulation by way of Soundtoys’ Filter Freak which she describes as “a quick and easy way to really change a sound”. 4 Another SoundToys favourite, Little Primal Tap is used here to give the sound a boing-like melody. 5 Soundtoys score a hat-trick here with a third plugin in the form of Little Plate,…

The arrival of Logic Pro X 10.5 – which Apple calls the “biggest update to Logic since the launch of Logic Pro X” – has no doubt come as a welcome distraction for Mac-based musicians. And there’s certainly plenty of enticing new stuff in Logic Pro X 10.5 (free for existing users) to get excited about, as the fruity tech leviathan makes obvious but positive moves towards bringing its blockbuster DAW in line with more, shall we say, progressive contemporaries such as Ableton Live, Bitwig Studio, FL Studio and even Native Instruments’ Maschine. To that end, the most architecturally seismic new feature is the not wholly unexpected introduction of the Live Loops system, as already established in the iOS version of Logic’s junior sibling, GarageBand. This brings Live/Bitwig-style non-linear ’cellbased’…

Apart from the somewhat oversold new Artisan effects (see main text), Waveform Pro 11 doesn’t add any audio plugins to its internal roster. Instead, this time round, Tracktion Software have thrown in five new MIDI processors – and very nice they are too. First up, Arpeggiator delivers all your standard arpeggiation options, plus chord modes, swing and randomisation, input shaping and a full-on polyphonic step sequencer. The puzzlingly named Note Repeater is in fact a trancegate-style processor, generating rhythmic patterns out of held notes. There’s velocity adjustment, variable randomisation of position, length and velocity, and a long menu of preset patterns to get started with. MIDI Filter is a very basic utility for filtering and routing notes to separate instruments in a Rack, while MIDI Monitor lists all incoming MIDI…

Mastering The Mix first got our attention with their easy-to-use Levels metering plugin. Since then the team have delivered some excellent plugins aimed at making your mixing and mastering tasks quicker and the outcomes better. Last year’s Bassroom EQ is a perfect example, delivering bass-focused EQ via their innovative 3D style vertical layout. Their latest plugin, Mixroom (VST, VST3, AU, AAX) employs the same layout, but this time the EQ handles frequencies from 320Hz to 20kHz. The plugin combines manual and intelligent operation, incorporating both presets and the option to analyse your own audio files. Let’s take a look at what’s on offer. Layout Mixroom is an 8-band configurable EQ that uses a vertical layout with high frequencies at the top of the window and low frequencies at the bottom.…

Dirty Modulating Bass We’re celebrating the low end this issue, with sub and synth bass tutorials, but if you don’t want to make your own, here are two bass sample collections. Robbie from Cyclick Samples says of his set: Bass Guitars: “These were subjected to heavy distortion for some nasty and nice loops. Two of them were recorded through a chain of pedals that were then tweaked and switched.” Filter Modulation Bass Loops: “This contains nine tempo sub-folders. Filters used were the UAD Moog Multimode XL, Cableguys FilterShaper3, Soundtoys FilterFreak and Arturia MiniFilter.” Fuzz ‘n’ Dirty Bass Loops: “Ready to go, but could take a good dose of filtering, modulation and more distortion.” Misc Noises: “These would suit further processing, especially time-stretching, with or without pitch shifting. Trem ‘n’ Pumped…

We have a special giveaway this month with an amazing set of pro samples from WA Production worth nearly $20. Here’s how to claim it… Titan Trap is a great collection of kits, hits, loops and shots aimed at anyone interested in trap and contemporary EDM in its various forms. As WA Production say… “Trap is a crazy genre, bringing a new light to the EDM scene. We know trap has been around for a long time, but genres like hybrid trap or psychedelic trap are new to the EDM world. “We want to bring you a pack that is full of innovative and heart-racing samples, loops and construction kits. “Big EDM’s Titan Trap is a mind-blowing and inspiring trap sample pack that will be an essential title in your…