Innehållsförteckning för May 2022 från Computer Music

01 MOOG SYNTHESIZER MODEL I, II & III We have to give top billing to Dr Bob and the first electronic keyboard to adopt the branding and description of ‘synthesizer’. Initially released in 1967, the Synthesizer Model I,II and III provided a single unit solution, albeit using modules, for musicians to explore. It also secured the term ‘synthesiser’ in the musician’s psyche, and for that, we thank you Dr Bob! 02 BUCHLA SYSTEM 100 Don Buchla looked at electronic instruments in a slightly different way, which we have come to describe in the synthesis world as ‘West Coast’. Emanating from San Francisco, which was also the home of the minimalist movement, with composers such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich, the Buchla System was more experimental than the Moog equivalent,…

The biggest problem with the developing technologies of the 70s, was that the costs involved could be prohibitively expensive for many to enjoy the wonders of true synthesis. Many keyboard players from this era found themselves to be reliant on the legendary Fender Rhodes electric piano which, apart from offering a different sound colour to a traditional piano, also offered amplification options and true polyphony. The same could not be said for synthesisers, even the really expensive ones, that might only offer a handful of notes. Hence, some manufacturers responded by producing a type of keyboard which would be described as a String Machine. By association with ARP, the Solina String Ensemble (1974) was one of the better known machines, offering pad and string-like tones, which could also operate with…

Step by step 2. Create Jarre-like sounds with UVI String Machines 2 1 For our Classic string machine/organ strings patch, we’ll use UVI’s String Machines 2 suite Workstation plugin to host it. Don’t have it? Try using examples from within your DAW-based sampler, to provide a suitable starting point. Anything from a classic string machine will do. 2 With homage to JMJ himself, we’re going to use a sample from the Eminent K150. You can also try other String Machine samples from within the UVI library, but we’re keeping it authentic. In light of this, we will also only use a single oscillator for our sound. 3 String Machines 2 is equipped with some great effects; but we’ll recreate these classic effects using our DAW. Click the effects tab, and…

After the incredible leaps in synthesiser technology that were made in the late 70s, 1980 could be regarded as the year that was the calm before the beautiful storm. There weren’t many influential product releases in this year, the most notable being the Sequential Prophet-10. This instrument has an interesting history, as the original goal was to create a 10-note polyphonic Prophet. The problem was that there were various issues, particularly with the synth overheating, so the solution was to create another behemoth of a synthesiser, which was essentially two Prophet-5s stacked on top of each other! There was a little more to it than that, largely centred around additional controls, but it was pricey and early models had technical issues. This meant that it did not sell in vast…

Rise of the DX The FM-based machines had really shaken up the industry In 1983, Yamaha announced a new synth which didn’t employ the same constructs previously seen in subtractive synthesisers. The DX7 was a new breed, using a technology called frequency modulation synthesis, or FM for short. The concept of frequency modulation had been around since the mid-20th century, but in the context of broadcast radio transmissions. As part of studies at Stanford University in the 60s, developer John Chowning was able to imitate acoustic sounds using FM technology. It was this technology that made it into the Yamaha DX series of synthesisers. Unlike the analogue forefathers, the DX7 synthesiser sounded clean and sharp, but with an amazing ability to emulate certain acoustic sounds incredibly well. It was a…

If all this talk of vintage wonderments is giving you a hankering to add some nostalgia to your productions, look no further than the UVI Vintage Vault, now in its third revision. It’s one of the most comprehensive collections of sample based instrumentation available, drawn from the earliest instruments such as the Mellotron and Minimoog, up to the Fairlight and beyond. It’s an investment at €599, but all of the instruments are available to purchase as individual entities. Moreover, all sounds are production ready, with samples providing raw data, and a sizeable effects bank, adding contemporary sparkle.…

Step by step 2. Create a Prince-style sound for free 1 We’ll begin by opening up a copy of your DAW, and loading an instance of our fantastic Zebra CM plugin. Head for the menu/display at the top, click and hold, and select Init from the bottom of the menu. This will initialise the plugin, making it ready for us to create a patch. 2 Osc1 should, by default, be set to a Sawtooth wave. We’ll leave this in place, but we do need to turn down the oscillator volume. Adjusting the Volume pot to the left of the waveform, set it to 80. The value is displayed at the top of the plugin, as you make any alteration. 3 Now we can switch allegiance to Osc2; we need to…

Waldorf PPG Wave 3.V Mac/PC €156.00 Billed as a reincarnation of the legendary PPG Wave synthesiser, it has been modelled by Waldorf, the rightful family heirs to the original. Impressively, it includes more than 100 new wavetables, created by Wolfgang Palm, as well as all of the original Waveterm B factory sounds. It’s an impressively up-to-date collection. waldorfmusic.com Native Instruments FM8 Mac/PC £129.00 Despite being one of the oldest synth plugins in our lineup, FM8 continues to be a highly regarded go-to for DX7 style or FM synthesis sounds. Packed with 960 presets, which are searchable, it contains many of the classic sounds from the original DX series, along with a vast number of sharp and crystal-clean FM sounds. native-instruments.com UVI Emulation II Mac/PC €199.00 If you were unable to…

In our experience, sample libraries with an emphasis on ethnic and world sounds tend to fall into two camps; they either provide a smattering of generic sounds, which are ideal for flying into general production work, or they are heavily focused on regions of the world. With the latter in mind, extensive sampling of both instrumentation and articulation normally follow, coupled with multiple microphone placements, and that’s what we have here. South Central Orchestral Tools’s newest suite heads for the Americas, concentrating on southern and central regions. With such a large geographical expanse, OT have sensibly brought multi-instrumentalist, composer and musicologist Richard Harvey aboard. Richard has been studying many of these wonderful instruments for around 40 years, as well as building a sizeable collection of instruments from the region. As…

One of the alluring elements of CV-1 is that it’s a standalone, breathing, growing, organic instrument. While many modular users will use their hardware in a conventional way by creating subtractive synth patches (albeit complex in nature), it’s incredibly appealing to use a modular in a generative way. This means that the modular itself may create the very notes being triggered, in an entirely randomised way. If this sounds a little haphazard, it can be, but it’s also very plausible to place constraints on the level of generation. By applying these constraints through elements such as quantising modules, the output can be less randomised, and more scalic or sequential. It is also possible to organise patches in such a way that a root note can act as the base for…

Enter into discussion with anyone with an interest in studio history, and the mention of Abbey Road probably won’t take long to arise. The recording studio’s iconic status was sealed many years ago, thanks to a certain band-of-four from Liverpool, but despite the long-time association with the Beatles, as well as an enormous wealth of musical talent from many other musical circles, Abbey Road has also always been associated with film and media scoring. And while many fine scores, such as Star Wars, were recorded next door in Studio One, the smaller surrounding of Studio Two provides the latest home for Spitfire’s newest string library. Acoustically speaking While the ethos for this library feels more intimate, Studio Two is still quite a large space, and more than capable of housing…

Nektar GX Mini £60 Web nektartech.com Gear USB mini MIDI keyboard Nektar’s SE25 mini controller keyboard impressed us a few issues back and “packs a lot more punch than its size promises – a great mobile controller, simple as that”. That said, we once accidentally called it the GX Mini, so here’s the real GX Mini on test – stand up Spartacus! Both feature Nektar’s velocity-sensitive keybed with three velocity curves to choose from – rare playability at this price point and size. Both also feature the company’s Part 2 feature where you can instantly transfer control to another MIDI setup instantly – great for performances. And both have Bitwig 8-Track included and can also handle DAW control, although GX Mini boasts more transport controls. It also has an…

The 1960s Here’s Robbie from Cyclick on his 60s pack… “The 1960s witnessed many firsts in synthesis but it was a preparatory decade for what was to come. To mark this crossover decade’s synth palette, this collection includes tone-wheel organs (ie Hammond), electric organs (Farfisa and Vox Continental), the Mellotron (but not the later 70s models – keeping it historic), a Moog Modular and an oscillator-based synth à la Silver Apples. The Moog patches we used for these takes the clean approach of keyboard artists (eg Wendy Carlos) and the naivety of The Monkees, credited as the first pop band to feature the Moog. There’s also a nod to The Beatles who used one for Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. “The Synths vs WEM Copicat folder contains one-shots culled from a series…

cm/experts Our resident music production gurus walk you through their specialist fields every month PRODUCTION AUDIO INTERFACE BASS SYNTH MASTERCLASS GO METALLIC WITH ZEBRA 60 YEARS OF THE SYNTH: THE 60S Dave Gale shows you how to create classic 60s synth and organ sounds 60 YEARS OF THE SYNTH: THE 70S Iconic 70s sounds and how to recreate them in Zebra and third-party plugins 60 YEARS OF THE SYNTH: THE 80S How to recreate synth sounds from the most popular time in synth music YOUR FREE PLUGIN How to get the best from our amazing IK Multimedia J-60 synth giveaway…

80 plugins, big workshops! We’ve finally updated the world-famous cm Plugin Suite, and next month we look in-depth at all the recent arrivals as we present our lean, mean plugin machines. Some classics, some reborn, some all-new and none to be missed! PLUS! Reviews G-Force M-Tron MkII and AudioModern’s Playbeat on test Free plugin! We have a fantastic, totally free reverb plugin update More How-Tos We continue our 60 Years Of The Synth journey: the 90s!…

Spring is most definitely in the air, and what better way to kick off this most uplifting of seasons than an uplifting update. Cubase of course needs no introduction, and its decades of service to the music production community are well documented. Given its awesome feature set, Steinberg could probably keep Cubase ticking over, making tweaks here and there. But recently they’ve actually set themselves a pretty demanding release timetable, issuing new version updates with reassuring regularity, listening to user requests and supersizing this already big-hitting application into the creative powerhouse its users deserve. When we get a new version of a major DAW, all eyes are inevitably on the headline features, and with two new audio plugins, a new instrument and new metering modules, Cubase 12 certainly looks like…

Where do you begin a history of electronic music and the synthesiser? The popular and somewhat easy view is that the two are entwined, that electronic music started with the invention of the synthesiser and its use in the 60s and 70s. And indeed, that’s why we’ve chosen 1962 – 60 years ago – as the year from which things kicked off. But actually the synthetic manipulation of sound, and the machines that did it can be traced back further. Much further. In fact, both experimentation with sound and some weird and wonderful sonic manipulators go back hundreds of years. OK, the fun really started when people started recording and releasing the results a few decades back – not to mention making accurate records of the machines that they created…

Raymond Scott has been described as the ‘audio version of Andy Warhol’ yet has largely remained behind the scenes of electronic music history. He was a composer and technologist, and while he had his music licensed in cartoons, films and musicals, it’s perhaps his electronic research that is his biggest legacy. He was one of the first people to come up with the idea of sequencing notes together, with a machine capable of producing tones. He invented the Electronium during the 60s, a device shrouded in mystery, but it was a combined synth and generative music producer – perhaps the first workstation, but almost certainly one of the first keyboard synths. Scott and Bob Moog also worked together and the latter – now widely regarded as a godfather of synth…

Step by step 1. Recreate the famous Beatles sound in software 1 GForce’s amazing new version of the Mellotron, comes with plenty of great patches. We’ll learn how to use the plugin, by creating our very own classic Mello-Flute patch. M-Tron Mk2 operates as a plugin within your DAW, or in standalone mode. Use whichever you prefer. 2 We begin by performing an initialise. Select the dropdown menu, from the patch-name field, and select ‘your_ patches_here’ from the User menu. This will have the same effect as initialising your patch, leaving you with no sound, when you try to play. 3 It’s always a great idea to save your patch immediately, to make future saving far easier and not stifle your creative flow. Click Save, to the right of the…

Step by step 2. Recreate a classic 60s sound for free! 1 Begin by opening a copy of your preferred DAW Software, and loading an instance of our superb u-He ZebraCM soft-synth package. Go to the display at the top of the window, click on the drop-down, and select ‘Init’ from the menu to initialise the patch, ready for our creation. 2 The Ondioline let the user create their own initial waveforms, by altering the harmonic content. Luckily, ZebraCM is already equipped with useful waveforms. Moving to Osc1, change the waveform until it reads 11.40 in the upper display. This provides a reedy sound, ideal for this. 3 We now want to replicate the setting of Osc1 on Osc2, so within the Osc2 section, click on the waveform display again,…

Step by step 1. Moreish Popcorn-style sounds 1 We’ll begin by opening a copy of your DAW and plugging in an instance of Zebra CM. Once you have the plugin open in front of you, go to the display at the very top and click on ‘Init’ at the bottom of the menu. This will initialise your patch. 2 This patch is only going to use one oscillator, but our first task will be to select an appropriate waveform for use on Osc1. Click and hold on the Waveform icon, and drag the mouse up until you see a square wave, which will be confirmed by a value of 2.00 in the upper display. 3 The relative pitch of this sound is quite high, so we will alter the tuning…

Arturia ARP 2600V Mac/PC €149 Arturia were at the forefront of software modelling, with the ARP2600V being one of the first. It’s undergone revisions since those first outings, producing ever-more reliable incarnations. The easy patching concept works brilliantly on screen, to provide plenty of inspiration for programming, while the onboard step sequencer can have you wiling away the hours, working exclusively within the software itself. arturia.com Roland Promars Mac/PC $99 The original Promars was often described as the little brother to the Jupiter-4, and this is an excellent modelled version from the original manufacturers, which forms part of the Roland Cloud. Regrettably, it’s still only monophonic, with no capability for polyphonic operation, but there are plenty of other Roland plugins that could easily offer a poly alternative. Get as part…

In production terms, the acoustic piano sound is a timeless classic, but beautiful as it is, sometimes we want a sound which is more contemporary. The electric piano as an instrument is steeped with association with certain styles of jazz and funk – the Fender Rhodes was popular in the 60s and 70s for a reason. But while you can certainly use those sounds in a more contemporary setting, sometimes you want a sound which will cut in a mix, and sound different, up-to-date, and stylish. So this month, armed with a copy of our awesome u-he ZebraCM, we replicate many of the settings found on an acoustic or electric piano, but change the overall timbre considerably, by using some overtly digital wave forms. The net result is a sound…

If we had to highlight one company that led the way throughout the 80s era, it would have to be Roland. Their branding, emblazoned on the back of all of their synthesisers, was obvious to see when watching bands perform on TV and truly influential to anyone who grew up in this era. Just about all of these vintage classics from Roland are exorbitantly expensive on the secondhand market, but Roland have reinvented the classics in software form, with some of the finest software models available. The Roland Cloud is a portal that allows purchase or rental of just about all of the Roland classics. It’s a very cost-effective way of re-visiting these machines, while we think that they all sound extraordinarily close to the originals. Pricing starts at $99…

Step by step 1. How to create that famous Duran synth line 2 Select your patch location – we’re using A1 – then hit the Rename button. You can now type your patch name into the text field, pressing the Write button once you’ve finished typing. We can now shut the patch browser window, and start creating your sound. 1 Let’s begin by opening a DAW and loading an instance of the Roland Jupiter 8 plugin. First, we’ll create an initialised patch; click on the Patch button, which will open the patch browser. Then click on the New button in the bank section, to create a new patch Bank. 3 The subtle elegance of this Duran Duran patch all stems from the use of triangle waves, so let’s move to…

Step by step 3. Get a famous Yazoo synth sound for free 1 Let’s begin by bringing up an instance of the Zebra CM plugin, within your own DAW. Move to the menu/display at the top of the plugin, click and hold, and select Init from the bottom of the menu. Don’t forget to keep your eye on this display when adjusting values. 2 As patches go, this one is relatively simple. We will be using a single oscillator, set to a Sawtooth waveform. By default, Osc1 should already have this in place, but do double-check, to be sure. 3 Despite its relative simplicity, this patch could get quite loud, quickly. To prevent damage to your equipment, go to the master Volume control, located at the bottom right hand corner…

We’ve seen a lot of virtual drum machines pass through our doors in recent months, but none of which have forced us to dwell on the textures of our drum sounds quite as much as Triaz, the new multi-layered, drum-crafting and sequencing nerve centre from Wave Alchemy. Boasting more than 10,000 individual samples and more than 600 instantly playable presets, Triaz is a tempting package right from the outset. But, taking a look at just how its three-headed sound engine works makes us aware that there’s more cleverness going on here than you might first think… Tri harder Wave Alchemy named Triaz for its triple-layered sound engine. But first, let’s pull back a little to give that some context. Triaz offers 12 distinct drum voices (or drum channels, if you…

There is no doubt that Andea is a beautiful library, and one that’s somewhat unique as a collection. The mixture of instrumentation, across string instruments, wind instruments and percussion instruments, make this one of the most comprehensive packages of its kind, zoning in on a single region of the world. The entire package is based around single articulations and strikes, meaning that it is down to the producer or composer, to employ these sounds in an authentic manner. If authenticity is your thing, you’d be well advised to listen to some music from Latin America, before attempting to replicate anything similar stylistically. More often than not, the way these instruments play rhythmically is just as unique to this part of the world, as the instrumental colours themselves. Hence, simply playing…

There are some products that have now become so ubiquitous that it feels like they’ve always been around. Take Loopmasters’ gargantuan Loopcloud service for example. With over four million sounds readily available for a monthly subscription, Loopcloud has become a byword for the quickest sample perusal you could wish for. It seems like we’ve been wallowing in its genre-spanning depths for ages, despite the service only launching in 2017. Two core tools within Loopcloud, included as part of its plugin suite, are Drum and Play. These plugins allow for the crafting of personalised drum machines and kits, as well as playable melodic instruments, harnessing the ‘Cloud’s expansive sound universe. Now, this pair of malleable sonic shapers arrive as standalone products, available to purchase outside of a Loopcloud Subscription. Though both…

The folks at Spitfire are a decent bunch! Any orchestral library worth its stripes, is likely to attract a price tag which may make it feel expensive, but the cost to us as the end users could be deemed as a bargain; the hire of five of the finest string players in the country, not to mention the hire of the engineers and the studio at Abbey Road, for this amount of money, feels like a fair price indeed. However, you either have the money, or you don’t, and if there’s one thing Spitfire try to do, it’s encourage composers and producers, making their products as affordable as possible. Their Labs series is a fine example; an expanding library of free samples, all of which offer something, in their own…

ODD Ball is a rubber ball that can be bounced, and as it does so, it sends messages to a dedicated iOS app, or through Bluetooth MIDI to DAWs on a computer. This sounds like a refreshing change from using backlit pads for everything! The ODD Ball ships in a cardboard box, and within that box is a groovy looking padded tin to be kept for storage and transportation. Also included is a compact printed manual, and a USB cable. The ODD Ball is larger than we’d anticipated, measuring 7.5cm across and weighing 200g. It’s fairly mysterious, being simply a sphere with a small hole in it, and a discreet ODD Ball logo. The first step is to charge it, during which time a faint blinking LED can be seen.…

Jean-Michel Jarre must have felt pretty alone in the 70s. While Emerson, Wakeman and Downs were playing synthesisers like be-cloaked keyboard wizards, and the ’League and Cabs were exploring the machines’ innards like scientists, Jarre just wanted to create pure synth music, with lush melodies, chords and memorable tunes; nothing too experimental, but nothing too noodly. He wanted to use early sequencing, and he wanted to be popular without the pop, and with the album Oxygene, he certainly got what he wished for. This masterpiece recording, and the Oxygene single (part IV), were his introduction into the big league. Recorded with, among other classics, a VCS3, ARP 2600, Eminent 310 and Korg Mini Pops in Jarre’s kitchen(!) it stands up as one of the defining albums in electronic music, yet…

Talk to any musical historian about the 60s, and you can firmly predict the bands and artists mentioned. This was, after all, the musical decade of love and peace, as a post-war world rediscovered some of the finer things in life. As a musical decade it mostly revolved around the electric guitar; Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys, all secured their place in history in the 60s. But beyond the guitar-based format, there were inventors creating new and exciting sounds which, once heard by many of the aforementioned artists, would go on to play a part in some of their finest work. Of course none of this would have been possible without developments in electrical circuits, which provided the foundation for electronic musical instruments to…

The 70s is the decade when this new musical synth technology began to really find its feet. Granted, it was still an incredibly expensive preoccupation, but synthesiser development continued with the American companies leading the charge, while new horizons appeared from the east. Alan Robert Pearlman was a designer, electrical engineer and inventor, who spent five years working at NASA. In 1969 he founded his own company, formed from the initials in his name. ARP instruments Inc, (originally branded as Tonus Inc.) were to become a major player in the synthetic arena, beginning on the dot of 1970 with the release of the ARP 2500. Like many of its predecessors, the 2500 was another modular behemoth. Many people regarded it as being a rather overwhelming instrument to use, being confronted…

So far in this series we’ve mainly discussed the creation of electronic basslines using synths. But this month, I thought I’d quickly touch on the ins and outs of recording bass into your DAW using an audio interface. I was a guitarist prior to starting out in music production over 15 years ago now. One of the most special moments for me in coming to electronic music, was realising that I could record my ideas directly into a DAW instead of using my terrible mp3 player mic. Having access to a studio and a selection of mics to use on a bass amp is great but not always possible for home producers or musicians just starting out in electronic production. Fortunately there’s a wealth of tools out there to turn…

We cannot talk about the 80s, and the synths therein, without mentioning the three drum machines that defined the era, and still provide a percussive backbone to electronic music today. In 1981, Roland produced a drum machine called the TR-808. Subtitled as “Rhythm Composers”, a younger us conjured up images of the machine actually composing rhythms. Regrettably, nothing could have been further from the truth! The TR-808 was an all-analogue powerhouse, which didn’t sound very much like a conventional drum kit. Its snare used predominantly white noise, while the bass drum was sinusoidal. The toms and bongos were not really representative! Consequently, it was a bit of a commercial flop, though it did get some commercial outings of note, such as Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye. In 1982, the era…

01 ZTT & TREVOR HORN If there is one record label that seemed to conjure the spirit of the 80s, it would have to be ZTT. Operating out of their Sarm West studios in West London, ZTT were a collective of producer Trevor Horn, former journalist Paul Morley, manager Jill Sinclair, with many other associates such as Richard Niles and Stephen Lipson. Their work with Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Propaganda and Grace Jones combined live musicians with the finest tech of the day. The LinnDrum, Fairlight and Jupiter-8 were in plentiful supply. 02 ROLAND JUPITER-8 After the initial release of the SH-101, released in 1981, the Jupiter-8 quickly became one of the most highly-regarded synthesisers of this era. Its iconic layout, with simple voice architecture, meant that it was easy…

Roland Jupiter 8 Mac/PC. Roland Cloud from $99.00 per year or $129 The most iconic polysynth from the 80s era, the Roland Jupiter 8 set the bar for sound and reliability, where some other polysynths had fallen by the reliability wayside. While secondhand prices are exorbitant, Roland have you covered, with their extraordinary plugin/out which is available as part of the Roland Cloud. It has the additional advantage of being open to a hardware format, through various Roland keyboards that offer Plug-out compatibility. In our tests, it was difficult to tell apart from an original. rolandcloud.com Korg MonoPoly v2 Mac/PC $99.99 One of the more interesting synths from the early 80s, the Korg MonoPoly was part monosynth, part poly. This meant you could do some very interesting things with the…

Another cool addition to Triaz’s arsenal is its immersive dual reverb module, with the first one (A) being a traditional algorithmic plate reverb emulation, and the second one (B) a tasty convolution reverb. The convolution is pre-loaded with a nice selection of impulse responses (40 in total) which capture a range of classic analogue and digital reverb units, real locations and pro-level drum rooms. All of which – as any serious beat-maker will tell you – can be that vital glue that holds a track together. After being captured, Wave Alchemy’s impulse responses are then processed with vintage transistor and tube EQs, to wring out their aural finesse. While a nice blend of the two is often the best route, scanning these impulse responses can land you into some exquisite…

While there is nothing new about modular synthesis, the undeniable rise of the Eurorack format in more recent years has influenced a number of companies to investigate the concept by creating a modular in software. This desktop-based format has found bedfellows from both the desktop diehards, as well as the modular enthusiasts themselves, partly thanks to the enticing cost, alongside the ability to save patches and implement directly with your DAW. Acoustically applied Canadian developers Applied Acoustic Systems are no strangers to the software domain. They are the developers behind an ever-growing catalogue of superbly usable instruments such as the applauded Chromaphone 3 synthesiser and the excellent Lounge Lizard EP-4 electric piano simulator. “There’s something enticing about an instrument you can use without the need to load your DAW” Multiphonics…

As with the larger Loopcloud ecosystem, Drum and Play’s internal sample browser is all meticulously curated and tagged. Should you wish to upload your own samples, via Loopcloud, you’ll be encouraged to allocate tags to them, too. This satisfyingly ordered system certainly reduces vital time auditioning samples so you can easily hone in on the precise sound you need, with the tag system designating samples by Instruments, Genre and Label. Another positive here is that, if you do have a subscription to the 4 million + samples within Loopcloud, your performance controls can be harnessed when auditioning samples (even your own) so that you can get a handle on how far these can be pushed from their origin point. All of which is to say that Drum, Play – and…

While it’s questionable whether we ever need more track surgery plugins, after years of experimenting with an incalculable number of such tools, we do remain hungrier than ever for those plugins that swerve our tracks into unexpected territory. Lifeline Expanse from Excite Audio serves not just one, but five different ways of entirely re-defining the sound of your track. By harnessing some clever re-amping techniques, the Excite team deliver multiple digital chains that you can send your audio through, and endless sonic exploration. Get a lifeline Upon installation we’re presented with a nice, to-the-point UI which maps out the five effect modules side-by-side. From left to right, there’s Format, Dirt, Re-Amp, Width and Space, with Main and Advanced views for each. The Main view simply presents three knobs, with the…

Syntronik 2 (AU, VST3, AAX, Standalone) is the new version of IK Multimedia’s mammoth synth-based multi-part instrument. With a potential 5500 presets across 33 classic synths to choose from, powered by up to 200GB of sound content, it’s an awesome package that combines recognisable synth interfaces with effects and a 4-part multi option. Synths can be purchased individually, but there are also three tiered bundles that include differing levels of content. There’s also a free starter version (Syntronik 2 CS) that includes 100 presets. This month we’re very excited to bring you the J-60 instrument from the bundle, complete with its full library of 125 presets. Just to be clear, this is the exact same pack, presets and library that would normally set you back €50. So, you have almost…

From assertive arp lines to cutting-edge supersaws, this classic sample pack from issue 269 – lovingly crafted by Cyclick and Groove Criminals – is here to provide your projects with synthetic punch and potential. All of the samples come in .wav format, and there’s a dozen multisamples patches included, too. You’ll find the pack in the Samples folder at FileSilo (see p81) where there are also easy instructions to download them via WeTransfer. 530 EXCLUSIVE SAMPLES including… 140 Arpeggiator Loops 84 Chord Hits 20 Moog Bass Loops 25 MS-20 Loops 20 Power 5th Loops 21 Stack Bass Loops 10 Supersaw Loops 12 Multis > Step by step How to get your free sample packs 2 Click this month’s cover and answer the simple question related to a word in this…

After learning classical piano, studying music technology and training as a sound engineer, Hinako Omori has dabbled with many aspects of the music industry, working for gear companies before playing on records by the likes of Kae Tempest, Georgia, and EOB. She is now focussing on her solo material and after releasing a couple of EPs, has announced her debut album “a journey…” which is out next month. It’s a deeply personal and evocative record, mixing binaural field recordings with sparse and emotive electronics and was recorded at her home studio – a mix of analogue synths and processing plugins – and the mighty Real World Studios… 1 Tell us how you got into music Hinako Omori: “I’m a musician and composer based in London. My journey in music started…