Innehållsförteckning för December 2023 från Computer Music

> Free software As giveaways go, this has to be up there with our very best. GForce impOSCar2 normally retails for £99.99 and with this month’s mag, and for a limited time only, is available absolutely free.. GForce Software should need no intro; for years it’s delivered excellent hardware synth recreations based on its own classic synth collection. Examples include Oddity3 (ARP Odyssey), Minimonsta2 (Moog Minimoog Model D), M-Tron Pro IV (Mellotron) and its officially endorsed and truly fantastic Oberheim O-BE. impOSCar2 (VST, AU, standalone) recreates the Oxford Synth Company OSCar synth from the early 1980s, delivering an incredibly accurate take on this bona fide synth lover’s classic. This includes its excellent oscillator section (with user definable additive waves), and you’ll even find recreations of the original presets. However, in…

One of the most commonplace musical devices used in commercial production is the use of a synth sound with lead-like potential, performing an arpeggiated sequence or pattern which repeats throughout the entirety of a track. The idea goes back to when early sequencers only had capacity to sequence a small number of notes, such as eight or 16; this motivic concept quickly caught on, initially within more experimental electronic music, before the idea infiltrated commercial music avenues. Think of synth bands from the ’80s such as Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, or even artists like Howard Jones, and their catchy, hook-driven pop classics are littered with repeating sequences. As the sequencing technology that we have today is unrecognisable compared to those early musical meanderings, we can take the spirit of the concept…

Physical modelling synthesis has had a rather chequered history. It was initially employed by the likes of Yamaha to recreate the sounds of real instruments by modelling their physical properties. As good as the results could be, the recreation of these instruments has been more successfully achieved by sampling the heck out of them; every pluck, scratch, hit and articulation can be recorded and then employed by you to mix into your tunes. No physical modelling necessary. However, the technology is not redundant and now companies are waking up to the fact that you can use its principals to create entirely new sounds – from instruments that don’t or can’t exist – perhaps something it should always have been used for. And Physical Audio’s Modus not only does this, but…

Sound Particles might not be a name you’ve heard of but earlier this year, the brand announced one of the most exciting products of the NAMM show: a ‘first ever’ 3D synth in the form of SkyDust 3D. As you may have guessed, we’re talking spatial audio here but we’re not just talking spinning sounds floating around your head (although that is an option). What we have is a synth that can be used ‘normally’ but can also apply a heap of modulation options to your sound’s position in space, and alter those positions over time. So we’re talking both ‘time and space’ – not many synths can boast that! And if Jean-Michel Jarre is keen on the concept (he calls it “the first musical instrument for immersive sound”) then…

Processing bass frequencies typically involves EQ and compression. However, sometimes these simply aren’t able to deliver, and we need some kind of bass enhancement processor. These tend to fall into two camps – those that generate higher harmonics to give the impression of more bass and those that synthesise additional lower frequency content. SSL’s new SubGen plugin falls primarily into the latter category, but there is some harmonic enhancement available too. It features four sub harmonic generators, and these along with the accompanying display dominate the plugin interface. Each band includes fully adjustable centre frequency (20Hz to 160Hz), bandwidth (0.1 to 1.0) and amount (-60dB to +12dB), and bands can overlap. Settings are made using either the regular controls or within the display, and the display also includes a background…

Zenhiser Golden £39 Take a chill pill and plump up that beanbag. We‘ve got a super dope, lo-fi, sample pack to peruse — and it’s a downtempo doozie. The whopping 3GB of deep, bittersweet beats and blissed-out bass are all top-tier. And, as with all Zenhiser’s releases, the extra mile has been trodden. There’s foley and field sounds joining the party. Iconic machine hardware. And a ton of the moody grooves and crunchy, organic funky fusions get run through a nifty little recording chain. So, marvel at vintage tape delays and decades old spring reverbs. Gold star business. www.zenhiser.com 9/10 Audiotent Pause £55 Throbbingly well-stocked library of rugged and raw techno hooks and loops, lifted with love from the Buchla Easel Command synthesizer. This iconic modular machine has been fired…

Our biggest giveaway of all time? And you thought this issue’s giveaway of the £99-valued ImpOSCar 2 was impressive? Pick up the next issue of Computer Music to gain access to a fully functional, hugely creative instrument that retails for an even higher price. Find out what next time! PLUS! Musik Hack The software mastering geniuses on Master Plan Free samples Get hazy with some dream pop, and angry with some industrial! On test D16 Drumazon 2, Orchestral Tools Abacus and more……

A little sketchy In their latest update to Pro Tools, Avid introduced Sketch, a new loop-based route to building up fresh ideas… With the launch of Pro Tools Sketch – part of the 2023.9 update – Avid is making an even bolder play for the Logic and Live market. On desktop, Sketch is available as a dedicated window within all versions of Pro Tools (including Artist), and is designed to function as a self-contained music-making environment. There are various ways, however, to integrate it with Pro Tools’ traditional timeline. Sketch is focused around a clip-launching workflow that owes an obvious debt to Ableton Live. However, Sketch also has whiffs of Apple’s GarageBand’s Live Loops and Touch Instruments. In its current state, Sketch offers a significantly pared-back take on the Pro…

When it comes to reverbs, the choice is often bewildering. This month we take a look at the different options and where they work best in a mix. When we are recording instruments we inevitably capture some room sound, and for instruments such as drums and piano this can be a vital component of the final mix sound. Nevertheless, much of the time we are adding artificial reverb to dry sounds, and doing this tastefully and successfully will require a combination of balancing technique and the correct reverb choice. In our first reverb mixing masterclass we looked at a quick and reliable mixing technique using three reverbs (small, medium and large), but didn’t really dwell on actually choosing the reverbs. This time we’re looking at specific types of reverbs and…

When Leapwing Audio’s StageOne stereo processor was launched back in 2019, it was praised for its high-quality algorithms, but some found the interface a little lacking. Now with the version 2 release, it sports multiband processing, new features and a snazzy stereo visualiser that greatly improves the plugin workflow. Leapwing Audio’s plugins might not be the cheapest, but they’re known for their high-quality and transparent-sounding algorithms. As such, StageOne is often cited on forums as being one of the best-sounding options for clean width enhancement that can even be used when mastering. The plugin consists of five algorithms for controlling the soundstage, including Width, Depth, Mono Spread and Centre Gravity from the first version, plus the new Phase Recovery function. Leapwing has also apparently fine-tuned and improved some of these…

The Kontakt instrument format has become a universal model for many sound creators, providing everything from sampled acoustic instruments, to the sonically diverse. All have their uses, but finding an instrument that includes both acoustic and electronic elements, and can take you to exciting creative places, is more of a rarity. Getting creative This sub-heading could be regarded as the main Strands mantra; it’s complete with 32 sound sources, all of which are unique, but with elements of control that invite creativity at both the sonic and musical levels. The initial sampled sound sources are divided into three categories, beginning with Bows. You can hear the rosin of the bow creeping across the string in many of the eight included bowed sounds, but there is substantial variance, such as the…

Whether you were around in the ’80s, or you’ve subsequently heard the era’s influence on recent musical output, you’ll likely know that Trevor Horn is revered as the mastermind behind many of the iconic sounds of the decade. Known for pushing the boundaries of music technology, while also combining terrific instrumental performances, he is the producer behind a string of acclaimed singles and albums, from artists as diverse as Grace Jones, Yes, ABC, Seal and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. He was also the main-man of the Buggles, whose 1979 single Video Killed the Radio Star remains a retro-playlist fave. Solar flares Spitfire Audio’s desire to capture some of Horn’s trademark sounds is unsurprising… a legendary British producer and a successful sampling house teaming up to create a library of era-defining…

Melodies and Hooks Lacking that all-important top-line inspiration? Feel free to rifle through Robbie Stamp’s huge hook-library “Even in the Western 12-tone scale and restricted to a 4/4 time signature, there are still infinite melodic possibilities. This sample pack is very much finite and made up of pair of melodic/hooky loops by instrument in each tempo, of which there are 11. “The instruments are electric guitar, piano, electric piano, organ, Mellotron and monosynth. The loops are mostly two bars, with a scattering of four-bar melodies. Many have delay/reverb and start after the first beat of the bar, so there is an initial tail left over from the end of the loop, so the first rotation of the loop could be faded in or muted. Delve in and pull out something…

Interface cm: Can you give us a little background on how Audiomovers first started? What motivated you to create the company? Igor: “I’m a sound engineer, music producer and audio product designer. For more than a decade I designed products for Blue Microphones and Waves Audio, co-designing some things you may have heard of (Tracks Live, Digigrid, SoundGrid, MultiRack, Yeti Nano, Yeti X). Waves is where I met the co-founder of Audiomovers, Yuriy Shevyrov. The original idea for ListenTo came from my own and fellow producers’ frustration, that you can’t easily listen to high quality audio coming from the DAW while you are remote. There were tools available at the time attempting to solve this problem, but they invariably lacked quality, were very expensive, or were clunky and difficult to…

Those familiar with Gregg Kowalsky’s past solo work might expect the former purveyor of meditative ambience to continue to explore the same minimalist ethos heard on 2017’s L’Orange, L’Orange, yet with his latest record Eso Es, Kowalsky embraced the unpredictable chaos of MIDI, returning to the software world of his formative years via a completely fresh creative process. The resulting record is a captivating listen – both tranquil and messy and somehow also sprawling yet minimal. We caught up with Gregg to discover more about the process of making the record, and learn more about his journey as a restless creative… 1 Firstly, we really enjoyed the new record, Eso Es. It’s a really captivating, lushly produced listen. What was the starting point? Gregg Kowalsky: “I didn’t have one for…

Neumann doesn’t do things by halves. Its microphones are studio standards, with the U87 in particular being a legendary vocal and instrument recorder that has been used on countless recordings. Then there are the company’s studio monitors. The KH range basically provides the same kind of audio quality at the other end of the recording chain – you’re hearing your mixes as well as they were recorded with those mics. But there’s something in the middle linking the mics and monitors that Neumann hadn’t done – the audio interface. With the MT 48, the missing link is here. And it could be the best audio interface ever made. But for its asking price, it bloody well should be. It’s a big four figures When we heard about the MT48, we…

We usually associate software developer UVI with its excellent Workstation and Falcon synth. However, the brand also has a stable of excellent effects available both individually and in a new discounted bundle (see The Effects Bundle). This latest versatile tool is a compressor/limiter. Opal stands for ‘Optical Program-Adaptive Leveller’ and takes major inspiration from the classic T4 optical levellers such as the Teletronix LA-2A. However, unlike many similar plugin emulations, Opal has an impressive seven profiles based on seven different hardware units. This may seem like overkill, but when you use the dropdown menu to select a model, the plots indicate noticeable differences in attack, release and knee shape. Much like the classic hardware, Opal’s compression is applied using just one control, Peak Reduction, although this is more logically positioned…

Recent plugin effects are certainly breaking the mould in terms of how they look and sound. Many newer titles from the likes of Baby Audio, Sound Device Digital, oeksound and Sonora Cinematic, all unconstrained by being based on vintage effects boxes, are starting to look much more welcoming. And, they are even ditching standard names for effect parameters in favour of more descriptive controls. AIR Music Technology’s Sprite aims to go one further, its lush and simple UI giving you instant access to powerful effects engines with just a dozen or so controls on hand to get the best from them. Add some fizz Sprite is all about those five main controls in Performance mode that essentially give you access to five different effects as well as their amounts and…

Hailing from Bayreuth, Germany and now based in Montreal, Canada, Christian Fial (aka, Infekt) has won millions of fans globally for his energetic and breathtaking tracks. The coruscating Orgalorg, the electrifyingly eccentric Sectumsempra and this year’s pulsating hulk Feedback to name but three. In the course of his career, Infekt has also been a pioneering figure in the shaping of several subgenres of dubstep – and the linchpin behind redefining the problematically-dubbed ‘riddim’ subgenre to the more apt ‘trench’. With a series of monthly single releases and his new blog encouraging more fans to start producing themselves we were very eager to speak to this wildly accomplished 26-year-old… 1 Can you give us a bit of background on your music production journey? Christian: “It’s kind of a funny story; basically…