Innehållsförteckning för February 2024 från Computer Music

In dance music vocabulary, the ubiquitous ‘drop’ refers to the section of a track where the main melody is introduced, and you can recognise it instantly for the fact that it has the highest energy level in the track. The drop is preceded by a build-up section and break that has contrasting elements to create tension. After this section plays out, heavy drums, bass and and the main melodic elements kick in. The drop needs to land as powerfully as it possibly can, and emphasise the theme of the song to its full potential. In order to have maximum impact, a drop needs the right combination of sounds and contrasting elements for it to deliver the goods. When you first set about composing a new track it can be a…

Leave your expectations at the door and let Synplant draw you into its weird and wonderful world and show you how to do things differently. The first version was massively bonkers back in 2009, with the idea of creating evolving sounds by growing branches from a seed – yes, really. But Synplant 2 takes the seed of that idea (yes, we did put some thought into that sentence) and grows it up a few hundred walls. It’s like they threw Synplant 1 into some heavily fertilised (or drugged) soil and irradiated it with the suns of a far off galaxy to come up with Synplant 2, for it has more ambition, innovation and – dammit – frustration in it than everything else we’ve reviewed this year (this decade, even). Is…

In a short period of time, Austrian Audio has certainly made a mark with its mics and headphones. It has models of each for just about every occasion, yet the company only started out some six years ago. However, its latest product, MiCreator Studio, aims to be a single microphone for many creative activities (we’re guessing that’s where the name comes from) – and as a ‘one mic for all’, it’s a bargain. Two into one MiCreator Studio is both a USB-C microphone and an interface that can plug straight into iPads, Android phones and iPhones (with optional camera kit) – and, of course, any Mac or Windows PC. One of its main selling points is revealed around the back of the mic, where you get two 3.5mm connections: Out…

A quality chorus is a must-have for your processing toolbox. It provides quick access to both rich, thickening tones and subtle modulations, which helps to add polish to your mixes. Beatskillz is an established developer with a growing stable of processing and instrument plugins. They typically feature a visually engaging interface, are fun to use and deliver a wide sonic palette. Good examples are their Papyrus Kz synth, which is ideal for new age instruments and textures; Vinylistik, a classic boom-bap drum machine; and Slam2, the latest incarnation of their multistage EQ, saturation and compression processor. Chorust (AU, VST 3, AAX) is their vintage modulation plugin. It normally retails for $29, but this month, our readers get it for free. It’s based on some of the best sounding hardware units…

Creating and mixing perfect piano sounds Over the last few years, virtual and sampled pianos have become nigh-on indistinguishable from their real-life counterparts, and next issue we’re guiding you through the current cream of the crop, with tutorials on piano mixing, classic tones and more! PLUS! Sound Like… Emulate Ed Sheeran in the first of a new tutorial series Free samples Rumble your speakers with some deep bass and ’70s-inspired synths On test NI Guitar Rig 7, LANDR’s Mastering Plugin and more……

Flying solo The newest in its growing stable of properly vintage synth emulations, Cherry Audio reveals Pro Soloist… Cherry Audio is riding high after a year of solid classic synth-resurrecting releases: its latest release, Pro Soloist, continues to re-love those oft-forgotten early innovators. The ARP Pro Soloist was a much beloved synthesiser. A player’s machine, its early aftertouch capability attracted solo noodlers such as Tony Banks, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, among many others… yet next to today’s wonder synths, it’s, well, just a 30-preset monosynth. If you are Cherry Audio, what are you going to do? Go original, or go 2023? Why not both? Yes, in the new Cherry Audio Pro Soloist, the best of old and new is merged, vastly bumping up the original’s specs so the software…

Mixing is typically a spiral process where we gradually make smaller and smaller adjustments as we return to different aspects of the track. Processing the mix bus can play an important role in this and help achieve a finished mix that’s ready for mastering. That said, opinions differ considerably about how much a mix should rely on overall mix bus processing, and specifically within this processing chain, whether a mix bus compressor is a good idea at all. What’s clear is that poorly executed mix bus compression can both ruin your mix and massively compromise the mastering stage. These considerations can easily make us shy away from mix bus compression. However, properly executed mix bus compression can really help bring your mix components together, providing the mix ‘glue’ that makes…

Over the last decade, Soundiron has built up an impressive range of virtual instruments and sample libraries aimed at music producers, classical musicians and film/TV/videogame composers. There’s everything from synths to choirs, from a Theremin to apocalyptic percussion. Quadral 3 is the company’s latest title, an instrument that packs in an impressive set of dramatic sounds – with plenty of control over them – yet retails for barely the price of a simple plugin effect. It also sees the Kontakt format stretched into one of the fullest proper instruments we’ve tested. Made for Kontakt You’ll need the full version of Kontakt to run Quadral 3, but it’s an easy setup via Soundiron’s installer: it downloads the 4.5GB library in chunks, then strings it together for you with presets in your…

There are many reasons why SSL’s SL 4000 G large-format mixing consoles elicit such dewy-eyed praise. In a nutshell, it’s because every system and circuit within a G Series is designed to deliver astonishing audio clarity and a musically sympathetic response. The master bus compressor built in to the G Series is a case in point: whether it’s configured to create a feather-light touch of smoothing or to crush your audio’s dynamics entirely, the results just sound... well... right. That said, the G Series bus compressor does have quite a narrow sweet spot to aim for – if what you’re after is a transparent compression that adds cohesion and glue without obvious volume pumping or squishing. This narrow window is a characteristic of all broadband compressors, and is the primary…

Download all assets for this issue at bit.ly/cm330downloads Big Kicks & Sub Bass We need a solid foundation for our beat, and our man Robbie has built some bone-vibrating low-end elements… “There are no right ways to approach the low-end thumps and bumps, and it can be fun as well as enlightening to explore different methods of generating those dramatic bass moments, which is what has been the guiding idea for this sample pack. The main principle was to grab a source and see how far it would bend. Layered kick drums were tweaked in Kontakt and then processed as a single drum via a chain of plugins which always contained the excellent reFuse Lowender plugin and the UAD Precision Enhancer Hz. “For the loops, Sub bass basslines were created…

Minimal Audio Jacob Penn (Founder/CEO)Ben Wyss (Co-Founder/Head of Audio R&D)Nathan Wexler (Co-Founder/Head of Sound Design) cm: Hi guys, can you give us an overview of how Current differs and expands on what you’d typically expect from a software synth? Jacob (Jake): “We’ve all been using synths since we were kids. Typically you look at synths and they make sounds right? That’s been pretty normal since the inception of them, but things are changing and there’s more capability. There’s more processing power and there’s also just kind of a vision we have for the product and for the company that was there from the outset. “The idea was to build an ecosystem around a single product. We knew from the start that we wanted to make a synth with effects built…

As any regular to our synth tutorials will know, ZebraCM (our chosen steed for the Synth Masterclass, available in the CM Plugin Suite) is no slouch in the sonics department, despite being a relative freebie. One of its biggest strengths lies in its chameleon-like flexibility, seemingly able to glide from the most basic subtractive patch, to some seriously capable modulation duties. This is where we’re taking our Zebra today, with the use of two LFOs, to apply different forms of modulation to different aspects of the patch. Firstly, we’ll use the LFO in its User waveform mode, which allows us to generate modulating sequences, up to 32 steps in length. While not unique to ZebraCM, it’s not a function you find on many softsynths, even paid-for ones. Secondly, we’ll exaggerate…

Creating polished transitions between different sections of your track ensures that the track momentum is maintained, while contributing to the overall finesse. But creating these transitions is often a fiddly process that uses a combination of programming, effects and automation. Transit (VST, VST3, AU, AAX) is a new multifaceted effects plugin from developer Baby Audio and artist/producer and YouTube monolith Andrew Huang, which brings these functions together. Transit is based around an eight-slot modular grid. You get seven effects slots that you can populate from a choice of 18 different effects; the remaining slot is a manual and syncable macro control. Core effects include Delay, Reverb, Modulation, Multimode Filters and Distortion. But there are other more niche options, including Stereo Spread, Pitch Shift, sidechain compression-style Pump and OTT, which is…

BEATSKILLZ CHORUST Follow along with the video as we introduce this hardware-inspired chorus plugin, free with this issue! Read the full article from p84 cm/experts Our resident music production gurus walk you through their specialist field every month SYNTH MASTERCLASS CREATE A GATED SYNTH SEQUENCE Read the full article on p40 DANCE MUSIC MASTERCLASS HOW TO MAKE A KILLER DROP Read the full article on p44 MIX MASTERCLASS MIX BUS COMPRESSION Read the full article on p48…