Innehållsförteckning för April 2024 från Computer Music

Softube Model 80€159 The Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 was the first ever polysynth (kind of), so forgive us for including two emulations. Each has its own plusses, but Softube’s perhaps sticks to the original – and its limitations – the most. The UI looks so real that you can almost smell the wood varnish, and the presets are so authentic that you can almost hear the deep vibration that wood made when a note was played. softube.com Cherry Audio GX-80$59 It might well take elements from the Yamaha GX-1, but, really, GX-80 is all about the behemoth of a polysynth (both in price and size), often topping synth fans ‘best ofs’, the CS-80. This Vangelis favourite was used to score many of his films; and yes, the presets are all here.…

cover feature / the great synth showdown As seasoned music technology journalists, we’ve been very much writing about the separate worlds of hardware and software polysynths over the last two decades. They’ve long been very different beasts in terms of cost, with hardware, and, especially vintage hardware synths being extraordinarily expensive. Software has – with one or two exceptions – always been the cheaper and more practical alternative. The ‘fight’ between the two types of synth has been rumbling for a while, but might we be approaching an amicable resolution? 2024 looks set to be the year when the barriers (and points of difference) between the the two fall. Roland Zen-Core is perhaps the biggest example of this. It’s a complete hardware/software ecosphere where you can load classic and modern…

Billie Eilish and her producer/songwriter brother Finneas have been the success stories of 21st century pop music. They have won multiple Grammys, an Oscar for the theme to the 25th Bond film No Time to Die, and countless other awards, the most recent being a Golden Globe for the song What Was I Made For?, from the film Barbie. Eilish’s chart successes have been just as major, scoring global number ones with her debut album, 2019’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and matching it with the follow-up Happier Than Ever. Incredibly, much of this success came about after the duo uploaded the song Ocean Eyes to Soundcloud in 2015, a song Eilish recorded with Finneas after he originally intended it to be used for his own…

A mixing technique that’s commonly mentioned but not always understood is submixing. This technique groups audio signals together prior to the main mix bus and can help balancing and mix cohesion. Long before DAWs with massive track counts became the norm, mixers began grouping together and processing similar tracks to help them balance their mix. Sometimes this was for convenience, but could equally be down to limited resources, and the need to share specific processors. Either way, it turned out to be rather good at getting the mix to gel, and certain mixers even became well known for their submixing methods (Michael Brauer is probably the most famous example). In a DAW environment, resources are usually limited by our CPU’s capabilities, so running our favourite compressor on numerous tracks isn’t…

Every type of hardware synthesiser has now been emulated in software and Falcon 3 is pretty much every type of synthesiser under one roof. The nearest hardware comparisons are perhaps the all-conquering workstation synths from the likes of Yamaha and Korg. They do everything; but without the physical constraints of hardware, Falcon has always done even more. The Falcon concept Like those hardware giants, Falcon is multitimbral – that is, you can play different sounds from its many different engines at the same time or as separate parts of a song. And it’s all handled with a fantastic semi-modular approach that, in spite of the less-than-simple UI, is certainly a lot more straightforward than it should be, given the huge scope on offer. The core idea is to expand on…

Mixing and mastering plugins have completely revolutionised how we produce music. But one of the most significant enhancements in mixing related plugins has undoubtedly been the rise of products which can assist you with troublesome elements, such as rogue frequencies. Mastering the Mix If there is one company which is branded to do exactly what it says on the tin, it’s Mastering the Mix. It’s been producing popular plugins, designed for purpose since 2014. RESO is the newest addition, described as a Dynamic Resonance Suppressor. It reminds us of a similar technology that appeared some years ago, found in different devices but notably seen in Behringer’s Feedback Destroyer. The premise being that as a spike in frequency is detected, a feedback destroyer would quickly and efficiently create an equal and…

Ambient Guitar Textures We ordered some delicate guitar textures and that’s just what we got. Robbie from Cyclick explains his approach… “Electric guitars are highly textural instruments, especially when treated to heaps of compression, EQ, reverb, modulation, pitch-shifting, saturation and delay, which is what has been done here. The guitars were recorded through the pedals listed below with a heavy emphasis on the reverbs and delay, plus the Cali76 compressor and Dreadbox Kinematic (also a compressor, as well as dynamic filter). The resulting lines, chords and one-shot miscellany were even more heavily treated to a chain of EQ, reverb, perhaps modulation, more reverb, another EQ, stereo imaging and then a final compressor/limiter. Judicious use of the VP Jnr volume pedal was made, and picking was kept very light so as…

The ultimate guide to using reverb creatively Next issue, we go beyond the typical applications of reverb and illuminate how turning a little off-road can create unnatural, mind-bending effects. Our tutorial-packed guide spans many ways that reverb can be harnessed to explode your track’s potential PLUS! Maria W Horn Making sonic art and coding her own spectral sounds Free samples Add a touch of the West Coast to your synth sounds, as well as glitch! On test BLEASS Arpeggiator, Hit’n’Mix RipX DAW and more……

California dreaming This year’s NAMM show brought an intriguing array of product launches to the table… NAMM 2024 had a lot riding on it, being the first fully-fledged January show since the pre-pandemic era. The industry collectively pondered whether the NAMM show would still remain the draw it’s always been for music tech manufacturers, or whether the rise in online and influencer-aligned marketing strategies might dilute the need for many to attend. While we’re writing this, the show is currently underway in its typical spot in Anaheim, California, and all indications are that it has proven itself to still be a vital networking and exhibiting hub. But what you really want to know is, what did the show tell us about what’s to come in 2024, right? From a software…

cover feature / the great synth showdown As we’ve seen, throughout the first half of the 1980s, polyphony crept up, but it didn’t really hot up until the invention of multitimbrality. This then gave rise to the synth workstation, the second kind of polysynth that we’re including in this feature. And as we’ll see now, those early synth workstations needed a lot more polyphony, so much so that many thought the quest for more polyphony was futile. Multitimbral synths (the first example of which seems to have been by Sequential for its Six-Trak in 1984) allow you to play different sounds at once, triggered by different MIDI channels. It’s like having multiple synths in one shell, each with different presets to choose from. But it wasn’t just limited to a…

Tracktion/Dawesome Kult$129 From the brilliant and warped mind of Dawesome (aka Peter V) comes a synth that stands out from most of our choices by trying very deliberately to do something different. Here we get ‘Strangely Attractive’ oscillators, and a fantastic UI that makes AM and FM synthesis easy. Throw in some mad modulation and you can see – and hear – a synth come alive in front of you. tracktion.com FabFilter Twin 3€129 This might be the latest update of a synth originally released in 2005, but its UI, sound and easy workflow still give it a cutting-edge and contemporary edge. Its beautiful interface gives it a lovely hands-on feel that results in easy synthesis – so often forgotten by developers – and the kind of tweaking that has…

When it comes to lead synth sounds of the last 50 years, the patch described as ‘oscillator sync’ is about as iconic as it gets. Created by synchronising the pitch of one oscillator against another, while also modulating the pitch of the secondary oscillator, this ubiquitous sound has found favour with artists from Rick Wakeman and Jean-Michel Jarre, through to Daft Punk and LCD Soundsystem. It forms the basis for our patch creation today, but what makes it all the more intriguing is that we won’t be syncing oscillators to create it. In fact, we’ll only be using a single oscillator! As mentioned last month, the BazilleCM oscillators are proudly digital, using phase distortion to create rich waveforms, without the use of a filter. This month we’ll be adopting a…

It’s becoming increasingly common to find electronic artists and creatives having a hand in the development of the types of creative tools they themselves want to use. It’s often the case that those questing, idea-filled creatives are used as the originators of concepts that product development teams would never hit upon themselves. In the case of BLEASS Software, working with respected French DJ and producer Canblaster when building the ingenious BLEASS Arpeggiator led them to create a plugin far beyond their initial concept, and one that snapped into Canblaster – aka Cédric Steffens – chance-based workflow perfectly. We spoke to Cédric to learn more about this collaboration, his upcoming three-part record and how using his regular livestreams helps keep him creatively productive. 1 Firstly, can you give us a bit…

Ever since Toontrack premiered EZDrummer nearly 25 years ago, it’s carved a unique path. The upgrade provided by the next-level Superior Drummer suite has extended drum sampling to new heights, with ever-more packed in via their SDX expansion packs. Let’s look at two of the more recent of these additions… From Sweden… The first of the SDX releases we have for review was forged at Riksmixningsverket studios, in Stockholm, Sweden. Originally an old naval warehouse, RMV was lovingly developed – and equipped – by ABBA’s Benny Andersson. And it was there that Toontrack undertook the task of sampling five different drum kits, across 12 snares, nine kicks and three sets of cymbals. There’s an enormous variance across the different kits. While the influence of Stockholm steers toward the poppier side,…

Frontline Producer Funk Rock Sessions £24.95 The loose groove of funk gets laced with heavy rock attitude in this sweet ’70s musical melting pot. Think Sly Stone, for stylings, with the slapping bass and tough drums of his freewheeling fusion at the forefront. Elsewhere, there’s fly guitars to feel out, infectious keys to turn heads, and other standout riffs to get busy with, amongst the ready to use and abuse loops. The live breaks are a blast, too, and all the clicks, snaps, claps and percussion pieces will have you funkateers waving that freak flag high. www.loopmasters.com 7/100 Audiotent Electrolyze £45 Evergreen older-school analogue machine funk rears its head, as modern production polish and club sonics keep one foot in the very present, in this off-kilter collection of electronic bliss…

cm: Firstly we must talk about StageOne 2. It’s such a 21st century plugin, with its superb stereo visualiser and the smart phase recovery algorithm really changing the game for a lot of people. Was saving people time and headaches a big motivation with StageOne 2? Robin Reumers: “Yes. That’s been the goal from the start. When we began Leapwing Audio in 2015, we felt there were two types of plugins. There were ones that were very easy to use but didn’t sound very good. They were phasey and very new at that point, and the other ones were super-complicated, and you needed to go through pages and pages of things to sound good. “So, our original goal was to make plugins that are easy to use, have a few…

cover feature / the great synth showdown Of course, all synths we use at Computer Music are polysynths at heart, simply because computer processing is now up to speed to deliver as many notes as you can physically play for any plugin you load up. However, you can trace a lot of our current synth favourites – most in fact – back to a time when we weren’t as spoilt as we are now. A period when you could only play one note on any synth at a time. And they were glorious times. The monosynth, i.e. any synth that can only play one note at any one time, was first developed in the ’60s/early ’70s. Yes, there are versions of the synthesiser that go back many more years, but…

UVI Falcon 3 €349 In many ways Falcon is the greatest software polysynth… and sampler… and effects box. All the power does cost, it’s not the prettiest, and you need a large monitor to get the best from it. And yes, it does pretty much everything with a layer hierarchy that’s based on oscillators that cover just about all synth and sampling types. There are huge modulation options too and you can even construct your own scripts: sequencers, MIDI effects and so on. uvi.net Native Instruments Kontakt 7£269 With so many synth titles (many free or low cost) to load into this instrument ecosphere, and so many hands-on controls for sound design for many of them, we’d argue that Kontakt is challenging definitions of workstations, softsynths, ROMplers and more. It’s so…

The Swedish DJ producer Tim Bergling – aka Avicii – was one of those musicians whose careers were cut far too short. But he’ll always be remembered for crafting unforgettable melodies. A lot can be learned by studying Avicii’s melodies and using his composition ideas in your own tracks. From his interviews, it seems he started with the melodic line first and crafted the rest of the production around the melody. This type of approach differs from the typical electronic music process of beginning with the rhythmic components. He would often use one melody and repeat it, and add variations or short stutter notes. He worked with melody forms like AAAA (one melody is repeated four times), AAAB (repeated three times then varied) and more. Listen to Avicii’s melodies and…

Whether you know it or not, it’s a pretty safe bet to assume that you’ll have heard a Moog synth playing a bass sound somewhere on a recording at some stage in your listening life. From modulars to Sub Phatty, via the Minimoog and the legendary Taurus bass pedals, it’s clear Moog have synth-bass form. Moog’s latest release stays in the software domain, while also encouraging us to stay in a bass register. Mariana is capable of providing that legendary Moog sound at a sensible price, but we’re intrigued to know how it differs from its previous softsynth outings. 20,000 leagues… At first sight, the control panel is unmistakably Moog; the pots glisten, appearing three dimensional on a flat screen. It’s also uncluttered, which is largely because the synth’s panel…

Native Instruments’ Kontrol keyboards were incredibly ground-breaking when they were released nine years ago. The idea has been to get control of your software ‘off-computer’ – to be able to select plugins and tweak parameters using keyboards rather than your mouse and cursor. It makes the experience more seamless, less computer-based and feel more like you’re using a keyboard stuffed with software. That software does need to be NKS-compatible, though, so that the keyboard maps to it and makes the control experience more ‘hardware-like’, but the list of NKS partners now includes many of the biggest names in software. Three refined and defined Installation of S-Series Mk3 is in three steps: register the keyboard, download a Hardware Connection Service app to link the plugins to the keyboard, and download the…

Free software UltraSpace (AU, VST) from Tone2 is a multi-effect plugin designed to provide all aspects of space simulation. It’s super flexible and normally retails for $79, but this month it’s yours absolutely free. Tone2 are best known for their excellent synth plugins. UltraSpace takes some of the effects from these instruments and packages them into their own multi-module reverb plugin. Effects include reverb, delay and related dynamics such as duck and gate. With algorithms sourced from some classic hardware units, the sounds are top quality. The whole lot is packaged in a single plugin window, so there’s no hunting for parameters. And if you do get lost, there’s plenty of context-sensitive help. With more than 150 excellent presets, there’s no shortage of production-ready effects. Meanwhile, if you like to…

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