Innehållsförteckning för December 2017 från Future Music

The Future Of Music Pioneer DJ bring Toraiz sampling to the DJ booth Pioneer DJ have introduced a new DJ-friendly sampler in the form of the DJS-1000. Said to be built for “improvising unique sounds and phrases,” it’s designed to be taken into the booth and used to add creativity to your performance. Housed in a chassis the same size and shape as one of the company’s CDJs, the DJS-1000 combines many of the features and interface elements of the Toraiz SP-16 sampler with an interface and format that will feel instantly more familiar to DJs. FM got some quality hands-on time at this year’s ADE, and were instantly impressed by the intuitive workflow. The interface is based around a grid of 16 bright, multicoloured performance pads, a touch strip…

Track by track with Joey Beltram “I noticed a lot of people after this album made their albums in this design. I dunno if it was because of me or I just noticed it more, but I saw a lot more albums of this type of music that were just eight or so tracks of just bangers. Instead of having one slow song, or every track having different tempos. Yeah, after that I saw a lot of producers making albums like that. It was cool. I got to travel with a lighter record box. I could have a bunch of albums packed with tracks that got the job done.” Instant “The first two tracks were the last two tracks to get done. And Instant was the last. When I’d got…

Anja Schneider SoMe Sous Music Berlin techno mainstay Anja Schneider ushers in a new and exciting era with her impressive new album. Her first solo record for 9 years, SoMe is the first release on her newly formed Sous Music imprint after deciding to bring her much-loved label Mobilee to a close after twelve years. Hitting the reset button appears to have energised Schneider, allowing her the freedom to push out in order to sweep back in with a fresh and exciting new outlook. That freedom has enabled the dynamic producer to drift through an expansive collection of styles ranging from Detroit techno to raga, breaks, drum and bass and back to Chicago house, with flourishes of jazz thrown in for good measure. The sheer ground covered makes this Schneider’s…

Building a classic ’80s pad Here’s how to build that staple of the ’80s pop and dance music hit, the synth pad. Any subtractive synth will let you design a similar sound We’re starting with a ‘scratch patch’ in Logic’s ES2 synthesiser, one that bears little resemblance to the warmth and richness of an ’80s pad. We have a single sawtooth wave oscillator with a wide-open filter. We do program a chord progression which feels harmonically ‘of the era’. We start by shaping the filter, keeping the 24dB low-pass shape but dropping the cutoff point dramatically, so the tone becomes smoother. We set an envelope to control the filter, with a 280ms attack time, a long decay (2.5 seconds) and a 50% sustain level. Next, we shape the amp envelope.…

Roland’s sample and synthesis sounds Roland D-series synths combined ROM-based samples with a digital synth engine to offer new realms of sonic possibility In the late 1980s, as ‘realism’ became an increasingly important part of what synth manufacturers were trying to achieve, companies adopted different approaches to produce the most lifelike sounds. Roland’s recognised that the most difficult-to-synthesize element of a sound was its attack portion, so through its D-series synthesizers (with the flagship D-50 at the top of the tree), it offered a hybrid approach, offering a series of short attack samples stored in ROM, to which you could add a ‘synthesized’ decay, sustain and release waveform. This approach became so popular that it remained Roland’s predominant technology all the way through the JV and XV synth module ranges…

Early drum & bass breaks Let’s create a drum & bass break by first preparing our own, programmed source material at half-speed Whilst modern software samplers are awash with staggering capabilities, the limited recording time and less fully specified featuresets of their hardware forebears are nevertheless responsible for providing some classic late ’80s and early ’90s sounds. Early D&B producers relied on technology like Akai’s S1000 and MPCs, and Roland’s S760 to sample and chop up breaks and produce patterns radically divorced from the speed of their chosen source material. The Amen break is, without question, the most famous example of this approach, but if you’re drawn to the simplicity of this kind of sampling, why not create your own ‘breakbeat’ from adopting the sampling approach…

Chloé In The Studio With Chloé The enigmatic French DJ and producer invites Danny Turner into her Paris studio to discuss her explorative approach to sound and the studio techniques behind her new album Endless Revisions. © Joseph Branston Despite studying as a lawyer, Chloé Thévenin had a much greater passion for her humble vinyl record collection. The art of DJing struck a chord at university, later flourishing into full-blown residencies at renowned Parisian nightclubs such as Le Pulp and the Rex Club. Having grown up to the sounds of rock, folk and the pulsing rhythms of EBM, Chloé’s eclectic tastes stimulated her imagination. Early productions exhibited an investigative craving that would surface on self-penned albums such as The Waiting Room (2007) and One In Other (2010). After a lengthy…

YOUTUBE MORE UNMISSABLE VIDEO FEATURES FROM FUTURE MUSIC Meet our line-up of exclusive YouTube goodness. Head online for all this and more! Top producers go in-depth on the sounds, ideas and techniques behind their latest releases Wehbba, Fake Get behind the scenes with Brazilian producer Rodolfo Wehbba as he deconstructs this trippy tune in his home studio DON’T MISS: KSO, Nasty Kissy Sell Out invites us into his studio to find out how he put together this jump-up D&B-influenced track Dapayk & Padberg, Sink This Ship The German duo show us how they created their lush, synth and vocal driven track from thier latest LP. Muzzy, Spectrum We catch up with big room bass don in his Hampshire studio, to find out how he…

Setting up splits and layers With two eight-voice layers available in the Rev2 16, it’d be silly not to build dual eight-voice splits and stacks! Here’s how… As mentioned earlier, splits and layers are a huge deal, and a bonus to have in an analogue synth (particularly when you can have two four-voice or two eight-voice layers available in a split/stack). This allows many permutations for live use and for recording. For example, chords on the left and right, chords on the left, lead on the right, bass on the left, lead on the right, sequence on the left, arp on the right… the list goes on! However, if this was a pain to set up, the appeal of the Rev2 would be diminished; thankfully it’s very quick to do.…

MODULAR MONTHLY 2hp modules are small but deceptive! These slender units prove that girth means nothing in the Eurorack world Whether you want to freeze, comb, mix or switch between your audio, 2hp have you covered. As the name suggests, 2hp are a company who make 2hp modules – the smallest width, or ‘horizontal pitch’, a Eurorack module can be, according to them. 2hp provide a range of basic utilities and exciting modules that make you really wonder how they’ve crammed so much into them. We’ve all seen multiples and unity mixers in small formats, but these modules cover more than just the utilities front. Freeze, for example, freezes and loops an audio buffer; Tune offers quantisation with both modal and melodic transposition options; and Brst creates anything from bouncing…

TOOLKIT Creative delay Step beyond ‘standard’ echo treatments and see how delay can be used in more creative contexts Ask any mix engineer which effects he or she is most reliant upon and it won’t be long before delay appears on the list of must-have treatments. Alongside EQ, compression and reverb, delay is an effect most productions just can’t live without. This is partly because it can offer such a wide range of possible treatments. Add a ping-pong delay to a pad sound, strip out its bottom end and you’ll end up with something akin to stereo width enhancement; or introduce multiple delays and offset their pitches to can create quasi-harmonies from echoes alone. If you want to see this particular example in action, it’s the subject of this month’s…

Adding delayed detune to synth leads It’s a well-known fact that adding detune to synth parts can give them greater power in the mix. But what about adding detune to their effects? There are lots of tricks you can use to create huge-sounding, impactful synth lines. Stacking oscillators is one way, so that the tonal footprint of your sound becomes rich and saturated in harmonic content. Those same oscillators become even more in-your-face when the fundamental frequency of each one is offset, so that the root note of each oscillator is slightly out of tune. This is called detune, and another way of achieving a similar result is to route an LFO to the Oscillator stage of your synthesiser so that its pitch rises and falls. So far, so simple.…

THE ALTERNATIVES Nord Piano 3 £2099 Featuring the Nord Triple-Sensor keybed, Nord Triple-Pedal with damper, pedal noise and string resonance, plus split and layer capability, powerful FX and user sample import, the NP3 is a killer machine! nordkeyboards.com Roland RD-2000 £2189 Roland’s latest flagship stage piano includes their latest V-Piano and SuperNatural sound engines, along with a great 88-note keybed and comprehensive real-time front panel control. Another must-check-out! www.roland.com Yamaha CP4 £1699 The CP4 features a great-feeling weighted wooden keybed, plus authentic acoustic and electric pianos, along with a good complement of other synth/organ sounds and FX. uk.yamaha.com…

Reviews | Polyend Seq Polyend Seq Step Sequencer £1,099 Bruce Aisher drags himself away from the mouse, to take a standalone sequencing journey with Polyend’s new hardware The ability to easily tweak step lengths allows more interesting and fluid patterns Eschewing any references to fashionable analogousness, the Polyend Seq is an 8-track MIDI sequencer, and a rather beautiful one at that. Made of painted black aluminium and oak, and laden with over 270 backlight momentary switches, six continuous knobs and an OLED screen, this is an engaging box from the start. Each of the monophonic tracks has 32 available steps. Each step can be turned off or on via the front panel buttons, which are pressed to move through multiple onscreen parameters. Holding a button and adjusting one of the…

Reviews | Polyend Perc Pro Polyend Perc Pro £1099 Acoustic drum triggering via MIDI sounds too good to be true. Simon Arblaster finds out if it’s bad news for drummers. Perc Pro from Polyend is designed to turn any surface into a MIDI-controlled drum machine. The package consists of three machined-aluminium driver modules, three multi-position clamps, a footswitch controller, cables and flightcase. Each module, or ‘Perc ball’, houses a motor that drives a small beater (wooden in this case, but silicon and aluminium variations are optional extras), that delivers a highly accurate, velocity-sensitive strike, controlled via MIDI. The included pedal controller acts as the ‘hub’ for connection things together. On the rear you have MIDI In, Out and Thru (5-pin DIN), a MIDI USB port, a power socket, and ports…

DVD & DIGITAL Your bonus content… filesilo.co.uk/futuremusic YOUR DOWNLOAD CONTENT HAS MOVED! This issue’s DVD content and more is available to access from FileSilo. At the link above, login or register, then unlock over 10GB of goodies! SAMPLE PACKS Exclusive new sounds with every issue ON THE DVD: GROOVE CRIMINALS PRESENT… Drum Hardware 508 We break out a few of our favourite hardware beatmakers for a pack stuffed full of drum machine goodness. ON THE DVD: CYCLICK SAMPLES PRESENT… Synth Impacts 256 Get a host of dramatic one shots and intense hits, designed to totally change the dynamic of your tracks. PLUS ACCESS THE FM SAMPLE ARCHIVE! Download the ‘Sample Archive’ packs and get over 12GB of loops, hits and instruments from our back catalogue of high-quality and royalty-free samples.…

LIKE IT? TRY THESE… Various Tresor 3 The timeless compilation album that welcomed Beltram into the Tresor techno family back in 1995. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: Joey Beltram – Ten Four , Robert Hood – The Rhythm Of Vision , Jeff Mills – Solid Sleep’ Joey Beltram Aonox Wanna hear vintage Beltram do straight up downtempo? Check his second LP from 1994, which has recently been reissued on Ownlife. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: ‘South Pacific, Land Of Oceans, The Cold Joey Live Mix Cracking live set from 1997 with our boy dropping gem after gem, including his most celebrated banger, ‘Energy Flash’. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: Joey Beltram – Energy Flash , L.A. Williams –…

James Holden & The Animal Spirits The Animal Spirits Border Community UK electronic pioneer James Holden returns with his third album recorded with his newly expanded band The Animal Spirits. His most ambitious and expansive record yet, The Animal Spirits hones in on an inimitable synth-led folk-trance, hypnotic, psychedelic-infused sound that feels wildly unpredictable yet immersive throughout. Embracing the liberation from computer to band, Holden orchestrates the creativity of an outfit who trust their instinct and intuition, making for an improvisational, live feel. This injects the record with a raw aesthetic, bristling with energy and spirit, and it launches us off into a transformative, hallucinatory journey of the mind. The soundscape meanders through spiritual jazz, kraut rock, glitchy electronics, shimmering synths, brass, wind, live percussion and warm melodies with a…

Noisy reverb tails Hardware reverbs of the ’80s usually offered lower sample rates than we’re used to today, providing crunchier, grittier decay phases If you could wander back in time and find yourself in a well-appointed studio of the late 1980s or early 1990s, as well as the swathes of synths and the all-important mixing desk, you’d find hardware effects modules of reverbs and delays, ready to be accessed from the desk’s auxiliaries. Hardware reverbs such as Lexicon’s PCM range were popular, but so were Alesis’ more affordable units, including the flagship Quadraverb. These digital reverbs’ lower-than-pristine sample rates ensured a slight grittiness, with characteristic aliasing, particularly when decay tails came towards their conclusions or when working at low levels. Some producers became so frustrated by the ends of reverb…

The 1980s: a technological timeline To understand the music of the 1980s, you need to comprehend the rapid technological developments that underpinned it, which changed the course of music history and opened up new avenues of sonic possibility to musicians working in pop, dance, jazz and film composition. Let’s take synthesizers as an example – coming out of the late 1970s, subtractive synths were king, but as the 1980s took hold, a number of new sonic developments took place. This was perhaps best demonstrated by Yamaha’s DX7, which was released in 1983. This used Yamaha’s seemingly (at least initially) baffling ‘Frequency Modulation’ synthesis (‘FM’, for short) to produce bright, shiny sounds, the likes of which ‘regular’ subtractive synths struggled to create. The electric pianos, bells and tines of the DX7…

THE TRACK Guy Andrews Fjell 2017, Houndstooth © Richard Ecclestone Guy Andrews’ music has evolved from relatively straight-up techno into a more eclectic, textured and experimental take on the sound. His tracks have seen releases on choice labels such as Hotflush and Houndstooth and have won him fans as diverse as Massive Attack, Mary Anne Hobbs and Scuba. FM took an atmospheric trip to Guy’s Bromley studio to find out how he made his monumental post-rock/techno hybrid Fjell. What’s Fjell all about? “‘Fjell’ means mountain in Norwegian. I was living in London but I wasn’t really too keen on living in the city. I went to Norway to play a gig, and having a few extra days there and going up a mountain made me realise what…

PRODUCER’S GUIDE DSI Prophet Rev2 DSI’s Prophet 08 eight-voice polysynth has a had a long run compared to many synths on the market and has many fans due to its powerful modulation, reliability, roadworthiness and DCO-driven, Curtis-filtered sound. Now the P08’s successor, the Prophet Rev2, has arrived, we’ve been treated to the addition of a sub oscillator, an improved front panel layout, extended ‘slop’ functionality (for more vibey tones), waveshaping on all oscillator waveforms (shape mod) plus a new smarter screen. There’s also quick modulation shortcuts for easy setup, and – the biggie for sound designers – a new modulatable FX engine with a plethora of great-sounding effects. In this Producer’s Guide, we’ll take you through a few of the new features, showing you how they can be applied to…

QUICK TIPS 1 Use the indispensable pan-spread feature or per-layer panning for super-wide sounds. Also try modulating panning from an LFO or use chorus and short reverbs/delays. 2 The digital resonant high-pass filter (in the effects menu) is great for scooping out bass/mud from sounds or for adding a distinctive, vibrant texture. 3 If you modulate the reverb mix level with a deep LFO assigned via the mod wheel, you can get some great pumping reverb effects happening. 4 Try recording each side of a split or stacked patch simultaneously into your DAW; each layer has an independent set of stereo outputs/effects engine. Very handy! 5 Controlling your sounds without taking your hands off the keyboard is liberating. Take advantage of the pedal and MIDI foot/pedal control and by utilising…

Create some dual-layer, dirty unison bass The Rev2 is a versatile dirty bass machine and has two layers to play with. Let’s get dirty-bass making! 01 > Initialise your sound using option 25 in the global menu. Kill the release on the amp and filter envelopes for a tighter tail-end on your sound. Hit the unison button and dial in 8-voice unison and unison detune in the Misc menu settings. 02 > Set the pitchbend range (also found in misc parameters) to 12, so that when you move the pitch wheel it will dive or swoop up/down an octave. Now select saw on osc1 and a 50% pulse on osc2 and add some detuning. 03 > Pull down the filter cutoff, dial in some filter envelope amount to taste and…

Creative Delay | FM Toolkit Six of the best delays Native Instruments Replika XT | £89 Offers several algorithms for everything from clinical digital delays to warm analogue models. The Diffusion algorithm pushes into reverb territory. Waves H-Delay | $49 At first glance, this is a ‘does what it says on the tin’ plugin, but analogue modeling, LoFi and modulation options make this a go-to choice for both ‘standard’ and creative delays. UAD Korg SDD-3000 | £99 This delay offers the trademark sound of U2’s The Edge, giving it its place in the delay hall of fame. The good news is that there’s plenty here for creators of electronic music too. SoundToys EchoBoy | $199 A true chameleon and a creative producer’s dream. Offering a dizzying array of parameters, Echoboy…

FM Toolkit | Creative Delay Cascading delays to create atmospheric layers Creating multiple, interdependent delays can turn a single source into a lengthy wash of sound 01 > We’re starting with a basic arrangement which features a single note from NI’s Kontour instrument, hosted within Reaktor 6, played every four bars. Automation data used is to change the tone of this sound, whilst there’s a reverb treatment from UVI’s Sparkverb on the Insert. 02 > We start by setting up a first delay on Auxiliary 1. This features dual delays – one using dotted quarter-notes and one straight quarter-notes. We’re using NI’s Replika XT with its Analog delay type activated. We’re using the internal filter too, to roll off a little high end. 03 > We set up a second…

THE ALTERNATIVES Behringer DeepMind 12 £999 Behringer’s first synth has a 12-voice, poly-chainable DCO-based engine, three envelopes, 4-octave keybed with aftertouch and a modulatable FX engine. www.music-group.com/brand/behringer/home Roland JD-XA £1,579 The XA is a super-versatile machine, featuring a 4-voice analogue polysynth/ four independent analogue monosynths, paired with a 4-part 64-voice digital engine, with vocoder and FX. www.roland.com Alesis Andromeda A6 £2,000+ used Now discontinued, the A6 was the 16-voice modern analogue poly. It featured a monstrous VCO-driven engine, digital FX, analogue distortion, plus Moog/Oberheim filters with extensive modulation options. www.alesis.com…

CONNECTIVITY AND ADDED EXTRAS Stage pianos need a decent amount of connectivity, and the Grandstage has plenty! There’s a handy front-mounted headphone socket, and at the rear there’s damper, switch and expression pedal inputs (assignable to volume, wah etc) along with MIDI in/out (DIN), plus USB MIDI and USB for data storage. Audio output-wise, there’s standard L and R jack outputs, plus a separate set of balanced XLR outputs too. Also, there’s a bespoke chrome stand, damper pedal and music rest included. Finally, though they’re not accessible directly from the front panel, there’s authentic chorus, phaser, amp-drive, compressor and rotary effects onboard in the menus, plus four types of reverb and four types of delay.…

THE ALTERNATIVES Arturia BeatStep Pro £225 A good value, multipurpose controller, sequencer and MIDI to CV/Gate connectivity box. www.arturia.com Koma Komplex €1,699 Huge four track 16-step sequencer with MIDI and CV/ Gate outputs. Adorned with sliders, pots and numerous outputs, this beast certainly lives up to its name. www.komaelektronik.com Xynthesizr £6.99 A 32-step matrix pattern sequencer/ synthesizer with generative features for iPad and iPhone that supports MIDI and Audiobus 3. www.yuriturov.com…

Reviews Roli Lightpad Block M £190 The second generation of Roli’s entry-level Lightpad Block brings hardware tweaks and more software. Si Truss investigates Roli’s Blocks range got off to a shaky start. When we reviewed the entry-level multidimensional polyphonic expression (MPE) controllers earlier this year, we found the concept promising but the execution poor. At the time the ecosystem suffered from being bound to Noise, a severely limited iOS app that provided some solid sounds but little in the way of serious music-making functionality. Now Roli have released Lightpad Block M, the second version of Blocks’ control pad. The M, like its predecessor, is a roughly 4-inch square rubberised surface used to send MIDI messages to a desktop or mobile device via Bluetooth. It also has a USB connection, used…

Reviews | Sontronics Solo Sontronics Solo £99 The hegemony of the SM58 on stage takes another hit from Sontronics. Robbie Stamp weighs up this latest challenger The Solo is an instantly gratifying mic which requires no immediate EQ Sontronics’ Solo takes the successful recipe of the STC-80 hand-held dynamic mic and gives it a twist and a tighten with a supercardioid polar pattern. A narrower pickup pattern improves off-axis rejection, reducing spill and increasing source focus, but this can be a trade-off with on-axis frequency response. Before checking how well Sontronics have balanced this equation, let’s get physical. The Solo is a well-weighted, solid microphone; light hand-held mics suck. The grille has a flat front which I much prefer to the bulbous type: it not only gives a more consistent…

Of Music FILTER Ableton unleash Live 10 The Berlin developers have lifted the lid on an eagerly awaited DAW update, bringing us new synths, effects and some neat new workflow tricks After a few small leaks and rumours set the internet alight toward the end of last month, Ableton have now officially unveiled the latest incarnation of their much-loved DAW, Live. Version 10 brings a subtle new look, along with a handful of new devices and some potentially very interesting changes to the workflow and under-the-hood design. Of the new devices, the big-hitter is Wavetable, a new synth built with wavetable oscillators that can be loaded with an assortment of sounds recorded from analogue synths, real-world instruments and a few more esoteric sources. Wavetable pairs its oscillators with two analogue-modelled…

CLASSIC ALBUM Joey Beltram Places Tresor, 1995 Words by Roy Spencer © PYMCA/UIG via Getty Images When it comes to ‘album time’, a lot of producers like to take that precious opportunity to show you just how bloody creative and versatile they are. “Ooh, look at me, I’m an artist.” They meander through the genres, trying on each one like a big stupid festival jester’s hat. Not Joey Beltram. He lived and breathed dancefloors in the mid ’90s. Every time he sparked up the gear in his studio, the club was still ringing in his ears. When he was making music, it was to be played on the turntables in a sweaty, dark, twisted, techno haunt; not on your headphones while popping out for some milk, and never for being…

ALBUM OF THE MONTH Amp Fiddler Amp Dog Knights Mahogani Music Following on from a break from music since 2006, Amp Dog Knights is the second album in two years from Detroit funk veteran Amp Fiddler. Joseph ‘Amp’ Fiddler is a man steeped in Detroit music culture. Not only did he play with legendary funk outfits Parliament/Funkadelic and Enchantment, but he also taught J Dilla how to work his MPC and wrote and recorded with both Prince and Seal. He brings that funk authenticity and virtuosity to his fourth studio album. Out on his fellow Detroit native Moodymann’s Mahogani Music, Amp Dog Knights is a highly expressive and engaging record that traverses glittering, fly soul and funk with genuine style and attitude. Awash in laidback grooves, lush hip-hop atmospheres, shimmering…

RECOMMENDED KiNK Playground Running Back Three years on from his last LP, machine-funk-loving Bulgarian producer KiNK is back with another wild and eclectic album. This time for Gerd Janson’s highly acclaimed Running Back imprint, Playground is a restless assault of electronic music that is full of colour, life and attitude. Shimmering synths, succulent bass, bustling drums, bright melodies and intoxicating grooves flood the record in KiNK, real name Strahil Velchev’s, idiosyncratic and inimitable style. Upbeat and energetic, the record is awash with densely layered soundscapes and addictive atmospheres. Such is his dexterity that he is able to switch between warm, classic-tinged disco to cold, dub techno explorations and onto almost formless, experimental and avant-garde etchings with comfortable ease. With such flexibility and creativeness, Playground delights with every twist and turn…

QUICK TIPS > These days, our computers can play hundreds of tracks at once. But ’80s sequencers and synths couldn’t. Their ‘limitations’ are often their strengths – keep things simple. > One of the most endearing things about limited sampling technology are dodgy loop points and single samples being stretched over more keys than is entirely ‘musical’. Let a few samples go a long way. > Research specific pieces of gear. It’s not hard to find out which synths were used on classic ’80s albums before digging into their feature sets to discover how they actually worked. > Don’t be afraid to work at lower sample rates, or to use bitcrushers on every channel. This doesn’t have to mean super-low 8-bit sample rates – work at 16-bit or 12-bit, and…

Creating Wavestation-era sequences The Korg Wavestation was great for creating ‘wave sequences’, note patterns which pulsed or move sinuously. Here’s how to ape the idea We’re going to use NI’s Massive to create our set of raw waveforms. We select Squ-Saw II first. We want a ‘solid block’ of sound, so we modify the amplifier envelope to produce a sustained tone. We create a note which lasts for four bars and render this as an audio file. We repeat this process for three more waveforms, selecting Woody, Math I and Escalation I, setting blend balances between the waveforms we like before rendering each one as a new audio file. We bring these audio waveforms onto new audio tracks but they’re muted for now. We add two more waveforms. The first…

Potential live and stage applications There are many contexts the Rev2 can be used in – it covers a lot of areas both sonically and functionally. In the studio or for live, you could use it as a straight-up lead, bass or poly machine to cover pop, soul, funk or rock vibes. However, it’s equally at home for making more twisted, ambient and epic sounds using noise, filter resonance, deep modulation and the new effects engine. It works particularly well as a deep sound design machine (way more than the Prophet 08 does) and it’s very easy to take the seed of an idea in your head and develop that into an actual finished sound that encompasses your musical thoughts. With eight modulation slots, four LFOs and modulatable effects, plus…

Interview | Kiasmos Kiasmos Icelandic duo Ólafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen combine eclectic musical histories to create a unique brand of fragile yet propulsive techno. Si Truss catches up with the duo to talk tape loops and concert hall raves © Sigga Ella © Dominika Scheibinger “That’s where the Kiasmos sound comes from: us working together. Our tastes rub off on one another” You’d be hard pushed to find a musical duo with with a more eclectic collective CV than Ólafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen. Arnalds is probably best known in the UK for his BAFTA-winning score work on the series Broadchurch, but long before he was soundtracking prime time TV, he began his career drumming in hardcore bands and collaborating with German death metallers Heaven Shall Burn. Between those…

Interview | François X François X The leading light of Paris’s bustling underground techno scene unleashes mesmeric new LP Irregular Passion, showcasing a darker, cinematic side to his talents. Hamish Mackintosh finds out more... © Joseph Branston “I’m not that musical geek guy that’s looking at every frequency; I’m more about the human and psychic feel of it” Francois X burst onto the underground house and techno scene with 2009’s Future Roots Vol 3 on the much respected Deeply Rooted label. Francois X’s star continued to rise rapidly with a further two releases on Deeply Rooted before he co-founded his Dement3d imprint, which has served as a hub for his production work, collaborations and solo releases. Releases like 2013’s excellent Untitled EP and the following year’s Suspended in a Stasis…

QUICK TIPS 1 Look beyond the ‘standard’ delay plugin parameters. Yes, feedback level, dry/wet mix and the rate of your delay taps are important considerations, but the most creative parameters are usually the others; explore modulation options (envelopes and LFOs), delay types and effects-within-effects options particularly. 2 Know the difference between stereo and ping-pong delays. Usually, stereo delays let you pick two different delay times which play at once, whereas ping-pong delays consecutively bounce each delay tap from one side of the stereo field to the other. 3 You’ll see that in many of our examples, we’ve picked key delay parameters to automate as our mix evolves. Whether you want to push and pull feedback levels, pitch offsets or any other parameter, keeping your delay sounds evolving keeps them lively…

Reviews | Blue Cat Audio Late Replies Blue Cat Audio Late Replies €129 This delay lets you add whole plugins into its feedback loop for cascading, evolving echoes. James Russell gets in the loop You can even load another copy of Late Replies within Late Replies Every delay has a feedback control, letting you send the delayed output signal back into the input for ‘repeats of repeats’. If you can – by hook or by crook – add an effect into the feedback loop, every echo gets an extra dose of it with each pass. Pitchshifted delays get higher or lower with each repeat; distorted delays get trashier and trashier each echo, and so on. It’s a great creative effect, but few hosts will let you set it up. Late…

POLYEND POLY EURORACK Poly is an 8-channel MIDI to CV converter. It converts MIDI data received via the USB, USB Host and MIDI DIN ports (or all at once) into switched and continuous voltage outputs. Incoming MIDI Notes are mapped to the Gate and Pitch (V/oct) ports. MIDI Velocity and MIDI CC (CC number set on the back panel) go to the Velocity and Modulation outs respectively. The default mode allocates each of the eight ‘voice’ channels to its own incoming MIDI channel, but Poly includes modes for allocating incoming polyphonic playing between the voices. Poly has more outputs than many other MIDI to CV conversion boxes, and is an ideal partner to Seq if you need to interface to a wider range of gear.…

Rhodes sounds on the Nord Stage How can I get that get a really punchy Herbie Hancock-esque Rhodes sound? Herbie’s Rhodes tone is pretty much the holy grail for jazz/funk players and obviously the major part of the sound is Herbie himself. Herbie’s prefered Rhodes was a Suitcase 88 and he had his pianos modified so that the main ‘traffic’ area (basically the mid to highs of his Rhodes) had harder rubber hammer tips for more punch and clarity. The suitcase amp was a transistor model, so try using the JC (Jazz Chorus) amp emulation on your Nord Stage. Also choose a Rhodes model/sample that has plenty of punch from the off. Pick a Rhodes model/sample from the Electric Piano section. If you dont find one that suits, go to…