Innehållsförteckning för March 2018 från Future Music

Anyone can play Keytar If there was a last word in keytar controllers [there isn’t], it would be Alesis’ Vortex Wireless, which is being updated to its second version. Its 37 keys are imbued with aftertouch, and the eight inbuilt trigger pads are both backlit and velocity-sensitive. Making the controller look even more sensible are a further eight back-lit faders. So now you can complete your DAW project mixdowns via Keytar, which is basically the dream. In truly understated style, the Vortex Wireless 2 has a tilt sensor for bendy performance larks. This can be assigned via MIDI, as can the controller’s touchstrip, zone, sustain and octave control buttons (located on the instrument’s neck.) As if you weren’t sold already, the Vortex Wireless 2 also comes replete with four full…

GO EASY ON THE BASS “Your studio doesn’t need to sound like you’re in the club when you’re mixing. It’s always good to reference your mixes to music in a similar category to understand the balance.” Don’t add more to the track than it needs “Sometimes simplicity is key. Adding too many elements to a track can sometimes just muddy it up both in terms of the mix and the groove. Leave some space in between the music and give it room to breathe.” Learn your instruments well “Very often these days, we all have access to hundreds and hundreds of options when it comes to plugins, synthesizers (especially modular) and other things. People sometimes judge instruments too quickly if they don’t get instant gratification from pushing a few buttons.…

LIKE IT? TRY THESE… London Posse Gangster Chronicle Pioneering debut from the Cockney crew that showed that the UK had a rap voice of its own. Main man, Rodney P, would later find work as a Dub Pistol. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: ‘Money Mad’, ‘Jump Around’, ‘Original London Style’ The Specials The Specials A UK ska sure shot. This 1979 album fused black and white, UK and Jamaican, and soundtracked a generation. Frontman, Terry Hall, recreates tracks like ‘Gangsters’ with the Pistols. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: ‘Gangsters’, ‘A Message To You Rudy’, ‘Too Much Too Young’ VA Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (Music From The Soundtrack) Synth goddess Wendy Carlos’ electronic score to this dystopian classic inspired countless producers, including the Pistol’s Jason O’Bryan. ADD THESE TO YOUR…

Wild Beasts Last Night All My Dreams Came True Domino Having announced that they are bringing the band to a seemingly premature end, Cumbrian alt pop rockers Wild Beasts unleash a lively and passionate career-spanning live record as their final ever album. Recorded over two days and featuring tracks off all five of their studio albums, Last Night All My Dreams Came True captures the essence of a band walking away at the height of their powers after more than 15 years together. The sense of both celebration and destructiveness that come with the impending end is palpable. It gives the outfit an almost careless spirit which creates a fizzing, wistful atmosphere throughout this collection of engrossing, emotional performances Shimmering guitars, energetic drums, reverberating bass, soaring vocals and glittering synths…

Drum-bus routing rationale We use drum bus setups for different reasons, depending on the genre of music we’re mixing – here are three common ways in which it’s done Common mixing practice is to route all drums to a single ‘drums’ group. This method works for styles such as rock, as you can easily bring together individual drum recordings into one ‘kit’ sound. However, this can backfire if you’re creating certain styles of dance music, as electronic kicks and snares often need to be separated from the rest of the drums. Plus, if those main hits are overly weighty or powerful, they can overly trigger processing applied to the kit as a whole. With that in mind, here are three quick genre-dependent strategies to consider when bussing and processing drums.…

Three aux-return recipes Create and save three ready-made processor configurations to save yourself time on common tasks From fattening compression through to more creative stereo tricks, parallel processing is a staple technique in modern productions. By keeping your main mix signals intact, but piping them separately to an aux channel, you can add processing on top of the source sounds in question, to maintain mix solidity and achieve a more ‘3D’ effect. Another great reason to use parallel processing is the fact that you can combine multiple effects processors on one aux channel, meaning you can build completely custom chains for supreme control. Most DAWs allow you to store your premade effects setups or chains, so you can easily stock up your presets folder for easy reuse. Here are three…

PBR Streetgang PBR Streetgang Yorkshire’s finest house/disco DJ and production unit enjoy a brief sabbatical from the DJ booth and remix duties to unveil their debut album Late Night Party Line. Hamish Mackintosh follows the groove to Leeds to find out more. © Richard Ecclestone Bonar Bradberry and Tom Thorpe, aka PBR Streetgang, have a musical production partnership and DJ alliance stretching over some ten years. Bonding over a mutual love of crate digging when they first met in a Birmingham record store, the friendship was forged further over a shared passion for DJing, and the pair soon established a residency at the renowned Asylum nights at Leeds’s Club Mint, learning the ropes of music production along the way. Known best for a string of dancefloor-driven EPs – A Streetgang…

FM and hard sync The MiniBrute 2 doesn’t offer linear FM or oscillator sync on its front panel, but both can be achieved via the patchbay. Let’s see how... The MiniBrute 2 adds Frequency Modulation to its front panel capabilities, with an FM knob sitting in the Osc 1 section. By default, this controls the amount by which Osc 2 modulates the frequency of Osc 1. This type of modulation is called exponential FM, but the MiniBrute 2 is also capable of linear FM which maintains the frequency relationship between the modulation source and destination as you play different notes, resulting in a more harmonic form of modulation. This can be achieved by patching a modulation source (such as the Osc 2 output) into the Lin FM input in the…

MODULAR MONTHLY Hot rod your patches with pedals! Why let guitarists have all the fun? Pedals go great with modular synths. There’s a huge world of incredibly affordable guitar pedals out there that offer plenty of tone-shaping and FX. They work great with synths, and even better with modular synths as traditionally pedals come after the output of a synth and before the mixing desk or recording chain. But with modular, the pedal can sit anywhere in the signal path. Want to take an oscillator through a chorus then into a filter and VCA? You can do it. Or take your sampler module into a delay then back into the modular for some distortion? Anything’s possible. In any format, with any instrument, you can play around with pedal order and…

QUICK TIPS 1 Once you’ve got your sustained sounds moving with a gate, you’ll find they’re suddenly far more responsive to rhythmic effects such as delay and auto-panning treatments. 2 Try putting gates after all kinds of auxiliary treatments, leaving source sounds ‘dry’ whilst their effects have the dynamic stuffing knocked out of them. 3 If you’re working with heavilyreverbed samples, or if you’ve made or been given ‘over-wet’ recordings, use gates to tame the decay time and you’ll find percussive sounds become much punchier. 4 Experiment with longer attack times when sidechaining. Blunting the start of gated audio can produce unexpected effects.…

Get a rhythmic gated effect without a gate There are many ways to create volume modulation – here are three more advanced techniques 01 We start with a basic backing track, comprised of a wonky drum pattern from FXpansion’s Geist, accompanied by a rim shot from NI’s Battery 4. Under this, a muted electro bassline is triggered from Spectrasonics’ Trilian. There’s a long auxiliary reverb on the rim shot. 02 The reverb is clearly too long, but rather than just gate it in a traditional manner (abruptly cutting off the decay), instead we set a sidechain trigger by copying the drum pattern. Then we insert the FabFilter Pro-G after the rim shot’s reverb. This makes the reverb ‘groove’. 03 Next, we add a pitched, dark texture from Absynth and let…

Radial Engineering Key Largo Radial Engineering Key Largo £398 This keyboard mixer and performance pedal aims to route out all your studio problems. Robbie Stamp checks it out CONTACT WHO: Polar Audio TEL: +44 (0)1444 258258 WEB: www.radialeng.com KEY FEATURES STEREO INPUTS: 6x 1/4" TS (3x stereo). USB I/O: 24bit 192kHz. CONNECTIONS: 2x XLR main output, 2x 1/4" stereo send/return, 2x 1/4" stereo monitor output. NOISE FLOOR: -91dBu. CLIP LEVELS: +12dBu (In), +24dBu (Out). WEIGHT: 1.47kg. DIMENSIONS: 213mm x 127mm x 48mm. It might seem to have a simple, functional premise, but there’s a lot more going on as you dig down into Radial Engineering’s Key Largo. Aside from the three stereo input channels there’s USB I/O (up to 24 bit/192kHz), MIDI I/O (via USB), stereo FX send/return, separate monitor and…

Focal Shape 65 £600 each Do Focal’s latest monitor speakers sound as good as they look? Joe Rossitter cranks them up and throws some shapes… The included spikes (four per speaker) are helpful for acoustic decoupling and firing angle adjustment Unveiled at Musikmesse 2017, Focal’s new Shape range of monitors replace the French manufacturer’s popular CMS lineup. Available in 40, 50 and 65 flavours, the latter of which I’m reviewing here, the Shapes now sit between their budget-friendly Alpha series and the Solo6 Be – another 6.5" two-way monitor – in terms of price. Aesthetically, the Shapes are an interesting departure from Focal’s other designs. The main speaker cabinet is black-painted MDF with a luxurious walnut veneer, appearing less ‘studio spaceship’ and more ‘hi-fi connoisseur’ – in fact, they’d look…

Arturia V Collection 6 £385 The latest update to Arturia’s V Collection has some interesting additions. Bruce Aisher steps back in time to take a look It’s over 16 years since Arturia unleashed their first product on a burgeoning commercial software synthesis scene. Storm was a self-contained music creation environment that laid the groundwork for their products to come. However, a lot has changed in that time, and Arturia now find themselves producing software-emulations of classic keyboards as well as their own, ever-expanding, range of hardware. Whilst the V Collection was once a convenient and cheaper way to get hold of Arturia’s various electronic and electrical keyboard emulations, it’s now the primary vehicle for them to unleash new models. One omission last time around was the dropping of Spark (a…

Filter Hands-on with the Korg Prologue Oscillators The Prologue keeps the two analogue oscillators of the Minilogue. These are multi-shape, with square, triangle and saw modes, and each features octave, fine-tune and shape controls, the latter of which modifies the pure waveshapes to add asymmetry and extra harmonics. Once again there are switches for oscillator sync and ring mod. The big difference here is the addition of a third, digital oscillator, which Korg call a Multi-Engine. This can function as multiple types of sound generator – it can be a noise source with four varieties of atonal noise, and is capable of FM/VPM synthesis, with 16 digital oscillator types offering a range of classic metallic and complex tones. Most interestingly though, it can also be loaded with user-created waveforms. User…

Sonicware ELZ_1 wants to be your new synth gadget It’s always nice to discover eye-catching new instruments that feel like they’re come from nowhere, and Sonicware’s Gadget Synth ELZ_1 fits that bill exactly. Looking like a cross between a slimline MIDI keyboard controller and Teenage Engineering’s OP-1, this compact instrument contains FM, 8-bit, DNA Explorer, SiGrinder, Standard Osc and Low-Bit Osc synth engines, so its sound palette should be substantial. There are also filters, EQs, effects and an arpeggiator. With a small form factor, onboard speaker and battery power, the ELZ_1 looks set for lo-fi digital synth jams on the go. We’ve no official word yet on price or availability.…

Audified’s DW Drum Enhancer plugin can make your drums great automatically Audified have worked in collaboration with drum maker Drum Workshop to create DW Drum Enhancer, a new plugin that it says is “the only drum processor you’ll ever need”. Inside are multiple compressors and EQs, and once you’ve chosen your drum ‘type’ these are set up automatically to give you the sound you’re looking for. There are also five types of valve saturation for additional warmth. You can fine-tune the settings if you wish, but the theory is that most of the hard work is done for you. DW Drum Enhancer is available for PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX formats and currently costs $149 (regular price is $199). There’s also a demo for you to download.…

CLASSIC ALBUM Dub Pistols Speakers and Tweeters Sunday Best, 2007 Words by Roy Spencer © Chris Davison These days, when Future Music pops over a producer’s house to take some snaps of their studio, you can tell they’ve cleaned up – they’ve Hoovered the floor. Polished the synths. They’ve emptied the ashtray. One can only imagine what the Dub Pistols’ working environment looked like circa 2007, when they were making this explosive skank-fest. According to their driving force – producer/DJ/character Barry Ashworth – It was messy, to say the least. “They were hedonistic days,” chuckles Barry. “We worked stupid hours in the studio all the way through the day and night. We blacked out all the windows, put ‘crime scene’ tape everywhere, and slept under the desk.” This bunker up,…

ALBUM OF THE MONTH Nightmares On Wax Shape The Future Warp Records Legendary UK producer Nightmares On Wax returns with his highly expressive and beautiful eighth studio album. The Leeds born but Ibiza-based producer, real name George Evelyn, is a mainstay of iconic UK label Warp, having been with the imprint since its inception and currently their longest serving artist. Like all his previous seven records, the new LP, the first since 2013’s Feelin’ Good, is once again for Warp and once again straddles an eclectic mish-mash of genres whilst brimming with emotion and positivity. His idiosyncratic cross-pollination of soul, hip-hop, dub, gospel, jazz, downbeat and timeless club sounds once again creates a fascinating soundscape that owes as much to his roots and influences as it does his outward-looking and…

RECOMMENDED Hailu Mergia Lala Belu Awesome Tapes From Africa Pioneering Ethio-jazz musician Hailu Mergia returns with his first studio album in over fifteen years. One of Ethiopia’s most popular jazz artists throughout the 1970s and 80s, Mergia has seen a enjoyed a resurgence over the last few years following three reissues. Still based in Washington D.C, the much celebrated keyboardist and accordion player returns with a shimmering new record of funky jazz. Full of energy and improvisational spirit, Lala Belu is quick, sharp and forward-looking. Moving away from the traditions of Ethio-jazz and embracing the future, Mergia launches into a spirited soundscape that encompasses woozing synths, frenetic keys, intoxicating rhythms, rough bass, smoky grooves and jangling melodies. It’s as immersive as it is unpredictable. Mergia’s distinctive, inventive compositions take on…

SQL THE TRACK SQL Sohn, Lights (Remix) Anjunadeep, 2017 © Joe Branston Since exploding onto the techno scene in 2009 with his minimal monster Distorted Reality, Pim van Horssen has released on high-profile labels such as Pig&Dan’s Elevated and Secret Cinema’s Gem, including an album release on the latter in 2017. Pim’s highest profile track is his remix of Sohn’s Lights, which featured on Anjunadeep 09, and during ADE 2017 he was kind enough to invite FM into his warehouse studio to show us how it was created. How did you first hear Lights ? “It was my girlfriend that played it to me. I hadn’t heard of the artist at all. We were just at home and she showed the track to me on Spotify, and…

PRODUCER’S GUIDE Arturia MiniBrute 2 & MiniBrute 2S Back in 2012, Arturia helped kickstart the affordable analogue trend with the introduction of the MiniBrute – an all-analogue, CV-equipped monosynth packed into a compact frame and boasting a sub-£500 price point. Fast forward six years and the French brand have now delivered a follow-up: a worthy successor that doubles down on the original’s analogue credentials with an additional oscillator, a new envelope generator type and a significantly-expanded patchbay. It now comes in two varieties too: the standard MiniBrute 2 keeps the semi-weighted, aftertouchequipped keyboard of the original, while the new MiniBrute 2S swaps that out for a built-in sequencer and arpeggiator similar to Arturia’s excellent BeatStep controller. Although the front panel will look familiar to owners of the original, the transition…

QUICK TIPS 1 You can sync two pieces of Arturia gear using just one TRS cable. Simply patch Sync Out from the master to Clock on the slave – Arturia gear sends/receives both clock and start signals via this one lead. 2 Using Arturia’s MIDI Control Center software, it’s possible to configure the type of signal used for the Clock input. This can be set to 1step (Gate), 1step (Clock), 1pulse (Korg), 24ppq, or 48ppq. 3 The patchbay Inverter lets you flip the polarity of a modulation source – this is handy for use with things like sawtooth LFO or the envelopes. 4 The Att 2 > Amp rotary can be used to raise the amplifier level for creating drones. This will track the pitch of the last note played…

Arturia MiniBrute 2 & 2S Exploring the 2S’s sequencer tracks The 2S’s sequencer has four channels with far deeper functionality than first meets the eye. Let’s look at the options… 01 The first two sequencer channels are labelled Pitch and Gate – routed to oscillator pitch and gate (ie, note length). These are fixed to these functions and linked, so they always run in the same timing division and direction. 02 Tracks three and four are labelled Velo/Mod 1 and Press/Mod 2. The primary function of these are Velocity and Pressure (ie aftertouch) respectively. In these modes, the timings of tracks 3 and 4 are linked to 1 and 2. However, these tracks can also be set to one of three alternative modulation modes. 03 In Env mode, each step…

FMCHOICE 6 of the best gates FabFilter Pro-G | £134 Pro-G is the focus of this month’s video. If you want to create conventional or ‘out-there’ effects, there’s little this software can’t do when it comes to manipulating volume. Drawmer DS201 | £500 Until the advent of hard-disk recording (and audio chopping), Drawmer’s name was synonymous with gating, and its units remain in vogue for fans of hardware. Waves eMo D5 Dynamics | $299 A five-in-one dynamics processor ready to go to task whenever volume needs dealing with. Among the featured modules is a gate with a sidechain input option. Your DAW’s gate Before you go shopping for new plugins, double-check the gate which is (bound to be) included with your DAW’s plugins doesn’t give you what you need. Your…

REVIEWS Arturia MiniBrute 2 £575 & MiniBrute 2S £599 The French brand unveil two new semi-modular versions of their analogue monosynth. Si Truss gets jacked up… When Arturia’s original MiniBrute arrived in 2012, it was an unexpected first step into the realm of analogue synthesis for the French brand, who had previously dealt exclusively with analogue emulating software and digital controller hardware. On a wider level too, the MiniBrute was a welcome anomaly – a monosynth pitched at the affordable end of the market yet touting an all analogue design and CV control inputs. Six years later, neither of those things seem so noteworthy. Arturia’s analogue Brute line has now swelled to encompass three synths – including the behemoth MatrixBrute – and a drum machine, while their Beat- and KeyStep…

Dubreq Stylophone Gen X-1 £60 Stylophone hacks are commonplace, but one company have gone all out with this release. Robbie Stamp picks up the stylus There’s no mistaking the sight and sound of the Stylophone, but after many years, the stylus based mini-synth has been – dare I say it – enhanced. The Gen X-1 adds sub-octaves, PWM, delay, a low-pass filter, a pitch/filter envelope and a Soundstrip. You may be wondering if a reboot of such an idiosyncratic icon is such a good idea. Well, I’ll save time and cut to the end; it’s still fun and creative, but a whole lot more so. The main reason is that the essential quirky Stylophone sound and slightly awkward playing method (the wired stylus) remain untouched, whilst the new additions are…

THE ALTERNATIVES Native Instruments Komplete 11 £479 More expensive but wider-ranging – rather than a vintage focus, it has a massive range of sounds, including drums. www.native-instruments.com UVI Vintage Vault 2 €599 The name says it all. 50 instruments, 111 drum machines and over 7,000 presets. These are all based on samples of the original, but they sound very good. www.uvi.net Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2 £349 A powerful mix of sampling, synthesis and great programming combined with a huge library of 12,000 presets make Omnisphere a great purchase. spectrasonics.net…

Two OS X versions, same drive? I’m running Logic 9 on Snow Leopard, on a late 2008 MacBook, but need to use Logic X. How? OS upgrades often feel like an inevitability – especially to Mac users. Some older Macs, including yours, won’t allow Logic X to be installed without upgrading the OS. Thankfully, Macs actually allow you to install two versions of the OS onto the same drive, so you can keep your old programs/files on one partition of your drive but have what is basically a new Mac running a more current OS and Logic X on the other partition. Here’s how to set things up! First off, when making any major changes to your Mac, be sure to backup your entire system either via Time Machine or…

Focusrite’s Clarett range gets suited and booted with USB Previously thunderbolt-only, focusrite’s clarett range of interfaces have gained industry plaudits for their impressive sound and conversion. And it doesn’t hurt that they look the part, too. Now plumbing into standard USB or USB Type-C, the new Clarett 2Pre, 4Pre and 8Pre interfaces give a range of choice for how many Focusrite ISA mic preamps you want baked in. Each interface in the range is replete with MIDI ins and outs and ADAT connectivity; the 4Pre doubles the headphone outputs to two and adds S/ PDIF connection to the bargain, while at the top of the tree the 8Pre has additional Word Clock output and more comprehensive metering. With those ADAT connections and line outputs, the 2Pre offers up to ten…

Filter Bitwig Studio 2.3 adds new Phase synth and more Bitwig had a busy 2017, not only releasing version 2 of their Bitwig Studio DAW but also consolidating it with 2.1 and 2.2 updates. The company shows no sign of letting up this year, as they’ve already announced version 2.3. Leading the charge is Phase-4, a four-oscillator phase distortion and phase modulation synth that takes inspiration from the likes of Yamaha’s DX7 and Casio’s CZ series. The oscillators are powered by a sine wave that can be shaped using five phase distortion algorithms; each oscillator can also be phase-modulated by itself and the other three s. The result is an instrument that promises not only to emulate classic tones, but also to strike out down new sonic avenues. Phase-4 takes…

Track by track with Jason O’Bryan and Barry Ashworth “For the vocals we had a DigiTech Studio Quad FX unit, which was like a two in, two out FX out. We used it mainly for the chorus preset that gave it stereo – you can hear it in Running From The Thoughts and Open. All the vocals were compressed using a dbx 166XL. We had an AKG C214 condenser and a Shure SM85 cardioid condenser and a valve Rode mic, but it had too much low end for Terry’s voice so we stuck with the AKG for him, which was a budget mic.” Speed of Light Jason: “It was a simple bassline and a simple beat, based around a string sample. I used a Wal bass guitar, really filtered down…

Albums Onra Nobody Has To Know All City Records Eclectic French producer Onra is back on All City Records with his fifth studio album for the imprint. A continuation of his distinctive future funk aesthetic that filled 2010’s Long Distance, the new record breaks off from the trademark hip-hop that Onra has become synonymous with in between. Instead, he delves into sensuous, seductive and lush atmospheres with explorations into funk, soul, new jack swing, R&B and dreamsynth. The result is an album full of soulful, balmy tracks infused with a smooth, laidback groove. Crunching drums, deep, rolling basslines, lush pads and wonky synths combine to create this densely layered, richly textured soundscape that oozes style and sophistication. The entire album has a laidback and intimate vibe, slowing down the tempo…

Groups & Buses Inspirational master bus processing hacks Try these tips when you need professional sheen and weight right from the start of the writing process 01 > Let’s look at a handful of master bus processing techniques to get you pumped as you produce. Just to be clear, we’re not claiming these are pro mastering techniques – instead, these tips are designed to give you more of a ‘pro’ sound as soon as you begin writing a track. Let’s begin… 02 > If you’ve got a few sounds going in a project, but everything’s sounding a bit dull and uninspiring, try loading a high-quality EQ on your master. A glossy high-mid and/or treble boost will lift top end in a musically-pleasing way, and will save you having to brighten…

Understanding the patchbay The most significant change from the original MiniBrute lies in the fact that the synth engine of version two is now semi-modular. As the name suggest, semi-modular synths bridge the gap between standard ‘hard-routed’ synthesizers and modular systems, which are are entirely reliant on the user patching the various elements together in order to created a working signal path. The MiniBrute still features a pre-routed sound engine, meaning you can play a note and create sound without the need to reach for any patch cables. However, the new patchbay allows the majority of these routing to be broken and redirected in order to achieve a much wider array of synth tones and effects. For anybody unfamiliar with modular synthesis, this patchbay might seem a little daunting, but…

Arturia MiniBrute 2 & 2S Creating an experimental, modulated drone The MiniBrute’s new patchbay is great for building complex free-running modulated drones 01 Start with all controls set to zero, then raise the Square Wave slider. Since this is a drone patch, we want a continuous tone, so raise Att 2 > Amp to around 12 o’clock. Trigger a lower octave note (somewhere around C2) to create a low drone. 02 Let s add movement. First we ll use Pulse Width modulation. Set both Pulse Width and PWM to around the 1 o’clock mark. Now set LFO 1 to Free mode, select a Sine wave and lower the rate. Let’s also lower the LPF cutoff to around 12 o’clock and add a bit of resonance. 03 Let’s use the AD…

In The Studio With Clarian Working alongside the enigmatic ‘Spaceman’ at Montreal’s Lost Star studios, Clarian North has engineered for Tiga, Felix da Housecat and The Martinez Brothers. Danny Turner locates him at ‘The Spaceship’ to talk tech… and more © Joseph Fuda Although initially affiliated with Montreal’s folk scene, Clarian North was introduced to local after-hours clubs such as Quebec’s now-defunct Sona, igniting an interest in electronic music, Mute Records and associated sounds. To feed his new-found obsession, North helped launch Lost Star studios under the tutelage of the mysterious ‘Spaceman West’. 2008 saw North release his first full-length Folk LP So It Goes under the pseudonym Maurice Benjamin, before joining forces with Adam Weitzman as synthpop duo Footprintz, later signed to Seth Troxler’s Visionquest label. The nomadic sound…

TOOLKIT Creative gating We run a full diagnostic test on the humble gate, and discover that its capabilities run deeper than you think Gates – also known as ‘noise gates’ – are one of those wonderful pieces of music technology which were developed for one purpose but have since been completely reimagined. A gate features a Threshold level, and unless the sound passing through a gate reaches that level, the gate remains closed, effectively ‘silencing’ the part playing through it at times. This was extremely useful in the days when recording channels were inherently ‘noisy’ (such as tape), to ensure that the latent sound of hiss was shut off and was only heard when the part recorded to each track of the tape reached a certain volume. These days, the…

Sidechain gating in three easy steps Unsure how to go about working with gates and sidechain triggers? Here’s a handy three-step guide to get you where you need to be Whilst the most traditional use of gating is to cut short sounds which feature decay and release times you deem too long, the second most popular approach is to work with sidechain input signals. The ways these work is that they feed an external signal into the gate, so that it only opens when the trigger sound plays. This is incredibly effective if you want to supplant a rhythm onto a sound which is sustained. By gating it with a trigger, you’ll only hear the moments where your rhythmic trigger is in operation. In this way, gates working with sidechain…

Steinberg Cubase 9.5 Steinberg Cubase Pro 9.5 £480 Steinberg have just unleashed their yearly ‘big’ update to their flagship software. Bruce Aisher takes it for a musical workout As expected, Steinberg dropped the latest in their annual, larger, DAW updates shortly before Christmas. The established pattern is a full version release every two years, with a .5 version in-between (both requiring a fee). In terms of aesthetics, there are no big changes in version 9.5, though it seems that font aliasing is different from C9.0, resulting in some smearing in places. This may seem like a minor gripe, but I have some long-running annoyances with the scalable aspects of the Cubase interface which make it feel sloppy, dated and inconsistent at times. Apple have slowly been removing the use of…

THE ALTERNATIVES Waldorf 2-Pole £155 Waldorf’s analogue filter/distortion has a similar feature set to the Acidbox, although a different tonal flavour. It’s mono but features a more flexible envelope follower. waldorfmusic.com Elektron Analog Heat £580 The Heat offers a similar selection of stereo distortion, filtering and modulation options. It’s sonically less ‘unstable’, and its seamless DAW integration make it much more modern-feeling. www.elektron.se Sherman Filterbank 2 Compact £660 The Filterbank range pack great flexible distortion and filtering tools that sound great on synths and drums. www.sherman.be…