Innehållsförteckning för April 2019 från Future Music

The hapiNES chiptune synth's desktop upgrade Twisted Electrons have released hapiNES L, a desktop version of their smaller hapiNES. The four-voice synth is based around the original RP2A07 sound chip found in the NES games console. The new desktop edition adds class AB preamp, MIDI and analogue sync I/O, all in a rugged metal case. The synth uses triangle and variable width pulse oscillators, with a 16-mode arpeggiator and vibrato effect to bring sounds to life. There are 59 synthesised preset drum sounds, plus one ‘self-evolving’ drum sound. The instrument packs MIDI I/O, analogue trigger I/O and a USB connection for use with a dedicated VST/AU control plugin for full DAW integration. hapiNES L is available for preorder now at 255 euros excluding VAT, with shipping due to commence in…

Club Construction BEATS || BASS || DROPS || HOOKS || BREAKDOWNS CLUB CONSTRUCTION Write, arrange and build the perfect dance track Structuring a dance record shouldn’t be hard. After all, genres such as house, techno, grime, DnB and other electronic styles are reasonably basic next to epic film scores and elaborate pop records. However, the magic in this simplicity can make the act of arrangement a frustrating one. What sounds effortlessly simple on a record or dancefloor isn’t necessarily easy to replicate again. And unless you’re multitracking audio from hardware, live jam style, it’s likely that you’re a prisoner of the DAW: the software studio environment that brings both unlimited possibilities and crippling creative restraints. With so many producers struggling to extend out short loops and sketches into impactful arrangements,…

WASHOUT TRICKS One of the most common yet creative ways to build and release tension in a dancefloor track is through the use of a ‘washout’ technique. This is where a particular sound in the mix – or the entire mix itself – becomes more and more effected with reverb or delay over time, building and building towards some kind of drop moment, whereby the entire effect is removed to slam everything back in. Anyone used to spinning records will feel at home applying effects like this in a production, as it’s a common trope used by DJs to ramp up and release tension mid-set. Bring up that high-pass filter, mix in delay, then bypass both just on the drop. There are multiple ways to achieve this effect within a…

TONY’S ESSENTIAL GEAR Wurlitzer EP200A “It makes you sound like the Carpenters or Supertramp. It’s always by my side.” iZotope Spire “Brilliant tool for portable recording.” Suzuki Omnichord “Sounds unlike anything else and makes you play, and think, uniquely.” Roland Space Echo RE-201 “If I had to choose between this and my wife, it’d be quite a close call.” Steinway Model D Grand Piano “Inherited from my grandfather, I had this totally renovated five years ago and it sounds amazing.” Audeze LCD-2 Headphones and Subpac M2 “Indispensable as a combination!” Focal SM9 monitors “So good for DnB, the sub output is perfectly matched and being able to turn it off is a simple yet huge thing when you’re working.” The Complete Rhyming Dictionary by Langford Reed “A constant when I’m…

How to record without your DAW The Capture feature is new to this version of Overbridge, and is handy for recording spontaneous jams without even opening your DAW Open the Digitakt standalone application and select the top right ‘tape’ button. This also works with the Analog Four, Analog Keys, Analog Rytm, and Analog Heat. This opens Capture, which allows you to record audio without the hassle of opening your DAW. Capture lets you select which tracks you’d like to record from your machine, including master output and inputs. There’s also the option to choose which tracks to monitor through the application. Selecting any individual tracks will record 24bit/48kHz files for each track. These recordings are in the destination folder specified below the input selectors. Sadly the naming system is slightly…

ARTHUR’S GO-TO GEAR Roland TR-808 “What really needs to be said about this? Go and watch my 808 documentary on iTunes. The original box is still the greatest. While people have often tried to recreate them as plugins, the true sound from this monster is very near unbeatable.” The Minimoog “The first synth I used in a studio back in Boston in the mid ’70s. Phat as fuck, the bass on this bad boy has driven funk and disco from the ’70s right up until today. White noise handclaps and stacked synth horns also got plenty of use on my early tracks.” Roland Juno-60 “The first polyphonic synth I purchased was the Juno-60, closely followed by the Oberheim OB-8. The strings on the Juno defined early electro. Listen to those…

QUICK TIPS 1 Envelopes and LFOs are great, but you’ll discover more interesting sonic possibilities by recruiting more unusual mod sources. Try using oscillators, noise and filter outputs to modulate other parameters. 2 When driving notes with a sequencer, run its clock at a super-fast rate for some robotic, chiptuneesque chord effects. 3 Pulse-width modulation is a great way to wring more timbral potential out of a basic subtractive setup. Use PWM at super-quick rates for interesting ‘blurring’, or slow it right down for nasal drifting. 4 Create two independent signal paths, doing slightly different things, then mix back together and pan them apart. Ideal for complex, super-stereo patches.…

THE ALTERNATIVES Mutable Instruments Tides £185 Tides can be an envelope generator, LFO or VCO and features a morph-able Ramp-Triangle-Saw output and a built-in wave-folder. mutable-instruments.net Doepfer Wasp filter £75 The Wasp filter uses an unusual filter circuit introducing distortions/artefacts. It has a buzzing tone at high resonance values and can produce timbres unlike other filters. doepfer.de AJH Synth MiniMod Discreet Cascaded VCA £155 A clone of the Moog Model D VCA, it has two channels, one of which can provide up to 300% volume increase, resulting in a warm distortion. ajhsynth.com…

Reviews Arturia Pigments €199 Arturia’s first original synth plugin combines wavetables and virtual analogue approaches. Greg Scarth takes a look… It takes a lot to stand out in the hyper-competitive world of synth plugins. Arturia know this better than most, having made their name by specialising in licensed emulations of iconic vintage synths. They still produce some of the best takes on classics like the Minimoog and Jupiter-8, but over the last few years they’ve also branched out into slightly unpredictable territory: hardware synths and drum machines, sequencers, controllers and audio interfaces. Pigments sees Arturia return their attention to the world of plugins, albeit in a slightly unexpected way. There are a number of notable features of Pigments. Rather than being modelled on a vintage model, it’s been built from…

This Issue ARCHIVE FM’s Sample Archive gives you over 10GB of carefuly-curated, royalty free sounds to use in your music. Here’s what’s inside... AMBIENT SOUNDS PT.1 ’90s Ambient (562 samples) Ambient Dawn (490 samples) AMBIENT SOUNDS PT.2 Majestic Bells & Mallets (444 samples) Spring Reverb & Tape Delay (533 samples) ATMOSPHERES & BACKGROUNDS Atmospheric Beds (369 samples) Noise, Crackle & Hiss (512 samples) Sounds of the City (371 samples) CLASSIC SYNTHS PT.1 Analogue Polys (625 samples) SH Collection (500 samples) CLASSIC SYNTHS PT.2 Analogue Poly Chord Hits (342 samples) Classic Synths: ’80s, ’90s, ’00s (678 samples) Hardware Arps (511 samples) CREATIVE DRUMS Cyborg Beats (514 samples) Lo-Fi Sampling (555 samples) Obscure Drum Machines (517 samples) Overloaded Beats (889 samples) ESSENTIAL DRUMS 808 and 909 (39 samples) Ultimate Cymbals (503 samples)…

Teenage Engineering cancel all orders for the PO 170 modular synth and 16 controller Bad news for those excited by Teenage Engineering’s new modular range that was revealed in the last issue of FM: the Swedish company have cancelled orders on both the new 170 modular synth and 16 keyboard/sequencer. It appears the Stockholm-based company have experienced issues with manufacturing and, as such, decided to halt production altogether. For those who had already pre-ordered, full refunds have now been promised. However, it’s not all bad news (unless you were desperately waiting for yours to arrive) as Teenage Engineering will be offering a 10% discount on the larger 400 series modular system for those who've been affected and those people will be at the front of the queue, as soon as…

Avantone release active version of their Yamaha NS-10-style monitor Bearing a striking resemblance to Yamaha’s NS-10, Avantone’s CLA-10A is an active version of the CLA-10 monitor released in 2018. This features the same AV10MHF and AV10MLF drivers and cabinet construction as the CLA-10, but adds a Class A/B power amp section. You also get the ‘Variable Tissue Paper Control’ knob, which enables you to simulate the sound of the Vertical ‘m’ and horizontal Studio models of the monitors that inspired the CLA-10s. CLA-10As ship in the next month or so priced at $999.…

LIKE IT? TRY THESE… Various Artists Innovator: Sound Track For The Tenth Planet Derrick May, and other guises, compilation. Featuring the kind of techno classics DJ Rap was raised on, and sampled. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: Strings Of Life, The Dance, Nude Photo Prodigy The Fat Of The Land Monster breakbeat album that would have a massive influence on Learning Curve’s production. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: Firestarter, Breathe, Smack My Bitch Up DJ Rap & Voyager Intelligence Heavy album of jungle rollers from 1995, with Rap’s first ‘song’ nestled amongst them. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: Mad Up, The Drum, Two Lovers Engineers Without Fears  ‎ Propa Dubs Vol 2 Drum & bass business that dropped last year, from DJ Rap’s own Propa Talent imprint. Vol 3 on…

Club Construction Building strong foundations Before we look at specific techniques to develop arrangements, let’s consider some overriding themes that apply across all genres, then perhaps apply that thinking to your own specific styles. Typically, a pop or rock song follows an intro > verse > pre-chorus > chorus structure – a timeless, tried-and-tested template that’s proven to work in those genres. Even if you’re not making straight-up pop, there’s a lot to learn from this type of arrangement. For example, if you’re stuck creating an eight- or 16-bar loop, treat this as your ‘verse’ section, then use this as a foundation to lay down a complementary ‘chorus’ section. Once done, is the jump between these two sections too stark? Then you probably need some kind of ‘bridge’ or build-up…

Club Construction Cool-down tricks with kick drums Many 4/4 genres employ the use of filtered bass drums – here are six tips for doing it creatively 01 Genres such as disco house, tech-house and techno rely on the classic ‘filtered kick’ trick. In its simplest form, switch on a high-pass filter plugin on your kick’s channel. This carves away bottom end, cooling down low-end impact for a while. 02 To customise the kick filtering, don’t use a heavy-handed filter – try a parametric EQ instead. Use the low band to remove bass frequencies, then add a little resonant bump around the cutoff frequency for added oomph. You can slightly roll off some pokey treble, too. 03 To help make your filtered kick edit more of a feature in the track,…

QUICK TIPS 1 Don’t know where to take your latest track next? Then copy your main MIDI riff, paste it to a fresh channel and load up a new synth preset. Try using MIDI plugins such as arpeggiators to drive the creation of new material. 2 As you jam with a hardware instrument, track a long pass to audio and incorporate hands-on parameter sweeps. Your plan should be to chop up and arrange these sections of audio on your DAW timeline. 3 Stock up your own custom bank of crash cymbals, fills, white noise ‘blasts’, downlifters, risers and reversed sounds. Not only will these form the basis of your FX creation and contribute to your signature aesthetic, but you’ll be able to access them quickly as you lay down your…

PRODUCER’S GUIDE Overbridge 2.0 & Digitakt Swedish company Elektron are known for pushing the boundaries of where hardware can go. It’s for this reason that so many forward-thinking producers and performers have chosen Elektron mainstays like the Octatrack and Analog Rytm as essential parts of their practice, both in the studio and on stage. That being said, Elektron’s focus seems to have shifted slightly into the digital realm in recent years (to the dismay of some of their original user base), and now with the official release of Overbridge 2.0 – currently in public Beta – that transformation seems complete. When Elektron first announced it in 2015, Overbridge 1.0 caused quite a stir. The promise of a digital link between your hardware and your preferred DAW gave many producers the…

SETUP TIPS 1 Before being able to use Overbridge, you’ll need to upgrade your hardware to the latest firmware. These are found on the Elektronauts forum. You also need to download the latest version of Overbridge, as both of these parts need to be fully updated for your system to work smoothly. 2 Secondly, on the Digitakt, you’ll want to make sure Overbridge mode is turned on. This is found in the System menu under ‘USB Configuration’. Make sure the box is checked with an arrow next to Overbridge Mode. 3 If you’re using a Windows machine, there’s another option that you’ll want to pay special attention to. In the Overbridge Control Panel, there’s a field for ‘Driver Performance Mode’. You’ll only want to set this to ‘Highest Speed’ if…

MODULAR MONTHLY How dirty can a delay be? Befaco Crush Delay gives everything from clean echoes to all-out garbage! Here at FM we love modulating delays. Everything from soft and slow LFOs moving delay times for a chorus-like effect, deeper vibrato-like pitch warbles to all-out robot brawling feedback noise. Luckily, the Befaco Crush Delay offers clean delays through to abusing circuit-bent noise all coming from the widely used PT2399 chip. You’ll find ‘PT’-based delays all over the place; it was originally created as a cheap, simple way to add delay/ echo to karaoke machines, but the guitar pedal community started to use the chip as it can emulate BBD sounds and is also very tolerant of modifications. Anyone who’s used a PT delay knows that the delay times are usually…

Interview Joyce Muniz We sit down with the Brazilian-born producer to talk analogue kicks, rolling synths and why you need to move with the times © Joseph Branston Brazilian-born Joyce Muniz is a woman of many talents. Since moving from South America to Vienna in the mid-’90s, she developed a reputation as a deft electronic musician, fusing a natural feel for percussion to an eclectic production style that touches on various styles of underground club music. As a selector too she’s made a name for herself both in the booth and on the airwaves, with residencies for Vienna’s 4FM and London-based station Rinse. FM caught up with her at last year’s ADE to chat synths, studio workflow and more. What’s your current studio setup and what gear inspires you? “I…

Reviews VPME Euclidean Circles V2 £230 Want to expand your rhythmic horizons? Try this gate sequencer module with a difference, says Phil Wise Euclidean Circles was originally released as a DIY PCB in late 2015, and now VPME are back with version 2 and a full retail release. The module is essentially a gate sequencer, but as the name suggests the focus here is on Euclidean rhythms. Euclidean algorithm is a theory presented in 2004 by a Canadian computer scientist that shows how most rhythmic patterns of world music (except Indian) can be generated by filling patterns with beats that are (as much as possible) evenly spaced. When you try and play five hits in a 16-step pattern they cannot fit evenly so a more interesting off-beat rhythm is created.…

HISTORY OF THE GRISTLEIZER The original Gristleizer was an effects box built by Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle, the avant-garde band who pioneered industrial music in the late ’70s. The unit was based on a design by a 16-year-old Roy Gwinn published in Practical Electronics magazine. Carter adapted the circuit, replacing the Bias trimpot with a front panel mounted control. The Gristleizer became a core part of the Throbbing Gristle sound, used on almost every element of the band’s output. Endangered Audio released a stomp box version in 2009 and later developed a single Eurorack module with CV inputs for many of the controls.…

Reviews Electro-Harmonix Grand Canyon £230 Can Electro Harmonix ‘go large’ with their Grand Canyon delay/looper pedal? Bruce Aisher gets tapping Electro-Harmonix have been in the stomp-box game longer than most, and now have a huge, ever growing, line-up. Many units come in a series of variants aimed at different price points, and with slightly different feature sets. A classic example is the Memory Man delay, with its Tap Tempo, Stereo, Boy and Toy variants. Like these, the new EHX Grand Canyon delay and looper takes its cue from the 2017’s smaller Canyon pedal. The Canyon was one of EHX’s first forays into compact, all-digital, multi-effect territory, that companies such as TC Electronic have embraced for some time. One of the issues with providing multiple effects in such a small footprint…

Reviews Steinberg AXR4 £2,200 Is there a new player at the top-end Thunderbolt interfacing table? Jono Buchanan checks out Steinberg’s AXR4 Few anticipated that one of the talking points of this year’s NAMM show would centre around a head-turning piece of hardware from Steinberg. And yet, here is the flagship AXR4 Thunderbolt 2 audio interface, promising a feature set to make rival top-end interface designers sit up and take note. A panel tour hints usefully at what lies beneath… There are four mic/line preamps at the front, designed in partnership with Rupert Neve, whose involvement warrants his signature being embossed front and centre. In particular, Neve’s ‘Silk’ technology is available for use whilst recording, with your choice of ‘Red’ or ‘Blue’ algorithms per preamp. These musically ‘distort’ the input signal…

ADVICE The original Minilogue: is it still worth getting? > Absolutely! With the launch of the xd many are selling their originals to fund it. However, the original has a personality all of its own and it really excels at acoustic/cutting sounds due to its more defined and cleaner sounding filter/signal path. We also love the characterful delay, plus it has a multimode filter, audio input and two full ADSRs. Can I control my gear with my voice? > With Google’s Assistant, Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa now finding their way into more and more of our devices, voice control around the home is becoming commonplace. We haven’t seen it in many music technology devices so far, but Roland have announced that they’re dipping their toes into Alexa waters with…

Gear Guide Essential Tools For Music Making AUDIO INTERFACES Universal Audio Apollo x6 £1,800 Full Review: FM340 The new series is, sonically, now a match for any rival interfaces. If you’re tempted by the UAD ecosystem, this is highly recommended Steinberg AXR4 £2,200 Full Review: FM342 Stunning audio quality with ultra high-resolution recording rates and gorgeous preamps designed with Neve’s involvement Apogee Element 46 | £859 Review FM318 If you’re happy with your studio interface being controlled via software, Apogee’s Element range offers great quality and features Audient iD4 | £120 Review FM312 This compact interface delivers audio quality and stripped-back functionality for a thoroughly reasonable price. A great budget interface Arturia AudioFuse £519 Full Review: FM321 A nicely designed, highly configurable interface ready to have almost any sound source thrown…

AI Synthesis’ AI006 module combines stompboxes and Eurorack AI Synthesis have answered the prayers of anyone who loves both effect pedals and Eurorack modules (that's everyone, isn't it?). The premise is simple; a 2HP module that deals with the conversion between modular signals and guitar level signals. It should be the ideal utility for those wanting to incorporate their favourite pedals into a Eurorack signal flow, with minimal fuss and space taken up. Better still, it’s cheap, and even cheaper in the form of a DIY kit. The AI006 is available to buy now. The PCB alone, $10; with panel, $20; full kit, $45; fully built and tested version, $70.…

Puremagnetik’s Verv is a sunbaked tape loop synth Puremagnetik have released Verv, a sunbaked tape loop synth plugin that models the Freeman String Symphonizer and ARP Solina. As well as emulating the string synths of yesteryear, Verv features a Bake setting which gives you a degraded tape effect with wow and flutter, clicks and pops – just as if you’d left some recorded tape on a window sill, baking in the Californian sun for a few months. It’s not just any old string synth emulation though, as it includes a morphable saw to triangle oscillator, allowing you to add or subtract harmonics. Verv can also act as a standalone bass synth with the dedicated Sub oscillator. The Sub osc is a fixed pulse wave, but with the aid of the…

CLASSIC ALBUM DJ Rap Learning Curve Higher Ground, 1999 Words by Roy Spencer © Chelone Wolf Charissa Saverio (aka DJ Rap) had been tearing up the drum & bass scene for most of the ’90s, with tracks like Spiritual Aura helping define the genre along the way. So, when it came time for her first artist album, a long player of chemical breaks, dark electro pop, and guitar-based songwriting, may not have been what her legion of junglistic fans were expecting. “It made sense to me,” says Rap. “I never really gave a shit whether or not anyone expected this album to be all jungle.” The signs were there, though. The track Two Loves from the DJ Rap & Voyager album, Intelligence, is ground zero for all that. It was…

REVERSING, REVERSING… Associated with horror movie voices and ‘sucking’ vocal effects, the act of reversing sounds can be a real ‘get out of jail free card’ when you’re stuck at arrangement stage. The sound’s ‘rising’ nature means it’ll smoothly sweep in, hence why it’s a crucial tool to patch gaps between song sections. With modern DAWs and samplers allowing you to play any segment of audio backwards, reversing audio couldn’t be easier. Try flipping any atonal cymbal or ‘impact’ sound back to front to create a riser effect, then place the audio so it leads into your build-up. Reversing also works well with tonal sounds such as vocals, chords or synths, as the harmonics of the sound will fade in and act as an additional melodic component. Let’s look at…

Club Construction Structural headspace Ever written the sickest 16-bar loop on the planet, only for it to all fall flat once you arrange it out into a full song? It’s a common problem, but one that can be avoided… Put simply, a track isn’t a track unless it’s laid out properly over the course of three to eight minutes, which means the best way to stay out of a loop is to keep that arrangement in mind at all times, from the moment you fire up your instruments and start writing. How can each individual element in your track serve your arrangement? Perhaps opening out the decay of your hi-hats will ramp up the intensity of your groove, or that bassline’s cutoff can be opened and closed in rhythmic ways…

Club Construction Creating leads and basses that are complimentary Creating melodic sounds geared around change and movement will help you arrange in less time 01 Here’s the bare bones of a house track: a four-to-the-floor drum groove working together will simple, syncopated bass notes. The bass sounds sparse and crude, as we’ve purposely left some gaps in the pattern for another synth… 02 Next, we add in the occasional high note using a second synth instance. This is more of a ‘lead’ part with much more personality. Combined with the simple bass notes, this is a kind of ‘call and answer’ that can carry an entire record. 03 Saying that, our groove becomes repetitive after a few listens. How can we extend out what we have? Well, progressing this top…

In The Studio With London Elektricity With his unique take on drum & bass, Tony Colman (aka London Elektricity) has been a pillar of the genre for two decades. Danny Turner visits the Hospital Records honcho’s studio for some major production tips © Kevin Lake Two years after the creation of London Elektricity, Tony Colman and Chris Goss made their mark on the DnB genre with the pulsating jazz-step floor-filler Song In The Key Of Knife (1999). By then, the duo had already conceptualised Hospital Records, which has grown to become a key player in DnB and one of the most well respected labels in dance music. Following the success of their debut album Pull The Plug the following year, Goss stepped away from production in order to fully focus…

Huxley Making Evolution’s musical elements Michael creates a bed of processed samples in Logic Pro and uses Omnisphere and Kontakt to add a soaring chord progression 01 “The most interesting part of this record for me was building up the musical elements,” begins Michael. “I wanted a musical bed to write to, so I found this Rhodes sample, then resampled it after cutting it together and looped it. I wanted it to be a deep, epic thing that was quite full.” 02 Michael layers up the resampled Rhodes bed with some more toppy electric piano. “This has a nice bit of grit to it which I like – it sounds like it’s overlapping itself and making some mistakes. Everything these days is too perfect! A lot…

Producer’s Guide To Overbridge 2.0 What is Overbridge? Elektron call Overbridge a software suite that offers ‘seamless integration’ between their instruments and the computer. Overbridge, which connects to your Elektron machine via USB, is compatible with some, if not all of their products, including the Digitakt, Digitone, Analog Rytm MKII, Analog Four MKII, Analog Heat, and Analog Keys. (Digitone is the only one which has a yet-to-be-seen editor). Previous iterations of Overbridge worked with the Analog Rytm and Analog Four MKI versions; however, it’s yet to be seen if Overbridge 2.0 will work with those first generation instruments. Used with the Digitakt, Rytm, Four or Keys, Overbridge lets the user stream all tracks individually directly into their DAW as 24bit/48kHz audio. With the Digitakt, say, that means eight audio tracks, the…

In The Studio With Arthur Baker The tech guru who helped create Afrika Bambaataa’s Planet Rock and New Order’s early work, Arthur Baker has become an era-defining producer, DJ and remixer. Danny Turner discusses his inspiring legacy © Jason Nuttle By his own admission, Boston native Arthur Baker wasn’t a born DJ. More interested in the means behind the music, he took an engineering course at Intermedia Studios and began releasing disco hits under various pseudonyms with some success. After several false starts and setbacks, Baker relocated to New York and began producing for Tom Silverman at Tommy Boy Records, where he played a key role in seminal ’80s tracks by pioneers Afrika Bambaataa (Planet Rock) and New Order (Blue Monday/Confusion). Within a few short years, Baker was hot property.…

Tutorial Get Crushing! You can use the Befaco Crush Delay simply with audio in and out, but having modulation leads to more interesting effect sounds. Get your audio sources, gates and CV modulation at the ready… 01 To get started, take a riff or drum beat into the input and patch the output to your mixer/ speakers. Slowly turning up the time, you’ll hear the PT noise and break up creep in. Try pushing the feedback with longer times for echoing noise trails. 02 Most delays adjust the pitch of the sound when we modulate delay time. So let’s take advantage of it. Take a triangle LFO and attenuate the signal before going into the time input, then adjust the attenuation to add a pitch drift to the sound. 03…

EXPLAINER East Coast synthesis It’s time to go Eastside and break apart Dr Bob’s groundbreaking approach to synthesis Last issue, we explored Don Buchla’s esoteric West Coast method of modular synthesis. To recap, in a typical Buchla setup, a dual complex oscillator employs wavefolding and FM-style modulation to create a harmonically interesting tone, which is then attenuated and/or dampened by a low-pass gate. This form of sound is usually driven by sequencers, giving typical West Coast sounds a machine-made aesthetic synonymous with experimental electronic music. While Don Buchla was seeking to create a synthesiser capable of generating out-there sounds controlled by machines, New York’s Dr Robert Moog was simultaneously building an electronic instrument with a more ‘conventional’ philosophy. Taking on feedback from his peers, Bob Moog created his legendary Moog…

Beast from the East Using Arturia’s Modular V as a (cheaper) warmup to the main event… If you want to explore East Coast-style modular patching in the most authentic way possible, and don’t fancy forking out an extortionate amount of cash for the real thing, your first stop should be Arturia’s Modular V. This virtual behemoth sports the original’s nine oscillators, two LFOs, three filters (each switchable between low-, high- band-pass and multimode), six envelopes, noise generator 24-step sequencer and heaps more. Plus, unlike the original, it’s polyphonic – yes, you can play chords! If you’re used to ‘prewired’ synths, Modular V is a helluva daunting synth to use – but after some simple patching, you’ll soon realise that Moog’s modular workflow is actually fairly straightforward. In the below three-step…

THE ALTERNATIVES Nord Stage 3 From £2,999 The latest version of Nord’s high-end gigging keyboard is a belter. You can now load up to 2GB of sounds from the excellent Nord Piano Library, and you get both the excellent Nord Lead A1 Synth Engine and Nord C2D Organ Engines built in (there are physical drawbars on the Compact model and digital ones on the HP76 and 88 variants). The Rolls-Royce of stage pianos, but it’s priced accordingly. nordkeyboards.com Korg GrandStage 88 £2,349 Priced similarly to the CP88, the larger of Korg’s two GrandStages also has an intuitive, performance-friendly interface, and comes with an excellent set of sounds that are derived from the Kronos synth engine. A well-built, versatile instrument, it has the added bonus of an included stand. korg.com…

THE ALTERNATIVES Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator 400 £469 TE’s forthcoming DIY modular synth is more vanilla in its elements, but boasts Eurorackcompatibility via its 3.5mm patch points. teenageengineering.com Pittsburgh Modular Microvolt 3900 £510 Slightly larger and considerably more expensive, Pittsburgh’s desktop semi-modular has a similarly West Coast feel and a deceptively powerful sequencer. pittsburghmodular.com Behringer Crave $199 We’re yet to get our hands on Behringer’s forthcoming semi-modular, but this East Coast-style synth offers a lot of features for under £200. musictribe.com/brand/behringer/home…

Reviews Focal Listen Professional £219 A big fan of Focal’s Spirit Pro headphones, Simon Arblaster is eager to see if those forebears’ spirit resides within this new set The Listen Professional headphones from Focal represent the only closed-back phones in the French company’s ‘professional’ range, replacing the now defunct Spirit Pros. We were really impressed by the all-round performance of the Spirit Pro phones back then, with, perhaps, the only misgiving being the fit. So we were pleased to see that the design of the Listen Pros has changed somewhat when compared to its predecessor, but of course the proof is in the pudding. Fresh out of the box and we find the LPs neatly encapsulated within a rigid case, which also includes a 5m coiled cable and a 1.4m…

Reviews SOUNDS & SAMPLES East West – Spaces II $399 (or $19.99/month as part of Composer Cloud) Artificial reverb is a key component in nearly all productions – and for convincing realism, convolution reverbs dominate. Using digital captures (impulse responses) of ‘real’ spaces, they are a quick way to dial up authentic ambient placement. Spaces II is EastWest’s sequel to their earlier IR-based reverb plugin, and features a redesigned interface plus many new reverb spaces. Alongside the more conventional captures are 372 instrument-specific reverbs taken across six locations (unlike the single space of Spaces Mk1). This gets around one of the major limitations of most IR reverbs by providing custom captures dedicated to particular orchestral sections. For heightened realism in orchestral music, or even other styles, this is welcome news.…

Your Production Problems Solved Dirtying up the Minilogue’s bass I have an original Minilogue and want to get a dirtier bass sound from it! Any tips? The original Minilogue isn’t the dirtiest-sounding synth but it gets dirtier with some tweaks! There are several options onboard. Firstly, for bass sounds, try using the sub oscillator (in mono) as this gives you a dirtier, thicker sound. Add detuning too to get things even thicker and to add beating. There are other options, like adding in a little white noise; the Minilogue’s ring modulation adds welcome grit too. Be sure to use some LFO-driven envelope mod, sent to filter cutoff at maximum rate. Here’s an example… First, grab an initialised patch and select mono mode. Select square on VCO1 and triangle on VCO2.…