Innehållsförteckning för August 2021 från Future Music

EQING IS EVERYTHING “The mix can make or break the experience of a song, so just make sure all of the instruments and sounds occupy their own space in the mix as opposed to everything fighting for attention. Whether using a visual equaliser or only your ears, always give yourself time to analyse every sound to ensure nothing unpleasant pops out of the mix.” Use parallel compression “Slapping a compressor directly on a track can yield results but eventually you learn that putting a compressor on a return track, and using sends to blend the wet/dry signal lets you control more. I like this on drums, using a slow 400-600ms attack with fast, 10-20ms decay on the compressor. Then play with threshold til it feels right.” Maintain headspace “When I’m…

Feature REFRESH YOUR LIVE SETUP As worldwide restrictions begin to ease and the live music sector eyes a tentative return, it’s time to refresh your live rig – we’ll help you get gig-ready with essential tips and must-have gear The past year’s global pandemic has had a huge impact on the live music world. Almost all venues have been forced to close their doors, and touring, festivals and clubnights have pretty much been a non-starter. For musicians, at all levels, this has been devastating – cutting vital sources of income and, for newer and aspiring acts, removing an important way to get your music out there and grow your audience. You may or may not be able to attend gigs by the time you read this, but it currently looks…

LIVE TIPS & TRICKS > While Maschine+ boasts plenty of DAWlevel synthesis, sampling and arranging capabilities, one of its most handy uses in the live sphere is as a replacement for a humble looper pedal. Enter sampling mode and set recording parameters to Loop and Sound to emulate the workflow of a classic looper, whereby users can create up to 15 overdubs on top of an original loop, each assigned its own Audio device across the 16 tracks of a Group. Hook a pedal up to the input on Maschine+’s rear for foot control. > Maschine+ is equipped with Ableton Link, so it can be wirelessly sync’d to compatible software running on a laptop or iOS device – a handy way to sync two machines on stage without a full-on…

Korg SQ-64 A modern take on the old-school analogue sequencer format, Korg’s compact, convenient multi-channel unit could be what your live set needs “Equally at home on stage as it is in the studio” WHAT IS IT? Released earlier this year, the Korg SQ-64 is a four-channel sequencer, three of which are melodic, while the other is for percussion, making this the ideal sequencer for a complete small rig. The SQ-64 can output via MIDI, USB or CV, meaning it is a fantastic centre for a small studio, connecting either to your DAW, desktop synths or a modular rig. It is small but solid, with an aluminium unibody construction, making it equally at home on stage as it is in the studio. WHY USE IT ON STAGE? The big selling…

LIVE TIPS & TRICKS > Although Tracks’ sampler has only four channels, you can use automation to trigger a different sample on each step, significantly broadening the potential. Want to use it to play back elements of a complex beat or backing loop? Slice said loop into 8th or 16th note ‘steps’ in your DAW (be careful with crossover points to avoid clicks) then re-sequence them using Tracks. Not only does this allow you to play back complex loops using a single sample track, but you can get creative by live tweaking things like the sampler’s envelope decay or distortion amount. > Tracks has a hidden global compressor, with just an on/off setting accessed by the Advanced Setup menu (hold down shift while turning the unit on). While it’s a…

Interview Elkka Rising UK house producer Elkka has evolved from struggling singer/songwriter to creating a truly distinctive sound. Danny Turner discusses her metamorphosis and newly released EP Euphoric Melodies Raised on Britney Spears and The Spice Girls, and harbouring dreams of becoming a pop vocalist, Emma Kirby (aka Elkka) had a moment of realisation in 2016 that would transform her gruelling quest for success. Influenced by feminist pioneers and electronic musicians such as Laurie Anderson and Imogen Heap, the artist switched to production, taking full ownership of her sound to capture the authenticity she subconsciously craved. Snapped up by Ninja Tune’s sub-label Technicolour, Elkka’s latest EP, Euphoric Melodies, highlights the power of seizing full artistic control. Its instinctive cross-pollination of house and electronica is built from an imaginative menagerie of…

THE ALTERNATIVES Novation Circuit Tracks £360 The sampling capabilities of Tracks are far shallower than Rhythm, but the powerful polysynths and external sequencing tracks make this a killer all-rounder for studio or stage novationmusic.com Elektron Digitakt £630 Elektron’s compact sampler is a step up in price range, but its sample engines are more powerful and the inclusion of a screen allows for deeper editing elektron.se Korg Electribe Sampler £399 Probably the closest thing Rhythm has to a direct rival. The Electribe Sampler is a few years old now. It’s screen does help navigation, and the sample engines are more powerful, but overall the Rhythm’s workflow is slicker korg.com…

Reviews Wavefonix 3340 VCO £229 and 1847 VCDO £159 Should this pair of oscillators earn a place in your rack? Rob Redman takes them for a spin CONTACT WHO: Wavefonix WEB: wavefonix.com KEY FEATURES 3340 has two channels, Both have multiple CVs for waveshapes, pitch and modulation, Classic design available in silver or black It can be so easy to shout about the latest granular module, or a cool new sequencer, but it’s worth remembering that the bare bones of any system generally start with a voice of some sort. That is, for most of us, a VCO… and it’s the classic 3340 and its sister module the 1847 I’m looking at here. Together they offer a fantastic range of tones with good levels of control. Both modules are really solidly…

Reviews Arturia Pigments 3 €199 Chris Hughes explores the next evolution of the powerhouse soft synth from Arturia CONTACT WHO: Arturia WEB: arturia.com KEY FEATURES New harmonic oscillator engine, utility engine, 64 new wave tables, 4 new effects, Jup-8 low pass filter, enhanced routing, 200+ presets and more! Update is free for existing Pigments owners. In 2018, when Arturia first introduced Pigments, they had harnessed 20 years of experience crafting virtual analogue softsynths to create a 21st century synth. Combining authentic VA synthesis with wavetable synthesis birthed Pigments. Now Pigments has reached version 3: with some both cutting edge and old school upgrades. The first major upgrade is the brand new harmonic engine. This is a powerful additive synth engine that allows up to 512 partials. It comes with a filtering…

IN THE ARCHIVE – UPDATED! FM’s Sample Archive gives you over 18GB of carefully-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…

CLASSIC ALBUM Words by Roy Spencer Sub Focus Sub Focus RAM Records, 2009 Steel sharpens steel, as they say. So, when the cream of the UK underground all started taking rooms in the same studio complex, they were bound to motivate another. Such was the case for Sub Focus, who was holed up next to Chase & Status, Shy FX, Nero, Breakage, and Caspa, in 1980s hitmaker Pete Waterman’s County Hall site, on London’s South Bank. It’s the early noughties. He’s buzzing off trips to Ibiza, and fully hooked on early Justice, Ed Banger, and minimal techno and house. Bunkered down in this safe space, he’s inspired by the bold studio steps of his contemporaries, and determined to find a new sound of his own. “I was working in a…

LIKE IT? TRY THESE… Chase & Status More Than Alot The heavyweight DnB duo dropped this set of bangers in 2008. Sure to have rubbed off on bezzy mate, Sub Focus, right? ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: ‘Cant Get Enough’, ‘Music Club’, ‘Smash TV’ Dubfire Hybrid: A Decade Of Dubfire A ten-year chunk of this dude’s deep demented dance. Including examples of the [Roger] Shepard Tone effect that inspired noises in Vapourise. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: ‘Grindhouse (Dubfire Terror Planet Remix)’, ‘Dust Devil’, ‘Lucky Heather (Dubfire’s Lucky 13 Remix Parts 1+2)’ Booka Shade Movements Germanic house and techno LP from 2006 that cast a nice shadow over Sub’s mellower album track, Follow The Light. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: ‘Night Falls’, ‘Paper Moon’, ‘The Birds And The Beats /…

Akai MPC One/Live II Akai’s latest MPCs are fully standalone, broadly powerful, and play surprisingly well with analogue synths and modular gear “For cutting up beats on the fly, MPC is still the way to go” WHAT ARE THEY? The latest MPCs continue in the standalone mold established with the original MPC Live and MPC X. Software-wise these two are identical, but there are sizable hardware differences. The most notable are on the I/O front: the cheaper MPC One has just a single stereo pair out, stereo pair input, and one MIDI in and out. The MPC Live adds two extra pairs of outputs, doubles the MIDI I/O and adds an RCA in. Both machines pack four stereo CV/Gate outputs though, for controlling analogue or modular gear. WHY USE THEM…

LIVE TIPS & TRICKS > Running a drum sequence is a real joy with the SQ-64. You can easily mute tracks and/or steps, or edit on the fly. It’s a simple task and everything is very clear on the combination of OLED screen and the red lit step buttons. It’s an intuitive, powerful system. > Although it has no keybed, the SQ-64 can be put into a playable mode, with quantisation to help out where needed. Especially handy on a dark stage. This effectively turns the SQ-64 into a playable pad, where only the notes in the scale you choose will be available. > If you sequence your drums, then, say, a pad and a bass section, you can take the fourth channel and put it in piano mode. Unlike…

LIVE TIPS & TRICKS > Wavestate’s Setlist features lets users store and sequence up to 64 performances, which are full multitimbral patches complete with Wavesequences, arp patterns, Vector synthesis configurations and master effects – incredibly handy for planning and recalling sounds for a live set! > Don’t be fooled by the simplistic look of Opsix’s sequencer, it has six note lanes, for polyphonic sequencing with individual velocity gate length for each note, plus six Motion Sequencing lanes for parameter automation. There are multiple playback directions available to users, including sequence randomisation, and the Key Trigger mode allows for sequences to be transposed across the whole keyboard spread. > Despite being labelled with things like ‘time’ and ‘shape’, Wavestate’s Mod Knobs actually offer incredible flexibility over how they can be set…

THE TRACK BEC Trusting The Mystery Second State Audio, 2021 Berlin-based techno titan BEC, real name Rebecca Godfrey, has stunned discerning crowds with her hypnotic, stompy grooves. Rebecca has just released her latest EP titled Pleasure Seeker on Pan-Pot’s Second State, so we caught up with her to find out how she created the tranced out Trusting the Mystery, and find out more about her favourite music making kit. You seem to have a rather unusual workflow where you’ll start mapping out the arrangement of the track with Live’s markers very early on? “I do arrange as I go, but basically it always starts with the kick and the bass. Then once I’ve got those, I’ll lay them out so that the track goes on for as long as I…

PRODUCER’S GUIDE Hitting the road with modular gear Rob Redman delves into the forgotten world of live music, exposing some key tools and techniques to help you win over the gigging masses As musicians it’s very easy for us to lock ourselves away in our studios, tinkering, practising or even writing and producing. This is all good and well, but for many of us, sharing our music is a huge contributing factor to the enjoyment of the process. For some people, it’s even what keeps them fed and sheltered. The last year or so has been hard for many different reasons and, even if you enjoy beavering away indoors, getting out to share your music in a live setting can be one of the most rewarding experiences. It may be…

REVIEWS Novation Circuit Rhythm £360 Hot on the heels of the impressive Circuit Tracks, Novation add a sampler to their groovebox range. Si Truss gets into the rhythm CONTACT WHO: Novation WEB: novationmusic.com KEY FEATURES I/O: Eight-track hardware sampler with one-shot, gated and loop sample modes. Feature reverb, delay, sidechain, bi-directional filter and master compressor effects, plus 16 punch-in Grid FX. I/O: Stereo pair of 1/4” jack inputs, stereo pair of 1/4” jack outputs, headphone out, MIDI in, out and thru (also usable as a second MIDI out), USB, analogue clock out, microSD port Regular readers will know our fondness for Novation Circuit. The British brand’s fun, intuitive little groovebox packs a shocking amount of potential into its diminutive frame, with the inclusion of two polysynths, a four-track sample sequencer and…

Marantz MPM-4000U Marantz MPM-4000U £80 Plug and play podcasting mics have never been more popular. Jon Musgrave hooks up this latest design from Marantz Pro CONTACT WHO: Marantz Pro WEB: marantzpro.com KEY FEATURES Back electret cardioid condenser, 14mm pure aluminium-plated diaphragm FREQ RESPONSE: 30Hz - 18kHz SENSITIVITY: 25mV/Pa MAX SPL: 130dB (at 1kHz 1% T.H.D) BODY: Solid die-cast construction OUTPUT: USB-C A-D CONVERTER: 8 to 48kHz at 16-bit DIMENSIONS: 168 x 46mm WEIGHT: 0.37kg It handled reasonably close positioning without plosives becoming a problem Podcasting and video casting are now so popular we continue to see a plethora of tailored products. A dedicated mic needs to be perfectly designed for desktop use, sonically tuned for speech plus features such as integrated audio interfacing. Up for review I have the latest podcasting…

Reviews Korg NC-Q1 £299 Can noise cancelling headphones help you hear yourself in the DJ booth? Jon Musgrave sizes up this new smart design from Korg CONTACT WHO: Korg UK WEB: korg.com KEY FEATURES TYPE: Dynamic closed back, 10Hz to 25kHz, 41mm PEEK film diaphragm, Bluetooth v5.0 SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX Low Latency, aptX HD, USB 2.0 charging, approx. 3.5 hours for full charge 35 hrs plugged in, 24 hrs Bluetooth, 12 hrs Bluetooth with noise cancellation. Handsfree support, Google/Siri compatible A real alternative to keeping one earcup off In a club, you’re often battling to hear your cue source and it’s easy to turn your headphones up to ear-damaging levels. However, Korg could have a solution with their latest noise-cancelling smart headphones. Designed to handle noisy environments, the NC-Q1 uses…

THE LATEST BATCH AMBIENCE EXTRAS > Ambient Orchestral (246 samples) > Ambient Piano (469 samples) > Sound From The Ether (492 samples) BASS BUNDLE > Amped-Up Bass (234 samples) > Sub-Frequency Grooves (256 samples) FOUND FAVOURITES > Mechanical Sounds (390 samples) > Out There FX (500 samples) > Studio Noise (234 samples) > The Edge Of Noise (512 samples) > The Sound Of Water (375 samples) FUTURE DRUMS > Beyond Breakbeats (186 samples) > Digital Percussion (502 samples) > Electro FX (321 samples) > Granular Drums (499 samples) MORE BEATS > ‘80s Pop Drums (197 samples) > Dub Percussion 2 (537 samples) > Jazz Drums (499 samples) > Total Snares (501 samples) SYNTHS & MORE > Chord Stabs (136 samples) > Clone Wars (523 samples) > Percussive Leads (289 samples)…

Classic Album Track by track with Sub Focus © Ollie Millington/Redferns via Getty Images © Kevin Lake “When making the album I got really good at figuring out how other people made their sounds. So, for this I was using vocoders, like the Roland SVC-350, some Talkbox, through to recreating the synth leads and guitar stabs that Daft Punk sampled from Breakwater’s Release the Beast for their track, Robot Rock.” Let The Story Begin “I remember being slightly conflicted about starting the album with this as it’s such an intense track! But, because of the title of the song, it made sense to start the record with it. “I was listening to Vangelis a bunch so ended up using some [Yamaha] CS-80-type sounds. Which then moves into some crazy bass…

ALBUM REVIEWS Hollie Kenniff The Quiet Drift ALBUM OF THE MONTH Western Vinyl The Quiet Drift is the deeply atmospheric, beautiful and emotive sophomore album from Canadian American electronic musician, Hollie Kenniff. Her 2019 debut, The Gathering Dawn followed her work in experimental duo Mint Julep alongside her husband, Keith Kenniff (Goldmund) and showcased her wistful blurring of ambient and minimalist textures to stunning effect. More than two years later and Kenniff is back with a new record that takes these same principles, but plunges it into a deeper emotional and reflective state. Conjuring up images of the Ontario landscapes where Kenniff spent a lot of time growing up and recently moved to, the album has a very natural and calming feel. Blissed-out synths merge with blurry guitar lines, grainy…

LIVE TIPS & TRICKS > The MPC pads offer a good level of customisation over their feel and response, and it’s definitely worth taking time to consider this before taking one out on stage. To us, the pads feel a bit stiff in their default state, and there’s nothing worse than thinking you’re about to jam out some cool drum pattern of FX drop only to find it fall flat because you haven’t hit the pads hard enough. Take time to tailor these to suit your own performance style. > A good chunk of the MPC’s 2GB of RAM gets taken up by the OS, and you’ll want to make sure you have as much available as possible before going on stage. Once you’ve fully prepared your set, be sure…

LIVE TIPS & TRICKS > The recent 2.0 firmware update added a Recall From Flash feature which can be particularly handy in a live scenario. Essentially, this lets users instantly jump back to the saved version of a project. In practice, this means you can improve on stage – messing with pattern playback parameters, tweaking rotaries, adding swing – and use Recall From Flash as an instant reset to jump back to your original groove. To activate it, hold Shift and Project. > While there are only eight analogue trigger outputs on the hardware itself, the KeyStep Pro’s drum sequencer actually has 24 tracks. With a little setup time, it’s possible to sequence both analogue and MIDI drums at once. You could, for example, have the eight triggers feeding VCAs…

LIVE TIPS & TRICKS > The UNO’s Fatar semi-weighted keyboard is definitely one of the better ones out there, especially at this price point, so if you consider yourself a player, the keyboard version is definitely the one to get. If not, the desktop is a great option for just sequencing, as it is small and light. > The drive effect on the UNO synth pro is superb but turning the drive amount knob can hinder playing. Assign this to either aftertouch or the mod wheel, for nice, controllable, expressive drive swells. This can work out much better than using an Envelope or LFO in a live situation. > Not exactly a performance tip but keep a USB battery bank handy. The UNO can be powered this way, which is…

KILLER LIVE TOOLS Acid Rain Maestro £365 1 Acid Rain’s wonderful clockable modulation source is a great six-channel LFO, that allows for chaining of modulation, muting of channels and clock in and out. It’s a hugely versatile modulator that works well in the studio and live. acidraintechnology.com Mutable Instruments Marbles £275 2 A fantastic module that includes many of the options that you might be looking for, from pitch and gate sequences, to coin toss logic, and quantisation. It houses a lot of power for the size and should be high on anybody’s list. mutable-instruments.net Erica Synths Black Joystick 2 £225 3 Erica Synths’ Joystick is what all performance modules should be like. Intuitive response and with a tactile nature that inspires use. With different modes, input recording and gate…

Reviews Austrian Audio Hi-X65 £319 Critical listening on headphones can be a bit hit and miss. Jon Musgrave sizes up this new Austrian-made design CONTACT WHO: Austrian Audio WEB: austrianaudio.com KEY FEATURES FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 5Hz to 28kHz, SENSITIVITY: 110 dBspl/V, THD (@ 1kHz): < 0.1%, IMPEDANCE: 25Ω INPUT POWER: 150mW, DIMENSIONS: 170 x 85 x 200 mm, WEIGHT: 0.31kg Priced to compete with some pretty reliable open backed designs Hi-X65 is a new critical listening headphone from Austrian Audio. One of three headphones in the Austrian Audio range, it’s the only one that’s open backed, and is designed for mixing and mastering rather than recording. The package includes the headphones, two detachable cables (3m and 1.2m), a ¼” plug adapter and carry bag. The rather stylish packaging also has a velcro…

What’s in the Box? With IK’s experience in modeling more than just compressors and EQs, MixBox comes with more than 70 effects to put into your chain of eight. Nine Amp selections have choices from basic Preamp to British Tube Lead types; three types of delay include Tape Echo, Digital Delay and the interesting Reverb Delay; distortion like Distortion, Lo-fi, bitCrushing, Overdrive and tube screamer; a large choice of EQs are available in the EQ and Channel Strip categories; ten types of filter take in legendary options such as Moog-style, formant filtering and wah pedal models; the modulation category includes a huge number of creative effects from flangers to rotaries and plenty more in between; nine types of reverb take in almost all the algorithms you could possibly dream of;…

Ableton Live Generate new musical ideas in Ableton Live PROBLEM: Looking for melodic inspiration? Live 11’s comping can help you come up with new, inspiring melodic lines Comping is a method that lets us select the best parts from multiple recordings and compile them together to make the perfect take. This is usually a process used to record vocals and instrumental parts but we can use this creatively by combining samples, loops and, as we’ll explore here, presets! We’ll start by programming a simple melody on any instrument to work as the trigger. We’ll then route this into a new MIDI track containing Wavetable – you can choose your own synth but Wavetable is way fun! While recording the trigger track’s output, we’ll scramble through Wavetable’s presets to generate a…