Innehållsförteckning för May 2023 från Future Music

Despite electronic music being ostensibly forward-thinking, we producers can be as backward-looking as any mistyeyed rock revivalist. Ask an electronic musician to name the ‘greatest synth’ and nine times out of ten they’ll reel off a list of instruments released in the ’70s and ’80s. Truth is though, thanks to advances in technology, design and manufacturing, the synth market has never been as varied, accessible and open as it is right now. This issue, we’re celebrating the best that contemporary synth design has to offer, by putting 10 flagship polys head-to-head. Our line-up covers everything from vintage analogue to boundary-pushing digital synthesis. A little something for everyone. But which machines will come out on top? Head for page 30 to find out. We hope you enjoy the issue. Si Truss,…

When Korg launched their first ARP Odyssey reboot back in 2015, little did we know that this was just the start of the emulative endeavours. In addition to this scaled-down synth we also got a module, an iOS app, a plugin and a limited-edition full-size version, and now that so-called ‘FS’ model is back in kit form. Yep, this is a big ol’ Odyssey that you can build yourself. You don’t need to be an electrical engineer in order to assemble it, either – we’re assured that the ARP Odyssey FS Kit doesn’t require any prior technical knowledge or soldering skill to use. A pictorial guide is supplied to help you on your way, and each synth comes with its own serial number engraved into a metal plate, giving it…

Modalic's first plugin, Beat Scholar, put a new spin on the beatmaking plugin concept, and was notable for its sliceable ‘beat pizzas’. The follow-up, EON-Arp, focuses on the creation of melodic and harmonic patterns, and the great news is that you can currently download it for free. At its heart, and as its name implies, EON-Arp is an arpeggiator, but it’s one that promises a large amount of rhythmic and melodic control. The note grid is completely customisable: you can adjust the position, length or velocity of every note with either quantised or freeform timing. As such, everything from finely-honed grooves to experimental polyrhythms should be in your grasp. Up to 128 steps and 11 pitch positions are available to you, and as well as being able to trigger your…

Yamaha’s product roster isn’t exactly short on stage keyboards – they already offer the CP and YC models – but the new CK range sets itself apart by putting the focus on portability. In a nutshell, the 88-note CK88 and 61-key CK61 promise the sounds of the CP and YC keyboards in a more compact form factor. Both can be powered by AA batteries and have integrated loudspeakers, so you can, they say, play pretty much anywhere. Pianos, electric pianos, strings, brass, organs and “modern synths” are all present and correct, and you can spread these across three keyboard zones for more complex patches and performance options. Each part can be processed with the built-in effects. These include filters, envelopes, modulation processors, delay and reverb, and there’s also a final…

Adelirious adventure in sound design, Holly Waxwing’s The New Pastoral is one of the best – and weirdest – things we’ve heard in months. Delightfully difficult to categorise, Waxwing’s music could be described as bubblegum IDM: frenzied patchworks of staccato rhythms are populated with a catalogue of sugar-coated, ear-pleasing sonics that sound as if the producer’s flicking through the sickest preset bank you’ve ever heard at lightning speed. The album finds an ideal home on PC Music, a label known for marrying the timbres of cheesy ’90s pop and trance with a gleefully unconventional approach to electronica. Waxwing works in this tradition while remaining bracingly unique: the record’s most suitable comparison would be artists who themselves stubbornly resist comparison. It’s a project to be filed next to Iglooghost, Visible Cloaks…

01 To access the sequencer and arp settings in Pigments, click on the Seq button in the top right corner of the UI. Conveniently, you can also toggle the sequencer/arpeggiator on and off by just clicking the adjacent button, which is a new feature in V4. 02 Once in this tab, you’ll see the option to select either the arpeggiator or the sequencer. They work very similarly, as both feature a range of options that aren’t usually found in a usual sequencer or arp. Selecting Arp means that whatever notes you live input will be affected, whereas the sequencer allows you to program your melodies in advance. 03  For this walkthrough, we’re going to focus on the sequencer functionality, so select that option near the top left of the Pigments UI.…

Possibly the most revered producer in hip-hop’s five-decade history, James Dewitt Yancey – aka J Dilla or Jay Dee – was one of those rare musical talents who forever altered the direction of not only his chosen genre, but popular music as a whole. Through his solo releases, his work with Slum Village and his production for The Pharcyde, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and Erykah Badu (to name a few), Dilla’s influence has radiated outward through genres and generations, inspiring everyone from Michael Jackson to Kendrick Lamar. The producer’s visionary approach to rhythm, his unparalleled ear, and his nearsupernatural ability to make magic with an Akai MPC and a turntable sets him apart as a towering figure in musical history with a stature rivalling that of Louis…

LFOS FOR THICKNESS In terms of thickening a pad or synth lead, before tuning to chorus effects, a good place to start is in the understated use of an LFO. LFOs are most often used to create a cyclical modulation of pitch or timbre. A small amount of pitch modulation stops a sound becoming sterile, but you should also explore PWM – available on most synths with at least one square wave oscillator. A great tool for adding a simple, rich sense of thickness. PRESET TIME Designing a complex synth patch during the heat of a trackwriting session is the quickest way to kill your compositional creativity. Set aside dedicated patchbuilding sessions to stock up your custom presets folder ready for creative droughts. GET PLUCKY If you’re after a plucky…

Roland continue to update their SP-404 MKII sampler, itself an evolution of the original SP-404 hardware. The company have now dropped the version 3 firmware, which promises improved performance and various new features. Most notably, improved stability and syncing when playing long audio files means that you can now perform with multitrack projects from your DAW, adding another string to the SP-404 MKII’s bow. There’s also expanded motion recording – it’s now available on effects parameters – and pad mute and pad mute automation. This makes it easy to mute/unmute patterns during performances and capture mute actions in sequences. Improved clock timing and adjustable delay on the MIDI clock output should give you tighter syncing with other gear, while the one-shot playback feature enables you to trigger long, evolving samples…

Minimal Audio have announced the release of a new plugin, Cluster Delay, a powerful multi-tap delay capable of producing a rich variety of delay effects. Cluster Delay enables the user to fine-tune delay sequences of up to eight taps, shaping these in real time by tweaking controls for ramp, space and scatter. The delay can then be routed through six effects for further processing: Diffusion, Chorus, Wobble, Frequency Shifter, Phaser, and Flanger. Cluster Delay features controls for spread and crossfeed, making it easy to produce lush delays that span the stereo field. There's an option to introduce analogue modelling to the signal, while the Wobble effect will produce tape-like wow and flutter. The plugin's clean, easy-to-navigate GUI visualises the delay pattern while making the most important controls easily accessible. Cluster…

John Dunk, better known under the alias Cameo Blush, is a London-based producer making highly kinetic electronic music: more than anything, his tracks feel like a spring, tightly coiled and loaded with energy, ready to pop at any moment. Though luminous synths, fluid drum patterns and deep sub bass form the core of his supple, shimmering productions, it’s the vocals that steal the show. Dunk uses vocal samples the way many producers might use drums: chopped up into pointillist syllables, they’re coated with a futuristic sheen through careful processing, and arranged into staccato rhythms that accent the groove while lending impact and emotional depth. Much like his friend and collaborator Ross From Friends – in whose live band he plays saxophone – Dunk lifts snippets of inspiration from electronic music’s…

ALBUM The words ‘dreamlike’ and ‘psychedelic’ are perhaps a little overused in music journalism, but there’s no better way to describe the work of Canadian producer Khotin, who weaves waking dreams out of synths, samples and liberally-applied tape delay. His latest full-length provides more of what he does best, but while the woozy textures and downtempo beats might occasionally prove a little too sedated, Khotin’s ear for an unexpected sample keeps things fresh: 3 Pz samples an instructional tape for language learners, as a heavily accented voice ribs Khotin for his music’s soporific pace: “I can’t dance to this music, where is the guitar?” But when, at the tail end of Lovely, a faint voice asks, “now wasn’t that lovely?”, we’re compelled to answer in the affirmative. Matt Mullen VERDICT…

CONTACT WEB: sequential.com KEY FEATURES 6-voice analogue poly synth with analogue distortion and digital effects; 61-note semiweighted keyboard with velocity and aftertouch; 3 VCOs with 3/4 selectable shapes; Drive/Feedback and Vintage controls; switchable 2/4-pole, resonant, low-pass, ladder filter per voice; filter and amp envelopes with velocity modulation; polyphonic step-sequencer with 64 steps; arpeggiator with 5 modes THE PROS & CONS + Easy layout, what you see is what you get, including fast, dramatic, and intuitive modulation Fantastic forward sound with the lovely temptation to tweak and create Six Minimoogs in one, one Memorymoog or just one damn fine Sequential - Not as many modulation options as on some synths You can get better polyphony for the same price Presets are a little randomly placed Seque Although Trigon-6 is sadly the…

CONTACT WHO: Torso Electronics WEB: torsoelectronics.com KEY FEATURES Euclidean rhythm generator with seven musical scales, harmonic pitch control and random modulation on all parameters, 16 tracks per pattern, 16 MIDI channels, polyphony on all tracks The Torso T-1 was already unique in the world of hardware sequencers when it came out, as it combines a Euclidean approach to sequencing along with a plentiful amount of connections and a screenless workflow. But since its release in 2021, it’s continued to evolve and grow, and now that the firmware is up to V2, we’re taking another look at the T-1. The first thing you’ll notice about the T-1 is how nice of an object it is regardless of its functionality as a piece of gear. It appears to have an almost Dieter…

Donner DMK-25 Pro £125 Full Review: FM395 The DMK-25 Pro stuffs loads into a lightweight, compact, and visually appealing package. Ideal for on-the-go use. Arturia MiniLab 3 €99 Full Review: FM392 A great value keyboard with an updated feature set that makes this one of the best mini controllers around. Akai MPK mini mk3 £90 Review FM363 A very decent upgrade with genuinely pro features, fixing its position in the top rung of mini keyboard controllers available. NI Komplete Kontrol A-Series | from £119 Review FM338 A quality controller combined with a well-rounded software bundle. Novation FLkey 37 £200 Review: FM383 There may be little by way of competition when it comes to FL Studio controllers, but this is a genuinely slick keyboard. Novation Launchkey Mini Mk3 £110 Review: FM349…

Elektron Syntakt £849 Full Review: FM392 | Building on the successes of multiple other Elektron instruments, Syntakt is a top quality groovebox with a lot of power under the hood. Korg Drumlogue £529 Review: FM392 A flexible, powerful drum machine that has a lot to offer for the price… and it’s only slightly held back by a few clunky design choices! Arturia DrumBrute Impact £249 Review: FM335 It’s not the most versatile drum machine on the market, but the Impact combines quality sounds with a killer sequencer, at a price that makes it very tempting. Behringer RD-9 £270 Behringer’s ‘tribute’ does a convincing job of feeling and sounding like a genuine 909, all at a price below £300. It’s hard to knock that. SOMA Labs Pulsar-23 £1,759 Review: FM370 Pulsar-23…

Considered by many to be the underrated dark horse of the vintage Roland Jupiter polysynth herd, the Jupiter-6 is getting some deserved time in the spotlight thanks to a brand new plugin emulation from Cherry Audio: the Mercury-6. Released in 1983, the Jupiter-6 might have had two fewer voices than the Jupiter-8, but it set itself apart by offering an aggressive true multimode filter with 24dB/oct low-pass, 24dB/ oct high-pass and 12dB/oct band-pass modes. This harder edge made it great for creating biting techno and electro. Other notable features included support for multiple simultaneous waveforms in the oscillators and extensive modulation possibilities courtesy of the two LFOs and cross-mod capabilities. There were solo and poly unison modes, too. Cherry Audio’s reboot promises all of this, while also addressing some of…

Chompi is a new “magical” hardware sampler and looper that looks to prioritise personality and playability over a lengthy spec list. With its cute carry handle and big-buttoned interface, it’s giving us strong ‘My First Electronic Instrument’ vibes, but might also be capable of charming more mature and experienced musicians, too. Built on the open-source Electro-Smith Daisy platform, Chompi puts the focus on a simple, sample-based workflow that’s designed to encourage experimentation by the user. Hit the record button and you can immediately capture a sound via the built-in mic, and this is automatically mapped across the two-octave mechanical keyboard. Chompi offers seven voices of polyphony and gives you 14 preset slots. You can adjust the sample start/end point, there’s an AD envelope, and the playback speed and direction of…

(!) TRACK Singer-producer Jim Legxacy pulls off a genius move on his latest single, Old Place, colliding the spindly, heartstring-tugging guitar lines of Midwestern emo with the kinetic rhythms of Jersey club, sprinkling a few choice drill samples in for good measure. It’s this kind of mash-up mentality that helped the Londonbased artist become one of the most exciting talents coming out of England’s capital. While his honest storytelling and tender vocals hit notes of alt-R&B, Legxacy’s tracks have previously glued together pieces of drill, afrobeat and grime over similarly wistful guitar parts and stacked, Auto-Tuned harmonies. It’s a thrillingly original combination, injecting a sense of bedroom-pop vulnerability into styles that are often known for their boldfaced swagger and hubris. Matt Mullen VERDICT 8…

01 > The bass sound is created by layering several instances of Native Instruments Massive: “It’s really about just trying to fill out the whole frequency spectrum.” 02 > To bring out the higher frequencies, Skepsis uses separate top and high-mid instances of the sound, each EQ’d with Logic’s stock EQ to cut away unnecessary frequencies. 03 > For the lower frequencies he uses two more tracks, targeting the low-mids and sub frequencies. “I always split the sub and the main bass, because I feel like it gives more control. I’ll just make an EQ and cut the low end from the bass and then I’ll have a separate sub.” 04 > The sub is sidechained to the kick, giving it a bouncy effect. For a final element, Skepsis adds…

01 > The Sample Engine was added to Pigments in V2 and immediately greatly increased the timbral possibilities inherent to Pigments. Unlike most sample playback synth engines, Pigments also allows users to play back samples granularly. For this Walkthrough, let’s load up the Granular Pad preset and begin to explore. 02 > Even before getting into the Granular engine, Pigments is already an incredibly powerful sample-based synthesiser. Each sample engine can play back up six samples. In order to edit how these samples play, click on the Edit tab right above the sample waveform. You’ll then see Tune, Playback, Mix and Panning options for each sample. 03 > Clicking on the Map tab allows for even more flexibility. Here you can set samples to be played back individually or they…

Spitfire Audio’s bread-andbutter has always been in the areas of film and TV music scoring, and they now have a huge number of products to satisfy the need of composers in those areas. At the core of their range for many years have been the Albion libraries, with a remit for providing a self contained set of instruments and timbres suitable for scoring projects. There are now six ‘Albions’, and whilst broader sonic overlaps do occur, each has its own sound and feel. The latest is Colossus and there are no prizes for guessing that it’s aimed squarely at the epic end of the spectrum with blockbuster bombast firmly in its sights. However, as Spitfire make clear on the product page, a dose of rage needs a calm counterpart to…

An auxiliary or return channel is an empty channel that can be called up in your DAW’s mixer, much like a bus or group track. However, instead of routing individual channel outputs directly into this, you instead use a channel’s send fader to route its signal to the aux in parallel. This is most commonly used for reverb and delay effects: load a reverb effect on a single aux return, and you can pipe portions of your channels’ signals to this aux. This will leave the original untouched in the mix, but their signals will hit the aux, and the reverb will be output via this channel. This kind of parallel processing is a staple in modern productions. By keeping your main mix signals intact, but piping them separately to…

WM Malevolent £499 Full Review: FM388 A bold and characterful debut and very much worth your attention, although its vintage ethos occasionally limits its versatility. Bastl Softpop SPII £445 Full Review: FM393 Softpop is an instrument that offers vast tonal options and great sequencing, connectivity and portability. A huge leap over its predecessor. Korg Volca Modular £190 Review: FM342 A West Coast synth in a compact package. It may be fiddly, but give in to its experimental ethos and it’s endless fun. Moog Mavis £339 Review: FM387 Mavis can’t really be faulted at this price. It covers such a wide range of tones, is well built and introduces new options to the classic Moog. Moog DFAM £549 Review: FM333 A unique percussion synth, and the perfect partner to the Mother-32.…

Korg SQ-64 £269 Full Review: FM367 | An intuitive, nostalgic and very musical bit of gear. Recently updated to v2.0, adding a new drum mode and more. Arturia KeyStep Pro £319 Review: FM359 For melodic sequencing duties and flexible hardware control, this is one of the best keyboard devices around. Novation SL MkIII from £540 Review: FM338 For those who work with both hard and software, this may be the best studio centrepiece on the market. Pioneer DJ Toraiz Squid £467 Review: FM351 Features like Groove Bend and speed modulation put a new spin on your sequencing moves. Arturia BeatStep Pro £196 Review: FM296 A modern classic, offering great connectivity, sequencing and controller capabilities, all without breaking the bank.…