Computer Music 201403

30 awesome plugins and 2500+ samples on the dvd exclusive 2800 defcon SAMPLES downloads instrument

March 2014 / CM201

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240 BPM

200

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120 BPM

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RADICAL

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100 BPM

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RHYTHMs Create stand-out beats and unique patterns with our essential guide TEMPO SHIFTS SYNCOPATION time signatures

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BEAT DISPLACEMENT POLYRHYTHMS

INCLUDES

18 VIDEOS TUTORIAL

tutorials

reviewed

MODULAR SYNTHESIS PRIMER ELECTRONIC YOUTH video ABLETON OPERATOR guide STEP SECRETS + more

LINPLUG SPECTRAL STEINBERG CUBASE 7.5 WAVES J37 TAPE + 21 more reviews!

intro / computer music <

welcome HOW TO USE download

Wherever you see this icon, there’s downloadable content such as videos, software, samples and tutorial files. See the Contents on the next page for how to download. Tutorials featuring this icon make use of our own Plugins.

Tutorial

Files

This icon means there are extra files to help you follow a tutorial feature.

There’s extra video content wherever you see this icon.

www.computermusic.co.uk [email protected] www.facebook.com/computer.music.mag

Computer Music 201 is here, and I gotta say, it’s about time. Really, that’s what it’s about! In our massive main tutorial, Radical Rhythms, we tackle the scary-sounding topics of time signatures, syncopation, tempo shifts, polyrhythms and more besides, then whip the cloak of mystery off of the lot of ’em. The great thing about timing tricks is that they’re not all-or-nothing affairs, and so you don’t have to be an experimental loon or jazz head in order to use them in your tunes. Using 3/4 timing, for instance, doesn’t mean going full-on waltzcore – you could just toss in a few bars to liven up your bridge before getting straight back to the usual 4/4 stomping ground. Likewise, syncopation can achieve anything from occasional rhythmic ‘jolts’ to wake up your listeners to total obfuscation of the underlying beat. Use tempo shifts for jarring aboutturns of pace and exhilarating ramps up and down… or just vary the pace by a few BPM to gently push and pull the song where needed. As ever, it’s all about what you take away from our tutorials, so to start applying Radical Rhythms to your own tunes, just get stuck in and…

Enjoy the issue

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Lee du-Caine Editor

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Issue 201 MARCH 2014

contents Producer masterclass

Cover feature 7 4 240

51 ELECTRONIC YOUTH

BPM

200 BPM

140 BPM

120 BPM

100 BPM

Find out why Trevor and Rustem are making waves on the deep house scene, and see their in-studio production methods for yourself

6 4

RADICAL

5 4

RHYTHMs Master time signatures, tempo, polyrhythms and more with our easy guide to playing with time, p34

Tutorial

4 4 3 4

55 M Odular Synthesis Primer Take a circuit-bending journey into the realm of custom-built synths and effects

Tutorial

61 smooth OPERATOR

Take a closer look at Ableton’s FM-powered synth and learn how to use it for a range of sound design tasks

Tutorials 72

The A to Z of computer music: M part 2

74

he easy guide: t arpeggios

76

eep it Real: K flute

Tutorial

Interview

67 Step secrets

80 P ROJECT 46

Put the grid to work with our guide to arpeggiator and sequencer functions

Reviews

Essentials

88

Linplug Spectral

20

inbox

90

steinberg cubase 7.5

22

news burning question

92

HSS Enzyme

30

94

Waves j37 tape

108 subscribe

96

slate digital trigger 2

110

next issue

113

back issues

PLUS 19 MORE products reviewed!

4 / Computer Music / March 2014

Thomas Shaw reveals the backstory behind the house duo’s success

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BLAST FROM THE PAST

This issue’s exclusive free content from Computer Music

download UV I DEFCON Productions not cutting it? Go nuclear with this powerful multitrack dance machine, p8

Tutorial videos 18 high-quality videos to guide you through our tutorials. Wherever you see the below icon, there’s a video version to watch

S AMPLES Put the pedal to the metal with this collection of over 900 finely tuned samples p12

PLUS!

1900 bonus hip-hop samples

Tutorial files

CM Plugins

A folder full of audio examples, synth patches and project files to help you follow our tutorials

Our exclusive collection of free plugins for Mac and PC. See what’s available on p14

Download Our fantastic software, samples, videos* and tutorial files are now available to download! To get access, head to vault.computermusic.co.uk on your PC or Mac’s web browser. You’ll be asked to register and answer a few simple questions to prove that you’ve got the mag. You’ll then be given access to our content! You can sign in any time to register new issues and download more content. Electronic Youth put together an entirely new track just for us in this 70-minute video masterclass, p51

* The Producer Masterclass video is not currently available as a download, though a solution to this is being worked on. Apple Newsstand readers can still watch the video via built-in internet streaming – just hit the Play Video button on the page.

March 2014 / Computer Music / 5

video This issue’s videos all in one place! Download them on your PC/Mac at vault.computermusic.co.uk

RADICAL RHYTHMS Get control over the fourth dimension without bending your mind – these ten tutorials will show you how to play with time Read the full article on p34

1 Odd time signatures in action

UVI DEFCON Ready-to-roll beats and melodies to get you out of the sourest sonic pickle – see this issue’s inspiring new plugin in action 2 Time signature changes in Ableton Live

3 Tempo changes in Ableton Live

4 Basic syncopation of a drum part

Getting started with UVI Defcon

5 Exploring deeper syncopation ideas

6 Polymetres in FXpansion Tremor

7 Polymetric MIDI and audio in a DAW

Building a track with UVI Defcon

8 Programming crossrhythms

download

9 Using cross-rhythms to create a fill

Our fantastic software, samples, videos and tutorial files are now available to download! To get access to this content, go to vault.computermusic.co.uk on your PC or Mac’s web browser. You’ll be asked to register and answer a few


10

Beat displacement

simple questions to prove that you’ve got the mag. You’ll then be given access to our content! You can sign in any time to register new issues and download more content. For more info, see our Vault FAQ: bit.ly/cmvaultfaq

Read the full article on p8

video Producer masterclass*

EASY GUIDE: ARPEGGIOS Decorate your tuneage by breaking your chords apart. Dave Clews shows us how to arpeggiate from first principles to more elaborate techniques


ELECTRONIC YOUTH Trevor and Rustem take us into their studio to show how they go about building a new track in this month’s Producer Masterclass video Read the full article on p51

STEP SECRETS Get the most from the Plugins collection’s onboard step sequencers and arpeggiators


3 Rearranging a drum loop with Cumulus’ sequencer

download

Our fantastic software, samples, videos and tutorial files are now available to download! To get access to this content, go to vault.computermusic.co.uk on your PC or Mac’s web browser. You’ll be asked to register and answer a few

1 Basic arpeggiator functions with PolyKB II CM

2 Arpeggiator sequencing with SynthMasterCM

4 Aalto CM’s modular step sequencing

5 Custom step sequencing with Dune CM

simple questions to prove that you’ve got the mag. You’ll then be given access to our content! You can sign in any time to register new issues and download more content. For more info, see our Vault FAQ: bit.ly/cmvaultfaq

* Please note that the Producer Masterclass video is not available as a download via our Vault, though Apple Newsstand users can watch the video via built-in internet streaming.


> download / uvi defcon

>Exclusive full software

UVI

Defcon

download Get the plugin, the video and the Tutorial Files on PC/Mac at vault.computermusic.co.uk

Construct pro-sounding dance tracks in no time with this month’s exclusive software – a powerful and fun multitrack instrument for PC and Mac As a modern electronic musician or computer-based composer, it’s easy to struggle for inspiration in an endless ocean of sonic possibilities. Deep synths and expansive sound libraries are all well and good, but sometimes you need quality and features in an inspiring ready-to-go format. Enter this month’s exclusive free software, built exclusively for , UVI’s Defcon – a unique software instrument ideal for both beginners and pros alike. Defcon houses six separate channels of pre-loaded track elements (three drum tracks, a

bass track and two melodic phrases) sourced from some of their finest dance and urban instruments: Electro Suite, Urban Suite, Mayhem of Loops and World Traditions. The tracks can be mixed and matched to craft modern and high-quality electronic tracks in a flash. Parts will stay in time with both each other and your host software’s tempo, and the three musical tracks will remain in key. Simply fire up UVI’s Workstation 2 sampler on a new MIDI or Instrument track in any DAW, load up Defcon inside it, select from the multitude of parts available for

TRACK ON/ MUTE/SOLO Toggle each track on/off, mute and solo them

PLAY Play/Stop all enabled tracks

RANDOMIZE Randomly change the loaded samples on all six tracks

OCTAVE BUTTONS Tune Defcon’s melodic elements in octaves


each track category, then use MIDI notes to trigger the six parts in time with each other. Controls for on/off, solo, mute, volume, pan, tune, low-pass and high-pass filters are on hand for each track, so you can adjust and tweak your mix directly from Defcon’s front panel. In addition, a huge array of high-quality studio effects can be applied inside the Workstation 2 sampler for more in-depth processing. UVI Workstation also offers other useful functions to assist your music making: stack multiple Defcon instances for a thicker

sound, split multiple parts across MIDI notes with the Split, Velocity and key Switch functions; and tweak its parameters using MIDI CC with its MIDI Learn function. If you can’t get enough of Defcon’s high-quality sounds and features, then get your ears around UVI’s other instruments. Their insanely powerful UVI Engine powers a whole host of collections including super synths, composer tools and faithfully recreated emulations of classic instruments. Go and scope out their expansive range for yourself at their website. www.uvi.net

PRESET LIST Click to access and browse factory presets SAMPLE LIST/ PREV/NEXT Select the current sample on each track from a dropdown menu or by scrolling VOLUME/PAN/TUNE Level, pan and pitch individual tracks here

FILTERS Use these sliders to apply a high- or lowpass filter to a track

uvi defcon / download < > Step by step Getting started with UVI Defcon

Tutorial

Files

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Let’s kick off by installing the free UVI Workstation 2 sampler instrument, found at vault.computermusic.co.uk or on your covermounted DVD. Double-click the PC or Mac installer and you’ll be taken through the installation process on your system. Now copy Defcon.ufs into the relevant system folder – see page 6 of the Defcon User Manual to determine the correct folder on your system.

Now open Defcon’s interface. Its main centre section is divided up into six sections – one per track element – and they all play back together in sync with our DAW. Let’s focus on the Kick + Snare track to get to grips with these controls. We have On/Off, Mute and Solo buttons at the top to help us audition our combination of parts, so hit the S button to solo our kick and snare loop.

Now turn on the Percussion track and select 095-Shaker2.wav from its list. The two larger triangles at the bottom of this track section are Low- and High-pass filters. These come in handy when fitting our separate elements’ frequencies together, so click and drag the High Pass slider to around 0.50 and pull the Low Pass slider down to roughly 0.90.

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Now we’ll open a new project in our DAW (we’re using Ableton Live to demonstrate, but any compatible DAW will do) and load up UVI Workstation on a new MIDI track. Double-click its browser bar at the top to open the Soundbank tab. In the Defcon folder, load Defcon.M5p, which will initiate Defcon inside the UVI Workstation environment.

Click on the sample name to open a dropdown menu, where we can click to select from a whole host of four-to-the-floor and breakbeat rhythms. Alternatively, we can click on the left and right triangle buttons to cycle through these loops in real time. Let’s settle upon 092 Duck Town-BD+SD.wav, an urban kick and snare pattern.

Let’s fit in a bassline. Turn on our Bass section and open up 133-B-CordialBass1.wav. The bottom three melodic tracks don’t feature a fine pitch slider, but instead have three buttons so we can transpose our musical parts by octave. Here we’ll hit the -1 octave button to give us a lower, weighty sub under our beats. We can now turn Phrase 01 and 02 back on to add our synth elements back in.

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Defcon gives you six channels of clubready elements that can be mixed and matched in a construction kit-style format. Later, we’ll show you how in-depth the instrument can go, but first we’ll take you through its basic functionality. Draw a new four-bar MIDI region on our track, loop it up, then fill it with a long four-bar G1 note. Hear how the notes C1 to B1 play back the musical elements at different pitches.

Now hit its S button again to unsolo the track, then turn off all of our other elements (except the Hi-hat track) using their On/Off buttons. For the hi-hat, we go for 128-E-Blond Maniac-HH.wav. We can use the sliders in the track’s centre to mix and tweak our hi-hat loop’s characteristics. Turn Volume up to roughly 0.75, Pan to around -0.30, then bring Tune up to approximately 3 semitones.

Finally, hit FX in the top-right, then hit the add FX tab. We’ll select the 09 Dynamics » 03 - Studio Limiter » Soft Limiter effect, then bring the Threshold back to -5.50dB for more controlled dynamics. We’ve shown you how to create a simple arrangement using Defcon’s factory content. Ready to go deeper? Check out our track and second video on the next page.


> download / uvi defcon

Building a track with UVI Defcon We’ve seen how easy it is to get a composition up and running in no time using Defcon’s intuitive multipart interface and streamlined approach to composition. However, the more seasoned electronic musician would also be wise to investigate Defcon in more detail, as the instrument contains some truly professionalgrade onboard sounds and features, making it far more than just a ‘preset machine’. We’ve put Defcon through its paces so you can see (and hear) what it’s truly capable of. Our challenge was simple: create a professional dance track solely using sounds sourced from Defcon’s onboard factory content, and only process these sounds with Plugins.

Using Ableton Live 9 as our host, we decided to tackle the track’s creation in two stages. Firstly, we built up our initial loops and ideas in a ‘sketchpad’ project. Instead of using the onboard sounds and riffs directly out of the instrument, we programmed our own MIDI parts and layered up multiple instances of Defcon to create a custom stab hook and gritty bass part. After crafting accompanying melodic riffs, FX and beats, we exported all of our elements out as audio files to sequence in a second ‘arrangement’ project. Here we used Live’s audio processing and some creative application of Plugins to piece together a DJ-friendly composition – pictured below.

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Log in to vault.computermusic.co.uk or fire up this month’s cover DVD, and in the Tutorial Files folder you’ll find two Ableton Live 9 projects. One is the initial sketchpad project, and the other is our full arrangement. If you don’t own Live, head over to ableton.com and you can install a demo that will load our projects. As we’ve only used Plugins throughout both projects (also bundled free with this magazine), you’ll be able to explore these two projects for yourself. If that’s not enough, check out the video tutorial in the Tutorial Videos folder – here we dissect our workflow and production techniques just for you. You can also grab the finished track itself: Defcon Track - Master.wav.

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muted sidechain trigger A duplicate copy of our kick runs throughout our track, used purely to trigger sidechain compression over other elements, ducking them even when the kick isn’t playing.

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parallel drum processing Our drums have been grouped, and we’ve sent the group’s signal to a heavily saturated return track for extra weight.

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Adding fX We created some FX in Defcon, added reverb and processing in UVI Workstation, chopped up the audio, pitched and reversed it to create a rising build-up sweep.

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building up to the drop In the intro, Vengeance’s Philta CM filters our lead stab riff. We slowly open its Lowpass dial throughout this intro breakdown to increase anticipation towards the main drop.

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long and short stabs When our track kicks in, we layer an

old-school piano over our stabs to thicken the riff. We switch between long and short notes to create contrast between 16-bar sections.

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bass hook A weighty bass sits under our riff, filling out the track’s sub and mid regions. We use the same riff on another channel to highpass the bass and create tension.

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breaking it down For the main breakdown, we introduce our custom breakbeat loop for the first time to switch up the arrangement. We chop this up and create a snare roll build-up.

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reintroducing elements When our breakbeat drops in, we bring back our bass and piano hook – this time with extra stuttering notes. This provides welcome variation to our main theme

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filtering the master We’ve subtly placed a high-pass filter over our master channel to remove bass from


the track before drop sections. This makes us anticipate the bass’s return.

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lead effects Eurydice CM adds interest to our lead’s group channel at certain edit points. We activate/deactivate the effect with automation.

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spicing up the ride For subtle interest, we move our onbeat ride to the offbeat in certain eight-bar sections. Altering existing parts can sometimes be more effective than introducing new ones!

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turn off the pump Until now, core elements have been sidechained against a duplicate kick for a bouncing house feel. For variation, we simply remove the kick (and sidechain).

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come to a halt To create a turntable-style finish, we automate Live’s Clip Transpose over the breakbeat for a pitching-down effect. We also timestretch our snare to end.

> download / samples

Samples

Motor City Buckle up and get in gear for an exclusive collection of over 900 drivin’ loops, hits, kits, car sounds and plenty more under the hood The closest we get to a joyride in the offices is the white-knuckle trip down a questionable lift shaft and the daily bumper-tobumper commute to the coffee machine. Dreaming of the open road, this month we’ve commissioned a tankful of high-octane sounds to inject N2O into any production. The outcome is this collection of motor-mad musical loops, FX, foley, multisamples and drum kits. Grooving guitar loops, rocking bass hooks and all manner of driving-inspired melodic phrases can be combined with screeches, engine roars and automobile noises aplenty. So, if the only wheel you get your hands on is attached to a MIDI controller, if your idea of “a nice little two-door” is achieved using ReWire; and if the only time you get involved in a crash is when your computer fails you, allow us to welcome you to Motor City.

Oli, stroking his shiny walnut dashboard. “For the crash samples, we made a variety of humble sounds by dropping bags of glass, rolling biscuit tins and so on, and layered them in our DAW just like a conventional tune,” he says, keeping his eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel (anything else would be irresponsible). “Other samples like heavy kick drums and similar were also used to emphasise the crash impact. We’ve included some of the basic foley sounds as well as the end results.” Swap insurance details with Oli over Twitter: @GrooveCriminals.

download Get these exclusive samples and loads more at vault.computermusic.co.uk

938 EXCLUSIVE SAMPLES 249 beat loops 111 bass loops 47 synth loops 72 pads 36 guitar loops 42 foley crash sounds 154 sound FX 4 full drum kits (78 hits) 6 SFZ multisamples (149 samples)

PLUS!

1900 bonus

Cyclick

HIP-HOP samples

Robbie Stamp calls us from the Bromley Heath roundabout on the A4174, where he often goes to seek inspiration for sample packs. “This month’s loops range from rock to R&B through Krautrock and DnB. The tempos (95, 108, 120, 128, 140 and 170bpm) should find their way into most genres, and the keys have been restricted to A, C and E for compatibility,” he says over the purr of thrumming engine noise. “The beats were made with four kits: two acoustic and two electronic. The hits used have been included, and the acoustic hits are numbered to indicate velocity-layered hits. There are also parallel FX loops to mix in with the dry ones – filter sweeps, massive overcompression, overmodulation, etc.” Robbie pulls over to refuel. “The acoustic basses were DI’d through the Little Labs Redeye into an ISA828 preamp and sent to AmpliTube. The electric guitars were recorded in the same way with a selection of amp models and pedals.” Challenge Robbie to a drag race on Twitter: @CyclickBob.

Groove Criminals

Oli Bell of turbo-charged sample label Groove Criminals took us out for a spin to explain the finer points of this month’s pack. “The majority of the FX and foley were recorded out and about using our Yamaha portable SD recorder and an external stereo mic. The more ‘Hollywood’ sounds are heavily processed versions of the original car sounds – compressed, pitchshifted, EQed, etc. We also included some cheesier FX created with our stack of analogue synths,” says


Having problems? If you experience any problems using your DVD, you should first visit our support page at www.futureplc.com/disc-support, where most common problems and solutions are listed. Alternatively, you can email [email protected], making sure to include the magazine name and issue number, along with a description of the fault, or else telephone our disc support team on (+44) (0) 1225 822 743.

> download /

plugins

plugINS

INSTRUMENTS

Our exclusive collection of instruments and effects is included with every issue of Computer Music – it’s all you need to make great music now! The Plugins collection is a suite of complete, limitation-free instrument and effects plugins. It’s an incredible resource, boasting 35+ pro-quality plugins that you won’t find anywhere else, all for PC and Mac, in VST and AU formats. All of the included software is created exclusively for us by respected commercial developers such as LinPlug, Sugar Bytes, Ohm Force, KV331 Audio, u-he, Vengeance-Sound, Rob Papen and Synapse Audio.

FEATURED PLUGIN

AudioRealism ADM CM

Camel Audio Alchemy Player CM

An old-schoolstyle drum machine with step sequencer, ADM CM offers an emulation of Roland’s legendary TR-606 drum machine and banks of custom CM samples covering a variety of genres. It’s an essential source of beats for all styles of electronic music! Check out the full ADM if you want more – it also includes TR-808 and TR-909 sounds! www.audiorealism.se

Based on the amazing synth/sampler Alchemy, the cutdown Alchemy Player CM is a powerful beast in its own right – it gives you a vast sonic palette, from drum kits and basses to lush pads, huge soundscapes and more. It has 200 awesome patches from the full version, and another 50 can be had by registering on Camel Audio’s site. Many of our sample collections also include compatible patches in SFZ format. www.camelaudio.com

BigTick RhinoCM

Expert Sleepers XFadeLooperCM

KV331 Audio SynthMaster CM

KV331 Audio based this monster synth on their astounding SynthMaster 2.5, which MusicRadar users have deemed the ‘third best VST plugin synth in the world today’. SynthMaster CM uses the exact same under-the-hood technology, featuring dual wavescanning oscillators, a multimode filter, customisable waveshaping distortion, FM/AM synthesis modes, powerful modulation sources, a modulation matrix and built-in effects. www.kv331audio.com


Stampede your tunes with this fabulous featurepacked FM synth! It’s capable of everything from chunky bass tones to lush electric piano patches and complex ambient textures. Key features include large, flexible envelopes, a mod matrix, macro controls and built-in effects. If that’s not enough for you, check out the full Rhino at Big Tick’s site. www.bigtickaudio.com

Breathe life into your samples with this creative crossfade-looping sampler that can turn tiny tones into smooth, long-lasting timbres! Based on the commercial Crossfade Loop Synth, its other key features include the novel hard sync mode that’s sure to delight sound designers, blendable multimode filter, creative modulation options, saturation and flexible looping. www.expert-sleepers.co.uk

Madrona Labs Aalto CM

LinPlug AlphaCM

This stupendous monosynth sports an unusual oscillator with FM capabilities, a weird and wonderful waveguide delay section, filter, gate, intuitively patchable modulation, on-board reverb, step sequencing, and most importantly, a fabulous analogue sound. Aalto CM and its funky features demand your attention. www.madronalabs.com

A Plugins veteran, this subtractive synth from legendary developers LinPlug has been with us for many years now but is still able to hold its own. Key features include dual oscillators, each with two blendable waveforms; a modulation matrix; slick chorus effect; tons of carefully designed patches; and glide with polyphonic operation. Its big brother is LinPlug’s commercial Alpha synth. www.linplug.com

plugins / download <

download Get these instruments on your PC or Mac right now at vault.computermusic.co.uk

Loomer Cumulus

XILS-lab PolyKB II CM

LinPlug CM-505

Cableguys Curve 2 CM

If a lack of inspiration has got your head stuck in the clouds, Cumulus will bring you back to Earth! Its granular sampler functionality enables you to break samples into tiny components called grains and then reconstruct them to form new and interesting sounds, while the Scenes function transforms Cumulus into an awesome beat slicer and sequencer. www.loomer.co.uk

XILS-lab made a real name for themselves with their beautiful emulations of classic analogue synths, and PolyKB II is one of their finest efforts, resurrecting the sound of the ultra-rare PolyKobol synthesiser. PolyKB II CM is a ready-to-play variant that gives you a massive bank of mix-ready sounds with assignable knobs for the main parameters. For gorgeous analogue tones in a hurry, look no further. www.xils-lab.com

Analogue drum synthesis is made easy with this brilliant beatbox from LinPlug, proving that you don’t need a PhD in synthesis or an insane modular synth setup to get slick-sounding synthetic rhythms. With 12 different sounds at your disposal, and built-in distortion and bitcrushing to add character, CM-505 is perfect whenever you need electro flare, or for mixing with more conventional drums. www.linplug.com

V2 of Cableguys’ already-amazing design-your-own waveforms synth sees the addition of plenty of new features. Oscillator 1 can now mix two waveforms, while oscillator 2 has its own discrete waveform. There’s now a phat 16-voice Unison mode, four Macro knobs, and improved envelopes. And the new colour scheme looks better than ever! www.cableguys.de

Synapse Audio Dune CM

Rob Papen RG-Muted CM

Synapse Audio Plucked String

u-he ZebraCM

Set sail for new sound design horizons with this very special edition of Synapse Audio’s awesome hybrid synth! It offers virtual analogue and wavetable oscillators, per-voice modulation, a 12-slot mod matrix, tons of presets, and best of all, an unbelievable sound! The full commercial Dune also features built-in effects, twice as many modulation slots, and even more presets. www.synapse-audio.com

This amazing instrument comes from the virtual instrument king himself: Rob Papen! With it, you can create realistic funky guitar grooves via the onboard sequencer, and there are tons of effects and modulation options too. It’s based on Papen’s RG rhythm guitar plugin, and comes with pretty much all the same features, but only the muted guitar sounds. www.robpapen.com

This is a specialised instrument for creating plucked string sounds entirely using synthesis – no samples here! Features include a stereo mode that mimics guitar double-tracking by playing dual detuned voices, a threevoice mode for extra phatness, and five selectable modes: Noise, String, Gourmet, Nylon and Acoustic. It’s plucking brilliant! www.synapse-audio.com

Perhaps the most popular plugin we’ve ever given away, this is a completely original instrument created for us by the DSP geniuses at u-he. It’s based on elements from u-he’s uber-synth Zebra, but is a much easier beast to tame. With its superprogrammable step LFOs, swish on-board effects and superb sound quality, you won’t want to be without this one in your plugins folder. www.u-he.com

frequently asked questions What is Plugins? Is it just freeware? No, and neither are the plugins limited or ‘crippled’. It’s a set of virtual instruments and effects created by some of the best developers in the business just for us – you won’t find this set of plugins anywhere else!

Where do I get Plugins? As a download from our Vault (see p5) or on the DVD with the print edition. How do I install Plugins? Find installation instructions for each plugin in the How To Install file in the CM Plugins folder

What do I need to use Plugins? A PC or Mac and a music program (aka DAW) to host them (ie, ‘plug in’ to). You need a DAW that can host VST or AU plugins, such as Ableton Live, Garageband (Mac), Reaper, FL Studio (PC), Cubase, Logic (Mac) or Sonar (PC).

Which of the plugins are 64-bit? Around half of them have 64-bit versions. For those that don’t, try a 32-bit bridge (eg, jBridge, or the one in your DAW). See our full format list at bit.ly/cmplugins. Still got questions? See the full FAQ at bit.ly/cmpluginsfaq


> download /

plugins

plugINS Blue Cat Audio FreqAnalyst CM

EFFECTS DDMF CM EQ Pack

Kuassa Amplifikation CM

KR-Reverb CM is based on KResearch’s existing KR-Reverb but improves on it with a handy pre-delay and a damping control that provides the user with previously unachievable levels of control over the effect’s tonality. Thankfully light on CPU usage, it’s a must for anyone looking for an easy-touse yet flexible reverb effect, and it can handle everything from tiny rooms to epic plates. www.kresearch.com

The DDMF CM EQ pack includes a pair of superb equaliser plugins. IIEQ Pro CM is a 6-band EQ with a choice of 19 filter types including Butterworth filters, and series or parallel routing. LP10 CM is a mastering EQ with the ability to smoothly adjust the phase response, up to and including linear phase. Both are based on DDMF’s commercial EQ plugins. www.ddmf.eu

From down ’n’ dirty distortion to clean, folk-friendly tones, this guitar amp plugin boasts authentic sounds that you can make your own. It comes courtesy of amp-emulation wizards Kuassa, and it offers two cabs, two mics and two channels. Of the latter, Clean is chimey and warm, making it ideal for country, soul, funk, classic rock or blues, while Lead delivers rich and fluid rock overdrive. www.kuassa.com

SKnote Snap

Photosounder Spiral CM

KResearch KR-Delay CM Edition

LiquidSonics Reverberate CM

From the DSP masters at SKnote, Snap’s Hit and Body controls work like the Attack and Sustain in a transient shaper plugin, but instead of adjusting signal level, they apply EQ using two intelligently linked filters. Add subtle brightness to the crack of a snare or hi-hat, tame a drum group’s sharp snap, or soften a piano’s sustain without blunting its attack. www.sknote.it

What’s in a note? A chord? Now you can find out just what your sounds are made of with this superb visualisation plugin. Spiral CM places the 12 notes around its circular display, giving you a window into your sound’s harmonic content. As well as using it to choose chords and notes, try using Spiral CM’s display to deconstruct and replicate an existing chord or synth patch. www.photosounder.com

KR-Delay CM is a totally original effect created for us by the audio boffins at KResearch. It’s a powerful stereo delay with a comprehensive array of options, including linkable delay lines, a ping-pong setting, clear visual feedback, multimode filters and syncable delay/pre-delay times. Like its sister plugin KR-Reverb, it’s a highly CPU-efficient beast, making it a great go-to plugin for all of your feedback delay needs. www.kresearch.com

Manipulate your sonic space and set your tracks apart with this top-notch convolution reverb! It’s based on the excellent commercial Reverberate plugin, and it comes with a selection of beautiful, high-fidelity presets. The included impulse responses offer all manner of room, hall and cathedral reverbs, and there are some far-out experimental sounds to be had too. www.liquidsonics.com

eaReckon CM-COMP 87

MeldaProduction MHarmonizer CM

Sugar Bytes Artillery2 CM Edition

ToneBoosters Barricade CM

Conjure up lush harmonies from just one part with our exclusive harmoniser plug-in, based on MeldaProdution’s mental MMultiBandHarmonizer! For the uninitiated, a harmoniser lets you create harmonies artificially from a monophonic vocal or instrumental line. It can, of course, also be used on other material to interesting effect, so don’t hold back from experimenting. www.meldaproduction.com

This is a special version of Sugar Bytes’ powerful Artillery2 effects sequencer that includes six of the best effects from the parent version’s arsenal of 28. Effects include amplitude modulation, an 8-stage phaser, resonant filter delay, low-pass filter, a Beat Repeat-style effect, and more. The real headline feature is that all these effects can be triggered from MIDI keys! www.sugar-bytes.de

Get a grip on the frequency spectrum with this pro-quality, feature-packed spectral analyser, based on Blue Cat’s full FreqAnalyst. With a wide range of parameters for adjusting the way the frequency graph responds, you can easily create a custom view that works for you, then save it for later recall. You can even save curves for comparison, and undo/ redo any adjustments you make. www.bluecataudio.com

This slicksounding compressor plugin joins its equalisin’ stablemate CM-EQUA 87 in the Plugins barn. As well as having a superbly punchy compression characteristic and the controls you’d expect from any compressor, CM-COMP 87 has a Dry/Wet control that makes parallel compression a doddle, and a handy Limiter switch to keep the level of the output signal from exceeding 0dB. www.eareckon.com

KResearch KR-Reverb CM Edition


Since this intelligent, mastering-grade limiter debuted in 199, we’ve been using it constantly on individual tracks, busses and full mixes. Barricade contains not one but two impressively transparent limiting stages, dynamic response controls, stereo options and hugely versatile metering. This could push your tracks into another league. www.toneboosters.com

plugins / download <

Ohm Force Ohmygod!

eaReackon CM-EQUA87

Subsonics Labs Wolfram CM

A stalwart plugin, this one has been with us seemingly forever, but being from such a highly regarded developer as Ohm Force, it’s easily a match for modern plugins – that’s if you can find one that offers anything remotely like Ohmygod!’s insane mash-up of a resonant comb filter, distortion unit, LFO, and yet more filtering. And things get really freaky when you start feeding it MIDI… www.ohmforce.com

A great equaliser is an essential part of any producer’s arsenal, and this one makes it easy to dial in a great sound, time after time. It offers a lowcut filter, three bands of bell-shaped EQ with switchable high/low shelves, a spectral analyser (so you can see what effect your EQ is having), built-in EQ tips to help you shape sounds, an output limiter, and more. It’s based on eaReckon’s sweet PR-EQUA 87. www.eareckon.com

A shiny and easy-touse multieffects monster from Swedish newcomers Subsonic Labs, Wolfram CM provides you with pitchshifting, distortion, phase-shifting, panning, delay and filter effects, all backed up with flexible modulation routing capabilities to bring your sounds shimmering to life.To find out more about Wolfram, visit Subsonic Labs’ website. www.subsoniclabs.com

Vengeance Sound Philta CM

Hornet Fat-FET

Sonimus Satson CM

Based on Vengeance Sound’s awesome Philta XL, Philta CM has the same slick highand low-pass filters, complete with four different slopes and width and resonance controls, plus a handy link function and the ability to swap between band-pass and notch modes. Philta CM will delight you with its flexibility and ease of use, whether you use it as a mixing tool or for wild FX. www.vengeance-sound.com

Offering VCA, FET and optical compression emulations, this phat, analogue-modeled compressor is based on the classic UREI (aka Universal Audio) 1176LN Peak Limiter hardware compressor/limiter. Like the original, it’s capable of ultra-fast attack times as low as 0.02 miliseconds, but unlike the real thing, its ratio and threshold controls are fully flexible. A wonderful modern take on a brilliant piece of vintage kit. www.hor-net.com

A seemingly innocuous plugin that offers nothing more than gentle saturation and low-/high-pass filtering, Satson CM is a true secret weapon for anyone who wants to get the best mixes possible. Based on Sonimus’ full Satson package (which also emulates a mixing buss), it emulates the subtle warming and gentle filter slopes of a classic hardware mixing console – slap it on every track in your mix and dial in that sweet analogue sound! dsp.sonimus.com

Inear Display Eurydice CM

Cableguys Waveshaper CM

Kuassa PreMix CM

Send your audio signals on a musical odyssey with Eurydice CM’s buffering, delaying, bitcrushing and generally bonkers sound-mangling capabilities. The plugin’s mixing modules let you blend signals in custom combinations, and three LFOs add modulation to bring movement to almost any of its parameters. www.ineardisplay.com

This downand-dirty waveshaper plugin uses a graphical editor to add a non-linear distortion effect to an audio signal. Tease out a timid fuzz from a gentle curve or eke out grittier harmonics by drawing in something spikier. With input and output waveforms superimposable via the oscilloscope, you can see exactly how your artistic expressions influence what WaveShaper CM does to the sound. www.cableguys.de

Made especially by Indonesian plugin hounds Kuassa for Computer Music, this simple but effective preamp plugin can give every mix channel some grit and character right from the off. Crank up the Gain control to drive the signal and introduce anything from subtle distortion to screaming overdrive. Then refine the tone with the smooth low, mid and high EQ controls and adjust the output for mix-ready results. www.kuassa.com

download Get all of these effects on your PC or Mac right now at vault.computermusic.co.uk


> reader emails

Send us your letters and technical queries! Email us at [email protected]

Message of the month After DJing many years ago, I recently decided to resurrect my passion and bought a copy of Ableton Live with the intention of producing the sort of tunes I would love to hear played out live. After two years of intense learning (a far steeper curve than I imagined), a subscription to Computer Music and the fantastic tutorials provided, I feel I am in a position to start ‘getting my tracks out there’. However I’ve found that the focus of is more on the creation of music, and there seems to be little help when it comes to publicising finished projects. Is there a possibility of a feature suggesting how a lonely bedroom producer might get his ideas heard? I’m sure many readers pin their hopes on being signed to

a record label ready for world domination but for me, any help in getting more than ten plays on SoundCloud would be appreciated! Alex Dee ’s focus is indeed very much on making music, but as you point out, many of us have ambitions that go beyond just producing tracks for our own amusement. We do cover such relevant topics periodically – for instance, 187’s Cashback feature outlined how to go about making some dosh out of your tunes. As for a guide to releasing them, you’re in luck: we have an article on this very subject lined up for next issue. Do let us know when your first track is out! LdC

Dynamic rage

Do the meters on your mastering plugins look like this? They shouldn’t! Back ’em off and let your tunes breathe

The

poll

Hello guys! First and foremost, I love the magazine. The content is absolutely amazing, and I love the fact that I can download it all on my iPad since I’m a tree hugger at heart. Anywho, I’m currently running Ableton Live 9 on my Mac and I am very familiar with the program. The issue I seem to be having is that when I solo a channel, the volume of that particular channel is much louder than when it is in the mix playing. Weird. Also, if I allow single elements to play in the arrangement to give my track some space and a pause here and there, the singular elements (vocal, synth, etc) are much louder.

A: 35%

We asked our Facebook fans: Which would you buy first if Roland reissued the TB-303, TR-808 and TR-909?

A TB-303 Bassline B TR-808 Rhythm Composer C TR-909 Rhythm Composer D None of the above! 20 / Computer Music / March 2014

B: 17%

www.fabfilter.com

I have sidechain compression on a few synths and basslines but even the channels that are not sidechained have this issue. I’m running a Saturator and a Limiter on my master channel. Help me out please! Mr Notorious This is almost certainly caused by using way too much limiting/compression on your master buss. This has the effect of heavily reducing the gain (ie, volume) when the whole mix is playing, but when only single sounds are playing, the compressor/limiter isn’t hit nearly as hard, so the volume level comes back up. So in short, ease off the compression! LdC

Don Zamorra

Stijn Kuipers

“A. 303 because I lost mine and I have a 909 and an 808.”

“D. Roland has a terrible knack of not really understanding why these devices got successful in the first place – see what happened with all the Grooveboxes, etc.”

Chris Ristevski

C: 26% D: 22%

The writer of our Message of the Month will receive FabFilter’s fabulous Creative Bundle suite of plugins for Mac and PC, worth £279!

“A. TB-303, but they have to be exactly the same as the originals with added MIDI, otherwise there’ll be a lot of people let down.”

Trefor Ward “D. Propellerhead Reason has enough rack devices to emulate most of this.”

Alex Picciafuochi “B. TR-808 – unbeatable swing and soul.”

Dave Nicholson “C. 909, as long as it’s analogue”

issue 201 march 2014 Future Publishing Ltd. 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, BA1 2BW Tel: 01225 442244 Fax: 01225 732275 Email: [email protected] Web: www.computermusic.co.uk

Reader reviews

EDITORIAL Editor: Lee du-Caine, [email protected] Art Editor: Mark White, [email protected] Features Editor: Joe Rossitter, [email protected] Production Editor: James Russell, [email protected] CONTRIBUTORS Alex Williams, Ben Rogerson, Dave Clews, Danny Scott, David Newman, Jon Musgrave, Ronan Macdonald, Scot Solida, Caity Foster, Tim Cant, Reuben Cornell, Tim Oliver, Owen Palmer, Ehsan Ziya Illustration: Jake Photography: iStockphoto, Getty Images

We asked our Facebook fans to rate…

Group Senior Editor: Julie Taylor Senior Art Editor: Rodney Dive Creative Director: Robin Abbott Editorial Director: Jim Douglas

steinberg cubase Sky London – 9/10 “Good, but now well overpriced against Logic, and the update charges all the time ain’t helping. Plus the dongle is really inconvenient – can’t we have a Service Center like NI? Still love it.” Eric Poore – 9/10 “Divine. Everyone complaining hasn’t used version 7.5. Would be 10/10 if sidechaining wasn’t still a long process.” David Lilja – 2/10 “Same feature set as in Cubase 5, but with a polished GUI.” Terry Marsden – 10/10 “As a Steinberg user for 22 years, Cubase 7.5 has matured into the DAW that gets my creative juices working.” Brian Naas – 9/10 “Steinberg’s commitment to development is unmatched.”

ADVERTISING Ad Director: Clare Coleman-Straw, [email protected] Ad Sales Manager: Lara Jaggon, [email protected] Senior Sales Executive: Leon Stephens, [email protected]

Sarah Bellum – 9/10 “Cubase makes using other DAWs feel like a handicap and very disappointing!” Aleksashka Zilkov – 10/10 “Very good DAW which gets irreplaceable once you really get into it’s features. And 7.5 update is totally 10/10 – I’d gladly pay 50 bucks monthly for such additions.” Bill Kastanakis – 1/10 “Sucks. Paid updates every six months.” Ed Benwell – 9/10 “Work in five hours… Must go to bed… Can’t put Cubase 7 down.” Chris Marsh – 10/10 “Continues to impress and please.” Tom Tripp – 6/10 “I’d give it a 6 purely based on the actual difficulty of learning the product.”

Our rating: 9/10,

Ben De Graaf – 8.5/10 “It’s pretty simple: you are either a Cubase- or a Logic/Live-minded person it seems these days. I love Cubase 7.5, although there is always room for improvement. Yes it is complex for new users, but producing music is getting more complex. Evolution.” Colin Wright – 10/10 “I’ve been using it since it was a fun little prog on the Atari computer and was called Steinberg Pro 24. For a pro engineer, I find it eminently intuitive and I love what it’s become.”

MARKETING Group Marketing Manager: Lyndsey Mayhew, [email protected] Marketing Executive: Sarah Jackson, [email protected] CIRCULATION Trade Marketing Manager: Matt Cooper, [email protected] PRINT & PRODUCTION Production Controller: Frances Twentyman, [email protected] Production Manager: Mark Constance, [email protected] LICENSING Head of International Licensing: Regina Erak, [email protected] Tel: + 44 (0)1225 732359 If you would like to purchase the images featured in this publication, please visit www.futuremediastore.com or email [email protected] FUTURE PUBLISHING LIMITED Head of Music: Rob Last, [email protected] MD Sport, Auto & Music: Andy Rice, [email protected] UK Chief Executive: Mark Wood SUBSCRIPTIONS Phone our UK hotline on: 0844 848 2852 Overseas: (+44) (0) 1604 251 045 Subscribe online at: www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk NEXT ISSUE ON SALE: 26 February Printed in the UK by William Gibbons on behalf of Future. Distributed in the UK by Seymour Distribution Ltd, 2 East Poultry Avenue, London, EC1A 9PT. Tel: 0207 429 4000

Average score from 38 reviews…

8.1

out of 10 201

Selector We’ve been listening to

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KC and the Sunshine Band, Miike Snow, Ivy Lab, J Dilla, Wu-Tang Clan, Bill Frisell, The Kills, Voyager, Ne-Yo, Menta, Pitman, Dvorak, Secret Machines, 1349, Jason Becker, Chaos A.D., Dr Mastermind

Coil, Toto, Gary Numan, Einstürzende Neubauten, Eric Prydz, Kraftwerk, Death, Phonat, Martin Garrix, Steve Vai, Machine Head, Boards of Canada, Korn, Gungor, Avicii, Skrillex, Vivaldi, Crookers

Get involved at www.facebook.com/computer.music.mag

Print 11,379 Digital 2,923 The ABC combined print, digital and digital publication circulation for Jan—Dec 2012 is

14,302

A member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations

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> news

New releases • comment • industry happenings

Universal Audio Apollo Twin The emulation kings announce two smaller audio interfaces, each with a shot of DSP With Universal Audio’s painfully desirable UAD-equipped range of Apollo audio interfaces currently starting at over £1500, the launch of a (much) cheaper version is something many desktop producers have been awaiting with bated wallets. Well, it’s finally here in the shape of the Apollo Twin! Two models are available, both connecting to the host Mac via Thunderbolt (it seems a PC version is not on the cards, at least not initially) and differing only in the amount of DSP inside for powering UAD plugins: Apollo Twin Solo and Apollo Twin Duo, the suffix referring to the number of SHARC DSP processors onboard. I/O comprises two mic inputs (featuring UA’s new tube/transformer-modeling Unison preamps, “built on an integration between Apollo’s mic preamps and its onboard UAD plug-in processing”), two line outs, an instrument input, a headphone output

Waves Scheps 73 and WLM Plus Loudness Meter Waves’ relentless release schedule continues apace with two new mixing/

and eight channels of optical input. The headline feature, though, is those SHARC DSPs, which enable you to run the full range of UAD Powered plugins. To get you started, a range of “Realtime Analog Classics” comes bundled, comprising emulations of various legendary units. Due for release in February, Apollo Twin Solo will set you back £729, while Duo ups the tag to £929. We’ll review it as and when.

www.uaudio.com

mastering plugins for Mac and PC. Scheps 73 is a three-band EQ designed in partnership with engineer Andrew Scheps (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jay-Z, etc) and based on an emulation of the Neve 1073 console EQ. Scheps’ involvement was in tweaking the overtones of the harmonic distortion for “beautiful and authentic saturations”. Crucially, the plugin also throws in the 10kHz midrange band from the rare 1078 channel strip, as well as Waves’ mid/side matrix. It’s out now, priced $149, and we’ll be reviewing it soon. WLM Plus Loudness Meter, meanwhile, is compliant with “all current ITU, EBU and ATSC specifications” and features every form of loudness metering you could ever need, plus a True Peak Limiter. Waves boldly describe it as “affordable”, although at $400, we’ll let you be the judge…

We’re looking forward to this sleek unit gracing our test bench

you’ve set your input level) via a single knob that sets the compression amount and make-up gain. Beyond that, the Punch button adds definition to transients, while the Dirt button “pours on an extra layer of saturation for tracks that burn with overdrive urgency”. Native Instruments cite Supercharger’s versatility, describing it as “the perfect all-round tool for anything from warming up a vocal to crushing your drums completely”. With a sidechain input onboard and a Wet/ Dry mix control enabling parallel compression, all the essentials seem to be in place, but we’ll bring you our official opinion in the forthcoming review. You can buy Supercharger this very day, for a joyously reasonable £44.

www.native-instruments.com

www.waves.com

Native Instruments Supercharger Waves give us their take on the classic Neve 1073 EQ circuitry


NI’s latest effects plugin is “inspired by a one-of-a-kind boutique tube compressor” and works the majority of its magic (once

NI’s Supercharger is a straightforward, diminutive compressor with a suitably diddy pricetag

news <

App watch Image-Line have released IL Remote, a free iOS/Android MIDI controller app for FL Studio 11 and Deckadance 2. IL Remote includes eight preset configurations to give control over various aspects of the software. Piano, for example, is a MIDI keyboard; Mix is an array of mixer controls; and Slicex controls FL Studio’s loop-slicing device. You can build custom controllers in the app’s Edit mode, which looks splendidly easy to use. It’s free, so there’s no reason not to give it a try on your iOS/Android phone or tablet. www.image-line.com

VST Plugins go modular (along with some of the developer’s additions) in Rack Performer

Abeem Rack Performer

A modular VST effect and instrument host for PC, Rack Performer aims to give live performers everything they need to create simple or elaborate signal generating and processing setups in an intuitive full-screen interface. Routing plugins is done via virtual cables, and they can be presented in a range of custom GUI Wrappers in order to limit the controls visible onscreen. Scene snapshots and cue monitoring are also supported, and it’s available now for €139.

www.abeem.eu

Sound Radix 32 Lives

delivers everything you need to make your tracks louder, harder, bigger and better! We show you how to prep your track for the mastering stage, introduce you to the science of compression and limiting, and, of course, garner expert advice from the pros. And don’t miss the example-laden disc with the mag or for download with the digital edition. Special 64: Mastering is available now in shops and at the URL below, via Apple Newsstand, Google Play, Zinio, Kindle Fire and Nook.

www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk

With Apple making the move to 64-bit plugins only in Logic Pro X, and numerous effects and instruments still only available in 32-bit versions, 32 Lives will be a godsend for many producers. Quite simply, it generates 64-bit “adapter” versions of all your 32-bit Audio Units plugins. It’s available now for the princely sum of $99.

Soundware news

www.soundradix.com

Special: Mastering

Mastering marks the final “full stop” to your music making, and the latest Special

Read more about the Renoise 3 beta on page 23

Renoise 3 and Redux

Version 3 of Renoise, the much loved ‘power tracker’, is in beta at the time of writing and may even be out by the time you read this. A radical overhaul, v3 introduces a ton of new features, such as a self-contained instrument editor, per-instrument note sequencers, new real-time performance functions and much more. Perhaps equally exciting is the news that it will soon be joined by a plugin, Redux, that brings much of Renoise’s samplemanipulating functionality to any DAW. We’ll be reviewing both as soon as we can.

www.renoise.com

Positive Grid BT-4

Get the knowledge necessary to give your tracks Special the polish they deserve with the latest

The brainchild of Waldorf developer Wolfram Franke, Stroke Machine comes with a real pedigree. “A professional drum and groove synthesizer and sequencer”, this high-spec iPad instrument combines synthesis and sampling in a performance-focussed GUI. 12 drum and percussion sounds and 12 melodic parts can be sequenced at once, and plenty of modulation and effects are on-hand. Stroke Machine is out now, priced £14. www.frankemusic.com

A Bluetooth MIDI foot controller for iOS and Mac, the BT-4 boasts four assignable footswitches for wirelessly transmitting bank and program change messages and MIDI CCs, plus 1/4" guitar input and line output jacks, a headphone output and an expression pedal input. It’s coming in Spring for $99.

www.positivegrid.com

Requiring little by way of explanation, Sub Bass Tools gives you 101 sub bass loops with which to underpin your b-lines. It’s out now for £10 www.samplemagic.com Bastardized Hip Hop & Techno sees producer Ghostek bringing together the two said genres in over 600 loops and one-shots. It can be yours for £35. www.samplephonics.com Industrial Strength’s Dread – Drum ’n’ Bass Vol 2 comprises 694MB of tear-up drums, basses, pads and more from the eponymous producer. Get it now for £17. www.loopmasters.com With 400 loops in the clip, Modern Guitar Tools is a collection of riffs and licks from both electric and acoustic guitars. Ranging in style from “funk and dance” to “experimental and percussion”, it’s £28. www.wavealchemy.com March 2014 / Computer Music / 23

> news

Get with the programmers We talk future tech with the founder of the forwardthinking company behind a raft of clever mixing tools How did you get into programming plugins? How did ToneBoosters form? JB “I have always been fascinated by sound, signal processing and human perception, both from a scientific as well as a creative perspective, and I really like to build stuff. The development of audio processing plugins is therefore a lot of fun. ToneBoosters represents a personal spare-time activity, with occasional help from others.”

IK Multimedia iRing

Gesture control on Mac and PC is nothing new, but with iRing, IK look like being first to market with an iOS equivalent. The iRing itself is nothing more than a double-sided plastic “ring” held between two fingers, with three dots on each side. This is waved about in front of your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch camera in three-dimensional space and the resulting movements analysed by the free iRing FX/Control app, which features 16 “high quality creative effects” and is AudioBus and Inter-App Audio compatible. You also get the free iRing Music Maker app, for triggering loops, and IK’s other apps (AmpliTube, etc) have been updated to work with the iRing, too. It costs €20, and we’ll be reviewing it as soon as we can get our fingers on it.

www.ikmultimedia.com

Inear Display Rmpx4

Your plugins are mostly “core” mixing tools like EQ, compression, etc. Were you not satisfied with existing mixing effects? JB “Some indeed result from dissatisfaction with existing plugins, a desire to better understand how a certain process works, or ideas I may have to improve a plugin or process with my knowledge of human auditory perception and auditory models. “A good example of the latter was the development of Barricade, a peak limiter [a special version of which, Barricade CM, is included in our own Plugins]. The process of peak limiting generally introduces audible changes, eg, harmonic distortion, a change in perceived timbre… It is quite an intriguing challenge to design and optimise that process so that the overall effect is as perceptually transparent as possible while giving maximum signal peak amplitude.”

The latest Mac/PC/Linux plugin from the bonkers brainiacs at Inear Display is a multieffects module comprising a multimode filter, a delay and a pitchshifter. What sets it apart is its ability to crossfade between two instances of each effect, with the parameters of each one flung around by a range of modulation sources – to be specific, four LFOs and two envelope generators, all of which can be processed by Inear’s proprietary mixers and multipliers. If it’s anything like their last plugin, Bowecho ( 199, 8/10), Rmpx4 could be another winner, particularly at only €10. It’s on our reviews list.

Tape simulators – like TB ReelBus – seem popular lately. Are there serious reasons as to why tape sounds good, or is it pure nostalgia? JB “Before the age of digital recording, I used tape a lot. Although I liked certain aspects of its sound, I could not explain what that was or what caused it. More recently, I decided to buy a couple of reel-to-reel decks and started to meticulously model each aspect or property of tape I came across. I concluded that the characteristic tape sound is not caused by one specific process such as waveform saturation, but instead it is the result of a wide variety of modifications that are all applied at the same time, including their complex interactions. Whether that sound is desirable or not is mostly a matter of taste and context.”

www.ineardisplay.com

ToneBoosters

Jeroen Breebaart

“The main aim is to provide very high quality tools to everybody”

TB Isone brings a virtual monitoring environment to headphone users. What do you think the future of monitoring environments will be? JB “An increasing amount of media consumption is via headphones, yet most of us are taught to mix and master on speakers. I wouldn’t be surprised if other monitoring environments, either real, simulated, or a combination of the two, became more prevalent. Simulating a monitoring environment brings flexibility – Isone allows one to work on a mix virtually anywhere, without using acoustic treatment or disturbing others.”

What’s next from ToneBoosters? What’s your long-term goal? JB “I think there is quite a large group of people that have the capabilities and talent to produce and work on audio and music of their own but may not have the luxury of the budget that large studios have. The main aim is to provide very high quality tools to everybody. So far the focus has indeed been on mixing plugins, and given the long list of interesting but unexplored ideas still to pursue, that focus may prevail for some time.”

www.toneboosters.com 24 / Computer Music / March 2014

Focusrite iTrack Dock

Focusrite’s Lightning-equipped new “recording dock” for iPad not only looks awesome, but is fair bristling with I/O. Guitar, mic (Scarlett preamps with phantom power), line and USB inputs deliver audio and MIDI to your iPad apps, while balanced monitor outputs and a headphone socket let you hear the results. Direct monitoring is also supported for latency-free record monitoring, and the included Tape by Focusrite app “offers instant recording, mastering and sharing without the complexities of traditional music-making software”. The iTrack Dock will be available in May, priced £170.

www.focusrite.com

PSP X-Dither

Definitely not the most viscerally exciting release of the last few months, but still a potential paragon in its field, PSP’s X-Dither plugin for Mac and PC aims to be the ultimate dithering solution. Built to “cover a wide range of situations when dithering or noise shaping is the way to maintain the quality of an original mix, group or individual track”, it’s already earned plaudits from mastering legend Bob Katz. You can get it now for $107.

www.pspaudioware.com

news <

Trackers & Demoscene

Heavyocity DM-307

As one of the leading developers of highend Kontakt instruments, a new Heavyocity release is always something to get excited about. Their latest, the DM-307 Modern Groove Designer brings together a wealth of classic analogue drum machines, modular synth drums and live percussion in an interface that enables both straight-up triggering of individual sounds and “highly customisable” loop-based playback. Over 1200 loops are included, along with 100+ kits and 250+ multis, and going on previous form, we anticipate huge sounds galore. DM-307 is due out in February at a price yet to be confirmed, and it’s powered by the free Kontakt 5 Player for Mac and PC, so you don’t need Kontakt 5 to take advantage of it.

www.heavyocity.com

Heavyocity’s latest is fit to burst with loops and beats both recorded and synthesised

The future looks bright as we take our first gawp at the beta version of Renoise 3

Sony update their PC-only DAW into double figures

Sony Creative Software Acid Music Studio 10

Acid Music Studio just hit version 10, introducing a raft of nifty new goodies to Sony’s easy-to-use, auto-timestretching PC DAW. The first and perhaps biggest is track freeze – it’s good to see Acid finally empowered with the long overdue ability to render/unrender virtual instrument parts. Then there’s a new custom drum editor, MIDI input filtering, the ability to apply effects to individual audio events, SoundCloud upload, and event grouping for moving and slip editing of multiple clips at once. Finally, the range of supported sample rates has been increased to 192kHz. Acid Music Studio 10 is out now, priced $60.

www.sonycreativesoftware.com

Ins & outs Mac Progress Good news for anyone eyeing up the new Mac Pro: far from being the sealed unit we feared, it turns out it’s relatively easy to take apart. Replacing or upgrading RAM looks easy and, if you’re feeling brave, it seems you can even change the CPU.

nine volt dead We’re sad to report that, after a decade of producing acclaimed sample collections and a final closing down sale, Nine Volt Audio decided to call it a day at the end of 2013. So long, guys, and thanks for the libraries.

Pitch Pills The theory goes that perfect pitch isn’t something you can acquire later in life, but research by Takao Hensch at Harvard University indicates that taking a drug – valproic acid – might help adults to acquire it. Coming soon: the wobble bass vaccine.

VST 2 no more Bad news for those wanting to create VST 2 plugins: Steinberg have now withdrawn the development kit (SDK), choosing to focus on the development of VST 3 from now on. Their hosts remain VST 2 compatible, though.

BEyonce’s boldness We thought we’d seen every way possible to release an LP, but Beyonce’s choice to release her latest as an unannounced ‘visual album’ on iTunes was a new one. It’s become the fastestselling record in the history of Apple’s music store.

Rubbish reworks We’ve got nothing against the ‘rework’ concept – when a producer subtly alters a track rather than remixes it – but if you’re going to do it, can you do a little more than shout your name and the year over the intro and then upload it to SoundCloud?

Last month we outlined our list of wishes for 2014, and one of them has already come true in the form of a brand new feature-smashing beta for Renoise 3.0. To kick off, the new multimonitor GUI has been completely overhauled with Ableton Livestyle collapsible panels, making it a breeze to customise your workspace. Sample-based instruments now have assignable modulation devices for key parameters such as volume, pitch and pan, and these can be

“The Renoise team have also announced a brand new product called Redux, a standalone plugin” used in tandem like building blocks to create highly complex and evolving modulations. You can also assign multiple effects chains directly to samples which, when combined with the all-new assignable macros, adds a layer of mesmerising intricacy for automation. The new tempo-independent phrase editor is essentially a tracker within a tracker, enabling the creation of polyphonic riffs for later playback. There are new effects devices to play with, and also the brand new ‘MaYbe’ command, which involves the probability of certain notes playing, opening the door to a kind of generative music. As if this wasn’t enough, the Renoise team have also announced a brand new product called Redux, a standalone plugin that harnesses the power of Renoise instruments for your favourite DAW. Exciting times, indeed! Head to renoise.com for more info and the beta. demo of the month NVite by Kewlers This super-glitchy, dubstep-infused Android production placed 2nd at The Ultimate Meeting in Griesheim, Germany. NVite mainly features things breaking apart in spectacular fashion with a soundtrack synced pleasingly with the visuals. bit.ly/NViteDemo.

Check out NVite, another slick demo from Kewlers


> news

freeware news The largesse of developers continues to astonish as another month brings a bevy of brilliant bobbins ranging from simple effects to a full-blown soft synth

Futucraft Kairatune A feature-laden synth that could rub shoulders with its paid-for rivals Freeware synthesisers are cheap as chips (well, cheaper, actually), but every so often, a free instrument comes along that makes us wonder why on Earth the developer didn’t charge for the thing. Such is the case with Kairatune. This is no cut-down, peeled-back chip off of a more powerful commercial plugin; nor is it a spurious knock-off of some preexisting design. It’s quite obvious that a lot of time and effort went into its creation, and the proof is in its excellent selection of preset patches. Yet there’s something naggingly different – even refreshing – about Kairatune. Nearly everything about it seems musician-friendly. You won’t find parameter settings spelled out in Hertz or absolute time, but rather in

A sound-generating powerhouse that’s easy to use, Kairatune is made for musos

pitch and beat division. You can leave your pocket-protectors at home, you boffins – this one is for the musos. At its core, Kairatune employs a single multioscillator comprised of five stacked waveforms, each of which may be

independently modulated and manipulated. There are familiar mod sources to play with – LFO and ADSR-style envelopes – and, naturally, filtering and effects. It’s crossplatform, too, in VST and AU formats!

www.futucraft.com

Klanghelm DC1A

de la Mancha Basic 65

Code Audio WrongMod

Many of the classic compressors of the past share a singular simplicity, with spare front panels providing potentially bewildering options. With DC1A, Klanghelm have combined some of the best settings of bigger sibling DC8C into a simple package controlled with only a pair of knobs and a handful of switches. The result? An effect that lets you get in and get the job done in a hurry. Mac and Windows versions are available. www.klanghelm.com

The once-commercial Basic 65 has now been made freeware. This Windows-only gadget is a step up from the developer’s Basic 64, a gritty, grainy masterpiece of chiptune (im)perfection. A ground-up redesign, Basic 65 employs triple oscillators, dual LFOs and a pair of arpeggiators to recreate the everpopular SID chip of the Commodore 64. Co-designed with sinkmusic, who also provided the presets, Basic 65 is a retro dream come true. delamanchavst.wordpress.com

Code Audio, creators of BeatBurner, have re-entered the scene after a prolonged absence with a brand new plugin for Windows users. It’s called WrongMod, and it combines three different – but related – methods of modulation to create sonic mayhem from the most unassuming sources. Divided into three sections, you get Peaky, FM and AM sections, each with a trio of sliders for controlling parameters. www.leestacey.com

CLASSIC FREE SOFTWARE LMMS

LMMS is an acronym for Linux MultiMedia Studio, but don’t take it too literally – this open-source music production powerhouse is available for Windows, too. Released under the GNU GPL, LMMS began as a means to provide Linux users with a software studio akin to FL Studio. In fact, it can even import FL Studio project files.


With piano roll and grid-style editing, sample import (including SoundFont 2), MIDI and VST support (even in the Linux version) and loads of built-in instruments and effects, LMMS provides everything you need to get your groove on. lmms.sourceforge.net

What’s on your hard drive?

years back Our 71st issue saw hardware manufacturers caving in to the software onslaught By April 2004, even established music technology hardware manufacturers were realising that this computer music thing wasn’t going away. Korg announced their Legacy Collection of soft synths (which shipped with a diminutive MS-20-styled controller, which subsequently proved to be the inspiration for the MS-20 Mini hardware synth that everyone raved about last year), and we reviewed Yamaha’s collection of effects plugins. Yamaha also developed the

“Korg announced their Legacy Collection of soft synths”

Oliver Huntemann The prolific techno producer reveals the software taking pride of place in his studio Apple Logic Pro “I started producing with Emagic’s Creator/ Notator on the Atari 1040ST around 1990. That was the predecessor software of Logic and I’ve stuck with it since then. I can see some handy advantages of Ableton Live, but I appreciate Logic Pro’s fantastic effects and its far better sound quality.” NI Traktor scratch pro “I tried out Traktor Scratch Pro just for fun and fell in love with it. As I still like to control my music via vinyl, Traktor is the perfect solution for me.” Arturia V Collection “My studio partner in crime André Winter and I are huge fans of the Arturia stuff. I have owned this collection for a very long time – it’s a great thing having all these classic synths available on the computer. The Minimoog and the ARP [2600] are in most of my tracks; they’re always good for basics and the biggest basslines.”

Rob Papen Albino “This is another great software synth in our basic studio setup. It has some cool preset sounds that are easy to process – just a few edits and you have a unique lead sound. It’s very good for white noise hi-hats, too.”

technology behind Zero-G’s Vocaloid Leon virtual vocalist, which, according to us, sounded “a bit like a drunk bloke with a speech impediment”. Oh dear. Elsewhere, it was time to break out our gatefold sleeve as we brought you a free sample CD to accompany the regular disc. On our Q&A pages, one reader asked for help resolving IRQ conflicts – like the smallpox virus, we assume that IRQ issues can now be considered a plague of times past. Finally, we showed Apple users how to make the switch to Cupertino’s new Power Mac G5 tower. It didn’t propose any solution to the biggest problem of all, though: how to raise the two grand or so to pay for the thing.

“I started producing with Emagic’s Creator/ Notator on the Atari 1040ST around 1990” reactable mobile “I’ve been playing with the original Reactable during my Paranoia album tour, which was big fun – not easy to handle but very intuitive to work with on stage. I enjoyed it very much and I still like to play around with the Reactable iPad app.”

5ünf – Five Years Ideal Audio is out now on Ideal Audio www.huntemann.tv

With 71, we gave away multisampled guitars, bass, drums and keys on top of our usual offerings


Why has DIY gear become so popular? Doing “a spot of DIY” at the weekend is as English a tradition as a morning cup of tea or a chat about the weather, but for most people, it usually consists of putting down some new gravel in the garden or re-doing the grout on the bathroom tiles. In high-tech music-making circles, however, the term “DIY” has recently taken on rather more exciting connotations. Recent months have seen a slew of products being launched by small companies and individuals who’ve taken it upon themselves to bring their creations to market. And in a nice piece of symmetry, many of these products are designed to help users come up with their own controllers, synths or other devices. Of course, it’s been possible for pretty much anyone to have a go at building their own music software creations for a long time (via platforms such as Max, Reaktor, SynthMaker and SynthEdit), but as far as hardware goes, the game definitely seems to have changed. So what’s going on? Why is everyone suddenly looking to build their own gear – whether they’re handy with a soldering iron or not – and what effect might this DIY boom have on your music making? 30 / Computer musiC / March 2014

If you’re a computer musician, arguably the most notable area to be hit by the DIY juggernaut is that of the MIDI controller. We’re seeing homebrewed designs leaking onto the internet on what seems like a daily basis, so you may have started wondering if it’s worth taking the plunge and coming up with your own. Given how many off-the-shelf controllers are available, however, is there really anything to be gained by doing this? We spoke to Dave Cross, Head of Research & Development for Dubspot, Inc, and a custom controller expert.

Just for you

“The key benefit is choice,” he tells us. “Off-theshelf products must, by their very nature, cater to multiple usage scenarios. It’s inherent to the economics of manufacturing. But a device that

“We’re seeing homebrewed designs leaking onto the internet on what seems like a daily basis”

caters to multiple users’ wants cannot cater to a single user’s needs without that person also making concessions to their workflow. So ‘choice’ actually represents pain towards the status quo: custom is a reasonable option if your frustration with the existing market of MIDI controllers is extraordinary.” Note the word “extraordinary” here – unless you’re really unhappy with what’s on offer, a custom controller might not be worth the effort and expense. But if you don’t have any previous electronics experience, how easy – or difficult – is it to go about designing and building one? “It has gotten quite easy to wire up a knob or a slider to a circuit board and have it send MIDI,” explains Dave Cross. “At the end of the day, it’s just a bit of wiring. What remains difficult are the non-electronics challenges of designing enclosures, creating faceplates and sourcing parts. This second layer of detail is what turns a jumble of wires into an instrument.” Perhaps in recognition of this last point – that a load of wires and components does not a functional item make – the last few months have seen a boom in products based on hardware modules that can be clipped together. We’ve seen littleBits and Korg’s Synth Kit, which enables you to build your own analogue synth; the similarly themed Patchworks system, which should be available soon; and Palette, which offers a way for you to buy a MIDI controller in kit form (as a box full of individual knobs, faders and buttons) and then stick it together as you wish. Solutions like this, somewhere between building your own gear and buying it readymade, seem to have struck a chord with consumers. Why are they so popular? “The products you mention combine two themes: our insatiable fascination with building things, plus technology that turns a physical connection into a specialised electrical connection,” reckons Dave Cross. “This is a

Illustration by Jake

/ burning question

recipe for creating ‘quick wins’ – a framework that allows someone to succeed with only a novice understanding of the system. Children’s museum exhibits employ this technique extensively; it’s a genius way to teach and to encourage creativity. That said, these products struggle with their toy-like perception.” This is an interesting point; although these Lego-style platforms are proving popular with consumers, it’s hard to know whether people are attracted to them because they think they’re going to be able to build something genuinely useful with them, or just because they like the idea of going through the building process itself. A click-together controller might sound like a great idea, but is it really going to be something that you’ll use in your studio, or will it turn out to be yet another distraction?

A new dimension

That said, it seems likely that modular platforms that ease the DIY process are going to become increasingly popular, not least because it’s going to get easier and easier for people to create them. No longer can would-be manufacturers simply design products – thanks to 3D printing, they can create them, too. “I would bet my first-born that home fabrication will significantly disrupt existing models of production and distribution,” says Dave Cross. “But I can’t be sure which major industry will be disrupted first because right now, the most well-known market for 3D printed designs is filled with novelty items. 3D printing is a revolution for tinkerers with 3D CAD expertise. It won’t be a revolution for the masses until there’s a library of useful 3D files to print from.” True enough, but if 3D printing is one buzzphrase that’s associated with small-scale hardware production, crowdfunding is most certainly the other. When a DIY project is launched, it almost feels inevitable now that it’ll have a Kickstarter (or similar) campaign behind it, so are these platforms making it easier for newcomers to get into the market? “The 3D printing and Kickstarter revolutions go hand-in-hand: both have the potential to disrupt the existing models of producing and distributing goods,” believes Dave Cross. “3D Printing will do it by eliminating the need for quantity, and crowdfunding will do it by tipping the scales away from distributors and towards manufacturers. “Crowdfunding can solve a prickly chicken/ egg problem inherent to manufacturing. Your widget may cost £50, but it will cost £30,000 upfront to prepare the machines for your product. Crowdfunding that initial investment turns a major gamble into a surefire bet. “That said, many manufacturers seem more than willing to take that gamble with their own funds after they’ve achieved initial success. In other words, how many companies have put their ‘second’ product up for crowdfunding? What does that say about the current value of crowdfunding to an established manufacturer?” It’s an interesting point, but it does seem that a serendipitous set of circumstances has made it easier than ever for would-be manufacturers to bring their products to market. This has the potential to affect not just the types of products that we buy in the future, but also our ability to create things ourselves.

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RHYTHMs From pepping up basic grooves to creating full-on 4/4-flouting madness, discover a world of timing tricks with our guide

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7 8 download Get audio examples, video and other files on your PC/Mac at vault.computermusic.co.uk

As a musician of any experience and ability level, it surely won’t have escaped your notice that the concept of time is intrinsic to all forms of music, as language is to literature and colour is to painting. However, ask yourself how much you really think about it, in a truly contemplative sense, as opposed to just figuring out where the taps of that eighth-note delayed lead synth are going to land in relation to your drum track. With the vast majority of modern Western music being composed in 4/4 and adhering to a fairly standard set of unwritten rhythmic “rules” in order to maximise its mass appeal, anything that breaks from the norm and finds its own groove can surely only be a good thing, and when it comes to bending musical time, there are many ways in which this simple goal can be achieved. With all of this at the forefront of our mind, we invite you on a journey into the furthest reaches of the fourth dimension to explore a galaxy of

techniques for bringing a touch (or an enthusiastic punch!) of temporal intrigue, spectacle and wonkiness to your tunes. We’ll cover everything from gravity-defying odd time signatures and brain-melting polyrhythms to dancefloor-igniting tempo changes and groove-shifting beat displacement, all with the aim of sparking your creativity. We promise to keep things as “unacademic” as possible – there’ll be no heavy theory or stave-based notation to negotiate, just practical DAW-based walkthroughs and tips, complete with audio examples and video, designed to get you thinking more deeply about rhythm and metre, and producing more interesting tracks as a result, no matter what genre you’re working in. And remember, these timing tricks aren’t just for drum beats – they apply equally to any musical part, from basslines and synth riffs to vocals and lead guitars! Now, time waits for no man, and the clock is already ticking, so let’s get to it!

13 8 March 2014 / Computer Music / 35

> make music now / radical rhythms

Tempo and time signature Central to the concept of musical time are tempo and time signature. The first of these couldn’t be more straightforward: tempo is simply speed, expressed as a number of beats per minute (BPM). While it might be easy to understand, though, the tempo of a track plays a huge part in defining its feel and character, and even placing it in a particular genre or subgenre: dubstep at 140bpm vs drum ’n’ bass at 170bpm vs 2-step at 130bpm, for example. We’ll come back to tempo shortly, but time signature warrants more of an explanation…

About time

If you’ve been producing music for a while and have never heard the term ‘time signature’ before, you’re probably making all your tracks in the DAW default of 4/4. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this – indeed, the vast, vast majority of Western music today is in that stalwart sig – but by eschewing “odd” alternatives such as 3/4, 5/4 and 6/8, you’re missing out on not only a wealth of powerful compositional possibilities, but also a whole world of time-based fun. So, what, exactly, do those two numbers actually describe? Although unofficially standardised in text as X/Y, in musical notation, the time signature (which sits in between the clef and the key signature) is written as X on top of Y, kinda like a fraction. Requiring only the most basic understanding of music theory to get a handle on, the meanings of X and Y really

“A bar of 13/8 could be thought of as three sets of three eighthnotes followed by a set of four” aren’t as mystical or complicated as some may have led you to believe: the top numeral tells you the number of ‘beats’ in a bar, while the bottom numeral (the denominator) gives the note value of each of those beats. OK, we just made it sound more complicated than it actually is. Allow us to illustrate… To take 4/4 as the most obvious example, the first 4 indicates that there are four beats in the bar, while the second (the denominator) tells us that the note value is a 1/4-note – also known as a quarter-note or crotchet. Thus, 4/4 means four 1/4-note beats to the bar. In exactly the same way, the time signature 9/8 sees each bar divided up into nine eighth-notes (aka 1/8-notes or quavers) for the purposes of performance, notation and – most pertinently for the

computer musician – sequencing. Speaking of 9/8, time signatures that divide the beat into three (three groups of three eighth-notes each, in that particular case) rather than two are called “compound” signatures, and they essentially define a track as having a triplet feel.

Simple maths

Ultimately, while most of the time you will indeed find yourself writing in 4/4, dropping a track into a so-called “odd” time signature for a breakdown or middle eight, say, or even writing the whole thing in one, can pay rich creative dividends. An odd time signature is any one that has an odd number of beats in the bar – 5/4, 7/8, 11/16, etc. Yes, it would be true to say that 3/4 and 9/8 (and indeed, other time sigs with 3 and 9 ‘on top’) strictly qualify as odd time signatures, but they don’t sound ‘odd’ in the same way that 5, 7, 11 or 13 beats do. Much of the time, composers will handle odd time signatures by simply subtracting one from the number of beats, dividing the remainder up into its obvious phrasing, then adding one back onto the last phrase in the bar. A bar of 13/8, then, could be thought of as three sets of three eighth-notes followed by a set of four, giving the feel of three sets of triplets followed by a nontriplet four-note phrase. This is by no means written in stone, though, and you could equally subdivide your 13/8 bar into two four-note phrases and a five-note one. Let’s look at some examples of odd time signatures in action…

Recommended odd time listening

The Dave Brubeck Quartet Take Five When you think of famous choons in odd time signatures, Take Five is probably the first one that comes to mind – and understandably so, since it still stands as the best selling jazz single in history. It’s got an awesome 5/4 groove, an unforgettable piano riff, a cracking drum solo and a beautifully considered approach to its time signature. What’s more, the album from which it’s taken, Dave Brubeck’s seminal Time Out, packs in six additional non-4/4 tunes. Essential listening.

Dionne Warwick/Aretha Franklin I Say A Little Prayer While the chorus of this Burt Bacharach number is definitely in odd time – 11/4, phrased 4/4, 3/4, 4/4 – it’s the less obviously wonky verses that make for the weirdest sections. Comprising two bars of 4/4, followed by a bar of 10/4, then two more bars of 4/4, on paper they look like a temporal train wreck waiting to happen, but in practice they work nothing short of perfectly. Oh, and the bridge between chorus and verse is a quirky three bars of 4/4, although that feels positively conventional in comparison!


The Beatles All You Need Is Love 1967 was the year of mixed up time signatures in pop, and The Beatles’ take on the concept turns out to be even more outthere than Bacharach’s. Everyone knows this anthemic classic, but you what you may not have noticed immediately is its off-the-grid nature, laying out two bars of 7/4, two bars of 4/4 (or one bar of 8/4, depending on who you ask) and another bar of 7/4 for the verses, then seven bars of 4/4 capped with one bar of 6/4 for the chorus. Utterly mental, totally awesome.

Pink Floyd Money Although in technical terms not in the same over-indulgent, pyrotechnic league as the time-bending shenanigans of prog rock peers King Crimson and Genesis, Floyd’s less ‘muso’ approach to odd time is arguably more successful. Money is in 7/4 (and 4/4), and like Take Five, it’s easy for even the most cloth-eared listener to keep up with, thanks to the cashclinking tape loop intro that sets out its stall, and the aurally intuitive phrasing used throughout.

radical rhythms / make music now < > Step by step 1. Odd time signatures in action

Tutorial

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Although we don’t really consider 3/4 to be an odd time signature due to its conventional feel, in literal terms it is one, so here it is: 1. 3-4 time.wav (our audio clips are in the Tutorial Files folder). With its characteristic lilt and swing, it can seem anachronistic these days unless handled with care, since the main thing it brings to mind is that decidedly old-school urban dancefloor movement, the waltz.

The 5/4 time signature adds an extra beat to your regular bar of 4/4, generating a staggered, ‘drunken’ sort of rhythm. In 3. 5-4 time.wav, we’ve taken a standard four-to-the-floor groove and made it five-to-the-floor, with the second snare hit shifted over a beat to the right.

The longer the bar, the more space you have within it to mix implied time signatures. Our 11/4 example here (5. 11-4 time 1.wav) sounds like two bars of 4/4 and one of 3/4, but we could have gone for three bars of 3/4 and one of 2/4, say.

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Although you might think it would sound the same as 3/4, 6/8 divides the bar into two sets of triplet eighth-notes, rather than one set of quarter-notes, which implies a different sort of rhythm. Demonstrated in 2. 6-8 time.wav, it could be a double-time, march-like feel, or a halftime beat.

After converting our 5/4 groove to a 7/4 one, 4. 7-4 time.wav, our beat comes across as a four-beat phrase followed by a three-beat one. Since our bar is now quite lengthy, we can effortlessly drop to a half-time feel by thinning out and moving the snare hits.

5. 11-4 time 2.wav is an alternative 11/4 phrase, comprising a DnB/2-step pattern for the first ten beats of the bar, then a one-beat kick drum fill on beat 11. Odd time signatures don’t have to be overtly bonkers – they can also be used subtly, adding a twist to the end of an otherwise standard pattern.

Anomalies and strangeness You might well be wondering at this point what the practical difference between certain time signatures is. Why, for example, state a time signature of 6/8 rather than 3/4, when both have the same number of quarter-note beats (three) in the bar? Like many things in music theory and notation, there is no scientific answer (this is an art form, remember!) – rather, each brings with it its own style of notation and suggests a particular feel. To resolve that specific example, 3/4 would be used for a waltz, while the pacier-by-implication (eighthnotes being twice as ‘fast’ as quarternotes) 6/8, with its two triplets to the bar, would be more applicable to a march. Your DAW’s quantise grid will be of more than high enough resolution to render this difference irrelevant, except for the speed of the metronome, which will click away at the chosen note value and obviously encourage a different vibe when recording, depending on whether it’s sounding three quarter-notes or six eighth-notes in the bar. If you’re not sure if your piece is in 3/4 or 6/8, consider how you would tap your foot or fingers along to the beat – the answer should immediately become apparent. In reality, the only signatures you’re ever likely to encounter for which the above is really relevant are in fact 3/4 and 6/8, thanks to the aforementioned waltz/march variation of the tutorial’s first two audio examples, which is significant. While it might well seem like a good plan to put your latest retro jungle track together in 8/8 because of its double-time sensibility, we’d be very surprised if you actually did, since it really is exactly the same thing as using a load of eighth-notes in 4/4. Incidentally, although non-powerof-2 denominators (referred to as “irrational” time signatures) such as 4/6, 8/10 or 5/12, say, are theoretically possible, they’re extremely unusual, largely academic and unsupported by any DAW we know of, so you can pretty much forget about them.

If you think 3/4 and 6/8 are the same, this could be your next gig



Manipulating time signature and tempo There are many reasons why you might want to work tempo and/or time signature changes into a track. The most obvious one would be to dramatically change the feel of a song – switching from 4/4 to any odd time signature is about as dramatic a temporal change as you could ever hope to pull off mid-track. And the signature to which you change doesn’t have to be an odd one, either. Throwing a ‘fill’ bar of 2/4 into a 4/4 project can be a more subtle way of throwing the listener a curveball. Tempo changes are considerably more varied in their potential usage scenarios. Of course, like time signature changes, they can be just the thing to push a track in a totally new direction, whether applied suddenly (blasting into a half-/double-time section, perhaps) or gradually changed over a number of bars. Some DAWs feature the ability to slave the project tempo to that of a chosen audio clip, enabling, for example, a live drum loop that varies in tempo to be set as the master for every

Timing tricks are straightforward to employ in modern DAW-based productions

other track in the project to follow (assuming the DAW in question also facilitates automatic timestretching of the audio on those tracks). Gently raising and lowering the tempo as a track progresses (known as ‘rubato’) in order to add pace to choruses and ease off in the verses is an age-old technique dating back centuries – originally the job of the orchestral conductor,

these energy-giving fluctuations can now be drawn right onto the tempo track in your DAW. In the next two walkthroughs, we’ll show you how to apply both time signature and tempo changes in Ableton Live. If you’re using another DAW, the creative principles will be the same, though you may need to consult its manual to find out exactly how it’s achieved.

> Step by step 2. Time signature changes in Ableton Live

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Ableton Live can work in any time signature with a denominator of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 and a numerator of 1-99. Yes, 99! The time signature is entered into the Time Signature field next to the metronome, and automating changes to it is a piece of cake. Let’s look at how – start a new project in Live, which will default to 4/4.

Similarly, if you edit a time signature marker (right-click and select Edit Time Signature) that is followed by another marker, such that the first section no longer fits exactly in the same timespan, a fragmentary bar will be placed at the end to fill the ‘orphan’ space. Keep it there or fill it out – the choice is yours.


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Right-click anywhere in the Scrub area below the timeline and select Insert Time Signature Change. A marker is created with an active field into which you can enter a time signature as two numbers separated by a slash, space, comma or full stop. When that point in the project is reached, it’ll switch to that time signature – we’ve gone for 3/4.

Be aware that changing time signature has no bearing at all on tempo or the warping of audio clips, which will simply roll on regardless, as originally recorded/ inserted. So, if you’ve already laid out your 4/4 drums, for example, you’d need to edit them to fit the new 3/4 ‘timescape’, as we’ve done in 5. Edited drums.wav.

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If you add your change within the preceding bar, as opposed to on the bar line at the end of it, a ‘Fragmentary Bar’ will be created to fill the space, indicated by a dark grey strip. This can be left as is, or you can right-click it and select Complete Fragmentary Bar (Insert Time) to extend it back up to a full bar of the previous time signature.

Rather cleverly, Live even enables time signature changes in the Session view. Simply rename a Scene to the time signature you want to have it automatically switch to when that Scene is triggered. Note that any Scene not named in this way will play back at the last signature chosen!

> make music now / radical rhythms > Step by step 3. Tempo changes in Ableton Live

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1a. No changes.wav, comprises verse, bridge, chorus and verse parts, eight bars each at a constant 127bpm. In 1b. Up into chorus.wav, we’ve taken the bridge and chorus only, raising the tempo from 127 to 129 during the transitional drum break, then increasing it to 130bpm as the chorus progresses. This increase really drives the song along, though we wouldn’t recommend more than a 3bpm change.

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While the one-bar drum break at the end of the bridge enabled us to ‘hide’ our tempo change over the course of the bar, we have no such camouflage dropping from the chorus into the second verse. It doesn’t really matter, though, as the sudden drop from 130bpm back to 127bpm is perfectly effective, applying the brakes as we go back into the verse. 2. Down into verse.wav.

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Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from ramping the tempo up and down more dramatically. In 3. Long slowdown.wav, we’re gradually slowing all the way down to 20bpm through the chorus section, then equally gradually coming back up to the full 127bpm to lead back into the bridge. It’s retro, certainly, but done well, this sort of thing can have a great impact on the dancefloor.

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>Flexi-time Live’s project tempo parameter can be assigned to a knob or fader on your hardware MIDI controller for hands-on manipulation of BPM. It also makes a highly entertaining target for Max For Live’s awesome LFO device, and ranging up to a maximum tempo of 999bpm, this particular combination is a great one for glitch and electronica producers. In fact, why not combine the best of both worlds, assigning LFO to tempo, and your MIDI controller to the LFO’s Rate and Depth controls?

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The first thing to do is Warp the drum loop so that it lines up perfectly with the beat. With that done, click the Slave button in the loop’s Clip View to make it the tempo Master.


So far, all of our audio clips in Live have been set to Beats (for the drums and percussion) and Tones (for the bass) warp modes. By changing everything to Pitch mode for our slow-down/speed-up section, we can get a pretty awesome turntable manipulation-style effect. We wouldn’t generally stretch this out over such a long time, but to demonstrate, 4. Pitch mode.wav makes the point!

Reveal the Song Tempo automation lane on Live’s Master Track and you’ll see that a series of project tempo changes have been created to match the loop’s tempo. Our percussion is now perfectly in time with our (totally out of time) drums! Right-click the Song Tempo envelope and select Unslave Tempo Automation to make it editable – but bear in mind that this puts the clip back into Slave mode.

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Live can read the tempo of an audio clip and use it to create a tempo automation envelope so your project follow its timing. Here’s a drum loop that slows down and speeds up throughout its four bars, and a perfectly in-time programmed percussion part that we want to match up to it. 5. Wonky drums. wav showcases one, then the other, then both together.

In the previous walkthrough, we showed you how to apply time signature changes in Live’s Session View. It should come as no surprise that tempo changes can be triggered in the same way: simply name each Scene as the tempo you want it to switch to. Want to change the tempo and time signature at the same time? Of course you do! Just name your Scene using both – ‘5/4 127bpm’, say.

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Fundamental to just about all modern music (and a great deal of older material, too!), syncopation is – in literal terms – the placing of accented notes on the ‘weak’ beats of the bar. This is an extremely open-ended definition, however, given that those ‘weak’ beats could be considered to be beats 2 and 4 (which, technically, makes the common or garden backbeat a form of syncopation) or the eighthnotes that fall in between the four main beats of a bar of 4/4, or even the 16th-notes that fall in between those, and so on. To put it in non-technical terms, syncopation is what puts the funk, groove, skank or other rhythmic ‘feel’ into a piece of music. Although it’s been a quantifiable concept in all genres and styles since man first took stick to log, it’s always been particularly important in dance music, which just wouldn’t work without it – imagine, if

you will, a dancefloor full of people just stomping along to beats 1 and 3. Not our idea of a fun night out. By dance music, we mean all the way back to the tribal beats of pre-history, then up through medieval music, classical, jazz, rock ’n’ roll, and on to house, hip-hop, jungle, trance, electro, dubstep and all the rest of ’em. We’ve no doubt that you’re already using syncopation in your productions, whether you’re conscious of it or not – you’d certainly know if you weren’t using it, as your tracks would sound mechanical, entirely ‘on the beat’ and rhythmically dull. To make things crystal clear, however, we’re going to walk you through some specific examples of it that will hopefully inspire you to think more about where you’re placing those accents and, consequently, up the funk factor of your tracks.

© Getty Images

Syncopation

Funk is built upon syncopation – James Brown would’ve been a decidedly stiff and ungroovy fellow without it

> Step by step 4. Basic syncopation of a drum part

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Here’s a truly simple example of syncopation – the good old backbeat! 1. Backbeat.wav starts with a nonsyncopated 4/4 kick drum pattern; then we syncopate it by adding a snare on beats 2 and 4. With beats 1 and 3 (the onbeats) considered the ‘strong’ beats in the bar, emphasising 2 and 4 (the offbeats) qualifies as syncopation, at least in a purely technical sense. It ain’t that funky, though…

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We can syncopate our beat even further by adding an offbeat hi-hat. The term ‘offbeat’ has two meanings in music: beats 2 and 4 (in a bar of 4/4) and any note that falls in between the main beats. We go for the latter, placing a hat on every second eighth-note. Our drums are now syncopated on two levels. 2. With hats.wav.

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So far, so predictable. Let’s turn our mundane 4/4 beat into something a little more interesting. There are countless ways in which we can do this, but one of the easiest is to just move one of the snare hits off the beat – we’re really getting syncopated in 3. Move the snare.wav.

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>Solid foundations

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Every element of our drum kit can be syncopated, so let’s move on to the kick drum. By syncopating the kick, as heard in 4. Move the kick.wav, we greatly up the perceived pace of our groove and give it a much more funky feel than we were getting with that rigid four-to-thefloor pattern.

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Finally, the hi-hats, which need to drive the groove along but can still be made more rhythmically interesting via the magic of syncopation. First we double up the hits, then we accent certain ones and quieten others, paying attention to their interplay with the kick and snare. Check it out in 5. More hats.wav.

When working on syncopating drum patterns, don’t forget that the first priority for drums most of the time is to absolutely nail the rhythm of your track to the floor, as it were. Be careful, therefore, not to detract from or overly ‘lighten’ the kick and snare with your filigree offbeat flouncery – ghost notes are meant to lead into and out of your main snare hits, rather than replace them, for example. Of course, if overly busy is the vibe you’re going for, feel free to disregard this advice!


> make music now / radical rhythms > Step by step 5. Exploring deeper syncopation ideas

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Although syncopation is a rhythmic thing, melody and harmony can also come into the equation, thanks to our expectations of where ‘strong’ chords ought to fall within a bar. 1. Harmonic syncopation.wav showcases a Rhodes part in which the two chords are syncopated at the end of each four-bar phrase to strange psychological effect.

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Extending or shifting notes or chords within a phrase so that they cross over into the next bar is another form of syncopation that can really change the feel of a track. 2. Crossing the bar.wav, has both the Rhodes part and the bassline crossing the bar lines at various points.

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Syncopating drum parts by moving or adding kick and/or snare hits and accenting the hi-hat is all well and good, but for maximum groove, you need to be adding ghost notes, too. These are quiet notes played by a drummer in between the main hits – usually on the snare – to add movement. Compare 3. Without ghost notes.wav…

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>Everybody salsa Many styles of dance music can benefit from a bit of sampled (or live!) Latin percussion. Even if it only comprises a few hits, a tastefully programmed conga, shaker, timbale or cowbell line can exponentially funk up any drum part. And don’t worry about authenticity – while we’d certainly recommend getting your ears round some live percussion performances on YouTube to make sure your MIDI editing heads in the right direction, as long as you capture that essential syncopation and flow, you’re golden.

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…to 4. With ghost notes.wav. This time, with ghost notes in place, (the green notes on the snare in Logic’s Matrix editor – note D1). When it comes to feel and ‘humanity’, the difference between an acoustic drum track with ghost notes and one without can be like night and day.

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Perhaps the most intrinsically syncopated collection of genres of all, Afro-Cuban and Latin music weaves intricately layered percussion parts – each one heavily syncopated – together to create complex rhythms over which all the other equally syncopated instruments do their thing. 5. Latin percussion.wav is a Latin-esque percussion jam built up layer by layer.

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>Triplet trouble

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Although not traditionally considered syncopation in itself, the triplet – that is, three regularly spaced notes squeezed into the same time span as two (ie, three eighth-notes played over the course of one quarter-note) – certainly spices up any non-triplet-based part. In the second half of 7. Triplet synth.wav, the synth arpeggio switches to a triplet pattern.


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By knocking out certain notes from a triplet pattern, a shuffling, swung feel can be created. In the first half of 8. Triplets drums.wav, you can hear a straight triplet-based drum track. In the second half, every second note of three has been removed from the hi-hat part and snare fill – quite a difference!

Unless you’re composing in a tripletfeel time signature such as 6/8, exercise restraint with your triplets. As our synth audio example demonstrates, constant triplets against a regular non-triplet backing can easily become hard to listen to and somewhat bewildering for the listener. If working triplets into a part separates it from the overall groove of the track too much or for too long, shorten the triplet section or switch your MIDI editor back to its regular two/four-based grid.

> make music now / radical rhythms > Step by step 6. Polymetres in FXpansion Tremor

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Polymetre is the use of more than one time signature at the same time – usually on a per-instrument or perelement basis – but with everything playing at the same tempo. FXpansion’s Tremor drum machine has an ingeniously simple way of implementing polyrhythms. 1. 4-4 drums.wav is a simple one-bar drum pattern in 4/4.

What are polyrhythms? Without going into too-technical waters, a polyrhythm is made from two or more rhythms that haven’t been designed to work together, played at the same time. We’re classifying polymetre as a form of polyrhythm for the purposes of this tutorial, although some would argue that it doesn’t really qualify, since a polymetric piece of music doesn’t necessarily have to be polyrhythmic. Famous examples of polymetric music include Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir (in which the drums and vocals are in 4/4, while everything else is in 3/4 for much of the track) and numerous tracks by Swedish metal outfit Meshuggah. African and Latin music is heavily polyrhythmic in the more traditional sense of the word, as demonstrated by the Latin percussion section discussed on p42, in which each individual instrument basically ‘does its own thing’, emphasising and accenting specific beats and sub-beats (syncopation) in the same time signature, with the ensemble coming together to create its rhythmically intricate overall effect. The influence of African and Latin styles on jazz, pop, rock and dance music is evident in the involvement of polyrhythmic techniques in all of them. No matter how simple or complex its execution, several disparate elements combining to form a single, multistrand whole is central to polyrhythmic composition and performance.


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By dragging the white triangular pointers on each sequencer lane to the left or right, we can adjust the length of that lane’s loop, effectively changing its time signature. In 2. Polymetric drum kit. wav, the closed hi-hats are in 7/8, the open hi-hat is in 15/16, the kick drum is in 3/4, while only the snare remains in 4/4. Head-spinning stuff!

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All four lanes won’t land on the 4/4 downbeat together again until bar 106 (without that 15/8 hi-hat part, mind, they’d sync up again every 22 bars). Finally, let’s hear how it sounds with some added percussion in 8/4, 7/4, 5/4 and 11/8 – astonishingly, these eight elements won’t all land on ‘1’ together again until bar 2311! 3. Polymetric madness.wav.

> Step by step 7. Polymetric MIDI and audio in a DAW

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While Tremor makes programming polymetric patterns easy, doing the same thing in your DAW across multiple audio and MIDI tracks won’t be quite so effortless a process. Let’s start with a conventional 4/4 drum part at 100bpm in Logic Pro. Hear it in 1. 4-4 drum loop.wav

We set Logic’s time signature back to 4/4 and record a bit of percussion, muting the bassline so as, again, to avoid getting dragged into a 3/4 feel (3a. 4-4 perc.wav). We then drag the end of the clip back to shave off the last eighth-note, putting the part in 7/8 time. Check it out in 3b. 7-8 perc.wav.

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Let’s record a 3/4 bassline. First, switch the time signature to 3/4 and activate the metronome. Then mute the drum track so that it can’t distract you back into 4/4, hit record and play your 3/4 bassline. 2. 3-4 bass.wav showcases our recorded two-bar pattern.

Finally, let’s extend a 4/4 audio clip to make it 5/4. Import a 4/4 sample (we used 4a. 4-4 synth sample.wav), set the time signature to 5/4 for visual clarity, cut your chosen ‘extra’ beat out of the sample, place it at the end of the clip and join the two together to make a five-beat phrase. Hear our final piece, with all elements together in 4b. Final polymetre.wav.

radical rhythms / make music now < > Step by step 8. Programming cross-rhythms

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Apart from doing it entirely manually (don’t go there – it’s a nightmare), the easiest way to work up cross-rhythms (read the sidebar opposite for more info) in MIDI is by timestretching clips. Let’s make a 4-against-5 pattern. We start by programming a bongo hit on each beat of a 4/4 bar as in Audio: 1. 4 beats.wav.

All that remains, then, is to timestretch the 5/4 bar down to the length of the 4/4 bar. How you do this will depend on your DAW, but in Logic Pro X, it’s a simple matter of holding down Alt and dragging the bottom right-hand corner of the bell clip back until it snaps to the barline. 3. 5 against 4.wav demonstrates the two playing together.

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Crossing the streams While a polymetre comprises multiple parts in different time signatures chugging along at the same tempo, and thus only coinciding on beat 1 (the downbeat) every certain number of bars, a cross-rhythm is what you get when two or more parts each comprise a different number of evenly spaced beats, all starting together on the downbeat of every bar. If any one part was solo’ed, you’d hear a perfectly metronomic pattern at a tempo determined by the number of beats it contains, but play them all together and the results are anywhere from decidedly funky to seemingly chaotic. As the numbers of beats played by each part rises, things can get pretty complicated. While beating out 2-against-3 on the desk with your hands is a piece of cake, how about 13-against-7 or 5-against-21? Don’t feel bad – even a seasoned drummer would turn pale at the thought of either of those two… In the second walkthrough on this page, rather than just programming a regular pulse of evenly spaced notes for each instrument, we trimmed and timestretched the existing patterns from the main groove. Consequently, the phrases (and the tempo grids behind them) are cross-rhythmic, although the notes and accents within them are irregular and thus somewhat looser than your hardcore music theorist might be comfortable with. Hey, we’re not trying to pass a music degree course here, you know?

Next, we create a new track triggering a bell sample and draw a series of five quarter-note beats. Now we have a polymetric pattern: bongo in 4/4, bell in 5/4. This is not a cross-rhythm! To turn this into one, we need to somehow squash the bell part so that five equally spaced notes occur in the space of one bar.

Finally, we’ll add a three-beat clave pattern using the same technique. As before, we simply draw in a new clip comprising three quarter-note hits before timestretching it to fit the bar. 4. 5 against 4 against 3.wav.

> Step by step 9. Using cross-rhythms to create a fill

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It’s all very well knowing how to make cross-rhythms, but what can you actually use them for? Well, you could base entire tracks on them, but that might get a bit… mind-altering. Perhaps a better application is to throw them into your regular 4/4 tracks as fills and punctuation. You might recognise 1. Straight track.wav from earlier.

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Let’s turn the last bar of our eight-bar drum part into a cross-rhythm fill, with each element contributing an independent rhythm. Like many DAWs, Logic can’t timestretch lines of notes within a MIDI clip, so we duplicate the last bar a few times and delete notes within the clips until each one only contains one kit piece line (tabla, hats, ride, kick, snare).

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We can now shorten or lengthen each kit element part to our required timebase, then use the previously described timestretching process to fit them all into the 4/4 bar, before merging them all back into one clip. 3. Cross-rhythm fills.wav contains our fill at original speed the first time round, then doubled in tempo the second time, which we think works better.



Beat displacement and mirroring So far, we’ve aimed our rhythmic telescope at odd time signatures, tempo manipulation, syncopation and polyrhythms, but perhaps the easiest (and often most effective) of all temporal tricks is beat displacement. As the name suggests, this is the technique of shifting patterns forwards or backwards in time so as to knock them off the beat, the idea being to make the listener think that some dramatic change has been made to the rhythm, before resolving the pattern by putting it back how it was. The amount of displacement applied will depend to some extent on the layout of the pattern (there’s little point displacing a four-tothe-floor kick drum by a quarter-note, for example), but you’ll usually want to keep your displacements to a 16th-, eighth- or quarter-note shift – smaller note values (or “in between” ones, such as a 24th-note) will see you straying into ‘experimental’ territory. Feel free to go there, though, if that’s your bag… Obviously, beat displacement is most

> Step by step

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effectively employed on drum tracks, since the whole point is to shift the feel of the underlying groove of a track, which is predominantly defined by the ol’ tubs. However, highly effective changes of pace and direction can be spoofed by knocking basslines and melodic parts offaxis, too – or how about pushing your lead line forwards at the same time as kicking the drums backwards, while leaving your lead line or vocal where they are? And although not strictly speaking a displacement, mirroring the beat horizontally can have a similar effect. We’ll look at all of these techniques in the walkthroughs that follow… Incidentally, although the concept of beat displacement is presumably as old as music itself, the credit for formalising it goes to Brit drumming legend Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson, Lewis Taylor and many, many more), who explores the concept – amongst may others – in depth in his book Rhythmic Illusions (originally a tutorial series

Pull the rhythmic wool over your listeners’ ears with Gavin Harrison’s Rhythmic Illusions

in Rhythm magazine). Although absolutely intended as a manual for drummers, MIDI programmers (who know how to read music!) looking to really take their percussion patterns to new and extremely esoteric places should seek this seminal text out – it’s available through the usual online book retailers.

10. Beat displacement

Here’s a dubby groove with a synth line on top. Our first displacement is very straightforward: in the section from bar 5-9 we just drag the left hand edge of the clip to the right until it meets the first snare (two beats), then move the whole clip back to the left. The result (1. 2-beat shift.wav) is the snare and main kick drum beats swapping place, ‘reversing’ the groove.

As mentioned above – and, indeed, as with all the other rhythmic tricks we’ve explored throughout this article – beat displacement doesn’t only work on drums. By nudging our synth line back an eighth-note, its relationship to the pulse changes and the track takes on a wholly different character. Hear it for yourself in 4. Displaced synth.wav.


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We can get an even wonkier vibe by shifting the drums to the left by just an eighth-note. This really pulls the beat away from the main groove, most notably with the hi-hat accent at the end of the phrase. (2. Eighth-note short.wav).

In step 1 we ‘pseudo-reversed’ the groove by shifting the snare over to beats 1 and 3, but by literally reversing the beat (using Logic Pro X’s MIDI Transform » Reverse Position function), we get a rather different effect, and not – it must be said – quite what we were expecting before we hit the Operate button.

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16th-note shifts need to be applied with care, as they can knock the whole rhythm off-centre, creating a ‘sea-sick’ feel. In 3. Shifted hats.wav, only the hi-hats have been moved, and although it certainly breaks up the flow of the drums from bar 5 to bar 9, it doesn’t make for particularly easy listening.

Finally, we bring the whole sordid exercise to its logical conclusion by displacing our reversed beat an eighthnote to the left. As you now hopefully appreciate, making profound changes to a drum track really can be as easy as sliding it left or right by a musically meaningful amount. 6. Reversed and displaced.wav.


Tips and tricks

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There are several tried and tested ways of smoothly segueing into a time signature or tempo change, rather than just instantly switching to it, which can be jarring. One of them is to end the bar before the change with a fill (most likely on drums, but any attentiondrawing instrument should be up to the job) that heavily features triplets. The reason this can make for an effective transition is that the triplets work as a disruptive, ear-catching intermediate stage of rhythmic oddness leading into the more obvious rhythmic oddness that follows.

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Another good way to lead into a tempo change is to again put a fill at the end of the phrase preceding the switch (not necessarily featuring triplets, unless you want it to, of course) and make the tempo change at the start of that bar, rather than the one at the beginning of the new section. This could potentially work with a time signature change as well, if your fill is designed cunningly enough to feel like a transition from one to the other. Or, if you’re switching to a “longer” time signature (from 4/4 to 5/4, say), try putting a fill at the end of the transitional bar that just makes up the extra time (one beat in our 4/4-to-5/4 example).

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When working in odd time signatures with a numerator greater than 4, it can be very helpful to have the metronome

emphasise the phrasing of the bar as well as the downbeat – beat 5 in 7/4, for example, or beats 4 and 7 in a bar of 9/8. It’s highly unlikely that your DAW’s metronome allows for this, though, so why not program your own click track in MIDI, with different sounds, pitches or levels for these emphasised beats, using a sampler or drum machine as a sound source?

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If you play an instrument but just can’t get your head or fingers around playing the thing in odd time signatures, try recording your riffs and other parts in good old 4/4, then creatively cut and paste to edit them into your desired signature. For example, record two bars of a 4/4 guitar riff as you normally would, then chop off the last (or first) beat of the resulting

If your DAW’s metronome just won’t cut it, you can craft your own to help you keep in your newly jaunted time

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If that odd time signature or polymetric section of your latest track is proving a bit too disorientating, making it hard for the listener to follow the groove, there’s no shame in placing an obvious sonic marker of some sort on the downbeat (beat 1) of your pattern or riff – a crash cymbal or piano stab, perhaps.

If your rhythmic offerings are a bit too complicated to be easily understood, emphasising the downbeat with a crash cymbal can keep listeners grounded


radical rhythms / make music now <

audio clip to turn it into a 7/4 riff of one bar. Obviously, it’s more satisfying and effective if you can actually play your odd-time parts for real, but until you get those chops up to scratch, editing in your DAW will do the job just fine.

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We mentioned Swedish metal band Meshuggah on p44, but their particular approach to polymetre is worth highlighting again, since it works so well with ‘beat-driven’ music and has been imitated by so many other acts. Their particular approach often involves the drummer combining time signatures on various elements of the drum kit. For example, with a simple 4/4 rock beat rolling on the hi-hat and snare, a 3/4 or 5/4 repeating figure might be placed underneath it on the kick drum(s), with the downbeats accented on crash cymbals. Polyrhythms between individual instruments are one thing, but the drum kit (acoustic or electronic) is essentially a self-contained polyrhythm machine, so make it the first port of call in your mixed-meter adventures.

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When recording new parts and punching in on existing ones, many musicians actually prefer a straight 4/4 count-in, even when playing in odd time signatures. Fortunately, some DAWs offer the option to tailor the count-in metronome behaviour, enabling you to set up a 4/4 count-in rather than a potentially confusing 9/8 one, say. So, if your drummer is having trouble feeling the downbeat of a 5/4 bar with a 5/4 count-in, try changing the latter to 4/4 and see if that helps. If your DAW doesn’t offer that degree of metronome adjustment, you could always place a four-beat MIDI clip just before the punch-in point and route it to a sampler loaded with a metronome-type sound instead.

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You can create the illusion of using weird time signatures by turning the snap-to-grid function off in your DAW and “avoiding the grid” to whatever extent works for the particular track in question. Even though this won’t result in any actual odd time signatures (unless you’re incredibly clever in your programming and bloody-minded enough to do it that way rather

Throwing off the rhythmic yoke of your DAW’s host synchronisation leaves you free to experiment

than actually switching to an odd time signature!), the effect on the listener will be similar – slightly disorientating and utterly groove-transformative. Classic 90s IDM is often held up as an example of the use of odd time signatures, but actually, a great deal of it is in plain old 4/4. Producers such as Squarepusher, Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin were just very good at programming MIDI in a way that makes the underlying sequencer grid extremely hard to perceive and follow, often weaving chaotic and intricate grid-shunning drum parts around more conventional synth parts.

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While virtual instruments and effects automatically syncing LFOs, delay times and other parameters to the tempo of the host DAW is a distinct advantage over their realworld counterparts, it can actually be creatively liberating to turn it off. By running your timebased modulators and processors “free” rather than slaved to the grid, all sorts of polyrhythmic possibilities reveal themselves – running multiple LFOs of a synth at different unsynced speeds, for example, or generating off-kilter, evolving rhythms from a single sound source by running it through an unsynced filter delay.

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When programming gradual tempo shifts, remember that the transition does not have to be a linear one consisting of a straight line between tempo A and tempo B. Some DAWs have features to create curved transitions between automation nodes, but if not, you can add more nodes along the length of a straight line and adjust their positioning to approximate a curve. While there’s nothing wrong with a linear transition, a curve can sometimes sounds more natural or appropriate, so give it a go.

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We’ve not delved into the use of groove, swing and shuffle in this tutorial, as while timing is intrinsic to these, they arguably do not constitute rhythms in themselves but rather are temporal/dynamic modifications that can be applied (or not) to a given rhythm. That’s not to belittle the importance of groove, though – indeed, we’ve delved right into it numerous occasions, such as 174’s In The Groove, and even issue’s 200 Techniques, which featured a selection of groove-centric suggestions in its Drums section. Combine such teachings with our Radical Rhythms and you’ll be well on your way to metrical nirvana!

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Since the vast majority of clips in your sample library will be in 4/4 time, it makes sense to label those that aren’t with their time signature – “5/4 Funky Drums.wav”, for example. Similarly, within projects featuring time signature changes, labeling MIDI clips by signature can help keep confusion to a minimum.

Name your unconventionally timed samples appropriately


Producer Masterclass

Electronic Youth These dance music upstarts fuse deep house with garage and techno influences to create their sexy, soulful sound


> make music now / producer masterclass

Scoring an international club smash with I Wish – a funky, minimal take on Angie Stone’s neo soul classic Wish I Didn’t Miss You – Electronic Youth have quickly become nothing less than a deep house sensation. In the past 12 months, Trevor King and Rustem Rustem have remixed house heroes Soul Avengerz and Michael Gray, and they’ve also produced a debut album to capitalise on their newfound notoriety. We caught up with the duo at their Essex studio to find out more about their rise to stardom and lift the lid on the production tricks they use to set dancefloors alight. “I got into music from an early age; my grandad taught me how to play piano,” Trevor reminisces. “From the age of 11 or 12, I was listening to pirate radio stations. Later, when I went to college, a couple of the guys on the course started doing a pirate station, so I got involved with that. “When I was about 22, someone in the industry said that if I wanted to make progress as a DJ, I needed to start making music. The first bit of software I ever bought was Reason 1.0, and I started producing music in my garage. Yes, It was garage music! It was funny, we had [legendary garage MCs] Sparks and Kie come down there. I told them I had a ‘studio’, but they

“We went down from 128 to 120bpm, and that was the birth of Electronic Youth!” arrived to find I had a PC, a crap monitor, a really cheap mic from Argos and a pair of tights wrapped around a coat hanger for a pop shield! “Back then, I was using an engineer – I’d make my music in Reason, then bounce all my files and go to an engineer in London. I was doing radio and DJing out too, and I

Video masterclass In our exclusive Electronic Youth video, Trevor and Rustem make a fresh deep house track from scratch!

Don’t miss… 2:53 Using Logic’s Enveloper effect to 0 tighten up drum loops 29:16 Layering a beat with delayed 808 claps

3 4:16 Creating a solid deep house bass with FM synthesis 1:06:58 Sending the bass to a reverb return channel with automation


Selected kit list HARDWARE HARDWARE Apple Mac Pro Apple Mac Mackie Big Pro Knob Mackie Big Knob MOTU 24I/O MOTU 24I/O Behringer B2030A x2 Behringer Korg M3 B2030A x2 Korg M3 SOFTWARE SOFTWARE Apple Logic Pro 9 Apple Logic Pro 9

GForce Oddity GForce - Oddity LennarDigital Sylenth1 LennarDigital Sylenth1 Native Instruments Native Instruments Komplete 8 Komplete 8 Sonic Academy ANA Sonic Academy ANA SSL Duende Native SSL Duende Native Sonalksis plugins Sonalksis plugins Tone2 plugins Tone2 plugins Waves plugins Waves plugins

realised I wanted to get into music more heavily, so I set up my first studio with a friend of mine in Essex. After about three or four years, we parted company, and I moved the studio to Kent, left my job and started engineering full time.” Rustem had a similarly early start in the dance music scene. “I started going out at about the age of 13 and got into old hardcore like The Prodigy,” he begins. “As I got a bit older, I moved into garage a little bit, started DJing, and I was on pirate radio for years on the South London circuit. I got a few residencies, then I started working in a record shop. “I got in with a guy who was producing with all the old gear – Ataris, Roland W-30 keyboard, Akai samplers – and I started producing with him. I got made redundant from the shop and started working for a distributor – they did all the big garage tunes and a lot of big house tunes. That

was where I got my business training. I worked my way up from the warehouse to head A&R. Then I ran Hoxton Whores’ label. Then vinyl died. So, there was no industry and I got made redundant from that! “I was on my own. I needed to make some music, and a mutual friend introduced me to Trevor. I used him as an engineer at first, and our chemistry was spot on. We started collaborating using our existing names but then decided to go for a new name, new image and new sound – we went down from 128 to 120bpm, and that was the birth of Electronic Youth!” In this exclusive tutorial, Electronic Youth put together a mini-track from scratch, complete with pumping 4/4 beat, groovy bassline and uplifting synth chords. Be sure to check out the epic video to see the boys in action, check out their production tricks and hear the track in all its glory.

producer masterclass / make music now < > Step by step Producing a deep house track in Apple Logic Pro

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Trevor and Rustem kick things off by loading up a bass drum sound sourced from another track. “If you like a track and it sounds massive when you’re out, and you really love the sound of that kick drum, you can sample it. That’s what we tend to do!” grins Trevor. The kick is arranged in a 4/4 pattern on an audio track in Logic, with fades on the end of each sample to ensure that they all sound clean.

To get that funky deep house feel, Trevor plays in some snare samples via Logic’s EXS24 sampler. He triggers these live from a MIDI controller, and the resulting sequence is quantised to Logic’s 16C Swing setting for a shuffly groove.

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Next, the lads audition some house loops to build up a rhythm. Potential goers are loaded onto a new audio track, where Logic’s Enveloper effect is applied to make them sound less roomy. The loops are sliced to create exactly the right rhythm.

All the drum channels are routed to a group buss. To create some interest at the end of each 16-bar section, automation is used to increase the level of reverb on the buss. Simultaneously, an automated channel mute is used to take out the last eight kick drum hits. These tricks create a drum fill without actually moving or editing any of the samples. Clever!

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With a vibe slowly emerging, those classic house open hi-hats and claps are added next. The clap combines three layered samples to get just the right impact and texture. Trevor has used a template for the project with effects sends already set up, and these are used to apply reverb to all three clap channels.

To fill out the rhythm further, some TR-808 clap sounds from Logic’s EXS24 library are added. These are recorded in via MIDI controller and quantised as before, and this time Logic’s Stereo Delay plugin is applied to create a techno-style synced delay effect.

hear more If you’ve been hooked by Electronic Youth’s bouncy beats and seductive basslines, there’s plenty of material to satisfy your cravings online. Hear more on Soundcloud, become a fan on Facebook, and stay up to date on Twitter. Electronic Youth’s latest single, I Would Leave, featuring Shanaz, is out now.

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The bass sound in the track comes courtesy of Logic’s EFM1 synth. Trevor and Rustem start out with the instrument’s default sound, but to give it a heavier feel, they tweak the envelope parameters, FM level, Stereo Detune amount, and Sub Osc Level. This results in a contemporarysounding deep house bass tone.

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To create a melody, the pair audition a pack of LennarDigital Sylenth1 presets until they find something that they like. They opt for a mellow house-style chord and copy the MIDI part over from the bass track so that it plays the same melody as the bassline. The filter Cutoff and the Release times of the synth’s various envelopes are then tweaked to get the patch sounding just right.

SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/electronicyouth Facebook: facebook.com/electronicyouthmusic Twitter: @electronicyouth


MODULAR

SYNTHESIS

PRIMER Tired of the same old fixed-path instruments? With a modular synth, you can design your own, and it’s much easier than you may have been led to believe…

Out there, beyond the cosy confines of the software studio, in the world of hardware, modular synthesisers haven’t just been revived, they’re thriving. There are more manufacturers of hardware synthesiser modules out there than ever before, and thanks to exposure by acts like Deadmau5 and LCD Soundsystem, they’ve succesfully penetrated the music production mainstream. With their laboratory styling and seemingly impenetrable complexity, they’re the ultimate expression of geek music culture. However, the same clearly isn’t the case in the virtual world. Where once modular synths were all the rage, their development seems to have slowed to a trickle in recent years. Even Native Instruments’ mighty Reaktor gets updated at a snail’s pace nowadays, and Arturia seem to have done little with Modular V lately besides stripping the Moog brand from its pixelated panel. Nevertheless, there are a few developers still in the game, with new ones cropping up on the rarest of occasions. These developers know

download Get the tutorial files for this article on your PC/Mac at vault.computermusic.co.uk

that hard-wired, fixed-path synthesisers just aren’t enough for some musicians, who long to get their hands dirty building their own virtual signal paths. They don’t want to be limited to a fixed number of oscillators, or told that they have to settle for a specific 24dB low-pass filter with which to shape their sounds. You’re not going to convince these forward-thinking creatives that the reverb has to go last ! If you, too, find yourself feeling stifled by that staple recipe of two or three oscillators, a subtractive filter and a basic modulation setup, you might well benefit from rolling your own synth. Indeed, perhaps you’ve always dreamt of trying your hand at modular synthesis but have been intimidated by the potential complexity. We’re here to make that dream a reality, with a collection of tutorials to get you up and running. We’ll explain everything you need to know, from the differences between the various types of modular instruments to how they’re actually patched, and by the time we’re done, you’ll have created your very own synth and effects processor. So, let’s dive into the deep end of synthesis…


> make music now / modular synthesis primer

Getting modular What distinguishes a modular synth from a “non-modular”? There are as many answers as there are developers. The main idea is that the user decides upon the signal path. Most fixedpath synthesisers route a few oscillators through a filter or two before sending the signal out to an amplifier, which is, in turn, modulated by an envelope generator and/or LFO. A modular instrument, though, leaves the signal path up to the user. Maybe you want to route the output of your filter back into the oscillator to modulate its frequency, or perhaps you want one LFO to control the rate of another – a modular allows you to set up such routings with ease. Fully modular instruments even allow you to determine what kind of components you might use and how many of each. Want 12 oscillators and ten envelope generators? No

> Step by step

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“The main idea is that the user decides upon the signal path” problem, assuming your CPU can handle it. One of the benefits of software modulars as opposed to hardware is that you aren’t limited to how many physical modules you can afford. Some synths are “semimodular”, meaning that parts of the componentry are fixed – or are completely so – but the routing scheme enables you to patch things freely. Korg’s MS-20 and the ARP 2600 spring to mind. Some instruments combine elements of both – Arturia’s Modular V

has a relatively fixed number of modules, but you can swap some of them out for alternative ones, and the whole lot can be patched willynilly. Playing a little loose with the definition, you could class any synth that uses a modulation matrix for routing as semimodular. We’ll start with a semimodular setup in our first tutorial, before moving on to fully modular setups after. Though many virtual modular synths stick closely to hardware paradigms, some developers have elected to do their own things. For instance, Jasuto Pro offers a wide variety of modules (or “nodes”, as it calls them) in various categories that can be patched together using virtual cables. However, the modulation amount is determined by the proximity of one node to another. This would be difficult and expensive to achieve in the hardware world, obviously.

1. Going semimodular with Aalto CM

A semimodular synthesiser offers a good way to get your feet wet before moving into deeper, fully modular waters. As luck would have it, we’ve got a terrific one in the Plugins collection (see p14). Aalto CM is inspired by Buchla instruments of the 60s and 70s. Let’s load it into our host DAW.

Audition the sound. As you can hear, our once-simple sine wave is now slowly changing in timbre as the LFO cycles. Push the LFO’s Frequency knob to its maximum. If you’ve done everything right, the resulting sound will be complex and clangourous. Note that the Oscillator’s Timbre display is animated accordingly, showing the movement of that parameter.


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We’ll start with the -default patch. Aalto uses virtual patch cables, stretched across the central dark blue field. Only two cables have been used: one routes incoming Key Pitch to the Complex Oscillator, the other connects the Gate and Envelope 1 modules. Hover your mouse over the dot at the bottom of the LFO as shown here. This is the LFO’s output.

Now let’s modulate our modulation. Route a patch cable from the output of Envelope 2 into the right-most input of the LFO and turn that input knob all the way up. Now, set Envelope 2’s Attack knob to around 0.084 and its Release to 18.5. Return to the LFO and turn the Freq knob down to about 0.20.

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Click that output and drag a wire from it to the knob over the Timbre section of Complex Oscillator (just to the left of the knob into which the red cable is patched). The small circle you just connected the cable to is a knob; turn it up to increase the amount of incoming modulation. Now, go back up to the LFO and turn the Level knob up to 0.64.

Envelope 2 now controls the rate of the LFO, causing it to change over time, resulting in a fairly typical modular synth sound. Let’s add one last thing. Take another output from Envelope 2 into the left-most input (Reverb) of the Output and turn the amount up. Now set the Reverb knob to 0.31 – the envelope controls the reverb level.

modular synthesis primer / make music now < > Step by step

2. Building a patch in a fully modular synthesiser

Tutorial

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Right, let’s stray into the deep end with a fully modular synth! We’re going to build a modular patch from the ground up. KarmaFX Synth is an ideal modular for those learning the ropes, and a 30-day demo is available from karmafx. net. Let’s fire it up and load the CMBasic patch from the Tutorial Files folder.

This new ADSR can be routed to virtually any destination we like, but we’ll stick to the basics for now and use it to control the Amplifier’s level. To connect it, right-click the Amplifier’s Amp knob, select Input from the drop-down menu and choose Modulator1.

We’ve made our first sound, but it’s pretty dull. Let’s get on with the good stuff. Add another Osc 1 module by rightclicking in an empty area and choosing Osc 1 from the Generator sub-menu. Now, right-click Generator1’s Frequency knob, select Input and choose Generator2 as its input.

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There’s a single Amplifier routed into a Controller (for keyboard control) and then straight to the Output. We can’t get any sound out of it since no sound generators are present. Let’s start by adding one. Right-click in the background to bring up the Add Module menu. Select Osc 1 from the Generator category.

You should now see a patch lead running from Modulator1 (our ADSR) to the vicinity of the Amp knob on the Amplifier. The Osc 1 module is still unconnected, though, so route it to the Amplifier by right-clicking the Amplifier’s title bar, selecting Input and Generator1.

Play the sound. As you can hear, our once-simple saw has been transformed into something much more aggressive. Use the dropdown Wave menu on Generator2 to select a Sine wave. This improves the sound, but we’d like the sine to change over time. Add an LFO module from the Modulator category.

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The Oscillator’s waveform is set to Saw, which is a good place to start. Yet it still doesn’t make a sound as it’s not connected to the rest of the circuit. We’ll fix that soon, but first rightclick in a blank area and select Add Module»Modulator»ADSR.

You can now play the sound from your keyboard controller or within your DAW. You won’t hear much, since the ADSR’s Decay (D) and Sustain (S) knobs are turned all the way down by default. Turn up the Sustain knob and try again. There’s our sawtooth wave! Very nice.

Right-click Generator2’s Freq knob and select Modulator2 (our LFO) as the Input. Turn the LFO’s Rate up to 24 (the value is shown in the module’s display). Now try playing the sound. The frequency of the modulation produced by our second oscillator should slowly rise and fall. We’re not done yet, though…


> make music now / modular synthesis primer > Step by step

2. Building a patch in a fully modular synthesiser (continued)

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We’ve already set up a buzzing, modulated patch, but that’s only the start of what we can do. Beginning where we left off on the previous page, let’s add another module via a slightly different method. This time, right-click Generator2’s Out slider, choose Input, then New.

Experiment a little with the new Envelope by dragging nodes in the display to hear how it affects the sound. We’ve set ours to a very fast attack and decay. Let’s do some good old-fashioned subtractive synthesis. Right-click to add a module and choose Filter»SVF (a statevariable filter).

A new Modulation module will instantly appear, tethered to Generator2’s Out slider. Swap it for an Envelope module by selecting Envelope from the new module’s title-bar menu. The Envelope module is a big one, so you might have to move things around to make room for it.

Right-click Amplifier1’s title bar, choose Input, deselect Generator1 and choose Filter1 instead. Next, right-click Filter1’s title bar and choose Generator1 as its input. Our first oscillator is now routed through the new filter and into the amplifier. Turn the filter Cutoff to 30 or so and hear how this affects the sound.

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The patch isn’t particularly dramatic – it just produces a quick rise and fall of the modulation between oscillators. Clicking the Envelope’s Bipolar switch gives us a slightly different sound, enabling both positive and negative modulation to be applied. Give it a try.

It’s now pretty dark. Turn the filter Resonance knob up to 80 to get a more nasal sound. Now, right-click the filter Cutoff knob to add a new modulator. Choose an ADSR. Use its Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release knobs to modulate the filter Cutoff over time. Experiment and have fun!

Modular programming environments In our walkthroughs, we’ve stuck closely to the hardware paradigm, patching together dedicated modules to form greater instruments. All of the modules we’re using are self-contained, meaning they have a fixed number of parameters. Modular programming environments such as Reaktor, SynthEdit and Max/MSP, however, allow a much deeper level of control and customisation. These are actually more akin to graphical programming languages, but with a focus on audio, and their lineage goes back to some of the very first computer music applications. Not only can you to patch together modules, but you can even create the modules themselves. Some, like Symbolic Sound Corporation’s Kyma, enable you to write code directly into the modules, or to write the modules themselves. Others, like ChucK, Pure Data


Is it a sequencer, a DAW or a modular synthesiser? If it's energyXT, it can be any and all of them

and the near-legendary SuperCollider are a codehead’s dream. Some modulars combine aspects of both hardware and software. Applied Acoustics Systems’ Tassman, for example, comprises a low-level programming environment called the Builder and a front end called the Player –

and although you can define many specific values in the Builder, the Player modules have a fixed number of available parameters. Some environments go as far as allowing you to export your creations (complete with pixel-perfect GUIs) as plugins to use in your DAW. This includes Jeff McClintock’s Windows-only SynthEdit, as well as SynthMaker (Windows) and SonicBirth (Mac). Additionally, there are ‘modular DAWs’, such as energyXT2 or Usine’s Hollyhock, that allow you to edit and manipulate signal paths via a patch-cord modular environment. Some modular hosts can even load third-party plugins as individual modules. These run the gamut from simple effects chainers meant for live performance to deeply flexible environments like Plogue Bidule, which gives you everything you need to create vast and complex signal paths.

modular synthesis primer / make music now < > Step by step

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3. Making custom effects processors in a modular environment

Brian Eno and Pete Townshend knew that modular synths made excellent effects processors and employed them as such. You can, too, assuming you have one that permits audio input or can be opened as an effect. We’re using Audulus here (in Logic Pro 9), but you can use just about any modular synth or platform that features an audio input: Jasuto, KarmaFX Synth, Void or Reaktor, for example.

If you’ve been listening to your drum beat or other instrument playing back, it will go silent when Audulus opens. That’s because it launches with just unconnected Input and Output modules loaded. As with a modular synth, Audulus produces no sound until you make some connections.

Click the circle labeled Filter. A Filter Node will appear. Using the same method as in step 5, connect a lead from the Input module to the lowest red patch point on the Filter, then connect another lead from the Filter’s blue output patch point to the Output Node. You should now hear your sound.

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Open your DAW. To start, we’ll need an audio signal to process. You can route an external instrument into your DAW or bring up a softsynth. We’ve created a new Instrument track and called up Logic’s Ultrabeat drum machine. Once it’s opened, we activate its built-in sequencer and click the Play button to get it going.

Click the blue ‘output’ circle on the Input Node (Audulus terminology for a module) and drag a cable over to the red ‘input’ circle on the Output node. A purple patch lead will join the two and you’ll hear your signal passing through Audulus.

You can click and drag on the filter slope graphic to adjust the Filter’s cutoff and resonance. Let’s modulate that filter. Right-click to get an Osc node from the Synth options, then right-click the top-most red patch point (pitch) on the Osc node and choose Set Default. Set the value to .1, as shown here.

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Insert Audulus or whatever plugin you’re using instead. While Audulus is a synth, it appears as an effect when inserted onto a track that’s currently generating sound, as should your alternative modular processor.

Satisfied that the signal is indeed passing through, click the Output’s connection and drag the lead off into the background to delete it. Let’s add a module to process our signal. Rightclick the background to see a display of Audulus’ various Nodes. Click the one called Effects to reveal some options.

Get a Level node and route your Osc through it and into the Filter’s middle patch input (frequency). Click the Level’s yellow “knob” to set the Minimum and Maximum to 500 and 5000 respectively (values are in Hz). You’ve just made an LFO-controlled filter effect! Adjust the Osc knobs and waveshape to hear what you can do with it.


SMOOTH Ableton’s FM-powered synth is bursting with sonic possibilities far beyond typical DX7-alike tones. Fire up Live, load up Operator and we’ll show you how! Frequency modulation (FM) synthesis allows for the creation of a huge array of sounds, ranging from tuneful and harmonic to dissonant and chaotic. This is all made possible through the interplay between so-called oscillators designated as carriers and modulators. The frequency of one such oscillator – also called an ‘operator’ in FM terminology – is modulated using another that is also in the audible range, resulting in a more complex waveform. Even using simple sine waves as the raw waveforms of the operators can result in timbres that are rich in harmonics. Increasing the amplitudes of the modulators will give increasingly harmonic-rich signals. Taking the template laid down by classic digital FM synths like Yamaha’s DX7 and SY77 considerably further, Ableton adapted this concept for their own Operator instrument, which is a €79 add-on for Live, or included as standard with Live Suite. Combining the concept of FM with


both additive and subtractive synthesis (which, curiously, do not cancel each other out), Operator is your gateway to a universe of complex timbres, all dialled in via an interface that is intuitive and simple to, well, operate. With a solid selection of basic waveform types to choose from and the option to create your own using the waveform editor, you can arrange Operator’s four oscillators in several predefined routings – known as ‘algorithms’, in a nod to the very similar system employed on the DX7 – to synthesise a wide variety of musical and nonmusical tones. In this guide, we will explore the breadth of sonic possibilities of Operator, using different algorithms for different use-cases. From designing kick drums to sculpting evolving pads and expressive lead sounds, each of the tutorials will introduce you to further features of Operator as well as giving you the techniques to use them for designing your own sounds from scratch.

download Get the samples, video and tutorial files on your PC/Mac at vault.computermusic.co.uk

> make music now / smooth operator

Operator’s ancestors: FM history Frequency modulation has a history with music technology owing to its use since the 1930s in broadcasting FM radio. However, John Chowning takes the credit for inventing FM synthesis. Whereas FM radio uses super-high, inaudible carrier frequencies in order to transmit content (music, speech, etc) that must be ‘decoded’ upon reception into a signal in the audio range, FM synthesis operates very much in the audible range, as you’d expect. Chowning came across the concept during the 60s while studying the characteristics of vibrato at Stanford University. Vibrato is frequency modulation: we use one oscillator – an LFO in the inaudible range – to modulate the pitch of an audible oscillator, producing a noticeable ‘wobble’ in pitch. Chowning noticed that increasing the rate of the LFO into the audible range produced a complex new tone, and further pursuit of this phenomena led him

“Chowning came across the concept during the 60s” to formalise – and patent – its use for sound creation as FM synthesis. In 1967, he became the first person to compose a complete piece of music using FM for all sound generation tasks. Check out bit.ly/1aD91pc to hear him explain the discovery in his own words. Famously, Yamaha licensed Chowning’s invention and enlisted his assistance in creating a series of instruments based upon his technology, eventually leading to the legendary Yamaha DX7, which is one of the best-selling synths of all time. It was a very difficult device to

program, though that didn’t deter determined synthesists from mastering it, using its powerful operator-based synthesis and multiple routing ‘algorithms’ to sculpt spectacular new sounds. As we just alluded to, the oscillators in the DX7 are referred to as “operators”. Inspired by old hardware FM synthesisers, and adapting these concepts to the modern DAW environment, Ableton came up with their own hybrid approach to synthesis, combining FM with additive and subtractive synthesis, introducing Operator in 2005. While there have been major improvements to the device over the years – such as the major makeover in 2008 seeing drawable wavetable features added alongside new filter types and routing options – the interface has remained consistent throughout the years following Ableton’s philosophy of fusing depth and usability into one creative whole.

> Step by step 1. Designing a kick drum in Operator

Tutorial

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Create a new MIDI track in Live. Load an Operator device from Live’s browser. Create a one-bar MIDI clip and put a C3 on every quarter-note. Play the clip and you’ll hear a simple sine wave on every beat – this dull sound is the initialised patch, the starting point for our final kick drum. First, we need to change the way that Operator routes signals.

We will use Oscillator B to add more body and a beater (click) sound to the kick. Set its Frequency to 94 Hz and bring the Level up to 0.0 dB. Leave Attack at 0.0 ms, set Decay to 100 ms and Sustain to -inf dB. Then set Phase to 5%. Shifting the phase off the zero-crossing point like this is what will cause the clicking sound.


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Clicking the bottom-right section (including Time, Tone and four coloured squares) opens the Global control section. At the top of this section, choose the rightmost diagram (four horizontal squares) to change Operator’s routing to Additive. This gives us four independent oscillators (with no frequency modulation) that we can layer to create a richer Kick sound.

We’ll add more body to our Kick with a third oscillator. Change Oscillator C’s waveform to Sw3 (a saw wave). Adjust the envelope settings – set the Attack to 25 ms, Decay to 600 ms and Sustain to -inf dB. Then, set Freq to 42 Hz and bring the Level up to -16 dB. As you can hear in Kick2.wav, this adds more low end to the sound.

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To start shaping the sound, first set all the oscillators to Fixed in the left section. The frequency of each will now be the same, regardless of any incoming MIDI note. Set the Oscillator A’s Frequency to 50Hz, then back in the centre panel, set its Attack to 12 ms, Decay to 300 ms and Sustain to the lowest value (-inf dB). Kick1.wav showcases this foundation of our Kick.

Finally, to add more punch and character to the kick, turn on the pitch envelope and set Pitch Env parameter to 15%. To prevent the pitch envelope from modulating Oscillator C – the sound’s body – remove Oscillator C from the Dest.A section of the pitch envelope as above. Hear the finished result in KickFinal.wav.

smooth operator / make music now < > Step by step 2. Analogue-sounding bass with Operator

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Drop an Operator device to a new MIDI track in live. We’re going to use Frequency Modulation techniques to create a bass sound, so it’s helpful to visualise the changes we make to the sound over time. Drag a Spectrum audio effect device after Operator in the chain.

We employ Oscillator B to add more harmonics to our timbre. Change the waveform to Sine 4 – a retro, 4-bit, C64style sine wave. Set its Coarse to 0.5, and bring up the Level to -25 dB. Set Fine to 8 to fatten up the sound by detuning the modulator. Set Attack to 2.87 ms and Release to 3.00 ms.

Next we’ll use the pitch envelope generator to imbue the sound with more punch and attack. Change the pitch envelope parameter to 60%. We stop the envelope from affecting oscillators B, C and D using Dest. A section. Now the pitch envelope will only be applied to the carrier signal (oscillator A). Set Peak to +30 st and Decay to 200 ms.

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Click on the bottom-right section to open the global controls. We will use an signal path in which Oscillator A is our carrier signal (ie, the audible oscillator), modulated by oscillators B, C and D. Choose the ‘three on one’ schematic. Also, since we are creating a monophonic bass sound, change the number of Voices to 1 and set the (bottom-right) Volume to 0dB.

For our second modulator, Oscillator C, we will use a harmonically richer waveform, Saw D (D stands for Digital), which is particularly good for bass design. Set Fine to 10 and bring the Level up to -35 dB. You can hear that this detuning causes more movement. Set Attack to 200 ms and Release to 3.00 s.

We add some stereo width by setting the Spread to 15%, panning the oscillators a little. One of the issues with FM synthesis is that you can easily end up with a lot of high harmonics. Operator has the Tone parameter which lets you control the amount of these easily. In Bass4.wav, we’ve brought it down to 55% just to control the top-end.

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For Oscillator A, we select the default Sine wave – this will mostly be used for our sub-bass information. Change Coarse to 0.5. This will tune the oscillator to the lowest octave possible. Set Attack to 0.35 ms, Decay to 590 ms, Sustain to -6.0 dB and Release to 3.00 s. Hear the sound start to take shape in Bass1.wav.

We use Oscillator D to add some excitement to the timbre during longer sustaining notes. Choose another Saw D waveform and set a long Attack and Release time of 10.0 s. Set its Coarse to 2, Fine to 5 and bring the Level up to -40 dB. You can hear that subtle modulation will happen on longer notes.

Finally, to add some filter modulation, Turn on the LFO, set its Rate to 65 and Amount to 45%.Set a long Attack and Release of 9.00s. De-assign the LFO from all the Oscillators and assign it to Filter in the Dest. A section. Set the Filter’s Frequency to 8.00 kH and Res to 5. Hear the finished product in BassFinal.wav.

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Operator’s Envelope Loop Mode Envelope generators are one of the key tools for creating spectacular and interesting sounds with FM and additive synthesis, and Operator has seven of them – one for each oscillator, and dedicated envelopes for filter, pitch and LFO – giving you a wide range of sonic vistas to explore. One of the most useful features of Operator’s envelopes is their Loop Mode. If an envelope is in Loop Mode, the envelope will retrigger upon reaching the sustain stage so long as the note is being held. The loop can be set to run at a free rate or can be synced to the tempo of the current Live set. The Loop Mode has four modes to choose from. First is Loop, where you can set the envelope’s Time parameter to a value in milliseconds – after reaching the end of the decay stage, the synth will then wait for the specified time before looping back to the

beginning of the attack. Since this value will be affected by the synth’s global Time parameter (in the lower-right of the interface), you can achieve interesting results if you modulate the global Time value using the LFO.

Operator’s seven envelopes don’t just have to be one-shots – loop them in one of four modes

The next modes are Beat and Sync modes, which reset the loop using rhythmic values such as quarter-notes or eighth-notes, synced to the tempo of your project – particularly good for creation of rhythmic patches. In Beat mode, while the loop length itself is perfectly quantised, if you play the note slightly out of time, each repetition of the loop will be off-grid by the same amount. In contrast, Sync mode will snap the loop repetitions to the nearest 16th-note for a tighter, more musical sound. Note that Sync mode only works if the set is playing, otherwise Sync and Beat modes will behave the same way. Finally, the Trigger mode is ideal for percussive sounds, triggering the envelope while ignoring a note-off message, meaning that the length of the sound is not affected by how long you hold the note down for.

> Step by step 3. Creating ambient pads using Operator

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Drag an Operator device onto a new MIDI track in Live. Click on the global section on the bottom-right. For this sound, we will use an algorithm that has two carriers and two modulators. This means Oscillator A and Oscillator C are going to be our audible signals, and they’ll be modulated by Oscillator B and Oscillator D respectively.

One of the most useful features of Operator is its ability to loop envelopes. Select Oscillator C’s tab, click on Loop, select Beat and set the Repeat parameter to 1/6. In Pad2.wav, you’ll notice that the envelope re-triggers itself while the note is being held. This effect is particularly interesting if you play several delayed notes.


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First we’re going to create a sustained pad sound. Change Oscillator A’s waveform to Sq4, and adjust its Attack to 6.00 s and Release to 10.0 s. Now to add some unison using Oscillator B. Bring up its Level to -35 dB and detune it by setting Fine to 10. You’ll hear the detuning cause some movement, especially when playing chords as in Pad1.wav.

Now to add some harmonics to our second sound for more character. Change Oscillator D’s waveform to Triangle, set its Coarse to 2, Fine to 5 and bring its Level up to -35 dB. This will add some higher harmonics to our bell sound – helpful in giving more brightness to the sound in higher octaves.

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Now lets add our second sound. Set Oscillator C’s waveform to Sin 8 – a retro sine wave that has more character than a more ‘hi-res’ sine wave. Set its Coarse to 3, Attack to 0.92 ms, Decay to 1.20 s and Sustain to -inf dB. Bring Level up to -4.0 dB.

Some final touches. Set Spread to 40% for some stereo width, and bring the master Volume to -17 dB to prevent clipping. Drop a Reverb Effect after Operator, setting its Decay Time to 6.00 s and Dry/Wet to 30%. The sound’s effect is best brought out by slowly introducing sustained notes from different octaves. Check out ours in PadFinal.wav.

smooth operator / make music now < > Step by step 4. Phat sawtooth chords with Operator

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To create a lead chord sound, we open a new instance of Operator using the additive algorithm. This mean we will have four independent (shown horizontally) audible oscillators without frequency modulation. Click on the global section on the bottom right, select this routing and set Voices to 1 for a monophonic sound.

Now lets use the filter envelope. In the filter section, set Freq to 1.00 kH and Res to 3.00. Set the Filter Envelope’s Attack to 10.0 s, Decay to 4.00 s and Sustain to 30%. Now, to apply the envelope to the filter, set the Envelope parameter to 40%. This will open the filter slowly, resulting in an evolving sound as heard in Lead1.wav.

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Choose Sw32 – a sawtooth wave with 32 harmonics – for every Oscillator. Bring the Level of each oscillator up to 0.0 dB. Also, set the global Transpose value to -12 st. This will transpose the whole patch one octave lower.

Click on the pitch section. Turn on Glide by clicking on the yellow button marked with G and set its Time parameter to 100 ms. This will slide the pitch between notes that overlap. Set Spread to 100%, resulting in a richer stereo sound by detuning the left and right signal.

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We’ll use the Fine control of each oscillator to generate a chord, but tune them slightly off to achieve a unison effect. We will set Oscillator B’s Fine to 198 cents instead of 200 (a major second), Oscillator C’s to 500 cents (a fourth) and Oscillator D’s to 790 cents (a minor sixth).

The lead patch is ready, but some effects processing can help achieve a more interesting result. Drop a Reverb effect after Operator. Set its Decay Time to 4.00 s and Dry/Wet to 40%. The result is a smoother sound, especially after the release stage now that we’ve added a longer tail to the sound. LeadFinal.wav.

> Step by step 5. Rhythmic FX design in Operator

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Drop an Operator device in a new MIDI track in Live. Change Oscillator A’s waveform to Noise White (NoW). Set its Attack to 0.40 ms, Decay to 755 ms and Sustain to -inf dB. Set envelope Loop to Beat and the Repeat parameter to 1/16. This will re-trigger the envelope generator on every sixteenth-note.

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We’ll add a filter envelope to the patch. Set the Filter’s cutoff Frequency to 500 Hz and Resonance to 7.00. Now set Attack to 1.25 s and apply the envelope to the filter by setting the Envelope parameter to 100%. This will open the filter gradually while the high resonance value creates an exaggerated sweeping effect.

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A multi-tap delay will give our sound more rhythmic movement. A Filter Delay device can be used to create more interesting filtered delay effect. Drag one from Live’s browser and drop it after Operator. Operator’s noise generator is also a really good tool for creating percussive sounds such as claps and hi-hats. Check out the end result in SFX.wav.

March 2014/ Computer Music / 65


Tips and tricks Custom waveforms and Sampler

Global Time Control

In addition to the simple waveforms available in Operator, you can create custom waveforms using the waveform editor. You can also save these custom waveform for later use as .ams files by right-clicking on the waveform editor and choosing Export AMS. One of the advantages of this feature is that you can drag these AMS files into other Ableton devices such as Sampler for use with their modulation capabilities and other processing functions.

One of the other useful global controls in Operator is the Time parameter. Using this knob, you can scale all the envelopes’ timing up and down. This can be used to change the sound drastically or can be modulated using the LFO for a more dynamic effect.

Go Negative Take the chisel to your waves with Operator’s waveshaper

Built-in Waveshaper There is a built-in waveshaper in Operator’s Filter panel. You can select the waveshaping curve via the Shaper menu to access the Drive and Dry/Wet controls.

Playing with Operator’s envelopes, you will notice that some parameters can be set to negative values; for example, you can apply -50% in the Filter Envelope. You can think of it as flipping the envelope upside down, so that a slow attack will cause the filter to gradually fall from its initial position, rather than rising, as with a normal, positive modulation setting.

Using the Coarse parameter

Export your custom operator waveforms as AMS files for later use or to import into other Live devices

Automate the algorithm Usefully, Operator lets you map the algorithm selector to a Macro control or a MIDI controller. As you already know, changing the algorithm will have a significant impact on the result since it changes the global behaviour of the instrument. Therefore, you can start experimenting with changing the algorithm on the fly – try mapping the algorithm to a MIDI controller or an LFO for far-out results.

One of the main controls in Operator’s oscillators is their Coarse parameter. Note that Coarse is a frequency multiplier and not an octave selector. This means that the frequency of the oscillator will be multiplied by its Coarse parameter. So if Coarse is at 1, an A4 note will be 440Hz; if the Coarse is at 2, the frequency will be 880Hz (an octave higher: A5); if Coarse is set to 3, the frequency is 1320Hz – E5; and so on.

CPU saving tips

Sample and Hold Operator’s LFO can be set to output a range of waveforms, and one of the more interesting available waveforms is Sample And Hold (S&H). This signal uses random values chosen at a rate determined by the LFO, to create sci-fi-style sound effects as well as introduce random, unpredictable modulation to your sound.

The Fifth Oscillator Typically, Low Frequency Oscillators (LFO) have subsonic frequency values. This means we will only hear their effect and not their actual sound. By setting Operator’s LFO range to HIGH, you can push the LFO into the audible range, as for as 12kHz. You can think of Operator’s LFO as the fifth oscillator.

Get experimental and mess with your envelopes even further by applying negative amounts

Is the top end of your FM patch grating on you? Cut out high-frequency artifacts with the Tone control

Operator is an optimised native Ableton instrument, and its CPU usage is pretty low. Even so, when using several instances of this instrument, you might need to maximise CPU usage for a better overall performance, such as when performing live. You can do this by disabling the features that are not used, and most of Operator’s CPU-intensive features such as Filter and Spread can be disabled.

Anti-aliasing Digital FM synthesis techniques can result in aliasing artifacts when creating timbres with a lot of high frequency information – sometimes desirable, sometimes not, depending on the patch you’re creating. To this end, Operator has a togglable highquality antialiasing filter in the Global section, as well as the global Tone filter that can be used to curtail runaway treble frequencies as much or as little as you like. Push an oscillator into self-modulation by adjusting the Feedback parameter in the central section

Feedback

Operator’s LFO can be pushed into audible frequencies – useful if four oscillators weren’t already enough


We already know that we can modulate an oscillator’s pitch using one or more of the other oscillators, but there is another option: any oscillator that is not being affected by the others can modulate itself. You can control the amount of this modulation by adjusting the Feedback parameter in the envelope section of each oscillator.

Step Secrets Once responsible for electronic music’s rigid feel, grid-based sequencing still has its place in modern music. Explore these rhythmic pattern generators with us and find out how

download Get the Plugins and Tutorial Files on your PC/Mac at vault.computermusic.co.uk

Let’s face it: we all take modern music software for granted. With a few clicks, we can place notes in any musical or rhythmic order we like, cycle the pattern and edit it to our heart’s content. We still refer to this process as ‘sequencing’, named after the traditional hardware box from which our nowubiquitous note ordering and reordering methods originate. The first step sequencers revolutionised the way synthesised melodic phrases were approached. The original concept behind the hardware step sequencer is a simple one: instead of relying on a human physically pressing keys over and over, a repeating series of ‘steps’ can be preprogrammed using a hands-on interface (which can include buttons, knobs and sliders). These user-defined sequences are played back and sent to control parameters on other equipment – a prime example of a step sequencer is the method used to program classic drum machines, though their outputs can be used to control much more.

Traditionally, the output messages were electrical charges called control voltages (CV), then later, the universal language of MIDI data brought the step sequencing design to countless drum machines, synths and grooveboxes. Nowadays, our virtual environments allow us to assign and route signals in a whole host of flexible ways, but the step-based programming ideology remains as vital as ever. On a similar (but fundamentally different) bent, there’s a synth’s arpeggiator. While a step sequencer requires the user to predetermine an order of notes/steps to be played back, a synth’s arpeggiator will play back an arpeggio (see page 74), the notes of which are taken from an input chord (played or programmed). Over the next few pages, we’ll get stuck in with both types. We’ll only use synth and sequencer plugins found in the Plugins collection, so it’s a breeze to follow along with our walkthroughs and video tutorials for yourself. Now without further ado, let’s step to it! March 2014 / Computer Music / 67

> make music now / step secrets > Step by step 1. Basic arpeggiator functions with PolyKB II CM

Tutorial

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Here we’re going to run through the basic functions of a simple arpeggiator section of a soft synth to get to grips with the concept. Open up XILSlab’s PolyKB II CM on a new MIDI channel in any DAW, then drop Basic Chords.mid onto the synth’s track and set it to loop. Now load up the synth’s LD Andro K preset – a thick lead patch.

By default, the arpeggiator is repeating notes from our chord in a random order. Hit the Up button (the arrow pointing up and to the right). We’ve now set our arpeggiator into ‘Up’ mode – this means the synth will now play each incoming MIDI note of the chord in a repeating sequence, starting with the lowest note and ending with the highest note.

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PolyKB II CM’s Arpeggiator section is the row of five buttons over on the synth’s left. We’ll toggle its On button to get it going – notice how our synth now turns the polyphonic chords into a monophonic sequence. The notes of the chords are now played one at a time rather than simultaneously.

Now switch off Up mode and activate Down mode (the button labelled with an arrow pointing to the left). This plays the highest note of our chord then runs down through them to the lowest note before repeating from the top again. If we enable both Up and Down buttons, our sequence will play our notes from low to high, then to low again before repeating.

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The Clock dial sets the speed of our sequence, so move it around and notice how our pattern gets faster or slower. In its default state, we can set the Clock speed in Hz. Toggle M. Sync to synchronise the sequence to our host’s BPM, then set Clock to Tempo*4.

Finally, we’ll revert back to Up mode, then activate the Octave button. Our sequence now plays over once, then again an octave higher, giving us a longer, more elaborate sequence. At speed, this allows us to perform patterns that would be very difficult or impossible for a keyboardist to play through traditional means.

One small step Nowadays, we can meticulously draw notes onto a piano roll with a mouse, jam notes in live with a MIDI keyboard, or reorder audio regions on our timeline. So it’s reasonable to wonder why arpeggiator and step sequencer methods of programming are still provided. Undoubtedly, old-school step sequencing will always draw synth fans in thanks to the nostalgia it evokes and gratifying, buttonpunching programmability it encourages. No matter how music technology advances, a simple 16th-note arpeggio flourish or a cycling eight-step sequence will have its place in synthesised music, and there really is no quicker way to program in such simple and repetitive sequences than with sequencer and arpeggiator functions. Step sequencing remains particularly useful for drum programming. Electronic music often requires a basic kick pattern, a snare or clap on the second and fourth beat


Arturia’s ARP 2600V, complete with ARP sequencer!

of the bar, perhaps an offbeat hi-hat, and so on. Punching these hits in on a grid-style sequencer is extremely quick and allows for creative experimentation on the fly – make

one change, and that change will be made for all bars in which the sequencer is playing. The classic step-based design can be observed in beat machines old and new, from the iconic Roland drum machines of the 80s through to modern music-making tools like Reason, Maschine, various soft synths and iPad apps. As new soft synths are developed, we also see the modification (and occasional reinvention) of the arpeggiator, allowing highly complex, flowing sequences of notes to be performed and replayed from a single chord press. Some synths, such as PolyKB II CM, used above, only offer basic features for cycling through the notes of a chord; other synths house advanced arpeggiator sections with multiple playing modes and control over swing and note length. In fact, modern synths are increasingly blending elements of arpeggiators and step sequencers together, blurring the lines between the two.

step secrets / make music now < > Step by step 2. Arpeggiator sequencing with SynthMaster CM

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We’re going to use SynthMaster CM to investigate the arpeggiator-meetsstep-sequencer functions that are increasingly found on today’s synths. Load Backing Track.wav onto a new audio track in a new 124bpm project, load Arp Chord.mid onto a fresh MIDI channel, then load SynthMaster CM on its track and open the Arp-FM PysBass factory preset.

Observe that some notes have their Hold tabs activated. Pull the Duration parameter down to around +0.19, and hear how those notes without their Hold tabs activated will shorten. Hold can be likened to a ‘tie’ function, causing a note to sustain into the next (effectively joining the notes). We’ll deactivate all of these to create a short, plucky pattern.

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But… why? You might still be questioning how or why you’d use this rigid division-based approach rather than programming MIDI notes.It can be tricky work to draw in highly complicated musical sequences and chord patterns into a piano roll, and the process can be a real creativity killer. Often you’ll want to jam ideas quickly and flesh out a composition before you’re bored of your idea, and a synth’s arpeggiator will allow you to experiment with various complex sequences and musical patterns with only a couple of key presses. An arpeggiator also allows us knob twiddlers to lay down some basic MIDI notes and then elaborate on our pattern from within the synth’s interface. Rather than just a ‘musical shortcut’, however, the live manipulation or automation of time-based parameters such as beat divisions, number of steps and note lengths can introduce unique pattern variations and improvisational flourishes to your riff or sequence that would take hours to draw in by hand. The sequences in the two walkthroughs on this very page would have taken far longer to program ‘by hand’, that’s for sure! These performance functions epitomise why music technology has been so influential in the development of many musical styles and genres, giving composers and synthesists the ability to extend their performance range far beyond physical instrument playing.

The synth’s Arpeggiator section can be found at the bottom-left of the Effects tab. It combines traditional arpeggiator functions with a modern step sequencer interface for greater control. Each vertical bar represents a step, (the number of them is set in the Steps tab below), and the bars can be dragged up or down to determine each step’s velocity.

Now set the Swing knob to around +22.5. This shifts every other 16th-note back for a familiar swung feel that adds groove to the pattern. Try re-toggling a couple of Hold tabs for variation. Changing the amount of Steps can also add rhythmic interest – we’ve gone for 6. Finally, we set the Mode to Chord so instead of arpeggiating our chords, the entire chord is played on each active step.

> Step by step 3. Rearranging a drum loop with Cumulus’ step sequencer

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Step sequencing is an ideal way to sequence drum elements, so we’re going to rearrange slices of a drum loop using Loomer’s Cumulus. Load up a 124bpm project, drag Backing Track.wav onto a new Audio Track and set it to loop. Open up a new instance of Cumulus on a MIDI Track and load the Vilbel Beats preset.

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Cumulus divides an audio file up into eight colour-coded Scenes. The centre grid is the step sequencer, where these Scenes can be rearranged. Here, click along the top red row to create 16th-notes of the first slice, giving us a straight running pattern. Now we’ll draw in the seventh (purple) scene on two offbeats in the bar, and the (yellow) third scene in the other two offbeats.

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We can go into Scene 1’s editor and alter that slice’s characteristics independently of the others. We Pitch it up to +24 semitones and shorten its Decay to roughly 140ms. Finally, we can change the time division of the step sequencer to completely alter the feel of our rearranged loop – try it at eighth-notes or even dotted eighth-notes for some alternative rhythms.


> make music now / step secrets > Step by step 4. Aalto CM’s modular step sequencer

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Aalto CM is a powerful monophonic soft synth inspired by traditional modular designs. Here we’re going to get to grips with its analogue-style step sequencer. Fire up a new project in any DAW and load a new instance of Aalto CM on a new MIDI track. We’ll create a MIDI region on the track, draw in a note at E1 and loop it up. Now load up the Raw Saw preset file (found in the Tutorial Files folder) into Aalto CM.

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Aalto CM’s sequencer is similar to an analogue step sequencer module, generating and outputting control signals that can be patched into other modules to affect their parameters over time. Let’s connect our step sequencer’s output to the pitch parameter’s input. Click and drag from the rightmost node on the bottom of the Sequencer section to the Complex Oscillator section’s left (curved) pitch input dial.

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The main, multi-slider area is where we change the values of our steps. Click and drag the first vertical slider up to maximum, then leave the next at its default minimum, then repeat the pattern for the rest of the steps, as shown above. If we increase the Rate parameter, we can hear how the sequencer is now determining the pitch of our synth tone.

POWER TIP

>Aalto advice

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Flick the int/host switch to Host, syncing the sequencer’s clock to our host BPM. Change the Range parameter to +24 semitones so our sequencer values span two octaves instead of one. Activating Quant locks value selection to semitone increments, and Glide bends pitch between two steps. Try experimenting with different patterns.

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Finally, we’ll use the sequencer to control the low-pass filter’s movement for some acidic action. Drag from the Sequencer’s bottom-right output node to the Filter Cutoff’s, then drag the input dial to increase the modulation amount to maximum. Push the Q parameter to maximum, then move the Cutoff around between 30Hz and 800Hz to hear some sequenced squelch.

Click on the waveform icons in the centre of Aalto CM’s sequencer, and the shape of the waveform you clicked will automatically be drawn in on the multi slider area for you. If you’re feeling uninspired, just hit the question mark icon to generate random patterns! By turning up the Glide parameter, the shape produced will have a smoother transition between steps, allowing the sequencer to be used as a sort of makeshift LFO.

Tips and tricks A step sequencer can be used to change parameters over a user-defined time in the same way as a regular LFO, so why not employ your synth’s sequencer or arpeggiator as a complex LFO? Take Aalto CM as an example – you can patch its sequencer’s output into any parameter’s input, just like an LFO, except you can also draw in your own custom pattern! Draw in crazy cutoff sweeps, zig-zagging pan movements or wild sweeping envelope modulation. Your arp or sequencer may also offer a way to turn off its looping function, so it will cycle through your sequence only once. Use this feature to turn your pattern into a custom envelope shape that will only trigger each time a new MIDI note is pressed. These step-based modulation methods are


especially useful for creating synced and rhythmic modulations – remember this when synthesising drum patterns or regimented percussion loops! For our walkthroughs, we’ve synced our sequencers and arpeggiators to our DAW’s tempo, which is great when you want everything to stay locked to the grid and in time with your song. This is especially useful when re-sequencing drum slices or beat elements, which you generally want to keep quantised to the beat. But it’s also worth turning this off once in a while and running your pattern from your plugin’s internal clock. When cycling in Hz values, you can get some warbling, buzzing and stuttering effects; off-kilter patterns can sit nicely when underpinned by more rigid drum elements. If your plugin’s step sequencer has a

‘smoothing’ or ‘glide’ parameter, try applying it to get rid of the harsh jerkiness that jumping from step to step can create. Having said that, this distinctive stepping sound can be effective in itself! Finally, consider automating your arpeggiator or sequencer’s parameters throughout an arrangement. You can switch up your fast 16th-note melodic sequence to a half-time eighth-note pattern for an edit or switch halfway through a track, then abruptly bring it back for the second chorus section. If your synth or DAW allow MIDI CC assignment, try hooking up your sequencer’s clock speed or step amounts to a knob or fader and hit record as you perform some real-time rhythm shifting – you can encourage some happy accidents by fiddling with time-based parameters in this way.

step secrets / make music now < > Step by step 5. Custom step sequencing with Dune CM

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Unlike some of the more visual sequencing modules we’ve explored in the past few tutorials, Dune CM’s arpeggiator uses a numerical list system, almost like you’d find in a tracker. Let’s dive in – load up a new instance of Dune CM on a MIDI track in a blank project, create a looped MIDI region and draw a note at A2.

We need to set up the arpeggiator first. Initially, we determine how many notes should play and at what speed – set the number of Steps to 8 and the Rate to 1/16. We’re not hearing any audio as we haven’t sequenced any note data yet. To assign a note for each step, click and drag up on the first dotted line.

Hit play and you’ll see the small black triangle cycle down through steps 01-08 then repeat over and over as our sequence loops. At the bottom of this section, we can also add some shuffle to our pattern via the Swing parameter, delaying the odd 16th-notes of our pattern for a lazier groove.

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Load up the 025: Electro Kittly RL preset. We’ll turn this standard single synth pluck into a more interesting sequence. In the synth’s right-hand Output section, toggle the ARP button to activate the arpeggiator. Here we’ll also bring Glide down to 30% so our notes’ pitches don’t bend into each other too noticeably. In the centre panel, open the ARP PAT tab to view our arpeggiator’s pattern editor.

As you move through the list of options, you’ll first see the numbers 01-08 (which are used for ‘normal’ arpeggiation of notes within chords), but if you keep scrolling through, you can instead select a MIDI note (relative to C-1, ie, the note you play controls the ‘start’ note) for each of the eight steps to trigger. Here we’ve created a simple melodic pattern that runs over two octaves.

Finally, let’s set the arpeggiator’s Mode. Simple gives us a traditional monophonic arpeggiator when a single key is pressed; One Shot is the same but won’t repeat the sequence. Voice 2/4/6/8 sequences DuneCM’s even-numbered voices, panned to the left, but leaves the odd-numbered voices unaffected. The remaining modes offer new patterns using multiple MIDI notes at once.

Sequencing tools We’ve explored the sequencing methods implemented by some of our own free bundled Plugins, but you might also want to explore other commercial software step sequencers out there, or even get hands-on and invest in a hardware interface to program steps by hand. In the music software world, Reason – now in its 7th incarnation – is known for its analogue-style step sequencer modules. Its Matrix pattern sequencer, Redrum drum machine and RPG-8 arpeggiator can all be patched into samplers, synths and sound modules in an almost limitless number of ways using Reason’s flexible hardwareinfluenced modular design. If you’re looking for a plugin to use inside your DAW, then FXpansion’s Geist and Tremor offer sampling and drum synthesis sequencing respectively via their intuitive grid-based interfaces. Also, don’t forget your DAW’s bundled MIDI effects, if it has them, which can be placed before a synth or instrument on their channel and enable you to re-sequence incoming MIDI notes creatively. In the hardware domain, Ableton’s performance instrument Push allows you to sequence your beats and sounds using a traditional step sequencer mode. Adjust beat divisions, loop length, timing, velocity and tons more directly from the controller, with your composition arranged inside Live. Its 9.1 update now even features brand new melodic and parameter step sequencing modes! The iPad’s hands-on method of touchscreen operation breathes life into the simple light/pattern-based grid sequencer concept. Step sequencer-based iOS apps include Yamaha’s TNR-i and Korg’s iElectribe, and you can even hook hardware gear up to MIDI-sequencing apps like Genome and Koushion.

Yamaha’s TNR-i app gives you masses of step-programming fun with its 256 buttons


The to of…

computer music Get M-powered as we pick up where we left off with 199’s M: Part One and get your head around mixers, modes and more

PART TWO

M

Mode Dating back to the middle ages but with roots in ancient Greece, in music theory, the seven modes are a set of scale/key types, each comprising its own series of intervals and characteristic sound. Named Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian (after seven different peoples of the ancient Greek world), they’re still used in many styles of music and are well worth investigating by anyone looking to go beyond the conventional major and minor scales – which are in fact the Ionian and Aeolian modes.

Multimode filter and perhaps compression built-in, and limitless signal routing potential for creating subgroups and auxiliary effects loops.

Mixing The bringing together and balancing of the individual tracks that make up a song is called

The mode of an audio filter (see 193) determines the range of frequencies that it attenuates beyond the cutoff point – a low-pass filter reduces frequencies above the cutoff, while a high-pass does away with those below it, for example. A multimode filter, then, is simply one that can be switched between more than one mode, and you’ll be hard pressed to find a modern filter plugin that doesn’t offer at least low-, high- and band-pass modes.

Modular synthesis

Mixer

Any device that combines two or more signals and sums them (adds them together) to a single output (and/or several sub-outputs) can be termed a mixer, but by far the most common mixers you’ll come across are the projectcontrolling one in your DAW and the oscillator/ sample blending ones in your synths and samplers. The mixer in your DAW is a thing of truly incredible power compared to its hardware forebears, with no ceiling in terms of the number of channels and effects it can host, precision EQ

mixing, and far from being just a technical or corrective exercise, it’s an art form that requires understanding of the principles involved and a lot of practice. At the most basic level, getting a mix together means setting volume levels for each sound and their positions in the stereo panorama, but that’s really only the beginning. EQ, compression, limiting, reverb, delay and all manner of other effects processors are called on during mixing in order to get your disparate track elements sounding like a cohesive piece of music with depth, character, punch and just the right frequency balance.

Mixers come in all shapes, sizes and forms, but generally follow the same operating principles

In 1970, Moog Music changed the world of synthesis with the release of the Minimoog, the first self-contained, relatively portable analogue synthesiser. Prior to that, synths were entirely modular, with each component module (oscillators, filters, envelopes, sequencers, etc) constituting a discrete box of circuitry that required connecting to other modules via cables called ‘patch cords’. They were also enormous, heavy and expensive. Although the modular synth is still very much alive and kicking in both software and

Modulation/Modulator In simple terms, to modulate means to exert change over time, and in music technology, modulation is a key element of synthesis, sampling and effects processing. Within your synth, sampler or effects plugin, a modulator, such as an LFO, envelope or MIDI Continuous Controller, can be assigned to control a target parameter, such as filter cutoff, oscillator frequency or pan position. With an LFO running at 10Hz assigned to a filter’s cutoff frequency, for example, said frequency will be moved up and down ten times a second, with the distance travelled in each direction determined by the modulation depth. How

72 / Computer Music March 2014

these assignments are made and depthadjusted will depend on the instrument in question, but many soft synths do it via an interface called a ‘modulation matrix’, typically with menu-driven selection of sources/targets, and numeric entry of depth. While modulation is a key feature of all synths, FM (frequency modulation) is a type of synthesis based entirely on the technique. With FM (see definition in 193), each of up to eight pairs of digital oscillators combine to form ‘operators’, in which one oscillator (the modulator) modulates the frequency of the other (the carrier), often to create a

characteristically hard, bright sound. Other forms of modulation that you’ll come across in synthesis are ring modulation (outputting the sum and difference of the frequencies contained in two signals), amplitude modulation (the level of one signal being controlled by the level of another) and phase modulation (modulation of the phase of a signal, also involved in FM). Several types of effects processor – including phasers, flangers and chorus – are also based on modulation, with input audio signals shifted in time and/or pitch by LFOs, envelope followers or other audio signals.

a to z of computer music / make music now <

Three of the best…

hardware forms, it would be accurate to say that fixed-path and semi-modular (in which a limited range of modules can be mixed and matched) instruments dominate the market.

Monitors/monitoring A loudspeaker designed to facilitate critical listening and appraisal in the music studio, as opposed to the pure recreational listening of a ‘domestic’ playback system, is a monitor. The technical difference between the two is that a monitor is built to be as flat and neutralsounding as possible (for the price paid – in general, you pay more for greater accuracy), while most hi-fi speakers are made to flatter and ‘improve’ the sound. Monitors come in many shapes and sizes, with the number and type of woofers, tweeters, mid-range drivers and ports on board varying. They all fall into one of two categories, though: active or passive. Active monitors have matched amplifiers built in (and thus cost more), while passives require amplification by a separate unit.

Mono A mono (short for monaural) signal is one that only comprises a single channel, usually as a result of being recorded via a single microphone. The stereo mixes of most modern music tracks actually comprise numerous mono sounds, each positioned within the stereo spectrum and processed with effects that put them in a stereo context of their own. A mono sound is moved between the left and right channels of a stereo mix using the pan control on its mixer channel – when placed directly in the centre, it’s represented equally in the left and right channels. Stereo signals placed on stereo channels, on the other hand, may be balanced rather than panned – ie, the relative levels of their left and right component channels are adjusted.

Monophonic A monophonic synthesiser is one that can only play one note at a time. Monophony was once a technological limitation that synth manufacturers raced to overcome, but although almost all hardware and software synths designed today are polyphonic, switching them to monophonic behaviour can be advantageous when playing bass parts and lead lines in

modular synths Applied Acoustics Systems Tassman 4 Multiband plugins split the signal into frequency bands and apply independent processing to each

particular, as many synths feature a ‘glide’ or portamento function for smoothly sliding the consecutive note pitches of a monophonic part into each other.

We said: “Unique acoustic modules and excellent presets”

Millisecond Abbreviated ‘ms’, a millisecond is a thousandth of a second, and it’s a unit of measurement that you’ll come across time and time again in music production. From audio interface latencies and channel offsets to compressor envelope speeds and delay times, time-based parameters within your DAW and its plugin instruments and effects are commonly set in milliseconds, hundredths of seconds and seconds.

Multiband Any effects unit able to operate independently on multiple frequency ranges at once is a multiband processor. The most ubiquitous multiband effect is the multiband compressor, with which you can, for example, compress the low end of a mix heavily, while leaving the highs dynamically ‘open’. The width of the bands within a multiband unit are adjusted by moving the crossover frequencies between them, and each band has its own set of parameter controls with which to apply the particular effect.

Multieffects An effects plugin offering more than one kind of processor within a single interface. Notable examples include Camel Audio CamelSpace (delay, filter, reverb and trance gate), PSP N2O (filters, EQ, delay, reverb, pitchshifting, distortion and more) and Sugar Bytes Artillery and Turnado (too many to list!).

Multisampled instrument

Audio monitors are designed primarily to provide a flat response, not to flatter the signal

Despite having seen little development love in almost a decade, AAS’ modular physical modeling synth still sounds good and is great fun, but it’s not exactly cheap. 75 » 8/10 » $349

A collection of audio samples recorded, compiled and mapped in a sampler as a set, usually with the aim of ‘virtualising’ a real-world instrument as realistically as possible. For example, to create a multisampled guitar, you’d record samples of every string on your guitar playing every possible note at a range of volume levels and perhaps via several playing techniques, then map those samples in your sampler with pitch corresponding directly to note position, and volume levels corresponding to velocity. With today’s computers boasting vast amounts of RAM and fast drives for handling high volumes of data, the current generation of multisampled instruments can reach multi-gigabyte sizes and sound staggeringly convincing in the hands of a skilled player or MIDI programmer.

Arturia Modular V Also rather showing its age these days, Arturia’s Moog Modular emulation was developed in partnership with Moog Music and still stands as the definitive software version of the original classic modular. 58 » 9/10 » €99 We said: “This is truly a no-compromise Moog – no ifs, ands or buts”

KarmaFX Synth Modular An affordable, powerful modular analogue synth and effects plugin with an intuitive interface, plenty of modules and a sound that belies the pricetag. It’s PC-only, though. 134 » 9/10 » €92 We said: “Easy to learn, superb sound and loads of presets”


Dave Clews’

Arpeggios This technique has had its ups and downs over the years, but it’s still relevant to modern music production Taken from the Italian word ‘arpeggiare’ which means ‘to play on a harp’, the most basic definition of an arpeggio is a quick run of notes. Arpeggios are also known as broken chords: if the notes of a chord are played separately, one after the other, as opposed to all at once, the resulting sequence can be classed as an arpeggio. Originally a technique to enable monophonic instruments to play chords and add an element of rhythmic interest to their parts, arpeggios offer many different ways to bring flavour to

>Step by step

your tracks. You can use twinkly synth arpeggios to add a disco-tastic flourish to a dance tune; underpin a 60s-style ballad by mirroring the chords with gentle piano or guitar arpeggios; or inject pace into a dubstep track by throwing in some intricately programmed fast arpeggiated synth riffs. Many DAWs, including Logic Pro X and Ableton Live, feature built-in arpeggiators that take the hard work out of producing arpeggios, with variable parameters such as note length, rate, range and direction. These devices are

download Download the accompanying video, MIDI and audio files at vault.computermusic.co.uk

capable of quickly producing complex patterns based on notes held down on your MIDI keyboard. Still, there’s a great deal of merit in knowing how to create your own arpeggios from scratch, as sometimes only something that you’ve programmed yourself will exactly fit the bill. This month, then, I’m going to walk you the theory of what an arpeggio is, demonstrating how to program a basic example by hand, followed by a couple of neat tricks that can help you tweak your programmed arpeggios to perfectly fit your track.

Working with fast ‘broken chord’ arpeggios

Tutorial

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Here’s our old friend the C major scale. If we take the 1st (Root), 3rd and 5th degrees of the scale – C, E, G – and play them simultaneously, we get a standard C major triad. This is the perfect base chord from which to build our first arpeggio. We’ve supplied audio examples and video in the Tutorial Files and Tutorial Videos folders respectively.

After hitting the top G note, we can continue forming the arpeggio by reversing the direction of the sequence and playing the same notes again in reverse order until we arrive back at the starting point. This now forms a one-bar arpeggio with a two-octave range and a standard up/down pattern.


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Splitting up the notes of the C major triad and playing them one after the other rather than simultaneously, we get a really basic C major arpeggio. Not very inspiring, but then we’re just playing three quarter-notes – time to speed things up a bit, methinks.

At this point, we’ll change the sound for something a bit more interesting – we’ve gone for KV331 Audio’s Synthmaster CM synth, playing the ARP Bass Jarre Style MK preset. Notice how the delay effect that’s a default part of this preset does a lot to liven up the arpeggio.

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Let’s shorten the notes and speed up the arpeggio so that we’re playing 16th-notes. You can do this manually by setting the quantise grid to 16ths and dragging the notes into position with the mouse. If we then extend the same C, E, G sequence of notes through the following two octaves of the keyboard, we get the extended arpeggio shown above.

If we were to add more notes to the original C major chord, this would have the effect of lengthening the arpeggio too. For instance, if we added a dominant 7th note (Bb) to our C major chord to make a C7, our arpeggio would consist of a repeated sequence of four notes: C, E, G, Bb.

easy guide / make music now <

Recommended listening

Pro tips

Kavinsky, Nightcall

Random acts

There are actually multiple versions of this song that use arpeggios in totally different ways. The recent London Grammar cover of Nightcall uses gentle piano arpeggios to make up the main Am, G, F, Dm verse progression – each triad is broken up into eighth-notes and spread across the bar. The superb Robotaki remix, meanwhile, features fast 16th-note arpeggiated synth sequences as a main component of its overall sound.

Programmed arpeggiated sequences like the ones shown here can be further enhanced and modified by means of your DAW’s MIDI Transform or Numerical Editing type functions. These can alter or randomise the length, position and even frequency of the notes in the sequence, completely altering the feel of the pattern. You could even try randomising the note pitches or velocities for more interesting variations.

Paramore, Still into you

bass-ic instincts

This pop/rock crossover hit from Paramore’s Paramore album features a solid example of how an arpeggiated chord sequence can beef up a section harmonically, both driving the rhythm and providing an alternative to just holding down synth pad chords. Fading in towards the end of the second bridge and continuing throughout the chorus, this part also demonstrates how arpeggiating a five-note chord over a 4/4 beat can create an interesting shift in rhythmic emphasis.

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OK, now let’s try a different chord shape for the basis of our arpeggio. We shift the E up to an F, using the fourth degree of the scale rather than the third for that step. This gives us a suspended chord (C7sus4 – C, F, G, Bb). Suspended and extended chords nearly always work well when arpeggiated.

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Changing the length of the notes in an arpeggio can have a big impact on how it sounds. If we select all the notes in the arpeggio part and shorten them by half, it sounds a lot spikier and more bubbly. Shortening them further still produces an even more staccato effect.

Dave Clews In a studio career spanning almost 25 years, Dave has engineered, programmed and played keyboards on records for a string of artists including George Michael, Kylie Minogue, Tina Turner and Estelle. These days, in between writing articles for , he collaborates on occasional songs and videos with singer/songwriter Lucy Hirst, aka Polkadothaze. www.daveclews.com

When it comes to choosing a sound with which to play synth arpeggios, your generic analogue synth bass preset, complete with a bit of squelch by way of the filter envelope, usually works particularly well when played high up the keyboard. One classic example of this technique is the arpeggios at the end of George Michael’s Fastlove Pt.1, which were generated with the onboard arpeggiator of a Korg Prophecy, MIDI’d up to a bass synth patch on an E-mu Vintage Keys module.

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If we add another note (Eb) to our basic chord to produce a five-note chord (C, Eb, F, G, Bb), the arpeggio we end up with is basically the same sequence of notes as a C minor pentatonic scale.

Short arpeggios can make great ornaments. In this dubstep-inspired example, we have a synth part doubling the bassline until the second half of the final bar, which contains a gap just right for an arpeggio to be squeezed in. We start by inserting four 16th-notes, starting # from beat 3 of the bar, framing an F 6 # # # # chord (F , A , C , D ).

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If we repeat this longer, five-note sequence over four bars, the cycle now offsets the point at which the root note falls within the bar, due to the extra notes. So we now have an interesting pattern developing, where each bar starts on a different note within the sequence.

For the downward half of the arpeggio, let’s change the quantise resolution to a triplet grid, as seen in 199’s Easy Guide. 16th-note triplets in Logic equates to a grid resolution setting of 24. We fill the last beat with # six notes taken from the same F 6 chord as before.


Reuben Cornell’s

keep it

real

Flute Emulating real instruments in MIDI can put the wind up some, but not Reuben, who’s tackling the flute this month Reuben Cornell

This month’s Keep It Real is all about the characteristics and playing styles of the flute. Mainly, I’ll be concentrating on the traits of the standard concert flute, but quite a few of the techniques discussed can also be translated to other fingered woodwind instruments like the oboe, clarinet and recorder. The flute is a essentially a long tube, usually made of metal, with finger holes that can be covered to control the pitch. While the majority of wind instruments are played by blowing directly into them, the flute is actually played by blowing across an open hole called the embouchure. The playing technique and lip position is similar to that which you’d use to conjure a noise out of an empty bottle by blowing horizontally over the opening. The range of a concert flute is generally accepted to be from the B below middle C (B3 on a standard MIDI keyboard) up to D7. However, skilled players can use a technique called overblowing (see below) to play even higher notes but sacrifice control and dynamic range in doing so. Lower pitches than B3 are possible with other instruments in the flute family such as the alto and bass flute, which have longer tubes.

With more pies on the table than he has fingers to put in them, Reuben is an accomplished DJ, composer and longstanding contributor to . In this ongoing series of tutorials, he imparts a wealth of advice aimed at helping you program more realistic instrumental MIDI parts.

Precious metal

The fingering of a flute is similar to most other woodwind instruments in that the fingers of both hands are used to cover the holes in the tube. The ‘open-key’ variety of flute allows for greater ease of playing pitches between semitones, especially useful for microtonal playing, glissandi and other techniques. Flutes have moving mechanical keys that can be heard clicking when recorded with a near-field microphone. If you’re trying to

“Vibrato is often introduced by the player on held notes after half a second or so” JARGON BUSTER

Recommended listening

Open key/Closed key

Edvard Grieg, morning Mood

There are two distinct types of flute construction: open and closed key. The key holes for flutes can either be ‘open’ and covered with the fingertips, or ‘closed’, where the finger presses against a metal key with a soft pad attached to cover the hole and stop airflow.

Overblowing

This is a technique specific to wind instrument players, where the direction and intensity of breath is altered so that a note jumps in pitch to an upper harmonic.


This classical piece is a movement from Grieg’s Peer Gynt. Although you may not know the whole score, this part has been used in adverts and TV shows galore. The melody alternates between solo flute and oboe and is a great example of both legato playing and trills.

Van McCoy, The Hustle

The flute had something of a revival during the 70s as a lead instrument in disco music. In fact, the spring of 1975 featured several flute-based tunes in the Billboard singles

download Get audio examples and MIDI files on your PC/Mac at vault.computermusic.co.uk

emulate an intimate, close-miked flute recording, be sure to add in some key-click samples for realism. Because of the very small movements that are required to change pitch, it’s usually easy for flute players to alternate very quickly between notes to create trills and tremolos. Some note combinations are more difficult than others for a real-life player to pull off. Concentrating on the specifics of these combinations when programming a MIDI flute is probably overkill, but there’s a fingering chart at bit.ly/1ka3MhB if you’re striving for absolute realism. Flutes are also great for playing fast runs up and down the scales. Some woodwind ROMplers even contain specific patches designed for this purpose with sample scripting used to slur the notes into one another. During legato playing, vibrato is often introduced by the player on held notes after half a second or so. Some sample libraries already have vibrato baked into the samples. If not, you can always emulate it with a pitch-modulating plugin in your DAW, controlling the intensity to increase after the initial attack portion of the note.

Breathing space

The flute can be quite a breathy-sounding instrument, which lends the tone an airy quality as you don’t only hear the note from the flute but also the breath noises generated by the player’s mouth. Use breath noise samples between phrases and even some breaths during the playback of notes themselves to emulate this. The initial attack of the note is often accompanied by a short, pronounced breath sound, particularly if the note is staccato, loud or overblown. Like the trumpet, which I covered in 199, it’s essential to not sustain the notes for longer than a real-life player could without taking a breath. Also, the harder the player blows (either to achieve overblown notes or just a louder, more aggressive sound), the less breath they’ll have left in their lungs. For example, this means that quieter legato passages can be performed for a longer time without taking a breath than a series of loud staccato notes.

chart, including Herbie Mann’s Hijack and The Blackbyrds’ Walking In Rhythm. But The Hustle sticks in the mind as a dancefloor classic and the perfect example of disco flute.

Beastie Boys, Flute loop

This track by New York’s hip-hop megastars samples several recordings, including a performance from comedian Richard Pryor. But it’s the wholesale cribbing from Flute Thing by The Blues Project that provides the backbone to the track. It’s notable for the overblown staccato playing style typical of jazz and blues.

keep it real / make music now <

>Step by step Programming a realistic flute sound

Tutorial

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There are many different styles of flute playing, but here I’m going to focus on quite a slow, legato passage. A non-vibrato solo flute patch is used to play a riff while I move the mod wheel to control dynamics. The MIDI notes are quantised and then slightly overlapped to give an impression of legato.

At this point, the vibrato effect is playing continuously. In the real world, this wouldn’t happen – the performer would first attack the note then introduce vibrato half a second or so later. I program some automation of the Depth parameter on some of the longer notes after the initial attack to replicate this.

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Many instruments use vibrato in their slow playing, so I emulate this with MeldaProduction’s free MVibrato plugin. I set a Sine LFO shape with a Depth of 10% and the Synchronisation set to 1/8. Phase difference is set to 0, producing a straight vibrato rather than a pseudo-stereo effect.

Next, I add an additional track on which to use some extra samples. I scatter some key release samples throughout the track, ensuring that they only trigger after the end of a note. I also overlay some airy ‘whistle’-like samples playing at the same time as the attack portions of some of the shorter notes. This gives these notes the impression of being played more forcefully.

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With a real-life flute performance, applying vibrato when playing would also cause the volume of the note to fluctuate. Handily, this, too, can be emulated within MVibrato. I set the Tremolo dial to 11% so that the volume modulates slightly along with the pitch.

Lastly, I add longer breath intake samples to another track, which emulates the player breathing naturally in between each legato phrase (6a). I also add some hall reverb over all three tracks, as the flute would rarely be heard this dry on a real recording (6b).

The best flute libraries When you’re programming an instrument you don’t play or know much about, one of the best aids to realism is getting the right sample library, and this is particularly important with the flute. In the walkthrough above, I’ve gone as far as I can with a basic flute patch from an inexpensive library, but you can get much quicker and more effective results using a ROMpler with more velocity layers, round-robin samples and a

dedicated engine designed to reproduce flute performance accurately. I’ve included example audio files in the Tutorial Files folder of the same MIDI phrase from step 1 of the walkthrough, but played through other libraries. The flutes in Berlin Woodwinds (€549 at orchestraltools.com) are light and bright, and the library includes patches for runs and measured trills, which sync to the tempo of your track. Passion

Flute ($129 at orangetreesamples.com) is a great all-rounder and the only library I know of that reproduces the overblown sound of jazz and disco. The engine also automatically inserts breaths at natural breaks in the performance. ProjectSAM Alto Flute (part of the €849 Lumina package at projectsam.com) is a more full-sounding instrument that handles legato passages realistically.


PROJECT 46

Thomas Shaw

Thomas Shaw talks about the rise to fame and the path ahead for this progressive house duo

80 / Computer musiC / March 2014

It’s been a hectic couple of years for Canadian progressive house duo Project 46, aka Thomas Shaw and Ryan Henderson. Fending off competition from Tiësto (no mean feat!) to claim a coveted Beatport Number One slot with the suitably soaring Reasons in 2012, they were immediately embraced by the big-room crowd and soon found themselves working with the likes of Paul Oakenfold, Kaskade and Grammynominated progger Morgan Page. The duo are also behind the highly respected Pancake Radio podcast/show, not to mention remixes for The Killers, Usher and a recently released reworking for Headhunterz and Billboard Dance Chart darlings Krewella (Project 46’s twist on United Kids Of The World came out at the tail end of last year).

“This is gonna sound weird, but I never imagined that music was going to be a career,” laughs Vancouver-based Shaw (left). At 23, Shaw is ten years younger than his Ontario-based partner Henderson. “Just over a couple of years ago, I was still living with my parents, messing around on an old HP laptop and wondering if I could afford to buy Nexus. “Some things haven’t changed: I still live with my parents, but I have bought a new computer. And I did finally get a copy of Nexus!” : So, you never dreamt of a music career when you were a kid? Thomas Shaw: “Oh, I dreamt about it! I played in a few bands when I was younger, but I never took it too seriously. After I dropped out of university, I got a job at Costco. Although I’d

project 46 / interview <

Ryan Henderson

© Loren Wohl

been making music for several years by then, I didn’t think anyone would be interested in listening to it.” : Is it true that you used to be an Iron Maiden fan? TS: “I still am! I grew up with rock music… Maiden, the Chili Peppers, Green Day and Metallica. Those early bands I played in were all ‘traditional rock’ – guitar, bass, drums, some acoustic stuff. I also sang in the choir at school and acted in musicals.”

“I started searching out music on Beatport and found it pretty tough at first – I grew up with loud guitars!”

: Obvious question, but how the hell did you end up making progressive house? TS: “When I was at uni, a friend of mine showed me Logic Studio, and he kinda made me understand that computers and music were more or less the same thing. There wasn’t this divide between the traditional music world over on one side and computers over on the other side – the two were living in the same space. “When I first saw sequenced drums, I just thought, ‘Wow… You can have drums that stay in time. That’s amazing!’ I guess that gave me a glimpse of the musical power that was available with a computer.

“The dance music epiphany came a little bit later when I was working at Costco. A friend of mine was big into things like Avicii, Deadmau5 and Swedish House Mafia, and he was really pushing me on this stuff. He kept saying, ‘You gotta listen to this, it’s amazing.’ “I started searching out music on Beatport and found it pretty tough at first – I grew up with loud guitars! But the more I listened, the more I understood. I would literally sit there for hours digging through different genres, working out how this music fitted together. One day I got it – it made sense. And progressive house was the one that really, really appealed to me.”

: With that rock background, wouldn’t it have been more logical to go for dubstep? Something a bit noisier and nastier? TS: “Maybe, but I was never that crazy about wobbles.” : Can you remember how you composed your first progressive house tune? TS: “Oh, man, those early days were just awful. It was a complete gong show. I knew I had to start with a 4/4 kick drum, but then what? I had no idea about synth sounds or anything like that. Last week, I dug out a few of those tracks and they are just a bunch of noises set to rhythms. “The big change came when I got hold of FL Studio and really learned my way around it. The piano roll and the sequencer in FL are just so simple, so intuitive and so quick that I was able to very easily transpose songs that I heard on Beatport into the computer. I’d pick them apart and re-assemble them using my own sounds, learning how to actually construct a song. “In many ways, dance music and electronic music mirrored what I knew in the rock world. The drums are the drums, the bass is the bass, the synths are the lead guitars, the organs and pads are the rhythm guitars. Music’s just music.” March 2014 / Computer musiC / 81

> interview / project 46 “It wasn’t ideal, but it didn’t cause problems for us because we’re both on the computer all the time anyway. The only thing that would’ve been different if he’d lived in Vancouver is that we’d have gone on more snack runs!”

© Loren Wohl

: You live 2700 miles from each other… How does songwriting work? TS: “Like I said, lots of Skype, lots of screen shares and lots of emails. Ryan brings bigroom ideas to a song, and I tend to work on the melodies. We both like to work with vocals and, in the early days, we were always messaging producers and singers, asking them if they’d got a vocal we could use. “I don’t know about everyone else, but I get ideas at the craziest times. I can be mowing my parents’ lawn and something pops into my head. I immediately run inside and stick it into FL. Maybe it will turn into something, maybe it won’t. One of the greatest pieces of advice that I’ve ever heard is: ‘All computers come with an Undo button.’ If you don’t like an idea, you don’t have to keep it.”

Thomas’ tips on getting your tracks noticed “I’m sure everyone’s heard the saying ‘the cream rises to the top’. To a certain extent, that’s true – if your track is good enough, someone will notice it. “But you’ve also got to put in the hours and effort to actually get it out there into the world. When I first started making my own tunes, I used to sit in my parents’ basement for hours and days at a time, just emailing every label and blog and website and magazine I could find. It was just simple hustling… ‘Hey, will you have a listen to my track?’ “Now I look after the Pancake Radio show, people are hustling me, and it’s interesting to see the quality of music that’s out there. Man, there are some sick

: Any reason you ended up on FL Studio? TS: “I’ve used most of the major platforms over the years. Logic has got all those exotic hot keys and can run a billion plugins; Ableton has 9000 chaining routes; I worked on Pro Tools and Cubase for several years… but FL Studio is just better for writing music. I can write on the FL piano roll faster than I can input notes on a MIDI keyboard! Sure, there are some annoying quirks with the bussing, but it loads in a heartbeat. It feels like a very light, agile platform.” : Are you up to version 11 with FL? TS: “I have got 11, and they’ve added tons of cool stuff, but they changed what the right-click does and messed around with some of the hot keys, which really confused me when I was writing. I actually emailed them about that. At the moment, I still use FL10 for writing and project work, and then transfer the whole thing into 11 for mastering. We use 11 for the radio show, too.” 82 / Computer musiC / March 2014

tunes being made, and I can’t understand why they aren’t being signed. There is also a lot of stuff that… Well, let me put it this way… There are two key things I think about when I’m listening to a song: the quality of the sound and the quality of the song. There’s no point in having something that sounds fantastic, but the song is so poor that no one will want to listen to it. “People worry too much about the production. Most of the time, it doesn’t matter; it doesn’t matter if you’re using presets; it doesn’t matter if the kick drum’s not quite right. All of those things can be tweaked at a later stage. What really counts is that you’ve got a strong song.”

: You mentioned Nexus earlier. Were you interested in other plugins in the early days? TS: “I didn’t have much, simply because I couldn’t afford it. I had some monitors, my laptop and that was about it. Oh, and any free sample packs I could find. It was only after I hooked up with Ryan and things started to happen that I started to extend the studio at bit.” : How did you two meet? TS: “We didn’t really ‘meet’. Like a lot of people, I started putting a few of my tracks online… SoundCloud, that kind of thing. I noticed I was getting a few followers and, almost out of nowhere, I got a track signed. From that point, a few more people started getting in touch with me, and one of them was Ryan. He lived right over on the other side of the country, but we seemed to be on the same wavelength. We said, ‘Let’s do something.’ There were a lot of hours on Skype, but we didn’t actually see each other face to face until we had our first gig.

: Progressive house is probably one of the most oversubscribed genres out there; there are literally millions of tracks floating around the world at any one time. How do you get a Project 46 tune to stand out? Do you know when you’ve written something good? TS: “There are tracks that sound good on the iPod and there are tracks that sound good in the club. We have written stuff that sounds mind-blowing on the iPod, but when it comes to playing it at a show, it does nothing. The trick is getting something that works in both situations, and to be honest, you never really ‘know’ if a track will cut it. Music is not a science – you just have to trust your instincts.” : You’ve worked with some incredible names over the last couple of years. Do you always learn something new when you’re collaborating with someone like Oakenfold or Kaskade? TS: “Music is about ideas. If you’ve got a good idea, then collaborations are usually a lot of fun. If you don’t have any ideas, they usually end in disaster. Working with Paul Oakenfold or Kaskade is so cool because there’s a ton of great ideas that get sent back and forth, back and forth. Oakenfold sent us some amazing sounds; I had no idea how he got them, but they were immediately inspiring. With Kaskade, we were sending stuff to each other for over a year, just enjoying the music. “Is there one particular tip or trick that we’ve picked up from every different collaboration? Probably not, but you are learning all the time. You learn just by talking to people and listening to their ideas.” : What’s the current 46 setup? TS: “Obviously, there are two different setups, but we both use FL Studio. I’m now running a custom-built desktop with ADAM A7Xs [main monitors], Yorkville YSM2Ps [secondary monitors] and a sub. Lots of samples, but [flicks through the folders on screen], most of them seem to come from the Vengeance and Hydrogen sample packs. “There are literally thousands of kicks and percussion sounds in the 46 folder, but I tend

project 46 / interview < to rely on the same two or three kick drums most of the time. If you find a kick that has a nice neutral tone and doesn’t clash with other bits of the song, it’s tempting to keep using it… with a few tweaks, of course. “Synth-wise, I’m a huge Sylenth1 fan, and I use a lot of Massive.” : Even though you don’t like wobbles? TS: “Ha! Yeah, it’s easy to see why Massive became the wobble-synth of choice – you can LFO everything 20 times over – but there is much more to Massive than LFOs. You can get great house basslines, incredible big-room synths… I’ve made some beautiful percussion sounds on there, some very angry synths. You can crisp up your existing synths, widen existing basslines. Look beyond the obvious and Massive is an endlessly useful tool. “On the production side, there’s iZotope Ozone 5. Take your pick from that… I love using the limiter and compressor; the multiband compression is faultless, and the Harmonic Exciter is great for crisping things up in the mix. “Most of our tracks go through a three-mix process. We mix as we’re writing, keeping everything to no more than about -6 or -8dB, with the lead synths around -12. Everything then gets exported as a set of 20 or so stems, and we master each stem individually. These are then mixed down into a new version of the track.

“That version gets sent off to Wired Masters [in London], and it comes back sounding tons better! We have had tracks that we’ve mixed ourselves and played in clubs, and we’ve said, ‘Yeah, that sounds great.’ We send it to Wired, it comes back and we think, ‘How come we can’t do that?’ “It’s not just about turning the bass up and making everything sound louder, it’s about finding some space, too. Hopefully, the way we mix helps when it comes to the final master. If we push everything to the max in the studio, it doesn’t leave the master anywhere to go. You simply can’t have everything at maximum all the time.” : People have tried! TS: “And they still do! We’ve done remixes, and we receive project files that are mixed to positive levels! This is big name artists we’re talking about. How can you mix something like that without it sounding like mush? “Sure, if that’s the kind of music you’re making, go for the Loudness Wars, but I like to hear some dynamic in a song, and I think you’re going to hear more people going back to that. Dance music needs some space.” Project 46’s collaboration with Laidback Luke, Collide, is out now on Mixmash – hear more, see more and find out more online at: www.project46.com

Selected kit list HARDWARE Custom-built PC ASUS Xonar Essence STX Grace Design m902 DAC ADAM A7X monitors Yorkville YSM2P monitors SOFTWARE reFX Nexus Dada Life Sausage Fattener LennarDigital Sylenth1 Native Instruments Massive iZotope Ozone 5 ValhallaDSP ValhallaShimmer Image-Line Gross Beat Camel Audio CamelPhat Hydrogen sample packs Vengeance sample packs

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reviews <

The latest computer music gear tested and rated! Our promise We bring you honest, unbiased appraisals of the latest computer music products. Our experts apply the same stringent testing methods to all gear, no matter how much hype or expectation surrounds it.

What the ratings mean 1-4 A seriously flawed product that should be avoided

5

This product’s problems outweigh its merits

6

88 LINPLUG SPECTRAL

A decent product that’s only held back by a few flaws

7

The German synth legends unleash a new instrument with tons of power and flexibility, but will it live up to our high expectations?

Solid. Well worth considering

8 Very good. A well-conceived and executed product

9 Excellent. First-rate and

90 Steinberg Cubase 7.5

among the best you can buy

10 Exceptional. It just doesn’t get any better than this!

92 Humanoid Sound Systems Enzyme

94 Waves J37 Tape

96 Slate Digital Trigger 2

98 MeldaProduction MMultiBandComb

99 UA Fairchild Tube Limiter Collection

100 LSR Audio VLB525

102 Elysia museq

104 Mini Reviews

Awarded to products that challenge existing ideas and do something entirely new

A product has to really impress us with its functionality and features to win this one

If the product exceeds expectations for its price, it will receive this gong

In the opinion of the Editor, the best product reviewed in the magazine this month


> reviews / linplug spectral Oscillator selector Select one of four oscillators – the shading indicates active, inactive and selected

Waveform Select and Mix View oscillator waveform A or B, or a mix of both

Symmetry and Phase Adjust the phase and symmetry of the oscillator

Oscillator cross modulation Amplitude, frequency or phase modulation, sourced from any of the oscillators or filters

Filter Adjust the settings for the main filter and the additional 18dB/octave lowpass in this section

Envelopes Each oscillator has its own amplitude envelope, and there are three more assignable envelopes and an overall output envelope

Filter Destination Route to any of the six shared effects or directly to the output

Mod Matrix Assign up to 15 modulations from a choice of 35 sources and over 100 destinations

Arpeggiator A 32-step arpeggiator/sequencer with all the typical settings as well as a ‘modulation only’ mode for use with the Mod Matrix

Effects Six effects slots, each routable to other effects or the output, enabling separate effects to be applied to each oscillator section

Sync Set any envelope to tempo sync mode by clicking the note button

Filter Envelope and LFO Each filter gets its own envelope, and five LFOs are also available for general assignment

LinPlug

Spectral $149 Combining subtractive sensibility with additive functionality, could this powerful new synth become a sound design hit? While some would say that spectral and additive synthesis are not quite the same thing, the terms are often used interchangably. So what is LinPlug’s latest plugin, Spectral (VST/ AU)? Well, it’s not an iZotope Iris-style spectral synth but instead one built on an additive architecture, fronted by a subtractive interface, making it easy to use but capable of potentially more interesting sounds than a virtual analogue. A Spectral patch starts with four oscillator sections, each with its own filter and amp/filter envelopes. Further modulation is on tap in the shape of three more envelopes and five LFOs, assignable in the modulation matrix. There are also six effects slots with 14 types, from regular Reverb, Delay, Flanger and Chorus to the more creative Gator, Wah-Wah, Filter and Crusher, plus a dedicated Master EQ. A powerful 32-step Arpeggiator with modulation-only mode, and a chord memory finish off the main furnishings. Each oscillator hosts two waveforms, 88 / Computer Music / March 2014

morphed into each other using the Mix control in order to create a final waveshape. Each wave is chosen from a library of 65 preset (but fully mix-and-matchable) pairs, including the familiar subtractive tropes, made by loading the same wave into each slot (Sine/Sine, Saw/Saw, etc), but dominated by more creative combos, ranging from the obvious (Pulse/Saw, Saw/ Triangle, etc) to the far more esoteric (Rich Saw/ Saw Bass, DblPulse/Spec Thin, etc). Many of these shapes draw directly on LinPlug’s Alpha and MorphoX synths and are named as such. As well as the waveform Mix knob, each of Spectral’s oscillators also allows adjustment of Detune, Stereo spread, Symmetry, Phase and up to six-voice unison. They also each feature two cross-modulation slots, with a choice of three types of modulation – Phase (PM), Amplitude (AM) and Frequency (FM) – sourced from any of the four oscillator or filter outputs. However, the big gun in Spectral’s oscillator arsenal is the

Spectral Editor, enabling you to precisely edit 256 harmonics for each wave and blend in other waveforms (see The Spectral/Filter Display).

Filter freak

The filter follows the same conceptual path as the oscillator, with cutoff and resonance augmented by two cross-modulation slots, enabling the filter frequency and resonance to be modulated by a signal sourced from any of the oscillators or filters. There are 57 preset filter shapes available, and again, these are fully editable in a graphical display that lets you shape a curve across 121 filter bands. You really can create any filter shape you like with this, which is obviously a very powerful feature. As Spectral has no mixer, the filter section is also where the output routing for each oscillator/filter block is specified. You can choose two simultaneous destinations – any of the six effects slots and/or the main output – and

linplug spectral / reviews <

“The synth is most at home producing evolving and textural sounds” mix them with a balance control. Spectral’s oscillator and filter are additively linked, rather than simply chained in series, and oscillator cross modulation can result in harmonics that won’t be quelled by the filter. To remedy this (should you wish to), an additional low-pass filter, LP+, is onboard.

Sounding off

Spectral comes with a library of over 850 presets divided up into a broad set of categories. The overarching flavour is very crisp and upfront – bouncy bass sounds, bell-like pads and keys, and even a serviceable set of synthetic drums. However, the synth is most at home producing evolving and textural sounds, thanks to the easy modulation of the oscillator waveform mix and the cross-modulation options. The majority of presets reside in the various pad, drone, ambient and effects banks, and the excellent arpeggiator and sequence patches also boast some lovely tones of a similarly organic nature. One brilliant inclusion is the Arpeggiator’s ‘modulation only’ mode, under which its Transpose, Length or Velocity output are used as modulation sources. This really pushes the sound designer towards highly animated textures rather than punchy, “static” sounds – although Spectral can do those too.

Feel the power

All of this additive power comes at a price: significant processing overhead. When editing shapes in the Spectral display, there’s a brief delay as the waveform or shape of the oscillator or filter is analysed and applied. It’s something you quickly get used to and indicative of the number-crunching going on. Multi-oscillator patches and high polyphony can be pretty taxing on the host system – but we can’t complain about a synth being designed with future CPUs in mind, as long as its sound warrants the DSP expenditure, which, in this case, it does. Other points of note are that there’s no noise generator (although the manual shows how to fake one), and that external audio resynthesis isn’t a feature. Also, with no centralised mixer or

Spectral’s 121-band filter editing is just one facet of its absolutely massive tweakability

The Spectral/Filter display Spectral enables detailed editing of oscillator waveforms and filter shapes via the Spectral/Filter display. Clicking in an oscillator waveform or filter shape window opens the appropriate editor. There are various features common to both, including the Frame tool, a cleverly designed system for isolating and manipulating a range of partials/ bands. You simply set the area encompasssed by the frame by dragging the edges inwards, then shape the edges and centre of the selected range using the handles at the sides of the frame. Alternatively, you can change the Edit Mode to limit drawn changes to specific groups of harmonics or

global filter, balancing oscillators and shaping the overall output is more hassle than it needs to be. Overall, Spectral probably isn’t a synth to be called on for bread and butter sounds, and its high resource usage could vex owners of older computers. But if the idea of hand-designing unique textures right down to the raw oscillator level appeals, with its friendly interface, easy learning curve and superb, characterful sound, Spectral could well be the synth for you.

bands (single, odd, even, or a defined pattern), or just shift the existing curve up and down by octaves for the oscillator, or octaves and semitones for the filter. Individual oscillator harmonics can also have their phase adjusted, and filter shapes or waveforms can be loaded from the library and merged into your edited shape in the editor. It’s truly awesome stuff, and incredibly easy to use – great for tweaking existing waveforms and filters or creating them from scratch. And with such limitless wave-shaping potential at your fingertips, you’ll frequently appreciate Spectral’s multi-step undo/redo function.

Alternatively Rob Papen Blade 178 » 8/10 » €119 An approachable additive with plenty of rich and sparkling sounds Image-Line Harmor Channel 174 » 9/10 » €110 Powerhouse additive synth offering resynthesis and many more features

Web www.linplug.com

Verdict For Great core-level oscillator options Layout disguises underlying complexity Amazingly flexible filter Powerful modulation Against CPU-hungry Not ideal for “standard” sounds No resynthesis The fun and accessibility of subtractive synthesis meets the power of additive in this beautiful if rather specialist instrument Surgically edit your oscillators’ frequency content to create powerful, bespoke timbres

8/10 March 2014 / Computer Music / 89

> reviews / steinberg cubase 7.5 Track Visibility Make tracks visible or not with the Visibility tab

TrackVersions Record and edit multiple versions of the same track

Audio Track This track is currently in Re-record mode, recording a new TrackVersion

Audio clip All recorded, imported and bounced audio now profits from automatic Hitpoint detection

LoopMash FX Brings stuttering, tapestop and more to your effects rack

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Quick Controls You can now save and load the Inspector’s Quick Controls settings

REVelation Cubase 7.5 comes with this exquisite algorithmic reverb

Steinberg

Re-record Lets you instantly jump back and re-record a part with a single click

Magneto II Give your tracks and mixes vintage authenticity with the new and improved version of Magneto

Cubase 7.5 £488 Without warning, the mighty German DAW gets upgraded with some exciting new features – but is this a point release worth paying for? The last-minute announcement of Cubase 7.5 was a nice surprise from Steinberg at the end of 2013. But can a point release offer enough to pry more of that hard-earned dough from our pockets? Surprisingly for a point upgrade (even a paid one), Cubase 7.5 comes armed with new instruments and effects designed to appeal to those new to the world of desktop recording, as well as the more experienced. However, it’s actually the less obvious tweaks and additions that are the real headlines here, as they represent truly significant improvements to Cubase’s long-standing core workflow. The new Re-record mode is a perfect example. With this active, you can hit the record button again during a recording to instantly start the recording over from the original position, count-in and metronome included (assuming you have them set up). It seems like a 90 / Computer Music / March 2014

fairly throwaway addition until you use it, after which you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it before, particularly if you’re engineering your own recording sessions – it saves a great deal of frustration and repeated hammering of the stop/delete/record keys. Although the record button on Steinberg’s iOS remote controller Cubase iC Pro doesn’t currently change its appearance to indicate

“It’s actually the less obvious tweaks and additions that are the real headlines here”

that re-record mode is active, you get the same result when controlling Cubase from the app nonetheless.

New view

Also new to v7.5, track visibility management works in a similar way to the mixer’s channel visibility management, allowing you to show or hide any tracks in the Arrangement view that you may or may not need to see at any given time. Again, it seems insignificant, but it’ll soon become a workflow essential for those working with large projects, doing a lot of rendering but wishing to retain access to MIDI clips, or working with remixes. The View Agents help you get the most out of the feature, giving specific commands for showing or hiding tracks based on various criteria – inverting the view status of all MIDI tracks, for example.

steinberg cubase 7.5 / reviews <

“All audio brought into the Pool (via recording, import or bouncing) is instantly subjected to Hitpoint detection” One of the most potentially transformative additions is TrackVersions. This enables you to create multiple versions of various track types that can be easily switched between within the track itself. Perhaps you want to record alternate lyrics for your vocal track, or present a few versions of a guitar solo for narrowing down later – TrackVersions allows you to store multiple takes or versions on a single track lane, without having to copy over the entire track and all its plugins wholesale, saving CPU and time. Not to be confused with comping Take Lanes, a TrackVersion actually includes all of the individual Takes and comping for that version. However, TrackVersions can easily be created, accessed, and switched from a dedicated area in the Inspector. Also in the “track-related features” category, you can now save and recall a track’s Quick Controls, and copy them over to other tracks, regardless of track type.

Scoring the hits

Cubase’s Hitpoints system has long enabled transient detection for loop manipulation, audio quantise and more. Prior to v7.5, using Hitpoints has involved selecting a target audio file and subjecting it to a process via menus or the sample editor. Now, all audio brought into the Pool (via recording, import or bouncing) is instantly subjected to Hitpoint detection. Better still, you can now navigate audio clips in the Project window by using key commands to jump to adjacent Hitpoints. It’s worth mentioning that Hitpoint detection is a calculation rather than a destructive process, meaning it has no audible effect on your track’s data unless you employ further processing, so no harm is done if you don’t need it – but it’s fantastic having it there instantly when you do. The formally schooled muso will be glad to learn that Steinberg have given the Score Editor a much-needed once-over, bringing in a new tabbed Inspector for switching between the regular musical symbols and newly-enhanced MIDI functionality. Very helpfully indeed, MIDI functions from the Key Editor have been added to the Score Editor, giving access to quantise,

Cubase’s new and improved Score Editor now offers useful MIDI functions in the Inspector

Our old friends Groove Agent and HALion Sonic SE have been given some slick new features in v7.5

On the rack The bundled plugin package has improved in recent versions of Cubase, and 7.5 is no exception. An overhauled old favourite returns in the shape of the Magneto II tape emulator, which now has a Dual mode to simulate running the signal through a pair of decks and the ability to specify the affected frequency range. LoopMash FX provides DJ-style processes like tape-stop, stuttering and gating. Fun, but we imagine its lean list of effects might grow tiresome quite quickly. REVelation is far more impressive, being a quality algorithmic reverb with oodles of control and a thick, rich sound plucked right out of a

transposition, length and chord editing. It really is the best of both worlds.

Point made

Some cynics have been quick to brush off this paid point upgrade as a hurried money-grab, but they’d be missing out on some excellent enhancements.. Cubase 7.5 has a lot to offer, and the upgrade fee is quite reasonable for what you get. Maybe it’s wishful thinking to expect all of Cubase’s bugs to have been ironed out, and some early adopters have reported carry-overs from version 7, but it performed very well for us on our test machines, never hiccuping, stuttering or crashing. The new features all worked as advertised, adding up to an easier and more enjoyable workflow than ever before. Those with plugin folders filled to bursting might not be fussed about the additions and enhancements to the bundled instruments and effects, but newcomers looking for an all-in-one solution will (some would say at long last) get it in Cubase 7.5. An unmissable upgrade for all Cubase 7 users, not to mention those still on earlier versions. Web www.steinberg.net Upgrade from v7, £41; from v6.5, £162

high-end studio rack. To our ears, this one’s clearly the best of the bundle. VST Connect SE 2 adds the ability to transfer MIDI as well as audio over the internet. HALion Sonic SE 2 gets some new features including a decent built-in synth (though we’re not sure why Cubase needs another virtual analogue). Groove Agent SE 4 qualifies as a major step up from the previous version, with its many new goodies including bit reduction, new effects and pattern tools. Oh, and the Instrument Rack itself has been beefed up with dedicated Quick Controls and direct integration with Instrument Tracks, allowing the latter to use multiple outs.

Alternatively Cockos Reaper 4 170 » 9/10 » $225 Cross-platform and well priced, but fewer fancy plugins and no scoring Ableton Live 190 » 9/10 » €349 Powerful and functional, but a very different environment to Cubase’s

Verdict For Track visibility management Automatic Hitpoint detection on all audio REVelation sounds fantastic MIDI integrated into Score Editor Re-record mode makes life easier TrackVersions are great Against Still a few longstanding bugs The best Cubase yet, 7.5 provides solid and impressive new features that belie the fact that this is merely a point version


> reviews / humanoid sound systems enzyme Wave Scope An animated wavetable display giving an indication of what’s happening to your sound as you work

Page Navigator Enzyme is spread across a handful of tabbed pages – be glad of it, as you wouldn’t want to try to take it all in at once!

Hammer Display The exciter that stimulates Enzyme’s “node” models into action. You decide the hammer’s shape and heaviness Centre Wave Display The Centre Wave is the shape towards which the centring force tries to push the nodes. You can use a sample here

Hammer Scale One of the parameters in the Hammer Group, this one determines how heavy a hammer is used to excite the nodes Num Osc Decide how Enzyme distributes the frequencies of its oscillators here. There’s the usual Unison mode, and a wide variety of more esoteric choices too Psycho Push this button at your peril! It removes the restrictions that prevent the wavetable from spinning out of control

FM Waveform Choose your FM modulator wave shape here – sine, square or saw

Masses Wave Display The Mass Shape defines the curve along which the nodes are distributed. This can be a sample, too

Humanoid Sound Systems Enzyme $49 Does your sonic taste tend towards the bizarre? If so, this new take on ‘scanned synthesis’ may satisfy your peculiar hunger When Humanoid Sound Systems unleashed their debut Scanned Synth Pro ( 128, 7/10), we were taken aback by its utter strangeness. Here was an instrument based on an obscure and underrepresented form of synthesis, and the sounds coming out of it were… well, almost too unfamiliar. Now, the developer has taken everything great about Scanned Synth Pro, upped the ante with all manner of new features, and further sweetened the pot with sample import. The result is Enzyme (VST/AU, with AAX in the works).

A scanner darkly

With some similarities to physical modeling, scanned synthesis starts with an exciter – in Enzyme’s case, a mathematically modeled “hammer” – that stimulates and continues to influence various “nodes”, which have mass but no size. The nodes are strung together, pushed 92 / Computer Music / March 2014

and pulled with “springs”. The hammer whacks the nodes and springs into action, and the pitches of the nodes are then seen as an ever-changing wavetable. Confused? Understandable. Fortunately, Enzyme’s intuitive interface invites experimentation, and it isn’t long before you’re knocking out interesting, unusual and, at times, quite musical timbres.

“Scanned synthesis starts with an exciter that stimulates and continues to influence various ‘nodes’”

The GUI is divided into four tabbed pages, each one sharing the same volume and stereo width knobs, as well as a waveform display and a trio of buttons labeled Psycho, Danger and Randomize. The last is self-explanatory, the first enables the wavetable to be driven out of control, making the sound harsher, weirder and more metallic (or sometimes having little discernible effect, depending on the patch), and the second adapts Scanned Synth Pro’s signal path for what the developer calls a “less refined” sound. The Master page includes controls for adjusting pitchbend, polyphony, tuning, tuning scale and portamento, plus 16 assignable Performance controls that can be tied to various parameters for quick and easy tweaking.

Chemical reaction

Then there’s the Synthesis page, on which you can adjust the heaviness of the striking hammer

humanoid sound systems enzyme / reviews <

“Radiophonic and industrial fans will love it, as will purveyors of IDM and dubstep” and its shape. You can also affect the node position’s update rate and the force of the springs, as well as their resting positions (Centre Wave). One of the most effective features is the Osc Freq setting, which allows you to choose various means of distributing frequencies. The options comprise Unison (slightly detuned), Harmonic (harmonically related), Harmonic Hammer (harmonic, with amplitude determined by current hammer shape), Mass Hammer (harmonically related, but oscillator amplitude determined by Mass shape) or Centre Hammer (harmonically related, with amplitudes calculated from current Centre waveform, unless a sample is involved). The Connection Matrix lets you determine how the nodes are connected by the springs, offering such mad choices as Small World Networks, Random, Circular, Bubbles and NextBut5, to name a few. Samples can be imported as Hammer, Masses or as the Centre wave. After all of that, Enzyme’s FM parameters seem downright familiar and friendly – and thankfully, so is the user manual. Ditto for the familiar matrix-style routing found on the Modulation page. Impressively, an unlimited number of modulators can be applied, meaning you can keep piling on LFOs, AHDSR envelopes, Note Property (pitch, velocity) and Audio Property (the amplitude and pitch of various signals) sources until your head explodes. A quick perusal of the presets will give you only a vague idea of what Enzyme can do. The factory patches are primarily experimental, tending towards sound effects and atmospheres, although there are a good number of leads, basses and pads, too – even standard fare like electric pianos and guitars exude a sort of inner electrical chaos. Radiophonic and industrial fans will love it, as will purveyors of IDM and dubstep.

Strange brew

Just how weird do you want to get? It used to be that synthesisers were all about creating new and never-before-heard sounds.

We’ve seen plenty of modulation matrices in our time, but very few with an unlimited number of sources

The spice of life! A variety of effects can be mixed and matched in any number or order you like

After effects It’s become a given that any synth released these days will include effects, and often they’re worth a cursory mention at best. However, Enzyme’s Effects page is a bit different. First of all, it’s where you’ll find some of the instrument’s only recognisable parameters, in that it also houses the dual multimode filters, which can be run in series or parallel. These have seven modes from which to choose – low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, notch, peak EQ, low shelf and high shelf – all sharing the same three controls: Cutoff, Drive and Bandwidth. The Effects Rack is very nice indeed. It may only comprise the basics – delay,

That was the impetus behind the early experimentalists, as well as the pop and r ock musicians who embraced the first commercially available synths – they were reacting against what they considered standard, played-out instrumentation. Yet somewhere along the way, synths became run-of-the-mill, as musicians began imitating their favourite sounds or simply gravitating towards popular preset patches. Now many developers cater to this retrofetishism with most if not all of their releases, churning out variations on an overplayed theme. Thus, we’re always inclined to champion any developer bold enough to stray from the well-trodden path – and even more so when their wares are priced reasonably enough to minimise the risk of disappointment to the intrepid customer. Enzyme is affordable enough for even the casual experimenter, who will bag themselves an instrument that challenges ideals and preconceptions and – although it might not at first be obvious – is capable of producing sounds of staggering beauty as well as kneewobbling, teeth-grating terror. For some of us, that’s all we’ve ever asked for. Web www.humanoidsoundsystems.com

reverb, distortion, flanger, etc – but you can pile on as many of them as you like, and chain them in any order. With each module boasting enough controls to provide a wide range of effects, it’s rather like having access to an infinite pedalboard. As we say, there’s nothing really new in the effects themselves – it’s the flexibility of the rack that gives them their power, enabling you to easily get everything from deep ambient groans to careening noisescapes, or work yourself into a meter-peaking feedback frenzy from which the only escape is to shut them off.

Alternatively Scanned Synth Pro 128 » 7/10 » $25 HSS’ previous ‘scanning’ synth is a good introduction to the technique Steinberg Padshop Pro 184 » 9/10 » £65 Another means by which samples are used to produce far-out timbres

Verdict For Unusual synthesis technique Excellent modulation options Superb Effects Rack A necessarily good manual Sample import and FM Great price Against The sound is not for everyone Might lead to head-scratching Scanned synthesis remains esoteric and unconventional, but Enzyme makes it easier, more powerful, and sonically better


> reviews / waves j37 tape

Waves

J37 Tape $249 Cloning a specific Studer tape machine from Abbey Road Studios, can this tape emulation stand proud alongside the likes of Satin and VTM? Tape deck emulations seem to be very much in fashion at the moment. Over the past few years, we’ve seen all kinds of machines and many types of tapes mimicked in software, and the quality of some of these has been nothing short of astounding. Waves’ latest is unique in the fact that it emulates the first ever Studer multitrack tape machine, built for – and subsequently modified by – Abbey Road Studios in 1965. If you know your recording history, you’ll appreciate the significance of this particular unit, which recorded many a classic record, including The Beatles’ seminal Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Tape it down

J37 Tape (VST/AU/RTAS/AAX) emulates the fundamental qualities of that very machine, including controls for Wow and Flutter (Rate and Depth), Noise Level and Saturation amount. It runs a selection of three emulated oxide tape formulae at either 15ips or 7.5ips: the 815 from the 70s (clean but characterful), the 811 from the mid 60s (slightly less sharp and more distorted), and the 888 from the early 60s (quite grubby in comparison to the other two). The audible differences between the three tapes are pretty subtle (especially on the cleaner 15ips mode, and even more so if you don’t drive the input level), but that’s reflective of the real thing. And

this is, after all, a plugin more suited to the tone connoisseur than the casual producer just looking for a quick, obvious fix. Exploring the presets makes it obvious that the delay section is one of the most valuable parts of the J37, expanding the sonic palette on offer from gentle saturation and colouration to wild delay effects (see Delays Expected). In this respect, the J37 reminds us of Waves’ Kramer Master Tape, which features a similar variety of presets – although the J37 is certainly a lot cleaner, brighter and harder-sounding than the Kramer. In fact, the plugin has a nice general tone to it, regardless of which tape formula is selected. It does a good job of making whatever you run through it sound slightly firmer and more present. Sometimes it can be quite hard in the upper-midrange in a way that we haven’t heard in other tape plugins. And it’s a sensitive beast: push it even a little too hard and the resulting effect can be quite irritating – but then hard, driving distortion wasn’t a desirable mix characteristic in the 60s, hence the Bias settings for reducing the level of distortion. J37 Tape probably isn’t an effect you’ll want to splash all over every channel unless you’re specifically emulating a 60s-flavoured mix – in which case you’d better have a pretty fast computer, since it demands more CPU power than other, similar plugins. Having not worked in

Delays expected Tape delay has long been a favourite effect of mixing engineers. J37 Tape’s delay section features three distinct modes for recreating a selection of classic effects: Slap, Feedback and Ping-Pong. Since the basic tape saturation usually works best when used subtly, we reckon the addition of a delay section is a huge asset to the plugin. But why not just use a regular digital delay line? Well, the juicy character of the tape emulation is enhanced further in the 94 / Computer Music / March 2014

delay path by the inclusion of high- and low-pass filters that cause the signal to sort of “disintegrate” over time. The results sound really cosy and mix-friendly – you never get the feeling that the delay is intruding on the space of the source sound, but rather that it’s sitting behind and complementing it. Waves have also provided the option to run the plugin in either Insert mode or Send/Return mode, the latter muting the dry signal.

Abbey Road Studios in the 60s, it’s hard for us to judge how closely it replicates the nuances of the real thing, but we can say that, applied lightly, J37 Tape definitely evokes at least some of the essence of the classic records that were recorded with its hardware ancestor. Web www.waves.com

Alternatively u-he Satin 198 » 10/10 » $154 The king of flexible tape effects, but a different character to J37 Tape Waves Kramer Master Tape N/A » N/A » $200 A similar offering with softer highs and a darker, fuller overall tone

Verdict For Flexible as a delay effect Good tape compression Authentic tape hiss Easy to use Against Needlessly bulky interface Very taxing on the host CPU Not the best tape emulation out there Yet another tape emulation, with a solid vintage character and great delay implementation

7/10

> reviews / slate digital trigger 2

Slate Digital

Trigger 2 $199 The new version of this drum triggering plugin boasts even more precise triggering and comes bundled with a powerful sample library Slate Digital’s original Trigger plugin ( 153, 10/10) already represented the state of the art, enabling a high degree of accuracy in triggering samples from recorded drum tracks – a common studio technique used to embolden the sound of acoustic drums by mixing them with sampled ones (or even to replace them altogether). Trigger 2 (VST/AU/RTAS/AAX) builds on the precision and features of its predecessor and is a free upgrade for existing users. Trigger 2 comes in EX and Platinum editions, the only difference being that the former includes a much reduced sample library. You use the plugin by inserting it onto a channel in your DAW and feeding it a drum track containing a single close-mic’ed drum kit element – so, kick, snare or tom mics – that you want to replace. The replacement samples come either from the supplied library or your own collection, and you can now load up to eight of them for velocity layering or simultaneous triggering, rather than the six of v1. Initial setup tweaking begins with the Detail knob, which should really be called “Threshold”, as it sets the input level at which the triggering takes place. The Leakage Suppression feature is handled by feeding the target track into Trigger 2’s left input and the source(s) of the problem bleed into the right input – useful in ensuring that strong snare hits coming through the kick drum mic don’t get misinterpreted as kick hits,

for example. The engine intelligently analyses the difference between the two to suppress the bleed on the target signal. Leakage Suppression isn’t new to version 2, but the engine has been improved to make triggering more accurate, and the Sensitivity knob can be used to make even greater distinction between grace notes and bleed. It’s a resoundingly successful system – in our testing, it handled a snare track on which the hi-hat spill seemed louder than the delicate snare detail with aplomb.

Take aim…

The trigger signal can be further refined using the low- and high-pass filters, which are useful for rolling off general boom and rumble from loose toms and kicks, or for cutting out top-end transients from bleeding hi-hats on the snare, thus tightening the triggering accuracy. With a range up to 100ms, Retrigger is the final refinement tool, setting the minimum time that needs to pass before the next trigger event is allowed through, thus preventing unintended flamming and stray double hits. Once you’ve got your triggering set up, you can focus on the dynamics. As mentioned, each of the eight sound slots can be assigned a velocity range for grading softer and harder sounds. Each slot also has an ASR envelope and a knob for scaling the dynamic range of the replacement sound relative to the level of the

trigger signal. It takes time to set all of this up, but the quality of results are absolutely amazing. There’s also an impressive new noise gate feature, driven by the detected hits but applied to the dry, mic’ed signal (which can be blended in with the triggered sound with a dry/wet mix control), enabling incredibly tight and accurate gating when set up correctly. Also new for v2 is MIDI input/output. While Trigger 2 might not be the most radical update ever (it is a free one, after all), it’s on the inside that the big changes have been made. The precision with which it defines, captures and replaces drum tracks is intelligent and effective to the point of feeling magical. Web www.stevenslatedrums.com Info Trigger 2 EX, $99

Alternatively WaveMachine Labs Drumagog 5 159 » 8/10 » $89-379 A huge sound library, but lacking the pinpoint precision of Trigger 2 Steinberg Cubase 7.5 201 » 9/10 » £488 Some DAWs offer basic yet useful triggering – Cubase is one of them

Verdict Loading the barrel Trigger 2 Platinum comes bundled with a wide selection (2.3GB) of Steven Slate acoustic drum samples (mostly with an American rock bias) recorded to 2" tape through vintage analogue gear. They do indeed sound expensive and have been endorsed by many top mix engineers. The sounds are arranged into presets, which can be loaded from the built-in browser for instant dynamically layered multisampled drums. You can use your 96 / Computer Music / March 2014

own samples, too, but they have to be transferred into the assigned root folder and loaded via the browser. While there’s no drag-and-drop facility from OS X Finder or Windows Explorer, if you’re building multisamples from your own library, you can save them as presets for future use. Each slot has pan, tune, fader and phase controls for balancing the drums, as well as an envelope for each sample to help contain wayward decay tails.

For Amazingly precise triggering Bleed suppression is incredible Works as a terrific gate too Two more sample slots than version 1 MIDI output for triggering other sources Against No drag and drop of samples The definitive drum replacement system gets even better, with an improved engine, more slots and MIDI in/out. Stunning.

10/10

> reviews / meldaproduction mmultibandcomb

MeldaProduction

MMultiBandComb $49 If you’re searching for something a little out of the ordinary, this wacky new filter plugin could be just what you need MeldaProduction have gradually expanded their core multiband technology into ever more interesting territory, the latest area of operation being that of the comb filter. Melda’s standardised MMultiBand architecture (on which over 20 of their plugins are now based) features up to six independent frequency bands, four global modulators, smart randomisation, auto gain compensation, limiting, adjustable upsampling (x1-16) and various channel setup options including mid/side and surround. How is this implemented with regard to comb filtering in MMultiBandComb (VST/AU), then? Well, you get four filters per band, configured in series or parallel, with controls comprising fundamental frequency, feedback, high-pass filter, low-pass filter, gain, pan, limiter attack and release, and individual channel phase inversion for both the main and feedback signals. Filter frequencies can be adjusted in the display at the bottom of the interface, where you can also drag the handles around to adjust gain and panning. The multiband side of things is dealt with in the upper display. You can adjust crossover frequencies and band levels, and mute, solo and bypass each band. Further settings, including crossover type (Analogue, Linear Phase and Hybrid) and slope can be found in the Settings. The four global modulators (at the bottom) can be used to modulate the crossovers or pretty much any other parameters, while for

quick editing, you can assign multiple parameters to each of the four Multiparameter sliders.

Sounds interesting

Comb filtering an audio signal – particularly when control is given over to the feedback level – results in a distinctive, metallic, ringing sound that can be a bit too colourful for most musical applications. However, with the multiband setup enabling independent processing of discrete user-defined frequency ranges, it’s easy to take control of the effect and make it more mix-appropriate. MMultiBandComb’s presets include 4-, 5- and 6-band patches, as well as single-band ones. Some of the latter sound not unlike spring reverbs, while the multiband presets vary from ringy to phasey to flangey and beyond. Testing MMultiBandComb on pitched sounds, we found that if we kept the filters away from the note frequencies and steered towards the higher frequencies instead, we could add fabulously edgy metallic top end – great for pads and leads. However, truth be told, MMultiBandComb works best on unpitched material – ie, drums and percussion. Here, the filter resonance can add pitches that weren’t there before, and through careful tuning of the filter frequencies, it’s quite possible to give loops and beats completely new musical purpose matched to the key of your track. For fine-

Comb filtering, flanging and phasing Comb filtering involves combining a signal with a slightly delayed version of itself, resulting in some frequencies cancelling each other out and others being reinforced, creating the characteristic “comb” shaped frequency response graph. These peaks and troughs follow a harmonic series, so the process differs from phasing, whereby a non-linear phase response is established. The best way to describe the sound of comb filtering is hollow with obvious 98 / Computer Music / March 2014

resonances. The overall effect and the pitch of the resonances is very dependent on the delay time and the frequency content of the original sound. Anything from 1ms to 35ms should work, being fast enough for the sound to still be perceived as one signal. Longer than 35ms and it begins to be perceived as two separate sounds. As an aside, slowly modulating the delay time results in flanging, with its characteristic “jet plane” effect.

tuning, bands can be bypassed or dry/wetbalanced, and with a global dry/wet control also on hand, MMultiBandComb can be subtle, too, if you want it to be. On the downside, the CPU hit can get pretty hefty, although the Oversampling and internal Resolution settings can be adjusted to help keep that in check. With MMultiBandComb, Melda have delivered yet another high-quality, tightly focused plugin with some excellent presets and enough depth to bring a smile to the face of even the most jaded sound designer. Web www.meldaproduction.com

Alternatively Ohm Force Quad Frohmage 57 » 9/10 » €99 A perennial favourite featuring a range of comb filter presets MeldaProduction MComb N/A » N/A » Free If you don’t need the multiband options, Melda’s single-band comb filter is in their free effects bundle

Verdict For Flexible multiband design Interactive graphical displays Extensive modulation options Easy but powerful interface Affordable Against CPU hit can be heavy Very specific effect For special effects and considered background usage, MMultiBandComb is a powerful, colourful sound design tool

8/10

universal audio fairchild tube limiter plug-in collection / reviews <

Universal Audio

Fairchild Tube Limiter Plug-in Collection $299 The rejuvenation of previously modeled classic processors for UAD systems continues with two of the all-time greats The classic Fairchild tube compressor/limiter was first modeled by Universal Audio back in 2004, but due to the limited DSP of the UAD-1 system and the less sophisticated modeling technology of the day, the transformer and I/O distortion weren’t included. This new Fairchild Collection (VST/AU/RTAS) for UAD-2/Apollo comprises new emulations of the Fairchild 660 and 670, as well as the original (now called Legacy) 670. Faithfully modeled on units housed at Ocean Way Studios, these new reproductions employ an up-sampling technique that, while sonically superior, results in greater latency than the Legacy version. Although the 670 was a stereo unit and the 660 was mono, UA’s software versions both work as mono or stereo plugins, depending on what type of channel you put them on. This is definitely a plus, as each model sounds and behaves in a subtly differently way. The 670, however, has additional stereo capabilities, and is capable of mid/side, left/right stereo and dual mono operation. By nature, valve compression is soft-kneed, but the width of the knee – ie, how quickly the input above the threshold approaches limiting – can be controlled using the DC Threshold pots. Additional niceties that weren’t found on the hardware include convenient linking of the controls, filtering the sidechain signals of low frequencies for smoother operation, mixing

between wet and dry signals for parallel compression, and controlling the output level. Perhaps the best one, though, is the tiny Headroom pot, which lets you control the internal operating range and thus the amount of colouration applied. Apart from the dedicated stereo ones, the 660 has a very similar control set. Both also offer a selection of six preset Attack/Release times, the first four going from fast to slow, and the last two with fixed attack times and automatic release dependent on the envelope of the input signal.

Two of the best

The Legacy 670 is a favourite with many producers for its smooth and invisible level control, particularly on vocals and basses, and A/B-ing it with the new models reveals that they’re all remarkably similar in that capacity. Where the new ones differ sonically is in their colouration. It’s difficult to describe… it’s not necessarily “warmth”, although vocals seem fatter. You could call it glue, but that doesn’t cover it fully either. Essentially, it imparts more fullness, substance and – dare we say it – 3D space. The 670 is the easier of the two on transients, making it slightly more aggressive, while the 660 has more total gain on the input, allowing lower thresholds to be set for more colourful compression artifacts. Each has its

Lateral thinking The Fairchild is one of the few vintage compressors that fully deserves the epithet “legendary”. Introduced in the 50s, it was intended as a mastering compressor, but it quickly found a place in the recording studio thanks to its very musical valve tone. The more well-known of the two Fairchild models, the 670 is a stereo compressor with mid/side operation – a feature known as Lateral/Vertical back then, referring to the grooves of a vinyl record. By judiciously

compressing side and mid signals separately, louder signals and longer playing times could be achieved. Nowadays, this isn’t a factor for most producers, of course, but M/S compression still has a place both in the mastering studio – often for correcting dodgy mixes – and during the recording and mixing process, for emphasising or narrowing stereo spread, or reducing the level of the centre signal (on drum kit overheads, for example).

own vibe and both sound amazing. The new models look much more like the original hardware, too, and give more detailed control than the Legacy version. Those with good ears will appreciate the broader palette of saturation colours. And if you’ve had the privilege of using an original hardware Fairchild, you’ll definitely get a familiar feeling from this pair, delivering full, assured and musical tones that can ultimately add up to a great mix. Web www.uaudio.com

Alternatively Waves PuigChild 660 & 670 N/A » N/A » $400 More comparable in tone to the Legacy UAD version, and rather more expensive IK Multimedia Vintage Tube Compressor/Limiter model 670 N/A » N/A » 80 CS Credits A popular, cheaper alternative, available through the T-RackS Custom Shop

Verdict For Classic valve tones and colours Smooth compression Headroom feature to control colouration Both units run in stereo and mono mode Against Subtle tonal improvement may not be appreciated by all A marked improvement over the already impressive original UAD Fairchild emulation, this dynamic duo hits the spot

8/10


> reviews / lsr audio vlb525

LSR Audio

VLB525 $159 Does this emulation of a classic 70s feedback compressor successfully capture the individuality and character of its sound? Until now, LSR Audio have focused on original analogue-inspired plugins. VLB525 (VST/AU/RTAS/AAX) sees them moving into classic emulation, being a full-on virtualisation of API’s classic 525 desk compressor. VLB525’s main panel (on the left side) looks very similar to the API original, while the supplementary right-hand panel adds extra functionality, including adjustable attack and stereo linking, level calibration and an overall Analog level control for hum and noise. The plugin can be deployed as a 2:1 ratio compressor (C Mode) or a 20:1 ratio limiter (L Mode) with four Release settings (0.1s, 0.5s, 2s and 2.5s). The In(put) level controls the threshold, while the Out(put) control handles make up gain. The circuit can also be used in de-esser (D-S) mode, whereby a fixed EQ curve is applied to the sidechain. Working in conjunction with the Input control, the Ceiling knob fine-tunes the threshold and gain make up (see below). Just below the Mode (ratio) setting, the Off switch bypasses the gain reduction but leaves both the output amp and transformers in line, delivering the sound of the circuitry without the compression. And rounding things off is a tiny gain reduction VU meter, the ballistics of which are independent of attack and release times. The VLB525 follows a feedback topology, with the sidechain tapped post gain reduction. This results in a slightly more laidback response

than a feedforward (pre gain reduction) design. However, as you dig deeper, the 525 reveals even more idiosyncrasies. The best way to approach it is to select a very low Ceiling – 2, say – with one of the faster Release times, then adjust the Input threshold to achieve the desired gain reduction and bring the level back up using the Output gain. That’s your basic compression.

Giving feedback

The fun begins, though, when you gradually increase the Ceiling to introduce more and more gain reduction, which is compensated by the automatic internal gain make up. As you approach the highest settings, things start to get pretty strange, with the signal pumping in weird and wonderful ways. The release stage of the original hardware is frequency-dependent (higher frequencies are released faster) and that could be what’s happening here; but also, very fast transients seem to slip through slightly and give a bit of extra push to the auto gain make up. So, sharp, short sounds actually become louder and snappier at the very highest Ceiling settings, but are far more pumping and coloured at the mid to high ones. It’s an intriguing architecture that ultimately breaks down into three very distinct flavours as you step through the Ceiling settings. The behaviour can be tweaked further using the Input threshold – and the settings are

Raising the roof The 525 has a very novel threshold and gain make up system governed by the multifunctional Ceiling knob. This controls gain reduction and gain make up, meaning that as you turn it to the right, the threshold lowers, the gain reduction increases and the gain make up is modified accordingly. This way of functioning enables a constant level to be maintained while the amount of compression is adjusted. The Input threshold and manual gain make up 100 / Computer Music / March 2014

(Out) controls also have a bearing on all this, of course. The Ceiling knob is detented, with 11 discrete settings, and at 0 no compression is applied. Unlike the original hardware, there’s no helpful “Less” and “More” labeling on the dial, so until you get used to the way it works, it can be a tad confusing. Finally, at the highest Ceiling settings, the VLB525 can go beyond pumping into almost brickwall behaviour.

very sensitive, so care needs to be taken. The ability to run VLB525 in Off mode just for colouration is useful, but all level controls are bypassed, so you have to adjust the input signal level to control the amount of drive applied. The de-ess option is too subtle for vocal de-essing but great at softening harsh signals like cymbals. LSR have done a solid job with VLB525, capturing the character of the original and expanding on its functionality. It needs to be understood, though, that it does require rather more skill on the part of the engineer than other, more forgiving classic compressor/limiters. Web www.lsraudio.com

Alternatively Waves API 2500 N/A » N/A » $400 Flexible API-endorsed plugin with feedback and feedforward options Tokyo Dawn TDR Feedback Compressor II N/A » N/A » Free If funds are tight, check out this excellent feedback-style freebie

Verdict For Super-fast response Great compression flavours More flexible attack than the original ‘Off’ adds flavour without compressing Against Can be tricky to get into Not cheap No parameter legending on knobs A character compressor with a unique flavour and capable of great results, so long as you can get the hang of it

8/10

Meet the ultimate synth icon

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£1.99

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Available now from the iPad apps of

> reviews / elysia museq

Elysia

museq $249 Hard becomes soft as these boutique outboard manufacturers port another of their high-end boxes to the digital domain Hardware manufacturer Elysia are known in discerning production circles for their excellent studio dynamics and EQ processors. Some of their units have already been converted to equally excellent plugins, and now it’s the turn of museq. This five-band EQ and filter plugin (VST/AU/ RTAS/AAX) comes in Master and Mix versions, and for this review we’re focusing primarily on the Master version. See Mix or master for info on the differences between the two. museq’s middle three bands are notch EQs with two Q settings available: Wide (1.3) and Narrow (0.5). The Gain controls switch between boost and cut modes, offering a higher degree of precision than a standard combined control with half of its range dedicated to each. The highest and lowest bands can be toggled between shelving and cut modes, the latter effectively turning museq into a high-/low-pass filter with a small resonant peak around the cutoff frequency. Used purely as a filter, in fact, it sounds lovely and is equally effective for both mixing and creative uses. The centre section houses controls for output level, separate bypass for the left and right channels, mid/side and left/right operation modes, and Link on/off. Finally, the Warm setting models an analogue slew-rate limiter, very subtly softening sharp transients. For most electronic and pop mastering, you’d think this

would be an undesirable feature, but the effect is quite gentle, so it can be good for bringing overly punchy sounds down a bit. Perhaps more usefully, though, it does a great job of softening individual mix elements to create a subtle sense of separation. To keep the signal quality as high as possible, museq uses varying levels of oversampling, depending on the host project sample rate: under 50kHz it uses 4x, at 51-100kHz it uses 2x, and for rates higher than 100kHz, oversampling is disabled.


Web www.plugin-alliance.com

museq to our ears

museq sounds, as the name suggests, notably musical and – to cut to the chase – absolutely superb. The quality of its output is perfectly transparent, but with a touch of warmth in the bottom end that doesn’t suck out any punch or clarity. Meanwhile, the calibration and design – lifted directly from its hardware parent, of course – make for a wonderfully flexible, smooth EQ that’s perfect for adding life to any sound without introducing unwanted harshness. Graphical EQ plugins with frequency analysers have all but become the norm in recent years, but many producers still appreciate the purer, listening-based approach of the old-school “knob array”. We aren’t about to take sides in this debate as it’s very much a matter of opinion, but we will say that we really enjoyed using

Mix or master museq comes in two versions, each a separate plugin: Master and Mix. Master offers greater stereo control with its choice of standard stereo operation or mid/side mode. In both cases, the EQ can be set to Linked mode or run unlinked for independent control of each channel. The most basic way of describing mid/ side mode is that it “decodes” the stereo signal into the mid (present equally in both speakers – the mono signal, essentially) and

museq’s traditional-style interface. If we had any suggestions for improvement, they’d simply be to add input and output meters (as modern plugin insert paths are so easy to overload), and band solo buttons, which would be useful and creatively beneficial. Such minor points made, though, no matter what kind of music you’re making, museq would make a truly luxurious (in both the price and quality sense of the word) addition to your plugins folder.

sides (the components of the signal that differ between left and right) elements. The mid component generally brings the attack and weight, while side gives the sound that sense of space and location. Switching between M/S and L/R is mainly there for mastering purposes, hence the simplified Mix version. Sometimes, though, you might want to use the Master version on a stereo channel at the mixing stage to increase or decrease stereo width.

Alternatively Maag Audio EQ4 N/A » N/A » $229 Not a big all-rounder, but its Air control beats museq’s High band Fabfilter Pro-Q 148 » 9/10 » £124 For a more high-tech approach, this EQ offers more features and bands

Verdict For Gorgeous sound Nice design Master and simplified Mix versions Mid/side operation Fine control Versatile Against No level meters Not an essential purchase, but a very worthwhile indulgence for those in need of a highly flexible, brilliant EQ

9/10

FROM THE MAKERS OF

> reviews / mini reviews

mini reviews

A rapid-fire round-up of sample libraries, ROMplers and more Sinevibes

Torsion 2

$49

Web www.sinevibes.com Format Mac

In our review of the original Torsion in 191, we scored Artemiy Pavlov’s intriguing Audio Units hybrid monosynth 8/10, highlighting its deep modulation setup, versatile additive oscillators and nifty Chaos oscillator. Now, less than a year later, version 2 (a free update for registered users of v1) is with us, heralding a significant number of improvements. The most obvious change is the GUI, which has been redesigned to bring it in line with Sinevibes’ current streamlined ethos. It’s calmingly grey, covered in legending (making it much easier to use) and does away with the previous dotted-line controls in favour of regular sliders and text-based LFO rate descriptors. While the animated LFO wheels have been lost in the simplifcation process, at least the oscillator levels are now reflected in the waveform displays, which may be more useful. The oscillators now each feature fine pitch control and three octaves of pitch modulation

range, while the LFOs can be run at 1/48 rate and have a mad new trapezoid wave option. Perhaps the most significant new addition, though, is a pair of allnew effects modules. Distortion is satisfyingly comprehensive, offering adjustment of bit depth and sample rate, as well as analogue-style saturation and a wicked modulatable Bode frequency shifter. Delay is similarly well-conceived, with the Modulation slider introducing chorusing, the combined low-/high-pass filter enabling a good degree of tail frequency shaping, and Feedback and mix controls onboard. Just like everything else in the Sinevibes catalogue, Torsion is focused, quirky, surprisingly intuitive and genuinely different. It’s

perhaps not the most flexible synth in the world, but it sounds ace, particularly when put to work on “character” basses, leads and effects – analogue with a digital edge. And with its new GUI, improved oscillator control, and tasty effects modules, version 2 makes it even more appealing a proposition than it was already. n8/10n

vertical column can be triggered as a group. A modicum of manipulation is on hand, starting with the circular control pad in each slot. Here, you can stutter the audio at 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and 1/32 resolution, scratch the waveform vinyl-style, and apply a tape-style slow/stop effect via a button that has to be held to work (oddly, the per-column equivalents are toggled). Volume and pan are adjusted in the slotcontextual Inspector column on the left, which also hosts a decent enough low-pass/high-pass filter with X/Y controller. Performances can be recorded as audio and uploaded to Dropbox. ScratchPad HD is not a serious production tool, but nonetheless, it needs more effects; and when importing your own loops, as there’s no timestretch function, you have to hope that the app reads the tempo correctly, rather than

doubling or halving it. This isn’t the only loop player on the App Store with this problem, but we expect better from a developer of Cakewalk’s stature. Ultimately, ScratchPad HD is a very casual experience indeed. Looking on the bright side, now that Cakewalk have dipped their coding toes into the iOS waters, we hope they’ll wow us with more serious and practical apps. n6/10n

Cakewalk

ScratchPad HD

£5

Web www.cakewalk.com Format iPad

When we heard that Cakewalk’s iOS debut was a tempo-synced loop player rather than any sort of Sonar spin-off or controller, we were a little disappointed. Hopefully, something along those lines is on the to-do list, because ScratchPad HD feels like a directionless attempt to get a foothold in the App Store and flog some IAP. ScratchPad HD gives you nine sample slots into which audio clips from a small categorised library (Drum and Bass, Dubstep, Hip Hop, etc), five £1.99 IAP expansion packs and your Dropbox account can be loaded. Slots can be swapped by dragging, although we experienced quite a few crashes doing that (amongst other things). Samples can be played looped or oneshot, and there are three trigger modes to choose from: Normal, Momentary (the sample plays back until the play button is released) and Re-Trigger (the sample restarts every time the play button is pressed). Individual slots can be set to trigger in accordance with the global quantise Resolution or have their own sync settings established; and the three clips in each


mini reviews / reviews <

Sonic Academy

Kick

£25

Web www.sonicacademy.com Format Mac/PC

Following their impressive debut plugin, the ANA synth, and developed in conjunction with Dutch house DJ/producer Nicky Romero, Kick aims to be the ultimate kick drum generator – Sonic Academy describe it as a “game-changer”. With its independently handled click (sampled) and sub (synthesised) sections, Kick packages the age-old concept of treating your kick drum attack and sustain elements as separate entities into a friendly, straightforward plugin (VST/AU). 180 click samples are onboard, covering a wide range of categorised flavours (Hard, Noise, Live, etc), 32 of them from Romero’s personal collection. You can load your own samples, which get rolled into saved preset files for portability. Static adjustment of the click sample is limited to volume and pitch, and it can be muted/soloed for easy auditioning. Three multi-breakpoint envelopes (with no apparent limit to the number of breakpoints that can be added) enable shaping of the Click

volume, sub Amp(litude) and sub Pitch over time. Handily, each breakpoint in the latter envelope is tagged with its pitch (both note name and frequency), and sections can be curved by dragging. Each envelope also has a Length slider that sets its duration (50-3000ms). Kick is intended for generating raw kick drums rather than fully processed ones, so it’s not exactly bursting with effects. You get a limiter, a single-band cut/boost EQ and a searing Distortion module to apply to just the sub or both the sub and click. The Keytrack switch activates pitched playback, making the plugin good for sub-bass tones, too. The Gate switch forces Kick to acknowledge MIDI note length, keeping the sound’s length constrained to your preference. Kick definitely fulfils its brief of making electronic kick drum design fun and fruitful.

SPC Plugins

Gater-Pro 3

With the synth being just a sine wave generator, it’s also very easy to use. Even so, the lack of a manual needs addressing. It often feels like a bit more EQ wouldn’t go amiss, either, although given the price, that’s not a major omission. A game-changer? Of course not, but certainly an excellent tool for building kicks from scratch. n8/10n

UVI $39

UVX-10P

£78

Web www.spcplugins.com Format Mac/PC

Web www.timespace.com Format Mac/PC

SPC’s VST/AU “trancegate” plugin is a gate sequencer that can be run in 16-step split (independent patterns for the left and right channels) or 32-step linked stereo modes. Three basic gate envelope shapes are on offer (square, triangle and saw), each of which can be “skewed” by dragging the Shape graphic. Two Tied modes set strings of tied notes triggering the gate to conventional “100% open” behaviour (Fill), or with the envelope applied across the length of the series (Stretch). This is one of GP3’s best features, introducing a level of rhythmic expression that your average trancegate can’t match. Beyond that, you’ve got Rate (1/4 to 1/128), Mix and Swing controls, a Randomise function and buttons for activating and deactivating all steps and turning all Ties on (but not off, for some reason). Gater-Pro 3 is a fabulous little plugin – simple in concept but powerful in realisation, and highly recommended to producers of all kinds of dance music, not just trance. n9/10n

The sequel to UVI’s UVX-3P Roland JX-3P emulation, UVX10P is fuelled by 9GB of samples of Roland’s JX-10, JX-8P (half a JX-10) and MKS-70 (rackmount JX-10) synths from the late 80s, both with and without chorus, and including all the raw waves. Mercifully, the interface (housed in the free UVI Workstation of MOTU MachFive) is modeled on the PG-800 programmer, rather than the hideously impractical JX/MKS fascia, and UVI have added to it with their usual niceties – step sequencer, LFO, phaser, delay, etc. Although clearly not meant to be a 1:1 facsimile of the original, the removal of the dual LP/HP filter for a conventional (but lovely) multimode design feels like a bit of a loss. The JX-10 (or Super JX) was one of the most acclaimed analogue polysynths of its day, and UVI have done a stunning job in capturing it’s warmth, power and essence. The 150+ presets (“tediously crafted”, according to the website) deliver a ton of solid starting patches, and programming your own is a cinch – it’s hard to get a bad sound out of the thing, in fact. n8/10n


> reviews / mini reviews

Soundware round-up Zero-G

Drumdrops

Critical Mass £60

Royal Drops £35-60

Over 700 samples and sampler patches make up this epic library of construction kits, loops, hits and lengthy “textural beds”, put together with sci-fi and horror sound design in mind. Packed with bells, clangs, ambiences, whooshes and other FX/riser/impact type sounds, though, Critical Mass also succeeds as an expansive resource for electronic music producers.

Drumdrops’ latest “album” of complete drum tracks (available as loops, mixed stems and multitrack sessions for numerous DAWs) is in a 70s soul style. Vintage mics and gear have been used to capture the drumming of Timmy Rickard, and the feel and production are authentic and appropriately retro throughout. Good stuff for singer-songwriters and library producers.

www.timespace.com

www.drumdrops.com

n8/10n

n7/10n

Goldbaby

Paper Stone Instruments

DFS Blue $49

PSI Vibraphone £30

Goldbaby’s new scripted Kontakt 5 instrument (EXS24 version also included) captures classic synthesisers including the PPG Wave 2.2, Ensoniq SQ80 and DSI Prophet 12. Covering the full gamut of synth sounds (mono basses and leads, poly pads and keys, leads, FX, etc), the samples are as phat as they come, and the interface, with its built-in step sequencer, is a joy to use.

Seven multisampled (three velocity layers) Kontakt instruments built on 2GB of gorgeous 60s Premier 751 vibraphone samples. Separate Close, Stereo and Room mics, an amp envelope, HP/LP filters, reverb and, of course, tremolo (per mic, cleverly) enable a degree of sound shaping. If a vibraphone’s what you need, this one certainly does the business!

www.goldbaby.co.nz

www.sampleism.com

n9/10n

n8/10n

Loopmasters

Sony Creative Software

Eddie Amador & Danny Cohiba Present A Journey Into House £25

New Retro Dance Excursions £28

Taking in pretty much every subgenre of house, this small but hugely joyous library of beats, basslines and music loops holds no surprises but sounds fantastic – particularly the diverse, punchy drum loops.

www.loopmasters.com n8/10n

13 dance music construction kits (averaging 15-odd samples each) in a variety of retro-influenced styles. Presumably aimed at media producers looking to put tracks together in minutes, the production is good and the sounds certainly work, but there’s just no real substance to it. Even the included 368 decent one-shot drum hits can’t save this one from mediocrity.

www.sonycreativesoftware.com n6/10n

Sample Magic

Earth Moments

Berlin Techno £17

Laya Project - Ambience Vol. 1 £25

Sample Magic’s latest budget-priced library takes us to the darker side of techno with 360MB of bouncy analogue basslines, spacious drums, dystopian atmospheres and more. The music loops being sets of progressively stripped back mixes rather than individual stems is annoying, but fortunately, the stemmed drums don’t suffer from the same problem.

Spinning off from EarthSync’s 2004 Asian tsunami documentary project, this compilation of 163 real-world background ambiences from India, Indonesia, the Maldives and Myanmar is just the thing to bring a touch of humanity and organic texture to any production. From rain forest atmospheres to urban soundscapes, monastic beds and more, it’s an evocative trip from start to finish.

www.samplemagic.com

www.loopmasters.com

n7/10n

n9/10n

Rhythmic Robot

Luxonix

Spark Gap £20

Mini Sketcher £18

Kontakt instruments don’t get much more esoteric than this. A multisampled “maintained” tuning fork (electrically driven to make a constant sound) from the 20s with adjustable sine tone and damping noises, filtering, amp envelope, and delay and reverb effects, Spark Gap sounds hauntingly beautiful and just very cool. It’s a tough one to score, though, as it’s very much a one-trick pony, and quite pricey because of it.

Is there a place in the software studio for a 90s-style PCM “bread and butter” sound module? Luxonix clearly think so, and perhaps surprisingly, their keenly priced, Kontaktpowered take on the concept works well. With a 127MB footprint, a GUI offering nothing more than on/off buttons and depth knobs for its five onboard effects, and 100 generic instruments in six categories, this is a useful, lightweight, hassle-free compositional tool.

www.rhythmicrobot.com

www.luxonix.com

n7/10n

n7/10n


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> make music now / blast from the past

blast

from the

Polyphony and programmability were virtually unheard of when Dave Smith and co unleashed an instrument that would help define the early 80s

past

Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 We computer musicians are positively spoiled for options. Our synths offer effectively unlimited voices and instances, and we enjoy total recall of each and every knob, slider and button. Yet there was a time when monophonic instruments were pretty much all we had, and full programmability of patches was the stuff of dreams. Sure, there were some attempts to offer more – Oberheim’s Two, Four and Eight Voice synths had polyphony (assuming you were able to match up the parameter settings of an entire SEM module for each voice), and Yamaha’s contemporaneous CS-60 and CS-80 synthesisers were somewhat programmable – but by and large, extremely limited mono instruments were the norm. Fortunately, American Dave Smith was working on something that could solve both problems, and that instrument would become an unprecedented success. His company was called Sequential Circuits, and the instrument was the Prophet-5. Released in 1978, the Prophet-5 offered five complete voices of true polyphony – not the divide-down paraphonic behaviour of string machines or Moog’s Polymoog. No, the Prophet’s voices had

complete, individual signal paths hiding under its stylish black panel. More than that, the instrument was, indeed, fully programmable. Every knob, switch and setting could be saved and recalled, making it a sure winner with live performers and sessioneers alike. Racking up massive sales (and seemingly perennially on back-order), the Prophet-5 was the synthesiser to own – that is, if you could afford it. Those five voices didn’t come cheap, with a sticker price of nearly £3000, but that didn’t stop the company from shipping out 8000 of the things, and virtually everyone who was anyone had one: Gary Numan, The Cars’ Greg Hawkes, Phil Collins, Vangelis, John Carpenter… The list goes on and on.

Double header

Of course, the luxuries of programmability and polyphony wouldn’t have been worth more than a look-in had the thing not sounded good. But that it did – superb, in fact, thanks to dual oscillators, a 24dB resonant filter, an LFO and a wicked poly-mod section that enabled Oscillator B or the filter envelope to be routed to the frequency and/or pulse width of Oscillator A, as well as to the filter itself. That might not sound

like a lot, but it gave tech SPECS P-5 owners abilities Years produced that were hard to 1978-1984 come by outside of Number produced modular systems Approximately 8000 at the time. Original sale value Add to this the £2845 raw power of those Current price £2000-£3500 five voices in unison mode and you had a sound fit to fill an arena. Even the later (and reputedly “thinner”) Rev 3 models had a sound that could peel the enamel off your back teeth. Today, our plugins folders are stuffed with instruments that offer as much or more than the dear old Prophet-5, some even directly influenced by its designs. There are, of course, 1:1 emulations if you want the experience of the real deal and, like the original, they make versatile all-rounders. Dave Smith’s brainchild seemed to hit exactly the right balance between flexibility and friendliness, and it’s still an excellent template today. A Prophet-5 can provide a lifetime’s worth of new and interesting sounds. It was a triumph of design.

Three great emulations

Arturia Prophet-V (€119)

MEmorymoon messiah ($30)

EFM SCI Prophet-5 (free)

The aces of analogue emulation had already cloned Moogs, ARPs and more when they unleashed the Prophet-V. An uncannily accurate imitation of the Prophet-5, it also includes a dead-ringer for Sequential Circuits’ later Prophet, the digital Prophet-VS, and even allows elements of the two to be combined. A lovely tribute to Smith’s work. www.arturia.com

Like Arturia’s Prophet-V, Memorymoon’s Messiah is much more than an emulation. It looks like a souped-up Prophet-5, sure, but a handful of buttons swap the vintage panel and keyboard for various modern niceties like an arpeggiator, graphic envelopes and advanced LFOs. The oscillators also include enhanced options. www.memorymoon.com

Who says you can’t get something for nothing? Not us, of course –we’re always up for a bit of freeware. If you’re looking for a Prophet-5 emulation, you might want to check out this beauty from EFM. Added arpeggiator and effects enhance a note-fornote copy of the original Prophet-5’s signal path. Get your new wave on the cheap! www.gersic.com


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