Sommaire pour October 2017 de Computer Music

 We all have creative peaks and troughs in the studio. One day, you’ll be itching to compose something new; but other times you’ll sit staring at the screen, daunted at the prospect of having to generate ideas out of thin air. That’s why, when the latter situation occurs, my all-time favourite technique for reigniting that creative spark is to – yep, you guessed it – tackle a remix! “Refine your musical vision as an artist…” Reworking someone else’s track into something different is a surefire inspiration generator, and it’s obvious why: not only do you start with plenty of material to use as a jumping-off point, but you’ll also have the opportunity to develop and refine your musical vision as an artist, and give an existing idea your own sonic…

EASY GUIDE MUSICAL METER Learn about compound times and how to make them work in your music Read the full article on p72 STUDIO STRATEGIES NEXT-LEVEL LOUDNESS Build loudness into your mix from the start with this video tutorial Read Read the the full full article article on on p74 pxx DR BEAT THE ONE DROP Ronan deconstructs this classic reggae groove staple in the piano roll Read the full article on p76…

“My approach to designing synths is a scientific one” Tone2 Markus Krause CM Tell us how Tone2 got started. Who’s in the company, and what’s your philosophy behind plugin development? MK “I started programming trackers for DOS in the early 90s. There wasn’t a lot of software available for soundcards in those days. In the early 2000s, I developed the synth engines of several well known VSTs for reFX (Vangard/Slayer/JunoX and more). In 2005 I decided to go my own way and founded Tone2. “Our team consists of Markus (programming), Troels (support), Anna (office) and a larger group of sound designers and beta testers. We build synths that we also use in our own productions. I usually do not seek inspiration from existing synths or copy other people’s ideas –…

Buzzazi Beatwacker This 16-voice analogue-style drum machine for Android gives you plenty of tools before you need an in-app purchase The early days of mobile apps were a pretty dry time for Android users. As Apple took the lead in terms of latency, interoperability and platform capabilities, Google’s platform was left neglected by developers, with users often frustrated by the lack of capable apps. Now that Google have invested some effort into unifying the Android audio experience across different hardware, the Android music-making scene is getting along nicely, as this free drum machine app proves. Beatwacker puts 16 analogue-style synth voices to work over a 16-step sequencer, and gives you four sequencer patterns to store per project – or 16 if you pay for an upgrade. The sound starts with…

CORNERSHOP, BRIMFUL OF ASHA (FATBOY SLIM REMIX) Yet another smash hit from big beat legend Norman Cook – this time, he took Cornershop’s indie stylings and sped them up into a brilliant, breakbeat-driven remix. By speeding the original song up, Cook also pitched up the music by around two semitones, giving the remix a happy, smiley vibe. LA ROUX, IN FOR THE KILL (SKREAM REMIX) By combining La Roux’s haunting vocal style with the deep, bass driven sound of late 00’s dubstep, Skream created a massive remix that was the soundtrack of that summer. The sparse simplicity of the arrangement gives it a unique atmosphere, with the full speed 140bpm Amen break as the cherry on top. MOLOKO, SING IT BACK (BORIS DLUGOSCH REMIX) While the original…

“I used to switch the studio on and start making a tune until I fucked everything up, basically” Kit List HARDWARE: Apple MacBook Pro KRK Rokit 8 Spirit Absolute Zero UAD Apollo Twin Akai MPC Renaissance Various MIDI controllers SOFTWARE: Apple Logic Pro X Boz Digital Labs Sasquatch Kick Machine D16 plugins Elysia plugins FabFilter plugins Lexicon plugins Native Instruments plugins Sonnox Oxford plugins Valhalla DSP plugins Waves plugins Back to the old school Those who were fortunate enough to have experienced the golden age of UK garage in the late 90s will no doubt be familiar with two of the scene’s biggest names. Sticky and Scott Garcia had massive crossover hits with Booo! , featuring Ms Dynamite, and A London Thing with…

You’ve spent hours working on a track in your bedroom or home studio, and after meticulously tweaking the mix, you’re pretty happy with how it sounds. But then you listen to it somewhere else – in your mate’s studio, in the car, on your phone, or even over a club PA system – and the mix sounds nothing like it did in your own room. The balance sounds all wrong: the bottom end is boomy, the treble is harsh, and the vocals and lead instruments are way too quiet – or loud – in relation to the other parts. Sound familiar? If so, then your monitoring setup may need a rethink! So what differentiates a professional monitor speaker? Why do we need…

If you’re anything like us, you’re obsessive about plugins. You collect them, create music with them, curse the buggy ones, and pine for those not yet released. You check MusicRadar and KVR daily for the latest updates and new releases, ready to splash hard-earned cash for those that promise to inspire or improve upon your creative efforts. But what if you could take control of your obsession? What if you could make your own plugins and do so with almost zero knowledge of computer programming? Well, with Cristoph Hart’s HISE, this is entirely possible – and it won’t cost you a penny! HISE gives you the power to create sample- and/or synthesis-based instruments, complete with custom interfaces and export them as Audio Unit, VST, or AAX plugins for Windows, Mac,…

Ronan Macdonald Having previously served as Editor of drummer’s bible Rhythm as well as Computer Music, Ronan is clearly the right man for this particular gig. He’s been playing drums for over 30 years and making music with computers since the 90s. Although identifying the original composer of the one drop rhythm is a controversial matter, this most recognisable and genre-specific of beats was undoubtedly brought to mainstream attention by the legendary Carlton Barrett, sitcksman with Bob Marley and the Wailers. Although not the only rhythm used in reggae, the one drop is probably the one most people hear in their heads when they think of the genre. You can check out a thoroughly representative example of it in the Wailers’ helpfully named track One Drop, from the 1979 album…

“The main GUI houses bank and preset menus, and the five most salient controls” DECAY TIME Interpolate between ten or so multisampled times per preset REFLECTIONS All 32 of the M7’s Reflection Patterns have been multisampled PRE-DELAY Apply up to 500ms of unsynced predelay or sync to host MIX Balance the wet and dry signals DELAY Work in a touch of echo, tempo-synced or not PRESETS Access Seventh Heaven Professional’s 218 M7 presets here ROLL-OFF Accurately modelled low-pass filters for the early and late reflections METERS Keep an eye on input and output levels, as well as all three reverb channels MASTER EQUALISER Switch the Advanced Controls panel to the Master EQ FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT DECAY TIME Set multipliers for Low and High frequency ranges Seventh Heaven sees LiquidSonics taking their Bricasti…

Like its stablemates Rough Rider 2 and Eos 2, Grind is also available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, in standalone (Inter-App Audio) and – yes! – Audio Units plugin formats. Although the GUI has seen the knobs, buttons and sliders moved around to make it a rectangular shape for use within AU hosts such as Cubasis and GarageBand, the plugin/app itself is identical to the Mac/PC version – indeed, presets saved in one can be loaded in the other. With so few iOS apps getting the Audio Units treatment, it’s truly heartening to see Audio Damage making the effort in this area – we hope it encourages other developers of similar status to do the same. Grind for iOS is sold through Apple’s App Store for £5. At that…

Synthogy Ivory II Studio Grands £219 Web www.timespace.com Format Mac/PC, VST/AU/AAX/Standalone Deviating from the concert grand tack, the latest in Synthogy’s series of massively multisampled pianos comprises the Steinway B and Bösendorfer 225 – thoroughbred 7' studio performers both. Steinway invited the developers to their factory to choose the specific Model B used (which was then recorded at Power Station New England), while the 225 is resident at Firehouse Studios, Pasadena, where it’s been tickled by countless LA sessioneers. Together, the two libraries weigh in at an epic 112GB. The last time we looked at Ivory II was in 189, when American Concert D scored 10/10. With the release of Studio Grands, the engine has been upgraded to v2.5, adding a handful of new features. The biggest is Shimmer, which…

DYNAMICS Check out this huge collection of processors – from classic compressors to modern digital creations, we’ve got everything you need to shape your signals eaReckon CM-COMP 87 • Slick, punchy compressor • Mix knob for parallel compression • Limiter to keep the output in check • Clear VU- and LED-style metering • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.eareckon.com LVC-Audio Transector CM • Transient tweaking and saturation • Define and process envelope stages • Useful metering/display functions • Mix control for parallel processing • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.lvcaudio.com Audiority TS-1 CM • Flavoursome transient shaper • Set attack and sustain gain • Blend control for parallel processing • Based on the full TS-1 plugin • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.audiority.com Unfiltered Audio G8 CM • Get tight dynamics or creative FX • Includes advanced gating controls…

Unlock an issue Log into FileSilo on your PC or Mac, then just click an issue and answer a question – you’ll have to reference the magazine to get the answer. Import older mags FileSilo will replace our old Vault system, and you’ll soon be able to migrate your added mags from one account to the other. PLUGIN LITOTE CM This granular effect from Inear Display is free for readers of this issue! Find out how it works and watch the video over on p54 SAMPLE PACKS 1753 FREE SAMPLES Get our Impact Factory sample pack, our Remix Toolkit bonus collection, and a serving of the best Loopmasters content from recent weeks, p104 PLUGIN COLLECTION CM Plugins Our exclusive collection of free plugins for Mac and PC. Check ‘em out…

DA-909 Any Roland TR-909 is iconic, but imagine owning one that once belonged to Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk, and was still programmed with the settings from the band’s track Revolution 909. This went up for auction last month, attracting some seriously high bids. APHEX LOVES KORG He had a hand in the creation of the Monologue synth, and now Aphex Twin has created a track using just Korg gear. Volcas, a Minilogue and, naturally, a trio of Monologues were all used in the production of the aptly-named Korg Funk 5. Check it out here: bit.ly/AphexKorg5 HELP WITH HAPPY He’s made plenty of hits, and now Pharrell Williams is looking to help others learn about music production with Tuniversity. The first release is an interactive iBook that shows you how…

You’ve got the remix files and you’re ready to go, so now you need to establish a game plan and get to work. Sometimes it’s nice to get stuck in and experiment, but clear and well-thought-out goals can drastically reduce production time and can often lead to the best results. Begin by having a good listen to the material you’ve been supplied with. Is there a stand-out element for you? Also, it’s critical to think about your intended audience – does this have to work in the clubs? Should you keep the same feel but rework the production? Maybe you need to make the original more DJ-friendly. Or perhaps your goal is to transform one genre into another by bringing a mellow, laid-back track up to speed as a full-on…

Scott Garcia, A London Thing “The title says it all! This one is the UK garage anthem. I’m one of those people who think about this tune every time I see a ‘London’ sign. All the elements in this track are the most garage-ey you can find – it is really is the perfect case study.” bit.ly/SGlondon Sticky feat Ms Dynamite, Booo! “Two of my favourite artists made this extremely powerful track. It’s just the perfect mix of broken drums, heavy bass and melodic and rap vocals with Jamaican hot sauce on top. You can’t go wrong playing this at the rave, but you better have some heavy stuff to play after!” bit.ly/StickyBooo Club Asylum, Future Groove “This one is as beautiful as it…

One thing common to all pieces of music is the time signature – the pair of numbers at the start of a musical score, right next to the clef and key signature. The time signature tells us is how many of what type of beat we can expect to find in each bar of the music that follows. But there’s another, more basic layer of timekeeping involved in music, and that’s the meter. The meter tells us how the pulse of the music is counted and how the beats within it are grouped together. Depending on the numbers it contains, a time signature can be identified as either simple or compound meter. And this month I’m going to attempt to demystify this notoriously confusing topic and illustrate the difference between…

The OS X version of this veteran audio editor has had a turbulent first few years in development, but will it thrive under new ownership? “In Time mode, edits are made in the usual way, selecting regions for cutting, copying, pasting, processing etc” CUSTOMISABLE TOOLBAR A huge number of functions can be pinned to the hide-able toolbar MEDIA BROWSER Drag your audio files in from here LOUDNESS METERS Keep an eye on those perceived and absolute levels DUAL EDITORS Run two waveform editors at once, arranged vertically or horizontally OTHER PANES Each of these four tabs can be broken out into its own pane EVENT-BASED EDITING In Event mode, the Editor works like a DAW track PLUG-IN CHAIN Arrange plugin effects in series TIME-BASED EDITING In Time mode, it’s a…

A firm favourite of countless mix engineers, the iconic stereo bus compressor from the SSL 4000 G-Series mixing console is best known for its ability to ‘glue’ disparate mix elements together, providing modern punch, cohesion and transparency where it counts. Universal Audio’s officially-endorsed, UAD-2-powered plugin emulation has been around for a fair few years now, and so following in the footsteps of their recent overhauls – such as the UAD SSL 4000 E Channel Strip Collection (8/10, 244) and the UAD Neve 88RS Channel Strip Collection – comes their modern revamp of the classic VCA compressor, now bundled with the original version to comprise the so-named ‘collection’. As with the original hardware, the minimal controls and layout of this VCA-style device hide a self-assurance that becomes obvious when strapped across…

The original preQursor incorporated output overdrive. As well as retaining this, the sequel puts a separate preamp circuit on the input and builds saturation modelling into the EQ filters themselves. Both are activated by clicking the Analog button, and twisting the Analog Drive knob increases the amount. This is extremely subtle preamp saturation of the kind you can’t always easily hear. The Group button lets you link any number of preQursor2 plugins in a project, so that adjustments to the Analog Drive switch or knob in any one instance are mirrored in all others. Using this, you can bring that cohesive analogue console feel to a mix, and globally bypass/amplify/attenuate it with ease. Even stacked up like this, though, it remains decidedly polite. The output distortion is far more obvious.…

The Plugins collection is a suite of complete, limitation-free instrument and effects plugins. It’s an incredible resource, boasting more than 70 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 D16 Group, u-he, AudioRealism, Ohm Force, KV331 Audio, Cableguys, XILS-lab, AudioThing, Vengeance-Sound, Rob Papen, zplane and more. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Enough talking! Where do I get these plugins? You can grab them all on the cover DVD with out print edition, or as a download from FileSilo (see p5 for instructions on how to access). How do I install Plugins? It depends on the plugin. Some have dedicated installers, while other just drop into your…

THE ART OF REMIXING Learn the technical, tactical and creative strategies needed for putting your own spin any track Read the full article on p22 1 Warping track parts to fit a new tempo 2 How to organise remix stems 3 Creative stockpiling to enhance your workflow 4 Building a remixing instrument 5 Creating an ambient backdrop from stems 6 Designing bespoke drums when remixing 7 Embellishing with new sounds & instrumentation 8 Taking a remix further 9 Six bootlegging tactics for chopping up a track 10 Rhythmically slicing a loop when remixing 11 Isolating an acappella using phase cancellation 12 Extracting a beat from a track using modern tools 13 Polyphonic dissection with Celemony Melodyne 4 14 Reworking beats with Accusonus Regroover Pro cm Producer Masterclass FOUNDATION X…

SynthScaper  iMusicAlbum’s SynthScaper isn’t quite the ‘regular’ iOS synth that it appears to be. It’s an experimental, sample-based tool for creating a range of ambient soundscapes, from melodic tones to not-so-musical noises. It gives you plenty of flexibility in the way that MIDI controller keyboards are assigned and used to control the sound. Audiobus and Inter-App Audio are both supported, and the price is £9.99/$9.99. motion-soundscape.blogspot.co.uk Ravenscroft 275 We’re seeing plenty of high-spec emulations of acoustic instruments come to iOS, a case in point being UVI’s new Ravenscroft 275 Grand Piano. An emulation of the titanium instrument of the same name, it offers many of the features we’re used to seeing in desktop plugins (like sympathetic resonance and sustain pedal modelling). AU v3 support joins the Inter-App Audio and Audiobus…

“Some of us are still asking those same questions today” We seemed to be on a bit of a mission to convince you to upcycle your old computer hardware back in 2007. We were at it again in 117, explaining why your G3 iMac should be kept in service. Remarkably, we do still see these translucent beauties in use today, though mainly as lampshades and fishtanks. In our Downsampled column, meanwhile, we discussed the fashion for having your favourite software’s logo being tattooed onto your arm. Of course, this was in the days when body art was still very much a socially daring thing to do; these days, you’d need to get an entire DAW arrange window inked across your chest in order to be considered ‘alternative’. Our Burning Question…

Thierry Enreille “Reaktor is a very good tool for finding new ideas and spicing up some projects.” Luc Lic “I’ve played with the demo of Sugar Bytes’ Obscurium and I was impressed at how much it can do. Besides doing a lot, it can load other regular, third-party plugins. Unbeatable.” Mark Luljak “CamelSpace, although it’s no longer available since Apple bought out Camel Audio. It was a dual set of filters (one main, one sub), a reverb, a flanger, a step sequencer and mini-arp, and more, all in one. If you had long, boring notes, it could transform them into lively mini-arrangements of their own, without being glitchy. It was like a sonic Swiss Army knife.” Shannon Nauss “For remixing, and for generating unique ideas in general, Renoise all the…

OFFICIAL REMIX An official remix (such as Andy C’s rerub of Major Lazer’s Get Free) is typically commissioned by an artist or label, with full stems and/or MIDI files of the track in question supplied. There’ll typically be a fee involved if your profile as a remixer will help to sell the record with profit shares sometimes offered for lower profile remixes. VIP If your latest track’s being rinsed far and wide, making your own VIP remix can give you an exclusive for your DJ sets while still jumping on the popularity of the original. Good starting points when doing a VIP are to tweak the riffs, change the drum pattern, or get a personalised vocal recorded – just like DJ Zinc did with his Ms Dynamite VIP of Freenote!…

01 ABLETON LIVE 9: AUDIO TO MIDI Live 9’s excellent Audio To MIDI function lets you quickly and painlessly convert any musical samples – whether they’re bass, piano or guitar – into MIDI information that you can then use to layer virtual instruments over the original sounds to add your own flavour. You can extract monophonic information – great for simple bass or lead lines – or polyphonic multiple notes from chord samples. This technique can sometimes give slightly incorrect results, especially when working with complex polyphonic material, so you might need to make a few adjustments to the resulting MIDI that the process leads to. However, it’s still a massive timesaver compared to working out the notes or chords from scratch – particularly if you don’t have the music…

A rapidly rising force in music software, Inear Display have made a name for themselves with an imaginative roster of plugins that includes the Ephemere percussion synth (8/10, 237), Incipit delay (9/10, 232) and Cruelle distortion module (8/10, 236). Their latest effect, Litote, released earlier this year, is a “granular exploration box” with which four signal processing engines – each comprising a granulator, a resonator and a diffusion delay – are blended using an automated X/Y pad. Crucially, rather than give the user control over the settings within each engine, Litote keeps them hidden away and intelligently randomises them. Yours exclusively with this edition of Computer Music, Litote CM is a single engine from the full Litote, opened up to give access to those secretive key parameters, and packaged as…

Loudness in music is a controversial topic. I appreciate the importance of dynamics in music, but the fact is, a certain perception of loudness and energy is now integral to many modern genres. Some musical styles are light and dynamic, others are dense and full of energy, and it’s up to you to decide where you stand on the loudness spectrum, then execute your vision skilfully. With that said, we’re ready to tackle this month’s topic: making your music louder! The first thing to understand is that achieving loudness is not about mastering – it’s about the mix. Yes, one part of mastering is making things louder, but a good, balanced mix has the potential to be made loud at the mastering stage without the music suffering from it too…

“Because Ulterior Motive signed to Metalheadz, we ended up working with Goldie on a couple of projects, engineering and producing. He told us that he was starting work on a new album and said, ‘Tell me what you need. Computers, software, synths… stuff that you’re comfortable with’. “When I arrived at his studio in Thailand, there was a fully loaded iMac with Logic X and Pro Tools, plus a lot of the synths I like working with – FM8, Massive, the Korg M1 plugin. I specifically asked for the M1 because I wanted to keep some of the vibe from Timeless. It was the same with the 808 samples, which came from a TR-8. “The idea was to get in the studio for a month and,…

“Each of Kombinat Tri’s three bands houses its own independent Distortion Engine” DISTORTION ENGINES Load one of 13 distortion algorithms onto each band, each with its own control set CROSSOVER DISPLAY Manipulate crossover filters and band gains here KILL SWITCHES Mute and unmute each band with their power buttons KOMPRESSOR A one-knob compressor at a ratio of 1000:1 METERS Putting style on a par with substance, these look great but have no scaling FILTER 12 filter types give plenty of post-distortion shaping options ENGINE MODE Run Kombinat Tri in Multiband or Series mode FEEDBACK Send the output back to the input, with an envelope follower controlling the gain Audio Damage are working through the redesign of their sizeable roster of plugins at quite a pace, and here we’re looking at…

This is a compressor primarily designed for transparent smoothing. Lowering the threshold kicks the compression in, while the classic bus setting of slow attack, fast release, and a ratio of 2:1 or 4:1, gives a good transparent starting point. Tweaking the threshold to show between 2 and 4dB of gain reduction, and raising the Gain Make-up to restore program volume refines the outcome. Toggling the In/Out button is useful for smooth A/B comparison. If your mix is bass-heavy and you can hear high-frequency ducking when kick and bass hit, you may need to raise the SC Filter to reduce the impact of the low frequencies on gain reduction. The original hardware version didn’t have this, but radio mixes in the 80s were always very bright and bass-light! More extreme settings…

After a lengthy stint in the Eurorack arena, primo developers Audio Damage are very much back in the software game, working their way through rebuilds of their most popular plugins and creating new ones. Hot on the heels of the Eos 2 reverb (9/10, 246) is Grind, an extreme distortion and filtering module. Grind (VST/AU/AAX, and also available for iOS) comprises three serially arranged sections: a wavetable waveshaper, a ‘traditional’ algorithmic waveshaper, and a multimode resonant filter – with a simple gate on the input and dry/wet Mix control on the output. The general idea is to destructively transform your input signal in the first shaper, heat it up and saturate it further in the second, then rein it in and make it musically viable (or not) with the filter.…

Instant Delay has the peculiar distinction of being one of the world’s first two plugins (the other being Sandman Pro 1.1) capable of connecting directly to the Lightpad from Roli’s Blocks series of Bluetooth/USB MIDI controllers (5/10, 244, £170). The Lightpad can operate in one of four modes: as an X/Y/Z (pressure) pad, a bank of four sliders, four pressure pads (the surface divided into four quadrants), or four toggle buttons (likewise). To hook it up, simply select ‘Roli Lightpad’ in one or more Mod Source menus and assign its four outputs to your choice of Instant Delay parameters via drag and drop in the usual way. You can even use multiple Lightpads at once, each with its own assignments. Given how underwhelming Blocks’ focal Noise app is, we’re glad…

HYBRID SYNTHS Our synths have been created by the best software developers in the world to bring you a suite of sound-making tools for all music production scenarios u-he Zebra CM • Blendable oscillator waveforms • Super-programmable step LFOs • Slick delay, reverb and chorus • Original synth designed just for CM • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.u-he.com Enzyme CM • Scanned synthesis sound generator • Easy-to-use preset-based synth • Assign parameters to controls • Based on the full Enzyme synth • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit humanoidsoundsystems.com KV331AudioSynthMasterCM • Dual wavescanning oscillators • Multimode filter and built-in effects • FM/AM synthesis modes • Based on SynthMaster 2.5 • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.kv331audio.com Cableguys Curve 2.6 CM • Design-your-own-waveforms synth • New waveform capabilities for v2.6 • Phat 16-voice Unison mode • Based on Cableguys Curve…