Inhaltsverzeichnis für September 2016 in Computer Music

 CM readers may well be fans of bumpin’ beatz, alien synth noises and farty basslines, but as far as the ‘everyday’ music listener is concerned, there are only two elements to a track: a) the vocal, and b) everything else. Being the one instrument we all possess, the human voice is always the emotional focal point that we naturally connect with, and therefore demands the most attention at all stages of the music-making process. “The human voice is always the emotional focal point” Yet a home studio often isn’t the ideal acoustic environment for recording pop-quality vocals. And, if your skills are like mine, your singing attempts will sound more ‘foghorn’ than ‘falsetto. Although endless vocal samples and acapellas fill your samples folder, the majority are likely so cheesy that…

Tutorial videos High-quality videos to guide you through our tutorials. Wherever you see the icon on the left, there’s a video version to watch See this issue’s entire video content on the next pages Tutorial files A folder full of audio examples, synth patches and project files to help you follow our tutorials This digital content has been thoroughly scanned and tested at all stages of production, but as with all new software, we still recommend that you run a virus checker before use. We also recommend that you have an up-to-date backup of your hard drive before using the content. Future cannot accept responsibility for any disruption, damage and/or loss to your data or computer system that may occur while using this magazine’s programs and/or data. Consult your network…

Our massive collection of instruments and effects is also yours with every edition of Computer Music, but there’s a lot to get your head around! In our Vault, you’ll find the Plugins Tutorial Bank, a huge collection of guides and tutorials specifically focused on getting the best out of the Plugins. From installation and first steps to advanced tricks and techniques, we’ve got you covered with PDFs and videos. Just head to our online Vault (vault.computermusic.co.uk), register this copy of the magazine, and you’ll have instant access to download this massive resource.…

“You can now harness the Atari VCS’s musical chops right from your Windows PC” If the sound of the C64’s SID chip has become too passé, and yet you still find yourself famished for all things retro, then allow us to draw your attention towards TIATracker, the first ever tracker for the Atari VCS. And not before time. Some of you will fondly remember the VCS (or 2600, as it later became known), which was released a mere 39 years ago, and is notable for its red-buttoned joystick and the ill-fated title ET The Extra-Terrestrial, largely responsible for the video game crash of 1983. Up until now, the best composing tools available for the Atari VCS involved either copying and converting individual music patterns one at a time or editing…

“It’s hard for an album to stand the test of the time it takes to listen to it” Make great tracks today! screamed the cover of 103 in Summer 2006, as if for the past 102 issues we’d been telling you how to make great tracks tomorrow, or maybe on Wednesday week. The headline referred to our Samplitude V8 giveaway and accompanying eight-page tutorial, though as the software was PC-only, perhaps it should have read “Make great tracks today… if you use Windows!” Our Burning Question asked if dance music and electronica albums could stand the test of time. With attention spans so short these days, it’s hard for an album to stand the test of the time it takes to listen to it. We also ran the rule over…

Waves Butch Vig Vocals Right, so where’s the bypass button on this thing? Admiral Quality Poly-Ana Five minutes staring at this synth will drive you crackers Ohmforce Predatohm You’ll be scratching your own eyes out after a few minutes with this GUI Black Rooster Audio The Canary Captain Jack Sparrow wants his portable radio back DUB-Russell 2020 Ironically-named beat machine. Soon available for Apple Watch Hawk VST Basstard A rusty synth clad in leopard print. Need we say more? D16 Group Sigmund Imagine yourself hurtling towards the future as you dial in delays Kush Audio Pusher Sci-fi saturator resembling an extra-terrestrial owl…

The human voice is one of evolution’s finest efforts – let’s take a peek at how it works. The lungs force air through the larynx (or voicebox), causing the two vocal folds inside to vibrate – it’s an oscillator, essentially, and we control its pitch with our muscles. This rasping, buzzing tone resonates all the way through the vocal tract or cavity – the space inside your neck, mouth and nose. This acts as a filter, essentially EQing the larynx’s output and adding resonant peaks, called formants – Vowel sounds are characterised by a relationship of two such formants, and by changing the shape of our vocal tract, we shift the formants into distinctive ‘shapes’ to create vowels. Formant frequencies vary from person to person, and with age and gender,…

01 OOHS AND AHHS Whatever your vocal ability, you’ve almost certainly got it within you to create pro-quality “oohs”, “ahhs”, “uhs” and shouts. Grab your mic, and for each sound you want to create, try a range of timbres, from quiet and breathy to loud and shouty, then edit it down to just the best ones. Use standard vocal processing like EQ and compression to firm them up, and if you want to disguise the voice, use transformational effects like pitchshifting or formant-shifting; or modulation effects like phasing and chorus. Now drop these utterances into your track for added vocal punch! 02 ORAL AMBIENCE Even the plainest vocal can be transformed into eerie sustained pads, atmospheres and ambiences using extreme timestretching. To achieve OTT stretching, repeat the timestretch process multiple…

“They said music made with computers wasn’t interesting! That was a long time ago” His tunes are caned by everyone from Roger Sanchez to Hardwell, he’s remixed the likes of Joachim Garraud and David Guetta, and he’s recently scored an enormous club smash with close friend Abel Ramos in Let The Bass Be Louder on Spinnin’ Records’ Music Freedom imprint. We hooked up with Albert in beautiful Barcelona to check out his slick studio, and discovered that he’s a veteran of entirely computer-based production. “I started DJing when I was fifteen years old,” Albert reminisces. “I was in love with everything related to DJs – from the booths to the clubs. I was very skilled with computers, and when I was sixteen I started to make…

As an in-demand dance music engineer, Owen’s worked with a slew of outstanding underground artists behind the scenes from his London studio. After years of meticulously studying what makes a great production tick, he’s promised to share his most coveted techniques each month exclusively in . You can sign up for Owen’s free email course on making mixdowns easy at… www.owenthegeek.com/cm PRO TIPS NEVER BOOST, NEVER LISTEN? Ignore the ‘never boost’ crowd – those who swear by only ever using negative gain with your EQs. Once upon a time that advice was helpful to get the best sound out of analogue mixing equipment, but it has long since lost its relevance. It’s true that cuts are less noticeable to our ears than boosts, and so there are workflow advantages to…

“Music is my language; it’s how I communicate with people and how I try to understand the world. Without it, I’d be lost.” German producer/DJ/remixer Timo Maas may have released his first single – the bustling and hectic Final XS – over 20 years ago, but those decades have neither dulled nor damaged his love of music. Whether he’s talking about his recent hit remix of Paul McCartney and Wings’ Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five or the chorus of birdsong in his back garden, Maas’s enthusiasm is honest and infectious. What was meant to be a quick tech and studio chat turns into a joyful, two-hour musical seminar. “Music isn’t just about business; it’s about shaping emotions… helping you through the dark times. When I put on Curtis Mayfield’s Superfly,…

Released in 2015, the original Drawmer 1973 hardware is a multiband mastering compressor enabling detailed control over its three bands and the crossover frequencies dividing them. Softube’s plugin version (VST/AU/ AAX) is condensed to give the flavour of the hardware without the potential minefield for the uninitiated of actually using it. Essentially, it takes ten multiband presets – called Styles – and gives you a ‘more or less’ Amount knob with which to adjust the depth of processing applied. Multiband compression made very simple, then. As well as the Styles and Amount controls, there’s an Air switch that introduces the ultrahigh frequency shelving boost so beloved of mastering engineers. You also get an ‘LED’ Gain Reduction Meter and old-school stereo VU meters for output level, a Mix knob for parallel…

PrimeEQ’s spectrum analyser features a set of preset configurations and colour options. If those aren’t enough for you, you can design your own with the Spectrum Mode Editor. Here, you can specify both cumulative and real-time analysis in either peak or Averaged modes (with adjustable average time), and set Block Size and Smoothing parameters to trade CPU usage off against precision. With the option to display two curves at once, you can set up simultaneous peak and average plots, while the Filled Display option helps make the whole thing easy to view. The Display Range parameters can be adjusted in the bottom control panel or on the axes themselves, and the Slope setting lets you ‘tilt’ the display on a 1kHz fulcrum. The analyser works particularly well in conjunction with…

Billed as an ‘extreme transient shaper’, Transfreak (VST/AU/AAX) adds to the usual remit of such plugins with four extra processing modules: Transient Equaliser, Sustain Reverb, Post Saturation and Post Equaliser. Before we get into those, though, there are, of course, the two usual main transient shaping controls. The Attack knob boosts or cuts the attack transient, with the 2x switch doubling the dialled-in amount, and the Clean setting smoothing off some of the untoward elements that come with too much boost via filtering. The Sustain control and 2x button do the same thing for the sustain portion of the input signal, and the Clip button activates an output limiter for overload protection. It’s hard to tell whether the buttons are active or not, though, due to the overly subtle shading.…

By loading up some test tones and a spectrum analyser, we can easily visualise exactly what it is that Grip’s two Valve Drive modes are doing to the input signal. In Pentode mode, odd and even harmonic distortions are added, albeit only significant up to the 4th harmonic, and with very low levels of the 5th and 6th harmonics appearing only at high input level. These distortions aren’t very audible. In Triode mode, at any given input level, significantly more harmonics are added – up to the 6th harmonic and beyond, and, once again, a mixture of odd and even. However, this time the 2nd and, particularly, 4th harmonics are louder. In this mode, the distortions are more audible. Finally, winding up the Bias for both Pentode and Triode modes…

UNIVERSAL AUDIO 1176 CLASSIC LIMITER PLUG-IN COLLECTION UA also offer virtual versions of the 1176 via the UAD powered-plugins platform. The ‘Legacy’ 1176SE and LN editions are included with UAD hardware (part of the Analog Classics bundle), and this collection of three UAD-2 plugins nets you models of the Bluestripe (A), Low Noise (LN) and 40th Anniversary (AE) compressors. www.uaudio.com WAVES CLA-76 With ultra-fast (50 microseconds) attack and a carbon-copy of the “all buttons in” mode, these copies of both blue-stripe and blackface 1176 units offer an authentic recreation of two of the most popular revisions of the original Urei hardware units. You can also grab these ‘76s along with LA-2A and LA-3A emulations by way of a Waves bundle. www.waves.com ANTRESS MODERN SEVENTH SIGN If you’re in a pinch…

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EASY GUIDE CHROMATIC SCALES This all-inclusive scale lets in every single note of the piano keyboard Read the full article on p74 GEEK TECHNIQUE DANGERS OF EQ What artefacts are these signal processors adding to your sounds? Read the full article ad on p76 DR BEAT MASSIVE DRUMS Get bigger, beefier-sounding acoustic drums with this guide Read the full article on p80…

“Tools need to provide a seamless operational experience” cm Sonically, how does creating a suite of mastering plugins differ from creating mixing plugins? AM “For mastering, plugins shouldn’t colour the sound as much. Making use of the unique sound of a compressor or saturator is OK, but it shouldn’t be too extreme. This is true for the parameter ranges as well. As for implementing mastering-specific features, I focused on the needs of a mastering engineer rather than coming up with something fancy.” cm Did you gather opinions from professional mastering engineers? AM “Absolutely. We’re in contact with many mastering studios all over the world, and we visited studios in Berlin and Munich to talk about workflow, typical tasks and, of course, about sound. “What all professionals agreed upon was that…

Audified “Yes, but it’s necessary to keep in mind that the fidelity of the software model is strongly dependent on the quality of the monitors you use in your studio. You cannot expect a plugin to turn mid-priced monitors into the most accurate ones. “On the other hand, when it comes to simulation of reference devices that are below the quality of your studio monitors, the answer would be ‘absolutely yes’! “We could create an exact model of a Sony Xperia Z3 or a Philips 40PFT5500/12 TV set, but such a plugin would help only those who want to mix for those particular devices. There are thousands of device types on the market, so we believe that creating ‘average’ models of consumer devices with easy controls will help mix engineers…

Our step-by-step tutorial covers a little basic vocal prep, but there’s plenty more you can do to polish vocals up ready for production. We recommend applying these processes non-destructively – or at least making a backup of the original recording! – if you’re new to this, but once you’re more experienced, you may feel confident in applying them at the outset. De-essing is essential on most vocal recordings, reacting to ‘ess’ sounds and reducing the vocal’s level briefly at that point. More advanced de-essers will reduce only the ‘ess’ frequencies. In addition, corrective EQ may be necessary if room acoustics are interfering with the recording – if certain notes leap out (best judged on headphones, as listening on speakers in that same room will compound the problem), pinpoint them with…

Celemony Melodyne 230 » 10/10 » €99-699 A quasi-magical audio editor that can even manipulate polyphonic material, this is also a secret vocal weapon. Use the Formant tool to create Skrillex-style shifts in timbre, or snap words to single notes for a synthetic quality. www.celemony.com Sonic Charge Bitspeek 164 » 8/10 » $40 Give your vocals that text-to-speech vibe with this voice resynthesiser. Decrease Frame Rate for grainier results, and turn it right down to ‘freeze’ the sound – try automating this to design eccentric vocal patterns and FX. www.soniccharge.com Soundtoys Little AlterBoy N/A » N/A » $99 Packs in pitch and formant-shifting alongside auto-tuning and a vocoder effect. Use the Dry/ Wet knob to dial in a harmony voice alongside the original one, and unlink the Pitch and Formant…

Step by step 8. Eight essential vocal acapella tricks & techniques 1 We’re going to take you on a tour of our favourite techniques for slicing vocal stems and acapellas to create exciting cut-up vocal FX. To try these techniques, load the WAV files beginning “Garage…” into a 130BPM project in your DAW, then put a D16 Group Frontier on the master bus to bring the level up – use a little send reverb or delay on the Garage Donna track if you feel it’s too dry. 2 Chopping and rearranging a vocal on your DAW’s timeline is the most immediate way to create cut-up vocals. Scan through the vocal and play it from different points to locate cool sounds and textures, then snip them out and put them on…

Related to velocity and equally useful as a modulation source is the aftertouch MIDI data type. While velocity reflects the speed with which a key on a MIDI keyboard is pressed, aftertouch is generated by applying subsequent pressure to that key while it’s held down. Unlike velocity, which is a ‘one-shot’ affair sending out a single data value then requiring a new key press to send another, aftertouch delivers a continuous (although it’s not a Continuous Controller in the literal ‘MIDI spec’ sense) stream of values between 0 and 127, as the pressure is increased and decreased, until the key is released. This makes it much more expressive than velocity when it comes to modulating filter cutoff, LFO depth, etc, as smooth ongoing progressions can be performed, rather than the…

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 and other magazines, he collaborates on occasional songs and videos with singer/songwriter Lucy Hirst, aka Polkadothaze. www.daveclews.com RECOMMENDED LISTENING GALANTIS, NO MONEY This tune features a prominent chromatic move in # the bassline, from C to D, pretty much every four bars. CAZZETTE VS. ARONCHUP FT. THE HIGH, SHE WANTS ME DEAD The retro-swing vibe of this track is accentuated b by the chromatic C-B-B -A motif in the bass part. bit.ly/CazzSheWants PRO TIPS EQ IT ‘TIL IT HERTZ Each pitch in the chromatic scale has# a…

GETTING LOW Morphatron Q What’s the best way of dealing with the low-frequency battle between bass and kick? A Avoid the battle. If you need two sounds below 250Hz to play at once, then they need to be instruments that naturally work well together in that range. Get the kick and bass working together without processing, or you’re going to be fighting an uphill battle. Kicks in modern music are getting shorter, so there’s more space for the bass. Also, the kicks in most genres are tuned either ‘above’ or ‘below’ the fundamental frequencies of the bass notes, so that they’re never too close together. It really is all about sound selection and choice of notes/rhythms. OP [See 231 cmfor loads more kick and bass wisdom!] FREQIE KICKS Scott Stevenson…

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 A decent product that’s only held back by a few flaws 7 Solid. Well worth considering 8 Very good. A well-conceived and executed product 9 Excellent. First-rate and among the best you can buy 10 Exceptional. It just doesn’t get any better than this! See and hear the latest software in action in our ‘2 Minutes With…’ videos! you see , straight to your DVD, the Vault download area, or our YouTube channel for a…

“Mics 2 and 3 are omnidirectional and can be independently dragged to anywhere in the space” COMPRESSOR MODULE Only affects Mic 1, offers input and gain reduction metering GATE MODULES Mics 2 and 3 include Gates with Attack, Hold and Release, and control linking LEVEL MODULES Mix the three mic signals, control level, balance, mute/solo/polarity MICS 2 AND 3 Move the two room mics around to adjust their near/far and left/right distances MIX Dry/wet blend, with optional Mix Lock for auditioning presets MIC 1 ‘Close’ mic with a fixed position – plus three pickup patterns and filtering ROOM Adjust the overall tone of the room, including Decay time from 0.2 to 7 seconds GATE PRE This useful option switches both Gates to key from Mic 1 rather than their respective…

S73’s Styles are divided into three groups: Clean, Bass Control and Spatial. The five Clean Styles are designed to improve definition in the mix. Clarity 1 works hard on the upper-mid frequencies, adding presence; Clarity 2 does the same but with a bit more body in the lower mids; Neutral does little in the way of tonal adjustment, applying just subtle compression; and Gentle Compression does more than it suggests, gluing the bottom end, but is a bit misleading with its big volume boost. More Air brings out the top end, brightening dull mixes. The Bass Control group consists of just two Styles: De-rumble reduces low frequencies in a boomy mix, and Punch boosts the bottom end in a very unsubtle way that works well on overly light mixes. Finally,…

A big part of Transfreak’s appeal are the additional effects it offers beyond the core transient shaping, and chief among them are the rather splendid double act of Post Saturation and Post Equalizer. The Post Saturation processor targets the Attack and Sustain element collectively. Its ruthless Drive control powers into pure distortion by 12 o’clock, so you’ll usually only need subtle amounts to get the grunge you’re after. The Tone control lightens or darkens the effect; HP and LP filters both pre and post saturation let you adjust the tonal colour; and the Mix knob gives you parallel control. Further frequency-shaping possibilities are opened up by the Post Equalizer, which allows you to sculpt the tone of the distortions generated by the Post Saturator – just the thing for bringing…

So how does your DAW know where to look for your plugins? Actually, it might not. Mac users have it easy, as there are OS-specified folders into which plugins are installed. These folders can be found by going to your Library folder (if you can’t find it, go to the Finder’s Go menu, hold Alt, and a Library option should appear). find the Audio directory, and then the Plug-Ins folder within. There you will find more folders still. One will be labelled Components – this is where your AU plugins reside. Other folders will be found alongside it for VST and VST3 plugins. If you’re a Pro Tools user, you’ll find your plugins in an Avid or Digidesign folder. If your installers don’t automatically install the plugins into the proper…

Ignite VST Vice One Get analogue or digital pump with the full version of this Mac/PC compressor plugin – it’s worth $50, but to you it’s free! p52 Sample packs ANCIENT ANALOGUE Instantly add classic hardware vibes to your projects with over 900 retro samples from analogue gear, p106 ULTIMATE VOCALS Bring the human element to the centre-stage with 909 vocal lines, ad libs, one-shots and more, p106 LOOPMASTERS SAMPLES A bonus collection cropped from some of the label’s best recent packs – see what you get on p107 CM Plugins Our exclusive collection of free plugins for Mac and PC. See what’s available on p108…

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QUIRKY QWERTY Roger Linn’s LinnStrument was designed to be an ultra-expressive MIDI controller, but software developer Geert Bevin has discovered its true calling. His LinnStrument Control utility turns the device into a functioning QWERTY keyboard. LANDR LANDS IN SOUNDCLOUD We know that not everyone’s a fan of LANDR’s auto-mastering service, but we’re sure a lot of people will be pleased to discover that they can now use it to master SoundCloud uploads for free. If you just want to post a half-decent-sounding demo, it could be a good option. APHEX WIN Aphex Twin came up with a typically quirky marketing ruse for his new Cheetah EP, mocking up an advert that borrowed text and specs from the manual for the little-known 80s Cheetah MS800 digital wave synth. Why? We have…

Each month’s classic contender brings with it a sense of wistful nostalgia and a fond recollection of the early days of plugin technology, when each new freebie seemed like a modern musical miracle wrapped up in a pixel-perfect package. Bram@ Smartelectronix provided many of our best memories of this kind, with his killer collection of effects and utilities. From Cyanide to SupaPhaser2 and H2O – one of the first third-party compressors – to the widly named but still much-loved s(M)exoscope, each can be called a classic. Always free, they’ve now been made open-source with the code available via Github. www.smartelectronix.com…

“A massive increase in quality can be had with a proper microphone” Recording basics Most computers have a built-in microphone, and if you just want to get a feel for the wonderful things the human voice can do for your music, this is a totally acceptable place to start. Your smartphone also makes a super-handy, always-ready vocal recorder. These devices won’t give pro results, but their lo-fi character can be useful in its own right, and you can certainly use such raw material for wild transformations and bold FX. A massive increase in quality can be had with a proper microphone and a few basic bits of kit, though, so let’s look at how to get a top-notch vocal setup for bottom dollar. Dynamic vs. condenser There are two main…

The vocoder The quintessential ‘robot voice’ effect, vocoders transform normal speech into a ‘talking synth’, with results ranging from menacing monotone commands and choir-esque pads to melodic vocal lines. The vocoder was never originally intended for music-making, though – it was invented in the 1930s as a voice encoder (hence the name: VOice enCODER) for transmission of speech within a limited bandwidth. A form of audio compression, in other words (though we wouldn’t recommend running your mixdowns through a vocoder – stick with MP3 for now). The vocoder’s musical possibilities were explored by synth music producers in the 60s and 70s, and before long, singing robot vocals were ‘a thing’. Examples include Kraftwerk’s We Are The Robots, Styx’ Mr Roboto, and the Beastie Boys’ Intergalactic – and yes, sci-fi themes…

Trailer voices Robot voice effects produce intelligible speech, but they won’t be mistaken for an actual human speaking. But what if your project needs an impactful, larger-than-life vocal with all the organic qualities of the human voice? Think movie trailers (“In a world…”), DJ name drops, radio show idents (Armin Van Buuren’s A State Of Trance is especially well-known for its booming intonations), and villains and heroes of film and game. These voices don’t sound like the work of a machine, yet they have a hyper-real, larger-than-life, superhuman quality. Are they real or aren’t they…? Many such voices are largely the product of talented voice work professionals, and you might be surprised at how closely their recordings resemble the finished article. Luckily for us producers, we’ve got the power of…

01 JUST DUET We often arrange contrasting vocal sounds snipped from a single acapella, or use processing to make one voice sound like many. What we don’t often see, however, is a producer sourcing vocal cuttings from recordings of two different vocalists – with contrasting voices. Combining snippets of, say, a dry documentary voiceover with a wailing diva is bound to create sonic diversity, although even picking two fairly similar vocal sources can work in a different way. If you really want to push the concept, try creating a duet using two sets of chopped vocals! 02 MIXED VOICE Although you may think of an externally sourced vocal as ‘a sample’, it can still require the same mix work as a vocal you’ve recorded yourself. You can apply all the…

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. While drums don’t have to sound huge to be effective – witness funk, R&B, liquid DnB, etc – for many styles of music, bigger is almost always better. While upscaling the ‘unreal’ drum sounds of electronic genres such as house and hip-hop is relatively easy, since they’re usually either synthesised or sampled (so already processed), when it comes to inflating the acoustic drums of rock and pop, things aren’t so straightforward. Totally dry acoustic drums always sound a bit feeble – load up a…

“Version 2 has three identical click sources, for layering multiple sampled components” WAVEFORM DISPLAY Overlay all four sources and zoom in horizontally and vertically EQ QUICK CONTROLS Convenient EQ gain knobs – click Edit for more control NEW DISTORTION MODES Grunge up your kick sound with new Tube and Wave algorithms PRESET SYSTEM Over 230 factory presets, including a few snares! DEDICATED COMPRESSOR Not the best compressor on Earth, but it’ll add some punch CLICK SOURCES Layer up to three click’ samples to define the attack of your kick drum RENDER WAV Effortlessly export the current preset as an audio file LIMITER Prevent your kick from clipping its channel in the host DAW HARMONIC SUB WAVEFORMS Spice up your sub source with this additive synth module VELOCITY AND PORTAMENTO Set…

With a range of excellent task-orientated EQs already in their lineup, including the linear-phase CurveEQ and valve-flavoured HarmoniEQ, the lack of a general purpose parametric EQ in the Voxengo line-up has long been a point of note. With PrimeEQ (VST/AU), the Russian developer aims to fill that gap, although in typical Voxengo style, it’s rather more malleable than the average parametric. Fully configurable, PrimeEQ offers up to 32 independent parametric bands, each with 13 filter shapes to choose from, including typical high and low shelves, high- and low-pass filters, and peaking curves, alongside less commonplace (but handy) notch and band-pass options. Editing PrimeEQ’s filters is done directly in the main display, with the resulting EQ curve and the frequency content of the signal visualised in the onboard spectrum analyser. The…

CFA-Sound’s hybrid compressor, Grip, combines emulated valve drive and VCA compression in one plugin (AU/VST). The Valve Drive offers a choice of two modes – Pentode and Triode – with Input level, Drive and Bias controls further influencing the harmonic distortion. The VCA Compressor includes Ratio (1.5:1 up to 20:1), Attack (0.1-30ms) and Recovery (0.1sec to 2s) knobs, each with six notched settings. Compressor Threshold and Output are both continuously variable, and a dedicated Gain Reduction meter lets you see what’s happening to the signal level. Grip’s internal processing uses x2 oversampling. The Drive and Compressor sections are clearly delineated in terms of both visuals and signal flow. Both also include a mix Blend control, so although individual bypass switches aren’t onboard, it is possible to use one without the…