Índex per April 2018 a Computer Music

 Mixing is a tricky skill to grasp. No matter how many EQ and compression tutorials you absorb, you still have to find your own way to balance tone, dynamics, stereo width and space using your favourite plugins, and make it all come together with style. Heck, pro mixing engineers spend years – no, decades – learning how to craft mixes that not only compete with the best commercial tracks on a functional level, but also give a song the personality it needs to connect emotionally with the listener. “You have to find your own way to balance tone, dynamics, stereo width and space” That’s why, to help push you past generic advice and arm you with some unique mixing tricks, we’ve put together our Ultimate Mixdowns guide, starting from p22.…

cm What’s your background in music and in programming? What draws you to analogue hardware modelling? MS “Before becoming an independent developer, I was fortunate to spend much of my professional career with a well-known recording console manufacturer, which afforded me the opportunity to work alongside some of the most knowledgeable and talented people in the pro-audio industry. “I got into electronics and music quite early on, building and fixing guitar processors, amps and other equipment for my own use. DSP was a much more exotic (and expensive) commodity at that time than it is now. I got into programming when 8-bit home micros were just starting to become available, so my initial experience was making small games in Z80 assembly language! It’s surprising how many techniques learned back then…

All the above refers to very subtle saturation effects; sometimes so subtle that you can barely tell the difference when bypassing a single instance. But there’s also a place for much more obvious and audible distortion, and this can also be a very powerful tone-shaping tool. Obviously, crunchy and distorted drums can be very effective in the right context, potentially adding a huge amount of attitude and swagger to a drum part. If you like the resulting sound but find you’re losing too much punch from the drums, for example, you can try blending the dry signal with the distorted signal to restore some transients an cleanliness. If you’ve never tried multiband distortion on drums, drop this magazine on the floor and try it now! A plugin like FabFilter Saturn,…

The Haas delay trick is fairly well known: add a delay of less than about 30ms, and pan it to the opposite side of the mix. With such a short delay time we won’t hear it as a discrete echo: instead, our brains interpret it as a reflection from a wall, and the part will gain a lovely sense of depth and dimension. The method often recommended is to duplicate the part, then slide the duplicate back a few ms on the timeline to create the delay. We don’t recommend this method, however, as its difficult to tweak the delay time while listening, and this is important if you want to preserve mono compatibility. Unfortunately, when you listen in mono, the two signals will add together and cause comb filtering:…

The excellent (and free) Voxengo SPAN plugin is a powerful spectrum analyser for your master bus. To run it in mid/side mode, click to the right of the Routing button to show the dropdown list, and pick the Mid Side Stereo routing preset. We can now toggle the button to the right to show either the Mid channel (the sum of left plus right) coloured in green, or the Side channel (the difference, literally left minus right) coloured in red. You can go a step further, however. If you switch to show the Mid channel, then click the Underlay field and pick the Side channel, you can view mid and side channels at the same time, superimposed on one another, which can be very useful. We can see immediately if…

Spectrasonics Omnisphere cm220 » 10/10 » £319 “Omnisphere is just so unique, you can get sounds that you can’t make in any other synth. You can open it up and play around with it, not knowing what the hell’s going to come out of it… but it’s going to be something beautiful!” www.spectrasonics.net apulSoft apEQ N/A » N/A » $69 “This is a great EQ because of its visual aspect, as well as how it sounds. You’re able to see what you’re doing, which makes it useful in different working environments. It’s a clean EQ that’s easy to use, and it’s quick to use as well.” apulsoft.ch Waves CLA Vocals N/A » N/A » $149 “CLA Vocals is something that you can whack on and it instantly makes a difference.…

Input and threshold With any compressor, the level that the input signal has to reach before compression actually begins is called the threshold. The 1176 is unusual in that the threshold is set by the Input gain knob and ratio selection. As the Input knob is turned clockwise, it simultaneously increases the gain of the incoming signal and lowers the threshold. Conversely, increasing the ratio raises the threshold. Set the ratio to 8:cm1, gradually raise the Input knob and see how the gain reduction meter shows more reduction as the signal is driven harder over the threshold. The Output knob is used to apply ‘make up’ gain, compensating for post-compression changes in overall level at the output. Ratio buttons The amount of compression applied to the input signal is determined…

The brainchild of Julian Storer, Tracktion began as – and remains – a unique example of what a DAW can be. Not content to repeat what has come before, the developer has created a feature-packed environment that’s both fast and easy to use, thanks in no small part to the action all taking place on a single page. Everything you need to compose, record, arrange and mix your tracks is within immediate reach. T6’s most remarkable feature, however, might be the price – or lack thereof. Once a commercial package, Tracktion T6 is now free, with no limitations, no nag screens and no strings attached. Because Tracktion forges its own path, it can leave even veteran producers scratching (or shaking) their heads. Most modern DAWs look very similar to each…

“The brain swings back and forth in time with the music” Resonance is a natural phenomenon, but one that’s quite easy to understand. If you sit on a child’s swing without moving, what do you do? You go nowhere. If, on the other hand, somebody gets behind you and starts pushing you, you begin to oscillate back and forth. With every back and forth cycle you make yourself, the person pushes once – that’s resonance. The two of you are acting at the same frequency, and it’s making stuff happen! You’ll get a similar effect (although not as strong) if the person pushes you every other swing cycle. In this case, you’re still resonating, just one at half the frequency of the other. And what if you start pumping your…

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. The sound of 60s and 70s Motown is one of the most immediately recognisable in all of 20th-century music, with its particularly specific compositional and production style immediately evoking the artistic mood and socio-political landscape of the era. Playing a major part in that sound was the crack squad of session musicians known as The Funk Brothers, whose incredible talents fuelled the engines of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, The Four Tops, The Temptations and many others. The Funk Brothers line-up enrolled numerous drummers over the years,…

PRESETS Navigate over 2000 presets in a powerful browser NEW WAVES There’s a shedload of new sampled and Spectral waves EASY PAGE Pare back the interface for streamlined editing FILTER 2 Now resonant and featuring the full range of filter types X/Y Pad Record and edit elaborate multi-target modulations STRING MODEL Get some physically modelled string in your sounds MOD MATRIX Now lives on its own page and features range limiting BETTER SEQUENCING Up to four patterns can be sequenced WAVE SEQUENCING Oscillator lanes are always visible now EFFECTS Four vintage-style processors join the 24 existing effects “The main thing that makes SubBoomBass specifically bass-centric is the selection of waveforms available” It’s been almost a decade since Rob Papen‘s low-end-orientated synth, SubBoomBass (8/10, 140), first saw the light of day.…

RELEASE Adjust the volume level of the realistic release noises EQUALIZER A basic four-band EQ for simple frequency shaping LEVELS Mix the DI and amped signals and tweak the limiter SLAP/PULL Set the split between slapped and pulled strings VINTAGE/ MODERN Balance warmth and punch SUB OCTAVE Bolster your bass with a synthesised sub element POSITION SELECTOR Set a preferential five-fret range EFFECTS PEDALS Four Pre and two Post effects pedals for sound design MODULATION Apply a vibrato LFO with adjustable Rate and Depth OPEN STRINGS Force individual open string sample triggering DEAD NOTES Toggle all strings and frets to audible left hand muting KEYSWITCH EDITOR Reveal keyswitch assignment menus “Helpfully, the mouse pointer switches between distinct ‘slap’ and ‘pull’ icons as it’s moved around” Waves’ latest plugin is built…

The second in Eventide’s H9 Plug-In Series sees the MangledVerb algorithm from the H9 Harmonizer stompbox – previously found in the Eclipse rackmount effects unit – reborn as a VST/AU/AAX plugin. Being part of the same family, it shares its GUI styling and certain functional elements with the UltraTap delay (9/10, 249), as well as the venerable Blackhole (9/10, 181). At first glance, MangledVerb appears to be a fairly unremarkable reverb with the intriguing addition of a distortion control. As soon as you start using it, though, it becomes apparent that said distortion is utterly intrinsic to the overall direction and sound of the effect. The lie of the land The first thing that needs to be said about MangledVerb is that the signal path isn’t at all well represented…

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…

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…

CARD AT PLAY We never thought we’d get excited about the idea of building video game peripherals out of cardboard, but Nintendo’s Labo has made it so. Being of a musical bent, we’re particularly looking forward to building the ‘cardware’ mini piano. BLOX CLEVER Sticking with the toy theme, we’re keen to get our hands on Playtime Engineering’s Blipblox, a new synth that looks like it was made by Fisher Price. It seems to have a fair bit of sound design potential, though, which means fun for us when the kids have gone to bed. ROLAND SCRATCHES AN ITCH Roland have introduced a new extension for their Go:Keys keyboard that lets you to use it with ScratchX, the programming language used in education. So, children can employ its sounds in…

If you’ve ever descended the dark, dank rabbit hole of acoustics – or read our standout Studio Acoustics feature from 212 – you’ll have discovered the phenomenon of room modes. Put simply, the many reflections of the sounds in a room cause certain frequencies to be boosted and some to stand out less. Overcoming these modes is half the battle when trying to acoustically treat a space, and live sound engineers have it even worse, which is why you’ll generally see a graphic EQ on a live rig’s output, ready to compensate for the space by cutting and boosting the modes out of place. You don’t have to know the technical reasons for how these room modes build up, but what’s important to know is that they do. Think about…

With comb filtering effects, reversing the delayed signal’s polarity will invert all the resulting comb filtering, and create the opposite frequency response. All the notches or cuts will become boosts, the boosts will become notches or cuts, and the low-shelf boost at the bottom becomes a low-shelf cut, unless you’ve high-pass filtered the delay to remove this. You can flip the phase on the delay return channel, if your DAW allows it, or with a utility plugin loaded before or after the delay plugin. It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you only do it once! This can be useful in two ways. You can toggle the phase flip as a more extreme alternative to muting the delayed signal, so comparing your setting with the opposite frequency…

Snake it till you make it Long-time readers might remember solo Producer Masterclasses by wobble house maestro Kye ‘Foamo’ Gibbon and future junglist Matt ‘RackNRuin’ Robson-Scott. In 2012, the pair met and formed deep house project Gorgon City, responsible for hits including All Four Walls ft. Vaults, Saving My Life ft. Romans, and the topic of this issue’s PM , Imagination ft. Katy Menditta. We hooked up with Kye and Matt in their North London studio… cm: How did Gorgon City come about? KG: “We’re both on the same agency and we met through DJing in clubs. At first it was just going to be a one-off collaboration – maybe just…

We’ve seen in previous Easy Guides how the distance between the pitch of two notes is known as an interval, and this month I’m spotlighting one of the strongest intervals in Western music theory: the fifth. There are three kinds of fifth interval: perfect fifth, diminished (aka the tritone), and augmented, of which the perfect fifth is by far the most commonly used. To train your ears to remember the sound of one, just think of the first two long notes in John Williams’ famous Star Wars theme, or the opening notes of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, which are a perfect fifth apart. A perfect fifth isn’t called perfect just because it sounds nice – ‘perfect’ just means that the interval is neither major nor minor.…

The last time we looked at Arturia’s ever-expanding V Collection library of classic synths and keyboard instruments was way back in 215, where version 4 scored 9/10. 2016’s V Collection 5 saw the addition of a handful of organs, a piano emulation and a superb Synclavier to the roster, an improved browser, and an overhaul of many of the older GUIs. Now, V Collection 6 adds a further four icons to the pantheon: CMI V, DX7 V, Buchla Easel V and Clavinet V (each also available individually for €199). It also updates a couple of the existing offerings (see More of the same), GUI window scaling from 60-200%, and Retina/HiDPI support for Solina V, VOX Continental V and Wurli V. As before, every instrument runs standalone or as a VST/AU/AAX…

PAGE SWITCHES Flip between Infinite Pro’s four main pages MOLDER A sweeping spectral filter for altering partials over time NOISER Morph and manipulate the noise oscillator SINE EDIT PAGES Edit the harmonic “tracks” of the selected resource TIME CONTROL Each sine resource is played back by an envelope MORPHER X/Y Morph the gains and frequencies of five sine resources ENVELOPE Envelopes can be edited in the Morpher page LFO Edit the four LFOs here and in the Parameter page S/N MIX Balance the Morpher and Noiser output signals SCHEMATIC KEYPAD Configure your own moused keyboard “This isn’t the kind of synth you’re likely to approach with a particular sonic end point in mind” Originally released as an iPad app sans the ‘Pro’, Infinite Pro (VST/AU) is the latest in an…

Secure and safe online access, from anywhere Free access for every reader – print and digital Download only the files you want, when you want All the downloads from all your issues, in one place Get started 01 Register your FileSilo account and log in. Even if you have a subscriber ID, you’ll still have to unlock each mag separately or migrate your old Vault account (see step 3). 02 Head back to the Computer Music page (filesilo.co.uk/computermusic) and choose an issue to unlock. You’ll need to answer one question to prove you’ve purchased the issue. 03 You can migrate your old Vault account over to FileSilo to retain the issues you’ve added – head to filesilo.co.uk/vault and enter your Vault email address. Reset your password via the email you…

Audiofusion could be very useful if you’re a live musician. It’s designed to enable cost-effective wireless in-ear monitoring in conjunction with a laptop on the mixer , so you just need to keep your phone in your pocket and plug in headphones. The sound engineer can set up separate mixes for each performer, but individuals can also make adjustments themselves from the app. The system hasn’t been released yet, but you can sign up for updates online. www.audiofusionsystems.com Auxy has won legions of fans thanks to its elegant, no-fuss sequencing workflow, and version 5 brings some significant changes. There’s a new drum instrument that enables you to build your own kits, and you also have more control over individual sounds. Arguably the bigger change is in the pricing structure. You…

We enjoyed ‘a little more conversation’ with Junkie XL (geddit!?) in April 2008, while also asking why you might want to consider setting up your own web-based record label (not to get rich was the swift conclusion). Our News section was full of similar-looking audio interfaces – no change there, then – while Spectrasonics founder Eric Persing told us that one of his sound designers had ‘floated’ the idea of putting a load of duck samples into the just-announced Omnisphere. Unsurprisingly, this slightly quackers idea was rejected. In the reviews section we awarded Novation’s Nocturn controller 10/10 – that’s one of those products that we raved about back in the day but had almost forgotten about – while our cover feature took us deep into the world of dub. Finally,…

Dave Mayson “I’d like the ability to change the resistance of the keys. Fully weighted hammer action for piano parts, semi-weighted for brass, no weight for strings and woodwind. In exchange, I’ll happily give up the ridiculous set of drum pads mounted at the back of the keyboard.” Pat Jackman “A coffee machine. And I’d remove the piano keys. Who am I kidding? I spend so much time editing the notes afterwards, I may as well have drawn them in in the ›irst place.” Shannon Eclextacy “An Undo button – take away the playback record.” Ben Montfort “Control voltage out for modular systems. And take away the automap feature, because I’ve never found myself needing it.” Simen Nesset Elstad “I would love to have an option to adjust the weight…

Consider the likely journey made by a vocal signal recorded in the 1980s. The first stop on the journey is probably one of the desk mic preamps – maybe a Neve or API if we’re lucky. Then we go out to an 1176 compressor via the channel inserts, then back to the console again, and onto the inductor-based channel EQ, before hitting a console group, and out to tape. On mixdown, the signal gets played back, possibly via a different tape deck in a different studio, then hits another console’s line inputs. This time, the channel inserts might be patched to an LA-2A compressor, or a Pultec EQ, or both, before the signal returns to the console for possibly more channel EQ or dynamics processing. Then on to a stereo…

The flipside to our insight above: all rooms add their own colour, even when they don’t have an obvious ‘reverb’. Smaller rooms tend to be worse, as the biggest peaks and troughs in the frequency response will typically be found in the bass or low-mid frequencies. Our ears and brain actively conspire to stop us noticing these effects: as soon as we enter a room, we start to pick up on a thousand tiny cues regarding the acoustics of that space, so we can cancel out the room and hear things as they ‘should’ sound. This happens entirely subconsciously without our being aware of it. This is both a blessing and a curse from a studio perspective. Your ears’ ability to adjust themselves to the room response means you can…

Using a corrective EQ comes with some practical considerations. If you load the EQ onto the stereo bus of your project, you’re going to have to remember to bypass it before you render the mix. For this reason, it’s better to load it outside your project, if your DAW allows it, so that it sits between your master fader and your monitors. Use the Control Room section in Cubase, for example, or the Monitor FX section in Reaper. Now we don’t need to remember to bypass the EQ when we render, but we still need to remember to bypass when we do our loud checks. This is vastly preferable, however, as forgetting to turn it off won’t ever result in a bad file being sent to a client! In a…

In 1967, engineer and producer Bill Putnam changed the recording studio forever when he redesigned his hugely successful 1176 limiting amplifier, replacing the vacuum tubes at its heart with FET technology, to create the Urei (later Universal Audio) 1176, the world’s first solid state peak limiter or compressor. An immediate hit thanks to its ridiculously fast attack and release times, unrivalled ease of use and energetic, punchy sound, it went through countless revisions over the years, resulting in a range of variations, some more sought after than others. Most importantly for us, though, it’s also been reborn in several software plugins, and among the best is IK Multimedia’s Black 76 – yours for free only with this edition of Computer Music. Black 76 works as a module in IK’s T-RackS…

Syntronik Powered by IK’s SampleTank engine, Syntronik is a vast (58GB) compendium of sampled classic synths, given an authentic analogue feel by the onboard DRIFT technology and an impressive array of filter models and types. The homogenous interface sacrifices depth for ease of use, but with over 2000 presets, the sound you want is only ever a few clicks away. MODO Bass The world’s first physically-modelled bass guitar plugin features 14 classic basses, which can be used as is or customised by playing around with their pickup types and positioning, and their string properties. Amp simulation and four effects pedals bring the tone, while keyswitched articulations yield totally convincing performances. Miroslav Philharmonik 2 Also built on SampleTank, this 58GB orchestral ROMpler packs in over 2700 solo and ensemble instrument presets,…

For dark, atmospheric sound design, I tend to use ambient loops created with layered samples and FX. For inspiration, I’ll begin by searching through my own sound FX library, where I’ve gathered recorded environmental sounds, samples from commercial libraries, and my array of diverse material from the internet. Recently, I’ve been looking at the process of designing atmospherics as separate to that of composition. I’ve spent a lot of time building sound FX projects solely focusing on atmosphere, which helps me to discover interesting new concepts. At a later date, I’ll introduce these fresh sketches into song projects, usually as the start of an arrangement. Here, I’ll create an atmosphere using Kontakt 5, some sampled hits and a drone pad from FXpansion’s Amber synth. Focusing on FX is common practice…

OSCILLATORS 1-3 Load the first three oscs with analogue waves or wavetables FILTERS Two filters in series or parallel, with 46 types to choose from MACROS Four Macro knobs are assignable to up to 16 parameters EQ A four-band parametric EQ for final shaping ADSR ENVELOPES Six ADSR envelopes for modulating amp, cutoff and more EFFECTS Five inserts and two sends, drawing on 26 modules TABBED EDITORS Access various editors and panels with these tabs OSCILLATORS 4-6 Three nifty Sampler engines, complete with looping G-ENV Design custom shapes with ANA 2’s graphical envelopes LFOs Three LFOs with two front-panel assignments each CHORD MEMORY DEVICE Trigger chords from single notes “It makes the whole process of working sampled layers into synth patches easy” Despite falling rather short of the mark, the…

When remembering the instrumental flavours of the 80s, among the first that probably come to mind – alongside early digital synths and huge snares – are the super smooth electric guitar sounds so beloved of the US pop and rock scene at the time. Partly responsible for those warm, evocative tones was the Dytronics CS-5 Tri-Stereo Chorus – an analogue rack unit originally built for use with a modded Fender Rhodes piano (see Making history). And now, owners of Universal Audio’s UAD-2 and Apollo hardware can bring this fabled processor to their desktop productions courtesy of the Softube-developed Dytronics Tri-Stereo Chorus plugin (VST/AU/AAX). Maximum vibe Dytronics Tri-Stereo Chorus is an exacting emulation of the original device, which saw three (hence the ‘Tri’) bucket brigade delay lines – one each for…

01 The Erised Alternative Pop 02 Anek Tech House Collection 03 Bonar Bradberry Disco House 04 Dream Trap 05 DOD Future Jack 06 Culprate The Great Expedition 07 DeMarzo House Standard 08 Immersion Electronic Chill Vol 2 09 Mainroom Diva Acapellas 10 Robbie Rivera Tribal House PLUS Label Showcase A bumper pack from the brand’s exclusive labels 01 General Guyble Raw Intensity 02 Advanced Trap 03 Angelica Cinematic Vocals & Beds 04 RV Club Keys 05 Undrgrnd Deep Warehouse Tech 06 Spin Media Dark Edge Techno 07 SampleState Grooved Techno 08 Cosmo Funk & Soul 09 Cinesouls Presents Witchcraft > Step by step Producing raw techno with this issue’s Loopmasters samples 1 To put this issue’s 1GB Loopmasters sample pack to the test, let’s dive into a freeform session. Our…

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…