Índex per September 2022 a Computer Music

When I first started making music it was all pre-digital (yes, hard to tell from my picture I know – uh hmm – but we’re talking ‘the ‘80s’ here). Back then there was this horrific thing called ‘noise’; you had it coming out of every item of equipment, every cable, every damn output (and input). I even bought a 1/3U box from Alesis, an actual piece of hardware, that was supposed to cut out the noise on my system. It didn’t really work, to be honest, and all my early music was ‘blessed’ with hissy introductions. Fast forward a few years and all of that noise went out of the window as I went ‘in the box’. Around 2004 I was completely laptop only, boasting on these pages how noise-free…

Sample licensing has always been a thorny, potentially costly business, so back in September 2012 we showed you how to cut your potential royalty costs by ‘replaying’ a sound rather than using the original. A handy skill to have during a cost of living crisis, we think you’ll agree… There was also a guide to recreating the off-beat organ stab in Kylie’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head – already a classic, and now even more so – while In the reviews section, we had our eye not only on Sugar Bytes’ Cyclop (see what we did there?) but also Reason 6.5 and its “conceptually controversial” new Rack Extensions format. Still, we liked it. “Dr Bob’s surname actually rhymes with ‘rogue’ rather than ‘move’” Oh, and one reader emailed…

If you’re old enough to remember the 1980s, you’ll recall it was a time when ‘digital’ became the cool, new thing. And not just in music production. Everything went digital, from clocks to watches, from cash tills to calculators. And in music making we got the skips in to take our compressors and great big modular synths away! In came digital synths, computers, hard disc recording and endless ones and zeros. Forget those silly knobs and dials kids – we had endless menus to step through and could now record in binary! Forget tape, hiss, noise and wobble – clean audio perfection was just round the corner! How fashions change. Somewhere along the march of digital, we decided that it was a bit too clean and harsh. And now, of…

1 > A huge part of the analogue sound is really all about distortion. Let’s take an audio tour of its many flavours and varieties. Tape saturation combines transient smoothing, compression and soft signal distortion to progressively glue and fatten. Emulations often apply EQ and simulated tape hiss and flutter. It’s great for warmth and ‘glue’, and can be applied to every track. 2 > Like tape, valve saturation progressively adds harmonics in a musically pleasing way, with distinct colouration. Triode valves generate largely even harmonics, while pentode circuits give odd ones, often considered less musical, but deeper and richer. Saturation is usually used subtly, rather than pushed to the point of obvious distortion – though it’s always an option! 3 > Many types of distortion employ clipping behaviour, but…

1 > Let’s go all-out and send a pristinely recorded production more than a century back in time. Music production was in its infancy, and recordings were made acoustically, channelling sound waves down a funnel or tube to vibrate a mechanical cutter pressed on the rotating cylinder or disc. Playback used the same principle, but in reverse – there were no microphones, mixers, amps, or speakers! 2 > To get started, load OldLoop 1.wav in an 85bpm project and loop it – we’re going to use free Plugins to recreate those turn of the 20th-century vibes. First things first: put a monoising plugin (such as DeeMonitor with Mid at 0%) on the master bus, as the first recordings were strictly mono. 3 > Bass and treble were practically nonexistent in…

1 > Let’s reverse-engineer the imperfections of an old analogue synth and create warm, retro chords using Plugins and a little know-how. Call up Synapse Audio’s Dune CM on a new MIDI track in your DAW, hit its Bank B button to initialise the synth, and drop Retro Chords.mid onto this MIDI channel to trigger the synth. Plonk a limiter on the master bus to prevent clipping. 2 > The oscillator section’s Osc Mix knob is fully anticlockwise by default, giving us a simple single-oscillator sawtooth. First, we’ll use an LFO to slowly modulate the pitch of this oscillator, to emulate the unstable pitch drift and inconsistency of an analogue oscillator. Head into the Mod Matrix 1>12 tab, then set row 2’s Source to LFO 1, an Amount of -10,…

> In a previous tutorial I talked about some of the benefits of recording a clean bassline through an audio interface. It certainly cuts down on the amount of equipment that you’ll need to record from home. And now, music production technology is easily at a level where listeners would never even be able to tell whether you’ve recorded with a bunch of effects pedals and an amp in a studio, or you’ve just emulated the effects using plugins – which is what we’re going to focus on in this month’s tutorial. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have a home studio setup with several different instruments at the ready. I’ve scaled down on certain things over time as I’m not playing live for the foreseeable, so amplifiers…

“I wanted it to be a bit closer together in style than I usually do. I wanted it to be very vivid because I was so busy with colours – they obsessed me. I don’t see colours as sound or sound as colours – synesthesia or whatever it is called. But at the same time, the process of sculpting and moulding, dissolving and finding context… All those things with painting and then doing the same with sonics, there is a parallel. So I wanted it to be that I could paint my way through this album and so I did. “There’s an image for each track and it’s been a joy to do. And it was just producing tracks that would make me feel happy when doing them. It’s that…

> Larger-than-life, ‘cinematic’ beats have become such a mainstay of soundtracks, TV idents and advertising that they’re almost part of the media wallpaper. Take a quick surf through Saturday night TV or any number of recent movie blockbusters and you’ll be bombarded with huge, epic percussion sounds. Listen a little closer and you’ll hear that these sounds, although rooted in real instruments, can also sound ‘otherworldly’, which only adds to their mystery and overall epic feel. To get straight to the point of this tutorial, achieving these cinematic sounds is primarily a case of careful sound selection and appropriate effects processing. Our first step, then, is to put together a set of core sounds that we know will deliver. We’ll cherry-pick from ‘world’ and orchestral percussion to get a good…

As we explain in the Buyer’s Advice section, you should choose a tablet on portability versus power – the music making functionality you can expect compared to the weight and size of the tablet. However there’s also the operating system the tablet uses to consider. This can be a divisive subject with many diehard advocates lauding each system, so we’ll divide our advice up accordingly. The Windows systems – aka touchscreens that effectively double as PC laptops – have been dominated by Microsoft’s Surface Pro, which is certainly an expensive option if you just want to use a tablet. The latest Surface Pro 8 looks set to maintain that trend, with lovely design tweaks and new functionality. If you have the budget then you can spend a lot on the…

It’s a d-d-d-d-d delay special! Ever found yourself reaching for reverb before you add delay? We’ll show you some techniques which might make you think again! Next issue we’ll be tackling the subject of delays: how to get creative with them, the differences between delays and reverbs, and more. Plus, loads of hands-on tutorials to give your tunes the delay edge (edge, edge, edge etc) PLUS! Delay samples! Two packs of delay samples to go with our cover feature! Reviews Softube’s Model 82 synth, a new SSL deesser and much more! Interview Chicane race around the studio to offer their top dance tips…

It’s a hat-trick of vintage synths Just when you thought we’d run out of synth emulations, three more pop up > Like us you probably thought that every classic synth had already been emulated, rebuilt, reworked, built again, modelled, remodelled, souped up, dressed down and generally turned into software. Not so because we have not one but three new ones to bring you here! First out of the blocks are GForce Software, developers who are not exactly known for their fast release rate. Like the Bethesda of plugins they rarely release stuff, but you sit up and take notice when they do. So we weren’t expecting much in the way of new stuff since they only relatively recently released the rather great Oberheim OB-E. But hot on its heels and…

> It goes without saying that the ability to record and edit audio in the digital domain brings enormous benefits, enabling us to produce punchy, cutting-edge music entirely within our computers. However, there’s still something undeniably special about audio processed in the analogue domain. Wouldn’t it be great, then, if you could make your digital recordings sound more analogue? Thanks to an increasing number of extremely talented plugin developers, this has very much become a viable possibility, as they painstakingly model the gloriously chaotic analogue processes behind magnetic tape, valves, transformers and more. Of course, all of these things have been around in plugin form for ages now, but the current generation focuses particularly on the subtleties and nuances, emulating the effects of tape and desk circuits used at regular…

When working with distortion processors, it’s vital to consider your levels and gain staging at both the input and output stages. When we look at the basic relationship between gain and distortion it’s simple: raise a signal’s gain into a distortion plugin (by turning up its output, using the distortion device’s ‘input gain’ parameter, or a combination of both), and the waveform will be clipped, shaped or otherwise altered. At the other end, the distorted signal that emerges will typically sound far louder than the undistorted signal. In practice, then, there are two key points for the producer to bear in mind: firstly, the level of your input (ie, your pre-distortion signal) will greatly affect the distortion response; and secondly, you’ll almost always need to turn your post-distortion signal down…

Saturation is a defining factor in ‘that analogue sound’. It can make sounds fat and beefy, smooth and warm, or crunchy and edgy. Placed strategically on single tracks and buses, it can produce a more cohesive mix. The most obvious effect is the addition of harmonic content, most easily heard on sounds that don’t have much to begin with, such as subby sine basses. By adding upper harmonics, a deep bass that vanishes on smaller speaker systems magically becomes audible. Generally, transistor distortion adds sharpness and crunch, and valve and tape are associated with warmth. Sharp transients can be bothersome, but saturation can effectively control them. Used gently, it can invisibly reduce peaks, gaining headroom, while stronger settings audibly soften and ‘smoosh’ transients while retaining – even emphasising – lower…

If there’s one thing that has to be abundantly obvious, when it comes to contemporary music production, not all bass sounds are equal. While many producers still yearn for the classic bass sounds produced by Minimoogs, 101s and 106s, software provides the ideal portal to creating substantial and impressive bass, inviting modulation for movement and interest. A recent example would be David Guetta, Becky Hill and Ella Henderson’s Crazy What Love Can Do, where we hear a bass sound that began life as a good old-fashioned square wave, but mutated into a sound with morphing tendencies. There are a few ways that we could seek to emulate this style of sound, which includes the use of oscillator sync; this method can be pretty variable, as results are entirely dependent on…

TOOLS OF THE TRADE PLUGINBOUTIQUE.COM This site has numerous summer deals on at the moment. I always get email alerts from them tempting me to spend money I don’t have on more delicious sound toys, but right now seems like a great time to invest. If you’ve had your eye on any particular plugins lately, this online store would be a great shout for you. There’s a massive range of bass and guitar pedal emulators there for you to browse. Many of these will, of course, have demos up on YouTube, if not on the developer sites themselves. KOMPLETE GUITAR RIG 6 – NATIVE INSTRUMENTS I’ve already recommended their versatile synth Massive, and Native Instruments have got it right again with this incredible multi pedal/amp emulator. I used this when…

Pocket Operator If you thought that Teenage Engineering only made dinky, eye-wateringly priced hardware these days, Pocket Operator for Pixel is here to set you straight. Exclusive to Google’s more recent Pixel phones (5 and above), this clever app uses the Big G’s TensorFlow machine learning tech to pluck samples from your videos and place them on a 4x4 grid of buttons so that you can use them to create sequences. Clever, eh? It’s all very slick, particularly as video is displayed at the top of the screen and synced up with the music. Downloadable for free right now. teenage.engineering Koala Sampler On the subject of audio extraction, fans of the Koala Sampler – of which there are many – should be pleased to hear that a recent update introduces…

CLAP TO THE FUTURE? You might wonder why Bitwig and u-he are launching a new plugin format – CLAP – but hear them out. This open standard promises better performance and more MIDI 2.0/ MPE-inspired expression features than existing rivals. More developer-friendly, too. RUNNING UP THE CHARTS The resurgence of Kate Bush’s 1985 single Running Up That Hill has come as a pleasant surprise not only to us, but also the artist herself, who admitted to being “astounded to watch the track explode!” Now, where did we put our Fairlight CMI plugin… TOP MARKS We’re definitely getting ‘cool music teacher’ vibes from Mark Ronson, who’s put together an 18-part music production course for the BBC Maestro learning platform. “It’s usable, accessible content,” says the acclaimed studio helmsman, which is just…

01 SUMMING THINGS UP FOR HEAT: SATSON CM You may well see Sonimus’ Satson and Britson plugins over the next few pages. These and our own version, Satson CM, are meant to be used per-track and combined on your master bus to subtly suggest the cumulative effects of analogue mixing desk circuitry. They’re designed for subtle, under-the-radar warmth, but we’ve often used a single Satson CM to add extra drive to a signal by pushing up the Gain. Use utility plugins before and after to customise the drive amount, plus in and out levels. 02 REIN IT IN WITH DEEMONITOR CM This simple utility gadget from Dotec-Audio offers a handful of convenient monitoring tools that are designed to help you get a better mix. Among them are three different speaker…

1 > It can be tempting to ladle on every last analogue-modelled plugin you’ve got in the quest for a warm and punchy mixdown… but you can push your mix in that direction with simple EQ and filtering tricks inspired by analogue gear. Start by loading the WAVs named ‘ProgFunk…’ on audio tracks in a 132bpm project, then loop them (this demo isn’t in 4/4 time). 2 > The drums in this mix have too much treble information, so add a Satson CM to the Drums track and set Low Pass to 7 to smooth away the top-end digital harshness. Set High Pass to 2 to tighten the low end, controlling the excess sub flab. Satson CM’s gentle 6dB filters are perfect for these tasks, and we’ll be using them…

AudioThing Vinyl Strip cm226 » 9/10 » $59 This well-equipped channel strip is a must-have tool for injecting old-school flavour and vibe into your channels. Of Vinyl Strip’s six reorderable modules (which include drive, compression, sampler crunch, tone tilting and reverb), our favourite is the fully stocked Vinyl section, for mixing in customisable vinyl noise and crackle into the mix. audiothing.net Vengeance-Sound VPS Vinylizer cm214 » 9/10 » £85 (bundle) Part of the Vengeance-Sound’s VPS Essential FX Bundle 2, this virtual ‘ageing’ toolkit places a plethora of noise-outputting generators at your fingertips. Dial in noise hum, rumble, crackle and scratches; customise tone and density; and even change the speed of your virtual record, and switch between line/phono inputs. vengeance-sound.com iZotope Vinyl FREE Throw this fantastic freebie on a track to…

BASS, IN ITS PLACE! Creating a great bass sound is of course only part of the production picture, but let’s ask ourselves exactly why this is, and why it is a very wise idea to try and help the bottom end of your track? If you’ve ever been in the vicinity of a large PA system at a gig, or some form of subwoofer/bass bin, you don’t need us to tell you that bass frequencies are potent. The problem is, from the perspective of production and mixing, placing similar bass frequencies in close proximity, across channels or instruments, is likely to at best manifest confusion in the bottom end, and at worst over-inflate the bottom end of your track. Hence, it has become a time-honoured feature of commercial tracks to…

> William Orbit has produced and collaborated with some of the biggest names in pop including Madonna, U2, Blur, Pink, Robbie and Britney to name but a very few. He’s won countless awards and sold millions of records, not to mention becoming a leading figure in the electronic music scene with releases including his incredible Strange Cargo series and his classical reinterpretation album Pieces In A Modern Style. But as mighty as all of these achievements have undoubtedly been, it’s the parts of his life that link all of these peaks together that are perhaps more incredible. There were the times in the ‘70s where Orbit became a “seasoned squatter”, and busked his way around Europe. In the ‘80s his first band Torch Sing were signed to Miles (Stuart’s dad)…