Computer Music April 2017

“Vastly expand your sonic palette…” At the time of writing, I’ve just landed back on UK soil after attending the 2017 NAMM Show in Anaheim, California – and boy, what a show it was! Unusually rainy weather aside, it was incredibly inspiring to see the music software world representing so strongly, with plenty of new instruments, effects, controllers, audio interfaces and more announced for the coming year. Cop our news roundup from the show floor from p10. Of course, although we all love drooling over new music-making toys, it’s far more beneficial to get to grips with the powerful tools already sitting on your hard drive. Similarly, mastering every feature of at least one versatile synthesiser will vastly expand your sonic palette and help develop your unique musical identity. So to this…

On your PC or Mac, go to vault.computermusic.co.uk, then either register for a new Vault account, or log in if you already have one. Step 2 Click ‘add a magazine’ in the top bar, select the issue you want to add to your Vault (eg, this issue is 241), and answer a few simple security questions. Step 3 Go to ‘my vault’ to see all your mags – click a cover and use the links to download! You can download as much or as little as you like. PLUGIN THE ORB CM Get awesome formant filtering with this month’s software giveaway – find out exactly how to use it on p56 SAMPLE PACKS DYSTOPIAN DRONES 500 royalty-free drones, atmospheres, soundscapes and more in WAV format – grab them on p106 LOOPMASTERS CM241 This issue’s premium-quality samples, compiled from a handful of the…

Go deeper with three epic instruments Read the full article on p22 Xfer SERUM > u-he DIVA > VPS AVENGER > PRODUCER MASTERCLASS SPEKTRE The techno duo take us through the making of their tune Middle of Everywhere in Ableton Live Read the full article on p50 THE ORB CM Set up and use this issue’s free formant-filtering plugin, and see what it can do in this video Read the full article on p56 CUBASE PRO 9 Get onboard with its newest features in these vids Read the full article on p67 UNORTHODOX MIX TIPS We rip up the mixing rulebook across these ten video tutorials Read the full article on p61To download all these videos onto your PC/Mac, just head along to vault.computermusic.co.uk and register this issue Grab this issue’s videos via Vault download – see p5 for details…

Our fantastic software, samples, videos and tutorial files are now available to download! To get access to this content, go to vault.computermusic.co.uk on your PC or Mac’s web browser. You’ll be asked to register and answer a few simple questions to prove that you’ve got the mag. You’ll then be given access to our content! You can sign in any time cumquam rem to register new issues and download t more content. For more info, see our Vault FAQ: bit.ly/cmvaultfaq * Please note that the Producer Masterclass video is not available as a download via our Vault, but is made available via internet streaming. See page 51 for details.…

Bitwig Studio heads up the huge stories from this year’s industry show The release of Bitwig Studio in 2014 meant that, for the first time, neo-DAW Ableton Live had some direct competition. Here was an upstart DAW straight outta Berlin, combining brazen recreations of Live’s signature elements with its own innovations, such as the brilliant Unified Modulation System, and a polyphonic automation feature, Note Event Expressions. Our 9/10 review in 203 concluded that “Bitwig Studio is a fantastic, forward-thinking DAW in its own right – and this is only version 1!” Well, it’s time to prepare our testbench once again, because Bitwig Studio 2 has arrived! The range of Devices has swelled, with a whopping 24 new Modulators, including Random, Select-4 and Math. New audio Devices are Spectrum Analyzer, Pitch Shifter, Phaser,…

Two well-established iOS music-making apps have been grabbing the headlines again recently, the first of which is Apple’s own GarageBand. Updated to version 2.2, this now includes the Alchemy synth that was so cruelly snatched away from iOS users when Apple purchased Camel Audio. It now behaves just like any other GarageBand Touch Instrument, comes with more than 150 Apple-designed presets, and sounds as good as ever. The GarageBand update also heralds the arrival of a redesigned browser (this makes auditioning and choosing sounds much easier), multi-take recording, and new vocal and mixing effects. The interface has been tweaked, too, making the whole experience feel that much slicker and more serious (in a good way). It can even import bounced versions of Logic 10.3 projects, enabling you to work on them…