Computer Music August 2021

welcome

In the DIY spirit of our cover feature this month, I’m not going to bother writing an intro for the issue, but let you construct your own ‘Welcome’* out of the following phrases. The best wins a magazine editor job. Good luck! <And some DAWs get upgraded on p6> <Annoyingly, my favourite plugins wouldn’t run after the OS upgrade> <It really was nothing like the sound of a real analogue synth> <And it’s another incredibly packed issue!> <You’ll never guess what happened to me/my dog/car/ computer this month…> <And their brand new, cutting-edge feature is… comping!> <Hello everyone and welcome to another amazing Computer Music!> <I remember the days of tape splicing and hiss – good times!> <Probably best to build your own plugins, really – and we’ve got just the…

daw updates a plenty…

It’s going to be busy over the next few months in the DAW calendar. We’ve got major releases from Bitwig and Reason to check out, but don’t expect the big releases to end there. First up, Reason Studios Reason 12 has just been announced, although it won’t be released properly until September. That said, subscribers of the new(ish) Reason+ will get the new features and extras as they become available, although no release dates have been confirmed as of yet. New additions include high definition for all of Reason’s devices meaning that, according to the RS blog, “all your favourite devices will feel like you’re seeing them for the first time. You can zoom Reason to fit your setup, and all third party Rack Extensions will be hi-res ready on day one.” Which…

ins & outs

APPLE’S AUDIO BOOST Apple have added more reasons to consider switching to their Music streaming service; not only does it now offer lossless audio across the catalogue, but there’s also Spatial Audio, which adds support for Dolby Atmos. Both new features are included in the standard price. LET’S HAVE A LOOK-C In exciting dongle news – yes, really – there’s now a USB-C iLok, so if you need to use one for software license management and have one of the newer MacBooks, it’ll slot in without requiring an adapter. The downside is that you’ll have to pay $60 to ‘upgrade’. COME TOGETHER AT ABBEY As part of their 90th birthday celebrations, Abbey Road Studios are opening their famous doors this summer and allowing members of the public to take a tour. You can visit the…

app watch

Easy iOS DJ-ing? Don’t tell the crowd at your next house party, but creating a seamless DJ set might just have got even easier thanks to Algoriddim’s update to djay on iOS. It features a rewritten Automix AI with improved transitions, so you can set up a playlist of songs, step away from the decks and let the software do the heavy mix lifting. Difficult, cross-genre mixes are said to be supported, as are tempo jumps. You can also utilise Algoriddim’s Neural Mix technology, which breaks tracks down into their component parts. djay Pro AI is a free download, while the optional Pro subscription – for all content and features – is $7 a month or $50 a year. algoriddim.com Easy chords? Even the greatest musicians can struggle to come up with good chord progressions.…

get with the programmers

How did you get into music software? BC “I’ve been a musician since age five and in the recording business for 20+ years. I even have a couple of Czech Grammies and a Mercury Prize as an artist/singer/producer. I was always a technical person and went from collecting gear to designing software effects.” How did you become successful? BC “Are we successful? Well, unity is power. We had a long term relationship with Vojtech Meluzin (of Melda), Jason (JMG Sound) and FireSonic. We all had ideas, but starting a company for one plugin is too difficult so we thought it’d be best to create UnitedPlugins to deal with things the developers don’t want to do (marketing, accounting, distribution etc.) so we can focus on designing as many musical plugins as possible.” What makes your…

10 years back

“Who needs a real singer these days?” was our question in August 2011 (CM167) as we pondered the concept of the ‘virtual vocalist’. 10 years on and we’re still not hearing chart hits being sung by robots – unless you count identikit boyband members – though there are a fair few who rely heavily on Auto-Tune... “Dada Life’s Sausage Fattener plugin is still sizzling away 10 years on” Our Producer Masterclass featured Toddla T – technically, he should be called Teenager T by now, shouldn’t he? – and we asked when DAWs would offer proper support for multitouch displays. There have been some advancements in that area, but we’re still pretty happy with our keyboard and mouse rigs, thank you. In the news, Steve Jobs announced the iCloud – we recall that, at…