Computer Music November 2017

According to one annoying pop singer, it’s all about the bass… and this is truer than ever for this special low-end-focused issue of ! No matter what subgenre you produce, or on what system your music is designed to be listened to, low-end weight and clarity are of paramount importance. So whether you’re after pure sine power to shake subwoofers, classic synthesised low-end for smoothness, or funky bass guitar to get toes tappin’, our 100% Bass guide (starting on p20) is for you! “Weight and clarity are of paramount importance” Next up, we jump straight into a special three-part DnB artist special: across 16 pages and a trio of in-depth videos, you’ll discover next-level mastering tips from Bristol basshead Break; uncover creative strategies with neuro whizz InsideInfo; and see BCee and Villem…

Unlock an issue Log into FileSilo on your PC or Mac, then just click an issue and answer a question – you’ll have to reference the magazine to get the answer. Import older mags FileSilo will replace our old Vault system, and you’ll soon be able to migrate your added mags from one account to the other. FREE PLUGIN INVALVE 2 EFFECTS Audified’s compression, EQ and preamp plugins are worth $49, but they’re all yours for free with this issue of the mag, p58 SAMPLE PACKS 1,222 FREE SAMPLES Get our Subs & Sines and Chilled Electronica sample packs, plus a bonus collection from Loopmasters – all royalty-free for use in your tunes, p104 PLUGIN COLLECTION CM Plugins Our exclusive collection of free plugins for Mac and PC. Check ‘em out on pcm107 TUTORIAL VIDEO Tutorial videos High-quality videos to guide you through our tutorials.…

100% BASS Read the full article on p20 Create your baddest bass sounds yet with our comprehensive guide to low-end sound design 1 Bass guitar – recording and mixing basics 2 Stacks of tone 3 Character-building EQ 4 Buzz cut 5 Iconic Minimoog three-oscillator bass 7 Fusion bass with Logic’s Retro Synth 8 Crafting a gritty wavetable bass patch 9 Punchy, powerful 16th-note bass 10 Putting together a gliding, detuned Reese bass 11 A responsive keytracking Reese bass 12 Filtered supersaw Reese bass 13 Six unusual tactics for bass design BREAK Read the full article on p38 The DnB legend shows us how he masters a track and screens a premaster for potential problems INSIDEINFO Read the full article on p44 The techie bass wizard gives us a snapshot into the workflow behind so many great tracks VANGUARD PROJECT Read the full article on p50 See how they get tunes done on the double LOW-END MIXING TACTICS Strategies for…

The state of plugin reverbs back in the late 90s and early 00s was a sorry one. Unrealistic, grainy echoes and metallic, ringing tails were the best our feeble Pentium CPUs could muster. Things are very different now, of course, with a whole vista of pristine-quality space simulations to explore. But where do we go from here? Once you’ve hit peak reverb, what’s left to conquer? These five new unconventional ’verbs may hold the answers… Rob Papen RP-Verb 2 We dubbed the original RP-Verb “a sound design powerhouse” in our review (9/10, cm 146). The headline addition for RP-Verb 2 (£119) is the Reverser section, for tempo-synced reverse reverb effects. New modulation sources include Envelope Follower, Envelope and LFO, routable in the also-new Mod Matrix. There are fresh Distortion algorithms, too. Unless…

Korg’s iMono/Poly app didn’t exactly come as a surprise – the company had already emulated the Mono/Poly as part of their Legacy Collection for desktop – but it’s still a very welcome addition for iPhone and iPad. This is a four-VCO monophonic synth that can also be used polyphonically. All the functionality of the original has made it to your touchscreen. You also get two multieffects units and eight virtual patches. The introductory price is £19.99/$19.99. www.korg.com In more 80s hardware-emulating news, Elliott Garage has released the EGDR606, an iOS version of Roland’s TR-606 drum machine. Though not as well known as the 909 or 808, this still has its fair share of fans, and Elliott’s version retains the original’s look and feel. You have parameter editing for each piece in…

“In analogue modelling, some parts need to be altered to sound good in the digital domain” Kuassa Arie Ardiansyah cm When you’re modelling an amp, do you observe the components and try to ‘recreate’ them individually, or is it more of a modelling/convolution process? AA “We model our guitar amp algorithms on electronic schemas, but we chop all the processing stages into blocks. This way, we can achieve the best sonic quality possible while keeping the CPU usage low – it’s always a balance between sound quality and processing power. “In analogue modelling, some parts need to be altered to sound good in the digital domain, so we put extra effort into the final tweaks. That’s why we prefer our modelling to be called ‘inspired by’ rather than ‘based on’ certain hardware. Many times, we’ve…