Computer Music June 2023

Whenever you see this icon, you can grab the files on your PC or Mac by going to bit.ly/cm321downloads Tutorials featuring this icon make use of our own Plugins – find out more at bit.ly/cm321downloads This icon means there are extra files to help you follow a tutorial feature: project files, audio examples, etc There’s extra video content wherever you see this icon www.musicradar.com/computermusic computermusic@futurenet.com www.facebook.com/computer.music.mag www.twitter.com/computermusicuk www.youtube.com/computermusicmag www.instagram.com/computermusicmag SCAN TO GET OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER…

We’ve had a long history of giving away meaty software packages, but this month we’ve got something truly special. Courtesy of Dan Havers – he of the mighty DC Breaks – we’ve been granted exclusive access to DH Plugins’ Halo 2 Lite; a stripped back, brand new version of an exceptional DnB-leaning hybrid synth. Before you do anything else this month, grab the installer from the download link and follow our online form to secure your licence. If your experience with Halo 2 Lite is anything like ours, you’ll be whiling away the small hours creating bubbling LFO movements, laser-guided leads and all manner of vibrant sonics. Sticking with that free theme, our lead feature this month provides the ultimate roadmap of the very best freeware available to download right…

Waves announces subscription model It seemed everybody had a take on Waves’ new subscription model… It’s one of the most well-respected and beloved plugin companies in the world, yet it certainly caused no small amount of consternation when Waves announced it was ending individual sales of its products and instead embracing a 100% subscription-only model. Shortly after announcing this, and a subsequent backlash, the company backtracked on its plans and instead pledged to continue to offer perpetual licenses for both individual and bundled plugins alongside the new subscription route. The subscription options range from the $15-a-month ‘Essential’ tier – which gives you 110 plugins at launch and access to a select number of new plugins as they become available – to the full-fat Ultimate subscription at $25 a month. The…

Dan Griffith, aka Gryffin, is a US DJ, songwriter and record producer who is fast carving himself out a fanbase of millions across Spotify and YouTube. He released his debut (and critically acclaimed) album Gravity in 2019, after making a name with a variety of melodic house tunes, including Heading Home with Josef Salvat (a Number One on the Spotify US charts) and Just For A Moment ft. Iselin (which has hit 51 million views on YouTube and counting). Since then he’s worked with Maroon 5, Carly Rae Jepsen, Aloe Blacc, AlunaGeorge, One Republic, Olivia O’Brien, and MØ among many others. So when he teamed up with Norwegian and Ed Sheeran remixer DJ Kygo late last year, the project was almost destined for success. The resulting single, Woke Up In…

Fancy a free softsynth, drum machine, compressor or reverb? You’re in luck! You can grab them all right now, plus a thousand other similar titles. Yes, the world of freeware has so many options that you can quickly and easily compile the main components of a virtual recording studio. But, the fact is that there are so many freeware options to choose from, that you could spend an age filling your bandwidth and hard drives with downloads and then what have you got? Severe plugin bloat and the tyranny of choice, that’s what! Inevitably, you’ll end up spending more time choosing and auditioning than you will creating. And that’s why, every year or so, we take a look at the whole ecosphere of free music software, to save you the…

Welcome to the wild, unregulated west of the freeware world, where you could saddle up with an entire studio of big gun software applications, without spending a dime, or end up in the saloon, drunk on cheap whiskey and with a hard drive of unusable varmints. Let’s lose that ‘western’ thing and help you make sense of the world you’ve entered, starting with the simplest of scenarios… What’s free, what isn’t free Really there are two sorts of freeware options available: those titles that have been created to butter you up to pay for full-fat titles, and those that have simply been created for the love of programming and making music. Two worlds: a cynical, capitalist one only concerned with making money from your passion for music making, and another…