Future Music

Editor-In-Chief Si Truss, simon.truss@futurenet.com Reviews Editor, Music Technology Simon Arblaster, simon.arblaster@futurenet.com Features Editor, Music Technology Matt Mullen, matt.mullen@futurenet.com Managing Editor Kate Puttick, kate.puttick@futurenet.com Art Editor Phil Cheesbrough, philip.cheesbrough@futurenet.com CONTRIBUTORS Jon Musgrave, Danny Turner, Roy Spencer, Rob Redman, James Russell, Bruce Aisher, Oli Bell, Andy Jones, Adam Lee, Olly Curtis, Simon Fellows, Robbie Stamp, Catherine Hood, Charlotte Sterland, Kasia Zacharko ADVERTISING For Ad enquiries please contact: Kyle Phillips, kyle.phillips@futurenet.com MARKETING Direct Marketing Executive: Will Hardy PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION Production Controller: Fran Twentyman Production Manager: Mark Constance​ Printed in the UK by: William Gibbons & Sons Ltd on behalf of Future Distributed in the UK by:​ Marketforce (UK), 2nd Floor, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HU Tel: +44 (0) 203 787 9001 CIRCULATION Head of Newstrade: Tim Mathers SUBSCRIPTIONS Order…

When clubs and gig venues finally reopened after months of lockdowns, there was one thing that instantly hit you upon returning: the bass. Dance music can be great when listened to on headphones or home stereo systems, but there’s no substitute for the raw power of a proper floorshaking low-end. Given how crucial they are to the experience, nailing those bass frequencies is of vital importance for modern electronic musicians. That’s what we’re turning our attention to with this month’s cover feature – how to properly create, monitor and mix those elusive but important sub bass sounds. We hope you enjoy the issue. Si Truss, Editor-In-Chief simon.truss@futurenet.com…

>Akai’s MPC range has taken many forms over the years: from the chunky retro samplers of the ’90s, through compact MIDI controllers, to the CPU-equipped DAW-in-a-box models of the current lineup. With the MPC Key 61, however, Akai are moving away from the MPC’s traditional pad-focussed design for the first time and introducing a keyboard-equipped MPC. The MPC Key is a self-contained workstation keyboard with a built-in CPU. Like its current gen siblings, this allows the hardware to run a slightly restricted version of the desktop MPC 2 software, which can be used to sequence sounds, sample, record, process, mix and perform all without the need to connect to a computer. The central feature of the hardware is the semi-weighted, aftertouch-equipped keyboard. This puts a new emphasis on the MPC’s…

Tuning your drums samples can make a big difference to the overall quality of your music and how well your drums fit with the rest of your sounds, but tuning a sample using a simple Transpose control can alter the tone of the sound quite drastically, introducing other problems. Using Ableton’s Shifter effect in Frequency Shifting mode gives a better way of tuning drum samples while leaving the overall tone of the sound mostly intact. You’ll find this relatively simple technique will become indispensable for tuning drum sounds once you know about it. This technique works best for tuning sounds with a discernible pitch like kicks, snares, toms and some percussion, but can also work well for altering the tone of non-pitched percussion, like cymbals, in a pleasing way. We’ll…

Born in Kerala, India, producer and DJ Michael Diamond emigrated to the UK with his parents when he was young. “Although I’ve loved and soaked up the culture of the UK growing up, I am still viewed by many as a foreigner,” he says. “On the other hand, when I return to India I am seen and treated as a Westerner. Over time, this has left me feeling that, whilst I possess aspects of both cultures, I don’t truly belong to either one.” It’s these feelings of disconnection that inspired the music that forms his debut LP, Third Culture. Channelling the trauma of fractured identity into dense, saturnine dance music, the record shrouds intricate, knotty drum patterns in moody synths and jazz-inflected atmospheres that recall classic Deep Medi dubstep as…

P icking a favourite Orbital album is like telling one of your children, direct to their cherubic little face, that you prefer their brother because he’s, I dunno… catchier? In their vast body of cherished, inspiring, and celebrated work, the brothers Hartnoll (Paul ’n’ Phil) have delivered pioneering electronica since day dot. So, when you’ve got one of the iconic duo on a Zoom call, which album do you pick to talk about? Paul? bad internet connection, “it was a toss up between In Sides and The Brown Album. But, while I love both of them, I think In Sides stands out for me a little bit more because it felt like an album that truly came from the heart.” “I think for me,” he begins, sat in a studio…