Computer Music - October 2016

2 Free pLUGins Loopmasters sampLes

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October 2016 / CM234

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The Producer’s Guide to

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Chords & sCales

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Learn the building blocks of music and hit all the right notes

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PitcH PerFect MelodY

DVD 2 FREE PLUGINS

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PACKED with

saMPles

soFtware

+ Video

grasP MUsic tHeorY

BecoMe a Better coMPoser

MAKE BETTER MUSIC NOW!

Moog Masterclass Creative Compression low-end Mix tactics teCH-HoUse viDeo session + More!

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£50 FREE PC/MAC* PLUGIN

WARMVERB

Get 30 processors in one with Tone2’s versatile multieffect *

verdict

deVeloP KeYBoard sKills

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UnlocK YoUr inner MUsician

REASON 9

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PLUS FREE MIDI cheat kit and template pack!

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RATED

FREE PC/MAC PLUGIN

B-STEP CM

Whip up instant chords and melodies with Monoplugs’ sequencer

Mac 32-bit only

FREE SOUNDWARE

1GB

LOOPMASTERS

SAMPLES

60+ FREE VST/AU COLLECTION

INSTRUMENTS

AND EFFECTS

PLUS

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

oliVer Heldens

intro / computer music <

DoWnloaD See page 5 to find out how to download this issue’s exclusive content

HOW TO USE 

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Wherever you see this icon, there’s downloadable content such as videos, software, samples and tutorial files. See the Contents on the next page to find out how to access our Vault download area. Tutorials featuring this icon make use of our own Plugins – find out all about them on p108.

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MINUTES WITH…

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ZInIO

welcome The computer is now just as much a musical instrument as a guitar or piano, but I’m always surprised at how many producers fail to grasp the language of music. Yet with a firm grasp of music theory basics, your tune-making skills are guaranteed to skyrocket. Who doesn’t want to craft better chord progressions and jam out pitch-perfect riffs? So, to get you off the blocks and give you a solid grounding in the most fundamental aspects of music theory, we’ve put together the definitive guide to chords and scales from the computer musician’s perspective – 100% piano roll, no notation, no frills. You’ll be riffin’ and jammin’ away in no time! And we’ve even included an exclusive MIDI ‘construction kit’ packed full of chord and scale templates, designed to fast-track your theory skills – start getting better now from p24. Once you’ve absorbed our harmonious cover feature, the logical next step is to fire up the first of this issue’s two fantastic plugin freebies: Monoplugs’ B-Step CM. Punch in inspired riffs and chords on the fly, safe in the knowledge that your notes stay locked within your choice of chord or scale. And be sure to check out Tone2’s multitalented Warmverb – usually sold for a cool £50 – and get inspired with 1GB of jaw-dropping Loopmasters samples. With all this great stuff lined up this month, I’ll leave you to….

“100% piano roll, no notation, no frills”

Enjoy thE issuE

for PC, Mac, Android, iPad & more www.zinio.com

iOS APP STOre

GOOGLe PLAY

for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch

for Android & Chrome for PC/Mac

www.computermusic.co.uk/cmdigital

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Joe Rossitter Editor

Issue 234 OCTOBER 2016

contents

Cover feature

Producer masterclass

The Producer’s Guide to

Chords & sCales

45 Russ YALLOP

See how he puts together his brand of tech-house in this interview and in-studio video

Free plugin

Free plugin

50 wARMveRB

54 B-sTeP cM

Samples

Tutorial

58 LOOPMAsTeRs

61 cReATIve

Straightforward music theory for all, p24

Download this ace multieffect from plugin gurus Tone2

/experts

A step sequencer with attitude, waiting to join your plugins folder

Your guides for the ever-expanding world of production are here every month to show you the way

cM cOLLecTION

78

80

geeK techNiQue: perfect low eNd

84

dr beat: brushes

Tutorial

Interview

69 vIRTuAL MOOG sessION

84 OLIveR heLdeNs We chat to the Dutch DJ about his epic rise to fame

Relive the legends with our guide to software recreations

Reviews

Essentials

92

propellerhead reasoN 9

10

News

94

izotope vocalsyNth

16

what’s oN your drive

98

output movemeNt

17

burNiNg QuestioN

99

acustica audio piNK

22

subscribe

100 audiority polaris

43

Next issue

PLus 20 MORe PROducTs RevIewed

76

bacK issues

4 / cOMPuTeR MusIc / October 2016

cOMPRessION

Our video guide to signalsquashing sound design

Build a track with this issue’s huge 1GB sample giveaway

easy guide: altered chords

114

blast from the past: commodore 64

DownloaD Get our software, samples and videos via Vault download

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

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.

Click ‘add a magazine’ in the top bar, select the issue you want to add to your Vault (eg, this issue is 234), and answer a few simple security questions.

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.

DVD + DOWNLOAD

DOWNLOAD EXCLUSIVE

Tutorial videos High-quality videos to guide you through our tutorials. Wherever you see the icon on the left, there’s a video version to watch

Tone2 warmverb Get this powerful multieffect on your covermounted DVD or in the Vault, p50

See this issue’s entire video content on the next pages



Monoplugs B-step cM

Tutorial files A folder full of audio examples, synth patches and project files to help you follow our tutorials

Cook up perfect patterns in this MIDI effect – unpack it with our guide on p54

Loopmasters cM collection Huge sample pack from the soundware heros, get it on p58

cM Plugins Our exclusive collection of free plugins for Mac and PC. See what’s available on p14

This digital content has been thoroughly scanned and tested at all stages of production, but as with all new software, we still recommend that you run a virus checker before use. We also recommend that you have an up-to-date backup of your hard drive before using the content. Future cannot accept responsibility for any disruption, damage and/or loss to your data or computer system that may occur while using this magazine’s programs and/or data. Consult your network administrator before installing any software on a networked computer. If you have problems using our Vault download system, please contact [email protected].

October 2016 / cOMPuTeR MusIc / 5

video Grab this issue’s videos via Vault download – see p5 for details

THE PRODUCER’S GUIDE TO

CHORDS & SCALES Get your head around music theory once and for all with our no-BS guide to notes, chords, keys and more Read the full article on p24

1 

Intervals explained

2  Instant uplifting music with the C major scale

3  The minor scale, and how it relates to major

4  Switching major to minor to easily change a tune’s feel

5  Quick chord creation and progression basics

6  Smoother sequences in seconds with inverted chords

7  Borrowed chords for unpredictable progressions

8  Creating transitions with suspended chords

9  Sexier progressions with seventh chords

10  Extended chords - 9ths, 11ths and 13ths

11  Making ‘add’ chords in a snap

12  Adding instant energy with a key change

13  Taking the mystery out of modes in a flash

14  Natural, harmonic and melodic minor explained

15  Pentatonic scales and beyond

6  /  COmPUTER mUSIC  /  October 2016

video Get all these videos on PC/Mac at vault.computermusic.co.uk mONOPLUGS B-STEP Cm

CREATIVE COmPRESSION

Sequence chords and melodies right out of the box with this step-tastic MIDI plugin freebie

Dial in extreme settings to pump up your signals

Read the full article on p61

Read the full article on p54

1  Funky disco chords with Monoplugs B-Step CM

1  DnB splash loops with extreme compression

2  Master bus edits with filtering and compression

3  Injecting personality and pump

4  Enhancing sub bass harmonics with limiting

5  Creating pumping and breathing edits

6  Compression parameter automation

7  Magnifying vocal breaths and artefacts

8  Crushing breakdown interactions

9  Abusing frequencycontrolled compression

10  Designer claps with extreme squashing

2  Making a modular house groove with B-Step CM

TONE2 WARmVERB Get all kinds of creative processing on tap with this massive multieffect – worth a cool £50 to buy! Read the full article on p50

2  Melodic breakbeats with Tone2 Warmverb

3  Three creative Tone2 Warmverb tactics

LOOPmASTERS SAmPLES This bumper pack of pro sounds is also free with this issue – check out their calibre as we build a track with them Read the full article on p58

1  Building a track with Loopmasters samples

October 2016  /  COmPUTER mUSIC  /  7

video Grab this issue’s videos via Vault download – see p5 for details Producer Masterclass*

VIRTUAL mOOG SESSION Get to grips with these analogue classics Read the full article on p69

1  Classic Moog lead with Minimonsta

RUSS YALLOP Watch him deconstruct Mike the Swamp in Ableton Live 9 in this huge in-studio video 4  Moog Modular basics with Arturia Modular V

Read the full article on p45

EASY GUIDE

/experts Our resident music production gurus walk you through their specialist field every month

GEEK TECHNIQUE

6  Exploring the classic Moog ladder filter

DR BEAT

ALTERED CHORDS

PERfECT LOW END

BRUSHES

Making a tiny tweak to one note can change up your chord progressions

Owen Palmer spills the beans on how to get the bass right every time

Eveything you need to know about swooshy jazz programming

Read the full article on pxx 8  /  COmPUTER mUSIC  /  October 2016

Read the full article on p78

Read the full Readon the full article p80 article on pxx

Read the full article on p82

* Please note that the Producer Masterclass video is not available as a download via our Vault. See p46 for viewing instructions, or watch on Apple Newsstand via built-in internet streaming.

>  news

New releases • commeNt • iNdustry happeNiNgs

Waves release trio of plugins Infected Mushroom and Andrew Scheps mix tools, and an electric piano Audio legends Waves show us why they’re the biggest name in plugins, with not one but three new releases. First, a collaboration with their countrymen, Israeli psytrance-turned-EDMexperimentalists Infected Mushroom. Pusher is a multiband enhancer and limiter/clipper that squirts the duo’s “secret mixing sauce” all over your tracks. The Low enhancement section can be tuned to a frequency or note, and Waves reckon it’s ideal for making kick and bass pop through. Mid and treble enhancement come via the Body and High knobs, while Stereo Image widens the top end. If you want to excite dynamics across the board, crank the Magic dial. Finally, you can pump up the level with the Push control, which offers clipping and limiting methods. In VST/AU/AAX formats, it’s $49. Pusher’s main competition, though, could be from Waves’ other big release, Scheps Parallel Particles. This plugin encapsulates the four fave mix tricks of top producer/ engineer Andrew Scheps’ (RHCP, Adele, Metallica, Jay Z, and tons more), with an interface that looks more like a futuristic tunnel racer than a piece of audio software. To conjure up sub frequencies, crank the Sub dial. Air does the same for the top end, creating “innovative resonances that do not exist in your source”. Bite “controls the front ends of the notes”, so we guess it’s a transient shaper of some kind, though they

Waves’ new plugins are Pusher (top-left), Scheps Parallel Particles (top-right) and electric 88 (bottom)

say it affects release too. Thick is the final process, smoothing midrange to solidify the signal’s body – Waves compare the result to that of moving the mic closer. Formats include VST/AU/AAX, and it’s $129. Finally, Electric 88. No videogame graphics this time, this one is a multisampled “road-worn” electric piano.

So, there are audible tonal changes from key to key, which Waves say gives it real personality and true 70s funk/soul vibes. Additions include a Formant control, tremolo, autopan, phaser, chorus, reverb, compressor and amp sim. It’s priced $69 and is VST/AU/AAX/standalone. UrL www.waves.com

Sample Magic Stacker

Create a satisfying sandwich of samples ’n’ synthesis with Stacker

10  /  CoMputer MuSiC  /  October 2016

Famed for their spot-on sounds, this drum layering plugin from Sample Magic lets you design percussion hits. Three sample layers offer looping, eight-point envelopes, filters, insert effects and more. You can also layer a drum synth engine with an analogue-modelled oscillator and noise generator. These four layers can be displaced in time in the Scatter section, to lock sounds tightly, or space them out for a lazier vibe. As you’d expect, it’s packed with presets and samples. It’s in VST/AU/AAX formats, and the price tag says £80. reAd more bit.ly/SMStacker

news <

trackers & Demoscene

With their most sensibly named plugin yet, Beatskillz bring us warm and toasty vintage eQ vibes

Beatskillz Valvesque Is it an EQ? Is it a distortion? The newie from the makers of Slam Dawg, Bounce and That Thing is both: a “distortion EQ”. Aiming to bring “the classic British sound” to your DAW, it has two main valve drive types, triode (A) and pentode (B), each with six distortion modes featuring Beatskillz’ Reactive

Unfiltered Audio Fault From the makers of the G8 Dynamic Gate and Sandman comes a bold claim: “No other plugin has the comprehensive ability to manipulate pitch and time like Fault”. There are three main processors: first, dual-channel pitchshifters range up to an octave up or down; next, Frequency Shifter offers FM controls “to create beautiful and discordant

Transients Technology. On the EQ side, there’s a bass boost with “unique varislope curve”, a high-pass filter, separate mid boost and cut. These are designed to interact with each other, and there’s a low-pass filter too. Out now, Valvesque is $149 and is ready to rock in VST and AU flavours. UrL www.beatskillz.com

sounds”; and Stereo Delays features crosschannel feedback and filtering. Six modulators can be assigned to any of the controls. We’re promised that you can use Fault to “make snare hits sound like sonar hunting for submarines”, or “make a grand piano track sound like an electric keyboard under water.” In VST/AU/AAX formats, it costs $99. reAd more bit.ly/UAfault

We reflect on the UK scene as the sun goes down on Sundown With the conclusion of the UK’s last ever* Sundown demoparty, we turn our attention to the various music competitions held there. With Lug00ber winning against some strong entries in the streaming music category, the tracked category arguably holds the gold, with raw tracker files you can load up and learn about by taking them

“The visual programmer can use Rose to create animated 2D graphics” apart. However, we were most impressed with SunSpire’s beautiful 3KB executable track made using Renoise and Blueberry’s Clinkster synth. Links to all music and demo productions, including MP3s and raw tracker files are at bit.ly/Sundownrundown. Elsewhere, Nectarine’s themed music competition has drawn to a close, with artists having been encouraged to write a piece of music centred around an animal. Taking first prize was Yzi with a jazzy, doginspired piece called Koirra, complete with barks. Endure at bit.ly/NectarineAnimals. (*Although something is rumoured to rise from its ashes: bit.ly/SundownBackUp.)

We’re not normally ones to play the blame game, but one is definitely Unfiltered Audio’s Fault

Mastering The Mix Levels

Turn all four quadrants green and your mix should be that bit more radio-ready

How do you know when your mix is finished? Levels is a plugin to help you answer that. Pop it on your master bus, and if it finds a problem in any of four key areas, the relevant part of the interface lights up red. The Headroom section checks that your mix doesn’t exceed a threshold (-6dB by default), leaving enough space for mastering; Stereo Field flags up over-wide stereo. Dynamic Range compares peak to average levels to determine if your track has enough punch; and Bass Space tells you if there are tracks putting out bass when they shouldn’t be. We’ll find out how well it works in our review. It’s in VST/AU/AAX formats and costs £69. UrL bit.ly/MTMlevels

demo of the month Everyway by Hoffman Released at the aforementioned Sundown Demo party, Hoffman stormed the old-school demo competition with Everyway, a slice of 64KB Amiga magic. Musician and stalwart of the scene, Hoffman built the entire production himself using the Rose scripting engine, again by Blueberry. With some imagination (and presumably bags of time) the visual programmer can use Rose to create animated 2D graphics, and Everyway is Rose’s finest advocate to date. The graphics are fun, stylish and sync perfectly to Hoffman’s banging 90s house fusion 4-channel Protracker tune. bit.ly/Hoffrose

Everyway deservedly triumphed at the Sundown

October 2016  /  CoMputer MuSiC  /  11

>  news

Get with the programmers Get to the bottom of this esteemed developer’s interesting delay-based synthesis method Cascade’s synthesis is based upon “a complex delay network that can densify a sound up to 5832 times.” How exactly does it work? KV “Cascade’s complex delay network consists of four stages of eight delays each. The first stage densifies the sound eight times and the next (8 + 8 x 8) 72 times, and so on until you reach 5832 times. After the last stage, the resulting impulse response is very close to a gaussian distribution, where an arbitrary input frequency has the least amount of cancellation or phasing effects. “I always loved the warm and lively sound of the cascade densification algorithm that was originally implemented in the IRCAM Signal Processing Workstation at the University of Musik in Vienna. “The delay times themselves originate from prime or fibonacci prime numbers that have been adapted to hearing. Any sound that is fed into this algorithm will leave its frequency footprint over time because it’s evenly distributed.”

112dB

Klaus Voltmer

How can the user manipulate this delay network? KV “You can modulate the time of each delay within the network with the LFO and an envelope. If feedback (Freeze) is turned on, it will modulate the feedback loop as well. Adding LFO modulation to the cascade process will give you some detuning and vibrato. It gives a slight Doppler effect as if you’re riding a merry-go-round. If the delay gets shorter the tone will go up, while if the delay gets longer the tone will go down. “You can also change the entire size of the delay network. This will modify the total length of all delays proportionally. The sound will evolve quicker with a smaller size and will sound more spacious if the size is set to 100%.” “This ‘densification’ process can take time to build up, and the ‘Pre-Render’ processing time can be set by the user.”

“The densification algorithm can also simulate a giant chorus”

What sounds can be created with Cascade that would be difficult to achieve using other synthesis methods? KV “When you sustain notes with Cascade, you get beautifully evolving soundscapes. For example, a long glissando, or something like an auditory illusion of a tone that continually ascends or descends in pitch. “Coloured noise is also a typical sound for Cascade. With a frequency swipe as input to the densification, the sonic result is noise that covers the range of the lowest and the highest frequency. It’s pretty much the most genuine kind of synthesised noise. You should check it out if you’re a sound designer. “The densification algorithm can also simulate a giant chorus, so Cascade’s string ensemble and legato sounds are exceptionally great.” As CPU power increases and technology develops, how do you see this style of ‘delay network’ synthesis evolving in the future? KV “It doesn’t come cheap, and I worked quite hard to optimise DSP using the Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE). A synthesiser like this wouldn’t have been possible ten years ago. I still had to skip some features with the CPU resources given, and I hope that I can use more in the future.” UrL www.112db.com 12  /  CoMputer MuSiC  /  October 2016

AutoTonic

A timely release given this month’s mega-tutorial on chords and scales, here’s a standalone application that aims to make working with them even easier. AutoTonic sits in the path between any MIDI keyboard and your DAW. Instead of learning keyboard scale shapes, you play only on the white keys, and AutoTonic’s “unique and patented real-time mapping” reworks your noodling on the fly to fit any of 50 scales, in any key. The black keys are used to switch scales as desired, and each can be configured to activate the scale of your choice. You can even design your own scales. Priced $179, AutoTonic is out now. reAd more bit.ly/Autotonic

New Sonic Arts Freestyle

Promising “freedom for your VSTs” and designed for both stage and studio, Freestyle is a VST host that runs standalone or as a VST/AU itself. Use the browser to locate instruments and effects, then drag them into one of two views. The Rack view is for easy layering and chaining of plugins, complete with key-splits. The modular Structure view takes it a step further with “limitless” routing possibilities. Other features include macro controls, Snapshots that encapsulate the entire state of Freestyle, and six built-in effects, Priced €129, it’s out now. reAd more bit.ly/NSAfreestyle

Two HoRNet releases

Two new ones from the prolific Italian plugin merchants here. First, their “multi utility Swiss army knife audio tool” TrackUtility hits MK2, with a grouping feature for simultaneous adjustment across grouped instances, a new RMS meter, and improved auto gain and limiter algorithms. It’s €12. Spikes, meanwhile, is a transient shaper with tweakability. Apply a high-pass filter to the detector circuit, adjust peak length and release times, and more. This one is €13. Both plugins come in VST/AU/RTAS/AAX varieties and are out now. reAd more bit.ly/HTUmk2

UVI Thorus

The fruit of a quest for the perfect chorus algorithm, this new “polyphase modulator” plugin is said to meld cutting-edge modulation with technologies devised for UVI’s Sparkverb reverb and Falcon über-synth. It offers up to eight-voice architecture; filters for focussing the effect on particular frequencies; Standard and Wide modes; and presets aplenty. UVI concede that chorus isn’t an effect associated with innovation, but they say they’re attempting to “push the needle” with this release. Very corporate. Thorus comes in VST/AU/AAX formats, and it costs €79. reAd more bit.ly/UVIthorus

years back Computing power was still at the top of agenda in the 104th issue of They made their name with dinky controllers, but Faderfox’s latest is far from diminutive

Faderfox uC44 Impress – or perhaps just confuse – clients at your next big business meeting by whipping out the Faderfox UC44 in its swish brushed metal briefcase. A super-expanded big bro to the UC4 “universal controller”, this USB-powered MIDI device is decked out with 16 60mm faders; eight push-encoders with high-res mode and two-digit displays; 35 buttons; and MIDI in/out ports. The encoders are switchable in 32 banks, allowing control of a total of 512 control parameters . Priced £510, the UC44 is available now. UrL www.faderfox.de

Ins & outs iN THe PoCkeT He was once king of the green baize, but now snooker legend Steve Davis appears to be forging a new career as a DJ, playing festival dates throughout the summer. We’re guessing that he’ll do fine at cueing up the records, particularly if there are breaks involved…

Video No-go A patent approval suggests that Apple may be planning to implement an infrared-based technology that could be used by venues to stop iPhone cameras from operating. Well, perhaps at least it means fewer people holding their smartphones in the air.

mAN eNoUgH To Be mAU5? Ever wanted to be deadmau5? Well, now you can experience what his life is (possibly) like in a VR game known as Absolut deadmau5, which challenges you to navigate the streets of Toronto and make it to a gig. You can don the virtual ears on iOS and Android.

BerNie WorreLL riP Music suffered another sad loss in June, when it was announced that Bernie Worrell, the king of P-funk keyboard playing, had lost his battle with lung cancer. A supremely talented musician, Bernie could play the Minimoog like no one else.

driVe Time To us, computer music hardware might mean MIDI controllers and monitors, but to Paweł Zadrożniak it means floppy drives, hard disks and scanners. He’s used them to create the masterful Floppotron 2, which can play a variety of songs including the Star Wars theme.

BAd BLood... It’s common for couples to bicker over possessions when they split up. Calvin Harris and Taylor Swift gave it a musical twist recently, indulging in some public bickering over authorship of the Rihanna-sung This Is What You Came For.

We were on a mission to inspire you in September 2006, when 104 landed with 100 creativity tips. It was a very ‘tippy’ issue, in fact, as we suggested 26 ways to improve your trance productions, too. If all of the advice in the above features might easily still apply today, we’re not sure any of you would still want to know how to sound like Orson. Maybe you didn’t even want to know back then, in fact. DnB titans Noisia, on the other hand – who we interviewed – are very much

“Stop being so silly and go buy a new audio interface” still doing their thing, though technological developments mean that they probably no longer need to use their “entire CPU on one bass sound”. Speaking of CPU, Focusrite jumped into the DSP-powered plugin market with Liquid Mix (it’s since been, er… ‘Liquidated’) and we said hello to Rob Papen’s Albino 3 synth (another product that we’ve now said goodbye to). Pioneer, meanwhile, made a rather clunky entrance into the DJ software market with DJS, which we’d completely forgotten ever existed. Finally, one reader explained he’d been training himself to adjust the timing of his playing to compensate for the latency he was experiencing when using his soft synths. We complimented him on his cleverness – then told him to stop being so silly and go buy a new audio interface.

We fired out piece after piece of wisdom in

104

October 2016  /  CoMputer MuSiC  /  13

>  news

freeware news This month, we’ve found plugins to add reverb, give your guitar some grunge, rearrange your chain or integrate your analogue outboard with Ableton Live

Abletunes Knobs The very definition of user-friendly, this trio of plugins offers excellent sound and the easiest of interfaces This trifecta of terrific tone shapers is yet another in the never-ending barrage of Max for Live add-ons we’ve been seeing lately. These simple sonic solutions work as VST/AU plugins on both Mac and Windows machines, with each one offering an on/off switch and a single interface-dominating knob. While the operation is very simple, what’s happening under the hood is a bit deeper, with each knob controlling a number of processes. Put simply, Abletunes have done the hard work – you just dial it in.

Bewitched, be-knobbed and bedazzled! Apply some mojo to your mix with Abletunes’ cost-free trinity

The Drive Knob is, as you’d suspect, a distortion effect. Specifically, it offers wide-band stereo distortion and is capable of both subtle coloration and down-anddirty grit. The Attack Knob offers simplified transient shaping, with only the attack segment of a sound affected. It’s ideal for adding snap to drums or adding some energy and immediacy to, say, a guitar solo.

The Space Knob, unlike the others, is just as at home on a send as it is an insert. Based on a medium-sized space – somewhere between a large room or small hall – it makes an excellent ambience all-rounder. Each of the three plugs sounds superb – there’s nothing simple about the sound quality on offer. An excellent collection that we’re sure to turn to again and again.

abletunes.com

Mercuriall Audio Software tsC

MeldaProduction mAGC

Skinnerbox CV4Live

Stompboxes are bigger than ever these days, with big name and boutique developers alike turning out interesting new devices and endless variations on classic designs. Few pedals have achieved the adoration reserved for Ibanez’s Tube Screamer, a legendary green gubbin prized by guitarists of every genre. Mercuriall’s free TSC models the very first version of the pedal – model number TS808 – with Drive, Tone and Level controls, and the ability to switch in the sound of a popular circuit modification. mercuriall.com

Rarely a month goes by that we’re not bigging up some awesome addition to MeldaProduction’s MFreeEffectsBundle, their collection of sonic sweeteners and audio utilities. This time around they’ve focused squarely on the latter category with the addition of MAGC, a plugin designed to allow you to adjust signal loudness to match a sidechained input. With Gain In, Gain Out, and Range and Speed knobs, MAGC is dead easy to use and likely to become an essential part of your plugin toolkit. www.meldaproduction.com

This one is for all hardware heads and Ableton Live users. CV4Live provides a pair of free Max For Live devices designed to integrate Live into your modular synthesis environment and vice versa. Clock4Live provides a means by which analogue clocks and triggers may be used in Live, while CV4Live allows incoming voltages to be used as modulation sources and triggers in Live, mappable to virtually any parameter. Best of all, any audio interface may be used. www.skinnerbox.de

CLASSIC FREE SOFTWARE

4Front technologies 4Front Piano The acoustic piano may be the ultimate staple. Regardless of your chosen genre, you’re likely to need one at some point in your music-making career. If you’re lucky, you’ve got access to the real thing. If not – and you’re strapped for cash – you might want to download a copy of 4Front Technologies’ 4Front Piano. The brainchild

14  /  Computer musiC  /  October 2016

of George Yohng, senior developer for Vienna Symphonic Library, 4Front Piano packs the sound of an upright acoustic piano into a plugin with a very small footprint. Though it’s been around for a while, the cross-platform 4Front Piano is still a must-have in any plugin folder. www.yohng.com

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Andy Meecham He’s Bizarre Inc, Chicken Lips and The Emperor Machine… and it turns out he loves using presets! Apple lOGIC 9 “I’ve seen version ‘X’ and it looks brilliant, but I’m too scared to change over because I’m going to have to learn a whole load of new stuff. Apart from Cubase in the early days, Logic has been my main platform. It’s a great all-rounder; the EQs are good, the layout, the Stereo Spread, the compressors, the audio quality… what more do you want from a DAW?” sOftube tube-teCH Cl 1b “The Logic compressors are good, but this is in another league. It gets used on every track and I only use the one preset: Final Mix Warmer. Sorry if using presets offends you, but I get fantastic results every time. I did use the real thing some years back and, to my ears, this sounds just as good.” WAVes l2 ultRAMAXIMIseR “I have to mention this because, along with the Tube-Tech, it makes up my studio master setting. And again, I use presets. Usually I start with the Hi-Res CD Master and make a few tweaks. To be honest, I’ve never been one of those producers who overdoses on compression and limiting; I’m just trying to subtly bring the parts of a track together.”

WAVes ClA VOCAls “When I eventually found this, I was so happy because it seemed to make every vocal sound… right. Stick in on, pull down the bass, roll up the treble a touch and you’re 90% there. People are always recommending new plugins, but when you find something that works, you don’t start messing with it. ”

“Stick it on, pull down the bass, roll up the treble a touch and you’re 90% there” nAtIVe InstRuMents AbbeY ROAD 70s DRuMMeR / 80s DRuMMeR “We’ve got a lot of old analogue hardware in the studio, but you can’t take them out on the road. Some people might think that 70s and 80s sounds won’t be big enough to make modern dance music, but it’s all about how you treat them. If you tighten everything up and add the occasional modern sample/sub to the kick, you won’t have much to complain about. And the hats will blow you away!”

Andy is launching his vinyl-only label, Vertical tones, later this year www.twitter.com/andymeecham

/ burning question

Mozaic Beats

Kirnu

“I think that a well coded plugin or tool can bridge small gaps in people’s music theory knowledge. The gap shouldn’t be too huge, otherwise the user can’t reach his goal even with a very smart plugin. The user’s focus should be to gain music theory knowledge, and some plugins can help with that.” – Pepe Lopez

Xfer Records

“I wanted to know everything I could about music, so I got a fouryear degree in music composition, which taught me a lot about theory. The tools of today, I think, aren’t very different from, say, CAD programs for architecture – the tools will help you try out ideas, but there’s no substitute for having studied architecture.

“It’s important to understand that the more one knows about music theory, the better equipped they’ll be to use these types of software. If you’re looking to just implement MIDI effects without learning anything about theory, you’ll definitely improve your output, but you’ll lack the context on how to really use them. – Zac Kinter

Re-Compose

“Tools like our Liquid Notes can assist in creating perfect chord progressions, but it’s not a silver bullet – the system is only as good as the input delivered by the user. “There is no right or wrong in music, which gives composers flexibility, but it certainly helps to have a basic understanding of music theory when working with any music software – otherwise, the underlying basics for why the machine takes a certain decision are not understood.” – Roland Trimmel

AutoTonic

“It depends on the specific features of the software, but for AutoTonic, with its patented scale switching technique, I’d say that we’re dealing with a whole new kind of instrument. So then the question would be, ‘To what extent can a new instrument overcome a lack of music theory knowledge?’ Well, the piano is already one of the easiest instruments, but AutoTonic has made it even easier to use.” – Clemens Slama

Illustration by Jake

Can ‘musical assistant’ plugins replace music theory knowledge?

“Since releasing my Cthulhu plugin, I’ve heard grumblings from people who have ‘invested’ in studying theory, afraid that Cthulhu has made the fruits of their study available to all for $39. While it’s true that Cthulhu can allow an untrained person to mindlessly create something harmonically rich and interesting, the idea wasn’t ever to replace traditional music theory – I hoped the opposite: that it would get people more into exploring harmony and thus wanting to grow their theory knowledge.” – Steve Duda

> 

roundup 

roundup Mobile peripherals

Must-have add-ons for your phone or tablet

rode i-XY £135 Capture great recordings with this stereo mic attachment www.rode.com

iK irig pads

£130

Blast out big beats on this tiny pad controller www.ikmultimedia.com

iK irig miDi 2

£59

Pipe five-pin MIDI into almost any mobile or desktop device www.ikmultimedia.com

Focusrite itrack Dock

iPad dock-cum-audio interface www.focusrite.com

18  /  Computer musiC  October 2016

£120

roundup  <

Blue spark Digital

£120

Turn the air blue with this top-quality mic www.bluemic.com

iK iKlip Xpand

£35

Hoist your tablet up a mic stand, flagpole, or any other suitable shaft www.ikmultimedia.com

iConnectivity iConnectAudio4+

£260

Connects two systems – including iOS and desktop – to share or exchange signals www.iconnectivity.com

Alesis io Dock ii £144 iPad stand with XLR/MIDI interface www.alesis.com

October 2016  /  Computer musiC  /  19

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October 2016  /  Computer musiC  /  23

>  make music now  /  the producer’s guide to chords and scales

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download Get the videos and tutorial files on your PC/Mac at vault.computermusic.co.uk

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24  /  ComPuTer musiC  /  October 2016

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Chords & sCales

the producer’s guide to chords and scales  /  make music now  <

Take the mystery out of music theory and give your tracks the ultimate musical power-up with the computer musician’s definitive crash course An unforgettable vocal melody. A moving chord sequence. An infectious bassline. Nailing just one of these could leave your listeners humming your tunes and whistling your melodies, eager for their next hit of your audio crack. Back it up with a killer production, and you could have another kind of hit on your hands! But the truth is that many computer musicians put the technical side of production first. With sonic standards always evolving, and endless plugins and techniques to master, why wouldn’t you? Well, see it from the listener’s point of view: they can’t sing along to sidechain compression or dance to multiband distortion! To keep your listeners coming back for ‘just one more listen’, you’ll need to hook ’em with a catchy combination of notes. So how’s it done? Do we just hit keys at random until a great tune pops out? Well, you could, but there’s an easier, faster way, and that’s by using tried-and-tested note combos as a guide. Yep, chords and scales! Now, if there’s a two-word phrase guaranteed to paralyse producers with fear, ‘music theory’

is it… and no wonder: most learning material is textbook-dull, full of jargon, and simply not designed for computer musicians. We’ve long recognised such problems here at , with our ever-popular Easy Guide series packing in over 150 tutorials to date. But what if you need a onestop primer to get you up to speed? You need it easy, you need it fast, and you need it right now! Well, here it is! With this tutorial, you’ll be making amazing evocative melodies and jazzing up your chord progressions in no time. You’ll learn everything from basic major and minor scales to inversions, suspensions, seventh chords, key changes, modes, exotic scales, and loads more. We’ll show you which notes go where, with audio examples, MIDI files, and videos packed with clear annotations and extra explanation. All with zero music notation in sight, and a minimum of jargon. As if that’s not enough, we bring you the CM MIDI Construction Kit, comprising almost 2000 ready-made scales and chords in every key. These include our scale ‘templates’ that show you which notes to use, making composition a breeze!

October 2016  /  ComPuTer musiC  /  25

>  make music now  /  the producer’s guide to chords and scales

Notes, octaves and intervals Before fumbling around with chords and scales, let’s get a grip on the stuff they’re made up of: notes and intervals. There are only 12 different notes, and they repeat all the way up the piano keyboard (or piano roll). The piano is easy to visualise, with one key per note, but music theory principles work the same for every instrument. Whichever note you start on, if you go up 12 notes from there, you’re back where you started, playing the same note, but one ‘octave’ higher – it sounds the same but higher pitched. In addition, the pitch difference between adjacent notes is always the same, called a ‘semitone’ (also known as a half-tone or minor second). A difference in pitch between two notes is called an ‘interval’ – so far we’ve covered only two intervals: the octave and the semitone.

It all begins with #a C#

#

#

The 12 notes are named C, C , D, D , E, F, F , G, G , # A, A and B. After that, the sequence starts over at C, as we’ve reached the octave point. ‘#’ means ‘sharp’ and is essentially shorthand for # ‘plus 1 semitone’, telling us that A is the note immediately above A, for example. Notes with no sharp symbol – C, D, E, F, G, A, B – are called ‘natural’ notes and are the white keys on a # # # # # piano. The black keys are C , D , F , G and A . Notice that B/C and E/F have no sharp note between them. Also, C (rather than A) is considered the ‘default’ or ‘first’ note in music theory, not A. Some notes lead a shady double life, as the five sharp notes can also be described as ‘flat’, the symbol for which is ‘b’, meaning ‘minus 1 # semitone’. So A can be called Bb, for example – same note, different name! The full run using flats would be: C, Db, D, Eb, E, F, Fb, G, Ab, A, Bb, B. If you’re finding it hard to take in, just get comfortable with the sharp naming scheme first. Most music software uses only sharps anyway,

> Step by step

so to make sure our tutorials translate to your software, we’re going to use sharps pretty much throughout (even where they might be considered ‘wrong’ in traditional music theory).

Let’s go after the interval

It’s time to look at the other intervals – we’ve put a table of the intervals (from 0 to 12) over on the right-hand side of the page. Notes played one after the other make a ‘melodic interval’, and no matter which of the notes you play first, it’s the same interval – we’d just call it ascending or descending. When the notes are played at the same time, that’s a ‘harmonic interval’. Each interval has its own sound. The ‘unison’ and ‘octave’ intervals sound very clear, since they’re playing the exact same note – no surprise. However, the next clearest are the 7and 5- semitone intervals, known as a ‘perfect fifth’ and a ‘perfect fourth’ – the reason for this naming will become clear soon, we promise!

“Memorising each interval and being able to identify them will help massively” Next, the 4- and 3-semitone intervals – named ‘major third’ and ‘minor third’ – also sound musically satisfying, with a ‘happy’ and ‘sad’ feel respectively. Memorising each interval and being able to identify them by ear will help massively in making music, and a common trick to help with this is to associate each interval with the opening notes of a well-known tune. For more, see bit.ly/IntervalIdeas.

interval name

Number of semitones

Unison

0

Minor Second

1

Major Second

2

Minor Third

3

Major Third

4

Perfect Fourth

5

Augmented Fourth/ Diminished Fifth

6

Perfect Fifth

7

Minor Sixth

8

Major Sixth

9

Minor Seventh

10

Major Seventh

11

Octave

12

1. Listening to and understanding musical intervals

TuTorial

Files

1

Let’s hear intervals in action. Load Dune CM in a new project, select preset 32: Fat Saw Bass RH, set Volume to 25% to prevent clipping, then load Interval Demo.mid on its track. Play it to hear a 1-semitone interval (a minor # second) between C and C , first as melodic intervals (ascending and descending), then as a harmonic interval (both notes played together), then a short riff.

26  /  ComPuTer musiC  /  October 2016

2

This pairing sounds quite “dark”, and the harmonic interval is kind of jarring # on its own. Select all C notes and move them up one step to D for a 2-semitone interval (a major second), which sounds less harsh, but still not that musically # pleasing. Now move the Ds up to D – this 3-semitone interval, a minor third, is a lot more satisfying, with a sad, serious quality. Our riff sounds more like actual music now!

3

The 4-semitone major third also sounds very listenable, with a happy, upbeat quality. There are two more standout intervals: 5- and 7-semitones, called a perfect fourth and perfect fifth. Aside from the octave, these two intervals have the purest, most solid sound, if a little less evocative than the minor and major third. See our bonus video (1b) to find out why some intervals sound more ‘natural’.

the producer’s guide to chords and scales  /  make music now  <

Major scales (or flat) notes, and it coincides exactly with the on any note and selecting notes using a pattern A scale is a set of notes picked from the full 12, white keys on the keyboard. This is because of semitone (1 note) and tone (2 note) intervals: and the most basic, the chromatic scale, music theory and keyboards have been 2-2-1-2-2-2-1. Check out Fig 2 to see what we contains all 12 notes. The note you start the designed around the C major scale. mean – the notes we’ve ‘selected’ for the scale scale on – called the ‘root’ – gives the scale its The important thing to remember is that are in red, and the ones we haven’t are in white. name. Fig 1 shows all the notes of the C it’s the 2-2-1-2-2-2-1 pattern that creates a major Fig 3 shows our complete C major scale, chromatic scale stacked together on a piano scale, so concentrate on that first – you can C D E F G A B C. The C major scale has no sharp roll, so you can visualise the set of notes learn the notes as you go. (you’d never normally play all the notes Fig 1 Fig 2 Fig 3 Every scale has its own sound and like this). The final octave note is feeling, and the major scale is upbeat included for completeness – there aren’t and “happy” in character. There are lots actually two Cs in the scale. more scales to use, of course, and that’s Making music with the chromatic when things can start to get confusing. scale can sound rather, er… To make your life easier, we’ve prepared experimental. What we really want is a the CM MIDI Construction Kit within this smaller set of notes that ‘play nice’ issue’s Tutorial Files. It’s packed with together, and the most fundamental MIDI scales and chords to guide you scale for this is the major scale – like – let’s try it now and see what the major most ‘normal’ scales, it contains seven scale can do! different notes. We build it by starting Every major scale uses the same pattern of interval jumps: 2-2-1-2-2-2-1

> Step by step

1

2. Instant music-making with the CM MIDI Construction Kit

Let’s write an upbeat 80s pop loop with the C major scale. Load Beat.wav in a 126bpm project, loop it, then create MIDI tracks named Bass and Melody. Load them with Bazille CM and Dune CM, with presets 02 Basses - Ark Sawker Punch and 110: Synth Stabs RH. Put Reverberate CM on the Melody track, set the Bass and Melody track levels to -14dB and -18dB, and put D16 Frontier on the master bus.

2

Now create four-bar MIDI clips on the Bass and Melody tracks, and import MIDI Construction Kit » C » Major Template.mid alongside those clips. Don’t play it, though – it’s for use as a visual guideline only. It features sustained notes on only the notes of the C major scale. We’ve included tons of scales in this format, and we’ll use them throughout our tutorials.

3

How you use these clips as a guideline depends on your DAW software, but here’s a method for Ableton Live: Select all the notes, copy them, then paste them into the Bass MIDI clip starting at bar 5 – this is outside of the clip’s loop points, so we’ll never hear the notes. With the small blue headphones icon (just upper-left of the piano roll) enabled, click each note from C3-C4 to hear the C major scale.

POWER TIP

>Major insights

4

In Ableton Live, you can click the Fold button to hide all notes that don’t have a MIDI note already, so now we’ll see only the notes in C major – perfect! To provide a foolproof backing for our melody, program a bassline using only the root note, C2 – a repeating pattern of one eighth-note then two 16th-notes will work.

5

Repeat steps 3-4 to set up the C major template on the Melody track and draw in your own melody. When you’re done trying it out, program our pattern above – we’ve turned off the Fold function here in case you’re using a different DAW. This melody uses all seven notes of the C major scale, so you can hear the scale’s full range of tonality, and how it sounds against the root note, C, in the bass.

Switch off the Fold function in Live – if you’re using it – and check out the intervals between the notes C-E, C-F and C-G – these form three of the four ‘core’ intervals we showed you in the previous tutorials: 4 semitones (major third), 5 semitones (perfect fourth) and 7 semitones (perfect fifth). You can see how they got the numerical part of their names now too, as they are the third, fourth and fifth notes of the major scale! Now move the notes on the Bass track so bars 1-4 are based on C, E, F then G, for a common yet satisfying sequence. We even based the sustained ‘main’ notes of our melody on these!

October 2016  /  ComPuTer musiC  /  27

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>  make music now  /  the producer’s guide to chords and scales

> Step by step

3. The minor scale, and how it relates to major

Hear No Doubt’s break-up anthem Don’t Speak in a major key at bit.ly/DSmajor

Major vs minor In this page’s tutorials, we show you how using a minor scale instead of a major one can totally transform the ‘feel’ of a piece of music. Finding the scale that conveys your musical intentions is important, then. The major scale is generally the choice for an upbeat, happy, sound, while minor scales offer a more serious, downbeat, sad vibe. There are many exceptions, of course, but if you’re wondering why your dark DnB bangers sound way light, or your happy hardcore tunes are flat-out depressing, it may simply come down to knowing your major from your minor. To get an idea of the difference it makes, check out these famous songs transformed between major and minor via the magic of software: bit.ly/MAJtrnMIN By the way, there are a couple of variations on the standard – or ‘natural’ – minor scale covered on this page. We’ll get to them later on in the article.

> Step by step

1

3

Load a basic synth patch such as Dune CM’s 103: String Section, then import C Major & C Minor.mid. This contains both scales played in order, so you can get familiar with their sound, then two-octave ‘stacks’ of both scales’ notes, so we can compare them. Major uses the semitone pattern 2-2-1-2-2-2-1, while minor is# 2-1-2- # # 2-1-2-2. So C minor is C, D, D , F, G, G and A .

C minor is trickier than C major as it uses a number of# black keys. We’ve # also got D/D and G/G in the same scale – a real no-no in proper music theory! If we b b b use flats instead, we get C, D, E , F, G, A , B , giving a neat alphabetical run. Most music software uses only sharps, so don’t get too hung up on this!

2

4

In the minor scale, the 3rd, 6th and 7th notes are one semitone lower (ie, they are flattened). These notes are therefore key to the sound of both scales – if you don’t use them at all, your music will sound neither major nor minor! The 3rd note most strongly defines the major/minor sound, being a major third (4 semitones from root) or minor third (3 semitones).

Finally, here’s another way to look at minor scales. Select the C minor scale stack, and move it down 3 semitones – the root note becomes A, making A minor. C major and A minor use the exact same notes (all the white keys), so if you know C major you know A minor – just start on A instead of C.

4. Rapidly reworking a tune from major to minor

TuTorial

Files

1

We’re going to take the tune from our earlier major scale demo and alter it to use the minor scale, giving it a whole new feel. Follow step 1 of the earlier tutorial 2 to set up the plugins, then import Bass.mid and Melody.mid onto their respective tracks. This song is in C major, so let’s use our MIDI Construction Kit to show us the notes for C minor.

30  /  ComPuTer musiC  /  October 2016

2

Create a new MIDI channel called Scale Guide, then import C » Scales » C Major Stack.mid onto it, extending the notes to fill four bars. We’re going to use this to find which notes from our existing C major scale aren’t in the C minor scale. In our DAW, Studio One 3, we can set things up so we can see – but not edit – the minor MIDI stack.

3

The minor scale differs from the major scale in that the 3rd, 6th and 7th notes of the scale are flattened by one semitone. We need to find the notes that aren’t on the C minor ‘grid’ of the Scale Guide track and drop them a semitone. Select all occurrences of notes E, A and B, and slide them down one semitone to hear our tune take on a less jolly and more serious feel.

the producer’s guide to chords and scales  /  make music now  <

Chord basics So far we’ve looked at playing single-note melodies with a bassline underneath. Play a bunch of notes together, though, and you create rich musical textures: chords. The most basic chords are three-note triads, and they’re dead easy to build. First we need a scale – we’re going to use C major, but it works in the same way for any other scale, including minor ones. Now we pick a root note for the chord, then alternately skip and pick notes until we have three of them. Numerically, the formula is 1-3-5. So for the first chord in C, we’d pick these notes in bold: C D E F G A B. That gives C-E-G. The other triads in C major are: D-F-A, E-G-B, F-A-C, G-B-D, A-C-E, B-D-F. In total, that’s seven chords, which we can number 1-7 for reference. The three notes of a triad are called root, third and fifth.

> Step by step

1

4

Now take a good look at the chords’ intervals – see step 3 below. Chords 1 (C-E-G), 4 (F-A-C) and 5 (G-B-D) all have a major third as their first interval, which makes them ‘major chords’. We

These triads are the most common chords. Based on the major/minor scale, they can be built with an easy formula

name them C major, F major and G major – or simply C, F and G. Chords 2 (D-F-A), 3 (E-G-B), and 6 (A-C-E) are minor chords – that’s right, chords based on the major scale aren’t necessarily major chords. We call these D minor, E minor and A minor, also known as Dm, Em and Am. We can also use a formula based on semitones to create any major or minor chord. Major is root – major third – fifth, so root-4-7. Minor, on the other hand, is root – minor third – fifth: root-3-7. Chord 7 (B-D-F) is a bit different. It’s made of two minor thirds stacked up, and it’s called B diminished, or Bdim. Diminished chords are often used to create moments of tension that are ‘resolved’ to a more harmonious or ‘stable’ chord, such as chord 1. For the walkthrough below, we’ll take you through it in video form.

5. Instant chord construction: major, minor and diminished triads

Let’s build the most basic chords, triads, and use them in a chord progression. Load Dune CM on a MIDI instrument track in your DAW, and select the 022: Earth Views RL preset. Load Beat.wav on an audio track and set tempo to 100bpm. We’ll use our MIDI Construction Kit once again to guide us, this time showing you how it’s done in Logic Pro X.

Let’s make an eight-bar chord sequence – create a new MIDI clip from bars 1-9, and loop it. For bars 1-3, program chords C, Em then F. We want a ‘turnaround’ in bar 4 to bring us back to chord 1, C, and a classic method is to use the 5th chord of the scale right before it – going from chord 5 to 1 is a very strong progression, and it’s technically called a perfect cadence. So program chords Am and G during this bar.

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On the Dune CM track, create a fourbar MIDI clip starting bar 10, loop it, then import C > Scales > C Major - All notes.mid, starting bar 14. Select both clips and double-click them to open the Piano Roll editor. You can now use the stack of notes as a visual guide, or click the collapse mode icon (just right of the View dropdown) to restrict programming to only the notes in the scale.

We’ve used all the triads except chord 2, Dm, and that pesky B diminished triad, chord 7, so let’s try and work those in during bars 5-8. Program bars of C, Em, then Dm, then half-bars of G and Bdim to fill the final bar. The B in Bdim is called the leading note, and it has a strong ‘pull’ to resolve to the next semitone up, C, which is why it makes a good transition back to chord 1.

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To create triads, we use a simple 1-3-5 pattern. Draw in the first note of the scale on C3, then miss out the D, draw in the E, skip over the F, and draw in G. This gives us C major: C-E-G. Carry on up the scale and create the rest of the triads using this 1-3-5 pattern, and we get the other six C major triads: D major (D-F-A), E minor (E-G-B), F major (F-A-C), G major (G-B-D), A minor (A-C-E) and B diminished (B-D-G).

Let’s make our sequence less predictable. Going from chord 5 to chord 1 sounds super-strong – so strong, in fact, that if we don’t go to chord 1, it will sound unexpected. Change bar 5’s C chord to Dm, and bar 6’s Em to G, so we get a ‘back and forth’ between chords 2 and 5, leading up to our 5-7-1 turnaround. Finally, load CM Arp.fxp patch in Dune CM for an arpeggiated take on our tune.

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>  make music now  /  the producer’s guide to chords and scales

Six more chord tricks Mastered major, minor and diminished chords? Tackle this lot next!

6. Smoother sequences with inverted chords A normal C major chord is C-E-G, but you can easily change it to E-G-C, called the ‘first inversion’, or G-C-E, the ‘second inversion’ – the bass note has changed, but it’s still the same chord, with the same root note, C. This can be used to create much smoother chord sequences. To try an example, create a 100BPM project and load Beat.wav; then use Chords.mid to trigger Bazille CM’s Computer Music » Joe Rossitter » Richmond Keys preset. This C minor progression uses basic noninverted triads. Select the lower two notes of all chords in bar 1 and 3, then transpose them up one octave – most DAWs have a shortcut key for this, such as Shift-Up. Now hear how much smoother the progression is, since there’s less movement from chord to chord. In the final bar, select all notes above (and including) D4, and drop those one octave for a cool descending chord progression. You may start to hear melodies in the chords’ movement – there’s one going on in ours, so duplicate the top note of each chord and place them one octave up, for an instant melody.

7. Borrowed chords The occasional chord from a different scale – or key – can give your progressions an element of surprise. Borrowed chords are an easy way to achieve this, and they are simply chords taken from the parallel minor or major key. So if your sequence is in A minor, you would borrow chords from A major; if you’re in D major, you’ll take them from D minor, and so on. See our video for a practical example!

8. Transitions with suspended chords Take a normal major or minor triad – it doesn’t matter which – then move its third up to play a perfect fourth, and you have a suspended 4 chord, or sus4 – the formula in semitones is root-5-7. Because it lacks a third, the chord sounds neither major nor minor, with a spacey, ambiguous feel. It’s often followed by the regular major or minor chord, creating a satisfying resolution. To go full classical, ‘prepare’ the suspension by preceding it with a chord that contains the suspended note. In our A minor example, we play Am (A-C-E), Esus4 (E-A-B), Em (E-G-B). A is the prepared note, shared by Am and Esus4, resolving to the G in Em. Now, until you actually resolve the chord, nobody knows whether it’s going to be major or minor, and you can add a surprise twist by resolving to a minor chord instead of a major, making it a borrowed chord. You can do it the other way around, of course, resolving to major where a minor is expected.

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the producer’s guide to chords and scales  /  make music now  <

> Technique 9. Seventh chords

If it’s jazzy sophistication and smouldering sensuality you’re after, it’s time you tried seventh chords

> Technique

Just as you can stack an extra third on top of a triad to add the seventh, you can keep piling thirds on top to introduce ninths, elevenths and thirteenths. We haven’t discussed intervals this large yet, but they give us the same notes as a second, fourth and sixth, just one octave higher. On the right is C major 13: C-E-G-B-D-F-A. If you just add on the ninth interval, without the seventh, you have an ‘add 9’ chord (which you’ll read more about in the technique below.) See the video for more detail.

> Technique

1

Triads use the 1-3-5 formula, but if you continue stacking alternate notes, your next stop would be 1-3-5-7, comprising a root, third, fifth and seventh. This makes a seventh chord, and shown are those built on the C major scale – we’re using our scale template, so only notes in C are shown.

10. Other extended chords

11. Making ‘add’ chords in a snap

You can create custom chords that aren’t sevenths or extended chords by simply adding in extra notes, usually the 2nd, 4th or 6th. These chords are called add2, add4 and add6. There’s also the add9 chord, which is the same as the add2 chord except the added note is an octave higher, rather than sitting right next to the root note. In our video and audio example, we first turn a C major chord into an add2 by adding its 2nd note, D… Then we transpose the added note to make add9. This works well to transition into the E minor 7 that follows, since that chord also contains a D.

Numeralogy

2

C major demo - Normal triad chords (chords).mid is a triad sequence. To make sevenths, we extend the pattern of alternating notes, adding an extra note on top of each chord. For the final half-bar chord, add the note to the bottom instead, so we have two different chords in that bar. Our added notes are in yellow.

You may have seen chord sequences written using Roman numerals, rather than naming them (C, Em, etc) or numbering them the usual way. Chords 1-7 of the major scale would be written I ii iii IV V vi vii°, while for minor, we’d have i ii° III iv v VI VII. Upper case tells us it’s a major chord; lower case is minor; the small circle means it’s a diminished chord. The beauty of this method is that chord sequences aren’t tied to a specific key,

so progressions can be discussed and compared independently of the key the song was originally in. Musicians can also use this notation to play a given progression in any key. To avoid overloading you with jargon, we’ve stuck to plain old 1-7 in our tutorials, but it’s good to know about this alternate method, and to give you a leg-up with the concept, we’ve added the numerals to the filenames of our Triads Chord Sets.

maJor

I

3

Seventh chords can sound dense, but you can remove the fifth to slim them down. They can be inverted, too, for a smoother flow. Combine these tricks for sweet progressions, as in our finished sequence above. Our video goes into more detail on seventh chords and their type.

ii

iii

IV

V

vi

vii°

III

iv

v

VI VII

minor

i

ii°

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>  make music now  /  the producer’s guide to chords and scales

Chords cheat sheet Music theory knowledge is awesome when you have it, but for many of us, recalling scale patterns and chord shapes can be a creative drag. To keep your sessions flowing, we’ve created the CM MIDI Construction Kit, a massive pack of MIDI chords, scales and templates. Let’s take a look at what’s inside this amazing musical toolkit, and how you can use it to make better music now. You’ll find it inside the Tutorial Files folder. First, folders are arranged into the 12 musical keys (ie, root notes – we’ll talk more about keys on the next page), and inside each is three folders. The Chords folder contains useful chords based on the root note, each sustained for a bar – just drag them into your DAW. Our ‘cheat sheet’ below also gives you a handy overview of common chords. The Chord Sets folder contains the triads, sevenths, ninths, elevenths and thirteenths derived from the standard major and minor (ie, natural minor) scales. Where relevant, we’ve included an alternative scale set using a flat key signature. These use the same MIDI notes, just with different filenames.

Use the CM MIDI Construction Kit as your guide to the world of theory – there’s a template for everything

The Scales folder offers up four common scales: major, (natural) minor, melodic minor and harmonic minor. You also get all seven commonly used modes, and a range of other scales, from everyday to exotic. Every scale comes in two formats: a straightforward run up the scale so you can hear how it sounds, and our special ‘template’ format. These templates

contain every note of the scale in every octave, sustained for one bar. They are for use as a guide only – avoid playing them as it won’t sound pleasant! How you use these will depend on your DAW, but you’ll find suggestions spread throughout our tutorials. There’s also a handy text file in the MIDI Construction Kit folder with more specifics, as well as a video overview.

stuck for a chord? Try these! Here’s a recap of some of the most commonly used chords. Intervals are given in a numerical format – you can assume they are the ‘major’ or ‘perfect’ varieties unless modified with a preceding flat, making them minor or diminished intervals major

major seventh

add 6

intervals Root-3-5 semitones Root-4-7 example naming C example chord C-E-G

intervals Root-3-5-7 semitones Root-4-7-11 example naming Cmaj7 example chord C-E-G-B

intervals Root-3-5-6 semitones Root-4-7-9 example naming Cadd6 example chord C-E-G-A A major chord with an added 6th, sometimes written as C6. You can also # b add the 6th to a minor chord, eg, Cm6 would be C-D -G-A (C-E -G-A)

minor

minor seventh

add 9

intervals Root-b3-5 semitones Root-4-7 example naming Cm example chord C-Eb-G C-D#-G

intervals Root-b3-5-b7 semitones Root-4-7-11 example naming Cm7 example chord C-E b -G-B b    C-D#-G-A#

intervals Root-3-5-9 semitones Root-4-7-14 example naming Cadd9 example chord C-E-G-D The major ninth (D in our example chord) is a major second an octave higher. Without this transposition, you have an ‘add 2’ chord instead

suspended fourth

dominant seventh

6/9

intervals Root-4-5 semitones Root-5-7 example naming Csus4 example chord C-F-G

intervals Root-3-5-b7 semitones Root-4-7-10 example naming C7 example chord C-E-G-B b C-E-G-A#

intervals Root-4-5-6-9 semitones Root-4-7-9-14 example naming C6/9 example chord C-E-G-A-D

Has no third, so is neither major nor minor, giving a spacey, unresolved quality. Can be resolved using the expected major or minor chord (above)

This chord occurs in the major scale by building a seventh on note 5 (eg, G7 in C major), and is a strong chord for transitioning back to chord 1

A major triad with an added 6th and 9th interval. It’s possible to leave the fifth out if things are getting too crowded

Power chord

diminished seventh intervals Root- b3- b5- bb7 semitones Root-3-6-9 example naming C°7 example chord C-Eb-Gb-B bb C-D#-F#-A

dominant ninth

intervals Root-5 semitones Root-7 example naming C5 example chord C-G Just two notes, often repeated in higher octaves, this is the chord of rock and heavy metal. It has no third, so is neither major nor minor

Three minor thirds and two tritones make this disturbing chord the stuff of horror soundtracks – see tutorials 9 and 14 for examples of its use

The fifth can be left out if the chord is too dense. Like the seventh chord, this has major and minor varieties too

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intervals Root-5- b7 - 9 semitones Root-4-7-10-14 example naming C9 example chord C-E-G-B b -D C-E-G-A#-D

the producer’s guide to chords and scales  /  make music now  <

What are keys? What key am I in? Try the circle of fifths! A key is just another way of saying what scale you’re using. If your song is based on the C major scale, it’s in the key of C major. But for every major scale, there’s a relative minor with the same notes, so what’s stopping the song being in the key of A minor? The difference is that in C major, C feels like the ‘home’ note or chord – called the ‘tonal centre’. The song will likely begin and end on this note/chord, and will return to it at the start of sections. A song in A minor will likewise build outwards and return to Am. These ‘rules’ are often broken, mind you. Changing key mid-song can re-energise things or flip into an unexpected new part. This can be accomplished by taking a section, duplicating it, and transposing the copy. A one semitone shift in either direction, for example. For a more considered approach, we can move to a destination key that shares notes

> Step by step

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# Bb /A

# Eb/D

# Ab/G

C

F Dm

Am

G Em Bm

Gm

Circle  of 5ths

Cm Fm

# D b/C

# Bbm/A m #

Dm

# F /Gb

#

Fm

#

#

Cm

Gm

D A E

B

with the current one. For C major, the most similar keys/scales would be G major (uses # b # F instead of F), and F major (B /A instead of B).

From C up to G is an ascending perfect fifth, and from C down to F a descending perfect fifth. Interesting! In fact, to find the ‘closest’ two scales to any major or minor scale, just go up or down a perfect fifth. This results in the Circle of Fifths, a superb songwriting tool, which is shown in our diagram. Adjacent keys are most similar, and the further around the circle you go, the more disparate and unrelated they become. So, for C major, good choices for a key change would be F and G (+/- 7 semitones, a perfect fifth away), and going one more step in each direction, D b # and B /A (+/- 2 semitones, a major second). To transition from a major to minor key, or vice versa, we just use the relative minor/major relationship – minor keys are shown on the inside of the wheel. For more, see 221’s Easy Guide on the Circle of Fifths.

12. Key changes

Let’s see how easy it can be to kick up the energy levels in a song with a key change. Import Beat.wav on an audio track in a 124bpm project, then import Chords.mid onto a track with Bazille CM’s 04 Poly » HS DXzille Piano patch, and import Bassline.mid on a track with Dune CM’s 010 Chorus Bass RL preset. Pop a D16 Frontier limiter on the master bus, too.

Take a look at the triad Chord Sets for D minor and G minor in our MIDI Construction Kit – the triads shared by # both keys are Dm, F, Gm and A , so these will make good transitional chords. Let’s try them all. Dm is the first chord of the incoming riff anyway, so it has no real impact. F isn’t bad, but let’s keep going.

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This tune is in the key of G minor, and # b the chords are Gm, A maj7 (B maj7), # Csus4, Gm, A maj7, Cadd6. We’d like a key change at bar 9, when the solo comes in. Basic key changes can be achieved just by transposing entire sections, so let’s try that first – cut the MIDI clips at bar 9, and transpose the entire section from bars 9-17 up and down for an unexpected shift, like our song is changing gear.

#

A is a continuation of the preceding # A maj7, so it sounds like not much is happening. Finally, Gm works really well. In the key of D minor, Gm is chord 4, so it creates a transition from chord 4 to chord 1 (called a plagal cadence). Now unsolo the chords and transpose the bassline -5 semitones, which not only fits the chord but also echoes the actual bassline of the second part of the track.

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Good settings to try are 1, 2, 5 and 7 semitones, either up or down. When you’ve tried it out, settle on -5 semitones, which puts the second half of our track into D minor. That’s it – our key change is done! The transition between the two parts could be improved, though. Let’s focus on the final chord of the first section, Cadd6. Solo the chords track so the bassline doesn’t throw us off.

Another way to bridge keys is to use chord 5 of the incoming key – for Dm, that’d be Am (A-C-E). Now add the seventh, # G, making Am7… then move the C up to C , giving A7, a dominant seventh, a classic choice for transitions. Next, move the A up # to A for a diminished seventh… and transpose the whole chord -1 semitone to make Adim7. Don’t be afraid to fool around with chords like this until you hit the spot!

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>  make music now  /  the producer’s guide to chords and scales

Taking the mystery out of modes Among many musicians, modes have a reputation as mysterious and hard to understand, but if you understand the major/ minor relationship, then you’re already halfway to understanding modes. You may even have used modes in your music without realising it. Our tutorial below lays it all out for you, but let’s look at some examples you may have heard. The first mode is Ionian, beginning on the first note of the major scale – yep, it is the major scale! Typically upbeat and positive in vibe, but it doesn’t have to be – Adele’s Someone Like You could hardly be described as a joy-fest, for example, but it’s very much in A major. The Dorian mode is similar to the good-old natural minor, except the sixth is major instead of minor, giving a melancholy sound. Probably the most famous example of a Dorian-based

> Step by step

1

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Modes are used in many tracks you may know, so it’s not hard to get a handle on their distinctive sounds

song is Scarborough Fair, and you can also hear it in Tears for Fears’ Mad World, Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game, and Daft Punk’s Get Lucky. The Phrygian mode’s first two notes are just a semitone apart. It has a distinctive flavour associated with Spanish music such as

flamenco…but did you know that the Knight Rider theme tune is also in Phrygian? Next, the ethereal and spacey Lydian mode. 80s guitar rock shred-heads loved to explore modes, and Joe Satriani noodled the heck out of this one on Flying In A Blue Dream. The Mixolydian mode is like a major scale with a minor seventh – Guns ’n’ Roses Sweet Child o’ Mine uses it during the verses. Aeolian is the natural minor scale by another name – you’ve heard this one plenty of times! Locrian is the least-used mode of all, as it sounds kind of disconnected, tense and unresolved. This scale can be heard in the verses of Bjork’s Army of Me, Judas Priest’s Painkiller, and The Strokes’ Juicebox, though most of these do not use all the notes in the scale.

13. Taking the mystery out of modes in a flash

We’ve focused on the basic major and minor scales so far, as they’re the most commonly used. We also showed you how they’re really the same scale, starting from a different note. Did you know that there are five more scales hiding inside the major shape, though? Let’s uncover them! To get started, load Bazille CM and select the patch 03 Leads - AF AnaLead.

Click through the notes of each mode in order to hear these new scales. Let’s put them all into the same key, C. Select and slide each stack of notes down so it starts on C. We can now see their interval patterns side by side. Everything we’ve showed you about scales and chords so far can be applied to these five new scales. And our MIDI Construction Kit contains scale templates for all modes in every key.

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From the MIDI Construction Kit, import C » Scales » C Major Template.midi, placing it on bar 1. Delete all the notes below C3. Enable your DAW’s note audition feature and click notes C3 to C4 to hear the C major scale. Now select all notes from A3 and upwards, and copy them to bar 6. Click notes A3 to A4 to hear the A minor scale – all we’ve done is change the starting note, but it has a different feel.

Now let’s hear how they sound – import Drone.wav onto an audio track, set tempo to 100bpm, and loop it. This loop features only one note, C, so we can hear how the modes sound against it. Either program your own patterns using the scale templates, or load our demo MIDI files from the Tutorial Files folder. C Ionian is the upbeat major sound we’ve already covered.

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So what if we create scales starting on the other five notes of C major? Well, that’s what modes are! From the stack of C major notes, copy notes D3-D4 to bar 2, E3-E4 to bar 3, F3-F4 to bar 4, G3-G4 to bar 5, and B3-B4 to bar 6. We’ve now created the scales C Ionian, D Dorian, E Phrygian, F Lydian, G Mixolydian, A Aeolian, and B Locrian. Ionian and Aeolian are simply the major and (natural) minor scales.

Dorian is similar to the minor scale but has a bit of a jazz/blues feel going on with the major instead of minor 6th. Phrygian is often associated with Spanish music. Lydian has an unresolved, dreamy character. Mixolydian appears in rock and blues a lot. Aeolian is the good-old natural minor scale. Locrian has a dark, unresolved quality and is probably the least used mode.

the producer’s guide to chords and scales  /  make music now  < > Step by step

1

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There are actually three types of minor scale: natural, harmonic and melodic. The natural minor is the standard, widely used minor scale we’ve stuck to so far. By sharpening the seventh, we create the harmonic minor scale – as shown. This scale has the pattern Root-2-1-2-2-1-3. That 3-semitone leap gives it a recognisable sound with a serious neoclassical vibe.

In A harmonic minor, chord 7 of the # scale would be G dim7. But if you invert it, it becomes identical to Bdim7, Ddim7 and Fdim7. These four share the same notes and are basically the same chord. So you can consider any note of the chord as a leading tone #to take# you not just to Am, but to Cm, D m or F m.

> Step by step

1

Chord considerations

14. Natural, melodic and harmonic minor scales

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Figuring out which chords to use with exotic scales can be tricky, but there are plenty of approaches to ease the pain. First, when using a minor key, you don’t have to choose between natural, harmonic and melodic then stick with it. For example, when writing in natural minor, harmonic minor’s dominant 7 on chord 5 and diminished 7 on chord 7 can be borrowed as needed. Check out our earlier tutorial video number 9 at 0:40 – we did exactly this to smooth our progression. For more obscure scales where the chords are giving you headaches, there’s a simple solution: forget chords! You can create plenty of movement with a monophonic bassline, for example. A slight step up from there would be power chords, which use just a root and fifth. Rock and metal guitarists have got tons of mileage out of weird scales by shredding them over power chords or repetitive riffs that don’t have a particularly strong tonality to begin with. Check out Meshuggah for one of the most extreme examples of this approach – guitarist Fredrik Thordendal often lays down melodically complex solos over riffs comprising one or two notes. The solo (3:15) in Vanished, from 1995’s Destroy Erase Improve, is a great example. Finally, a little dissonance never hurt anyone, and sometimes a scale and chord combination that theoretically shouldn’t work actually sounds great in context. Try it and see!

The harmonic minor scale has some highly useful properties when we build chords on it. Chord 5 becomes major instead of minor, and can be extended to a dominant seventh chord. By building further on note 7 of the scale, we get a diminished seventh, an excellent chord for transitions, rooted on the leading tone so that it leads back, or ‘resolves’ to chord 1.

Melodic minor is like harmonic minor but with the sixth note sharpened too, getting rid of the 3-semitone step which is sometimes undesirable. Classically, the melodic minor scale was used when ascending, and the regular natural minor for descending, but in modern music the scale may be used for both directions.

15. Pentatonic scales and beyond

Pentatonic scales, as the name suggests, use only five notes per octave. The major pentatonic is the major scale with the fourth and seventh notes missed out. So in C, we leave out F and B, giving us the scale C D E G A, shown here. The minor pentatonic is the natural minor scale without the second and sixth notes – A C D E G.

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Add a note to the minor pentatonic, between the fourth and fifth, to create the six-note blues scale, shown above. Add a note between the second and third of the major pentatonic for the less-used major equivalent. Theses scales are great for riffs, melodies and solos, and with fewer notes to clash, they’re easy to work over progressions.

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There are lots more scales to explore. Phrygian Dominant is a mode of Harmonic minor, and so has a similar feel. The Whole Tone scale, shown, is made up entirely of 2-semitone steps, and has a real spaced out vibe. Hirajoshi is adapted from Japanese koto music – it’s got five notes, making it a pentatonic scale. These scales and more are in our MIDI Construction Kit.

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>  make music now  /  the producer’s guide to chords and scales

Scales cheat sheet By this point, you may be struggling to keep up with the multitude of scale patterns – they certainly look similar, even if they don’t sound it. To help you keep a lid on it, we’ve put together a cheat sheet of scales. And remember, our MIDI Construction Kit is rammed with scale templates in every possible key. If you’re still unsure how to use them, here’s some concrete advice. In Ableton Live, copy the template’s stack of notes so it lies just outside your MIDI clip’s play/ loop markers. Use it as a visual guide or enable Fold to restrict the piano roll to notes in the scale. Logic Pro X works similarly: place the template MIDI clip alongside the one you’re working on, and select both clips to view them in the Piano Roll. Click Collapse Mode to restrict programming to the scale’s notes. In Bitwig Studio, you have a few options. If using single-clip edit mode, paste the template outside of the clip’s playable range. For multiclip edit, paste the template into a separate clip outside your loop points. Drum Editing mode restricts programming to notes of the scale. Another method is to place the clip on a track with no instrument loaded, then enable MultiLayer editing and lock that track. The notes will show as a visual underlay.

Cubase’s scale guide, here highlighting the notes of G harmonic minor in blue – the red notes are out of key!

For Studio One 3, load the template on a MIDI track with no instrument, then click Track List (four horizontal lines). Enable the leftmost Show (circle) icon for the template track and those you want to edit. Disable the Edit (pencil) option for the template, and it’ll show only as a guide. Cubase users can load the template alongside the MIDI they want to edit as a guide,

again, ensuring it’s outside of loop points; but Cubase has its own scale guide feature – to use it, add a Chord Track, disable Automatic Scales (in the Inspector), click Show Scales (on the track), add a scale event and choose a scale. Now set the colouring mode in the Piano Roll to Chord Track, and notes within the scale will be blue, while those outside it are red.

Find a scale in a flash All the scales from our tutorials in one handy place! We also give you the scale example in sharps too, for easy transferrance to your piano roll. Alternatively, find all these scales in MIDI format in every key in our MIDI Construction Kit! major (aka ionian mode)

Pentatonic minor

lydian mode

Pattern 2-2-1-2-2-2-1 intervals Root-2-3-4-5-6-7 example C D E F G A B

Pattern 3-2-2-3-2 intervals Root-b3-4-5-b7 example C Eb F G Bb

Pattern 2-2-2-1-2-2-1 intervals Root-2-3-#4-5-6-7 example C D E F# G A B

The most fundamental scale; music theory is centred around it. Sounds upbeat/happy, with its major third, four semitones from the root

Like natural minor minus the 2nd and 6th notes. A major equivalent can be created by leaving the 4th and 7th out of the major scale

The major scale’s fourth mode – start C major on F to get it easily. The raised fourth gives the Lydian mode a really dreamy, ethereal feel

natural minor (aka aeolian mode)

Blues scale

mixolydian

Pattern 2-1-2-2-1-2-2 intervals Root-2-b3-4-5-b6-b7 example C D Eb F G Ab Bb

Pattern 3-2-1-1-3-2 intervals Root-b3-4-b5-5-b7 example C Eb F Gb G Bb

Pattern 2-2-1-2-2-1-2 intervals Root-2-3-4-5-6-b7 example C D E F G A Bb

Of the three types of minor scale, this is the most common. The sounds is sad/downbeat with the minor third, three semitones from the root

The pentatonic minor with an extra note added in. It’s used in blues music, but it’s great for rockin’ solos and melodies of all kinds

The fifth mode of the major scale isn’t far removed – the Mixolydian mode is just like the major scale but with a minor seventh. Very useful

Harmonic minor

dorian mode

locrian mode

Pattern 2-1-2-2-1-3-1 intervals Root-2-b3-4-5- b6-7 example C D Eb F G Ab B

Pattern 2-1-2-2-2-1-2 intervals Root-2-b3-4-5-6-b 7 example C D Eb F G A Bb

Pattern 1-2-2-1-2-2 intervals Root-b2-b3-4-b5-b 6-b 7 example C Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb

The same as the natural minor, but with the seventh note moved up one semitone. Sounds neoclassical, Baroque or faux Egyptian/Middle Eastern

The second mode of the major scale. Similar to natural minor, but with a major sixth. Note its symmetrical pattern of intervals

You can play C major starting on B to create B Locrian. It’s the least used mode, with the diminished fifth giving it an unresolved feel

melodic minor

Phrygian mode

Phrygian dominant

Pattern 2-1-2-2-2-2-1 intervals Root-2-b3-4-5-6- 7 example C D Eb F G A B

Pattern 1-2-2-2-1-2-2 intervals Root-b2-b3-4-5-b6- b7 example C Db Eb F G Ab Bb

Pattern 1-3-1-2-1-2-2 intervals Root-b2-3-4-5-b6- b7 example C Db E F G Ab Bb

Also known as jazz minor, it’s like the bottom half of natural minor with the top half of the major scale

38  /  ComPuTer musiC  /  October 2016

The third mode of the major scale. The one-semitone interval between the first and second notes gives it a dark vibe

Similar to Phrygian but with a sharpened third note. Playing harmonic minor from its fifth note will give you this shape – dark and exotic

>  make music now  /  the producer’s guide to chords and scales

9 pieces of fast theory advice A bunch more theory tips to put into practice the next time you’re looking for a boost of musical inspiration

Instant compositional results from artificial intelligence

02

Building chords and using scales can seem more like a brutal maths exercise at times – so why not get your computer to do the hard work? This month’s B-Step CM plugin, for example, makes it easy to try riffs based on chord sequences. Xfer Records’ Cthulhu is another fine option for exploring progressions. Cubase’s Chord Track and Chord Assistant can even tell you what chords ought to come next! Ableton Live isn’t quite that smart, but its MIDI Effects make it easy to stay in key and generate instant chords. Many other DAWs feature similar MIDI plugins. Other software, like Autotheory and AutoTonic, sits between your MIDI keyboard and DAW to keep your noodlings strickly diatonic. RapidComposer, Cognitone Synfire and WaveDNA Liquid Music can even help with the composition process.

03 Try out your synth’s chord memory function – if it’s got one – to give yourself some quick one-finger action

01

HardCore memories

If scale modes are scary, then chord modes must be truly trouser-soiling stuff, right? Thankfully not – chord mode or memory is the name of a classic synth feature where a chord is triggered with one key. In traditional implementations, the chord is simply transposed up and down, so it doesn’t stay diatonic (in key). However, it’s a sound that’s featured in countless dance and rave tracks, proving that music theory rules are there for the breaking! To achieve it, use a synth with a chord memory (eg, AudioRealism’s Redominator), duplicate or transpose a MIDI chord (there’s tons in our MIDI Construction Kit!), or use a chord sample in a sampler.

40  /  ComPuTer musiC  /  October 2016

CHord ProCessinG uniTs

JusT THe ToniC

To keep things nice ’n’ easy, we’ve referred to the notes and chords of a scale as numbers 1-7. We mentioned the Roman numeral naming system a while back, too. but guess what? There’s yet another bunch of terminology for referring to notes – aka degrees – of a scale, and the chords built on them. For a major scale, they are Tonic, Supertonic, Mediant, Subdominant, Dominant, Submediant and Leading Tone. The minor scale uses Subtonic instead of Leading Tone. Cryptic or what?! A discussion of these names is beyond the scope of this feature, but in short, they tell you how the degree functions in a progression. The Dominant (5th), is so named because it’s the second most important besides the Tonic (1st), while the Leading Tone (7th) leads nicely back to the Tonic (1st). If you recall, we touched upon these 5-to-1 and 7-to-1 transitions in earlier tutorials.

04

world’s sTronGesT ears

Knowing how to lift weights and what to eat for optimal strength won’t make you strong, and it’s the same deal with music theory: you need to put it into practice and train your ear for the best results. As an exercise, try recreating a favourite song in your DAW – see how close you can get the notes and chords. Or render out notes, intervals, scales and chords as MP3s, then put them in playlists on shuffle. Try to identify or match them on your MIDI keyboard. Don’t expect to identify specific notes by ear, though – that’s perfect pitch, and it’s very rare, so don’t sweat it!

the producer’s guide to chords and scales  /  make music now  <

05

riP uP THe ruleBooK

One of the absolute best things you can do with music theory knowledge is… to forget all about it! Yep, ditch all the rules and regulations and just get on with making music. With even a basic understanding of theory, you’ll find that things come together more naturally, even if you’re not thinking about specific chords and scales while writing. And when you do get stuck? Or can’t quite get that melody to gel with the chords? That’s when you apply music theory, to get the creative process rolling again. Finally, don’t be afraid to do something that – perhaps very deliberately – goes totally against everything you’ve learnt in this guide. After all, music would never have evolved if composers had stuck to preestablished rules.

06

miXed modes

When you first get familiar with modes and scales, you may feel the urge to stay locked into the “right” notes for the whole song, to maximise the effect. After all, any deviation could leave you in a sort of musical no-man’s land that’s neither one scale nor the other! Couldn’t it…? Nah, not really – songwriters move between modes and scales all the time. This can either be done in a ‘passing’ sense, such as brief connecting chords or notes (semitone steps work well). Or it could be as extreme as writing a melody that outlines a new key with each chord. Don’t be afraid to take off the harmonic stabilisers and wander into a different scale if it feels right.

07

KeY deCisions

No one key is musically superior, but there are reasons for choosing one over another. First, some musical instruments are easier to play in certain keys. And some can only play specific keys, such as a harmonica or harp. Vocalists may find a given song easier to sing if it’s transposed to a higher or lower key, to move it into their comfortable range. Electronic musicians don’t have playability worries, but the key used will determine the frequencies of the main notes in a song. Many dance tracks are in keys F to A (major or minor), so that when the bass plays the first note of the scale, it’s in the optimal sub bass range, 45-55Hz.

Here’s the C major melody from way back in tutorial 2, harmonised in thirds – the harmony notes are in yellow

08

Want to create a harmony for your lead line? A simple approach is to duplicate the line and move it up or down a perfect fifth or perfect fourth. This basically ensures a diatonic (that means ‘in key’) result. The only exceptions would be things like adding a perfect fifth on top of the 7th note in a major key, which should be a diminished fifth. In practice, though, it’s often either left as-is, moved to a different in-key note, or avoided altogether. For even sweeter harmonies, stack in thirds instead. It’s just like building notes into triads, but using a Root-3 formula rather than Root-3-5. Make sure the harmony notes are in key – you’ll end up with a mixture of minor and major third intervals. Our scale templates can help here!

09 Singer straining to hit the highest or lowest notes? Try transposing the music to another key until they can

insTanT Harmonies

easY does iT

Our fast guide only scratches the surface of music theory, but we hope it’s given you a taste for juicy chords, progression tricks and wild scales. When you’re ready to broaden your knowledge, our famous Easy Guide series is your next stop. Every edition is packed with wise words, expert video and groan-worthy puns from ’s resident keyboard wizard Dave Clews. And with over 40 episodes stretching right back to 192, and a new edition every month, you’d be mad not to fill in your back issues collection and subscribe right away to avoid missing out on this essential material!

Top up your theory knowledge every four weeks with our regular Easy Guide articles and videos

October 2016  /  ComPuTer musiC  /  41

>  make music now  /  the producer’s guide to chords and scales

Jargon guide Music theory’s tricky enough without the lexicon – get your head around the lingo with our quick dictionary ASCENDING

INTERVAL

MELODY

SCALE

Rising in pitch, or going up the piano keyboard from left to right

The difference between two note pitches. Intervals are named according to the number of letter names they span, eg from C to D is a second, C to F is a fourth, etc

A sequence of notes played one after the other to produce a tune

A sequence of notes going up or down the keyboard with a particular pattern of intervals between them

CADENCE A short sequence of notes or chords at the end of a musical phrase

INVERSION

More than one note is played at the same time

The order of notes in a chord is changed. A first inversion would see the root shifted up an octave to the top of a chord

CIRCLE OF FIFTHS

KEY

A diagram charting the relationship between the twelve notes/keys in the chromatic scale

The scale on which a piece of music is based. The key takes its name from the tonic, or first note of this scale

CHORD

DESCENDING Falling in pitch, or going down the piano keyboard from right to left

DIMINISHED FIFTH An interval of a perfect fifth flattened by one semitone, eg C-Gb or A-Eb

DOMINANT The fifth note of a scale, an interval of a perfect fifth above the tonic. Also, a chord built on this fifth note

ExTENDED Extended chords contain extra notes added from further up the keyboard. A major ninth chord, for instance, contains root, third, fifth, seventh and ninth

FLAT Determines that a note should be one semitone lower in pitch

HARMONIC INTERVAL

MAJOR SCALE The most common scale in Western music. A series of eight notes with a set pattern of intervals: 2-2-1-2-2-2-1

MAJOR SECOND An interval of two semitones between two different notes. For example, C to D is a major second interval

MAJOR SEVENTH The interval between the root note and the seventh note (or ‘degree’) of a major scale. Equivalent to eleven semitones

MAJOR SIxTH An interval of nine semitones between two different notes. C to A, for example

MAJOR THIRD

Notes of different pitches played together at the same time, as opposed to one after the other

An interval of four semitones between two different notes. Examples include C to E, G to B, # D to F

HARMONY

MELODIC INTERVAL

A tune that complements a melody when played at the same time. Also refers to the relationship between a series of chords

When two notes of different pitches are played one after the other – in other words, a two-note melody

42  /  ComPuTer musiC  /  October 2016

MINOR SCALE The sad-sounding sequence of notes you get when you play a major scale from the sixth note upwards.

MINOR SECOND An interval of one semitone between two notes. For example, C to Db is a minor second interval

MINOR THIRD An interval of three semitones between two different notes. For example, C to Eb is a minor third interval, as is G to Bb

MINOR SEVENTH The interval between the root note and the flattened seventh note (or ‘degree’) of a major scale. Equivalent to ten semitones

MINOR SIxTH An interval of eight semitones between two different notes. For example, C to Ab is a minor sixth interval

MODE

SECONDARY DOMINANT The name given to a chord based on the fifth, or dominant, note of any key or scale other than the tonic key

SEMITONE The smallest interval in a chromatic scale, or the distance between any two notes on the piano keyboard

SEVENTH A four-note chord formed by adding the seventh note of the scale to a triad that already contains a root, third and fifth

SHARP Raised in pitch by one semitone. We’ve tried to stick to sharps instead of flats in our tutorials, in keeping with MIDI standards

TONE Short for ‘whole tone’, an interval of two semitones

A type of scale built by starting another scale from a note other than its root

TONIC

OCTAVE

TRANSPOSE

An interval of twelve semitones, at which the two notes have the same ‘quality’, just one higher and one lower

To shift a piece of music, note or chord up or down in pitch by a certain number of semitones

ROOT

A chord made up of three notes. A major triad contains a root, a major third and a perfect fifth

The lowest note of a chord or scale. C is the root note of a C major chord and of the C major scale.

ROOTLESS VOICING When an extended chord is played with the root note missing. Used a lot in jazz and gospel music

The first note, or ‘root’ note, of a scale

TRIAD

UNISON An interval that’s not an interval – in other words, the interval of zero semitones, the same note played twice.

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Producer Masterclass

Russ Yallop

The house hitmaker shows us how he makes his trendy, techie sounds in Ableton Live October 2016  /  ComputeR musiC  /  45

>  make music now  /  producer masterclass

The proud purveyor of underground tech and deep house grooves, Mr Yallop burst onto the scene in 2010 with a flurry of releases under various pseudonyms on labels such as Crosstown Rebels, Hot Creations, and Nervous Records spin-off Nurvous. He’s shown no signs of slowing down since, so we hit up Russ in his Shoreditch studio to learn about the production techniques he’s developed over the years, and to discuss the various DAWs he’s honed them in. “I used to be into hip-hop before house – almost religiously into it for about six years,” Russ confesses. “It was that late 90s hip-hop era when everything was sick: Wu Tang, Nas, A Tribe Called Quest… I was into the lot. Then I went to Ibiza in 1999 and that really changed everything.” As so often happens, Russ decided that merely DJing wasn’t enough – he wanted to make his own beats too… “My first setup was Reason 2, and I’ve used pretty much every platform there is. I started making music in about 2002, so this was before YouTube, and even before

“It’s very easy when you’re making music to spend time going down the wrong path” everyone was just using software. Reason 2 was quite out-there in the fact that it was all software. People were still using hardware, and with good reason – the plugins didn’t sound nearly as good as they do now! “There were no tutorial videos so I just had to teach myself. That’s something I would not advise, just because it takes so long! You’ll be repeatedly making the same mistake, and you’ll have no one to tell you that it’s not right. I’d just got out of uni, so the thought of going back to learn something else was just repellent. I would 100% advise

Video masteRClass In this exclusive video tutorial, Russ shows us how he made his banging wAFF collaboration Mike The Swamp in Live 9. Check out the full-length video at bit.ly/CMrussyallPM 46  /  ComputeR musiC  /  October 2016

Selected kit list HARDWARE Apple Mac Pro Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 Dynaudio BM15A Audio-Technica ATH-M50 Native Instruments Maschine Dave Smith Instruments Prophet ’08 SOFTWARE Ableton Live 9 Novation V-Station Native Instruments Komplete 9 Rob Papen SubBoomBass u-he plugins

anyone to take a course now though – it’s very easy when you’re making music to spend time going down the wrong path, and you really waste your time. I could have shaved a couple of years off the learning experience if I’d been taught by someone.” Despite the lack of education resources, Russ did begin to build up his skills, trying out many of his options along the way. “After Reason I moved to Cubase. I found Reason 2’s sequencer quite limited. Cubase was what everyone was using, and it was great. Then I moved to a Mac, and started using Ableton Live, and after that Logic, which I’ve used pretty much the whole of my career. “I’ve been back on Ableton for about a year and a half now, though. Logic’s great, but it kind of pushes you into complexity, which is not necessarily a good thing. I just found my tracks were horribly complex, and took a lot longer than with Ableton. So I felt I

needed to change things up, and everyone seemed to be moving towards Ableton. “A lot of the time you’d be doing collaborations with or remixes for people and they’ll have made the track in Live, and I like to have the actual project, so it made sense to move to Ableton. I don’t regret it for a minute; in fact I’d advise people to use Live as it’s very simple. Things are as complicated as they need to be, but no more. Plus, it’s geared towards the dance music producer, as opposed to Logic which is more geared towards a ‘music’ producer. “Plus there’s Max For Live, with lots of people making cheeky little plugins, which is great. I’ve got a Maschine which I use sometimes. I don’t do any sequencing on it, I just feel you can do everything better in an actual sequencer – it feels like complicating something that was simple in the first place! It’s great for sounds, so I use it as more of an instrument.”

producer masterclass  /  make music now  <

Vocals with return channels

27:01

Layering beats with ableton Live effects

03:20

In terms of one-shots, Russ keeps his beats relatively simple: the kick sample is played back via Simpler, and is highpassed with Auto-Filter during sections such as breakdowns where the full weight of the kick isn’t required. With the beat’s foundation in place, Russ builds up a groove by layering sampled

percussion loops. He uses Live’s audio clip volume automation to mute unwanted elements of each loop. This creates a smooth, rolling top end that fills out the highs of the mix. The beat’s clap is created in this fashion too: Russ finds a loop with a clap he likes, and uses volume automation to silence the other parts of the sample.

“The quieter elements are sometimes what you want to bring out, so set the threshold so that it’s only triggered by the louder elements” Bass with Live plugins and V-Station

16:39

Pumping up percussion loops with Glue Compressor

Mike The Swamp’s bass comprises four layers: one for the sub, two mids, and a transient. The sub is a single note taken from a loop, which is compressed with a sidechain from a silent kick. It’s then warmed up with Live’s Saturator, compressed with Glue Compressor, then the lows are rolled off with EQ Eight. The two mid layers use the same source sample as the sub but are reverbed and EQed to take out the lows, leaving just a very slight sound that enhances the mids of the bass. One of the mid layers is processed via Live’s Chorus, and the transient layer is a short, percussive patch that helps make the attack of the bass more defined.

Of the track’s four vocal elements, some are just minimal percussive elements, while others are more obvious, like the hooky “you better get a move on” hip-hop vocal snippet. Much to Russ’s bemusement, wAFF has chosen to play this soundbite via a Simpler instrument rather than an audio track. Reverb and delay are added to the various vocals via return channels, and a return send is automated on the vocal group channel to add delay to specific parts of the track.

Lead synth with aCe

35:21

u-he’s semimodular monster ACE is brought in to create the track’s whiny lead line. Russ uses the eX Ghostly preset. “It’s far too time-consuming to make patches myself... I could probably do it but it would take a long time,” he admits. The synth’s output is compressed with the silent kick feeding the sidechain input, then its mids and tops are boosted. Another EQ is used to automate a lowpass filter at the end of the effects chain, which sweeps the top end in and out of the mix.

Hear more

12:13

One of the track’s percussive parts is in need of some beef, so Russ turns to Live’s Glue Compressor. “The quieter elements are sometimes what you want to bring out, so set the threshold so that it’s only triggered by the louder elements,” he elucidates. “You can see the [Compression Meter] measures gain reduction, and every time one of the louder parts of the loop plays the effect turns it down. That makes everything have a more consistent volume, which can then be boosted with the Makeup gain knob. This brings out the detail in the loop.”

NeXt moNtH arrangement masterclass with Freemasons’ James Wiltshire

I Can’t Wait bit.ly/YallopCW Rock Me bit.ly/YallopRM

soundcloud.com/russ-yallop twitter.com/russyallop facebook.com/russyallop

October 2016  /  ComputeR musiC  /  47

>  free software / tone2 warmverb

doWnload

> Free software

Get the plugin and the video tutorial on your PC/Mac at vault.computermusic.co.uk

Warmverb

The full version of Tone2’s versatile multieffect, worth £50, is completely free with this issue!

When designing sounds, composing or mixing, there’s nothing that kills your creative flow as quickly as having to trawl through a disorganised list of plugins in search for a particular effect – so it’s vital that you have a wide range of high-quality tools to hand. With this in mind, we’ve teamed up with revered software developer Tone2 to bring you a huge collection of processors packed into a single power-plugin: Warmverb is here to supercharge your effects collection! Scoring 8/10 in our 136 review, Warmverb (PC VST, 32- and 64-bit, Mac VST/AU 32-bit) is a multitalented multieffect stuffed with 31 powerful processors, including reverb, delay,

distortion, pitch-based effects and more, making it an incredibly powerful sound design and mixing weapon for both beginners and professionals alike. Load up to four effects at once via the four ‘slots’, flick through different effects on the fly to generate inspiring combinations, dial in screaming feedback, shape your signal with the global three-band EQ, and even blend each layer (or the main output) in parallel for ultimate mix control. And this is no cut-down version of Warmverb, either – this is the full thing, as sold for £50! Be sure to see and hear it in action in our walkthroughs, Tutorial Files and video, and check out Tone2’s website for more pro instruments and effects. www.tone2.com

PRESETS Navigate, save and load presets and banks, plus randomise, reset and initialise the current preset

EQUALISER A three-band EQ – low and high shelves plus a mid boost

Serving up 31 effects, including: Reverb Large, Small, Ultra, Reflect \, Reflect /, Reflect - delay PingPong, PingPong Filter, Delay distortion Tube Amp, Transistor, Presence, Hard Clip, Bitcrush, Waveshape, Aliaser Modulation Chorus, Ensemble, Flanger, Phaser, Rotary, Superstrings, Tremolo Stereo Surround Enc, Autopan, Stereo Enhance, Stereoizer Transformation/Pitch Vocoder, Talkbox, Pitchshifter, Ringmod

MIX SECTION Set the global Volume and dry/ wet Mix, and toggle the plugin on and off with the Bypass switch

EFFECTS SLOTS Four slots for loading effects, with selector, Mix, bypass and up to four parameters

FEEDBACK Feed the signal back into another module, and keep the Clip light on for safety 50  /  CoMPuTeR MuSiC  /  October 2016

ROUTING Switch between two routing topologies, as shown in this section’s signal flow diagram

tone2 warmverb / free software  < > Step by step 1. Installing Tone2 Warmverb on PC and Mac

1

To install Warmverb, simply locate the relevant PC or Mac installer, from vault.computermusic.co.uk or on the DVD that comes with the print edition. Double-click the installer and follow the usual procedure to install the plugin – follow the instructions in the included text file if you need to.

2

Warmverb comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit VST formats for PC, but it’s 32-bit only (AU and VST) for Mac, meaning that 64-bit OS X users will have to use some form of ‘bridge’ plugin to get Warmverb to work in a 64-bit DAW. Mac VST users can use the free jBridge (jstuff.wordpress.com/jbridge).

3

We’re creating our tutorials on a 64-bit Mac system, so we’re using the V2 beta of Sound Radix’s 32 Lives, which allows you to bridge 32-bit AUs and VSTs for use in 64-bit DAWs. After scanning our plugins with the 32 Lives app, we can now flawlessly load up Warmverb in a 64-bit Mac DAW like any 64-bit VST or AU plugin.

> Step by step 2. Melodic breakbeats with Tone2 Warmverb

TuTorial

Files

1

4

Let’s dive in and put Warmverb to the test by morphing a crusty DnB breakbeat into a robotic melody. Set your DAW’s BPM to 168 before dragging Drum Break.wav (from Tutorial Files) onto a new audio track. Insert Warmverb on this channel, then strap D16 Group Frontier and Barricade CM (both from Plugins) across your project’s master output to increase loudness and prevent clipping.

Let’s first apply Akai-style metallic pitchshifting to our breakbeat: in the Effect 1 section, select Pitch Shifter from the Type menu, then crank the Tune knob fully clockwise to transpose the beat up an octave. In the second slot, change Type to Vocoder, set Formant to -50%, Wave to Saw, Tune to B3 and Chord to Minor to set up Warmverb’s internal carrier oscillator.

2

5

To get an instant feel for Warmverb’s capabilities, have a browse through the plugin’s mammoth selection of factory presets: head to the top Browser section and click the dropdown menu to select a preset from the categorised list, or click on the up and down arrows to cycle through them one-by-one. Once you’re done, punch the Browser section’s Init button to initialise the plugin.

Warmverb houses a multitude of analogue and digital distortion types. Let’s use a digital one to add extra fuzz. In Effect slot 3, change the effect Type to Bitcrush, with Drive at 42% and Postamp at 49%. All four slots feature a Mix knob for blending the dry and processed signals – set slot 3’s Mix amount to around 50/50 (12 o’clock) for more subdued crunch.

3

6

Warmverb’s main centre section holds a quartet of identical effects slots, so you can stack up to four of the 31 available effects at once. Click a slot’s Type menu or use the arrows to load an effect; choose from reverbs, delays, distortion, modulation, spatial and creative effects. Each slot houses empty ‘macros’ that are automatically populated by up to four of your chosen effect’s available parameters.

If you want to ‘A/B’ your processing, toggle a slot’s Bypass button to disable that effect. This proves useful when dialling in multiple effects and settings. As three effects slots are now in use, we suddenly hear all three effects slots’ outputs in parallel – but this can be changed via the Routing switch…

October 2016  /  CoMPuTeR MuSiC  /  51

>  free software / tone2 warmverb > Step by step 2. Melodic breakbeats with Tone2 Warmverb (continued)

7

In the bottom-centre Routing panel, you can flip between two signal flows. Routing A outputs Slot 1 in parallel to both slots 2 and 3, which recombine into slot 4. Routing B routes all the effects in series, so that the output of our Pitch Shifter is now routed directly to the Vocoder for a more obvious ‘robot break’.

10

To change the pitch of the Vocoder in slot 3, you can always adjust the Vocoder’s Tune knob – but it’s more fun to simply hammer notes on your MIDI keyboard. Create a MIDI track in your DAW, route its output into Warmverb’s MIDI input, then play MIDI notes to change the Vocoder’s Tune amount on the fly.

8

11

Adjacent to Warmverb’s Browser is a three-band Equaliser (with low- and high-shelves, plus a midrange bell curve). Set all three to roughly 2 o’clock to broadly enhance our singing beat’s tone. You can Ctrl/Cmd-click a knob to reset it back to its default position, or Shift-drag to adjust a parameter in finer increments.

The bottom-left Feedback section lets you feed some of the processed signal back in the chain, and tempo-sync it via the Delay dropdown. This effect is easier heard than discussed: crank up Feedback as you change pitch via MIDI to create screaming, tuned tones. Keep the Clip button lit up to prevent the squealing feedback from building up too much.

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Now for some silky virtual ambience, courtesy of one of Warmverb’s gorgeous reverbs: in the fourth and final effects slot, change Type to Reverb Ultra, then set Mix to 9 o’clock, Size to 15.0m and Predelay to 0.00s. Beautiful!

To finish, we’ll round up the rest of the features we haven’t covered: the topright Mix panel houses Volume, Mix and Bypass parameters for global control; while the Browser features buttons for preset/bank: Save, Load, Copy, Paste, Random and Reset. If you’re stuck for inspiration, punch Random until you stumble across a setup you like!

Three cool Warmverb tactics Check out our audio demos and video to hear this trio of tricks at work

Detuning synths with superstrings

rhythmic Trancegate sounds

Deep house vocal FX

Warmverb’s multitude of modulation effects are ideal for adding motion and width. One of our favourites is the Superstrings module, a unison-style ‘supersaw’ effect for thickening and detuning. In this example, our custom FX chain is enhancing a synth sound – we’ve racked up two Superstrings effects, followed by a PingPong delay and Rotary. By pulling the Mix amounts back, we’re tempering the lush modulation, sitting it further back in the mix.

Insert Warmverb over sustained chords, press the Init button, then set Effect 1’s Type to Trancegate – this effect rhythmically chops the chords up in time with your project’s BPM. The Beat parameter allows you to choose one of 22 preset ‘rhythms’, Speed sets the gating rate, from 1/8 (labelled 1/2) to 1/32 (labelled 2). Smooth the attack of the gating by increasing the Soften parameter, and use Offset to shift the current Beat pattern earlier or later in time.

Here we’ve processed a vocal phrase to create our own twist on the ubiquitous pitched-down house vocal effect. The phrase is divided across two channels, each processed with a Warmverb. The onbeat “Don’t” section is shifted down an octave with Warmverb’s Pitch Shifter, and a Vocoder adds robotic tone in parallel. For contrast, the second phrase is pitched down with the Pitch Shifter, wobbled with Rotary, then sent to a Reverb Small effect.

52  /  CoMPuTeR MuSiC  /  October 2016

tone2 warmverb / free software  <

Synthesis with altitude Tone2’s long-awaited wavetable synth plugin, Icarus, will soon be available. Featuring wavetable technology that includes ‘build-your-own’ resynthesis and vocoding processes, plus effects, arpeggiation and a mod matrix, this VST/AU plugin/standalone instrument is what legends are made of.

Blast off with the wavetable synthesis architecture, featuring a huge range of effects and modulators

Soar higher than ever before with a fully loaded deck of preset patches, ready to rock with MIDI control

Plunge deep into the wavetable creator, dialling in 16 custom waveforms per patch

www.tone2.com October 2016  /  CoMPuTeR MuSiC  /  53

>  free software / monoplugs b-step cm

download

> Free software

Get the plugin and the video tutorial on your PC/Mac at vault.computermusic.co.uk

B-Step CM

Step up your game with Monoplugs’ inspirational melody, beat and chord designer

We wouldn’t give up our piano rolls and MIDI keyboards for anything, but each has its cons: one is a fairly uninspiring tool for entering specific patterns; the other is a musical instrument that you have to play with some proficiency to get the best results. If you’re after a tool that combines the spontaneity of performing with the precision of programming, though, the step sequencer is where it’s at, and – wouldn’t you know it? – one is yours for free with this month’s .

B-Step CM is based on Monoplugs’ full B-Step sequencer, and it comes in both standalone and plugin versions for Windows (VST), Mac OS X (VST/AU) and Linux (VST). You can use it to jam out everything from basslines and riffs to chord progressions, arpeggios, and even drum beats, in the studio or on stage. You get all the immediacy of a ‘punch and play’ 16-step sequencer, but with a whopping seven pages of controls to dial in, inspiration is only ever a knob-twiddle or button-push away! Because

RUNLIGHT Lights up the currently playing step

GLOBAL TUNING Transpose the entire output TOOLS & OPTIONS Save/load presets, reset B-Step CM, options, MIDI learn, built-in manual and more

OCTAVE SHIFTS Shows the note for each row, with dials to transpose up/down by octaves LAYERS Additional pages of controls – enable them all with the ‘five stars’ button BAR MANIPULATIONS Set the octave, chord, and number of repeats for each of the 16 patterns

each 16-step pattern is locked to a chord progression, your tunes always stay in key, and you can change chords as you like. We’re about take you on a tour of B-Step CM’s main performance controls, but there’s plenty more for you to discover – deep MIDI Learn, touchscreen-ready control, four pattern clipboards, preset save/load, drum mode, and more. With the super-handy built-in manual, it’ll take you no time at all to suss them out. The full version of B-Step allows you to use multiple instances in a project (B-Step CM is restricted to just one); has unrestricted MIDI in/out capability, with options like multichannel output and parameter feedback for use with hardware controllers; and allows automatic loading of colour themes, as well as creation of your own. What’s more, B-Step CM users can get it for $39 instead of the usual $49 – just click the ‘i’ icon on B-Step CM, then the logo. www.monoplugs.com

CHORD SET Select from five defined Chord Sets, and edit them by clicking the Pencil tool

STEP CONTROLS Set properties such as sustain length and MIDI velocity on a per-step basis

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STEP PROGRAMMER Punch these buttons on and off to program notes and chords

SHUFFLE Delay the timing and adjust velocity and duration of off-beat notes

monoplugs b-step cm / free software  < > Step by step 1. Creating funky disco chords with Monoplugs B-Step CM

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B-Step CM can be installed on Windows, OS X, or Linux – launch the relevant installer or script for your OS. A standalone version is supplied too, although we’ll be focusing on the plugin version here. To follow this tutorial, load the WAVs beginning “DiscoFunk…” onto a new audio track in a 100bpm project in your DAW, and put a D16 Group Frontier limiter on the master bus.

The built-in manual covers all the features in detail – click the ? button down the right-hand side to access it, or drag the ? onto a control to go straight to its section in the manual. All you need to know for now, though, is that the upper panel of controls is for editing a selected sequence’s steps, while the lower panel contains controls for each of the 16 sequences you can define in B-Step CM. The other controls are global.

The other controls in the step-editing panel are the far-left octave up/down knobs, and Step Velocity. Our synth responds to velocity, so add variation as we’ve done here. Next, let’s add a groovy swing feel to the timing. In the lower-right, set Shfl to 1/16, the >> sign (shuffle amount) to 1/48, Velocity to -50 (to reduce MIDI velocity on shuffled notes), and Duration to -1/16 (this shortens shuffled notes).

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Now create a new instrument track with Dune CM, and load our tutorial patch, DiscoFunk.fxp (right-click Patch and select Load Patch…). On this channel, add these plugins: Reverberate CM with preset 6: Metallic whispers; Satson CM with High Pass at 1 o’clock; Frontier with Output at -23dB. Load up B-Step CM on a new MIDI instrument channel – we’re going to use it to control Dune CM.

Loop bar 1 in your DAW, and mute the Bass and Guitar tracks for now. Hit play and see B-Step CM’s runlight ticking along the top of the display, telling you which column in the sequence is being triggered. Click the matrix of buttons with rows named C3, B2, G3 and E2 to program those notes – you can enter multiple notes on each column, too, creating chords. When you’re done experimenting, enter the pattern shown here.

Now unmute the Bass and Guitar, which are in A minor. We’re going to create a custom chord for our synth sequence, so set the far-left Bar Chord dial to 1, then click Chord Set’s pencil tool to define a set of six chords (you can have up to five sets). Tick Preset Target for Chord 1, then A minor. You can adjust notes with the knobs – turn E down to D, and the top A down to E, for a funkier Am add4 chord.

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Use your DAW’s MIDI routing to send B-Step CM’s output to Dune CM on the other channel. In Ableton Live, we accomplish this by selecting the B-Step channel as the input for the Dune CM channel, then choosing B-Step CM in the secondary input selector, and enabling the In monitoring mode. You can resize B-Step CM’s interface by dragging the lower-right corner.

Unlike a normal step sequencer, the notes can sustain longer than a step’s duration (a 16th-note), which sounds a bit messy here, so set the dials in the Step Duration row to 1/16. To accomplish this more quickly, drag with the right mouse button from any button or dial to its neighbours to instantly copy the settings. Now increase step 9’s Step Duration to 5/16, to make the full chord sustain while keeping the other notes tight and punchy.

Loop bars 1-4 in your DAW and let’s set a new chord for each bar. Right-drag the first Select/Copy slot to copy our riff to the next three slots – bars containing notes will play one after the other. Set Bar Chord for the four bars to 1, 2, 3 and 4, then click the pencil tool again and use the dials to program chords 2-4 as shown. Click a Select/Copy slot to select it for editing. The patterns will always follow your chords.

October 2016  /  CoMputer MuSiC  /  55

>  free software / monoplugs b-step cm > Step by step 2. Modular house groove with B-Step CM’s advanced features

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Let’s explore B-Step CM’s advanced functions. Load Modular House.wav on an audio track in a new 125bpm project, with D16 Frontier on the master bus. Add Bazille CM on an instrument track, click Patches, then right-click 00 User and select Reveal in Finder/Explorer – copy the supplied tutorial patch Modular House.h2p into the folder. In Bazille CM, right-click 00 User, hit Refresh, then load Modular House from the 00 User folder.

Step Octave shifts individual steps – it’s a foolproof way to add variety. Step Delay offsets timing – try delaying step 4 by 1/96 or 1/48 to add a tiny drag to the groove. Step Copy and Step Clear are hangovers from earlier versions, and there are now easier ways to accomplish both. To copy a step, right-drag in the runlight at the very top, as shown, and to reset a step, drag the rubber icon from the right-hand strip onto the Runlight.

Step Mute’s function is obvious, but Step Skip is different, causing the sequence to jump directly to the next nonskipped note. Try skipping bars 4 and 8, giving us a 7/8 rhythm. Now switch it off – chances are, the rhythm is now playing off the beat. To fix this without stopping playback, enable Force Pos2Beat for step 1, which causes the sequencer to resync, with this step as the beat’s ‘one’.

56  /  CoMputer MuSiC  /  October 2016

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We’re using Cubase, so we add another MIDI instrument track with B-Step CM, set the Bazille CM track’s MIDI input to B-Step’s MIDI output, and enable its Monitor button. Now click the Chord Set pencil# tool, then F minor to give us the notes F, G and C. Set Preset Target to Chord 5 and click G to make that one a G major chord. Close the Chord Editor and set all steps’ Step Duration to 1/16.

See those tiny stars in the lower-left of B-Step CM’s interface? These enable the intermediate and advanced pages – click the ‘five star’ one to enable all the extra tabs. Try Bar first. Step Probability sets the likelihood that step’s notes will be played – set all steps except the first one to 33% for an unpredictable groove that’s different nearly every time. Set them back to 100% when you’re done trying it.

The Seq # tab houses settings for all 16 sequences. Play Reverse does what you’d expect. , meanwhile, offsets the notes (but not any other perstep settings) of the sequence, creating cool variations on our pattern. The remaining Seq # settings come into play with multiple sequences, which we’re not covering here, but you can always drag the ? onto any of them to find out more.

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Program the pattern shown above (including Step Duration and Velocity), turning up the C3 dial to C4, and F2 down to F1, for a wider note range. Click the Step tab down the left-hand side to expand the Step panel with further controls. Step Chord changes the chord only for a selected step. On step 15, set Step Chord to 5, then click the Use Step Chord button for that step to activate it. Now we hear a G chord, but only on that step.

Restart Pos makes the sequence reset when it reaches that step – enable it for steps 4 and 13 as shown, and see how B-Step CM jumps back to step 1 right after each, rearranging our riff on the fly. The sequence doesn’t have to return to the start when it repeats – enable Start Pos on step 9, then 13, and finally 15, for a familiar dance “repeating fill” effect. Turn off the Restart Pos and Start Pos controls when you’re done.

Rep 1 and Rep 2 let you repeat steps. Mute all steps but 1 and 7, then crank Step Repeats to full to make step 7 play eight times. Set the first echo’s timing with Rpt Interval, and control repeats with Rpt Int. Offset and Rpt Duration Offs. Rep 2 lets you offset velocity, note played and even create an up/down arpeggio. The CC PC page sends MIDI CCs – sequence MIDI CC1 to hear its effect on our patch.

neXt MontH Get your hands on a creative delay plugin from PSP Audioware

monoplugs b-step cm / free software  <

Dial in more than you bargained for…

Monique is an endlessly tweakable analogue bass and lead synth plugin

As well as B-Step CM and the full version of B-Step, Monoplugs have other awesome software to help you make better music. Feast your eyes on the lovely Monique, their new ‘monophonic’ and ‘unique’ bass and lead synthesiser, full of energy and built for aggressive sonics. Metronom, meanwhile, is a completely free and flexible metronome/clock sync host for iOS.

Metronom ain’t just a beeper – it’s a versatile timing tool

www.monoplugs.com October 2016  /  CoMputer MuSiC  /  57

>  download  /  samples

Loopmasters CM Collection Get them on the

downLoad Get these exclusive samples on your PC/Mac over at vault.computermusic.co.uk

DVD or download from vault.computermusic.co.uk

Stalwart sample kings Loopmasters are the purveyors of some of the world’s finest soundware, and have one of the largest ranges of sounds that you’ll ever see. Case in point: the Loopmasters CM Collection.

This behemoth 1GB pack showcases the best of the huge Loopmasters range, and we’re putting it in the hands of all readers this issue. This epic collection is cut from the cloth of 22 commercial Loopmasters packs, giving you a

huge palette of flavours to draw from in your own productions. Print edition readers can grab the samples from their covermounted DVD, and readers of any other edition can download them from our online Vault.

01 Darius Syrossian

06 Fa075 Atmospheric Chill



07 Frontline Producer

Natural Selection 14 RV Vintage Beat Machines 15 Soul Rush Records Stadium Drum & Bass 16 Soul Rush Records Ultimate Garage Vocals 17 Surefire Trap 18 Synth Explorer DX7 19 Techno Transmissionn 20 Teeel Retro Wave

Real_House Collection 02 DJ Sappo Rolling Jungle & DnB 03 F9 Audio 006 Minneapolis Funk 04 Felix’s Machines Robot percussion 05 Frontline Producer Flamenco Guitars 2

The Sound of Hammond 08 Hy2rogen EDM Synth Shots 3 09 Icicle Drum & Bass Tech 10 Leftwing & Kody Vol 2 11 Man vs Machine 12 Monster Sounds Chilled Trap Step

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samples / download  < > Step by step Building a track with Loopmasters samples

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Let’s put this issue’s free 1GB Loopmasters sample pack to the test by creating a melodic, dubstep/trapinspired half-time track. We’re using Ableton Live 9.6 for our tutorial – download a demo from ableton.com, or follow along using any DAW and sampler combination. Start in a fresh project set to 140bpm.

Chilled Trap Step » Loops » Am Smooth Rhodes.wav is a relaxing chord progression that will form the melodic basis of our track – but instead of dropping the audio loop straight into the project, we’ll extract the audio chords to MIDI notes and use them to trigger a different synth sound. To do this in Live, right-click the loop and select Convert Harmony to New MIDI Track.

Load DJ Sappo Rolling Jungle & DnB » Hits » C Tribal Bass.wav into a new Simpler; set Start to 8.6%, Voices to 1, Attack 2.7ms and Release at 145ms to isolate a suitable section of bass at a consistent pitch. Use 7.Bass Riff.mid to trigger it, then turn the channel down to -6dB. We’ll add harmonics with 6X-500 CM before applying heavy sidechaining to make room for the track’s kick.

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The pack contains plenty of wellproduced drum loops – but instead of using a loop in its entirety, we’ll ‘sample’ its characterful kick. Drag Atmospheric Chill » Loops » Drum Loop 05.wav onto a blank MIDI track to load it into a Simpler, before programming the simple C3 pattern shown above in a bar-long MIDI clip (or load 2. Kick Pattern.mid).

Once a MIDI clip has been created, head inside to correct, add, remove and customise notes – our tweaked progression is 5. Chords.mid. Turn this MIDI track down to -7dB, load u-he Bazille CM » Joe Rossitter » Stereo Pad, then set Envelope 1’s Attack and Release to 0.00 for a tight chord sound. Load Satson CM and set High-pass to 9 o’clock to remove sub frequencies from the synth chords.

For a rhythmic background hat loop, load DJ Sappo Rolling Jungle & DnB » Loops » Crashy 2.wav on a new audio track turned down to -27dB. Select the clip’s Repitch algorithm to pitch the loop down, then load Wolfram CM’s Pattern » Chopper preset to rhythmically gate the loop into 16th-notes. Apply heavy sidechain compression triggered by the kick and clap signals to fit the loop in.

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Next, a clap: load Surefire Trap » Loops » No Sub Drum Loop 10.wav into a Simpler on a new MIDI track, program a C3 note on beat 3 of the bar, then drag Simpler’s orange start point marker to the beginning of the loop’s third drum hit to trigger the loop’s clap. Send this channel to Live’s default Return A by -9dB to add spacious reverb; then limit with D16 Frontier set to -27dB Threshold and -14dB Output.

Let’s get the synths ducking around the kick: load a Compressor on the Bazille CM channel, turn on Sidechain, select the kick channel in the Audio From menu, then set a -35dB Threshold, inf:1 Ratio and 0.00ms Attack and 74ms Release. Next, to reign in dynamics, load the Vice One compressor before the sidechain compressor in the chain and apply -30dB Threshold, 8:1 Ratio and set Makeup Gain to 6.

Now we’ll add a simple synth lead line to ride over the chords: duplicate the Bazille CM channel, replace the track’s MIDI clip with 9. Lead Line.mid, then head into Bazille CM’s preset browser and select the 03 Leads » HS Enhanced Flute preset. For a final layer of harmonic thickness, we’ll distort the original Rhodes loop from step 4 and blend it into the mix – check out the video to see our exact settings.

October 2016  /  CoMputer MusiC  /  59

creative compression  /  make music now  <

Push past the formulaic, dial in extreme settings and squeeze new life into your sounds with our pumpin’ tutorial course

CREATIVE COMPRESSION When it comes to controlling dynamics, compression is the mixing engineer’s not-so-secret weapon. Although often overcomplicated and misunderstood, it’s a process that’s fairly easy to get to grips with: it allows you to make sounds louder in a mix by pulling down a signal’s highest peaks, so you can turn the overall compressed signal up and bring up the quieter parts. Reducing a signal’s dynamic range (the difference between the loudest and quietest points) has many purposes: compressing overly-dynamic sounds will help less audible sections cut through competing elements in a busy mix; signals can be shaped to accentuate front-end punch or reduce ‘spikiness’; disparate sounds can be tied together into one cohesive entity; and

entire mixes can be gelled and enhanced with gentle compression. Get a quick overview of the process at bit.ly/ViceOne. In the traditional realms of dynamic correction and enhancement, the words ‘transparency’ and ‘subtlety’ are often cited. Common practice is to apply the minimal amount of processing required, so the effect of the compressor can’t really be heard in operation. Overcompression is bad, kids! Although we’re certainly not claiming this common knowledge to be incorrect, we now work in the modern age of computer-based production, where anything goes in the search for new, exciting, forward-thinking sounds and mixes – so what about those occasions when you’re required to embrace the oft-avoided side effects of compression?

Instead of gently controlling a signal’s dynamic range, a situation may require you to exert a vice-like grip and crush the living daylights out of it. A vanilla drum loop may sound far better once transformed into a pumping, breathing monster beat via forceful gain reduction. Perhaps, instead of avoiding the side effects of unnaturally-fast attack and release times, you’d like to wholeheartedly embrace ‘incorrect’ pumping and distortion to add vibe, dirt and grit. So, over the next few pages and in ten tutorial videos, we’re going to throw the rule book firmly out of the window. Armed with the techniques we’ll explore (plus our CM Plugins, Loopmasters samples and some choice freeware), you’ll be able to use, misuse and abuse compressors for fun and fruitful creative gain. Let’s get smashin’!

October 2016  /  Computer musiC  /  61

>  make music now  /  creative compression > Step by step

Distortion side effects

1. DnB splash loops with extreme compression

When pushing your favourite compressor to extremes, you’ve probably noticed that extremely fast attack and release times can induce a particular type of distortion – the unpleasant kind that can cause clicking, nasty artefacts and digital ‘grunge’. To figure out why this is, think of a compressor as exactly what it is: a simple automatic levelling device. When the threshold is breached, the signal is turned down; when the signal returns below the threshold, the release time dictates how long it takes for the compressor to ‘let go’. If the release is set extremely fast, the compressor acts so quickly that it grabs and releases the signal over the course of one wave cycle, altering the shape of the waveform and inducing obvious harmonic distortion. Try it by compressing a sine wave, using the fastest release time possible to distort the sine into a square wave.

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Fast-paced electronic beats in genres such as drum ’n’ bass often feature processed, characterful ‘splash’ loops to add air, width, energy and pace to the rhythm. Let’s transform the clean DnB Acoustic Loop.wav into a gritty, pumping ride loop using exaggerated compression: import both this and the other audio files names “DnB...” into a 172bpm project.

Now let’s get grimy with extreme compression. Add SunRuys CM on the loop’s channel, then crank all settings to extremes: Threshold to -50dB, Ratio to Inf:1, zero Attack and Release. Bring the compressed signal’s level into line with the uncompressed signal by setting Makeup gain to 13dB. Our OTT settings and ultrafast attack/release times induce grungy distortion, giving the loop character.

> Step by step

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We’ve created our acoustic loop using a drum ROMpler, with this kit’s kick, snare and ride pattern mirroring DnB Backing Beat.wav’s ‘two-step’ DnB rhythm. Use judicious high-pass filtering and EQ treatments to thin out the acoustic loop and remove any harsh resonances in the high-mid or treble areas.

The compression has completely obliterated the original dynamics, so let’s re-shape the signal’s movement with extreme sidechaining. Load your DAW’s compressor over the loop, route Kick.wav into its sidechain input, then set the desired amount of ducking. A second compressor is triggered by the sub frequencies of DnB Bass 1st.wav, which pull down the rides on the first sub bass note of each bar.

See a pure sine wave (top) distorted with fast-release compression (bottom)

2. Visceral master bus edits with filtering and dirty compression

Automating filter sweeps over your master channel is a quick way to create tension, build-ups and edits – and the effect can be magnified and exaggerated by heavily compressing the filtered signal. To follow along with our tutorial, either load plugins on the master of any track you’re working on, or drag DnB Demo Track.wav into a 172bpm project.

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Let’s heavily compress the track first. Insert SunRuys CM on the master output, then dial in a Threshold of -50dB, Ratio of 1:Inf and Attack and Release of 0%. Now push up the Makeup gain knob to raise the level of the compressed signal to match the uncompressed one – we settle upon 18dB here. The fast attack and release settings cause heavy distortion.

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Filtering the track pre-SunRuys CM will change how the compressor distorts and reacts. Load Philta CM at the start of the plugin chain, then set up a band-pass filter: dial in a 3000Hz Lowpass and 400Hz Highpass, punch the Link button, then sweep or automate either Highpass or Lowpass over time to create gnarly filtered edits and crunchy build-ups.

creative compression  /  make music now  < > Step by step

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3. Injecting pump and personality with forceful parallel compression

Heavy-handed, over-the-top compression is a surefire technique for injecting forceful movement, character and ‘pump’ into dancefloor-orientated beats. To demonstrate, we’re starting with this 125bpm tech-house groove, created using samples from this issue’s Loopmasters sample pack – load the audio files from Tutorial Files into your DAW to follow along.

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The kick, percussion, bass and chords sound pretty good, but we can use heavy compression to add more vibe and motion into the beats – we’ll have more control over this if we blend the heavily compressed signal in parallel alongside our unprocessed parts in the mix. Create an aux return or FX channel, mute its output for now, then send Perc Loop.wav’s channel to this return by a 0dB amount.

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Let’s obliterate the parallel percussion signal with extreme compression. Solo the return track, insert Ignite VST’s Vice One on the channel, then dial the Threshold to -50dB, Ratio to 10:1, and Attack and Release to 0. Set Input Gain, Lookahead and Saturation to max, and the Makeup Gain to 6. This completely transforms the percussion loop into a flattened block of breathing weight.

POWER TIP

>Squash club

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When building your own creative parallel compression setups, a good way to shape the exaggerated compression further is by lining up multiple dynamics processors in series – so let’s flatten the remaining transient detail with Toneboosters’ Barricade CM limiter. Load it after Vice One in the aux return’s plugin chain, then set In gain to +20dB, Out ceiling to -20dB, then Attack and Release to 0ms. Smashing!

Pre- and/or post-compression EQ can greatly transform the way our dynamics processors squash various parts together, so experiment by filtering the parallel signal. Here, we’ll load Satson CM right at the start of the plugin chain, before our dynamics processors. Pulling back the Low Pass dial to 1 o’clock subdues the high-end energy of the parallel signal while still retaining midrange movement.

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Fancy creating your own custom ‘air’ loops and layers designed to enhance bland beats? First, call up a fresh aux return and stack up compressor plugins with unique and OTT settings to create experimental compression chains. Next, send individual drum signals to this return by varying amounts to squash them together, pulling out background noise and ambience to create interesting compression interactions and pumping rhythms. Finally, render out the aux signal in isolation to pile up your own collection of characterful ‘backgroups’ or ‘groove shadows’ that can subtly sit behind one-shot kicks, snares and hi-hats.

Un-solo the aux return, then pull down its channel fader to blend the effect alongside the other parts in the mix – we settle at -14dB. You can greatly influence how the squashed signal ‘breathes’ and interacts with the whole groove by sending different signals to the aux return in parallel. Send the bass channel to our parallel aux by -9dB and notice the unique movement we’ve created as the bass weight trips the compressor’s gain reduction.

Level automation or sidechaining can make the solid, compressed, distorted signal ‘dance’ around other track elements. Insert your DAW’s compressor after Barricade CM, and route the kick to its sidechain input to trigger heavy reduction. A short 12ms Release exaggerates the ‘pump’, then another Satson CM, with its 12dB/oct Highpass at 11 o’clock, removes distorted bass frequencies.

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Finally, instead of using the 4/4 kick to trigger the compressor’s gain reduction, try piping other elements of the mix into the compressor’s key input. We’re using the track’s chords to pull down the smashed parallel signal whenever a chord hits, causing the signal’s level to wildly pump and jump up in the gaps between chord notes.

October 2016  /  Computer musiC  /  63

>  make music now  /  creative compression

Five free creative compressors

> Step by step

4. Enhancing sub bass harmonics with limiting

Audio Damage Rough Rider

This scrumptious plugin has been around for a few years, but it’s still one of the best freeware compressors for aggressive drum bus pumping and “atom-bomb squish”. There’s no dry/wet mix parameter per se, but you can automate the Active (bypass) switch to blend it in.

www.audiodamage.com

1 Vladg/Sound Molot

This vibe-laden dynamics device combines M/S compression, saturation, mid-scooping EQ, sidechaining and peak limiting, providing coloured compression and warmth. It’s not the most intuitive or easy-to-use compressor out there, so be prepared to read the manual.

Start by loading the Tutorial Files named “Trap…” on new audio tracks in a new 140bpm project. The low end in this track comes from two sources: the kick in Trap Drum Loop.wav provides the initial kick transient and ‘punch’, while Trap Sub Tail.wav mirrors the kick’s notes, ducking up after each note to create the kick’s sustain, filling out the low end of the mix. Let’s use excessive limiting to enhance this clean sub tail.

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Duplicate Trap Sub Tail.wav’s channel, giving us an identical parallel copy of the sub signal, then rename this copied channel “Sub Harmonics” or similar. Next, crush the signal’s dynamics with heavy limiting: insert Toneboosters’ Barricade CM limiter on this new channel before setting Out ceiling to -20dB, In gain to +20dB, Attack to 0s and Release to 0s.

POWER TIP

vladgsound.wordpress.com

>Crushing 808s

Klanghelm DC1A

This free, cut-down version of the developer’s commercial DC8C compressor is a must-have tool for assertive levelling and creative squashing. There are only two knobs (Input and Output), but you can dial in program-dependent compression and saturation in a flash, and choose from four compression styles.

www.klanghelm.com

If you’re a fan of dance genres such as trap, hip-hop and EDM, then you’ll be familiar with the sound of the famous TR-808 kick. It’s the perfect sound source for booming, relentless subs, but clean ‘808s’ straight out of the drum machine often lack harmonics and character. Counteract this by grouping your 808 bass with a sample of some low-level noise or hiss before heavily compressing the two signals together; this will add dirt and character as the noise floor is pulled up around the hits, and you can mix this flattened signal alongside the dry bass to set up the perfect balance of cleanliness and crunch.

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As in our other tutorials, our heavy dynamics processing is causing distortion and adding plenty of overdriven vibe as well as flattening the signal’s dynamics. The distortion caused by the 0ms Release time sounds a little bloated, so insert Philta CM after the limiter then set 195Hz Lowpass and 120Hz Highpass to isolate the low-mid harmonics with precise filtering.

MeldaProduction MCompressor

Designed to cover all of your compression needs, MCompressor is one of the many stars of their MFreeEffectsBundle. This all-rounder also gives you customisable gain reduction curves, razor-sharp visualisation, sidechain high- and low-pass filtering, intelligent gain compensation, output limiting and more.

www.meldaproduction.com

Klanghelm MJUC jr

Based on classic ‘variable-mu’ compressors, this cost-free squasher eschews complexity in favour of analogue vibe and charm. There’s only basic Compress and Make-Up controls to tweak, and three preset attack/release settings (Slow, Fast and Auto), so you’ll be slamming vocals and pumping drum busses in no time.

www.klanghelm.com 64  /  Computer musiC  /  October 2016

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Raising Philta CM’s Output to +6dB pushes up the level of these ‘pocketed’, band-passed harmonics, filling out the low mids of the mix to give the impression of extra bass weight, thickness and power without actually adding any extra mixswamping subsonic frequencies. This method of enhancement works especially well, as the core kick ‘punch’ layer within the loop isn’t being distorted at all.

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However, our assertive limiting has completely flattened the parallel signal’s dynamics, making the layer sound dynamically ‘disjointed’ when layered over the original sub tail. To fix this, we render our Bass Harmonics channel to a new audio file before chopping out each note and applying volume fades to carefully match the midrange notes’ lengths and dynamics with the sub.

>  make music now  /  creative compression

Six creative dynamics tricks Ramp up the pressure with a half-dozen more slammin’ sound-design tips

5. Breathing and pumping edits By compressing disparate parts of your mix together as one signal, it’s possible to create interesting ‘breathing’ interactions that can form the basis of a creative fill or edit. In this particular example, we’ve rendered our entire track down to a single audio file before placing this section in isolation at the end of 8 and 16 bars (being sure to delete the original parts at those points). Next, on this ‘edit’ channel, a touch of reverb and low-pass-filtering creates a little depth and contrast. Finally, we’ve creatively squashed the processed track section with a generous helping of HoRNet’s Fat-FET and DrumShaper compressors, pulling out the reverb tails and suppressing dynamics under the heavy bass weight. Finally, a simple reverse sweep reinforces the tension-building edit just before the track slams back in.

6. Parameter automation When dialling in compression settings, we usually expect to “set it and leave it” – but one way to get dynamic interactions and movement is by varying settings over time. In our video, we’ve heavily compressed a techno drum loop using HoRNet’s DrumShaper – by automating parameters at regimented points within the groove, we’re forcing the loop’s snare further into the compression stage.

7. Magnifying vocal breaths and artefacts Compression reduces the loudest parts of a signal, which in turn amplifies the quieter sections – so by pushing dynamic reduction to extremes, you can creatively crank up the level of artefacts and noise to create quirky sonic material. We’ve cut up and rearranged various vocal breaths, rough chops, clicks and quiet noise sections to create a dynamic, stuttering, unintelligible montage of vocal ‘glitches’; then, by forcing this signal into a heavy stage of limiting, the quieter artefacts and noise elements within the signal are pulled right up to the same level of the louder sections, creating a squashed rhythmic vocal loop that’s ripe for slicing and remixing. Check out 233’s huge cover feature for more on creative vocal processing.

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creative compression  /  make music now  <

> Technique 10. Designer claps

Let’s transform wimpy percussion sounds into monster drums with OTT limiting and reverb…

> Technique

8. Crushing breakdown interactions

If your track is rolling along smoothly, but it’s time to cool things down and transition into a breakdown, try using exaggerated sidechain compression and ducking interactions across unexpected parts of your mix. A great way to push FX hits and impacts into the foreground is by grouping all of your main ‘drop’ elements (eg, drums, bass, vocals and synths) to a single bus or group channel, then using your breakdown FX to trigger sidechain

compression over this bus/group, moving the main parts out of the way at key points. Alternatively, take the opposite approach and use your drums or bass to sidechain a breakdown – this way, you can fill a quiet section of the track with intensifying noise and crashing percussion, then slowly introduce the core elements back into the mix to diminish the levels of other sounds at crucial points.

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> Technique

Load the audio files “Tribal…” into a 125bpm project. The snap sound on beats 2 and 4 of each bar features an extremely prominent transient, making it especially ‘pokey’ and painful to the ear – so let’s give it some character and life with creative dynamics crushing.

Insert D16 Frontier (a limiter free in Plugins) over Tribal Snap.wav, then dial in -11dB Output Volume and -33dB Threshold. These exaggerated settings are crushing the loud transient, heavily bringing the snap’s tail up in the mix to create a sizzling “ppsht” sound.

9. Abusing frequency-controlled compression

A compressor’s response can change greatly with frequency content, so many allow you to filter or EQ the incoming ‘sidechain’ signal (the inaudible ‘trigger’ signal that controls the compression) in order to customise the response. When compressing a drum bus, filtering out bass from the will stop a heavy

kick reducing the gain too much, preventing unwanted ‘pumping’. To use this creatively, you can get extreme results by heavily boosting or cutting frequencies: crank the sidechain signal’s bass to trigger ‘pump’, for example, or automate the sidechain frequency for weird effects.

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Applying reverb pre-limiting causes the limiter to ‘magnify’ the reverb, creating a widening effect. To do this here, we’ll load Reverberate CM before pulling its Dry/Wet back to 0:-3dB. Experiment by placing different effects before the limiter to design inspiring drums for your sample library.

October 2016  /  Computer musiC  /  67

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO MODERN MUSIC MAKING – OUT NOW!

AVAILABLE AT ALL GOOD NEWSAGENTS AND THE FUTURE MUSIC APP!

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virtual moog session  /  make music now  <

VIRTUAL

MOOG SESSION

The most famous name in synthesisers is still making waves. Let’s examine the brand’s most important instruments, and how to get Bob’s iconic sounds in software To many, the name Moog is synonymous with the synthesiser. To musicians and makers of musical instruments, it’s something of a sonic holy grail – an impossibly high standard that, to some pundits, will never be matched. Why are Moog’s instruments so highly regarded? It could simply be that they were there first – at least in the public’s eye. Bob Moog’s modular synthesiser was indeed the first to reach international attention, thanks in no small part to the phenomenal success of Wendy Carlos’ seminal 1968 LP Switched On Bach, an album that imprinted the Moog name into our collective cultural consciousness. A legion of exploitative knockoff novelty albums followed, increasing the public’s awareness of the brand. Moog’s instruments were, for a time, positively trendy. Moog was the name to drop by big acts such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. And yet, beneath the novelty, there was the undeniable quality of Moog’s circuitry. Bob Moog

himself was a musician, and his circuits were designed to interact in a way that was musically pleasing and inspiring to play. His oscillators sounded rich and full – even the simplest waveforms had a definable character. And that filter! Moog’s patented 24dB filter was based on then-new transistor technology and set the bar very high indeed for every instrument manufacturer who followed. Once the fad for modular synths had passed, Moog hit yet another home run with the Minimoog, arguably the first truly portable synthesiser. A massive success, the Minimoog’s elegant layout would become the template for every hardwired synth thereafter. Over the next few pages, we’re going to take a deeper look at these groundbreaking instruments, and explore their legacy in the form of virtual emulations, recreating some of the most famous Moog sounds along the way. So fire up those oscillators and open up those filters – it’s time to get legendary!

October 2016  /  COMpUTER MUSIC  /  69

>  make music now  /  virtual moog session

Minimoog Model D It is, without doubt, the single most famous synthesiser ever created. Initially issued in 1970 and manufactured until 1981, the Minimoog’s influence can be felt on nearly every synthesiser that came after it. Its near-perfect combination of three voltagecontrolled oscillators (one of which can be used as an LFO), 24dB low-pass resonant

The synth that shaped the future of synthesisers: the original Minimoog Model D

> Step by step

filter, dual envelope generators, and lefthand pitch and modulation wheels allowed gigging musicians to learn and use the basics of analogue synthesis on an instrument that was (and is) a joy to play. Cobbled together from Moog’s modules and a sawed-off keyboard by engineer Bill Hemsath on his lunch breaks, the Minimoog was initially meant to be a personal, portable one-off. Yet it was perfect for musicians for whom a massive modular synthesiser was impractical. It was small, (relatively) light, and didn’t require patch cables. More importantly, it sounded huge. This was an instrument that could cut through the din of a hard rock band playing at full tilt. The Minimoog was mercilessly copied by the competition, but reigned supreme thanks to an undeniable sonic signature.

Nothing else sounded quite like it. In fact, no two Minimoogs sound alike. This makes emulating the instrument something of a fool’s errand, as no copy can possibly sound like every Minimoog. Even Robert Moog’s own successor to the throne, the Minimoog Voyager, failed to convert some die-hard Minimoog players. That hasn’t stopped manufacturers and developers from trying, though, and there have been some remarkably close copies, three of which we’ll use to explore the Mini’s architecture in our step-by-step tutorials. As we write this, the Minimoog story has now come full circle with Moog themselves announcing a new Minimoog Model D that closely follows the design of the original, albeit with a few popular modifications thrown in for good measure.

1. Classic Minimoog lead with Minimonsta

TuTorial

Files

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The original Minimoog made its name in the hands of progressive rockers like Rick Wakeman and the late, great Keith Emerson, both of whom exploited the Mini’s wicked glide function to create swooping lead lines that were not previously available to keyboardists. Let’s create a lead of our own using GForce’s Minimonsta. We’ll start by loading up the CMInit patch (found in the Tutorial Files) as a jumping-off point.

Our sound has now all but disappeared, so let’s get the filter envelope (here called ‘Contour’) in on the action. Set the Amount of Contour knob to around 85. Now let’s play with the filter envelope’s shape. Kick the Attack time up to roughly 600. The Decay should be full and the Sustain set to around 6. Set Loudness Contour’s Attack at min, Decay to 5 and Sustain to 6.

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Select Rect W as the Waveform for Oscillator 1. This is the second-most selection from the fully clockwise position of the Waveform rotary switch. Now, go to the Mixer section and click the blue On switch to bring Oscillator 2 into the mix. Set Oscillator 2’s Range to 2 . Give Oscillator 2’s Frequency knob a nudge to the right – to about +0.03. This detuning gives us a thicker sound.

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Note the three orange rocker switches to the left of the Filter section. The bottom two dictate how much keyboard modulation is applied to the filter. Higher notes open the filter up more than lower notes. Make sure both are activated. Have a play – our envelopes cause the sound to kick in immediately, then die down after a bit, with the filter opening and then closing.

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Next, activate Oscillator 3 in the Mixer section. Set its Waveform to Square and its Range to 4 . Next, set its Frequency to -0.03. You might need to dial down each oscillator’s Volume knob in the Mixer a bit. We now have all three oscillators in play. Let’s turn to the Filter section, where we’ll Push the Cutoff Freq knob way down to -2.

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Now for that swooping portamento so beloved by prog rockers. Before Moog, keyboardists played pianos and organs, neither of which offered a means to bend pitch. The Moog offered a pitch wheel and Glide. Turn that Glide knob up to around 12 o’clock. The combination of envelope and glide action offers a lot of expressive potential. Brilliant! We’ll leave you to fetch your cape and rock out.

virtual moog session  /  make music now  < > Step by step

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Thanks to its beefy bottom end and with the help of innovative performers like Bernie Worrell, the Minimoog became a staple of funk music. Let’s give it a try for ourselves using NI’s astonishingly realistic Monark. Here, we’ve got it loaded into Reaktor 6. We’ll call up the Init patch from the User Bank as a starting point using the dropdown patch menu.

Let’s add some more meat by setting the Mixer section’s Load button to around 11 o’clock. Now, moving to the Filter, we’ll dial back the Cutoff to 10 o’clock and push the Res up to 1 o’clock. The sound will now be dull. We want the Filter Envelope to create some movement, so set the Contour to 1 o’clock – that’s the ‘filter envelope amount’ in Moog-speak.

> Step by step

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The soft side of the Moog

2. Funk bass with Native Instruments Monark

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Moog’s instruments have been a constant source of inspiration for software developers. For example, The Minimoog was the subject of Steinberg’s first commercial VST instrument, the Model E. Surprisingly, though, when Moog themselves entered the softsynth scene, they did so not with an emulation of a classic Moog instrument, but with a thoroughly modern iPad wavetable synth called Animoog. Also released for iPhone and Blackberry devices, Animoog was a massive success, and it’s easy to see why: designed with a touch interface in mind, Animoog features a Buchla-style touch plate keyboard and an exciting and inspiring X/Y Pad that can be used to create endlessly evolving timbres. The famous Moog filter is here to impart a bit of that vintage Moog mystique to the proceedings. Sounds are accented with a modelled analogue delay. Moog’s follow-up would return to their roots while raising the bar for future Moog emulations.

Even this initialized sound has a special Moogish character. Let’s start by setting Oscillator 1’s Waveform switch to the sawtooth wave for more harmonic content. Now, let’s go to the Mixer section and click the button that brings Oscillator 2 into the mix. We can leave Oscillator 2’s settings as they are, as they make a good pairing with Oscillator 1 as is.

We need to adjust those envelopes. Set the Decay of both to 600, with Attack times at nearly nil. The Filter Envelope’s Sustain should be set to min, while the Amp Envelope’s Sustain should be set to max. Now try increasing the Glide Time ever so slightly. Have a play with the patch. That’s fantastic! Go ahead and do some tweaks of your own to personalise the sound to your taste.

Moog goes mobile! The most famous name in synths jumped into the virtual world with the almighty Animoog

3. Whistling lead with Arturia Mini V

The Minimoog’s self-oscillating filter is ideal for producing spooky whistling leads. Arturia’s Mini V even offers a template to get you started. Load up ‘TP_Filr_Self_Osc’ (in the Temp_Synth category of the Templates bank). Simple and to-the-point. Note that no oscillators are currently mixed in – it’s just the filter making this sound.

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Let’s increase the Loudness Contour’s Attack to about 250ms and the Decay to around 485ms. Activate the Glide switch above the mod wheels and then turn the Glide knob up to 3.67 or so. Activate the Filter Modulation switch and set Oscillator 3 to Lo Mono. Select the triangle wave as its shape and set the Frequency to 22 semitones.

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Try nudging your mod wheel up just a bit for some cheesy UFO action. The original Mini didn’t have a built-in delay, but we’re going to pretend we hauled our old Echoplex out for the gig. Click on the Delay icon (in the upper-right corner of the interface’s toolbar) to provide some echo. Now that’s a sound that’ll appeal to our alien overlords, should they appear!

October 2016  /  COMpUTER MUSIC  /  71

>  make music now  /  virtual moog session

The Moog Modular Like the Minimoog that followed it, Moog’s mighty Moog Modular synthesiser created the template for every instrument of its kind to follow. Before Moog, electronic musicians were forced to make do with surplus lab equipment, which was difficult to use for tonal, pitch-based compositions. A few

The once and future king of synths, the Moog Modular looks as big as it sounds

> Step by step

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intrepid composers kludged together rudimentary keyboard controllers, but most created musical passages by cutting and splicing together bits of tape containing individual pitches. Moog changed all of that when he introduced his first voltage-controlled modules at the AES convention in October 1964. Notably, he introduced the 1V/Octave standard, an elegant means by which pitch could be transposed. Not coincidentally, the musically-inclined Moog would offer an organ style keyboard for his modular systems, providing musicians with a familiar touchstone with which to control this strange new instrument. Along with his voltage controlled oscillators, Moog’s made-to-order systems made use of now-familiar ADSR envelope

generators, voltage controlled amplifiers, and that superlative four-pole filter. Eventual additions included a ribbon controller, fixed filter bank, frequency shifter and the brilliant 960 sequencer, so beloved by pioneering German electronic bands of the 1970s. Moog’s system was not for the faint of heart. There were no presets and no instruction manual. It made no sound until the signal was routed via patch cables, and even then, it didn’t stay in tune. Nevertheless, it was embraced by academics and studio musicians and even a few rock and rollers who helped to expose electronic music to a public hungry for something new. Today, in answer to the current full-blown modular renaissance, Moog is once again building modular systems, albeit in limited quantities and at collector prices.

4. Moog Modular basics with Arturia’s Modular V

Though many modular synthesiser systems have been influenced by Moog’s designs, few follow them to the letter. For example, most modern modular systems eschew Moog’s two-part oscillator arrangement, which uses a driver to control the oscillators themselves. We’re going to take a look at how this works using one of the few software modulars to stay true to Moog’s designs, Arturia’s Modular V. Let’s fire it up.

Next, drag a cable from the second Oscillator’s sawtooth output to the second mixer input and click the red button between them. These oscillators are being controlled by the Driver module to their left. There’s one Driver for every three Oscillator modules. Let’s now drag a cable from the first mixer output over to the VCA In of the leftmost Envelope/VCA module in the same cabinet row.

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We’re going to start with a blank slate. We’ll choose the Blank_synth preset from among the various templates in the browser. As you can see, the system has now been swept clear of patch cables. There are a few default connections behind the scenes, as denoted by the redencircled plugs stuck in the inputs of a couple of the Envelope modules. This indicates that the keyboard is already capable of triggering those modules.

You should now be able to hear both Oscillators playing through the VCA. The VCA is being shaped by the ADSR Envelope that resides in the same module (note that not all of the Envelope modules have VCAs). Try increasing the Attack and Release knob values so that the sound fades in and out again. Note that, unlike some ADSRs, the Sustain knob is at the bottom of these modules.

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No other signals are being routed, so there’s no sound. Click and drag on either side of the interface to scroll up and down the cabinet to see what’s on offer. Find the Oscillator modules in the lowerleft. Below them, you’ll see the mixer. Click/drag on the first Oscillator’s pulse wave jack to drag a cable from there to the left-most Mixer input.

Finally, let’s look to the Driver module controlling our two oscillators. As you can see, there’s a large Frequency knob. Play and hold a note while giving it a twirl. You’ll hear the change in pitch is followed by both oscillators. If you want to change the pitch of a single oscillator, you can do so using that Oscillator’s Frequency knob.

virtual moog session  /  make music now  < > Step by step

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5. Berlin School sequence with Moog Model 15 for iOS

The ‘Berlin School’ of sequencerbased music began with Tangerine Dream’s Moog-heavy Phaedra LP back in 1974 and has once again become popular thanks to modular synth-based acts like Redshift and Node. Now, with Moog’s own Model 15 app, you can create authentic Berlin School sequences on an iOS device. Open Model 15’s browser (in the top-left), and create a new, empty preset.

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If the Arp, Keys, Ribbon or Animoog controllers are visible, click the buttons on the right to hide them. If you haven’t followed our previous tutorial, go back and have a look at it – it applies to both the Arturia Modular V and the Model 15. Let’s tap and drag a cable from the leftmost Oscillator module’s sawtooth output down to an input on the Mixer.

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Similarly, tap and drag a cable from the second Oscillator module’s Rectangular (pulse) output to the Mixer. Now, tap and drag a cable from one of the Mixer’s + Outputs all the way up to the Signal Input jack on the 904A Voltage Controlled Low Pass Filter module in the very top row of modules. You can drag the cable with one finger while scrolling up the interface with another.

POWER TIP

>Playing the sequencer

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Now, tap and drag a cable from the 904A Filter’s Signal Output into one of the Signal Inputs on the 902 Voltage Controlled Amplifier module just to the right of the filter. Route a cable from one of the 902’s Signal Outputs down to one of the Trunk Lines. Next, route the output of one of the 911 Envelope Generators to a Control Input on the 902 Voltage Controlled Amplifier.

Unhide both Keys and Arp. Activate the Arp’s Latch mode. This will cause the arpeggiator to play continually once triggered. Now, turn the Arp itself on with the rocker switch on the left. Tap a key on the keyboard to get things going. You should hear that note repeating indefinitely. Tap the + in the top-right of the Arp and set the Pattern Length to 8.

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One of the signature techniques of the Berlin School sound is to treat the sequencer as an interactive instrument, tweaking it in real time even while the clock ticks out its relentless pulse. The easiest and most effective means by which to do so is to simply change the sequence length as the sequence plays. The arpeggiator in the Model 15 app doesn’t offer the same control as did the original 960 sequencer, but it is still possible to change pattern length on the fly, mute steps and more, so you needn’t settle for static, repetitive sequences.

Now, if you open the Keys, you can trigger some notes, though what you’ll hear isn’t very exciting! We’ll get to that. Go to the 911 Envelope Generator you just patched to the 902 VCA. Set the Decay (second knob from the top) to 50, the Release (third from the top) to 20 and crank the Sustain (bottom knob) all the way down. Try triggering some notes from the keyboard.

You should now see the Arp stepping through the pattern. We’re not going to use keyboard chords to trigger arpeggios, so hide the Keys. Toggle the Velocity/Pitch switch in the Arp to the Pitch position. Now the bottom row of knobs can be used to offset the pitch from the note you initially triggered. Let’s turn the knobs to create an interesting pattern of pitched notes.

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Hide your Arp and let it run. Now, go down to the Delay Effect module, activate Clock Sync and increase both Mix and Feedback. Set the Time to 6 Eighth Notes. These sorts of echoing sequences were a hallmark of the Berlin School of electronic music. Let the sequence run and have a play with the filter and envelope settings. This is only a start – don’t be afraid to do more patching!

October 2016  /  COMpUTER MUSIC  /  73

>  make music now  /  virtual moog session The Moog ladder filter If any single component defines ‘the Moog sound’, it’s the filter. Moog’s circuit made use of transistors – cutting edge technology when his first instruments were introduced. They were configured in four pairs with a capacitor in between – an arrangement that looked a lot like a ladder, as in the diagram below, hence its common description as a “transistor ladder” filter. The filter’s design allows for switchable 12dB/oct slopes as well as high-pass operation, though the one at the heart and soul of the legendary Minimoog offers only the basic 24dB/oct low-pass mode, albeit with rich resonance and self-oscillation. The first Minimoog players were quick to discover that they could plumb external signals into the filter around back and, in fact, routing the Mini’s own ‘Low’ output back into the filter allowed for some tasty overdriven effects.

> Step by step

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6. Exploring the classic Moog 24dB ladder filter

Take a listen to our example audio files – Drums_RealMiniFilter.wav and Drms_RealMiniFilt_Ovrdrvn.wav – to hear what an actual vintage Minimoog filter can do to an acoustic drum loop. Let’s approximate that legendary Moog filter mojo using software clones such as Arturia’s MiniV. Import Drums.wav – the raw loop – into your DAW.

Let’s go to the Mini’s Mixer section and switch out all three oscillators. Next, we click twice on the External Input switch and bring its Volume knob up to about 8. Go to the Filter section, crank the Cutoff up full, and reduce the Emphasis and Contour Amount knobs. Click and hold a key on the keyboard. The loop can now be heard playing through the MiniV.

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The loop was played at 107 BPM, and since we’re using Live, our tempo is automatically matched. Listen to the original to get a feel for the untreated sound. If necessary, we can cycle the playback so it’ll play indefinitely while we work. It’s time to drag our MiniV plugin in as an insert effect. The MiniV installs a version especially for use as an effect.

For an easier playback option, we’ll click the Open button in the top-right and de-activate the Arpeggiator’s Play button. We must also set the switch just to its right to the middle position. Now, any key we play will be held. Let’s have a play with the filter’s Cutoff and Emphasis knobs. Our patch allows us to modulate the filter Cutoff with the mod wheel.

Three of the best virtual Moog filters

MOOG FILTATRON $7.99

AUDIOThING VALVEFILTER CM FREE

UAD MOOG MULTIMODE FILTER $99

Filtatron was the initial volley that heralded the Moog’s arrival on the iOS scene. This excellent recreation of their famous filter offers both low and high pass modes, a builtin oscillator and an LFO and an envelope generator for modulation. A built-in delay and overdrive can be used to sweeten incoming signals or samples. www.moogmusic.com

If you need an awesome-sounding filter cut from the Moog cloth but haven’t got the bread to spread around, you could do worse than looking at the Computer Music edition of AudioThing’s ValveFilter, which imparts a creamy vintage character to anything that passes through it. Moog-style knobs, wooden end cheeks and glowing valve included! www.audiothing.net

Though Moog offer their own iOS filter, they’ve nevertheless licensed their filter IP to Universal Audio, the results of which can be found in their gorgeous Moog Multimode Filter plugin to be used with UAD processors. You get 12dB/oct and 24dB/oct slopes, low-, high- and band-pass modes, LFO and envelope mod sources. www.uaudio.com

74  /  COMpUTER MUSIC  /  October 2016

BaCk issues Catch up on what you’ve missed – all of these issues include Vault downloads!

Issue 233

Issue 232

Issue 231

Issue 230

Issue 229

Issue 228

• Vocals: the Creative Guide plus 900 vocal samples • FREE Compressor Plugin • Classic EQs / Hybrid Drums / Velocity Secrets • Timo Maas interview • Albert Neve in-studio vid

• u-he Bazille CM giveaway and huge how-to guide • Roland Synth Workshop • Neuro DnB Bass Design with Calyx & Teebee tips • Samplephonics CM pack • Gorgon City interview

• Kick+Bass Power: Perfect low-end energy in the mix • TWO plugin giveaways • Three packs of samples • Drum Fill programming • Upward compression • Roni Size interviewed

• Discover 2016’s best free music-making software • FREE D16 Group limiter • 3000 FREE samples • Voxengo SPAN how-to • 10 trap video techniques • Pig&Dan masterclass vid

• Huge arrangement and track finishing feature • FREE transient shaper • 900 Cinematic samples • Vintage Beats / Treble Tweaks / Push 2 How-to • Borai Masterclass vid

• Distortion Secrets: heat up sounds like the pros • FREE distortion plugin • Retro House samples • Mix for Small Speakers / Nexus2 how-to / Blues • Bentley Jones studio vid

Issue 227

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• Synth Sound Design: get state-of-the-art sounds • FREE Enkl CM synth • Arpeggiator tips / Razor how-to / Harmony • Hannah V in the studio • Ozone 7 + more reviews

• Stereo Science: tactics to get amazing width • FREE de-esser plugin & Cartoon Capers samples • Flux Pavilion interview • Drumazon guide / Tronik Youth vid / Push 2 review

• Live 9.5: see and hear Ableton’s new features • FREE arpeggiator plugin • Stereo Science / How to use EchoBoy / Headroom Secrets • Current Value studio vid

• Organic Mixdowns: Add life and soul in software • FREE bass amp VST/AU • Old-school Sampling / Microtonic How-to • Masterclass: Public Service Broadcasting

• Drum & Bass: watch four masters at work; build a track with their sounds • FREE drum instrument • How plugins are made / How to use Sylenth1 • Dirty Vegas masterclass

• Modern Compression: make your mixes more powerful and polished • Agent CM: FREE pluginhosting AU/VST plugin! • Synth FX / Turnado Howto / Will Clarke video

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76  /  Computer musiC  /  August 2013

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Become a better producer every month with pro advice, expert videos and audio examples from our computer music gurus

78 Easy Guide

Music theory with Dave Clews

Altered chords

Dave Clews shows you how miniscule note changes can completely transform a chord’s character and mood

80 Geek Technique

Advanced production with Owen Palmer

Getting kick and bass to gel begins way before the mixing stage, thinks Owen. Check out his foolproof rules for low end

82 Dr Beat

Beat and drum design with Ronan Macdonald

Perfect low end

Brushes

Get a classy tint of jazzy movement as Ronan shows you a slick alternative to sticks in this drum programming masterclass October 2016  /  Computer musiC  /  73

Dave Clews’

#43

Altered chords

download Download the accompanying video and the MIDI/audio files at vault.computermusic.co.uk

Tweaking one note of an extended chord can lend a progression a dramatic tinge – but how can we tell when to do it, and to which note? Altered chords are chords that have been changed by having the pitch of one or more notes in the chord sharpened or flattened by a semitone. Altering a chord in this way can have a big effect on its character and tonal colour, so substituting regular chords with altered versions in a progression can spice things up without straying too far beyond the boundaries of functional harmony. One use may be to increase the tension when

>Step by step

resolving from a V7 chord (a dominant 7th chord based on the fifth degree of the scale of the current key) back to a I chord (the tonic chord of the current key) by altering the V7 chord to, say, a V7b5. This would make for a more spectacular payoff when the resolution finally happens. Borrowed chords – chords that are borrowed from a parallel major or minor key – can also be thought of as a form of altered chord. Borrowed

chords were covered back in 214’s Easy Guide, so this month I’m going to focus on the ‘shifting the pitch of a note by a semitone’ kind of alteration. The most effective of these kind of alterations are based on dominant seventh, minor seventh, dominant ninth and minor ninth chords, so over the following couple of pages, I’ll be looking at how to build these types of altered chords and use them in your own productions.

Sharpening or flattening one note of a chord to change its character

TuTorial

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Here’s our regular opener, the C major scale. All the white notes on the piano keyboard, played from C to C, giving us C, D, E, F, G, A, B and C once again, an octave higher than the root note. This time though, we’re going higher than the octave, extending the range of notes available to two octaves, so that we can build some extended chords.

If we move this note down in pitch by a semitone, we’re flattening it to a G . This creates a really tense-sounding b b b C7 5 chord (C-E-G -B ). This tension is b due to the dissonance of the G – which doesn’t belong in the parent C major scale – begging to resolve back to the G a semitone above it. b

78  /  Computer musiC  /  October 2016

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If we number each note, or ‘degree’ of the scale from 1 to 15, it gives us a way of naming chords that can be built from these notes. For example, we can build a dominant C7 chord by playing a C major triad consisting of 1(C), 3(E), 5(G) and b adding a flattened 7(B ). We can turn this into a C9 chord by adding the ninth degree of the extended major scale – D.

On the other hand, if you raise the 5th# of a dominant 7th chord – altering G to G in the case of C7 – you get what’s # known as a C7 5, or a Caug7. This is because the raised 5th creates an interval of an augmented fifth between it and the root note.

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There are certain notes that are common candidates for alteration in a chord like this: the 5th (G in this case) and the 9th (D in this case). The way this is done is to sharpen or flatten just one of these notes by one semitone. Let’s forget the 9th for a minute, and start by looking at a dominant C7 chord. Check out the 5th of the chord – the note G.

OK, now it’s time to look once again at the regular dominant 9th chord we b made earlier – C9, made up of C E G B and b D. By flattening the 9th (D) to a D , we b b b create a C7 9 chord – C-E-G-B -D .

easy guide  /  make music now  <

recommended listening Clean Bandit, TEARS

VoiCing ConCerns

Kent Jones, DON’T MIND

tHe# HendriX ConneCtion

There are alterations aplenty in this triumph of a track from the Bandits, who never fail to unite sound theory with cutting-edge tunes.

bit.ly/CBtears

It may be part of a sample from an old Barry White song, but the prominent b b E 7 9 chord in this tune still counts!

bit.ly/KJdontmind

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On the other hand, if we sharpen the # 9th, by raising the D to a D , we get a # b C7 9 (C-E-G-B -D ). Note that, because we’ve added a sharpened 9th to a dominant 7th# chord, the resulting chord is called a C7 9. This avoids confusion with # # a C# 9, which is a 9th chord with a C root # # – C -F-G -B-D , a totally different animal! #

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Altered chords also work well in nondiatonic progressions. In this F minor track, the progression in bars 1-8 is Fm7 b b b b b b b (F-A -C-E ), A m7 (A -B-E -G ). The A m7 is non-diatonic – it doesn’t belong to the key of F minor. In bars 9-17, I’ve altered it by b flattening the 5th (E ) to a D, producing an b b b b A m7 5 chord (A -B-D-G ). That D adds a more dramatic and foreboding flavour.

Dave Clews

Pro tiPs

In a studio career spanning almost 25 years, Dave has engineered, programmed and played keyboards on records for a string of artists including George Michael, Kylie Minogue, Tina Turner and Estelle. These days, in between writing articles for and other magazines, he collaborates on occasional songs and videos with singer/songwriter Lucy Hirst, aka Polkadothaze. www.daveclews.com

As with all chords, you can get some great results by messing around with the voicings of altered chords. Take the notes that make up the chord and jumble them around, mix up the order they’re played in, even leave some unaltered notes out altogether, like the third or even the root. The root is often omitted by keyboard players in bands, where it would normally be handled by the bass player. The 7 9 (dominant 7th with sharpened 9th) chord is sometimes known as the ‘Purple Haze’ chord, thanks to Jimi Hendrix’s fondness for it in general, and its use in that tune of his in particular. Its edgy sound works particularly well on guitar, but is also great when used with synths and keyboards. Try it with distorted Rhodes or Hammond organ sounds for some retro bite.

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So when do we use these altered chords? Alterations work just as well on minor and major sevenths as they do on dominant chords. (Check out 226’s Easy Guide for more on how to construct minor and major seventh chords). So let’s look at a simple progression that alternates from im7 to III7 and back again.

Another really useful example of an altered chord is the augmented V ( 5) chord with a sharpened 9th. # (Vaug7 9). One of my personal favourites, this one is full of tension and drama, great for resolving back to a im7 chord. Let’s start with a standard dominant 9th – we’ll use the V of Cm, G, as our root, giving us G-B-D-F-A. #

neXt montH Dave takes five for a look at irregular time signatures

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Here we’re in the key of C minor. The b b III7 chord in this key, E 7 (because E is the third degree of the C minor scale), is already pulling back to the im7 chord (Cm7) but we can increase this feeling of b tension by altering the III7 chord to a III7 5 b b chord to produce an E 7 5. This is done by b flattening the 5th – B in this scenario – by one semitone, down to A natural.

If we follow this with a Cm7 chord for a V9 - im7 resolution, it works… but it doesn’t exactly smack us between the # eyes. To get our Gaug7 9, we need to take our G9 chord and raise# the 5th (D) to # D and the 9th (A) to A . Bam! Suddenly we’re standing on the top of a cliff, desperate to leap off and land on the Cm7 that follows.

October 2016  /  Computer musiC  /  79

Geek

Technique with Owen Palmer

#24

Perfect low end

download See the video and get the audio demos on your PC/Mac at: vault.computermusic.co.uk

Are there foolproof formulas or rules of thumb that can get the best from your bass end every time? Owen reckons the answer is “yes”… The low end on modern tracks – particularly dance mixes – is often cited as the most difficult area to get right. In my experience, there are two main pitfalls in the bass range: one is that the bottom end is far too light, and the other is that it’s messy or poorly defined. Sadly, most amateur mixes I hear suffer from both of these problems to one extent or another, resulting in lows that lack strength and clarity.

>Step by step

On the flipside, top mixdowns exhibit magnificent power and definition in the low frequencies. When done right, a big low end lends energy and excitement to a mix; personally I find it irresistible, one of the most enjoyable aspects of mixing. There’s something almost primal about the way we respond to huge, deep sounds on an unconscious level. Then there are those massaging sensations when a great mix is played loud on a half-decent

sound system. If the low end is punchy and rhythmic, too, it can inspire wild movement on a dancefloor. When your music is destined to be played alongside records that have this magic, having a lacklustre bottom end isn’t an option. There are countless fancy plugins dedicated to helping with the low frequencies, but I’ve actually found that the real key to conjuring an impressive and controlled bass range, no matter your chosen genre, is to approach it like this...

Surefire formulas for getting perfect kick and bass every time

TuTorial

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Let’s explore tried and tested formulas from various genres for producing and mixing satisfying low end. Unfortunately, there’s not one simple format that works every time for every track in every genre, but there are some principles worth learning, as well as some universal rules of thumb that we’ll mention in passing as we dissect specific genre formulas.

If the kick’s pitch sweep starts too high, it can sound muddy or take on a sort of laser effect. If the fundamental drops too low, there’s less time spent at critical frequencies around the 100Hz mark. Likewise, centre the bassline around a low G (49Hz) and avoid going lower than Eb (39Hz), below which it will lose most of its power on most sound systems.

80  /  Computer musiC  /  October 2016

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One of the easiest and most obvious bass formulas is the four-to-the-floor kick drum plus offbeat bass. The trick here is to keep the kick and bass parts from overlapping in time, so make sure every kick drum is trimmed to within half a beat, and likewise with the bass. Keep a short release time on the bass too, as even the smallest clash can ruin things.

Because there’s no overlap, you needn’t worry about EQing frequency clashes between kick and bass. Aim for roughly even levels between the two below about 200Hz. You’ll often find that both kick and bass take on a pretty solid-looking waveform, with a sustained amplitude. You can synthesise them this way or use a clean limiter to achieve a similar effect.

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Within the confines of these tight lengths, the kick drum’s fundamental frequency should cover as broad a range as is practical. This probably means the kick’s fundamental frequency will drop from as high as 300Hz, down to as low as 30Hz, but typically, somewhere within the 200Hz to 50Hz range is more practical. There are good reasons for these ranges...

So what about simultaneous kick and bass parts? Here I’ve given the kick a higher-frequency position than the bass’s fundamental. For this to work, you should ideally have your bassline written before you tune the kick. Again, the bassline – where possible – should centre around a low G (49Hz), but avoid moving more than four semitones higher or lower.

geek technique  /  make music now  <

Owen Palmer

Pro tiPs Bass-deCipHerinG triCks

Whichever steps you take to ensure a well-formed low end, it helps to be able to hear what you’re doing as clearly as possible. If you happen to have several jillion bazillions spare to throw at your listening setup, then you may feel you can probably skip this tip, but even if you’re listening on expensive speakers in a well-treated environment, the sound reproduction is never ‘perfect’. To overcome some difficulties associated with monitoring those lows, use a lowpass filter on your master bus from time to time, so that you can get a feel for the low-frequency definition (or lack thereof) without being distracted by all the other frequencies that tend to be very distracting. Try the filter at a variety of cutoff frequencies. You can also listen to your mix at double speed/pitch, so the low-end relationship between instruments is easier to hear.

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The bassline should flow with long rather than short notes, and will ideally follow the rhythmic pattern of the kick drum so that they hit with a combined power. The trick is to tune the kick drum high enough for it not to interfere with the bass, but low enough that you create the illusion of the kick drum actually being much lower than it really is.

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Our next formula puts the kick drum’s resting frequency at the lowest limits of the mix (hopefully not much lower than around 40Hz), and uses harmonics on the bass part to keep it audible in the midrange. This way, the power you feel on a large system comes almost exclusively from the kick, but you still get the impression of a powerful bass on every note...

As an in-demand dance music engineer, Owen’s worked with a slew of outstanding underground artists behind the scenes from his London studio. After years of meticulously studying what makes a great production tick, he’s promised to share his most coveted techniques each month exclusively in . You can sign up for Owen’s free email course on making mixdowns easy at… www.owenthegeek.com/cm

Breakin’ rules

As an engineer, I’ve sometimes received tracks to mix that don’t successfully adhere to the usual bass formulas for that particular genre. Usually, I’ll refuse to get involved in such projects, but every now and again I’ll realise that a track I’ve agreed to mix has an atypical low end. For example, the bassline might be playing too low to be heard, too high to have power, or the note lengths might be too short to provide enough power to rival the artist’s chosen reference tracks. In such cases there’s always creative solutions to get the low end working reasonably well, although honestly, it often involves a compromise of power and/or clarity, and may sound unusual when played in succession with other tracks in the genre. There’s nothing better than studying the low-end mechanics of a diverse selection of mixes in order to build up your arsenal of proven tricks.

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The kick’s length should also be minimised – perhaps as short as a 16th-note, if that works – and its fundamental frequency should slide in a downward motion for its duration. With careful tuning, no EQ should be necessary. Compressing and/or limiting kick and bass together will even out the power as the bass notes change over time.

This works particularly well for superlow basslines, or those basslines that play intermittently. In this case you’ll probably choose to go for a much longer kick drum (perhaps close to a full beat), and you’ll a bass sound that’s still rich if you filter out the lowest frequencies. Keep both parts playing as you set the filter frequency to make sure you get a tight fit.

neXt montH Owen reveals his pro techniques for mix excitement

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Combining these two formulas, you could go for a big kick and big bass that play simultaneously, but you’ll have to use as short a kick as you can get away with, plus extreme sidechain compression to silence the bass when the kick plays. Try a compressor offering negative ratios (such as Elysia’s Mpressor). In a full mix, this compression can be invisible.

All of these formulas assume that you only have one bass note playing at a time and that you don’t play other instruments in the same range as the bass at the same time as the bass. With this in mind, you could actually juggle multiple bass sounds by making sure they A) don’t overlap; and B) contrast similarly against the kick drum.

October 2016  /  Computer musiC  /  81

Dr Beat with Ronan Macdonald #21

Brushes

download

Get your jazz on and pick up a quieter alternative to sticks Ronan Macdonald Having previously served as Editor of drummer’s bible Rhythm as well as Computer Music, Ronan is clearly the right man for this particular gig. He’s been playing drums for over 30 years and making music with computers since the 90s.

A mainstay of jazz, brushes afford the drummer a softer-sounding alternative to sticks that’s generally called on for pieces at the quieter end of the compositional spectrum – ie, ballads. They also appear with some regularity in folk and other ‘acoustic’ styles, where the drums often need to take more of a back seat than they ever would in rock and pop. The brush itself is nothing more than a fanned-out sheaf of stiff wires mounted in a handle. It can be used like a stick – albeit a decidedly bendy one – striking the drums and cymbals with the body or tip, or scraped on the snare drum head in a regular, repetitive

See it in video and get the tutorial files on your PC/Mac at vault.computermusic.co.uk

motion, generating the constant whispery backdrop of noise that you likely associate with brushes, over which a riding pattern can be floated with the right hand on the snare or ride cymbal. While brushes probably aren’t something you’re going to find yourself programming in your patterns with any frequency, when the utmost in percussive delicacy is required, they can be just the ticket, and it’s worth getting them right first time. In this tutorial and its accompanying video, I’ll show you the basics of putting your brushed virtual drum kit to good use in both backbeat and jazz-style contexts.

>Step by step Programming a jazzy beat using brushed drum samples

TuTorial

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Virtual drum kits with full sets of brushed articulations aren’t common, but Toontrack’s Jazz EZX for EZdrummer 2 is a fantastic, affordable option. First, let’s hear the difference in sound between brushes and sticks playing regular strokes. Here’s a backbeat groove, triggering Jazz EZX’s Basic preset, which uses sticks.

Ultimately, brushes are primarily intended for playing swung jazz grooves on the snare drum, the right hand tapping out the ride pattern and the left playing the characteristic breathy swirls for which they’re best known. Here’s the right hand, accompanied by a pedalled hi-hat on beats 2 and 4.

82 / Computer musiC / October 2016

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And here’s the same groove again, this time with Jazz EZX’s Brush Delight preset. You can clearly hear the difference between the sticks and brushes: the snare, hi-hats and toms are much softer. Indeed, brushes don’t work particularly well for this kind of groove, due to the compromised attack of their sound.

Jazz EZX’s ‘half circle’ articulation samples the sound of a brush being dragged around the circumference of the snare head. Placing one every other beat instantly invokes that smoky jazz club vibe. EZdrummer can only trigger one snare sound at a time, however, so I have to offset the swirls from the main hits.

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A drummer would probably approach a brushed groove like this by moving the ride off the hi-hat and onto the snare. I’ve switched from regular eighth-notes to sets of three 16th-notes, and shifted the main beats to a rimshot articulation. This introduces sonic continuity between the riding pattern and the backbeat.

Jazz EZX also features a fast ‘full circle’ brush swirl articulation, which is ideal for filling shorter gaps between main hits. Here’s my final pattern, complete with a very quiet kick drum on every beat. Hear how the swirls work rhythmically around the main snare hits rather than getting in their way. Nice.

NEXT MONTH Ronan gets the virtual drum key out for a tuning lesson

> interview / oliver heldens

84 / Computer musiC / October 2016

oliver heldens / interview <

Oliver Heldens The humble Dutch wonderkid takes time out of his jam-packed schedule to talk touring, studio simplicity and his phenomenal success

Creamfields always seems to attract the best and biggest names that dance music has to offer, and this year is no exception. The 2016 line-up reads like a funky, knobtwiddling Who’s Who with likes of Fatboy Slim, Tiesto and Calvin Harris jostling for position with Avicii (his last ever UK performance), Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Knife Party. Back for the third year running, and laying waste to the South Stage on Sunday, is the ridiculously talented 21-year-old Rotterdam-based DJ and producer Oliver Heldens. And it sounds like he’s looking forward to it. “I do maybe 200 shows a year, and you start to understand how the different crowds work all around the world. America is a crazy crowd, but Canada has a bit more knowledge. Holland has a lot of history and the underground crowd always feels very passionate. The UK has history, too, of course,

and I’ve realised there’s a big difference between crowds in the north and south. The south is strong, but the northern crowds are just completely crazy! “Somebody told me that Creamfields is in the north. Is that correct? [A few might quibble about its credentials, but Cheshire is certainly above Watford Gap!] That would explain a lot because the crowd are just… the maddest ever. The energy hits you as soon as you walk on stage; it’s like a human kick drum!” Computer Music: The Oliver Heldens ‘sound’ has always been fairly difficult to define… deep house, electro, progressive, elements of disco. Do festival dates like Creamfields give you a chance to get a bit more experimental with your setlist? Oliver Heldens: “No matter where I’m playing, I don’t like the idea that I can only play one kind of music. If the music’s good, who cares about

October 2016 / Computer musiC / 85

> interview / oliver heldens

the style or the rhythm? I like to think that the music I make – and the music I listen to – isn’t controlled by names and labels. And that’s the great thing about a big festival like this: you’ll find everything together, all in one place. And it’s all dance music!” : Anyone else you’ll be watching? OH: “It would be cool to check the Pryda stage and see Kolsch in to Adam Beyer and then Prydz. I also saw Prydz is playing as Cirez D on another day – I’m actually a bigger fan of the Cirez D stuff than the Prydz stuff, so I would love to see that.” : The last couple of years must have been a hell of a ride. You signed to Spinnin’ in 2013, released Gecko towards the end of that year and, here you are, third on the South Stage bill, rubbing shoulders with Calvin Harris and Pete Tong. OH: “It’s very hard for me to explain what happened in those three years because… well, because I don’t really know. I’ve just been kind of living my life and enjoying my music. At no point did I ever say to myself, ‘Oliver, do this and people will notice you. Make this kind of track and you’ll get a record deal’. I had some ideas in my head and I tried to turn them into good songs. There was never a plan. “To me, it actually seems like quite a long

“My eventual journey to production and music was definitely as part of a wider social media community” journey because I’ve been producing music since I was 12 years old.” : Really? OH: “Yeah, I had the demo version of FruityLoops, which allowed me to make sevensecond beats; I used to export them and edit them into songs on Apple Movie Maker. I look back now and think, ‘Wow, that was pretty impressive for a 12 year old’. I must have had a good imagination. “I guess that came from my dad… he loved music and technology. His biggest love was jazz, and he used to play all this crazy stuff on a big Steinway piano in the hall, but he also bought lots of great synthesisers like the Minimoog. There were guitars and effects pedals all over the house, different bits of percussion. Musically, he was pretty experimental. I’m pretty sure I was the only 12-year-old in school who was listening to LTJ Bukem at the breakfast table.”

Sylenth1 and Massive are the bedrock of Oliver’s sonic setup, with Guitar Rig helping out on the effects front

: Fantastic! What a soundtrack for your Weetabix! OH: “Like me, Dad wasn’t interested in labels. He never said, ‘Hey this is drum ’n’ bass and this is jazz and this is disco’ – he just said, ‘Have a listen to this. It’s a great tune.’” : Was he writing music, too? OH: “He wasn’t really a composer, but he used to spend a lot of time improvising with other music. If it was jazz, he would get kind of freaky, but there were other times when he would come up with these very simple, beautiful melody lines. As I was listening to them, I would start coming up with my own melody lines. I would also listen to songs in the Top 40 and try to recreate the main melodies on one of Dad’s synths. Most of the time, I would fail, but in that process I would find a new melody that was all my own. That’s what made me want to start making music for myself.” : So did you start off making your own creations with your Dad’s analogue setup, or did you go digital straight away? OH: “Dad had a computer, but he didn’t have anything like Cubase or Logic. Luckily, my friend next door had an older brother who had just started working on FruityLoops – that’s how I found out about the demo version. At first, I didn’t really have any idea about how to write a song, but I’d had piano lessons for a couple of years and… I just started putting my simple melodies to my seven-second beats. “They were actually quite energetic songs because I was listening to a lot of the electronic music that was in the charts at the time. At school, we used to have these big disco parties, and I noticed that all the kids loved dancing to this electronic music, so I said to myself, ‘I’m going to be a producer. I’m going to make music.’” : You make it sound so simple… OH: “It wasn’t so simple. I did try sending out a few tracks, but nobody was interested because they sounded terrible. After I while, I decided to stop playing music and start playing video games instead. Music reappeared when I was about 15 and I realised that, even if I couldn’t make great songs of my own, I could play them to other people. So, I started DJing, and that made me fall in love with music all over again. “Luckily, I was a bit older and a bit wiser; I joined a few internet forums, I found tutorials on YouTube, I joined any group that was talking about dance music. I came across people talking about EQ and Massive and mixing, and I realised I needed to start saving up some money. I was playing school parties and doing any odd jobs I could get… all my money went into music. Over a couple of years, I bought some Genelec speakers, FruityLoops, Massive, Sylenth…”

86 / Computer musiC / October 2016

© LorenzoTnc

oliver heldens / interview <

Oliver giving it the jazz hands at BigCityBeats World Club Dome in Frankfurt

: Not a bad couple of synths to start you off… OH: “My eventual journey to production and music was definitely as part of a wider, socialmedia community. On my own, like any 15- or 16-year-old kid, I would have had no idea what synth to buy, but the internet gave me access to all this information. “By the time I actually got Sylenth and Massive, I felt like I knew them. I had watched other producers make new sounds from a blank page and immediately started to look for sounds of my own. I would follow a tutorial for a sound that was similar to what I wanted to achieve and then start messing around with my own ideas. Pretty soon, I was building up a database and using that to create even more sounds… building and building on what I’d achieved before.”

“I never felt like I was just some kid on his own, in his bedroom in Rotterdam”

: And since you were already part of the online music-making community, you probably knew what to do next – feedback, promotion, collabs… OH: “The websites gave me the chance to get some immediate feedback. Not all of it was positive, but occasionally a well-known DJ would get in touch and say, ‘Hey, I really like your ideas’. That was a big boost to my confidence. Other young kids got in touch and started talking about collaborating on a track… I even started posting tracks for DJs that I admired. I never felt like I was just some kid on his own, in his bedroom in Rotterdam, because I was regularly in touch with all these people. “That must have been how Spinnin’ Records heard of me, because I was signed before I’d released anything; I hadn’t even found my own sound. At the time, they said, ‘We like your ideas, let’s see what happens.’”

Kit list HARDWARE Apple MacBook Pro Genelec 1030A EVE Audio SC407 SOFTWARE Image-Line FL Studio 12 Waves Gold Bundle Camel Audio CamelPhat Native Instruments Massive, Kontakt, Guitar Rig LennarDigital Sylenth1 reFX Nexus2 Valhalla DSP plugins

: You released a ton of tracks in that first year, 2013. OH: “That was how I found my sound. Like I said before, it wasn’t planned – I just put together things that sounded OK in my head. I was being exposed to so much music at the time, and that was also having a big effect on me… I was picking up different influences from the UK, Holland, the US… all over the world. October 2016 / Computer musiC / 87

> interview / oliver heldens

Mixing and mastering? It’s simple! “Some producers like to give songs a certain sound by treating each instrument in a similar way, but I personally don’t see any problem with looking at each instrument as an individual character. Here’s my snare, what does it need? A little EQ and a little reverb. I don’t limit myself on how I treat a sound because I’m worried it won’t fit in with the rest of the track. If the finished sound doesn’t fit, it will be obvious and I try something else. But to make all these rules about what you can and can’t use doesn’t seem such a great idea. If it works, use it. “I work at fairly low volumes with hardly anything on my master channel. I do have the big Waves package, and I could load up my master channel with everything, but I feel that I would be trying to create a job for myself that isn’t really there. The only thing I’m using is the L2 limiter; just to even everything out. When the track is finished, I export it as stems, create a new project and have a final listen… with maybe a few tweaks. The last stage is to export that as new stems and get it off to the mastering studio. “For me, the whole process of mixing and mastering a song evolves with the song itself. You can’t separate the two… they work hand in hand.”

“That’s probably why my sound became so hard to pin down. I wasn’t just listening to deep house or UK bass; I was listening to everything. I was hungry for all this music. “I can certainly remember there was a period when I was listening to a lot of UK music like Shadow Child. At one point, I seemed to be going back in time, checking out tracks from 2005 and 2006, but then I somehow tried working on my own version of UK deep house, and that turned into Gecko.” : Can you remember what you were using when you were putting that track together? OH: “Pretty much. The main hook is Massive. I found a sound on there that was close to what I was after; layered that same sound with a few tweaks and a bit of distortion, then added a seventh note. The distortion probably came from Guitar Rig, which has become an important effect plugin for me. “The sub was Sylenth, and the drums… well, I think the kick was from a Swedish House Mafia track, layered with a few other kicks and a bit of reverb to make it a bit bigger. I’m not so sure about the hats or the clap, but they could have come from something by Vengeance or Sample Magic. “It all came together quite easily, but finding the right kick took a while. Layering 88 / Computer musiC / October 2016

drums is something that changes with every track – every track has different rules. You can’t just say, add this kick to this kick and a little bit of this one and you end up with the perfect kick. If it was that easy, I think that a lot of producers would be much happier.” : So far, we’ve talked FruityLoops, Sylenth, Massive and Guitar Rig, but there’s got to be a few more tools, right? Is your setup really that simple? OH: “There is a little bit more to add, but not too much. I really should investigate more of the equipment that’s out there, but I just don’t get the chance. Travel and live shows have become a big part of a producer’s life, and that takes up huge amounts of time.

“Layering drums is something that changes with every track – every track has different rules”

The Oliver Heldens atmosphere is helped along by reverb plugins from the likes of Valhalla DSP

Choosing a new synth is really important and you need to dedicate lots of hours to understanding how it works. “The main ones for me are Massive, Sylenth and Nexus. The main effects plugin is Guitar Rig. The main reverb is Valhalla. After careful consideration, I’m just about to buy one more synth… Serum. And then there’s Kontakt. Over the last year or so, I’ve become a lot more interested in organic sounds… strings and pianos – sounds that aren’t synthesised. The main string part in Melody [2015] was initially played on Kontakt, but then I gave it to a real string quartet. The feel and emotion is so much more powerful than anything I could

oliver heldens / interview <

achieve myself. When people play it, it begins to live.” : It also sounds like your productions have recently got a little bit more… complex. Is that simply a case of you getting more confident as a producer? OH: “I suppose so, but you could argue that a track like Ooh La La [released under Heldens’ HI-LO moniker] is still quite simple and empty. If I’m collaborating on a track, maybe that’s when things have more ingredients because you have two sets of ideas. Like Space Sheep, which was me and Chocolate Puma; sitting together in the studio, trying to turn our thoughts into a fresh sound.” : Working in your studio? OH: “Ha ha! My studio is still in my old bedroom. I’m right where I started. I love it, but it’s not always the best place for big collaborations.” : But you’ve got a few Euros in the bank. Didn’t you fancy something a bit more… y’know..? OH: “What’s the point? I’m away for two thirds of the year and do a lot of work on the MacBook. My setup is very basic and it doesn’t really need anything too fancy. There’s enough room for

“If I’m collaborating on a track, maybe that’s when things have more ingredients”

Oliver Heldens is performing at this year’s Creamfields UK, on the all new Horizon Stage on Sunday 28th August, Bank Holiday weekend www.creamfields.com

Hear More

the computer, my old Genelec speakers and a new set of EVE four-ways.” : Don’t the neighbours complain? OH: “The one thing I’ve spent money on is the acoustics. I’ve had a lot of work done to make sure there’s not too much noise escaping, and I’ve had it set up so it can give me the best sound possible. “And if I do feel like turning the volume up, I only have one neighbour to worry about. You remember the guy I told you about? The guy next door who had an older brother who introduced me to FruityLoops? Well, he still lives there and he’s a producer, too. He makes just as much noise as me. It’s perfect!”

Gecko bit.ly/OHgecko Crank It Up (HI-LO) bit.ly/HILOcrank WWW

www.oliverheldens.com soundcloud.com/oliverheldens twitter.com/oliverheldens facebook.com/oliverheldens

reviews  <

The latest computer music gear tested and rated! Our promise We bring you honest, unbiased appraisals of the latest computer music products. Our experts apply the same stringent testing methods to all gear, no matter how much hype or expectation surrounds it.

What the ratings mean

94 iZotope VocalSynth

92

ProPellerhead reaSoN 9

Rack up the latest version of the legendary DAW, and see what’s new

1-4 A seriously flawed product that should be avoided

96 Positive Grid Pro Series Studio EQ

5

This product’s problems outweigh its merits

6

A decent product that’s only held back by a few flaws

7

Solid. Well worth considering

8

Very good. A well-conceived and executed product

9

Excellent. First-rate and among the best you can buy

10

Exceptional. It just doesn’t get any better than this!

See and hear the latest software in action in our 2 ‘2 Minutes With…’ videos! Wherever you see the icon, head straight to your DVD, the Vault download area, or our YouTube channel for a rapid-fire showcase of that product’s essential features and sonic capabilities. youtube.com/computermusicmag VIDEO

MINUTES WITH…

98 Output Movement

99 Acustica Audio Pink

100 Audiority Polaris

101 Native Instruments Replika XT

102 Kush Audio Omega Transformers

103 PSP Audioware PSP B-Scanner

Awarded to products that challenge existing ideas and do something entirely new

A product has to really impress us with its functionality and features to win this one

105 Mini Reviews

If the product exceeds expectations for its price, it will receive this gong

In the opinion of the Editor, the best product reviewed in the magazine this month

October 2016 / ComPuter muSiC / 91

>  reviews  /  propellerhead reason 9 Players mIDI processors for generating complex and creative note patterns

ClIP TyPe eDITs BuTTOns manually assign the edit mode for different clips, choosing from Comp, Pitch and slice

amP anD Bass amP Version 8’s softube devices now automatically replace the discontinued line 6 devices

neW PaTChes Categorised in the Browser so you know you’re reaching for something fresh

Pulsar Popular and powerful dual lFO, now available to all reason users

Blue Theme One of the optional darker themes for night owls and goths

PITCh eDITOr note-by-note pitch correction and alteration for vocal material

VIDEO MINUTES … 2 WITH

Propellerhead Software Reason 9 €369

Reason updates usually arrive to universal acclaim, but last time around the response was justifiably lukewarm. Have lessons been learnt?

In 2014, after 15 years of consistently exciting updates, the eighth incarnation of Reason had big shoes to fill… and it came up short. We blamed Rack Extensions, which seemed to have shifted the onus of innovation onto third-party developers, meaning less of Propellerhead’s new-spin-on-a-classic-idea genius. But now Sweden’s brightest bods are back. Aside from the odd new tab for new features, things look nearly identical. Reason 9’s most significant new features are found in the Browser, behind the unassuming label ‘Players’. An entirely new category of Rack Device, Players are MIDIgenerating/manipulating devices, to be used in conjunction with sound-generating instruments. There are three Players: Scales & Chords, Dual Arpeggio and Note Echo. Note Echo is a kind of delay, generating MIDI notes rather than audio repeats. Defining tuning and velocity of repeats allows delays to play tunes or even build up into definable chords over successive 92  /  ComputeR musiC  /  October 2016

repeats. Note Echo is versatile and creative, and could be moreso if velocities and pitches could be set per echo, rather than over the entire run of repeats. Dual Arpeggio is an advanced arpeggiator for monophonic or polyphonic sequences, either in the same key-range or individually defined. It’s like having two RPG-8’s in a Combinator, but with much greater integration. You can run two different parallel arpeggios, two completely different arpeggios at different key ranges, or one at a time. We could fill this entire review on the three excellent Player devices and their interactions when combined, but the game-changing Player for many will be Scales & Chords…

Let a player play

A Player of two halves, Scales & Chords’ left side lets you set a scale (choose from a list of scales or create a custom one), allowing you to either

filter out notes that don’t belong in that scale, or conform dud notes to the scale you’ve chosen. On the right side, the Chords section turns your input notes into multiple output notes in the key you’ve chosen. There’s a huge range of expressive options: you can define how many notes each chord has, add specific notes (octave up, octave down or an extra ‘colour’), and invert the resulting chord. Open Chords pushes some notes away from the root in octave steps for sonically richer results. Alter momentarily pushes some notes out of the current scale, allowing for really extemporised play. And, of course, these various controls can be mapped to MIDI controllers so that as one hand plays single-note chords, the other can constantly adjust other options. Like all the Players, the resultant MIDI output can be recorded or directly imprinted onto the instrument’s sequencer track. All this means that Reason 9’s Scales & Chords

propellerhead reason 9  /  reviews  <

“Reason cements its position as a stunning adjunct to any professional producer’s existing studio setup” Reason’s new Pitch Edit mode offers a typically streamlined version of a familiar-looking interface

Player is one of the most easy-to-use and expressive chord generators we’ve ever encountered.

Hummin’ atcha

Reason’s new Audio to MIDI function is another nod to musical novices with big ideas. You hum or sing in monophonic melodies which are then converted into MIDI notes (non-vocal material generates all C3 notes, allowing easy conversion of rhythms for creating groove templates). Like Live 9’s similar feature, results rely on the accuracy of your humming – but there’s no polyphonic conversion, which has been very popular amongst many Live 9 users for transcribing chords from audio. The flipside to Audio to MIDI is Bounce In Place, a feature that’s most welcome in Reason 9, seeing as it’s been a home comfort in other DAWs for years. Yes, Reason is so CPU-efficient that it’s not as necessary, and yes, you can take the long way around by exporting and reimporting a loop, but convenience is king. There are also workflow improvements. For example, three buttons now allow quick assignment of the type of editor applied to individual audio clips. The new Reverse MIDI notes and MIDI notechopping are useful too, but less inspired are two new visual themes: Blue and (the uncannily similar) Dark. They’re okay, but having to select them from Preferences and restart Reason to enable them seems daft. Similarly, ‘Drop to Allihoopa’ – allowing audio export directly to an Allihoopa account – is the answer to a question most have not posed.

Sweden’s got talent

More useful are Propellerhead’s inclusion of over 1000 new patches. Mostly synth patches geared towards contemporary dance/pop,

Reason’s three fun, powerful and creative new Player devices are the highlight of version 9

Pitching in Back in Record 1.5, Propellerhead introduced Neptune, a great polyphonic voice synth and T-Pain-alyser; but until now, there’ve been no native Reason tools for subtle or detailed note-by-note correction. Introducing... Pitch Edit! Like just about every pitch editor on the market, PE offers a visual editor displaying detected notes in a pianoroll-style display. Notes can be manually dragged up or down or nudged to the nearest semitone, while level, vibrato, transition time and formant changes can all be edited on a per-note basis. There are two main considerations with any vocal pitch editor: ease of use and results – and Reason’s Pitch Editor

they further underline the company’s desire to target young beginners with an eye on stardom. They’re all filed together, too: perfect for new users on the lookout for cutting-edge content or existing users wanting to see what’s new. The Line 6 licensing deal has expired, and their old amp devices have been removed (bypassed Softube Amps open instead), so existing users may need Reason 8 running in parallel until they transition… although with Bounce in Place only having been added for v9, this transition could have been less painful. On the plus side, the excellent Pulsar – a Dual LFO generator – is now included as standard. This was a launch RE, and at the time we described it as “the only essential Propellerhead Rack Extension”. Free initially, it soon became a paid add-on for modulating anything modulatable in the Reason rack. With a clear layout, powerful features, nifty MIDI control options and a stack of cool presets, it’s a fantastic tool. Reason 9 even includes some new monosynth Pulsar patches. Where Reason 8 was a letdown, offering little in the way of improved creativity or workflow, Reason 9 is a huge step forward. On top of this, despite being clearly targeted at a new generation of producers, Reason also cements its position as a stunning adjunct to any professional producer’s studio setup. Web www.propellerheads.se

strikes an excellent balance. Reason’s renowned near-transparent time and pitch adjustment, even at extreme settings, translates perfectly to the Pitch Editor: it sounds as smooth and natural as you could want. Usage is kept simple but effective, with edits handled largely like Reason’s existing MIDI note editing (including quantising) with additional per-note handle controls for things like vibrato and note transition times. It’s not groundbreaking, then, but is as simple and effective as you could hope for. Perhaps the one omission is a nudge-to-scale option, but we expect that will appear at some stage.

Alternatively Ableton Live 9 190 » 9/10 » £199 More suited for live performance than Reason, Live 9 is another great user-friendly DAW Steinberg Cubase Pro 214 » 9/10 » £406 Recently updated, the original native DAW remains one of the most powerful and widely used

Verdict For Players are brilliant Pitch Edit is excellent Fantastic new presets Pulsar is great fun Per-clip edit modes helpful Against Line 6 loss irritating Themes a little uninspired Finally, a big step forward and a true return to form for this enduringly popular and must-try virtual studio

9/10 October 2016  /  ComputeR musiC  /  93

>  reviews  /  izotope vocalsynth PiTch correcTion Make onboard tweaks before the vocal hits the creative processors

Wave-MeTer a handy waterfall-style frequency plot of the output signal

exTernal rouTinG activate your sidechain carrier source or external Midi input

Polyvox This is the simplest effect, providing high-quality formant shifting

Global set your overall output level and wet/dry mix blend coMPuvox speech-chip sounds delivering a text-to speech effect

vocoder This classic effect includes a choice of three very different vocoder styles

Talkbox dark, classic and bright modes to stick down your pipe

voices enhance your auto mode sounds with three further voices

VIDEO MINUTES … 2 WITH

Mixer blend the four main processing engines and your pitch corrected dry signal

effecTs five processes for further finessing

iZotope

VocalSynth

£139

Pulling together multiple vocal manipulation effects into a single plugin is ambitious – can the original thinkers from Massachusetts get it right? Vocals are the heart and soul of any track, but they can be the hardest thing to get right in a production. Having just spent our last issue getting to grips with vocal production, we’ve had plenty of time to work with this new release. VocalSynth (VST/AU/RTAS/AAX) is a plugin processor – an effect, despite the name – inspired by a number of classic vocal-specific effects. It features four separate engines (Compuvox, Vocoder, Talkbox and Polyvox) and although you can use the engines on their own, all are available simultaneously, blended along with the Dry signal via the onboard mixer. Said Dry signal first passes through the optional realtime Pitch Correction, and the mixer output (four engines plus pitch-corrected Dry signal) then pass through a chain of five further vocal friendly effects (Distort, Filter, Transform, Shred and Delay). It includes a handy waterfall-style display which can be switched to an X/Y Pad, tacking one parameter to each axis. 94  /  Computer muSiC  /  October 2016

VocalSynth can be used as a straight-up audio insert in what iZotope call Auto mode, and to that end includes not only onboard wavetable synthesis (providing 10 bespoke carrier sounds each for Vocoder, Compuvox and Talkbox), but also its own auto note generation, with MIDI note input only being optional. For classic vocoding, you also get sidechain input of carrier signals.

Engine room

Polyvox is the simplest engine and delivers additional pitchshifted voice generation. Although this works via MIDI, for simple fixed intervals it dovetails particularly well with VS’s three extra Voices. Formants can then be manipulated using two controls – Formant and Character – and a third control, Humanize, introduces subtle pitch and timing differences. We found this last option great when fattening vocals with additional unison voices. Compuvox is based on linear predictive

coding (LPC) and produces the sort of text to speech effects found in famous toys such as the Texas Instruments Speak & Spell. It has three modes (Spell, Read and Math) which react differently to incoming vowels, and also three tailoring controls (Bits, Bytes and Bats), which influence aliasing, vowel duration and vocal noise respectively. The effect requires a carrier signal, and the onboard wavetable sounds deliver some pretty edgy, noisy results, so care is needed. A real, physical talkbox effect sends audio down a pipe and into your mouth. Resonances within the pipe and your vocal tract modulate that audio, which you then mic up. In practice, this can be quite tricky to master, and VocalSynth offers a more immediate alternative. Three modes (Dark, Classic and Bright) set the core high-frequency response, with Speaker and Drive emulating the acoustics and electronics of the hardware, and Formant shifting the

izotope vocalsynth  /  reviews  <

“With care it can conjure up some pretty cool results, and the simple interface makes it easy to use” formants. Once again, the effect can be mapped onto one of ten internal wavetable carrier sounds. Although the methodology is different to a talkbox, it’s possible to get similar sounds, and with some suitable mouth sounds and the Hollow Tube wavetable setting, we managed a passable Bon Jovi style effect. Vocoder is a reasonably straightforward design. Its three modes (Smooth, Vintage and Hard) dictate high-frequency behaviour, and three controls (Shift, Contour and Scale) influence the pitch, EQ curve and response speed respectively. Carrier-wise, the onboard wavetable oscillators are definitely usable (The Russell is our favourite), but we think VocalSynth would benefit from a better, more flexible onboard synthesiser – we coaxed out far richer sounds using an external carrier synth.

Effects bus

The five post-vocalising effects provide considerable additional flavour and complexity, and are placed in series with individual wet/dry settings for each. Distort includes four flavours, and although adding extra harshness is not top of our list, the Warm setting is great for adding subtle saturation. The Filter includes traditional high-pass, low-pass and high-/low-pass combined filters, all with Resonance. We particularly like the fourth option, Scream, with its sweepable high resonance peak – great for emphasising a narrow frequency band. Delay, ideal for adding repeats and ambience, can run in free time or synced, and behaves as you would expect. Winding up the Width control introduces gradually wider ping-pong behaviour – handy for subtle widening or FX. Our two favourite effects are Shred and Transform. Shred buffers the audio to create stutters, chops and repeats, and includes optional tempo sync. We found manipulating the Timing (which also includes optional tempo sync) and Intensity in real time produced fantastic results. Transform is a convolution effect with eight cabinet-style IRs. For us its key feature is Width, which is great for taking VocalSynth’s predominantly mono sounds and spreading them out to the sides of the mix.

With sidechain audio input and remote MIDI pitch control, VocalSynth is great for real-time use

Operation and control VocalSynth works perfectly well used as a straightforward audio insert in what they call Auto mode. However, much like a vocoder, it can do so much more if you play it via MIDI or route in an alternative carrier signal via the sidechain. Each DAW has its own way of handling internal signal routing, and thankfully, VocalSynth’s manual explains setup for all major DAWs, as it can be tricky. Nevertheless, the effort is worth it. With regard to MIDI, once you’ve routed your DAW MIDI to the plugin, you get two MIDI input options – monophonic and polyphonic. Activating either of these disables the

Waxing lyrical

VocalSynth is an ambitious plugin that allows you to build complex effects by combining its four distinctive processors. With care it can conjure up some pretty cool results, and the simple interface makes it easy to use. This same simplicity does at times feel somewhat limiting though, and more extensive synthesis combined with more flexible onboard mixing (including panning) would certainly bump up its score a point. To keep things tidy, we also think an onboard gate would be incredibly handy. Even so, you’ll struggle to find another plugin that delivers quite this variety of tools, making it an extremely convenient option that’s definitely worth checking out. Web www.timespace.com

Auto mode (and the accompanying Voices section), and allows MIDI pitch control for either monophonic lines or chords. Although common for a vocoder, having a chordal option for the other three engines is both unusual and refreshing. Meanwhile, activating the sidechain option deactivates the Polyvox engine completely, and also deactivates the onboard wavetable synthesis for the remaining three engines. These all then use the sidechain audio as their carrier signal, and although this is in some respects more limited, it provides a convenient way to use a much wider set of carrier sounds.

Alternatively Antares AVOX 4 N/A » N/A » $399 Suite of 11 plugins, great for vocal harmonies and special effects Waldorf Lector 173 » 8/10 » €169 If you’re just after a vocoder, Lector has rich onboard sounds and up to 100 bands for the vocoder

Verdict For Pitch correction Four simultaneous processing engines Output effects Sidechain input MIDI control Against Basic mixer Underpowered onboard sounds A comprehensive set of classic synth vocal effects in a simple package, VocalSynth is worthy of praises and can sing its own

VocalSynth’s waterfall spectrum display provides a useful and stylish indicator of frequency content

8/10 October 2016  /  Computer muSiC  /  95

>  reviews  /  positive grid pro series studio eq ValVe Choose from one of two output valve emulations

l/r or m/s select between left/right mode and mid/side mode

link link left and right channel operation

filters select from three peak and two shelving shapes

filters set the highand lowpass filter frequencies amplifier Use the input and output levels to further adjust valve distortions

CUrVe display View the resultant eQ curve created by the Hi, lo and mid bands and filters

VIDEO

mid or Hi/lo Choose which of the two sets of band controls are visible

MINUTES … 2 WITH

Positive Grid

Pro Series Studio EQ

BandwidtH adjust the bandwidth for each of the three mid bands

$199

Three flavours of analogue EQ, modelled at the component level and providing the modernday digital perk of EQ matching Positive Grid’s efforts to lift hardware emulation to new levels continue with the arrival of their second Pro Series plugin bundle. Much like Pro Series Compressors ( 229, 8/10), Studio EQ (VST/AU/AAX/RTAS) includes three separate plugins (Tube EQ, Digital EQ and Passive EQ) combining component-level emulation with photo-realistic displays. However, apart from some valve component options in the Tube and Passive EQs, Studio EQ shies away from the component-level tweakery available in Studio Compressors. Instead, the unique selling point here (and common to all three plugins) is their take on the match EQ concept. So, what’s on offer?

Solid state

Tube EQ and Passive EQ are clearly inspired by classic analogue designs, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that Digital EQ would be a superflexible DAW-style EQ. However, it’s actually 96  /  ComPutEr muSiC  /  October 2016

more like a discrete or solid-state design. You get two shelves (high and low, with fixed slopes), and three parametric bands between. The three bands are subject to upper and lower limits in centre frequency, but can still overlap to some extent. Frequency selection is continuous with Digital EQ, as opposed to the notched frequencies of Passive EQ and Tube EQ, but maximum gain changes of +/-15dB mean Digital EQ isn’t the most powerful of the three. Nevertheless, Digital EQ’s adjustable Q on both peak and shelving bands make it a good candidate for a sculpting EQ. Flexibility continues with either left/right or mid/side operation, and there’s also a handy channel Balance control providing either left/ right or mid/side rebalancing. Although not specified, on the spectrum analyser the highand low-pass filters read as 6dB and 3dB per octave respectively, which is very gentle. Still on the subject of analysis, there’s no evidence

whatsoever of harmonic distortions, and overall Digital EQ is clearly best suited to master bus or subgroup duties.

Valve designs

Tube EQ is the Pultec-inspired EQ of the three models, and it goes beyond the simple EQP-1A design with two pages of controls covering five bands plus low- and high-pass filters (12dB/ octave for each). In fact, on closer inspection, some aspects here drift away from the classic Pultec design, and all told, the choice of frequencies is much wider. It’s great to see independent frequencies for the Lo frequency Boost and Attenuation controls, but we miss having a bandwidth control for the Hi peak band, and although there are Bandwidth controls for the three Mid bands (which include two Peak boost and one peak Dip), a 10kHz boost with a choice of bandwidths is not on the cards.

positive grid pro series studio eq  /  reviews  <

“Tube EQ’s preamp valves deliver a balanced blend of odd and even harmonics” Passive EQ is the simplest of the three Studio EQ plugins. Each of its three bands (Bass, Treble and Top) has five shape options (high shelf, low shelf and three peaking), with four band-specific frequencies for each. Even at their narrowest settings, the peaks are quite broad, and the shelves extremely gentle. Even so, with +/-20dB on all bands, it’s still powerful, and we particularly like the Baxandall-style shelves for silky-smooth sweetening. Passive EQ and Tube EQ both include optional valve stage emulations. For Tube EQ you get three slightly different preamp valves (12AX7, 12AT7 and 12AU7), and for Passive EQ two typical output stage valves (6L6GB and EL34). How these behave depends on input level, and one can make use of the input sliders (common to all three EQs) to manage gain levels. Passive EQ includes further Input and Output Amplifier controls, providing an extra gain stage to manipulate the distortions. But how does the distortion actually sound? Passive EQ has odd and even distortions dominated by the third harmonic, with the GL6GB marginally more coloured. Meanwhile Tube EQ’s preamp valves deliver a more balanced blend of odd and even harmonics. Sonically, this is all good news, and having the option to switch them off provides the best of both worlds, although it may have been simpler to include a gain-compensated drive parameter rather than multiple level controls.

Display matters

From a sonic perspective, all three plugins sound excellent, with the analogue filter EQ matching providing an added bonus. What’s more, although spreading the functionality across three individual plugins could feel a bit indulgent, there’s enough difference between the EQs to justify it. In spite of this, with only four presets on each plugin, there aren’t enough starting points, which is a shame. Beyond this, our only other gripes concern some aspects of

Match analyses the sidechain signal, using analogue curves to apply its spectrum to the input signal

Analogue match EQ EQ matching is a feature we usually associate with powerful DAW EQs, where spectrum analysis and multiple flexible EQ bands are used to match our current audio to source ‘fingerprint’ audio. This fingerprint is usually averaged over time, and is static rather than dynamic. Further features include curve smoothing and processing depth or amount, which finesse the results. In general, match EQs can be helpful when trying to emulate the sound of a particular mix or instrument. All three Pro Series EQs allow you to match their input to whatever you route to the sidechain input. Hitting the Match button launches the floating

the display such as the overall scaling (which seems to stop at a frequency lower than required), the lack of clear scale labelling and its failure to always update the visual curve correctly. Even so, we’re confident that Positive Grid will resolve these minor issues quickly, and ultimately, the sound of the plugins is what counts, and that is impressive. All told, this is a good set of plugins that further cements Positive Grid’s position as an important and ambitious developer.

Match parameter window, where the Input (current audio) and Side Chain (source audio) record tabs are then used to capture the spectra of each. Selecting the accompanying Match tab generates and applies the matching curve. It’s simple and not immensely flexible, but for us it delivered consistently smooth analogue-style curves, which is precisely what they were aiming for. Even so, this is unlike any match EQ we’ve used before, where rather more lumpy curves are produced, and the onboard smoothing and blend is used to adjust the accuracy.

Alternatively Nomad Factory Pulse-Tec EQP-1A 150 » 8/10 » $129 A good affordable Pultec clone with high, low and mid sections ddmf 6144 173 » 9/10 » £27 Based on the RND Portico 5033, sounds great and is fantastic value

Web www.positivegrid.com

Verdict For Choice of three EQs Adjustable valve flavour on two EQs Visually compelling design Flexible Pultec-style EQ Analogue curve match EQ Against Spectrum and curve display could be better Meagre presets

Tube EQ delivers the Pultec low-frequency cut and boost but with full control over both frequencies

A trio of analogue-inspired and beautifully designed EQs that successfully shun slavish emulation in favour of modern flexibility

8/10 October 2016  /  ComPutEr muSiC  /  97

>  reviews  /  output movement

VIDEO MINUTES … 2 WITH

Output

Movement

$179

This creative processor aims to generate fresh and exciting new rhythms from any audio source – but will it get us moving?

Soundware purveyors Output have made a name for themselves with solid Kontaktbased generators. After their “pulse engine” Signal (9/10, 219), “reverse instrument suite” Rev (9/10, 200), and “vocal engine” Exhale (9/10, 225), Movement marks Output’s first foray into the world of VST/AU/AAX effects. After hitting the usual bases of a multieffects plugin (delay, distortion, filters, EQ, compression and reverb), Movement then puts a new spin on the processes – quite literally – modulating their parameters rhythmically in the same vein as Xfer’s LFOtool or Dmitry Sches’ Tantra. You get two wholly independent parallel effects ‘engines’, each with four slots into which you can drop one of the six effects. So far so normal, but here’s where it gets interesting: each engine has two modulators. Known as ‘Rhythms’, these can take the form of an LFO, a step sequencer or a sidechain signal, used to drive parameters of the loaded effects or the panning/volume of its engine. Parameters can also be assigned to an X/Y pad for further manual modulations.

Choose your Rhythm

For LFOs you can choose one of 12 different waveshapes varying from the simple triangle and sine through to more complex and random patterns. The rate is always synced to your host DAW’s tempo and ranges from intervals of 8

bars down to 64th-notes, with triplet and dotted options a given. You can adjust the start phase of the waveform, and there’s a Chaos knob to add increasingly random shifts to the pattern. Finally, and most interestingly, a Flux switch enables one Rhythm modulator’s rate to be modulated by the other Rhythm modulator in that engine, to create speeding up and slowing down effects. The Step Sequencer gives you between 1 and 32 steps, the shape of which can be set to triangle, square, saw and double saw. There’s no reverse saw (slow attack/sudden release), which might have been useful. Again, there’s a selection of 12 patterns of varying complexity to choose from, a Swing knob to shift the rhythm, and Rate and Flux controls as in the LFOs. The Sidechain option takes any audio applied to the sidechain input and uses its amplitude envelope to modulate assigned parameters. You can manipulate the sidechain audio with Gain, Attack and Release controls, and there’s a delay Offset to fine-tune the timing.

Truly moved

There are a lot of variables with Movement ,and a lot of scope for losing control of what’s going on with all your various modulations and cross modulations. Fortunately then, there’s a useful library of presets from which to start, and once you get used to how it all works, you’ll see the

huge creative potential for sonic adventures. It’s also very intuitive and easy to use once you get your head around it, and although initial results can seem a bit hit or miss, with some application and refinement, Movement is very impressive in its originality and modernity. Web www.timespace.com

Alternatively Xfer Records LFOTool 166 » 9/10 » $49 This popular rhythmic modulator sets up LFO-driven tremolo, wobble, auto-pan and duck effects with ease Dmitry Sches Tantra N/A » N/A » $83 Lovely multieffect with plenty of scope for rhythmic mangling

Verdict Targeting parameters Adding an effect is a simple case of clicking on an empty slot and picking one of the remaining effects from a list (you can’t have two instances of the same effect loaded into one engine). Click on the filled slot and parameters for that effect conveniently open in a window at the bottom. Each parameter knob has a greyed out centre into which you drag the number of one of the two ‘Rhythms’. Below the knob is a subtle concentric slider that governs the amount of modulation from 98  /  CoMputer MusiC  /  October 2016

the parameter’s set point. To assign a parameter to the X/Y matrix, simply rightclick the knob and a frame appears, where you define the ranges of both the rhythm amount and the parameter range – Engine A parameters can only be assigned to the Y matrix, and Engine B only to the X. To keep a handle on what’s going on, start simple at first: assign just one parameter from each engine, then work your way up to more complex routings once you’re comfortable.

For Inventive and modern effects Intuitive layout Flux feature for cross-modulation effects X/Y pad for manual ‘playing’ Useful preset library to get you started Sidechain input as a modulation source Against Not for the faint-hearted An inventive device with a firm rhythmic angle, Movement will leave your sounds fresh, vibrant and full of life

9/10

acustica audio pink  /  reviews  <

VIDEO MINUTES … 2 WITH

Acustica Audio Pink €149

EDITOR’S CHOICE

The Italian hardware-modelling pioneers have gone from strength to strength with their Acqua line, and the latest could be their best yet Acustica Audio pride themselves on releasing the most accurate software models of sought-after hardware processors possible, using a proprietary hardware ‘sampling’ technique and giving audio quality clear priority over flexibility and CPU-friendliness. They made their name with Nebula, the effects chameleon that loads ‘sampled’ models of hardware, but of late they’ve been putting their resources into the Acqua series of dedicated plugins, each one emulating a specific unit. Pink (VST/AU/AAX) is the latest Acqua addition. It’s a mixing/mastering channel strip comprising four EQ bands, a versatile compressor and four switchable preamp circuits: Pre, New, EQ and Comp, simulating a vintage preamp, modern preamp, analogue EQ preamp and analogue compressor preamp. The big question is, which pieces of hardware were sampled in the process of creating Pink? Acustica tell us it’s based on modified kit and has no direct real-world counterpart. Presumably, though, some of the ‘inspiration’ was derived from the API 550A and 550B EQs, since Pink’s four EQ bands in A mode and B mode closely resemble the three bands of those particular models, albeit with the mid band conveniently doubled up, and increased gain resolution (increments of 1dB, as opposed to the 2dB steps of the hardware). Compared to most other plugin EQs, Pink is truly in another league. Each band has the

ability to boost its frequency range with a powerful, transparent quality that will sound instantly familiar to anyone who was buying albums before the turn of the century. Granted, countless other EQs claim to be able to do the same, but Acustica’s hardware sampling process has evidently resulted in palpable added depth and realism.

In the Pink

Acustica really have outdone themselves with the compression effect, too. While perhaps similar to the API 2500, Pink’s compressor certainly isn’t an exact clone. Its Ratio control ranges from 1.5:1 to Inf:1, while the Attack time travels from 0.3ms to 30ms and the release time covers 0.05s to 3s. It also features a switchable soft/medium/hard knee, and the choice of feed forward and feedback detector styles (the former more aggressive, the latter smoother). One complaint levelled at Acustica’s previous emulations was that while they do a good job of capturing the tonality of analogue compressors, the gain reduction action isn’t well replicated. Pink ushers in a new generation of Acustica’s ‘Core’ technology – Core8 – that’s designed to improve the accuracy of compression, among other things. The result is their most punchy, compressor yet, capable of pumping and swinging in a way that can really enhance the groove and add movement to any recording.

Core8 technology Pink’s major innovation is its Core8 technology, Acustica’s proprietary multithreading architecture. This should result in improved performance and more responsive models, but while Pink noticeably outperforms other Acustica Audio products, its operation isn’t as smooth as the average plugin. For example, there’s noticeable lag when adjusting the Input Trim as the plugin switches between distortion models. The Insane quality option (which ups the CPU

usage for improved output fidelity) on the compressor makes its movement more accurate, but the tax on the host CPU is a show-stopper. There is a zero-latency version of the plugin included, but it’s better suited to mastering than mixing due to its even greater resource usage. To be fair, Acustica Audio recommend the “latest multicore CPU”, plus “16GB to 128GB of RAM”, so they are at least upfront about Pink’s demanding nature.

In summary, Pink’s groundbreaking channel strip emulation is a stunner. As long as you have a machine of high enough spec to cope with its demands, and the patience to put up with its slightly laggy interface, you’ll find it an indispensable tool for achieving world-class compression, EQ and analogue tone. Web www.acustica-audio.com

Alternatively Slate Digital Virtual Mix Rack 214 » 9/10 » $199 A rock solid modular plugin suite with phenomenal vintage hardware emulation Softube Summit Audio Grand Channel 185 » 8/10 » $329 One of the best-sounding analogue-modelled channel strip plugins on the market

Verdict For Very tasty EQ Astounding tone Captures the classic API vibe Four preamp models Outstanding compression Against Odd manual Interface can be laggy Quite heavy on the CPU If you’ve got the machine to handle it, Pink will blow you away with its stunning analogue emulation and gorgeous tone

9/10 October 2016  /  ComPuter musiC  /  99

>  reviews  /  audiority polaris

VIDEO MINUTES … 2 WITH

Audiority

Polaris

€45

A reverb capable of delay and modulation effects, inspired by classic hardware of the late 70s… yet somehow sounding modern There are so many amazing and modestly priced reverb plugins on the market today that for a new one to leave a lasting impression, it needs to offer something special or innovative that the others don’t. Audiority reckon their latest ’verb, Polaris (VST/AU/AAX), qualifies. Inspired by early digital hardware reverbs, Polaris generates its reverberations using a single multi-tap delay line. Ironically, this is more of a throwback to the late 70s than a true innovation, but as a starting point, it enables the plugin to produce a unique array of spatial effects – and we can absolutely assure you it isn’t restricted to emulating the sound of early digital reverbs. Back in the day, a common trick employed at the low end of the digital reverb market was to use unmodulated delays to create an impression of early reflections, then mix in more taps with pitch modulation, approximating the effect of diffusion. Polaris builds on this by feeding the diffused taps back into a separate Echo section to allow longer reverbs and even full-on delays. As we’ve come to expect from any modern reverb, Polaris sports high and low shelving filters at the input stage, although these are at fixed frequencies of 2kHz and 300Hz. While rudimentary, these are very helpful for shaping the sound of the resulting reverb tail. Next in the signal path is a sample rate reducer, intended to help you achieve the crunchiness of a vintage reverb, although the

results are actually much brighter than the classic lo-fi digital effects you might expect. The main interface has volume controls for each pair of the eight early reflection taps, coupled to be spread evenly between the left and right channels using the Width knob; plus an overall ER Mix knob. Clicking the magnifying glass icon in the Early Reflections section opens the Early Reflections editor, where you can manually adjust the timing of each ER tap. Yet more control is added with the a Randomise button that scrambles the individual ER times. The Diffusion section comprises just a volume control, but again, the magnifying glass icon leads to a page in which you can individually adjust the timings of the 16 modulated delays – including the same convenient Randomise and reset buttons. Finally, the Echo section effectively serves to extend the tail of the diffusion delays, with repetitions in milliseconds, synced beats or notes (C0 to B4). You can even turn down the diffused delays to transform the effect from a washy reverb into an overt delay effect. Further controls let you tweak the speed and depth of pitch modulation.

Poles apart

The sound of Polaris is decidedly artificial, but that’s clearly the point, it being based on late 70s technology. While it won’t provide a super-

Just swell While we were reviewing Polaris, Audiority released several updates, adding new features, including the Width and Swell knobs. Width pans the delay taps in traditional ping pong fashion, effectively widening the tail of the effect, while Swell increasingly reduces the bite of the transients in the input signal as it’s raised. Presumably, the reasoning behind this is to prevent very pronounced transients from dominating the reverb tail, which certainly seems to be an 100  /  ComPuter musiC  /  October 2016

issue with Polaris in general – it sounds overly grainy on transient material and doesn’t really generate that smooth, airy wash that more expensive reverb plugins can. Swell goes some way towards addressing this issue, enabling you to turn spiky pianos into serene pads. However, we’re still a long way from convinced that Polaris would ever make a good drum reverb, for example, although that’s not the sort of thing you’d buy it for anyway.

classy vocal reverb, and sounds utterly unconvincing on anything with distinct transients, it excels at creative and out-of-this world spatial effects. The included presets do a good job of showing off its wild side, although it’s very easy to program. Polaris is an impressive plugin that probably won’t become your main reverb, but will almost certainly complement those that you have already. We’d recommend it to anyone working in creative sound design. Web www.audiority.com

Alternatively ValhallaDSP VintageVerb 191 » 9/10 » $50 Another old-school reverb with a range of vintage algorithms Voxengo OldSkoolVerb Plus N/A » N/A » $50 Another grainy ‘classic’ reverb that works surprisingly well in contemporary productions

Verdict For Diverse Easy to use Does echo effects Wonderful presets Unique reverb sound Does chorus-like effects Against Not very realistic Can sound a bit grainy Not great on transient material More of a sound-design and special FX ’verb, Polaris successfully combines retro soul with modern functionality, at a reasonable price

9/10

native instruments replika xt  /  reviews  <

VIDEO MINUTES … 2 WITH

Native Instruments Replika XT £89

From a Christmas freebie to one of the most capable delay effects around, it’s been quite a journey for this understated plugin Originally released for free under a Christmas promotion in 2014, before getting a regular pricetag shortly after, Native Instruments’ Replika is a straightforward delay plugin, incorporating a single feedback delay (regular or ping-pong), phaser and filter modulation effects, and three Styles (Modern, Vintage Digital and Diffusion) that influence the overall sound. Replika XT (VST/AU/AAX) doesn’t replace Replika (which now sells for £44), but builds on its design, adding some new features and enhancing existing ones to deliver a very broad range of delay, modulation and even reverb-like effects. The headline additions include Dual mode (placing two delay lines in Serial or Parallel, with the original Replika behaviour now called Single mode), two additional delay Styles (Analogue and Tape, bringing the total to five), and five new Modulation effects: Flanger, Chorus, Freq Shifter, Pitch Shifter and Micro Pitcher, making seven altogether. The new central display serves as a selection page when choosing a Style or Modulation, and a colour-coded (red for delay A and blue for delay B) display showing delay timing, level, panning and output mix the rest of the time.

Simple but complex

Once you look beyond its key delay parameters, Replika XT’s behaviour is mainly influenced by

the Styles and their associated controls. To our ears, there are three standout options: Tape, Analogue and Diffusion. Tape delivers good and flexible tape-style sonics, with enough general dirt to make activating the rather overbearing Noise setting unnecessary. Analogue really captures the essence of those early delay units, with convincing pitch changes when the delay timing is tweaked on the fly. And while the reverb-emulating Diffusion Style may seem like an odd inclusion, it really works, conjuring up some wonderfully long, evocative spaces. The seven Modulation effects sound excellent, adding a further layer of processing to the delayed signal. The Filter, Frequency Shifter and Pitch Shifter can be placed inside the delay feedback loop, too, for echo effects that evolve in very interesting ways. At the bottom of the central display, a fold-up tabbed panel features further controls. In the Options tab, you can select whether the dry and delayed signals or just the delay feed the Modulation effect, while the Pattern and Panning tabs enable extensive tweaking of the timing and stereo positioning of each delay line. Pattern controls comprise Shuffle, Feel (from Rush to Lag) and Accent (100% Onbeat to 100% Offbeat), allowing quick but powerful overall adjustment of the delay’s rhythm. Further, delay mode-specific parameters include A/B delay Balance for Level and

Feedback in Dual mode, and L/R timing offset (0-25ms) and Ducking in Single mode. We particularly like the last one, as it can be set so that the delay fades up from its initial low level as the feedback progresses. The tempo sync option is independent for each delay line. Replika XT delivers a mixture of regular, panning and modulated delays alongside an interesting array of spatialising, pitched and oddball effects, and has plenty to offer sound designers and creative producers alike. In a word, brilliant. Web www.native-instruments.com

Alternatively Rob Papen RP-Delay 160 » 10/10 » €49 Creative delay plugin with six delay lines, four modulation sequencers, filtering and more UVI Relayer 222 » 9/10 » €129 Powerful 32-delay multitap processor with parameter step sequencing and a superb interface

Verdict Style guide The choice of Style has a profound influence on the sound of Replika XT. Common to all five are high and low filters, but the other three knobs and one button are specific to each. Tape imparts subtle noise, which can be adjusted using the Tape Age, Saturation and Wow & Flutter controls, and the Noise button, which adds constant hiss. Analogue emulates a bucket brigade device with four modes and delay time modulation (Depth, Rate and Mono/Stereo). Modern is a clean

digital delay, with adjustable Saturation and modulation (Depth, Rate and Stereo/Mono), and Vintage Digital swaps out Modern’s Saturation parameter for the artefactimparting Quality setting. Diffusion is Replika XT’s most creative Style, sending the delay and its feedback (via the Amount control) to a reverb effect, where Size and Movement influence scale and modulation respectively, and two density settings are available: Dense and Sparse.

For Five very different Styles Precise rhythmic tweaking Single, Parallel and Serial modes Sync on/off for each delay Ducking effect in Single mode Against Nothing – we love it A seemingly modest feature set belies the flexibility, depth and sheer quality of this stellar creative delay plugin

10/10 October 2016  /  CompuTeR musiC  /  101

>  reviews  /  kush audio omega transformer models n and a

VIDEO MINUTES … 2 WITH

Kush Audio

Omega Transformers $29 This new pair from the hardware heads are designed to work with the physical Omega preamp (and of course, on their own) Kush Audio’s Omega Transformer Model N and Omega Transformer Model A (AU/VST/ AAX) are a pair of heavily coloured saturation plugins. Model N imparts a tone reminiscent of a classic Neve preamp, while Model A emulates an API pre. As well as being usable entirely on their own, both Omega Transformers are also designed to be deployed in conjunction with Kush’s fully analogue hardware Omega preamp (released for API’s 500 series earlier this year), which they describe as “transformable”. The idea is that the hardware preamp captures a very full, clear, neutral sound, which you can then treat with the plugins to achieve – or so Kush claim – the sound of the classic hardware preamps they’re modelling, hence “transformable”. Brilliantly, however, the plugins are responsible for all the saturation and colouration, and thus are perfectly functional without the hardware, too. As well as the input/output transformers, both Omega Transformer models also emulate a number of discrete – and unnamed – components under the hood in order to impart that subjectively warm analogue quality. Thankfully, the physics are kept away from the user, and all you need to do to start working with each plugin is push their Intensity knobs. We tried each one on a variety of individual drum sounds and were quite pleasantly surprised at how they were ‘transformed’.

The N model gently squashes fast spikes and wipes away hard edges – if your hats and cymbals suffer from an overly crisp or clinical sound, even fairly gentle use of Omega N will give them a softer but still focused tone. Model A is a different beast entirely, opening up the midrange slightly and adding sweet air as it drives. Side by side, Model N seems better at controlling overly harsh elements in the mix, while the Model A excites whatever’s already there. Both tighten up dynamic range the harder you drive them.

102  /  COmpuTer musiC  /  October 2016

Web www.thehouseofkush.com Info Plugins, $29 each; Omega hardware, $599

Omega, oiled

On the negative side, pushing either plugin too hard can result in mushiness that ruins the otherwise dazzling illusion of analogue behaviour. The plugins are supposed to be gain compensated, but the compensation isn’t perfect, which is understandable, since they affect dynamics and apply multiple stages of processing behind their deceptively simple GUIs. Currently, the automatic gain compensation is enough to prevent the Intensity knob from wildly throwing off your balance, but using your DAW’s bypass might not make for a fair A/B comparison, as both models tend to add to, rather than subtract from, the RMS (average) level. On non-percussion instruments, both models have their own unique qualities. We often got

Bells and whistles To help with gain-staging, both models have a -20dB pad switch. Since automatic gain compensation is used, the level of the source material won’t jump suddenly when this is engaged – instead, you’ll just hear the saturation ease up or intensify accordingly. Operation is made extra easy by the inclusion of two very clear green lights that get brighter as the signal is driven stronger. Notably, very little drive is required to get the best out of these plugins.

good results combining both plugins, using Model N to smooth and clean up an instrument, followed by Model A to add life and energy. If you struggle with the inherent sterility of recording and mixing in the digital domain, or if you happen to be heavily into vintage tones, it’s hard to think of a reason why you wouldn’t snap both of these up as soon as possible.

There’s also an output gain slider with a range of +/-9dB, which is very welcome, since the saturated signal will often demand a level tweak in the mix. Another handy feature is the inclusion of a Phase button, which flips the polarity of the input signal – particularly convenient for use with multimiked sources. The only thing missing, really, is a wet/dry mix control. While this would be unconventional, it would still be very useful for tempering the saturated effects.

Alternatively Soundtoys Radiator 227 » 10/10 (bundle) » $129 Subtle preamp colouration with separate mic/line level emulations Voxengo Warmifier 2 182 » 8/10 » $40 Analogue-inspired plugin for turning up the heat on digital recordings

Verdict For Idiot-proof operation Unique, vibey tones Ultra-simple controls Model A wakes up dull material Model N smooths high frequencies Both beef up almost any sound Against No manual Dry/wet mix would be good Don’t do heavy distortion Omega Transformer Models N and A do an amazing job of warming up frosty mixes at a great price

9/10

psp audioware b-scanner  /  reviews  <

VIDEO MINUTES … 2 WITH

PSP Audioware

B-Scanner

$83

After bringing us their take on the Leslie cabinet, PSP follow up with on the other key component of the classic Hammond B3 sound Way back in 217, PSP impressed us with their L’otary Leslie rotary speaker cabinet plugin (9/10), and now they’ve set their sights on the scanner effect built into most models of Hammond organ, including the B3, C-3 and A-100. This vibrato/chorus effect was, arguably, just as important to the characteristic sound of the Hammond as the Leslie. Specific scanners varied from model to model in terms of components, but they were all based on the same principle: a revolving wheel made contact with 16 plates, each constituting one tap in a phase-shifted delay line, generating a variety of vibrato and chorusing effects. B-Scanner’s central controls adjust the main scanner settings, with a ring of ‘LEDs’ showing rotation speed and (via colouration) the phase correlation between the left and right channels. Around the ring are six Mode settings (three Vibrato and three Chorus), each setting the depth of the effect – the higher the number, the higher the depth. There are also three Quality modes for controlling the smoothness of the vibrato: the authentic 16-position emulation (B3), the 48-position HiRes, and Smooth, which modulates continuously rather than in steps. The Tremolo knob mimics the tremolo effect generated by some models of scanner, and C-Mix sets the dry/chorused signal ratio (it’s inactive in V Mode). The Input and Output sections contain controls for setting the Gain

and stereo Width at both stages, with an additional Drive control for saturating the input and a low-pass filter on the output. The Fast and Slow sections above and below the central panel define two vibrato/chorus speed settings, which are smoothly shifted between using the Speed Lever. They each feature four parameters: Speed (scanner rotation rate), Acceleration/Deceleration (how quickly the scanner reacts when the Speed changes), Random (introducing random fluctuations to the speed) and Phase (shifting the phase offset between left and right channels). Speed and Accel/Decel can be L/R linked or set independently for each channel, either free running (between 0-10Hz and 0.10-10s respectively), synced to host tempo (1/64T to 4 bars) or in B D mode. With the latter, the left knob sets the Base speed for both channels and the right knob sets the Deviation from it, with one channel running slower by that amount and the other channel faster.

No B-S

If news of B-Scanner’s release didn’t leave you weak at the knees, you’re probably in good company, as it recreates a specific piece of hardware that many people don’t even know existed and is entirely associated with Hammond organs. While it might not be the most groundbreaking new plugin of 2016 (as the

lean selection of 24 presets makes clear), it is a sublime and characterful effect that can be applied to everything from organs and synths to vocals and, more creatively, auxiliary reverb and delay buses. Whether manipulated in real time with the Speed Lever or used as a static effect, B-Scanner can add excitement, brightness and powerful stereo modulation to just about any signal, all without ever sounding less than silky smooth. No matter what kind of music you make, it’s well worth a spin. Web www.pspaudioware.com

Alternatively Soundtoys EchoBoy 227 » 10/10 (bundle) » $199 Soundtoys’ popular delay plugin features a great emulation of the Roland CE-1 chorus pedal SKnote DDD Dimension Chorus N/A » N/A » $30 Based on Roland’s Dimension D, this classic chorus is famed for transforming pedestrian vocals

Verdict A bit of leverage Transitioning between B-Scanner’s Slow and Fast settings is done using the Speed Lever to the right of the interface and its two accompanying buttons. The Lever glides smoothly from the defined Slow settings to the Fast settings and vice versa, while the Speed button jumps from one to the other, either toggling between them or switching for as long as the button is depressed, then back when released. The Stop button deactivates the

virtual spinning completely, and – as with speed changes – the wheel is subject to simulated inertia when stopping and starting, a quantity which can be set by the Accel and Decel parameters. The Speed Lever controls are designed for live performance, so for best use they should be assigned to MIDI controllers, although they can, of course, be automated, making them a very useful arrangement tool, too.

For Spectacular sound Convincing recreation Versatile… for a chorus/vibrato! Different classic models Modern smooth and HiRes modes Against No ‘faulty’/dirty modes A tiny bit pricey A truly lovely modulation effect, albeit one which may be a little niche for those on a tight budget

8/10 October 2016  /  Computer muSiC  /  103

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A rapid-fire round-up of sample libraries, ROMplers and music gear Beatskillz

DropX

$119

Web www.beatskillz.com Format Mac/PC, VST/AU/AAX

Described as a “drag and drop beat repeat sampler”, DropX is designed to make triggering fills and stutters a truly effortless affair. Drag up to three layered samples into it to have them automatically mapped up the keyboard from C1, and use keyswitches C0-E0 to activate hostsynced note repeat timings from quarter-notes to 64th-notes, with F0 toggling triplets on and off. Simply hold down a key to trigger the loaded sample(s) repeatedly at the chosen rate, and adjust timings on the fly, with rhythmic offset dialled in via the Swing knob. Each of the three samples in a preset can have its level, pitch and pan adjusted (and automated), along with playback start and end points, and can be reversed with a click. They can also be individually muted, of course. The onboard effects processing options are straightforward enough. A multimode resonant filter offers high-pass, low-pass and band-pass options, and sounds pretty good, while reverb

and stereo delay modules are on hand for ambience and echo, the former with Time and Mix controls, the latter synced times from 1/2 to 1/64, Feedback and Mix. Then there’s an ADSR amp envelope (no filter routing, sadly) for volume modulation, four choices of bit depth (8, 12, 16 and 24 – we’d prefer a continuous slider), and a 0-100% distortion Mix control with a mildly confusing bipolar LED collar that’s presumably on the ‘to-fix’ list. The whole thing is topped off with a reasonably capacious library of presets (the vast majority of which only use one sample layer) and the nifty ability to drag your own image files into the top right of the GUI, aiding with user-made preset identification. DropX is admirably simple in implementation and usage, making light work of repeats and stutter edits for any and all compositional purposes. The combination of sampler and

AudioThing

sr-88

repeater, and the MIDI-triggered note timings, are key to its success, making it a genuine performance instrument; and the effects, limited though they are, are helpful. The price is far too high, though, given that there are no editable effects parameters and no depth or tweakability to the repeat functionality beyond its sheer playability and that Swing knob. n8/10n

Vir2 €29

Aeris

£200

Web www.audiothing.net Format Mac/PC, VST/AU/AAX

Web www.timespace.com Format Mac/PC, Kontakt 5/Player

This cheap and cheerful drum machine bundles the sampled sounds of 80s classic the Sound Master Memory Rhythm SR-88 into an intuitive interface, complete with its own step sequencer. SR-88 has five sound channels: Kick, Snare, Cymbal and two HiHats (HiHat 2 in fact being the sound of the original hardware’s snare drum triggered in pattern edit mode). Each sound has Pan, Decay, Pitch and Volume controls, and their mixed output runs through a 12dB/octave low-pass filter, then overdrive, reverb and compressor effects. The sequencer runs up to 32 steps, and as well as a regular Randomize button on every sequencer lane, there’s also the option to have individual lanes randomise every time the sequence cycles back round to step 1 – very jazz. Sequences can also be dragged from the GUI into the host DAW as MIDI clips. SR-88 is fun to work with and very easy to use, and the only issue is that the SR-88 itself just doesn’t sound very nice these days – ‘small’ and ‘cheap’ are the operative words. In terms of authenticity, though, AudioThing’s virtualisation does the business and lands at a fair price. n7/10n

Weighing in at 9GB, Vir2’s “hybrid choir designer” comprises three Kontakt instruments: Pads (choose two from 145 choral pad samples), User (load your own into the Aeris engine) and the Performance Patch. The Performance patch gives you six sections to mix and match – full male and female choirs and four soloists (SATB) – with the caveat that you can’t activate the soloists in either gender without deactivating that gender’s choir, and vice versa. Each section has been recorded in two velocity layers, plus three round-robins for the soloists, singing extended ‘Aah’s, ‘Oh’s, ‘Ooh’s and ‘Hmm’s, selected using keyswitches. The active sections can be played stacked or mapped contiguously up the keyboard, in polyphonic or True Legato mode, and shaped using individual envelopes and EQs. As well as Reverb, Compressor, Delay, Skreamer (distortion) and Spread effects, you also get modulation and sequencing of volume, pan, pitch and filter cutoff. Although a tad (not as much as you might assume) hemmed in by its short range of articulations, Aeris sounds gorgeous and takes you to places far beyond the conventionally choral. n8/10n October 2016  /  Computer musiC  /  105

>  reviews  /  mini reviews

Soundware round-up Zero-G

Arc £56 4GB of evocative and satisfyingly lengthy drones, ambiences and textures by composer and sound designer John Valasis. Most of Arc’s categorised folders house Complex sample sets, grouping multiple layers for a degree of mixability, alongside the Singular clips – a nice touch. The Pads section comes across as filler, though, containing just two pads presented in a range of keys; and the Tempo-Based construction kits feel out of place, although they’re certainly usable. As a well considered, lavishly produced source of drawn-out sounds, Arc is a gem, albeit a slightly flawed one.

www.timespace.com n8/10n

Native Instruments

Lilac Glare £44

Samples From Mars

sH5 From mars $39 A multisampled rendition of Roland’s classic SH-5 analogue synth, SH5 From Mars serves up 40 bass, lead, keys, pad and FX patches for Kontakt, Ableton Live (Simpler and Sampler) and EXS24, built on a 3.8GB soundbank. The Live version puts that DAW’s effects and Macros to good use, although obviously, the fact that each sample set captures the instrument in a specific configuration is an inescapable limitation. The SH-5 is an awesome synth, and SFM have managed to virtualise it with no loss in attitude or analogue mojo – it sounds magnificent. www.samplesfrommars.com n

9/100

106  /  Computer musiC  October 2016

Melodic pop isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when discussing Maschine Expansions, but Lilac Glare does a fine job of distilling its edgier flavours down to 50 Groups and kits. From sharp guitar licks and chords to optimistic pianos, stabs and synths (37 Massive and 13 Monark patches), it’s a scintillating and richly varied collection of earcatching material. Perhaps oddly, though, what impressed us most were the drums, which are brilliantly diverse and deftly walk the line between organic and processed, as befits the genre.

www.native-instruments.com n8/10n

Reel People

soul Vocals £25 Soul Vocals is essentially a set of vocal multitracks taken from 14 songs, including male and female leads, ad-libs and harmonies. The songs are well crafted, and the beautifully recorded and processed vocal performances are of premium quality – a really great job has been done by all involved. It’s always the same question with this kind of vocal library, though: what’s it actually for? Unless you just want to rework the specific songs, you’re not going to get much more than a few ‘ooh’s, ‘aah’s and ‘yeah’s out of it.

www.loopmasters.com n7/10n

Gothic Instruments

sculptor £55 The follow-up to Dronar (8/10, 229), Sculptor bears more than a passing resemblance to Zero-G’s Impact Designer (9/10, 209, and itself respectfully riffing on NI’s Rise & Hit), being clearly built on the same scripted engine but loaded with a new set of samples. Like Impact Designer, Sculptor lets you mix up Impact (attack) and Decay samples from five categories, with an optional reversed Pre-Whoosh sample and plenty of sound editing and processing, to deliver a limitless array of booms, bangs, whooshes, percussives and ‘Thunders’. Superb.

www.timespace.com n9/10n

mini reviews  /  reviews  <

Mode Audio

Sample Magic

LA Beats £18

Lost in House £35

The wonky, sun-kissed sound of the LA Beat scene is the subject of Mode’s latest, which centres on a set of 12 construction kits made up of 156 loops between them. These are supplemented by 69 tail samples and 88 one-shots, as well as 139 of the MIDI files that were used in the programming of the loops. The drums are crisp and off-kilter, the basses are raw and analogue, the synths are sinuous and driving, and overall, LA Beats successfully captures the essence of the very particular west coast vibe it’s aiming at.

1.6GB of loops and hits aimed at producers working in the more thoughtful sub-genres of house. The stemmed drum loops and melodic mini construction kits are flexible and well made, and the basses and synth lines (complete with MIDI files) don’t disappoint, either. Stylistically, though, Lost In House is quite generic and, dare we say, touching on bland in places. A sizeable collection of impactful drum hits brings the score back up, though, and ultimately, this is a solid, efficient library, but not one that breaks any moulds.

www.modeaudio.com

www.samplemagic.com

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Sample Magic

Samplephonics

Future Funk £35

Nordic pop £35

Another big one from Sample Magic, Future Funk represents the more electronic end of funk, with its 35 stemmed drum loops being programmed rather than live, and the bass folder focusing on synthetic sounds rather than the four-string. Things get more organic in the Guitar Loops folder, which is stuffed with slick rhythm work and rich tones, while 32 excellent mini Music Loop construction kits provide inspiring food for compositional thought. A good number of synths, keys, vocals and FX round off this bouncy, soulful, 80s-influenced package.

This pack of 250 loops and 154 one-shots qualifies as pop in the most cerebral sense of the word and surprises at every turn. A wealth of acoustic, electric and electronic instrumentation – including harmonica, brass, woodwinds, electric piano, all manner of bowed, plucked and picked strings, a spring reverb, synths and male vocals – has been pressed into service to generate some of the most captivating, unusual, quaint, emotional, bonkers and genuinely eclectic samples we’ve heard in ages. Abba this most certainly ain’t.

www.samplemagic.com

www.samplephonics.com

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Samplephonics

Loopmasters

Liquid DnB £35

Fractal sound £30

252 loops and 148 one-shots in classic floaty drum ’n’ bass style. The all-important steppin’ drums and rolling basslines are exemplary in both groove and shape, while the pads and music loops exude ambience. Most of the samples are presented in two variations, and although these are certainly different enough to warrant inclusion (alternative drum patterns or filter cutoff settings, say), it does mean you’re getting less discrete sounds than it first appears – but don’t let that put you off what has to be one of the best DnB libraries of the year so far.

Put together by US producer Evac, Fractal Sound is a tour de force of glitchy percussion, intricate synth work and imaginative sound design. Wilfully esoteric, its 189 frenetic, bubbling loops are ripe for slicing and dicing, while an extraordinary collection of over 600 one-shot drums, FX, synth stabs, basses and extended atmospheres will keep your sampler fed and watered for months. There are, admittedly, a fair few variations in there – some of them slightly questionable – but that doesn’t detract significantly from this endlessly intriguing electronica resource.

www.samplephonics.com

www.loopmasters.com

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Niche Audio

Loopmasters

Chilled trap £25

Future Bass £30

Niche’s new pack adds 15 full Drum Racks/Groups to your Live 9 or Maschine 2 library, each containing all the samples required to throw together an extremely laid-back trap-style groove – drums, bass, melodics and FX – and a set of expertly programmed MIDI clips to get you inspired. The production is sublime from start to finish, and even if trap isn’t on your list of preferred genres, the sounds on display here are simply beautiful on their own terms, making this a must-hear for any electronic producer.

This rather anonymous 1.4GB library of sampled loops and hits for all genres with ‘bass’ in the title gets the low-end largely right, with its 49 basslines (although we would’ve liked a bit more complexity), and hits its peak in the Music and Chord Loops folders, with loads of great riffs, plucks, pads and progressions. Quite a few – but by no means all – of the drum loops fail to catch the imagination, thanks to sound selection bordering on the cheesy, but the good here far outweighs the lacking.

www.loopmasters.com

www.loopmasters.com

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n8/10n October 2016  /  Computer musiC  /  107

> download /

plugins

plugINS guIDE

INSTRUMENTS Our exclusive collection of instruments and effects is included with every issue of Computer Music – it’s got all you need to make great music now! The Plugins collection is a suite of complete, limitation-free instrument and effects plugins. It’s an incredible resource, boasting more than 50 pro-quality plugins that you won’t find anywhere else, all for PC and Mac, in VST and AU formats. All of the included software is created exclusively for us by respected commercial developers such as Ohm Force, KV331 Audio, u-he, Cableguys, AudioThing, XILS-lab, Vengeance-Sound, Rob Papen and zplane.

download AAs well as on our DVD, you’ll find all these plugins at vvault.computermusic.co.uk

HYBRID SYNTHS

Cableguys Curve 2.6 CM • Design-your-own-waveforms synth • New waveform capabilities for v2.6 • Phat 16-voice Unison mode • Based on Cableguys Curve 2.6 • AU/VST/RTAS, 32-/64-bit www.cableguys.de

Synapse Audio Dune CM

KV331 Audio SynthMaster CM • Dual wavescanning oscillators • Multimode filter and built-in effects • Customisable waveshaping distortion • FM/AM synthesis modes • Based on SynthMaster 2.5 • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.kv331audio.com

Klevgränd Enkl CM

• VA and wavetable oscillators • Powerful per-voice modulation • 12-slot modulation matrix • Based on the full version of Dune • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.synapse-audio.com

• Classic monosynth design • Modulation, arpeggiator and effects • Based on the full Enkl synth • AU/VST 32-/64-bit www.klevgrand.se

u-he Zebra CM

• Patchable modular synth plugin • Sequencer and Mapping Generator • Audio-rate modulation, Fractalizer • Based on the full Bazille • AU/VST 32-/64-bit www.u-he.com

frequently asked questions What is Plugins? Is it just freeware from the internet? No, and neither are the plugins limited or ‘crippled’. It’s a set of virtual instruments and effects created by some of the best developers in the business just for us – you won’t find this set of plugins anywhere else! Where do I get Plugins? As a download from our Vault (see p5 for instructions on how to access). How do I install Plugins? You’ll find specific installation instructions for each plugin in the How To Install file in the CM Plugins folder. What do I need to use them? A PC or Mac and a music program

(aka DAW) to host them (ie, ‘plug in’ to). You need a DAW that can host VST or AU plugins, such as Ableton Live, Reaper, FL Studio (PC), Cubase, Sonar (PC), Logic (Mac) or Garageband (Mac). What happened to…! As of 209, many Plugins have been upgraded to include 64-bit compatibility. The few older Plugins that remain 32-bit-only – such as Amplifikation CM, Rhino CM and KR-Delay/KR-Reverb – are now included in the 32-bit only subfolders. These plugins require either a 32-bit host or a suitable ‘bit bridge’ (eg, jBridge) for use within a 64-bit DAW. Still got questions? See the full FAQ at bit.ly/cmpluginsfaq

108 / Computer musiC / October 2016

• Blendable oscillator waveforms • Super-programmable step LFOs • Slick delay, reverb and chorus/phaser • Original synth designed just for CM • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.u-he.com

Enzyme CM • Scanned synthesis sound generation • Straightforward preset-based setup • Assign presets’ parameters to controls • Based on the full Enzyme synth • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.humanoidsoundsystems.com

u-he Bazille CM

plugins / download <

plugins reloaded / make music now < > Step by step

11. Piano and vintage synth sounds

focus > CURVE 2 CM

We turn our attention to this versatile, inspiring synth, the latest Plugins family addition to the

download Download Curve 2 CM, the videos and tutorial files at vault.computermusic.co.uk

74

VIDEO TUTORIAL

Satson… and on… It can’t have escaped your attention that we’ve used the Satson CM plugin on almost every track in our tune. There’s a good reason for this: It’s awesome! Satson CM emulates the sound of a hardware mixer channel and it’s designed to be placed on every track in your mix, to lend its subtle signature sound to, well, everything. It’s light on CPU and can make pretty much any track sound warmer and more rounded. The plugin can also help to smooth out the sometimes-harsh sound of digital synths. Driven harder, Satson CM can provide some authentically vintage sounding distortion effects. The gentle high- and low-cut filters give us a quick and easy way of thinning out muddy lows or rolling off tinny highs, and you can switch off the drive function if you just want to use it for the filters. For a closer look at Satson CM take a look at our YouTube video at www.bit.ly/Ov2WMF.

> Step by step

1

3

We’ve got almost all the musical ideas we need to create a full tune, but we need to spice it up with extras and ‘ear candy’. First, let’s process a piano patch so that it sounds a bit like it’s been sampled from an older tune. We start by loading a MIDI track panned 9R with a patch from the Keys»Gran Piano preset in Alchemy Player CM.

We EQ the piano in quite a distinctive way in IIEQPro, using the curve shown here, cutting off the low frequencies and adding a big boost at around 8kHz, for a thinned out, vintage kind of sound. The piano sound is finished off by Satson CM, with the Gain increased to +4 and High Pass set at 400Hz to lose even more low end.

2

4

We play some chords into the track (Piano.mid) and copy some over from the strings track. The piano sound is quite short, so we raise the Release to 70%, to lengthen it, making it more suitable for our track. We also turn the Delay Mix to 0 to knock out off the inbuilt echo effect.

Next, a vintage synth lead line (Glide.mid) from PolyKBII CM, which boasts some truly great analogue-style sounds. We choose Lead»All»LD Soaring Glider JRM and play in a melody line using the pitchbend wheel to add interest (Glider.mid). We add Satson CM with -3 Gain, 750Hz High Pass and 16kHz Low Pass, enabling the tighter 12dB/oct mode.

12. Risers and effects with Alchemy Player CM

VIDEO TUTORIAL

1

We’re going to need a few one-shot percussion FX to sprinkle throughout the track, and a really simple way to create them is to load Alchemy Player CM on a new track and select the Drums»Four Way Drum Morph preset. Add KR-DelayCM set to PingPong mode and 1/4 beat Sync Delay time. A Feedback and Dry/Wet level of 40% is perfect.

2

We take the easy option for the reverb, using ReverberateCM’s Cathedral preset, with the Dry/Wet at 10dB Wet to create some big, splashy hits and crashes. An instance of Satson CM set to 400Hz on the High Pass dial removes some of the more boomy elements, which could conflict with the kick drum and bass.

3

There’s a good white noise riser sound in Alchemy Player: Sound Effects»Breakdown Booom. This patch uses four different layers, so we use the X/Y 1 matrix to manipulate it. Dragging the control to the top right of the panel means that only the white noise sweep layer of the sample is played. In the track, we can use volume and pan automation to add interest.

December 2012 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 47

! W e n CM Plugins TuTorial Bank To help you get the most out of our immense plugin collection, we’ve assembled the Plugins Tutorial Bank, containing over 100 guides and tutorials for our Plugins, specially selected from past issues. You’ll find Getting Started PDFs and videos for most of the individual plugins, along

VIRTUAL ANALOGUE SYNTHS

DRUM MACHINES

with tutorial PDFs and videos on using Plugins for sound design, mixing, and even creating entire tracks. You’ll find all of this as a handy download in our Vault – go grab it now and start getting more out of your plugins! vault.computermusic.co.uk

OTHER

DopeVST Beat Machine CM LinPlug Alpha CM • Dual oscillators with blendable waves • Easy operation • Modulation matrix • Slick chorus effect • Polyphonic glide • Based on the commercial Alpha synth • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.linplug.com

• 50 ready-mixed royalty-free kits • 50 MIDI beats included • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.dopevst.com

DopeVST Bass Engine CM

Rob Papen RG-Muted CM

• 45 authentic hip-hop bass patches • Three eras of faux-sampled material • Envelope and note controls • 50 MIDI riffs included • Based on the full Bass Engine • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.dopevst.com

• Creates realistic funky guitar grooves • Sequencer, FX and modulation • Based on Rob Papen RG • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.robpapen.com

AudioRealism ADM CM

XILS-lab PolyKB II CM

• Old-school-style drum machine • Emulates Roland’s legendary TR-606 • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.audiorealism.se

• Models the ultra-rare PolyKobol synth • Packed with mix-ready preset variants • Knobs assignable to main parameters • Based on XILS-lab’s PolyKB II • AU/VST/RTAS, 32-/64-bit www.xils-lab.com

Kirnu Cream CM

brunsandspork Grooove CM • Load in two samples per sound and choose how they respond to velocity • 50 built-in Micro Kits to play • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.brunsandspork.com

Madrona Labs Aalto CM • Unique and powerful monosynth • Unusual oscillators with FM • Waveguide delay section • Intuitively patchable modulation • Onboard reverb • Step sequencing • Based on the full Aalto synth • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.madronalabs.com

AudioThing miniBit CM

SAMPLERS

Expert Sleepers XFadeLooper CM

• Master arpeggios with this MIDI tool • Get more out of plugin instruments by controlling them with Cream CM! • Program and store complex patterns • Musical controls for rhythm and notes • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.kirnuarp.com

• 15-waveform chiptune synth • Envelope, LFO, bit/sample reduction • Based on the full miniBit synth • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.audiothing.net

zplane vielklang 2 CM Camel Audio Alchemy Player CM • 200 awesome ready-to-play patches • Loads SFZ patches – often included in our own sample collections! • Based on the full Alchemy synth • AU/VST/RTAS, 32-/64-bit www.camelaudio.com

• Pitch-correct and retune audio • Harmonise melodies with ease • Algorithms by the experts at zplane • Based on vielklang 2 Instant Harmony • AU/VST/AAX, 32-/64-bit www.zplane.de

• Creative crossfade-looping sampler • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.expert-sleepers.co.uk

Squaredheads Nora CM XILS-lab XILS 3 CM • Modelled on the EMS VCS 3 modular • Authentic oscillators, spring reverb and ring mod circuits of the original • Added chorus and delay effects • Pin matrices to ‘patch’ the signal flow • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.xils-lab.com

Eisenberg Einklang CM Loomer Cumulus • Granular sampler with sequencing • AU/VST (RTAS/Standalone 32-bit) www.loomer.co.uk

• Morph between a trio of oscillators • Envelope and timbre controls • Modulate tone with the LFO • Based on the full Einklang synth • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.eisenberg-audio.de

• Input up to four notes, output chords and arpeggios across three octaves • Program velocities and store patterns • Based on the full Nora and Nora 2 • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit • Mac users require OS X 10.8 or above www.squaredheads.com

October 2016 / Computer musiC / 109

> download /

plugins

plugINS guIDE

EFFECTS EQ/ FILTERS

Ohm Force Ohmygod! DDMF CM EQ Pack • Two superb equalisers • IIEQ Pro CM: 19 filter types • LP10 CM: Linear phase mastering EQ • Based on commercial DDMF plugins • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.ddmf.eu

• Resonant comb filter • Distortion section • LFO with sync • Output filter • AU/VST/RTAS, 32-/64-bit www.ohmforce.com

OverTone DSP Program EQ CM

FEaTurED Plugin

Vengeance sound

philta Cm

As it’s cut from the same cloth as Vengeance’s Philta XL plugin, our CM version proves itself as a hugely useful processing tool. Its high- and low-pass filters ramp up to a mega 96dB/octave, making it a great choice for surgical tweaking, and the frequency analyser display gives an insight into any changes you’ve made. Solid and dependable. www.vengeance-sound.com

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eaReackon CM-EQUA 87 • Smooth three-band EQ • Adjustable low-cut filter • Switchable high/low shelves • Analyser, EQ tips, limiter and more • Based on eaReckon’s PR-EQUA 87 • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.eareckon.com

• Pultec-style vintage EQ emulation • Dual bass boost/attenuate controls; high-mid boost; high shelf cut • Tube amplifier circuit-only option • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.overtonedsp.co.uk

AudioThing ValveFilter CM

Vengeance Sound Philta CM • Dual high- and low-pass filters • Four slope settings: 12/24/48/96dB • Resonance and width controls • Link function and notch mode • Based on Vengeance’s Philta XL • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.vengeance-sound.com

• Gorgeous filtering and drive • Low-pass filter circuit emulation • Vintage valve saturation section • Based on Valve Filter VF-1 • Settings randomiser and metering • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.audiothing.net

plugins / download <

DYNAMICS

MULTI EFFECTS D16 Group Frontier

Toneboosters Barricade CM • Intelligent mastering-grade limiter • Dynamic response controls • Stereo options and versatile metering • Based on the full Barricade • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.toneboosters.com

Unfiltered Audio G8 CM • Get tight dynamics or creative effects • Includes advanced gating controls • Real-time waveform display • Use MIDI as a trigger or output • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.unfilteredaudio.com

• Superb mixing/mastering limiter • Choose detection and release styles • Soft Clip control for drive/distortion • AU/VST/AAX, 32-/64-bit www.d16.pl

Subsonic Labs Wolfram CM • Pitchshifting, distortion, phaseshifting, panning, delay and filter • Flexible modulation • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.subsoniclabs.com

Ignite VST Vice One HoRNet Fat-FET SKnote Snap • Boost or tame transient brightness • Brighten or dull a sound’s sustain • Uses two intelligently linked filters • Not based on any existing plugin • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.sknote.it

• FET-style compressor • Similar to classic 1176LN Peak Limiter • Ultra-fast attack as low as 0.02ms. • Based on HoRNet MultiComp • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.hornetplugins.com

• Talented compressor plugin • Analogue or Digital response circuits • In/out and Gain Reduction metering • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.ignitevst.com

ANALYSIS

Inear Display Eurydice CM • Buffer override/repeat, delay, bitcrusher and filter with modulation • Custom signal routing • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.ineardisplay.com

OTHER

HoRNet DrumShaper eaReckon CM-COMP 87 • Slick, punchy compressor • Mix knob for parallel compression • Limiter to keep the output in check • Clear VU- and LED-style metering • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.eareckon.com

LVC-Audio Transector CM • Transient tweaking and saturation • Define and process envelope stages • Useful metering/display functions • Mix control for parallel processing • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.lvcaudio.com

• Instant EQ & compression for drums • Dial in effect amount and in/out gain • 7 algorithms for kick, snare, loops, etc • Based on HoRNet TrackShaper • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.hornetplugins.com

Blue Cat Audio FreqAnalyst CM • Pro-quality, feature-packed analyser • Numerous customisation options • Based on Blue Cat’s full FreqAnalyst • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit • RTAS 32-bit www.bluecataudio.com

Joey Sturgis Tones & Boz Digital Labs SideWidener • Add stereo width to mono sounds! • Signal retains mono compatibility • Goniometer for stereo visualisation • 3 widening modes, plus Width & Tone • AU/VST/AAX/RTAS, 32-/64-bit www.joeysturgistones.com www.bozdigitallabs.com

audioD3CK SunRuys CM • Characterful bus compressor • Dry/wet mix and blend controls • Advanced options for serial tweakers • Based on the full SunRuys plugin • AU/VST/RTAS/AAX, 32-/64-bit audio.d3ck.net

Audiority TS-1 CM

Toneboosters Sibalance CM

• Flavoursome transient shaper • Set attack and sustain gain separately • Blend control for parallel processing • Based on the full TS-1 plugin • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.audiority.com

• Pro-quality de-esser and de-harsher • Four modes for different use cases • Select reduction and Attack amounts • Based on the full TB Sibalance plugin • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.toneboosters.com

Photosounder Spiral CM • Musical, note-based spectral analysis • Useful for figuring out notes in audio • Based on the full Spiral plugin • AU/VST/AAX, 32-/64-bit www.photosounder.com

Vengeance-Sound Scope • Spectrum view for frequency analysis • Oscilloscope for waveform monitoring • Stereo phase and level metering • Tons of advanced analysis options • AU/VST/AAX, 32-/64-bit www.vengeance-sound.com

Nyrv Agent CM • Create custom effects chains • Host your VST/AU plugins • Design your own interface • Based on the full Agent plugin • AU/VST/AAX, 32-/64-bit www.nyrvsystems.com

Dotec-Audio DeeMonitor • Emulate NS10, Genelec and Auratone 5C speakers in your DAW • Invert and Solo left and right feeds • Mid/Side balancing + Output gain • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.dotec-audio.com

October 2016 / Computer musiC / 111

> download /

plugins

plugINS guIDE

EFFECTS

download GAs well as on the DVD, you’ll find all these plugins at vvault.computermusic.co.uk

Continued

DELAY/ REVERB

DISTORTION/ SATURATION

Cableguys Waveshaper CM • Graphically editable distortion curves • Design curves by dragging nodes • Syncable input vs output oscilloscope • Not based on an existing plugin • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.cableguys.de

Audio Assault GrindMachine CM • Five amp and ten cab emulations • Three-band EQ plus depth and presence • Djentbox for tightening low tunings • Based on the full GrindMachine • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.audioassault.com

Audio Assault BassAmp CM • Inspired by Ampeg bass gear • Gain and Deep controls for added drive • Three-band EQ plus Mix blend • Choice of two cabinets • Not based on any existing plugin • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.audioassault.com

LiquidSonics Reverberate CM • Convolution reverb • A selection of real-world presets • Import your own impulse response • Based on the full Reverberate plugin • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.liquidsonics.com

Audiffex STA Enhancer CM • New for v1.5: CPU optimised, tube mode soft switch, new interface • Valve-style signal exciter/enhancer • Separate low/high enhancement • Choose from five tube circuitry modes • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.audiffex.com

HoRNet Graffio CM Sonimus Satson CM • Classic mixer channel emulation • Subtle warming saturation • Gentle, musical high/low filters • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit dsp.sonimus.com

• Flexible three-flavour distortion effect • Saturator module with DC offset control • Exciter with odd/even harmonics dials • Bit reducer to degrade your sounds • Based on the multiband Graffio plugin • AU/VST/VST3/AAX/RTAS, 32-/64-bit www.hornetplugins.com

Acon Digital CM Verb • Simple-but-versatile operation • Five modes: hall, plate, studio, etc • Built-in high- and low-pass filters • Based on Acon Digital’s Verberate • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.acondigital.com

Kuassa PreMix CM • Subtle saturation to screaming drive • Three-band Baxandall sweetening EQ • A/B comparison function • Not based on an existing plugin • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.kuassa.com

Rop Papen RP-Distort CM • Five crunchy distortion algorithms • EQ, dynamics, widener + modulation • Filter and parallel processing controls • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.robpapen.com

Lindell Plugins 6X-500 CM • Classic preamp emulation with EQ • High and low boosts for musical tone • Modelled on Lindell’s 6X-500 hardware preamp/EQ • Based on the full 6X-500 and ChannelX plugin • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.lindellplugins.com

Tek’it Audio CrossDr CM • Three independent bands of drive • Drive, Warp, Crush and Clip signals • Per-band Balance and Level • AU/VST, 32-/64-bit www.tekit-audio.com

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ViDEo guiDEs Our Plugins Getting Started videos are also on YouTube. Head to the below address to check them out: bit.ly/CmpluginsVids

plugins / download <

loading plugins in your daw Though there are a wide variety of DAWs, each with its own unique interface, there are similarities when it comes to loading up and using plugins, and most stick to one of two approaches. The first – as seen in Steinberg’s Cubase, Apple’s Logic, and Cakewalk’s Sonar – involves insert slots on a track or mixer channel. These are used in the same way as an insert effect would be used on a hardware mixer. In other words, the effect is placed ‘in line’ on that mixer or track channel. Plugins might be loaded in by use of a dropdown menu tree or rightclicking in the effects slot. Clicking in the insert or effects slot in some DAWs – Cockos’ Reaper, for instance – will reveal a dedicated browser from which the desired plugin may be selected. It’s common to stack multiple effects plugins together to form an effects ‘chain’, much in the way a guitarist might connect various stompboxes together to form a custom sound. In some DAWs, these effects chains may be saved and recalled at a later time. If your DAW uses a sidebar browser, here you can find your plugins displayed and possibly arranged into categories. The plugins may be dragged into the project and placed directly onto a track or channel. Ableton Live, Bitwig Studio, Cakewalk’s Sonar and PreSonus Studio One can all open effects and even instrument plugins in this manner. On the subject of instrument plugins, we should discuss the different methods you might encounter when loading up instruments. As mentioned, sometimes they can be dragged and

See how to load plugins in eight different DAWs with our videos at the URLs below

dropped from a browser onto a specific track. However, many DAWs distinguish between instrument and audio tracks, so you’ll need to keep this in mind. Those that allow you to drag instruments in from a browser might offer the choice of using an existing instrument track or creating a new one. Some DAWs (Cubase, Sonar) allow you to open instruments in a ‘rack’ and then connect to them from MIDI or instrument tracks. Others (Logic) make a plugin menu available from the track itself.

We’ve prepared videos for eight major DAWs showing you the basics of loading plugins, along with a few handy tips you won’t want to miss: > Cockos Reaper – bit.ly/LPIreaper > Cakewalk Sonar – bit.ly/LPIsonar > PreSonus Studio One – bit.ly/LPIstudioone > Apple Logic – bit.ly/LPIlogic > Image-Line FL Studio – bit.ly/LPIflstudio > Steinberg Cubase – bit.ly/LPIcubase > Bitwig Studio – bit.ly/LPIbitwig > Ableton Live – bit.ly/LPIableton

Plugin folder locations So how does your DAW know where to look for your plugins? Actually, it might not. Mac users have it easy, as there are OS-specified folders into which plugins are installed. These folders can be found by going to your Library folder (if you can’t find it, go to the Finder’s Go menu, hold Alt, and a Library option should appear). find the Audio directory, and then the Plug-Ins folder within. There you will find more folders still. One will be labelled Components – this is where your AU plugins reside. Other folders will be found alongside it for VST and VST3 plugins. If you’re a Pro Tools user, you’ll find your plugins in an Avid or Digidesign folder. If your installers don’t automatically install the plugins into the proper folder, you should manually copy them into the relevant folders listed above. One caveat: there will likely be two sets of folders under two different Library locations.

If you’re using Apple’s OS X, all your VST, VST3 and Audio Units go into pre-determined locations

One is for all users, the other is for administrator use. If your DAW has trouble seeing a plugin, you might need to move it from one Library to the other, though the system folder is usually the one to use.

Uninstalling plugins from OS X usually requires little more than putting the Component or VST file in the Trash. Sometimes an uninstaller will be offered, though. On Windows, you can choose the location of your VST plugins folders. Some DAWs will create one when you install them, but both DAW and plugin installers will often give you an option of pointing to the plugin directory you’d like to use. It usually looks something like C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VST Plugins. Some plugins are delivered as only DLL files, and need to be copied to your chosen directory. Once you’ve installed your plugins, think twice about moving them. Some plugins rely on support files installed into the same directory. To duplicate plugins elsewhere on the drive, use shortcuts on Windows (right-click to create one) or aliases on Macs (Cmd-Alt-dragging). October 2016 / Computer musiC / 113

>  make music now  /  blast from the past

blast

from the

past

It’s now seen as quaint, quirky and altogether retro, but in 1982, the C64’s SID 6581 sound chip was at the cutting edge of computer technology

Commodore 64 Pop quiz: what’s the biggest selling computer model of all time? Various Apple, Dell, Hewlett Packard, or even Atari models spring instantly to mind, but none of those companies’ products have ever matched the staggering sales numbers of the Commodore 64. Released in 1982, the Commodore 64 was a watershed. For $595, the C64 offered advanced graphics, sure, but more importantly to us, a built-in sound synthesis chip with unprecedented opportunities for software developers. The MOS Technology SID (Sound Interface Device) chip was designed by none other than Bob Yannes, who would later co-found Ensoniq, a company whose synthesisers and samplers would help to bring the price of electronic music within reach of the gigging musician. A musician himself, Yannes was unimpressed by the capabilities of computer sound processors of the time, and turned his attentions toward developing a sound chip with a fully fledged subtractive synthesiser onboard. The resulting chip offered three independently programmable oscillators, each with sawtooth, triangle, pulse and ‘pseudorandom noise’ waves from which to choose. A multimode filter allowed low-, high-

and band-pass filtering which could be combined to form a notch filter. Unlike previous computer sound chips, the SID offered three ADSR envelopes (one for each oscillator). Oscillator sync and ring modulation (using the triangle waveforms) were also provided. Input options included a pair of 8-bit A/D converters (for game controllers and eventually mouse control) as well as an audio input that could be used to mix the sound with external signals. Thanks to a less-than-ideal manufacturing process, the Commodore’s 6581 chip could be tricked into supplying a virtual fourth channel that could be used for primitive 4-bit sample playback, a feature that was gleefully exploited by many a game developer of the day, initially cropping up as a resource for sampled speech. The sound of the SID chip is inextricably linked with game music, and more than a few top game composers made their initial impression writing for C64 titles, Chris Hülsbeck and Martin Galway among them. The C64 may be long gone, but the bleeping, chirping SID sound is as vital as ever. Swedish hardware manufacturers Elektron got their start with the SIDstation, a hardware box built around surplus SID chips, and their recently

tech SPecS Year of manufacture 1982-1987 Original sale value $595 Current price $70-$200 Number made 12.5m – 17m

discontinued Monomachine SF-60+ MkII counts a stonking SID emulation among its many available synthesis engines. Software SID emulations are plentiful, with countless variations freely available across all platforms, though as you might guess, some purists insist on the real deal. As such, SID chips – and Commodore 64 computers – have become wildly popular among DIY builders. Thankfully, secondhand prices are still reasonable, though there are some unscrupulous folks making and selling counterfeits to eager, unwary buyers. The Commodore 64 – and the sound chip that provided its distinctive voice – went off the market way back in 1987, but the sounds it made continue to inspire and impress.

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Three great plugin alternatives

Plogue ChiPsounds

odo synths unknown 64

de la ManCha basiC65

Truly a labour of love, Chipsounds is the product of four years of research into classic computer and game chips. Cross-platform and available for VST, AU, RTAS and AAX formats, Chipsounds brings you not only a bang-on clone of the Commodore 64’s SID chip, but thirteen other classic computer and game console emulations as well. www.plogue.com

Windows users are spoiled for choice when it comes to free SID emulators. Some of the best freeware developers on the scene have whipped up their takes on the C64, and veteran Synthedit developer Odo Synths have contributed several of them over the years. With an interface that’ll instantly take you back, Unknown 64 is the best of the lot. theodosynthsarchive.wordpress.com

Another Windows-only freebie, basic65 offers a dead-on copy of the C64 signal path along with a pair of arpeggiators for creating those signature sequenced passages so popular among game composers. Ring mod, oscillator sync, and low-res grit and grunge make basic65 an obvious choice for your next chiptune opus. delamanchavst.wordpress.com

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