Future Music - May 2017 UK

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ALAN WALKER BReaKs DOWN

ALONE Issue 317

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FM | WELCOME

Editor Si Truss, [email protected] Reviews Editor/Online Content Manager Simon Arblaster, [email protected] Art Editor Phil Cheesbrough, [email protected] Production Editor James Russell, [email protected] BIG THANKS TO… Catherine Hood, Joe Rossitter, Dan ‘JD73’ Goldman, Hamish Mackintosh, Danny Turner, Tim Cant, Roy Spencer, Ben Wilson, Jono Buchanan, Bruce Aisher, Jon Musgrave, Olly Curtis, Joseph Branston, Joby Sessions, Daniel Byrne, Mark Gyver, Oli Bell, Robbie Stamp, Adam Lee ADVERTISING For Ad enquiries please contact: Leon Stephens, [email protected] MARKETING Direct Marketing Executive: Will Hardy PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION Production Controller: Fran Twentyman Production Manager: Mark Constance Printed in the UK by: William Gibbons & Sons Ltd on behalf of Future Distributed in the UK by: Marketforce (UK), 2nd Floor, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HU CIRCULATION Trade Marketing Manager: Michelle Brock Tel: +44 (0)207 429 3683 SUBSCRIPTIONS UK reader order line & enquiries: 0844 848 2852 Overseas reader order line & enquiries: +44 (0)1604 251045 Online enquiries: www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk Email: [email protected] LICENSING Senior Licensing & Syndication Manager: Matt Ellis, [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)1225 442244 MANAGEMENT Managing Director, Magazines Division: Aaron Asadi Art & Design Director: Ross Andrews Music Group Editor-In-Chief: Daniel Griffiths

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Synth Power Up

It’s no secret that we love a good retro synth over here at FM. Nothing gets us hot under the collar like an old-fashioned, VCO-packing behemoth, preferably clad in plenty of wood panelling and boasting an impenetrably complex voltage controlled modulation system… Still, we’ll freely admit that for all their warmth and character, the analogue classics can’t hold a candle to today’s most leading plug-ins when it comes to flexibility, complexity and sheer sonic power. It’s these qualities we’re celebrating in this month’s cover feature. We’ll explore some of the cutting-edge techniques made possible by modern synthesis technology, and show you how you can use these to add power, depth and complexity to your own music. To make the most of the tutorials, be sure to grab the latest videos, audio examples and tutorial files from http://vault.futuremusic.co.uk We hope you enjoy the issue!

Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. Registered office: Registered office: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. You are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to the price and other details of products or services referred to in this publication. Apps and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our control. We are not responsible for their contents or any changes or updates to them. If you submit unsolicited material to us, you automatically grant Future a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in all editions of the magazine, including licensed editions worldwide and in any physical or digital format throughout the world. Any material you submit is sent at your risk and, although every care is taken, neither Future nor its employees, agents or subcontractors shall be liable for loss or damage.

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FM | CONTENTS

38

IN THE STUDIO WITH: Nathan Fake We track down the new Ninja Tune signee to his Norfolk studio – get a load of his gear collection, and find out why he’s dropped the soft synths for his new album Providence

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This Issue | Contents

88 94

98 82

60

IN THE STUDIO WITH: Teengirl Fantasy Five years after Tracer, the duo are back with their trademark hypnotic sound

rEvIEWS

68

In-depth tests of all the latest gear INCLUDES AUDIOl

78 Roland System-8 INCLUDES AUDIOl

82 Teenage Engineering PO-32 Tonic

TECHNIQUE

86 Waldorf KB37

Essential production advice and ideas

88 Roli Blocks 92 Round-Up: UAD 9.1 94 Universal Audio Apollo Twin MkII 96 Group Test: Looping Tools 98 Audio-Technica AE2300 100 iZotope Neutron 102 Sounds & Samples

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78

INCLUDES VIDEOl

rEvIEW: Roland System-8 The new plug-out synth is fully loaded with Jupiter-8 and Juno-106 emulations

100 86

Cutting Edge Synths Up-to-the-minute sound design skills

55

INCLUDES VIDEOl

Producer’s Guide Build your own multiband setups

68

INCLUDES VIDEOl

Modular Monthly Malekko’s Voltage Blocks CV sequencer 7

FM | ONliNE VaulT

On the FM Vault vault.futuremusic.co.uk Future Music has outgrown its covermount DVD! We wanted to bring you more samples, sounds and high-quality video than ever before, so we’re putting it up online for you to download. Simply head to the FM ‘Vault’ at the link above, login/ register, then hit ‘add a magazine’ to register this issue and get all the video, audio and samples.

Sample packS

Exclusive new sounds with every issue grOOvE CrImINAlS prESENT…

SH Collection

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loops, hits and multis generated with the gritty sound engines of Roland’s iconic SH-101 and SH-09 monosynths

VIDeO & aUDIO

Hear the gear first with our demos ON vIDEO

AUDIO DEmOS

> Cutting-Edge Synth Power > Modular Monthly: Voltage Block > The Track: Alan Walker

> Roland System-8 > Teenage Engineering PO-32 Tonic

CyClICK SAmplES prESENT…

Bendy Basslines

268

diving and swooping loops and lines giving you the gritty, pitchbend-heavy sound of modern D’n’B and EDM

PLUS

ACCESS THE FM SaMPlE aRCHiVE!

Download the ‘Sample Archive’ packs and get over 8GB of loops, hits and instruments from our back catalogue of high-quality and royalty-free samples. From vintage synths and beats to esoteric sounds and FX – think of it as our best of. All the samples you need to create great music!

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48 INCLUDES VIDEOl

THE TrACK: Alan Walker, Alone. The Brit-nominated Norwegian breaks it down for us in the studio

This Issue | Contents

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FEATUrE: Cutting-Edge Synth Power Make your most modern patches yet with this masterclass of futuristic synthesis techniques

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IN THE STUDIO WITH: The Magnetic Fields For his eleventh studio album, songwriter Stephin Merritt has penned fifty autobiographical songs spanning fifty years

12 16 14 14

15

Expert tips, techniques and tutorials

38

16 Classic Album: Sander van Doorn, Supernaturalistic

60 Interview: Teengirl Fantasy

14 Output Analog Strings

23 Album Reviews

68 Modular Monthly

14 TAL-Dub-X

26 Feature: Cutting Edge Synth Power

104 Advice

15 Talking Shop: Juveniles

FEATUrES

In the Studio with: Nathan Fake

55 Producer’s Guide

106 Gear Guide

FIlTEr

Find us online at www.futuremusic.co.uk

Watch our videos www.youtube.com/ futuremusicmagazine

All the latest gear from around the world 12 Behringer’s big plans

20 Subscribe to FM

Follow us on Twitter @futuremusicmag

Join us on Facebook www.facebook.com/ futuremusicmagazine 9

Contents | This Issue

BONUS SAmplES

See this month’s selection of free demos at vault.futuremusic.co.uk

01 01 02 03 04

05 06 www.loopmasters.com 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08

07

08

https://splice.com 01

Splice Sounds Varien Steampunk Speakeasy

02

Splice Sounds Future Bass Leads + Melodies

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Looptone Ministry Of House Loopmasters Presents UK Garage & 2 Step Ghost Syndicate Pres. Assault Drum & Bass Samplestate Kreature Modern Tech House Loopmasters Pres Liquidism Drum & Bass Loopmasters Juke Footwork 101 Singomakers G>Bass Loopmasters Presents Vibrations Instrumental Electronica

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FM | FILTER

highlights… 14 Output Analog Strings

12

14 TAL-Dub-X

15 Talking Shop: Juveniles

16 Classic Album: Sander van Doorn, Supernaturalistic

The Future Of Music | Filter

Behringer have big plans… The ARP 2600, OSCar and a $400 Moog Model D join the pile of mooted analogue clones

I

t’s just weeks since Behringer’s much-trailed DeepMind 12 hit the shelves, but it seems company founder Uri Behringer has the wind in his synthesis sails. According to a series of forum posts from the man himself, the German company have at least four new synths in the works, with plans for up to 20 in the near future. These will apparently include “both innovative new synths as well as reviving classics”. On the revival front, Behringer have expressed an interest in recreating ARP’s mammoth semi-modular 2600, the classic ’80s monosynths of British outfit Oxford Synth Company and, most recently, Tom Oberheim’s OB-Xa. Few details have been shared about what form these clones might take, but going on previous Behringer form we’d assume that affordability would be a top priority. More details are promised in the coming weeks

– no doubt via Behringer’s favoured outlet, the Gearslutz forums.

Model behaviour Slightly more concrete are the company’s plans for an affordable, desktop recreation of the Moog Model D. Announced last month, the Behringer D is touted as an analogue monosynth based on authentic VCO, VCF and VCA designs from the original Model D. Early design renders show a desktop unit with a control interface faithful to its ’70s inspiration. A number of modern touches are promised too though, including Eurorack compatibility, full MIDI implementation and 16-voice MIDI poly chaining for combining multiple synthesizers into a single mammoth polyphony. Before you get too excited, note that the Behringer D is still in the pre-prototype phase, although the

plans have already generated a considerable chunk of hype online, which we’d assume would be enough to convince the company to move forward with the project. If and when it does arrives, Behringer’s Model D clone will go up against Moog’s own recent, well-received reissue. The main difference is that Behringer are claiming their version will have a projected price point of $400, as opposed to the $3,500 retail price of Moog’s official version. This is far from the first time Uri Behringer has expressed an interest in reviving classic instruments. Before the DeepMind 12 was fully revealed it was, at one point, touted as a revival of the Roland Jupiter-8. The company have previously teased a budget ARP Odyssey recreation too, and are supposedly still working on an analogue drum machine based around the 808 and 909. Plans have also been mooted for a desktop version of the DeepMind 12, so that ARP 2600 may have to join the back of a fairly long development queue. If, in what form, and when any of these instruments might appear is still anyone’s guess, but it’s certainly fair to assume that Behringer are hard at work. “We’re all in and the teams are on fire,” Behringer stated in the latest forum post. “Exciting times!”

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Filter | The Future Of Music

Splice support comes to the Toraiz SP-16

Output unleash Analog Strings

If you’re looking for a strings library with a contemporary twist, Output believes that its new Analog Strings instrument could be for you. Promising unique and cutting-edge strings, sounds are created by combining two sampled orchestras, vintage synths and unconventional sound design techniques. There’s also “advanced” modulation routing, dual tape loopers, dual arpeggiators, flux and macro control. Analog Strings costs $199 and runs in Kontakt and the free Kontakt Player (v5.6.5 or later) on PC/Mac. Find out more on the Output website.

It’s the end of the road for the Tempest… Released in 2011, Dave Smith and Roger Linn’s Tempest is one of the most ambitious and feature-packed drum machines, but its creators have now announced that it’s reached the

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end of its development cycle and no further OS updates will be forthcoming. Writing on the DSI forum, Dave Smith explained that, having implemented various requested

features and enhancements over the years, the team have now hit the limit of what the drum machine’s onboard processing ability is capable of. Although Smith acknowledges that there are still a few bugs remaining, they have “addressed the bugs affecting the Tempest’s essential operation and feel that it is stable, reliable, has abundant functionality, and is very fun to play.” Co-creator Roger Linn added, “Even with some remaining minor bugs, Tempest is incredibly deep and remarkably functional, and in my opinion has no competition for what it does.” Tempest certainly holds a unique place in the hardware drum machine market, but it feels like this announcement marks the beginning of the end of its lifespan. It is still available to buy, however.

Pioneer DJ have come together with Splice, the cloud-based sample provider, to enable Splice Sounds integration with the Toraiz SP-16 hardware sampler. You can now build custom samples kits and sequences online, download them as SCENE files and export them straight to your SP-16. Everything is bundled up to make the process as seamless as possible, and you can then start working with the sounds on Pioneer’s hardware. To mark the launch of this collaboration, Splice is offering a month’s free trial of its service. Head to the site and sign up, then use the promo code TORAIZ16 on the subscriptions page to take advantage of this offer.

Togu’s TAL-Dub delay is reborn as TAL-Dub-X

Togu Audio Line made their name releasing free plugins, one of which was TAL-Dub, a delay effect. Now it’s been rebooted as TAL-Dub-X, which comes with new features and 64-bit support. Rather than being an emulation of a specific hardware delay unit, this promises its own “special sound”. It’s not a clean effect, and comes with a saturation stage and low-pass filter for added flexibility. A spec list is below, and you can find out more and download a demo on the Togu Audio Line website. TAL-Dub-X costs $25 and is available for PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX formats.

The Future Of Music | Filter

What's your favourite thing to use in the studio? “I don't have a preference between hardware and plug-ins. I'd go hardware for the ‘classic’ feel; software to get creative. I've just discovered mixing with an analogue summing mixer and I love it! I send groups the summing mixer, with a Bricasti M7 for my main reverb and a Stereo Toolbox on the output of the mix.”

TALKINGSHOP

Juveniles

We grill the funky French two-piece for their tips

J

ean-Sylvain Le Gouic and Thibaut Doray have just come out of the studio after finishing work on their latest album. Without Warning follows 2012's self-titled LP with a storm of upbeat retro synthpop.

FM: Tell us about your studio… “We recently turned the rehearsal studios we’ve been using for years into a recording studio. We have a control room with some hardware and it's patched to three small cabins and a big live room.”

Everyone's got to have one – what's your choice of DAW? “I work on Logic Pro, Ableton Live and Pro Tools, I also program my patches in Pure Data. DAWs are a medium – just like composing on different instruments for a song. Ableton is by far the easiest to get an idea down in minutes.” What dream bits of gear would you love to have in your studio? “A couple of DBX 162s, a Drawmer 1962, and a couple of Distressors!” What’s the latest addition to your studio?

“TAL Sampler. A lot of the first Juveniles demos were made using these plug-ins from Patrick Kunz. I love writing my ideas on the road with TAL-Bassline & TAL-U-NO.”

Juveniles’s essential production advice Give space to what's important “Sidechain compression is well known for its pumping effect, but it also has a purpose via multiband compression. If you have multiple elements fighting for a place in the low end of your mix – like a kick drum and a bass – you can sidechain only the low end of the bass with the input from the kick. The bass won't duck like with a traditional sidechain, but if that's what you're looking for, it's a good option. The same technique can be applied with vocals that need to be upfront in the mix.”

Read the full interview: http://bit.ly/fmtsjuve Talking Shop continues regularly at www.futuremusic.co.uk

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FM | CLASSIC ALBUM

Sander van Doorn Supernaturalistic Words by Roy Spencer Photos © Linda van den Broek

Doorn Records, 2008 For Trance superstar Sander van Doorn’s debut album he knew he wanted to push himself, and the genre. The scene was in danger of becoming stale and predictable. Too many releases followed the same patterns and too many producers coasted along with the same stock sounds. Over the course of Supernaturalistic, released on his own Doorn Records imprint, the flying Dutchman grabbed Trance by the scruff and shook the damn thing up. Techno beats met House chords, moodier textures brought in Soul, and rigid tempo templates were ignored in favour of letting the tracks find their own steam, rather than one dictated by the current dancefloor bangers. “A lot of Trance out there at the time had started to use the same formula,” says Doorn. “I wanted to add other genres to the

16

mix, and bring in things like more melodic breakdowns.” Armed with his Nord Lead 2X, a Virus C, Logic 7 and a little bit of Space Designer, Doorn challenged himself to be surprising, diverse, and do what he felt, not what was expected. “There were a lot of tracks produced using the same synths like the Roland JP-8000, and a lot of people were using the same kind of breakdowns, and pretty much the same drops. It needed a little changing up here and there.” Supernaturalistic tracks like 15 broke the rules of 16-bar arrangements, while Grasshopper leapt about like its insect namesake. Album opener Look Inside Your Head took its inspiration from Alt Rockers Pixies, and By Any Demand took its hook from an early ’90s Hip-Hop club rocker. The rules had gone out the window, and the resulting glorious noise was causing Doorn to be hailed as ‘The Saviour of Trance’. “I wanted to shake it up,” he says. “I started to bring in more of the Techno beats, and moody sounds, and experiment with bpms. Elsewhere on the album you have tracks that are more laid-back, and others that lean towards techy, or more progressive sounds. “Through combing all these different types of sounds I guess I was making Trance a little more interesting to listen to at that point. It did get a bit more diverse after that.”

Classic Album | Filter

Track by track with Sander van Doorn Look Inside Your Head “It’s been fun to look back at this album. It was made around ten years ago. It was a very important thing to do because it was my first album. “I was just producing away, and at one point I had a lot of tracks that were just ready to be released. It was quite an amount. I just thought, ‘Why not do an album?’. “It was fun. When doing an artist album you can take steps towards different directions, musically. “Look Inside Your Head was always going to be the first track, though. It actually came into my head when I was listening to a Pixies album. There was this one track, Where Is My Mind?, that inspired me to get in the studio. I changed all the notes and got inspired to make my own version of it. It was a combination of moody vibes and synths, and it came together really quickly. It pretty much produced itself, to be honest, and it just felt right to open the album with.”

“It’s shaping up to be a really cool year. I’m getting ready to release my, as yet untitled, third album. I’ve just got back from my honeymoon and am back to work. The album will be very diverse. I’m going back to the more melodic sounds, taking it into new brackets. It will have an old feel to it, too, combined with progressive sounds, techy sounds, and more House sounds. It will feature some guests. HI-LO will definitely be on there, as will Landscape. I also have a few other projects on the go, mainly a lot of solo tracks combining different sounds. I’m going to remix one of my older tracks too.”

Riff “This started as a track that I didn’t know how to finish. I’d already had the main riff sound, but with a lot more notes. It was kind of going through a whole melody, but I couldn’t get the track really going. Sometimes that happens. “It didn’t have enough drive to make it a fun track. So I simplified everything, and only ended up using two notes of my original melody. It worked, so I repeated that across the track. It ended up creating a lot of energy, which is exactly what I needed for that track so I was very happy with the way it turned out. “I just added some cool beats and it came together very quickly after that.”

By Any Demand “This samples the rapper, King Bee. I loved that track [King Bee’s Back By Dope Demand]. I’d always wanted to use that sample. I originally sampled it, and based the whole track around it, but when we went to clear the original track we couldn’t use the

“The album is a combination of the kind of sound that people would have been familiar with because of the things I’d put out before and through DJing, and some more experimental tracks. Tracks like Riff would have been the style of tracks I was playing out, so people would have been used to that kind of sound. With tracks like Grasshopper I got to go in a completely different direction. That track was a combination of genres.”

original vocals, so I got in contact with MC Pryme from King Bee, who re-recorded it. I took him into the studio and recorded the vocals into my track, which was pretty cool to do. “It was a really good track for the charts in Holland, as well. It stayed in the commercial charts for three or four weeks, so I was really happy with that. It was one of the first tracks that ever did that.”

15 “For this one I just had a basic melody going and then I started messing with the arrangement. Normally in Dance music a track traditionally has eight bars or 16 bars, but for this track I experimented with removing one bar at the end, so instead of 16 bars I now had 15 bars. I don’t think anybody had done that before so I thought I’d try it out. So that’s where the title comes from. “I used to record under the alias Purple Haze, for making tracks with a more melodic flow. This track was very much in that vibe, as well.”

Pura Vida “This one has a summer feel to it, for me. I’d actually just came back from a holiday in Costa Rica where they have the motto, or life saying, which was ‘pura vida’, which means ‘pure life’. It’s a way of saying, ‘Everything’s okay’. This track is quite optimistic. “A lot of this album is dark, but there are flashes of light. I normally start a track with an optimistic tone, but it always turns out to have a pretty moody melody by the end. They always start positive, though [laughs].”

Sushi “I was working on this track, and I had this nice House sound going with a really relaxed melody, but it didn’t really have enough drive in it. So I started thinking about this festival called Awakenings, which is one of the bigger Techno festivals in Holland, and I’d just been there a couple of weeks before. “I just pictured myself stood in one of the fields, listening to the

music, thinking, ‘What type of melody do I want to hear now?’. So Sushi started to evolve around my whole feeling of being at that festival. “I added some moody chords towards the end of the track to give it a bit more speed and it turned out to be a pretty cool experiment.”

The Bass “It all started with the bassline. I’d been messing with it for a while. I decided to keep the bass at one tone and try and create a real driving track around it. I started producing and got to the breakdown and used this FX sound that really built towards the drop. I was really interested in getting the drop just right so I started digging through my old library of old House samples and found this very simple House chord that was just perfect for the drop. It just completed the whole track.”

Lobby “This was the first track of mine that wasn’t straight-up Dance music

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Filter | Classic Album

related. I had the opportunity to explore different moods and speeds because this was an artist album. With tracks like Lobby I got to make music that wasn’t just like a normal Dance music beat. “So I had that in mind and started working on this piano sound, and at one point this track came out. It had a little bit more of an Ambient sound to it. “It actually gets used for a lot of documentaries in Holland. I was watching TV the other day and I heard it going round on a really moody and dramatic documentary. It was quite funny.”

Apple “I had a Faithless track in mind when I was making this called We Come 1 [from 2001’s Outrospective album]. The melody in that song at one point reverses itself and comes back to the start. I really liked that sound and had always wanted to try and incorporate it into one of my tracks, and when I was working on this Apple track I decided to try that reverse technique. For me it created that same kind of Faithless feel. “Then I added a techy, driven bass that held it all together. After

that it clicked into place. This one also works really well on the dancefloor, which is important too.”

Grasshopper “This did really well. It was picked up by a lot of the cooler DJs as well back then. It was an experiment. I’d just started working on Logic Pro 7, which had this new FX plug-in

“I was just experimenting with this track. I originally thought about releasing it under a different guise because it didn’t really have that traditional Sander van Doorn sound that people were used to. But, in the end I just thought, ‘This is me. This is my sound.’ If I wanted to try something new, I decided I could. “I called it Grasshopper because it jumps from one part to another [laughs].”

When doing an artist album you can take steps towards different directions, musically called Space Designer. You could add some really nice, cool, warm reverb to your melodies. “I used it in combination with sounds from my Virus C. It helped me take the whole melody to an ultimate climax. Then I just dropped it back to like, nothing, with just a kick and a bassline.

“Back then the studio was based around my Mac Pro. I was working on Logic. I was just making the switch from Logic 5 to Logic 7 – I skipped 6. Then I used that in combination with the Virus synth from Access, which was my main hardware. I also had a Nord Lead 2X. That was the only hardware I had. The rest I pretty much did with software, using basic synths from Logic, combined with a lot of synths from the Virus C. Logic 7 also had a great FX plug-in called the Space Designer, which came in very handy. The Virus was my main point of focus, though. It was a digital synth, but it had a really analogue feel to it. I would just mess around with the buttons and see what came out [laughs]. Oh yeah, this was around the time that I’d just bought the Evolver from Dave Smith Instruments. I used that a lot. It’s actually where the riff sound in my track Riff came from. I was really into that back then.”

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King Bee Royal Jelly Dutch Hip-Hop banger from 1990 that took over clubs worldwide. Sander van Doorn honoured this classic by sampling it for his own album. add these to your playlist: Back By dope demand, Feel the Flow, Must| Bee the Music|

Dozer

“This was a lot of fun to make. I wanted to try and find a different mood for this one. I was just messing around in the studio and this started to come together. I called it Dozer because it reminded me of a bulldozer. It had a really tough Rock beat. I used an ‘ahhh’ sounding synth, which kind of took me back to tracks like [New Order’s] Blue Monday, or stuff by The Farm. “I used that kind of sound and went about trying to build a decent element of suspense around it. Then I added a nice kick drum sound and a really techy kind of bassline over the top. It came together really well. It was definitely one for the rougher types of DJ sets that I’d do.”

Outrospective

In The Studio With… Sander van Doorn

LIKE IT? TRY THESE…

“It was a perfect end track for me. It had a more Rock feel to it. It wasn’t on a House beat. It built more around a guitar sound. For me it felt like it had a little bit more of a U2 feel to it. It sounded like the perfect ending. “Oh yeah, If you leave the track playing after it’s ended there’s a live recording of the end of one of my sets from a gig in Washington, DC. I recorded my set and forgot to turn it off at the end so the microphone picks up the crowd. I thought it was a funny way to end. Speaking of secret tracks. If you start track one on the album and immediately rewind it you’ll find an extra hidden record called Minus 1!”

WANT To KNoW MoRE? For everything Sander van Doorn, including the latest on his new album, head to: www.sandervandoorn.com

Pixies ‎ Surfer Rosa Alternative Rock classic. Stand out track Where Is My Mind? inspired Doorn’s own Look Inside Your Head from the title down. add these to your playlist: Where is My Mind?, Bone Machine, Vamos|

Faithless Outrospective Besides nicking their album title for his last track, Sander also took the way tracks like We Come 1 used reversed sounds for another Supernaturalistic track, Apple. add these to your playlist: We Come 1, donny X, Code|

New Order Power, Corruption & Lies Later collectors’ editions of this album contained smash hit 12-inch Blue Monday. Dorn says this monster track inspired some of the mood of his own song, Dozer. add these to your playlist: Blue Monday, age of Consent, ecstasy|

Sander van Doorn Eleve11 Check out Doorn’s follow-up album. More of the same genre-bending, plus his first true crossover hits. add these to your playlist: love is darkness, Koko, rolling the dice|

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FM | ALBUM REVIEWS

Real World Records

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épublique Amazone is the inspiring debut album from Les Amazones d’Afrique, an all-female collective of West African musicians who are campaigning for gender equality around the world. Bringing together an eclectic mix of musicians from across the continent, including worldrenowned and emerging talent, the record is an electrifying melting pot of styles, cultures and time periods. The vocals drift between English, French and Mandinka as the lyrics take on domestic violence, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, gang rape and oppression while also promoting love and female empowerment. République Amazone’s fascinatingly diverse soundscape sees traditional and ancient styles blended with Afro-rhythms and then pumped through an undercurrent of Dub and Electronica. This engaging sound is then constantly flecked with Hip-Hop, Funk, Blues, Reggae and Jazz in an album that moves through disparate

album of the month

Les Amazones d’Afrique République Amazone genres, tempos and moods, giving an all-encompassing snapshot of the spirit of contemporary Africa. The record is alive with energy, colour and passion. But it is not just their exhilarating, provocative and invigorating music that is helping Les Amazones d’Afrique to make the world a better place – the band raise money for the Panzi Foundation who treat women affected by sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Dynamic, inspiring and endlessly talented, Amazones d’Afrique are triggering the change of attitudes and perceptions armed with an album that sounds so good that it will get you dancing as you clench your fists in solidarity. Tom Jones ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: Dombolo, Doona, Anisokoma|

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Recommended

Reviews | Albums

Mr C Incidents Superfreq

Few people have had as lasting an effect on the UK’s underground club culture as Mr C. Forever pushing in new directions, the LA-based veteran now returns with his third album, Incidents. A masterclass in all things Acid, the record barbs with jagged synth lines, trippy FX, stabbing basslines and wild syncopations throughout. Yet for all of its tough Acid, this is Mr C’s most expansive and diverse work to

date. Feeling much like a love letter to the history of club music throughout his long and distinguished career, Incidents also draws on elements of Dub, Electro, Ska, Roots, Italo Disco, old-school Techno, Chicago House, breaks and Tech House. All meshed together with adept skill, the whole album feels like a condensed Mr C set. Merging modern club aesthetics with underground scenes

throughout the years, while also injecting a political edge, Incidents forms a unique and immersive energy that takes you on an unpredictable journey throughout time and space. As innovative and authentic as ever, Mr C remains a true and unmoveable bastion of club culture. Tom Jones ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: A Civil Dose, Stand Up, Shape Your Dreams|

8/10

Future Islands The Far Field 4AD

The Incredible Adventures of Captain P Escapism

ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST:

Soul People Music US House stalwart Fred P delivers a highly immersive and expansive record with Escapism. His second LP under his Captain P guise, Escapism is the New York DJ and producer’s seventh overall album. Released on his own Soul People Music imprint, the LP showcases some of his most personal and stylistically varied work to date. Ingrained with plenty of his trademark deepness and lush

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House and Techno, the record also sees the producer, real name Fred Peterkin, delving into a vast range of field recordings and sound collage. These excursions allow him to splay the record out into unexpected tangents, creating its diverse and expansive soundscape. There is also plenty of Peterkin’s usual lush deep House, Chi Town groove, Motor City Techno and Detroit

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he Far Field is undoubtedly the most anticipated of Future Islands’ albums so far. Despite forming in 2006, it wasn’t until their 2014 album, Singles, that the Synth-Pop outfit broke through onto the global consciousness. Almost three years on, the Baltimore trio follow it up with their fifth and most expressive album to date. Like much of their previous output, The Far Field is an emotion-laden exploration of dreamy Synth-Pop and New Wave. Brimming with an intense yet buoyant energy, the record bristles with shimmering synths, fluid basslines, warm pads, subtle melodies and Samuel T. Herring’s distinctive vocals. Bold, confident and expressive, yet with an intimate, melancholic vulnerability, The Far Field channels difficult emotions into finding joy, strength and positivity in life. The LP effortlessly shifts moods, jumping from reflective to joyous, heartbroken and defiant with consummate ease. There is a breeze of naturally flowing energy throughout the entire record as each of the 12 addictive tracks slot into place with an evolving sense of groove and vigour. The magnetic power and potency of the album mirrors that of Future Islands themselves. The Far Field is yet another reminder of the individuality and singularity that makes Future Islands one of America’s most exciting and distinctive bands. Tom Jones

Hip-Hop bristling away throughout the album too. Spacey synths, warm pads, deep, rolling basslines and tight drums combine to build a distinctive sound palette. Laid-back, refined but with plenty of sparkling club fodder, this is Fred P at his subtle best. Tom Jones All I Want To Say, Way Of The|

ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST:

Vibe, Escapism|

Ran, Cave, Candles|

8/10

9/10

thesis n y s te u in -m e h -t o -t p u r Maste st from o m e th t e g d n a s e u iq n h tec uments tr s in l a tu ir v t s e ti h ig m s ’ y toda

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ere in 2017, we’re living in a golden age of music-making. Computing power and DSP technologies are more advanced than ever, so hot new synthesisers are hitting the market on a weekly basis, giving today’s producer convenient access to tools that can generate almost any sound. From speakerincising leads, animalistic bass splurges and beautifully shimmering pads through to dream-like chord washes and ear-defying FX creations, anyone can now design sounds that leave dancefloors screaming for more. Yet with the mind-bending complexity of modern synthesis reaching further and further heights, it’s become all too easy to scavenge through ready-made presets and banks in search for an easy fix; or even copy your favourite artists’ sounds in a cookie-cutter fashion. If we’re describing you, then it’s

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time to ditch those lazy habits and step up your sound design game once and for all! Conveniently, you’ve already uncovered a way to elevate your patch-building chops up to advanced level: simply flip the page and dive into our Cutting-Edge Synth Power guide! Aside from giving fundamental synthesis techniques a thoroughly modern twist, we’ll design a raft of unique synth patches from scratch, incorporating futuristic synth design techniques such as intricate sequencer modulation, vocal resynthesis, wavetable bass design and much more. Plus, in addition to our 9-page treasure trove of expert synthesis tips and step-by-step preset-building tutorials, we’ll use screen-capture video to take you on two epic preset design sessions – with no edits or cutaways in sight! To follow along, simply grab the vids, presets and audio from this issue’s Vault.

Cutting-edge Synth Power! | Feature

Modern Synthesis 101 To kick off, let’s briefly cover the most common synthesis types, starting with the most famous of all – subtractive synthesis. As its name implies, you begin with very simple, harmonically-dense oscillator shapes (sine, saw, square, etc) before carving away these harmonics with the synth’s filter. Although this approach can generate a broad palette of bread-and-butter timbres, you’re pretty limited to classic analogue or VA sounds – think Moog basses, G-Funk leads, Juno-esque pads, and so on. Therefore, in modern sound design situations, it helps to be able to generate more complex harmonics and overtones. Popularised by the classic Yamaha DX7 synth (and now Native Instruments’ emulation, FM8), the also aptly-named frequency modulation synthesis – FM for short – uses the inverse approach to subtractive. By using an inaudible ‘modulator’ oscillator to wobble the frequency of an audible ‘carrier’ oscillator at an audio-rate speed,

complex harmonic overtones are generated within the carrier signal. At restrained modulation amounts, this can create everything from realistic instrument emulations through to metallic sound effects and searing growls. Go too far though, and you’ll end up with a clangorous, inharmonic mess! Another sound-generating method that operates inversely to the old-school subtractive approach is additive synthesis, which is found in modern synths such as NI’s Razor. Based on Joseph Fourier’s proof that all sounds are made up of multiple sine waves, this technique combines hundreds of basic sine building blocks (‘partials’) at various frequencies, which are modulated in frequency and amplitude to generate interesting combinations of harmonics. Operating in a similar vein to additive is spectral synthesis, as found in modern synths like iZotope’s Iris 2 and Apple Alchemy, whereby a signal is split into ‘bins’

(ie, frequency bands) for visual manipulation on a per-bin basis. Then there’s the much-discussed technique of wavetable synthesis, featured in NI Massive and Xfer Serum amongst others. A wavetable is comprised of hundreds of individual wave shapes, and by scanning through the index of these various waves, a whole array of modulating timbres are generated. As the current-day producer can import additional wavetables, or even now draw entire wavetables from scratch, this approach is probably the most common for creating Dubstepstyle ‘wobs’, dark D ’n’ B growls, evolving textures and more. Granular synthesis, meanwhile, breaks down a signal (usually an audio signal) into tiny – wait for it – grains! When these tiny chunks of sound are recombined at differing speeds and pitches, unique ambient and stretched timbres are possible. Propellerhead Reason’s Maelstrom synthesizer uses its own ‘graintable’ technology, a combination of the two previous methods. It stands to reason that these different synthesis types create wildly varying sounds, meaning that you should dig in and really experiment for yourself. And we haven’t even touched upon the various ways you can use samplers/resampling, layering, audio manipulation and signal processing to elevate the most basic of subtractive synth tones into more characterful sounds – we’ll leave that for another session! For now though, let’s dive in headfirst and get hands-on with some futuristic sound design…

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The importance of modulation On the previous page, we discussed the various synthesis methods that can be used to design the ultramodern synthesizer sounds heard in today’s cutting-edge genres. But why bother synthesizing your own efforts from scratch when sampled oscillators can be loaded into a sampler and played back with almost

zero effort or sound design knowledge? Well, a complex but static synth timbre is almost pointless if the sound is one single snapshot – a repeating, ‘machine gun’ sample or static oscillator will lack movement, variation and interest. The real key to futuristic, ear-catching synth sounds lies in

the way the sound’s frequencies, dynamics and harmonics alter over time. How is this done? Yep, you guessed it – through modulation! The fundamental principle behind synthesizer modulation is simple: instead of needing several physical fingers to get dials rotating, you can instead employ a synth’s built-in modules to do it for you, hands-free, by assigning one synth parameter to modulate another. The classic example is a low-frequency oscillator, or LFO for short – a sub-20Hz signal that creates a steady rhythmic pulse. By defining an LFO’s wave shape, then telling this (usually inaudible) signal to sweep multiple parameters at once – eg, a wavetable oscillator’s index amount, FM amount and the filter cutoff – by a particular amount, it becomes extremely easy to inject temporal vibe and motion into a synth patch, triggered with only a single note press. Other examples of modulators include envelopes, that are one-shot, four-stage dynamic shapes; and MIDI signals such as velocity and aftertouch.

Customisable modulators This stuff is basic analogue synthesis theory, of course, but traditional LFOs and other modulators are known to

Combining Multiple Synthesis Types Cutting-edge synths often let you combine several advanced synthesis methods at once – here are three of our faves The majority of today’s all-powerful synthesizers are jam-packed full of various synthesis types, ranging from frequency modulation (FM) and additive through to wavetable, phase distortion synthesis, subtractive and more. Having several types of sound-generating options all under one roof means you can combine these modes in futuristic new ways. Want to frequency-modulate two wavetable-morphing oscillators against each other? No problem! How about sculpting an additive oscillator with subtractive-style filters and envelopes? Of course you can! However, one caveat is that it can be easy to crank everything up to 11 and turn a smooth sound into an inharmonic mess – so go easy. With all this in mind, here are three top synths that let you mix and match synthesis types at will…

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Spectrasonics Omnisphere serves up a raft of synthesis options: subtractive, wavetable, granular, FM/ring mod and more – and you can even import samples and mess them up with the unique Harmonia and Innerspace algorithms.

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In Xfer Records Serum, if only one oscillator is assigned to subtractive or wavetable synthesis duties, you can modulate its frequency or amplitude with the other. Use the audible oscillator’s Warp dropdown – select FM or AM from the list, then ramp up the amount dial.

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Oh, Logic Pro X users, you lucky things. With Alchemy now included in the package as standard, you’ve got yourselves one of the deepest sample-based instruments around. Each patch’s four sources offer up granular, additive, spectral, sampler and VA.

spit out rudimentary shapes – sine, square, or steps, for example – that aren’t always that useful for designing complex rhythms and morphings. However, more and more modern synths are now incorporating more customisable, unpredictable modulators that amalgamate the various types of old. For example, plenty of synths now enable you to draw your own sequencer-style LFO shapes with multi-breakpoint envelopes. By syncing this kind of custom LFO to host tempo, you can dive in and design intricate fins, curves, peaks and troughs that will cause other parameters to duck and dive around other elements of your track, in perfect sync with beats and the overall rhythm. Conversely, by unsyncing an unusual LFO shape from your host’s bpm and setting its rate in Hertz, synth settings can be slowly swept over time to create Ambient-style bubblings and drifting soundscapes. Other useful modulator types with a heritage in old-school synthesis are step sequencers – ie, pattern-based grid devices that output uniform signals at a rhythmic division of your choosing; and arpeggiators, which swallow up incoming chords and spit those notes back out in sequential, monophonic patterns. Today’s power synths advance the primitive sequencers and arps of yesteryear by adding more options for manipulating step length, shape, per-note level, pitchbend, and much more.

Time to experiment While a knowledge of all this modulation theory is useful, it’s far easier to learn ‘on the job’, so to speak. Yep, that means firing up your favourite power synth and hooking up all these futuristic modulators to target parameters in an experimental fashion. We all know what it sounds like to modulate a synth’s filter cutoff with a standard sine wave LFO shape (hint: ‘wob, wob’!), but you’ll really advance your modern synth patches by pushing past the norm. For starters, design an intricate LFO shape or sequencer pattern, then use this to induce movement over tens of parameters at once, all by varying amounts of subtlety – for instance, FM depth, oscillator level, unison spread, filter cutoff/resonance, white noise colour, effects wet/dry mix… you get the idea!

Cutting-edge Synth Power! | Feature

Dissonant FM Drone With Form’s Vocal Resynthesis Want to morph the most basic of sound sources into a dystopian soundscape? Look no further than Native Instruments’ synth Form

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Futuristic resynthesis techniques are great for transforming simple recordings into mind-blowing synth sounds. Here, we start by dragging in a chunk of a vocal sample onto NI Form’s main window – the synth then analyses and resynthesizes the vocal sample into an oscillator for playback.

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Now over to the Sound page, where we blend in Form’s Additive Oscillator for a solid square wave layer, adding thickness. After this, we modulate the Osc FX>FM dial with a slow-moving sine LFO, which slowly introduces dissonant harmonic overtones over time.

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Now Form’s built-in FX will spice up the overall timbre further. We dial in the two Frequency Shaping bands to taste, and push up Drive for more grunt. The Dynamics, Unreal Reverb and Ping-Pong Delay effects then place the drone in a dense, cavernous, resonant space.

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In Form’s Sample tab, we set up a back-and-forth loop around a suitable portion of the vocal oscillator. Then, by reducing the Sample Length Speed right down to around 0.04 samples, we slow the playback right down to create a stretched tonal vocal effect.

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Over in the Form Osc section, we get the Formant knob wavering with a second, triangle-shaped LFO, which adds formant-wobbling to the main oscillator for timbral interest. We then assign the first sine LFO to the Osc FX>Shaper parameter for more expression and grit.

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To wrap up, we head back throughout the various pages and fine-tune our patch for visceral impact and temporal movement. The FM, FM Stereo, FM Multiply and Additive Oscillator Volume parameters all have their modulation amounts tweaked and refined to inject more FM-like sweeping dissonance.

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Evolving Ambient Pads With Oscillator Stacking By layering multiple oscillators and modulating each at a slow rate, you can quickly generate blissful ambience. Let’s dive in further

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Many modern synthesizers allow you to pile up multiple oscillators, combine various synthesis types and dial in uber-thick unison features. To demonstrate, we’ll create a complex ambient pad with Vengeance-Sound’s insanely powerful VPS Avenger. We start by triggering the synth with a basic C minor triad.

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A third sine oscillator is then used to provide basic solidity and consistency in the low-mids. After that, we program a fourth wavetable oscillator via the synth’s tempo-sync’d step sequencer, to provide a rhythmic ‘blip’ pattern that rides above the floatier elements.

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Let’s set up our first oscillator as the core evolving element of the pad. After dialling in some ultra-thick five-voice unison detune, we audition through the synth’s wavetable oscillators, settling on an organ-style wavetable. A free-running LFO is used to scan through the wavetable’s index for a constantly evolving timbre.

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Let’s add further movement. The jagged LFO from Step 3 is used to modulate the sequenced oscillator’s FM amount, which gently morphs the rhythmic blips in and out of a state of inharmonic noise for more treble texture. The same LFO also subtly wobbles the overdriven low-pass filter cutoff.

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Next, a contrasting wavetable type is called up as the second oscillator. A different free-running LFO – this time set to a more jagged curve shape – slowly modulates this oscillator wavetable index. The same LFO also modulates this oscillator’s level for more motion.

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Finally, we call upon Avenger’s plentiful effects for a splash of character: the Vinylizer module mixes in vinyl crackle and noise; Chorus adds swimming width; a Bitcrusher fades in treble fuzz and grit; and some ping-pong Delay injects ambience and lush repeats.

Mega-thick synths with stacking and layering The majority of our tutorials throughout this feature have one thing in common – we’ve blended our chosen synths’ multiple oscillators and/or processed signals in parallel to generate a fullfrequency, 3D sound. This isn’t a new concept by any means: the classic Minimoog bass sound, for

example, is comprised of all three oscillator tones, each tuned equally apart to create a thick sound spanning three octaves. One great approach when designing synth patches is to use one oscillator as the core provider of timbral character, movement and interest; then use the other signal

generators to bolster this main oscillator and fill out the frequency spectrum. This works well with morphing oscillators generated via wavetable or FM synthesis, as these methods inject dynamics and sinewy motion at the expense of solidity – yet a simple sub oscillator and sweeping white noise tone can merge in, lacking the bass weight and treble sharpness required. Another great technique we’ve touched upon in Sequenced Melodic Rhythms With Massive is the concept of filling in gaps left by one oscillator’s movement. If you’re moving one tone around with positive LFO modulation, try gently fading in a thinner oscillator that’s being negatively modulated with the same LFO. This embellishes the first signal with a subtler ‘mirror image’ signal for not-so-obvious interest and individuality. Finally, just as in the realm of mixing, parallel processing (via a synth’s built-in effects) is really just another way of layering additional character and depth. Just as you’d blend a reverb signal in gently, have a go at sliding up multiple effects processors by small amounts, helping elevate a decent sound into more texturally varied territories.

Oscillator Voice Stacking And Detuning One of the easiest ways to create ultra-modern synth leads is by stacking and detuning oscillator voices. Let’s take a closer look… For years synthesists have been detuning two identical oscillators slightly in opposing directions to create subtle ‘beating’ and thickness. Yet it was the Roland JP-8000 synthesizer in the early 2000s – responsible for the classic Trance ‘supersaw’ sound – that popularised the modern synthesis technique of oscillator stacking and detuning. Following in the JP-8000’s footsteps, most modern ‘power synths’ let you pile up multiple voices within the same oscillator, then detune and spread these stacked voices. This is now a staple synthesis technique for generating incredibly thick leads, pads, hoovers, Reeses and more. Let’s walk through this simple but effective technique for jawdroppingly dense synth sounds. We’ll use the ever-popular Serum synth, but many similar synthesizers offer some variant on this feature.

QUICK TIPS For cutting-edge synthesis

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Many synths let you create your own wavetable oscillators from scratch, but the process can often feel like trial and error. Be sure to dissect your favourite preset ’tables to get a feel for what separates the wavetable wheat from the chaff.

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Frequency modulation synthesis has a daunting reputation for complexity. Build your FM knowledge up slowly by designing simple basses and leads, then gradually adding more modulators until you grasp how it works.

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Samplers are essentially synthesizers, so don’t be afraid to multisample your most complex oscillator creations and carry on the synth design process using your favourite sampler’s soundmangling features.

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We’ll begin with a basic sawtooth. Cranking up the unison voice amount will pile up that number of identical osc voices. While the JP-8000 synth could stack up to seven voices, Serum can go right up to 16 voices – but this can make the final sound a little cloudy and indistinct.

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After backing the unison voices down to 7, we ramp up Unison Detune, which sets the tuning offset for the given number of voices, creating the ‘supersaw’ sound. Serum has a Blend amount, which alters the level offset between the central voice/s and the additional ones.

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Most synths let you spread the multiple voices out to the sides of the stereo field. 100% gives maximum width, but can create phase cancellation – so experiment with lesser settings of around 50% for a good balance between stereo spread and mono compatibility.

Designing a complex synth patch during the heat of a track-writing session is the quickest way to kill your compositional creativity. Set aside dedicated patch-building sessions to stock up your custom presets folder ready for creative droughts.

Cutting-edge Synth Power! | Feature

Tearing Neurofunk D ’n’ B Reese With Serum Modern synths such as Xfer Serum make it easy to synthesize complex growls and morphing timbres in the style of Noisia. Here’s how…

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Call up Xfer Records Serum, load up the Bs Reese Evolve preset we’ve supplied, then trigger the synth by playing notes across your MIDI keyboard. This thick, evolving Reese bass sounds complex but is actually pretty easy to synthesize using Serum. Let’s delve deeper into the patch…

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Old-school D ’n’ B ‘wobble’ basses often have a distinctive change in speed when played up and down the keyboard. To replicate this, Osc B (a sine) is modulating Osc A’s amplitude via Osc A’s Warp mode, set to AM (from B). A slow-attack envelope is increasing this Warp amount over the course of each note.

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Back to the Osc panel. For fizz, Serum’s Noise oscillator is pushing additional high-frequency noise into the final distortion stage; and the sub oscillator is adding solid low-end to the overall sound. Finally, note the filter: we’re modulating a double notch type for even more sweeping motion.

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The synth’s Mono and Legato are on, and Portamento is at around 12 o’clock, giving us a bending, gliding effect. The patch’s core movement is created via LFO 1’s slow, unsync’d modulation of Osc A’s WT Pos knob, which is scanning through Osc A’s gnarly wavetable.

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Head over to Serum’s FX tab, and you’ll see that the insert effects we’ve dialled in are huge contributors to the bass’s aggression and character. Heavy compression is placed after reverb, causing the ’verb to swell out between notes. There’s also forceful distortion, careful EQ and widening going on.

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LFO 1’s Mode is set to Off, so our wavetable modulation is constantly evolving. This means that each bass note has different modulation. Therefore, for more consistency, it’s a good idea to print a good few minutes of a programmed riff down to audio, then chop out the very best takes.

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Future filters

How to…

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How to…

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Dial In Impressive Width

Add Performance Controls

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Today’s modern synth patches are wider than ever, with nextlevel stereo width designed for stereo systems and headphones. Yet with most club systems still set up in mono, your core synth sounds must have a strong presence down the centre of the mix as well as the sides. Aside from spreading and panning unison voices (see Oscillator Voice Stacking And Detuning), there are plenty of ways to give your synth parts lush stereo content. Simple is often better: pan multiple oscillators out to the sides, or get them swirling around the stereo field by assigning a medium-rate LFO to your oscillators’ pan control.

The modulation wheel is the traditional way of adjusting parameters in real time as you perform – within your synth, assign the mod wheel source to any destination parameter (or several), then spin your MIDI keyboard’s mod wheel as you play. Nowadays though, it’s all about macro assignments. Macros are blank knobs that can be assigned to affect any parameter combo across the entire synth, so you can induce a whole bunch of separate parameter movements with just a single knob twist. Ideal things to hook up are a tempo-sync’d LFO or sequencer’s rate, so you can easily switch up rhythms mid-performance.

Traditional subtractive synthesis is like sculpture: you start with full-frequency oscillator tones, then carve away those frequencies using the synth’s filter. For temporal interest, you control the filter’s movement over time via envelopes and LFOs. We’re all familiar with this kind of low-, high- and band-pass filtering, but today’s ultra-modern wave of power synths feature plenty of additional filter types, all suited to cuttingedge sound design. Xfer Serum has a hefty selection of 90 filter types, including a Flanges category of Comb-type filters for zipping phasing effects – try modulating one of these filter Types’ cutoff parameter with a tempo-sync’d custom LFO shape, then use the filter’s Mix knob to blend this pseudo-flanging in parallel alongside your main wavetable oscillators. Another way to take filtering further is by engaging two or more filters at once. NI Massive’s two independent filters can be routed in series or parallel. By routing the synth’s sound generators to either filter by differing amounts and mixing the two filter outputs together, an interesting blend of timbres can result.

How to…

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How to…

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Utilise A Synth’s Effects

Synthesize White Noise

It’s often the final processing effects that add that final stamp of sonic individuality. These can be added using external hardware or software processors but there are advantages to your synth’s built-in effects: their settings are packaged within a synth’s preset for easy recall; their parameters can generally be sweeped automatically via the synth’s onboard modulators; and some synths allow you to pipe various elements of the synth’s internal signal path into these effects by varying amounts for greater flexibility. For vibey grunt and drive, a synth’s built-in distortion stage is usually a good starting point.

White noise is an essential ingredient for adding treble fizz, bite and top-end intensity to any synth patch. Yet the bog-standard white noise oscillator is becoming old hat, as developers are cottoning on to the fact that a synth’s potential for creative sound design can be expanded by including different types of noise. NI’s Massive houses several sampled noise types including brighter, thinner variations, and even sampled paper-rustling for sculpting weirder percussion and FX. Xfer Serum has hundreds of sampled noise waveforms in its ‘pseudosampler’ noise oscillator – and you can even load any sample in.

Cutting-edge Synth Power! | Feature

Sequenced Melodic Rhythms With Massive Employ a synth’s tempo-sync’d LFOs, sequencers and arpeggiators to get multiple parameters moving and create rhythmically complex sounds

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Let’s deconstruct a preset we’ve created for NI Massive, called Seq Twangy Lead.nsmv. The patch’s main ‘clock’ is provided by the 5 Performer mod source, which is sequencing all three oscillators’ Amp amounts. Spin the 7 Pattern macro knob to fade between 5 Perf’s two different rhythmic patterns.

All three of Massive’s main wavetable oscillators have been stacked together for complexity: Osc 1 gives sub weight; Osc 2 is a fizzy ‘reverse’ layer for interest; and Osc 3, set to the Polysaw II wavetable, provides the patch’s core ‘chord’ element.

To give Osc 2 its distinctive warping effect, we’ve negatively modulated its Amp with 5 Perf; and a simple sine LFO (6 LFO) sweeps its wavetable for even more movement. We’ve also used a looping 16th-note rhythm (via the 7 Perf mod source) to sequence the Noise oscillator’s Amp amount, creating a plucky hi-hat layer.

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For extra timbral interest, Filter 1 is set to a tuned Comb type. Filter 2 outputs the dry signal, so we can use the filter Mix slider to fade this comb effect in parallel – to blend its effect into the mix, raise the 1 CombMix macro.

Massive’s various effects give the sound pro thickness and character. Modulated bitcrushing adds grit; the Frequency Shifter blends in shifted tones in parallel; Tele Tube adds grunt and drive; and Reverb gives the final stamp of space and depth. Subtle EQ bumps gently beef out the patch’s treble and bass.

Finally, by altering various synth settings over the course of an arrangement, our impressive melodic rhythm can be made to evolve and progress – hence why all of Massive’s eight macros have been assigned to key parameters. Fire up the patch for yourself and get tweaking!

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In The Studio With | Nathan Fake

Nathan Fake

© Joby Sessions

Norfolk’s finest sonic voyager, Nathan Fake, emerges from a hiatus with the divine Providence, his fourth album proper and first for Ninja Tune. Hamish Mackintosh finds out more about one man’s electronic prophecy…

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Nathan Fake | In The Studio With

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aving eschewed the mixed delights of London for a return to his native Norfolk three years ago, Nathan Fake reenters the musical fray having beaten a two-year patch of the dreaded writer’s block. It’s a return of some style and swagger with Providence, a new album crammed full of irresistible synths, arpeggios and warped rhythms. Nathan Fake’s reputation has been built on his unique take on electronic music and first came to light in 2003 when an encounter with equally mercurial electronic musician James Holden led to the release of Fake’s debut single Outhouse on Holden’s Border Community label. The sumptuous LP Drowning in a Sea of Love in 2006 saw Nathan’s reputation cemented as a major new talent in the electronic music scene with a slew of criticallyacclaimed albums and EPs, and remixes for the likes of Jon Hopkins, Radiohead, Perc and Clark. Providence is a stunning feast of electronic processes even more welcome given it signals an end to Fake’s writer’s block and, hopefully, signals the beginning of a long and fruitful journey with Ninja Tune. FM were delighted to catch up with Nathan at his home studio in Norfolk to ascertain what digital and analogue machinery helped fashion the sublime Providence.

FM: You’ve got an eclectic array of synths at your disposal… Care to talk us through them? Nathan Fake: “There’s a laptop running Ableton and Cubase. I’ve got a Korg Prophecy, which is one of the main things I used on Providence. There’s a Jupiter-6 as well and an Arturia MicroBrute that was used a tiny bit for some bass sounds. In terms of drum machines there’s a Casio RZ-1 and a Roland Aira TR-8. Again, the TR-8 was used quite sparingly, mainly for bass drum sounds. It’s nice but weird that it doesn’t really sound like an 808. It’s very boomy so you have to EQ the kick as they’ve added like a 50Hz boom on it. I run it through a preamp to warm it up a little as it is fairly spiky and digital, although the sounds are fairly faithful to that analogue, synthesized, sound with the hi-hats and stuff and there are a couple of really nice extra sounds too.” The Korg Prophecy is a blast from the past… “I remember when they came out, maybe about 1996, reading that The Orb and Autechre were using them and thinking they must be a really good synth. I happened across one online the year before last and thought I’d check it out. It’s a weird little thing that looks like a MIDI controller and it’s a very strange synth. It’s a monosynth but it’s got quite a deep synthesis system to it. Korg came up with their MOSS [Multi-oscillator synthesis system], which means it has all the standard square, triangle etc waveforms but it also has reeds, brass and plucked strings. There are all these dense, washy digital synths but it’s a monosynth so you have all these huge pad sounds but you can only do one note at a time! I think the Triton and the Trinity evolved from the Prophecy and I’ve never really been into those

big workstations but I just liked how awkward the Prophecy is and the sounds on it are pretty usable.” On Providence there’s a real warmth to the synths… How do you achieve that? “I like that mixing of aesthetics when you have something pristine and digital, then roughing it up. I’ll record stuff onto cassette tapes and also when you take a phat, stereo sound and squeeze it into mono, that adds a different dimension to it too.” Does some software make us too lazy to add ‘that little something extra’ to the sound? “Yeah, maybe. Currently though, I think tape has definitely come back. Loads of labels are even releasing cassettes again, which is just the antithesis to digital streaming or MP3s, really. It’s the same reason vinyl got popular again – it’s a nice alternative to the digital formats. When I started making music I’d put things onto cassette as that was all I had. Then, I got a computer, which was amazing, and now I’m recording stuff onto tape again as I think tape sounds good.” You suffered a bit of writer’s block. Did Providence come in one big rush after that? “It really did, actually. It didn’t take long at all. I kind of started writing things towards the end of 2015 but I started working properly on the tracks last year and I’d got the album all done by June. There was a lot of overlap where I was writing stuff and finishing stuff at the same time so all the tracks were on the go at the same time.” Is being an electronic musician akin to being a plate spinner at times? “[laughs] Yeah… especially when you work on a computer, you can bring up a saved project, work on it for a bit then switch to something else. I guess I did use a lot more hardware than I have before so I did stick to one track at a time a lot more than I’ve done in the past. My older stuff was done solely on the computer so it was definitely fun having more physical stuff to use.” Have you gone to hardware for compressors too, or do you still use software for that? “It’s a mixture, really. A friend has a Drawmer compressor that I really like and I intended to borrow that to use on the album. Actually, not too much of it is compressed as recording a lot of the stuff with tape brings the headroom down quite a bit and then I master it afterwards. My older stuff is really, really compressed but I just used software compressors, which sound good if you’re doing it in a rush but, a few months later, I listened to some of the stuff on headphones and it sounded a bit squashed. With this album I made a decision not to compress everything and sidechain things, which I used to do loads. It’s paid off I think as there’s a lot more space in the mix.” When you’re mixing, do you listen to things in a variety of different formats for reference? “Mostly on speakers although I’ve used headphones

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In The Studio With | Nathan Fake

a lot more on this album just to help get the mixes right. I used to be a bit more slapdash with my older stuff but that was also the idea of it, to keep it quite raw. I’ve got some speakers in the kitchen that I like to listen to mixes on and also in the car. I like putting stuff on my iPod and playing it on shuffle and sometimes one of my tunes will pop up, which is interesting to hear how your own music sounds next to others. It’s good to hear your own stuff that way as sometimes when you’re making it you’re listening too hard to it.” Do you mix in the box? “Yeah. I mean, I do use a little Mackie desk too, but a lot of it is mixed as I go on either Cubase or Ableton. I used to use Cubase years ago so I still end up doing sketches and ideas in it sometimes, and I actually ended up finishing a couple of tracks for the album in it this time. I use Cool Edit as well – I’ve always quite liked using these weird, standalone programs as it’s nice to close down the workstations and mess around in Cool Edit for a bit.” It’s healthy to shift environments every so often, isn’t it? “Yeah, it is. I’ve got Ableton Live 9 Suite, which is an incredible piece of software, but it does absolutely everything, and occasionally you just don’t know where to begin. That’s why I also like having things that are really simple… stuff like the Prophecy, which does a lot but you can’t really do a lot with it other than pump out some melodies. So, I like sitting playing around with that for a few hours or messing around in Cool Edit.” …which has its place too, but it’s nice to step away from the matrix and strict timing every once in a while, yeah? “Definitely, yeah… The thing with the Korg Prophecy is that it’s got note velocity, which a lot of the older, analogue synths I’ve used in the past didn’t have. So, that’s something I’ve never had in my tracks before, different velocity on notes. You can’t quite put your finger on it but it definitely adds something.”

an amazing filter and also an Envelope-follower, which sounds amazing when you run external stuff through it.” So a little extra effort and imagination with your sound can pay dividends? “I think when you’re working on an album then you make a little extra effort to experiment with things like that. I don’t really know that much about gear; I

Are you good at deciding you’ve got a take? “I am. I feel like I’m not when I’m working, but when I look at other people I know who make music then they’ll have like 20 versions of something. I’ve had five or six versions where I’ve added or improved on something but I think I’m pretty good at sticking with the original idea. There’s one track on the album, HoursDaysMonthsSeasons, where it started off with loads more drums in it but I thought all the hi-hats and claps sounded way too busy so I muted them and it sounded brilliant with just a kick drum. So, there was four versions of that with all the drums in then the one where I muted a lot of stuff ended up being the final one.”

I put stuff on my iPod, and sometimes one of my tunes will pop up – it’s interesting to hear how your music sounds next to others Are you using any external modulation or filters? “No, it’s basically all done in the synths, really. With the filters on the Prophecy, the resonance is quite harsh because it’s digital. In my live set I use the Sound Toys Filter Freak but I don’t think I really used it on the album. It sounds so analogue and nice. I’ve also got a Roland SH-09, which I forgot to have out today. I didn’t use it as a synth on the album but I used the filter as it’s got a line-in so you can put things through it. It’s got

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just have bits and bobs. I come across stuff like the way I found the Prophecy. With the SH-09, I had a mate who had one and I thought it sounded amazing and had to get one. There are times in between albums where I’ll just bang something out just in Ableton with soft synths but if I’ve written a melody I’m happy with then I’ll often do some experimentation with it. Mostly on this album, as it was mainly the Prophecy on it, I’d just jam out a soloed MIDI part then comp together all these jams and edits.”

So you subscribe to the importance of the happy accident in the creative process? “Absolutely. I was playing the Jupiter-6 at one point, recording something into my laptop and, for some reason, the input had been changed to the laptop microphone rather than the sound card. I sat there playing the Jupiter for ten minutes before I realised it sounded really weird but it sounded so ghostly and distant so I ended up using it. It’s similar to how mobile phones have that gate where, below a certain

Nathan Fake | In The Studio With

As a solo producer/music maker, do you jam a lot of the tracks with MIDI to get the basic structure together? “That’s how most of the tracks are born, really, yeah. A lot of the melodies are played in on the keyboard, quantised or whatever. With my older stuff it was more clicking with the mouse writing melodies, which is cool too but you get a more human feel when you go back to actually playing the keyboard or instruments. It feels a bit more creative too. I guess I do have a good understanding of notes so I can look at the note-matrix on Ableton or Cubase and click in melodies but you can sometimes end up making quite clinical-sounding stuff.”

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In The Studio With | Nathan Fake

volume it just goes silent. There’s no way I would’ve thought of trying that deliberately.” The Jupiter-6 is underestimated isn’t it? “Yeah, it’s a beautiful, very distinctive synth. A mate had a Juno and they’re very popular and have a distinctive sound too. I was kind of expecting the Jupiter-6 to be in the same vein as a Juno but it isn’t. It’s a really sharp, cutting synth. Quite unpredictable

Prophecy and the Jupiter are like separate instruments in themselves! So many things on the album are just doing weird things with the arpeggiator. It’s also good that they slip out of sync a little at times… even though the Prophecy is digital, the arpeggiator does slip and make some bizarre noises! I’ve even used some of the presets from the Prophecy, which are a little dense and unusable as I like the challenge of making

sounds I used from the Prophecy on the album and I am still using the Waldorf A1 for the live shows too. I can program stuff really quickly on that… it doesn’t use much CPU on the laptop and it never crashes. I’ll have several instances of that open and routed to MIDI controllers with all the cutoffs and stuff.” Providence sees you working with vocalists for the first time too… “Both those collaborations came about quite by chance as they were people who I became friends with. Degreelessness, the track with Prurient, came about when we hung out once and he suggested we work on something together. The collaboration was done over the net so I basically sent him parts of something I’d been working on and he sent it back with all his delay and pitchshifting on it. In that context it was like getting parts for a remix. I would like to do more of it actually in the studio as the same thing happened with the track I made with Raphaelle [Standell-Preston from Braids] as she’s based in Canada. She sent a whole bunch of stuff, which was all amazing but I only ended up using a little bit of it.”

I might find some other random ’90s synth and make an album with that! I gravitate towards crap gear rather than high-end stuff too. Mine even more so as some of the oscillators don’t work on certain keys, which does actually create quite interesting effects when you’re playing arpeggios. You can get strange note drop-outs or some of the notes go out of tune with each other. That’s the beauty of old analogue gear.” Just how brilliant are the onboard arpeggiators on the old analogues? “[laughs] Yeah, absolutely! I’ve never really used them on a track before. The arpeggiators on the

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something cool from those sounds. A couple of tracks were born out of that.” When you go out to tour Providence are you taking any of the hardware synths out live with you? “I use the MicroBrute. I did think about using the Prophecy but decided against it as it’s not the kind of synth you can play around with very much live. It’s just buttons and all you can really do is trigger it. I’ve used the MicroBrute to recreate some of the

In The Studio With | Nathan Fake

Are you excited to be a Ninja Tune artist now? “Yeah, it’s a big change. Border Community were great and raised me up, really, since 2003. Ninja were interested for a few years but I didn’t have much to let them hear until now. I didn’t make the album with a view to being on Ninja and it’s really exciting.” Do you think de-camping back to Norfolk has helped get the creative juices flowing again? “I did live in London for about seven years and I moved back mainly as I felt like a change. I don’t know if where I’m based geographically influences the music I make. [laughs] I don’t think when I was in London I was making music that was more urban. The last few years I’ve been fortunate enough to live on my own which is great for working.” Is there a lot of excess material left over from Providence sessions? “Basically, right now I’m putting a live set together – although it has been played out a few times already so it’s more a case of tweaking it. I’ve got a few things that I’d like to release so I’m trying to put together what concept the next album or bunch of tunes could be in terms of instruments I use. I’m quite into the idea of finding unusual instruments to work with, whether it’s synths or acoustic instruments. I like the idea of trying to play a flute and recording what comes out! [laughs] Or maybe find some other random ’90s synth and make an album with that! I tend to gravitate towards crap gear rather than high-end stuff, as nice as that can be. I don’t know if it’s the fun element of it – I guess, when I use something high-end I convince myself I’m not going to use it to its full potential! I felt a little like that when I got the Jupiter. I was chuffed but felt like maybe there was someone who could make better use of it than me.” No modular stuff yet? “I’m a bit like what I just said about the Jupiter with modular stuff, really. I’ve got some friends who are really deep into it and making some amazing stuff but I don’t think I’m tech enough for all that. There’s a massive crossover with tech and musicianship with the modular stuff but it seems to be mostly tech. People nerding out over the various modules does look fun but I’m not that geeky. I like just grabbing a synth, turning it on and seeing what it can do.” What are you using for an interface? “I’ve got a Focusrite Scarlett 6i6, which is brilliant and the best sound card I’ve had. It’s quite small with not that many ins and outs but I don’t have huge amounts of gear so that’s fine. I’ve got Neumann KH310 speakers and they’ve got an amazing low-end response. This album is the first proper album I’ve made with them and [laughs] it did feel like I hadn’t been making music properly before I got them! The speakers are probably the most expensive thing in the studio!”

want to know more? Providence is available on Ninja Tune. To find out more visit: http://nathanfake.com

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Nathan Fake | In The Studio With

No soft synths on the album at all this time around then? “That’s a first for me, yeah. The main soft synth I’ve used over the years has been the Waldorf A1, which came free with Cubase SX. It actually sounds a lot like the Jupiter even though it’s digital. If you tweak it a bit and put it through some nice effects then it really does sound quite analogue. It’s ancient but I know it like the back of my hand. I’ve played it out now, really as there’s not much else I can do with it as it feels a little like treading old ground when I use it now. Over the years it’s been very useful though.” 45

FM | THE TRACK

INCLUDES VIDEO VaULt.fUtUrEmUSIC.CO.Uk

Alan Walker Alone

2016, Sony Music

T © Joe Branston

he ascendant pop star may still be in his teens, but he’s already scored social media numbers that most of us can only dream of. At the time of writing, his breakthrough hit Faded has nearly one billion YouTube views, and his latest single Alone is heading rapidly for two hundred million. Stunned at the sight of such astronomical play-counts, Future Music headed to Oslo’s Fat Cat Studio to find out how the sinisterly masked Alan and his writing partner/co-producer the impressively blonde Anders Frøen (aka Mood Melodies) get their crowd-pleasing, slo-mo sounds.

What was the inspiration behind Alone? “I’m trying to establish the Alan Walker style – Alone has the triplet melody, and I think it’s pretty cool to have a follow up in the same

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style as Faded and Sing Me To Sleep. The trilogy tells a story and sends out the message that you are not alone: we’re all the same, we’re all equal, we can all achieve amazing things no matter who we are. In the music video you can see a bunch of what we call ‘Walkers’, all wearing masks and hoodies, and that’s pretty cool because pretty much anyone can be a ‘Walker’.” How inclusive! There are a few musical ideas in the track, but which one of them came first? “First we came up with the chord progression, then me and Anders started to write the lyrics – that’s when everything started to come together. Later on we started making the melody; we went through I don’t know how many drop melodies, and then we put everything together. That worked really well, but I mostly prefer producing the instrumental then forwarding it to a vocalist, and then we can see what the vocalist can do!” What about the technology? Which DAW did you write the track in, and how did you get the sounds together? “I’ve always used FL Studio to produce music. Anders uses Cubase, and we bounce down stems to send them between each other, which really works well. The drum sounds are all from packs that

Alan Walker | The Track

Watch the video in your web browser at bit.ly/fmtrack317

“I think the coolest way to do things is when you don’t really follow a script. One of my really big inspirations is Hans Zimmer… you have to think outside the box, and you don’t always have to follow the script because that’s when the interesting ideas happen.”

you can buy online. I’m a big fan of the KSHMR sample packs – he’s made two and they’re really good. He’s got really good kicks and stuff, and I’ve used some of his sounds in Alone. For other sounds like leads and chords and stuff, I mainly use Nexus, Spire, Massive and Sylenth1.” Do you have a particular strategy for the arrangement of a track when you start out making it? “Not really. If you look back at for example Fade [not to be confused with Faded], that one is way different. I think the coolest way to do things is when you don’t really follow a script. One of my really big inspirations is Hans Zimmer... you have to think outside the box, and you don’t always have to follow the script because that’s when the interesting ideas happen.” So how long does an Alan Walker track take to put together? “I spent a couple of months making Fade, then we had the idea of making Faded, and that took even longer because we had vocals – we had to rewrite it and remaster it. I spend an average of three to five months, so a lot of time is spent on just putting things together. The idea of Alone came together pretty quick, but we also spent a lot of time finishing it – a couple of months.”

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The Track | Alan Walker

The Gear Software:

Image-Line FL Studio Steinberg Cubase Pro Soundtoys AlterBoy, EchoBoy, Decapitator LennarDigital Sylenth1 reFX Nexus2 Nicky Romero Kickstart D16 Group Toraverb

Were you happy with Alone? “Yeah, how it has been received by the fans, and it got a hundred million views in such short time, which was absolutely incredible and remarkable. I didn’t expect it to get that response! I’m also happy because it’s good to have more of the Alan Walker sound in the song, because I felt like I missed that in Sing Me To Sleep. If people listen to a song now and it has that triplet feel, they’re going to know it’s Alan Walker, and that’s a pretty cool signature to have.” It seems to us like your music is heavily inspired by video games. Is that fair to say? “Yeah, I’ve always been a gamer, and I feel it’s pretty cool to have that influence. I don’t know why my sound is so gamer-friendly! I guess when I started back in 2012 I was making ‘hands up’ Techno, a genre that you mainly listen to when gaming.” So what’s next for Alan Walker? “It’s very hard to say because I want to keep going on the same path with the same signature sound, but I think it’s very cool to explore new ways. I think for example the Chainsmokers are a good example with Paris – that’s really different from what they’ve done before.”

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Alan Walker | The Track

Creating Alone’s atmospheric intro

The composition process happens in FL Studio, but the final version of the track is pieced back together and mixed in Cubase.

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Anders has a feeling that the synth patch used in Alone’s intro is the same sound used in his tune Sing Me To Sleep – ie, LennarDigital Sylenth1’s LD Dance Lead preset. This plays a low bass part under the chords, and is dirtied up with Soundtoys Decapitator.

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The foundation the intro is a composite of several takes played through Guitar Rig and a picked melodic lead over the top made up of single notes. The lead is delayed with Soundtoys EchoBoy and reverbed with D16 Toraverb.

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reFX Nexus2 is a big favourite, and here it provides some filter-sweeping pads courtesy of the synth’s PD Andromeda Pad preset. This is layered with another pad, and a slick pluck sound taken from a KSHMR sample pack.

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The guitar strums are layered with piano chords recorded in the studio, and some vocal one-shots are sprinkled over the top for added atmosphere. These are formantpitched, delayed, reverbed and filtered.

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Roosevelt, Wait Up

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Disciples, Daylight The UK trio talk us through the writing, recording and production process behind their catchy, club-ready House track Daylight.

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FM | PRODUCER’s GUIDE

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DIY Multibands Originally they were the preserve of mastering engineers, known for their precision and clinical accuracy; but in today’s digital world, multiband devices have become crucial players in both the sound design and mixing processes. To truly get stuck into a signal, what better way than to divide it into bands and process each individually? In the digital age, it’s become possible to create multiband devices easily, and with more flexibility of design than their hardware counterparts. Naturally, it didn’t take long before software companies started pushing the boundaries of what a multiband device does, and producers were quick to follow, using the easy-toaccess software for mixing and even sound design duties. The developers then pushed the boundaries even further, applying the multiband concept to a host of other common processors. We now live in an age of multiband chorus, multiband distortion, multiband reverb, and loads more. But it needn’t stop there – in this guide, we’re going to show you how to make your own multiband set-ups, going further than today’s best plug-in effects to make custom networks of multi-effect processors using a few simple devices in your DAW. 55

Producer’s Guide To | DIY Multiband

Bands on the Run The multiband compressor is the prototypical multiband device. You get several dynamics controllers in one unit, and each takes command of its own frequency band. It allows you to, say, scalp the ends from low frequencies, add punch to mid signals, and bring up the average levels of the highs – all in customisable frequency ranges that don’t interfere with each other. Software has given rise to even more multiband solutions. FabFilter’s Pro-MB software compressor lets you compress or expand multiple bands, all to different extents. With a software option you can choose to compress more or fewer bands than the standard hardware device, which are often three-band models. While it all started out as compression and dynamics, the multiband concept has been taken much further by ambitious software developers. Almost every effect you can think of has been attempted – some more successful than others. Multiband delays, for example, can leave the low-end clear while

presenting alternate patterns in higher ranges; bitcrushers can provide interesting degradation across the frequency spectrum, and transient processors expand on the multiband dynamics devices of the past in a modern setting.

multiband devices? Even the most stylish plug-in effects almost always stick to one thing – a multiband distortion unit may offer different flavours of distortion per-band, but it only offers distortion for each. With a custom multiband set-up, the sky’s the limit. We’re free to process and manipulate any band we like with any processor we care to call on. Saturation in the low band and flanging in the tops? Go for it. Heavy compression on the low-mids and a sprinkling of delay higher up? Feel free. And in the modern DAW, you get even more tools to help make your set-ups count – anything with a ‘rack’ system can save and recall settings and routing for later use, for example. We’re going to take you through some basic multiband set-ups and show you how to take hold of precision processing, and then show you how to make multibands count in a creative context for sound design duties. First, though, we start with a word of warning about filters…

The sky’s the limit… Saturation in the low band and flanging in the tops? Go for it The principles used in multiband processors stay relatively similar – the frequency spectrum is split into bands by filtering, and the resulting signals are processed separately. Those filters and processors already exist in our DAWs, so what’s to stop us having a go at creating our own

Using The Right Filters Not just any filter will work when designing the perfect crossover network – here’s what you have to consider Argh! Yes, you read that right! unfortunately, multiband crossover networks are a little more nuanced than they may appear at first, and slapping any old filter over a signal can throw your material off-balance. A generic filter might not have a consistent behaviour or response, and this is especially so with your DAW’s ‘stock’ filter. For this reason, it’s best to reach for a plug-in… but don’t just call up any filter. To check your crossover network thoroughly, duplicate your original track and phase-invert it against your multiband network (with its processing bypassed). If any sound is coming out (even at a low level), your crossover isn’t set properly.

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A standard, analogue-style filter does its thing by adding tiny delays to the signal. At frequencies around the cutoff, a filter changes the phase of the audio – especially problematic at low frequencies.

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To combat this, what you’re looking for is a linear-phase filter, but these come with their own problems: they can add a ringing tone to the material. If you’re hoping to process transient material like drums, make sure you proceed with caution.

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Another way to be sure of clinical results is to co-opt a full multiband plug-in with its processing bypassed for each band. With the individual bands soloed, you’ll be using the plug-in’s crossover networks for your own effects.

QUICK TIPS

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Distortion sounds great in low bands but less so in high bands. For a different take on the effect, split higher bands after distortion is applied, so you can use them to process the distorted signal higher up the frequency spectrum.

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We’re putting multiband set-ups together in racks here, but doing the same on individual mix channels can be really powerful too, giving you all the advantages of a channel – such as insert effects, faders, mid/side controls – for each band. Group the channels to their own buss for mixchannel control over the output signal.

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Ableton Live users can get more power out of their racks with siblings, ie the same controls on different devices inside a rack. You can copy or map items to multiple siblings at once by right-clicking. This feature may need to be activated in Ableton’s options.txt file in your OS’s file browser.

DIY Multiband | Producer’s Guide To

Make your Own Basic DIY Multibands

Create a custom three-band set-up out of individual plug-in components. Here’s how…

Watch the video here: http://bit.ly/ fmpg3171

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Duplicate the plug-in into the Mid band, and change its filter type to low-cut. Create a new high-cut filter at 2kHz – again set the Q to 1. Duplicate this plug-in into the High band and switch the 2kHz filter to a low-cut. Delete the other filter. You can save the Rack for later use at this point too.

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We’ll use Ableton Live’s Rack functions here, but you can apply the same principles in other DAWs, or duplicate a track entirely to create different bands. In Live, create an Audio Effect Rack, open the Chain Selector (three lines), and right-click to Create Chain. Do this three times.

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To check the multiband set-up, duplicate the track. On the new version, remove the Rack and place a Utility instead. Switch in Phz-L and Phz-R to reverse the polarity. If your crossover splits have worked, you should now be hearing nothing. If using Live, you might have to save and restart the project for it to work.

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Name the chains Low, Mid and High. Drag a capable filter onto the Low chain – we’re using FabFilter Pro-Q. Set up a high-cut filter with a Q of 1 at 200Hz. Leave the slope at 24dB. Type these values in to make sure they’re completely accurate. Now, importantly, switch Pro-Q to Linear Phase – Max.

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We now have a fully-functioning DIY multiband network. You can place processors into the chain after the Pro-Q to process the Low, Mid and High bands alone. Here we’re mono-ising the Low band. You can also use Live’s Configure parameters to map two crossovers to the same macro.

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Producer’s Guide To | DIY Multiband

How to make multibands in…

Bitwig Studio

How to make multibands in…

Logic Pro X

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How to make multibands in…

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How to make multibands in…

Bitwig Studio has its own Multiband container devices, called Multiband FX-2 and Multiband FX-3. One of these gives you two bands and the other gives you three, but we’re not telling you which is which… The idea here is that you drop components into the ‘windows’ at the top of the devices to create custom processing chains in each band, before setting the crossovers. We have tested these devices using polarity-inverted duplicate tracks, and we found that the filters weren’t so clean, so you might find it would be best to use these containers for creative processing only.

Logic doesn’t have a rack system, so you’ll have to create a separate channel for each band. Co-opt Logic’s Multipressor if you don’t have your own linear-phasecapable EQ – add it to the first band, set the crossover splits, disable all processing, then duplicate onto the other band channels before soloing the correct band on the plug-in for each channel. Logic’s Smart Controls are pre-mapped so unlikely to be a good solution for connecting two crossover filters into one control. You can change Smart Control presets using its Inspector, though. Like in Cubase, map the cutoff frequencies to a MIDI CC to change more at once.

Cubase

Reason

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Steinberg’s DAW isn’t the best kitted-out for DIY multibands but is flush with dedicated multiband devices: the envelope shaper, expander and compressor. These devices can be co-opted for your own uses – if you add one to a track, bypass all its processing, then set bands up with the crossovers where you want them, you can then duplicate the track, soloing the correct band on each. Of course, you can also make use of a good linear-phase EQ for the same purpose. If you set the crossover cutoff to MIDI CCs, you can control corresponding bands at once without too much fuss.

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No multiband devices here, unless you pay some cash in the Prop Shop. It gets worse when you try setting the SSL mixer EQ accurately, and then the MClass Equalizer only has shelving filters! There is one way to multiband heaven, though: you can create clean crossover filters using the MClass Stereo Imager, which has dedicated outputs around the back for its low- and high-band signals. Use the Separate Out output jacks, and Solo the Lo Band at the front. If you’ve got everything wired right round the back and have tested it out, make sure to save your multiband splits inside a Combinator to grab again later.

Multiband plug-ins to try out

Melda’s MMulti collection has a processor for just about everything

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For when you’re not in the DIY mood, there are plenty of multiband plug-ins on the market. For some classic multiband compressor action, Waves are a great option, with the C6 Compressor, L3 Multimaximizer and more. We’ve also covered FabFilter in this tutorial – as well as the excellent Pro-Q 2 being a brilliant linear-phase-enabled EQ, there’s their Pro-MB compressor, and of course Saturn, an incredible multiband saturation unit with tons of distortion flavours. There’s even free software out there, like Xfer’s OTT and mda’s Multiband. But the prize has to go to MeldaProduction, who have made an artform of the multiband processing device – it’s all here, from MMultiBandDynamics, through to MMultiBandFreqShifter and MMultiBandAutopan, right up to MMultiBandConvolution, to name just four of 23 (yes really) multiband plug-ins. There’s even MXXX, which can combine any and all of their processors into a single plug-in; and yep, that one’s got multiband functionality too.

DIY Multiband | Producer’s Guide To

Get Creative with Custom Multiband Sound Design

Build an inspiring multiband effects cocktail to enhance a track in selected frequency areas

Watch the video here: http://bit.ly/ fmpg3172

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Let’s pick out the second band, which should hold the real ‘voice’ of this bass sound. We’ll bring it out with some characterful heavy compression, with the help of Klevgränd’s Korvpressor. Again, if this was applied to the whole track, it could get overbearing and tasteless.

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Here’s Studio One 3’s Routing Editor. We’ve set up three Splitter devices creating four frequency bands to process. A compressor is after the crossovers for some sidechaining action. SO3’s splitters aren’t linear-phase, but that’s okay for creative sound design uses.

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The highs are still lacking. We can bring them up and add character to the top-end using FabFilter’s Timeless 2 delay. We can also add an analyser to chain after the bands have been brought back together to get the whole picture.

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The low band is a bit lacklustre, and some analogue saturation goes well on it. If this was placed on the full-band signal, it would saturate the mids and highs as well. The highs themselves need some smoothing, so we can throw a chorus plug-in onto the top two bands, after they merge back together.

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In The Studio With | Teengirl Fantasy

Teengirl Fantasy

© Daniel Byrne

Logan Takahashi and Nick Weiss found acclaim for their hypnotic, hardware-driven take on House and Techno. Danny Turner quizzes them on their evocative sound and their hands-on creative approach

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Teengirl Fantasy | In The Studio With

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ick Weiss and Logan Takahashi crossed paths while studying at Oberlin College in Ohio. Their shared interest in electronic music saw them immediately combine technologies, resulting in 2010’s leftfield electronic album 7AM, which spawned the underground club anthem Cheaters. They followed it up in 2012 by releasing their second album, Tracer, on re-launched independent imprint R&S Records. After a hectic period of creativity, the duo parted ways to focus on side projects, including Takahashi’s solo album Nogeo, but 2017 sees Teengirl Fantasy return in sparkling form with 8AM. Almost entirely instrumental, it’s their most introspective and abstract long player to date – pulsing with early House and Disco themes, and perfumed by the duo’s evocative slow-motion-styled Techno.

Did the two of you first get tuned into electronic music at a young age? Nick: “Hip Hop and R&B was my main access as a (very) young producer. I interned at a Hip Hop studio when I was about 11 – just observing mostly but sometimes running sessions. Eventually I got to submit a beat for one of their artists. It actually had a 4/4 dance vibe, even though I wasn’t fully aware of what I was doing. My primary influences back then were Missy & Timbaland, the Neptunes, Darkchild, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. I started to learn more about House, Techno and other electronic music in high school, and then got much deeper into it when I was in college.” Logan: “My first memory of electronic music was playing on my dad’s Casio SMK-1 as a little kid and being spooked out and intrigued by its bell sounds. Later, I got into electronic music when I was at high school, originally via a bunch of weirdo outsider acts like Excepter and Black Dice. That stuff kind of led me to falling in love with Techno and House towards the end of high school and into my college years.” How did your love of those artists and genres segue into experiments with music technology? Logan: “When I was 14, I got a copy of Ableton 4 for Christmas, and that was a turning point for me. I had grown up studying violin, but it wasn’t until that point that I was able to start viewing music as a way of expressing an identity or viewpoint. So I started a bunch of bands in high school with electronics being a major element. One of them was called Dipole Dipole, with my friend Guy. We’d basically experiment with tape samples and an array of guitar pedals.” Nick: “I remember using Acid Pro on the computer - it was my very first introduction to music software. Then I moved on to Magix Music Maker. I wanted the Hip Hop edition but the Trance one was the only one left at the store. They were both mostly loop-based programs; pretty similar to what GarageBand is now, but you could do really cool stuff in Magix, including making your own music video with green screen effects, which seems way

more high-tech than what we have now. Later on in high school I got a Korg Triton LE keyboard with money I’d saved up from my Bar Mitzvah, because I knew it was what the Neptunes were using. It had an onboard sequencer, and I would make beats on that. I later sold it because I needed some fast cash, but I regret that now.” You met each other in college – was there an immediate musical connection between you? Nick: “We met at a new student orientation on pretty much the first day. We had some initial talks about music that excited us, mostly about some of the more DIY electronic acts that were bubbling up back in 2008. But our ‘sound’ just kind of came together intuitively when we started jamming on the instruments we’d brought with us to college.” Logan: “I had a pretty good idea of the things that I was interested in and how I wanted to align myself in terms of the other music I was listening to when we started. At the time, there weren’t nearly as many people doing electronic House/Techno-based music in the space that we were trying to do it in, so perhaps it was even easier back then to align and position ourselves in a certain way.” So the first thing you did was to set about combing all your gear together? Nick: “Yeah, Logan had a Roland SP-404 sampling workstation, a microKorg and a Korg Electribe synth, and I had an Akai MPC and a Roland Juno-106. We basically made all of our first songs using that gear.” How did you get signed to Planet Mu? Nick: “We’d met Mike Paradinas [aka µ-Ziq] at a show in London and heard through the grapevine that he was into our music. As a result of that, we held some initial conversations with him about releasing something and he, coincidentally, emailed us about releasing stuff on Planet Mu the same day we were about to send him our album demos.” Logan: “It’s been great working with Mike and everyone at Planet Mu. It feels way different to receive comments about music from actual musicians like Mike and Jamie Kuedo that you already look up to, rather than A&R from a label or somebody who doesn’t actually release music themselves.” Apart from some EP releases, there’s been quite a delay between this album and the previous one. Nick: “That’s because we were both working on different projects at the same time as our own. I would say that life just got in the way, both living it and figuring out what we wanted to say after Tracer. That album was made pretty soon after we had just gotten out of college and I don’t think we really gave ourselves much time to think about what its overall concept would be. We just threw stuff up in the air, tried everything and released it. I think that 8AM has a lot more focus, and loads more tracks were made than actually ended up being on it. Planet Mu was also very helpful in paring down our ideas and editing the sequencing too.” Logan: “I guess we’d been kind of slowly but steadily working on a collection of new tracks since 2013

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In The Studio With | Teengirl Fantasy

and probably worked in seven studios across the UK, the US and Germany. We also devoted some time and energy to other projects, including doing an original score last year for [Vogue’s] Opening Ceremony Fall/Winter 2016 soundtrack. We also released some EPs and remixes, and did some other solo and collaborative projects. I released a solo Logan Takahashi album – Nogeo – on Ghostly last year, that I’d wanted to get out for a while.”

when you can ‘hear the computer’ through the music. But Omnisphere is obviously a really deep instrument. Because it’s based on real-world sounds, it really does sound powerful when matched up against hardware. Having said that, Rob Papen’s SubBoomBassis a pretty good soft synth, and The Granulator 2 Max For Live instrument in Ableton is super fun to play around with and great for generating ideas fast.”

Nick: “We use the Slim Slow Slider VST plugin when the basic Ableton sidechain compressors aren’t enough. It does much more drastic sidechain compression for when we want the ‘pump’ to be audible instead of just using it as a mixing tool. We also like to use PSP’s MixPack; these plugs are pretty solid for saturating a signal when the stock Ableton Saturator – which I actually think is one of Ableton’s most amazing plugins – won’t do. We’ll use them to add midrange to a bass or make certain signals more audible when the mix is cluttered.” Logan: “iZotope Trash has been one of my go-to plug-ins for the last year or two. It suddenly turns sounds that you wouldn’t consider using in a mix into palatable sounds. It can be quite a heavy-handed effect, but I’ll use it more subtly, sometimes only using 10% or less of the wet – like a little dash of spice in a dish!”

This is the first time we’ve gone into the studio with a specific concept in mind: the melancholic dancefloor glowy comedown You could say you’ve come back refreshed. Do you think the break has changed your sound? Logan: “The main difference between Tracer and 8AM has been the lack of vocal collaborations. We only have one track on the album with vocals, which is the track we did with Khalif Diouf [also known as Le1f]. This is also the first time we ever really tried going into the studio with a specific concept or idea in mind: the melancholic dancefloor glowy comedown or ‘after-peak’ vibe. We were jokingly calling the album 8AM years before we officially decided to make that its name.” Have you substantially upgraded your studio or modified how you work between this album and the last? Nick: “We didn’t really have a studio for our previous albums – we worked in bedrooms, living rooms and friends’ studios. For this album, some of it was recorded in a cabin in upstate New York, and then as we were finishing it we started using our current studio space. The previous two albums were also made on Logic Pro, whereas this album was fully written on Ableton. That allowed much more freedom in terms of how it was edited. Our previous records were more like live jams with some editing into tracks, whereas with 8AM, some songs might have elements of a live jam but we did much more writing and arranging in the computer afterwards.” You mentioned using Ableton, but I understand that you used to work on Logic. Why the switch? Nick: “Logan’s primarily using Ableton. Logic lost me when they updated to X. I was a veteran Logic user ever since it was Emagic, but then it was upgraded and the people who owned it were just expected to buy it again. I still think Logic Pro 9 sounds really great, but you just can’t beat the ease of use and speed with which you can write in Ableton. My ultimate wish would be for Ableton to make its audio engine sound as good as Logic 9’s.” So what’s in your virtual production armoury of soft synths and effects plugins? Logan: “The main soft synth we use is Omnisphere, but we don’t use soft synths much as we don’t like it

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What about the effects? What are the trustiest plug-ins in your folder? Logan: “We have a bunch of effects plug-ins, and we tend to use them in a kind of grab-bag way, just quickly putting one in while we’re working, and if it works it stays. I recently signed up for the subscription service at Slate Digital because their Virtual Mix Rack is pretty great for basic mixing EQs and compressors. They have some pretty solid presets to start from, and while the plugins have a subtle sound, they do make a difference.”

But you also like to use plenty of outboard too? Logan: “Yes, we use an Ensoniq DP/4 effects rack, although it actually belongs to our friend James Connolly, aka L-VIS 1990. While he’s been out of the States, it’s been living in our studio and has ended up being a great companion for this album. We run just about everything through it because it

In The Studio With | Teengirl Fantasy

Ensoniq DP/4 “Our favourite effects rack, currently on loan from a good friend. Love it, if even for the sake of recording out things that were previously in the computer in order to get them ‘out of the box’ and allow effects to just sit as they are without endless tweaking. It’s amazing for harmonyies, phasers and distortions.”

Elektron Monomachine “The first piece of Elektron gear and probably still my favourite. It’s great for organic textures, basslines and pads, and has a fun arpeggiator. It really offers molecular control of sound.”

Akai MPC-1000 Elektron Analog RYTM “The analogue drums on this are rich and cut through the mix really well. You can layer them with your own samples. It works as a functional drum machine, but can easily go to freakier zones if you choose.”

“This MPC has managed to stick around since I got it the year it came out. It feels limited compared to the Elektron stuff Logan has, but it still comes through for live performance and occasional beatmaking.”

Do you collaborate in the studio or do you work separately and swap files?

Allen & Heath ZED-12FX “This has a great sound and range of control. In my opinion, the quality of the effects is on par with any outboard processor.”

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Logan: “We both work together in Nick’s studio. I have my own studio setup at home in my bedroom where I can work on things before bringing them over to Nick, then we can both look at the material together. We do some file swapping, but the most crucial work gets done in real-time, in person. Things go much faster that way. “We’ve deliberately avoided trying to define specific roles in the project. If you wanted to make a really generalised stereotype, you could say that Nick has more of a ‘producer’ approach and my approach is more composition-based.”

Teengirl Fantasy | In The Studio With

helps to achieve a more ‘real’ sound, whatever that means. What we also like about it is that whatever we run through it as an effect cannot be messed with later like you could an effects plug-in. Because it’s set in stone, you have to like whatever the effect is – I especially like the harmoniser and guitar distortions on this rack. We also like the Eventide Eclipse for its rich reverb, and we’ve been using that for quite a while.”

Roland Juno-106 “I’ve had this Juno forever – replaced the voice chips and everything. I’ve played other peoples’ Juno-60s and -6s and really don’t like how they sound. I love how the 106 is so soft; it always sounds good with the cutoff down. It’s our go-to for chords, and sometimes bass.”

Do you have any tips or techniques on how you approach sound design and creation? Nick: “Creative panning can be super-effective. Being able to draw the pan in Ableton or have certain high-frequency elements on a pan with LFO can be a good way to create dimension. Stereoisers are cool, but they often weaken sounds.” Logan: “We’ve got into the habit of always trying to record a live take of an automation first, preferably with a real knob or controller. You can hear the live-ness of it better that way, and of course you can always adjust it later. Just think with your gut and trust your intuition, and louder isn’t always better. Increasing our dynamic range was something we talked about a lot with some of these tracks.” Are there certain tenets you stick to when it comes to trying to achieving a great mix? Logan: “When we’re making a track, there usually comes a point where the focus becomes more about what things to take away rather than what to add. Simplifying and subtracting has become a crucial step in the process for us.” Nick: “Honestly, I think learning the ‘proper’ way to mix has been a double-edged sword. Yes your mixes might become cleaner and more hi-definition, but it’s easy to go overboard and stop just listening. I’m really trying to detox from the habit I got into of staring at plug-ins while mixing, and just trying to listen as carefully as possible. I think having that balance of intuition and learned skills is the best.”

Roland V-Synth “This synth is a beast for ethereal, hard-to-define, elastic, and digitally fucked up sounds. Favourite things about it are the D-beam and touchpad, which give extra dimensions to your performance. Lots of bend and squeal in this one.”

What tools do you use for compressing and limiting the sounds within your mixes? Nick: “I’m still trying to figure this out, but usually I’ll mix into a limiter with the threshold at zero just to catch the peaks. My advice would be to make the attack slower if you want louder transients. I try to match the makeup gain to a little below the amount of gain reduction, so that the volume isn’t lost from compression – just the little peaks. The stock Ableton Glue compressor is pretty good actually, and the Waves CLA-2A is also good for when things need to be loud. Slate Digital compressors are pretty good for a more transparent style. Using sources other than just a kick for sidechaining can help you find some nice unexpected grooves.” What are the different strengths behind the various hardware synths in your studio? Logan: “We have the Elektron Monomachine, which is great for sequencing, both onboard and MIDI out. It’s also great for bass and off-the-grid rhythmic sounds. I’ve got into exploring the different user waveform packs that are out there too,

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In The Studio With | Teengirl Fantasy

so it’s still a valuable piece of gear in our setup six years in. Our newest piece of gear is the Elektron Analog Rytm, which appears on a few tracks on the album. We’re really into this one – the analogue synths cuts through in the mix in a really nice way, and the drum sounds are nice and full. It’s probably the most intuitive piece of Elektron gear they’ve released so far.” You have a few classic synths like the Roland V-Synth and, as you mentioned previously, the Juno-106… Nick: “We discovered the Roland V-Synth because it was sitting in a writing studio we used in the UK. It’s a truly bizarre workstation from 2003 that kind of does everything at once while doing nothing a digital workstation would normally do. For example, there’s no true piano or string sound, but there are a lot of digital monks and indescribably elastic-sounding arpeggiators. It has a rough, plasticky quality that we utilised a lot on this album. The sounds can be controlled with a digital beam handwaving motion, so it produces organic modulations of inorganic compound sounds. “The Juno-106 has been our go-to synth for chords right from the beginning. It makes some appearances on 8AM because we love to use it with the chorus effect on, but we recorded in mono. We also use a Korg Wavestation SR, which is a sick rackmount digital wavetable synth. We downloaded some patches from some random corner of the internet and loaded them via SysEx. The Wavestation has a good ethereal, mountainous vibe.” Where do you stand on the modular craze? Is it something you’ve looked into? Nick: “Modular synths always look really cool and impressive, but they sometimes seem limited to me in terms of what sounds you can actually get out of them beyond bleeps and squiggly res-y bloop sounds. But I can’t really say, as I’ve never gone in-depth and used one.” Logan: “I respect the amount of control they give you over the sounds, and I appreciate the idea of people building their own sounds rather than selecting presets. Sometimes it feels like a scene unto itself, but you could also say the same thing about making music on computers. Basically, if I had more money I probably would have got more into it by now.” Where do you stand on the question of gear? Do you like to accumulate a variety of kit, or do you prefer to go deeper into a few select pieces? Nick: “More gear is not the answer to making better music. Knowing the gear you have super-well is much more important. That being said, walking into a studio filled with random toys you’ve never seen before can be inspiring and help to make a new track fast. One of the tracks on our album, Star-rise, was made in a studio in Berlin that was filled with sick synths and a Japanese board that made everything sound really thick when you ran stuff through it. But that studio was all arranged for everything to only be recorded as a two-track, which I thought was crazy!”

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Do you master your own records, or do you prefer to hand that part of the process over to somebody else? Nick: “8AM is our first record to be mastered by Beau Thomas at Ten Eight Seven Mastering in London, otherwise it’s mostly been done by Joe LaPorta. We went with Beau for the Planet Mu record because he masters all of their releases and we didn’t want to break form with them. We’ll definitely still be mastering with Joe in the future – they’re both fantastic. Since we didn’t have any help with mixing 8AM, the mastering was more important in order to help the tracks sound more slick and complete. We often prefer more muted sounds, which can end up with purposefully muddy or dark mixes, so I think mastering helps to balance that out.” How do you spin a studio projects into something you can use to play live? Logan: “My setup is mostly Elektron-based at this point. The memory structuring on their machines can seem a bit convoluted, which is why I don’t think people use some of their machines to their full capability. This was my problem at first, but there’s so much room and space on these things to invite endless non-destructive variations and playing with ideas. The ability to end up in a new place from where you started is what I appreciate,

and it’s what try to cultivate in a live setup. Basically, we have all our gear synced to a MIDI clock, triggered either by the MPC or the Monomachine. When recording, we’ll send a MIDI clock out from Ableton, connected to all our gear so that they can start on time.” Nick: “When we first started touring, the gear we made the music with was exactly the same gear we brought out to play. But now I’ve been able to replace my Juno-106 on tour with the new JU-06, which is a portable digital version. Man, I really wish this existed a few years ago when I was slowly destroying my Juno-106, lugging it around the world. When we improvise at shows, it’s pretty similar to the improvisation process when we write a song. Many of our earlier songs were composed live, so they’re a little easier to play out, but with the addition of Logan’s Elektron Octatrack, we’re able to sample stuff out of the computer but still be super-flexible with it. Now, we’ll often rewrite or create new songs when we’re performing live. I also like to project to the audience the fact that we’re playing live rather than DJing – sometimes people make this mistake even when we have keyboards on stage!”

want to know more? Teengirl Fantasy’s latest album 8AM is out now on Planet Mu – http://planet.mu

Teengirl Fantasy | In The Studio With

We understand you’re big fans of the Elektron Octatrack for sampling? Logan: “I’m still uncovering new things after owning it for four years. The learning curve has been pretty steep but rewarding. I’ve recently got into spending more time planning out the storage of samples within a project so that there’s a greater fluidity between track ideas – I like to allow as many of the sounds I use as possible to be interchangeable with one another because it allows more flexibility and spontaneity when jamming. I’ll also use the cue slider as a way to safely explore different parameter settings without changing the pattern itself.”

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FM | MODULAR MONTHLY

Get Flowing with the Voltage Block Animate and automate eight channels of CV with Malekko’s signal sequencer

M

alekko Heavy Industry’s Voltage Block is a CV sequencer offering eight channels of up to 16 stages of CV. There’s loads of power to manipulate and animate any system, it’s super-fast, and the whole thing is wrapped up in a nicely packaged and easy-to-use 6x5x3-inch module. Once we’ve built a basic patch, we can use it to fire out eight CV signals for animation, interest and movement. It’s super-fast, which is very inspiring and motivating. You also get live slider automation recording, letting you jam on the sliders before playing the whole thing back – killer! There’s quantisation and scale selection, a choice of smooth or stepped modulation, it’s controllable by clock, CV or slaved to a Varigate

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8+ (the two, by the way, are an amazing pair together). Elsewhere, the unit allows you control over stage length, reset and hold, glide, and multiple play direction options – yep, you can play sequences backwards, forwards, in ‘pendulum’ or randomly. There are also per-channel mutes and a song mode. All this functionality adds up to an inspiring and quick unit that’s still massively feature-packed. What truly makes Voltage Block different, though, is that the sliders don’t relate to steps in sequences – they actually represent the voltage level for each output. You build sequences by holding down a step button then adjusting the slider to the desired level. You’re only ever a few button presses away from any function, so let’s dive in and take a look at how to use the Voltage Block…

Tutorial | Modular Monthly

Sequencing CV with the Malekko Voltage Block

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Let’s take it step-by-step and check out what this eight-channel electrical mistress can do…

Let’s have some fun! Set up a basic patch then use the Voltage Block for animation. Connect the eight outputs to various CV inputs for modulation – whether that’s pulse width, cutoff, VCA levels, LFO rates or envelope time, there’s loads of potential.

Watch the video in a web browser at bit.ly/fmmod317

With a range of scales to quantise to, let’s build a melodic sequence. Take the first CV out into the 1V/oct input on your oscillator, hit Scale, and move the first slider to move between scales likes blues, major, minor, pentatonic, Japanese, Persian and more.

For further live manipulation and interaction, try playing around with the freeze mode, which is great for fills and transitions in otherwise static patches. Hold the Shift and Freeze buttons, then press any of the top eight buttons to freeze that output while held.

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Do you ever get tired of 16-step sequences? Well Voltage Block has your back! Simply press the Length button and press the button you want to act as the last step. So hitting button 7 will give you a sevenstep sequence.

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Once you’ve carefully crafted your animation sequences, hit Save and let’s approach things differently. Set a patch playing with the eight CV outs patched, and just jam on the sliders. It’s fast and intuitive, and the module will record all your movements, which is ace!

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You can ‘play’ the step buttons, and hold them to manipulate a sequence as it plays… but there’s also an Arpeggiator mode that cycles through held buttons too – simply hold two or more and you’re off. Here we’re holding steps 3 and 5 to make them arpeggiate.

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In The Studio With | The Magnetic Fields

The Magnetic Fields

© Daniel Byrne

The Synthpop foursome’s founder and songwriter Stephin Merritt is known for his prolific output and distinctive baritone vocal. Few, however, have been privy to his enormous collection of vintage gear. Now Danny Turner lifts the lid on his beautifully kept studio.

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The Magnetic Fields | In The Studio With

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tephin Merritt has had an extraordinarily varied career. Although he’s collaborated with several other bands (The Gothic Archie/The 6ths and Future Bible Heroes), he’s best known as the principle singer/ songwriter of The Magnetic Fields. Beyond that, Merritt has released audiobooks, movie soundtracks, collaborated in musical theatre and recorded a TV commercial for Volvo. Most of his output has been released on the critically acclaimed Nonesuch Records. Merritt’s eleventh studio album is different. The mammoth 50 Song Memoir is an autobiographical concept album chronicling the first 50 years of his life. Even when singing about himself, Merritt’s caustic wit shines through on songs such as Come Back as a Cockroach and A Cat Called Dionysus. Both revealing and unpretentious, Merritt sings on all fifty tracks and plays more than one hundred instruments, dovetailing gracefully between acoustic pop and frazzled electronic pop.

Although fairly self-explanatory, what was the motivation behind the new album? “I read that Bob Dylan was coming out with an album with 30 tracks on it, and the article tried to make it seem like a trend. The motivation behind it was my record company president Robert Hurwitz, who took me to lunch at the Grand Central Oyster Bar and said that he had a good idea for a new album commemorating my 50th birthday. It quickly turned into this 50-song monstrosity.” You also released 69 Love Songs in 1999. Is this type of release simply a result of your prolific nature? “Some themes are easier than others. If I were writing an album of political songs from, say, presidential elections from the beginning of the United States until the present – an idea that keeps coming up every four years – it would be hard… whereas an album of 69 love songs is much easier. Writing an album of 50 songs about me, with no particular rules other than it being about me, was a lot easier.” Over what period were the songs written? “I incorporated earlier songs, so maybe 10 songs pre-date the idea for the album. I started writing three months before I began recording, then I kept writing for another year and a half. I’m not the one who put the dates at the beginning of the song titles, by the way! I thought there was going to be a colon there. The songs are meant to be autobiographical.” Apparently, you were reading Grace Jones’s autobiography but had to put it down because it might influence the album – in what way? “I read the first chapter and thought it was pretty seductive – I didn’t want to have to live up to Grace Jones’s narrative strategy. I don’t know if she had a ghost writer, but I made a point of not reading any memoirs or autobiographies for this project; I just didn’t want to compare myself to any of them.

Is that the same with music? Some artists don’t like to listen to music while recording… “It depends on what I’m working on. I don’t think I listened to any music as research on this album, but I certainly listened to a lot of music as research on the album Realism. Since I recorded the album, I’ve been listening almost entirely to instrumental music, mostly baroque harpsichord music. Basically, I listen to harpsichord music in the car, which is great because it’s so easy to separate it from the sound of the engine.” The track Foxx and I presumably pays homage to John Foxx? “Yes, he’s one of the artists that I think has actually improved since his so-called heyday. I like his music now at least as well as I did in the 70s and 80s. He did something sort of halfway between ambient music and an audiobook, called The Quiet Man. It’s made up of piano pieces or solo keyboards with a narrator intoning short stories by John Foxx.” You did a Gary Numan cover some years ago. Have you ever considered asking him and John to collaborate? “I don’t know. I’d be very happy to talk to John about it, but we might both want too much control over the final product [laughs]. I have difficulty relinquishing control and I imagine he does too. I did do a pointedly un-Electropop version of Gary Numan’s I Die: You Die, with bluegrass instrumentation.” Is that era where your interest in electronic music comes from? “I got a synthesiser in 1979, when I was 14 – a Yamaha CS-60, which was a junior version of the CS-80. I hadn’t heard much music which was totally guitar-free at that point. It was just before the British Electropop explosion, so when I first got a synth, if I had to emulate anyone it would have probably been Yes rather than someone I hadn’t been exposed to yet. The synth was a present from my mother.” Did having the CS-60 spark you into choosing music as a career path? “I’ve never thought of music as a career path. It’s completely befuddling to me that I’m a professional musician, as I would never hire myself to do anything that I do. By the way, the one thing that you can do with The Yamaha CS-60 is that there’s an audio input, which is just a plug, so what you put into it doesn’t have to be audio at all. I used to have fun connecting the other end of the patch chord to my teeth and making zapping sounds and things. “After the CS-60, I got the Roland TB-303 and the 606 drum machine. There was a DIN cable, which was a precursor to the MIDI cable, connecting the two. The TB-303 was the first sequencer that I had – before that everything I did was hand-played. I guess the first computer I had was an Apple in 1986 – which had 512KB of memory – and I got the Roland S-50 sampler. I’d read about the software Performer in Computer Music Journal, which said that it allowed fine-grain quantisation in synths so

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In The Studio With | The Magnetic Fields

you could make MIDI events that didn’t sound like clockwork. I’m very into mechanical music, but what I don’t like are things that sound exactly the same each time. I grew up with ’70s Kraftwerk albums, where everything is flanged or phased, and the octaves keep changing. As repetitive as the music is on paper, the sounds keep changing, and that’s what you’re listening to.”

represents a note value or control voltage, and I don’t know of any sequencer that was like that before. It’s not necessarily even a note sequencer – you could apply that voltage to anything.” 50 Song Memoir has electronic instrumentation but somehow sounds very acoustic… “It’s not primarily an acoustic album but one where

“About ten or 12 songs were produced by Thomas Bartlett, who has an all-electronic studio except for his piano. Thomas’s production choices are much more crystalline than mine… smoother textures – so once the songs got into my studio, I made them rougher and produced on top of him. I prefer more interesting textures, and what’s more interesting to me is warmth and fuzziness. I always like things that change every second rather than samples. For example, I want to get an electric harpsichord, and the easy way to do that would be to get the new Roland C-30, which is sample-based. But after 20 seconds of playing the middle C, I just feel like I’m hearing the same thing again and again, whereas if I get a vintage harpsichord, which is probably fantastically expensive, when you press middle C you’re creating an electro-mechanical action that will be slightly different every time.”

What’s more interesting to me is warmth and fuzziness. I always like things that change every second rather than samples What do you think of the path electronic music has taken since then? “There haven’t been many new ways of making an oscillator sound. I think we’ve had 50 years of a few waveforms, but what is new are aleatory, or alien, instruments like the Swarmatron and the Crackle Box – things that aren’t completely controllable. So I think there’s actually an avant-garde scene again, at least instrumentally, and that part I find exciting. I like the introduction of John Cage-based chance operations into instrument design, which hasn’t been done before as far as I know.” Are we talking modular? “There are modular devices that can do that. In Buchla-land, there’s the 266e Source of Uncertainty, which is a great modular that allows you to control chaos in a control voltage form. You get to choose which kinds of chaos and the amount for each parameter. Wiard also has a chaos modular. The last Magnetic Fields album, Love at the Bottom of the Sea, has a whole lot of chance-based electronics used as percussive elements. Maybe I’ll do an album of just that under another pseudonym.” When you say chance-based, are we talking about devices that are not designed to make it easy for you to do everything? “As always, it’s only easy to make certain kinds of music. The autoharp makes it very easy to make a certain kind of music – once you’ve tuned it, which is actually quite hard to do. It can make exactly one kind of music, or maybe two, very easily, and I think that’s true of most modern rhythm units if you want to make one of three or four sub-genres of dance music. But you’re being funnelled into aesthetics choices that are being made by someone else.” Funnelled in the same way that the explosion of modular is led by their affordability? “Yes, but a lot of the new modules are things that really didn’t exist before. I have a Kilpatrick Audio Pattern Generator, which is based on a little square of graphics where you have 64 dots that can be cycled through in a predetermined number of ways to represent 128 graphical images and different ways that the cursor can run through those. Each one

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a lot of the electronic elements are easily thought of as acoustic. When I use rhythm units, I often place a speaker on a snare drum to make sure it actually sounds like an acoustic drum, and I have a lot of strategies for blurring the distinction between electronic and acoustic sounds. So I’m flattered that you think it sounds like a primarily acoustic album, because it isn’t.” The songs are quite rough around the edges. Is that from a tendency to avoid overproduction?

Could you also apply that principle to the distinction between analogue hardware and digital software? “I used a lot of digital gear on my first album Distant Plastic Trees. It was entirely made on a Roland S-50 sampler, a Yamaha RX21 rhythm unit and a Korg

In The Studio With | The Magnetic Fields

Music and More DRM-1 “The best, most controllable analogue drum machine ever, except there’s no sequencer. You can actually see what you’re doing! The trigger pads are so tiny you have to play with subtlety and nuance!”

You have electronic sounds, but never electronic-sounding beats. Do you use acoustic instruments for beats? Yes, it’s a mix of rhythm units and acoustic drums. I use synthesisers for making drum sounds and melodic sounds, but I often make simple thuds electronically from sounds that you wouldn’t expect to be electronic – sounds that are too toned to be electronic and don’t sound like someone at Roland manufactured them in a lab coat… like someone just whacking a bass drum in the bathroom when they’re actually poking the Moog Voyager with a little vibrato so it’s different every time. I tend to use humble sounds that don’t draw attention to themselves. The rhythm unit that I love, and wish I could use all the time, is the Metasonix D-1000, which is made with vacuum tubes, so what you’re hearing is actually an electro-mechanical process. Basically, it sounds like something going wrong inside your television set. 74

The Magnetic Fields | In The Studio With

Kilpatrick Audio K4815 Pattern Generator “A 64-step voltage sequencer with visually oriented operation that seems like a dumb toy until you discover its gigantic range of possibilities.”

Metasonix S-1000 “A vacuum-tube synthesizer, pointedly unlike the mainstream keyboards that might be overrepresented in this photo (because they’re big). Incredibly ‘warm’ endless fun.”

Snazzy FX Wow and Flutter “An echo maker where the modulation is the point – as in dub. Makes your piano sound like it’s bobbing in the ocean and your drums sound like a washing machine.”

Poly-800, which is technically a digital synth – although it sounds pretty messy by today’s standards. In order to make the sounds change all the time, even though most of them are samples, I did what you can do with the S-50 that you can’t do with most samplers, which is to send the same note twice at the same time, which makes each note comb filter slightly differently. Because the motherboard can’t actually play them at exactly the same time, it plays them a fraction of a second apart, so that’s one strategy to make digital sounds different from each other.” You have an amazing studio, but we assume that as a songwriter, the kit doesn’t necessarily lead the writing process as much as the strength of the songs themselves… “Absolutely, and I don’t think of myself as a good cover artist at all. I haven’t tried in several years because I think that every time I do a cover I don’t do it justice, whereas when I do my own songs, not doing them justice is the whole point. I write pretty conventional songs in a musical way, and then I subvert them in the studio, which I pretty much have to do anyway because my voice is not a pop instrument at all – it’s the same as my speaking voice.” But it’s a very unique-sounding vocal – you wouldn’t necessarily want to change that by taking singing lessons… “I have taken singing lessons [laughs]. It’s always called ‘an untrained voice’, but it’s actually not an untrained voice. Usually on Magnetic Fields albums, I have more than one lead vocalist. I’ve had Shirley Simms doing co-lead vocals for the last 11 years, but for this album it didn’t seem appropriate.” Does the writing process usually begin with acoustic instrumentation? “No, I never write with instruments. I sit around in bars with a notebook. I write down lyrics, but I expect to remember the music, which is why I write catchy songs – if they’re not catchy, I can’t remember them. I think if I used really complex chording, I would probably need an instrument to hear it on, but because I usually don’t, I go straight from a click track to a bassline and typically have much of the arrangement in my head. Where would you begin writing the arrangement if you didn’t have it in your head?” It’s hard to compute being able to do that, unless you’re a songwriter of course… “Yes – but most people can do lots of things that I can’t do. Most people can cook and I can’t cook at all. Last night I made myself pasta and it was horrible!” You have an AdrenaLinn drum machine. That was that made by Roger Linn who made the famous Linn Drum... “It’s a very small contribution to the Linn Drum line. It has Linn Drum sounds on it, but can do thousands of things. It’s completely counter-

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In The Studio With | The Magnetic Fields

intuitive and can make your guitar sound like a sequencer. It’s sort of a guitar-pedal and a rhythm unit. I also have a Rhythm Ace drum machine, which I believe is actually what turned into Roland’s famous CompuRhythm series, and the Tempest Drum Machine, which is an odd beast because I haven’t actually been able to use it in the ways that I would’ve liked. For some reason, they released the software before it was ready and never updated it,

sounds and no sequencer, but there’s a little button for each drum, and each one has eight parameters including resonance, volume and envelope so you can see what you’re doing. It has no memory, so what you’re looking at is what you’re hearing. It’s a great way of coming up with combinations of drum sounds. It’s got a MIDI input, so you can sequence it if you like, and by today’s standards it’s kind of huge.”

The Suzuki Omnichord and Casio VL-Tone look like interesting ‘toys’ too “The Suzuki was designed as a sort of electronic autoharp. It has a little section where you can strum it with a guitar pick. It’s probably plastic, and it’s ribbed so it has some resistance to it. It also has a rhythm unit and a sequencer, but of course it never really sounds like an autoharp and no listener would be fooled. “Everyone had The Casio VL-Tone in 1983; it was made famous by the German group Trio with their hit single Da Da Da. That song is entirely VL-Tone in the intro, and the snare drum plays along with it. We were going to use it on tour before we realised it’s about 30 cents sharp – I have no idea how, as digital synthesisers have no business changing their pitch.”

It has no memory, so what you’re looking at is what you’re hearing. It’s a great way of coming up with drum sounds so it absolutely cannot play in any meter except 4/4… and it can’t even play in swing time! And yet it’s got all these lovely synths on it; you can compress and distort different notes and make the filters wobble, which is fun, but it’s a profoundly flawed instrument.” What other drum boxes do you like using? “There’s something called the DRM-1, which has been made under another the name to the one I have, which is Music and More. It’s got eight drum

You have some particularly unusual gear, what can you tell us about the Congost Xylomatic? “It’s Hungarian – a kind of a music box that you can program. It’s got a little rotating wheel with spokes that make you able to play it like a little xylophone mechanically. It’s not very controllable, so you can’t make it sound professional – only toy-like, like a badly played glockenspiel. I’m a pretty bad glockenspiel player myself, but I can’t speed up or slow down like the Congost Xylomatic. You can hear it best on the introduction to the track Eye Contact.”

Can you describe the Andes Melodica, a mini keyboard that you blow into? “Yes – it’s a lot of fun. It’s not what everyone would call a melodica; it’s really a keyboard recorder. It’s actually wooden on the inside rather than metal, so it sounds like a recorder playing, but when you hit a second note it sounds like two… except it suddenly goes flat, so playing it in tune is extremely difficult. Basically, it’s really great at sounding like a group of children playing a recorder.” And how do you bring it all together on the computer? What’s your DAW of choice? “I use Pro Tools with some plug-ins. I have the Waves Diamond Collection and a few others – the same ones as Thomas Bartlett so I can hear what he’s hearing. In the ’80s I had Performer, so I naturally moved to Digital Performer when that came out, but my engineer made me switch to Pro Tools because he was familiar with it. It was a really dumb thing to do, and I’ve regretted it ever since, because there’s essentially no sequencing ability in Pro Tools. “My next studio activity is to get Digital Performer back and run both of them, and if I can’t, I might dig out my previous computer now that it’s been fixed and use them simultaneously. It’s about control – as far as I know, Ableton and Cubase are oriented to particular kinds of music, but Performer is not. But I haven’t actually tried either of them; I’m only judging by who uses them.” Do you use the software tools mainly for sequencing or the plug-ins to trigger ideas? “Well I don’t have any digital instruments. If Reason is on my computer, I’m unaware of it. I think I tried them once but they sounded too cheesy for me, and they weren’t controllable and not easy to use with all my outboard gear.”

want to know more? 50 Song Memoir is out now on Nonesuch Records. The Magnetic Fields are on tour in the USA from mid-April. www.nonesuch.com

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The Magnetic Fields | In The Studio With

Roland Space Echo/Chorus Echo “Do not even try to mix vocals without a Space Echo. I usually use two passes of it, sometimes three.”

Roland SVC-350 Vocoder “I also have the VP-330, which is the keyboard version. But this has 11 bands of formant controls for actual intelligibility. Awesome on drums.”

Avalon VT-737SP “This is a channel strip, with tube preamp, opto compressor, four-band EQ and, most importantly for home recording, a nice big VU meter with a lightbulb.”

Orban Dual Spring Reverb

Pultec Filter HLF 3C “Irreplaceable for tuba taming, this ten-pound tank is great for extreme settings, telephone voices, evil dwarves… I wish I had two of them.”

“Of the four spring reverbs in this rack, this is the festive blue one. So deliciously unrealistic, more like a box spring than a cave.”

What’s your opinion on people who listen to music on laptops or mobile phones? Is it regressive? “I think sound quality plummets every few years, actually. In the ’50s, singles came out on poor-quality 7" vinyl and we listened on AM transistor radios, which sounded totally horrible. Only Rock and Roll was listenable, and it evolved to be listenable in that format. There was no particular low end – it was all midrange, and the lyrics were largely nonsense. The technology keeps doing that again and again, and the current iteration of that is playing music on the phone. 12 year olds don’t care about fidelity because they don’t understand what it is – they like toy piano sounds and voices that sound like their mother gurgling at them. They like high end, and as people grow up they like low end.”

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FM | REVIEWS

INCLUDES AUDIO

Roland System-8 £1,299 The latest AIRA ‘Plug-Out’ synth is Roland’s biggest and most powerful to date. Dan ‘JD73’ Goldman explores the green giant

CONTACT WHO: Roland TEL: 01792 702701 WEB: www.roland.co.uk KEY FEATURES 3 ACB oscillators, 8-note polyphony, S8 engine + 3 plug-out slots. 49 keys with velocity, pitchbend/modulation lever, 64 patches/64 performances, SD card storage, 64-step sequencer, arpeggiator, 3 FX blocks, 2 audio inputs/vocoder, USB audio/MIDI, 2 pedal inputs, Trigger in, Gate/CV outs. Dimensions: 881x364 x109mm. Weight: 5.9kg

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Roland System-8 | Reviews

THE PROS & CONS

+

Sounds stellar, covers huge sonic territory with well-thoughtout, hands-on control Includes Juno-106 and Jupiter-8 Plug-Outs, plus the ability to buy more Solid sequencer onboard, plus plenty of versatile FX, including the famous Juno Chorus

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Performance mode doesn’t store edits. Practically a patch reference directory Sequencer has no click-track. Arp has no swing or gate modes. No aftertouch Plug-Outs are on Roland Cloud, but there are currently no VST/AU versions

F

rom the TR-8 and TB-3 to the System-1 and now the System-8, Roland’s acclaimed ACB (Analog Circuit Behaviour) technology definitely delivers the goods, capturing the essence of Roland’s classic analogues. Whilst the System-1 (which I reviewed back in 2014) sounded great using its own engine, it also gave us the first glimpse of Roland’s tasty Plug-Outs (which could reside both in the synth and on your computer).

Designed by the AIRA team (a separate division within Roland), the System-8 can be viewed as the System-1’s big brother and then some! It’s an eight-voice, ACB polysynth with its own powerful native engine, accompanied by three Plug-Out slots into which you can place your choice of any three Plug-Outs from the Roland Content Store. The S-8 ships with Plug-Out versions of the Jupiter-8 and Juno-106, arguably Roland’s two most-loved polys. We’ve already heard these engines, (albeit at lower resolution/polyphony) in the

Boutique JP-08 and JU-06 modules. Built into an all-black plastic case that closely follows the form-factor, profile and build of the JD-XA ‘Crossover’ synth, the S-8 looks sleek and feels solid, yet it’s very portable and manageable for one person. Like other AIRA products, the main control panel is black brushed aluminium (non-reflective), and all dials and sliders are backlit with green surrounds – great for dark studios or on stage. The backlighting system can be dimmed to taste (unlike on the ’XA), and the panel has been

cleverly designed so that only the controls relevant to the engine or Plug-Out being used are lit (so you know where your sound or plug-out is set). All dials feel tight and solid with little-to-no wobble, and the rubberised backlit selector buttons feel great in use too (all this is in line with other AIRA products). If you wish to personalise your S-8 further, Roland also offer wood and aluminium side panels for an extra £49.99. Roland are once again using their 49-note synth-action keybed from the JD-XA (with slightly shorter keys),

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Reviews | Roland System-8

THE AlTERNATiVES

Roland JD-XA £1,499

Four-voice analogue/ digital SuperNatural synth with 16 parts, 49 keys with aftertouch, sequencer, deep customisable arp, powerful effects, splits, layers and vocoder. www.roland.com

Nord lead 3 £500-£900 used

Like the S-8, this oldie has a very hands-on interface and offers multiple engines along with some really unique filters. Still killer! www.nordkeyboards. com

Vintage Jupiter-8 + Juno-106 £10,000+ used If you were to buy a real Jupiter-8 and Juno-106 you’d need a serious amount of cash… and then you’d still need money in the pot for upkeep, too, making the S-8 seem like a bargain! www.roland.com

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which feels positive and fast to play but with a nice amount of resistance. However, unlike the XA, there’s no aftertouch, so for real-time modulation you’ll have to use the mod-bender or the control pedal input. Assigning the mod-bender is straightforward, and the four sliders directly above control the amount of pitch or filter change applied by the pitchbend or mod lever. One notable here is that there’s no dedicated ‘Mod LFO’ as on the JD-XA, so you can’t have independent LFO, filter or amp speeds/settings for the mod lever. The pitchbend range slider has no markings for semitones on the panel so (for example), it’s hard to accurately set pitchbend range for +2 or -5, (+2 actually translates to around 44 on the parameter display). Otherwise, the interface is excellent, patch selection is easy using the bank and number buttons, and it’s all very intuitive with little menu diving. The native S-8 engine has the widest range of tweakable parameters on offer, and it’s a serious powerhouse

synth even without the Plug-Out options. It’s duo-timbral and has two main modes (Patch and Performance), with the main engine for the S-8 and Plug-Outs running at 2-channel, 32-bit float, 44.1 to 192kHz. A Patch is a single mono/unison/poly sound, and a Performance allows splitting, layering, and switching between any two sounds. Performance mode doesn’t currently store sound tweaks, though, so if you select a bass from the S-8 engine and a pad from the Juno Plug-Out then tweak the settings and save the performance, those tweaks aren’t kept. Hopefully this will be solved soon.

The System-8’s MIDI-syncable and super-accurate LFO goes into the audio range and can be sent to filter, amp and pitch simultaneously via three dedicated dials. While there’s only one global LFO, that one LFO does have two ‘variation modes’, with Variation 2 adding a second ‘stealth LFO’ to modulate the first, and Variation 3 adding a resonant pulse LFO. There are also six wave types on offer, including random and sample and hold, so you get plenty from your one modulating oscillator. As for the main oscillators, the S-8 engine offers a versatile setup capable of a huge range of tones,

While there’s only one global LFO, that one LFO does have two ‘variation modes’

PluggiNg-OuT! Roland’s Plug-Out system allows you to purchase and import new engines into the three Plug-Out slots via your DAW (an SD card slot allows you to store extra patches too, but not upload plug-outs). The improved Jupiter-8 and Juno-106 engines really do have the key inherent characteristics of the original synths. The Jupiter-8 emulation is certainly a very powerful synth, and it can sound close to the original, it’s the Juno Plug-Out that really stands out in terms of authenticity and vibe. Both now have polyphony up to eight notes, matching the original Jupiter and expanding on the original Juno. Having owned a Juno-106, I honestly wouldn’t spend the money on a vintage 106 again – the S-8’s take on it is so close to the original and sounds wonderful, without the reliability headaches. Even the Juno’s spectacular chorus sounds spot on, right down to the tweakable noise, and can really transform the Juno’s basic sounds. My review unit shipped with the SH-101 plug-out in slot 3 (which I loved when I reviewed the System-1) but you could also add the excellent Promars, SH-2 or System 100, turning the S-8 into a completely different synth.

Roland System-8 | Reviews

from future-electronic to classic vintage, and it all sounds precise yet warm and musical. There are three ACB oscillators available, and Oscs 1 and 2 are identical, except that the first has cross-modulation, compared to Osc 2’s ring mod and sync. Under ‘Variation 1’, each oscillator has six standard waveforms, Saw, Square, Tri, and ‘Super’ versions of each. Variation 2, has a batch of six more unusual waves including NoiseSaw (a more gritty dual saw-type sound), Logic (introduces aliasing at extreme settings), FM and FM+Sync, (it’s very easy to dial in classic linear FM-like sounds), Vowel and Cowbell. These are all indispensable additions to the S-8’s sonic arsenal. The Colour dial (per-oscillator) controls the defining character of each wave type (PWM, shape etc) and can be modulated by the pitch, amp or filter envelopes, or via Osc 3 or the LFO. That’s a very impressive complement of sonic power, and all without entering a menu! Osc3/Sub really helps to thicken and underpin sounds (it becomes the famous Juno-106 sub when using the Juno Plug-Out) and offers sine and triangle waves at various pitches. The filter system is similarly versatile, with three variations. These can sound very analogue or futuredigital, but always musical. Variation one houses a self-oscillating LPF/HPF (each with 12, 18 and 24dB slopes); these modes sound great all-round for pads, brass, leads, basses and FX (and the LPF produces great kicks using the self-oscillating resonance). Variation two houses six SideBand filter variations, which allow you to highlight or remove areas within your sound. Sending the LFO to the filter, then band-tweaking via resonance works particularly well here. System-1’s Low-Pass Filter is also present, plus there’s keytracking, amount to envelope, and a separate High-Pass Filter with a high cutoff resolution. There’s loads of filtering to get your teeth into, and some really unique textures are possible, especially with the SideBand filters. No synth is complete without envelopes, and the System-8’s are punchy and tight, suitable for anything from slow fading pads to super-snappy drums. There’s an ADSR for the filter and the amp (both are velocity sensitive), and also a two-stage pitch envelope for detailed time-based pitch-sculpting. A mod

ARPEggIATOR: The simple but handy arpeggiator has six basic modes and six note divisions. The output of the arpeggiator can also be recorded into the sequencer.

SEqUENCER BUTTONS: 16 TR-8 -style buttons function as bank/patch buttons in Patch and Performance modes. In sequencer mode, they become step buttons.

envelope would have been great, but then the sequencer does record knob tweaks with or without notes, so there is a way to live without one. The sequencer, by the way, (step or real-time) is a very intuitive scratchpad and ideas generator, and it’s polyphonic as well, so if you want to record up to eight single lines or a mixture of chords and singles lines, the S-8 makes that childsplay. There are various scale and quantise values, shuffle, first/last step, key trigger and playback modes including random and invert, plus forward/reverse settings (although it misses keyboard-led transposition and a click track). As the S-8 is two-part multitimbral, you can only use or address two sounds simultaneously, whether internally or over MIDI…

VOCODER/AUDIO IN: The vocoder is capable of very intelligible results. You can route audio into the ‘Input FX’ block, but this doesn’t go through the filters, amp or envelopes.

but then again, the S-8 is more synth than workstation. Nevertheless, four parts (a part per engine) would have been ideal. For a final touch, there are three blocks of simple but great-sounding effects. The first block features overdrive, distortion, bitcrusher, metal and fuzz; while the second block features great delay and modulation effects such as chorus and flanging; and the third showcases reverbs. The effects are all of excellent quality and musical throughout, though the reverb is fairly metallic without shaving the tops in the menu system. You can also record your FX tweaks into the sequencer, too, which is great. To conclude, based on this excellent native engine alone, the System-8 is well worth the price of

CHORD MODE & CONDITION: Hold Chord Mode to add up to eight notes, then trigger it from any key. Condition emulates the drift found in vintage analogues and works a treat.

admission. Throw in the Juno, Jupiter, the audio interface/CV capabilities, the sequencer, a decent vocoder (plus audio inputs with dedicated FX) and it’s hard not to be impressed!

FM VERDICT

9.0

The System-8 covers a vast sonic territory with superb flexibility – from vintage Roland tones to futuristic sounds, it truly delivers. 81

Reviews | Teenage Engineering PO-32 Tonic

INCLUDES AUDIO

Teenage Engineering PO-32 Tonic £85 Teenage team up with fellow Swedes Sonic Charge for a drum synth with a unique trick up its sleeve. Si Truss investigates… CONTACT WHO: Teenage Engineering WEB: www.teenageengineering.com KEY FEATURES A 16 sound drum synth featuring 16 performance effects and a 16-step sequencer. Features include built-in speaker, battery power (2x AAA), pulse clock sync, alarm clock and Parameter Lock automation. Can receive sounds and patterns from Sonic Charge MicroTonic (sold separately)

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Teenage Engineering PO-32 Tonic | Reviews

THE PROS & CONS

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Comes stocked with quality, characterful drum synth sounds Performance effects are great – instant ’90s IDM! Can easily be loaded with fresh sounds created in the MicroTonic plug-in

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Patterns and sounds can’t be sent back into MicroTonic Workflow is a little fiddly and unclear Requires a separate purchase of MicroTonic to get the most out of it

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he PO-32 Tonic is the seventh addition to Teenage Engineering’s range of compact, batterypowered Pocket Operator grooveboxes. As with previous iterations, this PO packs 16 sounds, 16 performance effects and a 16-step sequencer into an exposed-looking hardware unit slightly larger than a credit card. However, where previous POs have been limited to a pre-defined range of sounds, this one is capable of a

broader sound palette via some clever cross-platform compatibility. This flexibility is thanks to the fact that the PO-32 has been created in collaboration with Swedish developer Sonic Charge. The PO-32 takes both the ‘Tonic’ part of its name and the basis for its sound engine from Sonic Charge’s MicroTonic – a software drum synthesizer first released over a decade ago. The primary upshot of this is that, as well as coming stocked with an array of sounds created using MicroTonic, the PO-32

The effects are fun to play with and capable of quickly conjuring up glitchy sounds akin to classic ’90s IDM can be loaded with fresh sounds and patterns created using the plug-in, allowing users to completely alter and overwrite its sonic palette. This loading of sounds is made possible by the addition of a small microphone to the PO hardware itself. Information is transferred from plug-in to hardware as sound – using the harsh, tinny audio-data signals synonymous with old dial-up internet connections. To make a transfer, put the PO-32 into receive mode, hold its mic close to a studio monitor or computer speaker and let the retro protocol do its stuff. As the PO features a built-in speaker, it’s also possible to use the same method to transfer data from one unit to another, allowing users to clone a set

of sounds or send creations to friends. It’s possible to make transfers via a wired connection too, by connecting a computer or PO output to the PO’s input jack – which is fortunate, as a few transfers will inevitably be enough to remind most users that the sound of dial-up internet was actually fairly irritating. Even ignoring the transfer capabilities, the PO-32 has a lot going for it. MicroTonic remains a quality drum synth (see MicroTonic), and its capabilities have been put to good use in stocking the PO-32 with factory sounds. The 16 sounds span bass-heavy kicks, fizzy white-noise hats, crunch snares and plenty of more esoteric, synthesized percussive sounds.

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Reviews | Teenage Engineering PO-32 Tonic

THE ALTERNATIVES

Teenage Engineering PO-12 Rhythm £49

The original PO drum machine now retails for around £50, which makes it a bargain source of inspiring drum loops. www.teenage engineering.com

Arturia DrumBrute £379

Arturia’s excellent drum synth is well-equipped for its price but still remains very much affordable. www.arturia.com

Korg Volca Kick £139

The Volca Kick’s synthesis remit is more narrow than the PO-32’s but again it’s surprisingly well-equipped for its price. www.korg.com

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As with the previous POs, each sound can be manipulated by a pair of parameter knobs. Here, these control the sound’s pitch and MicroTonic’s morphing capabilities. The latter of these allows each sound to smoothly transition between two pre-defined parameter set-ups, effectively meaning that each sound slot can contain two different drum sounds and a whole range of variations between the two. The PO’s Parameter Lock capability allows the movement of these two knobs to be automated on a per-step basis too. As is true of all the POs, the performance effects are the real star of the show here. The effects themselves cover rhythmic filtering, delayed fade outs, lo-fi and distortion effects, beat repeats and more. They’re a lot of fun to play around with and are capable of quickly conjuring up glitchy, stuttering sounds akin to classic ’90s IDM. MicroTonic compatibility aside, the workflow of the PO-32 is much the same as the other POs. As with those, there’s a lot of Shift presses involved to accommodate so much functionality into a fairly limited range of controls. A small screen offers some visual feedback – numerical bpm and shuffle settings, position of the two parameter knobs and a digital alarm clock – but screen real estate is mostly dedicated to a cartoonish animation, and on the whole it serves more of an aesthetic than a functional purpose. Labelling of the controls isn’t too clear either, meaning that you’ll want to memorise the manual to get the most out of the PO-32.

INPUT The input jack can receive audio and sync messages at the same time. It can also be used for sound uploads.

SEQUENCER Labelling of the PO’s sequencer isn’t the clearest but once you’ve read the manual it’s fairly straightforward to use.

This is all forgivable though, given the PO-32’s portability and price. As before, the PO-32 features a few tricks that allow it to integrate into a larger studio set-up. It can send and receive a pulse clock signal, allowing it to act as a master or slave when hooked up to other pulse compatible gear, such as other POs, Korg’s Volca range, Arturia’s analogue hardware or a simple pulse signal sent from an audio interface. It’s still a long way from being a properly integrated studio

POWER As with all the Pocket Operators, the PO-32 runs on a pair of AAA batteries. An auto-off feature lengthens battery life.

instrument, but the PO-32 is more capable than its disposable appearance might suggest. The MicroTonic compatibility adds to its creative scope considerably too. It’s a slight shame transfers aren’t bi-directional; the ability to send sounds and patterns back into the plug-in for deeper editing and DAW processing would really enhance its potential. Hopefully this might be something it’s possible to implement in a future update though. Detractors will still write this latest PO off as a ‘toy’ no doubt, but the PO-32 sounds great and, even if just as an inspirational source to sample, loop and churn out toplines, at £85 it’s worth the price of admission.

MICROTONIC Despite being fairly old in plug-in terms – the current iteration, version 3, arrived in 2011 – MicroTonic remains a powerful and well-designed drum synth. It features eight drum channels (compared to the PO’s 16 sound slots), each of which offers noise and oscillator sections for building sounds, along with various mixer, distortion and EQing tools. A morphing function allows users to set and transition between two different iterations of each sound, a feature which is carried across to the PO-32. There’s a sequencer too, which can send patterns to its hardware counterpart.

FM VERDICT

8.4

The PO-32 is a fun and inspiring noise-maker and the added MicroTonic compatibility broadens its sonic scope considerably.

Reviews | Waldorf kb37 Keyboard

Waldorf kb37 £775 It’s a 37-key keyboard with room for 107 HP’s worth of Eurorack modules built in! Bruce Aisher drops in a few of his most cherished modules and gets plugging CONTACT WHO: Waldorf (Hand In Hand Distribution) WEB: waldorf-music.info handinhand.uk.net KEY FEATURES 37-keys keyboard with aftertouch, pitchbend wheel, modulation wheel and glide

control, Stereo audio inputs with volume control for line output. Headphones output with separate 9 Control Voltage and 3 Trigger outputs: USB and MIDI In/Out, Thru + Sustain pedal and Sensor inputs.

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Waldorf kb37 Keyboard | Reviews

THE PROS & CONS

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Plenty of CV output options controllable from the keyboard, built-in wheels, sensor and via MIDI CC. Clock output can run from internal or external clock.

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here appears to be no slowing in the race to modular nirvana, and Waldorf are certainly not going to be left out. In recent months, they’ve introduced a range of Eurorack modules catering for host of generation and processing duties, but it’s the kb37 that is perhaps the most intriguing. The concept is simple: build a modular rack into a keyboard. This, of course, begs a question – why haven’t we seen more of these? The modular concept has seen increasing interest in a number of areas of the music technology landscape. 500-series module racks for audio processing can now be found built directly into mixing desk designs, and modular synthesis has exploded with hundreds of smallscale producers and numerous DIYers getting in on the game. That’s all well and good, but unless you use a rack-based sequencer, most of the time the modules are separate from any physical controller… but what if you want to perform live or create your own immediately playable system? Waldorf think they have the answer. At its heart, the kb37 features a large empty space where you can place your choice (up to 107HP) of Eurorack toys. Maximum module depth is 65mm, though the rightmost 15HP has only 25mm of clearance. The kb37 should therefore accommodate most modules, although it would be worth checking

Built-in Arpeggiator is fun and useful (and can generate MIDI notes as well as CV/Gate).

Some synth modules will only require the audio to be connected before getting up and running that your current stock is compatible before taking the plunge. Below this is the keyboard, with its 37 full-size keys. This feels nice to play and also generates velocity and aftertouch information. Modules draw power (up to 1.5A) from the standard Doepfer-style backplane, which (by default) has its CV and Gate lines linked to the onboard CV interface. This means that some synth modules will only require the audio to be connected before getting up and running. The small audio panel on the extreme right has two audio inputs that route sound to the back-panel jack and front-panel headphone socket. Each of these gets its own volume control. At the other end, the CV Panel deals with the other aspect of interfacing, and there are enough outputs here to keep most people happy. Alongside the expected Gate and Pitch CV, you also get Clock outs (from the internal clock generator, or via MIDI/USB clock) as well as a wide range of other control sources (including the sensor

input on the rear). Throw in an arpeggiator, Glide control and multiple note trigger modes and you’re almost done. The kb37 is a very nicely designed piece of kit and helps turn a bunch of modules into a self-contained playable synthesis system. However, at nearly £800 – before even beginning to add any of the all-important modules to the bill – it represents a serious investment.

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The price is high considering you also have to budget for modules to control. It would have been great to have included a drum trigger module in the CV/Gate section.

FM VERDICT

7.9

A great idea that’s nicely thought-out and well implemented, the only thing holding the kb37 back is its high price tag. 87

Reviews | Roli Blocks

Roli Blocks from £170 The Seaboard creators aim their expressive controller technology at the mass market. Si Truss goes for a spin around the block

CONTACT

KEY FEATURES

WHO: Roli WEB: roli.com Music making system based around the MPE (multidimensional Polyphonic Expression) equipped Lightpad Block, suplemented by Loop and Live Blocks. Powered by free Noise app for iOS. Free Dashboard app allows general MIDI configuration. PRICING: Lightpad Block: £169.95 Loop Block: £69.95 Live Block: £69.95. Loop/Live Blocks can not be used without at least one Lightpad Block.

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Roli Blocks | Reviews

THE PROS & CONS

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Lightpad Block is a solid, innovative control surface The actual sounds contained in Noise are high quality Dashboard offers plenty of potential for those willing to put the effort in

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Noise app is severely lacking in terms of ‘pro’ features Third-party control requires considerable assignment and setup time Loop and Live Blocks have little use away from Noise

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ondon-based company Roli have risen to prominence over the past few years with their Seaboard range; a unique take on the traditional piano format that offers string-like expression via Multidimensional Polyphonic Expression (MPE) technology. Their latest product, Blocks, is an attempt to incorporate the same technology into a more affordable package So what is Blocks? Roli call it a ‘modular music studio’. The ‘modular’

part of this tagline refers to the three hardware elements that can be purchased and used in a mix-andmatch manner. The central element is the Lightpad Block, a rectangular, rubber-topped control surface incorporating MPE technology so it can be played using a variety of expressive gestures. This can be supplemented by the Live and Loop Blocks, which are button-based controllers – the former handles Scale, Arp and Chord modes for the instrument controlled by the Lightpad, while the second offers an

assortment of controls for transport, BPM and quantise settings. The ‘studio’ element of Blocks comes in the form of an iOS app, Noise. Noise is a free app available whether you own the hardware or not. It offers preset drums and instruments with more available to purchase in-app, including signature packs from Steve Aoki and RZA. Owning Blocks hardware unlocks a number of extra sound packs too. Unfortunately, as a self-contained ecosystem, Blocks’ reliance on Noise is its downfall. Noise is, if we’re being generous, a mixed bag. On the positive side, the actual sounds it contains are strong; the instruments are powered by Roli’s impressive Equator sound engine, while the sampled drum kits are punchy, characterful and well produced. Playing a single preset instrument using the Lightpad’s MPE surface is fun and expressive, allowing various preset sonic parameters to be manipulated via pressure, slide, velocity and aftertouch gestures. The app’s Scale, Chord and Arp modes are nicely implemented, particularly when used in conjunction with the Live block, which makes a neat tool for inspiring melodic patterns.

Beyond that, though, Noise begins to feel painfully limited. Projects are constricted to a set division of one drum kit and three instruments, and while each of these slots can be filled by any preset, there’s nothing in the way of customisation. There’s no way to mix and match sounds within a drum kit, for example, and while sounds can be tweaked by dragging a finger around the Lightpad interface, none of these parameters are labelled and there’s no way to tailor drum sounds for yourself. Moreover, at the time of writing, there are countless ‘serious’ music making features missing. There’s no audio/project export and no inter-app audio or audiobus support, meaning that the only way to get your creations out of the app is to share your work online with other users via the Noise website or record from your device’s headphone jack (assuming it still has one!) There’s no overdubbing either. Recorded a beat loop but decided you’d like to add another element over the top? Your only option is to start from scratch and attempt to ‘finger drum’ the whole thing in one go. Further still, Noise has no way to edit loop lengths, no pattern copy/

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Reviews | Roli Blocks

THE ALTERNATIVES

Korg Gadget & nanoKey Studio £39 & £124

Another wireless app/control combo. The nanoKey can’t match Blocks for expression, but Gadget is stocked with a wealth of sounds and offers far superior workflow and DAW integration. www.korg.com

Roli Seaboard Rise 25 £649

If the innovation of MPE is appealing and you’re sold on the sounds of Equator, the cheapest of Roli’s Rise controller range is a much better purchase, despite the higher price. www.roli.com

paste, no mixer, no mute, no solo, no sync capabilities, no built-in effects… the list goes on. The result is a system that feels more like a technology demo than something designed for actual music makers. Fortunately, the arrival of Dashboard – currently in public beta – does address this somewhat. Dashboard is a desktop application allowing the hardware to be configured as a general MIDI controller. It contains a variety of pre-made set-ups configuring the Lightpad as a playing surface, drum pad, fader bank and even a couple of basic video games. Users can create setups using C++ coding too. While this opens up the potential of the Blocks hardware considerably, Dashboard merely controls the MIDI messages outputted via the hardware, meaning that users still need to set up mapping themselves in their chosen plugin or DAW. While there are some applications that already accept MPE MIDI – Bitwig, Kontakt and Omnisphere to name a few – even in these situations, setup is hardly ‘plug-and-play’. In most scenarios a fair amount of assignment and customisation is required. It’s worth noting too that with Dashboard the Loop and Live Blocks merely offer on/off buttons, and none of their Noise functionality is carried over unless users set this up in software for themselves. Max or Reaktor ‘power users’ or C++ coders are likely to be the ones who get the most out of Dashboard. The average producer, however, is still underserved – Noise is too shallow to appeal to all but the most

LIGHTPAD BLOCK An adaptive rubber surface that allows ‘multi-dimensional’ control of drums and instruments.

LIVE BLOCK The Live Block can toggle Scales, Arp types, Chords, and has a hold-down Sustain button for use with the Lightpad.

inexperienced music maker, while Dashboard lacks the immediacy to hold the attention of casual users. Does this mean Blocks is a write off? Not necessarily. The idea of a portable, accessible MPE controller is definitely appealing, and when

LOOP BLOCK The Loop Block offers transport controls, metronome on/off, record quanitse and sound selection.

controlling purposed-built sounds, the Lightpad is a great controller. It needs to be unshackled from the weak framework of Noise, and possibly from iOS reliance altogether. If Roli bundled Blocks with a desktop version of Equator, or FXpansion Strobe, and threw in some thirdparty mappings, then it could be a great control system. As it is, it feels like an interesting proposition wasted by confused implementation.

CONNECT, CLIP AND CHARGE Each of the Blocks hardware elements is wireless, connecting to a computer or iOS device via Bluetooth. Every element is equipped with magnetic metal connectors, allowing the Blocks to ‘snap’ together. This connection isn’t strong enough to keep multiple Blocks together firmly when being held by hand, but it will keep them in place together on a desktop. These connectors also allow several to be charged from a single USB connection to a central Lightpad. Dashboard can also interface with the Blocks over USB, which allows it to be used with non-Bluetooth equipped systems.

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FM VERDICT

6.7

Blocks is an interesting hardware concept, but it’s currently severely underserved by poor software implementation

FM | ROUND-UP

UAD 9.1 Plug-Ins

In the latest round of UAD plug-ins there’s an overhaul to the Moog filter emulation, the sound of a rare French hardware processor is mined, SSL’s classic E Channel Strip is updated and Brainworx provide a Subharmonic Synth generator and add to UAD’s line of amps FM | MUST HAVE!

Moog Multimode Filter Collection £189 UAD return to the modelling of the most classic synth filter of all time with the Moog Multimode Filter Collection, led by the new ‘XL’ plug-in. This models the entire signal chain of the Moog filter, with Input Drive, Envelope staging, twin clock-able LFOs, a resonant multimode Filter, and a dedicated output stage. But the most exciting addition to the interface is a multi-parameter Step Sequencer. Click the start button to get this running and then the Edit button to enter four lanes of patternbased step modulation, with Filter Cutoff, Resonance, Input Drive and Output volume all offering ‘positive’ or ‘inverted’ assignments. This means you can take any source signal and give it the full Moog filter treatment. Sumptuous. www.uaudio.com

VERDICT 9.1 92

BX_Subsynth Subharmonic Synthesizer £115 Since the ’70s, the DBX 120XP Subharmonic Synthesizer has been a go-to choice for Dance musicians and DJs looking to add extra punch, weight, definition and power to the bottom-end of mixes, finding particular favour amongst the early Disco scene. Effectively, the 120XP worked by adding a synthesized waveform an octave below the fundamental frequency of the source signal. Produced by Brainworx for UAD, the Subsynth Subharmonic Synthesizer builds on the legacy of that processor. The addition of a mid-side matrix is welcome, allowing enhanced control over the bassboosting effect. The main event here is the central ‘Sub’ module though, which adds bass using modelled waveform synthesis. This processor won’t only enhance kicks and basses – it’s just as happy adding weight to entire mixes at the mastering stage. www.uaudio.com

VERDICT 8.5

UAD OTO Biscuit 8-bit Effects £189 Regular UAD collaborator Softube offer a fascinating take on the cult-classic OTO Biscuit. The hardware original – which was first released by French outfit OTO back in 2011 – is seen as something of a ‘secret show-stealer’ among many in

Round-Up | Reviews

the EDM community. The original processor offers bitcrushing, analogue multimode filtering, pitchshifting, waveshaping and more and each of its capabilities has been modelled here. Control layout is kept simple: users can increase input Drive, then balance the original input source and its processed version, using ‘Naked’ and ‘Dressed’ dials, while coloured LEDs toggle between low, high and band-pass filter modes and sculpt lo-fi bitcrushing effects. Then you can add movement via the four-mode effects section, using the buttons below the display area. These allows users to switch between Waveshaping, Delay, Pitchshifting or Step-Sequenced Filtering. Sonically, this effect morphs beautifully from the sublime to the ridiculous. For owners of the hardware… sorry, but the secret’s out. As for the uninitiated – this is one to try! www.uaudio.com

VERDICT 8.6

UAD Fuchs Overdrive Supreme 50 £115 UAD’s amp emulation plug-in roster gets a boost thanks to Brainworx’s emulation of Fuchs’ Overdrive Supreme 50. The original amp was itself based on the infamous Overdrive Special amps built by Howard Alexander Dumble. Now a sought-after bit of kit in its own right, the popularity of the Fuchs amp is in part due to its flexibility, with Brite, Deep and Rock/Jazz toggle switches at the top significantly changing its character. These are joined by a three-band EQ section, for further sculpting of the amp tone. Brainworx’s FX Rack is included too. This lets you further enhance the rich array of tones with extra effects including a noise gate, filters and Power Soak circuit. 82 Recording chain set-ups are available, offering multiple combinations of mic and cabinet. The amp is Unison-ready too. www.uaudio.com

VERDICT 8.2

FM | STUDIO ESSENTIAL!

UAD SSL E Channel Strip Collection £229 UAD’s new take on the SSL E Channel Strip offers a comprehensive update of its previous incarnation; owners will find that in downloading the 9.1 version, its predecessor is retained (for project compatibility) with ‘legacy’ added as a suffix. UAD promise that a thorough, end-to-end remodelling of the original hardware has gone into this upgrade and it certainly sounds like it; the overall sound is clearer, punchier and more responsive, with ‘Brown’ and ‘Black’ EQ/filtering options available via a single switch. Better still, this update offers Unison technology, meaning that for those with supporting hardware, you can track through the E Channel Strip. UAD’s emulation of this console legend takes some beating. www.uaudio.com

VERDICT 8.8 93

Reviews | UA Apollo Twin MkII

Universal Audio Apollo Twin MkII from £590 The Apollo Twin MkII is not just a pretty new face, as Jono Buchanan discovers… CONTACT WHO: Universal Audio WEB: www.uaudio.com KEY FEATURES Desktop 2x6

Thunderbolt interface for Mac/Windows, 24-bit/192kHz audio conversion, UAD-2 Quad, Duo, or Solo Core Processing, talkback mic, improved monitor functionality 2 mic/line preamps; 2 line outs; front-panel Hi-Z instrument in and headphone out, 8 channels of additional input via Optical TOSLINK connection,

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UA Apollo Twin MkII | Reviews

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t’s easy to forget that as the digital division of Universal Audio – UAD – continues to add to its roster of award-winning plug-in emulations, the company’s origins were founded on the hardware designs of Bill Putnam. Alongside the recording channels and dynamics processors that Universal Audio continue to sell today, equally well known among its hardware ranks are the Apollo audio interfaces. These Thunderboltenabled boxes for Mac and PC balance high-quality audio conversion with two killer unique selling points. Firstly, UAD plug-ins are powered from the Apollo’s onboard DSP, taking the load away from your computer’s CPU. Secondly, through Unison technology, you can track through some of the most coveted hardware emulations of all time, with near-zero latency. So, what does the latest addition to the Apollo line-up offer? The original Apollo Twin was launched in early January 2014 and it remains the most compact of the Apollo interfaces. The 24-bit/ 192kHz MkII offers the same two-in/ six-out I/O configuration and broadly retains the same shape and feel, albeit the unit is now a darker colour, to match its big brothers in the Apollo range. The Twin’s front edge offers a Hi-Z instrument input and the headphone output, while the rear panel provides two Unison-enabled microphone/line inputs. These have increased dynamic range over their predecessors and are a direct match for the Unison-enabled preamps of the Apollo 8, 8p and 16 interfaces. There are twin stereo outputs, primarily to drive two pairs of monitors, while an ADAT input offers eight channels of further audio input routing. The Twin MkII can act as a ‘front-end’ for a larger Apollo system: you can daisy-chain up to four Apollo interfaces using Thunderbolt with the Twin’s main rotary dial acting as a monitor controller for the entire system. Indeed, this can extend further yet; as two further UAD devices can be added, if you own Satellite or UAD-2 PCIe cards, a monstrously powerful system can be configured. The buttons on the Twin MkII’s upper panel now have dual functionality. In addition to configuring the unit’s preamps for recording, you can now access

THE PROS & CONS

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The Quad Core Apollo Twin MkII is the most powerful portable interface from UA ever Extended monitoring and talkback capabilities Included software bundle offers a good range of classic hardware emulations

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There is fierce competition and some rivals’ interfaces are considerably cheaper

The Twin MkII brings its capabilities in line with the rest of the Apollo range Monitoring functions too, routing sound to the Alt Monitor outputs, as well as accessing the Talkback mic, alongside Dim and Mono monitoring options. Buying a Twin entitles users to the ‘Realtime Analog Classics bundle’ of UAD-2 effects, so you’ll be able to run emulations of 1176 and LA2A dynamics processors, Pultec EQ, the UA 610-B channel strip for Unison-enabled recordings, alongside a raft of other effects, including amps and reverbs. Of course, any of the other UAD plug-in titles can be added whenever you wish to make additional purchases. The Apollo Twin MkII brings its capabilities in line with the rest of the Apollo range and, coupled to Unison-enabled recording channels

and (up to) a Quad processing card, this is one of the best-sounding and most powerful compact Thunderbolt interfaces money can buy.

FM VERDICT

9.1

With sumptuous AD/DA conversion, increased monitoring capabilities and enhanced preamps, the Apollo Twin MkII is a winner. 95

FM | group test

TC Electronic Ditto X4 Looper £210

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Looping Tools

The array of formats for looping tools has exploded from tiny one button/knob pedals to full workstations, with flash memory and MIDI/USB connectivity expanding looping integration. We look at five options for desktop, floor and hand… 96

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Boss RC-202 Loop Station £299

Group Test | Reviews

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TC Helicon VoiceLive Touch 2 £410

This ‘desktop’ option will be at home in the studio, in a synth/FX set-up or beside turntables. The I/O is fully stocked for instrument/line (mono or stereo), mic input, Aux minijack input, USB and MIDI. The display may be the small LED type, but the RC-202 controls light up like a Christmas tree for instant feedback of the effects, dual loop controls, and memory management (~three hours record time). It’s easy to operate straight out of the box but a proper delve into the manual unlocks an impressive array of parameters. boss.info

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VerDICt 9.0

The stereo I/O Ditto X4 is built for the pedal board. The dual looping controls are spartan but flexible. The seven FX processes are straightforward (half/2x speed, reverse, tape stop and more), accessible by a knob and footswitch, and can be layered on a loop. The playback loop options cover all bases, with MIDI In adding external sync. USB connectivity is available for loop import/export, and with five minutes available for each loop some comprehensive backing can be loaded in (the memory is held when powered off). The TC quality, including hard bypass, is hard to beat. tcelectronic.com

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Sonuus Loopa £119

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VerDICt 8.6

Equally at home on mic stands and desktops, there’s an awful lot going on behind the VoiceLive Touch 2’s LCD display and touch-sensitive control panel. It’s easy to dive straight into, but does require the dedicated learning you’d expect for over £400. It packs in a high-quality signal path, FX engine (nine simultaneous

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5

Electro-Harmonix 22500 Stereo

Looper £234

effects) and looping tool set, backed with exhaustive I/O (MIDI, USB, stereo aux input, guitar in/thru and more). The sound quality and effects range are impressive, and the control surface makes navigation and editing a breeze. Highlights for the vocalist include harmonisation, choir backing effect, the auto-tune and sweepable filter via the ribbon control. The Rolls-Royce of vocal looping. tc-helicon.com

VerDICt 8.9

The Loopa is the simplest, cheapest and lightest tool here. Powered by a single AA battery, it boasts two buttons, a volume control (loop) and a power switch, and visual feedback comes via a light ring below the head mesh. The mic sounds good, though a little lacking in headroom. The undo/redo function lets you build layers that can be switched in/out to make up a performance (15 undo levels); record time is >13 minutes. It’s easy to use, and for vocalists it can be a serious tool for performance/composition. sonuus.com

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VerDICt 8.0

This dual loop pedal is a formidable performance tool for instrumentalists, producers and vocalists alike, thanks to stereo I/O, mic input (with +48v), SDHC storage (8GB supplied) and USB (loop importing/exporting). What it lacks in effects (octave up/ down and reverse only) it makes up for in looping/recording controls. The inbuilt rhythm facility can be augmented with imported loops. It’s a quality looper pedal in sound, flexibility and build but does require some deep manual munching. ehx.com

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VerDICt 8.7

FM VerDICt BEST OVERALL: The Boss RC-202 with its full set of looping/sound manipulation tools, easy interface and comprehensive I/O options. BEST VALUE: As a stage and studio tool, the EHX 22500 comes loaded with all the features needed for a variety of sources and uses. 97

Reviews | Audio-Technica AE2300

Audio-Technica AE2300 £249 Can this little dynamic microphone do justice to high-SPL sources with such a small footprint, asks Jon Musgrave CONTACT WHO: Audio-Technica TEL: +44 (0)113 277 1441 WEB: www.eu.audio-technica.com KEY FEATURES Length: 95.6mm, Diameter: 28mm, Weight:138g, Frequency Range: 60Hz to 20kHz, Polar Pattern: Cardioid, Low Pass Filter: 6dB/octave at 6kHz, Sensitivity: 1.4 mV/Pa

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Audio-Technica AE2300 | Reviews

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he Audio-Technica AE2300 is a cardioid dynamic instrument mic and the latest addition to Audio Technica’s longestablished Artist Elite series. In terms of design, it’s not as fancy as their own dual capsule instrument mics (the AE2500 and ATM250DE), but is better equipped than their regular ATM250 or ATM230 instrument dynamics, as reflected in the mid price point. The AE2300 is a broadapplication high-SPL cardioid design, so should be ideal for percussion, drums, guitar amps and brass. It’s also pretty compact (less then 10cm long), so is perfect for discreet use in a live environment. The weighty brass casing and top grille feel robust, and the screw-tight rubberised clip should see off any wandering drum sticks while providing some mechanical isolation. Overall, it’s a beautifully designed and manufactured mic. The proprietary double-dome diaphragm improves high-frequency and transient response. The off-axis frequency response is also reasonably linear up to 120 degrees, and not bad even at 180 degrees off-axis, which could certainly be beneficial when setting up a multi-miked drum kit.

The highs and the lows Sonically, the AE2300 is voiced to provide a mid-to-high-presence lift peaking just above 5kHz, and also has a small ‘air’ lift at around 14kHz. In practice this is great on both percussion and drums, bringing out the attack, and on the face of it does a similar job to a Shure SM57. Nevertheless, I put the two mics up side by side and the AE2300 sounds more precise in its midrange lift while capturing more high frequency ‘air’, and overall on exactly the same instruments they do sound noticeably different. The AE2300 also has more going on in the low frequencies than an SM57, and only shows noticeable tail off from about 80Hz. This makes it great for capturing the full frequency of lower pitched toms for example, and on an electric guitar cab those low frequencies are also very welcome, even if one chooses to curtail them later. There are situations where the extended high-frequency response

THE PROS & CONS

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Compact stylish design ideal for live use Tailored frequency response with mid and high boosts Optional low-pass filter to help curtail excess high frequencies at source Rubberised screw tight clip for secure mounting

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Reasonably pricey for a dynamic mic

It has more going on in the low frequencies than an SM57, and only shows noticeable tail-off from 80Hz may not be ideal, and with that in mind, the AE2300 also includes a switchable 6dB/octave low-pass filter. This is set at 6kHz, which does a good job of sucking the life from percussion. Even so, in a lively recording space, or if you’re trying to minimise high-frequency spill (cymbals and hi-hats for example), it’s great to have the option. I even found that the low-pass filter worked quite well on a guitar cab, as it shifted the focus slightly more into the midrange. Overall, the AE2300 is a fantastic mic, and although its small size makes it unsuitable for use as a handheld, in other respects it’s more versatile than the army of vocal dynamics typically used on instruments. It certainly isn’t cheap, but well made dynamic mics

Small size precludes use as a handheld

typically battle on for years with no maintenance requirements, so it should provide good value in the long run.

FM VERDICT

8.8

It doesn’t come cheap, but the AE2300’s attractive design, compact footprint and supreme build quality make it an incredibly desirable instrument mic for both live and studio use. 99

Reviews | iZotope Neutron

iZotope Neutron from £155 The latest from the Ozone creators packs an automatic Track Assistant. Si Truss asks if it’s too good to be true… CONTACT WHO: iZotope (via Time & Space) WEB: www.timespace.com KEY FEATURES PROCESSORS: EQ, Compressor, Limiter, Exciter, Transient Shaper, Surround Sound (Neutron Advanced only) PRICING: Neutron Standard £155, Neutron Advanced £235

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iZotope Neutron | Reviews

THE PROS & CONS

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Track Assistant is a quick source of tailormade mixing presets Masking meter is very handy for identifying bloated or busy frequencies Each processor is a well-spec’d mixing tool in its own right

T

he past few years have seen a noticeable trend towards ‘intelligent’ mixing and mastering tools. Into this fray enters iZotope’s Neutron, a suite of mixing processors enhanced by a Track Assistant tool, which analyses an audio signal and presents the user with a tailor-made channel strip. While this might sound like heresy, iZotope are quick to point out that Neutron isn’t intended to replace your carefully honed mixing skills. Rather, the idea behind Track Assistant is to present the user with an intelligently designed preset from which to build. Even without taking into account Track Assistant, Neutron is a quality suite of mixing tools. It offers five processor slots, each of which can be filled with any one of Neutron’s effects modules. These include an EQ, compressors, exciter, limiter and transient shaper. The plug-in is available in Standard and Advanced editions, the latter adding a 7.1 surround sound tool to the mix and allowing the processors to be used standalone. Anybody who’s used iZotope’s Ozone will find themselves on familiar turf, both in terms of the plug-in layout and the general quality of the processors. Each of Neutron’s tools holds up as a solid effect in its own right, going beyond mere ‘vanilla’ processing to offer a variety

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Each of Neutron’s tools holds up as a solid effect in its own right of modern and advanced features, including dynamic EQ, multiband compression and transient shaping, and four flavours of saturation from the exciter module. Arguably the most useful of Neutron’s tools is its masking meter, which offers a simple visual tool for identifying overlapping frequencies. With Neutron placed across multiple tracks within a session, a dropdown menu allows the EQ settings and spectral analysis of tracks to be compared one above the other, with Neutron highlighting the ‘busy’ frequency areas. It’s a very useful tool for identifying frequency bloat. As for the Track Assistant itself, results are undeniably impressive although far from infallible. The algorithm almost always did a very impressive job of serving up a well tailored starting point from which to shape the source material. In most situations I did find myself tweaking this to taste, so a decent level of mixing knowledge is recommended to get the most out of Neutron, in order to know when and how to override these

Still requires a solid grasp of mixing theory and experience to get the most out of it

automated decisions. The welldesigned UI makes tweaking an easy process though; with simple tools for bypassing and A/Bing. Global settings allow the analysis to be tweaked between subtle, medium and aggressive, too. In all, Neutron is an excellent mixing tool. Far from being digital snake oil or a crime against musicianship, it feels like a genuine step forward in plug-in technology and one which we should wholeheartedly embrace.

FM VERDICT

9.1

Neutron is a powerful and well-designed mixing tool in its own right, and the Track Assistant feels like a real technological step forward 101

FM | SoundS & SampleS UVI IRCAM Prepared Piano ¤399 While the use of effects mangling, extreme sampling treatments or even circuit-bending are not uncommon in today’s electronica scene, it is less often that you come across large acoustic instruments that have undergone sonic surgery. This is unashamedly the case with UVI’s Prepared Piano library, which has been produced in collaboration with IRCAM – the world famous research institute that has been at the centre of the experimental music world for the past 40 years. Prepared pianos, where objects are introduced to physically interact with the strings, have a relatively long history. However, it was John Cage who arguably contributed most in terms of formalising the approach, and who wrote pieces that specifically required the use of screws (between strings) combined with other disruptive objects. This UVI instrument makes use of their free Play engine – though it can also be integrated into their Falcon software – and requires 4.5GB of disk space, which expands to 19GB on playback. In its unadulterated state you get a nicely playable Yamaha C7 grand piano. The fun starts though when you use the main software page to

select one of the 45 preparation techniques. These can be assigned per note, and with the option of using layers to create two different treatments per note (each with separate control of level, tuning and envelope). Preparations include screws, erasers, coins, clothespins, sticks and others. Strings can be played normally, via the piano mechanism, or with a mallet, plectrum, bow or Ebow. There is also scope for introducing finger-muted harmonics and movement based performance effects. The big question is perhaps how useful this might be to the average FM reader – and with a price of 399 euros this is certainly not a casual purchase. For pure experimentalists this is a very powerful and engaging tool, and fans of Tom Waits (who in turn was heavily influenced by Harry Partch), will also enjoy the twisted percussive tonalities it offers. However, it is also capable of creating new, and very musical, tones that stretch far beyond the conventional piano, particularly when combined with effects. Bruce Aisher www.uvi.net

VeRdICT 8.0

Tim Exile SLOO £39 Continuing in a somewhat experimental manner, we have Tim Exile’s new SLOO. Shorthand for ‘Shed Loads of Oscillators’, this so-called Voice Swarm Synth is a Reaktor-based instrument that employs 48 simultaneous oscillator/ voices designed to behave like a flock of birds. Conceptually, the 48 voices share a core set of parameters determining pitch, frequency modulation, filtering etc. However, each section also has a ‘distance’ control that determines the voice’s possible deviation range during the swarming process. The best place to start is with the four banks of presets,

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whereupon you quickly realise that SLOO covers quite a bit of sonic territory, and is quite unpredictable at times. For those expecting an immediately playable instrument that fits into more conventional musical structures, this may not be for you. However, if you are willing to spend the time exploring (and definitely reading the manual a few times), it can deliver some interesting, and often unexpected, results. Its hold mode is particularly useful for drone creation. Bruce Aisher https://shop.timexile.com

VeRdICT 7.5

Sounds & Samples | Reviews

Salaryman Drum & Bass Pulse Vol 3 | £29.95 www.loopmasters.com Drum ’n’ Bass don Salaryman’s third Loopmasters release is a finely stocked library of demonic bass, vicious snares, and weighty atmospheres, with touches of Breaks, Jazz, and Techno influences alongside the rolling D ’n’ B that he’s known for. The 1.3GB of content if anything has fiercer beats, synths, one-shots, fills and percussion elements this time around. Whether you boot up one of the 72 sampler patches or just dive into the sampler folders as they take your eye, you’re in for a treat. It’s hi-octane stuff, throughout. Roy Spencer

VeRdICT 7 Loopmasters Dark Cinema | £29.95 www.loopmasters.com If you’re finding it hard to capture that cinematic tone in your own wide-screen productions, or you just want to cast an air of self-importance over your latest ‘beatscape’, then this latest Loopmasters

collection will be right up your alley. There’s 1.63GB of eerie sounds, otherworldly FX, and general high-fidelity, cinemascopic aural mood music to draw over your next production. And, besides the loops, 65 sampler patches are included for your DAW of choice, as well as 34 MIDI files to pick over. It all makes for a supremely versatile pack. Pass the popcorn. Roy Spencer

VeRdICT 7 Splice Stööki Sound Sample Pack | $7.99/mo https://splice.com Stööki is the multifaceted sound and vision collective from London, made up of DJ/producers, Lukey and Jelacee. They rock the UK Bass vibe mixed with upfront Hip-Hop and Trap stylings to murder dancefloors in their own inimitable way. Fans of their recent banger, My G’s, will know what to expect on the duo’s first sample pack for online subscription service Splice – lolloping bass moves, crisp and playful percussion, epic rising FX, and sparse, but heavy melodies. Besides nods to their latest beats, this pack picks through Stööki’s extensive back catalogue of material to present a library

of samples taken from favourite tracks. It’s quite the haul, and a joy to poke through. Yet, as with all Splice content, you can pick and choose the choicest bits from this or any pack with your monthly sign up fee, so go mad, fam. Roy Spencer

VeRdICT 8 Origin Sound Eastern Trap | $7.99/mo https://splice.com Looking to give your latest Trap workout a little more gravitas and musicality? Then check out this serious new bank of Eastern inspired loops and melodies. Drawing on traditional Jazz chord progressions and (beyond) old-school Egyptian grooves, the peerless Origin Sounds sound designers have crafted a fine collection of exotic sounds to play with. The 379MB of sample content offers a wealth of rich pads, inspired synth lines and some bang up-to-date basslines. Also included are full stems and bounces of some live drum loops, to counterbalance the digital heaviness, and some great World music rhythm percussion files to help you find your timing. A ten pack of Massive presents only sweetens the deal, and brings home a unique sample set that

is sure to bring some variety to your Trap production. Roy Spencer

VeRdICT 8 ModeAudio Beat: Drum Machine Samples | £15.00 https://primeloops.com Assembling a fierce rack of vintage drum machines would cost you an arm and a leg, plus three months sitting on eBay bidding against cowbelllover78 all through the night. Thankfully, ModeAudio have gone and captured all the crusty, chunky, fly and funky, hits, snares, rolls, and kicks you’ll ever need. This package features all your favourite sounds – the boom of the 808 kick, the 12-bit crunch of a Casio keyboard, and the ringing grooves of that other Roland stalwart, the 909. The vaults have been plundered, and a slew of iconic machines dusted off and wrung dry of their celebrated sonics. The results are astounding. The extra processing that’s been lovingly added draws out even more qualities from this army of kit. Each folder offers a different spin, too. Be it Layered, Processed or back to basics Raw, each one’s a winner. Roy Spencer

VeRdICT 7

Dare to believe.

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FM | ADVICE Dispose of/keep broken leads?

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Firstly, establish whether the cable or connectors are faulty (try a cable testing box). Try to repair the existing cable and/or connectors (if you’re handy) depending on which has failed (the most economical route). Otherwise, replace the broken parts with new, recycle for cash at a metal recyclers, skip the busted ones at your local tip, or buy new leads.

Why aren’t there more iOS Audio Units?

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When Audio Units arrived on iOS in 2015, we suspected that they’d come to supercede the likes of Audiobus and Inter-App Audio. Whereas these standards enable you to connect apps and use them together, AUs offer the promise of proper plug-in-style hosting of instruments and apps within your iPhone or iPad DAW, which certainly seems like a better solution.

All of this remains true, but the bottom line is that we haven’t seen as many iOS AUs as we were expecting. It’s hard to say why this is, but the bottom line could be… well, the bottom line. Let’s not forget that most iOS apps sell for a fraction of the price of their desktop counterparts, so it’s much harder for a developer to justify spending time and money adding features (in this case, AU support) if they don’t think it’ll result in a massive increase in

sales. And perhaps either the demand for AUs just isn’t as great as we might think, or adding AU support is particularly tricky or labour-intensive. It’s also worth noting that not all iOS music production apps currently have the option of hosting AUs. You’ll find it in the likes of GarageBand, Cubasis and Auria, for example, but not in Korg’s Gadget. As such, it doesn’t yet feel like a full-on ‘standard’ that developers feel compelled to support. Nevertheless, we still think that iOS AUs have great potential. Yes, we’re still waiting for some major

Yamaha SY77 worth buying?

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The SY77 still sounds fresh and can be found for £250-ish. However, although it’s a killer FM synth (it can do a mean analogue impersonation too) the screen backlights generally go dim and need replacing (which is a big job due to internal complexity), plus the operating system (like most FM synths) is a royal pain to master. Otherwise, great! 104

players to get onboard, but surely it’s only a matter of time before more compatible instruments and effects start to arrive.

Are official emulations always better than unofficial ones?

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We’re still not quite sure how the legal land lies when it comes to emulations of classic hardware, particularly ones that come in software form. It’s clear though, that not being able to put a company stamp on an emulation hasn’t stopped countless developers from taking ‘inspiration’ from classic products; many vintage synths and effects have been emulated numerous times in one form or another. Is ‘official’ always best, though? Those who create the branded emulations would certainly have you believe so, and it’s true that, if you choose a synth plug-in (for example) that’s been officially licensed or produced by the company that created the original hardware, the chances are that it’ll look and feel very similar, with a like for like (or possibly slightly expanded) feature set. However, there’s also the possibility that the slavish emulation might turn out to be slightly more restricted. If a developer is sticking to an original blueprint, it might be at the expense of more advanced features, or an interface and workflow that are more suited to modern music production. Not having to produce a strict emulation can give a developer more freedom, which could, in some cases, lead to a better product. You’re always wise to consider all your emulative options then, and not make a decision based on name and profile alone.

Your Production Problems Solved | Advice

Getting bass guitar to sit… I’m struggling to get my bass guitar to sit nicely in my mixes. Do you have any pointers please? Electric bass is hard to get right as there are many sonic variables. The playing may result in inconsistent tone or loudness. Then the strings that are played less may be brighter and the more regularly used ones duller. Plus there’s potential interference which can cause headaches. Human inconsistencies are important to capture for authenticity/soul but managing them for a great result is challenging. Ideally, get a great consistent take, use fresh strings with a well set-up bass and stay away from computer screens when recording.

Is one set of monitors enough?

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If your speakers and room are giving you an accurate picture of how your mixes sound in the real world, you can rely on one set of monitors. If your speakers aren’t the most accurate, you’re mixes aren’t translating and your room has issues, it’s best to have other speakers to check your mixes on (including consumer hi-fi speakers, boombox, small desktop speakers, headphones and a mono speaker).

Can you use Ableton Link with hardware?

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We noted last year that Ableton Link is becoming something of a standard in the music software world – support for this wireless tempo-syncing technology can now be found in Ableton’s own Live and a wide range of desktop and iOS applications, including Korg’s new Mac version of Gadget, incidentally – but hardware is a different kettle of collaborative fish. As things stand, no hardware product has featured Link support, but we can tell you about the pink-0, a Raspberry Pi-powered prototype

device from developer Vincenzo Pacella that could enable you to add Link-age to your Eurorack rig. This isn’t something you can buy at the moment, and might never be, but it does introduce the possibility that hardware could one day be on the Link agenda. Certainly, with the internet of things now very much a, err, thing, it doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch to imagine that hardware synths and drum machines will soon be wi-fi enabled as a matter of course, and if that happens, anything’s possible as far as connectivity is concerned.

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If some strings/notes are brighter than others, instead of using a compressor across the whole mix, use a multiband compressor to focus in and compress any frequency areas that are jumping out too much in the mix. The result will be a more manageable and natural bass tone.

If the bass is sticking out in general, it’s worth trying sidechaining the bass to the kick, so that when the kick hits, the bass gets tucked in a little. This often gives a nice push and pull to the groove of your track and helps the bass sit better.

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If your bass part is sounding weak, try using a sub-harmonic enhancer (plug-in or hardware) to add a solid synthesized foundation under the real bass. Or track a synth bass part that copies the real bass part, then compress together with the real bass on a buss.

All that may be needed is some subtractive EQ (to get rid of excessive low/mid/high) or ‘rubber-band’ compression to improve general consistency of tone/level. For smoothness, try fast attack/slow release and experiment placing the compressor before or after the EQ.

Tabletop stand for small synths?

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Despite all the minisynths/machines, there are only a handful of stands available. For tabletop use, the Ekho Black Adjustable Desktop Laptop Mixer/DJ Equipment Stand is a great bet for around £40. Then there are many DJ/laptop stands (Gorilla, Pioneer, Crane, Magma etc), and the Quiklok QL-322 mini X-stand.

Got questions that need answering? Send your queries to us at [email protected] and our team of experts will endeavour to solve them

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FM | GEAR GUIDE

hIGh-END SYNThS

NEW ENtry

Roland System-8 £1,299

£1,619

The System-8 covers a vast sonic territory with superb flexibility – from vintage Roland tones to futuristic sounds, it truly delivers. The Juno and Jupiter plug-outs impress too.

There’s very little not to love about the MatrixBrute. It oozes personality and can wear a lot of hats, from a warm, sweet monosynth to dirty ambient chord machine. Mind blown!

Dave Smith Instruments Pro 2 | $1,819

Sequential Prophet-6 | £2,549

Elektron Analog Keys | £1,099

Dave Smith OB-6 | £2,729

Review FM297 The Sequential name

Review FM284 A ridiculously versatile mono/

returns, and the Prophet-6 more than

Review FM278 A system capable of great

character/signature crossed with DSI’s

paraphonic synth that anyone can happily get

lives up to its heritage. Another future

results, though perhaps held back by some

sonic DNA – it sounds tight and modern with

lost in. Without doubt a great investment.

classic from Dave Smith.

ease-of-use issues. It’s built like a tank though.

a nod to vintage Oberheims.

Full Review: FM317

Arturia MatrixBrute Full Review: FM315

Review FM307 Has the essential Oberheim

Moog Sub 37 | $1,579

Roland JD-XA | £1,499

Behringer DeepMind 12 | £999

Moog Model D | £3,249

Review FM286 With a richer set of features and

Review FM295 Greater than the sum of

Review FM316 The DeepMind won’t undermine

Review FM311 While bringing back the iconic

fewer operational hurdles than its predecessor,

its parts. It can be a great analogue and

the market for characterful analogue polysynths,

sound of the original Minimoog, Moog have

the Sub 37 is a superb and highly desirable

a great digital synth, but combine the two

but it is flexible. It isn’t cheap, but it has plenty

added elegant modifications to deliver a modern

upgrade to the Phatty family of Moog synths.

and some real magic happens.

going on and a sound of its own.

synth that’s fully worthy of their storied legacy.

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Essential Tools For Music Making | Gear Guide

hYbrID coNTrollErS

NI Maschine Jam £299

Arturia MiniLab MkII £89

Jam is a great, creative controller in its own right, but it’s best used as a counterpoint to the existing Maschine hardware.

The Mk2 is only a subtle step on from the Mk1 hardware-wise but it’s a solid little controller and worth the price for the included content alone.

NI Komplete Kontrol S61 | £539

Akai Advance 49 | £399 Review FM293 Combined with Akai’s VIP

Native Instruments Maschine Studio | £889

Arturia KeyLab | £299

Review FM285 A beautiful hardware and software package that just works.

software, the Advance controllers remove the

Review FM273 A great package for creative

and the addition of all those sounds makes

Now works with third-party plug-ins too.

disconnect between controller and DAW.

beat-making with excellent hardware control.

it one of the best synths on the market too.

Ableton Push 2 | £599

ROLI Seaboard RISE 49 | £999

Novation Launchpad Pro | £249

Akai MPC Touch | £479

Review FM302 Push and Live were already

Review: FM304 Coupled with the excellent

Review FM296 The Launchpad Pro’s Live

Review FM301 The addition of a touchscreen

a great combo, but version 9.5 and Push 2

Equator software and the new Noise app,

control isn’t quite as extensive as Push,

narrows the gap between software and

raise the bar for one of the best hardware/

ROLI’s unique, multi-dimensional controller

but it’s more compact and works standalone

hardware, bringing an all-round more tactile

software experiences around.

is an appealing package.

too. Easily one of the best controllers around.

and integrated creative experience.

Full Review: FM310

Full Review: FM316

Review FM301 A top keyboard controller,

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Gear Guide | Essential Tools For Music Making

DJ coNTrollErS Numark S7 III | £1,299

Hercules P32 | £165

Numark’s flagship four-deck controller is an

Review FM306 Not a serious pro option but

impressive and classy DJ device. It’s not cheap,

nevertheless a fun product that offers plenty

but its build, feel and feature set are great.

for beginners and occasional performers.

NI Traktor Kontrol S8 | £829

NI Traktor Kontrol S4 | £469

Review: FM287 Whether you use Stems

Review: FM234 It may be overshadowed by the

or not, the S8 is hands-down the

S8, but for jog wheels, Stem/Remix Deck control

best Traktor controller money can buy.

and extra inputs, the S4 is still a great package.

Korg Volca Kick | £139

Elektron Analog Rytm | £1,140

Review FM316 The Volca Kick is capable of beefy

Review FM282 The Rytm sounds massive

drum and bass sounds that belie its compact

and is very flexible. It’s inspiring and addictive,

form factor. A must-try for club-focused producers.

and the sequencer is hugely versatile.

DSI/Roger Linn Tempest | £1,819 Review FM248 Doubtlessly lives up to

Teenage Engineering PO-32 Tonic | £85

the heritage of the two names behind it

The palm-sized drum synth is a lot of fun,

– certainly destined to be a future classic.

and compatibility with Sonic Charge’s

Pioneer DDJ-RZ | £1,759 Full Review: FM309

A pro-level DJ controller at a pro-level price. It might be expensive but the RZ is a seriously well-equipped piece of kit.

Drum SYNThS

Arturia DrumBrute | £379 Full Review: FM312

A characterful and flexible analogue drum machine with some uniquely creative sequencing tricks up its sleeve – at a winning price. 108

NEW ENtry

Microtonic synth makes it surprisingly flexible.

Essential Tools For Music Making | Gear Guide

DAWS

Steinberg Cubase Bitwig 9 Pro | £468 Studio 2 | €379 Full Review: FM315

Full Review: FM316

It may not be game changer, but there should be enough new elements in Cubase 9 to keep upgraders happy. New users should definitely add Cubase to their ‘must-try’ list.

The newcomer DAW is now a grown-up and well-rounded contender, but it’s Bitwig’s unique and brilliantly executed modulation system that make it a real winner.

Apple Logic Pro X | £139

Avid Pro Tools 12 | £550

Tracktion 6 | $60

Review FM270 Version ten of the popular

Pro Tools has now caught up with other DAWs,

Review FM293 More comprehensive and

DAW revamps the interface and introduces

bringing in a fast workflow to match its power.

well implemented than you might think,

Review FM295 Studio One 3 is stable, capable

some long-awaited MIDI effects plugs.

It still only runs AAX plugins, and there are

Tracktion 6 is a well-rounded budget DAW

of sating any music production need, and even

And let’s not overlook that price – wow!

alternative subscription payment models

worth trying.

does things that other DAWs can’t dream of.

Cakewalk Sonar | £419

Image-Line FL Studio 12 | £64+

Ableton Live 9 | £315

Propellerhead Reason 9 | €369

Review FM275 A well-bundled package with

Review FM294 Despite bringing mostly

Review FM265 Version 9.5 is a free upgrade for

Version 9 further refines the interface and

an audio-engine that beats some of its rivals

functional updates, version 12 is great. Like

current users of any version 9. The overhauled

workflow and adds new MIDI tools. Not a

on paper. Most certainly a heavyweight

a fine wine, FL Studio improves with age, and

Simpler is fantastic, and Suite owners get a trio

groundbreaking update, but regular users

contender with enough extras to lure new users.

it’s a superb production environment any user.

of new Max synths to play with.

are likely to appreciate the new features.

PreSonus Studio One 3 Professional | £279

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Gear Guide | Essential Tools For Music Making

SofT SYNThS

NEW ENtry

Spectrasonics Vengeance VPS Omnisphere | $499 Avenger | €199 Full Review: FM294

Version 2 of Omnisphere is a must-try. Audio import is the standout new feature, but dig a little deeper and there are improvements in all areas.

Vengeance-Sound’s first ever proper synth is an ambitious beast. With powerful wavetable editing, a ton of modulation, an onboard drum machine and sequencer and plenty of effects, this is a true power synth in every sense.

Native Instruments Massive | £129

Xfer Records Serum | $189

Arturia Synclavier V | €199

Rob Papen Predator 2 | £124

This flexible, powerful wavetable synth has

Review FM307 The highlight of Arturia’s

A decade on from its original release,

One of the most widely used synth plugins on

quickly risen through the ranks to knock

new V Collection, this note-perfect

Papen’s lauded wavetable synth has been

the market, Massive has a cutting-edge sound

Massive and Sylenth off the top of the

recreation of the legendary NED Synclavier

given an upgrade, cementing its place

with a sonic size that lives up to its name.

‘synth every producer must own’ list.

is hugely powerful and sounds great.

as one of the best softsynths out there.

Synapse Audio Dune 2 | $169

KV331 SynthMaster One | $79

PPG WaveMapper 2 | €99

Cakewalk Z3TA+ 2 | £79

Review FM284 Extreme oscillator stacking,

SynthMaster One is an easy-to-use sibling

Palm’s best yet, WaveMapper 2 has

A popular plugin ever since version one was

packed wavetables, endless modulation,

to KV331’s excellent Synthmaster. With over

made the transition from iPad to desktop.

released in 2002. With its well-designed

gorgeous filters and great effects – undoubtedly

500 presets and user wavetable import, it

It’s immensely powerful, hugely enjoyable

interface, powerful mod matrix and flexible

one of the best out there.

offers a lot of flexibility for the price.

to use – a truly unique instrument.

sound engine, Z3TA+ 2 is a must-try synth.

NEW ENtry

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Essential Tools For Music Making | Gear Guide

AuDIo INTErfAcES

NEW ENtry

UAD Apollo Twin MkII | from $699

Antelope Audio Zen Tour | £1274

UA’s desktop interface has been refined across the board for better sound and lower latency. There’s now a Quad DSP version too.

A high-quality compact interface for studio, rehearsals and gigs, with excellent built-in DSP processing.

Universal Audio Apollo 8 Thunderbolt | £1,699

Audient iD4 | £120

Roland Super UA | £409

Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 | £290

Review FM312 This compact interface

Review FM314 Super UA does everything

Review FM311 The second generation 18i8

Review FM293 The Thunderbolt connection

delivers audio quality and stripped-back

you’d expect and more, and can easily

benefits from increased preamp performance,

adds near latency-free data transfer to UA’s

functionality for a thoroughly reasonable

hold its own alongside similar compact

extended sample rate compatibility and

already exceptional Apollo package.

price. A great budget interface.

high-end interfaces.

a better overall sound. A quality package.

Antelope Orion Studio | £2,345

Focusrite Clarett 4Pre | £500

M-Audio M-Track 2x2M | £100

Apogee Ensemble Thunderbolt | £1,999

Review FM304 A comprehensive multi-channel

Review FM304 The whole Clarett range is

Review FM312 As budget audio interfaces go,

Review FM294 Excellent sound quality, flexible

interface with 12 quality mic pres, onboard DSP

excellent, and this punches well above its weight

it’s hard to go wrong with M-Audio’s

I/O and some very clever re-amping capabilities

and very flexible I/O options.

in audio quality, functionality and ease-of-use.

MIDI-equipped 2-in 2-out box..

make this a great high-end interface.

Full Review: FM317

Full Review: FM310

111

Gear Guide | Essential Tools For Music Making

moNITorS (ovEr £500) Equator D8 | £750

Dynaudio LYD 7 | £519 each

Review FM273 A well-balanced studio monitor

The LYD 7’s powerful low end makes it possible

with nicely focused imaging and midrange.

to mix bass without a sub. They provide plenty of power with good all round sound quality too.

MunroSonic Egg 100 | £1,299 Full Review: FM295

Stunning visually and sonically, the Egg 100 package isn’t cheap, but it sets the bar for compact nearfields

Fluid FPX7 | £730

Genelec M Series | £579

The FPX7s are a solid pair of mid-sized monitors

Review FM272 A great new design that

at a very reasonable price. Stereo imaging is

makes Genelecs more affordable without

excellent and there’s plenty of flexibility.

compromising the sound.

moNITorS (Sub £500) M-Audio BX5 Carbon | £178

Eve Audio SC203 | £389

Review FM292 Compact, solid and surprisingly

Review FM306 These monitors offer quality

loud, the BX5 Carbon is an ideal affordable

transient response with a nicely balanced mid

monitor for smaller spaces.

range. Bass is impressive too, and there’s enough control to adapt to most studio spaces.

Genelec 8010A £199 each Full Review: FM306

With a deceptively powerful low-end and plenty of power, these Genelec punch well above their weight. Sound quality is excellent too. 112

Adam F Series | from £339

Tannoy Reveal 802 | £418

Review FM274 Serious performance at an

Review FM278 The established players in the

affordable price – you’d be crazy not to give

mid-price active monitor market just got some

them a listen.

serious competition.

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Gear Guide | Essential Tools For Music Making

AfforDAblE SYNThS

Korg Volca FM £129

Korg Minilogue £435

A great-sounding box of classic FM sounds. It might lack the polyphony of the DX7 but, apart from that, the sound is bang on. Its motion sequencing is seriously powerful too.

Four-voice polyphony, killer sound, flexible features and great build quality. We’re not sure how Korg pulled this off for the price, but they’ve nailed it. An essential purchase!

Novation Circuit | £250

Yamaha Reface DX | £347

Moog Mother-32 | £499

Waldorf Pulse 2 | £406

Review FM299 A broad range of sounds with a

Review FM298 Finally we have a new DX with

Review FM302 It can be a standalone synth, or

Review FM273 Being a sound module without a

fluid and intuitive workflow makes Circuit a

an intuitive interface that helps bring FM to life.

you can plug it into any number of gadgets to

keyboard, it’s not quite a ‘go anywhere’ synth.

winner. Its sequencer is absolutely killer too.

It’s well built, portable, has an improved 4-op

create a modular monster. With a Mother-32

But for our money this is the most power you’ll

engine with FX and it sounds suitably DX-y!

under your arm, the world is your oyster!

find in a small package for the price.

Make Noise O-Coast | £350

Arturia MicroBrute | £230

Korg Monologue | £299

Review FM309 A fantastic way to get

Review FM273 The MicroBrute certainly lives up

Review FM312 Cheap and cheerful, but

Dreadbox Hades Bass Synthesizer | £249

quickly immersed in the realm of modular

to its name. It’s a fantastically gritty monosynth

powerful, and with a surprising amount of

Review FM310 The Hades is a fairly

synthesis without the hassle of lugging a

that is easily compact enough to bundle in your

flexibility given its limited envelope section.

straightforward monosynth, but it’s well-designed

huge case around.

rucksack along with a laptop.

Full Review: FM305

114

Full Review: FM302

and packs some serious low-end punch.

9000

9012