Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2024 i Computer Music

Being the son of a music production titan like Trevor Horn you might think that Aaron Horn’s upbringing was one of early indoctrination into the art of fader-riding. As we discovered in our chat with the multifaceted artist and producer, that was not the case. Despite being banned from his father’s studio for wanting to “push all the buttons”, the beat-obsessed Aaron has gone on to have a varied career. With his band Sam and the Womp, he achieved sudden success, most notably with the head-bopping Bom Bom which topped the charts in 2012. Following his departure from that outfit, Horn co-wrote the globally successful Woman with Doja Cat, and has recently been exploring sound meditation. Music as a functional part of the therapeutic process is a massive part of…

cover feature / perfect piano Even prior to the advent of rock ‘n’ roll, piano companies realised that there was potential to create a piano with a degree of electrification. One advantage being that amplifying a piano’s strings could open up a host of possibilities… Friends’ electric Several companies, including Baldwin and Kawaii, explored this concept, but by far the most successful example came from Yamaha. The CP series, and most notably the CP-80 and its smaller sibling the CP-70, became regular stalwarts in both studio and live environments. Classified as electric grands, these instruments adopted a conventional piano mechanism, including hammers, strings and dampers, with the addition of piezoelectric pickups, located under the piano’s bridge. The resultant sound is highly unique and identifiable, sounding much like an acoustic piano,…

01 KEEP IT REAL Wonderful as DAW-based plugins are, sometimes there’s no substitute for the real thing. Don’t be afraid to take out the microphone, plug it into an audio interface, and record yourself or someone else playing a piano. The organic and humanistic performance could bring your track to life. 02 CHOOSE WISELY Adopting a plugin package which offers several different types of piano will always be a smart move, particularly if you tend to switch production styles on a regular basis. While it’s possible to make all pianos fit all scenarios, it can definitely make life easier if you have pianistic options at your disposal. 03 SAMPLE IT! We’ve all frozen under the glare of the red light while recording. If you feel that your playing isn’t quite…

Download the accompanying video and the MIDI/audio files at bit.ly/cm331downloads As any synthesis enthusiast will know, we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Dr Bob Moog, who distilled the concept of subtractive synthesis into a convenient format which became the benchmark for 99% of all synthesisers that we see today. But nothing can stand in the way of evolution, with one of the greatest developments in synthesis appearing in the mid-’80s from Casio. Better known for making pocket calculators (cue a song by Kraftwerk!), Casio’s research into phase distortion synthesis, went on to prove a successful breeding ground for innovation, as shown by the Yamaha DX series of synths. While these are always deemed to be based around FM (Frequency Modulation) synthesis, they actually had far more in common…

Can it really be true that it’s nearly 20 years since the very first Guitar Rig from Native Instruments? This guitar amp and effect pedal modelling software is one of NI’s most successful releases, thanks largely to its incredible sound and ease of use. It now appeals to an audience way beyond its initial target of guitar and bass players. Indeed, such is the girth of what it offers across the board effects-wise, it has become one of the best sound design tools out there. But nearly two decades on, can there really be anything more worth adding to this mightiest of effects racks? Seven up Guitar Rig Pro was steadily updated with amps and effects up to version 5, but there was an almost decade gap between that and…

AI is sticking its nose further and further into the world of music production, the latest trend being AI-driven mastering tools that seek to replace the highly specialised skills of mastering engineers. The majority of these tools are offered as online-only subscription or pay-as-you-go services, but LANDR has wrapped its own online mastering AI into a one-time-purchase plugin that runs in your DAW. Hands-on AI The thing that sets LANDR Mastering Plugin apart from the various online services we’ve tried (including LANDR’s own service) is that the plugin’s AI-generated results are just a baseline the user can then hone to their own specific taste. Alongside its three mastering styles (see boxout), the plugin offers a good selection of familiar mastering controls. This starts with a three band Equalizer section that…

A long time ago, or 1977 to be precise, Korg made a synthesiser which might have taken the world by storm. The only problem was, the company only made about 50 of them, securing its status as one of the most difficult to locate synthesisers on the planet. Cherry Audio to the rescue! The vintage Korg PS-3300 is a desirable and expensive affair, originally used by the likes of Vangelis, Jarre and Emerson. Tracking one down was never going to be easy, let alone one with all its faculties in good working order, but thanks to Cherry Audio’s collaboration with EMEAPP (Electronic Music Education and Preservation Project) it has managed to pull off the coup of recreating a PS-3300 in software form, with all of the brand’s usual design flair…

Snap Heap (AU, VST, VST3, AAX) from Kilohearts is a fantastic multi-effects host plugin. It normally retails for $29 but this month the extremely kind team at Kilohearts are gifting it to Computer Music readers, and what a great gift! When it comes to combining and connecting multiple effects, modern DAWs don’t always provide the tools we need. Sometimes a single-host plugin framework is a better solution, and that’s where Snap Heap comes in. Designed as a modular host to support Kilohearts’ own proprietary Snapin effects plugins, Snap Heap allows you to create up to seven effects chains (lanes) complete with complex modulation of all parameters. It includes Kilohearts’ 32 free Snapin modules (which also work as regular plugins), but can also host any other Snapincompatible plugins such as Kilohearts’…

Rejoice! Revoice returns Adding even cleverer ways of making bad takes good, Revoice Pro 5 is a godsend for the less vocally gifted… Synchro Arts has announced the release of Revoice Pro 5, a new and improved version of its Revoice vocal production software. For those unfamiliar with Revoice, it serves as a comprehensive suite of vocal production tools and this fifth version is aimed at those looking to edit, process and fine-tune vocal performances through time and pitch correction, doubling, sibilance control and formant-shifting. Revoice Pro 5 can be used to align timing between multiple layered vocal takes; you can adjust alignment strength manually or use the SmartAlign feature to automatically align vocals. The software can also apply ‘transparent and advanced’ pitch correction, a feature that’s also been automated…

If the history of rock is all about the electric guitar, then the history of Western music over the last 350 years, could be defined by the piano. From Beethoven to The Beatles, Chopin to Coldplay, rave culture, drum & bass, and even IDM, the piano has always played a vital role. If you were to peer inside a piano, you’d immediately notice an abundance of strings. Pianos are equipped with 88 notes (some older instruments only have 85). You’d think that this would translate to 88 strings: but no. Look closer and you’ll see very thick copper strings at the bottom, two medium sized strings-per-note in the middle, and three thin wire-like strings-per-note at the top. Not surprisingly, these need to be continually maintained and tuned. With over 20…

cover feature / perfect piano The one element that sets the piano apart from most musical instruments is its phenomenal range. The 88 notes of an acoustic piano exceeds seven octaves, without the need to press octave shift buttons. This can present some interesting musical dilemmas, depending on your production style. There are two questions to address in this production context; what style of music you’re working in, and which other instruments will be part of your track. The answer to the first question may well inform the answer to the second, but either way, what you’re trying to decide is how much frequency content to include within your mix, which might also influence the sort of piano playing you record with your DAW. Classical, ambient and soundtrack piano While…

Download the accompanying video and the MIDI/audio files at bit.ly/cm331downloads In dance music, the breakdown and buildup are the parts of a song that come just before the drop. The main purpose of these two sections is to build tension, and prepare listeners for the drop. An effective breakdown and buildup creates a high level of anticipation and makes listeners aware that something exciting (the drop) is about to happen. In the breakdown, elements of the track are stripped away to provide a sparser musical landscape, and during the buildup, tension is added through the use of risers, snare rolls, and long crashes. Before beginning to structure your buildup and breakdown, it’s a good idea to have a solid idea for your drop written. Listen to references in the same…

Sometimes you just want a really huge-sounding synth, and they don’t come much bigger and phatter than an Oberheim Poly. However, the originals will likely require you to secure a second mortgage, should you want to go all-in on vintage, and that’s before you suffer from likely component failure. With these points ringing in our ears, any reincarnation in software is going to be worth a look, especially if it has an endorsement from Oberheim. Help me OB one GForce Software has form in this field of recreation, with software versions of Mellotrons, Minimoogs, and now the OB-X, which joins the previously reviewed OB-E. While the OB-E was all about the SEM-based Oberheim 8-voice, this latest addition is far more centred around Poly convention. OB-X aims to provide that huge…

The primary driver behind the decades-long effort to develop digital audio technology was the promise of pristine, super-accurate audio recordings, free from the hiss, noise and distortion caused by even the most highly spec’d analogue equipment. It is therefore ironic that, upon reaching those longed-for sunlit uplands of sonic perfection, we took one look around and said, “Oh, isn’t it bland! Can we have our distortion back please?”. There are of course many different varieties of distortion – tape saturation, valve overdrive, transistor overdrive, bit crushing – each with its own distinctive personality, colour and tone. Covering all possible distortion bases in a single plugin is therefore tricky, but perhaps not for Fusion, the innovative new plugin from BLEASS. Riding a wave Most of us are familiar with the concept…

We all know that hardware synthesisers can be a costly alternative to their software counterparts, albeit with the tactile joy, but imagine a compendium of classics that could satisfy your synth-gear lust in one convenient and cost-effective package. Anthology rising Well, you needn’t imagine any further. UVI’s newest release and update to its applauded Synth Anthology series has risen to version 4, but this is no minor release with a few tweaks here and there. Apart from a smart new look, there’s a wealth of additions and improvements that add up to a package which feels to be far more than a sum of its parts. Firstly, a bit of background. UVI has an excellent track record for creating sample-based software instruments, which operate from within its own plugins. UVI’s…

Download all assets for this issue at bit.ly/cm331downloads Germanic Mono Synths From Kraftwerk to Tangerine Dream, Germany showed the world what synths could do. Let’s recapture that sound… “The loops in this sample pack draw on the tonalities of Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Cluster/Kluster, Popol Vuh et al, keeping the software synths used period-specific. The reverbs and echoes used were also kept on the analogue side, including an actual spring reverb (Pioneer SR-202W) in a few places. The rest is a case of keeping on the more austere side of synthesis – no ELP here – but staying truly kosmische. “The looped lines are all four bars long and a few have contiguous end and start points for the smooth looping of reverb tails, which means they may clip when starting…

KILOHEARTS SNAP HEAP Follow along with the video as we introduce this fantastic multi-effect tool, free with this issue! Read the full article from p82 cm/experts Our resident music production gurus walk you through their specialist field every month CM TOOLS MASTERCLASS GET TO KNOW BAZILLE CM Read the full article on p48 DANCE MUSIC MASTERCLASS BUILDUP AND BREAKDOWN Read the full article on p52 MIX MASTERCLASS MIX BUS EQ’ING Read the full article on p56…

Interface Mixing Night Audio Ken Lewis (Co-founder/producer)Dom Rivinius (Co-founder/producer) cm: When did you form Mixing Night Audio, and what was the driving force behind establishing the company? Ken Lewis: “We were locked down and we knew Covid was going to be really, really serious, and we had no idea if the world was going to hit pause indefinitely. We had all this gear and a bunch of time, so we just started to broadcast and started bringing people together. The more we built a community the more we realised that we had something we didn’t know we needed. We don’t even attempt to monetise the show, so we can use copyrighted material and I can put on the show stuff that I want to put on; I don’t have to…

cover feature / perfect piano Whether you’re working in the sample and plugin domain, or lucky enough to have an acoustic instrument to use, your perfect piano type is largely determined by your chosen genre of music or production. Here’s how to pick a piano… Grand or upright? Modern acoustic pianos largely fall into one of two categories; grand or upright. Without wishing to state the obvious, upright pianos are the ones that you might see against a wall, in an upright position, while grand pianos are the larger instruments, which take up a greater amount of floor space. Apart from the form factor, there are other important differences between the two. Upright pianos tend to have smaller frames, which means that the strings are not as long. This translates…

Spectrasonics Keyscape Mac/PC $399 Keyscape is a total compendium for piano-related instruments. Instruments range from the Yamaha C7 concert grand piano, through to a felted grand, uprights, various Rhodes and Wurlys, electric grands, and more obscure instruments, such as toy pianos and electric harpsichords. It also integrates seamlessly with Spectrasonics’ Omnisphere suite. spectrasonics.net Synthogy Ivory 3 Mac/PC $270 Recently released, Ivory 3 features one of the most carefully sampled Steinway Model D concert grand pianos available. Synthogy also offers a wealth of other piano-related library content, which is available to purchase separately. These include collections of upright pianos, and even the beautiful Italian Grand, which extensively reproduces a Fazioli. synthogy.com Native Instruments Definitive Piano Collection Mac/PC $199 This bundle includes two grand pianos and an upright, all providing depth, detail…

The phenomenon that is Ed Sheeran’s rise to fame has, of course, been mostly down to great songwriting, but his live abilities have also been a big factor. One of the most captivating aspects of these performances is watching him build up tracks with live looping. We’re going to explore this kind of looping in this first tutorial in a new series where we analyse popular processes used by contemporary artists in music today. Ed creates these loops using hardware loopers on stage, basically recording a loop of, say, his guitar playing, and then adding more loops one by one as the audio cycles around. He has used a variety of hardware loopers in his time, including a Boss RC-20 and Boss RC-30, but now uses a looper called a…

Download the accompanying video and the MIDI/audio files at bit.ly/cm331downloads Processing the mix bus can form an important part of your mix, and using EQ is probably the most common treatment. That said, much like mix bus compression, it’s important to apply the EQ that’s needed, rather than use it out of habit. When you’re mixing a track, you always have the option to adjust component tracks. This should always be your first approach, and is often more fruitful than applying excessive shaping to the overall stereo blend. Nevertheless, there’s something quite satisfying about sweetening your overall mix with some EQ, and that’s what we’ll tackle here. Much like mix bus compression, mix bus EQ can be quite subtle, and although plugin choice may be less critical than compression, it…

Look far enough back into the history of audio recording technology and you find yourself surveying a graveyard of once-great names now sadly deceased. Look more closely and you’ll also notice gangs of plugin developers searching the epitaphs for an as-yet untapped manufacturer or product to resurrect into digitally modelled glory. This isn’t something we’re used to seeing PSP Audioware doing though, since the company tends towards original creations. However, its latest release, BinAmp, is in many ways not a typical PSP plugin. Echorec without the echo BinAmp resurrects the Binson Echorec 2° (‘2°’ is the Italian equivalent of the English ‘2nd’), but PSP has discarded the original’s magnetic drum-based echo generation, focusing solely on the Class A, triode valve preamp circuit responsible for the original’s characteristic warm, rich sound.…

The first version of Serato Sample was released back in 2017 and it included Serato’s legendary Pitch ’n’ Time algorithm alongside a lightning fast workflow. Now with version 2, Serato has upped the ante and added in real-time stem separation. But does it still hold the crown of most intuitive sampler ever? Everything you need to work with Serato Sample is presented in a single window, as the GUI and workflow have been built for speed. When you first open an instance, you get a window asking you to Load or Drag and Drop an audio file. If you drag in something like an old funk track, the key and tempo are automatically detected, and the file is stretched to fit the host bpm. Simply set a cue point on…

W. A. Production Electro Pop Elevation $24.90 Take your wannabe chart-troubling dance tracks to the level, with this vibrant production-boosting toolkit. There are some meaty music samples, giddy instrument grooves, phat hits, MIDI files and 50 Serum presets to coo over – all inspired by housey household names like synth-boppers CHVRCHES and La Roux, to name but two. Their brand of dreamy pads, bubbly basslines, and globe-wowing hooks are evoked across the whole set. And everything is finished off crisply. It’s sure to lift your boogie beats into a whole new realm of dancefloor-ready electro pop goodness. www.waproduction.com 8/100 Loopmasters Daybreak Lo-Fi £24.95 And, breathe. The meditative moods and music in this bumper batch of blissed out beats is sure to soothe your soul. The 60-95bpm speed cap on this…

It’s the classic synth software shoot-out! We’ve made the claim that softsynths are pretty much sonically identical to the original hardware frequently in these pages, so next issue we put our money where our mouths are! Join us at sundown, as OG hardware takes on its software siblings. PLUS! Petri Alanko The acclaimed video game composer talks Alan Wake 2 Free samples Ambient guitars and atmospheric delays to lose yourself within On test Avid Pro Tools Sketch, Synthogy Ivory 3 and more……