Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2016 i Future Music

In The Studio With… Geoff Wilkinson “My production partner Mel Simpson had a commercial studio in his basement in North London called Flame. Everything was recorded and mixed in there. He had an Amek Angela desk, which had a lovely warm sound. All the programming was done on an Atari 1024, running Cubase. The real workhorse was of course the sampler, an Akai S950. All the Blue Note samples went in there and we also used a double bass sound from that, which we underpinned with a Prophet-5 to give it some nice bottom-end. A lot of the drum and percussion sounds came from an Alesis HR16. Mel also had a baby grand piano and an old B3 organ with a Leslie in the live room which we used. Then…

Kenny Glasgow Circus Tales No.19 Music Art Department’s Kenny Glasgow returns with a killer follow-up to his 2009 solo album, Taste Of The Low Life. Out on his DJ partner Jonny White’s No.19 Music imprint, the new LP explores futuristic, machine-driven Deep House and Techno. Moving between tempos with confidence and shifting through the gears with ease, the record has a diverse palette. From melodic workouts, to rhythm-driven struts, jacking House, ’80s synth excursions and onto dark, hypnotic, dancefloor focused Techno, the entire album bristles with the kind of urban, underground spirit that has made Kenny Glasgow so distinctive. Much of the record has a stripped-back, old-school vibe, perfect for sweaty warehouses and abandoned buildings. At its most upfront and driving, the album takes on an industrial edge and becomes…

Parallel Compression (New York-Style) Nothing beats parallel compression treatments for reinforcing percussive material with lots of weight just waiting to be brought to your mixes Parallel compression is a key weapon for any mix engineer and, while its uses stretch to many sound sources such as vocal treatments, it is most famous for its work on drum sounds. Parallel compression (or the New York compression technique) involves blending an original drum loop or collection of programmed drum hits and sending some or all of these to an auxiliary buss. On this buss, a compressor with (usually) fairly extreme settings is used to enhance the qualities you seek – extra punch in the transient phase, or greater weight in the decay phase of each hit. The trick is then to blend…

Stereo Vs Multiband Compression When it comes to mastering and output channel processing, what does multiband compression have that stereo compression doesn’t? Flexibility… > We start with a track programmed from several sound sources, providing beats, bass, unusual atmospheres and a one-time bass throb. We’re inserting the ‘last’ output chain processor first here, starting with the Sonnox Limiter in the final insert slot of our output channel. > This is more effective but we’re still trying to fix two things with one tool. We want the bass to be under control but we don’t want to sacrifice punch and clarity to achieve it. So, we bypass the Pro-C 2 and instantiate the Pro-MB (multiband) compressor instead. > In the slot above this we insert the FabFilter Pro-C 2 stereo compressor,…

Bass, Pads And Brass – Starting Points The OB-6 excels at staple ‘bread and butter’ brassy sounds, bass and pads. Here’s some tips on creating them… No doubt you’ve heard Obies all over some classic records, so if you’re an OB-6 owner you’ll likely want to recreate them as your first port of call. In terms of some famous brass sounds there’s Van Halen’s Jump and Prince’s 1999 , and pad-wise once again Prince is up there with the intro to Little Red Corvette . Then of course there are numerous records featuring OB basses and leads too. While we’re not going to directly recreate those sounds here (we’ll leave that to you, as we’d no doubt get ‘flamed’ for…

Using effects as part of your sound As the effect engines on the OB-6 are so powerful and encompass such a wide range of effects, it’s nice to build your sounds using effects not just at the end of the process but during the early stages. Instead of always reaching for two oscillators, try restricting yourself to just VCO1, don’t use any of the modulation facilities (though still use the filter and envelopes) and use the effects to add the character. You could use one effect only (such as the ring mod), or combine two types of modulation effects (chorus and flanger for example), or delay and reverb. Make sure to experiment with the mix control on both effects and of course the two effect parameter control dials which react…

Erica Synths Black Wavetable VCO | €270 + VAT Long-standing Latvian Eurorackers are making waves with their new VCO INCLUDES AUDIO VAULT.FUTUREMUSIC.CO.UK Erica Synths are a perhaps lesser known Eurorack brand who have been releasing extremely solid, well thought-out and just plain interesting modules for several years now. They’re maybe best known for their Polivoks range of both pre-built and DIY modules (you can build complete systems from their modules), trademark black panels and fluted knobs, and a classy design aesthetic, which is sort of like a mashup of Formanta and Shadow Hills Industries in one. To complement their range of analogue VCOs and filters in the ‘Black’ range, the folks in Riga have just brought out a new (black) digital wavetable VCO, named, appropriately enough, the Black…

INCLUDES VIDEO Making The Most Of Voltages We can’t hammer it home enough, utilities are important! Luckily this module makes them fun Rabid Elephant’s Knobs module gives us two channels of three utilities and a CV controllable crossfader. To make the most out of these you’ll need some modulation sources to provide you with voltages to process and destinations to patch the now processed voltages into. A good example of making the most of the module is to take the same LFO signal into both channels, set different gain levels so one channel has a wider range, add an offset to one and even slur one channel to smooth out the input LFO’s waveform. Then crossfade between the differently processed channels to create ‘performance modulation’ in a patch, providing what…

THE ALTERNATIVES Alesis A6 Andromeda £2,000+ second-hand This 16-voice VCO analogue beast can do just about anything imaginable and it does a mean Obie impression with its 12dB Oberheimstyled filter. Huge sounding! eBay, Gumtree etc Sequential Prophet-6 £1,989 are inevitable as they are closely related on many levels but they sound very different from each other. You’ll prefer one or the other, or want both! www.davesmith instruments.com Oberheim OB-8 £2,500+ second-hand an OB-on steroids, the OB-8 sounds huge and features eight analogue voices with splitting and layering. Also features a 12/24dB low-pass CEM filter and Curtis VCOs and ADSR. Beast! eBay, Gumtree etc…

Get a 606 in your TR-8 Back in early June (on 6/06/16, naturally) Roland announced that they will be adding the sound of the TR-606 drum machine into their existing 7X7 expansion pack for the Aira TR-8. At the time of writing, there’s very little flesh on the bones of the announcement other than that the add-on will be coming soon. As it is part of the existing 7X7 expansion, it is unclear whether existing owners of the add-on pack will be offered the 606 sounds for free, or at extra cost. Naturally we’re hoping it’s the former! As it stands, the 7X7 expansion is currently available for TR-8 users priced at 75 euros. Keep your eye on the Roland site for more info.…

Us3 Hand On The Torch Blue Note, 1993 Words by Roy Spencer Back in 1991 sampling was a risky business. And it was in the business of becoming a business. This was before the courts had settled on some level of sanity, and greedy lawyers were pouncing on producers left, right and centre on behalf of musicians who’d had loops lifted without their consent. Geoff Wilkinson must have been bricking it then, as he stood in the offices of Blue Note records, charged with nicking a large chunk of one of its many iconic Jazz recordings. “I was literally summoned to a meeting with them,” says Wilkinson, whose Grant Green sampling The Band Played The Boogie had appeared on the label’s radar after clocking up decent play on London’s Kiss…

LIKE IT? TRY THESE… Guru Jazzmatazz If you’re talking Jazz and Hip-Hop you have to mention 1993’s Jazzmatazz . Guru [of Gang Starr] rhyming over live Jazz greats? Sold! ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: Loungin’, Take a Look (At Yourself), Slicker Than Most Brand New Heavies Heavy Rhyme Experience More UK players recruiting dope US rappers to bless their live playing. A slept on classic, and perfect Funk partner to Us3’s Jazz. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: Bonafied Funk, State of Yo, Soul Flower Us3 Broadway & 52nd Follow-up album that, while not as commercially successful as the debut, still developed Us3’s winning Rap/ Jazz formula further. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: Come on Everybody (Get Down), True To The Game, Soul Brother Art Blakey & The…

Portable Alan Abrahams !K7 Alan Abrahams’ next record as Portable is his most complete and personal work to date. Arriving on the long-running and highly revered !K7 label, the album finds the South African producer, who has also won acclaim as Bodycode, in a highly expressive mood. With his own vocals providing the backbone of the entire LP and also featuring himself on piano, the record shows Abrahams’ idiosyncrasies in fine detail. Exploring his feelings around a breakup and the start of a new relationship, Abrahams charts an adventurous journey that meanders through an expansive soundscape that includes Jazz, Techno, Classical, Afro-centred jams and experimental Pop. He treads these different paths, all the while infusing a sense of electronic soul into his music. Combining these rich, beautifully crafted songs with…

Drum Processing With Multiple Compressors Using a DrumDrops multi-track acoustic drum session, we can look at how compressors can enhance individual and grouped drum sounds > We start with a multi-track drum session with Kick In, Out & Sub channels, separate ones for Snare Top and Bottom, Hi Hat, three Toms and Ride Cymbal. Stereo Overheads and three room stereo pairs are captured too, and a crunchy ‘trash’ channel called Crust. > To bring a little dirt, we reintroduce the Crust channel, which we send to the UAD EL7 Fatso Sr. This provides some extra dynamics control, pulling the crunchier elements of this channel up in volume. Mixed in, even at a relatively low level, this brings some attitude. > We mute Crust, plus all of the stereo pairs. We…

Frequency-Dependent Compression Which frequencies are included before compression makes a difference on the end result. Hone compression settings with EQ-specific settings The tonal ‘footprint’ of a sound has a huge impact on the way in which a compressor will respond when dynamically processing it. With sound sources which are frequency-rich, such as drum loops and pads, when a compressor comes to ‘analyse’ the source material, it might need help. Here we’re adding a synth sequence part to the beats processed in the earlier Parallel Compression walkthrough. We’re adding this synth sequence to the parallel channel we set up for these beats and looking at what happens when we include or omit low-end frequency content from the analysis signal in the compressor. We can do this by…

Noisia Drum ’n’ Bass doyens, Noisia, return with new album, Outer Edges. Hamish Mackintosh visits the Dutch sonic masters in their high-tech studio lair © Joby Sessions The very day this issue of FM hits the streets, Noisia will be dropping their, until now, closely-guarded secret announcement of masterful new album, Outer Edges. FM have stayed tight-lipped about the new album’s release, despite our recent trip to the band’s state-of-the-art, custom-designed, new(ish) recording HQ located in the band’s home town of Groningen to speak with Noisia: Thijs de Vlieger, Nik Roos and Martijn van Sonderen. From album opener, The Approach, through Into Dust and the sublime adrenaline-rush of Mantra, Outer Edges showcases three producers/ sound designers pushing the envelope of bass music and sound design to the next level… and…

DSI OB-6 Get started with the OB-6 INCLUDES VIDEO AND AUDIO VAULT.FUTUREMUSIC.CO.UK It’s rare that synth legends collaborate but the hard work of Dave Smith and Tom Oberheim has paid off and the result is the new OB-6, a 6-voice polyphonic analogue synth, built using the chassis of the successful Prophet-6. For anyone looking for the Oberheim sound, the OB-6’s SEM-based analogue oscillators and state-variable 12dB/octave 2-pole filter will give you that inimitable chewy/ distinctive Oberheim character, coupled with some of DSI’s sonic DNA in a solid and portable form-factor. While it doesn’t sound exactly like old Oberheims (only vintage can really do vintage right?!), it does have the unique sonic ingredients that make you go, ‘Oh yeah that’s an Obie!’. For those looking to create evolving industrial…

QUICK TIPS 1 Instead of using chorus for adding movement to sounds, reach for the LFO or X-Mod and modulate the PWM of one or both oscillators. Or use a little detune. 2 Use filter resonance to thicken/drive your sound. The OB-6’s filter/resonance doesn’t self-oscillate, so you can push it hard without the sound losing too much bass or breaking up much. 3 Use aftertouch for triggering modulation – you can keep both hands on deck while simultaneously adding movement/expression. 4 The dot in the display tells you what the stored value of the particular knob is that you’re twiddling. Handy if you want to know how your sound is made. 5 To ‘dirty up’ sounds, add some white noise, ring mod or the onboard analogue distortion.…

Weval With their self-titled debut album, the Dutch duo have created a disarmingly mature concoction of joyous synth hooks and leftfield beats. Si Truss catches up with Weval as they prepare to unveil their new live show Listening to the self-titled debut album from Weval, aka Merijn Scholte Albers and Harm Coolen, it’s hard to believe that it’s barely three years since the Amsterdam-based duo put out their first EP. Blending grandiose synth hooks with Krautrock-tinged drum lines, the album balances creativity and accessibility in a way that demonstrates a level of songwriting maturity that belies the relative infancy of the outfit behind it. Having met through a mutual connection to filmmaking, the duo brought their disparate influences and music making backgrounds together to create their debut Half Age EP…

MFB Tanzmaus and Tanzbär Lite from £330 MFB update their drum machine line with new names and a smart new look. Si Truss gets into the groove The Tanzmaus and Tanzbär Lite are the latest compact analogue drum machines to reach our shores from German brand MFB. Broadly speaking, they’re a new generation of instrument replacing MFB’s discontinued 503 and 522 machines respectively. In a very loose sense, the pair are inspired by Roland’s classic TR-808 and TR-909 grooveboxes, but these are far from copycat machines – the similarity only stretches as far as the range of sounds on offer, rather than the machines’ sound and functionality. Visually, both drum machines look completely different from the instruments that preceded them. The 503 was a black plastic box with a sizeable…

Arturia V Collection 5 €499 The latest iteration of Arturia’s emulation bundle adds a digital powerhouse to the mix. Si Truss gets his upgrade on Given the success of their Mini and MicroBrute hardware, their excellent BeatStep sequencers and our excitement at the forthcoming MatrixBrute, it’s almost possible to forget that Arturia are, first and foremost, software developers. Long before they ever ‘plugged-in’ to the realms of CV and analogue circuitry, the French brand were already widely respected for their impressive digital emulations of a host of classic instruments. While the company’s remit may have widened in recent years, they haven’t been neglecting their roots, as demonstrated by this latest iteration of their flagship software bundle. Version 5 sees the V Collection bundle beefed up to a total of 17…

Thermionic Culture The Swift £2,750 With a tip of the hat to two classic valve EQs Thermionic seem to have a classic on their hands. Stuart Bruce investigates It adds warmth, presence and depth to anything in need of a little help or some radical changes The Swift is quite an impressive beast. It’s heavy, built like a tank and has a comprehensive set of controls. The design is based around a ’50s EMI valve design with extended bottom and top response, and the Presence switch is from Thermionic founder and chief designer Vic Keary. The Mid Lift section is based on the classic Pultec MEQ. The first test of an EQ is to listen to the output with everything set to zero and flick the bypass on and off.…

COMPRESSOR PLUG-INS ACME Opticom XLA-3 | $299 Full Review: FM297 Every DAW set-up needs at least one compressor of this style and this is one of the best we have ever tried. UAD-2 Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor | $299 Review FM261 Another highly-coveted hardware ‘legend’ undergoes a successful UAD transformation. FabFilter Pro-C | £114 Review FM297 New features make this a stunning plug-in compressor with as much flexibility and capability as you’re likely to need. Brainworx bx_pan EQ | $299 Review FM306 A three-band fully parametric EQ where each band is full range (40Hz to 20kHz) and can have a near surgical Q. Corrective and creative, it’s a real must-have. Slate Digital Virtual Buss Compressors | From $99 Review FM270 A highly versatile and characterful set of stereo compressors which…

Track by track with Geoff Wilkinson “I’ve quit with Us3. In 2004 I went independent and released another six albums in the next ten years. I’ve now had a studio built in my back garden, sold all my old kit and bought a Mac mini. I’m completely in the box and I love it. I’m making production music for a variety of companies around the world and loving the flexibility that gives me. Recently I’ve made albums of Future R ’n’ B, ’90s Hip-Hop, ’80s Hip-Hop, Hip-Hop Reggae and Drum ’n’ Bass. Still experimenting, still having fun.” Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) “There’s only three one-bar samples of Herbie Hancock’s Cantaloupe Island on this. It’s built largely around a one-bar sample which drops in and out with a change halfway through the…

ALBUM OF THE MONTH Morgan Delt Phase Zero Sub Pop Los Angeles Psych-Pop artist Morgan Delt finds a highly creative but accessible sound with Phase Zero. Whereas his 2014 self-titled debut explored a more experimental and unusual edge, the new record, out on Sub Pop, settles into some blissful, sun-drenched and Acid-soaked Psychedelic Pop. Moulded in a thick fog of haze and smoke, the record has dense layers of Psychedelic Rock and lo-fi production swirling around in a heady, intoxicating mix. Colour busts out from every angle, with fizzing synths blurring into weightless, murky guitars splurging out slow chords. Drums are spattered across the record, melting into the walls of echo and reverb that reflect each sound back into each other. It’s a hectic soundscape, but one that sounds warm…

RECOMMENDED Reboot aLIVE Get Physical German producer Reboot, who has released on Cadenza, Cocoon, Moon Harbour and Defected, now unleashes his third full-length album. His first record for Get Physical, aLIVE has a wonderfully organic flow. It has plenty of natural sounds like field recordings and modular synths, but Reboot never forces a sound and allows subtle grooves to evolve, lush basslines to run and drums to roll seemingly of their own accord. Underpinned by gentle rhythms that pace the entire record, aLIVE moves through deep and moody textures throughout. It’s testament to his production skills that Reboot manages to keep it airy and light by allowing shards of light to sweep into the mix. Many of his sounds are soft, rounded and lush, helping to create a relaxed, refined…

All about transient design Often, when we reach for tools such as compressors, we’re looking to add ‘punch’ to hits, or ‘length’ to the tails of percussive sources. While compressors and limiters are capable of shaping sounds in much more sophisticated ways than by these two characteristics alone, if you seek one or both of them, transient designer plug-ins might help you achieve your desired sound, with the benefit of a scaled back (and easy to use) set of controls. Most transient designers (or transient shapers) provide attack and sustain dials. These split a source signal into its initial transient phase and the following portion. Don’t be confused by the term ‘sustain’ here; the second control will affect your sound whether it has a sustaining portion or not. A percussive…

DOs & DON’Ts Of Dynamics > DON’T: Over-compress recordings. If your recording chain or channel strip includes a compression stage, don’t dial too much of this in as you print audio to your DAW. You can always add more compression at the mix stage, but reducing the effect of too much compression is harder. > DO: Experiment. It seems crazy to have to say this but there are so many myths about compression treatments that rumours are everywhere about the ‘right’ way to compress a sound. There’s no such thing. Use your ears as you tweak parameters and trust your judgement to make the right choices for the individual needs of your track. > DON’T: Load a preset channel strip for your output channel. We tend to want loud mixes…

Adding More To Sidechain Compression Effects Sidechain ducking effects always work well but we’ve heard them before. If you’re sold on using this trick, why not enhance it with your own twist? We’ve all heard plenty of tracks where the kick drum signal or a ‘ghost’ trigger playing a similar four-to-the-floor rhythm has triggered a compressor in the output chain to duck, providing a ‘sucky’ treatment, popular in some forms of EDM. Even if ‘whole track’ treatments are too much for your ears, you may be tempted to try this trick on a single track of your mix but even this more subtle treatment is often overused. You can personalise a version of this effect, however, by adding synth parameters to those affected by the sidechain input source. So, rather…

Creating modular randomness Thijs’ modular rig is designed to create chance moments of inspiring sonic randomness. Here he explains the set-up for us… 01 > “This is a thing I do where I create complex patches that I don’t really control. I like doing this on the modular but you can do this in Reaktor. The most important thing is to press record.” 02 > “The set-up I have looks complicated but it’s fairly simple; I have two oscillators frequency modulating each other. Then I have a phase shifter, which is basically a phaser being modulated by the same oscillator.” 03 > “Next there’s a third FM thing going through the phaser and into an analogue spring reverb.” 04 > “I love using phasers at really fast, audio rate, modulation…

Netsky Rio ft. Digital Farm Animals Sony Music UK © Joe Branston INCLUDES VIDEO VAULT.FUTUREMUSIC.CO.UK Debuting in 2009 with an onslaught of releases on labels such as BCee’s Spearhead and DJ Hype’s Liq-weed Ganja Recordings, Netsky (aka Boris Daenen) has, via a stint at legendary Hospital Records, parlayed his initial underground liquid D ’n’ B success into crossover triumph. To promote his new album, 3, the Belgian beatmeister invited us to his Antwerp studio to show us how he made his massive liquid roller Rio featuring Digital Farm Animals in Ableton Live. “I wrote the original track with the singer Digital Farm Animals, and we started at 126bpm or something, just some piano chords. He sang a verse which we later made into the chorus,” Boris reveals. “The…

That Oberheim Character! “You can hit the filter hard but it always sounds musical and never out of control“ You might be thinking ‘what’s so unique about the OB-6’s sound?’ compared to its fellow synth brethren! Well, for most, it’s a combination of the vibey sounding oscillators with the very distinctive SEM-based ‘state-variable’ filter. While you can actually get pretty close to the OB-6 sound using other modern synths with 2-pole filters – for example the Andromeda and Roland JD-XA (although the JD-XA is only a 4-voice poly, in 2-pole, LPF3 mode you’ll be surprised how close it gets but watch your osc/resonance levels!) – there’s some subtle stuff going on in the OB-6 that you can’t quite emulate exactly, except perhaps on an older Obie (though the old OBs…

Getting To Grips With X-Mod X-Mod is one of the most powerful features in the OB-6 but what can it do? Here are some examples… 01 > Press Manual + Write to initialise, then set VCO1 to pulse (VCO2 is off by default). Turn the X-Mod OSC 2 dial fully clockwise and engage the PW1 button. VCO2 now cross-modulates the rate/shape of VCO1’s pulse wave, making VCO1 sound much more interesting. 02 > Play a few notes on the keyboard one at a time with the ‘keyboard’ switch engaged and note how the PWM rate varies across the keyboard. Keyboard voltage is now being applied to VCO2, which in turn is modulating VCO1’s PW1 rate. 03 > Play a chord – you’ll hear a rich polyphonicallymodulated chord. Disengage the keyboard…

Tourist With a Grammy under his belt for co-writing the Sam Smith chart topper Stay With Me, Will Phillips set to work on writing and recording his debut electronic album, U. Danny Turner visits Tourist in his Hackney-based studio © Joe Branston As a music student at Thames Valley University, Will Phillips was very much the wannabe producer. When he found encouragement after his demo was played on Radio 1Xtra by MJ Cole, he moved from London to Brighton to escape his hedonistic lifestyle and focus full-time on music production. Inundated by A&R following the release of his self-titled debut EP, Phillips was in need of trusted guidance and eventually plumped for Method Records run by UK Garage siblings Disclosure. Phillips’ career then took an unexpected U-turn having co-written the…

Let’s get creative with crossfading Most people often ignore the key utilities needed to really ignite a system. With Knobs from Rabid Elephant we inject some fun into CV utilities Here at Future Music we love a good knob and cable twiddle. That’s the key to hardware for us. Forget about analogue vs digital, forget anything format specific… we just want tactile control! Moving knobs and plugging in cables to create signal paths is great – we love it, and that’s why we use modular. Knobs are great but have you used a synth with faders before? There’s something about a fader that feels right and it’s easy to see why mixers opt for them over using pots and knobs for every function. However, if our Eurorack systems were full…

Dave Smith Instruments OB-6 £2,250 The OB-6 is a collaboration between synth gods Dave Smith and Tom Oberheim. Dan ‘JD73’ Goldman gets Oberheim’d! Tom Oberheim has come back into the fold with a sonic boom with the help of old friend/competitor Dave Smith. The OB-6 essentially uses the same chassis, effect engines and basic design as the Prophet-6 but Oberheim has popped in SEM-based voice cards, added to his much-loved SEM-based ‘state variable’ filter (aka Filter 2 on DSI’s Pro 2 synth). No doubt this has helped to keep production/R&D costs down without compromising the signal path quality, which is a great thing for audiophiles and cost conscious folks alike – not that the OB-6 is cheap though, at around £2,250 currently. The OB-6 looks great and with its blue-line-adorned…

THE ALTERNATIVES Roland Aira TR-8 £389 Roland’s 808/909 recreation sits in a similar sonic territory to the Maus and Lite, albeit without some of the tough, gritty edge. It does have a much, much more intuitive workflow though. www.roland.co.uk Beats Korg Volca /Sample £120 each Between them, Korg’s Volca Beats and Volca Sample offer similar sounds and functionality to the MFBs. They don’t quite pack the same sonic punch, but do come in at a considerably cheaper price point. www.korg.com Elektron Analog RYTM £1040 The RYTM is the current gold standard when it comes to hybrid analogue/ sample beat makers. www.elektron.se…

THE ALTERNATIVES Native Instruments Komplete 10 from £280 With synths, effects, emulations and sample-based instruments, NI’s flagship bundle is more of an ‘allrounder’, but doesn’t pack the same clout on the vintage emulation front. www.native-instruments.com Air Advance Production Suite £280 A good value all-rounder bundle of synths, effects and sounds, if slightly lacking in terms of cutting-edge plug-ins and modern sheen. www.airmusictech.com u-he Diva £138 If you’re after a single plug-in that captures the vintage vibe while offering some modern flexibility and scope, Diva is worth a look. www.u-he.com…

SOUNDS & SAMPLES Sample Logic Cinemorphx $599 Sample Logic’s company tag-line is ‘Blurring the Line Between Music & Sound Design’. This is certainly an ethos harnessed in Cinemorphx, which in many ways is a reboot of some of their individual libraries. Where the older libraries, such as Synergy, embraced more multi-sampled instrument and loop sources in a relatively conventional setting, Cinemorphx makes use of Kontakt’s engine in a far more sophisticated way. The central sonic concept of Cinemorphx is the ‘Soundcore’, consisting of two, user-configurable, layered sound sources that can be morphed between in a variety of sophisticated ways. Four of these ‘Cores’ can then be combined into a massive Multi-core monster preset. The sound library includes both single and multiple core patches across a variety of broad groupings, each…

Fast drum loop arranging I’m good at making drum loops but I get stuck when arranging them. What’s a good approach? As with any music you’re creating, make sure you start with some decent samples and create a full-sounding loop with plenty of elements in that can facilitate lifts/drops or change the mood/atmosphere. So, as well as having standard kick, snare and hi-hat parts, make sure you also include some FX sounds and percussive elements. It really helps to have all the individual elements available on their own tracks too, not just for ease of arrangement but also for mixing/processing. Here’s an approach for quick arranging… > Record your kick, snare and hats either onto separate tracks or into one region. If into one region, copy that region to the…