Innholdsfortegnelse for 08/2025 i Beat English

As with AI tools, you shouldn‘t ignore these options in competition if the world around you uses them and saves time. However, if you have a precise sound idea, you should master the craft and have access to detailed editing. Tools like Izotope Neutron offer a good compromise because, in addition to complex setting suggestions that utilize multiple EQ and dynamics tools (though no reverb) at once, they still allow access to details and individual effects. 1 Reduce dynamics – and spice things up? Reducing the dynamic range of vocal mixes is particularly important for modern electronic music. This means that differences between quieter and louder parts must be reduced. The goal: to make the vocals consistently intelligible. This would often be the case even without dynamic processing, if they…

1 Powerful percussion Trailer Impacts often consist of multiple layers. The Drum Machine in Cubase 14 comes with a couple of kits that are perfect for percussive sound building blocks. Show the lower zone and click on Add Drum Track. Choose the preset Mighty Booms, and in a second instance, Thunder Echoes. The first provides low-frequency thrust. 2 More Punch The second preset contributes thunderous toms. But the sound should be a bit snappier. For this task, many producers of Epic and Trailer music use the Xfer OTT plug-in. With the multiband compressor, Squasher, Cubase integrates a powerful alternative to OTT. The preset Master Bus Glue is a good starting point here. 3 Creating space We adjust it as shown. What else is missing? Right, an epic reverb. To do this, create an…

1 Starting Point Create a Combinator with a Europa and select a patch. In our example, we use Bright Colors from the Europa Library and activate Engine 3. With the + at the top of the Europa, create an Arpeggio Lab. On the back, connect the CV OUT Anchor to CV IN 1 and the CV OUT Movement to CV IN 2 of the Combinator. 2 Go into the Matrix In the Matrix, under Mixer, select Engine 3 Level as a target for CV1 and, optionally, define the Min and Max value. Each Anchor now increases the level of Engine 3. CV2 is assigned to Dist. Drive. You can, of course, feed any parameters with the CV1 and CV2 data, thus assigning any parameters a fixed high and low value. 3 Back to…

Acon Digital Drum Production Suite Your drum recording sounds strong, but the hihats bleed onto the snare track. Or maybe you want to isolate bass drum, snare, hi-hats, or toms from a drum recording. Bleeding, background noise, and lack of separation are among the most common problems when editing drum recordings. This is exactly where the Drum Production Suite from Acon Digital comes in. Remix:Drums is based on Acon Digital‘s remix technology for stem separation. The plug-in divides audio signals into kick, snare, hi-hat, toms, cymbals, and other in real-time. Operation is simple: Each of the six channels has Level and Panning controls, as well as Solo and Mute buttons. You can also individually adjust the detection sensitivity. In our test, the separation worked on current drum loops, as well…

Lady Gaga - Abracadabra: Acid Bass w/Arturia Acid V 1 Album6 She continues to land hits with album number six “Mayhem” as if it were her debut. Lady Gaga has been a phenomenon in the Pop world since 2008; an artist bursting with creative energy and musical talent. And whose love of the Club world, House and Techno of the Nineties is reflected in many songs in her discography. 2 Seven songwriters… …are listed by Spotify as authors of the song. Four of them, however, only because they received songwriter shares as members of the band Siouxsie and the Banshees. “Abracada-bra” interpolates the band‘s biggest hit, “Spell-bound”. The production and arrangement of the track come from Lady Gaga herself and the two producers Andrew Watt and Cirkut. 3 Acid Bass In the…

The DT 73 IE outwardly resemble their siblings from the DT 70 series. Like the other models, they are hand-crafted at beyerdynamic in Heilbronn and are available for around 500 Euro. Inside, the DT 73 IE uses the TESLA 11 driver system. This system ensures clear reproduction and exceptionally low distortion of only 0.02% at 1 kHz, which is record-breaking for in-ears. Despite the low distortion, the DT 73 IE achieve a maximum sound pressure level of up to 137 dB, making them among the loudest available systems. Comfort & isolation The amber-colored housings are based on hundreds of ear molds and are said to ensure a perfect fit in any ear. Our tests confirm that the DT 73 IE, like the other models of the DT 70 series, fit…

Beat/You‘ve basically remained faithful to Techno throughout your entire career. What keeps you going? Enrico Sangiuliano/ It’s the obsession with rhythm, the endless evolution, and the countless forms techno can take as a macro-genre. It’s the urge to make our scene sharper, our music cooler, deeper, and more meaningful. It’s the fight against cheesiness and mediocrity, especially now that techno has become a trend. More than anything, it’s the mission to create music that challenges people, triggers thought, and pushes boundaries — and the realization that making music and sharing it with others is my true life path. Techno shaped the way I think, live, and work. It’s about movement, evolution, and pushing limits — in sound and in life. It taught me to build, to break, to rebuild. It’s…

The common thread: Beat magazine 08/2025 For many years, Beat has been inspiring its readers not only with practical and musical topics, but above all with the tight integration of editorial content. From the very beginning, Beat has been about creating, about the structured building of ideas and the common thread – in the magazine as well as in the tracks. This navigator shows you the highlights of this issue andallows you to see the big picture. Test: Behringer 2-XM Behringer combines two synthesizers based on the Oberheim SEM in the 2-XM, thereby essentially recreating the Two Voice. You may have to forego the keyboard and sequencer in direct comparison, but the 2-XM does have a patch bay for additional connections and can also be integrated into a Eurorack modular…

1 Volume You might be surprised at how much you can improve simply by establishing the correct volume balances and adjusting the level for each track. If you do this, you‘ll have to go through each track track by track anyway, and you can label the tracks correctly as you go. A little sorting usually helps, too. 2 Dynamics If individual tracks have strong volume fluctuations, you can reduce them using a compressor. Then optimize the volume for all tracks again. Without a compressor, you run the risk of switching back and forth between multiple settings insecurely. If you‘re using many tracks, apply step four first. 3 EQ In a third step, you can make the most important frequency adjustments track by track. Filter out the bass wherever it doesn‘t…

1 Set up your controller If your controller isn‘t automatically recognized, activate it in your DAW‘s corresponding (MIDI) menu. Faders, knobs, solo, mute, and other functions should then be mapped correctly. If not, you can assign the features manually or search online for a script for your controller and DAW. 2 Create buses Create buses for all stems so you can more easily control and add effects to the instrument groups later. Do this even if you only have one track in a group. This will avoid having to make excessive jumps between stems and these tracks later. This is especially helpful for controllers without banking capabilities. 3 Configure routing Now route your individual tracks to your groups and the groups to your master. Consider which send effects you want…

Beat/What was your vision for your new album? Haley/ From the beginning, I had dark, electronic beats in mind. I wanted the album to feel very rooted and grounded. Beat/The new songs differ greatly from the more acoustic songs of your earlier works. Where does this change come from? Haley/ My relationship with people has changed dramatically since 2020. My laptop has become a bit of a conduit to feeling empowered while also feeling alone. I wanted to naturally use computers and electronics more than before. Musically, I relied on a childlike spirit. Although I have a lot of experience writing for strings and large ensembles, I just wanted to open the computer or connect a pedal, experiment, and try things out. I think you can hear the exploration with technology on…

1 Stretching and pitching Drag the sample into the playlist channel, activate the Stretch Mode and then time stretch it so that it exactly fills four bars. Then, Pitch the loop in the Stretch Mode up to an octave up or down, depending on the desired emotion or key. This way, the original material sounds different right away and loses its generic character. 2 Slice it up Load the stretched sample into the Fruity Slicer. Set the slicing Mode to Beat or 1/4 Step, depending on how much control you want, or how small you want to slice it. Now the loop is divided into individual parts that you can trigger independently. This way, you turn a boring loop into a collection of musical building blocks. 3 Chops in the Piano Roll Open…

1 Program a sweep To create a transition effect, load an Operator. Program a MIDI clip with a continuous note on C2. For a sweep, activate Pitch and set Pitch Env to-100. Choose a Decay of 9 seconds for the Pitch Envelope. Set Oscillator B Coarse to 12 and C to 15. Set Volume for Oscillator B to-3.5 and C to-6 dB. 2 Add noise texture Load the vocoder audio effect to the track and choose noise as the Carrier Type. Activate Enhance, to brighten the Noise. Set bands to 12. Reduce Bandwidth BW to 82. To shift the frequency spectrum slightly upwards, set Formants to 11. For more sharpness, set Depth to 121. 3 Bass with Pitch-Follower for the next example, enhance a bass sound sonically with Vocoder and additional effects.…

Just a year after the release of the ProFX10v3+ mixing console, Mackie expands the series with the ProFX10 GO, which allows the manufacturer‘s mixing consoles to be battery operated for the first time. This is consistent, since the Thrash212 Go speakers and the FreePlay Live monitor are already battery powered. Finally, the chain for autonomous sound is complete - concerts and performances are now truly possible anywhere, far from any power supply and away from generators. The GO Difference The ProFX10 GO looks like the ProFX10v3+ in appearance and features, with the crucial difference that there is a compartment for Mackie‘s own GB 10 battery on the bottom side. Mackie promises eight hours of battery life; in practice, it is just under six hours, which is still quite acceptable. Charging…

1 Set as standard Load an empty drum rack into a MIDI track in Ableton Live. Drag the new Drum Sampler onto a pad in the drum rack. Open the context menu with a right-click on the pad and select “Save as Default Pad“. Now, every sample you add to the drum rack will automatically be placed in a drum sampler instead of a Simpler. 2 Load sound samples To load sounds into the Drum Rack, select a Push pad and then activate the Hot-Swap Mode. Browse through the samples and load a kick sample via Load. Select another Push pad and load a snare sample. Also load a hi-hat sample and three to four additional percussion samples. When you are finished, deactivate the Hot-Swap Mode again. 3 Velocity variations Program a simple…

Juri Heidemann: Echo Mute The Berlin DJ and producer makes his debut on the Dutch label Dolly Records with this 4-track EP. Released on vinyl and digitally (with an additional bonus track in digital), the EP delivers straightforward, driving techno with exciting sound design. Though minimalistic and hypnotic in structure, many interesting sonic nuances reveal themselves in detail. The tracks also impress rhythmically: Heidemann develops captivating grooves that are simultaneously percussive, tribal-like, and uncompromisingly aimed at the dancefloor. Hard, pounding, and precise - if you appreciate classic techno, „Echo Mute“is a perfect choice. Genre: Techno | Label: Dolly Mari Kattman: Year Of The Katt The name Kattman apparently obliges. Therefore, the US artist has entirely subordinated her third album, „Year Of The Katt“, to the cat. Appropriately, a stylized cat…

UJAM Beatmaker 3: What is in the new all-in-one tool With Beatmaker 3, UJAM brings its drum programming tool up to date. Beat-maker is intended to serve as a unified all-in-one platform for a virtual instrument series. The operation impresses with its intuitiveness and simplicity. It includes 15 genre-specific instruments that can be used for Trap, LoFi, as well as EDM and Reggaeton. Each instrument includes genre-specific drum kits. The plug-in features a preset browser with filters for genre, mood, BPM, and title. In addition, there is a mixer view in which the sounds can be enriched or filtered with ambience or saturation. MIDI files can be conveniently dragged and dropped into any DAW and also edited and processed. The MIDI files can be layered with other instruments. From idea…

Intech Studio Grid Controller Intech Studios Grid models are solidly constructed, square controllers in neutral black that are connected via magnets. Endless encoders have a push function, which results in the „Push Rotate“ operating mode, for example. This means that when the encoder is pressed while rotating, it sends a different MIDI message than when it is not pressed. In the editor, you‘ll find preset configurations from the manufacturer or other users – or you can save your own. You can even find programmed internal LFOs here, whose rate and intensity can then be adjusted using the encoders, for example. I find the EN16 controller particularly useful, with 16 push endless encoders and LEDs. The TEK2 comes with two endless jog wheels and eight buttons. This controller is also interesting…

I prefer to keep music a sacred act. DISCOGRAPHY //Atlas der Gedanken (with Mareena) /2021 //In Vere (with Rødhåd) /2022 //Metamorphose/2022 //Tết 41/2025 Beat/Would it be fair to see the album as a musical travelogue? JakoJako/ I would describe it as a processing of my impressions, a kind of sonic postcard, a recorded memory of my time in Vietnam. But to be quite honest, my main intention for the trip was to relax. Not to put any pressure on myself. To simply make the music I felt like making. The only challenge was to decide what to take with me. Beat/So what ended up in your bags? JakoJako/ For example, the Metropolis as a sequencer. And then a few modules that I bought spontaneously prior to jams because I thought…

1 The idea The more notes are sampled at different velocities, the more realistic the sample instrument sounds. But recording an octave in three velocities alone, in other words, recording 36 wav files one after the other at an even volume and then editing them, is a lot of work. Auto-Sampler does most of this for you. 2 Hardware only The most important requirement for sampling is having a MIDI-enabled instrument. Auto Sampler sends MIDI notes to the instrument automatically, records the notes played back in succession, and creates an EXS instrument. Here, I sampled a Moog Grandmother. (Image source: Moog Inc/Inmusic) 3 Setup in Logic First, create a MIDI track for external MIDI. The synth you want to sample must be connected to the Mac twice: Once via its audio output to…

1 Trance gate Trance gates are nothing new in electronic music. As early as the Eighties and Nineties, Producers found ways to rhythmically chop synth pads. The idea is to split a pad sound so that it becomes almost an arpeggio. This is done by rapid changes in volume, whether through a noise gate or in a modular synth. 2 DAW vs. Plugin There are countless plugins for creating Trance Gates in the DAW. From the free plugin of the same name by Kilohearts to LFO-Tool by Serum creator XFer Records, to ShaperBox by Cableguys, the list is long. However, only Bitwig allows creating such modulation directly in the DAW and modulating it with even more complexity. 3 Pads, Pads, Pads The basis for Trance gating: A sound as soft and wide as…

Connect 4/12 is housed in a very sturdy metal casing, and the illuminated push buttons and large encoder also give a long-lasting and live-ready impression. An XLR combo socket is used for microphone/instrument (high-impedance or line level). Input 2 has a 6.3mm jack socket for instrument or line. Two more inputs for line or CV signals are located on the top. This is also my only real criticism right from the start: 4 inputs will not be enough in many setups. Even in the small studio you might want to record 2 singers/speakers on separate tracks at the same time, or one microphone and 2 stereo sound generators. Of course, additional connections would have increased costs, and in many electronic music producers multiple microphone inputs with preamps are often not…

Lightweight DJ headphones from RODE If you are a DJ looking for suitable DJ headphones, RODE offers the new NTH-50 on-ear model. But the headphones with their transparent, neutral sound should also be of interest to content creators, producers for live recording and sound designers. They are equipped with a 40-millimeter dynamic driver and cover a frequency range from 5 Hz to 35 kHz. The closed, 220 gram lightweight model made of aluminum construction should impress with a deep and balanced bass and at the same time achieve clarity in the mids and highs. Thanks to the high sound pressure level of 124 dB SPL, the headphones are also equipped for very loud environments such as discotheques. The impedance is specified as 32 ohms. The ear cups are padded with…

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