Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2023 i Computer Music

instruments Wave Alchemy Triaz £120 9/10 cm307 Wave Alchemy named Triaz for its triple-layered sound engine, and with 10,000 individual samples and over 600 presets, this is more than the ultimate drum machine. “As a creative workstation, Triaz excels as a competent sound design processor, a peerless polyrhythmic generator and an idea-forming beat-hub.” www.wavealchemy.co.uk Orchestral Tools Habitat €229 9/10 cm308 Synths, acoustic orchestral instruments and nature, all in one amazing instrument which is a dream collaboration between OT and Dominik Eulberg. “The blend of instrumentation is sublime. If textures and pads are your goal, Habitat is a class leader in sonic diversity and interest.” www.orchestraltools.com Toontrack EZdrummer 3 €165 10/10 cm310 The EZdrummer ecosphere is now at huge proportions, with a vast array of sample expansion and MIDI groove packs.…

Music would be very boring indeed without variation, and that’s exactly what musical dynamics are all about: variations in loudness. Examples might be a quiet verse leading into a loud chorus, a synth line that gradually increases in volume, some notes within a pattern played louder to accent them, a singer belting out certain words for emphasis, and so on. There may be unintended variations too, such as a bassist or drummer unable to play each note or hit at a constant volume where required. Fixing unintentional problems is one thing, but even deliberate accents and changes in volume will almost certainly need some control to fit the norms of what we as listeners expect to hear in a finished, cohesive mixdown, free of unexpected jolts in level and excessive…

On paper, Lykke Li’s childhood sounds like one long musical adventure. Born in Ystad, Sweden – the setting, of course, for Henning Mankell’s Wallander books – Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson is the daughter of Johan Zachrisson, guitarist with well-known Swedish punk/ska/reggae band, Dag Vag. From Sweden, Zachrisson took his family and his studio to an isolated mountain top in Portugal, then to Lisbon, then India, Nepal and Morocco. Recording with local musicians, experimenting with strange new instruments. Surrounding young Lykke’s world with sound. “As you said, this kind of childhood sounds great on paper,” laughs Lykke. “But the reality of that kind of upbringing is 11 different schools, very few friends, struggling to learn new languages... and a real sense of detachment. Anxiety and insomnia. Moving around like that takes…

It’s a very special end of the year issue and we’re celebrating all things 2022 by giving away some of our best bits – in this case, it’s nine of the best of our free plugins of 2022! As you very probably know, here at Computer Music we are big on giving away tools to make your music production efforts easier. Our very own Computer Music Plugin Suite of tools has become world famous, and we’re celebrating it in this issue by giving away some of the additions made to it this year. Back in June we had one of the biggest overhauls to the Suite ever. In reality this was more out of necessity rather than something we’d been looking forward to doing, thanks to many of the older…

Minimal Audio Morph EQ $49 10/10 cm314 Morph EQ can be used for morphing effects, as well as more typical EQ duties. It aces both processes, making it one of the most creative plugins we’ve used this year. “Morph EQ takes your regular EQ interface and injects it with some real time manipulation for awesome filtering effects.” www.minimal.audio.com Caelum Audio Flux Pro £50 10/10 cm311 There aren’t many effects plugins out there that would deliver quite this much power for so little outlay. “Caelum are gradually building an impressive stable of plugins. Flux Pro is their most powerful to date and it’s a fantastically creative offering.” www.caelumaudio.com Arturia eFX Fragments £80 10/10 cm309 Arturia, of course, are well known for their synths, but they can do the odd effect too,…

In this edition of my Synth Masterclass, we begin by becoming clairvoyant! I know what you are thinking. Why for the love of all things synthesis, would you want to create a bass patch that actively seeks to reduce its harmonic content? As is so often the case, with a popular synth patch, it’s all about the overall effect. What we might lose in lower-end content, we’ll more than make up for in coolness and character. To begin with, we’re going to create a patch which invites a degree of automation. To assist in this pursuit, we’ll be using a bandpass filter, located within our Zebra CM plugin, which invites a degree of cutoff frequency sweeping, yielding low-end content for creating that punchy bass sound. It’s also possible to swap…

Goldbaby Pulse $39 These nutters have gone patch-happy with a Pulsar-23 analogue drum machine to bring you a monster collection of one-shots, loops, and pre-mapped kits for all your fave DAWs. Inspired sounds abound in this expertly crafted collection, with a whole host of punchy drums coaxed from this experiment-rewarding machine. Seemingly the fruits of hours of wire-swapping and knob-bothering, with some hits and sequences run through guitar pedals and other chains of commanding hardware for some next-level noises. A great way of building a unique drum library, if you want to swerve the sizeable price tag of an OG machine, and countless hours of fiddling, to get these kind of results. www.goldbaby.co.nz 9/100 Hydratek THRON €14.99 200+ lairy loops, pulled from the pocket-sized PO-14 bass synthesiser, and processed within…

softsynths Cherry Audio GX-80 €59 10/10 cm317 We’re only allowing one synth per developer in this roundup, otherwise CA may well have cleared up. But they kept their best synth until last: this Yamaha CS-80 emulation (review on p60)! “They’ve elaborated upon the original machine, and created the most impressive visual and sonic spectacle available in software.” www.cherryaudio.com Roland Jupiter-4 $199 9/10 cm313 The Roland Cloud/standalone Jupiter-4 emulates a classic synth that is far more than ‘just’ a half-pint Jupiter-8. “This is a reincarnation of a true Roland classic, with an appealing ease of use that will reward extensively through its sonic return.” www.roland.com GForce Oddity 3 £119.99 10/10 cm317 Very probably the best emulation of possibly the greatest synth, the ARP Odyssey, gets a v3 makeover and it’s a…

Audient EVO 16 £400 9/10 cm313 Audient plumb their iconic expertise into an impressive range of interfaces, and this is perhaps their best yet: “The healthy channel count and sleek design should appeal. But the most appealing thing about EVO 16 from anybody’s point of view, is that it gives you all of this at an exceptionally competitive price.” https://evo.audio Røde NTH-100 £145 10/10 cm311 Can Røde’s first attempt at headphones be anywhere near as good as the company’s microphones? That’s what we asked. And answered: “The NTH-100s have a brilliant design and sound that will shake up the worlds of both mixing and listening headphones. We can’t recommend them enough.” They’re good then. www.rode.com Apple MacBook Air M2 £1249 9/10 cm314 Apple’s latest laptop is the company’s lightest and…

Delay is a vital aspect of most mixes and can be used in numerous ways. Rather than tackle all of these in one feature, I’ll look at specific techniques, how to achieve them and where to use them. This month we’re focusing on spins. Making full use of the stereo image can be an important aspect of a successful mix, and often we need to find a way to add width to mono sounds. Adding spin delays is a key technique ideal for lead and featured elements and involves picking out specific snippets to add delay to. This could be certain words in a vocal or notes in a lead part, and works particularly well used at the end of phrases. It’s a great device to help smooth transitions, fill…

Zenhiser Warmth £46 Top-tier vocal pack for house and techno tracks needing a little heat. The singing sounds inside come in both loop and individual stem formats and cover everything from lead lines, riffs, melodies, and light paddy chords to a wealth of other toasty top notes. And, you get a gang of other one-shots and MIDI files, scorching stems, loops and drums to add to the pot. All in all, a multi-genre selection of steaming hot vocals, just waiting for your warm welcome. www.zenhiser.com 8/100 Mode Audio Gradient £20 1.38GB of rich and experimental guitar textures, all of which are perfect for weaving into your ethereal beats or atmospheric dance tracks. The 100 evocative and ambient samples here range from 28s to 1m30s. And they’ve been created to add…

Take control of your software in 2023 We look at the future of hardware controlling your software. How to do it, the best products on the market, and the future of touchscreens, MPE and everything else that’s control-based. It’s the issue designed for the control freak in you… PLUS! 2 free plugins! Two free bass plugins to add to the CM Suite! Freeware 2023 A roundup of the best new free stuff you need to download now! The Guide! How to make your music sound great – wherever you play it!…