Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2017 i Computer Music

“Drums make or break any track…” Saying it’s been a hectic month here at cm would be an understatement. As well as a whirlwind trip over to the ’Dam for ADE 2016, we’ve been hard at work cramming as much as possible into your latest issue! Drums make or break any track. Sonically, they must hit hard and impress the listener. Every style has its own signature tricks and quirks. So no matter what genre you produce, turn to p22 and dive into our genre-busting Killer Beats guide. We’re also pulling out the stops for freebies this month. Get pro-level width, depth and space with Panagement CM (p52); bag yourself 3.8GB of incredible samples (p106); and new or renewing subscribers get a free copy of the epic Xpand!2 workstation plugin…

Tutorial videos High-quality videos to guide you through our tutorials. Wherever you see the icon on the left, there’s a video version to watch See this issue’s entire video content on the next pages Tutorial files A folder full of audio examples, synth patches and project files to help you follow our tutorials This digital content has been thoroughly scanned and tested at all stages of production, but as with all new software, we still recommend that you run a virus checker before use. We also recommend that you have an up-to-date backup of your hard drive before using the content. Future cannot accept responsibility for any disruption, damage and/or loss to your data or computer system that may occur while using this magazine’s programs and/or data. Consult your network…

To help you get the most out of our immense plugin collection, we’ve assembled the cm Plugins Tutorial Bank, containing over 100 guides and tutorials for our cm Plugins, specially selected from past issues. You’ll find Getting Started PDFs and videos for most of the individual plugins, along with tutorial PDFs and videos on using cm Plugins for sound design, mixing, and even creating entire tracks. You’ll find all of this as a handy download in our Vault – go grab it now and start getting more out of your plugins! vault.computermusic.co.uk…

“It’s the kind of discotheque you might find Buck Rogers and his white trousers in” It’s getting on for a year since we’ve heard any news from our favourite Russian, Alexander Zolotov, the man in charge of SunVox. Happily, the latest version (1.9.2) is a hearty update to this great multiplatform tracker. We’ve often heaped praise on Renoise for the awesome control afforded by its meta devices, and SunVox takes an important step in that direction, adding two new modules that convert either incoming pitch or velocity information into values which can then be used to control parameters on other devices. Elsewhere, Windows and Linux both gain multitouch support, while Mac users continue to languish with passé pointing device input. There are also dozens more tweaks and changes, including updates…

“It didn’t happen. Everyone was too busy playing Call Of Duty 4” We announced that we were ‘playing with time’ in January 2007 ( 108), but there were no Dr Who/Marty McFly-style shenanigans going on. Rather, we brought you tempo, quantise and groove tips; not quite as exciting as a DeLorean hitting 88mph, but useful nonetheless. In our Burning Question, meanwhile, we asked what 2006 would be remembered for. Our view was that Apple’s decision to allow Mac users to officially run Windows XP on their computers (via Boot Camp) would be a “major turning point”, but we’ll concede that we were wide of the mark on that one. It turned out that – surprise, surprise – people who bought a Mac didn’t really want to run Windows on it…

From the steady thud of a mother’s heartbeat to early man dancing around a fire to primitive animal-skin drums, humans have been hardwired to respond to rhythm since the dawn of civilisation itself. In a musical context, rhythm is the underlying pulse that gives regimented order to melody and harmony; the underlying backbone of any piece of music. In most Western styles, this rhythm is supplied by the drum kit: a collection of non-pitched drums and percussive instruments designed to be struck in various ways. Whether the sounds emanate from an acoustic kit or from synthesised/sampled equivalents, the combined sum of these generic sounds form the collective rhythmic groove and meter of a song – colloquially known as the ‘beat’. When making music inside a computer, you’ll already have access…

You should now have an understanding of the various drum kit elements, and which tools you’ll need to program them in your DAW, but this doesn’t necessarily mean you can build killer beats in any genre you choose. Each has its own particular quirks and nuances that you’ll need to understand in order to craft drums as good as the best in each specific field – which we’ll break down over the next few pages of tips and tutorials. First up, we’ll start at the beginnings of dance music as we know it: house music’s inception in late 1970s Chicago. Although disco’s popularity had fizzled out, pioneering club DJs such as Frankie Knuckles (of Chicago’s ‘Warehouse’ club) kept the genre’s party spirit alive by playing eclectic all-night sets combining disco…

The history of drum ‘n’ bass and jungle music can first be traced back to the early 90s, when DJs like Fabio & Grooverider started mixing funk breaks over house and techno records. This – with the addition of heavy reggae, hip-hop and jazz influences – eventually evolved into jungle’s eclectic mixture of heavily processed, polyrhythmic sampled breaks and bone-crushing, dub-style bass. As the 90s progressed, many jungle producers began producing a more refined version of the genre which became known as drum ‘n’ bass. The two styles share many similarities, but DnB generally features more conventional 2-step drum patterns with more emphasis on musical elements, as opposed to jungle’s heavy reliance on chopped-up breakbeats. A number of DnB subgenres have gained popularity, each with its own drum sound. Liquid…

Jeroen is one of a growing number of producers who use their own masters for releases. “I used to have everything mastered for digital, but not any more. For my last EP I just mastered everything myself. I know what I want! Now it’s such an integrated process, from the beginning it’s all about the mixdown, so if I have to give my unlimited track to the mastering engineer, they don’t really have the freedom to adjust it that I do. “We are all more and more becoming as technical as an engineer, or trying to be. Mastering engineers are on the back foot from the start in terms of trying to understand your tune. It’s become a more and more integral part of making music. Even limiting options are…

“I started Auburn Sounds in 2015, with the express goal of making my life’s work. I listened to users, and realised most existing products were aiming for realism – but I wanted Panagement to focus more upon mixing. My main constraint was to make the plugin sound more natural than regular panning on headphones, but not worse on speakers. “Binaural panning simulates the response from the head. Some plugins use sampled IRs; others like Panagement use ‘modelled’ responses. It’s a bit like algorithmic reverbs versus convolution – there’s always a tradeoff between realism and sound quality. “In use, Panagement CM is great on drums: try using the Distance control on a kick drum, the Tilt filter on bass, Mono-to-stereo on snare drums, and Binaural Pan for hats. “However, be careful…

It’s hard to overestimate the impact that the Prophet-5’s Poly-Mod section has on its character. While many factory presets were made without ever touching a Poly-Mod control, many of the instrument’s distinctive sound effects rely on it. While studio and academia-bound modular systems offered a virtually unlimited number of modulation options, most performance synths provided only one or two hardwired routings – usually an LFO hardwired to a left-hand wheel, knob or stick. The Prophet’s extra handful of user-assignable routings weren’t going to give an ARP 2600 or VCS3 any competition in the modulation stakes, but then again, those instruments couldn’t manage chords. The Poly-Mod section’s complement of two sources (filter envelope and Osc B) and three destinations (Osc A frequency, pulse width and filter cutoff) may seem somewhat anaemic…

Dave Clews In a studio career spanning almost 25 years, Dave has engineered, programmed and played keyboards on records for a string of artists including George Michael, Kylie Minogue, Tina Turner and Estelle. These days, in between writing articles for and other magazines, he collaborates on occasional songs and videos with singer/songwriter Lucy Hirst, aka Polkadothaze. www.daveclews.com So, circle progressions - what are they all about then? Surely they’re just sequences of chords that go round in a loop, repeating over and over? Well, not exactly – the term circle in this case refers to the fact that the root notes of the chords in the progression follow the circle of fifths (covered back in cm221). Therefore, a circle progression is one where the root notes between chords are separated…

Every year, Amsterdam Dance Event brings together everyone who’s anyone in electronic dance music for a rash of product demonstrations, conferences, club nights and networking. But that’s not the reason Jeroen Verheij shows up every year. To escape the ADE hustle and bustle, we dived into a quiet café to find out why, from the man himself. “Usually when you go to the conference, you don’t actually meet many people who stick around,” he says. “It’s pure business in there, but outside is where the real life stories start. Last night I was on a guy’s boat – he lives in Ibiza, but he’s here for ADE –and you know what we did? We made music together! This is what you accomplish when you don’t have a pass for the…

To many producers who aren’t also guitarists, amp sims can be a bit of a mystery – and that’s a shame, because a good dose of distortion is often just the thing for bringing life and character to synths and drums as well as guitars and basses. Blue Cat Audio’s new virtual amp rig, Destructor (VST/AU/AAX/RTAS/DirectX), aims to make the process of dialling in distortion straightforward for those who just want to beef up their sounds with minimal user input. At the same time, it also gives the more technical engineer access to the guts of its virtual amplification and pre/post frequency-shaping stages, should they want it. Appetite for destruction The interface centres on a trio of modules: Preamp, Destruction and Post-Filter. Prior to all that, though, the input signal…

Released at the end of the last decade, A-Designs’ HM2 Hammer EQ has become a boutique studio favourite, thanks to its remarkably smooth and effortless sweetening of buses, full mixes and, to a lesser extent, instrument tracks. A modern classic, if you will. The Hammer is a hybrid solid-state/tube EQ that’s no longer manufactured but cost around two grand to buy when it was. Kush’s virtualisation of it models the architecture and controls 100% faithfully, except for the addition of the linked stereo mode. Of course, you can still buy the HM2 Hammer second hand, but in the interests of economy and multiple deployment, we’d probably still recommend Kush’s software version over it – it really is that good. The hardware might well have the slight…

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EASY GUIDE CIRCLE PROGRESSIONS Get a solid chord progression in a flash with this theory advice Read the full article on p76 STUDIO STRATEGIES PARALLEL SATURATION Get some quick-fire sound advice from our resident mixdown expert Read the full article Read on the p78 full article on pxx DR BEAT TRAP DRUMS Build bulkier trap drum sounds without just reaching for the 808 Read the full article on p80…

“Finally, we applied some maths from the 1800s…” cm For those that don’t know, what’s your history in music, composing and product design? Why did you start up Beatskillz? GD “I’m a computer engineer by education, and I was the very first guy in India to write a MIDI sequencer in C++ as my final-year project. Once I graduated, I was lucky enough to have a super career in India as a composer and producer, selling over 10 million records. “I’ve always preferred analogue gear, even though I was born in the digital age. The inspiration behind Beatskillz really has been my own approach to production – I wanted tools like i had in the analogue world: chains of processors set up to do the job easily, without distracting from…

The house that disco built Disco is basically the precursor to modern dance music, and the drum beat is essentially the same as for house. Typically, you’ve got a kick drum on every beat, with a snare and clap on beats 2 and 4. For a human feel, randomise the timing and velocity slightly. As for the hi-hats, see our walkthrough above for a how-to! The search for life Search your sample library for live kick and snare samples, or use a virtual drum kit ROMpler and program them. You can always resample ROMpler hits if features such as round-robin and built-in humanising aren’t giving you the consistency you require for a modern disco-house production. Phat’s the way I like it Disco drums are punchy, fat and present, but not…

Something that sets classic UK garage apart from other styles of electronic music is the syncopation of the drums. While major elements such as the kick and snare will typically be quantised tightly, the surrounding percussion is often placed slightly off-grid to create a less rigid groove, giving that classic skippy percussion that UK garage is famous for. To add this effect to your own UKG drums, experiment with the timing of drum parts such as hi hats, ghost snare shuffles or congas – try putting your ghost snares slightly behind the grid to add a natural shuffle to your drums or placing your offbeat hi-hats 2-3ms ahead of the grid to add pace. Future garage Future garage is a more contemporary take on the UK garage sound, with producers…

Rock drumming mastery comes in many forms, from the shuffling kicks of Led Zep’s John Bonham and Dave Grohl’s tasteful pounding, to the muscular speed attack of Slayer’s Dave Lombardo and high-energy technique of Travis Barker. Programming beats like your favourite drummers can be intimidating. Where do you even begin to emulate these stick-wizards? Pretty much all of the great rock drummers would’ve started out in the same place, learning the fundamental beats of rock before building upon them. We’ll show you how to do the same in your DAW, starting with the most basic rock beat there is. You’ll learn easy variations that have served drummers well for decades, in all rock subgenres, from indie and punk to metal and beyond. You can get creative just like real drummers…

“Don’t let it intimidate you – just keep working at it and you’ll get anywhere you want to go” One of the Netherlands’ finest musical exports, Shogun Audio hitmaker Icicle (aka Jeroen Snik) has had a prodigious DnB career that’s seen him release everything from liquid rollers to neuro tear-outs and ice-cold bangers. More recently, he’s dabbled in dubstep and techno, but for this exclusive Producer Masterclass he’s firmly concentrating on upfront, bass-heavy DnB sounds. We tracked Icicle down to his South London studio to find out his cutting-edge techniques for creating banging beats and sub-smashing bass. Computer Music : Sound design is clearly an incredibly important part of the music creation process for you. How do you avoid the trap of just making tons…

Workhorse mixing functions Fancy binaural panning features aside, Panagement CM is a terrific workhorse ‘monoiser’, width balancer and tone shifter. Punch the bottom-right Mono button to instantly collapse the input signal to mono, increase or reduce width with the leftmost Width knob, and broadly shift the overall signal’s tone towards the highs or lows via the Tilt parameter. Pseudo-widening Panagement CM can be used to add depth and width to any mono or narrow sound. For example, insert Panagement CM over a mono drum hit, then set Distance to 4.8, Mono To Stereo Width to around 25%, Delay to around 3.6ms and Cutoff to the max 22kHz. Finally, reduce Output to rebalance the processed signal’s level. Reverb-panning trick Take one of your mix elements, insert Panagement CM on its channel,…

ARTURIA PROPHET V Arturia has combined stonking clones of both the Prophet-5 and Prophet-VS into a single instrument. Not content to leave it at that, they’ve allowed the two to become intertwined if the user is so inclined, and added all manner of modern niceties such as effects, modulation options and up to 32-voice polyphony. www.arturia.com MEMORYMOON MESSIAH After their nifty SynthEdit-based clone of the Memorymoog (Moog’s answer to the Prophet-5), Memorymoon tackled the Prophet-5 itself. They added brushstrokes of their own, most significantly replacing the traditional wave shapes with Morph, Unison, and Flexi, the latter offering PWM, ring modulation and phase distortion. www.memorymoon.com ROBERSON PROPHANITY Another SynthEdit-based Prophet-5 emulation, the necessarily Windows-only, 32-bit Prophanity is getting a bit long in the tooth, but given the price it’s still worth…

Sequential Circuits may have established its legend with the fully programmable and polyphonic Prophet-5, but its biggest seller shared neither of those groundbreaking features. In 1981, the 47-key Pro-One seemed something of a throwback, being [gasp!] a monophonic synthesiser. It lacked the ability to save and recall patches – as if Sequential were intentionally ignoring their own history. And yet flying in the face of the fashions they themselves had forged didn’t harm the sales of their mighty mono one whit. In fact, during its short lifespan from 1981-1984, the Pro-One tallied up a whopping 10,000 sales – a respectable number in those days. Some of its appeal could be attributed to its price. At £470, it represented something of an obtainable goal for the emerging crop of cash-strapped New…

Ilpo Kärkkäinen Ilpo – aka Resound – is a veteran drum ’n’ bass producer who’s worked with many of the scene’s biggest labels. As well as being an in-demand game soundtrack artist and mixing and mastering engineer, he runs a popular production blog focused on productivity. After 20 years in the game, Ilpo still has a passion for pushing the boundaries of production. www.resoundsound.com Saturation is one of my most used and beloved mixing tools. The different ways it can be used are almost endless: adding punch or character to drums, enhancing or exciting vocals or instrument parts, taming or restoring dynamics, imparting an unified sound signature to different sources, creating special effects… and that’s just to begin with! A lot of the time I aim to keep things very…

Our promise We bring you honest, unbiased appraisals of the latest computer music products. Our experts apply the same stringent testing methods to all gear, no matter how much hype or expectation surrounds it. What the ratings mean 1-4 A seriously flawed product that should be avoided 5 This product’s problems outweigh its merits 6 A decent product that’s only held back by a few flaws 7 Solid. Well worth considering 8 Very good. A well-conceived and executed product 9 Excellent. First-rate and among the best you can buy 10 Exceptional. It just doesn’t get any better than this! See and hear the latest software in action in our ‘2 Minutes With…’ videos! Wherever you see the icon, head straight to your DVD, the Vault download area, or our YouTube…

“The GUI embodies the spirit and vibe of the Model D’s control panel, but with the layout redesigned” SCALING Click this button to choose between Small, Medium and Large GUI sizes DRIVE Boost the signal from the oscillators into the filter for an overdriven sound STANDARDISED OSCILLATOR All three oscillators can run all seven of the Moog’s waveforms, and include Coarse and Fine tune knobs MODULATION BUTTONS The Minimoog’s Oscillator and Filter Modulation switches are relocated here ENVELOPE RELEASE The Minimoog’s combined decay/ release control has been separated for greater flexibility FINE TUNING The Legend lets you adjust master tuning in cents as well as semitones REAR PANEL Click this button or the main logo to reveal the rear panel POLYPHONY Switch between Mono, Unison and Poly 4 modes The…

Clicking the ‘e’ button switches a module to Edit view, wherein the detailed controls behind the reduced set on the front panels (which are macros, essentially) are revealed. The Preamp and Post-Filter modules get graphically interactive parametric EQ. Drag the nodes left and right to adjust the centre/ corner frequencies of the bands (several of them not available from the front, including a comb filter), activate a background spectrum analyser or spectrogram, and load reference curves from Blue Cat’s FreqAnalystMulti. Clicking the + button enlarges the display. The edit mode controls for the Destruction module are even more involved. We don’t have space to get into them fully here, but suffice to say that the shape, smoothness, symmetry, rectification, bit depth and dynamic response of the waveshaper curve are fully…

Nimbus (AU, VST, VST3, AAX) is the latest stereo algorithmic reverb from Exponential Audio. It builds on (though doesn’t replace) PhoenixVerb ( 190, 9/10), pursuing the same remit of a natural, unobtrusive-sounding reverb. Nimbus looks very similar to PhoenixVerb, though it’s larger and more feature-rich. It’s also fully compatible with existing PV presets, and even includes its full preset bank. Much like PhoenixVerb, Nimbus includes subpages handling Attack stage, Early reflections and reverb Tail, and its adjustable parameters range from Reverb Type, Size, Time and Diffusion, to tail Damping, reverb Width, Low/Mid Balance and Crossover. Nevertheless, Nimbus is fundamentally more complex. First up, there’s one new algorithm, making four Reverb Types in total (Plate 1, Plate 2, Chamber and Hall). Next up, there are more adjustable parameters, the most obvious…

PANAGEMENT CM See how this issue’s plugin giveaway can transform your sounds with its psycho-stereo processing power, p52 Sample packs LOOPMASTERS 1GB PACK A gigabyte of premium-quality samples cribbed from 21 of their best recent collections, to keep you well stocked with the best in the biz, p106 KILLER KITS 500 newly-commissioned sounds to get you through this issue’s huge Killer Beats feature, p106 CM Plugins Our exclusive collection of free plugins for Mac and PC. See what’s available on pcm108…

Our fantastic software, samples, videos and tutorial files are now available to download! To get access to this content, go to vault.computermusic.co.uk on your PC or Mac’s web browser. You’ll be asked to register and answer a few simple questions to prove that you’ve got the mag. You’ll then be given access to our content! You can sign in any time to register new issues and download t dent more content. For more info, see our Vault FAQ: bit.ly/cmvaultfaq * Please note that the Producer Masterclass video is not available as a download via our Vault, but is made available via internet streaming. See page 45 for details.…

FAB STOCKING FILLER No Christmas would be complete without a box of Lego, and this year’s must-have set has to be The Beatles in their Lego Submarine. It comes with the requisite John, Paul, George and Ringo Minifigures. Surely a studio essential. ABLETON EXPORT They may not have any apps, but we like Ableton’s iOS strategy. Ableton Link is taking off fast, and now Ableton Live Set Export has been released as an SDK for developers, meaning that we should see more apps being able to export projects in a Live-compatible format. SMOOTH SURFACE We’re still not sure if it would have any massive benefits as a music-making machine, but we’ll admit that we’ve fallen for Microsoft’s Surface Studio a little bit. An iMacstyle computer that can be tilted and…

9. The sound of now Pop is forever changing thanks to trendsetting mainstream producers and the public’s ever-shifting tastes. The EDM stylings of Rihanna and Calvin Harris are still as huge as ever; elsewhere, Major Lazer and DJ Snake’s tropical electro-shuffle is ruling the airwaves and racking up multi-million YouTube view counts. The latter is essentially a mash-up of trap, EDM, and the lop-sided, stepping beats of dancehall, moombahton and reggaeton. The tempo is slower than most genres at 90-100bpm. Drum-wise, kicks are short, punchy and tuned fairly high to make way for deep bass. You can get creative with the snare, ranging from a choppy punch to unusual combos of percussion sounds that aren’t really snare drums at all. Check out our video to see and hear these techniques!…

Grime is a long-established genre of UK urban music that originated in the early 2000s, fusing elements of UK garage, jungle and dancehall to create a dark-edged, downtempo sound that’s heavily vocal driven. Prominent grime artists to check out, if you’re not clued up, include Skepta, Wiley, Giggs and Stormzy. Although grime is normally produced at a similar tempo to UK garage (around 135-140bpm), early tracks such as Wiley’s Igloo and Pulse X by Musical Mob are markedly different from the garage sound that went before, characterised by dry-sounding drum machine kick and snare hits alongside sparse percussion, weighty garage/DnB-style bass and lo-fi synth stabs. These, alongside the genre’s DIY ethic and production values of the era, gave grime its unique and gritty sound. A defining feature of a grime…

So which artists have influenced Jeroen when it comes to sound design? “Within drum and bass I like Photek and Source Direct – very technical, almost alien type of sounds. They’re unique. An old Photek tune could only have ever been made by Photek… there was nobody else whose sound was bordering on it, so that was a big influence on me. Noisia too, because when they send you a new tune it sounds slightly impossible, and you realise everything is possible! You can really push it further. Within techno, I think Blawan really opened eyes – he really came with a new thing; and my buddy Randomer is killing it at the moment. “My undisputed number one is Amon Tobin. I’ve always been into him since I was a…

Computer technology being what it is, no one should be surprised that, year on year, music software continues on its upward trajectory in terms of sound quality, interface design and innovation. Even so, it feels like 2016 has been a particularly good year for new releases, with more mindblowing virtual instruments, plugin effects and DAW updates (and MIDI controllers!) landing on our desktops over the past 12 months than we could ever find time to actually make music with! Over the next ten pages, we’ll take a nostalgic tour of what we consider to be the finest software (and MIDI controller!) to make it to market this year. Each of our seven main categories kicks off with an overall winner, which is followed by a trio of runners-up – these…

A classic feel-good tale, the history of Sequential Circuits and its main main Dave Smith is one of rags to riches, regretful roads and, finally, resurrection. Once upon a time, when the world was young and crawling with curious creatures adorned in wide ties and wider lapels, one man set out to give evolution a nudge. Before this singular fellow came along, forward-thinking thaumaturges made evocative if simple sounds by manipulating electronic voltages. This itself was impressive to the primitives of the age, compelling them most mightily to shuffle their feet in wild abandon across the shag-carpetted terrain. Yet those who made this music were, for the most part, limited to a monophonic voice and no means of documenting its character to be recalled to be used again. Enter Dave…

Before the Prophet-5, synthesisers were subject to amnesia – there was simply no way to store the state of every parameter. Manufacturers tried, though, with both Sequential and Oberheim offering up partial parameter storage. Yamaha’s solution was the quirkiest: their CS-60 and CS-80 synthesisers sported trap doors that concealed miniature versions of the front panel! Needless to say, none of these options were ideal, and musicians who wanted to dependably recall the same sound night after night were forced to deal with hardwired preset synths like ARP’s ProSoloist. Clearly a solution was needed, and as we’ve seen, Dave Smith had the answer in the Prophet-5. At last, a fully programmable synthesiser that sacrificed nothing. Well, almost nothing. One of the problems with a fully programmable synth is that its front…

The Prophet-5 (and even the Pro-One) was a tough act to follow. Looking at Sequential’s output during the 1980s, you might wonder if the company had even tried! Yet even as they churned out cheap, somewhat generic products like the MAX and Split-8, they never lost their innovative edge. Eventually, the company came back around to the idea of servicing the professional market and produced a superb sequencer/sampler/drum machine combo called the Studio 440, as well as the aforementioned Prophet samplers. And then there was the Prophet-VS. Released in 1988, it was the last synth produced by the MkI version of the company, and it was a humdinger! A digital/analogue hybrid, the Prophet-VS’ gimmick was allowing four digital waveforms to be blended together via a built-in joystick. Users could choose…

Ronan Macdonald Having previously served as Editor of drummer’s bible Rhythm as well as Computer Music, Ronan is clearly the right man for this particular gig. He’s been playing drums for over 30 years and making music with computers since the 90s. Latching on to this issue’s cover theme, here I’m going to show you how to put together a simple 140bpm old-school trap beat. Trap has come a long way since its origins as an offshoot of southern hip-hop. As well as finding itself integrated into EDM as an intrinsic element, it’s been fully hybridised with pop by various mainstream artists, and remains massively influential on hip-hop as a whole. And that, dear reader, is largely down to its uniquely languid, laid-back drum tracks. As you’ve already seen in…

“One oscillator could supply a bassline, while the next two blast out a lead, the next three a pad” V-SAW The unison section by any other name. Pile on up to seven detunable, spreadable unison voices EFFECTS Four insert effects racks, two auxiliary effects busses and a Master effects rack each hold up to eight of the 32 modules CENTRAL PANEL Access various editors, modulators, sequencers, the mixer and more OSCILLATOR SECTION Edit oscillator output – the main display shows the current waveform, wavetable wave or sample WAVETABLE/KEYBOARD VIEW Switch between a virtual keyboard and the wavetable of the selected oscillator ROUTE Define a signal path for each of the eight oscillators AMP SECTION Up to four amplifiers can be used per patch, each with its own envelope FILTER SECTION…

“Neutron comprises five main processing modules, each with its own wet/dry mix slider” NAME FIELD Each instance of Neutron can be renamed for ease of reference in the Masking Meter PROCESSING MODULES Neutron’s channel strip consists of multiband Compressor (x2), Exciter and Transient Shaper modules, and a 12-band EQ – drag to rearrange the signal flow MAIN CONTROL AREA The parameters and metering of the selected module are adjusted and viewed here TRACK ASSISTANT Press this innocuous looking button to have Neutron create a complete preset customised specifically to the input signal NEUTRINO MODE Enhance the source signal with one of a range of intelligent spectral shaping algorithms PRESETS Open the preset browser and access a ton of excellent categorised patches UNDO/REDO Open the Undo history and step backwards and…

Kush Audio’s visionary line of mixing and mastering effects put character and functional simplicity at the top of the agenda, so the recent announcement of their partnership with similarly individualistic hardware manufacturers A-Designs seems like a perfect marriage. ‘A-Designs Digital by Kush’, as the resulting line of plugins is known, will comprise 1:1 emulations of a range of A-Designs boxes, and the first one out of the gate takes on the revered HM2 Hammer EQ. Hammer time Hammer DSP (VST/AU/AAX, requires iLok2) is a stereo three-band EQ flanked by low- and high-cut filters, switchable between linked and independent left/right channel control. When loaded onto a mono channel, the Stereo mode button is blanked out. Each of the three bands enables up to 12dB of cut or boost to be applied…

Nimbus’s Warp page is designed to add some grit and lo-fi edge. First comes a compander, with adjustable Knee shape, Attack, Release and Limiter. The single Compression control makes it easy to shift from compression to expansion, and combined with the Attack and Release you can apply some pretty good dynamic effects. Next up, Overdrive delivers three flavours (Warm 1, Warm 2 and Crush), with an adjustable Crossover (45Hz to 4kHz) that sets the frequency below which audio passes non-effected. Each option is subtle rather than extreme, but they add richness to the overall effect. Finally, Word Size (Float to 12-bit) allows you to introduce a little of the converter noise you’d experience with older hardware units. Again, even at the 12-bit setting the effect isn’t extreme, but rather adds…