Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2020 i Future Music

WELCOME Making waves… We don’t just stick any old synth on the cover here at FM, and this issue’s cover star is something pretty special. Regular readers might recognise my barely-disguised love of ‘vintage’ digital synths, and Korg’s Wavestation is a particular favourite – a wonderfully oddball source of complex textures and evolving sounds. It remains one of the best ambient instruments out there, beloved by ravers, composers and soundtrack creators alike. Korg’s long-overdue follow-up, the Wavestate, is more than just a classic revival though; it cleverly updates the original’s engine bringing its sound design tools into the 21st century. Read my full review on p76 to find out why it’s so exciting... Si Truss, Editor simon.truss@futurenet.com…

Filter Sugar Bytes boot up their DrumComputer synthetic drum machine plugin Sugar Bytes have found their groove again and released DrumComputer, a new plugin that specialises in synthetic beats. You get eight individual sound engines, each of which has its own channel and can call on three distinct synthesis layers: Resonator, Wavetable and Resynth. There are numerous effects and modulation possibilities, too, along with intelligent randomisation options that can create individual sounds and complete kits for you. These sounds can be turned into patterns in the feature-packed 16-step/16-pattern sequencer, and there are modulation sequencers as well. When you’ve got a beat that you’re happy with, you can drag and drop it as MIDI, with all relevant pattern information being transported across. DrumComputer is also designed for live use. Sounds can…

Talking Shop Jonathan Bree © Ljubov Dzuzhynska “I’ll vocalise gibberish over the top until a certain word or sound gets a foothold” Jonathan Bree| New Zealander Jonathan Bree likes to take an unconventional approach to his music-making. Keeping his face hidden behind a mask, he lets his oddball pop music – typified by viral hit You’re So Cool – do the talking. As he explained when we caught up with him, he currently works mostly on the road, before finishing tracks off in a studio, and sending the results for remote mixing and mastering at London’s Abbey Road. When did you start making music? “I started trying to write songs more seriously around the age of 16. An old consumer level reel-to-reel two-track was my first purchase for venturing into…

Feature What one tip would you give artists trying to break into electronic music? Shall Ocin: “Make music with originality” “Try to make something new, with a special touch. Work hard and make a lot of music. A lot of the time you might not have a big expectation from something but it goes really well, but you’ll have a lot of releases where the expectation is really big and it doesn’t go as you thought. Try to be original and patient, as your time will come.” Arno Kammermeier, Booka Shade: “Work really hard” “Don’t take just the first idea for granted and then give up. It’s a long way and I think at the moment, although there are all these possibilities with social media and direct contact with the…

Feature Make the most out of SoundCloud SoundCloud remains a key tool for electronic musicians big and small, and offers a host of tools that can help rising producers build their profile. We spoke to Nick Tsirimokos, SoundCloud’s artist relations manager, to find out more about how artists can make the most out of it How hard is it, in the days of streaming, for artists to break through online? “I think there are so many creative tools at people’s fingertips these days and for some people that can see overwhelming but it’s actually a great thing as it has really cracked open a universe where you can sit in your bedroom, upload a track and instantly connect with people who feel the same way about music.” How do you…

Feature Get more gigs With Posthuman, Joshua Doherty has spent the best part of 20 years gigging and DJing, and he’s done the bulk of it completely DIY; finding and arranging bookings around the world without relying on an agency. He also promotes nights himself, including the award-winning I Love Acid series. We spoke to him to find out how he finds the right gigs, keeps things organised – and actually gets paid at the end of it You already have the tools you need “I think social media has opened the doors much more for people to manage their own stuff. All I use is a Gmail account with various labels in it and a calendar that I can then share with people, and folders you can put flyers…

YOUTUBE THE TRACK Leading producers go in-depth on the sounds, ideas and techniques behind their latest releases Jack Boston, The Place We head to Cardiff to watch the talented DnB producer break down the creation of his uplifting track, featuring vocalist Vanity Jay DON’T MISS: Jaded, Pancake ft. Ashnikko UK-based house and remix kings talk about their bass-heavy hit GRiZ, Mercy feat. Valentina US artist Grant Richard Kwiecinski – aka GRiZ – reveals his secrets Bensley, Hard Times Peter Bennett takes us through his sax-centric track featuring Emer Dineen Prospa, Intended Gosha Smith and Harvey Blumler take us into their production lair DON’T MISS: We’re back in LA for a chat with producer Benjamin Wynn, aka Deru Principleasure shows us the processes behind his debut album, I We take…

Why use channel strips when you can mix and match? So why would you use a channel strip plugin when you can just choose your own EQ and compression effects instead? After all, surely bespoke choices will always be more considered than using one plugin to cover all bases. Right? Yes and no. There is a reason why mixing consoles such as SSL’s E Series and the Neve 88RS remain coveted and have entered the music industry’s hall of fame and that’s because of their sound. Neve and SSL are among a handful of companies whose consoles have stood the test of time and, to see why, you’d need to look under the hood. Broadly speaking, the components chosen to make the channel strips of these mixing desks have been…

Three classic Balearic sound sources Acoustic instruments 1 While the eclectic nature of the movement means that it’s all but impossible to pinpoint exact sounds to give your tracks a Balearic edge, there are definitely key areas to look out for. Acoustic instruments form the basis of much of the rockier end of the Balearic spectrum, so that’s a common reference point even in more dancefloor-focused tracks. The reality is that recording live guitars, pianos and wind instruments is less practical for many electronic producers than samples. Don’t be ashamed to turn to a decent sampler library like those offered by NI alongside their superb Kontakt plugin. They sound almost indistinguishable from the ‘real’ instruments and, besides, what you do with them is more important. Live percussion 2 Much of…

Tutorial Pick your favourite modules and let’s get controlling! We suggest having a range of sound sources, manipulators and modulators to patch into… 01 > With the FSR-4, we can control the response and voltage range of force sensing in the circuit. Patch into what you’d like to control and apply pressure to the pad while adjusting the scale knob to tune in the response and control to your taste. 02 > The FSR-4 can also derive a gate from the force-sensing resistor pad on the front panel. Apply pressure and watch the LED on the panel. You can adjust the threshold knob to give you a gate output depending on how much pressure you apply. 03 > We can play all four pads on the FSR-4 at one time,…

Reviews Waldorf STVC £695 Waldorf’s latest keyboard combines a digital string machine and synth with a vocoder, effects and keyboard with aftertouch. Dan ‘JD73’ Goldman explores… Waldorf produce a range of fantastic synths. Perhaps because they don’t market aggressively, their products often bubble away quietly in the background but speak to most people about their synths including the Blofeld, Pulse 2 and flagship Quantum and you’ll hear great things. With a focus on elegant interface design and high quality pots and knobs (even on cheaper products), Waldorf machines have always oozed class. Their products are made in the EU too. A few years back, Waldorf were one of the first companies to announce a dedicated string-machine emulation (digital): the Streichfett. This had its own unique voice that harked back nicely…

SOUNDS & SAMPLES Toontrack Superior Drummer – Decades SDX €159 Toontrack’s Superior Drummer is a highly-regarded drum playback and production tool. Usable standalone or as a plugin, and now on version 3, it comes with a huge content library (235GB) that includes hundreds of electronic sounds alongside 14 drum kit configurations engineered by the legendary George Massenburg. As good as the core content is, for this review we’ll be looking at the new Decades expansion library for SD3. Currently there are more than 15 expansion packs available for Superior Drummer, but Decades is a particularly special case given that it was recorded at Capitol Studios by the Grammy-winning studio legend, Al Schmitt. The Capitol Records building in Hollywood is instantly recognisable, but it’s Studio B that has often been favoured…

GEAR GUIDE AFFORDABLE SYNTHS Roland JU-06A $399 Full Review: FM349 The JU-06 was already up with the best Boutiques, and this update is a winner all-round. A must-try source of classic sounds. Korg Wavestate £699 Full Review: FM353 The price might be pushing what we’d usually call ‘affordable’ but with 64 stereo voices and a multi-timbral sound engine you get a lot for your money here. And it sounds great too! Novation Circuit £250 Review: FM299 A broad range of sounds with a fluid and intuitive workflow all adds up to make Circuit a winner. Its sequencer is absolutely killer too. Arturia MicroFreak £279 Review: FM345 If you’re looking to go beyond regular analogue synths and expand your sonic palette with an affordable creative tool, MicroFreak should be top of…

FL Studio 20.6 update released Image-Line have dropped FL Studio 20.6, a free update for all users. Feature updates include a new pedal-style distortion known as Distructor, and improved audio time warping in the NewTime editor. CV support has been added in the form of the Fruity Voltage Controller, making FL Studio more suitable for use with vintage analogue gear. Other enhancements include split playlist track rendering, SoundCloud export and a Euclidean rhythm generator. Internal MIDI recording, meanwhile, can be activated simply by right-clicking and choosing the Burn to MIDI option. As with all updates, version 20.6 is free for all existing FL Studio users.…

Feature What’s the worst example of DJ etiquette you’ve witnessed? Sophia Saze: “I really like opening sets because I started out that way, and to this day it’s my favourite set. And so I’ve experienced lots of bigger DJs who I had to learn etiquette from. The worst one being once when I was opening for an artist and the passover was aggressive – he immediately shut my music off. That could be someone’s day one as a DJ. It doesn’t create a good learning process for the next DJ. I still look back on it and I’m shocked that people do things like that. That etiquette and flow throughout the night is really important between artists.” Victor Ruiz: “Basically DJs mistreating people. Thinking they’re better than others, stage managers…

Working with a hardware front end Even if owning a classic hardware console appeals to you, there are good reasons why most of us can keep a lid on that fantasy. Cost, for one. Space, for another. But also, the way most of us work these days, means we simply don’t need the channel count provided. It’s not uncommon for entire productions to be carried out with overdubs, so the same input channel on your interface can record one sound after another, one at a time. So no surprise that producers increasingly invest in one great quality mic and one single-channel hardware channel strip to record through. Units like the Avalon Design VT-737 SP, Neve 8801 and Universal Audio 6176 are but three contenders.…

Interview Claro Intelecto The long-overdue career retrospective In Vitro showcases the myriad talents of electronic shapeshifter Claro Intelecto, aka Mancunian producer Mark Stewart. Hamish Mackintosh finds out more... Longevity isn’t a given in any walk of life, but it is most certainly a rare bird in the world of dance music. In Vitro is the sublime new compilation of Mark Stewart’s Detroit-leaning techno and electronica journeys, from the embryonic beats and pulses he released on cult label Ai Records way back in 2002, through the glorious Warehouse Sessions series of 12” cuts, the Peace of Mind EP and many choice tracks for Manchester’s Modern Love label. They give you a sense of why Mark Stewart, now happily homed with Delsin Records, is held in such high regard in the techno…

REVIEWS Korg Wavestate £699 The Wavestation is reborn in a revamped package. Si Truss asks if this is more than just a trip down memory lane… Born out of the ashes of Sequential and their Prophet VS vector synth, the original Korg Wavestation was one of the defining instruments of the early ’90s. At a time when sample-based synthesis was coming of age, the Wavestation stood out primarily for the weirdness of its source material – where rivals were trying their hardest to recreate the sound of classic organs or nylon-string guitars, the Wavestation layered up its more conventional instruments with oddball percussive sounds and ambient textures for a far more unique sound palette. Key to the Wavestation’s character were two elements: the vector synthesis inherited from Sequential, which allowed…

Reviews Dreadbox Hypnosis €439 An analogue effects powerhouse with an overtly retro design. Si Truss asks if Hypnosis is more than just an ’80s throwback Greece’s Dreadbox are known for their desktop synths, having focused lately on releasing multiple iterations of their well-regarded NYX, Erebus and Hades instruments. They also have a great back-catalogue of effects though, including numerous stompbox and Eurorack processors, as well as the onboard effects on their synths. Hypnosis is their meatiest effect so far though: a stereo analogue multi-effect combining a chorus/ flanger, delay and spring reverb. The unit itself lives in a metal desktop box adorned with a retro interface like something out of an ’80s arcade, leaving little doubt about the era it aims to replicate. A panel to the top left of…

ROUND-UP Creative samplers No Kontakt or EXS-24 here – these are the lighter-weight workstations for old-school or thoroughly creative sampling Togu Audio Line TAL-Sampler £47 Vintage sampling is the order of the day here. Sure, you’ve got four layers of sample-loading, three envelopes, three LFOs, and EQ, delay and reverb units on output, but the point behind TAL-Sampler is to emulate the sound of early sampling tech – E-mu, Akai and so on – with fine-tuning of properties like jitter, sample rate, converter quality and more. Classic digital machines are emulated, right down to the DACs with their idiosyncracies in tow. What you also get are some classic ’80s/’90s sampled presets, with a Factory collection and an additional collection from Hollow Sun, giving you not just an incredibly competent tool…

FM ADVICE Poly aftertouch keyboards? While Behringer are working on one, ASM’s Hydrasynth and the new Expressive E Osmose look like the only current commercially available synths with poly AT available from their own keybeds. The CME Xkey 37 LE MIDI controller has poly aftertouch (and can transmit this to any device that receives it), or Roger Linn’s Linnstrument. Will I make better music if I limit the amount of gear I use? With producer Alan Braxe recently saying that a slimmed-down hardware setup is what first inspired him to start releasing music again (see FM352), and many other artists leaving their packed plugin folders behind and going out of the box completely – Squarepusher says he returned to his ’90s hardware setup for new album Be Up A Hello…

Gear Guide AUDIO INTERFACES Universal Audio Apollo x6 £1,800 Full Review: FM340 The new series is, sonically, now a match for any rival interfaces. If you’re tempted by the UAD ecosystem, this is highly recommended. Antelope Audio Discrete 8 £1,279 Full Review: FM351 An impressive platform: audio conversion is precise and the I/O configuration is deep. The future looks bright for Discrete 8. Apogee Element 46 £859 Review: FM318 If you’re happy with your studio interface being controlled via software, Apogee’s Element range offers great quality and features. Audient iD4 £120 Review: FM312 This compact interface delivers audio quality and stripped-back functionality for a thoroughly reasonable price. A great budget interface. Arturia AudioFuse £519 Review: FM321 A nicely designed, highly configurable interface ready to have almost any sound source thrown…

Gear Guide SOFTSYNTHS Kilohearts Phase Plant from €169 Full Review: FM350 Phase Plant’s modular architecture is an incredible resource for conjuring real and otherworldly sounds. A powerful, flexible synth in every way! Native Instruments Massive X £179 Full Review: FM348 A long time in the making, NI’s follow-up to the most successful softsynth of all time doesn’t disappoint. There are still some rough edges at launch, but it sounds exceptional. Arturia Pigments $199 Review: FM342 With a multipart synth engine, sequencer and lots of creative tools, there’s a lot going on in this latest synth powerhouse. Xfer Records Serum $189 This flexible, powerful wavetable synth has quickly risen through the ranks to knock Massive and Sylenth off the top of the ‘synth every producer must own’ list. Audiaire Zone £99…

MONITORS (UNDER £500) KRK Rokit 7 G4 £220 each Full Review: FM348 | KRK’s Rokit monitors look and sound the best yet, and the RP7 represents an excellent balance of power, footprint and price. M-Audio BX5 D3 £100 Review FM321 The D3s are the best looking and best sounding BX5s ever. These diminutive monitors remain one of the best budget designs you can buy. Eve Audio SC203 £389 Review FM306 These monitors offer quality transient response with a nicely balanced mid range. Bass is impressive too, and there’s enough control to adapt to most studio spaces. Genelec 8010A £199 each Review: FM306 With a deceptively powerful low end and plenty of power, these Genelecs punch well above their weight. Sound quality is excellent too. Mackie MR524 £139 each Review: FM328…

FILTER Arturia Pigments gets an upgrade A new sample engine, Buchla-inspired filter and overhauled sequencer make v2 of the French brand’s synth plugin more powerful than ever A dual-engine, dual-filter synth plugin with a bountiful supply of effects and a built-in sequencer, Arturia’s Pigments has been a big hit. Now, a year after its launch, we have version 2, which promises to add even greater depth and functionality. One of the big headlines is the new sample engine. Hundreds of samples come supplied, and you can also import your own. These can be loaded into six slots, and you have six playback modes, and there’s further fun to be had when you start using Pigments’ highly-regarded modulation features. There’s now a granular mode, too: samples can become granular synth patches…

Filter Roland’s “ultimate sound module”, the XV-5080, is now available in the Roland Cloud Released in 2000, Roland’s XV-5080 was billed as the company’s “ultimate sound module,” with good reason. Building on the success of the earlier JV-1080, this rack-based multitimbral beauty offered a massive stash of PCM-based sounds, modulation features aplenty and a slew of effects, and was versatile enough to appeal to a range of producers. Now the XV-5080 has returned as a Roland Cloud plugin, meaning that a new generation can enjoy its wide-ranging charms. It contains more than 900 presets, all searchable by category, and a drop-down editor for in-depth parameter editing. The XV-5080 is one of a growing number of Roland classics to head onto the company’s Cloud platform. It joins the likes of the…

Feature Release your music on vinyl Joshua Doherty is the cofounder of UK outfit Posthuman. He also runs two successful DIY vinyl labels: Balkan Vinyl and I Love Acid. We sat down with him to find out how he does it... How much of a challenge is it releasing music on vinyl these days? “It’s a lot easier than it was ten years ago. There are a lot more pressing plants. It’s possibly a little more expensive now, weirdly even though there’s more competition in terms of options for getting stuff pressed. It’s more expensive because the cost of postage has risen dramatically and the cost of manufacturing the actual material, but it’s certainly easier to do. “It used to be a very mysterious thing. You would send your masters…

Feature Get your demos heard As the co-founder of the influential UK label Houndstooth and creator of the mix series Electronic Explorations, Rob Booth is a man with an ear for forward-thinking dance music. We sought his advice on how to get your demos to the right people, and make sure they get noticed Aside from the music itself, what can upcoming producers and DJs do to help cut through the noise? “Just to be themselves and not be someone they clearly are not. I receive a lot of emails where the music is treated second to their social media stats, all perfect pristine Instagram shots, I have no interest for that. Having a Bandcamp/ SoundCloud page is vital. It’s quite straightforward making a podcast these days, high quality microphones…

EQ – pre or post Compression? Most channel strip plugins let you choose whether EQ will operate pre- or post- the compression stage. In other words, do you want to shape tone first and then compress your signal? Or do you want to get dynamics under control first and, having done so, shape tone? The ‘traditional’ way is to shape tone first and then think about dynamics but rules are made to be broken and, of course, the existence of the Pre-Dynamics button suggests that either approach is legitimate. Depending on the settings you choose, there may be an almost imperceptible difference in sound between these two options but, generally speaking, the more ‘extreme’ your tone and dynamics choices, the more ‘work’ each module is doing and, therefore, the more…

RETROSPECTIVE Balearic beat The eclectic sound of early ’80s Ibiza casts a long shadow, continuing to inspire producers and DJs to this day © PYMCA/Universal Images Group via Getty Images What links avant-garde synthpop pioneers Art Of Noise, Italo house maestros Sueño Latino and gravel-voiced ’80s soft rocker Chris Rea? They all fall under the broad and extremely loosely defined umbrella of Balearic beat – or simply Balearic. As the name suggests, the sound was born on the Balearic island of Ibiza in the mid-’80s, widely credited to Argentinian-born Alfredo Fiorito, known simply as DJ Alfredo. In his residency at outdoor club Amnesia, Alfredo’s eclectic mix of disco, pop, rock and early house music won him a loyal following. While other clubs on the island were slowly but surely growing…

RANDOMISE IT! Despite being easier to get your head around than the original Wavestation, programming sounds for the Wavestate can be time-consuming. The addition of a parameter randomisation tool is handy, giving users an instant method of generating unique sounds. This is done simply by hitting the dice icon on the front panel and pressing enter. The results are truly random, so you’re as likely to create an awful result as an inspiring one, but since the process is so quick, it can be lots of fun rapidly randomising patches until you land on something that sounds good enough as a starting point for manual refinement. You can dictate what, and by how much, parameters are randomised too. This is handy, as it lets you set the boundaries of what…

EFFECTS AND LINE INPUT Alongside the chorus/ensemble, the main global effects really sound fantastic and can transform the sounds. On offer are two main effects – a beautiful reverb with size and wet/ dry mix and a lovely vintage-sounding phaser with rate and depth available via the two control knobs. The third effect is an LFO called Animate which is used to modulate (animate) the string registration knob and this can either be subtle or deep depending where you set the depth and rate knobs. What’s great is that you can run all the effects simultaneously for some nicely complex modulated and ambient textures. The one caveat is that you can’t add reverb to just the synth and not the strings (perhaps an update idea?). Further to this, the line…

Reviews Polyend Poly 2, Preset & Anywhere from £132 Phil Wise examines this bumper selection of Eurorack modules from Polish firm, Polyend Announced at Superbooth earlier this year, Polish brand Polyend have unleashed a trio of modules each of which aims to add modern convenience and flexibility to your Eurorack system. Poly 2 The Poly 2 is the updated version of Polyend’s MIDI to CV converter. This new version features a lot of configuration options that were lacking from the original Poly. With four CV & gate pairs as standard, the remaining 12 outputs are configurable. Nine to 16 are also factory-calibrated so the number of CV and Gate pairs can be increased to eight, leaving you four CV outs that can be linked to CCs, velocity, MIDI clock or…

FM-EP making with Prologue I’d love to know how to make a classic DX7-esque electric piano with my Korg Prologue 16? Korg’s Prologue has a real ace up its sleeve with its eminently upgradable ‘Multi-Engine’: a polyphonic digital engine that can make fresh sounds using its standard (and upgradable osc) engine. Classic FM tones are easily achievable on the Prologue without the programming headaches found with older FM synths. Just select the multi-engine, choose VPM mode, turn a few dials and get something authentic. Plus you can run your FM-EP through the Prologue’s lovely analogue filter and excellent onboard effects… Choose an initial patch. Turn off the VCOs (we’ll just rely on the digital multi-engine here). Select VPM mode (Korg’s FM engine) and then select the Sin3 wave type which…

Gear Guide HIGH-END SYNTHS Novation Summit £1,899 Full Review: FM350 Though the Peak is still great, Summit is even greater. A powerhouse polysynth, perfect for classic tone emulation as well as next-level, out-there sound design. Waldorf Quantum £3,500 Full Review: FM336 A stunning piece of hybrid synth design – setting a new benchmark for features, interface and sonics. It’s expensive, but a great investment that you’ll find inspiring for many years. Korg Prologue from £1,299 Review: FM332 Despite a few surprising omissions, this sounds inspiring. A unique character, plus the analogue voices layered with VPM sounds and effects sound magical! Sequential Prophet X £3,359 Review: FM336 The Prophet X is a fresh and inspiring hybrid synth that encourages you to explore sound making in new ways. The results sound unique…

Gear Guide MONITORS (OVER £500) Focal Shape 65 £600 each Full Review: FM328 | Delivering delicious frequency balance, terrific transient detail and a crystal-clear stereo image, the Shape 65s are a worthy upgrade. MunroSonic Egg 100 £1,299 Full Review: FM295 Stunning visually and sonically, the Egg 100 package isn’t cheap, but it sets the bar for compact nearfields. Adam S2V £3,072 per pair Full Review: FM331 Top quality components and sonics in a compact near field. It’s dear, but for critical monitoring in small/medium sized rooms it’s a fine choice. HEDD Audio Type 20 £1499 each Review: FM329 Outperforming monitor speakers at twice the price; a worthy investment for the serious producer/mixing/mastering engineer. Genelec M Series £579 Review: FM272 A great new design that makes Genelecs more affordable without compromising…

Gear Guide DRUM MACHINES & SAMPLERS Elektron Model: Samples £410 Full Review: FM346 Model:Samples is immediate and affordable, but still retains much of Elektron’s deep and creative sequencing tools. If you can cope without the more advanced tools, this is a good buy. Elektron Digitakt £659 Review: FM320 With deep sequencing and a powerful sound engine, Digitakt is the ‘affordable’ Elektron groovebox we’ve been dreaming of. Elektron Analog RYTM £1,499 Review: FM331 Though the MK1 remains a great box, there are plenty of reasons to upgrade to the MKII – user sampling, individual outs, and the QPER feature are all indispensable additions. IK Multimedia UNO Drum €305 Review: FM347 There’s a lot to like about the UNO Drum’s punchy sound and flexible feature set, although it is held back a…