Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2021 i Future Music

WELCOME Chance encounter The idea of using chance, probability and generative systems in music making is nothing new, but tools to accomplish these things have certainly become more common of late. Just look at some recent gear highlights – Novation Launchpad Pro, Arturia KeyStep Pro, Elektron Model Cycles, Korg opsix and Wavestate all come equipped with some kind of randomiser or probability-driven feature. It seems these tools that have long been popular in the modular realm are making their way into mainstream music gear. But why should we care? As we dig into in this issue’s cover feature, far from just being a lazy way to auto-generate sounds, adding a bit of chance and unpredictably to your music making can be a great way to inspire creativity, add variation and…

The Future Of Music Klevgrand’s Pipa is an expressive singing synth that offers more than words Pipa is a new ‘expressive’ vocal synth plugin from Klevgrand that, although based on the human voice, isn’t designed to emulate all aspects of it. This sounds like another way of saying that you shouldn’t expect maximum authenticity; what you are promised is “an organic and musical sound” and the option to tweak formants and dynamics. Pipa marries wavetable and granulating synthesis – it contains thousands of wavetables extracted from real vocal samples. You can morph continuously between formants, dynamics and pitch – each parameter has its own envelope and LFO – and both male and female voices are included. Effects include room simulation and reverb. Pipa is available for PC and Mac in…

In the studio with Amon Tobin “My studio was in old Montreal, as I was living there. We travelled a fair bit – a bat cave in Texas. In and around Montreal. Down to San Francisco to record the Kronos Quartet. “Everything was recorded onto 1/4” tape. We marched around with this giant Nagra [IV-S] reel-to-reel machine. The mics were Earthworks. I used them as I didn’t want any colouration or personality in the recordings. They’re also very robust, and had very little handling noise. “Then I went straight from tape into an A-to-D convertor. Then into Cubase with all the standard plugins – there was nothing really special there. I wasn’t really synthesising sounds – I was working strictly with audio. It wasn’t to do with processing, as it…

Randomly modulated effects in Ableton Live Adding a touch of unpredictability to static effects treatments can be a great way to maintain listener interest. Here’s how it can be done using LFOs 01 > Our Live project has two elements – an electro-style beat created in a Drum Rack, and a separate Simpler track triggering a 909 clap on the fourth beat of every bar. To liven things up, let’s apply a randomly modulated effects treatment to the clap. 02 > Let’s start with a delay. We add Live’s stock delay after the clap. We set timing to an unsynced, loose triplet feel with feedback and dry/wet around 30%. Now to modulate! We add Live’s LFO before the delay and route it to modulate delay time with a Random waveshape.…

A GUIDE TO GENERATIVE PATCHING Explore the mysterious sonic landscape of generative music with Rob Redman Generative music means many things to many people, which makes it both exciting to explore, while also making it harder to cover a lot of ground in the limited space that we have here. That said, we’ll try to make this less about genre and more about exploring the tools and techniques you can use to set up your own generative patches. Before any of that though, let’s take a look at what generative music is. There are some people out there, including some musicians, who look down on it as being somehow inhuman and therefore not really musical. We’d argue against that however, as what makes it musical is the very human…

DJOKO The Track Making sexy synth edits in Ableton Live Johannes gets his beats and bass grooving, then cuts up and processes synth samples 01 > Johannes auditions samples until he finds something with a texture he finds appealing, and settles on a synth loop. He plays just the first note of this back as a one-shot, jamming a simple lick to accompany the bassline, then fine-tuning the sample start point to make it tight. 02 > To avoid clicks at the start of the sample Johannes adds a little touch of attack on the amplitude envelope, and uses Simpler’s Spread parameter to give it more width. He then adds Live’s Delay effect, which he sets to a 2/16 note setting to create a groovy interplay with the synth lick.…

Your pleas have finally been answered: Live now has comping! Live 11 introduces Take Folders and Comping into the Ableton workflow, and it couldn’t be easier to start using right away Many have been requesting it for years and Live 11 finally has it – track comping. To use comping on an audio track, simply arm it, loop a section of your track, and then record as many takes as you’d like. Take folders will be recorded automatically, which can be seen by right-clicking on the track header and selecting ‘Show Take Lanes’. In order to choose which lane is heard, you can either select a Lane in full with the small Speaker buttons on the Lane headers, or you can select the Draw Tool by Pressing B and then…

Ableton Live 11 Live 11, now with probability Live 11 takes a huge step forward with its new MIDI probability and velocity probability features, bringing Elektron-like functionality to the Ableton world. These two features are going to be amongst the most talked about improvements of Live 11 and for good reason – both add a quick way to add the inherent subtle randomisation of probability into static MIDI programming, easing the burden on the producer to create tracks with preprogrammed variations and fills. Adding probability is as easy as opening the Probability editor and then selecting which notes you’d like to edit. Dragging vertically down reduces the chance of that note being played. It’s also now possible to introduce a range of velocities for each note. Do this by going…

Interview Luke Abbott Norfolk’s premier electronic explorer, Luke Abbott takes a sabbatical from his Szun Waves trio to offer up the rich, filmic textures of new album, Translate. Hamish Mackintosh catches up with Luke and gets lost in Translation © Laura Lewis Luke Abbott has a wealth of electronic experience in various guises be it his Earlham Mystics alias (with remixes for the likes of Jon Hopkins, Todd Terje and Nils Frahm), the electronic-jazz explorations of trio Szun Waves or as himself on brilliant new solo album Translate. Engineered by long-time friend, collaborator and Border Community label boss, James Holden, Translate was recorded in three-day bursts at Holden’s spacious modular-laden west London recording complex, Sacred Walls. It’s an immersive and rewarding electronic journey through the musical impulses of a musician/…

Get creative with Ableton Live Generate new musical ideas in Ableton Live PROBLEM: How can I create a musical ‘riff’ using MIDI in Live? “The riff by its very nature is repetitive so you get it again and again, you get it reinforced and the rest of the song is built around it like the riff was the skeleton of the song.”Brian May, Queen A lyrical phrase that is repeated and summarises what a song is about is called a ‘hook’. In terms of the music itself, the series of notes, chord patterns or musical phrases that are repeated is often called a ‘riff’. There is an instinctive aspect in riff creation that comes perhaps more easily to guitar and bass players… but what if you don’t play an instrument?…

Tailoring a patch with randomisation using Korg’s opsix Randomising synth parameters is a quick way to create new sounds, but controlling the process can make the results far more usable... Korg’s recent opsix and Wavestate instruments are each excellent digital synths in their own right, but one of the most fun tools included across both is the customisable randomisation engine. This is a tool that can be used to fully randomise every element of the instrument’s sound engine and sequencer. While this can be fun and occasionally inspiring, given the complex nature of both synths a full roll of the dice rarely produces usable results. Fortunately, the tools allow users to target randomisation at select elements of each instrument, or constrain it within pre-defined ranges. Although we’re using Korg’s synths…

POWER TIP Cable splitting It might be obvious but using stackable cables, or splitters, allows you to take one output and send it to multiple destinations – great for syncing modulations. Less good for accurate pitch though. The essential drone 1 The start of a very basic drone begins with the sound source. We really like the Erica Synths black VCO 2, which sounds fantastic. We use the sine, saw and PWM outputs together, with a couple of free running LFOs from Ochd modulating the waveshape and pulse width. 2 These signals are sent to a quad VCA, with the PWM output passing through a modulated filter on the way for added animation, also controlled by an LFO. The filter is set to low pass, with the cutoff CV control…

Ableton Live 11 Getting to grips with Pitchloop89 This Max For Live pitch and glitch machine, inspired by a rare hardware unit, was developed with Ableton co-founder Robert Henke 01 Amongst the totally new devices in Live 11 is a new Max for Live device called Pitchloop89, which uses a pitch and loop engine to transform incoming audio into something previously unrecognisable. For this walkthrough, we’ve loaded Pitchloop89 onto a MIDI track with a Basic Wurli preset loaded. 02 Pitchloop89 has separate controls for the Left and Right channels, though it’s possible to link the two together. To the far left of the plugin interface is the Bandwidth selection; changing the Bandwidth will vary the total delay time available and create unique harmonic artifacts. 03 Looping the audio using the…

RETROSPECTIVE Dub A colossus of bassweight, dub is the reggae offshoot that inspired genres from hip-hop to jungle © Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Dub is a turning point in music history. Above all else it’s the moment that reggae got twisted and turned into new directions, but it’s also a cultural shift in countless ways. Besides the focus on production, studio technology and the invention of a basic form of remix, dub’s sound system focus helped to define the bass-heavy sound of modern club culture and may also have played a role in the evolution of rap music thanks to the involvement of the somewhat confusingly named ‘deejay’, the Jamaican term for a host who would perform on the mic, singing and accompanying the music with ‘toasting’,…

SEEING IS BELIEVING Cubase 11 now includes SpectraLayers One, a trimmed-down version of Steinberg’s spectrogram-based audio editor. This concept will be familiar to anyone who has come across iZotope’s RX software, and here is integrated into the DAW workflow as an ARA2 plugin (essentially a fully-integrated specialist edit window). Both for sound design and corrective purposes, this is a powerful tool, though it is frustrating that default keyboard shortcuts (and broader GUI) are entirely different to those of Cubase, so navigation can be frustrating when you move between windows. Another visually-led addition is the SuperVision plugin, a highly-customisable audio analyser, with 18 modules split across six sub-categories covering things like level and loudness, the spectral and spatial domains, phase and waveform analysis. This is a powerful tool for improving and…

TESTBENCH Native Instruments Noire A collaboration between Galaxy Instruments, Native Instruments and Nils Frahm, Noire is a recreation of Nils’ nine-foot Yamaha CFX concert grand piano. This Kontakt instrument comes both as unfelted or the felted version more in keeping with Nils’ tastes – the piano was chosen by Frahm, and exacting modifications were made to it. Except for the high-quality rendering of Nils’ CFX sound, one of the most special things about Noire is its Particles Engine. This tab generates aleatoric phrases and rhythms that match your playing, adding extra layers to the sound, which add another dimension, with brushed and felted tones accompanying even the ‘Pure’ Noire patch. Two shades of Noire Once you’ve got Noire installed and loaded it into Kontakt, you’ve got two instrument options: Noire…

SOUNDS & SAMPLES Native Instruments – Butch Vig Drums £59 With a string of iconic albums under his belt, Butch Vig needs little introduction when it comes to production chops, but he is particularly known for his approach to exploring and creating contemporary rock and hybrid electronic drum tones. On the simply-named ‘Butch Vig Drums’ for Native Instruments’ Kontakt you’ll find a distillation of these in the 21 kits, each made up of 16 one-shot samples. Each kit collection comes with 16 drum patterns and pre-configured effects, and the grooves can be dragged into your DAW as a MIDI pattern for further tweaking. Hits are arranged in a colour-coded 4x4 drum grid optimised for playback on MPC-style drum pads, and editing of each, whilst relatively basic, is clear and effective.…

FILTER Arturia’s latest V Collection brings more analogue and digital classics to the party A Juno, Emulator and vintage Vocoder are the latest additions to the French brand’s plugin bundle Arturia have released V Collection 8, their latest bundle of classic software synths and keyboards. This update adds a trio of brand-new instruments – Jun-6 V, Emulator II V and Vocoder V – as well as the recently-released OB-Xa V (which we’ve already reviewed, and loved!). There are updates for several existing instruments, too. The Jupiter-8-inspired Jup-8 V has now reached version 4, which brings with it a new sound and modulation engine. The Stage-73 V2 equips this Rhodes emulation with a redesigned physical modelling engine that promises greater levels of authenticity and variety. Finally, Analog Lab V, which brings…

CLASSIC ALBUM Amon Tobin Foley Room Ninja Tune, 2007 Words by Roy Spencer © Paul Labonte Whoopy-frickin-do! You downloaded a sample pack. Hardly sweated over getting that synth line though, mate… Spare a thought for Amon Tobin, in the back of a cab, on the way to the studio, to record a taped-up bowl of agitated wasps [“It was hot to the touch. They were furious!”] This is Foley Room – an album with pissed off insects providing the sounds. As well as the growls of an intimately miked lion, the clunk-clicks of a CD pressing plant, and the whirring turns of a monstrous outdoor satellite dish, to name but a few more. “I just wanted to treat all sounds as being musical, whether or not they came from an…

Ordered Chaos Probability variations with Bitwig Studio’s The Grid Bitwig’s flagship modular instrument features a host of chance, random and logic-based tools, which can be combined to generate fresh ideas 01 > To start we’ve created a super simple synth with Bitwig’s Poly Grid. Its Triangle oscillator is triggered via a sequencer to play a repeated pattern of a single note – F#3. Let’s add a second synth element to our Grid to create randomised variations. 02 > We duplicate our Triangle oscillator and amp ADSR, and route everything to a mixer before the output. From the Data devices, we add a Probabilities sequencer. We turn off its internal phase, sync it to the Transport LFO, and send its trigger out to the new Triangle oscillator and ADSR. 03 >…

FOUR MORE AGENTS OF CHAOS… 1 Newfangled Audio Pendulate Pendulate is a free monosynth plugin. It’s an eccentric virtual synth that takes some inspiration from Don Buchla’s West Coast modular designs, including Low Pass Gates and a wavefolder. Its most interesting feature, however, is the Chaotic Oscillator, which is a sound generator based around a dual-pendulum design, which can add unpredictability and instability to the oscillator waveform itself. At higher levels, this results in a distortion-like effect that is similar, although tonally different, to wavefolding of audio-rate filter modulation. For a more complex take on the same idea try Pendulate’s paid-for sibling Generate, which adds polyphony and extra Chaos modes for the oscillators. 2 Audiomodern Riffer There are countless MIDI sequencer plugins that include probability or chance functionality. In fact,…

A CHOICE SELECTION OF MODULAR GOODNESS FOR GENERATIVE MUSIC 1 An envelope generator is key to using the other tools in your arsenal, as it helps shape the signals passing between them. We love the Roland 540 as it has two envelopes and an LFO with various waveshapes, external or manual trigger and sliders for the ADSR, which are way better than rotary controls for this use. 2 Pamela’s New Workout is a fantastic basis for any modular setup, with options for generating clock, LFO, Euclidean rhythms and even sequencing, over eight channels and it can easily be synced to other hardware with the Pexp expander. 3 Marbles by Mutable Instruments is a solid foundation for many generative patches, as it outputs both pitch and triggers, with a wide range…

Ableton Live 11 Use new MIDI probability for varied beats It’s never been easier to add a bit of variation to your patterns now that Live 11 has Probability 01 > For this walkthrough we’re going to use Ableton Live 11’s new MIDI probability feature to turn a stale-feeling techno beat into one that feels human and alive. Load up Ableton’s 909 drum kit and program a pattern that is going to be a familiar starting point for a techno track. 02 > We have placed kick hits on every downbeat, closed cymbal hits on every offbeat and snare hits on the two and four. To give it a bit of swing we’ve added an offbeat snare head at the end of four. 03 > Currently the probability for all…

In The Studio With A Winged Victory for the Sullen A Winged Victory for the Sullen comprises Stars of the Lid founder Adam Wiltzie and film composer Dustin O’Halloran. Danny Turner speaks to Wiltzie about the duo’s latest theatre production score, Invisible Cities When Adam Wiltzie put the skids on ambient band Stars of the Lid back in 2007, fresh inspiration arrived almost immediately following a chance backstage meeting with prolific Emmy Award-winning composer Dustin O’Halloran. Combining Wiltzie’s ambient guitar drones and O’Halloran’s sparse piano, the duo recorded their eponymous debut album in a variety of large acoustic spaces in studios across Europe. The duo then took their sound into a more electronic-oriented direction under the guidance of Wiltzie’s long-time sound engineer Francesco Donadello, releasing further ambient albums Atomos (2013)…

Dub Three dub essentials 1 Tape echo Echoes are essential to the dub sound, and there are plenty of options to choose from. Tape echoes are a classic sound, giving an organic, loose feel to your delay effects. As all-rounders go, it’s very hard to beat a classic Roland Space Echo, the hardware unit which is probably most closely associated with the tape echo sound. But it’s not cheap. Decent vintage units start at around £500, but there are also software emulations and digital clones available at lower price points. Arturia’s Delay TAPE-201 is excellent, priced at 99 euros. 2 Spring reverb The other essential style of echo is the twangy, metallic sound of spring reverb. The easiest starting point in hardware form is probably with a pedal-based spring reverb…

DIGITAL EFFECTS The Pro 3 has dual effects, meaning you can run two at once, with separate modulation and overall control. Often feeling like an afterthought on synths, these are good quality and tied in nicely, so you can modulate them as with anything else. My top picks are the phaser and the super plate. I’m generally not a fan of built-in reverbs on synths but this one is good, although not overly plate-like. Shimmery and long-tailed is easy with this one, adding to the overall versatility. The stereo delays are also very good with excellent separation. Like so much of the Pro 3, the last 5% is all in controllability and tonal results, which positively shine.…

ROUND-UP FREEWARE COMPRESSORS Want more squash for less dosh? Check out these dynamic freebies Tokyo Dawn Molotok Previously available as the freeware Molot compressor, this tool has been adopted by Tokyo Dawn and given a facelift. Threshold, Ratio, Attack and Release are here, as well as a Knee control for smoothing out that transition around the threshold. You also get a sidechain high-pass, and a Dry Mix parameter for the ol’ New York effect. One unique feature is the Delta button, which lets you hear the gain reduction in isolation. There’s a separate Output Gain as well as Makeup, which is nice. The key feature behind Molotok is the 11 types of compression algorithm, moving from alpha to gamma, and getting progressively more characterful and heavy-handed as they do so.…

GEAR GUIDE HIGH-END SYNTHS Sequential Pro 3 from £1,459 Full Review: FM366 The Pro 3 is far more than a simple monosynth. It’s a powerhouse of sound design with its own unique voice and endless possibilities. 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! Moog Sub 37 $1,579 Review: FM286 With a richer set of features and fewer operational hurdles than its predecessor, the Sub 37 is a superb and highly desirable upgrade to the Phatty family of Moog synths. ASM Hydrasynth £1,299 Review: FM360 An impressive first release from a new brand. Hydrasynth looks and sounds great, invites exploration, is built to last and is hugely expressive. What’s…