Computer Music

Software bundle makers really do understand what needs to be highlighted about their particular piles of titles: value! You know, then, that when you buy a piece of hardware by certain manufacturers and it has a ‘software bundle thrown in’ that it wi

Pro audio forum Gearslutz have announced their new name: Gearspace. This, they’ve said, is a much more appropriate and inclusive moniker, and is likely to be welcome news to those who work in pro and educational environments in particular. Proving it

Our mission has always been to help you ‘make music now’. However, in June 2011 (CM165), we upped the ante by showing you how to ‘make better music now’, which sort of sounds like the same thing but is actually very different. Honest. We also offered

Jimmy Edgar signed to Warp Records at just 18 and has released four albums blending electro, funk, hip hop and techno, not to mention DJing across the world. He has used every type of tech imaginable, from custom software, to pure analogue hardware.

UVI’s new Quadra: Muted & Harmonics has 150 multisampled sources, with enough control over them to create everything from deep arpeggiations to funky basslines, cinematic soundscapes to classical string lines. UVI have sampled classic guitars, pianos

In what is fast becoming my magazine equivalent of a confessional booth (I’ve never used a real one, by the way; I grew up in the 70s and they were always full), it is time to admit that I have dabbled in modular or Eurorack synthesis before. OK, I w

Eurorack has taken the music production world by storm over recent years. The hardware modular synth format essentially lets you create your own custom synthesiser by assembling modules that control various aspects of the synth signal flow yourself.

Editor: Andy Jones, andy.jones@futurenet.com Art Editor: Mark White, mark.white@futurenet.com Managing Editor: Kate Puttick, kate.puttick@futurenet.com Dave Clews, Ed Strazdas, Neil Crockett, Ben Rogerson, Jon Musgrave, Robbie Stamp, Oli Bell, Roy Sp

While we’re very enthusiastic about Eurorack at Computer Music, we thought we’d speak to someone who threw themselves into Eurorack some years back and now owns one of the largest Eurorack systems in the world, with over 125 VCOS and 80 filters! Le

The most logical next stage is to build upon what you already have. In much the same way that large-sounding commercial synthesisers offer more than one oscillator, adding a second and/or third in Eurorack is easy, but you will need to think ahead. I

We’ve already mentioned Doepfer extensively in our feature, and for very good reason. As the company that is responsible for lighting the touch-paper on the Eurorack revolution, they continue to provide great quality products, at exceptionally entici

First it was an update for Elastic Drums, and now Oliver Greschke has given Elastic FX – his deliciously playable multi-FX app – a tweak. This isn’t a major revision, but you do now have Ableton Link support in iOS 14 and MIDI sync for the likes of a

How did you get into music software? VM “I was always a musician [see pic!]. My father had a good old Cubase and Atari ST, and when I was 10 I started programming, and pretty much knew it was going to be my livelihood. In university we had lots of

Before we start out making any sound, let’s connect up the MIDI Input to our Eurorack system. The mmMidi module has a MIDI connection lead which terminates in a MIDI socket, but other similar modules may have a 5-pin DIN socket on the front. Make a c

The Pico range from Erica Synths is specifically designed to be compact, allowing a complete system to be crammed into a small case which is just 24cm wide. Each module is a mere 3HP in size, which can sometimes make tweaking your sound a little fidd

“My most-used plugin is the stock Overdrive plugin that comes with Logic. It’s in all of my projects. Even just putting it onto a channel set at neutral adds a nice warmth to things .” apple.com “I love this EQ, it has so many good features. The

Possibly the most essential item in any studio. The larger the better, obviously Cracking drum machine from Roland that emulates all their classics. Recently voted best budget drum machine by our sister mag Future Music A great hardware emulatio

Now to the exciting bit, with the modules that are going to form your signal path and generate some sounds. As these are our first steps, we’re going to keep it simple and examine a basic system, much like a hardware monosynth, but with greater flexi

Ryan Hurley, aka Kideko, is a Brighton-based DJ and dance producer whose collaborations and approach have already bought him much success, including four Radio 1 Dance Chart No 1s and 60 million streams. It has all resulted in a collaboration with Ar

Apple Mac running Logic Pro X Akai MIDI keyboard Audio Technica M50s headphones Behringer DeepMind synth Focal Alpha 65 monitors Moog Sub37 synth Novation Peak synth Roland TR8-S drum machine Thermionic Culture Vulture outboard  Apple Logic Ableton L

1 Even though Ryan already had some samples ready, he normally kicks things off with the beats which is what we’ll do. There’s a lot going on – so much so that Logic is struggling – but we’ll focus on the kick. 2 And as he does every time, Ryan sta

With so many streams under his belt, plus those dance number ones, Ryan has clearly got his music out there. So what is his advice for spreading the word about your tunes? “A common feeling is that you really need a manager, agent, tour manager and a

The term ‘chromatic mediants’ probably isn’t something you’ll have come across very often in your songwriting pursuits, but working these mysterious creatures into progressions can be a useful way to expand your palette of chords beyond the realms of

Our association of chromatic mediant movements with a sense of magic and wonder dates back to tactics employed by composers of the 19th century romantic period. For example, the Italian composer Rossini was keen on the use of chromatic mediants to ac

In a studio career spanning more than 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, he writes articles for and other mag

To add more to this cool sound, try invoking the same sort of Random LFO movement toward the filter. First, alter the LfoG1 pot amount, located in the filter section. This sets the amount of modulation from the LFO, which is heading in the direction

Dave Gale is an Emmy award-winning media composer, producer and orchestrator, with an enormous passion for synthesisers, in all their forms. His varied composing style embraces everything from full orchestral and hybrid scoring, to fully electronic s

Our Production Technique experts are from Audiotent, a team of creative producers and sound designers who provide inspirational tools and education for professional artists worldwide. They focus on both techno and progressive genres, offering presets

When you combine techno with the elements of dub music, you get dub techno. One of the sounds that became a classic within the genre is a synth chord stab, most often voiced as a minor chord to create a moody and emotional feel to the music. There a

Famously self-defined as a ‘full-contact’ composer, we ask Tom to detail exactly how that process differs from the norm in soundtracking terms: “It’s not only the fact that I want to be turning knobs and playing instruments, but it’s the fact that I

“This is definitely up there with some of the longest scores in history, it’s been intense,” explains an excited Tom Holkenborg (widely known as Junkie XL). Tom is delighted that the long-anticipated Justice League: The Snyder Cut is finally seeing t

“A lot of people have no experience in the electronic world and ask me where they begin to learn about electronic elements,” Tom tells us, in relation to idea-forming for his Studio Time series, “I also think it’s good to weave in conversations that

Waldorf Quantum Korg Prologue Korg Wavestate Modal Modulus 002 Moog One Moog Matriarch GRP Synths A4 Yamaha Montage 6 Studio Electronics Code 8 Studio Electronics MiniMoog Dave Smith Prophet 12  Too many modules to list from Analo

With the majority of modern television, cinema and trailer scores, epic bombast and size has been supplanted by subtler arrangements. These more delicate undercurrents weave throughout the drama, enhancing tension, underscoring emotional upheaval and

In making Contemporary Drama Toolkit, Samuel Sim and the team at Spitfire have carefully harnessed some astoundingly rich textures from a range of instruments. Sim’s range of award-winning scores have included the recent Netflix fantasy epic The Dark

OB-E’s MIDI Sequencer is inspired by Oberheim’s original add-on eight-step sequencer module (MS-1) and to be true to the original, OB-E’s SEM 8 Output mode uses the eighth SEM for your sequence, leaving the remaining SEMs to play live. However, far m

Many DAWs include decent notation options allowing you to easily transcribe your MIDI creations into musical score. But what if your original music has been handwritten and you want to create multiple easy-to-read parts? Or perhaps you already have a

NotateMe started out as an Android and iOS app and is still available for these platforms in both paid-for (£38.99) and free versions. The basic concept is you draw in your notes on the staff and NotateMe converts this into an editable score. Notat

Like most of the reverbs here, Spaced Out does a bit more than ‘just’ ‘verb. It also has the classic Space Echo in its cross hairs, but takes the whole concept just that bit further. “You get simplicity, creativity and an amazing sound. It does invok

Inversions in your chords can transform your chord progression from basic to expert. Try lifting any notes from your chord, up or down the octave for a different feel to the same chord. Moving notes closer together before the next chord change can cr

If there’s one word that has become part of the psyche for any user of a DAW-based composing or production setup, it’s ‘workflow’. We all become reliant, to some degree, on the preset content that ships with both DAWs and softsynth suites, but the ab

Synths can be complicated beasts! While the on-board synths that install with all commercial DAWs will often do a fine job, third party synths often have a creative edge, and a little time and effort invested in learning how they work will help you g

Making mono signals sound stereo is something that can be achieved using various artificial techniques often incorporating tiny delays. Another approach is to apply different comb filtering to each channel and we can do this quite easily using Carve

It’s a mangled keyboard theme with this issue’s two new sample packs. First up, Robbie from Cyclick Samples explains how he put together his incredible Warped Keys collection… “No keyboard was left untouched by the sonic warping of pedals, valve amp

Back in issue 215 we claimed that the world was going through turmoil. Well, what did we know?! To get you through whatever your current troubles, be they COVID, Megxit or just not enough hard drive space (and we know which we’re more stressed out by

Sample Market return to our special industry sample demo pages with some exclusive insights into their latest releases, including Analog Sequences, Artist Series 04 - Sascha Dive, Niksu - Minimal Trip and Cesare vs Disorder from the Originals series.

How Kideko and Armand van Helden produced the track The Fire together Read the full article from p38 Our resident music production gurus walk you through their specialist article Read field the on full every month pxx CHROMATIC MEDIANTS BASIC

Snarl is a 17-year-old producer who is lighting up dance music with tracks more at home in Ibiza rather than his native Essex. In fact his debut was named after the famed island of dance dreams, and more recent releases have led him to be labelled as

Fledgling developer Caelum Audio have already impressed with their free cassette tape plugin (now Tape Cassette 2). Their latest endeavour, Tape Pro (VST3, AU), takes the tape concept to the next level, expanding the IR and saturation-based plugin in

It’s time to welcome Dave Gale to the pages of Computer Music, replacing the now-retired Scot Solida as our Expert Guide to all things synth. And with specific instructions to go back to basics and to utilise the mighty Suite, he’s doing just that…

Back in the day and before polysynths became a thing, Oberheim upscaled their SEM (Synthesizer Expander Module) monosynth into a number of multi module designs. The most ambitious (EVS-1) used eight SEMs and was better known as the 8-Voice. This deli

Carve EQ has a pretty flexible approach to resizing, scaling and zooming of the plugin window. First up, in typical fashion, the window can be freely resized by dragging the corner of the window. However, in the bottom right-hand corner there’s a par

In quite the reversal of fortunes, there is now a feast of hardware out there that will help you record, arrange and mix entire tunes. But will they make your DAWs redundant?** *No **Of course not but we’ll pretend to give them a fair hearing Waves,

As a bonus this issue, we have all-new samples from the latest Mode Audio releases, including Astral Phase, Modular Living, Friction and Synthetica. There’s a special 15% off discount code for cm readers. See the folder for details. 15% OFF Mode Aud

When we talk about EQ, invariably it’s a parametric, and in issue cm289 we furnished you with possibly our greatest giveaway yet, a full copy of Swedish developer Kilohearts Slice EQ. This month, Kilohearts return for the next installment and we’re v

The kick is the cornerstone of any track; the weighty thump around which all else is anchored, it’s make-or-break stuff. This pack does us all a huge favour and gives up 440 world-class examples of this bedrock beat, all from some global giants in th

Signal flow is important with multi module effects, and some markings on Tape Pro’s interface would be handy. That said there is a decent signal flow chart in the manual which is well worth checking out. This clarifies that most of the processing (Dr

01 Loopmasters Synth Explorer Pulse 02 Artisan Tension - Dark Atmospherics 03 Loopmasters Future Reggaeton 04 LM The Mouse Outfit - UK Hip Hop 05 LM Tough Love - House & Tech Origins 06 Tone Kitchn Nu School RnB 07 LM Modern Roots Reggae 2 08