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Expert techniques and tricks to help you master your music software Ableton Live // FL Studio // Cubase // Logic Pro // Reason // Studio One // Reaper +MORE!
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welcome If you hadn’t already guessed from the gleaming cover, there’s something extra-special about this month’s . Yep, it’s issue two hundred and fifty, folks! Since 1999, we’ve stayed true to one mission: to bring you all you need to make great music on your PC and Mac. That’s the mantra we still stand by, and it’s what motivates us to create the best magazine possible. So what better reason to celebrate than with a giant tips extravaganza? No matter what music you make, your Digital Audio Workstation is your creative home; the place where discoveries are made, tears are shed, and dreams are born. Hence why we’ve got 250 premium tricks, covering the major DAWs out there! without It wouldn’t be an anniversary issue of some great freebies, of course. PC heads get Cakewalk’s incredible Sonar Home Studio; Mac AU users get Sinevibes Flow, a sequencer-driven flanger/phaser; and both PC and Mac users get Rapture Session, Cakewalk’s epic ROMpler. It’s over $100 of software free for you! Note that the Cakewalk giveaways expire on 1st Feb 2018, so get your goodies from the DVD or FileSilo now! And we haven’t even mentioned the five royalty-free sample packs inside, from 808/909 beats and Moogerfooger-processed sounds through to our Loopmasters All-Stars pack and more, you’ll have plenty of super sounds to fuel your studio sessions. Finally, I’d like to thank our in-house experts, trusted contributors… and you, our loyal readers! We hope you enjoy reading our mag every bit as much as we enjoy making it. , then… Until issue 300 of
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Issue 250 DECember 2017
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Producer Masterclass Wield your DAW like a complete boss with these incredible power-user tips, p20
56 mj cole We get into his supercharged studio as he breaks down a track in this access-all-areas video
Feature 73 music software hall of fame We look back at over thirty years of innovation in music software
96 Essentials 10 news
Interview 86 gary numan
Free Software
After setting the tone for generations of electronic musicians, the king of synthpop comes face to face with
64 cakewalk sonar home studio This $49 PC DAW is yours for free – ends 1st Feb 2018
68 cakewalk rapture session Claim your PC/Mac plugin synth before 1st Feb 2018
70 sinevibes flow Sequenced modulation on tap for Mac users
108 1876 SAMPLES
Essential 808, 909 Overdrive, Loopmasters All-Stars, Drums vs Moogerfoogers, and more, p104
16 What’s on your hard drive? 52 SUBSCRIBE 54 back issues 80 easy guide
Reviews 94 NI komplete kontrol mk3 96 rob papen rp-verb 2
82 Studio strategies 84 dr beat 112 NEXT MONTH 114 Blast from the past: boss dr-110
98 expressive e touchÉ 100 universal audio korg sDD-3000 102 psp audioware nexcellence 103 Black box hg-2 105 Mini reviews
4 / Computer Music / December 2017
14 freeware news
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Ableton Live
Get better with your DAW and discover what the others can do with our technique-filled videos Read the full article on p20
Cubase
Logic Pro X
Bitwig Studio 2
Studio One 3
Reason
Reaper
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6 / Computer Music / December 2017
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Producer Masterclass
MJ Cole Get schooled in his production techniques, and see how he handled the making of his track Pictures In My Head Note: this video is only available using the link on page 57 Read the full article on p56 December 2017 / Computer Music / 7
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SINEVIBES FLOW
Get started with Cakewalk’s $49 PC DAW, yours for free this issue
Learn how to tweak this huge Mac/PC instrument
Sequence phasing and flanging with this Mac-only AU plugin
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Samples We get a loop rolling using the huge number of samples that come free with this issue Read the full article on p108
/experts Our resident music production gurus walk you through their specialist field every month
The music theory behind modal and tonal harmony
Read the full article on p80
8 / Computer Music / December 2017
Programming authentic samba beats in MIDI
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> news
New releases • comment • industry happenings
Propellerhead Reason 10 Two synths, three ROMplers, loops aplenty and a creative modulation device Earlier this year, the unthinkable happened: Propellerhead Software finally added VST plugin support to Reason, their iconic all-in-one software studio. Version 9.5’s bombshell inclusion blew the doors off this once insular DAW, at last allowing producers to use any VST instruments or effects in their Reason projects. So how will Propellerhead top this for v10? The answer may surprise you… Unexpectedly, yet more instruments and effects Devices are the big selling point of Reason 10. That’s the last thing we expected after VST support, but we’ll assume that the Props know what they’re doing here – and the new Devices do look rather tasty. First, Europa is a wavetable synth “for huge, epic sounds”, claimed to pump out everything “from big stacks of buzzing sawtooths to shimmering, glitched-up sonic explorations.” The waveform can be modulated; you can apply advanced spectral filtering and harmonics processing; and even draw your own waveforms. Tech talk aside, Propellerhead say the best thing about Europa is actually its ease of use. The second synth is Grain, a granular instrument. Load it with a sample as grainfodder, then manipulate it with a choice of playback algorithms, flexible modulation, routing and effects.
New instruments galore for Reason – but can they compete with your VST folder? Find out soon in our review
Three new sampled instruments are included, with content by Soundiron. Klang brings tuned percussion (glockenspiel, music box, wineglasses, etc); Pangea is all about world instruments, be they “plucked, pumped, blown or strummed”; and Humana contains choirs and solo vocal patches. Loop Supply and Drum Supply are a pair of multigigabyte loop and drum
collections, compatible with Kong and Dr Octo Rex. Finally, the existing Radical Piano sampled piano instrument and Synchronous modulation effect/ sequencer are included in Reason 10 for no extra charge. Reason 10 is out now, priced €405, or €129 to upgrade. Reason Essentials is €120. URL www.propellerheads.se
iZotope Ozone 8, Neutron 2
Mixing and mastering get cosier with iZotope’s enhanced suites
The established Ozone mastering suite and freshfaced Neutron mixing platform come closer together in these updates. The new Tonal Balance plugin is common to both, showing a zoomed-out overview of your mix’s spectrum, allowing you to adjust EQ settings of any Ozone/Neutron in the project. New Ozone features include Spectral Shaper for frequency taming, A/B referencing, and Maximizer tweaks. Neutron sports an improved Track Assistant, Visual Mixer for setting pan/width/gain of all Neutrons, and more. Advanced editions are both £315, or £119 to upgrade. URL www.timespace.com
10 / Computer Music / December 2017
news <
App watch We report on the latest developments in phone and tablet music making
Space out with D16’s shiny reverberation station
D16 Group Toraverb 2 One of our favourite reverbs for sound design, this “space modulated reverb” gets a considerable boost with v2. Predelay is now tempo syncable, so you can set it in musical units instead of milliseconds. Modulation is independently adjustable for Early and Late sections, the EQs for both now include low/high shelving shapes, and there’s stereo crosstalk control in the Early section. A mini-mixer for early/late
reflections has been added, with stereo or mid/side balance control, for balancing the the two reverb stages as you like within the stereo field. There’s also now built-in ducking for carving space out of the reverb signal when the incoming dry sound hits. Further new features include an adjustable dry/wet transition curve, two GUI sizes, and MIDI learn. Toraverb 2 is €69. URL www.d16.pl
The iPad version of IK Multimedia’s Syntronik offers sounds from 37 instruments, including tones from Moog, ARP, Roland, Yamaha and Oberheim synths. There are also effects and the option to create four-part multis. The standard Syntronik app is actually free, and comes with 25 sounds, but if you want a fuller experience you can either buy all the app’s content for £38.99, or choose individual modules for £9.99 each. www.ikmultimedia.com
Kush Audio Novatron Describing your plugin as “the sweetest ITB compressor, period” is a bold move. In fact, Kush reckon their new analoguemodelled ‘varitone tube compressor’ could only exist in the box, since it borrows from so many fundamentally incompatible hardware topologies. Intriguing stuff! For Novatron’s attack and release stages, Kush have melded the responses of three classic circuits. Set them slow for vari-mu tube “thump”; medium for VCA punch; fast for FET-style drive and levelling effects; or any points in between to blend and combine these responses. Compression Mode can be set to Mix, Limit or Punish, configuring the ratio, knee,
release taper and output transformer character. Tone Shift applies Airy or Dark pre-/post-emphasis EQ curves to ‘voice’ the compression further – set it Flat to disable. Further features include input/output transformers, sidechain high-pass filter, external sidechaining, and oversampling. Novatron is out now, priced $149. URL www.thehouseofkush.com
You can do some pretty serious and complex music making on an iPad, but there are times when you’d rather keep things fun and simple. Samplebot, a new app from A Tasty Pixel (creators of Audiobus) that enables you to record or import samples to the grid of pads, them play them back and create sequences. You couldn’t call it deep, but for £4.99, you get an app that’s enjoyable and encourages you to think creatively. http://atastypixel.com
Waves Torque
Is this “the key to perfect drum tone”, as Waves claim?
You could have Dave Grohl swinging the sticks and Bruce Swedien setting up your mics – but if your drum kit isn’t well tuned, it’ll lack punch and tone. The usual remedy is to replace hits with appropriately tuned samples. But what if there was a tool for retuning drum tracks, retaining natural attack and duration, and free from traditional pitchshifting artifacts? That’s what Waves promise with Torque. Slap it on a drum track, set Focus to the clearest tonal frequency range (usually the fundamental), adjust Threshold so it only triggers on desired hits, then tweak Torque to tune it up or down. It’s $69. URL www.waves.com
It might not be as sophisticated as their recording studios, but Abbey Road’s Topline app could be useful if you want a simple tool for capturing your ideas and song sketches on the go. This is a three-track music creation app that enables you to import or record an initial track, then put another couple over the top of it. There’s not much more to it than that, but sometimes, that’s all you need, and the good news is that Topline is free. www.abbeyroad.com December 2017 / Computer Music / 11
> news
Get with the programmers The kings of format support make compatibility look easy… although they’re starting to drop some standards
Blue Cat Audio
Guillaume Jeulin
Last time we interviewed you – about ten years ago – we asked if the DirectX plugin format had a future. Do you have any idea what proportion of users are using it? GJ “Actually, we released our latest plugin, Late Replies, without DirectX support. Apart from a few people using antique sequencers, nobody needs DirectX plugins anymore! This will be probably completely dropped in the future for other plugins, too. We’re also in the process of dropping RTAS, because maintaining older machines to support Pro Tools 9 and earlier is becoming more and more complicated these days – even if compatibility remains extremely important for us, it is important to focus on the future.”
With this and your plugin hosts, you might be the master of plugin formats. How do you translate your plugins across the same formats? GJ “All Blue Cat Audio plugins are written with a very simple, minimal ‘format’. A shell for each plugin format has been built over the years, and it glues the pieces together with the specifics of each format – with limitations and additional features, too. We actually have an SDK that we licence to third parties. A couple of great audio plugins out there have been built on top of it.” When creating a plugin host like Patchwork or MB-7, what steps can you take to make sure your ‘host in a host’ remains stable? GJ “Testing, testing and more testing! Despite enormous efforts, you can always find a new plugin/host combination that will cause trouble. Fortunately, many developers are doing a great job and fix such problems quickly, because in most cases there’s not much we can do on our side: hosts within hosts are between the hammer and the anvil! And it’s also a moving target: system, host and plugin updates happen all the time, so you have to keep everything up to date and verify compatibility on a regular basis.”
“Hosts within hosts are between the hammer and the anvil!”
Your Remote Control plugin could have a future as an Android/ iOS app, making it a truly remote experience. Is there a reason you’re not heading down this path? GJ “Developing and maintaining apps for these devices is quite an investment, so we have currently chosen to focus on personal computers which provide much more processing power for our main activity: realtime audio processing. As a side note, it can be sometimes difficult to tell the difference between a mobile device and a laptop computer (take a Windows 10 laptop with a touchscreen, for example), so you can actually use our software on tablets already.” What’s next for Blue Cat Audio? GJ “We’ve just released Blue Cat’s Late Replies, a creative delay and multieffects plugin that can also host other plugins, like PatchWork and MB-7 Mixer. This new plugin also has a great collection of built-in audio effects. We’re also working on new built-in processors which will also be part of other products in the near future... and our least recent plugins will be upgraded to our latest standards in the coming months. This is probably going to be another busy year!” URL www.bluecataudio.com 12 / Computer Music / December 2017
Plugin Boutique Scaler
Looking for a ‘composition assistant’ that can tell what scales your music uses, then help you put together chord sequences? Scaler promises precisely this – it’s a MIDI effect allowing you to “perform, edit, create and export your own chord progressions.” According to PB, top artists from numerous genres have contributed hundreds of chord sequences for you to take advantage of. There’s also a handy reminder of each scale’s stylistic qualities; for example, Locrian is described as “Complex, Unstable, Exotic” – coincidentally, traits shared by the typical contributor. It’s out now for £50. URL www.pluginboutique.com
AudioThing WaveBox
We’ve seen plenty of waveshapers before, but none that we can recall of the dual dynamic variety. WaveBox is one such beastie, and it threatens to rend your signals asunder via two mixable wavebending modules with six shaping functions apiece. It’s not all doom and gloom, though, with two LFOs and an envelope follower bringing life and movement to the proceedings. AudioThing say it’s capable of both symmetric and asymmetric distortion, and that it can go from mild tubelike drive all the way to “extreme digital harshness.” Out now, it’s €49. URL www.audiothing.net
Voxengo CRTIV Tape Bus
Yonks ago (well, in 2004), plugin stalwarts Voxengo released Analogflux TapeBus, a plugin recreating the “saturation, modulation noise and smearing effects” of tape, as well as applying “a selected impulse response” from a tape machine. Fast-forward 13 years and we have CRTIV Tape Bus. Voxengo assure us that this is very much a ‘next version’, with a completely redesigned signal chain and new features like modelled flutter. Surely worth a try for those who like to keep it reel, CRTIV Tape Bus is out now, priced $35. URL www.voxengo.com
Unfiltered Audio SpecOps
The wildest release yet from Unfiltered Audio, SpecOps breaks your audio apart into thousands of frequency slices, first treating them with pitch/frequency shifting or a Freeze effect. From there, frequency ranges can be treated with up to three spectral effects from a palette of 36. A Spectral Compander and an extensive modulation system round things off. Unfiltered suggest that you can “brutally transform a hi-hat track into bursts of alien static or make pristine vocal tracks sound like R2-D2 with a sore throat” – though they’re at pains to point that it’s also good for subtle enhancement and corrective work. It’s $155. URL www.plugin-alliance.com
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