Future Music -julkaisun September 2022 -irtonumeron sisällysluettelo

Tuning your drums samples can make a big difference to the overall quality of your music and how well your drums fit with the rest of your sounds, but tuning a sample using a simple Transpose control can alter the tone of the sound quite drastically, introducing other problems. Using Ableton’s Shifter effect in Frequency Shifting mode gives a better way of tuning drum samples while leaving the overall tone of the sound mostly intact. You’ll find this relatively simple technique will become indispensable for tuning drum sounds once you know about it. This technique works best for tuning sounds with a discernible pitch like kicks, snares, toms and some percussion, but can also work well for altering the tone of non-pitched percussion, like cymbals, in a pleasing way. We’ll…

Dealing with sub bass frequencies can be one of the trickier aspects of music production. A sub bass part can be elusive – tough to properly monitor in a home setup, often not reproduced at all by smaller speakers – and they can be very hard work to mix. But, particularly when it comes to dance music designed for a powerful sound system, nailing your sub can be what makes or breaks your track. Put simply, sub bass is anything that happens in the lower end of the bass frequency spectrum. The exact definition of sub bass tends to change depending on who you ask, but it’s generally considered to be anything below around 60Hz-80Hz, reaching down to 20Hz, which is the lowest frequency audible to the human ear. For…

Berlin-based DJ/producer TJ Hertz began his musical life as a drummer prior to joining software manufacturer Native Instruments as a DSP en gineer.Although already recording as Objekt, the role had a circular effect on his music-making process, enabling him to showcase an audacious production style that has mesmerised both club-goers and audiophiles alike. ertz’s struggle to record Objekt material on a consistent basis has, ironically, added a sense of renewed anticipation with each release. Since his debut white label Objekt #1 in 2011, it’s taken over a decade to reach a fifth instalment. However, Objekt #5 merely solidifies Hertz’s reputation as one of the most vital and progressive electronic artists. Did you always possess a technical approach to production? “When I first started making electronic music I was mostly playing…

Although related, pioneering French house producers Alain Braxe and Stéphane Quême (aka DJ Falcon) had no knowledge of each other’s production careers despite releasing their debut records on the same label. Inevitably, their careers crossed paths and the duo began working on demos in 2014 before being convinced by label manager Peter Berard to release an EP for Domino’s new electronic dance imprint Smugglers Way. Sessions reconvened in Paris and at Braxe’s Toulouse studio, with the duo excited that their use of modular gear was eliciting a similar naivety to when they first started making music. A sublimely melancholy EP with vocal contributions from songwriter Sunni Colón and Animal Collective co-founder Panda Bear, Braxe + Falcon’s collaboration has been so productive that they already plan to record an album together.…

CONTACT WHO: Soma Labs WEB: somasynths.com KEY FEATURES I/O: 4 oscillators, 4 LFOs, FM, Ringmod and bitwise modulations, Resonant low pass filter THE PROS & CONS + Simple interface One touch randomisation Wonderfully retro in sound - No Eurorack compatibility Limited sequence length Battery power only Gear can be more than just a tool for performing and recording but also a means of exploration. The Roar of Ancient Times, or RoAT, from Soma labs, may not appear too inspirational but spend just a few minutes delving into its lo-fi possibilities and you will soon find there is a lot on offer. The device itself is fairly diminutive and has a somewhat unfinished look. I imagine some users will while away many an hour devising interesting housings for it, while the…

KEY FEATURES I/O: 6 Mic/line inputs; 2 Mic/line/instrument inputs; Inserts on all inputs; 2 ADAT I/O for 8 channels at 44.1/48kHz and 88.2/96kHz, 4 channels at 176.4/192kHz, 8 balanced line outputs on 25pin D-Sub connector; Simultaneous A-D and D-A option BUNDLED SOFTWARE: Focusrite’s Plugin Collective; Red 2/3 Suite, plus offerings from Brainworx, XLN Audio, Antares, Relab and Softube you can pair it up with any manufacturer’s suitably equipped interface. Most audio interfaces offer two or maybe four mic inputs. If you want to record multimiked drums or simply want more mic inputs, you could opt for one of the few interfaces with eight mic inputs. However, many interfaces include additional line or digital inputs allowing you to extend your mic input options by using an additional mic input device. This…

CONTACT WHO: Toolroom Academy WEB: toolroomacademy.com KEY FEATURES Multi-effect plugin designed for dance music FX and transitions. Feature reverb, delay, distortion, LFO and filter modules. Includes 40+ presets. Targeted at creating clubready transition effects Infinite is the debut plugin release from Toolroom Academy, the music education offshoot of influential house label Toolroom Records, and is credited as being jointly created by Toolroom founder Mark Knight and producer James F Reynolds. It’s another entry into the increasingly crowded multi-effect markert. Infinite has its own USP, however, in being specifically targeted at creating club-ready transition effects. The plugin opens up with a basic UI labelled Simple mode. In this state, Infinite is a classic ‘one knob’ plugin, offering just a preset browser up top with a large macro dial below, flanked by…

There’s a moment in Nicholas Worrall’s new record – The trees were buzzing, and the grass – where you hear a sampled voice say the word “plunge”. Suddenly, it’s as if you’ve plunged underwater – the track’s submerged into an unmistakably aqueous low-pass filter, the sound of bubbles circling the stereo field. This moment neatly captures the feeling of listening to the gloriously strange IDM-concrète that Worrall records as Wordcolour. By sourcing, processing and recontextualising unfamiliar and unexpected samples, dexterously threading them between hyper-detailed layers of glistening synths and amphetaminic breaks, he creates thrilling moments of displacement, instantaneous shifts in perspective, that are not unlike the bracing exhilaration of being suddenly immersed in ice-cold water. “I’M INTERESTED IN FILM SOUND EFFECTS, AND PARTICULARLY FOLEY. SOUNDS THAT SOUND LIKE THEY’RE REAL,…

When clubs and gig venues finally reopened after months of lockdowns, there was one thing that instantly hit you upon returning: the bass. Dance music can be great when listened to on headphones or home stereo systems, but there’s no substitute for the raw power of a proper floorshaking low-end. Given how crucial they are to the experience, nailing those bass frequencies is of vital importance for modern electronic musicians. That’s what we’re turning our attention to with this month’s cover feature – how to properly create, monitor and mix those elusive but important sub bass sounds. We hope you enjoy the issue. Si Truss, Editor-In-Chief simon.truss@futurenet.com…

Born in Kerala, India, producer and DJ Michael Diamond emigrated to the UK with his parents when he was young. “Although I’ve loved and soaked up the culture of the UK growing up, I am still viewed by many as a foreigner,” he says. “On the other hand, when I return to India I am seen and treated as a Westerner. Over time, this has left me feeling that, whilst I possess aspects of both cultures, I don’t truly belong to either one.” It’s these feelings of disconnection that inspired the music that forms his debut LP, Third Culture. Channelling the trauma of fractured identity into dense, saturnine dance music, the record shrouds intricate, knotty drum patterns in moody synths and jazz-inflected atmospheres that recall classic Deep Medi dubstep as…

Brighton-based musician JFB is undoubtedly one of the UK’s best scratch DJs, and he’s got the accolades to prove it, including winning three DMC championships and picking up trophies from competitions such as Red Bull’s 3Style. Championed by the likes of Fatboy Slim and Rob Da Bank, JFB has made a name for himself with sets that span the realms of club and party DJing, competition routines and showcases. At this year’s Brighton Music Conference, FM’s editor-in-chief Si Truss learned more about the gear he uses, what makes him unique as a DJ, and the work that goes into preparing his scratch routines. You can watch the session in full at this issue’s download page (see contents for details). Here we bring you some highlights… “IN ANY DANCING ENVIRONMENT, DOING…

When we last spoke to Travis Stewart, he’d just released the Machinedrum album Human Energy, another entry in a kaleidoscopic catalogue that’s seen the producer progressively expand the Machinedrum universe to encompass madcap drill’n’bass, amphetaminic breakbeats and prismatic glitch-pop, culminating most recently in the new-age bass music of 2020’s A View of U. Stewart’s work as Machinedrum might be stylistically diverse, but at its core, the project revolves around three fundamentals: samples, synths and beats. It makes sense, then, that he’s revived a separate alias for his latest project, which drops the latter two elements and embraces an ambient, neo-classical vibe that sounds a little like what you’d get if you locked Philip Glass in a room with a bag of weed, a laptop and a Splice subscription. Inspired by…

CONTACT WHO: Novation WEB: novationmusic.com KEY FEATURES KEYBOARD: 88-key semiweighted PADS: 16 backlit velocity sensitive with selectable aftertouch SOFTWARE BUNDLE: Ableton Live Lite, XLN Audio Addictive and offerings from AAS, Spitfire and Klevgrand SCREEN: LCD 2 x16 character POWER: via USB or regular USB PSU DIMENSIONS: 1270 x 258 x 87mm WEIGHT: 8.3kg Novation’s Launchkey controller keyboards have been very successful. Now at version 3, they continue to provide a good balance of price and features, and on the bench I have the new 88-key model. Novation pitch Launchkey as a DAW-ready device that provides keyboard, keypad and DAW control. It has a pretty decent set of onboard standalone features and, in addition to a USB port for connection and powering, there’s a regular MIDI out and sustain pedal input.…

KEY FEATURES TYPE: Dynamic CAPSULE: Cardioid Pressure Gradient CAPSULE RANGE: 25Hz to 18kHz (close) 40Hz to 18kHz (>1m) IMPEDANCE: 350 Ohms SENSITIVITY: 1.8mV/Pa (-55.0dB) +/- dB EQUIVALENT NOISE: A-weighted DIMENSIONS: 185 x 52mm WEIGHT: 320g Videocasting really puts your audio gear centre-stage and if you want to look and sound good you’ll need the right tools. Mics like Shure’s SM7B are regularly seen in videocasts and their popularity is driven in part by the fact they look good and are easy to use. So, it should come as no surprise that mic manufacturers are actively targeting this market with new products. Following on from Beyerdynamic’s M 90 Pro X large capsule condenser, which I recently reviewed, I now have its sibling on the bench, the M 70 Pro X. This…

CONTACT WHO: Knobula WEB: knobula.com KEY FEATURES Stereo Spectral Compression, Linked Controls between kick, side chain and reverb, 909-inspired virtual analogue signal path, 24 bit Stereo Reverb, FX Send/Return option, CV pitch control, play like a bass, 12 hp Knobula hit the ground running with the wonderful Poly Cinematic. Following up with the Kickain should solidify them as a top developer, as it is a truly excellent module. Following the same design ethos of the Poly Cinematic, it is sensibly laid out, with a workflow that’s logical and well labelled. Each section has a coloured background for quick identification, rather than the more commonly seen plain black or silver. The 12hp size feels right for the controls, not too big but spacious enough for the good quality pots and toggle…

Austrian Audio Hi-X15 £89 Full Review: FM386 | Superb cans for those tracking and mixing on a budget. Their compact size and light weight will also appeal to pros on the move. Røde NTH-100 £149 Full Review: FM384 The NTH-100s are the best over-ear headphones we’ve tried for their price bracket. Go-to cans for all listening scenarios. Focal Listen Professional £219 Full Review: FM342 Honest, transparent circumaural phones that cause little fatigue over long periods. A favourite choice in the all-rounder headphone category. Beyerdynamic DT 700 PRO X £219 Full Review: FM379 A reliable pair of headphones that combine great build quality with excellent sound. Sennheiser HD-206 £20 Deceptively rugged all-rounders delivering much bang for buck, the Sennheiser HD-206’s represent a brilliant solution for budgetconscious studio scenarios. HIGH-END ANALOGUE SYNTHS…

CONTACT WHO: Austrian Audio WEB: austrian.audio KEY FEATURES Closed back headphones DRIVER: 44mm Hi-X FREQUENCY RANGE: 12Hz–24kHz SENSITIVITY: 113 dBspl/V IMPEDANCE: 25Ω INPUT POWER: 150mW CABLE (DETACHABLE): 1.4m CONNECTOR: 3.5mm DIMENSIONS: 250 x 170 x 80mm WEIGHT (WITHOUT CABLE): 255g Austrian Audio have garnered much acclaim, adulation and a bucketload of awards for their new-fangled pro-level Hi-X headphone line. Their flagship model, the Hi-X65, won a prestigious TEC award at NAMM 2022, the same gong that its upper-mid range sibling, the Hi-X55, was nominated for back in 2020. Indeed, over the past 24 months this duo from the land of The Sound Of Music have wiped the floor with scores of five-star reviews and ‘best buy’ recommendations. Now the boffins at Austrian Audio have launched the Hi-X15, a pair of…

CONTACT WHO: Moog WEB: moogmusic.com KEY FEATURES Stylish theremin with a wood casing, mic stand attachment and well-designed controls DIMENSIONS: 450 x 160 x 85mm (without antennas) WEIGHT: 2.85kg The mic stand attachment is a great addition An instrument can become better or worse on re-release (some seem to jump up in price but not in user value), but Moog’s latest Theremin, which combines new controller features and a welldesigned finish, is a redesign that creates something entirely new. The first instrument Robert Moog sold was a Theremin kit, before developing the Moog synth along with Herbert Deutsch. The Etherwave celebrates the history of this important instrument in the evolution of synths. Known more recently for analogue synths like the Minimoog, and the Mother-32, the company can perhaps be better…