Table of contents for 10-2020 in Beat English

The Swiss Army knife for the studio? The MPK mini MK3 refines the proven design of its predecessors with modernized functions that are designed to give free rein to creativity. The new OLED display provides visual feedback on speed, CC and DAW mode selection. Designed from the ground up, the MPK mini‘s improved Gen 2 keyboard offers natural response and key performance. From grand piano to cutting synth melodies, the Gen 2 keyboard brings out the best in every playing style and virtual instrument, according to Akai. An Akai Professional Keyboard Controller naturally includes MPC pads - MPK mini is no exception, with 8 pads borrowed directly from the flagship MPCs. These bankable, velocity-sensitive, backlit pads are designed to provide accurate response for precise drumming and melodic sample playback. The…

Palmen aus Plastik at a Glance 00:53: To highlight a hook, a good intro is needed, so you can prepare the listener for the upcoming „highlight“. In „Palmen aus Plastik“, the chorus is introduced with a bass drop. This is emphasized by the instrumental pause builds tension. 00:55: A sequence of three notes runs through the whole chorus. This is played downwards, i.e. from high to low, and ends on the fundamental. Using this simple technique, tension is built, which is then immediately resolved. A feeling of arriving is spreading… 01:00: „Palmen aus Plastik “is the main phrase of the song and the part that is most likely to be sung along at concerts. To bring the rest of the hook forward as well, there is the question/answer technique. For…

1 The Situation In this tutorial, we‘d like to develop an existing song idea further, get to know the advantages of the Arranger and put it into practice. In the sequencer window, we‘ve already created several tracks for the drums, the bass, the lead synth and so on. In terms of content, these are the intro, the verse and the chorus. From now on it is called: Arrange! 2 Activate the Arranger… Before we venture to the arranger, we must first make it visible. Activate the Arranger track, which will then appear at the top of the sequencer. In order to make use of all the options available, activate the Inspector, which will then display all the Arrangement parts and the Scratch Pad. 3 …and use it! On the Arranger…

1 The Icon We chose the hi-hat of the most iconic drum machine of all time: the TR-808, not only because it has a very special sound, but because it can be adapted to any style. While some hats are just noise, the 808 comes with a whopping amount of six oscillators. So we‘ll load an instrument rack. 2 Basic Sound For now, we‘ll add a wavetable synth, activate both oscillators with Basic Shapes as waveforms & set the Wave Position to 100% so that the square waveform is selected. In the Mod Matrix, we also connect Vel(ocity) at -80, with the Osc 1 pos and Osc 2 pos parameters, so the velocity determines the sound. 3 Six Oscillators The oscillators of the original 808 Hi-Hat are tuned to the…

1 Sound Source For a brass sound, we‘ll naturally choose the Studio Horns Logic instrument. The sound can be fat and rich in overtones, while we do without modulation and the use of controllers. A good choice is „80s Brass Stab“, which is played with a Cm7 chord (alternatively single notes can be played) on the bar and recorded as a MIDI region. 2 Sampling Now we‘ll record this Brass Chord in the Quick Sampler, which is located on a second instrument track. In Quick Sampler, we switch to the „Recorder “and select the Instrument track with the Studio Horns as input. After the recording is done, we continue working in Classic Mode and take care of sample and sound design. 3 Looping For chords that should sound longer and…

Sharing the billing on many DJ festivals, having both signed to Andy C’s RAM Records, drum & bass heavyweights Sub Focus (Nick Douwma) and Wilkinson (Mark Wilkinson) decided to combine talents in 2017 and release the single Take It Up – leading to the debut long player Illuminate, now streamed seven million times. Following the album’s success, the duo decided to take the project in a more expansive and experimental direction. With a desire to record ‘real’ instruments and work with a select team of vocalists, producers and session players, Douwma and Wilkinson hired Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Wiltshire. The result is the single Just Hold On, taken from the upcoming album Portals. Beat / How did you guys first meet? We’d imagine your paths would cross quite…

Yamaha monitor speakers have been in use in studios around the world since the 1970s, most notably the legendary NS10M. The HS Series has been representing the philosophy of these loudspeakers with modern technology for a good 15 years. The anniversary versions of the HS8, HS7 and HS5 are named „MP “for „Matched Pairs “and are matched in pairs for the best possible precision in reproduction. 2-Way Active Monitor We have tested the smallest and cheapest model in the series, the HS5. These are active near-field monitors with a two-way system consisting of a 1 “tweeter and a 5 “woofer, driven by separate 25 Watt and 45 Watt power amplifiers. The distinguishing feature of the series, the white colored woofer, has remained unchanged. The crossover frequency between the woofer and…

Archive: Versions The guys from London are considered one of the most visionary bands of the present and have covered many genres from electronica to trip-hop, hip-hop, progressive to post-rock. As part of the celebrations of their 25th anniversary, Archive are now presenting an album on which they kind of cover themselves. And that means radical changes. Often there are different singers than in the original songs, but after all Archive are known for the use of different voices. The arrangements were extremely reduced. The focus is mostly on piano, voice and ambient electronics. Correspondingly, „Versions “is, except for a few outbreaks, of a rather quiet nature. But because the interpretations are so free, the listener gets the feeling of listening to a new album - a beautiful one, by…

Dear Beat Readers, In the past few months, it has become increasingly difficult for us to squeeze the concentrated load of Software Highlights onto the 8.5 GB magazine DVD. That‘s why you can now get the monthly plug-ins and samples as unlimited downloads. By saving the unnecessary plastic, we‘re also doing something for the environment. And we‘re starting right away! With the current issue, you won‘t get the usual 8.5 GB of data, but an incredible 17 GB! Packed with the best plug-in highlights and inspiring loops & samples for hip music styles and much more! Access is easy: Just click the Link: bit.ly/BeatDL177 enter the requested word from the book and download it all. Alternatively, you can register as a subscriber for free at www.plugins-samples.com, where all the issues…

Love to Go at a Glance 00:39 The vocals and the background choir stay strong, but the guitar is faded out for the time being and the synth hook is already perceptible in the background. Up to this point, the song uses a sharp, slightly musty kick, which is the only element that plays in the bass range. 00:58 In most songs, the chorus starts around one minute. Here it‘s the synth hook, a typical analog synth sound with arpeggio. Its real secret, however, is the crystal clear sound that pushes mercilessly through the mix and therefore gets stuck in your head. This part is the only one where no verses are sung - only repetitive phrases - which gives the synth even more space. In addition, the thin acoustic…

Asaf Avidan – Reckoning Song/Wankelmut – One Day The Israeli artist Asaf Avidan filled the halls of his home country even before his world-wide success. He gave many concerts, wrote songs and published albums. Time to spin the globe… During a trip to the USA, the German house and techno DJ, Wankelmut, listened to the song „Reckoning Song “by Asaf Avidad. Inspired by the soulful song, produced the song „One Day “without thinking much about it. In winter 2011, the track was uploaded to Soundcloud and YouTube and reached six-digit views. Initially, being less convinced by the idea of hearing his song as a remix by another artist, Asaf Avidad eventually released the exploitation rights in mid-2012. What followed is history. „One Day “became a world-wide hit and received several…

1 Custom Progressions Although the MPC is equipped with a large selection of chords for the PAD-PERFORM mode, there is still plenty of room for progressions. Conveniently, such progressions can be created yourself and used standalone afterwards. By the way, you can find 78 such progressions in the downloads. 2 MIDI Template Creating is super simple: Open the MPC software and either record some chords or import any MIDI file. In the download data you will also find a huge collection of MIDI files with scales from FeelYourSound [1]. Drag a file to the Arranger section and listen through the chords. 3 Set Notes Here you can define meaningful chord sequences; however, it shouldn‘t be more than 16 in a row, because each chord will later land on a pad.…

„For Nicolas Bougaïeff, the future is polytemporal and microtonal.“ Beat / The tracks on „The Upward Spiral “still work as techno, but they also transcend the club. Is it still relevant to you whether or not people will dance to these pieces? Nicolas Bougaïeff/ Now is not the time to dance, now is the time to create a better world. We can dance when we have a good reason to celebrate. But tell you what, when it is time to dance, you can‘t say beforehand if a track will make people dance or not. It‘s all about context! Not just musical context, but the situation, the space, the crowd. One of my favorite things is looping the 90 BPM part of „Thalassophobia “into some hip hop, then keeping a 2-beat-loop…

1 The Init Preset Load HALion Sonic SE on a new instrument track and open the Flux Presets in the MediaBay. Unfortunately, there‘s no initialization preset here. So load the Padington Who preset, reset all the Synth parameters and Quick Controls to their original values and save the resulting preset as a Flux Init. 2 The Rimshot A typical 808 snare consists of two components: A rimshot and a noise base. We create the rimshot with OSC 1 and and load the wavetable Sin x Saw Sync into the first oscillator. Set the LEVEL to 100. You can quickly adjust the sound of the rimshot later by changing the POSITION parameter in this wavetable. 3 Shorten the Sine The sine‘s tonal component should sound more percussive. We use Envelope 3…

1 Ambient We‘ll start with an ambient foundation: Start a new project and load TubeSynth with the pad preset The Reveal. This can be fine-tuned by setting the OCTAVE of Oscillator 1 higher to 4‘ and Oscillator 2 lower to 32‘. This makes the pad sound a lot richer. Switch to the ENVELOPE section. 2 Sound Design Here, we set the ATTACK to 450 ms and RELEASE to about 6 s, so the sound extends for a long time. In the REV/COMP/HYPE tab, we set the Reverb TIME to 16 s and LO CUT to 800 Hz. Switch to the main screen via MAIN, Set the length of the SEQUENCE to 16, then press the pencil icon of the TRACK and select the GENERATE RANDOM EVENTS option. 3 Random Generator…

Welcome to our YouTube-Community! Be creative, learn, get better: The Aethermonolog From GEMA: An Interview with Matthias Tode The Aethermonolog is a weekly podcast about songwriting and making music. Being creative, learning, sharing, getting better - that‘s what it‘s all about. In the following we talk about a topic that is often and gladly hotly discussed. The GEMA is a topic a musician has to deal with before pressing his first CD or vinyl. Apart from that, the keyword „YouTube License “is more topical than ever. In this podcast, I talk to the music supervisor and publisher Matthias Tode from Ohrfilm. We‘ll discuss the questions: What is the GEMA? How does it work? And for whom is a membership a good idea? On our way to the answers we touch…

Zero-G Ignition In business since 1990 and always having good releases from the start, Zero-G brings us Ignition, a multi-format library with unique cinematic-style SciFi sounds. As expected, there are many atmospheric sounds among the 400 patches with about 1.6 GB of samples. Nerdy and really gloomy sounds are hardly available, though. You can work creatively with this library, but you shouldn‘t rely on the presets. Tip: Using the LFO, you can rhythmize the Pads and Drones. You should also work with effect plug-ins to create even more movement and drama. We could have done without the voices from „Vocal Dialogue“, they just don‘t fit into this library. Verdict Ignition is not Zero-G‘s only library in this genre, but it is more practical than, say, „Northern Lights Pad Machine“. All…

The Common Thread: Beat Issue 10/2020 For many years Beat has been inspiring its readers not only with practical and musical topics, but above all with the tight integration of editorial content. From the very beginning, Beat has been about creating, about the structured building of ideas and the common thread - in the magazine as well as in the tracks. This navigator shows you the highlights of this issue and allows you to see the big picture. Studio Insights: Sub Focus & Wilkinson Collaboration on legendary ground: To further develop their joint Drum & Bass project, Sub Focus and Wilkinson retreated to Peter Gabriel‘s legendary Real World Studios. Danny Turner found out how the album „Portals“, which redefined the genre, took shape. Page 50 Review: Moog Subharmonicon An innovative…

Stupid Love at a Glance 00:55 The introduction of the chorus begins with a short pause of all instruments. Only the voice and the corresponding reverb can be heard. This puts the focus on the vocal phrase „I want just to be loved“. This technique is a perfect way to prepare the listener for the chorus and focus on the message of the song. 00:57 After the instrumental pause, all instruments come back like a drumbeat, underlining the importance of the chorus. While Lady Gaga repeats the line „I want just to be loved“, a highly pitched vocal sample runs through the hook. This acts less as a melody line than as a rhythmic element that makes the song even more danceable. 01:00 To make the hook more interesting compared…

Mixed In Key Captain Plugins Captain Plugins is a suite of three plug-ins that focus on a particular area of expertise. While Chords provides harmonies, Melody is dedicated to melodies and Deep to bass lines. The plugins are loaded into your DAW as virtual instruments and can control any software and hardware synthesizer. Each plug-in offers a piano-roll editor where you can select the desired scale, chords, note length and rhythm. The Captain Plugins make creating memorable chord progressions and matching catchy melodies and basslines a breeze. www.mixedinkey.com | Price: $79 US Dollars W.A. Production Insta Series with InstaChord With the Insta Series, W.A. Production delivers two plug-ins that are designed to make it easier to find chords and scale notes. Both Tools are called up as MIDI effects on…

1 Rowdy Drumcode DNA‘s special traits are undoubtedly its heavy beats and cool, industrial atmosphere. This is mainly due to the straight-forward moving grooves. In keeping with their sound, the drums are massive and rough, so we use the 909 sounds from our Geist Lite TRNSTR pack as our base. 2 Base The drums are processed partly with reverb and compressors, which suits us fine, since we don‘t want to go for pure 909 sounds and fall into the oldschool trap. Create a new GROUP and load the samples from the 909 Analogue folder in the workshop data. The kick doesn‘t have the desired power, so we‘ll process it. 3 Cracking Switch to the Pitch/Envelope section and transpose the kick upwards by +9 using Tune. Under Modulation, we set the…

1 Remove Unwanted Noise The odd breath noise can make a hip-hop track livelier; but, if they are too loud or contain nasty artifacts, they become unpleasantly noticeable after using a compressor at the end. Use the scalpel tool in FL Studio to eliminate all noise from the vocal track. 2 Surgical Intervention Now we have to find unwanted frequencies. Open the Parametric EQ 2 and set the BW value of each band to the left for a narrow band cut. Then increase the volume of the bands drastically and sweep them one-by-one through the frequency spectrum. Whenever you hear annoying frequencies, cut them. 3 Low Cut In lower frequencies, there is often background noise such as footfalls. The vocal signal in the mix can also sound too bass-heavy. With…

1 Preparation As an example, we use a vocal recording from songwriter Frederike Jender aka Scapula [1], which you can find as the Vocals-Scapula-Goodbye audio file on the magazine DVD. If you want, you can also use your own file. For dynamics processing, we have chosen the very flexible FabFilter Pro-C 2 compressor [2]. 2 Ratio For decent compression, a ratio of 2:1 to 4:1 is a good guide. We set a value of 4:1. Activate Audition Mode by clicking on the headphone icon on the left above the Threshold knob. Now you can hear the intensity better. Adjust the Threshold until the gain reduction is no more than 6 dB. 3 Threshold You can see this from the red LEDs of the level meter. We set Threshold to 20…

www.zamplersounds.com 1 Tool Arsenal The 1.49 GB Melodic soundbank makes our Zampler a secret weapon for hip club music styles like Melodic House and EDM. For our 123 BPM fast sample track we only use synth sounds from the expansion. A gripping groove is a must for Melodic House and related genres - so we start with that, too. 2 Drums The rhythmic foundation of our track is provided by drums, loops and effect sounds from the Indigo Dust soundset for Native Instruments Maschine [1] and the Loopmasters sample pack [2] Ultimate House. The bass drum from Vengeance Sound Metrum [3] plays on each quarter count, supported by a clap/snare on counts 2 and 4. 3 Driving Rhythm The desired drive is defined by a hi-hat on every second eighth…

1 Kick Programming Load an 808 kit and program a beat. First, select the kick pad, then select the Simpler where the kick is located in the Push display. Press the button under the Simpler to enter the submenu. Use the row of buttons below the display to select the Envelopes menu. 2 Customize Envelopes To make the kick crunchier, reduce the release time VE Release to about 500 ms. Repeat these steps for other reverberating drum sounds, such as the toms. To make the beat sound a bit rounder, add some Swing. Select a value between 20% and 30% and then press the Quantize button. 3 Add More Presence Give the kick a bit more presence with a Saturator. To do this, press the Add-Device button and use the…