Table of contents for 03/2026 in Beat English

Artificial intelligence has been a hot topic for a while, but it feels like it‘s really taking off in our industry right now. Support and opposition are pretty much evenly split, with every new product featuring “groundbreaking technology” quickly met with protests and rejection. Anti-actions such as Bandcamp‘s ban on all AI music are celebrated with enthusiasm. At the same time, more and more existing products are integrating smart assistants, automatic accompaniment, or other AI-based tools. Whether lyricists, sound designers, or producers – many of them have been using this technology for a long time. Hardly anyone wants to talk about it openly – except perhaps the endorsers of the Output CoPilot ads on YouTube. Has this already fundamentally changed the music landscape? Will there soon only be music generated…

Legendary amp models now available in the Cubasis DAW app Steinberg has released Cubasis 3.8, the latest update to its popular DAW app for iOS and Android. This major update brings numerous features and improvements that allow musicians to work even more flexibly and creatively on the go. Among the most important updates are the ability to select input and output devices directly and even record via Bluetooth. This is particularly advantageous for flexible working on the go. In addition, portrait mode and window support open up new possibilities for your workflow. Another special feature of the update is the Amp Rack and Bass Amp expansion. This provides you with a versatile selection of legendary amp models, combined with an extensive suite of guitar effects. Here you‘ll find warm vintage…

Mixed In Key Captain Plugins Epic Captain Plugins Epic is a suite of five tools, each focusing on a specific area: chords, melodies, bass lines and beats. The plug-ins are loaded into your DAW as virtual instruments and can control any software and hardware generator. Great: The creation of rousing beats in a wide variety of styles, catchy chord sequences as well as matching gripping melodies and bass lines is playful and with a high fun factor with the plug-ins. www.mixedinkey.com | 99 US-Dollar Audiomodern Riffer Riffer is a generative MIDI composition tool for riffs, sequences and arpeggios. At the push of a button, musical patterns are created with which you can control hardware and software. There are 53 scales to choose from. You can use parameters such as quantization,…

1 30-minute hook Set a timer to 30 minutes. Choose an instrument, a key, and a chord sequence. Develop a short melody phrase of one to two bars that repeats itself. Vary only rhythm, note length or accents. The goal is a hook sketch that instantly clicks, not a fully developed song section. 2 One chord hook Choose a single chord and stick to it consistently. Design your hook only by rhythm, tone selection and repetition. Change phrase length, accents, and pauses. This sharpens your sense of how much effect is already in a few tones and how strong hooks are created by timing, placement and recognition. 3 Call & response Design your hook as a musical dialogue: a clear starting phrase, followed by a deliberately designed answer. The harmony…

Arturia KeyStep Pro There is hardly a studio left in which there is not at least one KeyStep. Arturia‘s compact keyboard with sequencer and CV/Gate connection is simply too practical not to use. Four polyphonic tracks with up to 64 steps allow you to design harmonies, bass lines and leads in parallel and relate them directly to each other. The Chord mode helps to quickly find stable chords and the arpeggiator instantly transforms them into moving patterns. Chords and arps can be recorded and then processed as sequences. Through step length, timing, probability and velocity, variations are created in no time at all, from which hooks can be worked out. The keyboard with Aftertouch invites you to play. Particularly practical for composing is the possibility to harmoniously move current sequences…

1 Sidechain An audio signal triggers an effect in another track based on its volume curve. That‘s how Sidechaining can be broken down. You‘ll usually encounter it for the first time when you need to make room for the Kick when the Bass takes up too much space. The menu item in Logic is always at the top right of the effect. 2 Pad Pumping In addition to mixing techniques, Side-chaining is most commonly used to make pad sounds pump rhythmically. If you don‘t want to use specialized plugins such as Cableguys‘ Volumeshaper or Kickstart, you‘ll need Logic‘s compressor on the Pad track, routing to Kick, and the following settings to keep it pumping until the doctor arrives. 3 Funky Gate A much more unusual rhythmic effect is created when…

1 Multi-out advantages Finally mix kick, snare, hi-hat and shaker with separate effects without doubling tracks – this is made possible by multi-output routing. The idea: Each sound in the plugin is assigned its own track in Bitwig, where you can then freely distribute effects, modulations and automations separately; and still using only a single VST instance. 2 Triaz beats Basically the multi-out workflow works the same with any drum plugin: Part of the routing is done in the plugin itself, part in Bitwig. As an example, I use Triaz by Wave Alchemy, which also has a freeware version. It comes with fantastic sounds. With the drum kit, Attack, I build a groovy beat from kick, snare, hi-hats and toms. 3 Multi, multi In Triaz, click the small wrench in…

Human Productivity has natural limits. If an artist or a band releases an unusually large number of albums in a relatively short period of time, this can be interpreted as an indication that AI is involved. Another indication is the absence of credits (Composer/Producer/Label), as shown in the two examples below. Cover motifs can also allow conclusions to be drawn about the use of AI (image below right). It often helps to enter artist or band names into search engines to see if they are active on other channels.…

1 Activate XYZ layout Load an Instrument Rack preset, select Note Mode and press the Layout button until XYZ appears. The lower pad rows continue to work as a keyboard, the upper ones become the XY Matrix. Perform horizontal and vertical swiping movements. Many presets already have appropriately mapped parameters. In the display, you can see which ones are reacting. 2 Assign targets To assign parameters yourself, first map them to Macro controls. Then, in the XYZ area, hold a pad until Edit XYZ appears in the display. X responds to horizontal movements, Y to vertical movements and Z to pressure. For assignment, select X, Y or Z and then tap the encoder above the desired parameter and confirm with Done. 3 Modulation Start clip recording and play a short phrase…

We hope you enjoyed our exclusive Advent Calendar for Music Producers in our festive Christmas edition! Behind the 24 doors were not only great discounts on software, hardware, and sound banks, but also 13 sensational giveaways. From innovative acoustic tools and powerful synths to professional mixers and headphones—there was something for everyone. The campaign generated a lot of enthusiastic feedback, and we are overwhelmed by the high number of participants. Let‘s briefly recap: The Advent Calendar was designed especially for Producers like you—with a mix of giveaways and discounts that simplify your workflow and boost your creativity. Behind each door, you had access to highlights such as a 20% discount on GIK Acoustics bass traps, 60% off Sonokinetic Fantasy, and even 75% off the Flame Sound Cinematic Bundle. And the…

1 Resolution vs. openness Build a chord sequence with a focus on the tonic, i.e. the harmonious home of the progression. Play the chord progression once with a resolution, and once while deliberately leaving that point of arrival unresolved. Does the progression sound closed or floating? This shows how expectation arises and why open loops often seem more modern. 2 Close vs. open voicings Play a progression once in close position, with all notes clustered closely together, and once spread widely across several octaves. The chords stay the same, but their expression changes significantly. Close voicings sound compact, while open voicings feel spacious. Here, character is shaped purely by the spatial arrangement of the notes. 3 Bass & time Keep your chords, but change the bass tone and the tempo…

1 Harmonic center Load Scaler 3 [1] as an instrument in your DAW and use the internal piano sound first. For big pop gestures, it is not decisive which sound plays, but which chords carry the song. Scaler acts here as a harmonic center: All chord decisions arise first here and are later transferred to your song context. 2 Choose key First choose A as the fundamental tone and then in section B the scale A Minor. Many well-known songs are based on this natural minor scale because it allows tension without getting in the way of the melody. With the scale you determine the emotional base color – the plug-in now uses it as a reference and suggests chords that can be logically combined. 3 Pop dramaturgy On the Create page, open…

1 First the groove The beat is your starting point. It defines pulse and energy even before harmonies come into play. Don‘t listen to individual sounds, but to the interplay of kick, snare and hi-hats. Does the groove seem driving or relaxed? Even or broken? This rhythmic characteristic is the basis of all melodic decisions. 2 Melodies with plan Now you translate rhythm in pitch. Should the melody reinforce the groove or consciously counteract it? A calm, sustained line can give a dense beat stability, while short, rhythmic notes pick up and sharpen movement. Choose how much space you give the melody – and how reduced your tonal material may be. 3 Bass as engine The bassline is your first melody. With a few tones you determine where the song moves tonally. The…

Beat / Hi Marko, let us know why you set up and arranged your studio the way you did. Marko / It was built a few years ago by Mike „Fitz“ Schmidt from Sachsensound. He had recorded major artists there, like the Randfichten. After years of vacancy, we brought new life into it in December 2023. It‘s set up according to the best ergonomics for more than one artist or technician at the table. That‘s why there are four monitors and two keyboards. This allows us to either work on takes while facing the recording room or build and solder at the small table on the right. We adopted the monitor setup directly from Sachsensound. With the exception of the old handmade prototype monitors from K&S, there‘s nothing special here.…

1 Beat as a starting point Start with a new project at 120 BPM and create a track of the type Drums. In the Drum Machine, choose a preset such as The Vault and draw a pattern event on the track using the Pencil Tool. Open it with a double click to build your beat in the Pattern Editor or to start with one of the presets. Don‘t want to set every hit manually? 2 Variations No problem: The Euclidean and Randomize functions help you generate new patterns for individual instruments such as the Kick, Snare or Hi-Hat. Euclidean distributes the steps evenly in rhythm, while Randomize delivers fresh variations that remain musically coherent, despite the randomness. Once the beat is set, the way is clear for the synth sequences.…

1 The power button Open a kick or clap sample in the Sampler and go to Precomputed Effects. Under Effects Target, use the Boost control. Unlike a normal volume control, it increases the amplitude of the sample directly. This leads to faster clipping, which, when used deliberately, creates pleasant saturation. Ideal for giving drums more punch and aggression. 2 One-knob sound design A frequently overlooked control in this section is Pogo. It stretches or compresses the sample and, thus, affects the transients and the pitch. Turn it to the left on a kick and it sounds brighter and more defined; to the right, darker and softer. Even minimal movements change the character drastically, making it perfect for fast sound design. 3 Quick stereo width Especially with percussion, countersnares or hi-hats,…

STEREO / What prompted Deezer to go it alone and label AI-generated music for subscribers? Manuel / A few years ago, we suspected that we would have a problem here because tools are becoming accessible to everyone that can imitate the process of human composition at no cost: Using software that is fairly easy to use. And I would say it‘s also a kind of positioning: We put ourselves in our customers‘ shoes and thought: „If we were in their position, we would want to know that.“ That‘s why we wanted to work on the problem of finding this type of content on our site and separating it out in good time. STEREO / How exactly does the AI Filter work on Deezer? Manuel / It‘s an automated detection tool.…

1 Let‘s go Start Loopcloud as a plug-in in your DAW and click on Open App. The Loopcloud trial [1] with 100 credits and a 1 GB sample pack is enough for creative work. Start by searching for drum grooves and, if necessary, filter them by attributes such as genre and tempo. We opt for sounds from the sample pack Loopmasters British Invasion. 2 Load loop If you like a loop, load it via mouse click onto a track in the app. Then, set the project tempo in your DAW to match. Buy the sample with your credits if you want to use it in high quality or transfer it to your DAW. Now comes the fun part: Right-click on the loop and then on Flip Sample. 3 samples flipping…

Answer one: Artificial intelligence is booming. Almost every day, new, supposedly smart AI assistants come onto the market that (claim to) simplify the lives of musicians and producers. In the current issues of Beat, we have been providing you with tests and tutorials on the hottest techniques since the beginning of the year. This includes tools that create videos and sound, such as those we used to create Lydia. She is, to put it simply, the result of our tests, our showpiece and mascot—and she will certainly change over time, as the quality of the apps continues to improve. And answer number two? Quite frankly, Lydia is simply much more personable than a group of studio nerds who are not comfortable in front of the camera. Once we had the…

Danny L Harle: Cerulean With „Cerulean“, British producer Danny L Harle presents his first album for XL Recordings. The 13 tracks move between electronic club music, eurodance, trance, pop and orchestral elements. Characteristic features include dense synth pads, clubby basslines, trance-like leads and a detailed, big-sounding production, as well as the collaboration with London string collective 12ensemble. Euphoric, dance-oriented passages stand alongside melancholic, ambientlike moments, but overall the album has a poppy, accessible character. In addition to three instrumentals, it is above all various vocalists who shape the record: Caroline Polachek, Clairo, Julia Michaels, PinkPantheress, Oklou, MNEK and Kacha (Coals). The album reflects Harle´s background between club culture, pop production and classical training, creating a cross-genre electronic aesthetic with strong marketing potential. Genre: Dance | Label: XL Recordings LIN/LOG: Rituals…

The common thread: Beat magazine 03/2026 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. Masterclass: Melody Mastery Melodies and hooks determine whether a loop becomes a song. Melody Mastery shows you how to develop chords, melodies, and hooks in a targeted manner—with clear workflows, tried-and-tested methods, and without the stress of reading music. Instead of theoretical ballast, this special focuses on decisions: What carries the song?…

1 Beat as base Start with a drum loop from your library or use the Captain Beat [1] plug-in from Mixed In Key. A stable groove defines energy, tempo and space in the arrangement before you start the chord and melody work. Choose Pattern + Kit, replace individual drum sounds or entire patterns as needed, and shape the beat into something that holds together and carries the track. 2 Chord movement If you like a pattern, you can export it to the corresponding instrument track of your DAW. Continue with the Pilot Plugins [1]. First, load Pilot Chords and choose Progression and Style and an instrument that suits you. If necessary, click on regenerate several times and adjust the chord progression with the controls. 3 Bass as accompaniment Tip: You can also customize…

1 Source material To develop an entire track from a loop, we will use the eight-bar sequence from the workshop „The beat is there - and now?“. In addition, we have produced another eight-bar sequence (B-part) whose individual tracks we can use for our song. Of course, you can also build a complete track from the musical elements of a single loop. 2 Copy & paste With two loops as a basis, however, you have more options for composing a complete, varied song. You can work with both audio and MIDI loops. The first step is to copy the corresponding parts to the desired location in the timeline to build up a basic song structure of the desired length. 3 Building the structure The task here is to decide which of the two…

Beat / It seems like you‘ve been extremely busy not just with your new album but also with various fashion-related activities. DJ Hell / Yes, this year I designed a Hell suit with a German brand called Drykorn. In 2026 I will design my first sneaker with a brand from Munich called VOR. When I am in Paris during fashion week, I try to visit as many shows as possible. I was at the last shows of Dries van Noten and Rick Owens is always at the top of the list. Recently I also did many shootings for fashion magazines all around Europe. Beat / Have music and fashion always gone together for you? DJ Hell / Definitely. My earliest musical experience were never just about sound - they were…

1 Connect with Splice On the left side of Live‘s browser, under Locations, you will find the Splice entry. Click on it and link your Splice account. The Splice window will now appear in your Live browser. You can preview samples even without a Splice subscription; to download samples and use the free library, simply create a free account. 2 Filter free sounds If you want to work without a Splice subscription, select Included in the search filters at the top of the Splice window. You will then only see content that can be used with a free account: This is indicated by the Ableton icon in the results and the green Included tag below the sample. Start sequencer playback so you can test samples immediately in song context. 3…

for all Producers, DJs and Musicians 12 MAG ISSUES STARTING AT 71,90 EURO/YEAR ACCESS TO OVER 100 ISSUES IN THE ARCHIVE GET OVER 1,2 TB OF INSTRUMENTS & SOUNDS PLUS GIFT OF YOUR CHOICE! Want it? Get your subscription here: www.plugins-samples.com Find your favorite subscription gift at www.plugins-samples.com MUSICLAB REALLPC 6* RealLPC 6 captures the legendary sound of a Gibson Les Paul Custom with outstanding quality and a wide range of articulations. A real weapon for rhythm playing and expressive solos. Thanks to the Song Mode, lively guitar grooves can be created from 1250 rhythm patterns and chords and exported to your DAW via drag & drop. no additional costs Gift ID: F1585 BABY AUDIO SPACED OUT* Spaced Out is a versatile multi-effect that combines delay and reverb in an…

1 Back to 97 Da Hool‘s “Meet Her at the Love Parade” struck a chord at the 1998 Love Parade. Like tracks by Marusha and Westbam & Dr. Motte, Techno suddenly hit the radio, and the Love Parade grew rapidly into a million-strong event. The track‘s trance-inducing lead sound was right at the heart of it all, climbing to number four in the German charts. 2 Back to the Parade And then, in September 2025, a new version was released on Afterlife Records, produced by Da Hool together with YOTTO and Cassian. Finnish remix specialist meets Australian Melodic House genius meets Bottrop‘s finest Frank Tomiczek, aka Da Hool. The vibe is different compared to the original, but its iconic lead sound is virtually the same. 3 Love Parade The alternation between staccato…

Chorus Symphony is unmistakably a replica of the legendary Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble. CE-1 was developed by Boss, a subsidiary of Roland, and is based on the circuitry of the legendary Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus amplifier. In 1976, it was the first standalone stereo chorus pedal with an integrated vibrato function and was based on a Bucket Brigade Device (BBD) chip to produce a warm and lively chorus sound. Behringer‘s replica also offers two effect modes, chorus and vibrato, which can be switched using the right foot switch. The dry signal is faded out when the effect is activated; here, I would have liked to see an additional Dry/Wet control for greater flexibility. The intensity of the Chorus is controlled by a potentiometer, whereby the modulation is not uniform but…

DJs who are on tour almost every week know how to appreciate the robustness and mobility of headphones that can also be used in the studio. With the DJ 300 PRO X, beyerdynamic combines both worlds. Build quality When unboxed for the first time, the DJ 300 PRO X in the standard black version appears to be very well made. The materials feel robust and durable, the joints are sturdy, and the headphones can be adjusted comfortably. Thanks to the foldable design and the individually adjustable headband, this model can be transported without taking up much space, which is a clear advantage when traveling or for a gig setup. The flexibility of the ear cups is also a positive point. They can be switched between on-ear and overear pads. While…

03.02.2026 - 06.02.2026 ISE 2026 Barcelona, ES 17.04.2026 - 19.04.2026 Synthfest France  Nantes, FR 24.04.2026 - 26.04.2026 Akustika Nuremberg, DE 07.05.2026 - 09.05.2026 Superbooth  Berlin, DE 13.05.2026 - 17.05.2026 Berlin Dance Music  Berlin, DE 28.05.2026 - 30.05.2026 AES EUROPE Kopenhagen, Denmark 04.06.2026 - 07.06.2026 HIGH END Vienna 2026 Wien, AT 18.06.2026 - 20.06.2026 Sonar Festival 2026 Barcelona, ES 21.10.2026 - 25.10.2026 ADE Amsterdam Dance Event Amsterdam, NL…