Table of contents for 01-2021 in Beat English

The final word on 808 d16 Nepheton + 150 drum patterns No other drum machine has been copied in hardware or software as often as Roland‘s TR-808, and it‘s no wonder. It has, after all, influenced countless musical genres, from Hip Hop and Electro to Techno and House to R&B, Pop and Trap. One of the best virtual replicas of this cult device is without doubt the d16 Nepheton. So we are even more pleased to present this cult drummer to you as this month‘s highlight! Download: www.bit.ly/BeatDL180 | Info: www.d16.pl win | mac Your arsenal for fat drums XXL Overdrive & Filter Bundle Distortion, Filtering and Tape Saturation are not only among the most popular effects, but also the most effective tools for sound shaping of drums and synths.…

1 Production music? The principle of Production Music is similar to that of Sample Packs: The latter contain the smallest possible components in the form of sounds, loops or presets, while the former is all about the song, which must function in a particular context. For example as background music for advertising videos or as background music in films and games. 2 Selling music On the previous pages you’ll find various portals like Beatstars or Tracks & Fields, where you can offer your music. But there are big differences from provider to provider and you can do much more than just sell a finished master. As almost everywhere, the more flexible and detailed you design a package, the more freedom the user has in the end. 3 The difference And all…

No drum machine has been copied in hardware or software as often as Roland‘s TR-808. And it’s no wonder! It has, after all, influenced countless music genres, from Hip-Hop and Electro to Techno and House to R&B, Pop and Trap. One of the best virtual replicas of this cult device is, without a doubt, the d16 Nepheton. Therefore, we are all the more pleased to present this cult drummer as this month‘s highlight and show you how to conjure up various beats with it! Further Info: Info at: www.d16.pl License & Password: www.serialcenter.de 1 Synchronization d16 Nepheton not only brings the sound of the TR-808 to your DAW, but also has the same inspiring sequencer on board. To synchronize it to the tempo of your DAW project, we first click…

1 Routing Oscillators Load the Analog synth into a MIDI track. Since basses are always mono, configure the Analog as a mono controller. To do this, click in the Global section of the Analog where the main volume knob is located. Under Quick Routing in the window, select the matrix in the lower left corner so that both oscillators are routed to Filter1 and Amp1. 2 Adjusting Amp & Filter To make the sound decay faster, select Amp1 now and set the Release time to 35 ms. To make the sound more biting, switch to the filter section Filt1. Select 400 Hz as filter frequency. Increase the Attack time to 75 ms and decrease the Sustain to 0.38. Turn the filter resonance to 30%. 3 Sub Oscillator Set Env, the…

1 Source of Inspiration It happens that, despite your will, no melody wants to be created for the next killer hookline. On the other hand, there are, fortunately, two tried and tested means of achieving this: Arpeggiators and Chords, which almost always lead to inspiring ideas. We use a LaunchKey for this, but every current DAW offers arp and chord plug-ins, as alternatives. 2 Chords The principle remains the same in both cases. With the Scale Chords, the LaunchKey offers a series of stored chords that are played via the Pads. Instead, we want to fire off chords from the keys, which works with Fixed Chords. Hold the key, press three keys on the keyboard in succession and release Fixed Chords. 3 Fixed Chords A chord is already stored and…

Damage is a classic among Kontakt libraries. It is very likely that you have heard some of the orchestral percussion, ultra-wide blockbuster toms or steel industrial drums in a movie score, a game or a song. Heavyocity has taken ten years to create a successor and has spared no expense or effort for Damage 2. The recordings were done in Skywalker Studios, whose name already suggests, for movies, what caliber the sounds are that are usually mixed here. An elaborate miking setup with 84 different models provides a realistic capture of the classic percussion instruments as well as the numerous unique pieces from the scrap yard. Since the development team consists of successful sound designers and composers for commercials, film and computer games, practical access to the multisamples and loops…

Statement Lead is a kind of supplement to Monoment, another synthesizer plug-in by the Swedes. Monoment is specialized on basses and can, therefore, only be played monophonically in the lower part of the keyboard, while Statement Lead uses the full octave range and can be played polyphonically. Apart from that, sound generation, interface and features of both synthesizers are almost identical and users of Monoment can start playing right away without any training period. Sample-Based + Step-Filter As with Monoment, elaborately created multisamples of high-quality and extraordinary synthesizers serve as the basis for the sounds. And once again, the list of sound generators used makes all synthesizer lovers‘ mouths water: Synclavier, the Schmidt Synthesizer, Deckard‘s Dream, Oberheim Four Voice and Jomox Sunsyn are just a few of the instruments that…

Iridium offers the complex synth engine from Waldorf‘s flagship Quantum in a compact format, but without the analog filter. The five synthesis models include Wavetables, Virtual Analog Waveforms and experimental stuff like the Kernel Mode. In addition to the touch screen, a large number of encoders will ensure uncomplicated operation. Four CV inputs, Gate and Trigger In, allow the connection of Eurorack modules. Practical Desktop Model The tough metal housing is the same as the Kyra from the same company, but instead of cream-white-grey, it is designed in a sophisticated black-grey. Iridium is intended for the desktop and, therefore, fulfills the wishes of many Quantum lovers for a more compact, keyboardless version of this exceptional synthesizer. The housing has a user friendly bevel, but with dimensions of 440 x 305…

» Too much gear would distract me; less is more, and that counts. « Beat / Hi Sibel, nice that you found time for us. Your everyday life, with fulltime jobs and producing on the side, is full to bursting. Why did you choose a modular system to start producing? JakoJako / Hey Marco, that‘s right, my day is always pretty full and in some way I need that. At the moment, I work a little less in the store [Schneidersladen, Editor‘s note], which allows me to devote more time to music. I generally liked listening to synthesizer music, and then at some point, wondered how the sounds were created and where exactly they came from. Thanks to various forums, I was able to research the one or other setup…

Classics such as the UREI 1176, the legendary SSL bus compressors or the elaborate Teletronix LA-2A remain expensive, even though more affordable copies from various manufacturers are now available. Inexpensive hardware compressors are usually unobtrusive in terms of sound, but there is a model that can bring a little personality to DAW-less setups, especially in electronic music production, at a very reasonable price: The Alesis 3630 Compressor and Limiter with Gate. This not uncontroversial dynamics tool came on the market in 1991 and is, at least according to manufacturer information, the best-selling compressor of all time. Models in good condition are easy to find and, in many cases, they lie around unused in rehearsal rooms or storage rooms. Prices around 50 Euro are not uncommon on the used market. Originally…

1 Connect Devices In principle, you can use any drum machine that has a MIDI connection for the combination with Push. Now connect the drum machine to your computer via MIDI. To record the sounds from the drum machine, connect the audio outputs of the drum machine to the audio inputs of your audio interface. 2 Prepare Drum Rack Open the Preferences in Live. Go to the MIDI category and set Track and Remote Control to ON for your drum machine. To trigger the sounds via Live, load an empty Drum Rack into a MIDI track. For each sound in the drum machine, load an External Instrument device onto a pad in the Drum Rack. 3 Routing Rename each External Instrument according to the sound of the drum machine. Next,…

No matter if you usually perform live, are on tour as a DJ or with a band or are standing in front of an audience in any other way… in the current situation all these jobs are simply not available, and the huge amount of live streams, which had grown rapidly during the first lockdown, quickly turned out to be a bursting bubble. At least streams of DJ sets or virtual mini-parties, because on the one hand parties in front of the home computer are not comparable with the “real thing” and on the other hand a serious income through virtual entrance or sponsoring is not realistic. But there are also stream formats that are currently booming. In the penultimate Beat issue (11/20) we reported on this and showed how…

Before we get into the details, one more hint: The unbelievable number of existing sound providers makes it easy to realize that the market is already well filled. With another new sample pack, the great goal of fame and fortune is unlikely to be achieved, at least not in the short term. Perseverance and high-quality products are therefore necessary to establish your own brand and attract loyal fans. Well-known artists have an advantage here, of course, although the majority of followers are probably not interested in samples. But more on that later. Let‘s first dive deeper into the world of sound design… What should be inside Before you start highly motivated with the creation, you should first consider what exactly you want to offer and in which formats. The choice…

1 Sample The first thing to do is to select a suitable sample. You should look for a sound that doesn‘t have too much foundation. Trap hi-Hats are characterized by a large amount of high frequencies. In our case, the 808 CH sample was perfect. Now place this sample on the hi-hats in the Channel Rack. 2 Basic Patterns Next, we define the basic pattern. To do this, right-click on the hi-hat in the Channel Rack and select Fill each 2 Steps. Now go to the piano roll. Next, mark all hi-hats with CMD+A. Hold down CMD+L. The hi-hats now fill the empty space between the notes. 3 Note Editing Now select a note in the piano roll that you want to edit. Click on Tools in the top left…

Take part in our Beat Giveaway and win 3x Studio One and PreSonus Sphere! www.beat.de/giveaways 1 Not Enough Life in It? It happens again and again: The idea is there, the beat is fine, the bassline is rolling… but it doesn‘t really sound that round and fat at all. In particular, synth- and sample-based beats and basslines often lack any trace of feeling and liveliness. This, however, can be quickly remedied with the help of Studio One‘s Chorus and Analog Delay. 2 Much More Width So, we have loaded a beat from our d16 Nepheton, which grooved really well, but still sounds too flat and static. Here we load an Analog Delay, set TIME to 1/16, FEEDBACK to 0% and DRY/WET to 50%. To make sure the beat is really…

Modartt Organteq Instead of a mass of samples, Organteq‘s physical modeling results in an acoustic representation of a church organ. The final result is a multitude of stops for live performances. Is this an organ in a class of its own? Modartt has already made a name for itself with Pianoteq. In this related product Organteq, however, it is not a piano but a pipe organ from the Romantic period that is being reconstructed based on a model by the organ builder Aristide Cavaille-Coll. The sound of even fine blowing, mechanical noises from keys or stops, the spatial distribution of the pipes and other details of sound production are created in real-time. A realistic reverberation and the distribution of the sound groups to several individual outputs is also provided. With…

Shade presents itself in an appealing, modern look reminiscent of FabFilter Pro-Q3. A frequency curve occupies the upper half of the user interface. Below it, the filter parameters and the modulation section, which can be hidden if necessary, are displayed. The individual filter bands can be easily deactivated or switched to solo. But which filter models are on board? First of all, Shade offers classics such as Low Pass, High Pass, Bandpass and Notch in different variations. Among them, there are also replicas of analog models such as the filter of the Oberheim Xpander and the Sallen Key Circuit, which is used in the Korg MS-20, among others. The multi-resonance versions are also exciting. In addition, there are high and low shelf and peak and tilt filters as well as…

Typhon is a monophonic desktop synthesizer whose clear hardware layout is designed to give beginners a smooth start into analog working. For this purpose, Typhon offers an analog sound generator with two oscillators and a lowpass filter as well as 12 DSP effects. But Typhon can also enrich the setup of professionals thanks to its complex modulation options and a clever step sequencer including parameter automation. And in contrast to other inexpensive analog synthesizers, everything in Typhon can be saved. Compact but robust Typho is very compact and hardly larger than the Korg Volcas, but on a higher level in terms of haptics and robustness. The sturdy metal case ensures that despite its space-saving dimensions of 23 x 13 x 6 cm, Typhon stands firmly on the desktop with a…

POWERED BY DOEPFER Endorphin.es Queen of Pentacles After the superb Blck_Noir, Endorphin.es are now launching their second drum module, named after the „Queen of Coins“. This is a tarot card that stands for good character, maturity and sensuality. According to the Tarot rules, the character can also be reversed, which makes the Queen a fury. This explanation may seem strange at first glance, but even the second one reveals the similarities between the card and module because this drummer sounds quite pleasant and crisp in its pure form, but has its evil side in the form of overdrive and other brute effects. At the heart of the Queen are seven drum slots, with the kick, snare and clap being generated synthetically, while the other four are based on samples. Thanks to…

Paul Marx: Ideas for 100 Lifetimes This hip-hop song depends on atmospheric pads and loud vinyl drums. The deep voice is in the foreground and is carried by a mix with high stereo width. To support the dark sound, I set the warmth sound parameter to +1 in Instant Mastering. The resulting sound is authentic and brings out the sound of the mix; however, the loudness range of 5.29 LU seems quite dense and takes away a bit too much dynamic from the song overall for my taste. In addition, different frequencies in the low mids seem a bit overemphasized, probably due to the increase of the warmth parameter. This could be counteracted in the mix by using a dynamic equalizer at the problem frequencies, for example. Overall, the mastering…

Beat / The effects of the Corona crisis have hit musicians hard. Do you have any tips on how to make money with music despite the crisis? Paul / Many industries had to react to the crisis this year by moving meetings, events and workflows into the digital world. In the world of art and culture, too, there are numerous examples in which this reorientation has been used as an opportunity and many new possibilities have arisen out of necessity. I believe that in many cases, sticking to the previous real world formats cannot work in the current situation. We are all encouraged to rethink, and we all have the opportunity to use our creativity to make our art and culture possible in the digital world. There are numerous platforms…

As simple as providing drum kits may sound, there are some pitfalls that need to be considered. In order to make it as easy as possible for the user, we always put together a kit of 16 drums, number them consecutively and keep a uniform structure. So every kit starts with a kick whose file name begins with 01. This is followed by a rimshot or optionally a second kick, then a snare, clap, snare, tom, etc. In the picture you can see the structure of a complete kit. This fixed structure has several advantages: On the one hand, it complies with the General MIDI standard, so you can load compatible MIDI patterns onto the kit‘s track and immediately get working beats instead of chaos. The same applies to clips…

The Library of Alexandria is long since history. Until today, however, it embodies an ideal: to collect, organize and make available all the works of the world in a single place. This ideal is still just that: a dream. Because there is still no universal library for non-fiction and specialist books. After all, thanks to streaming, the entire world of music is available to us. Or is that not the case? In fact, the figures from the largest providers are impressive - according to current information, 40 million songs are available on Amazon Prime Music and Deezer, 50 million on Spotify and Apple Music. Tidal even boasts 60 million. But that is only a part of what has been recorded in the history of music. A conservative estimate puts the…

1 Save Computing Power The power of the integrated processor in the Maschine+ is sufficient to realize even complex arrangements with plenty of drum kits and instruments. Nevertheless, this resource should be used sparingly. A reverb on each pad is not necessary. Using the reverb as a send effect can save a lot of computing power. 2 Create an Effect Group First, you need to create a group that is exclusively responsible for the effects. In our case, we choose group D; however, you can set any group as an effect group. Select the first pad and press the Plug-in Button. Here, you can equip the pad with effects like reverb, delay, phaser and the like. 3 Choose the Effects Now press the + on the main controller and select…

1 Select Instrument For the sound generator, we choose the powerful and very versatile Alchemy synthesizer and load it as a virtual instrument. Some suitable club sounds can be found in its browser when searching for Synth, Analog, Techno and Simple. These two presets are worth a try: Deep Plucked Synth and Notched Squares. 2 Use Chord Trigger Now comes the real trick: For a sequence of single notes and chords, use the MIDI-FX plug-in Chord Trigger; switch to Multi and use the Learn function to assign any notes and triads in A minor or C major to the individual keys from C3 to C4. By using Chord Transpose, the complete phrase can be transposed to a desired key. 3 Enter Trigger Notes Now, we play on the keyboard with…

1 Intrusive Hi-hats Imagine you‘ve found the perfect drum loop for your track, but unfortunately its sound is affected by a high-frequency hissing hi-hat. If you lower these frequencies with an equalizer, the loop quickly sounds dull. A flexible de-esser like FabFilter Pro-DS [1] as an insert effect in the corresponding audio track can help. 2 Select Frequency Range Activate the all-round mode and the split-band mode. This configuration is recommended for processing complex signals such as mixes. Then click the audition button to hear only the frequency range that you want to edit. Adjust the cutoff frequencies of the high and low pass filters so that only the intrusive hissing is heard. 3 Fine tuning Click audition again so that you can hear the entire signal again. Threshold determines…

In addition to the Pro version of Cubase tested here, there are two cheaper versions [1] with reduced functionality available. As usual, the new version of the DAW comes with workflow and performance improvements such as optimizations of the Note Editor. These include the ability to create curves and gradients for MIDI CC and pitch bend tracks in the Key Editor, just like in automation. We also liked the fact that you can now set pitch bend to semitones. Fresh inspiration is provided by the new Sample Sets, which are dedicated to hiphop, tech-house, synth wave and trailer music, among others. Of Scales and Loops Tools that facilitate the composition process have always been one of our favorite features in Cubase. The new Scale Assistant also belongs to this category.…

Cytomic The Drop The Drop recreates the characterful, lively sound of analog filters in detail. The plug-in offers one high and one low pass filter that can be operated in parallel or serial mode, as well as ten different filter circuits. It emulates the models of such legendary synthesizer classics as the Roland SH-101 and SH-2, Moog Prodigy, Roland Jupiter 8 / Juno 6, OSC OSCar and Korg MS-20 (in both versions). With both filters you can switch between a slope of 12 and 24 dB per octave. The Drop‘s extensive modulation arsenal consists of a basic and an extended LFO, which also allows modulations in the audio range, and two AHR envelopes. The envelopes can also be used as envelope followers, making classic auto-wah effects an easy task. With…

The third generation MPK mini features an OLED display for easier operation, while the new pads are borrowed from the MPC One and, together with the new keyboard, are designed to provide a better playing feel. The extensive software package that comes with it has also been given a general overhaul. That sounds like a lavish feature set for under 100 Euro! Chic and Well Equipped MPK mini MK3 is available in three color designs: classic black/red, all-black and black/white with inverted keyboard. Functionally and, in terms of price, the three variants are no different. The classic design is adapted to the current MPC grooveboxes like One and Live. The eight endless knobs look chic, almost like classy metal knobs, but are made of solid plastic with good rotational resistance…

The Drumatix, which serves as the obvious Blueprint of Behringer‘s drum machine, was launched together with the legendary Bassline in the early 1980s, with the TB-303 as a virtual electric bass player and the TR-606 as a drummer‘s replacement to support guitarists. Both devices initially met with little interest, but were rediscovered years later as inexpensive second-hand devices and often used in combination for acid, techno, house and similar music styles. Plastic Housing With the RD-6, Behringer beat the new edition from Roland by a few weeks. The TR-06, however, is digitally built with virtual-analog sound generation, while Behringer relies on a replica of the analog circuits of the TR-606 that is as close as possible to the original and is a good deal cheaper. On the outside, however, the…

From Mix to Master At the end of every song production comes mastering. In this last step, the stereo mix of all tracks of the song gets its acoustic fine-tuning. In most cases, effects such as equalizers, compressors, maximizers or limiters are used again to get the best out of the overall mix. The mastering process fulfills different tasks at the same time. For one thing, the sound of the song should be optimized. For example, over- or under-represented frequency ranges can be adjusted so that no frequencies are booming or sound unpleasant. A pleasant and balanced sound image should be created. Simultaneously, the sound is processed so that the track not only sounds good under optimal studio conditions, but also makes a good impression on smartphones, in the car…

1 Browser Using Artificial Intelligence, rekordbox 6 has a new algorithm that automatically recognizes vocal parts in the song. This is ideal for live remixing on the fly, for example, to combine two vocal songs with instrumental intros. Open rekordbox 6 and select a vocal song in the browser for analysis. 2 Analysis With the right mouse button, select Analyze Track from the menu. In the following dialog, check the boxes in front of BPM, Key, Phrase and Vocal. Perform the analysis for all vocal-heavy songs that you will need for mixing. In the browser, already analyzed songs are marked by a red-green-blue symbol on the left. 3 Settings Select the Preferences from the File menu. Under the Tab View, you will find the entry Layout. Place a checkmark in…