Table of contents for July 2019 in Future Music

WELCOME Getting gritty ‘Lo-fi’ sounds have proved pretty fashionable in dance music circles in recent years; from the lo-fi house style pedaled by the likes of DJ Seinfeld or Ross From Friends to the purposefully rough-edge take on techno and electro associated with artists like Helena Hauff or the records released on labels like L.I.E.S. or PAN. Lo-fi club music is more than just a recent fad though. Right through from the earliest days of house and techno to the heyday of ’90s jungle and early hip-hop beatmaking, producers have been misusing and abusing gear to work around limitations and achieve distinctive sounds. Modern software makes it possible to achieve almost any sound imaginable with little more than a laptop – which is great, obviously – but sometimes taking a…

Mixed In Key Studio Edition plugin brings real-time key detection to your DAW Mixed In Key have rebooted their eponymous ‘harmonic mixing’ DJing application for DAW users, in the form of the Studio Edition plugin. This promises instant real-time key detection; you can quickly analyse your MIDI instrument sounds and audio samples, and discover their root key and notes present. A note percentage score tells you how closely notes match your samples, and key results can be viewed using Flat, Sharp or Camelot wheel notation. The plugin works on both specific audio channels and your master output and is said to provide “advanced key and notation data”. As well as being useful for making sounds and samples ‘fit’ together, it can also be used to tune your drums and vocals,…

Filter Elektron’s Digitone Keys is unconventional looking – but great sounding What do you get if you take Elektron’s Digitone synth and strap a 37-note on the side of it? The Digitone Keys, of course, which made its debut at the recent opening of Elektron’s new Berlin HQ. This is designed to put you in complete control of the Digitone’s eight-voice polyphonic FM sound engine. The keyboard is pressure-sensitive and supports aftertouch, and you get assignable pitch and modulation wheels. Other than the keys, the major upgrade here comes in the form of I/O, with the Keys boasting a full set of eight 1/4-inch output jacks, providing stereo outputs for each of the four parts from Digitone’s multitimbral engine. There’s also an additional set of control rotaries that sit directly…

Teenage Engineering add sampling to the OP-Z Back when it landed last year, we were impressed with Teenage Engineering’s combined synth, sample and multimedia sequencer, the OP-Z. One slightly odd omission, however, was its lack of onboard sampling – despite having four sample tracks and a built-in mic, getting your own sounds into the OP-Z required an upload via USB. Now, with the latest firmware update, Teenage Engineering have rectified that. Users can now record samples using either the instrument’s built-in microphone or mini-jack headphone port using a headset mic. Synth tracks can sample up to six seconds of audio to be played chromatically, while drum tracks can record up to 12 seconds to be sliced up across the keyboard. The update will be free to all OP-Z owners. There’s…

NI revamp the Komplete Audio 6 for enhanced style and sound Promising style and substance, Native Instruments have launched a revamped Komplete Audio 6 audio interface to join the upgraded Komplete Audio 1 and 2 launched earlier this year. The Komplete Audio 6 follows the same design blueprint as its little brothers, but ups the ante with a glass and aluminium housing. This is said to make the interface more durable, though the original version was actually pretty bombproof anyway. This new model certainly looks slicker than its predecessor though, while controls, connections and the new LED VU-meters are designed to be positioned where you need them to be. Enhancements have been made on the inside, too: you can now record at 24-bit/192kHz, while the all-new preamps offer improved gain…

Soma Laboratory debut the Pulsar-23 drum machine Soma Laboratory have been proudly showing off a prototype of their forthcoming Pulsar-23 “organismic” drum machine. Designed to be used on its own or as part of a wider modular setup, this offers 23 independent modules, 52 knobs, 11 switches and more than 100 inputs and outputs. There are four drum channels – Bass drum, Bass\Percussion, Snare drum, Cymbals\Hi-Hat – along with four sustain-equipped envelope generators that allow the tracks to be turned into drones generators. There are also four loopers onboard, plus CV-controlled DSP effects, distortion, a pseudo-randomisation tool and more. The price is expected to come in at between 1,200 and 1,500 euros, and we've been told that we could be seeing a finished version by later on this year.…

In the studio with Axel Reinemer “The studio was in Berlin, in the loft where the label office for Sonar Kollektiv was. “The music all begin with the Atari ST. The software was called Notator [by Logic granddaddy, C-Lab]. Stephan is still on that computer, ten years later. When I got the first Pro Tools rig in 2002, I also bought a Logic computer, with everything, but he only touched it once [laughs]. “Then we had the old e6400 and 4XT E-MU samplers. We also used the Studio Electronics X1 for sub and synth bass stuff. The mixing and recording stuff was on the 32-channel Neumann board that I got from the Berlin opera house. “Then a lot of vintage tube mics, Neumann mics, and outboard gear and effects like…

How to age modern softsynths Turn shiny synth signals into retro soundscapes with our handful of programming tips 01 One of the quickest ways to ‘age’ a synth sound is to mimic the instability of analogue oscillators. Try detuning two or more oscillators apart by a few cents, then modulating the pitch of one of the oscillators for ever-changing drift. 02 Going further, try modulating the pitch of both oscillators with two completely different LFOs to achieve warbling, detuned synth sounds straight out of Blade Runner. Keep the modulation signals subtle and slow for a less obvious effect. 03 Most synths have a noise oscillator, so blend this into the mix to emulate the noise of analogue circuitry. Certain modern softsynths even feature sampled waveforms of hum or vinyl crackle…

THE TRACK Phildel Glide Dog Yee Inventions, 2019 © Joe Branston Despite the ostensibly esoteric nature of her fusion of neoclassical and alternative pop, singer-songwriter Phildel has had a great deal of commercial success since she began recording her own demos in the late noughties, with Apple, Marks & Spencer, Expedia and even Persil using her music to hawk their wares. We caught up with Phildel in her Brighton studio to find out how she conjures up her ethereal compositions, specifically sinister new single Glide Dog. Tell us a little about your music production history and how it led up to Glide Dog? “My very first album The Disappearance of the Girl I wrote and arranged, but Russ Cullum produced that album. Then I created and produced an instrumental album…

Akai Force Producer’s Guide To Four more Force features Let’s wrap up our tour of Force with a look at a quartet of pro features worth exploring 01 Macros Hitting Menu > Knobs takes you to a page where you can assign the eight central macro Knobs to almost any parameter of your choosing. Use these for hands-on control over parameters specific to your project, the current track, volume, pan and much more. 02 Crossfader Hold down the Crossfader section’s Assign A or B button, then press a track’s bottom button to assign it to either side of the fader. Once set up, you can flip the Crossfader left or right to volume-fade between the tracks for DJ-style performance. 03 XYFX Pad The XYFX Pad, an insert effect in itself,…

RETROSPECTIVE Acid house Defined by the sound of a legendary synth, this Chicago-born subgenre remains deeply popular The origin story is a long-established comic book trope. You know the type of thing: Peter Parker being bitten by a radioactive spider and becoming Spiderman; a young Bruce Wayne witnessing his parents’ murder and deciding to become some kind of vigilante in a cape... It’s rare that a musical genre has an origin story as compelling as any dreamed up by Stan Lee, but acid house might just stake the best claim. Usually genres evolve over time, making it hard to discern how or when they started. Acid house is different: we can pinpoint the exact moment when three men from Chicago acquired super powers thanks to a little silver box. The…

FEEL THE PRESSURE MicroFreak’s Buchla Easel-style 25-key capacitive keyboard is an interesting addition in both looks and playability, encouraging a different kind of performance. Unlike regular keys, these PCB flat strips are covered in copper dots that respond to the amount of surface your fingers cover, resulting in the output of gate, pitch and pressure (or velocity) data that can be assigned to any parameter via the Matrix. Polyphonic aftertouch is possible, and various responsiveness options can also be adjusted in the Utility menu, too. For note bends, there’s a bipolar Touch Strip that lets you ‘punch in’ and scan specific jumps or slides below and above the current pitch. For more performance possibilities, the synth features an Arpeggiator: engage it with the Arp button, set Rate and Division, set…

TR-SYNC Launched at this year’s NAMM, TR-Sync sees Roland and Serato furthering their partnership by allowing any of the modern TR drum machines to work in sync with Serato DJ Pro. Pleasingly, this is a free update for all existing users, rather than a paid upgrade like Serato DVS, which just involves updating the firmware of your drum machine. In use it’s a pretty simple system – just plug the drum machine into your laptop via USB and connect the audio output to an available mixer channel and you can use the drum machine as an extra deck in DJ Pro. There are certainly ways Serato and Roland could go further with this – it’d be great to have plug-and-play MIDI control of Serato’s sampler using the drum machine as…

GEAR GUIDE AFFORDABLE SYNTHS Modal Electronics Skulpt £269 Full Review: FM344 Skulpt exists in a crowded market, but with its wealth of oscillators and modulation options, this digital synthesiser will give you a lot back for the price you pay. Novation Circuit | £250 Review: FM299 A broad range of sounds with a fluid and intuitive workflow all adds up to make Circuit a winner. Its sequencer is absolutely killer too. IK Multimedia UNO | £210 Review: FM335 Despite some manufacturing compromises, IK’s first hardware synth is a great-sounding source of analogue basses and leads at a bargain price. Korg Minilogue XD | £565 Review: FM341 The four biggest Prologue features (Multi-Engine, user oscillator/effect import, filter-drive and stereo-effects) in an affordable form. Instabuy! Teenage Engineering OP-Z | £529 Review: FM339…

The Future Of Music Moog add to Mother range with four-voice Matriarch We got our first hint that Moog had something new on the way when the Asheville brand trademarked the name Matriarch back in March. Now we can put a face to that name, following the full reveal of their latest semi-modular at last month’s Moogfest. Sharing much of its DNA with last year’s excellent Grandmother, the Matriarch is a patchable analogue instrument that once again comes equipped with a full-sized keyboard, sequencer and arpeggiator. The main enhancement here comes from the oscillator and voice count; the Grandmother’s two oscillators are upped to four here, which can be played, sequenced and patched in two- or four-note paraphonic modes. Elsewhere, the Matriarch packs dual ladder filters, which can run in…

| The Future Of Music Rack ’em up Once again, Superbooth 2019 was the biggest event in the modular calendar, packed to the rafters with exciting new modules to get our patch cables wobbling... In the four years since its inception, Superbooth has rapidly become the most important event in the modular calendar. With its slightly ramshackle, DIY ethos, public access and – importantly – lower exhibitor costs, it's the ideal venue for Eurorack brands to unveil their latest offerings. More than ever, Eurorack was a dominant force at Superbooth19, offering us a first glimpse at modules from pretty much all the biggest names in the modular world. In terms of sheer volume of new stuff, nobody can match Erica Synths, who brought 13 new Black Series modules and a…

Filter UDO’s Super-6 is a serious contender Bristol-based outfit UDO are new to the synth market, but lead designer George Hearn has had a hand in some impressive projects, most notably on the voice architecture of Modal Electronics’ great 08 synth. The first synth under the UDO name, unveiled just in time for Superbooth, is the Super-6, a hybrid analogue/digital polysynth with some unique tricks up its sleeves. The highlight is the instrument’s fully binaural signal path, which makes use of fully stereo signals from its oscillators right through to its output – effectively using two individual six-voice synth engines side by side. This allows the synth to spread, space and modulate the oscillators on each channel in interesting ways. This results in a natural, reverb-like sound created right at…

Filter IK’s UNO Drum: analogue and sampled beatmaking in one sub-$250 groovebox Italian brand IK Multimedia made their analogue debut with last year’s UNO Synth – a budget-friendly analogue monosynth in a compact, battery-powered package. We really liked the original UNO; despite a slightly cheap-feeling build, it boasts a meaty, characterful sound that belies its lightweight form. Now IK are back with a sister instrument, the UNO Drum, a 12-track drum machine that combines analogue percussion synthesis with PCM sample triggering. Visually, the UNO Drum shares a lot of traits with its predecessor. It’s all housed in the same desktop-friendly plastic chassis, which once again uses a combination of rotaries and touch-sensitive control. As was the case before, power can come from either AA batteries or via USB, and the…

Dreadbox unveil second generation NYX Dreadbox have announced details of their latest instrument, a second generation update to the brand’s excellent semi-modular synth NYX. Like the original NYX, the v2 is a two-oscillator analogue instrument with built-in reverb, in a relatively compact, desktop-friendly chassis. Specs are similar to NYX v1, but with subtle improvements. Again, the oscillators are joined by dual multimode filters, a VCA and three loopable modulation generators. Here, however, those Mod generators gain an additional Hold slider (as opposed to the simple on/off switch on the original). There’s a separate LFO here too, and the Amp envelope gains a new Drone mode. The synth’s reverb has also been upgraded, adding modulation tools that Dreadbox claim are “ideal for ambient sounds”. Finally, the patchbay has been expanded upon…

Dada Machines’ Composer Pro looks like a serious sequencer Composer Pro is a standalone MIDI sequencer that looks a little like a cross between Ableton’s Push and Polyend’s Seq sequencer. The sequencer is based on a 16x16 backlit pad grid, with rotaries, navigation buttons and an OLED screen. Like Push/Live, it makes use of multiple views to sequence patterns and tracks, here named Song View and Scene View. Interestingly, Composer Pro is configured to work with any open source audio engines – so there should be plenty of flexibility to incorporate it into wider setups. Composer Pro is due later this year, but we’ve no word on price yet.…

Ultimate Lo-fi Old-school samplers Digital hardware samplers from the ’80s and ’90s, although once cutting-edge, now sound primitive next to any modern DAW or sampler, but it’s that nostalgic sound that we now miss. Operating at low sample rates by today’s standards, those sampler sonics can be partly emulated using a sample-rate reduction plugin. However, there was more to the sound than that, most notably the colour imparted by the AD/DA converters. If you’re looking to get that lo-fi vintage sampler tone, you can’t beat the real thing. Original Akais and E-Mus can be had for cheap second-hand, and although they’re a pain to program, you’ll instantly get the grit, artefacts and timbre that you’ve been looking for. For a more convenient software solution, RX950 from Inphonik (formerly Mathieu Demange)…

Ultimate Lo-fi Four lo-fi production tips to try out Here’s a handful of tricks to inspire your anti-hi-fi studio adventures 01 Bit-rate and sample-rate reduction will instantly send any sound back to a low-res era. For interesting effects, try loading up your bitcrushing plugin after a reverb or delay effect in the chain, then hear how the ambience is downsampled as it trails off. 02 By heavily distorting a reverb signal, you create something that’s completely unnatural to our ears, instantly evoking an industrial vibe. Place the reverb and distortion effect in series directly on a signal, or set up reverb-to-distortion on an aux. 03 A great way to impart grit into audio is by abusing your DAW’s timestretching and pitchshifting algorithms. Push things to extremes to introduce grainy artefacts,…

Phildel The Track Glide Dog’s sinister soundscapes in Apple Logic Pro Phildel uses Logic and Vienna Symphonic Library to weave sonic magic on the track 01 “To begin with, I wrote the chords for the string part on the piano, then decided I’d really like strings to cover it to give it a kind of sinister feel,” Phildel reveals. “I’m using VSL strings, and for Glide Dog I went for the basic articulations because I didn’t want too much activity going on, just calm, sustained chords.” 02 “I went for chamber strings, not a solo instrument, so that’s what gives us the feeling there’s a string section,” she continues. “For me, panning is also a big thing: it makes so much difference to how a mix comes across.…

Acid House | Retrospective Can’t afford a 303? Get the acid house sound on a budget… D16 Phoscyon 1 The Roland TB-303 is no longer the budget option it was when Phuture kicked off the acid house sound. Mint condition original units can sell for up to £3,000. Thankfully there are dozens of cheaper alternatives these days, from analogue clones like the Cyclone Analogic TT-303 Bass Bot through to Roland’s own virtual analogue TB-03 and various software options. One of our favourites is D16’s excellent Phoscyon plugin. At 59 euros it’s a bargain for a very realistic emulation of the classic hardware. The basic sound of the 303 is remarkably close to the real deal, but Phoscyon goes even further, adding a built-in arpeggiator and a more intuitive sequencer, distortion…

GROUPTEST AKG K Series The K Series trio of production headphones boast a flexible, foldable design, which their makers AKG claim is a first for their class. Combined with impressive power, are these the ideal headphones for the modern on-the-go producer? Let’s find out… 1 As with all three pairs of headphones in AKG’s new K Series, the K175s have a foldable design that lets the cups tuck in under the self-adjusting headband, so each pair packs down neatly to fit into its carry bag. Despite this flexibility, the build on all three pairs feels durable, with plenty of flexibility from the frame and robust-looking metal hinges that don’t feel likely to snap from overuse. The overall range design is pretty comfortable in use too; the foam ear cups can…

ADVICE How do I make authentic Game Boy-style music? > Believe it or not, it’s now 30 years since Nintendo released the original Game Boy, but the monochrome marvel’s influence continues to stretch far beyond video gaming. The Game Boy’s primitive sound system, comprising two pulse wave generators, a PCM wave sample channel and a noise generator, is now iconic, and still used today. If you want a truly authentic Game Boy music-making experience, you’ll probably want to get your hands on one of the original units. If you’re not lucky enough to have one sitting up in the loft, then you can try eBay, where you should be able to pick one up for less than £50. Once you’ve got your machine, you’ll need a ‘game’ that will enable…

Gear Guide Essential Tools For Music Making DAWS Tracktion Waveform 10 from $199 Full Review: FM345 Waveform is now friendlier, contains more creative tools and brings workflow improvements you’ll have missed from other DAWs. Bitwig Studio 2.4 | $169 Review: FM330 Bitwig Studio 2 was great at launch, but subsequent ‘point’ updates have made it even better, adding new synths, refined tools and – most recently – a new sampler. Propellerhead Reason 10 | €369 Review: FM327 Reason is now ready to lock and load with VST plugin support. 10 adds several new instruments and effects, helping you maximise your creativity. Cakewalk by Bandlab | free Cakewalk was recently been killed off by Gibson but saved by BandLab. It’s now free, so head over to their site and get downloading! We’re…

Gear Guide Essential Tools For Music Making DRUM MACHINES & SAMPLERS Arturia DrumBrute Impact £279 Full Review: FM335 The Arturia DrumBrute Impact isn’t the most versatile-sounding drum machine, but its sequencer is great and it packs a whole lot of punch for its price. Elektron Digitakt | £659 Review: FM320 With deep sequencing and a powerful sound engine, Digitakt is the ‘affordable’ Elektron groovebox we’ve been dreaming of. Elektron Analog RYTM | £1,499 Review: FM331 Though the MK1 remains a great box, there are plenty of reasons to upgrade to the MKII – user sampling, individual outs, and QPER feature are all indispensable additions. Elektron Octatrack | €1,449 Review: FM327 This update gives existing users little reason to upgrade and lacks DAW integration, but Octatrack remains the king of creative…

FM FILTER Novation’s new flagship poly is Summit special Get your twin Peaks hit with the UK brand’s new 16-voice, multitimbral synth Novation have unveiled a new flagship polysynth featuring a two-part, 16-voice synth engine based on that found in the company’s desktop synth Peak. Summit is essentially two Peaks in one box, which can be used either as a single synth engine or split to create two patches that can be blended, layered or split across the synth’s 61-note keyboard. As with Peak, Summit combines digital and analogue technology, using their New Oxford Oscillators to provide a high-res digital sound source that’s then processed via a stereo analogue signal path. That signal path incorporates dual multi-mode filters and an analogue VCA per-voice. There are also three analogue distortion stages…

The Future Of Music Four modular highlights from Superbooth 2019 Our top picks of the patchable gear from the show floor… Make Noise Mimeophon 01 Another collaboration with SoundHack’s Tom Erbe (following in the footsteps of the excellent Erbe Verb), Make Noise are calling Mimeophon a ‘stereo multi-zone audio repeater’, although most of us would probably just call it a delay. The fancy name is more than just marketing speak though; Mimeophon can do some very cool things, such as allowing users to skew the left and right delay channels in opposite directions as well as process the repeats with the cumulatively ‘stacked’ Color and Halo effects, which apply filter and diffusion-like effects that feed into one another. Via the Zone control, repeats can go from short chorus-like effects to…

Filter Korg release NuTubeequipped synth, sub-£100 DIY kit and more Korg have started to get seriously adventurous with their Volca range recently. Where NAMM brought a West Coast synth and resonant drum machine to the compact instrument line, Superbooth saw Korg unveil an acid-leaning bass synth equipped with the company’s NuTube tech. The NuBass takes the original Volca Bass's DNA – analogue oscillators, resonant VCF and simple envelopes – and ramps up the sound using a modern take on the classic analogue vacuum tube. The NuTube tech itself has already appeared in several guitar and keyboard products, but this is its synth debut. It works like a classic tube but is based around a fluorescent display, which allows the whole unit to be much smaller and require less power. Here,…

CLASSIC ALBUM Jazzanova Of All The Things Verve, 2008 Words by Roy Spencer © Georg Roske “What if no one likes it?” When it came time for album number two, these Berlin-based beat-makers mulled that question over for a nanosecond. “Forget it.” They knew they were right to flip it on you. Time would prove them right. It would have been easy to return to the tried and tested format of their sample-heavy debut, In Between. But, always rising to a challenge, they ramped up the stakes this time around. Before, they were a couple of hip-hop heads with some wax and an Akai sampler. Now, they went mad, drafting 60 plus musicians into the mix, including a full orchestra. Not a time to do things by halves… “Challenging ourselves…

Ultimate Lo-fi Layering noise for instant lo-fi vibes An easy way to fake a lo-fi sound is by incorporating noise into your mix. Here are six ways to do it effectively… 01 When starting a track, put an audio clip of some noise (vinyl crackle, tape hum, etc) into the project before laying down any other sounds. This’ll set the scene for a rough, lo-fi writing session, as it’ll instantly invoke the sense of analogue gear outputting sonic artefacts. 02 As most old analogue synths and gear operate in mono, use a utility plugin to remove any stereo information from your noise sample and sit it in the middle of the mix. Alternatively, for stereo impact, pan the noise to one side, or apply a stereoising effect for a more…

Ultimate Lo-fi Go lo-fi with delay Your favourite echo plugin can be used as a virtual time machine. Here’s how… 01 Let’s look at a few ways you can use delay to darken and age signals. Start by calling up a fully-featured delay plugin over a vanilla synth signal. We’re using u-he’s Colour Copy for this tutorial, which is modelled on classic BBD delays. 02 Set your delay’s mix amount to 100% wet, so you only hear the delayed signal, then set the delay time to absolute minimum. Here, we also reduce Colour Copy’s Width dial to 0, monoising the signal. 03 Now we’re using our analogue-emulating delay plugin as a virtual ‘ageing’ machine, and we can adjust the plugin’s Colour control to precisely set the tone and frequency profile…

YOUTUBE THE TRACK Top producers go in-depth on the sounds, ideas and techniques behind their latest releases Ishmael Ensemble, The River ft. Yazz Ahmed Saxophonist and producer Pete Cunningham tells all DON’T MISS: Sophia Saze, Self The Dusk & Haze boss on her continuous cassette album Huxley, Evolution We head to Brighton to meet with tech house guru Michael Dodman Throwing Snow, Simmer Ross Tones breaks down a dancefloorfocused cut from his latest LP, Loma Afrodeutsche, Wasp Henrietta Smith-Rolla shows us around her Manchester studio Top producers show you the world of Steinberg in our monthly video series From our famous studio sessions to gear tours, technique tips and much more DON’T MISS: Mike Wells aka Force Mass Motion shares his Cubase production tips Danny…

REVIEWS Arturia MicroFreak £279 This funky French digital-analogue hybrid aims to bring something new to the hardware synth table – but how will it fare? Joe Rossitter gets freaky and finds out… Arturia’s new “algorithmic synthesiser” is a noteworthy departure for the French company best known for their analogue hardware synths and software emulations of classic instruments. Featuring a 12-mode digital oscillator, an analogue multimode filter and myriad sequencing options housed in a graffitied chassis, this cost-effective little Freak looks promising indeed… Out of the box, MicroFreak’s unique stylings immediately grab your attention. It’s a bold look – but we like adventurous design choices. In terms of build quality, the synth’s plastic chassis and keybed feel a tad flimsy. Some design compromises are understandable for a synth of this price,…

MULTI-SAMPLER The once-simple Multi-Sampler is increasingly comprehensive. Version 10’s update introduces a 64-sample maximum, layer mute and solo, and the option for layer selection to reflect the last note played by MIDI input. Elsewhere, you can use new recording tools to get sounds into Multi-Sampler on the Record page. There’s a retrospective record function, which monitors the track’s input in the background, and brings up the last 30 seconds of audio from the buffer when activated – you don’t even need to have had a Multi-Sampler running. You can also set Multi-Sampler’s record input to System Output, taking its cue from your whole computer, so you can sample from other apps running at the same time. Since Waveform 10.1, this function has had a few bugs ironed out.…

ROUND-UP Sequencer-driven effect plugins Step up to the plate and make your most rhythmic effects ever with these four rhythmic processors Sinevibes Sequential €49 This Audio Units-only processor might just be the ultimate sequencing plugin from the top name in sequenced effects. Sequential loads up on the first of eight pages of a 32-step sequencer and 19 lanes. Frequency shifting, bit depth, flanging, granulation, filtering (including a circuit-bent option), ring mod, drive, three oscillators and loads more are available to sequence here. Switch one on for one of the 32 steps in your pattern (or reduce pattern length to any number below this), and adapt the strength of each effect using its individual slider. Sequential starts out monophonic (one effect can be applied per step), but can be switched to…

Reviews Roland DJ-505 Roland DJ-505 £570 A mid-level Serato DJ controller with a built-in drum machine. Si Truss gets into the groove Roland first entered the DJ controller market with the DJ-808, a four-channel controller for Serato DJ mixer paired with a TR-8-derived drum machine. The logic behind bringing these two worlds together is certainly sound – the distinctive beats of the 808 and 909 run through the heart of dance music, and anybody who’s attended a Jeff Mills club set can attest to how well a live drum machine can work a dancefloor. Personally, however, I was always sceptical about the DJ-808 due to its size and price. Controllers aren’t always the best option for touring DJs – particularly in the worlds of house and techno where club setups…

Gear Guide Essential Tools For Music Making SOFT SYNTHS Softube Parallels £99 Full Review: FM344 Parallels takes an interesting approach to software synthesis and manages to combine the old and the new into a package that goes beyond the usual virtual analogue plugin territory. Arturia Pigments | $199 Review: FM343 With a multipart synth engine, sequencer and lots of creative tools, there’s a lot going on in this latest synth powerhouse. Xfer Records Serum | $189 This flexible, powerful wavetable synth has quickly risen through the ranks to knock Massive and Sylenth off the top of the ‘synth every producer must own’ list. Spectrasonics Omnisphere | $499 Review: FM294 Version 2 of Omnisphere is a must-try. Audio import is the standout new feature, but dig a little deeper and there…

Gear Guide Essential Tools For Music Making HIGH-END SYNTHS Yamaha MODX from £1,242 Full Review: FM337 While programming can initially overwhelm, the sounds, versatility and portability are hard to argue with. The MODX combines the best of the Montage/Motif/DX engines, at a great price! Korg Prologue | from £1,299 Review: FM332 Despite a few surprising omissions, this sounds inspiring. A unique character, plus the analogue voices layered with VPM sounds and effects sound magical! Sequential Prophet X | £3,359 Review: FM336 The Prophet X is a fresh and inspiring hybrid synth that encourages you to explore sound making in new ways. The results sound unique and getting there is a lot of fun. Moog Sub 37 | $1,579 Review: FM286 With a richer set of features and fewer operational hurdles than…