Table of contents for September 2019 in Future Music

WELCOME Patched up There’s no doubt that the whole concept of modular synthesis has had a significant resurgence in recent years. It is, of course, nothing new – Bob Moog was developing modular synthesisers in the mid-1960s. In the past five or so years though, modular rigs have started popping up in studios, at clubnights and on stage more and more. Part of the reason behind this is probably accessibility – with the rise of Eurorack and increasing volume of brands getting in on the modular game, patchable synths are cheaper and easier to get hold of than they used to be. With the power of modern computers, software modular setups are a serious reality these days too. Plugins such as Bitwig Studio, Phase Plant and Massive X allow elements…

CLASSIC ALBUM DJ Yoda The Amazing Adventures of DJ Yoda Antidote, 2006 Words by Roy Spencer Hip-hop used to be a laugh, back in the day. Block party DJs would cut up Micky Mouse records with drum breaks in and goof right off on the mic, getting all ‘dibby dibby’. But, by the early 2000s, it was like, ‘Why so serious?’ 50 Cent was all up in ‘da club’, and your grill, showing off his bullet holes and stomping about like everyone on earth owed him a fiver. Hip-hoppers needed a chuckle. It was time for someone to stand up, be counted, and dick about once more. Enter DJ Yoda, the clown prince of the ones and twos. The Muppet Show on turntables. The one man who would go on…

ALBUM REVIEWS ALBUM OF THE MONTH Attarazat Addahabia & Faradjallah Al Hadaoui Habibi Funk German re-issue label Habibi Funk have a mission to release rarely discovered Arab music from the ’70s and ’80s. Bringing these sounds to Western countries for the first time, they’ve played an important role in widening people’s minds to alternative music cultures and de-busting stereotypes. Their latest find is the outstanding 1973 unreleased album from Moroccan band Attarazat Addahabia & Faradjallah, Al Hadaoui. Attarazat Addahabia was a 14-member family band, formed during the ’60s. Known for their lively and lengthy sets, sometimes lasting up to 12 hours, the outfit formed a raw blend of Gnawa (traditional music combining ritual poetry, dance and spirituality) with funk, rock and elements of highlife. These principles are at full play…

Go Modular! PATCHING WHAT, WHEN, WHY, HOW? At the core of modular synthesis is the concept of patching – connecting one module to another. After all, without doing this you merely have a collection of intriguing sonic building blocks. The term ‘patch’ stems from the ability to temporarily plug in failed equipment in early telephony and radio systems – hence the use of ‘patch cords’. This selectable, module-based approach was also found in early experimental synthesis systems such as the RCA Mark II, and the later, but highly influential, Moog Modular. The term ‘patch’ eventually stuck, and then became used to refer to any synth’s recallable sound preset. When diving into the modular synthesis world, it is always worth remembering that all you are ever really doing is connecting together…

Go Modular! Exploring modular sequencing with VCV Rack’s Seq-3 Using the results of our last tutorial, we can now start joining the dots… 01 > In this next tutorial, we’re going to start with the previous VCV Rack synth voice we created earlier. It’s a pretty vanilla sound: just a single square wave with an LFO sweeping the square’s pulse width. Let’s delete the LFO-1 module for now. 02 > We right-click and load in a Seq-3 module. This step sequencer comprises three rows of eight knobs, and by using these different values to affect other parameters, you can quickly generate modular-style sequenced rhythms. Patch a cable from its Row 1 into the VCO-1’s PWM input. 03 > The sequencer doesn’t do anything until we mess around and alter the…

Let’s get routing Massive X is semi-modular. Let’s explore how audio routing works and what it can do 01 There are two kinds of routing in Massive X: modulation routing, which is set up using a drag-and-drop system like that of the original Massive, and the audio signal flow, controlled from the new Routing view. Let’s open up the INIT - Massive X Blank preset and see how the latter works. 02 Head for the Routing view. Since no connections are made here, the synth currently makes no sound. To change that, we need to connect the sound generators on the left, to the output effects on the right. We can add modular elements – filters and effects – in between. 03 Click and drag the output from Oscillator 1…

RETROSPECTIVE Liquid drum & bass The story of a mellow DnB subgenre with a focus on atmosphere, melody and subtle synth work © PYMCA/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Around the turn of the millennium, legendary DnB DJ Fabio coined a phrase to describe an emerging style of music. ‘Liquid funk’, as he called it, was characterised by its melodic approach, mellow instrumentation and smooth, soulful vibes. Almost immediately, the style became recognised as a subgenre in its own right, commonly referred to as liquid drum & bass or simply liquid. In the following couple of decades, whole labels, compilation album series and even festivals have sprung up around the sound. By the time of liquid funk’s emergence, drum & bass had already been around for the best part of…

Sidechained dynamic EQ with Pro-Q 3 Duck specific frequency ranges in an instant using Fabfilter’s ever-popular equaliser 01 Version 3 of FabFilter’s go-to tone-shaper plugin brings new dynamic EQ functionality to the party. Let’s have a look at how to set this up in Ableton Live 10.1. Note that these techniques can apply to any DAW and dynamic EQ combination. 02 First, to get a feel for our kick drum’s frequency content, we place an instance of Pro-Q 3 on its channel and take a look at its analyser. The bass drum’s fundamental frequency lives at around 50Hz. 03 Next, we remove the Pro-Q 3 instance from the kick track, and place it on the bass instead. As we want the kick to trigger our EQing over the bass, we…

GROUPTEST Portable speakers Let’s face it, the number of Bluetooth speaker users these days is probably way higher than for those listening on more traditional setups. So should you be testing mixes through these devices too? Probably, yes. Here’s a small selection… 1 The mid-sized model from Marshall’s portable Bluetooth range is only £30 cheaper than the Stanmore II and nearly half the size, but the sound quality is not far off its larger sibling; punchy mids, with plenty of low-end weight and high-end clarity. Of course, that relatively high price is likely paying for a battery that boasts over 20 hours of battery life. Just like the Stanmore, both bass and treble controls adorn the top panel, along with the rear-mounted Aux input (Stanmore’s also includes an RCA input).…

SOUNDS & SAMPLES Steven Slate Drums 5 $149 Although Steven Slate is probably better known to FM readers for the Slate plugin range, the man himself earned his industry spurs nearly 20 years ago thanks to his creation of highly-regarded custom drum sample libraries. These eventually became the first iteration of ‘Steven Slate Drums’. In a fast moving industry like ours, it is unusual for it to take six years for a popular product to get an overhaul, but this is the case with SSD, and the recent arrival of SSD5. Clearly things have moved on considerably in the intervening period, with a whole host of drum playback engines, boasting ever-increasing levels of realism, vying for your attention. SSD5 boasts a new user interface, though it is not dissimilar in…

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. 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! 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. Teenage Engineering OP-Z | £529 Review: FM339…

Talking Shop | Gheist “Analogue drum machines are as important as plugins” Gheist © Birgitt Kaulfuss Spanning the realms of electronic production and live performance, Berlin four-piece Gheist stand out among the city’s often dark and serious club scene by making electronic music with a melodic, human heart. With their own label, radio show and a busy schedule of both live and DJ dates, 2019 is shaping up as a busy one for the band. We found out more... When did you start making music, and how did you first get started? “Individually, we all started making music as kids. All of us had the opportunity to learn different instruments from an early age. As a group we started to produce and write music in different constellations about 10 years…

In the studio with DJ Yoda “The studio setup was very different to what I use now. For the ‘proper tracks,’ I co-produced with Mark Ross. He’s kinda the silent partner in DJ Yoda. This was even before I had a studio. I’d go up to him, near Watford. “We did it in Logic. With an Akai MPC 1000. And it was mixed in Pro Tools. He also had a TL Audio valve console and some big Genelec monitors. There was hardly any synth stuff on there, but any bits would have been done with VSTs. “I did all the skit stuff I did at mine. I would have done them in my own bedroom on just turntables with samples. All the stuff with the featured vocalists were produced and…

Making your first patch Let’s take a look at how you can start making some noise using only a few core modules The core components here are a couple of Intellijel Eurorack modules. The Metropolis will take care of pitch control and gate/trigger duties, while the Atlantis is a self-contained synth with VCO, VCF, VCA and LFO sections. Although each offers many more connectivity options than we might need at one time, this does encourage experimentation – one of the main reasons that people get sucked into the modular universe. You will notice that the Metropolis sequencer has seven sockets on its front panel. However, for this example we will only be using the Pitch and Gate outputs. The Atlantis has even more (27 sockets), though here we’ll focus on…

Go Modular! Signal modifiers in Bitwig Studio 3’s The Grid Let’s see some more utility tools in action with the help of this modular sound design environment 01 > To explore the world of signal manipulation tools, we’ve opened Bitwig Studio 3’s Poly Grid, a modular sound design environment. To begin, this basic patch uses Pitches (a monophonic piano roll-style pitch sequencer) to sequence a Swarm waveform’s pitch up and down. 02 > By placing a simple Bend module between the Pitches’ note output and the oscillator’s Pitch input, we can apply a logarithmic or exponential curve to the incoming pitch data, shaping the notes of our riff slightly for a different musical effect. 03 > Let’s get weirder. We plumb a Comb filter between the Swarm oscillator and the…

Josh Butler Making a rolling tech-house beat in Ableton Live Josh uses layers of processed samples in order to create his slinky, swung grooves 01 > The foundation of Right Time’s beat is a 909-style kick drum that Josh equalises with Waves PuigTec EQP-1A and FabFilter Pro-Q 2. “I always like to cut the middle out of my kick drums at around 500-700Hz, which just leaves a bit more room for some of the other elements,” he explains. 02 > Next Josh adds open and closed hats from his Roland TR-8: “I run the signal from this through my outboard effects units, so even before it’s gone into the computer it’s already compressed and saturated.” The signal is EQed with Waves SSL G-Equalizer and Pro-Q 2. 03 > These hats…

Understanding Performers Massive X introduces sequencer-like modulation tools, but what are Performers and how can we use them? Let’s find out… Performers are Massive X’s new modulation tool. They’re essentially custom modulation clips that can act either like looped sequences of modulation or highly-customisable one-shot envelopes. The synth has three Performer channels in its modulation section, each of which can contain up to 12 Performer clips that can be triggered either internally or via an external MIDI source. Creating Performer clips themselves is a lot like inputting automation in a DAW. There are a variety of ‘drawing’ tools on hand to add automation points and curves, as well as stretch or adjust that automation. The automation itself is drawn onto a grid, which can be flexibly adjusted to fit the…

Using Unison and Harmonization Massive X’s voice settings offer some interesting options. Let’s take a look… 01 To the right hand side of the Voice panel is a section for engaging Unison, whereby multiple voices are stacked and altered in tuning and stereo position to create a ‘thicker’ sound or harmonic effects. There are two sections here: Spread and Harmonization. 02 To the left is a Voice count control. This affects the amount of synth voices triggered each time a keyboard note is played. Be warned – increasing this is a surefire way to put strain on your CPU. As a rule, always keep this as low as you can to achieve the desired effect. 03 Spread offers classic Unison detune. Raising the slider spreads out the tuning of the…

Triggers and modulation at the ready, let’s go Let’s push Chimera and make not only percussion and beats but drones and unique modulation too 01 As with any new piece of gear, let’s start simple and explore its wide range of sounds. Take a trigger into Trig and monitor the output while turning the knobs. Add different gate patterns to the accent and choke inputs for more dynamic percussion lines. 02 Try a sample-and-hold signal in time with your gate or trigger rhythms into Surface to change the core sample used on each hit. You can swap out the sample-and-hold for a sequencer for looping repetitive patterns instead of totally random ones. 03 Try using gates not only to trigger the Chimera but also for modulation. Patching gates into FX…

Getting started with the liquid sound 1 NI Maschine Newcomers to liquid production (and drum & bass in general) would be well advised to focus on learning their chosen DAW and software inside out before considering hardware synths, samplers and drum machines. However, a hardware controller of some kind is undoubtedly helpful when chopping breakbeats, layering and programming drums, manipulating samples and arranging patterns. NI’s hybrid Maschine is a great option, combining the best of both worlds in a highly creative way. Prices start at $259 for the basic Maschine Mikro. As a bonus, the bundled sound content, effects and synths give you a great starting point for getting creative. 2 Korg Minilogue You can do plenty with VSTs, but liquid’s focus on silky smooth synths and interesting melodic and…

Plugins for pro sidechaining Your DAW’s dynamics plugins Before forking out elsewhere, get to know what you have. All software studio packages come with capable mixing effects, and some sort of sidechain routing system. FabFilter Pro-Q 3 Now with new dynamic functionality: key another mix signal into its sidechain input, then use that to dynamically pull down an EQ notch, for complex frequency pocketing. Wavesfactory Trackspacer Listens to the frequency content of the sidechain input signal, then applies the inverse frequency curve over your target signal with its internal 32-band EQ. Essential. iZotope Neutron 3 Takes the sidechaining concept further by listening to multiple instances of the plugin across your mix parts, then suggesting starting levels, tone and balance. Nicky Romero Kickstart Basic but effective, this streamlined pumping plugin offers…

Reviews IK Multimedia UNO Drum €305 IK follow up last year’s UNO Synth with a compact analogue beatmaker. Si Truss asks if good things come in small packages Having spent several decades focused on software, MIDI devices and mobile peripheries, Italian outfit IK Multimedia made their entry into the world of analogue instruments with last year’s UNO Synth. While that instrument was impressive, there was no getting around the fact that the hardware itself felt a little ‘cheap’ – its lightweight, plastic construction, rudimentary keyboard and simplistic control surface belied the rich, weighty monosynth contained within. With this follow-up groovebox, that dichotomy between build quality and feature set is, if anything, more prevalent. The hardware itself is largely the same as that of the UNO Synth; the plastic chassis is…

FM ROUND-UP Pitchshifter plugins Move things higher and lower with this comprehensive selection of processors Unfiltered Audio Fault $99 To start off with, Fault gives you a pitchshifter with individual settings for left and right channels, although naturally the two can be linked to the same amount. Notably, these parameters reach up to a maximum of +/- 12 semitones, with a resolution of 0.1 semitones, but in terms of pitchshifting quality, the results are very, very solid when compared to the other shifters in this roundup. A larger and more customisable part of Fault is the frequency shifting architecture. With panning, spread and Multiplication controls, this can easily perform ring mod duties too, and there’s also FM with Frequency and Depth controls – nice and growly. This whole section sounds…

ADVICE Do any online DAWs support plugins? > The short answer: no. While there are various web-based music-making platforms – some actually pretty good – you can’t use standard VST or AU plugins in them. However, there’s been a potentially significant development recently, with Soundation confirming that their Soundation Studio web DAW will soon be able to run the Reason Rack Extension version of Europa, Propellerhead Software’s excellent synth. It won’t be available until later this year, but if it performs well, there’s no reason why other developers couldn’t bring their REs to the platform, too, and plugins might not be too far behind. What does the launch of the iPadOS mean for music makers? > When Apple launched the first iPad way back in 2010, one of the criticisms…

Future Of Music FILTER Flex synth adds preset power to FL Studio 20.5 Sound design sessions are all well and good, but there are times when you just want great sounds as soon as you open your DAW. That’s the thinking behind Flex, a new preset-based softsynth that comes free with FL Studio version 20.5. Simplicity may be the watchword here, but the engine that powers Flex is said to have plenty of advanced stuff going on. It blends subtractive, wavetable, multisample, FM and AM-based synthesis, but you can take charge of this pretty easily by using eight patch-specific macro sliders. You can go beyond these by tweaking the filter, envelope and effect controls, and you can also choose between a variety of Analysis views (like waveform, spectrogram, vectorscope and…

Go Modular! Patching up a classic monosynth with VCV Rack The open-source virtual modular synth VCV Rack is a great place to get started… 01 > Let’s fire up the free VCV Rack, delete the preset modules and patch together a basic monosynth voice from scratch. To begin, we have the MIDI-CV module for generating note data from our MIDI or QWERTY keyboard, and the Audio-8 module for piping audio out to our interface. 02 > Right-click in the rack and drag in the modules needed to create a basic synth setup: a VCO-1 oscillator for basic analogue-style sound generation, a VCF (filter) for tone sculpting, an ADSR envelope generator for signal shaping, and Mixer module for level balancing. 03 > Let’s connect our modules together. We patch a cable…

Using utility modules Utility modules allow you to massively expand the scope of your modular patches. Here we’ll put a few into action The multipliers and attenuators discussed above are the workhorses of any modular setup, but there are many other flavours to explore. One such example is the Slew Limiter, which allows you to control the rate of change of a CV signal. For example, you might apply this between a sequencer’s pitch CV output and a VCO’s frequency CV input in order to create portamento effects. However, as with nearly everything in the world of modular, it can be used with all kinds of CV signal. Don’t also forget the importance of mixers and input or output modules in making your modular work as seamlessly as possible, and…

Go Modular! Exploring audio rate modulation How the speed of one signal affects another is a crucial synthesis concept to understand in a modular environment. Here goes… 01 > When any signal oscillates at a fast enough speed, its influence over another will generate distinctive new ‘sideband’ harmonics of some description. Think of vibrato accelerating up to FM rates, or tremolo winding up into AM synthesis. Here’s an audible oscillator plugged into the signal path. 02 > Set up a second, inaudible sine oscillator to modulate the first one’s pitch. As you sweep that modulator sine’s tuning dial from low to high, across around eight octaves, the audible sine will ramp up from slower pitch wobbling (vibrato) to intense buzzing (FM) at audio rates. 03 > To control this inharmonic…

YOUTUBE .youtube.com THE TRACK Leading producers go in-depth on the sounds, ideas and techniques behind their latest releases Ambassadeurs, Nocturnes Mark Dobson talks us through a cut from his new album, offering a plethora of masterful production tips along the way DON’T MISS: Phildel, Glide Dog Phildel breaks down a dark, moody track from her new album Ishmael Ensemble, The River ft. Yazz Ahmed Producer Pete Cunningham tells all 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 DON’T MISS: In the studio with Berlin-based techno eccentric T. Raumschmiere Michael Gray breaks down his remix of You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) Mike Wells, aka Force Mass Motion, shares his Cubase…

EXPLAINER Sidechaining Customise compression and get the perfect pump with this essential concept To understand dynamics processing a little more, or discover practical ways to help your mix elements breathe and interact, it’s essential to nail the concept of sidechaining. Notoriously overused by ’00s house producers to create the ubiquitous ‘four-to-the-floor pumping’ effect, the technique actually has a far wider range of applications, and is vitally useful when producing and mixing almost any genre. Let’s look at how a typical dynamics processor works. The incoming audio signal is split into two duplicate copies: one is fed into the audio input for processing, while an identical copy of this signal – the sidechain signal – is fed into the device’s detector circuit. This sidechain signal is what the device listens and…

Sidechain filtering explained Many hardware dynamics processors allow you to plug another processing device – usually an EQ or filter – into the sidechain circuit, with which you can manipulate the inaudible trigger signal in order to tailor the dynamics device’s response. For example, when compressing an overall mix, bass frequencies will trigger the compressor’s gain reduction first due to the energy in that region, which can create undesirable reactivity and ‘pump’. By high-pass filtering the compressor’s internal sidechain signal, the compressor will react less to those bass frequencies, reducing any pumping artefacts for a smoother sound. Another example is the removal of sibilant frequencies from a vocal. By boosting a compressor’s sidechain signal at the frequency area where the sibilance occurs, the compressor will react more sensitively to those…

KITS AND SONGS The UNO Drum has a generous onboard memory, allowing it to store 100 kits and 100 patterns. Kits are full selections of 12 sounds including settings for the global compressor and drive effects. Patterns, meanwhile, are saved with all automation. The ability to load Kits and Patterns individually is a nice touch for inspiring new ideas, meaning you can try out an assortment of different kits on your current pattern, or vice versa. Straight out of the box, the 100 kit and pattern bank slots come filled with factory presets, which do a good job of showing off what the instrument can do, as well as offering nice creative starting points. The groovebox also has a song mode, which allows up to 64 patterns to be chained…

Quick, quality, one-take videos? How do I use my new Roland Go:Mixer? Roland’s diminutive GO:Mixer is an invaluable bit of kit which enables quick high quality videos to be made with direct audio from a number of simultaneous audio sources. It basically saves you having to involve a computer and soundcard and separate video camera in the process: a huge time saver if you want to get quick high quality demo videos made for uploading online. You can plug in a whole band or just mono or stereo instruments. Simply connect the mixer to your phone, load the standard native camera/ video app, plug in a mic (for voice-overs or singing) and go. Here’s a quick breakdown... First off, grab the GO:Mixer and your phone. Connect the provided USB to…

Gear Guide Essential Tools For Music Making SOFTSYNTHS Native Instruments Massive X £179 Full Review: Next Issue A long time in the making, NI’s follow up to the most successful softsynth of all time doesn’t disappoint. There are still some rough edges at launch, but it sounds exceptional. 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. 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 are improvements in all areas. Xfer Records Serum | $189 This flexible, powerful wavetable synth has quickly risen through the ranks to knock Massive and Sylenth off the top…

Gear Guide Essential Tools For Music Making DRUM MACHINES & SAMPLERS IK Multimedia UNO Drum €305 Full Review: FM347 There’s a lot to like about the UNO Drum’s punchy sound and flexible feature set, although it is held back a little bit by the ‘budget’ feel of its hardware. Elektron Digitakt | £659 Review: FM320 With deep sequencing and a powerful sound engine, Digitakt is the ‘affordable’ Elektron groovebox we’ve been dreaming of. Akai Force | £1,299 Review: FM343 More than just a standalone sampler, Force is a full DAW-in-a-box, with synth and effects. If you can afford the price and want to ditch your existing gear, this is worth a try. Elektron Analog RYTM | £1,499 Review: FM331 Though the MK1 remains a great box, there are plenty of…