Table of contents for April 2023 in Future Music

Editor-In-Chief Si Truss, simon.truss@futurenet.com Reviews Editor, Music Technology Simon Arblaster, simon.arblaster@futurenet.com Features Editor, Music Technology Matt Mullen, matt.mullen@futurenet.com Art Editor Phil Cheesbrough, philip.cheesbrough@futurenet.com Managing Editor Kate Puttick, kate.puttick@futurenet.com Production Editor Catherine Hood CONTRIBUTORS Bruce Aisher, Phil Barker, Oli Bell, Olly Curtis, Simon Fellows, Adam Lee, Hamish Machintosh, Jon Musgrave, Rob Redman, James Russell, Roy Spencer, Robbie Stamp, Danny Turner ADVERTISING For Ad enquiries please contact: Kyle Phillips, kyle.phillips@futurenet.com Direct Marketing Executive: Will Hardy PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION Production Controller: Fran Twentyman Production Manager: Mark Constance​ Printed in the UK by: William Gibbons & Sons Ltd on behalf of Future Distributed in the UK by:​ Marketforce (UK), 2nd Floor, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HU Enquiries: mfcommunications@futurenet.com CIRCULATION Head of Newstrade: Tim Mathers SUBSCRIPTIONS Order line and enquiries: +44 (0)330…

The world of music production can be a real art form with lots of time spent on creating dynamic and interesting drum sequences – especially hi-hat sequences, as they tend to be programmed with heavily repeated notes. Therefore, it is extremely important to add some movement to them to avoid sounding robotic. Movement can be achieved by humanisation, using swing and velocity adjustments to create a great groove; however there are other creative techniques we can implement to spice up our hi-hats. In this article we are going to discover how to create interesting pitchshifting by applying multiple LFOs to modulate the pitch. We will start off by adding the Shifter and LFO devices to the hi-hats and then explore how we can connect the LFO device to a parameter…

Condition Red “This features Yuka Ikushima. I met her through doing stuff with Howie B and Toshi and Kudo from Major Force. I got the backing music together, got her in the studio, and just told her to do her thing. I remember distinctly that it was a case of getting the engineer out of the room, and just recording without her worrying. Because, it wasn’t formed. And she was used to being a session singer, and knowing exactly what she was needed to do. “I also discovered that I liked the sound of putting a snare through an old Maestro ring mod from the ’70s. It cropped up a fair bit on everything I did.” Fair Seven “There’s a fair bit of me scratching on here. It’s part of…

TRACK Skrillex, Fred Again, Flowdan Rumble Atlantic/OWSLA Produced in collaboration with perpetually cheerful, Maschine-wielding producer of the moment Fred Again, Skrillex’s Rumble is a lean, mean and minimal hybrid of trap and dubstep that’s all about that bass and that vocal: everything else is just window dressing. Props must be given to Flowdan here, who evidently has a virtuosic grasp of what it takes to transform a hefty instrumental into something that’ll absolutely destroy a dancefloor. Inevitable comparisons will be drawn to The Bug’s Skeng – another Flowdan-featuring club weapon – but where the former leaned into the murky, smoked-out vibes of dub music, Rumble takes cues from the dopamine rush of EDM, surrounding Flowdan’s cocksure bars with pitched-up vocals and precise sound design. At the time of going to…

Electronic beat making has long been founded on a push-pull relationship between tried-and-tested sounds and experimentation. This wasn’t always the case though; back in the early days of electronic music, everything was an experiment. When acts like Kraftwerk produced robotic-sounding electronic rhythms, or the pioneers of Detroit and Chicago created the loopy, propulsive beats of early house and techno, these artists were doing things that, for the most part, had never been tried before – because the technology to achieve them simply hadn’t existed. In many ways, the gear and techniques developed in that era have never really gone away. While producers in 2023 are making music in a very different fashion to artists 40-plus years ago, the sounds of Roland TR-808 and TR-909 still provide a recognisable backbone for…

YOU CAN APPLY IN YOUR DAW VIDEO INCLUDED TUNING TRICKS 1 The tonal nature of 808 and 909 drums means they can be used as melodic or tuned elements. Using the TR-808’s toms as a simple bass pattern over a kick is a simple trick. Separating these elements to different channels allows each to be processed differently. Pitched-down toms can generate enough sub energy to become a forceful bass element – afamiliar trademark of harder styles of house and techno. An 808 tom pitched down six semitones in a sampler works well around a mid-heavy 909 kick. RESONATORS, RING MOD AND MORE 2 Your DAW likely has plenty of tools that can make a dry drum hit sound ‘futuristic’. Tools such as resonators, comb filters and ring modulators are great…

WITH XLN AUDIO XO 1 When you start with a preset in XLN Audio’s XO, you’re presented with a huge cluster of dots in different colours, each dot representing a sample, and each colour representing an element of the drum kit. We can zoom in to get a better look… 2 Here’s our kick and its surrounding ‘similar’ kicks. We can select a new one, or hot swap the kick sound, auditioning dots in situ as the MIDI plays back our main kit. And we can do this with any element of our setup. 3 In the Edit window, we have a right-hand side where we can sequence the eight kit elements, programming notes by clicking, and velocities by dragging. This is also a chance to amend sounds. Any excuse…

> Thanks to the surgical precision of computer-based production tools, you can now combine different drum sounds into a hybrid that works exactly the way you want it. Each drum has a certain formulaic nature to how its sound is made up. For example, a kick drum usually consists of a low note pitchbending downward, plus a higher, noise-like ‘click’ element higher up the frequency spectrum. Since different drum machines’ kicks – and indeed acoustic kicks – act in much the same way, you can isolate the low end of one kick and layer it with the click of another. The precision tools necessary for this layering include filtering for each channel, and timing to ensure the two layers play with the right timing. WHEN LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT DRUMS,…

WITH AUDIALABS EMERGENT DRUMS 1 Openingup Emergent Drums, we’re presented with a window that’ll be familiar to anyone who’s used a drum machine before. On the left, we’ve got 16 pads, each of which has buttons to mute, play and drag a given sample to a different pad. On the right-hand side, there’s a more detailed view for fine-tuning the selected sample. 2 If we hit the main menu in the top left, we can change our view mode from Compact to Large, which gives us a detailed view of all 16 samples at once. Within each sample’s window, there are controls for attack, release, gain and a filter. There’s also a pitch control, a pan slider and a visualised waveform with arrows to set the sample’s start and end…

WITH ICEBERG AUDIO SUB CUT 1With a near endless number of kick drums out there, sometimes you just can’t find your Cinderella sample. Combining the transient from one kick with the body of another lets you conjure up the perfect kick. Iceberg Audio’s Sub Cut can help… 2 When layering kicks, the combined subs can create phasing issues and muddiness. Sub Cut lets you precisely remove low end from kicks, giving your other kick room to breathe. Load Sub Cut onto the kick you want to remove the sub from. 3 A spectrum analyser shows that the fundamental frequency of kick two is 75Hz, so we know to cut below that on the first kick. Sub Cut’s central dial adjusts cutoff frequency, and tells you the frequency as well as…

> Drums carry a lot of a track’s crucial properties: transient information that makes it all pop; tone and pitch that extends right from the low bass drum to the sheen of crash cymbals; the room sound that’s particularly audible with loud and quick impulses flying back and forth; and of course, stereo information, both from the room and the panning of kit elements. That stereo side of the equation has become a big part of modern music, thanks to digital soundsculpting tools that can use maths where only electronics were available before. Now we can analyse the stereo field, check phase correlation, work any processing into a mid/side technique, and show off the full stereo panorama. DIGITAL SOUND-SCULPTING TOOLS USE MATHS WHERE ONLY ELECTRONICS WERE AVAILABLE BEFORE Here we’ll…

Despite founding the experimental pop band Animal Collective in Y2K and releasing a host of critically acclaimed albums, workaholic songwriter Dave Portner has still found time to collaborate separately with band mate Noah Lennox (Panda Bear), release six solo albums under the pseudonym Avey Tare and drive numerous other projects to completion. In recent years, Portner has relocated from bustling Los Angeles to woodlands on the eastern edge of Asheville, North Carolina, sequestering himself in his diminutive home studio. However, for his latest Avery Tare album, 7s, he was seduced into working at Adam McDaniel’s Drop of Sun complex in an attempt to further metamorphose his surreal approach. Over the last two decades, there’s been barely a year when you haven’t released a solo album or an Animal Collective LP.…

CONTACT WHO: Noise Engineering WEB: noiseengineering.us KEY FEATURES I/O: Phase, delay and random modes, Four channels of in and out, CV for each channel Noise Engineering’s Jam Jam is a trigger, gate and clock processor, which has so many musical uses it surpasses the name utility module. The clearly labelled 6hp module is solidly built, is skiff-friendly at under an inch deep, and the rotary control has a satisfying solidity and click. So, what makes this a standout amongst so many others in this category? Well, in a nutshell it’s the musicality of it. Each of the three modes adds a touch of humanisation to a patch, while keeping it controllable, and the results can be superb. The top of the module is filled with in, out and CV ports,…

CONTACT WHO: Entonal WEB: entonal.studio KEY FEATURES Microtonal MIDI plugin. FORMATS: Standalone/AU/VST2/VST3, MPE-equipped, can host VST/AU plugins FutureMusic Platinum Award The concept of microtonal music is nothing new. It involves composing with notes that don’t adhere to the semitone intervals of standard Western tuning. This is common in various African and Asian musical traditions, 20th century classical music and the more experimental ends of electronic music. In a production context, when we describe an instrument or sequencer as having microtonal capabilities, we mean it can play pitches outside of those found on a standard piano keyboard. Entonal Studio is probably the broadest and most flexible tool we’ve seen so far. This is a plugin that can function in two ways, either as a MIDI effect, letting users process MIDI notes…

>Full-bodied vocal-led pack, inspired by the late great pipes of Miss Amy Winehouse. Across the five well-appointed construction kits you get the kind of smooth and soaring toplines that made Camden’s sorely missed songbird such a special voice. All presented with some big and ballsy musical production to help lift them sky high. Mixed amongst the deftly captured performances on the mic are stems on stems of rich instrumentation. With groovy Rhodes riffs flowing keenly across pads, synths, guitars and strings. Plus, the kind of slickly orchestrated horns and brass arrangements that became a signature of that mid-era Amy vibe. The silky 2.15GB sample set also comes with MIDI for each song. Roy Spencer loopmasters.com VERDICT 8.0…

Since his 2011 debut, Portuguese artist Trikk has carved out a reputation as an inventive electronic musician, inhabiting various musical guises across a miscellany of club-focused EPs for Drumcode, ManMakeMusic and Innervisions. On his latest release, Fauna & Flora, Trikk explores the creative potential of a full-length project for the first time, voyaging beyond the boundaries of the dancefloor towards uncharted stylistic terrain. Produced in Innervisions label head Âme’s Berlin “hardware wonderland” of a studio, Fauna & Flora channels post-punk’s restless malaise into hard-edged, invigorating electronic music that wears its DIY spirit on its sleeve. We caught up with Trikk to find out more about how the album was made, his unique approach to sampling and his ardent love of FL Studio. When did you start making music, and how…

Pecker 21st Century Dub Crucial ’80s dub tape on heavy rotation, influencing percussion vibes on tracks like New Love Games For Your Monkey. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: ‘Mystical Cosmic Vibration’, ‘Pecker Power Pt. 1’, ‘Beggars Suite Pt 1’ Palm Skin Productions Other Things Last year’s ‘beat tape’ album features 27 short tracks, inspired by pirate radio. And the antithesis of Remilixir’s longer song form, single-track approach. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: ‘Rule of 12ths’, Thermal Jammer’, ‘Azur’ Simon Richmond and John Metcalfe Set In Stone Double LP from 2016 with big sounds and grand aims, including the use of Abbey Road, a 45-piece orchestra, and a 24-strong choir. ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: ‘Flowers Barrow’, ' Down to Ringwoodite’, ‘Earth From The Air’ Bond Classified This chart-topping all female…

INCLUDES AUDIO Can you hear that? It’s the ever-pacing tick-tock of change. Or is it a kick-snare beat? In modern music, it’s pretty obvious that the drums are an intrinsic part of any beat-led music’s success. Sure, every single part of your music is vital, as is the treatment and processing that helps them stick together, as we regularly spend pages and pages explaining. The drums, though, set a piece of music on the road. Done right, drums can add energy, create pace, and generally define the energy level of a piece, whatever the mood. But that’s not to say that perfectly-produced drums are the goal every time. Depending on the genre, drums might need to be stunted, vibey, repetitive or simply subtle. Staying within the confines of a genre’s…

> The two plugins on this page have a focus on finding the right sample to play each part of your drum kit. While great for sequencing and mixing in their own rights, XO and Atlas are inescapably ‘about’ something more. On each, your available sounds are laid out in a visual space and grouped by instrument (as detected by the plugin). You can then browse your available samples visually, with closer options relating to more similar sounds, and more distant ones taking you down a different sonic path. Both plugins do this a little differently, and as part of larger packages, but for those who have a ton of samples on their hard drive (or those who know the importance of finding the right sound from the very start…

1 D16 Group Punchbox’s signal flows from left to right, starting with four layers of kick elements before passing through four effects, then an output limiter. Each stage of the signal flow can be turned on or off by clicking on the red LED or their title bars. 2 The click layer lets you add an initial transient portion to your kick, creating a high frequency snap that can be heard on playback systems of all sizes. To select a Click sample, press the Browse button then audition sounds by clicking on them. 3 Now add a Tops layer using the same process within the Tops module. Use the module dials to adjust each of the first three layers’ volume, panning, stereo spread, EQ, decay and tune to your taste.…

Toontrack Superior Drummer 3 €379 1 Perhaps the ultimate drum library, with mixing controls and processors onboard, but its huge footprint for even the basic one-kit setup can make it the wrong choice for some. Toontrack also do EZdrummer for smaller hard drives. toontrack.com Steven Slate Drums 5.5 $149 2 The product line that led Steven Slate to the big league, SSD is a well-trusted package. The latest version brings in presets from landmark kits and artists to get you straight to ‘those’ sounds. Combine it with Slate’s Trigger for instant drum replacement power. stevenslatedrums.com NI Abbey Road Modern Drummer $99 3 This Kontakt instrument comes with a few other great virtual drum kits in the Komplete package. The packages are big enough to impress, but not so big to…

INCLUDES AUDIO As technology marches on, drum processing is another ever-evolving field. Once, engineers may have made their way with a stereo pair of microphones above the drum kit, as well as a smattering of EQ and compression, but today’s modern music demands a lot. It could be, pumping, light-but-complex, heavy-hitting, impactful, artful or biting drums – and it also demands the processors, techniques and knowledge to be worthy of that level of sound quality. So how do today’s drum parts tick, production-wise? One end of the spectrum requires the drums be as powerful and full-bodied as possible, fitting other instruments in around them. Another end sees the other instruments take over, leaving sparse drums that have to make use of whatever room they’re left with. Either way, you’ll need…

WITH SMART:REVERB 1 Let’s use sonible smart:reverb to add modern reverb sound to a house beat. Load up smart:reverb on the drum group. smart:reverb is one of sonible’s many audio tools that use AI to help you make mixing decisions, but here we’ll do everything manually. 2Filter 2 Filter the incoming audio so nothing below 200Hz gets through. Set reverb time to 0.5s and the pre-delay to 13ms. smart:reverb controls the character of the reverb via an X/Y pad. For a modern reverb, set the reverb to artificial and rich. 3Finally, 3 Finally, try smart:reverb’s unique spectral decay editor. This lets us change how different areas of the frequency spectrum decay over time. Here we’ll limit the highs and lows at the start of the reverb tail, but then open…

1 When you have a whole group of instruments that are intended to sound like they’re coming from the same place, it can be useful to group them together and process as one entity. Once they’re recorded or bounced together, though, it is tricky to process any of the elements individually. 2 In this case, we have a drum loop and we want to tune the kick to be in key with the rest of the track. First, load Waves Torque, then drag the speaker arrow in the focus bar to audition the frequency spectrum and find your kick’s fundamental. 3 Now we need to adjust the threshold so that Torque is catching all of the kick hits, regardless of their velocity. The Threshold indicator light should go from green…

WITH DEVIOUS MACHINES TEXTURE 1 Texture is an automatic layering plugin that can reinforce an input sound with extra impact and power, or enhance an existing signal with extra creative layers. As we load it up and set the Gate, it adds a layer of white noise on top of our input. 2 We can change the sound we’re adding by selecting one from the extensive library. Here, our AC Sync tone has an interesting character, but it’s not exactly right. We can change it though, bringing its pitch down to fit our sound better. 3 We can add some modulation to the properties of our texture layer, as well as some envelope-triggered modulation, over in the Modulation tab. There’s also EQ on-hand to affect the texture layer, or the…

Miss Grit, otherwise known as New York musician and polymath Margaret Sohn (they/she) may already have been on many of our radars after their intriguing EPs Talk Talk (2019) and Impostor (2021) but their debut album, Follow The Cyborg just released on the ever wonderful Mute, presents a young artist completely finding their voice on a dazzling collection of self-produced electronic-infused songs. Drawing inspiration from the worlds of cybernetics, anime and cinema, Follow The Cyborg is awash with sublime melodies, pulsing synths and thought-provoking lyrical concepts. Sohn’s plaintive vocals explore the relationship between a cyborg and its human whilst never straying far from an intoxicating melody. Lovingly fashioned in their immaculately tidy home studio in Flushing, Queens, on the LP, Sohn ponders what it is to be human in a…

CONTACT WHO: KRK WEB: krkmusic.com KEY FEATURES Freq Response: 60Hz-22kHz (-10dB SPL) (3), 55Hz-22kHz (-10dB SPL) (4) Amplification: Class D 22W per LF, 8W per HF (3), 33W per LF, 17W per HF (4) Max SPL: 105dB SPL (3), 108dB SPL (4) Crossover: 2.5kHz DIMENSIONS: 111 x120x 172mm (3), 136x140x205mm (4) WEIGHT: 3.15kg/pair (3), 4.3kg/pair (4) PRICE: £349 (3), £429 (4) FutureMusic Platinum Award GoAux 3 and GoAux 4 are the new on-the-go speakers from KRK and each kit comprises a pair of monitors in a padded travel case with space for all the extras. The GoAux 3 and GoAux 4 use a 1” fabric dome tweeter coupled with 3” and 4” glass aramid woofers respectively, and the classic KRK yellow colour scheme is in full effect. Each speaker has…

FutureMusic Platinum Award CONTACT WHO: Eventide Audio/Source Distribution. WEB: eventideaudio.com KEY FEATURES 62 algorithms. ARM-based architecture. True spillover between Programs. Instrument or line-level operation. Built-in tuner. I/O: 4 ins, 4 outs. 2 CV/EXP ins. USB-C. MIDI I/O DIMENSIONS: 265 x 180 x 75mm WEIGHT: 0.84 kg The day Eventide released the diminutive multi-effects pedal, the H9, few would’ve foreseen the impact the white stompbox would have. For something so small, the little pedal could hold a raft of Eventide’s effects history and so would become a staple in live setups and DAWless jams everywhere. Such was its popularity that we’d often spot producers and musicians rocking not one, but two H9s on stage and in the studio. This might’ve had something to do with Eventide’s R&D in the follow-up H90.…

>Jacky Murda lifts the lid on loops and one-shots that made his Chopstick Dubplate label such a seminal, club-rocking imprint. Known for his peerless blend of original ragga vocals, vocalists, and sonic sensibilities, with the rolling b-lines and snare-heavy drum programming of the jungle sound of drum & bass, Murda and his crew kickstarted a revival in the sound that is still felt firm today. And that signature positive energy level abounds in this all killer, no filler selection. With full drum kits rubbing shoulders with skanking musical riffs, dubbed out FX, and the kind of sub-troubling bottom end business that will have demand for the rewind in full effect. Inside! Roy Spencer loopmasters.com VERDICT 7.0…

>Following on from their takes on reggaeton and Malian Afrobeats, the Splice merchants are back. This time around the globe they’re stopping in on Spain, exploring their fascination with the rhythms and instruments found slap bang in the centre of boléro – the traditional slow dance, fusing Latin and ballroom styles. Bringing the heat in the studio is the Grammy-winning musician Martin Flores, and guitarist Miguel Angel Flores. Vintage microphones and kit are on hand with reallife plate reverb, pedals, and other cool kit, to bring all the buena beats to life. The pair get busy, crafting irresistible percussion grooves and toe-tapping musical riffs to loosen your hips and make you move. Roy Spencer splice.com VERDICT 7.0…

A fter a string of killer singles and EPs helped turn Mo’ Wax into one of the coolest record labels in the UK, the name Palm Skin Productions was on everyone’s lips. His brand of flipped funk, smooth acid-jazzed beats, deft sampling and hip-hop chops, was defining a new wave of underground music in London. And, inevitably, the majors came sniffing, looking to poach a credible electronic act of their own. The Goliath with the meatiest chequebook was Virgin, who promptly signed the man behind the moniker, Simon Richmond, and threw him the keys to the plushest recording studios in town. Obviously, they wanted a hit dance record. He had other plans. “I think that Virgin were hoping for a Daft Punk or Chemical Brothers record,” says Richmond. “And, probably, my…

FOR MODERN DRUMS Software offers the easiest and most powerful route to percussive experimentation, but there are great hardware options out there too In this feature we’re putting a heavy emphasis on software tools. There’s a reason for this: given the power of modern plugin tools, implementation of things like AI and spectral processing, and low cost of many of the plugins, software offers the most powerful and accessible realm of drum experimentation. There are plenty of adventurous alleyways to be explored in hardware though. If you’ve got that space and funds for it, Eurorack offers an open-ended sandbox where synths, samplers, sequencers and a multitude of clock and modulation tools can be brought to bear in order to create truly unique sounds and rhythms. For a quicker and cheaper…

WITH ALGONAUTS ATLAS 1 Algonaut’s Atlas puts drum pads and properties up front, letting you drag and drop sounds from its map of samples. Each area has been identified as a certain drum kit element, and you can audition any dot before dragging and dropping it onto a pad. 2From 2 From here, you can edit its parameters, from pitching and filtering, panning and the usual, to advanced sample editing parameters: draw an envelope, choose starting time, velocity sensitivity, and so on.  3 The Sequencer pops up from below, giving you access to pattern editing, for whatever number of elements are dialled in. Atlas is somewhat open in this, giving you more drum pad layouts for larger ‘kits’, and familiar launchpad-style setups too.…

I magine the scene: you’re opening your DAW, and you’ve got a clear idea of the track you’d like to make. Firstly, you want to recreate the drum sounds you’ve heard in a classic Aphex Twin tune, but can’t find the right samples anywhere. You’re hoping to pair those with a pad sound that you can’t quite manage to design, but you can imagine vividly in your head. Finally, you have a set of bassline loops that you’re keen on, but you want to explore some new variations on their timbre and style. Now imagine that you open up a plugin and type in a prompt, like “16 drum samples that sound like the drums in Aphex Twin’s Windowlicker”, and it instantly generates a set of samples that share a…

FabFilter Pro-MB $180 1 A multiband dynamics device with a difference, Pro-MB is a refreshing take on working with the frequency spectrum, allowing any combination of upward and downward compression or expanding, with a good number of bands to create custom setups. fabfilter.com iZotope Neutron 4 $500 2 The complete mixing toolkit has in-built AI technology and extra tools to help measure and compare your entire mix. Recently, Neutron 4 has been enhanced with extra distortion options, plus its new Punch compressor. It’ll make short work of most drum mixing tasks, and can even identify what’s most needed in your audio and set initial parameters for you. izotope.com Native Instruments Raum $55 3 A modern yet timeless reverb, Raum gives you a panoply of styles as well as a bunch…

FutureMusic Platinum Award CONTACT WHO: Apple WEB: apple.com KEY FEATURES AS TESTED: Apple M2 Pro chip, 12-core CPU – 8 performance cores, 4 efficiency cores, 19-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 32GB Unified Memory, 200GB/s memory bandwidth, 2TB SSD storage, 14.2” Liquid Retina XDR display DIMENSIONS: 312.6 x 221.2 x 15.5mm WEIGHT: 1.60kg PRICE: £3,499 Apple’s M series processors have revitalised their Mac range. The performance leap has been more than impressive and although the non-upgradeable system on chip (SoC) design, which includes CPU, GPU and RAM, raised a few eyebrows, in Apple’s universe smaller and slicker are big drivers. On trial I have the new 14” MacBook Pro in silver (space grey is also an option), which along with the new 16” model joins the existing 13” M2 MacBook Pro…

CONTACT WHO: Focal WEB: focal.com KEY FEATURES FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 28Hz- 400Hz; MAXIMUM SPL: 124.5dB; BASS AMPLIFIER STAGE: 600W RMS; INPUTS: Balanced XLR LFE 10kΩ, Left & Right 10kΩ; OUTPUTS: Balanced XLR LFE (in parallel), Left & Right 50Ω; DRIVER: 1 x 13in (33cm) with ‘W’ cone DIMENSIONS: 60 x 48.7 x 56.8cm WEIGHT: 58kg Bolstering your monitor setup with a subwoofer is still a controversial move that’s certain to spark apocalyptic-like warnings from a vocal minority of nasally inflected naysayers – “I wouldn’t do that if I were you!”. To some, a sub will always be the elephant in the room. Well, with their new Sub12, Focal have effectively produced a subwoofer the size and heft of a baby elephant. OK, I’m exaggerating, but at almost 60cm square and 58kg,…

>The decadent dancefloor grooves of the glorious ’70s get polished like a mirror ball on this throwback pack of updated disco loops and layers. Amongst the WAV, MIDI, and presets you’ll also find Jackson-sounding vocals getting twisted and morphed into freaky new lead lines, as punchy 4/4 drums and loose percussion run rings around the stonking synth basslines and star-spangled keys. Everything else slaps and struts just the way you like it. With dope FX, tidy one-shots and hits, and all the other big room sounds and musical styles of the era and beyond checked off. A great selection of pin-sharp sound design, sleazy attitude, and funky beats to get your crowds bopping and chanting till daybreak. Ooh! Ooh! Roy Spencer splice.com VERDICT 7.0…

Austrian Audio Hi-X15 £89 Full Review: FM386 | Superb cans for those tracking and mixing on a budget. Their compact size and light weight will also appeal to pros on the move. Røde NTH-100 £149 Full Review: FM384 The NTH-100s are the best over-ear headphones we’ve tried for their price bracket. Go-to cans for all listening scenarios. Focal Listen Professional £219 Full Review: FM342 Honest, transparent circumaural phones that cause little fatigue over long periods. A favourite choice in the all-rounder headphone category. Beyerdynamic DT 700 PRO X £219 Full Review: FM380 A reliable pair of headphones that combine great build quality with excellent sound. Sennheiser HD-206 £20 Deceptively rugged all-rounders delivering much bang for buck, these represent a brilliant solution for budget-conscious studio scenarios.…