Table of contents for 04-2021 in Beat English

Powerful Emulation of the Moog Taurus IK Multimedia Syntronik Bully No question, in a list of the best bass synthesizers, the Moog Taurus shouldn‘t be missing! For Syntronik Bully, IK Multimedia has sampled the enormously powerful sound of all three variants of the legendary bass pedal in detail and prepared it as an inspiring sampled instrument. Among other things, Bully comes with four layers, a smart arpeggiator and step sequencer as well as high-quality effects. Download: www.bit.ly/BeatDL183 | Info: www.ikmultimedia.com win | mac Luxury Convolution Reverb Halls of Fame 3 Studio The reverb effects from Lexicon, Bricasti, EMT and TC Electronic enjoy cult status and are at home in all professional studios. In the special edition Halls Of Fame 3 Studio, Beat and Best Service combine the sounds of the…

IK Multimedia expands their successful Uno product series with the compact synthesizer duo Uno Synth Pro Desktop and Uno Synth Pro. The latter features an aftertouch-capable 37-key Fatar synth-action keyboard, while the Uno Synth Pro has a 32-key touch keyboard. The sound is enhanced with three wave-morphing oscillators, which also offer FM synthesis, PWM and ring modulation. This is joined by a filter with 24 different filter types, including a self-oscillating filter. A modulation matrix with 16 slots ensures flexibility in sound design. There are 256 presets in total. Furthermore, the 64-step sequencer with arpeggiator offers plenty of potential for programming creative sequences. In addition to the distortion, there are three effects slots that can draw from twelve effects. You can benefit from the paraphonic polyphony in Chord Mode. CV/Gate…

Meinhomestudio.de expands its YouTube channel with a new series that follows a complete virtual rock band production in Cubase 11 with tutorials. Producer and musician Matthias Basedow shows his songwriting, recording and mixing techniques in practice. Fittingly, the team from MeinHomestudio. de was once again on the creative trail and conjured up Kante, a rock instrument that can be used by all Steinberg Halion Sonic 3 SE users. This free player with integrated CALDO dynamics is a creative sampler with more than 3000 samples that makes it rock with Kante. A total of 24 rock-heavy presets are available for selection. Among the sounds are crunchy electric guitar riffs, as well as raw electric basses, distorted organs and isolated pad sounds. In addition, there are two drum kits that allow an…

Beat / When did you start producing trap? Alex / It‘s difficult to define when certain music has become trap. Our music has always had trap influences. I would say I‘ve been making trap instrumentals since 2010. Greeny / I already produced beats in 2007, back then with Babba Music/Immer.Ready. We released a mixtape whose sound was already very much influenced by southern rap. Trap developed from this type of music, which also includes crunk, in the USA. Actually, we‘ve been there from the start. Beat / What were your biggest influences back then? Alex / We started listening to Gucci Mane very early - must have been around 2008. This is definitely my biggest influence. Greeny / Exactly, we listened to Gucci Mane a lot, but we also thought…

1 Bass Since Bully has four layers, creating multi-faceted sounds and sequences is a breeze. This makes the synthesizer an excellent provider of musical ideas. First, load a bass sound that you like. We decide on the preset „Bully II Det Sqrs Wide Tuning“ and set the Cutoff control on the far left to a minimum value. 2 Fine Tuning We also push Velocity all the way up in the Filter section so that velocity controls the Filter Frequency. A higher Drive value effectively provides more bite. Furthermore, we set a very short Release time in the Loudness Envelope; then, switch to the Arpeggiator section to program a sequence. 3 Create Sequence First, click on the orange line below the steps and drag it to the right so that the…

1 Wild Sampling The basic principle is simple: we collect existing ideas and combine them into one or more new kits. It doesn‘t matter whether the ideas were created in your DAW or on the MPC. Maybe you want to start from scratch, too? We start with a track that we‘re stuck on and pick out the best sounds. 2 Sound Selection From the „good” instruments, we sample only one note at a time in the MPC. The octave can vary, but we keep the key consistent to make it easier to build Keygroups from them later on. We also record some of our favorite sounds from various synthesizers in exactly the same way. Here, we recommend a mixture of basses, leads and sequences. 3 MPC Programs Loops and Vocals…

1 Set EQ Select the first band and set Side under Stereo Placement. Now you can edit the side signal. For particularly phase-accurate work, it is recommended that you set the mode to Linear Phase to ensure that the phase of the signal does not change and thus no unwanted side effects occur. 2 Characteristic Next, we set the characteristic under Shape to High Shelf. For our purpose, we need a flat curve of our band; therefore, we set Q very low to 0.2. This flat curve allows us to affect the signal very low in the frequency spectrum, even if we boost at a relatively high frequency. 3 Lift Now, we slowly raise the band at the highest frequency of 30 kHz and pay attention to what happens to…

None other than Techno DJ and music producer Björn Torwellen founded SINEE Studios. In addition to various online courses on „Electronic Music Production“, „Music Theory & Composing”, as well as tutorials and masterclasses, you can also find Ableton Live Packs, sounds and special „nerd“ merchandise on the website. We took a closer look at the online masterclass from Stimming, a music producer and live artist from Hamburg. Stimming has been producing thoughtful and groovy house music for over 10 years. The artist is also known for using handmade sounds and field recordings in his compositions. Main Focus The Stimming Masterclass can be summarized into the topics of the overall processes of music production, creative workflow, recording acoustic instruments, as well as groove design and harmony theory. After the purchase is…

Almost four years ago, the iLoud Micro from the Italian manufacturer set new standards in the class of ultra-compact monitor speakers. Barely larger than the roaring cubes from electronics stores, they impressed us with a voluminous and detailed sound. In particular, the impulse fidelity and the powerful bass surprised us positively in the test. The iLoud MTMs offer even more sound in very compact dimensions, which is due to the expanded hardware, as well as the included calibration system. Compact Monitors With dimensions of 264 x 160 x 130 mm, the iLoud MTM is almost a third larger than the Micro version and, with a weight of 2.5 kilograms, also a good deal heavier, but it is still very compact and portable compared to its sonically equal competitors. While the…

Cobalt8 is a virtual analog synthesizer that looks confusingly similar to Argon8 due to the same high-quality hardware and controls, but has a different focus. In Cobalt8, much of the processing power goes into emulating an analog multimode filter, yet the two oscillator groups still show great flexibility with a choice of 34 algorithms and up to four oscillators each. In addition, there is a polyphonic step sequencer, modulatable effects, app control and morphing. Robust and Chic Externally, Argon8 and Cobalt8 are like two peas in a pod. Cobalt8 is housed in the same robust and heavy-duty casing, which is mainly made of thick steel and aluminum and differs only by the eponymous cobalt blue paint. This makes this compact synthesizer not only feel very high-quality, but it also makes…

Mastering is essential to give your productions a professional finishing touch. While a few years ago this required wickedly expensive analog hardware, today you can also achieve high-quality results with plug-ins and the appropriate know-how. In our free eBook, you‘ll learn how to give your tracks a balanced, powerful sound and competitive loudness, step-by-step, without sacrificing dynamics. Whether you produce Club Music, Rock, Pop or Hip-Hop: The key to professional-sounding tracks is adequate mastering. This means much more than just making a song really loud and fat. It is much more a matter of finding a good middle ground between loudness and dynamics with a lot of sensitivity and giving the piece of music a sound that fits the corresponding genre. Even though mastering can help mixes in need of…

1 Load MIDI Instruments To layer sounds, load a MIDI instrument, such as a bass, into a new MIDI track. Load another instrument, such as a synth, into a second MIDI track; and a third, perhaps an organ, into a third MIDI track. In the first MIDI track, place the Note Length MIDI effect and set Length to 182 ms and Gate to 153%. 2 Assign Input Activate the Mix Mode of Push. Press the Mix button again until you see the Mix and Input & Output menus. Select the second MIDI track and use the encoders in the Input & Output menu to select Input and the first MIDI track listed here under your track name as Input Type. 3 Trigger Sound Layer Under Position, select Pre FX. This…

TRAP & HIP HOP While Hip Hop and Electronic were two parallel universes in the beginning, they have been inseparable for a long time and have entered into only one of many symbioses with Trap. Stars like Sido, Drake, Deichkind and Alison Wonderland show more than clearly how well the fusion of both worlds works. In the following special, we not only feature hip acts in an interview, but also look over their shoulders as they produce and give you all the tools and tricks you need for both contemporary Trap and classic sampling & turntablism Hip Hop with 12-bit aesthetics. Page 16 Test: Behringer System 100 After some semi-modular synthesizers, Behringer presents their first Eurorack modules with the System 100. Page 75 Portrait: Louisahhh Various media have already called…

Solid State Logic unveils its new DAW controller, the UF8. This 8-channel USB controller features one encoder per channel and a high-resolution color display for the most important channel information such as panning, volume and routing. Added to this: A channel encoder to replace a mouse scroll wheel, as well as 43 user-assignable buttons. In addition to mixing and post-production, webcasting is also recommended as an area of application. Advantageously, UF8 can be cascaded with four additional units - containing up to 32 of the touch-sensitive faders - to create a complete mix console. For various configurations, the included 360° Control software is to serve as a new command center as an app. On the software side, you can also look forward to the Vocalstrip 2 and Drumstrip plug-ins for…

1 Suitable Drumkit Sido‘s hit „High“ (feat. Samra & Kool Savas) has a moderate tempo of 87 BPM. For the drums we use the kit „Planet Malaysia“ of the plug-in UJAM Beatmaker Dope [1]. We replace the first snare of the drum kit with the sound„ SN 1 West “. For programming the kick drum, we first set a sixteenth note grid. 2 Groove Place the bass drum on beats 1, 8, and 11 in bar 1, and 1, 8, 11, 12, and 16 in bar 2, while we place the snare on every third quarter beat. Here, too, the hi-hat plays a continuous sixteenth-note rhythm. You can achieve a lively groove by slightly bringing forward or delaying the individual beats of the three drums. 3 Bass It is also…

1 Drum foundation “Dinge” has a tempo of 80 bpm, but hi-hat programming is easier at twice the tempo. For the drums we use the Beatmaker Dope from UJAM [1]. With its gritty lofi sound, the “Uptempo Banger v2” preset is ideal for our purposes. The basis of the beat is a two-bar pattern that is varied over and over again. 2 Laid back feeling We place the bass drum on eighth counts 1 and 4 in bar 1 and 3 and 8 in bar 2. The main snare beats are on every third quarter-note, whereby the ghost notes in the picture make the beat much livelier. As shown, the kick drum and snare hits are sometimes a little delayed, which creates a relaxed feeling. 3 Driving Hi-hats The closed…

Airbit Airbit is a platform where you can sell your beats but also soundpacks. You can specify for what price you want to sell your instrumental and the extent of its use, depending on the selling price. After the purchase, an electronic contract is automatically created for the buyer based on your details. There are three price models to choose from: Basic, Gold and Platinum. The first variant is free, gold and platinum cost between 8 and 16 US dollars per month. Depending on the model, you can access various functions such as an unlimited upload or discount codes. By the way: 100 percent of the sales revenue stays with you. www.airbit.com soundee The provider soundee has a simple structure, which has a positive impact on the overview and usability.…

»Improvising is like telepathy involving both the physical and psychological vibration of music. You can heal people, help them feel better. « Beat / Jean-Phi, the way your career developed is quite intriguing. Jean-Phi Dary / That‘s true! I was really lucky to get in touch with people like Congolese singer Papa Wemba early on. Through him, I got to work with Peter Gabriel. Less than 6 monthes before that, I was just a pianist in a piano bar! Being in the Real World Studio, travelling, playing in this new “world“, I could taste what I really wanted to be part of. I felt that it was possible to be considered as an artist with my own ideas, my personal points of view. That was much better than playing in…

1 Synthesizer Load the Prologue synthesizer onto a new instrument track. With it, we create the basic sound of the organ so we can modulate it later. Set the Cutoff control in the middle to 20,000 Hz so that the complete frequency spectrum from Prologue can be heard. Set Max Voices to 32 so that the resulting organ can also be played polyphonically. 2 Harmonics Using two oscillators, we will now recreate a typical overtone structure for an organ. Set the waveform of Oscillator 1 to Partial Octave and in Oscillator 2 to Partial Quint. Increase the volume of the second oscillator to 50 and tune this oscillator one octave lower by setting Coarse to -12 semitones. 3 Loudspeaker Close Prologue and open the track‘s channel settings with the e…

1 Oscillate Envelopes Load Operator‘s default preset and deactivate Oscillators B through D. Select Square D as the waveform for Oscillator A. Activate the Fixed Mode. Set Multi to 0. Now, set the Sustain of the envelope for Oscillator A to Inf. and Decay to 5.59 ms. Select the Loop Mode to Loop and a Time of 0.20 ms. 2 Add Room This restarts the envelope at the end of the decay and thus becomes a sound generator itself. To be able to play different tones, switch to the global section of Operator. Select the Time parameter for Key and -100 for the Amount. Load the Reverb with the Concrete Chamber preset into the track and set Dry/Wet to 90%. 3 Volume Envelope Activate Oscillator B. Set its Envelope Sustain…

We start with an emulation of an analog chorus called Dimension D. The obvious role model Roland Dimension D is a true effect classic. That‘s because this bucket brigade circuit-based chorus adds width, liveliness and warmth to the input signal without sounding too obtrusive or cluttering up the mix. It‘s one of those subtle effects that you don‘t consciously notice until you turn it off again, and the instrument or vocal is suddenly missing something important. Hardly any other chorus blends so beautifully with the audio signal. The original only needed a handful of buttons to switch between the different modes, and Arturia has kept this faithful to the original. The first three buttons offer different levels of intensity of the effect; when combined with Mode 4, the effect signal…

The Creator bundle from Mackie consists of a pair of 3-inch multimedia monitors, a pair of headphones as an alternative monitoring source, and a USB microphone that is intended for both recording and driving the speakers via the built-in audio interface. USB Microphone The center of this recording package is the Mackie EM-USB USB microphone with a cardioid pickup pattern. Similar to the Mackie EM-91C, the first impression is deceptive: Despite the generous dimensions, this is not a large-diaphragm, but rather a small-diaphragm microphone. The gain control adjusts the level of the input signal so as not to overdrive the AD converter and waste headroom. Mute turns the microphone off if, for example, you want to exchange thoughts unheard by the public during a podcast or just need to sneeze…

1 Preparations Load the stereo mix you want to Master onto an audio track in your DAW. We‘ll use the sample track from our EDM special in the last issue for the following workshop. First, we want to listen to the loudest part of the song. If you are also working with the track „Mario Schumacher - BEAT - Special EDM Mixdown“, define a project tempo of 128 BPM. 2 Analyzer Then, in the Transport field, activate Cycle mode and set the left locator to 97.1.1.0 and the right one to 105.1.1.0. Then, activate the Voxengo SPAN plug-in in the seventh effect slot. This is a useful helper for judging loudness and frequency distribution of the track. Besides the peak level, it also displays the average loudness (RMS). 3 Measure…

Battle mixers designed specifically for scratching and juggling were once considered narrow spartan mixers for Hip Hop DJs. But since that time, battle mixers have catapulted to creative high-tech headquarters, including these two candidates: The Rane Seventy-Two mkII and the Pioneer DJ DJM-S11. Connections & Processing Even before the first start-up, Rane‘s flagship proves to be extremely robust and encased in steel; however, the DJM S-11 is more space-saving and a lot lighter, and its surface also looks more elegant. In terms of connectivity, it has a microphone jack, two line and two phono jacks, and an aux port for inputs. Two master outputs (XLR and RCA), a booth output and two outputs for headphones are onboard, as well as the two USB interfaces. That being said, the Seventy-Two MKII…

Just in time for the virtual NAMM, Korg conjured up the modwave wavetable synthesizer. This 32x polyphonic playable USB synthesiser is equipped with 37 lightweight keys. Special attention should be given to the KAOSS physics function, which can be controlled as a modulation source via the X/Y pad and can generate up to four modulation signals at once. MOD wheel, pitch wheel and four MOD knobs serve as additional modulation sources. Two wavetable oscillators and one sub-oscillator are available for each program. In addition, more than 200 wavetables, with a maximum of 64 waveforms, are already on board. A wealth of effects and 37 filter types also beg to be tried out. Another highlight is Motion Sequencing 2.0, which contributes to the exploration of new soundscapes. A Rompler with several…

If you want to experience the authentic feeling of vinyl even in the digital age, you might be happy about the new portable DJ Controller One from RANE. The complete setup consists of two motorized 7.2-inch turntables along with exchangeable vinyl and a central battle mixer. The music can be fed either via the two USB ports or, alternatively, via external sources using the phono and line connections. An aux path is available as an additional input. The mixer consists of two channels and a Mag Four crossfader. In addition, there are 16 velocity-sensitive, illuminated pads with five modes per deck. A 3-band equalizer and access to a high-pass and a low-pass filter are available for each channel. There are also six effects from the included Serato DJ Pro DJ…

Two styles with related origins, but they couldn‘t be more different. While one of them mercilessly merges 808 basses with autotune in the commercial sector, the other relies fully on diss and flame rhymes. A gloomy, one-sided scenario? Not at all, because these facets are only the tip of the iceberg. Both trap and hip-hop offer a wide, multi-layered horizon, bold crossovers and are just as at home in the EDM scene as they are in classic beatmaker genres. A question of styles As in any comprehensive style of music, there are countless sub-genres in the slower realm of broken beat. Starting with popular hip-hop variants such as boom rap with its classic vinyl beat feeling or gangsta rap with more aggressive vocals, to conscious hip-hop, funny and weird hyphy…

There can only be one Native Instruments Maschine vs. Akai MPC It‘s clear that the two candidates are the first to enter the ring. MPCs were the undisputed number one in hip-hop for what felt like an eternity, but Maschine was able to saw off the throne considerably. At least until Akai added the X, Live and One models, which were finally able to control software as a controller and brought considerably more comfort. Both offer 16 pads for finger drumming, for triggering patterns, sample slicing or even navigating. While all current MPC models work without a computer (Live and Live II with internal battery) and even offer several plug-ins, only Maschine+ runs autonomously and here too only with limited synths. Both work pattern oriented and allow the recording of…

ATMOSPHERICAL PAD 1 General Chillstep combines two distinctive features under one hood: On the one hand there are spherical pads, which take over the melodic main role, while on the other hand heavy beats with mostly urban and experimental touch hammer against it. What both have in common, however, is the tendency that you need to listen, because at a tempo of around 70 bpm the danceability tends to zero. 2 Pad sound The basis for the track is a pad, which we create with the freeware Lokomotiv. The synth is ideally suited due to its excellent sound. Load the plug-in and lower the cutoff a little so that the sound is a bit less harsh. For the envelope, we set the attack to 60%, decay to 80% and sustain…

»The songs in the most popular playlists lead to the highest access rates and thus end up in the charts. The songs that are high in the charts, in turn, end up in the most popular playlists. The brave new, democratic world looks different. « Millions of listeners wait every year for „Last Christmas“ to haunt them wherever they go. Loved dearly and hated abysmally in equal measure, this brilliantly generic schmaltzy song has been sweetening and ruining every December since 1984. For George Michael, however, who produced the song almost single-handedly and recorded every single instrument on it himself, the track represented a small blot on the otherwise almost perfect chart history of his band Wham! during his lifetime because the song never reached the top position in the…

1 Select sound In our Resampling workshop, we will show you how to sample a played pattern internally in the Maschine+. First, we load an instrument onto a free pad. In our case, we chose the preset Brockeback, which can be found in the Plucked Strings category. This is a plucked guitar-like sound. 2 Play it! Next, we switched to Keyboard mode to make the instrument chromatically playable. In addition, we activated Fixed Velocity to be able to play all notes with the same touch. We used the Tap Tempo to set the song speed. Then, we played a simple sequence of notes over two bars. 3 Route it! To sample the recorded pattern, first press the Sampling button in the upper left corner. The next step is to select…

1 Create Mellotron Track For this charismatic Tape-String-Pad, we load up the Mellotron software instrument. The 3 Violins setting provides a good sonic basis. The pad should basically appear warm, gloomy and a little mystical. In this respect, it is good to reduce the values for the Tape Speed (to about -3) and Tone (to about 20) parameters somewhat. 2 Use Phat FX The second step is to significantly beef up the slightly scratchy and thin basic sound of the Mellotron. The best choice is the Phat FX effect plug-in, which can be found in Logic Pro X‘s Multi-Effects. For a wide, warm and modulating sound, we use the Filtered Chorus Movement setting, which is then modified. 3 Modify Multi-Effects The Phat FX plug-in combines several effects. First, we deactivate…

GForce Software has always had a lucky hand when it comes to emulating vintage instruments. With the ImpOscar, modeled after The Oscar monophonic analog synthesizer, as well as the exquisite Mellotron reconstruction aka M-Tron Pro, the software audio developer from London has made a name for itself. With the OB-E, GForce Software fulfills a special wish that became big among its own clientele. The OB-E is an eight-voice virtual analog synthesizer based on a simple, yet special concept: Take a single Synthesizer Expander Module (SEM) by Tom Oberheim and multiply it into an inspiring instrument that today is available as a plug-in and therefore avaible for every musician. Concept The prototype, the Oberheim Eight Voice, was built between 1977 and 1980. This synthesizer was played only by a few exceptions…

1 Installation Download the Engine OS music analysis and song management software [1] and install it. Start the application so that the player is displayed in the upper third, which you can expand to two using the Dual Layer button. Below that is the song archive (left), which still has to be created, and the track list window. 2 Crates Click on the Crates icon and give your sound collection an appropriate name. Use the Plus symbol to create subfolders that match your songs thematically or chronologically and name them accordingly. Drag and drop the desired song or a complete archive onto the created subfolders. 3 Build song archive Expand your entire song archive and categorize the respective folders. Create playlists if necessary. Unlike crates, playlists have the advantage of…

Special: Drums & Groove Whether Techno or Pop, Hip-Hop or Chillout, drums have to sound crisp, be used cleverly and above all: they have to groove. But what to look for when searching for sounds, how do kick and bass become one, how can loops and samples be combined to create a signature sound, how are acoustic and electronic drums merged, and how are infectious grooves made? Look forward to all the answers, techniques and personal equipment recommendations from the editorial team. Review: Moog Subsequent 25 The Subsequent 25 is the little brother of the Subsequent 37 and inherits the Sub Phatty. 2 oscillators with hard sync, sub oscillator and noise form the foundation, in contrast to the Sub Phatty duophonic playing is also possible. The ladder filter with multidrive…