Table of contents for September 2020 in Future Music

FM| WELCOME Pushing buttons In very broad terms you can probably divide electronic musicians into ‘players’ and ‘sequencers’. Particularly in recent years, I fall into the latter category; letting what abilities I had as a guitarist or keyboard player turn to rust in favour of tinkering with triggers, gate lengths and timing divisions. Traditional musicians might scoff at this – and, full disclosure, my laziness when it comes to practising is a factor – but there’s something I find inherently fascinating and satisfying about creating music with sequencers. There’s just something about being able to construct a fully layered creation of interlocking elements and then sit back and tweak sounds while you let the patterns run. This issue’s cover feature is for all the sequencers out there. Join us on…

Dreadbox and Sinevibes drop the super-cute Typhon analogue synth > Greek hardware gurus Dreadbox and plugin specialists Sinevibes have launched Typhon, a new portable and compact analogue synth. Typhon will contain two Dreadbox analogue oscillators, a 4-pole low-pass filter and three modulators with four different modes. A 32-step sequencer is also onboard; as well as being able to sequence notes in the usual way, this can also be used as a modulation source. For their part, Sinevibes have contributed 12 DSP stereo effects, including distortion, bitcrusher, chorus, ensemble, flanger, delay and reverb. This looks like a pretty hands-on synth with a straightforward workflow. All analogue elements have their own controls, while the sliders, buttons and encoder on the right can be used to control the amp and filter envelopes, sequencer,…

In the studio with Mousse T. “I was using the same gear as I have now to make that album, basically. My console, which is over 30 years old, is by a German company called Mitec – so nice. Then I combined that with beautiful outboard analogue gear, and digital bits. And I’m still working with Logic. “Then I had Urei compressors, a couple of Neve bits, some Manley. Then a very vital thing – Six Akai samplers. I still adore them as they have this beautiful sound. “I was sampling all the vocals into my Akais and replaying the songs from them. So three would have vocals and other audio materials in, then the rest would have my sounds and my beats and everything. “Then I had a coupla…

Level-up your sequencer skills EUCLIDEAN AND BEYOND Alternative takes on the classic step sequencer format have long been popular in the modular realm, and as modular has risen in popularity in recent years many of these ideas have begun to seep into more mainstream hardware and software tools. One such format is the Euclidean sequencer, based on the idea of Euclidean rhythms that was first posited by computer scientist Godfried Toussaint in 2004. Without getting too bogged down in the underlying theory, Euclidean rhythms have their roots in Greek mathematician Euclid’s algorithm and involve using the greatest common divisor of two numbers to place hits in a sequence as evenly as possible across a set timing division. In practice this is actually simpler than you might think – simply set…

GLXY | The Track Polishing DRS’ rapped and sung vocals in Ableton John and Tom use a dual-pronged approach when they’re working with DRS’ vocals 01 > DRS’ sung vocals consist of a main track and a backing track, which John and Tom route to a group. “It was all processed in the group,” says Tom. “Straightaway, we compressed it a little bit with FabFilter Pro-C 2, just to control it before we continued the processing.” 02 > The signal is then EQed with FabFilter Pro-Q 2, where the low-end is rolled off and there’s some gentle equalisation in the mids and highs. “I don’t really know what mic he’s got, but I know it’s really good because all the recordings he sends to us sound pretty crisp!” John adds.…

Understanding the envelope generator and how it shapes your sound Most of us think of an envelope generator as the way our synth presents our sound, but they can also modify tones. Let’s break down what the envelope is: essentially a way to visualise a curve, broken down into Attack, Decay, Sustain, then finally Release. Some synths have more controls, others less. Simple attack and release are found on many, while others have more than one envelope generator. These can be used to control the loudness over time of a note that’s been triggered but also can affect things like the cutoff, so you have a note that starts softly, builds to be harsher, with more high end, then those highs fade again. Synths that have multiple generators offer the…

THREE OF THE BEST Moog Model D free 1 Moog is arguably the best known synth company, often with suitably large price tags. However their Model D iPad version is currently free, giving you a chance to enjoy the classic sounds on the move. moogmusic.com Arturia Analog Lab £199 2 Arturia make great hardware synths and their VSTs are well loved too. The Analog Lab is a great choice for experimenting with different core sounds, that can intuitively be adapted. It also pays homage to some of the best synths from the last 40 years. arturia.com Roland System 8 £1200 3 This makes the list purely for its versatility. It lacks aftertouch but otherwise has all you need, including vocoder, arp, sequencer and authentic versions of classic Rolands from yesteryear…

Guide RETROSPECTIVE To | XXXX Garage music Born out of New York’s Paradise Garage club in the late ’70s, the roots of garage music go back to DJ Larry Levan © Larry Levan photograph courtesy of BillBernsteinFineArt.com Forgive us the sweeping generalisation, but we reckon it’s fair to say that most musical styles are invented by musicians and producers first before being adopted by labels, DJs and journalists. Garage music – at least in its original form – is an extreme outlier. Not only can we trace the sound back to one club, it also comes back to one DJ: Larry Levan. Levan was born in Brooklyn in 1954, growing up surrounded by music thanks to his mother’s passion for jazz, blues and gospel. As a young, gay Black man…

Get creative with | Ableton Live Generate new musical ideas in Ableton Live PROBLEM: How do I come up with chords, melodies and basslines, even when I’m creatively stuck? Do you ever get stuck when writing chords, melodies and basslines or feel like your ideas are all starting to sound the same? Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, we all need creative inspiration at times. Fortunately Ableton Live has a number of powerful MIDI tools you can use to generate unlimited new musical ideas. Using Live’s advanced routing capabilities, a hint of controlled randomisation and some polyrhythms, you can generate long patterns of MIDI notes within a chosen scale from which you can pick and choose the bits you like. We’ll work in Live’s Session View and set up…

EFFECTS, ARP AND CONNECTIVITY The Hydrasynth has plenty of features to treat your sounds. First off, there’s plenty of high quality effects in four blocks. The pre and post effects include chorus, flanger, rotary, phaser, lo-fi, tremolo, EQ and compressor, while there are five delay types and reverbs. The quality is impressive and allows sounds to really breathe. As mentioned, effects can also be modulated, which lets them truly become part of the sound design process. ASM also provide a comprehensive arpeggiator onboard with several octave modes, tap tempo (for jamming along live), swing, gate, ratcheting with probability (called ‘chance'), 64 preset phrases, chord mode, plus latch and sustain. The arp’s deepness certainly does make up for the lack of onboard sequencer. The Hydrasynth has a decent array of connections…

Method 2 – Xfer Serum Serum has a good range too – including some created by our author himself… 01 Start by using envelope 1 (the amp envelope) to create a pad shape. In addition to extending the attack and release, try changing the curve of the attack segment to a more rounded, logarithmic shape. This will give the pad a smoother feel than a linear or exponential shape. 02 While a sawtooth wave certainly works, try searching for a single wave from a wavetable. This will add harmonic complexity and make the core pad element sound more unique. From there, add 4-5 voices of unison detuning for thickness. 03 Serum’s noise generator includes an array of inharmonic sources in the factory “FP_ Inharms” folder (yes, that’s me). Find one…

DAWS Apple Logic Pro X 10.5 $199 Full Review: Next Issue The 10.5 update is an excellent overhaul for Logic, adding Ableton Live-like clip launching tools, a new sampler and smart step sequencer. Steinberg Cubase Pro 10.5 £480 Review FM354 A solid update to a great DAW, though whether you choose to update now will depend on your own workflow and needs. Cakewalk by Bandlab free Cakewalk was recently killed off by Gibson but saved by BandLab. It’s now free, so head over to their site and get downloading! We’re interested to see what the future holds... Tracktion Waveform Pro from $119 Review: FM345 Waveform is now friendlier, contains more creative tools and brings workflow ideas you’ll have missed from other DAWs. PreSonus Studio One 4 Pro £345 Review: FM333…

Roland, Korg and GAK fined £5.75m by UK price-fixing watchdog > Roland, Korg and the retailer GAK have joined Casio and Fender in being fined heavily by UK watchdog, the Competitions and Markets Authority. The fines, for “resale price maintenance” (RPM), which stops retailers from discounting below a minimum price, mark “the culmination of five separate investigations, covering major players across the musical instruments sector”, reads the CMA’s statement. Roland and Korg have been under the microscope since March, but GAK fell foul of the rules separately, after Yamaha disclosed its own RPM agreement with the firm. Yamaha escaped punishment “for being the first to bring the conduct to the attention of the CMA.” The CMA has also fired a warning shot in the form of an open letter reiterating…

IK’s iRig Keys 2 Mini is a super-portable MIDI keyboard for mobile > The iRig Keys 2 Mini is the latest, smallest addition to IK Multimedia’s iRig Keys 2 range, offering 25 mini keys and direct connection to your iOS, Android, Windows or macOS device. Other useful connectivity options include a dedicated audio output, which will be particularly useful if you don’t have one on your phone or tablet, and MIDI I/O so that the iRig Keys 2 Mini can be used as a standalone controller. Power can be drawn from your device, a USB power supply or a USB battery pack. As well as the keys, you also get volume and octave up/down controls, plus a push encoder and various other function buttons. A further four assignable knobs are…

Programming a simple polyrhythm in your DAW It’s not always easy to use multiple time signatures in a DAW. Let’s create a groove based around a 3:4 polyrhythm Some DAWs are better than others when it comes to polyrhythms. For example, Logic allows users to timestretch MIDI clips, so creating a polyrhythm is as simple as creating two clips with the requisite number of beats – one with five beats and one with seven, for example – and then stretching them to both be a bar in length on the timeline. Pretty much all DAWs and hardware sequencers offer some form of triplet grid though. While triplets by themselves don’t make a polyrhythm, placing a triplet grid and a straight 4/4 grid side by side allows us to create the…

Level-up your sequencer skills Ambient melody with Euclidean sequencing Euclidean sequencing is good for melody too. Let’s create an evolving ambient pattern… 01 > We’re using Alkman’s excellent Euclidean Sequencer for Max For Live. We load it all up, along with Operator’s African Bars preset, which is a lovely atmospheric FM mallet sound. We’ve set the project tempo to a mellow 112bpm. 02 > This sequencer has four tracks. It’s possible to create note sequences for each of these, but for simplicity we’re going to stick to having each track trigger a single MIDI note. We set these a D#2, F#3, A#4 and C#5 – creating a D#m7 chord, but spread out across several octaves. 03 > To start we set our D# track to a step length of 16…

Modulating an arpeggiator with an LFO Turn to your LFO to add a touch of chaos LFOs are an often underrated tool when it comes to adding interest to sequences. On the one hand, a synth’s LFO is effectively a secondary tool for adding rhythm to your sequences; use it, for example, to modulate filter cutoff in a way that creates a counter rhythm to your note sequence. In the modular or software realms, however, we often have the ability to use LFOs to affect the rate or direction of a sequence or arp line, allowing us to create patterns that speed up and slow down or jump backwards and forwards. While the results can be pretty chaotic, in the right context this is a great way to add a…

YOUTUBE MORE UNMISSABLE VIDEO TRAINING FROM FUTURE MUSIC Discover our line-up of exclusive YouTube goodness. Head online for all this and more! THE TRACK Leading producers go in-depth on the sounds, ideas and techniques behind their latest releases Pablo Nouvelle – Milambi ft Angelique Kidjo The Swiss artist joins forces with a Beninese icon for this afrobeat-infused house track DON’T MISS: Pythius, Auxiliary Learn about the Dutch drum & bass producer’s granular approach Fickle Friends, Pretty Great Jack Wilson, songwriter/keyboardist on the making of their latest single Lia Mice, Which Memories Will Make It? The multidisciplinary artist on techno and time travel Boston Bun, Don’t Wanna Dance Thibaud Noyer on sampling, replays and how he made his latest house hit Top producers show you the world of…

Garage music Retrospective The eclectic sound of Paradise Garage in just three tracks Peech Boys Don’t Make Me Wait, 1982 1 Levan’s own studio career saw him produce, write, mix and remix an impressive catalogue of tracks. We could choose from a wealth of Garage favourites here. It’s hard to omit Loose Joints’ Is It All Over My Face? (Female Vocal) or Taana Gardner’s loping 100bpm stomper Heartbeat (which would reportedly clear the dancefloor when first played, later becoming a crowd favourite), but we’ll plump for the Levan-produced Peech Boys project. Don’t Make Me Wait is a proto-house classic: gospel-inspired vocals, LinnDrum beats and funky synths. Pure perfection. Jeanette Thomas Shake Your Body (House Shaker Version), 1987 2 By the late ’80s, Levan was still playing R&B, disco and other…

FM REVIEWS ASM Hydrasynth £1,299 A new, Hong Kong-based company and a new synth with a new approach and sound. Dan ‘JD73’ Goldman tests the water A shun Sound Machines may be a new name to most of us but it’s part of Medeli – a well established Hong Kong instrument maker. VP of their product development team is the hugely respected Glen Darcey, who has conceptualised and brought to market products like Arturia’s ‘Brute’ range, and Akai’s MPC Renaissance and Studio to name just a few! I was in no doubt that the Hydrasynth would have no detail left unchecked. But were my (admittedly high) expectations met? The Hydrasynth arrived nicely packed in a sturdy box and – rejoice – with a full, printed user manual. It certainly feels…

TESTBENCH iZotope Tonal Balance Control 2 This month we take a look at two iZotope plugins. Our first, Tonal Balance Control was once only available with either Neutron 3 and Ozone 9. With version 2, it’s available individually… but use it with those packages for best results. In a nutshell, it’s a metering plugin designed to compare your track to commercial standards, as measured by iZotope in a separate project. By looking at the readout across TBC’s spectrum, you see where your track is lacking or overpowering compared to contemporary standards. In a lovely twist, if you’re running it in a DAW project alongside iZotope’s Neutron 3, you can make tweaks to Neutron EQ bands directly from TBC. Let’s see what it can do. The basic idea When you load…

SOUNDS & SAMPLES In Session Audio – Drumatic Creator $139.99 In Session Audio have been releasing a strong and consistent line of Kontakt-based instruments for the last few years, with Drumatic Creator the latest to make use of their graphics and sound design expertise. Drumatic Creator is certainly not the first instrument or library aimed at epic or cinematic ensemble drum styles – and there a number of different approaches to achieving a convincing result – but In Session Audio have aimed to provide flexibility in terms of playback and sound selection. Their approach is based around recording each drum separately – rather than as a full ensemble – therefore allowing the user to select the number and type (plus tuning, relative level and other parameters) of drums in a…

HIGH-END SYNTHS ASM Hydrasynth £1,299 Full Review: FM360 An impressive first release from a new brand. Hydrasynth looks and sounds great, invites exploration, is built to last and is hugely expressive. What’s not to like? 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! Moog Sub 37 $1,579 Review: FM286 With a richer set of features and fewer operational hurdles than its predecessor, the Sub 37 is a superb and highly desirable upgrade to the Phatty family of Moog synths. 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…

MIDI KEYBOARDS Novation SL MkIII from £540 Full Review: FM338 Well-designed and versatile. For those who work with both hardware and software, this may be the best studio centrepiece on the market. Akai Advance 49 £399 Review FM293 Combined with Akai’s VIP software, the Advance controllers remove the disconnect between controller and DAW. Roli Seaboard Block £279 Review: FM322 A unique and high-quality MPE-capable, expandable, two-octave controller with a price that makes Seaboards more generally accessible. NI Komplete Kontrol A-Series | from £119 Review FM338 A quality controller combined with a well-rounded software bundle. NI Komplete Kontrol S-Series Mk2 £499 Review: FM324 Komplete Kontrol MkII brings a whole sonic universe under your fingertips like never before, with deeper DAW integration too. Arturia KeyStep Pro £339 Full Review: FM324 For melodic…

FILTER PreSonus Studio One 5 is a DAW ‘10 years in the making’ Version 5 adds live performance tools, a score editor, enhanced effects and more > PreSonus have revealed version 5 of their impressive Studio One DAW, pitching it as an application ‘10 years in the making’ and combining user requested features with the company’s own innovation. Possibly most interesting of the new features is the introduction of a live performance environment known as the Show Page. PreSonus claim that this is capable of running a full live show from a single computer, by combining playable instruments with backing track and patch management all within a single window. The DAW allows channel strips, virtual instruments and mixdowns to be exported directly to Show View for simple setup. As well…

Amped Studio becomes the first online DAW to support VST plugins > One of the limitations of online DAWs has been their inability to support standard VST plugins, but that could be about to change. Amped Studio, the web-based music production platform, have now announced VST/Remote, a supposedly “groundbreaking experimental application” that adds support for standard plugins. This, as far as we know, is the first fully online DAW to offer this feature. Amped Studio already has WAMs – Web Audio Modules – but the addition of VST support could give it the edge over its rivals. “Although our main focus is to continue to develop and support WAMs, providing our users with the option of adding their favourite VSTs to Amped Studio is a great option,” says Bill Bryant…

Selective Response “Here’s something funny: I’ve no idea how I make the music I do” Selective Response| Since his 2019 debut, Californian producer Selective Response has caught the ears of modern techno luminaries like Perc and I Hate Models with his hardware-driven takes on techno and EBM. Having launched his own Crisis Of Man label last year, we found out more about the creative process behind his latest releases. When did you start making music? “I’ve been writing and making music in some form since I was about 12, having come from being in hardcore and punk bands growing up, as where I’m from has a very rich musical history in that. As an actual producer though, it will be a decade this coming October since I officially started my…

Level-up your sequencer skills ADVENTURES IN SEQUENCING Broadly, there are two ways to create patterns and melodies in electronic music: performing and capturing your ideas in real time, or programming ‘offline’ using a sequencer or DAW. There is, admittedly, middle ground – almost all modern software lets users quantise and edit their performances or add live overdubs to sequenced ideas – but when it comes to it, all electronic music can be broken down into parts that have been played and those that have been programmed. Traditionalists will hold that one of these is nothing more than a workaround for the other; that sequencers and piano rolls are simply tools to aid those without the ability to play music for themselves. Historically, there’s a kernel of truth to this,…

Level-up your sequencer skills Make polyrhythms using two drum machines Hardware drum machines tend to not be great for polyrhythms on their own. The solution? Use two... 01 > Drum machine sequencers are generally 16-step (or some multiple of that) and while many allow users to edit sequence lengths for individual sounds, the ability to have two time signatures running in sync at the same time is rare. The solution? Use two – here we’re using Arturia’s DrumBrute Impact and Roland’s TR-8. 02 > We have the Impact synced to the TR-8 clock via MIDI connection. To start, we create a straightforward four-to-the-floor beat on the Impact, with kicks on each beat (steps 1, 5, 9 and 13) and open hats on the offbeats (3, 7, 11 and 15). 03…

MAKING USE OF PROBABILITY Probability-based sequencing is increasingly prevalent in recent years, which is great, as it provides a simple and easy-to-achieve route to spicing up otherwise static sequences. In the hardware realm, the Conditional Trigs of Elektron’s sequencers are one of the best applications of this idea, but lots of other gear features similar capabilities, such as Arturia’s new KeyStep Pro, or numerous modular sequencers. While the application can change a little from sequencer to sequencer, the idea is broadly the same – allowing users to set a probability level controlling how likely the sequencer is to engage a specific trigger each time the sequencer lands on the corresponding step. At 100% probability you’ll hear a trigger each time a sequencer cycles, at 0% you’ll never hear it, and…

Feature NOT JUST NOTES… Most of our tutorials have focussed on sequencing either melodic or percussive lines, but – as any modular head knows – do note that sequencers aren’t just for note data. Many synthspecific sequencers will have separate modulation or parameter automation tracks and, often, applying individual sequences to things like filter cutoff or pulse width is a great way to add extra rhythmic interest to patterns. Parameter sequencing can go well beyond those common targets though. Sequenced effects are a great way to add interest; try, say, sequencing the dry/wet level of reverb and delay processors for only certain steps in a sequence to create ‘ear candy’ moments. To take this concept further, multi-effect plugins such as CableGuys ShaperBox, Audiaire Nuxx or Sugar Bytes Effectrix allow…

FM ROUND-UP VISUAL ANALYSERS Map loudness, stereo, frequencies and more with these mix-interrogator plugins FM | STUDIO ESSENTIAL! Klangfreund Multimeter $59 Multimeter is a fairly broadcast-focused analyser, but one that lets you get a great view of your signal’s loudness. If you’re trying to get with the new-school measurements of LUFS and True Peak, you can consider it a trusty ally. The left-hand main meter displays your peak to short term level ratio, which turns green when at ideal levels, or other colours when the range is too hot or cold. Peaking marks and red lines on Multimeter are retroactive, meaning that if you change the setting of the output level slider, you can make all the red you’ve previously encouraged go away – or bring it all back if…

Testbench iZotope Visual Mixer Another plugin found as part of iZotope’s Neutron package is worth investigating: the Visual Mixer represents your entire mix (or at least elements you’ve added an iZotope plugin onto) as ‘pucks’ around a 2D surface, and lets you control gain, panning and width of everything via a single layout. Sure, on a real mixing console, you can see your faders and panning knobs together, but for tough-to-manage projects, the Visual Mixer are often preferable. With the latest update adding the Balance Assistant in, VM is now a great place to make changes to your mix once the AI has made its decisions, giving those virtual faders real competition. More to come in future, hopefully. Loading the visual mixer Load the Visual Mixer onto any channel in…

Audiotent – Morph €43 This time, the Audiotent tech-heads have turned their attention to the mountain of analogue gear pulsing away in the corner of their studio – the bleeping, flashing, near sentient bits of hardware they’ve gleefully chained together by patches and cables, and probably, bits of tape. The sounds they’ve been making as one machine feeds off the next are quite remarkable. From undulating pad waves and striking chord developments, to rumbling sub sequences only whales will truly appreciate. It’s a real sonic stew, left unattended, until it bubbled over, staining the worktop in weird and wonderful ways. It’s all by design, too, as the whole set follows the teachings of old school Moog acolyte, Don Buchla, pioneer of the West Coast style of sound synthesis. He would…

Method 1 – Phase Plant Kilohearts’ DAW is a good choice for this purpose, given its range of inharmonic waveform options 01 Create a group that contains a wavetable generator and output module. We’ll use wavetables since their harmonic complexity adds flavour to the sound, so take some time to listen to these options, also scanning their frames. From there, add some unison and soften the attack and release of the envelope. 02 If you’ve selected a particularly bright wavetable, it can be useful to add a low-pass filter to soften the highs slightly. This will leave room for the upper frequencies created by the inharmonic layer and allow for easier blending. Leave the filter slope at x1 for a more gentle effect. 03 Once the basis is in place,…

AFFORDABLE SYNTHS Erica Bassline DB-01 €460 Full Review: FM359 A powerful sequencer and plenty of unique features make this much more than just another Bassline-clone. 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! Arturia MicroFreak £279 Review: FM345 If you’re looking to go beyond regular analogue synths and expand your sonic palette with an affordable creative tool, MicroFreak should be top of your ‘must try’ list. Modal Argon 8 £579 Review: FM354 A very versatile sound engine, which covers lots of territory – from warm…