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September 2015 / CM220
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VIELKLANG 2 CM PITCH/harmony plugin
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We’ve brought you tons of spectacular software giveaways over the years, and while each is special in its own way, now and again we get one that really knocks it out of the park. Well, guess what? zplane have hit a colossal home run, going above and beyond any reasonable expectations to deliver what is – to our knowledge – the first ever free full-on graphical pitch editor and intelligent four-voice harmoniser! Find out all about your amazing new vielklang 2 CM plugin on p10. Now, having spent many unhappy hours of my youth fudging pitchshifts with Amiga tracker sample offset commands or waiting for Cool Edit Pro’s progress bar to trickle across the screen, I feel I’m well qualified to describe today’s pitch-processing software as nothing short of miraculous. From clever corrective work and mix enhancements to psychedelic FX and creative sound design, every producer ought to know the tricks and techniques possible with this fascinating family of processors. So, it’s time to tune up your skills with Perfect Pitch, this issue’s in-depth megatutorial! With this knowledge and more at your fingertips, and vielklang 2 CM in your plugins folder, you can’t fail to…
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Issue 220 SEPTEMBER 2015
contents Producer masterclass
Cover feature
PERFECT
PITCH Use modern pitch-manipulation and harmonisation tools like a pro – we’ll show you everything you need to know, from p36
57 KSP
See how the production wizard gets his atmospheric techno tunes flowing in our in-studio feature
Tutorial 61 g et kreative with kontakt
Reach new creative heights with Native Instruments’ industry-standard über-sampler
/experts
Tutorial 67 H OW TO USE STUDIO ONE 3
Hit the ground running with the new features of this updated DAW
74
asy guide: e constructing a melody
76
esigner sounds: d alien soundscapes
Interview 82 BENGE
78
GEEK TECHNIQUE: mid/side sound design
80
r beat: d ghost notes
4 / Computer Music / September 2015
We quiz the synthesis veteran and gear connoisseur while trying not to drool on his synth collection
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* The Producer Masterclass video is not currently available as a download, though a solution to this is being worked on. Apple Newsstand readers can still watch the video via built-in internet streaming – just hit the Play Video button on the page.
download This issue’s exclusive free content from Computer Music
vielklang 2 CM
Harmonise and pitch-correct melodic audio with this hugely powerful plugin from zplane, p10
Reviews
Samples
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image-line Fl studio 12
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spectrasonics omnisphere 2
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fAW circle2
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akai professional advance 49
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sensomusic usine hollyhock II
PLUS 19 MORE products reviewed
500 hard-hitting DnB-flavour samples made just for readers, p14
Tutorial videos 40 high-quality videos to guide you through our tutorials. Wherever you see the icon on the left, there’s a video version to watch See this issue’s entire video content on the next pages
Essentials 22
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BLAST FROM THE PAST: vox continental
Tutorial files
CM Plugins
A folder full of audio examples, synth patches and project files to help you follow our tutorials
Our exclusive collection of free plugins for Mac and PC. See what’s available on p16
September 2015 / Computer Music / 5
video
Four hours of original video, exclusive to Computer Music – get it now on your PC/Mac at vault.computermusic.co.uk
PERFECT PITCH Tune in to these 18 video tutorials to get the best out of drums, vocals, synths, effects and more Read the full article on p36
1
Pitchshifting basics
2
Basic loop tuning
3 Manual methods of repitching audio
4 Auto-Tune’s Auto mode: ‘set and leave’ vocal tuning
5 Fine vocal tuning using Auto-Tune’s Graphical mode
6 Polyphonic editing with Celemony Melodyne’s DNA
7 Automatic harmonies with Harmony Engine Evo
8 Programming harmonies with vielklang 2’s MIDI input
9 Tuning drums with frequency shifting
10 Extreme frequency shifting for special effects
11 Lush stereo width using microshifting
12 MIDI-triggered tuning with Reason’s Neptune
13
14 Unusual vocal timbres with ‘varispeed’ repitching
15 Synth-triggered vocal tuning
16 Old-school automated drum pitching
17 Robotic pitch resynthesis with Bitspeek
6 / Computer Music / September 2015
Manipulating vibrato
18 Creative mixing using advanced pitchshifters
video Producer Masterclass*
VIELKLANG 2 CM Pitch-correct and harmonise vocals and more with this mind-blowing plugin, totally free with the issue Read the full article on p10
KSP See how Kamikaze Space Programme’s atmospheric techno is made in this massive in-studio video Read the full article on p57
HOW TO USE STUDIO ONE 3 Get to know this DAW’s new features Read the full article on p67
1 Presonus Studio One 3’s new Mai Tai synth
2 Exploring the Presence XT Sampler
3 MIDI processing with Note FX
4 Studio One 3’s new Multi Instruments
5 Using Multi Instruments’ Macro Controls
6 Ordering song sections with the Arranger Track
7 Arrangement tweaking using Scratch Pads
8 Flexible signal routing with Extended FX Chains
9 The Browser’s new drag-and-drop feature
10 Creating custom automation curves
11
* Please note that the Producer Masterclass video is not available as a download via our Vault, though Apple Newsstand users can watch the video via built-in internet streaming
Browser tagging
September 2015 / Computer Music / 7
video Download this issue’s videos at vault.computermusic.co.uk
1 Controlling the speed of sampled modulations
2 Vocoder-style monotone vocals with Tone Machine
3 Breakbeat slicing, pitching and arrangement
4 Morphing textures with Kontakt 5’s AET filter
5 Sample start point manipulation in Kontakt 5
6 Custom delay lines with Kontakt’s Delay Sequencer
GET KREATIVE WITH
KONTAkT
Use NI’s profoundly powerful sampler to its full potential – we’ll take you deeper in these videos Read the full article on p61
/experts EASY GUIDE
Designer sounds
GEEK TECHNIQUE
DR BEAT
Constructing a melody
Alien soundscapes
mid/side sound design
ghost notes
Beat writer’s block and get your tunes flowing from bar to bar
Create a moody, atmospheric layer to set any sonic stage
Don’t fix your stereo image in the mix – get it right from the start
Discover the subtleties that add up to make the perfect groove
Read the full article on p74
Readthe thefull full Read article on p76 article on pxx
8 / Computer Music / September 2015
Read the full article on p78
Readthe thefull full Read article on p80 article on pxx
> download / zplane vielklang 2 cm
>Exclusive full software
zplane
vielklang 2 CM
download Get the plugin, the video and the Tutorial Files on PC/Mac at vault.computermusic.co.uk
This issue’s jaw-dropping free AU/VST plugin will get your pitchy sounds perfectly in tune, and can even conjure custom harmonies out of thin air zplane’s vielklang 2 CM is a totally exclusive, edition of their vielklang 2 Instant Harmony harmoniser plugin. The primary focus of this amazing software is to take a monophonic audio (or MIDI) part, automatically detect what key it’s in, and generate up to three harmonies to go with it, based on the detected key and scale. vielklang 2 CM also packs in advanced pitch correction, allowing you to edit the tuning of audio material in a graphical manner. And with zplane being the
MENU AREA Contains controls for Import, Export, Undo, Redo, Edit and Preferences
DSP geniuses behind the élastique pitch/time processing used in tons of big-name software packages (Ableton Live, Cubase, FL Studio… the list goes on!), you know it’s gonna sound absolutely top-notch. Although nominally an audio processor, vielklang 2 isn’t an effect plugin – it actually operates as a virtual instrument, into which the source audio is imported for processing, after which it can be played back directly by the plugin or exported back to one or more audio tracks in your DAW. Because
HARMONIZE BUTTON Hit this to generate harmonies for the selected material
VIEW PANE The main editing display. Notes are shown as coloured blobs
of this, it’s best to render the target audio from a precise bar number, so that when it’s imported into vielklang – which syncs its playback position to the host DAW – you’ll be in no doubt as to where it’s supposed to go timing-wise. Once imported, you work on the file within vielklang until you’ve got something you’re happy with, then either leave the plugin running in the project or bounce each harmony individually as a separate audio file that can be reimported back into your project.
CUT/GLUE MODE Enables cutting and joining of notes while editing
If you crave even more pitchmanipulating power, check out the full vielklang Instant Harmony 2, which offers additional scale types, more advanced pitch-editing including a vibrato designer, and one-click export of separate separated harmony voices as both MIDI and audio files. For high-quality pitch and formant processing in real time, instead lend an ear to the excellent Elastique Pitch 2 plugin – see our full review on page 106. www.zplane.de
HOST SYNC BUTTON Link vielklang’s playback to that of your DAW
ZOOM BAR Zooms the view pane in and out horizontally
SETTINGS PANE Click this triangle to open and close the settings pane
MIX CONTROLS Adjust each harmony voice’s volume and pan Scale select Generate harmonies in Major, Aeolic Minor (ie minor), and Harmonic Minor scales 10 / Computer Music / September 2015
CHORD VIEW Shows the interpreted chord progression on which the harmonies are based
zplane vielklang 2 cm / download < > Step by step Tuning and harmonising a vocal with vielklang 2 CM
Tutorial
Files
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With vielklang 2 CM installed, create a new project in your DAW at 128bpm, and import VK2CM Track.wav and VK2CM Pitchy.wav from the Tutorial Files folder, at bar 1, beat 1. For this take, we asked professional vocalist Donna Marie (facebook.com/donnamariesongwriter), to deliberately sing some lines out of tune and off the beat. If you want to hear how it should’ve sounded, her properly-sung version is included too.
We’ve selected the file VK2CM Vox Pitchy.wav, which we imported into the project earlier. vielklang instantly analyses the audio file and presents you with a Melody Properties window, asking you to review the choices made by the software regarding the key and scale of the imported audio, and make manual adjustments if needed. vielklang’s guess of A Aeolic Minor (ie, natural minor; ie, minor) is correct, so we click OK.
That’s fixed many of the pitch problems, but there are a couple of areas where some of the notes were so far out of tune that they’ve shifted to the wrong note. Let’s look at the first phrase. The first three notes – “What did you” – are flat by one semitone as a group. Click the background to deselect all the notes, then zoom in and draw a selection rectangle around just those three words.
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Create a new software instrument track and load an instance of vielklang 2 CM onto it. If your DAW categorises its plugins, you’ll find vielklang 2 CM listed in the ‘Instruments’ menu, rather than the ‘Effects’ menu. Any file you import into vielklang 2 CM will be placed wherever your play cursor is located, so make sure your DAW’s transport is parked at the point the audio needs to be inserted – in this case, bar 1, beat 1.
Mute the original vocal track in your DAW project, then hit play to hear the imported audio. The pitch analysis has been drawn in the piano roll display, but no harmonies have been generated yet. When working with audio that needs both pitch correcting and harmonising, like this, it makes sense to fix the pitch first, before generating the harmonies, otherwise they’ll need pitch correction too.
Position the cursor in the centre of one of the notes and drag upwards until they each snap up onto the pitch row one semitone above. If you move the pointer horizontally along the note with the mouse button held down, you can scrub back and forth. To stop the words flying off the screen when zoomed in, toggle auto-scrolling on and off with the F key.
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With the plugin window open, load the file you want to harmonise or pitchcorrect by clicking the Import button. You can also drag and drop an audio or MIDI file directly onto the View pane, either from your desktop or the project browser of certain supported DAWs. Audio files can be stereo, but they do need to be monophonic – that means only one sound happening at any one time. Chords won’t work, for example.
Selected notes have a red border, and we can see here that the entire file is selected for editing by default. We can perform a really swift, general pitch correction by holding the Shift key and right-clicking any note – you’ll see all the notes jump as their pitches are quantised to the nearest note. Have a listen to the result.
The words “ain’t” and “gonna” at the start of bar 4 are a semitone sharp. Double-click either of them to zoom in close, then select both and place the pointer in the centre of one of them. This time, though, holding down the Alt key as you drag downwards allows you to make fine adjustments in 100ths of a semitone (cents), if needed.
September 2015 / Computer Music / 11
> download / zplane vielklang 2 cm > Step by step Tuning and harmonising a vocal with vielklang 2 CM (continued)
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Notes can be resized or repositioned horizontally to change their timing. At bar 6, the phrase “What did you have to do that” is very early to the beat. Draw a selection around the phrase and, with Alt held down to prevent the unselected notes being affected, position the cursor over the left of any note until a hand icon appears. Drag all selected words to the right until they’re in time with the track. The rest of the phrase stays in position.
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With no notes selected, click the Harmonize button to generate harmonies for all of them. They’re shown as coloured blobs in the display (with the melody in yellow), with their parameters displayed in the Settings pane. Choose between 4-, 3- or 2-voiced intelligent harmonies (derived from the chord progression in the chord bar) or standard parallel harmonies at intervals set via the ‘fruit machine’ spinners.
The sliders in the Voice Controls pane affect all of the notes in each voice. Tune applies pitch quantisation, while Drift adjusts the overall deviation of the pitch curve from the average pitch. Timing humanises the timing of each voice, and Shape adjusts the formant to affect a voice’s character. Note that these controls can have an effect even if you’re using just a single voice, ie, no harmonies.
12 / Computer Music / September 2015
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Now we jump forward to bar 10. Due to its incorrect intonation, the “a” from the phrase “take a risk” has been detected as two separate notes, and almost the whole phrase is a semitone flat. Select the Cut and Glue tool, hold down Alt and click the two split notes to join them back together. Click the tool again to exit Cut and Glue mode, then shift the notes to their correct pitches. When finished, the phrase should look like this.
We’ve gone for the 3 voiced intelligent setting. The accordionlike control to the right controls the Ambitus – that is, the range of possible notes available for harmony generation. Drag this up or down to increase or decrease the range. Harmony notes can be resized, repositioned and repitched just like the notes in the main melody – click a note to activate a harmony for editing, and edit the notes as we did earlier.
Next, click the Mixer tab and use the X/Y pads or the sliders that appear when you mouse over each pad to adjust volume and pan simultaneously for each voice – double-click to set them to their default values. The headphones buttons solo each voice, and the speaker buttons mute and unmute them – useful when editing harmony voices in isolation.
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Now it’s time to check out vielklang 2 CM’s awesome harmonising functions! Just like the pitch correction, this isn’t only for vocals, so let’s leave our vocal demo track for a moment and harmonise a simple string line. First, save the demo project you’ve got so far, then create a new project at 120bpm, add a vielklang 2 CM, and import VK2CM Strings.wav from the Tutorial Files. The plugin correctly works out the key/scale as C Aeolic Minor.
Let’s now go back to our vocal project and apply the same techniques to the tuned solo vocal. With a complex line like this, you’ll probably want to make some adjustments to get the optimum result, but vielklang’s harmony editor is so flexible that you can reach this point amazingly quickly. If there are sections that you don’t want harmonised, just highlight and delete the unwanted harmony notes.
When you’re done editing, export the audio back into your DAW by soloing each voice in the Mixer tab and bouncing the output of the plugin to a stereo file. To finish off, here we’ve applied SideWidener (from Plugins) to each harmony track to add stereo width, along with some compression, reverb and delay. The results are thoroughly convincing!
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