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November 2021 / CM301

BACK TO THE

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How yesterday’s production tricks can help you today! CHIPTUNE TRACKERS SAMPLING 80S STUDIO IN SOFTWARE FAKING TAPE SYNTH & SLAP BASS ARPEGGIATION AND MORE!

SOUND LIKE

DUA LIPA

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welcome Rumour has it that ABBA heard that Computer Music were doing an 80s Special so just thought ‘sod it, let’s get back together for one last hurrah’. Yes the 80s are back but not just with the return of the mighty Swedes. The charts have been littered with 80s sounds ever since, well, the 80s, but never more so than the last few years. The Weeknd and Dua Lipa are the obvious pop examples – and the ones we focus on in our massive retro cover feature in this issue on p18 – but the production tricks, techniques and tropes used four decades ago are littered across many genres. And it’s not just our cover feature that focuses on the decade where technology exploded. Our reviews section (p66) features a lot of software emulations of 80s gear, Public Service Broadcasting (p42) – to these ears anyway – have a whiff of the 80s about them (albeit one mixed with whiffs of just about everything else) and 80s icons Blancmange (p58) demonstrate how to use the 80s as a platform and reinvent themselves in the process. Finally there was an idea to put a photo of me from 1988 – or thereabouts – with an Atari and the first ever synth workstation, but so hideous was it (mullet and all) that my fragile ego could never let it be seen (unless drunk). So I’ll just thank you ‘The 80s’, ABBA and everything else 40 years old. Thank you for the music. And the technology as it goes.

“Thanks for the music, ‘the 80s’ and the tech…”

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Andy Jones Editor andy.jones@futurenet.com

ISSUE 301 NOVEMBER 2021

contents Cover feature

BACK TO THE 50

/expert

guides

50 VOCAL MASTERCLASS Ashley Thorpe addresses reverb with vocals

IT’S THE

80S SPECIAL! A step back in time to see how the 1980s is influencing music today! p18 20 80S DRUMS, BASS & ARPS

SYNTH MASTERCLASS Dave Gale gets ‘ghostly’ and 80s with Zebra CM

54 PRODUCTION The Audiotent team on how macros can help with your live performances

Interviews

The backbone of the 80s and some synth flourishes

42 PUBLIC SERVICE

24 80S GENRES, 80S FORMATS

BROADCASTING

Tape, MIDI, trackers, pop, industrial and chiptune!

32 DUA LIPA AND THE WEEKND How the 80s sound lives on + what it takes to make

36 BUILD AN 80S STUDIO In software! Key 80s studio components made soft

/ 15 Questions with… 12

The rocktronica sampling boffins talk about the technology behind their incredible and distinctive sound

58 BLANCMANGE Neil Arthur on covering ABBA, working with Vince Clarke plus his amazing new album

80 PROFESSIONALS Alexey Nechaev on his score for the recent Unbound: Worlds Apart ‘Metroidvania’ platform game

54 Reviews 66 KORG COLLECTION 3 688 SPITFIRE AUDIO HAMMERS 708 SOFTUBE MODEL 84 728 AVID SIBELIUS FOR MOBILE 738 MINIMAL AUDIO RIFT 748 TORSO ELECTRONICS TC-1 758 UVI SUPER-7 768 CINESAMPLES O: FORBES PIPE ORGAN 788 MINI REVIEWS

Essentials 6

NEWS

404SUBSCRIBE 97 BACK ISSUES 98 NEXT MONTH

NOGA EREZ ‘The Israeli answer to a Björk’, on how a crash course in Ableton Live changed her life… in more ways that one

94 BON Yerosha Windrich and Alex Morris plus an achingly cool Pantheon of collaborators release their debut LP

4 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

downloads / contents <

downloads

Get this month’s content from filesilo.co.uk – see p83

free daw THE ALL-NEW ZEBRA CM!

u-he have updated a classic synth and here it is in all of its stripey glory See p84 Instructions at File Silo (p83)

free samples GROOVY 80s

80S SAMPLE SPECIAL! Two new 80s sample packs plus a couple of classic ones to boot On the DVD or download from File Silo (see p83)

free videos ZEBRA & MASTERCLASSES

Download our Masterclass videos plus a tutorial on using the all-new Zebra CM Download via File Silo (see p83)

plugin suite THE CM PLUGIN SUITE

DOWNLOAD

An all-new PDF detailing our complete Plugin Suite of instruments and effects Download from File Silo (see p84) November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 5

> news

NEW RELEASES • COMMENT • INDUSTRY HAPPENINGS

Hi-tech to lo-bit. It’s the 80s! Again No you’re not reading the same story as last issue. The 80s are still here! As if to remind you it’s our 80s Special issue this month – and to enforce the fact that everything 80s does seem to be everything 2021 – we have yet more new/ old releases in the form of software emulations of classic gear that was released four decades ago (there or there abouts). It’s like we’ve always said, ‘you wait four decades for a decent 80s software instrument emulation and they all arrive just as our 80s issue comes out’. OK we did say that in a particularly weird dream/hallucination but it still counts… First up, who else but the mighty Roland, producers of so many machines that gave us synth pop and so many others that, intentionally or not, gave us dance music? The Japanese hardware company were once, what you could only call, staunchly ‘anti software’ but have now not only jumped on the bandwagon, but lassoed the horses pulling it, stripped them of any previous instructions and diverted the coach straight out of Dodge to a new town on the prairie called ‘Roland Cloud’. To push the analogy way too far, the new software sheriffs in town now have just about every Roland classic ‘up there’ in software or available to buy separately and ‘a damn fine tin of beans’ they are. The new additions are the 1985 TR-707 and TR-727 Rhythm Composers. They might not have reached the superstar status of their ‘0’ relations but both (similar) units were used all over early house music. And Roland seem to have gone to extraordinary lengths to recreate their original 25kHz sample rate and 8-bit (sometimes 6-bit)

Roland TR greatness in software and UVI Emulator emulation. High tech conversions for a low-tech sound

sounds. They “started with the original PCM wave data from the hardware. Next, ACB technology was used to o recreate the interaction n between the PCM engine and analog g output stages, carefully including all its quirks and instabilities”. Could they not have just sampled them? Anyway, get them as part of your $30 monthly rental or buy them for $150 each. We reckon UVI will be releasing 80s emulations until 2090, and then they’ll start over, releasing emulations from the 2080s. Their latest, Emulation II+, is, somewhat confusingly, an emulation of an E-mu Emulator, actually three Emulators, plus a “massive lo-fi drum machine Drumulation+”. Yes we’ve types the word ‘emulation’ way too many times but this is basically recreating (thanks thesaurus) three hardware E-mus and a load of classic drum sounds, all based on 80s hardware.

You wouldn’t get us jumping on any 80s bandwagon like Arturia. “Whoa there horsey, slow down!” we just said

6 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

You get Emulation I, a recreation of the original Emulator, “the first affordable 8-bit sampler” with hundreds of sounds, old and new. Emulation II has 319 sounds from the Emulator II and the Oberheim DPX-1. Emulation III goes more high end in terms of quality and variation, and Drumulation+ is really as huge as UVI say with 210 kits and 2400 lo-fi sounds. As ever with UVI the emphasis is on samples and you get more than 35,000 of them spread over 1300+ presets and 22GB of girth. Of course, as well as the original 8-bit depth, you get modern twists like massive multis and more. Price $199. Finally Arturia, never ones to see a nostalgia wave and not surf it – we say, writing a news story about the 80s in an 80s Special of Computer Music – are of course joining the 80s party with their own new release. The SQ80 V is a softsynth based on the Ensoniq SQ80 first released in 1987, complete with digital waveforms and analogue filter. Wonder what it sounds like? Well it might just be a little lo-fi as indicated by banks of sounds called Dusty and Raw Machinery. Price TBA. Which only leaves the questions 1) are there any 80s instruments that haven’t been emulated? And 2) should we do a 70s Special? Answers: yes and no. uvi.net, rolandcloud.com, arturia.com

news <

Expressive E and AAS in synth mind meld Expressive E, makers of the rather fine and actually very expressive touché hardware controller, have just announced a new softsynth by the name of Imagine. It was developed with Applied Acoustic Systems who bring much of their physical modelling expertise – of which they have a lot – to the drawing board to create some crazy, imaginary sounds from the actual physical properties of real instruments. “Imagine digs deep inside the body of real life instruments, modifies and combines

Twisting proper instruments into something warped and quirky appears to be Imagine’s goal

their acoustic characteristics to create an imaginary acoustic landscape,” they say, putting it much better than we did. The resulting sound, then, can start off as something vaguely recognisable, acoustic, maybe a little orchestral, but can then be quickly twisted into something new: dark, detuned, bright, warped or whatever. It quickly feels like the better the controller you have, the more parameters you can modulate so it really becomes the perfect partner for some of the new breeds of controllers out there, although you don’t need an MPE based one to get the most out of Imagine just yet. You can see Imagine demoed on video with hardware like Ableton’s Push and Native Instruments’ Komplete Kontrol on the company’s website. But we’re pretty sure it works best – and they’ll want you to match it – with Touche. Indeed the video demo shows the two in action and it’s an impressive partnership. That said Imagine seems to offer a distinct set of dynamic morphing tones, no matter what controller you match it with and we’re looking forward to getting it in for review. Expressive E’s Imagine is out now and retails for €139. expressivee.com

Orchestra Tools and Berklee’s Berlin trip Top quality sample library specialists Orchestral Tool have teamed up with the Berklee College of Music to produce an allnew orchestral library called Berlin Orchestra by Berklee. The reason the school are involved, according to Orchestral Tools CEO and founder Hendrik Schwarzer, is “to give students a comprehensive foundation of sounds that would serve as a point of entry into professional composition”. As such this is more ‘compositional toolkit’ than standard library and has all the component parts of a full symphony orchestra. You get “complete string section with soloists and ensembles, a brass section

App watch We report on the latest developments in phone and tablet music making iPad Apple have released two new iPads, the most interesting of which looks to be the iPad Mini. Now with a larger, 8.3inch display and an all-screen design, this also benefits from the inclusion of the A15 Bionic chip – the same as you’ll find in the new iPhone 13. Throw in USB-C connectivity and you’ve got what could be a great little tablet for music makers. Prices start at $499/£479 for the 64GB model. The new entry-level iPad (9th generation) doesn’t have quite the same wow factor, but it does trump its predecessor in a few respects. The chip has been upgraded to the A13, and base storage is now 64GB not 32GB. $329/£319. apple.com/ipad

Auto-Key

with soloists and ensembles, a detailed woodwinds section, and a wide range of percussion instruments”. As ever with OT libraries, it’s recorded with meticulous detail – and we know as we’ve attended a session – at Teldex Studios in Berlin. It ain’t cheap at €849+VAT, but we assume students, at least those at Berklee, will get a discount. orchestraltools.com

Ever needed to quickly identify the key of a song? If so, you might want to point your App Store in the direction of Antares’ Auto-Key Mobile, a new freebie that does precisely that. It works just like Shazam – hold up your phone, press a button and you’ll be shown the major key and its relative minor.As a bonus, the app also syncs to Auto-Tune and Harmony Engine, another Antares plugin, automatically setting the key therein. Auto-Key Mobile is available for iOS right now, and coming to Android and Windows soon. antarestech.com/auto-key-mobile

Space Controller

Softube’s new Atlantic traversing plugins Need a US sound in your tracks? Or are you after that legendary British sound? Just a decent sound? Any sound? Well, the ‘Rock and Roll Scientists from Sweden’ Softube have you covered with two new plugins. Overstayer M.A.S is based on the M-A-S harmonic shaper from LA’s Overstayer Recording Equipment. Described as the “secret weapon of in-the-know mix engineers”, it’s great for adding energy, glue and general enhancement. Next up, British

Class A brings the Brit sound from console makers like Trident, Neve, Sound Techniques, Amek and more to your recordings. It includes gate, compressor, EQ, filter, and drive sections so you can tone things up in as ‘British’ a way as you like. As long as you apologise pathetically at every step. Overstayer M.A.S and British Class A are available in all the usual Softube formats – standard plugin, for Amp Room/Console 1/ Modular – for the not inconsiderable €249 and €225 respectively. softube.com

Sound Particles have come up with an ingenious way of using your phone to set panning positions. Space Controller is both a desktop plugin and an app for iOS/Android. Once a Bluetooth/ WiFI connection is made, you can position your sounds in the audio space simply by, again, pointing your phone. Stereo, 7.1.2, Ambisonics and binaural setups are supported, and you can choose between Cube and Sphere control modes. The app is free, whie the standard VST/AU/AAX plugin is $79.20. soundparticles.com November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 7

> cover feature / 80s special

Build your 80s studio Let’s consider what might have been the 80s-est studio possible: what might have been on offer then, as opposed to what we’d use to reproduce that now. You’d get a more truly 1980s sound by mixing in technology from previous eras, but what the heck, let’s just commit and go full 80s!

DRUMS

BASS

THEN

Back then it was all about headless bass guitars – the prime examples being Steinberger and Status, both instruments with very clean modern sounds and design philosophies some distance away from a Fender Precision! The most popular bass amp on the block was Trace Elliot.

There are a few choices here, but we’re going for the LinnDrum, which was the more ‘affordable’ version of the LM-1 which preceded it. The LinnDrum is all over 80s pop, embraced by artists such as Prince (the one we always think of first), Madonna, and Tears For Fears.

NOW

Ableton Live includes the LD Core Kit, and Logic Pro X’s Drum Machine Designer includes a kit called, er, Linn Drum. Linn Drum Samples are easy to find free online, so you can assemble your own kit if necessary. 36 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

Status basses are still in production, while the Steinberger brand lives on, now owned by Gibson, although the construction and sound of the instruments is quite different. If you want a plugin bass instead, you could look at the offerings from uJam, who have different plugins to represent different sounds and techniques. For many bassists, amps aren’t even a consideration, as they often elect to use preamps and in-ear monitors.

> news

years back Our monthly shake-of-thehead at our younger selves’ news choices… It’s November 2011, and “the unstoppable force that is dubstep is taking over the world”. At least that’s what we thought then, with our cover feature showing you to produce “cutting-edge wobbles, ribshaking sub-bass and much, much more”. Little were we to know, of course, that we were about to enter the era of ‘postdubstep’ and spin-off genres such as ‘brostep’. In fact, you’d need a fitness watch to count all the ‘steps’ that have

“We showed you how to jazz up your DAW by customising its colours” come since (ba-dum-tish!). In the reviews section, we took a look at Reason 6 which, remarkably, was the first version to offer full audio recording functionality. We’d have to wait several more years for plugin support, though… Elsewhere, we showed you how to jazz up your DAW by customising its colours, while DJ Dave Clarke told us: “I’ve never used a PC in my life, except by accident, and it always upsets me.” Poor lamb. Finally, it was time for editor Ronan after Macdonald to say goodbye to 152 issues at the helm. That’s way more than a decade. That’s what dubstep does for you…

C.R.S.T. alive, what a lovely cover

10 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

How we wish we’d downloaded those free Moog apps now… If, like us, you ‘forgot’ to download all the Moog apps when they were free on founder Bob Moog’s birthday back in May, you’re going to be kicking yourself even more now. Moog have announced a Model 15 VST version (to add to the already available AU version) – free for all app owners. You’ll need to install Moog’s free wrapper app and it’s Mac-only currently, but it looks to work well in Live in the company’s video. Although it’s not clear how you ‘need’ the app. We’ll check it out soon, but our shins hurt from all that self kicking… moogmusic.com

Ins & outs I HAVE A DREAM (COME TRUE) Best-known as an electronic m music producer, Little Boots – AKA Victoria Hesketh – has sprung a surprise by confirming that she’ll be part of the backing band during the Abba Voyage live show in London next year, on keys and backing vocals.

RIP LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY Not only a hero to reggae fans, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry was also one of the founding fathers of dub, and became hugely influential to a generation of electronic musicians. In fact, his pioneering remixes and use of effects mark him out as a true studio legend.

AVICII HONOURED In a touching tribute, Google marked what would have been Avicii’s (Tim Bergling) 32nd birthday by creating an animated Doodle that celebrated his career as a music producer. The gesture also drew attention to Suicide Awareness week.

ROLI OVER A driving force behind MPE and expressive controllers in n general, ROLI is no more. The e company has gone into administration, though ex CEO Roland Lamb has a new business, Luminary, focussed on ROLI’s LUMI piano learning platform.

MIXES FIXED? Apple claim to have come up with a better way to pay royalties to the creators of DJ mixes – both the DJ and the artists involved in the tracks contained within them – using Shazam to identify the songs once they’re on Apple Music.

GUETTA CHECK THE DATE David Guetta rather jumped the gun in September when he took to Instagram and inadvertently leaked a forthcoming plugin from Cableguys. Given that he seemed to love it, though, we’re guessing that the company wasn’t too bothered...

Photo: shai franco

> 15 questions with / noga erez

15 questions with…

NOGA EREZ Noga Erez might well be, as one writer in her homeland has described her, ‘the Israeli answer to a Björk’, but it could all have panned out very differently. Growing up as a classical and jazz musician, it was a crash course in Ableton Live that not only gained her a partner, but several world tours, her music backing an Apple ad and a performance at the Olympics… Described by The Guardian as “Israel’s most defiant star”, Noga Erez channels any issues that affect her through her music. She’s certainly not one to be afraid to take on all aspects of culture head on, and has done just that, covering everything from questioning government policies to the overavailability of prescription drugs in releases like her 2017 debut album Off the Radar and new album Kids. Yet, surprisingly, it’s a tactic 12 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

that has, if anything, gained her more success than the serious mandates might suggest. And she certainly doesn’t describe herself as a political artist and nor is her music in any way ‘just’ a message. Her blend of alternative EDM and pop has won a huge audience the world over – not to mention her track Dance While You Shoot being used in an Apple ad – and she has performed across the US and Europe (with more dates planned this year

and next). These high profile outings have covered everything from festivals like SXSW, Roskilde and Great Escape to a performance at the Rio Olympics, yet it might not have happened without a serendipitous crash course in Ableton Live… Tell us how you got into music Noga Erez: “I’m a music lover first and foremost. I grew up in a home where music was

noga erez / 15 questions with <

“I need freedom to express the shit that’s going on in my head” played all day. I never thought it would be something I would do for a living. I kinda rolled into it, ignoring how unstable I always knew it was, both financially and as a lifestyle. It’s almost like I couldn’t resist making it part my life.” When did you get successful? NE: “I used to teach singing for a living. I had many students and it was a good job. When we started touring with Off The Radar I stopped completely. But being able to make this my job allowed everything else to become so much better; having that focus on my passion while that passion supports my life. It’s a good place to be in. I cherish that every day.”

What is your overall philosophy? NE: “I think that just letting myself get really swept away by whatever it is I’m passionate about is my philosophy. Being with whatever makes me curious, even if it’s not something that I believe would make it onto the radio or make me money or take me anywhere specific. I just can’t find a better compass to show me the way than what makes me content at that very moment.”

Tell us about your ‘computer music’ production history? NE: “I used to be a fully acoustic semi jazz/ classical musician – notes and all that fun stuff. It made me feel smart but really, it slowed me down. At my second year in the Jerusalem Academy of Music I was like, ‘I need more freedom to express all the shit that’s going on in my head’. I always thought I was a technophobe. In a way I still do. So I took lessons to help me find my way through Ableton Live as well as some sound lessons. My teacher became my creative and life partner – Ori Rousso.”

Tell us about the gear in your studio NE: “Our thing with gear is weird. We just don’t own all that much. In the past few years Ori and I have been moving between studios, using whatever facilities they had. It’s sweet and nomadic, but very confusing when it comes to the mixing part of the process! We finished Kids at a studio called Springhill Sonorities, a small room with a wall full of Rolands (Juno-60, 106, SH etc) plus Moogs and an Arturia; synths and drum machines that you can spend the rest of your life exploring. But the main thing was how this room sounds. Damn. The best sounding room I worked in. ATC speakers and sub, really amazing acoustic.” What are your favourite plugins? NE: “Ori is here and he says Decapitator. I just love shit that does the dirty work for you like Gullfoss from Sound Theory.”

How do you tend to start a track? NE: “Usually a track starts with a 4-8 bars beat created by Rousso which is usually enough

Photo: Digistage Maxim Dinshtein

to get ideas going. And then, it’s hard to say something that will describe all songs because it goes in a million different directions. Sometimes what you start with is the hook, sometimes it’s a verse. Structures are usually being heavily discussed later in the process, when we kinda feel like we have all the good material in place. Then we work on how best to tie them together into something that feels like a song.”

How do you know when a track’s done? NE: “The biggest question. My answer at

the moment is: ‘deadline’! Our nature is to continue trying to perfect a song; that can go on forever. It’s because, really, finishing something creative is always about cutting a process in the flash. We think we can do better but at some point we just do different. Deadlines have always been good for us, and luckily we have people who set those for us. But even if you don’t have people setting them for you, setting your own deadlines is important. It makes the process itself better too. Knowing something had an ending puts everything in perspective.” November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 13

Photo: Digistage Maxim Dinshtein

> 15 questions with / noga erez

Do you have any production tricks? NE: “We use the first step as a playground to throw around ideas. We don’t limit ourselves. That stage is supposed to be non judgemental. We play like that for a while before we get any conceptual or stylistic thinking into things. That is why the production is always sounding very rich with ideas. We take time away from the track to listen back with fresh ears. When we come back, 80% of ideas get moved to the trash. We create more and then clean some more. At the very end, until the very last hour of mixing, we mute channels.”

What would you like to see developed in terms of studio technology? NE: “I’d love to get rid of cables cause they’re ugly – ha! I’d love for everything to be designed for the most basic user, so you can just tell the software what you want and it will be done. I don’t know how. I feel like we could have really great music here if technology continued to attempt to simplify for creatives.”

What’s on your gear wish list? NE: “Honestly, an acoustic piano. No idea which. We had a really cheap, beautifulsounding one at home that we borrowed and had to give back. A piano is always a good place to start an idea, but also, it’s a good place to check yourself when you are a producer. Going back and playing a song on the piano is the best test to check whether your song is based on production more than you wanted.”

14 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

“Take it easy on yourself and have a sense of humour”

version album coming up as well, with all the songs from Kids arranged for an acoustic ensemble. That’s gonna be quite awesome. I honestly can’t wait to be back in the studio and write new music. I feel like I have a lot of new shit to tackle.” Noga’s album Kids is out now on City Slang. Check out the tour dates at https://nogaerez.com

Any advice for playing live? NE: “Understand that you are doing something outstanding, weird and incredible. Take it easy on yourself and have a sense of humour. But also, know that not many people get to do what you are doing at that moment.”

HEAR MORE

What about studio advice? NE: “When you listen back to something you’ve created, listen once with your eyes closed, and the second time with something to write notes with. Make sure to stay focused and not get distracted while you’re working.”

Any other more general advice? NE: “Work with people who are extremely passionate about what you do. Know that no-one is ever going to be as passionate about it as you.”

Dance while you shoot bit.ly/CM_Danceshoot

End of the Road bit.ly/CM_end WWW

What have you got planned? 15 NE: “We have a huge US/EU tour. I really hope we get to do it all but at the same time I’m scared. Ha ha! We also have a full acoustic

nogaerez.com twitter.com/nogaerez facebook.com/NogaErezMusic

> cover feature / 80s special

BACK TO THE

We have a huge set of features to help give your tracks either an 80s retro vibe, or your sounds a very 2021 take on the 1980s. So join us as we revisit a decade that’s still shaping so much of the music we’re making today! 18 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

80s special / cover feature <

All modern electronic music – pop, dance, hip hop, or anything else – has some roots in the music of the 1980s. That’s the decade when electronic music went mainstream, and the sounds, styles, and technology of those times are still totally valid today. There was a time when the culture of the 1980s was derided as being cheesy and tacky, and nostalgia was focused on the fashion more than anything, but that passed, and now we can appreciate how creative – and how much fun – that era was. More than the 1970s, the 1980s sound was about the thrill of the new. Guitar music had stagnated; even the better bands had peaked and were living off their former glories. MTV was about to explode on TVs across the USA (and later, the world), bringing with it a massive change in how music was presented and consumed. In fact, it can be argued that MTV was the big thing that shaped 80s music, something that didn’t exist in any form previously – adding a new level of visual awareness, and bringing to the fore songs that sounded good coming out of a television, with bands that looked the part too, for better or worse. There was genuine excitement about creating new pop genres, or evolving existing ones, and the technological changes that brought new beats, new synths, new digital effects, home recording, music software, and of course, sampling, which without question was the next biggest and best thing to happen after MTV. You can still hear that sonic joy in some of the best 80s pop records, as artists and producers revelled in the new possibilities. But we have an important message for you: there is no single definitive sound of the 1980s! You might listen to, say, Duran Duran, and say ‘that’s the 80s’… And it is, for you, maybe, but like any decade, the 1980s covers a lot of ground. The sounds of the 1980s are based in the sounds of the 1970s, with newer technology coming to the market place and to the studios, or obscure technology gaining more acceptance. The 80s began with synth pop, and ended with industrial music, and a lot in-between, so your idea of typical 80s music might be Cyndi Lauper, or it might be Einstürzende Neubauten; both are cool, by the way. If you look at the UK singles charts from 1980, amongst the more typical pop material, you’ll see ‘electronic’ acts such as Ultravox, OMD, Depeche Mode, Erasure, Peter Gabriel, and Jon and Vangelis. Skip on to 1989, and you’ll find New Order, 808 State, Nine Inch Nails, Meat Beat Manifesto, Test Department, Coldcut, and others. Depeche Mode, in fact, rode the entire decade, beginning as spotty young guys with lightweight but catchy pop songs, then moving into the 1990s as a far darker proposition (well, drugs and leather can have that effect on you). Depeche Mode still going strong, as a stadium-level rock act, which would’ve seemed hard to believe back in the days of Just Can’t Get Enough.

Other technology-driven changes affected the music of that period too. Gaming went big, spawning generations who grew up with early game music (electronic, melodic, and supremely catchy). On the flip side of that, gaming was a timesuck, luring us away from instruments and causing us to spend untold hours hanging out with pong, plumbers and hedgehogs. Mainstream musicians rejected early drum machines and other devices such as the TB-303, which led to the following generation discovering the ones being sold off cheap, and using them in low budget/home production environments. And then there’s the internet – which technically began on January 3, 1983. And we all know how that worked out! If you want to sound 80s, you need to know about the songs of the time, but you also need to know what hardware was used to make them – the synths, samplers, rackmount modules and effects, and drum machines, that we’ve already mentioned. Now we can use soft instruments and effects to recreate all of it; as the cliché goes, even your iPhone has enough power to create an album or live performance, while handling a moon landing, and finding your shoes. Software like Logic and Ableton Live has risen and evolved to the point where it’s easy to do something that was only a dream. Then there are reissues and reproductions of classic gear – look at Roland, Korg, or Behringer. If you’re aiming to create 80s-sounding music, you have to pay attention to each of these elements, and make a decision about how to go with each. So, join us as we celebrate and recreate the sounds and techniques of the 1980s. You might remember the 1980s from the first time round (1985 was 36 years ago, if you’re reading this in 2021!), and you might be feeling a pleasant neon glow of nostalgia, or maybe you weren’t even born then, and it’s all new to you. Either way, it’s time to look at how to include some of that 1980s goodness in your contemporary productions.

“The 1980s sound was about the thrill of the new”

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> cover feature / 80s special

Build a 1980s drum kit in your DAW using free samples The 1980s is the decade where studio drums changed forever, moving from typical 1970s session drummer acoustic kit style to heavy effects processing, and ending up with beats coming from samples and drum machines. The CM Plugin Suite contains period-correct drum sounds, like those in the AudioRealism ADM CM plugin, which emulates Roland’s 1981 TR-606, and you can also enjoy free samples available online to create a diverse kit that encompasses a variety of 80s sounds. We’ll use Ableton Live for our walkthrough, but any decent DAW will let you work in a similar way. We’ll add the samples, and at least one important audio effect, and then we’ll be good to go! The samples are sourced from www.samples.kb6.de, a truly fantastic online resource which is the world’s largest free drum machine sample library, with 309 kits, totalling 5.27GB. Although this library is free, please consider making a donation if you can (you’ll also unlock a few more kits as a reward for doing so). Download those kits and we’ll begin our walkthrough.

>Step by step

1. Build an 80s drum kt for free

Download the KB6 library and make a note of where it’s located! Open Ableton Live and drag the KB6 folder from its current location into Live’s browser, or navigate to it using the ‘Add Folder’ option in the Places section of the Browser. It’ll be there whenever you launch Live.

Some kits are more 80s than others! You can’t go wrong with our selections. Pick a few favourite sounds from each of these and drag them into the empty cells in the drum rack. As there are eight kits, take two from each for now, just as a starting point.

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Now you can see the full list of kits. Click the little headphone icon at the bottom left of the Browser, and then use the computer keyboard up, down, left, right, arrows to unfold, fold, the kit folders, and to audition individual drum hits before even loading them into Live.

Try sounds from the Alesis HR-16 (1987), E-MU SP-12 (1985), Fairlight CMI (1979), LinnDrum (1982), Oberheim DX (1980), Roland R8 (1989), Simmons SDS7 (1983), and Roland TR-808 (1980). Use your mouse, keyboard, or pads, to trigger them after dragging to the drum rack.

Go to the top of the Drums Category in the Browser, and drag Drum Rack across into Live’s Drop Area. This’ll make a new MIDI track with an empty drum rack, ready to populate with our own drum hits and effects. We can put up to 128 samples in there.

These sounds will add an 80s vibe to your mix, and kit selection will nudge your production forwards or backwards in the decade. For true authenticity add real kit sounds too: many tunes were made with a combo of acoustic and electronic sounds. And don’t forget the gated reverb!

reviews <

The latest computer music gear tested and rated! Our promise We bring you honest, unbiased appraisals of the latest computer music products. Our experts apply the same stringent testing methods to all gear, no matter how much hype or expectation surrounds it.

What the ratings mean 1-4 A seriously flawed product that should be avoided

66 KORG COLLECTION 3

The third incarnation of Korg’s vintage synth bundle adds three classics from three different decades (not the 80s though!)

This product’s problems outweigh its merits

A decent product that’s only held back by a few flaws

7 8

Solid. Well worth considering

Excellent. First-rate and among the best you can buy

Exceptional. It just doesn’t get any better than this!

Very good. A well-conceived and executed product

68 Spitfire Audio Hammers

70 Softube Model 84

72 Avid Sibelius For Mobile

73 Minimal Audio Rift

74 Torso Electronics TC-1

75 UVI Super-7

76 Cinesamples O: Forbes Pipe Organ

78 Soundware reviews

Awarded to products that challenge existing ideas and do something entirely new

A product has to really impress us with its functionality and features to win this one

If the product exceeds expectations for its price, it will receive this gong

In the opinion of the Editor, the best product reviewed in the magazine this month

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 65

> cover feature / 80s special

We talk elsewhere about the rise of synth and sampled bass, but let’s think about how to make realistic bass guitar sounds. Coming out of punk and post-punk, there were so many great rock players around, like Jean-Jacques Burnel (Stranglers), Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads), Bruce Foxton (The Jam), and Colin Moulding (XTC). In other genres there were slap monsters such as Louis Johnson (The Brothers Johnson), Mark King (Level 42), Nick Beggs (Kajagoogoo), and then, of course, the fretless came into its own, with players such as Mick Karn (Japan) and Pino Palladino (Paul Young). These players weren’t submerged in the mix, they were up front and identifiable. Put down a fretless bass track, a bit of DX7 piano, maybe some Simmons electronic drums, throw in some sax – that’s the 80s for a lot of people! It’s an important point for the would-be 1980s throwback artist: choosing the right approach to bass, real or programmed, and nailing the style, places your song firmly in the appropriate part of the decade.

> Step by step

Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth – back when the low end arts could put dinner on the table (for some)

Photo: Paul Natkin / Getty

Create classic 1980s live bass

2. Fake live bass, and how to get some

THE BASSES AND THE AMPS For bassists, the 80s were a time of innovative, flamboyant instruments, such as Musicman, Jaydee, Status, and Wal, while for amps, it was the heyday of brands like Trace Elliot and SWR. Noting the character of these is important while reproducing 80s techniques.

FAKING IT - FRETLESS Fretless bass plugins aren’t common, but Toontrack have recently released Fretless EBX, a sample-based plugin with an assortment of bass sounds, plus a MIDI library of ready-to-use bass parts and articulations. Again, there’s a Logic Pro X Sculpture tutorial, if you prefer.

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THE EFFECTS If you were going to put one effect on your fretless bass in the 80s, it had to be a flanger! Flanger plugins are easy to come by these days, although some will be more period-correct than others. See Line 6 Helix Native, Logic Pro (as shown above) and IK Multimedia.

RECORDING Even if you prefer real bass, it can be hard to record without the right setup – plugins help with this. Most DAWs offer some kind of decent bass amps as well as their guitar selections, although some are more decent than others! Logic Pro X has some good ones.

FAKING IT – SLAP For those who can’t play bass, there are a few software-based alternatives. If you’re after slap bass, Apple provide a tutorial for creating a slap sound using Logic Pro X’s Sculpture modelling instrument. For immediate results, try something like Scarbee’s Jay-Bass plugin.

AUDIO TO MIDI CONVERSION DAWs like Ableton Live have an audioto-MIDI conversion tool, so if your captured live bass track isn’t what you hoped, you can convert it to a MIDI clip that you can edit, and add a bass/synth plugin, and process as much as you like.

80s special / cover feature <

1 bass boomtime We’ve talked about how great the 1980s were for bass players, as they escaped the confines of guitar-rock music and found room to be heard in other genres. But looking back, the reality was that the 1980s would eventually spell the end of the road for many bassists, in the sense of being heard prominently on commercial releases; the synthesiser, the sampler, and the sequencer, conspired to take the low end action away from the traditional player, as the 1990s approached. We’re not saying bass players don’t or should’t exist any more, or that there aren’t fantastic new players around – there are. But ‘real’ bass just isn’t something you need in the same way, in today’s pop tunes, and even when you see a bass guitar in a video, it doesn’t mean there’s one on the track. Synth or sampled bass has a lot going for it: it’s easy to program, infinitely customisable, and – bonus – there’s one less ego to deal with. Savvy bass players learned how to program for themselves, or branched out into less standardised instrumentation – this is when the 5-string bass guitar appeared, the low ‘B’ enabling it to better cooperate or compete with synthesisers.

Trevor Horn’s production of Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood is a prime example of 80s production – where sampling made new techniques possible, although they were torturously slow to implement. That song uses what sounds like live slap bass and sampled bass (on a Fairlight CMI) to fantastic effect. Try Arturia’s recreation.

In order to get a look at the bass as part of the overall song structure, it helps to download the MIDI Type 1 file for the song – this is freely available from various sites online. Drop it into your favourite DAW – we tested with Live 11, Logic Pro X, and GarageBand.

Ableton Live will let you import type 1 and type 0 MIDI files, but it doesn’t support the general MIDI standard, so there are no automatic instrument assignments, you’ll have to do that yourself. This might make it a little bit slower to quickly audition a MIDI file, but it still works.

Sequencing was also part of the Fairlight experience, with the Page R sequencer being used to program the beats and the sampled bass track. You can also experience this classic workflow by using the Peter Vogel CMI iOS app, or the QasarBeach application for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Crude but effective!

With GarageBand and Logic, as soon as a MIDI file is dropped onto an empty project, a sound is automatically assigned to each instrument track. In both programs, the Slap Bass preset is loaded for both bass tracks, but of course you can choose any sound or sample you like.

It’s easy to get carried away with everything that a modern sampler can do – even an entry level example, and these days we can choose between hardware and software devices. But looking at these projects can remind us that it’s not always necessary to go too technical to get results.

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 23

> reviews / avid sibelius for ipad/ios

Avid

Sibelius for iPad/iOS Free or from $6.99 month

iOS

The notation workhorse which started as a university project has scaled great heights. Now it’s available on the small screen too… Sibelius is something of a strange beast; while many DAW aficionados will be unaware of its credentials, others use it on a daily basis. The notation package makes light work of producing pro scores, extracting parts or even providing a compositional sketch-book for professionals or students. It’s important to stress that what it does well, it does really well, but what it doesn’t do is provide a studio or production solution. That’s where Sibelius’ owners, Avid, will happily direct you to one of their partner products, such as Pro Tools.

Going mobile Given that the more static graphic environment of Sibelius doesn’t require quite the same level of CPU grunt that other, more common DAWs would, it’s a perfect product for porting to a tablet-based format. In this case, Sibelius is only open to the iPad/iOS. As a starting proposition, Sibelius for iPad chimes with its entry-level desktop counterpart known as Sibelius First. Both are free to download and use, although capacity is limited. Initially, you are only able to work with four instruments within a score. For some, this might be enough, but there are other limitations which might prevent you doing exactly what you’d like to do. As Sibelius is subscription-based, you can jump on the next rung up for $6.99 per month, which extends the instrument count to 12 per score, or even to an unlimited staff count.

The interaction between the desktop version and the iPad version is exceptionally useful; if you have a monthly subscription in play already, you can just sign in to your Avid account, and you’ll find a degree of duplication between platforms. Save your score in the cloud and you can seamlessly switch from one platform to another, using the iPad when on the move, and pick up from where you were, once you’re back in front of your computer.

Inputting We must mention how wonderfully pleasant the iPad experience is. Inputting notes is an utter joy, and will be second nature to any existing Sibelius user. The ubiquitous Sibelius keypad format forms the mainstay for note inputting, much like the desktop version. If you’re not familiar with the desktop form, fear not, as it’s as simple as selecting and holding a note value, while dragging your finger up/down to position the note on the score. You do, of course, have to select the bar and instrument first, but it’s otherwise extremely simple. There is provision for note entering with an Apple pencil, but it requires an additional tap on screen. There’s no method for literally drawing on your score, as if it were paper, but even so, it’s elegant, useable and just really nice in use. There’s a similar method for adding your own selection of icons, such as dynamics, key signatures, repeat marks and the like, which all

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Web avid.com Info Subscription from free/$6.99/$12.99/

Alternatively Steinberg - Dorico for iPad from £free A worthy contender to Sibelius, now available in iPad form. It’s also available for free StaffPad £84.99 A true Apple pencil drawing experience. Linkups with Spitfire mean excellent playback options

Verdict For Very attractive subscription pricing Ideal entry for score work Great integration with desktop version Very usable sound-set

The Big Score One of the major drawbacks with score work is that you need to be able to see what you’re doing. The sonic representation which Sibelius offers does provide a good level of audible feedback, but working with scores regularly requires the ability to see it from top to bottom, in a relatively unhindered fashion. This means most pros could not work on the iPad edition alone. It’s the size of the iPad which limits the use, even with the larger

appear from an itemised menu, which can be found via the plus icon/button. The iPad edition also provides a relatively generous 900MB of samples; they don’t sound entirely like their acoustic counterparts, but for the purposes of representation, work fine. It is so nice to see Sibelius in this new format, but noticeably, this edition is perfect as a freebie for anyone needing to do occasional or light score work, while pros can get all the bells and whistles, alongside their desktop accounts.

iPad Pro lineup. For anyone who prints scores or parts on a regular basis, the ability to view the full-size format on screen is essential. Finer details, such as the best place to locate page turns, can be easily missed, and that will become even more of an issue on a reduced screen. Regardless, the ability to have access to all of your scores while on the move, with capacity to edit, reprint or email out PDFs, is a huge boon.

Against Pencil-based note entry is a little lack-lustre Not all features available An attractive proposition for anyone needing to do score work while mobile, with a price point for all levels and abilities

9/10

The DX7 embraced the MIDI port in a big way

it’s there, and respect is due to companies that provide detailed documentation. Whenever you use a bit of old MIDI hardware that uses DIN plugs, you’re back there using 80s technology. A drum machine like the Roland R8 is a great

STILL SYNCING To get effective MIDI sync, you may need to try it in both directions to see which works best for the devices in question, and check the settings for the hardware to make sure the relevant sends and receives are on/off, so you’re not creating any unwanted MIDI loops.

MORE MIDI FILES

More inquiring minds would often adopt these files and customise them for remixes or other purposes. There are type 0 and type 1 MIDI files – type 0 merges the tracks, and type 1 keeps the instrument tracks separate, as you can see here when one is loaded into Ableton Live.

example, a vintage machine that still works, has very late 80s sounds, and is equipped with MIDI In/Out/Thru ports, for optimal inclusion in any system. MIDI still works as well as ever, and even if you do all your music in the computer,

MIDI IN THE MODULE One thing that’s barely survived the transition to computer-based production is the MIDI sound module – hardware boxes that contain libraries of instrument presets. Roland still do a software version of their Sound Canvas for Windows, iOS and macOS, which originated in 1991, should you really want to experience that.

WIRELESS MIDI As we said, MIDI is ‘portable’, meaning it can reside on many different platforms. It can also be wireless, for example wireless MIDI networking is built into Mac OSX. There’s also a healthy market in bluetooth-based wireless MIDI connectors, from Roland, Yamaha, and CME, arguably leaders of the pack.

you’ll still need to know a bit about it. In this walkthrough we’ll highlight some essential MIDI things to know, focusing on Ableton Live, so you can create with one foot in the past, one in the present, and, er, the third in the future!

MIDI FILES MIDI files used to be a thing too, back in the day, especially in the world of karaoke. These would be song files based on popular hits of the time, and would usually be compatible with the General MIDI format (an agreed standard sound set), and hardware sound modules.

MPE AND THE FUTURE MIDI’s future perhaps lies with MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression), adding further control over compatible instruments. These expressions apply to individual notes, not the whole keyboard as is normally the case. A dedicated hardware controller’s ideal, but for now Live 11 users can draw in these values.

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 25

Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty

> cover feature / 80s special

Synth pop Synths are a vital part of emulating the 80s sounds, just like drum machines, rudimentary samplers, and wannabe-Bowie vocalists. If any single music genre defined the 1980s, it’d be synth pop. Synths were everywhere, with bands like OMD and Depeche Mode on the pop side; even Van Halen had their synth moment with Jump. Evolving from the behemoth systems of earlier years, synths were more portable, easier

> Step by step

to use, and – sometimes – more affordable. Following the example set by Kraftwerk, bands might appear on stage with nothing but keyboards; pretty radical. This was synth ‘pop’ in the real sense, around singles and chart placings, instead of reflecting the more mature, technically complex music of the progressive scene. This more democratic era also squeezed out the virtuosi – the prog players of the world,

who played as if they were paid by the note (although prog didn’t go away, it just took a back seat for a while in commerciality terms). The songs were concise and catchy, and this movement spread through Europe before eventually reaching the rest of the world. The lingering punk DIY ethic where practising and recording at home became possible for the average person, drove this scene too.

4. Creating synth pop

Let’s start with the beat – and yes, we can go full LinnDrum again! But also, any of the original wave of Roland drum machines is historically appropriate, and don’t forget that the free CM Plugin Instruments Suite contains the AudioRealism ADM CM plugin, which emulates Roland’s 606-alike techniques.

At one point in the 80s, there was a definite trend where sampled orchestral stabs were getting used – and overused. But they’re still legit. Source the necessary samples from a Fairlight CMI, the Arturia version or the official iOS app, or map your own sounds to a MIDI keyboard – this is surprisingly effective.

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We must include a special mention for gated snares, as used by Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, and eventually everybody else. Take your initial snare part, and add a reverb plugin, ideally with a longer halltype tail, then a noise gate to cut that tail off. Still weirdly cool.

Elsewhere we mention the Roland Juno-60, a classic analogue synth, but the 80s witnessed the rise of the coldertoned digital synths, and the best way to add that to your projects is with the sound of the Yamaha DX7. There are many plugins and sample packs available (including the freeware Dexed as shown).

The bass part might be a live player with their Wal strapped up high, or it could be a synth (an SH-101 like the one available from Roland’s Cloud as shown) playing a classic disco-style octave bass part. If your synth doesn’t have one, use an arpeggiator plugin to help achieve the desired effect.

Vocal takes might be spliced together, but there were no pitch correction or Auto-tune effects – so the final vocal tracks wouldn’t have the robotic perfection we take for granted these days. What you’d get is hardware reverbs, and more tracks of vocals, like double-tracked leads or backing harmonies.

THE PROFESSIONALS

Alexey Nechaev The recent Unbound: Worlds Apart ‘Metroidvania’ platform game features some of the most incredible graphics and sublime music ever to grace the gaming world. Award-winning composer Alexey Nechaev reveals the processes behind the soundtrack Alexey Nechaev is an award-winning video game composer who has worked on many high profile games including Inmost, Swag and Sorcery and, most recently, Unbound: Worlds Apart. This has been a recent hit on Nintendo Switch, Mac and PC and is described as ‘a challenging, atmospheric and hand-drawn puzzleplatformer set in a universe where all worlds are connected by portals’. Here Alexey details the various challenges faced with 80 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

composing for the game, his favourite hardware and software, and has some sage words of advice should you wish to follow his path into video game composition… Computer Music: What advice do you have for anyone wanting to get into game music? AN: “Strange as it may sound, listen to more game music! I believe that listener experience is the best teacher. You should also listen to movie soundtracks to learn some interesting things.

After that, play games and note to yourself what the differences are between game soundtracks and any other kinds of music. It will help you integrate into the games industry, especially if you already compose music. “Also, if your soundtrack has some dynamic changes (when music changes depending on player’s actions), you should try to implement it by yourself, otherwise it will be difficult to understand how things can work in an engine. In other words, study the engine features too, so

> cover feature / 80s special

Chip tune and trackers Chip tune is a style of music that emerged in the 1980s, originally performed on home computers, and heavily influenced by game music, although it rapidly broke out beyond that hardware to represent a musical style or philosophy that used those types of sound, either in hardware or software. Think of the game soundtracks heard on the original Nintendo Game Boy – that’s 8-bit music (YouTube is full of examples, if you’re not sure what we mean). And then think of the Commodore 64 computer, and the sounds created by the onboard MOS6581 chip. We’re talking low-res sounds, limited polyphony and effects, and tedious-but-productive sequencing workflows. In the 21st century, we’ve seen hardware chip tune machines, some featuring remaining stocks of those original chips, one example being Elektron’s legendary Sidstation. Tracker software is a list-based type of music sequencer, based on a vertically-scrolling list of note, instrument, and effect, parameters – kind of like an interactive version of today’s Logic Pro Event Editor. This originated with the Ultimate Soundtrack software, released in 1987, and since then, trackers have never really gone away; there are trackers available for pretty much any platform. One example is LSDJ (Little Sound DJ), which can be run on vintage Game Boys courtesy of a customisable cartridge, or inside a Game Boy emulator running on a computer.

Elektron Sid Station is an authentic modern take on this theme, using original chips

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This is amazingly creative for such a ‘basic’ piece of software, and there’s nothing quite like working with those crunchy low-res samples that it uses for beats and synths. Most recently, things took an unexpected turn on the hardware front, with Polyend’s Tracker, a hardware version of the tracker workflow, featuring not only the sequencing tools but an onboard sampler as well. Further retro points are awarded, because the Tracker even includes a selection of retro games which can be played directly on the device – and this can be expanded by loading NES ROMs onto the Micro SD card. Playing Tetris on music hardware – yes you can. The popularity and public profile of trackers comes and goes, but these sounds are going to be around forever, and they can really help producers set the mood of their work in a specific period. Very usable!

Making them with software

Ableton Live users can create chip tune style sounds using the Operator synth. Load the default Operator preset, and choose Sine 4 for oscillator A. This will give you a low-res sound that takes you right into the 80s ballpark! To add some buzz, go to the filter tab, and from the central section, set Shaper to 4Bit. Beyond that it’s more about the composition than the sounds. Try putting an Arpeggiator in front, perhaps with Random and Scale devices in front of that, giving you one-finger sequences that start to sound more game-like. You could build on this by duplicating the track and transposing it down, either with Operator’s Transpose

LSDJ (Little Sound DJ) can take you back to a simpler time. creating tunes on your Game Boy

control, or by adding the Pitch MIDI effect device. Now when you play a note you should hear two patterns playing together. By experimenting with the Arpeggiator settings in each track, you can get a result that sounds quite sophisticated while still being built around only one note. Limiting polyphony (the number of notes playing at once) also helps keep it real. LSDJ has a drum track, a noise track, and two ‘melodic’ tracks, and that’s all, for example, and each of those is monophonic. Working with this limited palette really boosts your melodic and harmony skills, and gets you using counterpoint, something which you might not be interested in, otherwise.

Ableton Live Operator synth also offers nostalgia-fans a generous side-helping of chip tune

The industrial 80s sound What we think of as ‘industrial music’ has been around since at least the 1970s, but by the end of the 1980s and into the 90s its influence was felt everywhere the pioneering work of bands like Throbbing Gristle and Einstürnzen Neubaten was incorporated into the sounds of more mainstream acts like Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails. Industrial music also made a difference to dance styles as well as invigorating a tired rock scene; as a genre it’s hard to define, but you know it when you hear it! It draws on sounds from nature and man-made sources, as well as taking a philosophical cue from artists working in other media. We’re looking on industrial music as a genre based on lowtech sampling, machine noises, hard drum machines, rock instrumentation, and angry or otherwise-processed instruments. Like the other 80s sounds we talk about here, industrial has never gone away – there’s still excitement and creativity to be found in using primitive sampling methods, big beats, and blasting unsuspecting listeners with noise. So nobody can blame us for asking – what tools were behind those original records and performances, and how do we reproduce them now? 30 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

Martyn Goodacre / Getty

> cover feature / 80s special

Truthfully, the Roland R8 drum machine might be more 90s sounding, but it was released in 1989 so it qualifies, and it’s an industrial classic. It has a library of drum kits that are perfect, including the aptly-named power kit. Samples of this beat beast are easily found online and many hardware or software options exist including Arturia’s Spark 2.

Meanwhile, sequencing and composition had begun moving to computers. The Atari ST was the first home computer with built-in MIDI ports, and it was the original home for music applications such as Creator/Notator (later to become Apple’s Logic Pro). Want to emulate it? Try Hatari’s app at hatari. tuxfamily.org

Akai are more known for their MPC samplers, but their S-series rack samplers, first appearing in 1985, were widely used by artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Front 242 and Depeche Mode. Shockingly primitive by modern standards, they were hugely influential. Get an idea of how they work by way of this Togu Audio Line TAL-Sampler.

Early industrial music, like all other music of the time, would be recorded onto reel-to-reel tape, if working in a studio, otherwise onto cassette tape if working at home or in a demo setup. Some of the best tape sims include u-He’s Satin (shown) and Slate Digital’s Virtual Tape Collection.

Sampling blew up big in the 1980s, at all levels. We must mention the Fairlight CMI, which was released in 1979 and you can use the Arturia emulation for that. It appeared on records by Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, and Art of Noise, to name a few. Quickly, though, sampling became more democratic and affordable.

As you can see we can reproduce these instruments and their workflows in software. There’s even a plugin – the Mathieu Demange RX950 – that imparts the lo-fi characteristics of the Akai S950. As usual with music technology, the challenge now is to filter out the distractions and embellishments.

Artists in an 80s style 1: The Weeknd In the 90s the 80s were reviled – which is actually quite normal as new generations are always keen to move on into the new decade in terms of fashion. But eventually there was a comeback, which has stuck around for quite a while! The biggest part of this has involved music.

6. Exploring Blinding Lights’ 80s feel

Gary Miller/WireImage

>Step by step

Blinding Lights by The Weeknd, has been incredibly successful, spending over a year in the Billboard Top 10, and becoming the world’s best-performing single of 2020. Quite an achievement for an 80s throwback, although this isn’t the product of some guy in his bedroom: there are big hitters involved.

There’s nothing wrong with imitating songs that have inspired you, or that represent a particular time period that you want to bring to mind; it can be very effective. This can be represented by the lyrics, the arrangement, choice of instrumentation, and of course the effects and production techniques.

32 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

The song was written by a team, including The Weeknd himself (aka Abel Makkonen Tesfaye), with Max Martin, Oscar Holter, Ahmad Balshe, and Jason Quenneville. Max Martin has been writing and producing hits since the mid 1990s – he clearly has a better-than-most handle on how pop music works!

Yes, you could go all-out and just sample a favourite song from the 1980s; if nothing else, it’s a good way to study and map out arrangements, as you can see here. But other than that beware it might get you in trouble with sample clearance and copyright later.

Blinding Lights is an acknowledged 80s-style piece, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Listeners have identified many influential source songs in this one, where stylistic touches have been borrowed, without any downright plagiarism taking place. Have a listen to Rod Stewart’s Young Turks or Laura Branigan’s Self Control, for example.

Unlike Dua Lipa’s Break My Heart, which openly relates back to INXS’s Need You Tonight, and properly credits the original writers, Blinding Lights is more about drawing on multiple sources, instead of one reference tune, and combining those with original music and lyrics to create a certain 1980s mood.

The 1980s provide a rich seam of material, whether it involves the songwriting styles, the instrumentation, or the production techniques. Tears For Fears, Madonna, New Order, Cyndi Lauper… Sometimes it’s the full package, and the resulting records sound like they could have been made then, while others integrate the

The drums on Blinding Lights are a big part of the vibe. We’re not sure what machine was used, we think possibly a hybrid of LinnDrum and Roland 808 sounds. You can’t go wrong with those. You can get those samples from the samples.kb6.de site that we’ve mentioned elsewhere in the past few pages.

If you haven’t got an original Juno-60 hanging around (who does?), then you can use one of the plugins from Roland themselves, or Tal Software, or you can dig in to the analogue-style synths offered with your DAW software, such as Logic Pro X’s Retro Synth.

sounds and styles into more modern techniques. You can purchase some of the original gear on your favourite auction site, or source plugins that’ll get you the same sounds with modern conveniences. We’re looking at two 2021 artists whose work has dug deep and explored the potential of the

Putting beats aside, putting vocals aside, the dominant instrument on Blinding Lights is the synthesiser, especially the main melodic hook. From our research, most experts agree that this is the sound of the Roland Juno-60, an archetypal 80s synth which can be glimpsed in some of The Weeknd’s videos.

Ableton Live Suite users can call on the aptly-named Analog synth instrument, which has a decent set of presets, or the free Classic Synths Max For Live pack. Computer Music’s free Plugin Suite includes no fewer than four virtual analogue synths, so try those too.

1980s: namely The Weeknd, who had the ultimate 80s-sounding hit with Blinding Lights (close to half a billion YT views), and Dua Lipa, (see over). We’ll reveal a little of their influences (obvious and not so) and suggest some of the new ways that you can recreate their modern – or not so modern – sound.

Play anything – anything – on a Juno60 and it takes you back to the 1980s – this was a hugely popular instrument, used by artists such as Vince Clarke, Howard Jones, Nick Kershaw, Eurythmics, and A Flock Of Seagulls, to name a few – all the usual synth pop names are present!

You’ll get further into the 1980s ballpark if you add some effects to these synths. They have their own built-in, which is preferable, but otherwise you should explore the potential of adding the good old arpeggiator MIDI effect before the instrument, and delay afterwards.

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 33

Kevin Winter/Getty

80s special / cover feature <

Dave J Hogan / Getty

> cover feature / 80s special

Artists in an 80s style 2: Dua Lipa It’s probably fair to say that The Weeknd isn’t planning to spend his entire career ‘doing the 80s’, and the same can be said for Dua Lipa, who seems to be more about sharing her enjoyment of different eras rather than sticking to one in particular. She’s ventured into early 2000s-style pop (that’s a thing now as well), but what we’re

>Step by step

interested in here is her forays into the 80s, with songs such as Physical, Be The One, and Break My Heart. Each of these specifically references a well-known 1980s track, so that’s one way to go if you’re after the 80s vibe, as long as you (a) have a good lawyer, or (b) have the skills to get close, but not too close, to the original songs in question. Dua Lipa is an acknowledged

Madonna fan, and some material does have a feeling of being updated Madonna productions – cool, but also very expertly produced. Once again, to get close to those 80s sounds you need to be immersed in the original songs of the time, as it begins with the songwriting – waiting until you get to the mixing stage won’t take you there!

5. Exploring Future Nostalgia’s influences

Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia album was released in 2020 – the title says it all. Like many (but not all) 80s-influenced projects, it draws on the sounds and techniques from the time, while applying totally modern recording and production styles, creating a vibe of an era that never quite existed.

34 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

As we mentioned in our intro, some of Dua Lipa’s songs, across both of her albums, specifically refer to songs from the 1980s. For instance, Physical lyrically refers to Olivia Newton-John’s cheesy classic Let’s Get Physical (1981), although it doesn’t imitate or sample anything from the original music track.

Future Nostalgia’s Break My Heart takes the connection further, as it directly quotes the guitar, bass, and drums of Need You Tonight, the 1987 hit by archetypal Australian dance/rock band INXS. The original artists were given a full writing credit from day one, so nobody really loses out on that.

80s special / cover feature <

>Step by step

Break My Heart also enjoys another 80s connection, in that Chad Smith, of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Will Ferrell, and Chickenfoot fame, plays real live drums on it. The Chili Peppers formed in 1983, and Chad joined them in 1988, becoming their third drummer, so that definitely qualifies as 80s!

To make a fake sample, you first have to treat it like a regular production job. Mix it, add effects, master it, and so on. Then once you’ve isolated the relevant section, render that as a stereo mix, then import into your ongoing project and apply timestretching or other effects.

This song was first created using the then-cutting edge LinnDrum for beats, so we’re using the Ableton Live LinnDrum kit – the factory drum rack preset is known as LD Core Kit. This will get us close enough to get a working start and decide what to do next.

You could capture some of the necessary mood through creating a ‘fake’ sample – record or program your own rock/disco backing track, with a beat, bass, and rhythm guitar, make it as ‘live’ feeling as you can, then cut it into a simple 4 or 8-bar loop and use it like a sample.

Maybe live drums were used because the producers wanted to get closer to the original INXS vibe. If you need a drummer substitute, you could use any decent sampled live-sounding kit, or turn to a period-correct drum machine – and no drum machine is more ‘correct’ than the LinnDrum.

Note that the MIDI file we found online for Boys Of Summer is a type 0, which means some effort has to be made to separate the various instrument parts into separate tracks manually – in a type 1 MIDI file, this is already done for you.

Most DAWs have a decent acoustic drum kit, and a useable electric bass – pick or finger-style. Getting a convincing guitar sound is harder – the answer is usually to record a real guitar – second choice would be to use one of the guitar plugins that are on the market.

In fact, the LinnDrum is at the heart of another song referenced by Dua Lipa – her Be The One tune is very like Don Henley’s Boys Of Summer from 1984. In this shot we’re trying to get a feel of the original by importing the MIDI file to Ableton Live.

What really separates these songs from their 1980s inspirations is the production, especially when it comes to the way vocals are handled (in our opinion). At that point it’s all business, with a definitely 21st century approach, including the inevitable pitch and harmony effects on the voice, and crisp, heavy, mastering.

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 35

> cover feature / 80s special

DRUMS

BASS

THEN

NOW

80s special / cover feature <

GUITAR

KEYBOARDS

THEN DX7. That’s all we have to say. C’mon, what else would it be? That digital synth, with its somewhat obscure interface was everywhere. It’s a classic sound, and far away from the analogue synths the competition offered.

TH Yamaha’s SG1000 guitar, which originated in the 1970s, was very popular, John McGeogh being but one example of a high profile user, in his work with PiL and Siouxsie. A popular guitar amp was the Roland JC-120 combo, which favoured sharper, cleaner sounds as opposed to the more rockfriendly Marshall stacks. See also here: Scholz Rockman.

NOW There are DX7 plugins everywhere, including iOS versions. For example, Arturia have an excellent plugin version, namely the DX7 V. For a more off-the-wall 80s synth product, check out the Electro Harmonix iOS version of their Mini Synth, from 1980.

RECORDING

NOW Yamaha still make SG-style guitars, and Roland have a current version of the JC-120. Beyond that, you can find virtual guitar instrument plugins in the shape of uJam’s Virtual Guitarist, or those inside DAWs including Logic Pro and GarageBand, while the JC appears as an amp model in products from Line 6 and Roland themselves.

NOW THEN Home recording went big in the 1980s, and no we’re not referring to making mixtapes for a school friend. The Fostex X-15 multitracker, which we mention elsewhere, blew the scene wide open, making it easy for anyone on a small budget to record their home demos, band rehearsals, or even full releases.

Anything from your phone upwards can record multitrack audio. So many apps, such little time. On iOS, you’ve got GarageBand, Gadget, Auria, on desktop computers you’ve got Live, Logic, Bitwig, Cubase, Studio One, Reaper. Something for everybody, with features that would’ve seemed incredible back in the day. The only thing we have to worry about now is feature bloat, as these programs become too sophisticated for their own good. November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 37

> cover feature / 80s special

What have we learnt? Maybe that limiting yourself to, say, eight tracks and a couple of plugins might help creativity?

Conclusion We hope this retro adventure has taught you some new things, or reminded you of some old things. You can view the 1980s as a museum or theme park, where the aim is to create a perfect replica of a bygone age, and perhaps camp it up a bit. Or take it dead seriously, absorbing the sounds and techniques from that decade and incorporating them into your modern productions; another sonic palette to include – it’s about texture – using a bit of 80s magic when a mix needs something different. The 1980s started as a decade where postpunk and classic rock were still going strong, and the punk DIY ethic was starting to apply itself to electronic music. Hip-hop, for example, was driven by that DIY/make-do spirit, using the tools at hand, and squeezing creativity out of them, instead of daydreaming about acquiring more expensive toys in the future. Conversely 2020s music production can be about excess, or resisting it – we have so many tools available, for every budget: from free phone apps to Moog synths. Our challenge is to filter out what we don’t need! So the 1980s can seem like a more innocent or naive time as far as music goes – even though we were embracing technology, a lot of it was still relatively basic; the home producer might be using a 4- or 8-track cassette recorder and a simple drum machine as the heart of their setup. There were always the ambitions to own more gear and to get some studio time, but with it there was that curiosity about pushing our gear to the max, which could entail bouncing down tracks in a cassette multitracker, for example. Each time you did this – mixing down two tracks to a third, so you could record over the first two – you’d sacrifice sound quality and

38 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

The cassette multitracker – a symbol of the experimental boundaries being pushed by everyday musicians

the ability to change anything on those tracks. That would be reflected in the sound of the final mix, as well as in your writing and recording habits, as you’d create new material with those limitations in mind. The same might go for monophonic synths – imagine if you could only afford one synth, and it was a monophonic model – only one note at a time! How far would you have to go to squeeze the best out of that? These are the limitations that spark creativity – imagination becomes more

important. So maybe the challenge should be to make an EP with only four tracks per song, for example. We have the free plugin collection – way more than somebody would have had 30 years ago, and it’s free. So maybe limit yourself to this or even one or two plugins from it! An exercise in restraint is always worth doing – anything that makes you think differently about how you make music, that teaches you new things and, of course, gives you an excuse to play some fun music.

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November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 41

> interview / public service broadcasting

PUBLIC BROADC

Public Service Broadcasting’s blend of rock and electronics along with an extravaganza of samples, documentary visuals and iconic live outings has earned them a huge following. But, after dealing with massive themes like space and Everest, they’re turning their backs on samples and embracing Berlin… 42 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

Weaving huge themes with similarly huge sounds, multimedia visuals with massive, building and sweeping tunes, Public Service Broadcasting are on a mission to smash through genres and deliver an uncompromising live and recorded experience. Their winning approach involves matching sampled sounds and visuals with electronics, a full band feel and just about as many orchestral players that can fit on stage or in the studio.

And just when you think the PSB experience couldn’t be any bigger, they wrap everything up around (quite literally) the biggest stories to tell through their music. The track Everest, for example, is a live favourite and tells the story of Peak 15, the highest mountain in the world. “Why should we climb it?”, the sampled commentary asks as PSB’s ear worm altelectronic rock weaves the audio together, building to a huge crescendo to then simply answer: “because it is there”.

Then there are albums like 2017’s The Race for Space that deal with even bigger themes and push the interactive experience to the max. The album takes audio from the British Film Institute to tell the story of the Russian and American space race with visuals projected when the album is played live, and where better to do just that? What about a couple of gigs at the National Space Centre in Leicester? That should do it. Then to top even that, the band were asked to help commemorate the 50th anniversary of

Photo: Alex Lake

SERVICE CASTING

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 43

> interview / public service broadcasting

the moon landings in 2019 with a special orchestral performance of the album at the Royal Albert Hall. As you do. But where to go next? Having conquered both the highest mountain the UK and space itself, there’s surely nowhere left for PSB to go. What to do? Well, you could follow in the paths of Depeche Mode, U2, Bowie and so many others and head to Berlin. But the band didn’t just end up in Germany’s mostly creative city because of who went before them – that would, they say, have been something of a cliché. No, it’s a bit more complex than that…

City to city

“I hadn’t really interrogated why I was there, I just thought it was the be all and end all,” says PSB’s founder J. Willgoose, Esq. while pondering what drew him to the city for the recording of their new album Bright Magic. “I remember saying to our first manager back in 2012, ‘there are three things I want to achieve: play Glastonbury, play New York and play Berlin’.” He continues: “You feel this unique energy with all three, which is strange for a completely non cosmic, non spiritual and very pragmatic person [like me] finding yourself talking like ‘oh man! I feel the energy’.” After hitting one of his ambitions and playing Berlin fairly early in the band’s career, the city’s energy called him back and in April 2019, after promoting the band’s third album Every Valley, Willgoose and family packed up and relocated to Berlin in search of an adventure and to write a new record. Although discussions between the band about producing an album based on Berlin had been happening for some time, the album’s narrative had managed to remain a distinctly blank canvas. As the record started to get sketched out, it found Willgoose taking a more reflective approach to his narration.

“Having conquered both the biggest mountain in the world and space itself. What to do? Follow in the path of Bowie” “I was definitely talking about Berlin with the others before we recorded Every Valley, which was January 2017, and I think it was in my head a long while before that as well?” he explains thoughtfully, before breaking into a selfconscious laugh. “There’s no shortage of bands who move to Berlin to write a record, it’s almost a bit of a cliché!” “I knew I wanted to go to Berlin to write and record an album and thought ‘I’m sure I’ll find plenty of stuff to write about!’” A nervous look appears on his face. “Thankfully I did, but I think I moved away from some of the more obvious subject matters for a band like us with our own history as well to cover.” “I think it became more of a question of me asking myself; ‘why were you drawn here and what was it about the people that came here before you and made this place such a seductive destination?’ It’s a different way of trying to write a story I suppose. It’s much more abstract and expressionistic in the way the record approaches that narrative.”

Icons and lightbulbs

Bright Magic may demonstrate a new approach and narrative for J. Willgoose, Esq. but before opening Logic, plugging in that first synth, or

crafting that first historical tale, a studio had to be found. Thanks to an introduction from the Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield, the band managed to eventually collect one of the ultimate bucket list ticks for any recording musician – albeit a daunting one. “When everything was still a nebulous concept in my head, it was the plan to record the record at Hansa Tonstudio Recording Complex, but there was no plan on where I was going to write it,” Willgoose explains. “Luckily James put me in touch with Alex Silva who engineered [MSP album] The Holy Bible and lives in Berlin, but also happens to have a room at Hansa.” “I didn’t actually realise that he’d had a room there when I got in touch with him. We met in 2017, had a chat and he kindly started looking around the city for a studio on our behalf. One day he said, ‘you know what, we’ve just taken this room above mine, just rent that for a bit if you want?’ I was like ‘er yes, I’d love to write a record in Hansa please!’” It’s one thing being offered a studio space at Hansa, but it takes a lot of willpower not to be distracted or overwhelmed by such an experience. Willgoose explains what it was like working in such an iconic environment. “Walking through those doors every day, seeing Bowie’s image on the way in, it was quite overwhelming. Maybe if you’re going to put yourself up against anybody, maybe don’t do it with him. It makes one feel like a loser before you’ve started!” “But obviously you’re tapping into the history,” he adds, “and some of the more imaginative things we did with the recording, like smashing up a lightbulb and using it as a shaker on Im Licht, were directly inspired by things Depeche Mode and Bowie had done within those walls before, and definitely felt like it [the studio] had an influence.”

The PSB setup at Hansa Studios

44 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

Photo: Andrew Benge/Redferns/Getty

public service broadcasting / interview <

Collaboration Over the past three records, collaborating with other musicians has become more of a regular experience for J. Willgoose, Esq. and this is the case again with Bright Magic. How does the process work for the band? “For Blue Heaven the demo is quite close to the end result but in terms of the melody Andreya Casablanca [from Berlin indie band Gurr] just very quietly and politely shelved what I’d done and came up with something way cooler. The thing I’ve noticed over time is there’s no point collaborating with someone if all you’re saying is ‘here’s a thing, can you do that?’” “The point of a collaboration is to take a track somewhere you wouldn’t on your own, so you should be inviting that creative disagreement in some respects. [Highly respected German musician] Blixa Bargeld had a totally different idea for Der Rhythmus Der Maschinen which didn’t quite work with where I wanted it to go, but he still happily took care of my concerns, while doing his own thing. I’d never have done what he did at the end of that track, which is brilliant. He’d written a more expansive, story-based thing to go over the whole track and we had to say, ‘no we just needed this one line at the end’. He re-wrote it quickly and delivered it beautifully. The engineer Boris turned to me and said, ‘I’m enjoying watching you have a very intense time’.” November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 45

> interview / public service broadcasting

Some of the core ingredients in the PSB recipe book

“I don’t think we’ve had so much fun in the studio as the day we were just smashing stuff up,” Willgoose recalls. “I went a bit deeper with all that this time than I have before. It was the thing with last year. We made and laid down our record in the early stages of the pandemic and it was really hard because you do need to be able to have that playful approach and attitude to music making and finding that in those early days was really difficult.” The sense of ‘play’ didn’t end at lightbulb shakers. Im Licht, a song about the ‘no-lumenspared’ exhibition in October 1928 and the two patents held by AEG and Siemens for lightbulb manufacture across Europe, also saw Willgoose walking the streets armed with an Ether from Somasynths, described by the company as ‘a wide-band receiver that makes it possible to perceive the electromagnetic landscape around you’. Willgoose explains: “On Im Licht the bass drum is an impulse detected from the electro magnetic pulses detected down Leipziger Strasse. It’s this fast, high-pitched beep and I took it, moved it down two octaves and made a bass drum out of it.”

Field Music Although in places it’s very subtly used, the 46 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

incorporation of field recordings forms the bedrock of Bright Magic. It sees another change from Public Service Broadcasting’s past three records, with these ‘found sounds’ dictating the direction of each track rather than being applied as narrative at the end. Willgoose explains why this change came about. “Often in the past I’ve come to the samples last and built everything else first, but with this one, because they dictated a lot of the pace, it felt like you were writing to the field recordings rather than the other way around. Especially with the last track which is recorded out of the window of the place we were staying in Schöneberg. It was raining and you had these cars going past and it created this wash like the white noise of a synth. “I moved things around and re-arranged it, but they set the initial sense of pacing, mood and timing. They gave everything an atmosphere and it’s much easier to write imaginatively to than purely with a musical idea at the start.”

Sound And Vision Like so many artists, Willgoose holds Vangelis’ Blade Runner soundtrack in very high regard and when listening to Bright Magic you can’t

help but be drawn to the beautiful ambient swells of a Yamaha CS-80. In this particular instance it’s actually a Deckard’s Dream synth, Black Corporation’s recreation of the iconic Yamaha, and incorporating its sound became a top priority. “I’m obsessed with Blade Runner and Vangelis’s soundtrack,” Willgoose grins, before continuing. “For me there was a line from Metropolis through Blade Runner to this. Blade Runner’s so inspired by Metropolis and Metropolis is such a bedrock of this record. Plus the late 1920s atmosphere Berlin had was like this almost exotic golden hue. So getting hold of that synth and using the very expressive sounds that you can get from it on the record was imperative. It’s all over every single track and I don’t think that’s been true of a synth I’ve used before.” Alongside Deckard’s Dream, a Waldorf Quantum, Modal 002R and the Nord Lead Stage all put in appearances across the record, but there’s one more synthesiser that became very popular during the recording process. “I also bought a Roland Juno-106. It’s just a beast and so fun to play with. I think that is on everything as well.” Willgoose pauses… “It’s not on the very last track because it broke.”

public service broadcasting / interview <

Photo: Shaun Gordon

Opening the Logic(al) DAW

PSB live at the Royal Albert Hall

So alongside field recordings taking a more prominent role, it does sound like the synths have become harder than on previous records. Willgoose confirms: “I think I wanted to make this record a bit more of a tactile experience than previously where it was a bit more software orientated synths and virtual analogue synths. The fun you can have having a very simple but powerful instrument like a Juno in front of you, along with a Roland Space Echo, and then of course [rolls eyes] having to buy another one to get it in stereo! Just being able to muck around with that is enjoyable. There’s a bit in People Let’s Dance in the bridge where the Juno spills over. You probably don’t hear it necessarily, and it might be a bit geeky, but just before the drums kick in with the massive Phil

Collins fill, it spirals down. It’s a lovely sound, but I wouldn’t have done that if, in the moment, it wasn’t physically in front of me.” Willgoose continues, “It’s just ‘play’ and having the physical tools in front of you really helps to get in that mindset. It’s trying to manufacture those happy accidents and the more fun ways you have of manipulating the sound source and playing with stuff the more likely that is to happen. Going back to Every Valley and The Race for Space I do think it’s a step forward in terms of sound as well. It feels a lot richer. It’s much more like a live album than previously in terms of the sound sources.” Although hardware has won the race for this record, there’s one piece of software Willgoose can’t live without. “Along with the Eventide H9,

“I moved to Logic from Cubase before Every Valley and the way that it works and tries to force you to work sometimes is quite maddening, typical Apple prescriptive rather than creative.” “I had an old version of Cubase and our engineer was going to do some of the editing for the first time on the last record and he uses Logic and Pro Tools. I dipped my toe into the latter and thought ‘no way am I doing that’! So I went for Logic, also to freshen things up and avoid using the same old tricks again and again. Instead you just end up trying to learn those tricks in a new piece of software.”

Five Public Service Broadcasting tracks you need to hear

Blue Heaven

2021 With Andreya Casablanca on vocals, this hightempo track is the second single from the new album and will likely become a live show favourite. Its dynamic twists from quiet ambience to driven guitar riffs will get you wiggling in seconds.

Signal 30

2013 Signal 30 is a track to be played at full volume so you can feel the bass rattling your ribcage. The vocals are taken from a 1959 road safety film of the same name and swells into high-octane, perilous rock’n’roll from the second the guitars kick in.

The Other Side

2015 A gentle, synth-led track about Apollo 8 orbiting the moon, that has a staccato sound wave setting the tempo. Vocal recordings from Mission Control are heard as the song swells, before dropping out as the craft rotates around the back of the moon.

Progress Every Valley 2018

Progress sees the band mix calming vocoder and vocal melodies from Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell with shimmering electronic synth chords and guitar fills that slowly become more ray-gun like as the track builds.

Go!

2015 You can’t do a list of ‘must listen to’ Public Service Broadcasting tracks without featuring Go!. Inspired by the Apollo 11 moon landing it features all the instrumental layering, tight guitar riffs and dynamic changes the band have become famous for.

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 47

> interview / public service broadcasting From Hansa to home (building your own PSB studio In software) How to recreate the sound of Public Service Broadcasting’s new album Bright Magic… Deckard’s Dream/ Yamaha CS-80 V Deckard’s Dream was inspired by the Yamaha CS-80 and as a key recording stalwart it makes sense to start your build with Arturia’s software version of the iconic synth. The CS-80 V. At €149, it not only gives you all the sounds of the CS-80, but it’s also a bargain next to the £3,499 you can pay for a Deckard’s Dream, not to mention £25k+ for an original CS-80! arturia.com

Hansa Studios – a hallowed place for the band which became home

Roland Juno-106 I’m addicted to the Eventide Blackhole. I’ve got that in software on the computer but also in pedal form. It’s just an amazing thing and again is nearly on everything.”

Bright Magic Anyone who’s ever had the pleasure of watching Public Service Broadcasting live will be aware of the mounds of equipment surrounding J. Willgoose, Esq. and the speed with which his hands elegantly move in order to keep everything under control. At what point does the live show become a factor when recording an album? Willgoose takes us through the process. “In terms of specifics of who’s going to play what, I don’t think about that during the writing and recording process, but I do pay attention to how it’s going to look on stage and what’s the set design. Because colour became such a big factor in this record I was always picturing the stage with certain lighting effects and colours on it. Im Licht is definitely a song written for a visual impact as well as a sonic impact. I can really imagine that at the start of a set: bam! With this really blinding light with a really loud sound getting in your stomachs.” “In terms of who does what and how we do them,” he continues, “those decisions come about now and I’m putting it off because I’ve changed my setup and I don’t really know where to start piecing it together again. I know I’m going to have to sample the Deckard’s Dream because it feels like it might break, but things like the guitars will be kept live for flexibility as well as quality.” “I’ve changed the synths out so that where it used to be the Virus Snow, Nord Lead 4 Rack and a MIDI controller, now it’s all been combined into a new Roland Phantom for more of a workstation approach. A lot of this is for quite boring reasons, like being able to split out and give [drummer and multi-instrumentalist] JF Abrahams all his bits in one output, and it stops one song dropping, then the next one being deafening as we’ll all have dedicates outputs. Plus they’ve incorporated all the Roland synths into it so you can simulate the Juno within the Phantom, which does mean I 48 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

have to recreate every single synth sound across all four records.” As the conversation draws to a close, Willgoose leaves us with a final thought on the band’s new direction to songwriting and recording. “It’s a different approach, but part of that is wanting to take a different approach anyway and try and remain interesting as a songwriter and a band. Part of it is drawing inspiration from Low and what that represented for Bowie in terms of a massive leap for him, and for us trying to be brave in the way we tackle the outline.” “To go from a band known for using sampling, to working in some way to basically get rid of sampling more or less. Working almost exclusively in German as well, it felt like a reasonable move. Maybe it’s not? But to me it felt right and really I hope people come along with us.” Bright Magic is out now on Play It Again Sam. Tour information can be found at www. publicservicebroadcasting.net.

HEAR MORE

Another favourite in the recording of Bright Magic and another iconic synth in software form. This time we head to Roland Cloud and for $19.99/month you can get access to all of their legendary instruments in software form including the Juno-106. rolandcloud.com

Roland Space Echo There are loads of Space Echo sims out there, including Arturia’s Delay TAPE-201 or UAD’s Galaxy Tape Echo. AudioThing’s Outer Space also offers very accurate tape age settings and blended echo/reverb, plus looks like the original (so does the Arturia to be fair). audiothing.net

Eventide Blackhole We now arrive at the piece of software that made it into the studio and almost every track, the Eventide Blackhole. A reverb plugin that according to Eventide “can warp acoustic space and time”. They’re exaggerating, but not much. eventideaudio.com

Eventide H9 Max

Blue Heaven bit.ly CM_Blue Go! bit.ly/CM_Go WWW

publicservicebroadcasting.net facebook.com/publicservicebroadcasting twitter,com/psb_HQ

Technically cheating as it’s a pedal with a software element called the H9 Control app. The H9 offers another reverb option if the Blackhole doesn’t warp space and time enough for you, but it also adds chorus, delay, modulation, pitchshifting and distortion. The H9 Control app is where you purchase effects algorithms, plus create and edit your presets. eventideaudio.com

tutorials <

Become a better producer now with pro advice, expert videos and audio examples from our gurus

50 Vocal Production with Ashley Thorpe

Our resident vocal expert Ashley Thorpe discusses how you can add a touch of reverb for the best results

52 Synth Masterclass An all-new masterclass with Dave Gale

with Audiotent

Create a Ghostly sound

Dave Gale gets his 80s chops in swing to haunt you by revisiting the track Ghosts by Japan

54 Production and Sound Design

Perfect reverb on vocals

Vocal EQ production

Neil and Ed from Audiotent show how you can use synth macros to aid your performances

TUTORIAL

FILES

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 49

Vocals

masterclass

with Ashley Thorpe

#02 DOWNLOAD

Vocal reverb guide

Download the accompanying video and the MIDI/audio files at filesilo.co.uk/computermusic

Do your vocals sound washed out after reverb? Here are some tips for using reverb to add power to vox, rather than take it away Reverb – it’s an essential tool most people will be familiar with. It can add space, power, even emotion to vocals. You’d be hard pressed to find a modern pop song without it. Usually when new music makers come to adding reverb, there’s a sound that they imagine in their head. But then… there’s a completely different result that they get. A common mistake made by my new students, and even clients who send me a rough mix or their DAW sessions to mix and master, is

>Step by step

to go crazy with plugins on every single channel. If there’s a main vocal track and say two or three vocal backing tracks plus adlibs, there might be a reverb plugin on every single one of them! Not only is this taking up valuable RAM and slowing down your session, it’s also counterproductive in getting the desired sound. The different reverbs with different settings on each of the vocal tracks mean that the vocals are sitting in entirely different acoustic spaces and won’t sound cohesive.

In putting reverb plugins directly on a vocal track, you’re washing out the vocals, taking away the power from the performance the more you increase the effect. There is a better way to use reverb on your vocal tracks to maximise atmosphere while still maintaining the sharpness of the vox. In this tutorial I’ll share the most useful tips I’ve found through the years. From the correct use of reverb chains in your mixer to effective vocal stacking.

1. The perfect balance

Setting up your session correctly for a new project is essential. I keep a template ready-made in Pro Tools to save me time when I start on a new project. But you can do this for any DAW. This template has two reverb auxiliary tracks. This means that the plugins are only on these tracks and not on the individual instrument tracks.

I add ‘sends’ to each duplicated vocal track that I will want reverb on. These sends make sure that the audio signal is sent through to the reverb auxiliary track of my choosing. For vocals, the destination track will be the same. But the key difference is how much signal I’m sending for each individual track.

50 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

The reverbs on each auxiliary tracks have different settings. I will typically use one reverb channel for the vocals (so that all of the vocal tracks can be funnelled through a single chain and exist in the same acoustic space), and the other reverb channel for other instruments like drum components. Reverb tracks can be duplicated as needed, if you need more.

Reverb, and other effects, should be applied towards the end of the mixing process. There are a number of key steps that you’ll want to carry out first, such as the rough balance of your instruments, equalisation, compression etc. So I always deactivate the sends on the duplicate tracks, as well as keeping the volume faders down, till I’m ready to apply effects.

Duplicate the vocal tracks (and any other instrument tracks) that you will be applying the reverb to. This will double the volume of the vocals, so you’ll need to turn the volume down on the duplicates in order to avoid having your ears blasted off. Come back to these duplicated tracks when you’re ready to work on reverb later in the mix.

The backing vocals on this track I worked on were very heavy with reverb. The send fader is really high (right) compared to the send on the main vocal duplicate (left). A signal heavily processed with reverb is known as wet while an unprocessed vocal is known as dry.

vocal reverb guide / vocals masterclass <

Ashley Thorpe

PRO TIP GETTING ACQUAINTED Every DAW will have its own stock reverb plugins, and the standard nowadays is great compared to a decade or so ago. Before splashing out on third-party plugins, just get used to using all of the main controls and understanding what they do. Use a frequency analyst like Blue Cat’s FreqAnalyst on your reverb auxiliary channel when you EQ verb on vocals and instruments. You’ll see whereabouts the reverb effect is clogging up space in the frequency spectrum, and you can experiment with cutting frequencies to make your mix less muddy.

As well as the send level, from each track to the reverb auxiliaries, there’s also a balancing act to take into account in terms of the volume of the vocal tracks and their stacked duplicates. The volume of the original main vocal is higher here, and this means that the power of this original vocal is retained.

The size of your reverb is important. If you’re going for an 80s power ballad style you’ll want a large room effect. If you’re going for an intimate, acoustic style you might want a small room, subtle effect just to make your vocals and instruments sound natural. In my example, the backing tracks are using large size with reverb Decay at an atmospheric 5.4 secs.

Ashley Thorpe (aka Breezewax) is a producer and musician who has created electronic music for over a decade. He typically uses a mix of samples, field recordings, synthesis and live instrumentation in his work, which covers a variety of styles including hip hop, chill hop, neo-soul and RnB. He also works as a music facilitator and freelance audio engineer.

SHOPPING AROUND One of my favourite reverb plugins is PhoenixVerb by Exponential Audio (now owned by iZotope). I’d very much recommend signing up to iZotope’s mailing list; they often have good offers. But you may also be familiar with pluginboutique.com – and if not, you should be! They’ve had a couple of absolute bargains on for PhoenixVerb this year. With this plugin there are a number of great presets to start with, but also a great level of in-built EQ control and processing thresholds. You can save anything you create as your own custom preset.

I recommend turning the duplicate vocal fader right down and then bringing the volume back up until you have the right amount of reverb that you want. It’s that simple, and means that you’ll always have total control rather than just having a plugin slap bang on a track.

Watch the amount of decay you add. Ensure it’s fit for purpose for the style you’re working in. If the reverb tail is too long and not EQ’d it can cause muddiness as the reverb tail clogs up acoustic space. For vocals you can definitely cut mid-range frequencies on your reverb; they won’t add anything. Again, consider the most pleasant audible range.

Reverb settings can look daunting. Common controls are Dry/Wet faders (the amount of the original unaffected signal vs reverb amount); Attack; Decay (how long the reverb effect lasts on the sound); Size (aka room or shape, which affects the sound and space of the reverb effect); and Pre Delay (how long after the original sound the reverb starts).

It’s easy to go too far with reverb, and always be aware of the space you’re listening to audio in. That, too, will affect how you hear things. This is where a good reference track comes in handy. Pick a song you know inside out, including how it sounds on different devices.

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 51

Synth

masterclass with Dave Gale

#07

DOWNLOAD

Zebra CM: a Ghostly Synth

Download the accompanying video and the MIDI/audio files at filesilo.co.uk/computermusic

In celebration of our special, we recreate one of the most enigmatic and haunting sounds of the 80s, which is still just as ghostly today! At a time when presets on synths were in somewhat short supply, 80s bands such as Japan would spend many hours preparing and programming sounds, during the preproduction phase of their album preparation. One of their main instruments was the legendary and immensely popular Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, which offered a signal architecture and signal flow which is not dissimilar to our very own Zebra CM virtual instrument.

>Step by step

One of Japan’s most celebrated songs was called Ghosts; its sparse synth bass was punctuated by a variety of sounds which exploited the Prophet’s Poly-Mod cross modulation parameter, while David Sylvian’s voice glided elegantly above interjecting marimbas, and the pad-like lead which we are going to recreate here. The sound is filtered to create a texture which is soft in timbre, while one oscillator detunes against another, generating a slightly uneasy

effect that has become something of a classic. While it’s perfect for mysterious leads, this sound could also provide inspiration as an undulating synth bass, through the use of compression and even some delay to thicken the colour further. So let’s dive right in – but if you’re prone to bumps in the night, you might want to keep the light on – as we go ghostly with the original Zebra CM (free from filesilo.co.uk). We’ll be using the all-new Zebra from next month.

1. Ghostly sounds

We’ll start the process with a basic initialise; load your favoured DAW and open an instance of the U-He Zebra CM plugin. From the central display, click and select the UH Initialize patch, which will give us a starting point for the creation of our sound.

At the moment, Envelope 2 is providing a considerably sharp attack at the front of each note, by modulating the filter cutoff. We need to eliminate this by reducing the Env2 amount, located within the filter section, to zero. This means it’ll be in the 12 o’clock position.

52 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

As we are looking to recreate a relatively vintage sound, a little like the original Prophet, we need to change both of the Oscillators to a Single waveform. Simply select Single from the dropdown menu box, located beneath the legends for Oscillators 1 and 2.

With the reduction of filter-based envelope control, our sound is now very dull. To counteract this, let’s now open up the Cutoff on the filter. While adjusting, watch the central display and aim for a value of around 20.00. This can be adjusted to suit your own brightness requirements later.

This sound was created using a heavy filter, applied to Sawtooth waves, generated from both oscillators. While the Zebra CM lacks wave icons to reinforce this, keeping both of the wave controls, on both oscillators, all the way to the far left, will result in Saw wave generation.

To assist with the subtle nature of this pad-like sound, let’s adjust the attack phase of Envelope 1. This is the upper envelope in this section. Setting the Attack pot to a value of around 25.00, which is roughly at the 10 o’clock position, it’ll help back-off the sound’s initial abruptness.

zebra cm: a ghostly synth / synth masterclass <

Dave Gale

PRO TIP

Dave Gale is an Emmy award-winning media composer, producer and orchestrator, with an enormous passion for synthesisers, in all their forms. His varied composing style embraces everything from full orchestral and hybrid scoring, to fully electronic scores, employing synths wherever possible. He also happens to own some of the finest synths in existence but we’re not jealous, OK?

GHOSTLY TWEAKS This sound warrants additional tweaking or experimenting, to suit your taste and track. The original patch, which we are seeking to emulate, benefits from a relatively abrupt release phase. This means that one note does not really run into the next, providing a dryness which works brilliantly in the context of the original. However, you may wish to play around with the release phase of envelope 1, as it will also increase the ease with which legato playing can take place. While the release phase alteration will be more forgiving, so will the application of some form of reverb. We favour something relatively sustained, but set back in the mix; you’ll know it’s there, but leaving it set back will mean it doesn’t get in the way, and provides a beautifully sustained backdrop. Finally, one element that the original Prophet could not offer was the ability to pan the oscillators left and right. This can be incredibly effective and is easy to apply. Go to each oscillator section; the Pan pot is located in the upper right. Try placing them equal distances apart, but opposite from each other across the stereo spectrum. It’ll sound like the ghosts are all around you!

While currently playing, you can probably hear that there’s a very subtle amount of oscillator detuning occurring. We need to get rid of this, so heading back to our oscillators, adjust both Detune pots to a zero value, which will be in the 12 o’clock position.

If you try our sound now, it’ll sound a little woozy, and rather quick in undulation. Move to the LFO modulation section and click on the LFO2 box, at the bottom. This will reveal the LFO 2 settings, and allow us to tweak our preferences.

It’s now time to address the meandering tuning; in the Oscillator 2 section, assign LFO2 to the Unassigned pot, which is the lower left pot in the tuning section. Clicking and holding on the pot will reveal the dropdown menu. LFO2 will be located towards the bottom.

As the LFO2 detuning rate is a little fast, move to the Rate pot, adjusting it to a value of roughly 50.00-60.00. You can adjust this to suit your own taste and track, and also use the Sync value, should you want to directly lock the LFO rate to your DAW, which can be very effective too.

The amount of detuning we want to apply is incredibly minimal. Staying with the newly assigned LFO2 pot, adjust the value to 0.50. To get this value right, click on the pot and drag upwards, while watching the central display.

One final element which offers another degree of detune control, is the Amplitude pot, located within the LFO2 section. Adjusting this pot can reduce the amount of detune further for even greater subtlety. Try a value of around 50.00, for great nuance.

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 53

Production

techniques with Audiotent #14

Building macros for performance Let Pigments’ powerful macro engine be your extra set of hands What are macros? Many modern day software synths contain multiple assignable macro controls. These let you map one or more parameters to a single rotary knob or fader. Macros are extremely handy for keeping your project automation lanes tidier. For example, reverb and delay amounts could both be controlled using one macro automation lane. This is also useful in a live performance scenario. We only have two hands to work with, limiting how many controls we can manipulate at once. The simplest macro assignment is one destination. Great for mapping preset-specific parameters to a MIDI controller. You can build

>Step by step

purposeful chains by mapping more than one parameter. This is what we’re going to be focussing on in today’s guide. Firstly, timbre macros. The goal of this macro is to transform the timbre quality of the core sound of the preset. The destinations that you can choose are source-dependent. Experimenting is key here: anything that delivers a pleasant shift in sound is assigned. For this example, wavetable position, FM amount, oscillator voices, envelope attack and wavefolding have all been assigned to the Timbre macro inside Arturia Pigments. The second macro we are going to build is the FX macro: a strategic set of controls

optimised for transitions within your arrangement. Key parameters that we’ll map are reverb dry/wet, delay dry/wet, distortion, noise oscillator amount and envelope release. Once you’ve tried our macro examples, we encourage you to create your own unique chains. Some potential ideas to get you started would be the pitch riser effect, DJ filter (low cut and delay), and transient shaper, among others. In summary, the more time you spend using macros the more you realise how powerful they can be. Once you start using them, make sure you have a dedicated MIDI controller close to hand. This will give you the full hands-on experience you’re looking for.

Using macros strategically

For the first step, we will load a preset inside Arturia Pigments. For this example, we chose a preset named 041 AT Lead – Equinox, from the Audiotent Binary preset library. Make sure to initialise all four macros, as we’ll be assigning new parameters to them in the following steps.

One of our favourite ways to thicken up a sound is to use oscillator detune. Increasing the amount of voices will result in a larger and wider patch. Assign Macro 1 to Voices with a maximum value of 0.30.

54 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

The first Macro we’ll be creating will be called Timbre. Its core focus will be to alter the harmonic identity of the sound. To start off, assign Macro 1 to the Engine 1 Wavetable Position parameter. Increase the amount of modulation all the way up to 1.00.

Another useful way to alter the sound without directly affecting its core tone would be to adjust the main amp envelope. Assign Macro 1 to ENV VCA Attack with a max value of 0.14. As a result, when increasing the Macro, the sound will have a softer transient.

FM Frequency modulation can be one of the most drastic changes one could have to the timbre. Small amounts can often be enough, however in our case a maximum amount of 0.70 delivered the result that we were looking for.

A key element of wavetable synthesis is its ability to manipulate the waveform with a process called wavefolding. Just like FM synthesis it can deliver a severe transformation to the timbre of the preset. Assign both Wavetable Fold & Fold Amount to Macro 1 with max values of 0.72.

macros for performance / production techniques <

PRO TIPS SEQUENCE STYLED MACRO AUTOMATION

FILTER AND BIT CRUSHER MACRO

Break away from the typical automation curves in your DAW. Try drawing stepped automation that is locked to the grid for one or more of your macros. This can lead to very interesting analogue-style sequencing for your macros.

Bitcrusher can get quite harsh on top of an open synth sound. First assign a low-pass filter to your macro and then bit crusher amount. This filters the dry, unaffected sound before it’s bit crushed, resulting in a more pleasing effect.

Ed Strazdas

Neil Crockett

Ed is an experienced dance producer and sound designer, working in the scene since 2004

Sound designer and mixing engineer, Neil is a huge fan of Eurorack modular synths

About Audiotent Our Production Technique experts are from Audiotent, a team of creative producers and sound designers who provide inspirational tools and education for professional artists worldwide. They focus on both techno and progressive genres, offering presets, samples, templates, MIDI files and production tutorials. More from: audiotent.com

For the second macro we are going to focus on building an effects chain that can be used for adding space and intensity to the patch. Perfect for making transitions throughout your arrangement.

Another effect inside Pigments that can be used to add character to the sound is Distortion. As the delay and reverb start to build up, the dry signal can start to get a little lost. Increasing the amount of distortion will help the sound cut through. Assign Macro 2 to Distortion Dry/Wet 10% and Drive 80.

The first assignment for Macro 2 is the 30% dry/wet amount of a Ping Pong Delay. For the settings of the Delay we have used: Time ¼, Feedback 0.59, HP Freq 215 Hz, LP Freq 5365 Hz. This gives us a nice extension in the stereo field as well as rhythmic intensity.

A fair amount of noise is already present in the patch. When the delay and reverb reach their peak we can introduce even more drama to the sound by increasing the noise amount. Assign Macro 2 to Engine 2 Noise Volume 0.20.

Reverb is ideal for extending the depth of the sound as well as adding a padlike ambience. We are trying to replicate a big hall effect by choosing large settings for Size 1.55 and Decay 0.664. Assign Macro 2 to Reverb Dry/Wet at a maximum value of 0.30.

The final assignment for Macro 2 is not an effect but rather an effective trick to add suspense during key moments of the arrangement. The lengthening of the Env VCA Release allows the notes to sustain for longer. Assign Macro 2 to Env VCA Release at a value of 0.13.

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 55

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> interview / blancmange

58 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

blancmange / interview <

BLANCMANGE

Photo: Piers Allardyce

Blancmange might have had their pop success in the 80s but the band’s Neil Arthur is producing more music in the 2020s than ever before, and the latest album, Commercial Break, might well be his best work yet. And that’s just the start of it. There are dozens of other projects in the pipeline, and even one with another 80s synth pop legend, a certain Vince Clarke. And did we mention ABBA? Blancmange’s story might have begun with a bang – actually quite a few of them – back in the 1980s, but it’s one that has flourished and seen most of its action over the last decade. The band, originally made up of Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe , had many a Top 40 hit throughout the 80s, mixing synths, off-the-wall lyrics and the odd Eastern influence across singles like Living On The Ceiling, Don’t Tell Me and Blind Vision. A series of bizarre events – you really couldn’t make some of them up – helped the band’s demise and they took a long break throughout the 90s and early 2000s, eventually reforming for their fourth album, Blanc Burn in 2011. After Luscombe left through ill health, Arthur ploughed onwards, releasing a series of Blancmange albums (not

to mention other collaborations – too many to mention!) exploring darker themes, instrumentals and often co-produced with the super analogue synth collector and producer-guru Benge. We are speaking to Arthur the day after another 80s act announced ‘a bit of a comeback’, a smallish band from Sweden by the name of ABBA. Indeed their reunion is looming large over our conversation for several reasons. Not only does it give this particular interview a much lighter, contrasting tone compared to the last time we spoke to Arthur – literally a day before the first COVID lockdown back in March 2020 – to the point that, yes, it does rather feel like Agnetha, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny and AnniFrid are leading us out of the pandemic, but Neil is also a self-confessed ABBA superfan. But not November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 59

Photo: Fin Costello/Redferns

> interview / blancmange

just any ABBA superfan. Legend has it that Blancmange scored a bigger hit back in 1984 with their version of ABBA’s The Day Before You Came than The Swedish legends mustered with their original version. “I’ve no idea if that’s true, but that’s what my greengrocer told me,” Arthur laughs. What’s not in doubt is that ABBA were so impressed with Blancmange’s version that they sent the band a letter telling them, (which they then promptly went and lost). “I was brought up with ABBA,” Neil says as we inevitably turn to this most high-profile of comebacks. “When we did The Day Before You Came they were not cool at all and not seen in the light that they are seen today, but to us they were always at the top.” And we’re not done with ABBA just yet. There’s also the fact that Arthur possibly played a part in another 80s synth icon covering ABBA. You might remember Erasure recording the infamous ABBA-esque EP? “A load of us including Vince [Clarke] went to Tenerife together back in 1982. We brought a Walkman with us [that’s an early portable music player, younger readers] and my contribution was ABBA: The Singles. It was passed around and was on heavy rotation. We then had a discussion there when Stephen [Luscombe] and I said ‘we’re going to do a cover of an ABBA song’, and Vince said he would too. He was 60 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

leaving Depeche Mode at the time and onto a new venture so we got our cover recorded before he did his!” So, we have to ask, what does Neil make of the new ABBA material? “I listened to both the new songs yesterday and when those vocals come in, it was amazing. And it’s ABBA. [Shouts!] IT’S ABBA!!!!”

Taking a break

After being sidetracked by ABBA, it’s time to take a break – a Commercial Break you could say, as that’s the name of the new Blancmange album, and a cracker it is too. Intense and melodic with as much electronics as there is treated guitar, it’s

a unified work and Arthur’s most solid release under this incarnation of Blancmange. A real triumph then, yet one born – as so much music is these days – from the negativity of the pandemic. Light from dark, then… “I think there is a theme to the album without a doubt,” Arthur agrees, talking about its uniform sound and feel. “Going on from what happened after our last [day before lockdown] chat, it was a very different world we entered into because of the pandemic. The Blancmange tour I had planned was rearranged five times and from an artist point of view there was a lot of uncertainty. We’ve all had to deal with a frightening situation and I felt that the best thing

blancmange / interview <

As we’ve touched on in the main text, Neil is involved in a huge number of projects, and with a wide variety of people, many linked with producer Benge. Here’s a run-down from the man himself… “The Blancmange album Commercial Break is out now and I’ve got some more Nil By Mouth [instrumental] music coming too. Benge and I have finished the third Fader album [following their debut release, First Light, and second album, In Shadow]. I’ve also done a project with Liam Hutton and Finlay Shakespeare which is mixed. There will be a Near Future album and my son Joe [aka Kincaid] is working on an album as well. Then coming up I already have another Blancmange album which I have sent to Benge for him to have a listen to. The songs are there and we’ll start work on that some time this year in between tours and things and there will be another tour later. I’m keeping busy! I’m really lucky to do what I do!”

for me to do to try and keep a lid on my emotions was to try and reflect on what was happening, what I observed. “In the first few months we had amazing weather, the streets were really quiet, with no cars around. None of us even knew what was going to happen the next day, let alone the next few months and the news was terrifying for some people. I’d heard many creative people were finding it hard to write but I found comfort in expression. I could observe things in my own idiosyncratic way and I could experiment. I know it’s not heavy experimentation but I’d leave doors open when I was recording, so you can hear noise in the background on the album,

some deliberate and others just by chance as I left mics open. “I started collecting sounds, while going out for walks and cycling,” Neil continues. “I was noticing the bits in between things, stuff I hadn’t noticed before. It was like ‘what’s in the crack? There’s a whole world in the crack’. So I was noticing the detail I hadn’t afforded myself before because I hadn’t ever stopped for long enough to. So, for example, there are bird noises on one of the tracks. I slowed them down to see what they would be like. Or when I was walking once, I heard a water pump; all stuff like that. I did think the album would never be toured as it is a reflection of an individual in another time

that we were all in; terrifying and sad for some people but I wanted to find something positive and creative. Kind of ‘what’s coming next?’ I didn’t want to keep reflecting back.” “That being said, I will contradict myself [when we go out on tour]. We are looking forward to playing live, but there’s a nervousness to it. We all want to celebrate that we haven’t done it for so long. So we’ll do a couple from Commercial Break if we can. It’s a bit different from Living On The Ceiling! It ain’t Don’t Tell Me though! [laughs]. The tour was supposed to be for [last year’s album] Mindset, so we’ll do stuff from that too and of course all the old stuff.” November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 61

Photo: Piers Allardyce

A crazy number of collaborations

Photo: Lorne Thomson/Redferns via Getty

> interview / blancmange

Selected kit list HARDWARE Apple Mac running Ableton Live/Logic Pro Roland Boutique JP-08, JX-03 and JU-06 Roland/Studio Electronics SE-02 Various guitars and effects PLUGINS Arturia V-Collection plus SparkLE drum machine Audio Damage Filterstation and RoughRider G-Force suite (Oddity 2 and ImpOScar especially) Glitchmachines Fracture Korg MS-20 Waves plugins (various)

Not taking a break

Arthur’s Mk2 Blancmange are in double figures for album releases – well over twice the original band’s output – striking at almost one release a year. And as we see on the previous page, Neil is also ensconced in many other projects, so how on earth does he maintain the pace, let alone the quality of this level of output? “I’ve been lucky enough to work with some really fantastic artists,” he replies, “like Benge – with Fader and there’s another album done – and Jez Bernholz [Near Future], Finlay Shakespeare, [percussionist with Blancmange] Liam Hutton, [keyboardist] Oogoo Maia and Vince [Clarke]. I suppose it’s what I am. And in the old days the access to writing was you needed a four-track to write a demo on, like a casette machine. Now I just put loads of stuff in here [points to phone]. I’m out on the bike or with the family and I have an idea and I just sing it in there! I do find it difficult to relax. I cycle and love my football so my escape sometimes is channelled into music and as you know, the technology makes it easy to put the idea down. I’m off the leash basically and having a go.”

Talking tech

G-Force plugins (including ImpOScar above): “the dog’s bollocks”, says Neil

62 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

And talking of technology, let’s go onto the current Blancmange studio. “I write on two DAWs for Blancmange and Fader, before Benge gets involved, both Ableton and Logic,” Neil explains, before detailing his (long) DAW history. “I started way back with a

BBC Micro computer and used UMI [early sequencer] on that, like Vince did. Then I got an Atari and used Notator and then Emagic bought out Logic so I stayed with that. Then a number of years ago I started using Ableton, just to learn something else, and all the last album was done on Ableton and a lot of instrumental projects have been done with a cross between Ableton and the Akai MPC X. “I have a range of Roland Boutique synths, which are basically plugins with knobs,” he continues, moving over to his studio hardware. “I have the JP-08, JX-03 plus the JU-06, and I also have a Roland/Studio Electronics SE-02 analogue module. I use the Boutique range a lot, from when my son Joe and I started doing stuff. “Within the computer,” Neil adds, “I love G-Force plugins, each and every one of them. They are absolutely the dog’s bollocks. Unbelievable. My absolute favourites are Oddity 2 and ImpOScar. With Oddity 2 I know the original ARP synth but the VST is absolutely brilliant. The way you can manipulate it is wonderful. I also have the Arturia collection. What I really like is that sometimes I have the VST going and then at [super analogue synth collector] Benge’s studio, he gets the original synth down from a shelf and we replace it! “I use Arturia’s SparkLE drum machine,” he continues. “It’s very versatile and I also use the Waves plugin collection, particularly the API 550 EQs and their vocal stuff. I also sometimes just shove their one-knob filter thing on everything. And then there’s Audio Damage; I

blancmange / interview <

No laptops live, thanks “Last weekend I did my first Blancmange show in two years in Belgium,” Neil explains, clearly excited to be back ‘out there’ after the enforced Covid break. “We had to jump through hoops but we did it; there were three of us playing to 4,500 people. There was a power cut and it rained on stage but we still got through it and it was amazing!” And that gig will hopefully be the first of many, as Neil is preparing for a full Blancmange tour as we speak, although he will be wrestling with an on-stage Akaibased hardware rig, he says. ‘Why not just go down the laptop route?’ we helpfully (we think) suggest… “I don’t want to do that anymore. We had always used laptops for the bass part and the drums, but with Oogoo Maia, being a fantastic player, I thought we’d do this [non laptop route]. So we’re using two MPC Lives and Roland drum pads triggering from one so we have live drums too. I just wanted to get away from the laptop. I think most people are also a bit fed up with seeing laptops on stage so I wanted to do something a bit different.”

“We said ‘we’re going to do a cover of an ABBA song’ and Vince Clarke said that he would too!” use a couple of their things. I really like the Filterstation and their Rough Rider compressor. I also love Glitchmachines’ Fracture and the Korg MS20 synth.” We tell Neil about the latest Korg Collection (which we review on p66) complete with the PolySix and MonoPoly classic analogues. Did he use the real things back in the day? “I used to have an original Korg PolySix. I used to record a load of that into a Tascam 4-track! I don’t have anything [classic] anymore. It’s finances – I don’t have a big mansion! – and I had some stuff stolen.” As well as a more treated guitar sound, the new Blancmange album also has one or two recognisable synth patches. Is that a Yamaha CS-80 we can hear? A software version or one of Benge’s original synths? “I think it’s Benge’s. He also used a Jupiter-4 and a PolyMoog. Oh my god, getting that synth in tune was something!”

Back to Vince And finally we return full-circle to Vince Clarke. Neil obviously knew him from the Tenerife trip back in the 80s but we hear there might be a collaboration on the cards? “We really met back in ‘81 because of our involvement in [record producer and label owner] Stevo’s Some Bizarre album. [Ed’s note: a legendary compilation album which features early tracks from Depeche Mode, The The, Blancmange, Soft Cell and other massive bands.] “Stevo organised some gigs for the album and we did some of them together. I remember one gig he had organised at The Hope & Anchor in Islington where we headlined above Depeche Mode because they had to get the last train home! Then we went on tour with them a couple of times. “We kept in touch [with Vince] although I haven’t seen him for decades,” Neil continues, “but we’ve now been on touch and we’ve finished recording [a project]. Benge is involved in it as well which is fantastic. Vince was due to come over and we were booked in to mix it but it wasn’t feasible at the time. But we’ve all been exchanging files to get it done. “We’ve been working on it for… well we’ve been working on it since the late 70s I guess [laughs]!. It seems like a long time anyway. It’s an album of covers but I am not going to tell you what’s on it, although I can tell you one thing: there’s an ABBA cover on it!” Of course there is… “We had to do it didn’t we?”

Blancmange’s new album Commercial Break is out now. Neil and the band will be playing dates throughout October and November at various UK venues. Check out blancmange.co.uk for more information. There will be another tour next year and, of course, a lot more releases.

HEAR MORE

This A State (from Commercial Break) bit.ly/CM_state Living On The Ceiling bit.ly/CM_living

WWW

blancmange.co.uk soundcloud.com/blancmange-official twitter.com/_blancmange_ facebook.com/BlancmangeMusic

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 63

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reviews <

What the ratings mean 1-4 A seriously flawed product that should be avoided

66 KORG COLLECTION 3

The third incarnation of Korg’s vintage synth bundle adds three classics from three different decades (not the 80s though!)

This product’s problems outweigh its merits

A decent product that’s only held back by a few flaws

7 8

Solid. Well worth considering

Excellent. First-rate and among the best you can buy

Exceptional. It just doesn’t get any better than this!

Very good. A well-conceived and executed product

68 Spitfire Audio Hammers

70 Softube Model 84

72 Avid Sibelius For Mobile

73 Minimal Audio Rift

74 Torso Electronics TC-1

75 UVI Super-7

76 Cinesamples O: Forbes Pipe Organ

78 Soundware reviews

Awarded to products that challenge existing ideas and do something entirely new

A product has to really impress us with its functionality and features to win this one

If the product exceeds expectations for its price, it will receive this gong

In the opinion of the Editor, the best product reviewed in the magazine this month

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 65

> reviews / korg collection 3 GUI The miniKORG 700s had an usual design. See it here in 2 or 3D

TRAVELER/FILTER What you’ll recognise as the filter is called Traveler for high and low frequencies

CONTROLS Most of the controls are beneath the keyboard, allowing you to put your sheet music on top!

SCALE & MODE Really just the names for transpose and oscillator type PROPHECY EXTRAS Just the top two sections of this UI are from the original synth

LOADS OF SOUNDS Select from 4,000 presets in Triton Extreme here TABS MAKE IT EASY The huge engine of Triton Extreme is nicely set out in tabs so you can select each one EVEN EASIER An Easy Mode tab just reveals the most important parameters

EDITOR’S CHOICE

ALL ON DISPLAY You get just a couple of parameters within each main section to tweak

DUAL ACTION RIBBON The original touch strip/mod wheel is replicated but might make you miss the hardware

ALL NEW Detail means you can really go to town on your sound

Korg

Collection 3 $399 Korg’s Collection is updated with three classics from three different eras: the 70s, 90s and 2000s. They didn’t get the 80s Special memo, then… It’s our 80s Special issue and you’ll note quite a few emulations of some classic synths from that era in this month’s reviews section. An update to Korg’s mighty Collection, filled as it is with emulations of the company’s classic synths, might well have been the best way to open this festival of 80s goodness. However, as 80s-based as the core of the Collection is, this latest v3 update adds three Korg synths from the 70s, 90s and 2000s – anything but the 80s then! Before we get into the new (old) three additions, just a quick recap. Collection is actually an update to one of the oldest sets of softsynths ever, the Korg Legacy Collection, released back in 2004, then comprising the Korg MS-20, Polysix and Wavestation. We heaped a 10/10 on that in issue 73, and since then there have been several variations, notably the Digital edition (with the Wavestation, the M1 and the MDE-X effects) and Analog Edition (with the Polysix, MS-20 and Mono/Poly). 66 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

Eventually and thankfully – it was a bit confusing – the whole lot were put together into Korg’s Collection version 1, featuring the five synths and effect plus the fantastic ARP Odyssey emulation (Korg had produced the ARP hardware by this point). The Triton was added for Collection v2 and now this latest Collection 3, adds a miniKORG-700S, Korg Prophecy and Triton Extreme. This means you now get 10 synths plus the MDE-X effects for $399, a

“$399 for the bundle is a significant saving over buying them individually”

significant saving over buying them individually (as they are each priced between $99 and $249). So let’s have a look at the latest additions.

70s and beyond First up, you get one of the earliest Korg instruments, oft called the company’s first synth, the miniKORG-700s. This curious device had controls for its 2 x VCO/VCF monophonic engine below the keyboard and to the left, and the software emulation allows you to switch between a 2D and 2D view to get access to them. Korg didn’t label their synth controls with the familiar names we now know them by – this was early days after all – so you get a Traveler (sic) controller for the hi- and lo-pass filters and Expand for the envelope. As with all Korg softsynths it uses Korg’s CMT (Component Modeling Technology) to accurately emulate the original synth, with 150 presets covering a wide variety of timbres. You

korg collection 3 / reviews <

“Other sounds bring a tear to our eye, wondering where that quarter of a century has gone…” get classic synths leads, plucks and basses with more modern, programmed pads, motion sounds and complex arp sounds, many of which are bolstered with modern flourishes like the effects (see right). Next up we have one of our favourite 90s synths, the Korg Prophecy. This arrived as dance music was at something of a peak, and offered not only hands-on, real-time 303 bassy sounds but a whole lot of real instruments, all given life and lustre thanks to a unique (for then) touch strip modulation bar that allowed you to add a dose of any controller to any sound. It was a mono synth and quite weird in that it straddled so many sounds and styles, but we loved it. Here it is recreated in all of its glory, guts and all. You get to see right inside its MOSS (MultiOscillator Synthesis System) architecture and reminisce in those preset sounds. The pros are that you get polyphony and to see much of the guts of Prophecy on screen, only achieved with the original if you surfed down through layers of menus. This opens up its sound design possibilities and if you didn’t know this from using the original hardware, you’ll soon realise what a flexible beast it was. However, negatives are that the original hardware really did invite lots of hands-on modulation action – tweaking, sliding and bending that modulation strip – and unless you have a decent hardware controller, you won’t easily recreate much of the fun of the original. Still the sounds are spot on, many still surprisingly relevant and many others bringing a tear to our eyes wondering where that quarter of a century has gone! Finally we get the Korg Triton Extreme, a 2004 synth that Korg describe as ‘the vacuum tube-equipped high point’ of the Triton range. And it’s exactly that. The original featured just about everything that was ever thrown at the Triton range, a synth that already had just about anything your could throw into a synth! Launched at the end of the 20th century, it was one of those famous Korg workstations that had every sound you could think of, effects,

Extra character options in Extreme for sound filtering

Modern extras include the ability to show miniKORG in 2D; so much more like a modern synth

21st century extras Korg’s CMT standard is really used to full effect here to recreate the sounds of the original synths in exacting detail, but as good as that is, it’s the modern flourishes and additions that make Collection 3 a relevant set of synths for the modern producer. The plugin pedal effects on miniKORG, for example, really do add necessary dirt and dynamics, and the 2D top-down view plus three screen size options make it a welcome UI for contemporary softsynth users. With Triton Extreme, the modern twists are there for other reasons: to

arpeggiator, sequencing, sampling, kitchen sink… The Extreme features extra sound packs and that vacuum tube Valve Force circuitry, something Korg championed at the time to give their synths a more rounded analogue sound. Here you literally get all of those sounds and features in software but also a clever filter system and tabs to access sounds and features. It’s much easier to use than it really should be given the scope of the original, and top marks to the Korg designers for making it work so well.

Is it a hat-trick?

Overall, then, you really do get a great crosssection of synth technology in the v3 update, from the quirky 70s, through to the equally odd but beautifully controllable Prophecy right up to the do-it-all and know-it-all Triton. That’s pretty much all you need synthwise in just the three update synths, then, making this easily the most significant update to Korg’s Collection, Legacy or otherwise, since launch. And that means the best value too. You can buy the instruments individually, but, honestly, we’d recommend going for the lot if funds allow, as it makes so much more financial sense. Collection 3 is a serious contender for your cash and offers the best of all eras. Fabulous. Web korg.com

make this monster synth easy to deal with! You get an ‘Easy’ mode that just has the main parameters on screen, and the (literally) thousands of presets can be navigated by type or character (Bright, Dark, Acoustic, Electric and so on). The old sequencer has been removed, though – you can do all that in your DAW – but the original dual polyphonic arpeggiator is there along with 307 patterns to aid songwriting. Finally, Prophecy has polyphony and more on display to allow for more scope for experimentation, something you can say about all three plugins.

Alternatively Arturia V Collection 8 292 » 9/10 » €599 The original synth collection covers just about every other synth – great value for what you get IK Multimedia Syntronik 249 » 8/10 » €299 Another set of 17 non Korgs that could complete your classic synth collection for decent cash

Verdict For Good value considering… Fantastic reproduction of synths covering four decades Love the easy side of Extreme Surprisingly modern sounds from mini Against Original Prophecy owners will miss the hardware touch strip The biggest and best update to Korg Collection makes it more of a bargain bundle and great way to buy classic Korgs

9/10 November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 67

> reviews / spitfire audio hammers RAM and CPU loading info

Onboard reverb selection

Assignable ‘knob’ for real-time effects Knob assignment selection menu

Instrument menu for sound selection

Activate articulation, mic signal and effects menus

Real-time volume and expression controls

Sync those impressive grooves to your DAW Articulation menu with key switching

Round Robin settings can be imposed Keyboard offers hints of instrument mapping

Spitfire Audio

Hammers

£249

In a new collaboration between Saw composer Charlie Clouser and Spitfire Audio, percussion has never sounded so brutal Creating drums sounds for cinematic textures requires great drum samples, with a heavy layer of signal processing. This is where Spitfire’s latest product could take the hard work out of your next project, with these unique hits and loops, driven to brutal distraction.

Sawing Nails!

Charlie Clouser is a Hollywood composer best known for the angsty scores which accompany the Saw film franchise. He started musical life as a drummer, before becoming a keyboard player and programmer with the band Nine Inch Nails. Also known for their processed and dark musical tendencies, his simmering pot of stylistic percussion-based sound design led Spitfire Audio to his door, with a view to creating a software instrument to host percussion sounds for the current and next generation of cinematic composers. 68 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

Hammer flow

Hammers is based around Spitfire’s very own virtual instrument, in a format that has become familiar. Instrument selection occurs at the very top, while realtime controls default to the upper part of the instrument GUI, where two familiar faders control expression and timbral/dynamic volume. The now-familiar Spitfire ‘knob’ can be

“Clouser’s simmering pot of stylistic percussion-based sound design led Spitfire to his door”

assigned to one of five control elements, reverberation, low-pass filter, reverse, compression and normalise, although not all are available with all instruments. This section also allows the user to see what’s occurring with articulation options, which may also be automated via key-press. There’s also access to the numerous mic or bounced signals, for greater control of your initial sound construct. Spitfire have generated great overall stereo mixes, great for anyone running low on RAM; the more signal paths you load at once, the greater the RAM demands. The Spitfire player often invites a conversation, in much the same way that Marmite flavoured crisps do. The player window is scalable, with an ability to hide or show controls. It’s not generally a problem if working with a desktop screen, but it could easily eat up a laptop’s screen space.

spitfire audio hammers / reviews <

“The Spitfire player invites a conversation, in much the same way that Marmite-flavoured crisps do” Initial instruments

While Hammers is exclusively percussion-based, there is great diversity in content colour. The start point for the library is the initial recording of eight different drums or instrument types. These begin with bass drums and surdos, rising through the pitched ranks to toms, roto-toms, darbukas and frame drums. Snare drums and even a section titled Scrap Metal round it off. The basic level of sample, of which there are 118,744, begins with individual hits and strikes. These include articulations of single hits, flams, ruffs and rolls. The default Ensemble patch is useful for loading a clean opening set, should you wish to trigger and program the sounds yourself. It actually makes an ideal place to begin building a groove, which is interestingly the way that Clouser likes to begin his own scoring work. By having access to so many instruments simultaneously, it bypasses one of the criticisms often levelled at Spitfire’s door: the lack of multi-timbral operation within their own plugin. Granted, you won’t be able to mix and match the articulations in this Ensemble setting, but you can at least get going, and with some clever programming, get around many issues. For even greater control, loading individual drum instruments is an ideal route, at which stage you have access to solo hits, or hits with multiple players. Each drum gets different articulations; some use just sticks, while many use brushes, or indicate where the drum is being struck. The darbuka is an excellent case in point. Originating from Egypt and Turkey, it provides a pleasant blend of high frequency slap from the skin/head, with plenty of hi-mid content from the body of the drum. The timbre shifts according to the strength of the strike, and location of hit, and with so many hits on offer, building a beautiful groove with a little help from your DAW feels very easy, intuitive and creative. There is a 2-player option here too, beautifully imaged across the stereo image.

Get Real Building a real-time drum groove can be a tricky business for anyone who doesn’t have an understanding of how grooves can support thematic or harmonic material. It’s one of the reasons that loop libraries can be so appealing and useful, not to mention time saving. Building up a complete groove using Hammers is a very desirable and enjoyable musical pursuit, but it can take time to get something coherent and believable, if building your own rhythmic passages. Hammers arguably takes the hard work out of the process, thanks to the looped content, which can be nicely mixed and matched, to

Warped!

Accompanying the individual hits is a compendium of live loops, all played and constructed by Clouser, with two further session players. The loops are inspiring, inviting the user to explore the realtime controls for driving energy, or upping the feel with effects. For more acoustic work, these loops are a real boon, and can easily be treated within the DAW, in order to create darker colours, much like the sounds that Charlie Clouser is renowned for. However, if you lack confidence in this pursuit, Hammers comes quickly to your aid, with a large collection of Warped loops, which take on that Clouser identity. These exude cinematic colour, providing the perfect backdrop for an energetic or pounding track.

Hammered!

Hammers is a great collection of drum and percussion sounds, offering single articulations and some excellent looped content. It is limited in overall percussive colour, but offers a unique and distinguished palette which is more leftfield. What you do get is an excellent package of great sounds, but we feel that you’ll extend the life cycle of Hammers by placing it alongside other percussion or drum packages. Clouser gets closer to the intricacies of drum recording than most. Sorry.

Web spitfireaudio.com

suit your purposes. If you’re trying to create a sense of build and progression using Hammers, the real-time control elements are invaluable. The ability to close-off the filter, limiting Hammers to its low end content, creates another quick and effective route to builds. Use alongside a third-party filter, which offers control of resonance, and it’s possible to create even more tension. This can also be an excellent way of masking any inferiority which you may or may not have in your own groove programming. Smoke and mirrors are always helpful bedfellows in production where the Holy Grail is a believable human facsimile.

Alternatively Sonivox Big Bang Cinematic 170 » 7/10 » $199 Brimming with huge wallops, perfect for your cinematic tracks OT Tom Holkenborg’s Percussion 299 » 8/10 » €299 Great sounding drums includes plenty of big drums, including marching band-style ensembles

Verdict For Great sounding samples Distinctive cinematic percussion palette Looped content is highly effective Warped section gives instant intensity Real-time control elements are a boon Against Limited selection of percussion sounds Loop section could be more substantial Hammers offers an excellent selection of percussion samples which are a great extension of the more usual kit-based components found elsewhere

8/10 November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 69

> reviews / softube model 84

Assignable LFO, for PWM, filter and pitch modulation

The DCOs offer Saw and Square/Pulse

The legendary 106 sub-oscillator, equipped with volume fader

White Noise, for percussive sounds and more

Beautiful 24dB filter, with exacting self oscillation capability

The beautifully beaten up and gigged fascia panel of the Model 84

Super-clean chorus

Polyphonic portamento time

Voice modes, for different polyoperation and huge Unison stacks

Classic Roland-style 4-stage envelope

The HPF is repurposed to a boost/ cut EQ

Softube

Model 84

€159

As another software rebirth of a vintage classic from 1984 arrives, Softube delves into Greek mythology (via Japan) for inspiration Back in the 80s, Roland had the good sense to do a really smart thing. The late 70s polysynth behemoths, which in many cases required hair of a similar magnitude, were big, bloated and expensive. This provoked a reaction from Roland to produce a more affordable polysynth, in part thanks to the shrinking of electronic components, that made a sensible price point more obtainable. And so the path was laid for the future classics from the Juno Series. With reference to Greek mythology, Juno was the wife of Jupiter, better known among mere synth-mortals as the flagship synthesisers in the Roland range. Anyway, Roland created the Juno 6; a six-note polyphonic synth, now recognised as a vintage classic. Within a matter of months, the Juno 60 appeared. In essence, this was the same synth but with added patch memories and a connectivity format called DCB (Digital Communication Buss) which allowed easy connection to Roland sequencers et al.

70 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

Analogue issues aside

Those earlier Junos sounded rich and deep, in part thanks to the rather noisy chorus circuit, placed on the backend of the signal. The premise being that with only one oscillator per voice on board, the chorus would help thicken the sound, and so it did!

“Roland went to huge efforts to prove that the analogue stylings of the 106 could compete with the DX7”

Fast-forward, then, to 1984, and the third coming of the Juno arrived in the shape of the 106. Gone were the wooden end-cheeks, arpeggiator and DCB. In came portamento (glide) and a new protocol called MIDI, in one of its first fully-fitted deployments. At the time, Roland was going to quite considerable efforts to try and prove that the analogue stylings of the 106 could compete with the new great pretender from Yamaha, called the DX7. Hence the sound of the 106 was tighter, sharper and crisper. The argument about which Juno sounds better is one that we’ll save for another day, but it is nevertheless significant that the 106 has its notable fans, for punchy synth lines and weighty basses, within the commercial and production psyche today. This might explain why Softube have zoned their 24k magic on the 106, in much the same way that the recently applauded Model 72 provides a MiniMoog re-born.

softube model 84 / reviews <

“sounds über cool, with the DCOs presenting an almost perfect match to the original harmonic makeup” DCO/VCO - boogie with a suitcase!

The fashionable architecture of the Juno is carried forward to the Model 84, through a familiar fascia. With reverence to most second hand originals, the paint work appears chipped and scratched, with a couple of lumps taken out of the rear edge, presumably where it’s been slammed up against its ‘virtual’ X-frame keyboard stand. It looks really cool and engaging, but more importantly it sounds über cool, with the DCOs presenting an almost perfect match to the original harmonic makeup. The early Juno synth range used a form of oscillator which was overtly analogue, but placed under digital control. Hence they were known as DCOs (rather than VCOs), producing more reliable tuning stability, unlike the synth cousins from some years earlier. As this is a virtual facsimile, Softube have sought to follow through the 106 thread, with buttons allowing the activation of the fundamental saw and square waves. There is no volume control for either, but there is a fader to control the sub-oscillator volume. This is pretty essential, as the sub can quickly obscure the fundamental, while associated with more polyphonic patching. Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is applied to the square/pulse wave, either through manual control to LFO modulation. The earlier Junos also allowed for envelope control of PWM, and while it’s easy to get dragged along with the attention to 106 detail, that’s one addition that would’ve been a welcome reintroduction for the Model 84, although Softube have implemented an additional control panel, which springs open from the right of the window, allowing PWM control via velocity and aftertouch.

Filters and Envelopes

The filter, being a 4-pole design, sounds incredibly exacting. Softube have even recreated the obvious stepping, exaggerated in self oscillation, which was a recognisable trait for the 106. The resultant sine sounds incredibly accurate, compared to the original. Softube have slightly repurposed the High-pass filter, changing it by way of description to EQ. It offers two levels of high pass filtering along with a bass boost, which is handy when using the Unison mode, which stacks all six voices for a great bass texture. It’s also possible to detune these, using a fader from the ‘spring-out’ control panel. Juno envelopes were never the strongest designs on the originals. They were useable enough, but never the snappiest, and this transcends to the Model 84. If we’re honest, the shape and behaviour feels less convincing here, with extended phases too. This isn’t going to

Tactility is the name of the game with Softube products

Gaining control One oddity with Softube softsynths is the lack of stand-alone operation. It’s sometimes quite nice to load up a synth on-screen and get lost in playing, rather than getting bogged down with the DAW. However, Softube have made the process of assigning a MIDI CC to a plugin fader very easy, so much so, it invites the user to get extremely hands on with a suitable hardware controller. You could also employ one of the many assignable MIDI controllers for iPads/ tablets, building a template with the

impact hugely on usability, and wouldn’t be noticeable unless placed in direct line against an original, but it’s worth noting for purity.

The final output

One crucial element of the Juno’s architecture is the chorus, which unlike the original is clean, effective and displays enormous reverence to the original. For just about all purposes, the Model 84 sounds just like a 106, with all of the associated conveniences of a plugin, such as the ability to easily apply a hardware MIDI CC controller to a pot or fader, allowing simple editing within the DAW, either on-the-fly, or under DAW control. Sonically it delivers well, but it does feel like a slightly missed opportunity which invites the return of certain much-missed elements or enhancements; envelope control of PWM, an arpeggiator, and while we’re on this thread, access to a second envelope would have been nice too, along with the ability to extend the voice count beyond six. Don’t get us wrong, it’s a great sounding synth and a huge bargain against a hardware original, but we’re nearly 40 years on, and extra bells and whistles would go a long way to enhancing the DAW-based Juno experience. Web softube.com

relevant MIDI CCs, for a more Juno-istic experience. Of course, this moves immediately into focus when hooked in with your DAW, as is Softube’s intention, where the ability to control all elements in realtime bring the Model 84 to life. It’s so easy to introduce a filter swell or increase amounts of PWM, as your track builds, that it could really set apart your sound. Let’s face it, this is a Juno 106 in plugin form, and the only person who’ll know that it’s not a real Juno is you!

Alternatively Roland Juno 106 $149 (or as part of Roland Cloud) Truly authentic emulation, with some tasty enhancements Arturia Juno 6v €199 Close to the original Juno 6, but with added patch capability and other modernising enhancements

Verdict For Cool-sounding facsimile The GUI is really inviting Great emphasis placed on accuracy The Chorus is nice and clean EQ Bass boost does the job brilliantly! Against Lacking embellishments No standalone version This is a great clone of the original Juno 106, which sounds relatively authentic, but it’s a shame that enhancements weren’t incorporated to breathe new life in

8/10

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 71

> reviews / avid sibelius for ipad/ios

Avid

Sibelius for iPad/iOS Free or from $6.99 month

iOS

72 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

Web avid.com Info Subscription from free/$6.99/$12.99/

Verdict For Very attractive subscription pricing Ideal entry for score work Great integration with desktop version Very usable sound-set

9/10

minimal audio rift / reviews <

Minimal Audio Rift €129 If you’re looking for some inspiration, then this new distortion plugin from Minimal Audio could well be one of the best places to start Rift (AU, VST, VST3) is a new distortion plugin from Minimal Audio and alongside Rift Filter Lite (based on the filter section from Rift) forms the first pair of plugins released by this fledgling developer. We’ve seen plenty of distortion plugins before and these range from classic hardware emulations to more complex multiple stage affairs. Rift falls into the latter category, and its main distortion section is supplemented by various other modules including filter, feedback/delay, and modulation. Nevertheless, although its hybrid topology is important, where Rift moves into slightly different territory is within the distortion module itself. Here you get control over the intensity of the effect via Drive and a choice of distortion stages (between 1 and 6), and significantly you also get independent control over both the Positive (top) and Negative (bottom) portions of the waveform. Further parameters adjust the Positive/ Negative split point (Blend) and how the two waveforms are combined (Mode). Minimal call this technique multipolar and it’s pretty good at creating unusual asymmetric distortion effects. What’s more, with 30 distortion algorithms to choose from, including waveshaping, wavefolding, noise generators, and bit and sample rate reducers, you’ve got a massive palette of core processing tools. Rift then ups the game further with two macro controls and a powerful 4-part modulation section which

includes LFO, Envelope Follower and two userdefinable Curve modulators (see below). Rift has two main views and launches in the more basic Play View. From here you select your two distortion algorithms (positive/negative), adjust key settings such as depth, Blend, Drive and Wet/Dry mix, and use the two Macro knobs. You can also switch the display between the Scope view, which shows the distortion curve and final output curve, and the Filter curve view. Switch to Advanced View and you’ll see all the individual processing modules with their corresponding displays. Nifty features here include a Morphing Filter with 24 filter types, a Morph knob for quick changes to the filter shape and stereo Spread control. Meanwhile the Feedback section can deliver timed delays, or via the Tuned and Pitch Snap option, some excellent pitched resonator effects. Rounding things off are various stereo options including processing just the mid or sides elements. Unsurprisingly Rift can produce a massive range of seductive tones. The 400 or so presets include not only a good choice of basic distortions, but also filter, delay, flanger and resonator patches, showcasing these additional modules. Even so, these only really scratch the surface of what Rift is capable of, and you’ll also find instrument-specific folders that cover drums, bass, synths, pads, vocals, special effects and of course guitar amps. Many of these are

complex multi-effects with deep modulation, providing not only an extensive palette of ready made sounds but also a lesson in what Rift can achieve. We particularly like the more whacky rhythmic effect patches and complex beat processors. But there are also lots of more spaced-out effects ideal for adding texture to synths and guitars. Indeed Rift has so much going on that at times it’s easy to forget the underlying processor is a distortion. We love Rift and although it’s not cheap, it’s an impressively creative plugin that will help you deliver awesome effects with ease. Web minimal.audio

Alternatively iZotope Trash 2 187 » 9/10 » £86 Dual-stage multiband distortion coupled with filter, delay, dynamics and bipolar options FabFilter Saturn 2 179 » 10/10 » £114 Interactive multiband display, modulation options and 28 distortion styles: a must try effect

Verdict Modulation Modulation is a key aspect of Rift and easy to set up. As stated, you have four modulation options and two Macros and for all six you simply drag and drop the respective icon from the source onto your chosen destination parameter. Each modulator is colour-coded and once assigned you’ll see a coloured semicircle next to the target. Modulation depth is then adjusted by dragging over the semicircle and a corresponding colour-coded line will appear around the target control.

Any knob or slider can be modulated by up to four modulators and you can specify modulation depth, bipolar or unipolar behaviour and even add a second modulator to modulate the depth of the first. Powerful stuff. However, this is further enhanced by the excellent modulators and in particular the two user definable Curve options. Here, an advanced window provides in-depth stepstyle editing with preconfigured shape tools and an impressive bunch of presets.

For Flexible bipolar distortion architecture Further processing via Feedback and Filter modules Well implemented, powerful modulation Excellent preset library Against None An excellent distortion and effects processor: both subtle and transformative. One of the best distortions we’ve used

10/10 November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 73

> reviews / torso electronics t-1 algorithmic sequencer

Torso Electronics

T-1 Algorithmic Sequencer €525 We find out what makes this sturdy piece of hardware Euclidean-ly (is that an acceptable adjective?) tick The Torso Electronics T-1 is a new sequencer that takes its place alongside the Arturia Beatstep, the Korg SQ-64, and others, proving beyond doubt: hardware sequencing is back! It features 16 banks, each containing 16 patterns, and each pattern has 16 polyphonic tracks, fair enough, but what makes it unique is the inclusion of Euclidean rhythms, which involve notes or other events automatically being distributed along a sequence’s steps. The box contains the T-1, a MIDI adapter, and a USB-C cable; go online for a manual, firmware updates, and the T-1 Config software. Being made out of aluminium, the T-1 is pleasantly chunky, at 850g, and features 23 backlit pads, 18 knobs, and at the back, 11 mini jacks relating to CV/gate/sync, three for MIDI (in/out/thru), and a USB-C port. Use the USB cable to connect to your computer, and open your DAW (we’re using Ableton Live 11). We direct MIDI tracks from the T-1 to separate MIDI inputs in Live – targeting instruments and drum racks on different channels. Sequencing commences by using the T-1’s knobs in conjunction with the pads – or ‘value buttons’ as they’re known here. Set a number of steps, add some pulses (events, typically notes), and use the other controls to introduce a desired level of randomisation to the proceedings. Sequencing functions include note divisions, chords, scales, and a rather cool temp button (not to be

confused with the Tempo knob) – press and hold this, while moving knobs to make temporary parameter changes, which are then undone once you release the button – very neat for live performance, where you can go off on one, jumping back to your defaults at any time. It’s the Euclidean rhythms that make the T-1 unique – those buzzword-y critters are running all the time. The Steps knob and buttons set the length of the cycle, then the Pulses knob enters notes along the steps – press and hold the knob as you turn it to see the pulses appear. This is an ideal visualisation of how Euclidean rhythms work – the pulses light up orange and reposition themselves as you turn the knob. There’s also the Rotate control, which offsets the start position of the cycle. Sequencing isn’t just about notes, however; any parameter can be sequenced, and up to 16 Euclidean cycles can be chained, and will play one after the other, provide even more development over time. In the real world, the Euclidean concept needn’t bother you too much – it’s an effective way to get new and evolving patterns from your hardware and software, that’s what matters. We then connected the T-1 to the Polyend Tracker, a hardware that relies on retro list-based sequencing. We used the T-1 to trigger samples within the Tracker, wherein the Tracker simultaneously plays back other sequenced material. If other items in your setup support it, the T-1 features Ableton Link over WiFi.

Euclidean rhythms and what they can do for you The T-1 functions as a typical hardware sequencer at one level – using pads and knobs to sequence parameters like note length, velocity, accents, repeats, and so on. It has 16 polyphonic tracks per pattern, and each is set to a different length. This is good so far, but the stand-out feature for the T-1 is the use of Euclidean rhythms. An Euclidean rhythm is different from say, a normal 4/4 74 / COMPUTER MUSIC November 2021

kick drum pattern. The starting point is similar, a cycle that occurs over a certain number of steps. But what happens with Euclidean rhythms is that any number of notes are spread as evenly as possible across that number of steps, be they odd or even numbers. By altering the number of notes and steps, and position of the cycle, virtually any type of rhythm can be created.

The T-1 is a highly creative instrument, and there were several occasions when we’d quickly hit record in Ableton Live to capture parts for later use. The T-1 is very adaptable, working great with software, syncing via Ableton Link, and music hardware via MIDI or CV – it’ll be welcome in pretty much any rig. Web torsoelectronics.com

Alternatively Arturia Beatstep Pro 222 » 9/10 » €299 Includes two independent melodic sequencers and a drum sequencer, randomisation, and a MIDI controller mode Korg SQ-64 £269 Three melody tracks, a drum track, and connections for MIDI, USB, Sync, and includes an arpeggiator

Verdict For Euclidean algorithm for more sequencing options Sturdy aluminium housing for live use Intuitive design, great hands-on feel Connectivity for MIDI, CV, computer Wireless Ableton Link synchronisation Against Sequencer-only, no MIDI control options The price will deter some folks The T-1’s Euclidean rhythms make it a powerful sequencing machine, but we’d like some MIDI controller functionality too

9/10

uvi super-7 / reviews <

UVI

Super-7

€79

What happens if you weave a karaoke classic into a programmable sample-based instrument? The results from UVI will be Super! Karaoke is something of a national pastime in Japan, and while other parts of the world may not share the fascination for public vocal humiliation to the same degree (although X-Factor comes close) it never prevented Roland from trying to bring a little bit of that magic into a domestic setting. Enter one such device, which harks back to the mid-80s. The MKS-7, also branded the Super Quartet, was a desktop and rack-mounted band-in-a-box, designed to bring karaoke to a living room near you.

Preset classics The MKS-7 was a preset device, split into four sections providing bass, chords (synth), melody (lead) and drums. As it was preset, editing was severely limited. This was a colossal shame as the synth engine was borrowed from the Juno 106, while the drum sounds were similarly repurposed from the TR-707. Shortly after release, the MKS-7 completely bombed in price, leaving it to the tech-savvy to infiltrate the MKS-7 with SysEx editors, allowing control of the onboard sound sources. Thankfully, UVI have an extensive and highly enviable track record in sampling modules of this kind, which they have undertaken with their usual panache and detail. Running within their reliable, and freely available Workstation player (or Falcon 2 synth), the Super-7 is split into four segments, like the original.

Beginning with the drum section, UVI have included the 707 complement, but also added CR-78, 606, 626, 808 and 909 samples. Also included are elements from their excellent Drum Designer suite. It’s worth celebrating what we have here; the 707 has become a cult classic, with a sampled sound more akin to a Linn Drum, with additional representations from the everanalogue elements of the 808/909. Moreover, these UVI sounds are production ready, with solid weight and spirit. Simply fantastic. Somewhat regrettably, there is no drum pattern editor, but you can trigger preset patterns, while also triggering individual sounds from within your DAW. It’s also a simple procedure to export the patterns as MIDI files, for dropping into the DAW and programming potential.

Going Juno! Over in 106-land, preset sounds are split between the Bass, Melody and Synth sections. While there’s similarity between these areas, the distinction is apparent through the preset content and its access to polyphonic operation. The bass sounds benefit from that beautifully familiar 106 depth, and while there are a smattering of presets, UVI have sampled a huge number of 106 waveforms, combining Saw, Square, a sum of both and the sub. These are great startpoints for user patches, alongside the section’s arpeggiator. Meanwhile, the fantastic

Sampled Programmability While the original Super Quartet was a preset machine, armed with the right SysEx tools and software, you could mangle the internal sounds. This allowed for the presets to be repurposed to suit production, rather than dictating it. This role reversal is where the Super-7 scores high, though do note the context. UVI instruments are sample-based and not modelled. Consequently, Super-7 shows an extensive set of pros and cons; the sound you hear is the real-deal, straight from

an original machine, so you cannot argue whether it sounds like an original or notl! UVI have extensive skills in this arena, with some of the best sounding softsynth facsimiles around. However, they have also taken matters to the next level, with dual envelope control, real-time arpeggiations, effects and more. This means you have a large amount of programmability, albeit complete with a filter which is functional, rather than modelled, but it does do a highly convincing job.

overdrive and equalisation sections shore up those UVI production-ready principals. Let’s applaud UVI; the Super Quartet was a mostly-failed box with great charm. UVI have captured this spirit, providing multi-layeredpresets for an instant 80s karaoke soundtrack, with a single note trigger. The Super-7 gives all the 106-style samples from the ground up, with an additional multimode filter, which provides a versatile colour as an addition to the sampled content. Add extensive effects, two envelopes and tons of programmable options and this is a nifty way to get a 106 and 707. Web uvi.net

Alternatively Roland Juno 106 $149 (or part of Roland Cloud) This modelled alternative from Roland is one of the best in its class Softube Model 84 301 » 8/10 » €159 Complete with a semi-battered casing graphic, this is modelled to a very exacting specification

Verdict For Charming representation of an unloved classic Superb, production-ready sounds Laden with Juno-106 content The drum section is very comprehensive A bargain, given the amount of content Against No on-board drum sequencing included Sample based, not modelled Re-explores the wealth of sonic weight provided by its Juno and 707 counterpart, with many substantial benefits

9/10 November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 75

> reviews / cinesamples o: forbes pipe organ

Cinesamples

O: Forbes Pipe Organ $149 Cinesamples’ latest Kontakt instrument captures the majesty of the mighty pipe organ, placing the big O right at your fingertips Pipe organs vary incredibly in size, from modest chamber organs, to the enormous size of the magnificent instruments located at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, using hundreds or even thousands of pipes to create the most extraordinary symphonic texture.

Forbes ahead! Through their endeavours to capture the most perfect specimen, Cinesamples travelled to the Harold Miossi Hall, in San Luis Obispo, California. It was installed by volunteers back in 2006, with 2,767 handmade organ pipes, ranging from comparatively small in size, to a whopping 32’. This library is simply called ‘O’ and upon opening the instrument for the first time, the first chord you play might yield more of a ‘woah’. It sounds utterly amazing and truly stunning, but digging deeper reveals many useful facets. Most traditional pipe organs offer more than one keyboard, referred to as Manuals. With so many pipes in an organ, there’s an incredible amount of colour and diversity available, the concept being that these configurations, known as registrations, are assigned to a Manual. The pedal board is also fashioned as a keyboard, and is used to play bass notes, by the organist’s feet. As the pipes are individually categorised, it’s easy to address each section on the Kontakt instrument, while playing from a single keyboard. Moreover, thanks to the Kontakt form,

it’s simple to assign a MIDI CC to a section, providing instant realtime control of the volume of each element, as an organist would. The main pipe section is split into sections labelled Swell, Positive and Great, as you would find on a regular pipe organ. Within each of these sections, Cinesamples have taken great care to capture the incredible nuance of the original instrument, ranging from the relatively quiet and sonorous, through to the loud and harmonically rich. In this regard, it’s not dissimilar to additive synthesis, but it’s truly organic (in sampled form), with the odd moment of subtle detuning, adding to the overall realism. One trick is the sheer floor-shaking definition of the lower register. Normally associated with the organ’s pedals, the instrument’s section labelled Pedal sounds beautiful, with tones from very pure to raspy being available instantly. The real secret weapon in the armoury is the Contra 32 section, which literally shakes the room, with depth and majesty. The sample capture here is staggeringly realistic.

The overall effect Apart from the incredibly detailed realism, O is equipped with plenty of extras, that can transport it out of its church-like domain. With basic envelope control, resonant low-pass filter, EQ, reverb, delay and more, the harmonically rich front-end is perfect for making inspiring

Added realism O supplies a very realistic organ experience, with huge immediacy. Where many real-life pipe organs deliver a subtle delay between note trigger and sound (due to their huge bellow or blower based mechanism) that latency does not exist here, but it could be engineered easily from within a DAW, if required. Keeping with the realism, Cinesamples have captured the silent-sound and atmosphere of the auditorium, which can be applied for added authenticity, at a 76 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

suitable volume for your production. This is invaluable if you’re trying to create some form of traditional organ-like setting. Further realism can be created through the use of MIDI mapping, assigning each pipe section to its own MIDI channel. This means you can trigger each of the organ’s sections, through its own track in your DAW, creating layers just like a live organist. As a complete package to create a pipe organ facsimile, O is incredibly impressive, with amazing levels of realism.

textures, or other more commercial organistic patches. Cinesamples provide an enormous variety of preset content, but the interface supplies plenty of scope to get creative. Purchasing a pipe organ library may not be uppermost in many people’s minds. If you’re in need of great organ samples, though, this package is most definitely worthy, but with an attractive price point, it’s also worthy of much greater exploration, for sacred and commercial sounds. It’s more than just an organ with O-ppeal, it’s a very creative sonic palette for exploring unconventional avenues. Web cinesamples.com

Alternatively Spitfire Audio Symphonic Organ £199 The organ at Rugby School Chapel stunningly sampled Modartt Organteq €249 A highly regarded library, but works as a standalone plugin, not within the Kontakt form

Verdict For Exceptionally realistic Instant access to varied pipe colours Considerable MIDI control available for enhancing realism Perfect tool for facsimile work or for sound creation The price makes it incredibly attractive Against Nothing that we can think of O really is a versatile and realistic pipe organ library, with scope to go way beyond the contextually obvious

10/10

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Tips and techniques to help you create your own sound

> reviews / mini reviews

Soundware round-up Mode Audio

Alteration – Prepared Piano Samples £11.20 Your boy John Cage (the dude that released that banging track of silence) was a massive fan of messing with his piano. He’d bung erasers in the strings, and slide old keys across ‘em. Great stuff, and a classic way to spin people out. In that vein, the Mode Audio sound wanglers have cracked open the lid of their baby grand, too – and presented their findings as 16 sampler kits, and three channel strip effects patches for your DAW o’ choice. Off the scales!

modeaudio.com n8/10n

Mode Audio

Plasma – Granular Texture Samples £14

Minimal Audio

Emerge $49 Sumptuous sound designs abound in this weighty library of epic atmospheres, textures, impacts, and one-shot audio blasts. Not your run-of-the-mill, either. Well, unless you count the actual abandoned mill the team went in to record foley sounds. They certainly put the leg work in, spending half a year setting up field recording trips in weird and wonderful locations, before heading back to the lab to process and stack up the results. The 750+ files, also including plenty of mangled synthesised and digital soundscapes and tones, make for the perfect set if you need that extra layer of hyper-texturised audio goodness to add to your tracks. minimal.audio/products/emerge n

10/1

78 / COMPUTER MUSIC November 2021

Lose yourself in this cavernous collection of allterrain texture tones. From bass-heavy grain grooves, to elemental noisescapes, each percussive pattern packs enough punch to make any weak beat lose a filling. This hand-built bank of bottomless atmospheres, guitar and piano plucks will delight all drama queens wanting to add a few off-the-spectrum colours to their palettes. Loop lengths range from 15 seconds to a minute, and it’s all royalty-free, darling.

modeaudio.com n9/10n

Abstract Sounds

Vocal Shape £29.95 Underground house vocals for any tracks needing some pipes on the hook. Male and female singers have been booked in, and recorded in the studio through a super pro chain of high-end gear, for the most pristine results. And a gang of analogue kit were teased until they sing, too. You get nigh-on 300 takes to flip at your leisure, plus construction kits. Tonally, inspiration comes from characters like deep housers, Above & Beyond and the recent standout work of melodic techno dons, Tale Of Us. What’s not to love?

loopmasters.com n9/10n

Apollo Sound

Drum Scratch Edition £6.97 Give your drums that DJ swing with this cut-up collection of turntablised loops, fills, and hits. Some deft hip-hop disc jock skills in the house, here, as snares and kicks get properly zigged. Adding these ingredients to your 4 and 8-bar drum sections add a dynamic energy, drama, and flavour to proceedings. This is something that can only be captured by this type of battle-scarred mixmaster. The 400+ files have flow and feeling, and cover BPMs from 75 to 105. Perfect for rap, trap, RnB, and other street beats.

loopmasters.com n8/10n

mini reviews / reviews <

Loopmasters

Sample Market

Urban Agency Drum & Bass Vol 1 £29.95

Originals: Cristi Cons £40

Fresh selections from the cream of jungle legend Micky Finn’s Urban Agency label. Artists on tap include Voltage, Heist, DJ Limited, and Original Sin. And each one steps up to showcase the sounds and musical styles that make them tick. Their contributions cover a heavy dose of skanking drums, rolling basslines, rave-ready vocal riffs, FX, pads, and other rushing rhythms to round out the ride. Loops come locked at 175bpm, and everything in the 356MB set has been recorded in crispy clear quality.

loopmasters.com n9/10n

Next up in this must-check artist series is a set from yer boy, Cristi Cons. Romania’s finest cellist turned dance music producer is in fine fettle, turning in, as he does, a boss batch of snappy drums, swishy synths, and spooky FX textures. Fans of the output on his own AMPHIA label will have a fair clue of the tones and triumphs prominent on this one. They’ll be pleased as punch to get their hands on all the beats and treats that make him such a deep house don dada.

samplemarket.co.uk n9/10n

undrgrndsounds

SoundGhost

US House & Garage £34.90

Ambient Palettes £10

Time to swing with that East Coast swagger, as we spin back the record to the glory days of dance music. Groovy MAW-style Roland basslines keep the floor bouncing, as disco-era flashes and flair push those hands in the air. The organ and piano riffs are fit for the church on Sunday, too. Meanwhile, the Latinfused percussion licks will keep your feet tapping all week. Chopped and screwed vocals, some serious synth stabs, and blanket-warm pads all warrant praise. undrgrndsounds.com

n10/10n

Immersive texture pack from composer/soundtweaker, Dokkodo Sounds. Created by combining chords and pads from his trusty Korg Minilogue XD, and some choice piano, guitar, and field recordings, the soundbed, granular, and melodic loops, all pulse and pull in their own unique fashion. Rather than overwhelm you with more atmospheric samples than you know what to do with, this 342MB budget collection offers a considered batch of 50 loops, 25 one-shots, and accompanying sampler instruments – each crafted with its own little life force.

undrgrndsounds

Bingoshakerz

Deep Dub House £19.95

Modern Tech House $14.95

Plunge your productions into a deep well of dubbed out FX, endless chord rolls, and subby bottom ends. As you witness your tracks get gleefully swallowed up by the syrup-thick dub inside this little lot. Gloop! The textures are inviting, and all selections have an eye for the dancefloor. As each of the wide and warm samples has party-starting potential written all over ‘em. Elsewhere, tape-heated delays bounce across stacked drum programming, as silky pads weave through the flamboyant conga loops – to name just two other highlights.

undrgrndsounds.com n8/10n

soundghost.net n7/10n

Say hello to bezzy mate production duo, Kuestenklatsch. The German tech twosome get twisted on this cracking pack, filling it to the ceiling with nothing but great stuff. These sounds and samples will trouble your bass bins, where needed, and punch and prance where you least expect, which is great news. And 99.9% of the grooves in this 600MB powerhouse collection will liven up any drab beats you’ve spent far too long on.

bingoshakerz.com n9/10n

Black Octopus Sound

Audiotent

Katty Heath – Vocal Pack $34.95

Operators £37

waproduction.com n9/10n

audiotent.com n9/10n

Trance enthusiast, Dennis Shepard, pulls long-time vocal buddy, Katty Heath, back into the booth, to get a little more of that golden voice down to tape. Her arresting tone and delivery is on fine display, once more, and recorded and processed with style. The range of material that she’s littered these nine fullsong kits with will have your vocal crates bursting with fresh ideas, and snazzy new directions. There’s meaningful lyrics to pick at, harmonies galore to plunder, and goose-pimpling choruses to die for. Choice stuff.

Peak-time pack of powerful presets for Arturia’s DX7 – the digital synth that faithfully emulates the joyous noise of Yamaha’s seminal machine, and star of soundtracks like A Clockwork Orange. Here, the Audiotent studio wizkids tweak and freak its dials to bring you a set of sounds that bring this iconic keyboard bang up-to-date. After deep diving into the very core of operations, the fearless team of knobbotherers have crafted a striking collection of magic modulations, transformative timbres, and pulsing patches. Future funkers take note.

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 79

THE PROFESSIONALS

the

in the future you would know what can be done with your work.”

The process : Talking of that technical process, can you explain how the music evolves in a game according to character movement? Do you, for example, produce looped sections that can blend into one another as a player moves themselves around? AN: “I composed different music for different game zones. Each location is very unique and has its own mood and tempo, and that’s how I was trying to compose music and switch it at the right moment. Unbound: Worlds Apart, for example, doesn’t have many dynamic layer changes, since it doesn’t have fighting in a common sense of the word, but it is a true platforming. Technically, the music in Unbound is more like switching pieces of compositions, rather than changing layers (when you replace intense soundtrack with a calm one just by changing the volume of tracks). For instance, in boss fights these pieces are repeating until the game reaches a certain condition (such as moving to the next stage of battle). On the contrary, in locations, where calm platforming changes to intense ones, the layers are switching. It was made to prevent breaking the rhythm. But overall we used the switching layers quite rarely.” : How did Unbound’s music progress in terms of getting imagery, working sections or using other game details to guide you through the composition? AN: “Usually, I get access to a game engine right away (in this project it was the Unreal Engine). Then I play and record a video, so I can navigate in-DAW using it. It helps to recall the emotions you get from a game at the right place, to synchronise cutscenes, animations, and so on.” : Is that the same process on every video game project?

The murky world of Unbound: Worlds Apart

interview <

“Some believe that melodies are not important… I completely disagree” AN: “At first, I play a game as much as I can. It’s necessary to feel the rhythm, especially in a platformer. The main challenge there is to make sure that gameplay doesn’t seem too slow or too fast for a player. Music has a great influence on this perception, and sometimes it feels like control becomes less responsive. Lately many composers tend to believe that melodies are not important in game soundtracks, but I completely disagree with this and I’m confident about the importance of good melodies. I always take a few main melodies and carry them through the whole game, so they are often repeated here and there in different variations. Generally, my main task is to make a player experience various emotions, to have some associations with a game. What I personally bring to a project? I would say that I’m good at reflecting the mood of a game in my music. In fact, I think that developers who invite me to their projects usually need slightly more dark and melancholic atmosphere in music, than other composers can offer.”

The technology : When did you get into music production with technology? AN: “When I was about 12-14 years old, I discovered Guitar Pro, though I can’t really remember what version it was. Back then I began to compose loads of things; mostly it was metal music, so for a very long time I only worked in heavy genres. I had to record

: W t ar are e ou f vou vo i e or most-used t d plugins? l i ? AN: “90% of my time I use only FabFilter Pro-Q and Waves’ SSL compressor. I don’t need emulations of equalisers when I have Pro-Q. I’ve tried many other EQs and compressors, but I always come back to these two. Both can solve any task and they don’t ruin the sound. Plus, the SSL works really well on any bus (which is logical, because it is a bus compressor). For reverb, I can’t think of any other plugin than Valhalla’s Vintage Verb. It’s not expensive and really nice. You can do anything with it from a small metal barrel to infinitely large spaces. Also I like Span from Voxengo, which usually just hangs on my second monitor and lets me know if something goes wrong with the reference frequencies. It’s particularly helpful in the composing stage, letting me easily divide instrument lines by frequencies. I should also mention s(M)exoscope by Smartelectronix. As far as I remember, it’s free, but it was a great help to me when I was making the final mastering of the whole Unbound: Worlds Apart album. I wouldn’t say that I rely on analysers like this that often, but for some details it’s irreplaceable.”

Fabfilter ProQ3 is Alexey’s go-to EQ

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 81

> interview / the professionals

M-Audio Keystation 88 and Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 audio interface are the key components when Alexey creates ‘sound assets’

everything with real instruments (except drums). By the time of my graduation I found out that you can type notes by your mouse in DAW and play it using Kontakt with a beautiful sound. That was crazy!” : How do you typically produce the music for a game? In the studio or all in-the-box? AN: “It’s almost all in-the-box. But still, some thing were recorded like, for example, the percussion in the desert themes, vocals and other different little things.” : Tell us about the gear in your studio AN: “My studio is more like a sound designer’s studio rather than a composer’s, because I make sound assets more often than the music itself. In this case, gear becomes rather useless (aside from some hardware like EQs, compressors etc.). In monitoring I use N-Acoustic’s N-Monitors N100 Mk2 passive speakers with their traditional SDY Power 400 amplifier. It’s a very cool Russian-made pair, still new on the market, so you might not have heard about it yet. Also I have KRK Rokit 6s and sub 10S2, Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro headphones, a Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 audio interface, an M-Audio Keystation 88 keyboard, various guitars, a violin, and different Rode NT1A capture the sounds of Alexey’s game world visions

musical and non-musical objects. I record with Røde NTK and Røde NTG3 mics and in the field I use a Zoom H4n pro recorder.”

The composition : How do you initially come up with the idea for a soundtrack? AN: “I usually begin with a melody in my head. It can be played on any instrument. I play it in my mind for some time, and then I record it. When at least a small phrase is done, I start to increase the number of instruments. Generally the drums come at the very end. I don’t proceed to them before I make sure that the rhythm and dynamics sound good without them.” : Do you have any characteristic compositional flourishes, any trademark production tricks? AN: “You can often hear dissonances in my tracks. Sometimes I just hit the keyboard with my arm and pick the most interesting versions of these sounds, clean it for a bit and divide some notes to different instruments. I also only compress the percussion part of the orchestra on the master bus. Plucked and other instruments will strike sharply from time to time but, personally, I like it. I like a large dynamic range; it’s particularly cool when you listen to it in the silence of your headphones. I also think lyricism is a strength. Usually I compose very sad music, even if I shouldn’t (so I have to correct it later). I don’t know why, but it is what it is. Unbound let me create something new, compose something slightly ‘lighter’ than usual. But the further we go into the plot, the darker the music gets, and by the end, you get more and more peculiar sounds and a 7-string heavy guitar joins the orchestra. Generally, listeners can easily recognise my style because of my music’s character and mood.” : And what advice do you have to complete a track? AN: “I consider a track finished when I’m tired of making it. I always think about how long a player will stay at a certain place. It’s not like I’m counting the time – I simply note, where it’ll take more time, and where less. So, for example, this track will be three minutes long, and that one will be 30 seconds long. People in games often say that a game can’t be finished, and that something can always be polished.

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Composers should see it the same way. Sometimes I compose tracks as finished pieces, sometimes they suddenly begin or are suddenly interrupted. Sometimes I make a quick draft to put it in a game and see how it will work. And after all it stays in there forever!” : You also got a vocalist to sing on the Unbound soundtrack… AN: “Yes, we had a collaboration with the talented singer Maisy Kay. She recorded a wonderful stylised fantasy vocal, which you can hear for yourself in the tracks Guardian’s Rest, The Mire and Oasis.” : What other advice have you picked up from working in the game music industry? AN: “It’s dangerous to get attached to your creations, because any of them can be thrown away any moment (and it’s likely that the villain who does it will be yourself).” : Finally, what else have you got planned for the near future? AN: “I plan to be more active on social media in future. I can’t even imagine how my employers find me. Plus I would like to improve my portfolio with some other genres. Lithuanian company Flazm Interactive Studio’s Time Loader is out soon. For this project I composed some 90s-style synth music, a retro soundtrack with synths and other cool, and I really enjoy those kinds of things. Also I’ve been invited to a new project recently, where I’m going to create something completely different.” Unbound: Worlds Apart is out now on Nintendo Switch, Mac and PC

downloads <

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THE ALL-NEW U-HE ZEBRA CM SYNTH u-he have updated a classic synth and it’s yours for free this issue!

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IT’S AN 80S FREE SAMPLE CELEBRATION! We’ve got two new packs of 80s samples plus two classic packs. All for free!

GROOVY 80s

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MASTERCLASSES AND ZEBRA ON FILM

How to use the all-new Zebra plus two Masterclasses on video

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> Free software

U-HE ZEBRA CM

A stalwart of our software suite gets a reboot. Time for a little refresh of our skills as we unleash the beast Here at Computer Music we’re very lucky to be able to provide, via our very own Software Suite, some awesome free software tools. A long-term component of the Suite is u-he’s Zebra CM and this month we’re super excited to be bringing you a rebooted version of this classic synth. In honour of this event we thought we’d rustle up a new tutorial to run through its best bits. It’s built around two highly flexible and morphable oscillators with 16 core waveforms. These are joined by a powerful noise generator

CONTROL BAR Here you’ll find access to the presets browser and info on the current parameters in the Data Display

with four flavours, a multimode filter, three LFOs, two expanded ADSR envelopes and three effects modules. The new version includes a major layout and graphics overhaul and Zebra CM now takes its visual lead from the very latest version of u-he’s Zebra 2 synth. You now have a much clearer top-down layout starting with oscillators, then the filter, envelopes, modulation and finally effects at the bottom. Further changes include a vastly improved browser, easier soundset installation, a new global preferences page and better MIDI CC

POLYWAVE Select the number of unison waves (1, 2, 4, or 11) and use the Detune to spread the detune across the voices

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COGWHEEL Access the global preferences as well as the MIDI controller assignments

NOISE GENERATOR Choose from white noise, pink noise, Crackles or a lo-fi square wave with associated keyfollow

OSCILLATORS Change the Symmetry and Filter controls to make further fundamental changes to each oscillator

GLOBAL Select Playback mode including the rather cool Duophonic that plays two notes, one per oscillator

Get this great plugin for your PC/Mac at filesilo.co.uk/computermusic

setup. There’s also a VST3 version, native support for Apple Silicon and macOS Big Sur compatibility, although 32-bit support is now discontinued for macOS. In the tutorial we’ll show you how to use the new stuff and also how to create sounds from scratch in this easy-to-use synth. And of course it goes without saying, if Zebra CM catches your imagination and you want more of the same but with loads of extra features and flexibility, why not head over to u-he.com to check out Zebra 2 and u-he’s other great synths?

WAVE Use this control on each of the two identical oscillators to morph between the 16 waveforms

SYNC Each oscillator includes integrated hard sync so you don’t need to sync to the other oscillator

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LFO You get one global and two polyphonic LFOs, with the latter instantiated on a per-voice basis MODULATION Select one of 17 modulation sources and adjust the depth by dragging on the accompanying dot

EFFECTS GRID Use the Master or Send/Return lanes to create different routings for the three effects modules

u-he zebra cm / free software < > Step by step 1. Getting started with u-he Zebra CM

u-he Zebra CM is included in the CM Plugin Suite, which is available to download from Filesilo. To get started, head to www.filesilo.co.uk/computermusic and either log in or create a new account as required. Unlock the content for this issue by answering the question.

Scroll to the Software section. We’ll have Zebra CM in a separate folder there with Mac, PC and (if we can get them in time) Linux installers in the folder for one download.

Open the u-he Zebra CM folder and run the installer file (either .exe or .pkg depending on your OS). Zebra CM is not available in standalone format, but you may want to select from the choice of plugin formats (AU, VST, VST3 or AAX).

> Step by step 2. Main features

Now let’s familiarise ourselves with Zebra CM’s layout and features. Zebra CM’s new layout not only looks great but has been considerably streamlined, with the control bar at the top. Starting here, select the Preset button and load up a preset – we’ve chosen Pluck Lead from the Leads folder.

In addition to choosing presets, the toolbar includes handy options like undo/redo and master volume. Clicking on the u-he logo gives useful links to the website and new user guide. Meanwhile the cogwheel icon provides access not only to the preferences including window scaling, but also to MIDI assignments.

Just below the toolbar is Zebra CM’s sound generation. The two oscillators are identical and feature 16 waveforms which you can morph between using the dial – see how the handy new waveform display updates as you do this. Next to the oscillators is the Noise generator and then the multimode filter, which also gets a graphic display.

POWER TIP

> GUI scale

The middle section of Zebra CM includes a Global section, which handles the playback mode. Then there are two envelopes and three LFOs – two polyphonic and one global. In addition to many LFO shapes, LFOs 1 and 2 also have a user definable option, which you draw in the window.

Finally, effects. Zebra CM includes three effects modules – Mod FX, Delay and Reverb – and these can be assigned individually to either the Master signal flow or Send/Return signal path. There are various ways to influence the signal flow and we cover this later.

With any single window plugin it’s important that the GUI works with your computer screen resolution. You can change Zebra CM’s GUI scale in the Preferences page, where you’ll find a full list of sizes from 70% to 200%. However, for a quicker result, simply right-click anywhere inside the plugin window. This provides a list of scales suitable for your current screen resolution, which is handy. It’s worth noting that whichever way you change the scaling, Zebra CM updates the window size straight away with no need to relaunch the plugin.

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 85

> free software / u-he zebra cm

> Step by step 3. Starting from scratch

On the next page we’ll look at the new preset browser and how to seek out the best presets in Zebra CM’s library. However, if you want to make sounds from scratch, that’s pretty straightforward too. To get started, click on the data display and select ‘init’ at the bottom of the presets list.

Now set up OSC2, remembering to turn up its Volume. We’ve selected waveform 9.2 and set the Tune above to an octave below (-12.00) with Reset active, Sync not active, unison 4 and Detune 8.0. Now try the additional waveform parameters (Filter and Symmetry) to tweak the sound. We’ve set these to -52 and 55 respectively.

Moving onto the envelopes, we can adjust some settings here. Env1 is already assigned to the output VCA, so tweak the response to taste. We’ve chosen Attack 7, Decay 81, Sustain 49, Release 30. Meanwhile for Env 2, which is affecting the Filter, it’s Attack 0, Decay 41, Sustain 23 and Release 15, with all other settings remaining the same.

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Let’s start with the oscillators. To hear just OSC1 ensure the Volume is down for OSC2 and Noise. Now turn the main Wave dial to select a sound. You’ll see the oscillator graphic change as you do this. We’ve gone for Waveform setting 6.20. We’ve also activated Reset to restart the wave for every note.

Next, use the Noise generator to create a third pitched oscillator. Choose the Digital type and below the Pitch knob select KeyFollow. Now drag over the blue dot next to it to create a modulation depth of 64, and then set a Pitch value (we’ve chosen 44.00). Finally, balance the three Volumes to taste (82, 150 and 85 for us).

So far we’ve been working in Polyphonic mode, but for the sound we’ve created there’s a better option. Head over to the Global section and in the top left select Legato. Then at the bottom of this section, set a portamento time using the Glide knob – we’ve chosen 25.

Other oscillator options to try include the new Crisp option which brightens the oscillator slightly and also Sync which applies the integrated hard sync, which we’ve set to 2.0. Our final OSC1 setting is unison, which we’ve set to 4 using the button on the top left, with a Detune setting of 6.0.

By default, the Filter should be set to LP 12dB and Env2 assigned to the Cutoff, so ensure you have these settings. Now simply adjust the Cutoff and Env2 depth so the filter cutoff increases when you play a note. We’ve set Env to 72.00 and Cutoff to 30.00.

Finally, let’s add a bit of modulation and delay in the effects section. Simply activate the modules in the Master chain in the bottom right by double clicking on them. Then adjust any parameters to taste. We have simply activated them as is and then adjusted the Mix blend – Mod FX 20, Delay 13.

u-he zebra cm / free software <

> Step by step 4. The new preset browser

Zebra CM has had a major browser overhaul and this is now as good as you’ll find on any softsynth. But before we launch the browser it’s worth saying that you can also page through the presets of the currently selected preset folder. Try using the control bar arrows or click on the data display to reveal the list.

Zebra CM presets include extensive information and user editable tagging. Tagging provides a useful way to search for sounds, and to do this you need to select the Tags tab. Once selected you’ll see four sections – Categories, Features, Character and Favourites. Try clicking on one or more of the entries to select presets with those attributes – we’ve chosen Soft Attack and Leads.

Whether you’re in the Directory or Tags panel, you can use word search to find specific presets. This is great if you already know the name of the preset, or simply have a rough idea of the naming you’re looking for.

To launch the main browser, select the Presets button. You’ll see most of the plugin window now becomes the browser, with two tabs on the left – Directory and Tags, a centre section with the current choice of presets and on the right the attributes of the currently loaded preset.

Included in the tagging system are Favourites. To make a preset a Favourite, you need to right-click on it and select one of the eight colour-coded Favourite groupings. Here we’ve marked one of the presets as a red Favourite and when we select that grouping from the tags menu it now shows just that preset.

The browser has one further useful preview feature. Over on the righthand side at the bottom, you’ll see the Bypass Effects button. If you want to try out a preset ‘dry’ to see what it’s made of, this handy option will bypass Zebra CM’s effects modules and will also load the preset with the effects bypassed.

With the Directory tab selected you’ll see the main categorised folders at the top left under the Local tab. Select one of these and you’ll see the associated presets. The new categories include both Zebra CM’s previous and new presets. Below this you’ll also see a Bank tab and here you can select the new bank and previous bank of Zebra CM presets.

The Tags that are assigned to any preset can be freely edited. To do this, head over to the top right of the browser window and click on the flag icon. This opens the Edit Tags panel. Then select the preset you want to edit and modify any of the three tagging areas – Categories, Features and Character.

Finally, Zebra CM’s browser loads presets automatically as soon as you select them. In most cases this isn’t a problem. But what if you try some new presets and then want to go back to your previously loaded one? Thankfully you can do this by selecting the Restore option at the top of the browser.

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 87

> free software / u-he zebra cm > Step by step 5. Modulation, envelopes and LFOs

Zebra CM now has a vastly improved modulation system that’s easy to understand and provides clear visual feedback. Let’s start by taking an existing preset and try modulating some parameters. We’ve chosen the preset Daccord 2 > Bright, which has a nice pitch offset, creating a rich sound from a single played note.

The filter has full size controls for modulation depth, but for many parameters on Zebra CM you’ll just see a little dot, and if you drag over this it will adjust the depth. Nevertheless, here we can simply adjust the knob, which we have increased slightly to about 40.

The preset already has a few modulations set up and you can see these from the coloured halos on some of the knobs. To set up a new modulation all you need is a parameter that allows a modulation source. These have a label slot below them and clicking on the label reveals a list of the 17 sources.

LFO2’s default shape is sine, and the adjustment we’ve just made to the modulation depth means the filter cutoff frequency is now smoothly increasing and decreasing. We can create a much more interesting and bespoke effect by specifying our own LFO shape. Head to the LFO section, select ‘2’ for the LFO2 and choose ‘user’ from the waveform list.

Here we’re going to modify the existing modulation for the filter cutoff. Looking at the filter you can see that both Env2 and LFO1 are already assigned, and the first thing we’re going to do is change the LFO to LFO2. Do this by selecting it from the drop-down list.

The user LFO can have up to 32 break points and you can select either smooth (lines) or stepped modes. Here we’re going to create a stepped pattern with eight steps (points). If you now select ⅛ for the Sync option, the pattern fits one bar. Grab the break points to draw in a pattern and select ‘gate’ so it restarts with each new note.

POWER TIP

> Envelope Fall/Rise

As noted, many modulation depths are adjusted using the little dots next to the parameters. This is also the case for velocity and keyfollow settings for each of the envelope stages, where you’ll see a row of blue and green dots. Here we’ve adjusted the attack stage velocity sensitivity for Env 2 to 67.

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Zebra CM has 17 assignable modulation sources. Two of these, CtrlA and CtrlB are user definable and you can select specific MIDI CCs in the preferences. For anyone familiar with the previous version of Zebra CM these replace the Breath and Expression modulators, and default to these CC assignments to provide consistency with the previous version.

Zebra CM has some pretty nice envelope settings, including curvature options for the stages. One pretty cool feature is Fall/Rise and this is used in our example preset, Daccord 2 > Bright. This affects the sustain stage of the envelope. Positive values create a rise and negative values create a fall. In the preset, this is set to +5 for Envelope 2, and because this envelope is routed to the filter cutoff, as the note sustains you’ll start to hear the filter cutoff gradually increase.

u-he zebra cm / free software < > Step by step 6. Assigning MIDI CCs

Zebra CM allows for extensive MIDI CC assignments and to keep things simple this is handled via two additional pages. To get started, select the cogwheel in the top-right hand corner and from the small menu, select the option marked L.

You can, of course, assign multiple CCs and the same CC to different parameters. This can get a bit confusing as the overlay does not indicate which CC is which. If you want a bit more information there is a second MIDI CC page and this is accessed as before from the cogwheel menu.

This launches the MIDI CC overlay page. Here all the MIDI assignable parameters are shown with a coloured outline. There are loads to choose, including the modulation depth dots mentioned on the last page. To assign a MIDI CC, select a parameter and the outline will turn white. Simply move your desired MIDI controller to send some data.

The MIDI Table provides a list of MIDI CC assignments and you’ll see the list includes our oscillator filter assignment. However, you can also edit the list including changing the CC number, MIDI channel, adjusting the data resolution and selecting modes best suited to normal and encoder type knobs .

If this has worked, you should now see your target parameter moving as you send MIDI data. Here we’ve assigned a CC33 to the oscillator filter knob. You’ll notice that the control colour in the MIDI overlay is now filled in.

Finally, as mentioned, Zebra CM now includes two user-definable modulation sources – Ctrl A and B – set in the preferences panel. However, within the MIDI Table page you can actually set up ‘per-plugin instance’ settings, and these actually override global preference settings. Here we’ve set CtrlA to CC34.

> Step by step 7. Using FX

Zebra CM’s effects modules are now always visible at the bottom of the plugin. The first thing to appreciate is that the three modules are assigned by dragging their respective blocks on the effects grid on the right. Here we’ve placed the Reverb and Modulation in the Master lane and Delay in the Return lane.

There is also some control over routing. The simplest choice is that both get the same input. However, if you right click on the module block you can modify things. Try selecting Input 1 for both Rev and Delay, and you’ll see that the Delay gets the post Rev signal as its input. Neat stuff.

Finally, though we typically set Send level for the Return channel manually, you can actually attach a modulator and here we’ve selected the mod wheel. Now, when the mod wheel increases, it raises the send level to the Delay.

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 89

> your free samples / all-new samples

New 80s samples! For our special 80s issue, we’ve gone all big shoulder-pads with our picks, with a mix of new and classic samples. On the DVD or download at filesilo.co.uk

GROOVY 80s

Cycle back to the 80s!

It’s a Groovy 80s

Our sample masters were tasked to travel back in time four decades to pick up some soundware! Cyclick’s Robbie explains his choices…

Oli Bell from Groove Criminals landed his time machine in a shop full of synths and old drum machines, so got his recorder out…

“The 80s may always be associated with mullet hairdos, marble wash jeans and gated reverbs, but as is always the case, there was much more going on… “No, this isn’t a set of samples based on the lead up to the 1989 fall of the Berlin wall or the siege at the Iranian embassy in London in 1980, but rather an accompaniment to the set which will be delivered by my brother in loops and Groove Criminal to the right. Knowing that he will no doubt cover the classics of drum machine and synth, I have opted to focus on the electric guitar and bass. “The following acts were aurally digested while creating these samples: Talking Heads, Talk Talk, The Police, Japan, ABC, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Cameo, The Cure, The Human League, Tears For Fears, Magazine, Duran Duran, U2, Haircut 100, Wham! and Killing Joke.” There’s more information on the PDF supplied in the Samples folder on the DVD or at filesilo.co.uk.

“It’s all gone 80s this month so rather than do the whole XOX thing (again) we thought we’d drag out some of the less well known 80s drum machines we’ve got in the bunker. None of the machines stand up to today’s tech in terms of editing the voices or library of sounds but all have that early 16-bit sampled punchiness to them. “To further turn back the clock we also ran each pattern through one of our 80s FX units for some vintage gated reverb and digital delay action. We’ve thrown in a chunk of single hits as well, so you don’t have to wrestle with 80s tiny LCD screen drum programming – you’re welcome. “Synth-wise we thought we would concentrate on the beast that is Yamaha FM synthesis using our rack-mount TX81Z module. This covers all the usual shimmery pianos and digital basses. Just to add that extra gooey coating of 80s goodness we ran this through the Boss rack-mount super chorus for more classic processing.”

SELECTED GEAR USED Musicman Stingray (1977) Epiphone Ripper Fender Stratocaster (1972 hardtail) Squier Telecaster Standard Boss GE-7 EQ, CS-3 Compressor and SD-1 Super Overdrive

SELECTED GEAR USED

Korg CMP-1 Compressor

Yamaha RX-15

Moog MF Boost

Roland TR-505

UAFX Starlight delay

Kawai RE-50E

Eventide Modfactor

Alesis HR-16B

Arion SCH-1 Stereo Chorus

Ibanez DM 1000

Arion SFL-1 Stereo Flanger

Peavey Univerb II

Mosky Golden Horse booster

Boss CE-300

Kokko Overdrive

Boss RRV-10

90 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

Yamaha TX81Z

from the FROM THE

vault / your free samples <

VAULT

2 classic 80s packs! The Mighty Vault didn’t exist back in the 80s – it would have been the size of a small town. Anyway, here are a couple of classic packs with an 80s vibe… We’ve done surprisingly few 80s sample packs over the years so we’re including the one classic pack we have done – the rather great 80s Heat. Then there’s Power Synths, which is full of 80s synths all stacked up! Well they did like BIG sounds back then. So it’s full of synths and arps you could find back then (and of course now, such is the cyclic(k) nature of music production). Enjoy! First up, we go back to August 2015 with 80s Heat which was produced by both Groove Criminals and Cyclick. We gave Rob from Cyclick a buzz from the (very large) carphone… “It’s time to go back to an era of unapologetic machismo, when Reagan and Thatcher made real the inhuman ideals of Milton Friedman, and vinyl pressings got so thin you could split hairs with

Def Leppard’s Hysteria,” says Robbie. “This sample pack comprises loops and lines across five tempos (85, 95, 110, 120 and 130bpm), guitar powerchords hits, two drums kits, and a few multisampled instruments programmed into SFZ format” “Guitar is covered with the RawkGuitar and TeleHero lines and there are some classic riff basics. Synth connoisseurs will like the Oberheim-type bass (OB Bass), the VictorPad (Tyrell N6), and CopMono (from Arturia’s ARP 2600 emulation), with accompaniment from a hype 80s orchestral synth sound (80s Orch). “The Power Chord Hits folder contains two lots of rock power chords. The Loops ‘n’ Lines folders contain drum loops from the two kits and I’ve thrown in the hits too.” Our second pack comes by way of both Groove Criminals

and Cyclick Samples again. Rob from Cyclick said: “What is more powerful than a powerful synth? More powerful synths stacked up! Synthesisers were born into a world of multitrack recording, and despite individually sounding magnificent (well, some), there is nothing quite like the sound of stacked up synthesisers playing almost the same thing; those differences in pitch, timing and timbre adding to the sense of magnitude and weight. So, for this relatively simple sample set we have a set of stacked up synths creating chord hits (one shots) and arpeggiated lines/loops. Layering these samples further and processing them heavily is definitely encouraged.” You can find more info and all of these samples in the Free Samples folder on the DVD or at filesilo.co. uk under issue 301.

INCLUDES… 1,600 classic samples including power chord hits, drum kits, multisamples (which can be used in any SFZ player), Loops n Lines, drum hits and chords.

We demanded our samplists dressed in their best 80s clothes for this one. They refused

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 91

> your free samples / loopmasters

Loopmasters 01 02 03 04

Freaky Loops Solaris: Atmospheres Mask Movement Tunnel Techno Alliant Audio Neo Soul Essentials Famous Audio Hyper Pop

92 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

301 samples 05 06 07 08

LM An On Bast - Vibe Techno Loopmasters Moombahton Trax Loopmasters Days of House Tonekitchen Sampled Soul

video Download this month’s videos: filesilo.co.uk/computermusic

Get this month’s Zebra CM tutorial plus two Masterclass videos from filesilo.co.uk

YOUR FREE PLUGIN

HOW TO USE THE ALL-NEW ZEBRA CM

Read the full article on p84 VOCAL MASTERCLASS

SYNTH MASTERCLASS

PERFECT VOCAL REVERB

A GHOSTLY 80S SOUND

Read the full article on p50

Read the full article on p52 November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 93

Photo: Hannah Collins

> 15 questions with / bon

15 questions with…

BON BON are Yerosha Windrich and Alex Morris, a creative partnership and production duo known for working with projects on Warp Records, Hyperdub and 4AD Though they first made a name for themselves back in 2018 with the release of the mixtape 33:33, Alex and Yerosha have since worked with a cadre of experimental artists, all operating at the intersection between electronic music, hip-hop and grime, including Gaika, Mykki Blanco and Kojey Radical. Evidently natural collaborators, they’ve enlisted the talents of some equally visionary producers and instrumentalists (Laraaji, Lucinda Chua, Maxwell Sterling) for their latest record, which takes a stylistic turn towards ambient, new age and modern classical domains. Due out September 10th, Pantheon is a visual album that’s described by BON as a “ritual to the goddesses” – each of the 94 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

record’s 16 tracks is named after a goddess, celebrating and embodying these archetypes in sound through their own sonic pantheon. The music itself is abstract and atmospheric, a drifting, blissful soundworld that recalls the luxuriant tones of Brian Eno’s LUX. We spoke with Alex and Yerosha as they prepare for the release of their debut album, getting an insight into the techniques, equipment and creative philosophies that underpin their artistic partnership. Tell us how you got into music production in the first place? Alex Morris: “I loved the idea of recording things and seeing how you could alter and manipulate them with machines and computers. I started in the bedroom with a ThinkPad and an

Akai making techno and electronic music and playing the music I made with friends and the music they made. “It was a great way to understand how things worked, and also a great way to really feel the heat in front of your peers. If you made fire – then great, everyone would let you know. If you made a dud – everyone would let you know that too. Everything was done in good faith so it was very handy.” Yerosha Windrich: “I grew up around music, it was always a big part of my childhood. It was very eclectic from classical music, film scores, pop, hip hop and R&B, ambient, drum and bass, disco… we even had a family home studio which was just amazing – big thanks and shout out to my parents! Me and my sister have both gone into audio.

bon / 15 questions with <

“She’s super techy so would often help me out when tech was giving me grief. From there I attended all the courses I could, Garnish School of Sound was a great experience. Also, the Roundhouse in Camden which provides incredible opportunities for young people in the arts. It was actually through a friend I met at the Roundhouse that I met and began working with Alex and BON was formed.” When did you start to feel you were getting somewhere in music? YW: “Apparently Prince said something about success being the moment you actually finish something in the studio, which I’ve always loved. You can write demos, ideas and drafts all day long, but I remember that moment a good few years back where it was just me finishing my music – that feeling of having true confidence in myself and abilities was amazing, and it’s that you have to build and hold on to.” AM: “From a very young age I was fascinated by sounds that grabbed your attention or made you feel a particular way. When I find other people who’ve had the same sentiment we seem to always forge a human connection and a kind of understanding. “I think when I realised that you could use music and sound as a form of non-verbal communication I felt everything click. The ability to tell stories and to help people tell stories was very empowering.”

What is your overall music and production philosophy? AM: “Your music should ‘know what it is’ and be authentic in and of itself. If the goal is to connect on an emotional level, then you don’t want anything in the way of that. You also want what you’re working on to make sense contextually, with whatever that means to you. YW: “I was obsessed with hip-hop dancing in my teens. As you choreograph, you’re picking out drum patterns and trying to lock in to it and emphasise the sounds with movement. So I love detail and intricacy, and it’s actually quite complementary to classical music which I was also very into – where melodies, riffs and instrumentation are very carefully selected and placed with intention. “The more me and Alex worked together, the more we came up with ways of alluding to melodies and patterns, bringing the subtlety and painting with textures rather than a full melody line with one instrument.” “There are so many incredible plugins, effects and techniques you can use to do that these days. We change it up though, and it’s mainly about the intention of the music, nailing and reflecting that.”

Tell us about the gear you have in your recording studio. YW: “We’re blown away by the FOCAL 11be speakers – the sound is just incredible, and it’s so important to get the vibe right for inspiration and mixing. We tend to subvert and manipulate sounds and a big starting point is Native Instruments. They’ve really nailed VI and their user interface is pretty smooth.” AM: “We’ve recently had a little upgrade. We got ourselves a 16-core Mac Pro with 192GB of RAM that just flies – very happy with that. The Focal 11be speakers are very good. They immediately

gave us the urge to mix everything again. Extremely accurate and easy to listen to over long sessions.” “Outboard-wise we have lots of analogue kit which we sum through our Thermionic Culture Fat Bustard MkII. The harmonic distortion valve circuit is magic. We actually modded it with some valves my Dad had kicking around, some of which are from the original Tesla factory. “We have the Empirical Labs FATSO which we tend to mostly use for percussive and bass sounds. A couple of the Calrec dual compressors we got at a BBC World Service auction are fabulous workhorses – you can really squash stuff with them. We also have an SSL channel strip from an old SSL4000E which we use on recording and mixdown. “These all get sent to our Universal Audio Apollo 16 and 8p interfaces – again, they’re fantastic workhorses with world class plugins. We have various analogue synths, a Juno-106, Moog Voyager (which has been on lots of records), Dave Smith Tempest, which is a very creative machine, an old XBase 09 and our

“I like experimenting and exploring. I call it ‘letting the universe in’, that delicate balance of curation vs creation” current favourite, the Modal 002, which is an absolute monster. “Recording-wise we’ve tended to go for Earthworks and Telefunken mics for their accuracy and character. We track through the Crane Song, the Realios or the Manley Core.” What are your favourite plugins? AM: “I love Soothe 2 by Oeksound. It saves so much time in the mix. Very handy – fire and forget. The EMT 250 by Universal Audio – such a versatile reverb, it’s on a bus in every session. FabFilter EQ and De-esser are again super handy, accurate and fast, you can just stay in the flow. We love the Native Instruments suite, some great stuff – the guitar stuff is very creative.” YW: “Soundshifter Pitch by Waves is probably used in every track. Soundtoys are very creative with their products, you can really go on a journey with them.”

How do you tend to start a track? YW: “I feel it’s like pottery, or woodcraft. I chisel away, bit by bit, creating 4/8 bars at a time before moving on to the next and building on that. I like experimenting and exploring. I call it ‘letting the universe in’, that delicate balance of curation vs creation. Sometimes you need to let go and see where it takes you.” AM: “For me, not in the studio. The idea comes going for a walk, or first thing in the morning in bed. The ideas just come, then it’s about working out how to translate them into sounds.”

How do you tend to know when a track’s finally done? AM: “When it’s undeniable in itself. It’s about knowing what you’re making. Each track has its own life and existence, knowing what role it has within its context is how you can tell.” YW: “I think that’s the bit that makes the partnership work – we both know when it’s done, so there’s none of that ‘go back and tinker some more’ or losing faith, which is a tricky part of collaborating. We love a box-off but we still do tuck right in and keep going till it’s the best it can possibly be.”

How does your collaborative process work as a duo? YW: “We really complement each other in how we work. I think Alex is a bit more of a throwdown maximalist, choosing a palette before starting. Whereas I am more of a new-school bedroom producer, where you’re more likely to craft specific 4/8 bars with each sound/ instrument and develop from there. I can get stuck on too much detail though, and he can jump in and develop. I very much enjoy diving into his throw-down, it’s like a treasure chest.” AM: “It’s a tag team affair! We both start ideas, then the other will jump in and elaborate on what the other has done. We always let each other breathe and give space for the ideas to grow and develop. It feels effortless once we start flowing. We’re very lucky in that respect.”

Who were your primary influences for Pantheon, musical or non-musical? AM: “We’d spent a lot of time looking for music that didn’t impose itself; something that we felt people could use to soundtrack their experience rather than a song or a beat/track. “We were also inspired by our collaborators who brought their energy and take on the music. Musically we were listening to a lot of Hiroshi Yoshimura, Pauline Anne Strom, Laraaji and Iasos during lockdown.” YW: “Lucina, on the album, is a highlight for me, as I love Debussy and it sits in that style – it is said that an artist is always just trying to recreate their favourite track! “Again, I will always and forever be influenced by DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing….., especially his track Stem/Long Stem. It’s just heaven. We were listening to a lot of artists from the Environmental music scene in the ‘80s, such as Hiroshi Yoshimura, as well as more current artists like William Basinski, Julia Gjertsen and of course Laraaji.”

What led you to create a full-album visual accompaniment for Pantheon? AM: “It was about creating a full experience for the music to be alongside. Something you could enjoy the experience of, or just have a mood on in the background. The whole film is very slow, deliberate, and mindful, to inspire a particular pace and measure.” YW: “Ambient and modern classical are, by their very nature, there to provide an atmosphere rather than being the main event, and we wanted to just give it its moment. Having something to watch while you listen really focuses it and gives you the true experience. We wanted the record to be a relaxing break, where you can sit and chill and just let your senses be taken up by its mood.

November 2021 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 95

Photo: Tanya McGeever

> 15 questions with / bon

“We teamed up with our wonderful friends Gav and Zoe at Infinite Film and decked out our studio for the occasion. Bringing a bit of grounding and nature back in to everyone’s lives is important. The music is quite fragile, intricate and ambiguous so the abstract nature of how the visuals are edited and put together reflected that.” What’s on your gear shopping list? YW: “I’m a true millennial, so austerity is baked in! [laughs] I will say, I actually thrive and enjoy the challenge of having some limits. So I’m a work-with-what-you-got kinda girl. Over to you Alex.” AM: “I always have a shopping list! I’m always looking for ways to go from the real world to digital, microphone preamps, channel strips and microphones. I’ve had my eye on some more Earthworks mics. We currently have the drum mic kit which is wonderful. Some Royer ribbon mics would be nice too.” “Also, some Chandler stuff would make a great addition to what we already have. Instruments are something else I’d love to start collecting more of. I would love a pedal harp. I’ve been mildly obsessed with the Chase Bliss pedals and The Blooper.”

What studio tech would you like to see being developed? YW: “I love what Imogen Heap did with her gloves. Finding new ways to perform live and make it a performance, rather than sitting behind a desk and laptop would be great. More

96 / COMPUTER MUSIC / November 2021

instruments having sampler capacities and multifunctions, basically.” AM: “I’m with Yerosha on that 100%: innovative ways to perform and to engage with audiences, especially if it can be incorporated with visuals. We went to an exhibit in 2019 by Team Lab. The way in which they work with sound and visuals is really innovative. The work of Daito Manabe is also very inspiring.”

We’ve been working on her debut EP out later this year and it’s just the most perfect project. She’s unbelievably talented and has such vision and courage to be true to herself, which is very rare. We’re also working on BON’s next project which will be a big 180, a different mood entirely to Pantheon. Which is great, it’s all about variety.” AM: “I couldn’t say this better than Yerosha.”

Any advice for those looking to start making their own music? YW: “Invest in sounds. I didn’t coming up and I think it stunted what I could do. Choose sounds you don’t understand or gravitate towards and try and make them into something you like. Free yourself from what ‘success’ looks like, don’t just copy the charts – though it is good practice to understand how a song is put together.” AM: “Be authentic. Collaborations with friends and other people will teach you a lot. Learn your tool very well.”

Pantheon is scheduled for release on September 10th via their own label, Spatial Awareness

What have you picked up from being in the industry that you can pass on? YW: “That music is a community and a conversation. If you’re authentic, your work is good and the right people hear it – it should do a lot of the talking for you. The music is a joy, but the politics is a nightmare. Patience and attitude is everything.”

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What other projects do you have coming up? YW: “We’re so excited about the artist Tsunaina.

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