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THE GREAT

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INTERVIEW SOUND LIKE… INTERVIEW

PETRI ALANKO BILLIE EILISH CANBLASTER

The master of video game Learn how to recreate Billie’s The DJ and artist on plugin
horror scoring speaks vocal chain in your DAW development with BLEASS
 welcome / computer music <

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This icon means there are extra files to help you follow
FILES a tutorial feature: project files, audio examples, etc Here at Computer Music, it goes without saying that
we’re ardent advocates of software synths in all their
There’s extra video content wherever you see
this icon forms; whether we’re discussing 21st century, algorithm-
driven monsters, or faithful, circuit-modelled
reproductions of analogue classics. But there are those
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alleged warmth and unmistakable character of that
coveted original hardware. Well, each to their own and all
that, but – being the software proponents that we are –
we’re here to push our take that, in 2024, software
emulations are every bit as sonically lush and (for 99.9%
of listeners) nigh-on indistinguishable from their original
forebears. In our cover feature (p20), we put our firmly-
held view to the test, and compare three superb
Subscribe to hardware synths with their software recreations. The
Computer Music! results may not be what you think.
See p94 The ongoing debate between hardware and software
comes up in our conversation with video game
soundtrack composer Petri Alanko, who has started
Where to get jettisoning some of his massive arsenal of hardware
PRINT ZINIO classics, in favour of software. We learn more about his
in stores and online
magazinesdirect.com
for PC, Mac, Android, iPad & more
zinio.com
process, and how he scored the acclaimed horror
masterpiece Alan Wake 2 on p40. Later in
iOS APP STORE GOOGLE PLAY
for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch for Android & Chrome for PC/Mac the issue, we catch up with French DJ
computermusic.co.uk/cmdigital play.google.com
and, now plugin consultant, Canblaster
to find out how his insights helped
BLEASS Software to build the
WWW
musicradar.com/computermusic

computermusic@futurenet.com inventive Arpeggiator plugin.

facebook.com/computer.music.mag Alongside our regular tutorials,
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more in our guide, beginning on p84.
As always, I hope this issue helps
SCAN TO GET you make even better music.
OUR WEEKLY
NEWSLETTER Andy Price Editor
andy.price@futurenet.com
ISSUE 332 APRIL 2024

contents
Cover feature

56 70
/expert Reviews
guides 70 MOOG MARIANA
72 UVI FALCON 3
48 SOUND LIKE
MASTERCLASS 74 TOONTRACK
Andy Jones shows us how STOCKHOLM &
to get Billie Eilish vocals STORIES SDX
52 CM TOOLS EXPANSIONS
MASTERCLASS

SYNTH
76 NATIVE
Our new series digs deeper INSTRUMENTS
into the abilities of BazilleCM
KONTROL S-SERIES

SHOWDOWN
56 DANCE MUSIC MK3
MASTERCLASS 78 MASTERING THE
Sara Simms shows us how
to craft Avicii-style melodies
MIX RESO
80 SOUNDWARE
Celebrate the brilliance of software synths, 60 MIX
MASTERCLASS
and how to get more from them p20 Jon Musgrave shows us the
benefits of submixing Essentials
6 NEWS
/ interview 10 INTERFACE
16 ABLETON’S
40 PETRI ALANKO ACCESSIBILITY
Alan Wake 2’s soundtrack composer
REVOLUTION
talks scoring with DIY instruments
and an arsenal of plugins 94 SUBSCRIBE
64 15 QUESTIONS 97 BACK ISSUES
WITH… CANBLASTER
We chat to BLEASS collaborator and 98 NEXT MONTH
electronic producer Cédric Steffens

40 64 16
4 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
 downloads / contents <

downloads
Download this from bit.ly/cm332downloads – see p83

free software
TONE2 ULTRASPACE
How to use this month’s exclusive free plugin,
Tone2’s rather brilliant reverb, UltraSpace
84

free samples
AMBIENT GUITAR TEXTURES
This month’s free selection brings you
ambient six-string loops, delay-heavy
90 atmospherics, big bass grooves and more

free videos
MASTERCLASSES
Follow along with our in-house experts as
they guide you through their top tips for
93 mixing and synthesis

plugin suite
YOUR SUITE IN DETAIL
More than 80 plugins for free. All you need
to get started in music production! Learn
DOWNLOAD more about the suite in the PDF
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 5
> news
NEW RELEASES COMMENT INDUSTRY HAPPENINGS
California dreaming
This year’s NAMM show brought an intriguing
array of product launches to the table…
NAMM 2024 had a lot riding on it, being the
first fully-fledged January show since the
pre-pandemic era. The industry collectively
pondered whether the NAMM show would still
remain the draw it’s always been for music tech
manufacturers, or whether the rise in online and
influencer-aligned marketing strategies might
dilute the need for many to attend.
While we’re writing this, the show is currently
underway in its typical spot in Anaheim,
California, and all indications are that it has
proven itself to still be a vital networking and
From left, clockwise: the microKORG 2, Waves’ Space Rider, iZotope VEA and Supercritical’s Redshift 6
6 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
polyphonic architecture can handle up to eight
voices, and sounds can be layered in Dual mode
to create multi-timbral patches. The synth
comes with 512 presets categorised into eight
banks labelled by genre, and custom sounds can
be saved in its 64-slot patch memory.
Other impressive hardware that dazzled us
included Yamaha’s all-in-one Seqtrack, and
Supercritical Synthesizers’ ‘Demon Core
Oscillator’-driven Redshift 6. For us in-the-box-
based folks, there was the sublime-looking
Space Rider spatial effects suite from Waves,
the gorgeously UI’d Voice Enhancement
Assistant (VEA) from iZotope, and CM
favourites u-he demonstrated its upcoming free
version of the latest iteration of Zebra, with
Zebralette 3. We can’t wait to take a hands-on
look at this modern upgrade to what has
become a real Plugin Suite favourite.
There’s likely to be more releases we haven’t
mentioned, which we’ll fill you in on next issue.
In the meantime head to MusicRadar.com for
the complete coverage and show reporting.
musicradar.com
exhibiting hub. But what you really want to
know is, what did the show tell us about what’s
to come in 2024, right?
From a software point of view, there wasn’t a
great deal to write home about, with most of the
big stories being in the hardware domain. Korg
unveiled a salvo of new keyboards and synths:
particularly tantalising is the announcement of
the microKORG 2, the follow-up to one of our
favourite synths of all time. Like its hailed
predecessor, the microKORG 2 is built around a
virtual analogue synth engine. The synth’s
 news <

Any colour you like

Arturia kicked off 2024 in dazzling style, with the fifth revision of its hailed
polychrome softsynth Pigments. The fifth version sports improved CPU
optimisation for multi-core computers, a much slicker interface and
numerous under-the-hood improvements. The refined Play View provides
easier access to the fundamentals underpinning Pigments’ sounds. A new
algorithm-driven Sequencer
can generate instant musical
ideas at the click of a dice.
Another big draw with this new
version is the ability to process
external audio via a new audio
input function. Check back
soon for our full review. Free
upgrade for v4 owners, and
$199 for new users.
arturia.com

Space command
Announced last month was Audient’s first spatial
audio-focused audio interface and monitor
controller, Oria. Designed for multi-speaker arrays,
Oria will be of particular interest to larger-scale
studio owners. As well as being a USB-C audio
interface with 16 outputs, it can also integrate into
your existing setup as a standalone monitor controller via its ADAT Inputs or
the optional Dante Card. The room calibration software, in partnership with
Sonarworks, means their patented SoundID Reference profiling tech (and
mic) comes as standard. Priced at £2,520; the optional Dante Card is £600.
audient.com

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 7

> news
years
back
Our monthly shake-of-the-
head at our earlier selves’
news choices…
The more things change, the more they
stay the same. It’s an adage that has rang
true in music production for decades.
Despite the flurry of innovation that has
borne such fruit as digital technology,
cloud-based collaboration, AI-assisted
plugins and hyper-fast CPUs, when it
comes down to it, the nuts and bolts of
achieving a good mix haven’t really shifted
since the middle of the last century. Ten
“It seems inconceivable that
records produced in a decade’s
time won’t sound different…”
years ago, we wrangled with those all-
important (and evergreen) dynamics
considerations that underpin every mix.
Despite some of the compressor, limiters
and EQs evolving over the ensuing ten
years, the meat of that feature remains an
insightful read today.
Also in that issue, we asked the question
as to whether the overall quality of music
production was improving, with the
increasing ease of in-the-box production in
2014 facilitating flawless mixes with limited
know-how. “It seems inconceivable that
records produced in a decade’s time won’t
sound different to those that we’re
listening to today,” we mused, “but will the
standard of their production actually be
any higher?”
Well, now we’re smugly sat here in that
glistening future. Though we’re
surrounded by lossless formats, spatial
audio experiences and personalised
listening profiles, we still don’t feel we can
confidently answer that question. Can you?
Ten years ago we were getting a grip on dynamics
8 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
What did you learn in 2023?
We asked ’s readers to get reflective…
HEIST
“The personal attachment you
have to your own productions will
never be the same as an unattached
listener. Remember that.”
LATEEF MURDOCK
“That learning to mix took all of
the joy out of creating songs. Now,
I create songs with mixing in mind and it
just ruined everything. I get so caught up
in how things are going to be mixed that I
tend to take less chances and that hurts my
creativity. It puts me too much in my head.”
TARA FORTH
“Audio repair services are a
lucrative side hustle.”
NICOLÒ KAPAMORASKI
ANGELLARO
“When it seems you do the same
Ins & outs
KRAFT PUNK
Ahead of the release of his new solo
record Time, legendary Kraftwerk
beatsmith Wolfgang Flür has
revealed that Daft Punk’s Thomas
Bangalter collaborated on a track,
along with New Order bass icon
Peter Hook and DJ Juan Atkins. We
can’t wait to hear the results.
PLAYING FAIR
The European Parliament has voted
for new legislation to ensure fairer
payouts for musicians and artists
from streaming platforms. Key
issues under discussion were how
to tackle the unfair playing field that
favours extremely popular artists,
and the rising threats of AI.
TOOLING-UP
Avid has announced some
upgrades to Pro Tools, namely
much greater MIDI functionality,
including plugin support and signal
flow improvements. It has also
promised far smoother Sibelius
interaction when it comes to
importing projects.
thing over and over, breaking your own
rules and trying something out of the book
makes you wonder once again.”
CARLOS DE JESUS
“I learned to not start any new
projects unless I was 100 percent
complete with other projects, unless it was
absolutely necessary.”
DAVID HUGHES
“I’ve started incorporating more
guitar-based melody lines into my
experimental projects. I’m probably quite a
mediocre guitarist in the grand scheme of
things, but if the guitar isn’t the
centrepiece of what you’re doing, then you
don’t really need to be [an expert].”
SILENT SERVANT – RIP
Legendary DJ, producer and label
co-founder Silent Servant (aka
John Juan Mendez) passed away in
January. With a 30-year career as an
electronic musician and having
been a respected fixture at some of
the world’s biggest clubs, Mendez
will be greatly missed.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
There was confusion last month
when Pioneer DJ’s parent
company AlphaTheta announced
that further products would sport
that name and not the recognised
Pioneer branding. It was later
clarified that further Pioneer DJ
products will sit separately.
ELVOLUTION
A new Elvis hologram experience,
titled ‘Elvis Evolution’ looks set to
buck the trend of resurrecting
deceased icons digitally. Opening
in London, the show uses AI and
archive material to reincarnate
the King, for classic hits and
(virtual) hip-swinging fun.
Interface
Leapwing Audio: their
own best customers
One of the mixing world’s most prolific software
innovators, Leapwing Audio’s incredible range of intuitive,
incisive plugins have let users perform forensic mix
surgery with ease, with the company’s sideline in
emulating the tones of iconic producers merely the
cherry on the cake. We gave ’em a call…
of plugins. There were ones that were very
easy to use but didn’t sound very good.
They were phasey and very new at that
point, and the other ones were super-
complicated, and you needed to go through
pages and pages of things to sound good.
“So, our original goal was to make plugins
that are easy to use, have a few controls, but
under the hood there are a lot of things that
we’ve fine-tuned and considered. So it’s easy
to make mixes sound better. That was
always the original goal.
“With that, we also want to keep
innovating – we don’t want to just build
Leapwing Audio another regular compressor like everyone
Robin Reumers else. That’s been our focus point in the last
eight or nine years almost.”
(Product Development Manager)
: How quickly after v1 did you guys
start making StageOne 2?
: Firstly we must talk about StageOne RR: “It took some time. What we’ve always
2. It’s such a 21st century plugin, with its known is that when we’re building one
superb stereo visualiser and the smart plugin we’re learning for the next one. When
phase recovery algorithm really changing we made CenterOne, a lot of those ideas
the game for a lot of people. Was saving helped us to build StageOne. Then RootOne
people time and headaches a big helped us with different ideas of how to do
motivation with StageOne 2? things, and getting DynOne 3 out gave us
Robin Reumers: “Yes. That’s been the goal new ideas and that really evolved again into
from the start. When we began Leapwing the ideas for StageOne 2. It’s always been
Audio in 2015, we felt there were two types kind of iterative.”
10 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
“That would be one of the benefits of
being a small company: we don’t have those
fixed release dates where we’re panicking
because we have to release something in
three months. That forces people to have
something ready, even though it might not
be great yet. With us, we don’t release
anything unless we’re really happy with it.
Some products we’ve been working on for
two years and we get nowhere with. Maybe
we’ll make a breakthrough next Monday, or
maybe it’ll be next year. That’s what we’re
like, effectively. We like to experiment and
find new ways and sometimes they work,
sometimes they don’t.”
: What are some of your favourite
things to do with StageOne 2 that the first
iteration wasn’t able to do?
RR: “I think for me, the best thing about
StageOne 2 is the multi-band approach, so
you can have three bands you can tweak
individually. With the first StageOne we
really tuned the algorithm to work well
across the frequency spectrum. But, of
course, in certain cases that is a bit limiting
because you might not want to fully stretch
out the low end or you might want to not
touch the high end and just focus on the
mid-range. When I’m mixing, that’s

something I want to do often. The low mids
become super boxy when you’re summing a
lot of instruments. For me, that’s been the
biggest aspect that’s improved when using
it. They’re things that previously would have
required me to be more subtle, now I can go
more extreme because I’m only only dealing
with a certain frequency range.”
: Do you conceptualise your ‘One’
series of plugins being used in-tandem by
producers, and how much direct
conversation do you have when
developing in terms of what features you
add/tweak?
RR: “Yes. I don’t think we’ll ever put them all
into one plugin as that’d be so extensive.
With DynOne, for example, we’ve had
conversations where we’re at a loss as to
what more to put into it.
“Anything more that we then put into it
was going to make it impossible to use
because it’s just so fully-featured already. I
do like how things are interconnected. We’re
slowly building this Leapwing Audio
ecosystem of tools that can do anything you
want when mixing.
“We talk to producers a lot. At its core,
Leapwing is just the three of us, myself,
Jeroen Dreessen and Emiliano Caballero.
Emiliano’s main focus is to work with
producers and engineers to get their
feedback. He also works in the industry so
he has a lot of contacts. I also try and do that
myself with the contacts I have in
engineering and production.
“I also work in a studio, so whenever new
people come by I ask them about their
thoughts on Leapwing Audio’s plugins if
they’ve used them. We’re definitely always
trying to keep on the lookout for new tools,
and other plugin companies that are doing
new things. That also inspires us. It’s not just
our own tools that inspire us but the
development of the market as a whole.”
Leapwing’s StageOne takes an innovative approach to stereo imaging
: How big is the team, beyond the core
of you three guys?
RR: “In total I’d say there are around 12 of us,
but not all are full-time. Mostly part-time.
Our development team and marketing team
are part-time. But in total, working on each
project, there are 12 people.”
: How did Leapwing Audio first get off
the ground?
RR: “Well, all three of us originally worked at
Galaxy Studios in Belgium. Jeroen was
working on 3D audio, I was CTO of the studio
so I was in charge of all the technical stuff,
and Emiliano worked as an engineer. At
some point in 2015, I had the idea of the
“With us, we don’t
release anything
unless we’re really
happy with it”
multi-band compressor that I just wanted to
build for myself. I thought at that moment
there was nothing on the market that I felt
sounded good in software. The only thing
that worked for me were hardware
compressors, like the TC Electronic Music
6000, but that cost around $15,000. It was
crazy that there wasn’t a plugin that could
do something similar, especially with CPUs
getting better and better. That kind of got
me thinking and I started just sketching
some designs. I came back and spoke to
Jeroen first, I just said, ‘hey, maybe we could
work on this together’. We realised we were
both quite introverted and needed another
person who could actually talk to people!”
“We spoke to Emiliano and the three of us
then came together and created Leapwing.
interface <
Initially, the first year was just building stuff,
going through the experience of building
and learning each day. I think the first
person who I asked for their opinion was
Bob Katz. He was my mentor. His ears are
obviously the ones I trust the most. We sent
it to him and I was convinced he’d find
something wrong with it. He came back and
said that it was the best-sounding thing he’d
heard. At that moment it made sense for us
to build the company and start thinking
about selling what we were doing.”
: The Al Schmitt plugin was a real fave
of ours. His passing recently of course
made us value its sonic character even
more. What initially prompted you to
choose Al as the first of your featured
Signature series producers?
RR: “He actually reached out to us! This was
two years before he passed away. We were
at a charity golf tournament in LA. He came
over to Emiliano and said that loads of
plugin companies had asked him to build a
plugin but he wasn’t sure how to do it. But
he wanted to do it and do it with us guys.
Emiliano and I were close to Al. He trusted
us. Prior to that, we had no intention of
doing a signature series, but we weren’t
going to say no to Al.
“Then we started working on it, and
investigated how to best capture what he
did, which was a challenge in itself, but a lot
of fun.”
: How much of that development
process was sourcing the gear that Al
used, and how much was based on his
actual methods?
RR: “I’d say probably 70% of it was gear and
30% process. More than the gear itself, it
was seeing what effect the gear had. For
example Al had a vocal chain which
included a Fairchild and a Pultec. So, any
vocal he did would run through that. We
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 11
Interface
wanted to see what it is that this gear is
doing to the vocals. There were specific
qualities about the units he used: with
coloration and harmonics. So, we tried to
analyse what it was about the things he
likes in his chains. We’d look at the recall
sheets to see what he had done. We’d just
piece together the puzzle of why he
reached for some things all the time, and
why he did what he did. Then, we distilled
it all down into one plugin.”

: It was a great way to bring those

legendary characteristics to the modern
in-the-box producer’s toolkit. It was the
first in the ‘Leapwing Signature’ series
which of course continued with Joe
Chiccarelli. How different was the
process of making the Joe plugin?
RR: “It was actually a lot more challenging
because Joe uses a lot of gear, I would say
six times more pieces of gear as Al. With Al
everything was very subtle and also when
we analyse things with Al we were
analysing harmonics at -50dB. It was more
about those kinds of things, with Joe who
operates in more of the rock music
domain, he goes much less subtle. That
was definitely a challenge. He doesn’t do
the same thing all of the time, so how can
we still find things that always work. It was
definitely harder in terms of the amount of
gear we had to analyse.”
“The cool thing with the Signature
Series is that with Al Schmitt, we first
released four profiles and then we added
two later which we’d completed before he
passed. There are even more that we
might add to Joe’s in the future or might
add as free upgrades.
“With Al’s, of course it’s harder because
we can’t check and confirm with him that
he approves them. I think that plugin is
final now, but the rest of the Signature
Series will have periodic updates.”

: What can you tell us about Leapwing

Audio’s upcoming developments – or
more broad areas you might be moving
into in the future?
RR: “The next year will be focused on more
updates to the One series. Then probably
at the end of the year we’ll be going back
to the Signature Series, but at the moment
that’s where our focus is. We’ll do
something in the dynamics space –
something between the compressing,
limiting, clipping area but I can’t be too
specific. At this moment in time we don’t
have anything concrete but we’re
definitely playing in that area.”
: What role do you see the
development of A.I. playing in your
software in the future, given that you
already use smart algorithms etc?
RR: “For us, I like A.I. a great deal in the
development phase – it allows you to
quickly analyse certain things, but also it
can be quite unpredictable because it’s all
based on the training set. If the training set
is not big enough, it’s going to give you
random results. It helps us to get a sense
of the results of certain algorithms. You
can use it to help you analyse the data. For
Leapwing’s Signature series mines the creative genius of iconic producers’ setups
real-time plugins, it’s very hard to do
something effective with A.I. It’s very good
at big brush things.”
: On that theme, what are your
predictions for the next few years in the
software end of the music production
space? Do you worry that there’ll be less
control and human options available?
RR: “My big fear in general is that if there’s a
lot of processing going on, even when
you’re doing de-noising and things like that,
artefacts aren’t present anymore. I do a lot
of work with students and it’s interesting
that they have a hard time spotting artefacts
and things like phase issues and such. I’m
worried that the more we use automatic
tools that do a bunch of stuff then we over-
process the music and things become kind
of flat. When we record something, I always
send it over to a great mix engineer. When
they send it back, it always sounds amazing,
but it’s not that they’re putting 50 plugins on
it. They uses their tools really well. I’m
hoping we stay in that and avoid the world
of automatic mixing.”
“Other than that, I think the landscape is
great for people who are starting in audio,
having the tools to make something sound
decent relatively quickly. That is the best
part of this whole process. But for people
who really want to go pro and make a living
out of mixing, it’s sometimes advised to do
less processing.”
For more info on Leapwing Audio, and to
purchase some of their plugins, head to
leapwingaudio.com

12 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024

> ableton live 12’s accessibility revolution

Ableton Live 12’s

accessibility
revolution
Ableton’s Accessibility Specialist Adi Dickens and blind
musician Andre Louis speak to us about Live 12 and
Note’s improved accessibility for the visually impaired

16 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024


As the imminent release of Ableton Live
12 makes the inevitable waves, we all
begin to focus on our new favourite
features, things that we just know will
become part of our daily workflow. Then,
there are the additions which have less
widespread appeal, but are equally – if not
vitally – important for some. One example in
Live 12 is in the arrival of accessibility for
visually impaired musicians.
Live 12 is the first iteration of the popular
DAW to include screen reader support on
macOS and Windows. On macOS and iOS,
there’s the built-in VoiceOver application,
while on Windows there’s Narrator, and
third-party solutions including Jaws. Now,
Live 12 and Note on iOS, both support these.
This means that somebody who can’t see
well, or at all, can independently produce
music with these for the first time, doing
everything from opening the app to
performing a live set or making a recording.
It really is impressive to experience this in
action, as we did recently with London-
ableton live 12’s accessibility revolution <
based artist Andre Louis, who is blind, and
yet manages to be fully functional as a
recording and performing artist with Note,
and now, Live 12 (and it has to be said,
before those, Logic Pro X).
“I want other
companies’ board
meetings to be like,
‘How do we do it?’”
Andre has been consulting with Ableton
on their development of Note and Live 12,
so we checked in with him and Ableton’s
Accessibility Specialist Adi Dickens to get
some insight. “We’ve been collaborating in
terms of Andre giving feedback about the
choices we’ve been making,” says Adi, “and
the development process that’s been
happening since 2020.”
This sounds like it has been a very
positive process, as Andre expands: “If I
loaded Live 11 with VoiceOver on a Mac, all I
would get when I navigated is the default
VoiceOver noise. There’s nothing to see
here, maybe the menu bar worked, maybe,
I don’t remember, I’ll be honest. It’s zero to
hero. This is a company that has gone from
nothing to everything, and I have nothing
but respect for the team that has done this.”
As well as the screen reader support, the
drive towards accessibility has resulted in
Live 12 getting overhauled keyboard
shortcuts; there are many more to use, as
well as a new Navigation menu, containing
shortcuts and commands that immediately
take you to areas of the Live screen, for
example alt-1 for Session View, or alt-4 for
Device View. Let’s face it, more shortcuts
are good for everybody: they make it faster
to get around, and they don’t add any visual
clutter while doing it. As usual, shortcuts are
Blind recording and
performing artist Andre
Louis makes full use of
Note and Live 12
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 17
> ableton live 12’s accessibility revolution

displayed alongside their text in Live’s

menus, so practice those when you can.
Accessibility often leads the way in terms
of hardware and software control interfaces
– developments that we can all benefit from.
Everybody should care about this issue.
Ultimately, the more diverse the user base,
the more diverse the functional creative
community. As Andre puts it: “Anybody
could need accessibility at any minute;
anything can happen. When you say
‘accessibility is not on your roadmap’, you’re
saying a lot of people just don’t matter to
you. And, it means you’re cutting out a lot of
musicians from being able to use the tools
that you make.”
And it goes beyond equipment
selections: “You might be losing out on
potential band members, artists, people you
might work with.”
It seems likely that Ableton’s big steps in
this domain will motivate others in the Ableton Live 12’s release is imminent, and is set to be more accessible than ever before
industry, as Andre continues: “I want board
meetings in other companies to be like, ‘well,
Ableton have done this. How do we do it?” else who was using Live. By being the size of want more people in the industry to see
Adi concurs, and explains how Live 12’s player we are in electronic music, it will this and know they should start now.”
accessibility improvements will fuel a make other people go ‘okay, it’s time we did If you’re interested in learning more
creative future: “Now schools can get a Live this as well’. We’ve been fortunate to have a about accessibility, Andre recommends
licence and know that any person in that great team of participants who are willing to the Ableton Live 12 public beta change
environment that wants to learn electronic follow us on that journey and a great team log as a source of info about updates, as
music making will not be excluded because of developers. well as the Microsoft Inclusive Toolkit
it’s not available to a screen reader. Before “To go from nothing to the accessibility Manual (https://inclusive.microsoft.
Live 12, people like Andre could not level that we have now is such a huge design), and is also available to contact
collaborate independently with somebody change, and it’s achievable, and I would at accessibility@ableton.com

18 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024

> cover feature / the great synth showdown

THE GREAT

20 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024

 the great synth showdown / cover feature <
Grab your favourite softsynths and let
us take you on a journey into their
evolution. Learn how to get more out
of them and see how they stack up
next to the pioneers that inspired
them. Yes, we’re pitting some software
against hardware, and on the way,
expect to pick up one or two things…
Words: Andy Jones
It’s time to celebrate the polysynth!
Let’s be clear, that pretty much
encompasses every synth you use on your
computer. What we once called a
polysynth is essentially any synth where
you can play more than a single note
simultaneously. Today, we’re celebrating
where these synths came from. And in
doing so, we’re going to learn more about
how to use them, how to get more out of
your regular favourites, and also point out
some of the best alternatives out there.
We’re also going to compare some
hardware polysynths with their
software equivalents.
The polysynth revolution is a huge subject
to take on with one feature, so we’ve broken
it down into concise – and in some cases,
not so concise – chunks. We’ve tackled the
history of the analogue synth, from its
mono beginning, through becoming poly,
to turning digital, and how they led to the
synths we use today. This will give you
a short and sweet context on the innovations
that ultimately led to the development of
your favourite plugins.
Next, we take a look at another kind of
synth, the synth workstation (aka, the
ROMpler). We explore how it came to be,
inevitably with some overlap with the
analogue evolution. And just like
the analogue synth before it, this led to
a very different kind of software polysynth:
the workstation ROMpler
With both of these synth types now in
hand, we look at six of the best of each
– classic vintage synth emulations and
modern day software ROMplers – before
taking you on several guided tours on how
to get the best from each type. There are
classic techniques, new ways to make the
most of polysynth power, and step-by-step
tutorials to achieve famous sounds.
We then take a look to the future (and,
actually, the present) as well as a few ways
that hardware and software synthesisers
are no longer sitting on either side of a fence
lobbing stones at one another, but actually
linking up, sharing presets and more. It’s
a glimpse at a sweeter, more hybrid future,
one where perhaps the definitions of
hardware and software are blurred.
We then tackle the thorny question of
which is the best software polysynth in
2024. And with six absolute blinders included
from our tests from the last 12 months,
there’s plenty to choose from, and a lot
of variety on offer.
Finally, and at odds with what we just said
about blurring definitions between hardware
and software synths, we’re going to set three
hardware and software polysynths against
one another. Or rather, you are. We’re going
to take three classic synths, record some
similar(ish) sounds, upload them and
you can select the best. Be sure to download
our ZebraCM plugin from our Plugin Suite
and prepare to expand your knowledge!
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 21
> cover feature / the great synth showdown
The rise of the
software polysynth
Can you believe that there was a time in history
when you could only play one synth note at a
time? Here’s how those notes increased, and how
we got where we are today in the polysynth world
Of course, all synths we use at Computer Music
are polysynths at heart, simply because
computer processing is now up to speed to
deliver as many notes as you can physically play
for any plugin you load up. However, you can
trace a lot of our current synth favourites – most
in fact – back to a time when we weren’t as spoilt
as we are now. A period when you could only
play one note on any synth at a time. And they
were glorious times.
The monosynth, i.e. any synth that can only
play one note at any one time, was first
developed in the ’60s/early ’70s. Yes, there are
versions of the synthesiser that go back many
more years, but we’re talking about machines
22 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
with a keyboard where you could play a melody.
It was the Minimoog, released in 1970, that
history will recall as the first ever synth.
Synths stayed mono for a few years, while
companies like Roland, ARP, Yamaha, Korg, and
other names you’ll know from the synth world
today, released machines in the early 1970s. The
problem was that they still only played one note
at a time.
Polyphonic dawn
In the mid ’70s, machines from the likes of
Oberheim increased the number of voices by
effectively adding modules together; rather like
just putting two monosynths together to play
two notes. Yamaha had more success with the
CS-80 (eight voices) and the GX-1 (more of an
organ with loads of keyboards but 18 voices).
These were big machines though, and not
exactly something the keyboard players of the
time enjoyed lugging from gig to gig.
In 1978, the Prophet-5 came out: with five
notes of polyphony and the ability to save and
recall sounds (all within a single, more portable
keyboard), it was a much more practical
solution. And it was successful because of that.
This was a big moment in a polyphony race
that has lasted to this day – even the softsynths
we use now have the number of notes of
polyphony quoted as an important spec. Now, of
course, we want our synths to max out when our
processors do, so the sky is the limit. Back then,
the big aim was to get to a mere 10 notes of
polyphony, the maximum number of notes that
most humans could physically play at one time.
Dave Smith and John Bowen, who had invented
the Prophet-5 had the ingenious solution of
literally sitting two Prophet-5s on top of one
another and calling it a Prophet-10. Easy!
Other companies who had joined the race
developed machines that gradually increased
 the great synth showdown / cover feature <

the number of notes. You’ll have realised by now

that synth manufacturers would put a heavy Get some free
polysynths here
polyphonic clue in the name of each synth. The
Roland Jupiter-8 had eight notes, and its cousins
in the Juno range had six voices (yes, there was
a ‘6’ in each of their names).
Of course, you already know where to get some
The digital age
Throughout the first half of the 1980s, free polysynths already, right? Yes the Computer
polyphony crept up and up, but it received a
larger boost with digital synths like the Yamaha Music Plugin Suite is full to the brim, with no less
DX7 and Roland D-50 which could each deliver
16 notes at a time. But, as we shall see over the than a dozen full synths. Of the polys, we
page, digital synths brought their own sets of
requirements as they morphed into monster
recommend you load up u-he ZebraCM now, as
workstation ROMplers via multi-timbrality, and we often use it in our tutorials. Elsewhere, Synapse
these would push polyphony needs up further.
However, both of these digital workstation Audio Dune CM features some excellent
synths and the analogue machines that we
discussed earlier can be seen to have shaped hands-on modulation and a fantastic UI. Seaweed
the synth plugins we use today, as well as how
we use them. We now have two very distinct
Audio Fathom CM gives you a flavour of all sorts
software polysynths and two use scenarios. The
first is the standard synth plugin, which you
of synthesis types, but in a very user-friendly way,
might use on multiple channels to create songs, and Dmitry Sches Thorn CM is a long-standing
very much as you would a hardware polysynth
from the ’70s and ’80s. Then there’s the favourite, capable of some very flexible sounds.
workstation/ROMpler approach. This is where
you can use a plugin like UVI Falcon or Out there in freeware land you are spoilt for
Steinberg Halion on one track to do everything
– very much like a 1990s/2000s workstation.
choice; too spoilt really, so let’s narrow the
options to help. Kilohearts kHs ONE is one of our
Machines increased more recent synth favourites, with a very
easy-on-the-eye interface, easy workflow and a
the number of voices great sound. Surge XT is an open source
by effectively adding subtractive hybrid synth with 700+ wavetables
modules together and 2800 patches. It’s another of our long-term
favourites but there’s good reason for that.
That said, there’s actually a very good Usynth Drive is dedicated to dance and does it
argument to say that it was more the original
analogue hardware polysynths from the 1970s very well behind a nice and very slick UI, and the
and ’80s that should really be given the praise
for the software synth revolution we enjoy
same goes for Retornz ToneZ, another dance
today. Let’s explain… favourite. Enjoy this lot and don’t spend a bean…
During the 1990s people had largely turned
away from analogue to use all-new digital
synths, but by the end of the decade, they
realised how bland and difficult to use these
early software pioneers could be, so wanted
analogue back. Synth users are so contrarian.
It was the hands-on control and analogue
sound that people were demanding. To cater to
that hunger, it was the analogue machines that
the software developers turned to when they
started really emulating hardware synths. And
after those very ‘analogue’ early VA synths, we
are now using all sorts of polyphonic softsynths
that spawned from them. Some, arguably,
surpass their original hardware, at least in terms
of what your computer can make them do.
Later in this feature, we’ll take a look at those
softsynths that emulate the classic analogue
synths, software emulations of the workstation
do-it all ROMplers, and the most recent in-the-
box wonders we have reviewed. However you
see the history of polyphonic synths, there is no
doubt that it has led to a heck of a lot of power
under our mouse pointer. Usynth Drive is one of our freeware polysynth picks

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 23

> cover feature / the great synth showdown
6 of the best vintage
polysynth emulations
Six timeless synthesisers (actually five but who’s
counting) recreated for your desktop delight…
Softube Model 80
€159
The Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 was the first ever
polysynth (kind of), so forgive us for including two
emulations. Each has its own plusses, but Softube’s
perhaps sticks to the original – and its limitations –
the most. The UI looks so real that you can almost
smell the wood varnish, and the presets are so
authentic that you can almost hear the deep
vibration that wood made when a note was played.
softube.com
24 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
Cherry Audio GX-80
$59
It might well take elements from the Yamaha GX-1,
but, really, GX-80 is all about the behemoth of a
polysynth (both in price and size), often topping
synth fans ‘best ofs’, the CS-80. This Vangelis
favourite was used to score many of his films; and
yes, the presets are all here. As well as having an
impressively easy-to-use UI, the price is about £60k
less than what you’d fork out for the original.
cherryaudio.com
Roland Cloud Jupiter-8
£2.99 to £19.99/month, or £199
The original Jupiter is one of those vintage
polysynths – see also the Yamaha CS-80 above
– which now fetches silly money secondhand
(easily five figures). We’ll leave it to the experts to
recreate it, then, so we’ve included Roland’s own
Cloud version. It’s expensive, so you might even
be tempted by a subscription – which gets you
many more classic Roland polys.
roland.com
 the great synth showdown / cover feature <

TAL-U-NO-LX
£58
Alongside the Jupiter range,
the Juno is the other iconic
’80s Roland poly. TAL
software’s recreation is among
the best (albeit of not that
many), with the same logical
layout as the original, and
its rich sound. TAL loves its
Roland synths and the passion
shows in pretty much every
plugin it sells. It’s one of the
cheaper emulations here too,
and well worth the price.
tal-software.com
GForce OB-X
£99.99 plus tax
It’s apt that we have an emulation
of the Oberheim OB-X sandwiched
between a couple of Prophet-
5s, because that was the synth it
was designed to compete with
back in 1979. As with everything
GForce, everything is meticulously
recreated here; we could have
included loads of GF plugins here
had they not been mostly based
on monosynths. But there are
extras too: polyphony, modulation
and much more. Another classic
GForce plugin.
gforcesoftware.com

Arturia Prophet-5 V
€199
Finally, that other Prophet-5 we promised, and
this Arturia recreation – as with a lot of the French
company’s plugins – not only emulates the
original sound and aesthetic, but adds modern
touches, with more presets, effects, and features
to play with. It is expensive, but like the Jupiter,
there are other ways to buy, and if you can
afford it, go for the V-Collection.
arturia.com

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 25

> cover feature / the great synth showdown
> Step by step 1. Classic synth basics: monophonic, polyphonic, voices versus oscillators
1 2
There’s a lot of confusion when it comes to voices, oscillators and
notes, so we’ll start this polyphonic tour by hitting the subject head
on. First up, the oscillators that generate the waveforms are the core
components of an analogue synth. Here are those from the iconic
Prophet-5 polysynth (c/o Arturia).
3 4
When it comes to monophonic versus polyphonic synths, the core
of everything comes down to the number of voices on a synth,
not the number of oscillators. These might be very different figures!
A monophonic synth has just one voice; the legendary Jupiter-8 has
eight (the eight in its name).
5 6
More confusion comes in when you take a typical polysynth. And
while its voice count might be eight, so you can play eight notes
at once, it only has two oscillators, all evident again on the famous
Jupiter-8.
26 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
The waveforms generated on a typical subtractive polysynth will
be similar to those on a monosynth – they use the same synthesis
principles. These waveforms are from a Minimoog but they’re similar
shapes to those on the Prophet-5 (step 1). (Note the square wave
selected on OSC2 is available on both oscillators on the Prophet-5.)
Confusion arises because, while a monosynth has a single voice, it
might have more oscillators. The Minimoog famously has three, all
generating waveforms, but these are passed through a single signal
chain, so a single note is played. This explains why the Mini has its
famous fat sound: it uses a lot of oscillators to generate just one voice.
The important factor is that each of these eight voices can access
two oscillators, so while the synth might only have two oscillators
shown on the front panel, it actually has 16 under the bonnet. So you
can play up to eight notes/voices, triggering up to 16 oscillators.
 the great synth showdown / cover feature <
> Step by step 2. Classic synth basics: unison and how to get that supersaw sound, for free
1 2
Now we’ve covered polysynth voice basics, we can briefly touch
upon how flexible they can be. Most polysynths come with at least
three voice modes. Poly mode will let you play polyphonically; as many
notes as your synth allows. Mono mode turns the synth into a
monosynth. Useful for playing those 1970s prog rock keyboard solos…
3 4
So why use Unison Mode? The resulting sound of all the voices
playing can create huge sounds, even though you’re limited to
a single mono note. Especially so with old analogue polysynths which
would have detuning between the waveforms. The waveform tends to
be a sawtooth, as it’s the most dramatic. But experiment with others.
5 6
There’s every chance you have Unison mode on your polysynth(s)
but if not, you have now! ZebraCM (which you can get free from
the CM Suite) has an easy way to enjoy the huge trance sound. Load it
up and initialise a patch (bottom preset) as this gives you a sawtooth.
The third is Unison mode which is also monophonic. Here you are
using the extra voices that mono mode affords to stack on a single
note. Think of it as giving that one note the power of polyphony. As
you’re playing all oscillator waveforms in one, you might notice your
CPU rate rise; ours is 31% on a single note play.
The 1996 Roland JP-8000 synth set a new benchmark with the
Unison sound, as it included a supersaw wave; effectively seven
sawtooth waves stacked together. This was also not limited to being
monophonic, so the sound and the synth became huge in trance and
EDM circles.
Unison mode varies between synths. Here you select between 1, 2,
4 and 11 stacked waveforms. Step up to 11 and your saw will get
louder, but as we hinted at earlier, we need some detune. Raise the
Detune for an instant trance stack. You’re not limited to mono either.
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 27
> cover feature / the great synth showdown
Synth workstation
ROMplers
Where the 1980s gave us analogue polysynths,
the 1990s gave us a very different polysynth: the
workstation. And just like the analogues, we’re
still using virtual versions of them today
As we’ve seen, throughout the first half of the
1980s, polyphony crept up, but it didn’t really
hot up until the invention of multitimbrality.
This then gave rise to the synth workstation, the
second kind of polysynth that we’re including
in this feature. And as we’ll see now, those early
synth workstations needed a lot more
polyphony, so much so that many thought
the quest for more polyphony was futile.
Multitimbral synths (the first example of
which seems to have been by Sequential for
its Six-Trak in 1984) allow you to play different
sounds at once, triggered by different MIDI
channels. It’s like having multiple synths in one
shell, each with different presets to choose from.
But it wasn’t just limited to a couple of channels
or tracks of multitimbrality. Just like polyphony,
this figure would start to rise as technology
improved and processing speeds rose, but this
ended up meaning more poly problems. For
every extra channel of multitimbrality you got,
28 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
you effectively wanted 10 more notes of
polyphony to fully use them – or at least that
what those demanding players of the ’80s
would say.
By the end of the decade, synths like the
Roland D-20 could deliver eight different sounds
across eight channels of multitimbrality, so
could provide every part of a song. And with
a sequencer like Cubase on an Atari controlling
all eight channels, it was doing just that – one
channel would provide bass, the other keys and
so on. Which would have been brilliant, but the
overall polyphony was limited to 32 notes. This
meant you could play a maximum of four notes
together on each channel, so if you wanted to
play with two hands, you soon ran out. More
and more polyphony was required!
It did come, though, and as processing power
improved, these so-called digital workstations
and ROMplers arrived with then-extraordinary
specs for multitimbrality and polyphony.
The 1995 Roland JV-1080 had 64 notes of
polyphony and started a JV trend in Roland
workstations. Later Roland, Korg and Yamaha
monster workstations would increase these
figures and now top-end machines like the
Yamaha Genos2 boast figures of 384 for
polyphony, quite enough for its 16 parts of
multitimbrality. As the analogue polysynths of
the ’70s and ’80s developed into the polysynths
that we use today, so monster workstations
have developed their own strand of poly
softsynth or ROMpler.
So where are we now?
And that really brings us to today because
softsynths and ROMplers still boast polyphony
– and multitimbrality, but of course using them
across multiple tracks means both figures can
be maxed out (although many can be used as
multitimbral modules on a single track).
Polyphony and multitimbral specs are
therefore now quoted almost as a guide to show
you how many instances of a softsynth you can
load on different channels, and how many notes
you can play before your computer falls over.
Really, if you’re maxing out today’s computers
regularly by loading too many instances and
playing too many notes, you might want to
think about the density of your mixes.
Often incorporating sampling alongside
many synthesis types, ROMplers literally do
everything, as we’ll see later when we round up
six of the best software workstation ROMplers.
 the great synth showdown / cover feature <

Roland POLYSYNTH SHOWDOWN PART 1

JV-1080
hardware Roland ROMplers
sound
module vs
Roland Cloud
JV-1080
software
As we’ve just detailed the rise of the ROMpler
polysynth (left), it’s apt that our first hardware/
software head-to-head comes by way of one of
the most famous – and successful – hardware
ROMpler/sound modules ever released, the
Roland JV-1080. Released in 1994, this not only
opened the door for a string of successors from
Roland, notably the 2080 and 3080, but also
from competing companies, so much so that the
rest of the decade became an exercise in who
could up the polyphony and multitimbrality
stakes the most.
It was mostly Korg and Yamaha that were in
competition with Roland with these kinds of
sound modules back then, but the 1080 boasted
some pretty good specs to start with, including
64-note polyphony and a full 16 parts of
multitimbrality. You could basically produce
complete songs with it, and it was packed to the
brim with sounds to do just that, featuring three
banks of 128 presets, 128 user locations and
performances, where parts could be layered or
played as multitimbral setups. The ace up its
sleeve, though, was its ability to expand via four
JV slots so you could add cards with themed Listen for yourself…
collections of extra sounds: World, Techno,
We have several audio examples from both of our JVs to listen to (download them
Vintage Synth and more.
from bit.ly/cm332downloads). Our software audio was obviously generated from
We’re putting the original hardware JV-1080
within the DAW, with the hardware JV-1080 being played directly into a high-quality
up against its direct software counterpart, the
audio interface, an Audient EVO 16 since you ask. There’s no additional hardware or
Roland Cloud JV-1080. This is one of many
software effects on either, just the clean unadulterated audio. We’ve attempted to
Roland synths available in the Roland Cloud
play the same presets so comparisons will be as close to ‘like with like’ as possible,
(including all of the analogue classics, many
although there is some variation which you will hear. The presets we played are…
digital ones and loads of other sound content
for between $2.99 and $19.99/month).
It’s probably the most direct comparison of
hardware and software that we could make for
this feature as both hardware and software
1> 02 ALTERNATIVE
A rock/techno guitar sound

feature the same preset names. You would think,

then, that, especially with both hardware and
software being digital, there would be little to
2> 08 101 BASS
An analogue bass sound

choose between the two.

Well, we’ll let you decide, as we think there
might well be. The JV-1080 is seen as one of
3> 04 WEST COAST
One of the famous JV piano sounds

the better choiced JVs because its output

converters are said to sound better. Whether
you can hear that, of course, is where our
4> 06 S&H PAD
Another famous layered JV pad sound

listening tests come in – see left. We think you
might be quite surprised at the differences
you’ll hear but don’t let us sway you!
Now turn the page as we do it all again with
the Sequential Prophet V.
In the audio example, these presets play one after the other. The audio playing first
each time is the hardware JV and the second audio example is the Roland Cloud JV.
See if you can hear the difference and remember, this isn’t a definitive scientific test
– just a bit of fun! But let us know what you think by emailing the usual address:
computermusic@futurenet.com.

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 29

> cover feature / the great synth showdown

Sequential Prophet-5 Rev 4

hardware vs Arturia Prophet-5 V
As we revealed earlier, the original Sequential
Prophet-5 might not have been the first actual
polyphonic synth, but to many it felt that way. It
was certainly the machine that elegantly put all
the voices together under one roof, added the
presets and made the whole package relatively
portable. This meant that to many players of the
time, this was the first real-deal polysynth.
Sequential made three versions of the synth
during its initial run between 1978 and 1984. It
shifted 6,000 units – which might sound like
small fry, but the people who bought them
weren’t your average Joes. From ABBA to Pink
Floyd, Kraftwerk to Genesis, the machine
quickly attained ‘legendary’ status.
Post ’84 and things became quite digital in
the synth world and company turmoil forced the
Sequential name out of Dave Smith’s hands. Still,
in 2020 he, now with his name back, relaunched
the Prophet-5 as the fourth revision. Its the
currently available synth that we have for our
comparisons here. This machine is essentially
It’s a joyous machine
to use, a proper piece
of furniture
identical to the original, with the ability to select
between all three earlier revisions with
a switchable filter. It’s a joyous machine to use,
a proper piece of furniture with its wooden
finish, totally at odds with the convenience of
software, which is why there are so many of the
latter options available for you.
For this, we’ve chosen the longstanding
Arturia Prophet-5 V, itself currently one of the
slickest-performing Prophet-5 emulations out
there. There are others, of course, from the likes
of Softube (Model 80) and u-he (Repro-5), but
this is probably the most rounded, offering a
great balance of authenticity vs newer features.
You can buy Prophet-5 V as part of the
V-Collection bundle which, with everything else
you get in that bundle, means it costs around
£500. Or you can buy it on its own for $€199.
Either way, it’s worth remembering that it’s a lot
less than the hardware version, which will set
you back around £3500.
When balancing hardware vs software like
this, you have to take account of the fact that
these aren’t really fair comparisons; you’re
buying into two very different lifestyles. As
computer musicians, we’re used to – spoilt by,
even – the convenience of having so many
classic polysynths on our desktops, and for not
very much money. Buy an expensive hardware
polysynth and you’re buying into a different
lifestyle where that instrument demands your
attention, mostly to justify the outlay – it’s not
something you’d just leave in your plugins folder
untouched and ignored, put it that way.
But will that extra three grand really buy you
a better sound? Time to find out.

POLYSYNTH SHOWDOWN PART 2

Prophet-5
Listen for yourself…
We have four audio examples from our Prophet-5s for you
to listen to and download. As with the JV-1080, there are
a few direct comparisons because the Arturia version
features many of the original presets as, of course, does
the hardware. It’s these that we have focussed on as they
offer more direct comparisons. But, to be honest, there
are better sounds to be heard on both the hardware and
software versions, so don’t judge either on the presets
we’ve chosen – they’ve merely been picked for their
crossover potential. Our software signals have been
generated within the DAW, with the hardware Prophet-5
being played directly into an Audient EVO 16 audio
interface, with no additional hardware. As with the JV, it’s
just unadulterated clean audio. The audio is as follows
(from each of our Prophets):

1> 514 PERCUSSIVE PIANO

A Prophet-classic piano tone

2> 542 SLOW SYNS SWEEP

Loud and brash lead

3> 536 RELEASE REPEAT

Unusual saw lead

4> 553 DESCENDING BELLS

A sound straight off an early Numan or Japan record

You can download this as a single audio file; the first example
is the hardware followed by the software. Let us know what
you think at computermusic@futurenet.com

30 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024

 the great synth showdown / cover feature <

Oberheim
OB-X8
hardware
synth vs
GForce
Software
OB-X
While Dave Smith was working on his version of
a polyphonic synth, fellow US synth developer
Tom Oberheim was also upping the polyphonic
stakes. He’d already released the SEM, a single
voice synth, way back in the ’70s and putting
multiple versions of those together, could lay
claim to the early polysynth plaudits.
But it would be his OB-X synth that, like Dave’s
Prophet-5, would put everything in one basket,
so to speak, and be the all-in-one synth that
captivated players throughout the world.
And while Kraftwerk and Gary Numan might
have been making headlines over here with
monosynths in the late ’70s and early ’80s,
it would be American players with American
keyboards like the Prophet-5 and OB-X that POLYSYNTH SHOWDOWN PART 3
would spread the word. Michael Jackson and

Madonna used the Prophet-5 on Thriller and
Like A Virgin respectively, while the OB-X was
used by both in the early ’80s. If you didn’t know
you could play more than one synth note before
this time, then those big(gest?) names certainly
brought polyphony to pop.
All of these extra voices came at a cost,
though, and while OB-X had voice options (four,
six, or eight), even the basic version cost well
over $4000, so it would only be elite keyboard
players who would buy it. The synth would
quickly become the OB-Xa (think Van Halen’s
Jump) and eventually the OB-Xb, machines that
brought a more compact internal design less
prone to instabilities, and used by everyone
from New Order to Prince.
The hardware OB-X8 we’re using in this
comparison is the latest Oberheim OB
incarnation, a monster £4,500 synth with an
analogue engine based very much on the OB-X,
‘a’ and ‘b’ architecture.
As MusicRadar said in its review, this is
“a beautiful synth and destined to be a classic
in its own right. But there’s no escaping the fact
that it won’t be affordable for many”. Which is
Oberheim OB-X
Listen for yourself…
We have five audio examples from our Oberheim OB-Xs here for you to listen to and
download. Unlike both the JV-1080 and Prophet-5, these are not direct comparisons
because neither version features exactly the same presets; they’re not named such
that we could easily line them up against one another as we did with the Roland and
Prophet. We picked similar sounds for you to compare instead, so you should get
a flavour of both software and hardware and that flavour is one of great dynamic
range, with both hardware and software reaching the lows and highs sonically, with
very little to choose between them. With a couple of the sounds, notably the piano
and bass, we tried to program both hardware and software synths to match one
another, as the interfaces are so similar – with varying results! As ever, the software
signals were generated within the DAW, with the hardware Prophet-5 played directly
into an Audient EVO 16, with no additional hardware. The audio is as follows…
1> SAW LEAD
Two similar saw-like sounds
2> SWEEPING BASS SOUNDS
One perhaps a little more sweeping than the other

3>
where GForce’s OB-X emulation comes in, very HARDER BASS
much a tribute to the original OB-X synth and
Unusual saw lead
even made with Tom Oberheim’s seal of

4>
approval, but available for just £99.99 plus tax. ANALOGUE BRASS
A real bargain for the quality of the sonics.
Two quite different examples of analogue brass
If ever there was going to be a close run

5>
match, then, you’d think it would be this one. SIMPLE PIANOS
A Tom Oberheim (bank-breaking) monster We took the simplest piano sounds and tried to get them close
synth vs (far cheaper) Tom Oberheim-endorsed
software. Let’s go!
The first example is the hardware followed by the software. Let us know what you
think at computermusic@futurenet.com

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 31

> cover feature / the great synth showdown
6 of the best
workstation ROMplers
Load one of these up and it will handle every song
part for you – the ultimate software polysynths
UVI Falcon 3
€349
In many ways Falcon is the greatest
software polysynth… and sampler… and
effects box. All the power does cost, it’s
not the prettiest, and you need a large
monitor to get the best from it. And yes, it
does pretty much everything with a layer
hierarchy that’s based on oscillators that
cover just about all synth and sampling
types. There are huge modulation options
too and you can even construct your own
scripts: sequencers, MIDI effects and so on.
uvi.net
32 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
Native Instruments
Kontakt 7 £269
With so many synth titles (many free
or low cost) to load into this instrument
ecosphere, and so many hands-on
controls for sound design for many
of them, we’d argue that Kontakt is
challenging definitions of workstations,
softsynths, ROMplers and more. It’s so
complete that any such definitions are
pretty worthless.
native-instruments.com
Roland Zenology Pro
£233
Zenology Pro basically allows you to
enjoy the Roland multiple platform
system in your DAW. You can load in
thousands of Roland classics and new
sounds into a ROMpler stacked with
features, tweak away and then load
them into compatible Roland hardware.
If you are fan of classic (and new, to be
fair) Roland sounds, this is it.
roland.com
 the great synth showdown / cover feature <

IK Multimedia
SampleTank 4 MAX
€300
Now at half its original price, SampleTank
takes some beating as the most content-
packed ROMpler. It’s over 260GB in size,
with 120,000 samples, and over 8000
instruments. There are even 7500 loops,
plus 4000-plus MIDI patterns to get you
going if you’re not inspired enough.
ikmultimedia.com
Spectrasonics
Omnisphere
$499/€399
Not an issue of Computer Music goes
by without it being recommended for
something, but for good reason. This
powerhouse of a synth has all of the
sounds you need – some 14,000 plus 58
effects – and now even integrates with
hardware synths so they can control it.
spectrasonics.net

Steinberg HALion 7 €349

With HALion 7, the latest version of one of the longest-standing
software workstations, Steinberg has got rid of some of the dead
wood and seem to have rejuvenated this giant of a plugin. Like
others here, it still boasts massive specs though: 15 instruments,
70 effects and over 3700 presets should be enough to keep you
occupied and creative. The modulation has been overhauled
to make it that much
simpler, more effective and
a speedier workflow and its
good-looking UI makes it
look like one of the new kids
on the workstation block,
belying its age.
steinberg.net
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 33
> cover feature / the great synth showdown
Are softsynths
now superior?
So, in our view – is it hardware or software that
comes out on top? Perhaps the most beneficial
result is to explore how you might use both to
create real polysynth harmony…
As seasoned music technology journalists,
we’ve been very much writing about the
separate worlds of hardware and software
polysynths over the last two decades. They’ve
long been very different beasts in terms of cost,
with hardware, and, especially vintage hardware
synths being extraordinarily expensive.
Software has – with one or two exceptions
– always been the cheaper and more practical
alternative. The ‘fight’ between the two types of
synth has been rumbling for a while, but might
we be approaching an amicable resolution?
2024 looks set to be the year when the barriers
(and points of difference) between the the
two fall.
Roland Zen-Core is perhaps the biggest
example of this. It’s a complete hardware/
software ecosphere where you can load classic
and modern synth sounds into hardware like
the Roland Phantom or Jupiter-X, and take it
34 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
anywhere, even using it as a plugin in your DAW.
On a simpler level, we’re now getting hardware
synths released with software counterparts
thrown in for good measure; the Arturia
MiniFreak is a prime example. You can buy this
amazing polysynth as software, or buy it in
hardware. Do the latter and Arturia throw the
software version in for free.
While this is not completely new (we recall
Novation throwing in the software version of its
Bass Station in with hardware many years ago)
it is the first time the match has been so
integrated. These two different versions can
be used separately, but together, it’s a joy!
In MiniFreak’s case, for example, the software
is opened up and gives you more hands-on
access to different tabs, pages and features, but
the hardware gives you the tactile control you
(might) yearn for. Of course, a hardware MIDI
controller can give you the same effect, but the
marriage here is perfect; no messing around
with assignments, just synthesise, create
and make tunes.
The interesting thing here is that the two
synths sound identical as they’re both digital
and use the same algorithms, so you might think
“well, I’ll just use the software then”. But the
price is not that great between them – the
software costs around €150 and the hardware
around €490 – thanks largely to the fact that
hardware processing costs have fallen.
In fact, there has been a recent resurgence in
hardware polysynths because those prices have
fallen, not to mention that this new generation
sounds a lot better and have far more hands-on
controls than the not-so-easy-to-master digital
synths of the 1990s. This means that we’ll
probably see this marriage of the two synth
types extend to many other brands as more
digital polysynths come out.
And then, of course, there are the companies
like Native Instruments who are exploring the
opposite direction, where keyboards integrate
deeper with software. We’ll likely see its latest
‘Kontrol’lers become more independent from
the software they master, effectively becoming
hardware workstations.
Either way, the days of us simply comparing
hardware synths with software synths are
probably numbered. And who wins? All of us.
 the great synth showdown / cover feature <
> Step by step 3. Create atmospheric pads on any polysynth
1 2
Download ZebraCM from the Computer Music Plugin Suite and
load it up on a new track in your DAW. Click on the preset bar and
select Init, keep both oscillators as sawtooths but shift OSC2 up by
an octave by moving the Tune Dial up 12 semitones. To add some
thickness, increase the Detune dial to 1.03 for a subtle addition.
3 4
In the filter section, set the filter as LP 12dB and the cutoff to
around 90; this is up to you and will represent the higher register
of the pad sound you will hear (and can, of course, be adjusted later).
5 6
Use Unison to really open the sound up. As we saw in the second
tutorial. We found that a value of 4 and Detune value of 15 on ours
gave pleasing results, but now is the time to tweak and settle on
something you like.
In the amp envelope (Env1), we want the sound to come in fairly
quickly, but to hang around for a while before fading slowly. So set
the values to around those shown: Attack 22; Decay 50; Sustain 92;
Release 81. Obviously experiment here because this defines the
shape of your pad sound over time.
We want our LFO to modulate the filter frequency in step 3 for
a gentle swelling effect, so set the Rate at a slow 40 using a sine
wave LFO. In one of the filter frequency slots, select LFO1 as the
modulation source and you should hear the filter frequency
gradually rise and fall. Sweet!
Finally, add effects. Reverb is your weapon of choice for more
ambient results, and we love our ambience, so have set the
Damp to 35, Dry, Wet and Range to late ’80s. You can use this pad
as a template going forward, so revisit all the steps and tweak away!
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 35
> cover feature / the great synth showdown
6 of the best software
polysynths of 2024
We’re bang up-to-date with this final buyer’s guide,
with six synths all released or updated recently.
Tracktion/Dawesome
Kult $129
From the brilliant and warped mind of
Dawesome (aka Peter V) comes a synth
that stands out from most of our choices
by trying very deliberately to do something
different. Here we get ‘Strangely Attractive’
oscillators, and a fantastic UI that makes AM
and FM synthesis easy. Throw in some mad
modulation and you can see – and hear
– a synth come alive in front of you.
tracktion.com
36 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
FabFilter Twin 3
€129
This might be the latest update of
a synth originally released in 2005, but
its UI, sound and easy workflow still give
it a cutting-edge and contemporary
edge. Its beautiful interface gives it a
lovely hands-on feel that results in easy
synthesis – so often forgotten by devel-
opers – and the kind of tweaking that
has you reaching for the save button
and creating aplenty.
fabfilter.com
Cherry Audio Harmonia
$49
Harmonia delivers a rich sound by way
of a harmonic version of subtractive
synthesis. It adds flexible and very
powerful modulation by way of an easy
Modulation Matrix. But it’s the oscillators
at its core that make this one of the
most creative softsynths released in
(very) recent years. An absolute beast
of an instrument.
cherryaudio.com
 the great synth showdown / cover feature <
Sound Particles
SkyDust 3D
£166/£333
SkyDust is the first 3D synth, which
means you can modulate sounds so
that they move all around you using
spatial audio. As good as this is, it almost
overshadows the fact that this is a very
powerful synth in its own right. With
eight oscillators, each with 16 waveforms,
you can layer all sorts of sounds, and
yes, have them spin around if you like.
soundparticles.com
Arturia
Pigments
€199
This VA, granular, wavetable and
sampling synth has graduated to version
5 and stands out in Arturia’s collection
of emulations as a unique softsynth.
It features incredible modulation,
a slick workflow, easy setup, great UI
and lovely sound, all of which still makes
it a desirable, great-sounding product
and enticing entrée to patch creation.
arturia.com
D16 Lush 2 £145
Our final 2024 choice is
a recreation of a monosynth
released in 1982; that’s the power
of software. Lush 2 uses the
Roland SH-101 as inspiration, but
adds cues from other Roland
classics like the JP-8000. This
latest update takes the synth to
what we called (in our review)
a “massive-sounding VA with
enough flexibility to be the
only one you need”.
d16.pl
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 37
> cover feature / the great synth showdown

> Step by step 4. Make a polished 2020s softsynth sound like a dusty old ’70s polysynth

1 2
One of the criticisms of polysynths in 2024 is that they’re just too For the moment we’ll keep OSC1 on the simple sawtooth that
good. Rose-tinted spectacles, yes, but the vintage polysynths of arrives with the Init patch as it will be more authentically
yesteryear did have a character of their own, thanks to unstable analogue from the ’70s, but we’ll be back to cheat a bit later.
circuitry, so let’s try and get some of that instability into 2024.
Initialise ZebraCM.

3 4
For OSC2, dial up a square wave, again something that is more
suited to the era we’re aiming for (and again, we’ll be back to
add some modern flourishes later).
As opposed to our previous tutorial, where we created
a completely clean pad, this time we’re going for something a bit
more dirty, so we’ll add a touch of noise. You can choose between
Crackles or Digital with ZebraCM and we’re already getting lo-fi.

5 6
For the Amp envelope, we’re steering away from pad sounds, but
we still want it to drift away. So we’re keeping the Decay (87),
Sustain (100) and Release (88) values high, while the Attack is
more punchy (3).
The next step is key. Going for a lo-fi sound, we’ll put a bandpass
filter in the fray but rather than destroy the sound – which it could
– we’ll modulate it shortly. Select BP QBand from the filter options.

38 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024

 the great synth showdown / cover feature <

7 8
We want the sound to drift just like an ancient analogue poly and
there are several ways to do this. First we set a very slow LFO (rate
around 35) and then apply this to the cutoff frequency by selecting
LFO1 in one of the modulation slots. If the drift is too much, pull the
cutoff frequency back. We found 92 to be a good value.
Now, depending on how 1970s you want to go, apply this LFO drift
to the noise oscillator too. You should have noise drifting in as your
filter rises and falls. Play with the Noise volume – we found anything
above 50 started to sound like the intro to a 1970s Jean-Michel Jarre
record, but maybe that’s what we’re going for.

9 10
Tuning was certainly an issue with 1970s synths, so you could also
apply this drifting LFO to the tuning of the oscillators for an even
more drifting vintage vibe. However, we found doing this to be a bit
too much; with some aspects of ZebraCM, it’s not so easy to be subtle.
But try it… you might like it.
That’s it! But we’re going to take it further, because we can’t help
adding some modern flourishes, while hopefully retaining the
vintage lo-fi. First up, adjust the value of the OSC1 waveform to 5.
We’ll add some Unison (Quad 4) and Detune. Now we’re sounding
a bit Bowie-ish, perhaps something from the b-side of Low.

11
Thickening it further, we’ve pushed OSC2 up to 11, ‘Unison’ 11 and
Detune up to 16. It still sounds ominously ’70s, but probably would
have taken two or three of those vintage keyboards to have produced
back then, given the thickness.
12
Finally effects. Reverb is the obvious one but really makes the
sound too muddy; it’s probably best to add in the mix. Chorus on
the other hand sounds great, but keep the Speed down (26) or else
you’ll have competing drifts!

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 39

> interview / petri alanko

40 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024

 petri alanko / interview <

Weaving the dramatic and tension-stoking

soundtrack to one of the most critically acclaimed
games of the last year, Petri Alanko built a score for
Alan Wake 2 that harnessed an arsenal of plugins
with DIY instruments and a huge array of hardware
and software synths. We spoke to Petri about his
idiosyncratic approach and its exhilarating results

It’s rare for any new video game to receive
near-unanimous praise, but in the case of
Alan Wake 2, Remedy Entertainment’s follow-
up to 2010’s underrated action/horror
thriller, the prevailing giddy response was
justified. Centred around the titular Alan,
a horror novelist, lost in a Twin Peaks-esque
‘Dark Place’ which reflects both his fears and
the wider mechanics of storytelling in
general, Alan Wake 2 perfects the original
game’s quirky premise. A large factor in the
Photo: Ville Juurikkala
ominous and oppressive The Dark Place,
Petri’s score underlines the game’s
mind-bending narrative.
Alanko, who also scored the original game,
was thrilled – but surprised – when Remedy’s
creative director Sam Lake informed him that
a sequel was finally happening. “I had made
my first compositions for the Alan Wake sequel
back in 2011. I was so thrilled when I heard we
were back. I knew exactly what they were going
to do and I knew that they were going to have
Petri’s process began with the creation of
a unique library of sound resources that he then
used to build up the sonic universe of the game,
and weave into his scores. “It took me a good
while to make the base library for the software
instruments,” Petri says. “I always create a
special library for let’s say pads or background
themes – what people refer to as the ‘sub-score’
or the ‘underscore’. Lots of that material. It was
like getting back to an old sandbox that you last
played in ages ago.”

game’s emotional depth is the centrality of its two protagonists this time. I had made so many
soundtrack, scored by the BAFTA-nominated plans [for a sequel] and luckily none of my plans The underwater domain
Finnish composer and producer Petri Alanko. had been for nothing – every one of my ideas Alanko, who also performs as electronic
From the delicate and emotive Return to the got used, more or less.” musician Lowland, was happy to learn that,

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 41

 > interview / petri alanko
unlike the first game, he was given free rein to
use instruments beyond strings. “The people in
charge back then really hated woodwinds and
brass instruments,” Petri recalls. “Especially the
harp! I was supposed to deal with most of the
soundtrack with mostly string orchestra and
only the occasional oboe every now and then.”
So what was the guiding mindset behind the
vibe Petri was going for? “Well, at the end of the
first game – spoiler alert! – the protagonist, Alan,
ends up imprisoned in the ‘Dark Place’. In the
sequel, 13 years have passed. I immediately
thought that the instrumentation needs to
change because the environment is so different
for Alan. We need to sort of bring in the horror,
the fear and this ominous environment. With all
the darkness and the bad things. So, I figured,
‘Hey, what the hell – let’s throw in some brass
instruments and try processing those in
elaborate ways’. We ended up using quite a lot
of really metallic tones to sort of decorate the
Dark Place. Lots of the raw material came from
really poorly played brass instruments. I’m one
of the world’s worst trombone players, there’s
no worse player than me. So, I did some of the
recording. I made some quite ‘difficult’ sounds
that even a pro would struggle to reproduce.”
Photo: Ville Juurikkala
42 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
“I made some quite
‘difficult’ sounds
that even a pro
would struggle
to reproduce…”
Petri then processed the overtones of these
recordings with one of his go-to spectral
warping plugins, Zynaptiq Wormhole. “Zynaptiq
plugins are very close to my heart because they
do exactly what they say on the tin,” says Petri.
“They’re very effective at what they do. They’re
a really narrow branch of experimental plugins,
but they’re like surgical knives. I used those
and then I did around 100 impulse responses
when hitting different metallic things and
pieces of instruments. This was all my raw
material building.”
Because the aforementioned ‘Dark Place’ is
situated under a lake, Petri pondered on ways
to reflect its location sonically. “I had this idea
of having the sounds react if the middle
component isn’t there, and instead it’s some
sort of liquid. Maybe it becomes more dense
when evil things are happening, and less
dense when things are calmer.”
A big component of Alanko’s creative
approach is his custom-built ‘Apprehension
Engine’ – a massive, physical stringed
instrument that Alanko deploys to conjure
creepy, unnerving sounds, alongside a few
custom-built instruments he was provided with
by Remedy. “They’re typically used to create
sound effects or ‘scary’ material, or stingers or
whatnot. I wanted to use them as instruments.
I tried finding out how to play them musically,
and did some really serious re-pitching with
Celemony’s Melodyne and Zynaptiq’s Pitchmap.
I think I had well over ten round robin groups
so things sounded far richer than just a few
samples. So, I was really elaborate with the raw
materials. Then, tying all that into a world where
the other protagonist, Saga, is a newcomer. She
takes more of the leading role in Alan Wake 2.
She’s investigating a murder with her colleague,
and they drive into [the game’s setting] Bright
Falls. It was interesting to have these three
layers – you have Alan in the real world, Alan in
the Dark Place and then you have Saga. These
worlds touch each other occasionally, when
Saga and Alan learn how to communicate.”
Alanko was interested in ways to reflect the
bleeding of these two worlds. “These aural
universes mix together until you can’t really tell
them apart. There is a lot of building ground.
There is so much music in the game, it’s hard to
believe. I composed 7 hours and 14 minutes of
music for it. I estimate around 6 hours and 33
minutes [of that] was used.”
Eye to eye with Alan
With this carefully crafted and curated raw
material in place, we wonder how Petri actually
composed the score – was he presented with
footage of the then in-development game?
Or could he play the early build himself? “Yeah,
I could, but if there is some lag with the controls,
or the game in that state wasn’t performing too
well – or I wasn’t playing it that well – then I’d
much rather ask for gameplay videos,” Petri
explains. “In the very early stages of the
production, some of the cinematics were
just white-box videos, with just the raw video
capture footage of the actors used as reference
for the characters in the game. The actor Ilkka
Villi played Alan Wake, so I got used to seeing
his face. I’d often look right into his eyes. It was
pretty unnerving. His face contained all the
emotions and more, but he was stationary and
didn’t move. It was spooky. All the events on
screen were white-boxed. I started noodling
with melodies and themes with that material.
I’m willing to say that in approximately
80% of the cases, it was Ilkka’s performance
[as Alan] that threw me the seeds of the
emotional content.”
“I usually produce as many tracks as
I possibly can,” Petri tells us. “We then go
through the material. I usually do cinematics
first. Then I try to deal with the in-game material.
Luckily there was an integrator that helped
me with the in-game music. He was basically
offering a few choices from how things proceed
in the game, we need to have what we call
 petri alanko / interview <

Petri admits: “I’ve never

had as much fun with
a video game score as
I had with Alan Wake 2”

‘development arches’ producing material

for in-game music, it is an insane task. I can’t
pretend I did it all by myself. The whole audio
team – around 33 people – all played a part. The
main team in Remedy is rather small, but they
used several third-party contractors for very
specific tasks. I have to emphasise that it’s really
a prime example of how teamwork comes
together. The end result sounds phenomenal.”
We know Petri has a rather enviable arsenal
of synths in both hardware and software forms,
but how many were brought out to play?
“I probably have around 50,” he replies. “I’m not
sure of the exact number. But I used 12 or so for
Alan Wake 2. The rest are in flight cases in my
garage. Trying to keep an old Prophet V running
is insane and costs around €2,000 a year to
keep it going. You can buy a new one for €3,500!
The only Moog I have is Moog One; everything
else is now gone. I used to have a MiniMoog and
a Subsequent 37 – I used that on my soundtrack
to [Remedy’s previous game] Control. I had
a huge modular synth, now that it’s slightly
smaller I sold the bigger frame and now I have
a smaller one. These days I basically use
Oberheim OB-X 8, Moog One, Waldorf Quantum
and the occasional Prophet VI. The Studio
Electronics SE 1X is always around when it
comes to bass. Subs and bass drops are the Zynaptiq Wormhole: “Zynaptiq plugins are very close to my heart,” says Petri
ARP 2600 – I love the topology of ARP 2600.”
Petri points out each unit in his studio, and
explains that everything currently in his primary Of course, Pertri’s software synth roster Arturia V Collection libraries got a lot of use
studio hub was deployed on the soundtrack. poses much less of a space problem, but there’s towards the end. I found the plugins again
“I keep a spreadsheet for my synths, and if it’s a selection that get regular use across his within the last six months or so. I sort of thought
used I mark down one ‘X’ on the sheet. If it projects. “I don’t think Symbolic Sound Kyma is that I should maybe change something in my
doesn’t get any X’s, it goes into a ‘consideration’ a softsynth as such, but it’s widely used by me. workflow because the sound is so much easier
list. When it’s been in there for six months or so I love Native Instruments Reaktor. The u-he to reproduce via software synths than taking the
it dives into the flight case, or I sell it.” Zebra and Repro are some of my favourites. time to plug in analogue synths. Getting that old
That’s a solid system if ever we’ve heard one. Basically, everything u-he does, I use. The hardware to stay in tune for 30 minutes can be

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 43

> interview / petri alanko
a headache. The software sounds so good, it’s
insane really.”
Petri explains that Logic’s in-built Space
Designer is a regular go-to tool for shaping
atmospheres. “I don’t know how many
thousands of IRs I’ve made for it, but it’s a lot.
I’ve been a Logic user since back in the early
’90s. I would say Logic is a very crucial part of
my workflow at the moment – I cannot imagine
my life without it. There’s a lot more. I have
probably over 2,000 plugin licences. I do need
to go through them and find out which are most
usable for me and which are basically rubbish.”
That being said, Alanko uses around 700
plugins on a weekly basis, as he wears many
hats in the studio: “I also do a lot of pop
songwriting so that demands a different kind of
toolset than Alan Wake 2. The setup changes
a little, and the plugins I use change a little, but
the core remains quite identical. There’s always
Zynaptiq stuff in there. I’ve always been a big
Neve fan, I used to have 16 channels of old
analogue desk as a summing mixer but I sold it a
few years ago. Now I use Universal Audio’s Neve
plugins; they sound very believable.”
Let there be light
With a project as expansive as the Alan Wake 2
soundtrack, it’s reasonable to assume that this
would be Petri’s sole focus. But, his alter-ego
of Lowland has been simultaneously playing
festivals. “I’m really good at scheduling things.
When Alan Wake was at its highest peak, I was
still able to do festival gigs with a band and go
44 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
on songwriting camps and things like that.
That’s something I’ve been practising for quite
a few years. I spent the best part of four years
developing the Alan Wake 2 soundtrack. None
of my gigs are constant 24/7 projects. All the
new spaces I enter, I tend to follow my ears and
wonder how I can use certain sounds and
spaces for other things. I keep a field recorder
in my car, in case I discover something.”
A big creative endeavour of Petri’s is to fuse
the worlds of classical music and trance, which
he has successfully at a series of astonishing
high profile concerts, dubbed ‘Classical
Trancelations’. The movement has performed
at numerous venues in Helsinki, and performed
the biggest indoor electronic dance music event
in Finland’s history, with 8,500 people attending
the rearranged dance music classics, such as
Robert Miles’ Children and Energy 52’s Cafe
Del Mar performed by an orchestra.
“I have over 2,000
plugin licences.
I need to go through
them and decide
which are rubbish!”
We ask Petri more about this passion project:
“The emotions and energy are very similar
between classical music and trance,” he says.
“You sort of start following a tiny lead and it can
bring you into this marvellous, different world. A
DJ friend of mine had an idea 10 years ago, and
he asked me if I was able to play trance classics
with a grand piano live. I accepted the gig and
then I started thinking about building out that
idea even further, adding a few strings here and
there. I decided to bring in an orchestra. It grew
from there. At some point, my DJ friend sent that
recording of that live show to Armin Van Buren.
His world-famous label, Armada, was willing to
release the record. What they put out was a live
recording of what I did. And that was the start of
the whole thing.”
In August 2016, as part of Helsinki’s Festival
Week, Petri was asked if they could perform two
concerts that melded the two universes. Both
sold out. After many more performances in the
subsequent years, Petri and team reconvened
during the Covid era to perform on TV for New
Year’s Eve in 2020. “We all had to keep at a safe
distance. That was slightly more pop-oriented
than what I wanted – I would like to explore
the grooves of trance a bit more. I have been
building a song list for something that would
surface at some point. These things tend to take
time. We have to find the venue, the orchestra
and the choir. We do have a very good
conductor at the moment, who I’m laying all
my trust in. He’s very good at conducting to
a click track, and not everyone can do that!”
Photo: Ville Juurikkala

Petri’s custom-built
‘Apprehension Engine’,
used to conjure the
creepiest of noises
Constant evolution
With Alan Wake 2’s intense and evocative score
being so central to it, we wonder what Petri’s
thoughts are on the future of the medium, and
how the role of a composer might change?
“I have a few thoughts about this,” Petri
explains. “Since we are no longer talking about
a video game spending a year in a shop – it
can now spend seven or 10 years as an ‘active’
game, with developers releasing new DLCs,
remasters and remakes. It extends the life of
the IP, and that extends the life of all of the art
components that are put into it. If that’s
extended then it means the companies are
getting more money from their IPs. When it
comes to composers – you have to keep the
vibe alive in an IP, especially if it’s one that the
fans love and return to replay. As game fans are
evolving, we (composers) sort of feel like we
should evolve, too.”
Petri illustrates this by visualising a world
where soundtracks shift and develop over time.
“If, let’s say, there was a game where the
soundtrack was club music – at some point it
could get slightly trip-hoppy. Then more guitar
and then more classical. I’m willing to believe
that the longevity of game soundtracks is
evolving towards those assets being renewed
and updated, and perhaps changing over
time. So the soundtracks aren’t fixed.”
petri alanko / interview <
For now, Alanko is delighted with the
reception that Alan Wake 2 has received,
and the praise heaped on his score. Not least
from the industry itself (the score is longlisted
for BAFTA Best Music, has been nominated by
various other bodies, and won the ‘Best Music’
category at the Horror Video Game Awards).
“I’ve never had as much fun with a video
game score as I had with Alan Wake 2,” Petri
concludes. “They basically gave me a free
hand to compose.”
Alan Wake 2 is available now on PS5, PC and Xbox
Series X. Find out more about Petri Alanko by
visiting his website: petrialanko.net
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 45
 tutorials <

Become a better producer now

with pro advice, expert videos
and tutorials from our gurus

Sound Like
48 How to get Billie
Eilish vocals
Masterclass
Andy Jones deconstructs what makes
with Andy Jones the chart topper’s production sing

CM Tools
52 Fractal sync tone
with BazilleCM
Masterclass
Get to know the best of our Plugin
with Roland Schmidt Suite with these tasty tutorials

Dance Music
56 Craft Avicii-style
melodies
Sara Simms looks at what we can learn
Masterclass
with Sara Simms from the late great’s songcraft

Mix
60 The benefits of
submixing
Jon Musgrave explains why this
Masterclass
with Jon Musgrave technique still works in the DAW age
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 47
So
masterclass
with Andy Jones
#2
How to get Billie
Eilish vocals
Billie Eilish and Finneas have built some
of the defining songs of the millenia.
Here we break down their approach to
vocal production, all thanks to Apple…
Billie Eilish and her producer/songwriter
brother Finneas have been the success
stories of 21st century pop music. They have
won multiple Grammys, an Oscar for the
theme to the 25th Bond film No Time to Die,
and countless other awards, the most recent
being a Golden Globe for the song What Was I
Made For?, from the film Barbie. Eilish’s chart
successes have been just as major, scoring
global number ones with her debut album,
2019’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We
Go? and matching it with the follow-up
Happier Than Ever.
Incredibly, much of this success came about
after the duo uploaded the song Ocean Eyes to
Soundcloud in 2015, a song Eilish recorded with
48 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
Andy Jones
Andy has been writing
about music
production, studio
gear and technology
for over 30 years,
having edited
magazines including
Future Music,
MusicTech and (twice!)
Computer Music. He
says we can look
forward to several ‘How to sound
like Gary Numan’ features in the
course of this series…
Finneas after he originally intended it to be used
for his own band. A few days and a few hundred
thousand plays later, and Eilish began her career
proper and has never looked back.
The brother and sister have an incredibly
distinct writing and production style but it’s
Eilish’s vocal that we’re going to focus on in this
Sound Like tutorial.
Luckily Apple gave us probably the best
overview of the duo’s songwriting and
production methods when they included Ocean
Eyes as a demo song with Logic Pro 10.5. It’s now
disappeared from the latest version (10.8) but
we’ve dug the demo out and will take a deep
dive into the Eilish vocal processing and even
some of the song elements right here…
 how to get billie eilish vocals / sound like masterclass <
> Step by step How to get Billie Eilish vocals
1 2
The verse vocal line, ‘I’ve been watching you for some time’, has
some typical EQ processing where the bottom end is cut, the mid
range is boosted as you might expect and there’s a further boost
between 4 and 10kHz. This works beautifully, if you bypass the EQ and
compare, as the vocal is really lifted without pushing the gain.
3 4
These include some stereo delay and reverb courtesy of Space
Designer. The delay is a great way of livening up the vocal and is
used pretty subtly. The reverb, too, really helps add depth, but that’s
not its main use here; that’s to come with the third mention of those
“ocean eyes”.
5 6
A quick note while we’re on this vocal, and that is that there’s no
noise gate used between vocal phrases so you can easily hear
bleed (probably from the headphones) as the rest of the track is being
picked up by Billie’s mic as she sings along to it. We love that rough and
ready attitude and it’s not noticeable in the mix anyway.
However, if you then open the second console EQ, there’s a cut at
around 5kHz, in the same place as the channel EQ was boosting.
Rather than pulling off some kind of Pultec EQ trick, where you boost
and cut at the same frequency (which, as we’ll see, Finneas is a fan of),
this is to keep other effects in check, which we’ll examine now.
This is a great demonstration of how creative reverb can be. Open
up the automation, and you can see a notch on this third “ocean
eyes” vocal that pushed the wet level right up during the phrase and
creates one of the most memorable moments in the song.
The final processing on the main verse is by way of two
compressors which are not being used to compress much beyond
the top end, but the first one in particular is being used to boost the
signal; switch it off and there’s a very noticeable drop in level.
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 49
Sound like
masterclass
with Andy Jones
> Step by step How to get Billie Eilish vocals (continued)
7 8
Going into the chorus and there are two sets of harmony layers
here – something that Eilish is brilliant at – with both the lead
having a further four layers, and 12 more coming by way of the Vocal
Textures. Wanna sound like Billie? Lots of layers, lots of harmonies. Oh
and be a great singer.
9 10
As far as processing goes, the EQ on each of the Vocal Texture
layers is pushing the mid range but not the top (as the lead did), so
these are more ‘background’ vocals (as you would expect).
11
What’s also great to see, and what makes us feel like we can
produce songs for Billie, is that in this demo version, Logic’s classic
instruments are just being used with their presets. Who said ‘don’t use
presets’? Not us.
50 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
What’s brilliant here is that Finneas has done what we like to think
we’d have done with the Vocal Textures and balanced them
beautifully left to right as you go through all 12, with a dip in volume
the further they are to the centre of the mix so they don’t interfere with
the main mix elements. He basically took our advice, right?
Again, though, there are EQs at work here doing the opposite and
if you look at the processing for the Vocal Textures channel you
can see that the channel EQ is boosted at the high end. Again, this is
after a compressor has gelled the stacks together and does tend to act
on the whole rather than individual parts.
12
As well as ES1, both Retro Synth and Alchemy get a workout, but it
has to be said that they are all used in a fairly subdued way,
because the star of the show is the vocal, naturally, so the instruments
obviously play very much second fiddle to those.
 how to get billie eilish vocals / sound like masterclass <

PRO TIP

THE PULTEC TRICK

The Pultec low-end trick is one of the most talked
about practices in music production. It comes by
way of the original Pultec EQP-1 and 1A EQs widely
used from the 1950s onwards. They were loved for
their sweet and wide EQ and for the valve sound
(from the EQP-1A) that added warmth to any signal.
One other thing you could do was boost and cut
the same frequency simultaneously. Generally this
was done on the unit’s 60Hz setting. You’d first
push the Boost dial up, and then the Attenuation
dial. Rather than reverse the boost, the LF boost
would remain, albeit with a notch just around the
lower mids which would result in a more pleasing
sound (you’d have to experiment with both dials to
get it sounding just right, and it was dependent on
the sound used). This is now used widely in the
software version, and here Finneas uses Logic’s
own EQP-1A, the Vintage Tube EQ, to produce the
same effect on the master output. What’s
interesting is that you can really hear the low end
lift when comparing in bypass. What’s even more The Pultec low-end trick is
interesting is that Pultec specifically told people not used here on the master
output, a very dramatic use
to do this in their manual for the EQP-1A. Good job of one of the best
production tricks out there
engineers ignored that advice!

RECOMMENDED
The O’Connell WATCHING
siblings’ open
attitude to MIX WITH THE
revealing studio MASTERS
secrets is part of THEREFORE I AM
their charm In this section from the
popular Mix with the
Masters series, Finneas
discusses Therefore I
Am. What’s interesting is
the discussion of vocal
layering – similar to our
Ocean Eyes tutorial here
bit.ly/bemstrcls
BILLIE EILISH
OCEAN EYES
And here’s the finished
version in the video to
Ocean Eyes which,
much like the song, is
simple, powerful and
highly effective
bit.ly/be_oceyes
Mariano Regidor/Redferns via Getty

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 51

cm tools
masterclass Download BazilleCM and the
accompanying video at
with Roland Schmidt bit.ly/cm332downloads

#02
Roland Schmidt

Create a fractal
Roland Schmidt is
a professional
programmer, sound
designer and producer,

sync tone with

who has worked in
collaboration with a
number of successful
production teams over

Bazille CM
the last 25 years. He
can also be found
delivering regular and
key-note lectures on the use of
hardware/software synthesisers
and production, at various higher
In part two of our new deep-dive into educational institutions
throughout the UK
our Plugin Suite’s best software, we take
another look at BazilleCM’s oscillators,
and harness some fractal resonance!

When it comes to lead synth sounds of the
last 50 years, the patch described as
‘oscillator sync’ is about as iconic as it gets.
Created by synchronising the pitch of one
oscillator against another, while also modulating
the pitch of the secondary oscillator, this
ubiquitous sound has found favour with artists
from Rick Wakeman and Jean-Michel Jarre,
through to Daft Punk and LCD Soundsystem. It
forms the basis for our patch creation today, but
what makes it all the more intriguing is that we
won’t be syncing oscillators to create it. In fact,
we’ll only be using a single oscillator!
As mentioned last month, the BazilleCM
oscillators are proudly digital, using phase
distortion to create rich waveforms, without the
use of a filter. This month we’ll be adopting a
similarly simple approach, using fractal
resonance, which acts in pretty much the same
way as the resonance control found within the
filter section.
We’ll use the Fractalize control element of the
BazilleCM, to create multiple cycles of
waveform, which are then ‘packed’ into the
waveform which we’ll select in the Fractalize
section. It’s this ‘packing’ of waveforms that
generates the resonance and sync tone, as the
waveform is forced to begin its cycle according
to the dictated frequency (pitch) which we
select from the keyboard. Let’s begin…

u-he
Bazille CM
A gem of our CM Plugin
Suite, u-he’s BazilleCM is our
unique version of the
company’s patchable
modular synthesiser,
sequencer and mapping
generator. It’s a beast!
AU/VST 32-/64-bit

52 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024

 create a fractal sync tone with bazillecm / cm tools masterclass <
> Step by step Create a fractal sync tone with BazilleCM
1 2
We’ll begin by initialising a patch on BazilleCM. Open up your DAW
and load the plugin. Once the plugin window is open, move to the
central display at the top, click to reveal the drop-down menu, and
select ‘init’ from the bottom. This will initialise the patch.
3 4
Now we can start to create our patch, starting with the waveform
settings within OSC 1; move to the Phase Distortion (PD) section
halfway down the OSC 1 section, and leave the primary waveform set
to a Saw, changing the secondary waveform to a HalfSaw.
5 6
Directly below the PD pots, you will see the Fractalize section; if the
Phase Distortion section induces a tone like a filter, the Fractalize
section mimics the resonance control, also included within most
subtractive filters. Select Max from the drop-down menu, to the right
of the pot. Make sure the pot remains at a value of 0.
As part of the initialisation, you’ll also hear the FX Delay active in
the signal. To make our adjustments clearer at this stage, go to the
Delay section (bottom-right) and move the switch to the ‘Off’ position.
We’ll be coming back to this at the end of the tutorial, to reactivate it.
By adjusting the PD pot, you will hear the effect of Phase
Distortion, sounding very reminiscent of a low-pass filter opening
and closing, but we want to set the PD pot to a value of 26.50. Don’t
forget to keep your eye on the display at the top of the plugin, as this
will help select accurate values when changing pots in BazilleCM.
Thanks to the versatile nature of BazilleCM, we have two full ADSR
envelopes that we can use in several different ways. By default,
Envelope 1 is routed to the amplifier section, which we want to leave in
place, but we should just check the default ADSR values; set Attack to
0, Decay to 50, set Sustain to a full 100, and set Release to 20.
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 53
cm tools
masterclass
with Roland Schmidt
> Step by step Create a fractal sync tone with BazilleCM (continued)
7 8
Envelope 2 is going to be employed as a modulatory envelope, but
before we make the connections, let’s also set the ADSR values. Set
the Attack fader to a value of 0, the Decay fader to 63, the Sustain fader
to 0, and finally the Release fader to 20.
9 10
As previously, we’ll create a second virtual patch cable, from
Envelope 2 to the Phase Distortion modulation pot; click and hold
on the patch point, just to the right of the Envelope 2 faders, and drag a
second cable to the input point, located just underneath the PD
Modulation pot. Increase the value of the pot to 30.
11
Depending on the way you choose to use this sound, it might be
beneficial to set the Voice Mode to Legato. This means that you’ll
only be able to play a single note at one time, but also means that you
can vary the glide/portamento time to suit your requirements, using
the Amount pot located within the Glide box, located below.
54 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
Download BazilleCM and the
accompanying video at
bit.ly/cm332downloads
Now we can create a virtual patch cable, running between
Envelope 2 and the Fractalize Modulation pot; click and hold on the
red patch point, just to the right of the Envelope 2 faders, and drag the
attached cable to the input point, located just underneath the
Fractalize Modulation pot. Increase the value of the pot to 2.40.
If we move to the central Out 1 section, you will see that Env1 is
already set as the default, for controlling the volume of the
amplifier’s output as you play. While we want to leave this default in
place, we can afford to increase the volume to a value of 45, which will
give us a little more signal to play with.
12
Finally, to use this sound as a lead sound, you may want to switch
the FX: Delay back on. This can be useful for thickening the texture,
though you may also want to apply some compression from within
your DAW, just to keep levels under control. You’ll be compressing the
initial signal, as well as the delayed signal, which can amplify the effect.
 create a fractal sync tone with bazillecm / cm tools masterclass <

PRO TIP

LEADING SYNC LINES

Creating the perfect sync lead sound can be a
tricky business, extending well beyond the
creation of the sound itself. With our patch,
we’ve attempted to create an ideal lead sound,
which performs particularly well in a
monophonic setting. This means that you can
only play a single note at one time, although it
has to be said that a sound such as this, playing
polyphonically in a chord, is likely to be all-
consuming for even the largest of mixes. By
selecting the voice mode Legato, you’re invited
to change the Glide time, slowing the
movement from one note to the next. However,
to activate this effect to its fullest potential,
you’ll have to play your line into your DAW
incredibly smoothly, and ideally with notes
overlapping. It’s part of the patch’s makeup that
every time you re-trigger a note outside of this
legato playing, you re-trigger the sound of the
descending sync. This may be what you want,
but to create that classic effect, go legato and
smooth, and your track and lead will sound
better as a consequence. Try and keep things smooth when playing!

OTHER RECOMMENDED PLUGINS

Korg GForce Software

ARP Odyssey Oddity 3
Korg’s recreation of the vintage classic provides a hugely accurate model Oddity 3 takes the ARP Odyssey and pumps it full of sonic steroids. It can
of one of the most iconic synths, known for its ripping sync-osc tones sound charming or slaughterous, depending on your track’s needs

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 55

Dance music
masterclass
with Sara Simms
#04
Craft Avicii-style
melodies
We pay tribute to the modern dance
pioneer who, in his short time, set a
standard for songwriting in the genre
The Swedish DJ producer Tim Bergling –
aka Avicii – was one of those musicians
whose careers were cut far too short. But he’ll
always be remembered for crafting
unforgettable melodies.
A lot can be learned by studying Avicii’s
melodies and using his composition ideas in
your own tracks. From his interviews, it seems
he started with the melodic line first and crafted
the rest of the production around the melody.
This type of approach differs from the typical
56 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
Download the accompanying video
and the MIDI/audio files at
bit.ly/cm332downloads
Sara Simms
Sara Simms is an
acclaimed DJ and
producer from Toronto
who’s played some of
the world’s most
prestigious venues
and festivals alongside
artists like Carl Craig,
Victor Ruiz and more.
She owns her own
record label, Simmetry
Sounds, which releases cutting-
edge techno and house tracks
crafted by the next generation of
electronic music producers
electronic music process of beginning with the
rhythmic components. He would often use one
melody and repeat it, and add variations or
short stutter notes. He worked with melody
forms like AAAA (one melody is repeated four
times), AAAB (repeated three times then varied)
and more.
Listen to Avicii’s melodies and see how many
different melodic structures you can hear. Here,
we’ll look at how to create the types of melodies
and sounds Avicii used in SOS and Heaven.
 craft avicii-style melodies / dance music masterclass <
> Step by step 1. Creating Avicii-style melodies
1 2
Set the BPM in your DAW to 100, and create a MIDI track. Load up a
soft synth and find a muted guitar-type sound (we’re using Nexus,
and the Mute Guitars 2 preset). Create a MIDI clip that’s one bar in
length and write a catchy one-bar melody. Try an ascending pattern,
then have the pattern descend on the same notes.
3 4
Add some shorter ‘stutter’ notes to add rhythmic variations. In this
example in bar one, the first note on 1.3 is broken into two smaller
notes. The extra note helps add more movement and interest to the
line. In bar two, add a small rhythmic variation at the start of the third
beat, 1.3 . In bar three, copy the entire melody from bar one.
5 6
Create a return track and add your favourite reverb to it. Choose a
medium hall, and send your synth to the reverb. We layer our
muted guitar sound by creating a blank MIDI track, and add an
instance of Mixed In Key’s Captain Play Epic to it, but you can use
anything else to fatten up the sound. Turn down any global effects.
Copy the melodic pattern into bars two, three and four. Make a
variation in the second half of the last bar. One idea is to have a
pattern that repeats twice rather than a descending line. This type of
melodic structure is called an AAAB melody as the first bar repeats
three times, then changes to a new idea in the fourth bar.
In the fourth bar, on beat three, try using a similar melodic or
rhythmic phrase to that used for the variation in bar two. This will
create both repetition and contrast throughout the melody. The four
bars are now an A1, A2, A1, B melody pattern. The first bar plays, there’s
a slight change, then the first idea repeats before the melody ends.
Send your fattening-up synth to a reverb. For the third layer, create
a MIDI track and add a plucky-sounding preset from another synth,
and adjust the decay if needed. Move to the Effects section and turn
off reverb and delay. Send this synth to the reverb and add a delay
plugin, like Soundtoys Echoboy. Use a ¼” delay to add movement.
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 57
Dance music
masterclass
with Sara Simms
> Step by step 2. Get the Heaven lead sound
1 2
Create a MIDI track and load up a wavetable synth like Serum
(which is what we’re using). For the first layer, create a simple lead
by choosing the Analog BD Sine wave, and turning the WT Position all
the way to the right. In ENV 1, set the attack to 0.5, Hold to 0.0, Decay to
983ms, Sustain to -8.1 and Release to 15ms.
3 4
Create a new MIDI track and add the same synth to create a second
layer. On OSC A, choose a basic shape waveform. Increase the
Unison to 7 and set Detune to 0.15. Set the wavetable position to 2. On
OSC B, choose a vowel waveform (like Serum’s OOH_YAH_OO). Set the
Unison to 7, Detune to 0.15 and Blend to 75.
5 6
For the third layer, create a big room supersaw lead. We add Nexus
3 and choose LD Accelerator, but a similar gnarly sound will work.
Turn off the synth’s Delay and Reverb. Add a compressor like
Teletronix LA-2 for some light compression, and an EQ to roll off the
low end below 485Hz and above 19kHz. Paste the melody pattern.
58 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
In the effect section, turn on the compressor and multiband. Turn
on the distortion, and filter. Drag ENV 1 to the FX Filter cutoff.
Create a two-bar MIDI clip, write a short melody and repeat three
times. Copy the phrase a fourth time, and change the notes so the
melody closes with a different ending to create an AAAB melody.
In the same track, set Attack to 0.5, Hold to 0.0ms, Decay to 983,
Sustain to -8.1 and Release to 273ms. In the FX section, turn on the
compressor and the Multiband. Copy over the MIDI melody from track
one to this MIDI track. Add an EQ and roll off the low end below 270Hz,
and above 20kHz.
Create two MIDI tracks and copy the melody. Create a brass layer
by adding Kontakt, selecting Trumpet Ensemble from the Kontakt
Factory Library. Then, increase the sound’s width in the stereo field,
and an EQ to roll off lows and highs. Lastly, you can add an M1-esque
‘dance piano’. Add an EQ to roll off below 268Hz and above 5200Hz.
 craft avicii-style melodies / dance music masterclass <

PRO TIP

A FRESH TWIST
Unite the lead layers by grouping and processing them
together. Use an EQ like FabFilter Pro-Q 3 to roll off low
frequencies below 150Hz, above 20kHz and add a small
boost around 1200Hz. Glue sounds together by adding a
compressor and set it so that there’s 3-5dB of gain reduction.
Lastly, add a compressor and sidechain it to a kick drum.
Create three return tracks and add an algorithmic reverb like
(Valhalla Room) on one, delay (like EchoBoy with Ping Pong
Delay) on the second, and vintage-style reverb (like Valhalla
Vintage Verb) on the third. Send the group to the Reverbs
and Delay. Beyond sound design, one of the keys to writing
Avicii-style melodies is repetition and variation. This is a
powerful, yet simple technique to create memorable
melodies. Avicii often closed out his phrases by changing
the melody, surprising listeners with a fresh twist. To create
great melodies like Avicii, focus on four-part melodic
structures. Write a short melody and use a form such as
AAAB or AAAA. Try adding short stutter notes and make
small variations on each part of the melody. For example, a
melodic structure like A1, A2, A1, B could be effective with a
strong A section. Apply these concepts and you’ll hear your
songs improving!

RECOMMENDED
Avicii’s work existed in LISTENING
the dance realm but his
reference points ran AVICII
increasingly deep as he FADE INTO DARKNESS
developed his own This gorgeous tune
preferences and style features a piano sample
by Simon Jeffes and
uses an AAAA pattern
bit.ly/av_fade

AVICII
WAKE ME UP
The verse’s melody is an
ABAC pattern while the
chorus features an
ABAB pattern
bit.ly/av_wmu
Brian Killian/WireImage/Getty

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 59

Mix
masterclass
with Jon Musgrave
#17
The benefits
of submixing
If your mix just won’t gel, this month’s
technique could be just what you need
to finalise your track’s core elements
A mixing technique that’s commonly
mentioned but not always understood is
submixing. This technique groups audio
signals together prior to the main mix bus
and can help balancing and mix cohesion.
Long before DAWs with massive track counts
became the norm, mixers began grouping
together and processing similar tracks to help
them balance their mix. Sometimes this was
for convenience, but could equally be down to
limited resources, and the need to share specific
processors. Either way, it turned out to be rather
good at getting the mix to gel, and certain
mixers even became well known for their
submixing methods (Michael Brauer is
probably the most famous example).
60 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
Download the accompanying video
and the MIDI/audio files at
bit.ly/cm332downloads
Jon Musgrave
Jon is a London-based
platinum award
winning mixer,
producer, composer
and club remixer with
a diverse CV that spans
dance, pop, rock and
music for media. He’s
also a long term
contributor to
Computer Music. Jon
usually handles final mixdowns,
which is why we’ve got him to
share some of his pearls of mixing
wisdom here
In a DAW environment, resources are usually
limited by our CPU’s capabilities, so running our
favourite compressor on numerous tracks isn’t
often a problem. Even so, submixing can still
form an important part of our mix, both from
an organisational and sonic perspective. And
once set up, it can also save time, be more CPU
efficient and allow us to process each submix
as one.
In this tutorial, we’ll investigate submixing
using regular buses. This is a universal method
that should work on all DAWs. That said, many
DAWs now include their own streamlined
options for setting up submixes, and we discuss
some of these in the Pro Tip.
Right then, let’s get to it.
 the benefits of submixing / mix masterclass <
> Step by step Submixing using regular busses
1 2
In this tutorial, we’ll take a universal approach to submixing using
regular busses, and this should work on all DAWs. Nevertheless,
the first thing to appreciate is that we are not using busses to split the
signal, as we do with an auxiliary. Rather, signals are routed solely to
busses to premix them prior to the master bus.
3 4
There is no requirement to set up submixes for everything. In fact,
doing this can sometimes be more confusing. If you’re new to
submixing, select elements that clearly go together but happen to
be on multiple tracks. Drums or vocals for example. You can create
submixes whenever you like, but doing so at early stages can help
get things organised.
5 6
Submixes give a great way to gel multitrack instruments such as
drums, and compression is a perfect tool. Here we’re using the SSL
Bus Compressor 2 to add glue, and also the EQP-1A for some overall
sheen. Meanwhile, on our bass, we’re adding to the track-specific bass
compression with an opto design: IK T-RackS White 2A.
The simplest way to do this is to set up a fresh bus or busses, with
faders at unity. Then on your individual tracks, use the track output
option to switch the routing from the main output to the required bus.
The audio will now pass from your track to the submix bus, then from
the submix bus to the main output.
To get started, we’ve set up our first couple of busses – Drums and
Basses – routing all key elements of our beat (eight tracks) and our
two bass tracks accordingly. In addition to naming and colour coding
the faders, so it’s all easy to spot, we’ve loaded up EQ and task-
specific compressors.
When discussing submixing, we often focus on combining tracks,
but submixing auxiliary effects returns is also helpful. Here, we’ve
simply grouped all our auxiliary returns into one submix channel (Aux
Effects). If you’re using specific effects for certain tracks (vocals, say),
then more focused effects submixes can also be useful.
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 61
Mix
masterclass
with Jon Musgrave
> Step by step Submixing using regular busses (continued)
7 8
So far we’ve looked at grouping tracks by instrument type, but
this certainly isn’t the only option. Common techniques include
submixing tracks according to their main frequency content or
function. As an example, we’ve swapped things around in our track,
creating low- and mid-range submixes, supplemented with lead
instruments and effects.
9 10
Don’t be afraid to remove an item from the submix or parallel
process individual elements. For example, if you like the drum
submix, but don’t want the kick to influence it, remove the kick and
simply process it independently. Alternatively, you could parallel
the kick by using an additional auxiliary send and bus.
11
Brauer’s technique uses four stereo busses (A, B, C and D) for the
instrumentation, and then blends the main vocals directly into
the stereo bus via a number of parallel compressors. Each bus uses
a different compressor (diode bridge, VCA, valve and optical), with
tracks routed according to compressor behaviours.
62 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
As you can see, we now have the kick and bass tracks going to the
same submix. Most other drum elements plus the pads are routed
together. Meanwhile, the lead aspects (keys and synths) are grouped.
We’ve now used more specific compression and EQ on each of
these groups.
It would be remiss of us to discuss submixing without mentioning
Michael Brauer’s method, and although we’re not necessarily
suggesting you copy it, it’s definitely worth investigating, and at
the very least demonstrates that finding your own system and
then most importantly finessing it, is perfectly valid.
12
Audio levels to the busses are post-fader, so you are mixing ‘into’
the sub mix compressors, attempting to find a sweet spot. Even
with modest gain reduction, each compressor adds its own harmonics.
Overall the method provides a nuanced approach to mix glue and
helps with balance between instruments and vocals.
 the benefits of submixing / mix masterclass <

PRO TIPS

SUBMIXING SPECIFICS
Submixing audio tracks is a technique that started
on physical mixing consoles, so although it’s
perfectly acceptable to replicate a similar
methodology in your DAW, it should come as no
surprise that your DAW may include features that
streamline the process. Unfortunately, there seems
to be no universal terminology for this, so check
out your DAW for specifics. For example, in Ableton
Live you can simply select multiple tracks and group
them (Edit/GroupTracks). This creates a separate
Group track which you can treat as a regular track,
adjusting the level, pan, adding plugins and using
automation. There’s a similar kind of option in
Cubase which also uses the Group track (Group
Channel To Selected Channels). Meanwhile, Logic
Pro includes both track grouping and stacking
systems. The latter has a feature (Option/
CreateTrackStack/Summing) that automatically
assigns selected tracks via a bus to a dedicated
folding submix fader with level, pan, inserts and
sends. Finally, in Studio One you’ll find that selected
tracks can be collectively assigned to a new bus
(Track/Add Bus For Selected Channels). As each DAW varies, check out your particular DAW for more submix specifics

RECOMMENDED
The Last Dinner Party: LISTENING
Nothing matters, except
a good submix THE CHAINSMOKERS
FT. GRACEY
THINK OF US
To create a defined
and impactful sound,
submixing can be a very
useful technique
bit.ly/cm_think

THE LAST
DINNER PARTY
NOTHING MATTERS
Submixing can really
help you take control of
layered tracks like this
bit.ly/ldp_nm
Andy Von Pip/ZUMA Press Wire / ALamy Stock Photo

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 63

> 15 questions with / canblaster

Photo: Jean Adrien Morandeau

15 questions with…

Canblaster
A pivotal player in French electronic music, Canblaster’s
insight was solicited by plugin company BLEASS during
the development of the extraordinary Arpeggiator.
We spoke to the man behind the Can, Cédric Steffens,
to learn about his evolution from arcade dance game
enthusiast to one-fourth of the acclaimed Club Cheval
64 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
 canblaster / 15 questions with <

It’s becoming increasingly common to find
electronic artists and creatives having
a hand in the development of the types of
creative tools they themselves want to use.
It’s often the case that those questing, idea-
filled creatives are used as the originators of
concepts that product development teams
would never hit upon themselves. In the case
of BLEASS Software, working with respected
French DJ and producer Canblaster when
building the ingenious BLEASS Arpeggiator
led them to create a plugin far beyond their
initial concept, and one that snapped into
Canblaster – aka Cédric Steffens – chance-
based workflow perfectly.
We spoke to Cédric to learn more about this
collaboration, his upcoming three-part record
and how using his regular livestreams helps
keep him creatively productive.
Firstly, can you give us a bit of an
1 overview of BLEASS Arpeggiator
and what it brings to the table for
creative producers and artists?
Cédric: “I think the main idea was to change
what arpeggiators are. For me, it was a process
of going back and forth with the BLEASS team
and put every idea we could put into this.
There are so many different ways of playing
the arpeggiators that we tried to find by either
analysing ways that the players play on the
keyboard, or how classic sequencers were used.
Then there’s a whole part about the rhythm of
the arp which was one of the main focuses for
me. One of the main problems I think with most
arps is that the rhythm is unchanged. The idea
was to implement silencers in the arp to create
some holes and new rhythms using a mix of
polyrhythms. The Trigger Mode is something
I’m really happy with, it’s the idea that you’re
able to control the rate at which the plugin steps
through the pattern of notes.”
device but the integration wasn’t quite there. modular. I have a lot of MIDI tools – that’s why
I use Trigger Mode more and more, I spent getting this plugin right was so important to
so much time developing it but now I can just me. I use a mix of sequencers, arpeggiators,
use it when making songs, it’s nice to finally random notes – I’m very inspired by the tracker
be able to do that. It’s a pleasure to have all mentality. Arpeggiators are really important to
these ideas and a perfect tool to play me, so you can see why it was super important
them through.” to work with BLEASS. The randomness with
the control of parameters is very present
Are you going to continue working in their universe.”
4 with BLEASS, and developing tech
more generally? You recently released Genesis,
Cédric: “Yeah that’s really a goal, I’ve become
a partner of BLEASS so I’m very excited about
6 a really beautiful and epic mixtape,
and we hear that recently you’ve
the future. There were a lot of things that I didn’t been locked in the studio working on new
have the time to implement into Arpeggiator – music. What can you tell us about
there’s always the ideas you keep for later, so I this process?
think for them it Cédric: “I was finished
was a success.
We’re probably “I use a lot of plugins, with my old band, where
I was a keyboardist. When
going to do the band stopped I felt
Arpeggiator 2 and my goal is to go as like working on finding
down the line, out what was interesting
I don’t know!
“There are
hybrid as possible. to me. I wanted to create
a live show. It took a lot of
a few tweaks
that I’d be happy I never sequence time to find a process of
translating what I was
to make to making in the studio to
Arpeggiator so from my modular” the stage. Also it’s funny
I’m sure updates because as I was creating
might happen the idea and as the
that implement those. Things I’ve discovered concept of the next album, Liberosis, was
from using it all the time in my workflow. It’s developing. As I was working on it, I had more
normal though, I’m really happy with it.” and more modular gear and the tools became
more efficient, I found ways to do some stuff
In your workflow, what is the balance that I couldn’t do that I’d had in mind for say four
5 between hardware and software?
Cédric: “I do use a lot of plugins
or five years. At some point I remember having a
lot of different MIDI tracks sending different
actually, and my goal is to really go as hybrid messages, just to be able to do what I wanted
as possible. I almost never sequence from my with different speeds and LFOs and stuff – it

When did you start working

2 with BLEASS?
Cédric: “So they are from the north of
France, just like me. One of the guys from the
team is a good friend of mine, he was actually
the guitarist for my very first band from maybe
20 years ago. I only learned that after starting
to work with them. We had several ideas for
products we could work on together. One of
them was the arpeggiator, but it was very basic
at that time. They had a few implementations
that were interesting. I had some that I really
wanted to do, so we just started going back
and forth on the development. We got in
contact initially through my label, they
knew them from a long time ago.”

Was it the case that you were

3 working with a rough version, and
telling them what – from an artist
perspective – you wanted to see?
Cédric: “Exactly. Half of it was beta testing and
the other half was me proposing ideas, like ‘what
if it could do this or that?’ The Trigger Mode idea
I had for a long time. The idea was ultimately
built around holding a chord with my fingers
and then as I go, have a rhythm that was
triggered from another track that I could play
with using my left hand, then my right hand
could move the chord. I didn’t find anything that
could do that. I tried to do that a long time ago in
lockdown, I found a Max for Live arpeggiator BLEASS Arpeggiator allows users to make rhythmically unique arps, and is an incredible sound design tool

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 65

> 15 questions with / canblaster
was very complicated, but now with BLEASS
Arpeggiator, I don’t need that anymore.”
How would you say your writing has
7 developed over the last few years as
a creative artist, and do you still
consider the club/live impact of tracks?
Cédric: “I still love the club, of course. Every time
I have the chance to DJ on a good setup I really
enjoy it, and that’s what I was doing a lot of
when I was younger. I think playing live [more
generally] gives you the freedom to break from
the rhythm completely or do a tempo that you
wouldn’t dare in a club [when DJing], or would
be less interesting – that is cool too. If you have
a really good synth part that you want to play
live without drums, and just focus on the playing
of the keyboard and arpeggiating you can do
that, otherwise in a club you’ve just got to keep
the rhythm going.”
Canblaster’s modular system: “What I find interesting about it is nobody uses it the same way”
66 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024
What DAW do you use?
8 Cédric: “My main DAW is Ableton Live.
What took me the most time was
reaching the balance of a setup I wanted. My
main setup is built around the computer with
Ableton Live running, I have my modular of
course, which can change a lot – I have the
Expressive E Osmose. Some of that team also
come from the north of France. My go-to synth
is the Sequential OB6. The idea is really to
go back and forth – to have the computer
sequencing the synthesisers and then the
synthesisers being destroyed by plugins
– creating a weird conversation between them
all. I think that’s the reason why so many people
ask me how I make my sounds.”
When did the modular obsession
9 begin? Has that always been
a fixation?
Cédric: “Really, it was at the end of the band and
when I started researching into more synths. I
was a little too comfortable with what I was then
using. I lacked the element of surprise when
I first started – when you buy your first
synthesiser and you tweak a few buttons. When
you don’t really know what ADSR is! I needed
that kind of feeling of discovery. To be surprised
by the sound I heard. To find some sounds that
I don’t know how I made myself. Then to
understand them and then to reproduce them
– that was the game when I started modular,
you know.
“Quite close to me in Paris is the main
modular shop [Modular Square]; the dealer lives
upstairs and anyway, as soon as I bought a few
bits, I had a few friends lending me additional
stuff. My first case and modules were given
by others. That’s one of the great things
about modular, you find a lot of help and
communication in the industry. It’s about
exchanging. I’ve visited a lot of different
modular-based studios, what I’ve found
interesting is that nobody uses it quite the
same way. They might use it to make saturated
noises, or ambient sounds and tones. They all
have their philosophy and their background.
There’s so much you can do with it, you can do
synths with the modular, but then you can do
beats with the modular and envelopes and
precise stuff. You see what you like and
what you don’t.”
Your upcoming record, Liberosis, will
10 be released in three parts, why did
you decide to do this and how many
tracks will there be per-part?
Cédric: “There’s six tracks per-part, 18 tracks in
total. Basically, Liberosis is an album that has
taken me three years to complete. The mixtape
Genesis was kind of like the outtakes from the
album. I played a lot of them on my Twitch
sessions. I do a weekly session which is called
The Dice Game – it’s all about randomness and
experimenting with stuff, interacting live with
my friend Jacques. It’s mostly tracks that I wrote
once I found my balance with the gear that I told
you about. With my hybrid setup. I took the best
of that. I love having that Twitch space to
experiment, and build a little community. I often
tell my Twitch audience that I use them as an
excuse to be productive. Otherwise I take ages
to finish stuff, and having a weekly meeting is
a good thing. I occasionally have guests over,
and we make songs in one week together. I can
have a lot of different guests from different
styles – like jazz, flute players or modular nerds.
Anyone can come and we can find a common
ground. That’s what I really like.”
Which track on the new album took
11 you the longest to get right would
you say?
Cédric: “Most of it was done in a three-year
span. There are one or two that are older than
that. On Genesis, for example, the track called
Lost Feathers was done in a session five years
ago, and then there’s one on the album as well
which is in the third part of the album. It’s a track
that I did when one of my friends lent me a
Roland Jupiter-8.”
Will you be doing much live work
12 to promote the release?
Cédric: “Yes, I did my first opening
show in a festival in France called Trans

Musicales, that was quite emotional. Usually you
do some warm-up gigs to test the set-up and
make sure everything sounds good. That was
my first show in front of 5,000 people. It was
really great – the people loved it and everyone
from my crew was really happy. It was the first
time I was playing the album before anyone
else had heard it.”
Can you remember back when you
13 first started, what made you want to
become a musician and producer?
Cédric: “I was really doing it for fun, my first
DAW was Music 2000 on PlayStation. I’ve been
classically trained until I was 13 or 14 and at night
I would just play on my PlayStation, but those
things were quite separate. When I started
making music in my teens I was very computer-
based, and just used a mouse mainly. It took
me a long time to plug a synthesiser into
my computer. That’s funny, but that’s how it
happened. What really got me started doing
lots of music was the rhythm game scene,
which is basically like arcades when you’d have
those dancing machines, or fake guitars and
stuff like that.
“My very first song that I created as an actual
job was a song for a dancing game. I started with
FL Studio, but back in the day it was version 3 or
4. With that I started doing this music for video
games. Around 2007 some really interesting
things were happening in France in terms of
canblaster / 15 questions with <
“Playing live gives
you the freedom
to break from
the rhythm
completely”
electronic music. It was the comeback of Daft tracks and pushing the idea of opening up my
Punk – a lot of Parisian labels were really studio and sharing my process more. I’ve been
innovative back in the day. Glitch music was big. alone for a long time working on this album,
The whole club was dancing to it. I realised there so now it’s time to open up and work with
was a link between this kind of club music, IDM more people.”
and video game music. There was a path that
opened between these two. It made me want to For more info on Canblaster and to watch some of
become the one playing the music in the club. his regular streams head to his Twitch channel
This led to the formation of [innovative Parisian twitch.tv/canblasterlive and for more info on
collective] Club Cheval. Myd and me were in BLEASS Arpeggiator, head to bleass.com
one school and [other members] Sam Tiba and
Panteros were in a different school. We came
together and created Club Cheval.”
How much time do you typically
14 spend in the studio?
Cédric: “I basically work at night, so I’m
HEAR MORE
in the studio from 8pm – I share the studio with
a mixer. My finish times can vary, sometimes
it’s midnight and sometimes it’s 5am. I have to
carefully balance my social life. Now the album
is done I can hang out a little bit more!”
If I’m Not Here
What’s next on the agenda for spoti.fi/3SFY6X5
15 you, Cédric?
Cédric: “It’s the album launch and the
Aerian Dance
spoti.fi/49dG8jP
live shows – the live side is really going to be my
main focus this year. Building my Twitch stream, soundcloud.com/canblaster
hopefully doing more things with BLEASS. We’ve
already started talking about it. I feel like I’m instagram.com/canblaster/
90% finished with Arpeggiator, there’s definitely facebook.com/canblaster/
more I want to add to that. I’m working on new
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 67
 MUSIC PRODUCER’S
GUIDE TO ABLETON LIVE

ON SALE
NOW
 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
5 This product’s problems
outweigh its merits
6 A decent product that’s only
held back by a few flaws
7 Solid. Well worth considering
8 Very good. A well-conceived
and executed product
70 MOOG MARIANA 9 Excellent. First-rate and
Moog’s latest softsynth adventure sees them trawling the depths among the best you can buy

of the sub-bass realm. Does it resonate with our reviewer? 10 Exceptional. It just doesn’t get
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72 74
UVI Toontrack
Falcon 3 Stockholm & Stories SDX Expansion

76 78 80
Native Instruments Mastering The Mix Soundware
S-Series Mk3 RESO

Awarded to products A product has to really If the product In the opinion of the
that challenge existing impress us with its exceeds expectations Editor, the best product
ideas and do something functionality and for its price, it will reviewed in the
entirely new features to win this one receive this gong magazine this month

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 69

 > reviews / moog mariana
LAYERS DUAL OSCILLATOR PRESETS
Switch between the different The beating heart of each Mariana ships with an CV
layers, for sound sources and synth layer: a multifaceted excellent set of Access to virtual
modulation control dual VCO categorised patches CV routings

MODULATION
Assign
additional FILTERS
modulation The incredibly
routings from comprehensive
this pop-out filter section
window splits into
three sections
NOISE
Not content
with just
White noise, KEYBOARD
Moog give Especially useful
options for a on the iPad
whole host of version, the
noise colour keyboard
enables
immediate
playability

SUB
The Sub oscillator will provide even MIXER
greater depth to your patch Blend it all together
using the mixer stage

Moog
Mariana
£30 (iOS) £99 (PC/Mac)
Looking for absorbent synth bass sounds? Moog’s new software synth
bass plumbs new trench-like depths, Roland Schmidt submerges…
Whether you know it or not, it’s a pretty safe 20,000 leagues… can be set at the same pitch, or one/two octaves
bet to assume that you’ll have heard a Moog At first sight, the control panel is unmistakably above, but with hard tuning up to a perfect 5th
synth playing a bass sound somewhere on a Moog; the pots glisten, appearing three above or below your triggered note, you can
recording at some stage in your listening life. dimensional on a flat screen. It’s also pretty much set the oscillator pitch wherever
From modulars to Sub Phatty, via the Minimoog uncluttered, which is largely because the synth’s you want. The shared nature of the waveform
and the legendary Taurus bass pedals, it’s clear panel is laid out across five pages. These pages might feel restricting, but the Duty Cycle control
Moog have synth-bass form. break down sensibly, forming two synth layers. provides a form of pulse width modulation,
Moog’s latest release stays in the software We’ll begin with the layer called Synth 1; our across all chosen wave types.
domain, while also encouraging us to stay in a sound starts with a dual oscillator, through five It doesn’t end there though, because a
bass register. Mariana is capable of providing traditional subtractive waveforms. Once you further sub oscillator is also onboard, switchable
that legendary Moog sound at a sensible price, select a waveform, this is shared across both in octave range only, but offering a sine, saw or
but we’re intrigued to know how it differs from elements of the dual oscillator, with square wave, along with a phase pot, to alleviate
its previous softsynth outings. independent tuning control for each. Oscillator 2 phase cancellation issues.

70 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024

 moog mariana / reviews <

Unsurprisingly,
the filters sound
exceptionally
good, with true
Moog colour

Adding subtraction
All of these source components are blended at
the Synth 1 layer level, using the mixer, which
also provides a level pot for noise. This occurs
before moving on to the incredibly
comprehensive filter section, which is
comprised of three independent sections; low-
pass, high-pass and sub filter. All three have
resonance and envelope modulation control, Apply your criteria for modulation routings from the pop-out window
while the sub filter is switchable between high,
low and band-pass modes. Unsurprisingly, the
filters sound exceptionally good, with true Moog Modulation and more
colour. The band-pass is a particular favourite,
with its wispy quality, which is ideal for those The undeniable Moog sound presented method for controlling elements such
classic reduced band-width bass parts. by Mariana is pretty exceptional, but as the filter cutoff controls, from a
Alongside the Synth 1 layer, the Control 1 providing a fixed timbre is only half the single source such as the modulation
Layer has plenty of modulation sources, which story. Alongside the traditional wheel. Meanwhile, MIDI CC Mapping
include three individual LFOs, each syncable modulation control, within each can also be applied as required. One of
and with a phase control, and three envelopes. control layer, there are a host of other the more exciting prospects is its ability
Two of these ADSR envelopes are hooked options. The Modulation page opens to to apply virtual CV (control voltage)
directly to the amplifier and filter sections, while reveal assignable sources from all over connections. If you have any of the
the third envelope offers five stages, with an the synth, with full detailing at each Moogerfooger software effects pedals,
additional delay trigger. You’ll also find two level, as a pop-up window gives access you can instantly engage this element,
random generators, with sync and slew. to the modulation settings for each as the Moogerfoogers can trigger
This compendium is pretty complete, but as source and destination. It’s beautifully elements such as LFO or envelopes,
Mariana offers a second Synth and Control layer, engineered onscreen, and a useful and vice versa.
you do have to double the capacity for sonic
creation, with two of everything. This means
that there’s a ton of tonal options for a
monophonic synth (which can also be switched
to a duophonic mode) but also that there are Finish all of this off with an Animoog-style Alternatively
several layers to compete with when editing. keyboard and you have the most fantastic-
The final page which ties all of this together is sounding Moog package, which can provide a Universal Audio Moog Minimoog
the Output page. The central Summing mixer ton of synth bass detail, and a lot of other synth £199 (or via the UA Spark sub)
blends the signals, applying compression and lines too, if you play that little bit higher. UA’s licensed Minimoog will
effects too, with the effects added at the synth provide a classic Mini sound, which
layer level. Web moog.com is perfect for basses

Cherry Audio Lowdown $49

Based on the legendary Taurus
pedal-synth, this extends to the
lowest of depths

Verdict
For Provides a huge Moog sound
It’s very comprehensive, especially in
modulation and filtering
The output page perfectly sums the
signal together
The iOS version is a total bargain at £30!

Against Moving layers can be a faff

Audio output cannot be set globally
The GUI is not resizeable

This is Moog and far more, thanks to its

substantial subtractive hierarchy and
modulation options

The Output page will sum the layers together, adding compression and effects too 9/10

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 71

 > reviews / uvi falcon 3

MAIN TABS STRUCTURE

Step through the main views including Main (as This is the core of Falcon 3 with the
shown), the mixer and performance page. You Program (top) featuring Layers,
can also switch the left and right Keygroups and oscillators as you
move down the UI
OTHER
SOUND ELEMENTS
STRUCTURE As well as
An overall view preset sounds,
of your sound. you can also
You can also see access the
it as the Tree, effects,
which allows you Scripts and
to see and edit oscillators
scripts and with these
effects tabs

LIST VIEW
Another way to
see an overview PRESETS
of all of your You’ll need to
layers and ‘tell’ Falcon
keygroups. This where the
window can also Factory
be switched off soundbank is
on first use

CORE OSCILLATORS MAPPING AND MODULATION

The core elements are the oscillators of Fixed at the bottom of the UI are the
which here we have one of the new ones, keyboard mapping windows and a very
Harmonic Resonators, loaded in extensive modulation section where you
really can ‘modulate your modulators’

UVI
Falcon 3 $349
This workstation was already chock full of every synthesis and effect
type imaginable, so what can v3 possibly add? Andy Jones takes flight
Every type of hardware synthesiser has now sounds from its many different engines at the Of course version 3 has more of everything, with
been emulated in software and Falcon 3 is same time or as separate parts of a song. And it’s 20 oscillators (about which we’ll expand in the
pretty much every type of synthesiser under all handled with a fantastic semi-modular box opposite) over 100 effects, around 70 script
one roof. The nearest hardware comparisons are approach that, in spite of the less-than-simple UI, processors and 13 modulators.
perhaps the all-conquering workstation synths is certainly a lot more straightforward than it There’s also a sizable (although not exactly
from the likes of Yamaha and Korg. They do should be, given the huge scope on offer. over-endowed) library of preset content to load
everything; but without the physical constraints The core idea is to expand on the different in and manipulate, with 24 expansion packs
of hardware, Falcon has always done even more. synthesis and sampling oscillators with effects, available (two of which have been added at v3).
modulation and a series of customisable The layering and component structure in
The Falcon concept scripted generators and processors. And this Falcon is important to get your head around.
Like those hardware giants, Falcon is means that those multitimbral parts have access You start with assigning an oscillator to a key
multitimbral – that is, you can play different to pretty much every sound type ever invented. range as a Keygroup. This then becomes a Layer

72 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024


There are loyal Falcon
owners out there who
give one another
knowing looks – once
you know, you know
when you assign effects, modulation (LFOs,
envelopes etc) and those scripted MIDI events.
Programs made up of different Layers or
Keygroups then make up that Multi part where
each different Program can be layered or mixed
as separate song parts.
What’s in the v3 script?
The script system has always been a highlight in
Falcon, including devices like arpeggiators,
sequencers, tuners and chord generators. New
in v3 are Node Arp, an interesting matrix
sequencer with active and passive ‘nodes’ that
can bring variety and movement to an evolving
sound; Motion Grid, a similar grid sequencer but
with more direction and scale options; and
Snowflakes, a 12-note sequencer that adds a
staccato-like effect to sustained notes.
New effects are also welcome, including Opal,
a great optical compressor with seven
emulations of real hardware to choose from;
Ladder, a simple but surprisingly dramatic East
Coast filter; Dispersor, another simple-looking
effect but a capable transient shaper; and finally
Harmonic Resonator which is a highlight, a six-
band resonator EQ with lots of options to shape
your sound.
Does this Falcon fly?
As a sound design tool, there are few other
applications that get close to Falcon 3. It has so
much in terms of variety of oscillators, effects
and modulation that there’s very little that it
can’t handle and help you create. The
modulation and scripted processors take it
above and beyond, allowing for evolving
sounds, huge sequencing options and melody
creation in many styles and scales.
Really it’s whether this ‘one stop shop for
everything’ approach is for you. There are many
loyal Falcon owners out there who give one
The Script Processors, as you can see, are many and varied, including effects, performance tools and much more
uvi falcon 3 / reviews <
The new oscillators in Falcon 3 include Bowed String, Harmonic Resonators (seen here) and VOSIM.
We’ve loaded all three in because with Falcon 3, you can stack whatever you like together
Falcon’s core
At the heart of Falcon are the oscillators
that allow it to create such a diverse
range of sounds. You get VA (Analog
and Analog Stack), four-operator FM,
Wavetable, Additive and Drum
Synthesis plus physical modelling in
the form of Pluck. Sampling engines
include Sample, Slice and Stretch, and
several created by French research
institute IRCAM like Granular, Scrub
and Stretch. Newcomers in v3 are
VOSIM which is described as ‘a tribute
to vintage vocal synthesis’ and includes
another that knowing look – once you know, you
know. But you might be someone who prefers to
put together your own bespoke set of plugins to
make your own personal sound design setup.
The truth is, though, you can do that in Falcon
too! We did experience a couple of worrying
crashes in Logic, but overall Falcon 3 is still an
immense sonic force, all under one roof.
Web uvi.net
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 73
both a Formant mode and Phonem
mode with vowel oscillation; Bowed
String for detailed emulation of both an
instrument bow and its strings with lots
of parameters to fine tune for each; and
finally Harmonic Resonators which has
three sources (transient, texture, and
noise) which can be mixed and then go
through a 6-channel resonator bank (as
shown above). These complete a huge
and varied set of oscillators; indeed it’s
hard to know what UVI could possibly
add in future versions.
Alternatively
Steinberg HALion 7
€349
Another huge workstation that
delivers everything you need.
Choose one. Both would be overkill
Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2
$499
The king of synths is still just that,
but its price has crept up
Verdict
For An oscillator for everything
‘Modulate your modulations’ – exactly
We love the scripted processing system
Fantastic instrument presets
Against The sonic structure is not as
intuitive as it could be
Vast and can be overwhelming
Crashed in Logic during our tests
Of the few software titles that claim to do it
all, Falcon is flying high. It was hard to see
how UVI could improve it – but it has!
8/10
> reviews / toontrack stockholm & stories sdx expansions
DRUM MENU LIBRARY PRESETS
The drop-down menu that reveals Select your chosen Library or SDX Toontrack’s usual comprehensive set of
alternative drum options package from this drop-down production-ready presets

MEMORY
Check your RAM allocation vs
your computer’s memory capacity
SETTINGS
Subtle alterations can be made
at the individual drum level
BLEED CONTROL
Total control over bleed from one
instrument’s mic, to another

THE KIT
Select any drum or cymbal within
the kit, to change or swap settings

CHANNEL MIXER
The mixer page reveals
every audio channel
that is in play
MIDI SYNC
Create complete drum tracks from Control transport onboard, or

Toontrack
MIDI templates, within the plugin sync perfectly with your DAW

Stockholm & Stories

SDX Expansions
€179 per pack
In its quest to create the most flexible drum suite on the planet,
Toontrack hit the road. Roland Schmidt is hot on its tail
Ever since Toontrack premiered EZDrummer warehouse, RMV was lovingly developed – and acoustics can sound ambiently boxy, but with
nearly 25 years ago, it’s carved a unique path. equipped – by ABBA’s Benny Andersson. And it their usual attention to detail, the ambient mics
The upgrade provided by the next-level Superior was there that Toontrack undertook the task of can be blended to suit your production style.
Drummer suite has extended drum sampling to sampling five different drum kits, across 12 The most distant combo is a pair of Neumann
new heights, with ever-more packed in via their snares, nine kicks and three sets of cymbals. KM 184 mics, with the closest mic placed right
SDX expansion packs. Let’s look at two of the There’s an enormous variance across the behind the drummer, in the form of an AKG C24.
more recent of these additions… different kits. While the influence of Stockholm Sample capture has been engineered by Linn
steers toward the poppier side, there is a ton of Fijal, who also provides a host of production-
From Sweden… acoustic colour to choose from. Extensive use ready mixes. The channel-split content across
The first of the SDX releases we have for review has also been made of the live room; it’s not the these mixes does vary, as does the acoustic
was forged at Riksmixningsverket studios, in largest room that Toontrack has ever used, sound of each of the five kits. Our preference
Stockholm, Sweden. Originally an old naval which means that in some instances the was firmly for the tighter-sounding kits,

74 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024

 toontrack stockholm & stories sdx expansions / reviews <

Both impressive, in
different ways;
Stockholm pledges
unique pop… Stories
punch and depth
provided by the ‘Tight’ and ‘Punchy’ kit options,
while the ‘Rock’ kit, hosting up to 24” of kick,
provided a looser feel. As is always the case with
SD3, if a drum isn’t to your liking, you only have
to swap it out for another kit element, or visit the
mixer page to vary the channel blend. With
42GB of sample content, Stockholm feels
extensive, but acutely manageable.
The end result is an extensive package of
very useable drum content, accompanied by a Toontrack’s reimagining of the historic pop venue of Riksmixningsverket studios, in Stockholm
stylish set of MIDI grooves, providing rhythmic
makeup with four different mid-to-uptempo
song styles. The playing from drummer Mix and match the Toontrack way
Josephine Forsman is forensically stylish, but
while the MIDI is great, a larger number of Both of these products require an drum or percussion items in and out, so
groove options would have been useful. existing host plugin or standalone if you want a crisper/tighter snare,
application in the shape of Superior instead of the fuller tone within a
…to New England Drummer 3 – the big brother to specific kit, you can do it. The
The second release crosses the pond to the USA, Toontrack’s EZDrummer 3. The versatility doesn’t end there though, as
and New England’s legendary Power Station additional elements that accompany you also have the option to create
studio complex. Guest engineer Frank Filipetti SD3 revolve around deeper sampling entire drum tracks, from amazingly
has worked with artists from Kiss and Foreigner, and ambient miking. This means more musical MIDI grooves, right within the
to Madonna and George Michael. The Stories control at the mixer page level, where package. Both EZDrummer and
SDX sampling philosophy goes deep, capturing you can engineer just about every Superior Drummer have revolutionised
a full 160GB of content, which provides all nuance you’d care to tweak. If that’s not how we can use real drums, within a
ambiences and ‘bleeds’ between drum mics. enough, the Toontrack philosophy DAW. Toontrack remain the leaders of
The SDX includes six different drum kits, dictates that you can swap individual the pack in a plugin of this kind.
alongside a host of percussion instruments,
which also offer significant variance in room
ambience. The Main room provides incredible
depth in overall sound, with an ambient sizeable set of production-ready mixes, Alternatively
brightness provided by the room’s wooden provided by Filipetti and Toontrack.
panelling. The output is immediately impressive, These packages are both highly impressive, Toontrack Superior Drummer 3
but if you require something a little more but in different ways; Stockholm pledges unique €399 (upgrade pricing available)
intimate, the tightness provided by the pop with a degree of helpful limitation. Stories, The wealth of sample and MIDI
acoustics of the two isolation rooms is on the other hand, is nearly three times the size content as part of the host package
altogether more cohesive. In the setting of in sample quota, and captures punch and depth sweeten the purchase agreeably
Isolation Room B, the kick offers incredible in equal measure. They’re both exemplary,
depth, along with the identifiable high-end snap. within their own criteria, providing subtle but Native Instruments
Regular Toontrack drummer Norman extensive choice across the kit spectrum. Studio Drummer £129
Garschke provides an impressive array of MIDI A complete suite, it includes three
groove content, marrying beautifully with a Web toontrack.com beautifully recorded kits, from
Pearl, Yamaha and Sonor

Verdict
For Exceptional level of drum sampling
Stockholm presents perfect pop drums
Stories goes deep, layers-wise
The MIDI groove templates in both SDXs
are amazingly versatile and usable

Against The Stockholm SDX could use

a little more MIDI groove content
You’ll need Superior Drummer 3

If you regularly need acoustic drums, these

SDX packs are best in class

Stockholm SDX 9/10

Poignantly for Benny and co, Riksmixningsverket’s visitors have included Eurovision winner Loreen Stories SDX 10/10

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 75

> reviews / native instruments kontrol s-series mk3

NEW PITCH/MOD WHEELS
Each with a handy LED
showing their position. Note the
touch strip is now in a better
place above them, too
MASSIVE SCREEN
The new single screen
replaces the two on the
Mk2 and is a definite
Mk 3 highlight
TOP ROW OF BUTTONS
MAIN AREAS
Often used to select sub menus in Select between Browser,
instruments or within a DAW, they
Plugin or DAW to
can be used to mute mixer channels control here

TRANSPORT OTHER ‘KONTROLS’ EIGHT MAIN ROTARIES MAIN DIAL

CONTROLS Include navigation Will be assigned to the Used mostly for
Your DAW transport buttons to access more most commonly used dialling through and
controls are here parameters within parameters but you can selecting presets
including play, instruments and the scroll through more or access (via a press)
record, loop and stop new Play Assist features effects for them to control

Native Instruments
Kontrol
S-Series Mk3
£649 to £1,129
Native Instruments have updated their Kontrol-S Series to v3, but is it
really still the best way for Andy Jones to Kontrol his virtual studio?
Native Instruments’ Kontrol keyboards were like’, but the list of NKS partners now includes We have the S61 Mk3 (£749) on test, with the
incredibly ground-breaking when they were many of the biggest names in software. S49 costing £649 and £1,129 for the top-end S88.
released nine years ago. The idea has been to With just three updates to the S-Series range
get control of your software ‘off-computer’ – to Three refined and defined being released in nine years, you expect Native
be able to select plugins and tweak parameters Installation of S-Series Mk3 is in three steps: Instruments to put a serious amount into each
using keyboards rather than your mouse and register the keyboard, download a Hardware update, and Mk3 has much to like. But the
cursor. It makes the experience more seamless, Connection Service app to link the plugins to biggest addition is a not-so-visible onboard
less computer-based and feel more like you’re the keyboard, and download the S-Series Mk3 computer that promises better integration with
using a keyboard stuffed with software. That firmware update. It’s lengthy, but will result both NI and third party plugins, with more actual
software does need to be NKS-compatible, in your hardware and software talking and, processing. How much is up and running at
though, so that the keyboard maps to it and luckily, NI email the instructions at the start present is a little vague, though, so we’re
makes the control experience more ‘hardware- of the process. keeping this review in the here and now.

76 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024

 native instruments kontrol s-series mk3 / reviews <

There is little that

feels better in
music production

The keyboard feels sturdy with a newly

designed one-piece body, but maybe has a
lighter feel. Everything else feels pro, especially
the aluminium dials, and new mod and pitch
wheels with handy LEDs plus assignable touch
strip above them. Buttons still only reveal their
identity when available, which looks cool, but
can be frustrating when searching for functions.
The most obvious update is the single larger
screen that replaces the two on the Mk2, which
makes sense for a keyboard system trying to cut
down screen usage. This hi-res screen feels Using the S-Series Mk3 with NI plugins is a fantastic experience but you might have some rerouting
to do with your third party plugins, and Silicon users will need to update everything
massive on first powering up (which in itself
feels amazing, as such a large keyboard is
powered by USB). It’s bright, clear and easily
visible from a distance. It has allowed the feel of
the KK environment to be updated for a crisper S-Series with a DAW and third-party plugins
and undoubtedly ‘bigger’ experience.
The overall Komplete Kontrol philosophy You might think S-Series is all about were mostly resolved by updating the
thankfully remains similar to the approach controlling VSTs, but DAW control is plugins via the respective installers.
going right back to Mk1, in that you load in an also possible, and works with Live, Do expect some of this in your setup
instrument, and use the eight rotaries beneath Logic, Bitwig, DP, Studio One and FLS process, and possible rerouting of
the screen to immediately control its most (Cubase and PT are imminent). We plugins within either Komplete Kontrol
important parameters which have been had it set up and working with Logic, or Kontakt to get them working
premapped for you. You can also access more with an S-Series template added to the seamlessly. And one other tip is to
parameters by holding the Shift>Left/Right Control Surface options; all you have make sure you rescan your plugins in
arrows which moves through instrument to do is check that S-Series is showing either host after updating – something
sections and effects, opening up every as your input source. We were up and we realised after a frustrating hour
parameter to control and/or automate. running in no time. We did have or two. There’s a lot going on here
Kontakt is used to load in your available a few issues with third party plugins between S-series and software, so the
libraries, and Komplete Kontrol adds any synths including Korg and Arturia, but these setup was bound to require effort.
and other instrument plugins. We found that
using either was seamless after updating
plugins [see boxout]. If you were to load in an
FM8, for example, you will then instantly have
access to parameters and can layer effects on and colour customisation features, while the S61 Alternatively
top of any instrument loaded, which is an keyboard is bolstered further by polyphonic
excellent feature. aftertouch. Mk3 is pricy and not essential to Mk2 Akai VIP
owners, but when you get your software feeling £various
Komplete solution? like it is sitting in your keyboard under your Runs with many MPK and APC
We still stand by our view of the Kontrol S-Series ‘kontrolling’ fingers, there is little that feels keyboards for a similar seamless
experience as one of the best hardware/ better in music production. hardware and software experience
software solutions, with overall navigation now
better than ever. There are added Play Assist Web native-instruments.com Novation SL MkIII
£560–£650
49 and 61-key controllers which are
Nice LEDs on the some of the most flexible out there
redesigned pitch and
mod wheel, while the
touch strip has been Verdict
relocated above them
For Lovely new screen
Great keyboard and parameter control
via encoders and switches
Play Assist features are useful
Polyphonic aftertouch is a boon

Against Lengthy setup process for

some systems

NI’s latest S-Series shows how seamless

a hardware/software partnership can
be, but is pricey and not an essential
Mk2 update

8/10

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 77

> reviews / mastering the mix reso

A/B FREQUENCY SWEEP DELTA

MENU Audition and Toggle the frequency Audition those BYPASS
Basic menu compare your sweeping operation on rogue frequencies Bypass the
for operation audible results and off in isolation plugin’s audible
operation

SETTINGS
Access
settings for
display
and setup

FREQUENCY AND LEVELS GAIN REDUCTION NODE

Visual indication of the Activated node, as
frequency level information frequency point reduction detected by RESO

Mastering the Mix

RESO £49
If pesky frequency spikes are troubling your instrument channels and
mixes, maybe it’s time to find some RESOlution, says Roland Schmidt
Mixing and mastering plugins have RESO is the newest addition, described as Target, seek and destroy!
completely revolutionised how we produce a Dynamic Resonance Suppressor. It reminds Our first tests involved using RESO on a Master
music. But one of the most significant us of a similar technology that appeared some Bus, which, to be fair, is one of the most logical
enhancements in mixing related plugins has years ago, found in different devices but notably places to entertain its deployment. Being plugin-
undoubtedly been the rise of products which seen in Behringer’s Feedback Destroyer. based, there’s nothing to stop you using RESO at
can assist you with troublesome elements, The premise being that as a spike in any stage; audio, virtual instrument, etc. But by
such as rogue frequencies. frequency is detected, a feedback destroyer using at the master output level, it allows us to
would quickly and efficiently create an equal get a thorough overview.
Mastering the Mix and opposite spike, to alleviate the feedback, Once it’s been loaded, RESO displays
If there is one company which is branded to do thus saving everyone’s ears from the nasty blast information in the time-honoured way, with
exactly what it says on the tin, it’s Mastering the that would usually present. RESO operates on frequency measurements labelled across the
Mix. It’s been producing popular plugins, a similar level, but with a far greater degree bottom of the plugin, from left to right. Once
designed for purpose since 2014. of sophistication and subtlety. audio is detected, a wave dances across the

78 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024


There’s nothing
to stop you using
RESO at any stage;
audio, virtual
instrument etc
window, providing visual clues about the
frequency content that’s contained within,
and associated dynamic levels.
You are then invited to Calculate Targets via
a click of the mouse, requiring a mere playing of
your track while RESO listens to the incoming
audio. This listening phase does seem to be
fairly brief, at around five seconds. We have
encountered various other plugins that take
a listen to incoming audio, and listening times
range from around 15 seconds to the entire
duration of the track. It’s therefore quite a
surprise that RESO can make such quick and
informed decisions in such a short space of
time. Once the frequencies have been targeted,
RESO can be engaged to reduce the identified
spikes. The differences are noticeable, as a mix
becomes flatter without the presence of
characterful, if unwanted, frequency spikes.
Going manual
While the process of targeting and engagement
is swift, literal and accurate, there is
encouragement from Mastering the Mix to
explore, using a degree of manual operation.
The targeting plots are described as Nodes, as
these can be engaged or altered very easily,
on a node-by-node basis. There is also visual
feedback, from a red graphic in the upper part
of the plugin window, which demonstrates
the amount of reduction being applied.
RESO provides a useable springboard,
allowing you to listen back to the reduced Node
points, making an informed decision through
audition. There is control over the Q range in
each Node’s case, facilitating the widening of
the effected band.
Mix mastered
Thanks to an A/B toggle, you can audition your
settings easily, while the Delta function allows
you to hear the exact rogue frequencies that are
Use the Delta mode to solo those rogue frequencies
mastering the mix reso / reviews <
RESO has little tolerance for high-frequency spikes
RESO in context
We’ve been pretty impressed with the
capabilities of RESO; throughout
our testing regime, it performed
beautifully across a number of
different styles of music, highlighting
both subtle and exaggerated extremes
in frequency spike. We also tested
RESO alongside other products, both
within our included DAW package and
other third party plugins. It became
pretty apparent to us that placing
RESO alongside a channel EQ, with
compression placed after RESO,
provided an excellent and effective
mastering signal chain, albeit at the
being reduced. However, being pure and often
sinusoidal in nature, you need to be careful if
activating at volume, as it’ll wipe out your
ears for the rest of the day!
As a second pair of automated ears for
resolving resonant frequency conflicts, RESO
is a surefire hit, but always be prepared to listen
beyond the plugin’s interpretation to ensure
best results.
Web masteringthemix.com
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 79
more basic end of mastering business.
This does not make it any less effective
though. RESO could be particularly
helpful to anyone working on a budget,
especially if your monitoring location is
not as you might like it. We did notice
that just about all of our tests and
examples concentrated on reducing
spikes in the upper frequency bands,
but suspect that RESO would adopt a
fairly radical reduction should it detect
a heavy duty spike in bass frequencies.
Regardless of your signal chain, always
use your ears objectively to obtain the
best aural results.
Alternatively
Oeksound Soothe2
£175
Offers features to assist in both
eliminating rogue frequencies, and
sweetening a mix in equal measure
iZotope DynamicEQ (part of
Ozone 11). From £189
A manual approach to dynamically
controlling troublesome
frequencies within your mix
Verdict
For Very clever, simple and useful
resonant frequency suppressor
Operates with subtlety, when required…
…or radically if your audio needs help!
Against Only takes a minimal
snapshot of a track
RESO adopts a very musical stance when
analysing incoming audio, delivering
accurate and very usable results in
all stylistic scenarios
9/10
> reviews / mini reviews

Soundware round-up

Audiotent
Electrolyze £45
Evergreen older-school analogue machine funk rears its head, as modern
production polish and club sonics keep one foot in the very present, in this off-kilter
collection of electronic bliss and beats. Amongst the 2.27GB of content the super
skippy drum machine kick programming runs riot, as jazzy hat patterns and some

Frontline Producer high metallic percussion punch add push and pull to proceedings. The big, dented
basslines in the pack are raw and rhymically funky, with larger loops full of depth

Funk Rock
and dimension. The sick synth sequences are slippery and salacious, and all the
bonus bleeps, FX, and arpeggiated grooves drive everything forward.
www.audiotent.com
Sessions £24.95 n9/10n

The loose groove of funk gets laced

with heavy rock attitude in this sweet
’70s musical melting pot. Think Sly
Stone, for stylings, with the slapping
bass and tough drums of his
freewheeling fusion at the forefront.
Elsewhere, there’s fly guitars to feel
out, infectious keys to turn heads, and
other standout riffs to get busy with,
amongst the ready to use and
abuse loops.
Zenhiser
The live breaks are a blast, too,
Burner £40
and all the clicks, snaps, claps and White-hot selection of cone-melting wobble business, inspired by the
melancholic funk throws of label dons like Alix Perez and his forward-thinking
percussion pieces will have you peers. Once that smoke clears, let the drums rain down. Each and every super
tough kick and snare more devastating than the last. Chuck in some of the
funkateers waving that freak flag high. darkest and moodiest synth sounds and FX this side of a dystopian sci-fi score
and you’ve got plenty to take you deep into the danger zone. Heavy and
www.loopmasters.com oppressive stuff, with a driving intensity that the late night crowd crave.
www.zenhiser.com
n 7/100 n8/10n

80 / COMPUTER MUSIC April 2024


Abstract
90’s Rave £25
Flashback to a time of bucket hats, unfeasibly wide trousers and the floppiest
hair this side of Hugh Grant. Actually, that’s right now… Fitting, then, that
the ’90s retro rave sound has resurfaced, as the fashions are back with
a vengeance. If you want to soundtrack the throwback trend, jump red Fila
boot first into this uplifting collection of old skool samples. There’s synth
sounds to hoover up, beats to breaks, and a massive line of era-specific
stabs and FX to tackle. And, everything comes barreling at you between
128 and 125BPM. ‘Ave it!
samplemarket.co.uk
n7/10n
Famous Audio
Aqua Beats £24.95
Take a deep dive into this production tool pool of liquid D’n’B, if you want your
speakers soaked in warm waves of bottomless bass and melodies. There’s huge
chords and keys, crafted with care, to wash over you, as well. And all the 172 BPM
drums, booming breakbeats, and tantalising tops in this collection are ready to
rock, fresh out the pack. Pulsating pads, shimmering FX, punchy one-shots and
synthy leadlines round it all out. Adding up to much more than enough to whet
your appetite for slick and rolling track-fattening fair.
www.loopmasters.com
n8/10n
mini reviews / reviews <
UNDRGRND Sounds
House Beats £24.95
Straight-up essentials for the loop library right about now. And, as you steam
through the 500-strong set of hard-hitting drum sounds, one-shots and loops
locked away in this single-minded set of samples, you’ll be wondering how
you ever lived without it. There’s so many jackin’ house hits, tech banging
beats, and deep house kicks and snares to choose from. All served on
a platter at God’s own tempo of 125BPM. All tones and types are catered for,
and mixed with an ear for maximum thumping and slapping potential. Heavy.
www.undrgrndsounds.com
n8/10n
Sample Tools by Cr2
Analogue Indie Dance £15.99 (or 300 Credits)
Inspired by the output of the deep house imprint, Innervisions, this lovingly
assembled sample pack is full of the soulful sounds the label is famous for. The
signature styles of its analogue-loving roster is explored across the entire indie/
dance-leaning pack. There’s experimental synth pads, melodic hooks, rich piano
riffs, deep bass and driving drums, with waves of lush, timeless sonic landscape-
building, giving everything that trademark transcendent quality.
sampletoolsbycr2.com
n7/10n
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 81
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MASTERCLASSES
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 > Free software

TONE2
ULTRASPACE
Quality spatial effects can really lift your productions and this
month’s fantastic giveaway will help you do just that
UltraSpace (AU, VST) from Tone2 is a algorithms sourced from some classic hardware In this tutorial, we’ll explain how to grab your
multi-effect plugin designed to provide all units, the sounds are top quality. free copy and get up and running. We’ll then
aspects of space simulation. It’s super The whole lot is packaged in a single plugin have a look at the basic layout and also take a
flexible and normally retails for $79, but this window, so there’s no hunting for parameters. deeper dive into what’s included. Then in the
month it’s yours absolutely free. And if you do get lost, there’s plenty of context- focus walkthroughs, we’ll investigate the
Tone2 are best known for their excellent sensitive help. With more than 150 excellent presets and how to make more creative effects.
synth plugins. UltraSpace takes some of the presets, there’s no shortage of production- As mentioned, Tone2 produce a whole range
effects from these instruments and packages ready effects. Meanwhile, if you like to get of sound creation and processing tools, so if
them into their own multi-module reverb plugin. creative, the clear layout delivers not only you like UltraSpace, we’re sure you’ll love their
Effects include reverb, delay and related typical reverb tools, but it’s also designed for other plugins. Why not head over to
dynamics such as duck and gate. With creating new and unique effects. tone2.com for more information.

ROUTE MIX
Set the global blend, stereo width GATE
Switch between either serial or parallel Tidy up and shape the
routing for the reverb and delay and audition the wet signal
effected signal

MAIN
DISPLAY
Load presets
and view
parameter DUCK
values of Reduce the
selected effect level
controls when the
dry signal
HELP is present
Launch the
user manual

EDIT
Switch
between the
compact or
main edit
windows REVERB MULTITAP
Edit the reverb and view Design and finesse
the resultant decay profile the delay component
84 / COMPUTER MUSIC April 2024

Download the accompanying video
and the MIDI/audio files at
bit.ly/cm332downloads
> Step by step 1.Installation
1 2
Head to this month’s free content page bit.ly/cm332downloads.
With this issue to hand, answer the questions and follow the
instructions to grab your Tone2 UltraSpace installer and activation
keyfile. Save the keyfile for later. Now run the installer.
> Step by step 2.Familiarisation
1 2
UltraSpace is easy to get to grips with. Top left, you’ll find the main
display with plugin management features and preset browser.
Click the preset name to reveal the preset list, or File to load additional
presets. You’ll also find the randomise options for delay and reverb.
3 4
Top right, you have two further sections that only influence the
effected signal. The noise gate is a typical design (threshold,
attack, release and hold). Duck reduces the effected signal with a dry
signal. Level controls depth, and limit controls maximum ducking.
tone2 ultraspace / free software <
Once installed, launch your DAW and load an instance of
UltraSpace. Clicking on the splashscreen launches a browser
dialogue; from here, navigate to the keyfile you’ve already saved.
Select it to authorise the plugin and reload it to complete activation.
Next is the output mix panel. As well as the global mix blend,
output volume and level meters, there’s also a momentary wet
signal solo option (monitor). You can also control the width of the
effected signal (surround).
Lastly, the reverb and multitap delay sections. The reverb includes
a handy graphical display showing tail amplitude over time, with
the vertical line representing 1-second decay. The delay includes an
editable left/right channel tap designer with adjustable level.
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 85
> free software / tone2 ultraspace
> Step by step 3.Reverb
1 2
Let’s start with the reverb effect and try some different settings.
We have a dry, stabby synth sound that could be treated in
different ways, and we’ve loaded UltraSpace as an insert. Selecting the
preset REV Hall Big, the mix control for the multitap is already on zero,
and we’ve set reverb mix to 100% and global mix to about 30%.
3 4
As the name implies, this is already a big reverb, but UltraSpace
can do really big spaces and really long decays. Try increasing the
size and decay controls individually to see the effect they have. By
increasing the decay to its maximum, we can create almost infinite
decay times, which is great for creative effects.
5 6
An important feature of this preset is ‘Swirl’. This adds modulation
to the reverb and is great for adding a processed richness, working
really well with shorter decay times. Try different settings for Swirl and
once again use the monitor option. You’ll be able to hear quite clearly
the impact it has on the sound.
86 / COMPUTER MUSIC April 2024
You can see straight away from the controls and the graphic that
this large reverb has a predelay, and if you hover your cursor over
a parameter (we’ve chosen predelay), its value shows up in the main
display. This is a really handy feature, particularly as there are no
values on the parameter controls.
Now let’s look at some shorter reverbs. We’ve inserted an instance
of UltraSpace across our stabby piano sound and loaded the
preset REV Room Bright 2, setting the mix blends accordingly. This has
a large size but much smaller decay to create a natural space that
decays quickly. Try using the monitor option to just listen to the reverb.
Further reverb shaping includes diffusion, which influences the
density of the reflections, and both high and low frequency
damping. Also, though not specific to the reverb, try the duck effect.
This helps reduce the reverb when input signal is present. Simply set
the level to taste using the limit option, to control maximum ducking.

> Step by step 4.Multitapdelay
1 2
Sticking with our stabby piano sound, we still have UltraSpace
loaded as an insert. Let’s now investigate the multitap effect. To get
started, we’ve loaded up the preset TAP__LR. You’ll see that this
multitap preset already has the reverb mix at 0% and tap mix at 100%.
Adjust the global mix to taste (35%).
3 4
The delay taps are defined using the step format display to the
right; top row is the left channel, bottom row is the right channel.
Each bar can be adjusted on the display to set the level of each tap, and
you’ll see the display includes 17 steps, with lighter shading
highlighting beat division.
5 6
The other key delay parameter is the feedback. At 0% this creates
a one-shot effect that’s great for creating clattery early reflections.
Try this at lower time settings (¼ or ⅛). Meanwhile for regular feedback
delays you need to remember that the whole step section is the
feedback delay line, not just each individual tap.
tone2 ultraspace / free software <
Multitap is a tempo-synced effect and will always sync to the DAW
tempo. However, the division of the taps and how the tap display
determines them is controlled by the time control. Understanding this
is vital to creating effects, and for the preset we’ve loaded, we can see
this is set to 1/2 beat.
With time set to 1/2 beat, the middle highlighted step is half a beat
and the highlighted bar on the far right of the tap display a full
beat. Try removing the tap settings and raise just the right hand end
bar on the top row. Play some audio and you should hear a ¼ note
delay in the left channel.
Finally, the multitap delay line can be modified. Try adjusting the
detune to add subtle richness or obvious pitchiness, and use the
high and low damp controls to set the rate at which high and low
frequencies are dampened in the delay feedback. Once again, the duck
option can be used to keep the effect clear of the dry signal.
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 87
> free software / tone2 ultraspace
> Step by step 5.Combiningeffects
1 2
By combining reverb and delay in one plugin, UltraSpace allows us
to create effects that are more integrated, and this is enhanced
even further via the serial and parallel routing options. If you’re looking
for effects that combine reverb and delay, try a preset starting with the
Mix prefix, as many are combination effects.
3 4
Try reducing the mix blends for each effect to see what they’re
both doing. When it’s just delay, you’ll hear quite a clattery multitap
effect, meanwhile the reverb on its own is quite short. However, in
serial mode the reverb feeds into the delay and the result is a more
interesting and washy effect.
5 6
The routing configuration contributes a lot to the sound, and to get
an idea of the difference, try switching to serial mode. The delay is
now processing the reverb output, and you can’t really hear the
individual delays anymore, but rather a more smeared reverb effect.
88 / COMPUTER MUSIC April 2024
We’ve loaded the preset Mix Large Space. As the name implies, this
is a big reverb designed for special effects that have a “washy”
quality, and it has a long decay. Try adding it to a noise or impulse, such
as a kick, and you’ll see what we mean. Even so, this is created using
both reverb and delay.
Returning to our stabby synth part, we’ve loaded up the preset Mix
Echo Space 2. This combines a medium-sized reverb with very
defined but decaying delay taps. On this occasion, if we hover our
cursor over the Route button, we can see that this uses a parallel rather
than serial configuration.
To take this effect into new and interesting territory, we can simply
tweak the delay. Start by increasing the feedback, although not too
high as at maximum it will be infinite. Also, try adding some more
detune for a much more obvious and processed sound.

> Step by step 6.Gettingcreative
1 2
UltraSpace is further enhanced by its gating options. That said,
gated effects can be achieved in two different ways. If we load up
the preset Gate Hold 250ms, this, as the name implies, is a short 250ms
gate, and you can see that a threshold has been set in the gate section.
3 4
Gated effects can also be achieved using the multitap delay. We’ve
loaded the preset Gate Tap 4 Drum. Instantly, you’ll see the
multiple taps, and with the low time setting (⅛ beats) and minimum
feedback, these very short delays create a great gated effect.
5 6
On a similar tip, chorus and ensemble-style effects also work well.
We’ve loaded up FX Ensemble and you can see the multiple, very
short delay taps (time is set 1/16 beat) combined with zero feedback and
high detune. Try adjusting the detune to get the effect you want.
tone2 ultraspace / free software <
Here we’ve solo’d just a clap sound, and with the global mix at
about 50% we’ve adjusted the gate threshold to get a classic gated
sound. If we remove the gate by lowering the threshold, you can hear
that the underlying reverb is much longer.
We can use the delay section in UltraSpace to create some very
handy effects. We’ve returned to our stabby synth sound and
loaded the preset FX Stereo Widener. This uses just two tap delays
combined with a small amount of detune to deliver the classic delay
widening effect.
If you’re after a more extreme ensemble effect, why not give FX
Ensemble Fater a go. It uses all of the delay taps, and you can try
adjusting the high and low cut to tailor the overall sound. Finally, the
overall width of these stereo effects is easily tweaked using the global
surround control.
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 89
> your free samples / all-new samples
Download all assets for this issue at
bit.ly/cm332downloads

Ambient guitars + delays

Did you hear that? Subtle guitar textures flicker in the background of our tracks
this month with a new ambient guitar pack, plus some atmospheric delays…

ATMOSPHERES
Ambient Guitar Textures Delayed Atmospheres
We ordered some delicate guitar textures and that’s just In keeping with our ambient vibe, we asked Oli Bell from
what we got. Robbie from Cyclick explains his approach… Groove Criminals to craft us some delayed goodness
“Electric guitars are highly textural resulting lines, chords and one- “We’ve delved into using delay to let it go and ‘played’ the feedback
instruments, especially when shot miscellany were even more create some interesting presented here both raw and then
treated to heaps of compression, heavily treated to a chain of EQ, atmospheres this month. Rather processed. Speaking of ’80s delay,
EQ, reverb, modulation, pitch- reverb, perhaps modulation, more than rely on clean, straight repeats we also dusted off the Ibanez
shifting, saturation and delay, reverb, another EQ, stereo imaging we’ve tried to use the effect in DM1000, a rack-mount delay with a
which is what has been done here. and then a final compressor/limiter. (hopefully) interesting ways to hold/freeze button. Not the
The guitars were recorded through Judicious use of the VP Jnr volume make some dense, occasional dirty cleanest delay we own but it has
the pedals listed below with a pedal was made, and picking was textures. As usual we’ve used a some excellent dirty character.
heavy emphasis on the reverbs kept very light so as not to cause a mixture of hardware and software. Pedal-wise we gave the Canyon a
and delay, plus the Cali76 storm of reverb jangle and hiss. On the hardware side the Echopet good runout. We especially love
compressor and Dreadbox Most loops are non-rhythmic.” is one of our favourite ’80s the shimmer and reverse delay.”
Kinematic (also a compressor, as More detailed info can be found in analogue delays, it always seems More detailed info can be found in
well as dynamic filter). The Robbie’s PDF in the sample folder on the verge of self feedback so we Oli’s text doc in the sample folder

SELECTED GEAR
Ibanez AS7312 12-string SELECTED GEAR
Gretsch G5122DC Evans Echopet
Squier Bass VI Ibanez DM1000
Squier Telecaster Standard Soma Lyra-8
Squier Jazzmaster VM EHX Canyon
E Bow Plus Korg Monotron Delay
Eventide Modfactor Chase Bliss Mood
UA Starlight Echo Station delay Elekron Model samples
Boss GE-7 Equalizer Korg Volca FM
Boss DD-6 Digital Delay Various Eurorack modules
Electro-Harmonix HOG Ciat-Lonbarde Peterlin
Dreadbox Komorebi and Kinematic Logic delay designer/tape delay/echo
TC Electronic Hall of Fame and Viscous Dawson Love
(+ more listed in Robbie’s PDF) Sixth Sample Deelay

90 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024


FROM THE VAULT
Classic samples
Rough and tough bass
We’re bringing some of our favourite extreme bass sounds out
to play once again. Your low end will thank you, trust us…
Tough Bassics
The first of our gritty bass collections was honed by Cyclick Samples.
Here’s Robbie to tell us more about it…
“Roughness can be expressed as a
lack of smoothness, and the bass
sounds created for this sample pack
are proudly just this! Analogue
amplification stages have been
grossly overloaded and a variety of
fuzzes and distortions employed to
bring the grit, dirt and nastiness. To
many ears, this may be no bad thing
at all.”
“I loved every second of
generating this sandpaper bass
collection. Each of the five main
bass setups has been used to create
a set of loops across eight tempos and have been captured as a set of
seven multisamples. The seventh multisample is a variant of the Teisco
short-scale bass and Mutron III. The latter’s setting were regularly
switched between bassline takes and the two best were noted for
multisample creation, a low-pass filter and a band-pass filter setting.”
There’s more detail – including in depth information on the instrument
setups and gear used – in Rob’s PDF in the sample folder
SELECTED GEAR
Squier Precision bass
(Classic Vibe 70s)
Epiphone Ripper bass
Musicman Stingray bass
(1977)
Teisco short scale bass
Loads of pedals including
Electro-Harmonix, Moog,
Sandpit, Musitronics,
Dreadbox and a whole lot
more besides e
from the vault / your free samples <
Rough Bass Grooves
Keeping the theme rough and tough, Oli Bell from Groove Criminals
details his collection of hard-hitting bass grooves
“It’s our usual routine of mixing
both hardware and software to
bring you some roughed up low-
end tones.
“Hardware-wise we threw our
Mother 32 through the rather fab
Holy Island Rorschach which is a
separate spluttering fuzz and multi
mode filter circuit. Each is
controlled on the axis with a
joystick providing hands-on audio
destruction. We ran our trusty
Behringer TD-3 through three of our
favourite pedals to rough things up:
the bonkers Catalinbread Antichthon, Bugbrand Baby Bugcrusher (a
sample reducer that adds a fantastic vocal edge to the acid basslines), and
Glowfly Glitchwave567 which adds fuzz and a ring mod vibe.
“On the software side we ran the usual set of softsynths through both
distortion and bitcrushers for that filthy, crunchy sound but also rinsed the
Audiothing Wires plugin, a recreation of a Soviet-era wire recorder that
brings some great ambient texture to whatever you feed it, and has been
one of our go-to plugins for a while now.”
SELECTED GEAR
Moog Mother 32
Korg Wavestate
Behringer TD-3
Holy Island Audio
Rorschach
Catalinbread Antichthon
Bugbrand Baby
Bugcrusher
Glowfly Glitchwave567
Logic Alchemy
XFer Serum
Audio Thing Wires
Audio Thing Crusher
NI Driver
April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 91
> your free samples / loopmasters samples
Download all assets for this issue at
bit.ly/cm332downloads

Loopmasters 332 samples

This month’s demo sample selection highlighting Loopmasters’ latest releases
01 Singomakers Latin Tech House 2 04 Loopmasters Deep & Organic House
02 OneZero Samples Rare Jungle Breaks 05 Apollo Sound Harmony
03 House of Loop Melodic House & 06 Frontline Producer Acoustic Blues
Techno Vocals

92 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024

Download this month’s videos: bit.ly/cm332downloads

TONE2
ULTRASPACE
Follow along with the video as we dive into this
extraordinary free reverb, which retails for £55!
Read the full article from p84

/experts CM TOOLS MASTERCLASS DANCE MUSIC MASTERCLASS MIX MASTERCLASS

FRACTAL TONE IN CRAFT AVICII- THE BENEFITS OF

BAZILLE CM STYLE MELODIES SUBMIXING
Our resident
music production
gurus walk you
through their
specialist field
every month Read the full Read the full Read the full
article on p52 article on p56 article on p60

April 2024 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 93

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BACK ISSUES
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these issues include FileSilo downloads!

ISSUE 331
March 2024
• Perfect Piano guide
• FREE Kilohearts Snap
Heap effects plugin
• FREE sample packs
including Deep Bass
• Sign Libra interview
• Sound Like: Ed Sheeran
ISSUE 330 ISSUE 329 ISSUE 328 ISSUE 327 ISSUE 326
February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 Autumn 2023
• The Awards Issue 2023 • Hands-on with • Make AI work for you! • Create Club-Shaking • Make Better Beats guide
• FREE Beatskillz Chorust Ableton Live 12 • Audiomovers on their Techno feature • FREE Lunacy Audio
chorus plugin • FREE Tone2 Icarus collaborative tech • FREE Baby Audio Beat Cube Mini plugin
• FREE Kick sample pack 1.6 synth • FREE 8-bit and melody Slammer plugin • FREE Best Of 2023
• Interviews with SILK and • FREE Dream Pop and sample packs • FREE horror samples samples set
Magnetic Skies Industrial sample pack • Interviews with Infekt • Interviews: Apashe and • Beatie Wolfe and Jessy
• Linux in the Studio • ARMNHMR interview and Meduza Sound Particles Lanza interview

ISSUE 325
October 2023
• Mastering in the box
• FREE Caelum Audio
Choric Quartet plugin
(Excite Audio plugin no
longer in stock)
• FREE guitar and
drone samples
ISSUE 324
September 2023
• Get Classic Studio
Sounds feature
• FREE plugin from
Acustica Audio
• FREE lo-fi samples
• Django Django interview
• iPad Logic guide
ISSUE 323 ISSUE 322 ISSUE 321 ISSUE 320
August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023
• New game changers for • Arrange tracks like a Pro • Build Your All-New • Write Modern
your workflow • FREE Modalics EON Free Studio Soundtracks guide
• FREE Bitwig 8-Track arpeggiator • FREE Halo 2 Lite synth • Free vocal limiter
• 1041 FREE samples • 1052 FREE samples • 1597 FREE samples • 1308 free samples
• Nathan Fake interview • Manon Grandjean • Inside an immersive • Depeche Mode
• Mastering wavetable interview audio compilation synth masterclass
synthesis guide • Gorillaz-style strings • Gryffin interview • Chace interview

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> next month

Next issue
ISSUE 332 APRIL 2024
Future PLC
Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA
Tel: 01225 442244
Email: computermusic@futurenet.com
Web: www.musicradar.com
EDITORIAL
Editor: Andy Price, andy.price@futurenet.com
Art Editor: Mark White, mark.white@futurenet.com
Senior Managing Editor: Kate Puttick, kate.puttick@futurenet.com
Production Editor: Stan Bull, stanley.bull@futurenet.com

ON SALE CONTRIBUTORS
Stuart Adams, Oli Bell, Adam Douglas, Andy Jones, Rex Johnson, Jon Musgrave, Roland
Schmidt, Sara Simms, Roy Spencer, Robbie Stamp

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LICENSING
Computer Music is available for licensing. and syndication. Contact the Licensing team to
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The ultimate guide to

Head of Print Licensing : Rachel Shaw, licensing@futurenet.com
MANAGEMENT
Brand Director, Music: Stuart Williams

using reverb creatively

Content Director, Music: Scott Rowley
Head of Art and Design: Rodney Dive
Group Art Director: Graham Dalzell
Head of Design (London): Brad Merrett

Next issue, we go beyond the typical

applications of reverb and illuminate
how turning a little off-road can create
unnatural, mind-bending effects. Our
tutorial-packed guide spans many
ways that reverb can be harnessed to
2024

explode your track’s potential

PLUS!

Maria W Horn Free samples On test

Making sonic art Add a touch of the West BLEASS Arpeggiator,
We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from responsibly managed, certified forestry and
and coding her own Coast to your synth Hit’n’Mix RipX DAW chlorine-free manufacture. The paper in this magazine was sourced and produced from sustainable managed forests,
conforming to strict environmental and socioeconomic standards. The manufacturing paper mill and printer hold full
spectral sounds sounds, as well as glitch! and more… FSC and PEFC certification and accreditation.

98 / COMPUTER MUSIC / April 2024

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