Creating and mixing perfect piano sounds

Welcome

It’s often said that the best way to

Flying solo

The newest in its growing stable of properly vintage synth emulations, Cherry Audio reveals Pro Soloist…

Minimal Audio: Current affairs…

Following industry-wide acclaim for its roster of top quality effects plugins, Minimal Audio finally brought a delicious synth to the table in 2023. But what makes Current so different to the other softsynth offerings out there? We caught up with the company’s head honchos to dig in a little deeper…

THE AWARDS ISSUE 2023

INSTRUMENTS | EFFECTS | BEATS | MIXING | MASTERING

DAWs

From long-awaited upgrades, to radical new features, let’s start with that most integral piece of software, the DAW, and how it’s evolved this year

Software synths

2023 saw an overwhelming amount of exceptional new softsynths, from dexterous sound-shapers to meticulously crafted recreations of yesterday’s classics…

Beats and drum machines

Both retro-tinged emulations and innovative rhythmic re-thinkers disrupted the way we approached designing our drums in 2023

Creative effects

From signal-muddying modulation effects, ideastirring delays to veritable arenas of sonic colour, 2023 has been a red letter year for creative effects

Sample libraries and instruments

As hard drive space has increasingly expanded, so too have the size and scope of sample libraries and instruments

Mixing tools

Time to show some love to those mix-fixing plugins that offered genuinely inspired routes to caress our frequencies and tame our tracks

Mastering tools

From tools that grant deeper control, to those that hand-hold you through the entire process, 2023 saw mastering become a manageable process

Innovations

The following releases delightfully disrupted, seismically shook-up and all-round innovated our world in 2023

SILK

Hailed by the likes of Skrillex and Fred Again.., SILK’s emotive hybrid of tech house and pop merges melodic songcraft with irresistible, club-ready beats. The likes of the soul-touching Quiver and the crystalline surge of OnMyMind reflect the breadth of SILK’s talent, but hitting on a sound that resonated took more than a few false starts…

Create a gated synth sequence

Adding motion to a characterful synth pad can completely revitalise your track. We take two LFOs and get modulating

How to make a killer drop

In this month’s masterclass we jump to the element of a track that will get heads turning and pulses racing…

Mix bus compression

The mix bus provides the final stage to tweak your mix and this month we look at how to compress it

LINUX IN THE STUDIO

Wound up with Windows ? None too ’app y with Apple? An alternative exists, and it promises to be a potential paradise for all things music production . Let’s investigate…

Sonic Charge Synplant 2 $149

The original Synplant was the most unusual and original softsynth of the 2000s. Does its successor still shake the tree? Andy Jones branches out

Soundiron Quadral 3 $59

One of the most feature- and movement-packed Kontakt instruments around, this packs a big electronic punch for its price, says

Baby Audio Transit $99

Want an easy way to knit your track sections together? This multi ‐effects plugin could be just the thing, says

Austrian Audio MiCreator Studio $199/$199

This recording bundle is as much at home recording podcasts as it is instruments. This might be the only mic you need, says

Solid State Logic G3 MultiBusComp £192/$240

The G Series bus compressor’s classic sound can be restricted by its design, says Stuart Adams, so SSL has combined three into one

Soundware round-up

Audiotent Birdhouse £45 A timely ode to the

BEATSKILLZ CHORUST

Free software

Kicks and Complex Beats

This month we’re serving up some fresh beat-making components. Here are two new packs spanning kicks and subs plus skittering, complex rhythms…

Classic samples Ultimate Vocals

FROM THE VAULT

BEATSKILLZ CHORUST

Cm video

Magnetic Skies

Fusing the chilly intensity of darkwave with the melodic sensibilities of their ’80s synthpop heroes, four-piece outfit Magnetic Skies have just dropped their debut album. We spoke to frontman Simon Kent to learn more about their sound and how they craft their retro-futuristic sonic worlds…