Re-reviews

Computer Music has had a 25-year history, and over the life of this magazine, the technology behind music production has changed beyond recognition. Here are the products that set the stage for the modern world…

You might well think that the plugin-stuffed computer you use to make music on has been around forever. But when we launched this magazine, over 25 years ago, such technology didn’t exist, and the world of computer musicmaking was a very different one indeed. You needed hardware to boost your computer processing power, you needed soundcards to plug in to said computers, and you needed cash by the bucket-load to afford all of these extra bits and pieces.

Now, in real terms, making music on a Mac or PC is easier and cheaper than ever, and you have a big and evolving history – and one that ran in parallel to the history of this magazine – to thank for that. Over those two plus decades, there were huge innovations in both hardware and software. There were new platforms, new development tools, the invention of software instruments and hardware controllers, and behind all of it were innovative (and mostly German) companies.

What ties this history together was a passion for creating products that make music production easy, that make realising our ideas and our imaginations as simple as booting up and recording. So it’s time to praise the innovators, and give thanks to them for creating the slick and powerful music-making systems that we use now. Here are the key innovative products that defined computer musicmaking. They changed the game, forever.

Propellerhead

ReBirth (and Native Instruments Generator & Nemesys Gigasampler) PC/MAC

OK, so yes, that is technically three products, not one, but issue 2 of delivered this triple punch of historic software in a roundup of softsynths. So why are all three of them worthy of a mention? Well, Generator was NI’s first synthesiser and a modular precursor to Reaktor (see below for more on that).

GigaSampler was (pretty much) the first soft sampler and it could handle up to 4GB of samples at any one time – that’s impressive even by today’s standards. It really kick-started the manipulating and handling relationship between computers and audio.

Finally ReBirth: well, what can we say about this masterpiece of ground-breaking music software? It was two Roland TB-303 bass machines, plus Roland TR-909 and TR-808 drum machines in software with which you could make entire tunes simply and quickly. It was possibly the first clear and obvious indication that the computer and music-making were made for each other, so, if we have to pick one these three, it’s probably ReBirth that edges it.

WHAT WE SAID

“Everyone can now have a 303,” we said in issue 2, “as long as they have a Mac or PC.” Did we know that rhymed? Did we?

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

ReBirth eventually successfully hit the iPad but then, rather sadly, original 303, 808 and 909 developer Roland had a hand in The Props shutting the software down in 2017.

ReBirth (top), Generator and Gigasampler: three ground-breaking products in issue 2 of cm

Steinberg

Cubase 3.7 PC/MAC

It’s an odd version of a famous piece of software to include in our list of innovative products, you may well note; not even a complete whole number, just a point update. So what gives? Steinberg had already introduced the VST concept by this point, that is Virtual Studio Technology, whereby a software studio could exist within your DAW. (Yes, it seems like such a common thing in today’s DAW world that it’s hard to recall the days of the sequencer minus plugins.) However, VST technology had, until this point, focused entirely on effects, but version 3.7 of Steinberg’s best introduced an all-new weapon in the VST armoury: the softsynth. Cubase 3.7 for the PC included Neon, a basic instrument but one that made noise. It was the first time you could compose with a synth inside a DAW, and as you read the quote to the right from our review of the time, try not to adopt the voice of a Tomorrow’s World presenter…