Native Instruments Alicia’s Keys £89

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When you can’t stand the heat

NEW RELEASES • COMMENT • INDUSTRY HAPPENINGS

IK Multimedia’s AI Machine Modeling

IK’s AI Machine Modeling will model whatever gear

Get with the programmers

Steinberg have recently ditched the dongle in favour of a better and faster licensing system. Here’s the company’s Ben Timms to explain all…

App watch

We report on the latest developments in phone and tablet music making

COMPUTER music 10 years back

Our monthly shake-of-thehead at our earlier selves’ news choices…

Spitfire announce a complete orchestra, for free

It’s not often that we cover anyone other

Ins & outs

FENDAW Fender’s Andy Mooney has said that having

Bargain Basement Beats

ONSALE WED 7 SEP Get your beats for

15 questions with… The Maghreban

With three decades of production in many different genres under his belt, Ayman Rostom’s latest album, Connection, could be described as ‘a bit of a melting pot’ of different styles. But with praise from Pitchfork, The Quietus and Resident Advisor, plus fans including Ben UFO, Benji B and The Horrors, it might well be a candidate for dance album of 2022…

DELAY TACTICS

The delay effect is the pro producer’s favourite effect. Here’s how to get creative and cost effective with your own set of delay tactics

DELAY DECADES

All good effects begin with a great sound source, and they don’t begin in a more organic setting than this

Using delays

There is more choice in delays than there are repeats created from the feedback control, so we guide you through the best place to use certain styles and types

6 of the best paid-for delays

When it comes to choosing the perfect delay, there’s plenty of choice and delay types out there. Here’s our round up of the top paid-for contenders

6 of the best free delays

Despite the lack of pricetag, there are still some highly impressive delays to call upon, if you’re working to a tight budget. Here’s our rundown of the best freebies…

Jean-Michel Jarre-style delay

Throughout the early years of electronic music production, tape delays were a reliable tool for thickening textures. We draw a little ’70s inspiration, and apply some tape work to a String Machine

The WEM Copicat delay

The WEM Copicat was one of the first tape delays to be widely available. Fast forward and Computer Music has its very own tape-style delay from PSP Audioware and we’ll put it to some good guitar use

Create Jon Hopkins-style delay degrading

We’ll now use a delay to influence a reverb and some bit-crush distortion, a popular effect used by many of today’s electronic artists like Bonobo and Jon Hopkins…

Kate Bush’s synth sound

Recreating a synth sound from an ’80s classic? Stranger things have happened, and that’s the hill we’re attempting to run up this month

Create chill-hop drums

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to combine sampling with synthetic tools to create your own drum patches

CHICANE

Dance music legend Chicane, aka Nick Bracegirdle, is back in the UK and revisiting the blissed-out, Balearic beats he’s renowned for – his new release celebrates the 25th anniversary of his debut album Far From the Maddening Crowds, produced with an all-digital computer music setup

Old-school vibes for the new Chicane album

When he was getting ready to start work

The Pro Producer’s Guide To Headroom and levels

How loud can you go? Where’s your head(room) at? Why do you have to be careful with levels? Here’s our guide to signal-to-noise ratio, gain staging, headroom and a lot more as we continue our Back To Basics journey through some of the first principles of music production…

cm/reviews

The latest computer music gear tested and rated!

Softube Model 82 €99

It’s the return of the unintended vintage classic! Softube revisit 1982 and teach us a thing or two about old-school charm with their 101 clone

Vienna Symphonic Library (VSL) Synchron Prime Edition €595

If you’re considering dipping your toe in the orchestral palette, VSL may have the prime package for you, as their new edition gets Synchron-ised

Solid State Logic DeEs s £89

De-essing can be a tricky thing to get right. Maybe this new plugin from SSL can help you crack it

Bitwig Studio 4.3 €399 PC MAC LINUX

Each regular update makes genuine additions to this impressive contemporary DAW. Let’s see what the latest has to offer

GoranGrooves PC MAC Handy Drums $60

In the market for powerful, punchy drums without the long-winded faff of fine-tuning your life away? Handy Drums might just rock your world…

Best software virtual pianos

Get the best piano sound without shelling out thousands for the real thing. We have ten great options to suit all budgets and each one will help you sound like a concert pianist within the comfort of your DAW…

Spectrasonics Keyscape €349/$399

TYPE : Keyboard with 36 modelled keyboards |

Spitfire Audio Hans Zimmer Grand Piano £349

TYPE : Multisampled grand piano | PRICE: £349

Garritan Abbey Road Studios CFX Concert Grand $199

TYPE : Sampled version of the Yamaha CFX

Synthogy Ivory II Studio Grands £285

TYPE : Two sample-based grand pianos | PRICE:

Orchestral Tools Vivid Keys €79

TYPE : Sampled Yamaha C3 grand piano |

Toontrack EZKeys From €29 to €155

TYPE : Multiple sampled instrument and MIDI file

XLN Audio Addictive Keys €199.95

TYPE : Multisampled keyboards | PRICE : £199.95

Modartt Pianoteq 7 $899

TYPE : Modelled pianos | PRICE : Stage

e-instruments Session Keys Grand Bundle €159

TYPE : Two iconic multisampled grand pianos |

Soundware round-up

HydraTek Mutant £19.99 Next level soundpack for Vital,

> Free software PC MAC HORNET MULTICOMP CM

This month, the cm Plugin Suite gets a big boost with a fantastic new dynamics processor from long term contributor, HoRNet

Delay samples!

It’s a delay theme so we’ve got two all-new packs of d-d-d-delay samples plus classic echoes and the latest Loopmasters samples. Download them now!

Classic echo samples

We go back to issue 280 for these two classic sample packs…