Future Music

Editor-In-Chief Si Truss, simon.truss@futurenet.com Reviews Editor, Music Technology

Ear candy

When it comes to electronic music production, there

Muse is Moog’s new flagship poly

The eight-voice analogue synth has a bi-timbral sound engine, vintage-inspired delay and creative sequencer

Akai Pro announces huge update to its MPC software

THIS BEEFY UPGRADE COMPLETELY OVERHAULS THE EXISTING MPC

Korg Collection 5 adds fresh synths, organs and pianos

ORIGINALLY INTENDED AS a repository for software emulations

Can Traktor Pro 4 put Native Instruments back at the top of the DJ software game?

NATIVE INSTRUMENTS’ Traktor Pro hasn’t received a major

Minimal Audio’s Ripple Phaser promises to inject movement and character

MINIMAL AUDIO HAS been steadily expanding its line-up

Audacity gets a “visual refresh”, new master channel and compressor and limiter effects

POPULAR FREE AUDIO editor Audacity has had a

Cristian Vogel’s ShifterMesh is the trippiest effects plugin we’ve tried all year

YOU MAY know Cristian Vogel as an electronic

Roland updates two of its most popular stage pianos

ROLAND HAS ANNOUNCED expanded versions of two of

Teenage Engineering’s EP-1320: a medieval-themed sampler. Really

A BRAND KNOWN for its innovative, unorthodox designs,

Kampire, A Dancefloor in Ndola

Strut Records

ON OUR PLAYLIST

TRACK Colin Stetson, The Six Invada Probably best

Jon Hopkins, Ritual

Domino

DJ Plead & rRoxymore, Read Round City

Smalltown Supersound

ELEVATE YOUR SOUND

Adventurous effects processing can be what helps define your unique sound and makes your tracks stand out from the crowd. This issue, we’re here to get those sound design ideas flowing…

5 quick creative sound design tips

Before we dive into specific techniques and effects, let’s look at some general principles – here are a few ideas and approaches to help you make more interesting and unique sounds Elektron Heat + FX calls itself a “colouring palette”, a common branding refrain

Next-level effect racks in Ableton Live

The idea of creating racks of effects isn’t

3 creative Live Effect Racks

We’ve created three example Effect Rack devices that

4 underrated Live effects

1Amp Live has multiple sources of distortion, so

5(budget) hardware effects tips

Effects devices need not be expensive such as

Creative effects with Logic Pro’s stock plugins

Logic Pro not only includes a massive library

Bitcrusher

Bitcrusher looks simple, but has all you need

Get creative with Step FX and Phat FX

These are Logic Pro’s secret weapons when it comes to creating interesting effects

Pushed to the extreme: vintage and modern effects

How misusing vintage outboard gear changed the world of recorded music, and how software effects will do the same for its future

Creating a new genre with Baby Audio’s Humanoid

1 Baby Audio’s new Humanoid is a vocal

The Joe Meek effect

JOE MEEK WAS one of the first producers

Joe Meek’s hard compression (and his EQ settings!)

1 Meek would go all out with his

The ultimate gear misusers

AS MORE WAYS were discovered to use recording

Dub effects in the Roland Space Echo

Let’s put our theory of contrary gear use to the test

Modular manipulation: how to transform sounds with a Eurorack effects rig

INCLUDES VIDEO FOR MANY MUSICIANS and sound designers,

Back to basics

Create a simple but effective minimalist processing patch

Impact modulations

Let’s explore how we can use the dynamics of an audio signal to create modulations in a patch

Modern EQ

Get up to speed with state-of-theart EQ tools and techniques

Exploring Kirchhoff EQ’s capable feature set

KIRCHHOFF EQ ATTEMPTS With advanced dynamic and stereo

Scaler EQ’s musical EQ bands and magic shelves

1 We can use Scaler EQ’s harmonic bands

THREE OF THE BEST

1 Sonible smart:EQ 4, £65 This EQ mergDes

Modern waves in analogue EQs

WITH ANALOGUE-STYLE EQ in the digital realm, there

ARP Odyssey

It’s the synth that took on the mighty Minimoog, was used by everyone from ABBA to Ultravox, and is so well regarded that it resumed production some 40 years after first appearing. Welcome to the odyssey of the ARP Odyssey

The Odyssey odyssey

The story of the synth takes us from its humble beginnings through to modern, accessible recreations

The Odyssey - just where to start?

The Odyssey is not like an average synth to look at, and can be quite daunting, so here’s our quick hands-on guide to getting around

RICK RUBIN

PIONEERS

RICHIE CULVER

TALKING SHOP

DJ Nu-Mark, Broken Sunlight

Hot Plate, 2012

WHY?

Tapping ever deeper into his neurosis, Yoni Wolf chats to Danny Turner about his eighth WHY? album The Well I Fell Into

A GUY CALLED GERALD

The acid house and jungle icon sits down with Si Truss to talk about his history with the 808, 909 and 303

MONOLAKE

Danny Turner talks to Ableton co-creator Robert Henke about his 10th Monolake LP and the future impact of AI

SALUTE

The Ninja Tune artist talks to Si Truss about balancing influence from pop and classic house, and the creative process behind their debut album TRUE MAGIC

Oberheim TEO-5, £1,499

Taking a leaf from Sequential’s book, Oberheim debuts a cost-effective version of one of its poly synths. But it doesn’t merely imitate, says Andy Jones

Donner Essential D1 Beat Machine £289

Following last year’s bass synth, Donner releases a fun, affordable drum machine. Si Truss investigates

Intellijel Atlantix, £680

Rob Redman charts the rise of a new synth voice titan

Lewitt Connect 2 £169

Can this multifaceted audio interface cover all the bases? Simon Arblaster gets connected

Ableton Live 12.1 £259 (Standard)

Landing just months after the release of Live 12, Si Truss explores what the latest point update offers

IZotope RX 11 Advanced £1,149

The post production and audio suite has seen big improvements behind the scenes, says Si Truss

Slate & Ash – Cycles, £279

SLATE + ASH IS the Bristol-based sound design

Audiotent – Tone Control, £45

OVER 700 SAMPLES, sourced from a cutting-edge collection

Sample Magic – B Side Soul From $12.99/ month

CRATE-DIGGERS KNOW all about the b-side – often

Field & Foley – Summer Sports From $12.99/ month

BE LIKE DAFT PUNK and bag your very

Rewind Samples – Re-Engineered: Classic Breaks £12.95

THE MOST FOUNDATIONAL breaks from across the historic

Singomakers – Emotional Piano Themes Vol. 10 £14.95

FROM SOUL-STIRRING to tear-jerking, the 20-song kits in

POLYSYNTHS

Oberheim TEO-5 £1,499 Full review: FM413 Inevitable comparisons

EFFECT COLLECTIONS

Cableguys ShaperBox $99 Full review: FM390 (v3) This

HARDWARE EFFECTS

Elektron Analog Heat +FX £829 This revamp of

SYNTH PLUGINS

Baby Audio Atoms $99 Full review: FM407 Atoms

STUDIO HEADPHONES

Sennheiser HD 490 Pro £349 Full review: FM406

DJ HEADPHONES

Sennheiser HD 25 £120 A classic set of

AUDIO INTERFACES

NEW ENTRY Lewitt Connect 2 £169 Full review: