RECORD • PRODUCE • PERFORM

Martin
Kierszenbaum
LADY GAGA TO
INTERSCOPE

Master
Class
Tony Banks Ableton
New
Orchestral Live 10
Album, 5 Wavetable
Synth
Synth Soloing
Jens
Johansson

Organ Bass
Pedal
Warm-Ups
What’s
so different
about these
software samplers?
More!

REVIEWS

ARTURIA VSL OUTPUT IK

V Collection 6 Synchron Analog Brass MULTIMEDIA
05.2018 Strings and and Wind T-Racks 5
A MUSIC PLAYER PUBLICATION
Percussion

elm0518_cover_digital.indd 2 4/2/18 5:03 PM

 SPITFIRE AUDIO

elm536936_0518.indd 1 3/14/18 8:18 PM

 TO M O B E R H E I M D AVE S M I T H

TWO LEGENDS
O N E I N S T R U M E N T

B U I LT I N C A L I F O R N I A B Y

The OB-6 is a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between Tom Oberheim and Dave Smith,
the two most influential designers in poly synth history. With a sound engine inspired by
Tom’s original SEM, no other modern analog poly synth has its pedigree or
its in-your-face sonic signature.

Vintage 6-voice polyphonic analog tone, from the men that invented it.

Designed and built in California www.davesmithinstruments.com

OB-6 - EM May 2018.indd

1 1 3/9/18 12:22
11:10 PM
AM
elm538991_0518.indd 3/9/18
 Blue Microphones Ella, sE Electronics SPACE, Mojave Audio MA-200, Sennheiser AMBEO VR, Arturia KeyLab Essential 61,

0% INTEREST for 24 MONTHS* onCardpurchases of select manufacturers’ products made with your Sweetwater
between now and June 30, 2018 – 24 equal monthly payments required.

*Offer applies only to single-receipt qualifying purchases. No interest will be charged on promo purchase and equal monthly payments are required equal to initial promo purchase amount divided equally by the number of
months in promo period until promo is paid in full. The equal monthly payment will be rounded to the next highest whole dollar and may be higher than the minimum payment that would be required if the purchase was a
non-promotional purchase. Regular account terms apply to non-promotional purchases. For new accounts: Purchase APR is 29.99%; Minimum Interest Charge is $2. Existing cardholders should see their credit card agreement
for their applicable terms. Subject to credit approval. **Sweetwater.com/about/free-shipping

elm535483_0518.indd 2 2/28/18 1:00 PM

Swtr_ElectronicMusician_2018Spring.indd All Pages
 The Pro-audio Authority for Over 35 Years

ATC SCM12 Pro Monitors with P1 Pro Amplifier, Novation Circuit, Rupert Neve Designs Shelford Channel, Avid MTRX

THE SWEETWATER
DIFFERENCE FREE
SHIPPING**
FREE TECH
SUPPORT
FREE 2-YEAR
WARRANTY

(800) 222-4700 Sweetwater.com

elm535483_0518.indd 3 2/28/18 1:00 PM

12/19/17 4:37 PM
 GEAR REVIEWS
M A G A Z I N E

38
ARTURIA
V Collection 6

42
VSL

30
Synchron Strings
and Percussion

INTERVIEW:

44
MARTIN
KIERSZENBAUM
CONTENTS 05.18

Sting, Lady Gaga,

and more POLYEND
Seq

32
THE ART OF
SYNTH SOLOING
Jens Johansson 16 46
IK MULTIMEDIA
T-Racks 5

34ORGAN
ROUNDUP 48
WORKSHOP NATIVE INSTRUMENTS VIR2
Sticks
Bass Pedal
Warm-ups
KONTAKT 5, UVI FALCON,
STEINBERG HALION 6
50
What’s so different about these three standalone software

36
SOUND DESIGN
samplers? Plenty! In this article, we tell you about the unique
capabilities of each as we compare and contrast their features.
AKAI PRO/
RETRONYMS
WORKSHOP iMPC Pro 2
TONY BANKS — 5
22
Looping
Envelopes
On his latest solo project, 5, the Genesis
keyboardist takes a cinematic approach to
classical writing with a handful of pieces performed by
the Czech National Symphony. Orchestra and Choir.
52
9
AUDIONAMIX
Xtrax Stems

COMMUNITY
HOW TO
DEPARTMENTS

54
A TASTY PIXEL
Samplebot

12
NEW GEAR
14 58 62 56
OUTPUT

66
ELECTRONIC GUITAR MASTER CLASS TECHNIQUES
Analog Brass and
Emulating Jon Ableton Live 10 Checking Vinyl Test
Woodwinds
Hassell’s Trumpet Wavetable Pressings
FIVE
QUESTIONS Electronic Musician (ISSN 0884-4720) is published monthly by NewBay Media, LLC, 28 East 28th Street, 12th floor, New York, NY 10016. Periodicals Postage Paid at New
Fabrice York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608. Canada Returns to be sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London,
ON N6C 6B2. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Electronic Musician, P.O. Box 232, Lowell, MA 01853.
Sergent, Electronic Musician is a trademark of NewBay Media. All material published in Electronic Musician is copyrighted (©) 2018 by NewBay Media. All rights
founder of reserved. Reproduction of material appearing in Electronic Musician is prohibited without written permission. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of
unsolicited manuscripts, photos, or artwork. All product information is subject to change; publisher assumes no responsibility for such changes. All listed model
Bandsintown numbers and product names are manufacturers’ registered trademarks.

6 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_Depts_TOC_dc3_F.indd 6 3/14/18 8:57 PM

 Over $300,000 in cash awards & prizes!
ENTR Y FEES HELP SUPPO RT THE NON- PROFI T
JOHN LENN ON EDUC ATION AL TOUR BUS

2018 JLSC AD EM OL.indd 1 2/6/18

2/8/18 10:50 AM
elm0418_JLSC.indd 1 3:06 PM
 Vol. 34 No. 5 May 2018

www.emusician.com

FOLLOW US
twitter.com/EMusician
www.facebook.com/EMusician

CONTENT
Editorial Director Michael Molenda mmolenda@nbmedia.com
Editor-In-Chief Gino Robair grobair@nbmedia.com
Managing Editor Barbara Schultz bschultz@nbmedia.com
Editor keyboardmag.com Jon Regen kbwebeditor@gmail.com
Web Editor Markkus Rovito mrovito@nbmedia.com
Moderator The keyboard corner David Bryce
Editors at large Geary Yelton, Mike Levine, Francis Prève

CONTRIBUTORS
David Battino, Michael Cooper, Marty Cutler,
Sarah Jones, Jerry Kovarsky, Steve La Cerra,
Rebeca Mauleon, Ken Micallef, Tony Ware
Founding Editor Craig Anderton
Art Director Damien Castaneda dcastaneda@nbmedia.com
Staff Photographer Paul Haggard phaggard@nbmedia.com
Production Manager Amy Santana asantana@nbmedia.com

NEWBAY MUSIC GROUP BUSINESS

Group Publisher Bob Ziltz bziltz@nbmedia.com
Advertising Director Jonathan Brudner jbrudner@nbmedia.com
Advertising Director Mari Deetz mdeetz@nbmedia.com
Advertising Director Jeff Donnenwerth
jdonnenwerth@nbmedia.com
Advertising Director Jason Perl jperl@nbmedia.com
Advertising Director Scott Sciacca ssciacca@nbmedia.com
Production Department Manager Beatrice Weir

President and CEO Steve Palm

Chief Financial Officer Paul Mastronardi
Chief Revenue Officer Tom Rousseau
Chief Content Officer Joe Territo
Controller Rick Ng
EVP/Content & Business Operations Carmel King
VP/Digital Media Robert Ames
VP/NewBay Plus Joe Braue
Managing Director/Europe Mark Burton
VP/Audience Development Meg Estevez
VP/Content Creation Anthony Savona
VP/Information Technology Anthony Verbanac
Contact: engage@nbmedia.com

List Rental 914.368.1024

jganis@meritdirect.com

REPRINTS AND PERMISSIONS

For article reprints please contact our reprint
coordinator at Wright’s Reprints: 877.652.5295

Please direct all subscription orders, inquiries, and address

changes to: 800.289.9919, outside the US 978-667-0364,
emmag@computerfulfillment.com

Back Issues are available for $10 each at 800.289.9919,

978.667.0364, emmag@computerfulfillment.com

8 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_Depts_Masthead_prod_f.indd 8 3/14/18 8:54 PM

 Editor’s Note

Need Everything, or Just Everything You Need?

It’s an interesting time we live in: Ear-
ly 20th-century predictions of a future
where there are commercially avail-
able electronic instruments to fit ev-
ery way of working have come to pass.
Moreover, many of the products—
DAWs, in particular—attempt to offer
as many creative options as possible,
often taking artists from the initial cre-
ative spark through the arrangement,
performance, recording and, occasion-
ally, the distribution phase of a project.
This month’s examination of three
major standalone software-samplers
came about after a series of discus-
sions I’ve had with composers about
what differentiates one deep-fea-
tured sampler from another. Consid-
ering price, alone, Falcon, Kontakt 5
and HALion 6 are a magnitude more
powerful than any hardware model
of previous generations, and each
of them is packed with functional-
ity that allows you to make and play
instruments of great complexity. Yet,
each one has a personality, you might
say, which can be traced to decisions
made by the developer, usually the re-
sult of specific choices based on aes-
thetic biases, intended markets, cost
vs. return on investment, and so forth.
Ultimately, this personality will influ-
ence how you work and, therefore,
must be considered.
COMMUNITY
In other words, despite what a de-
veloper’s marketing materials may say,
none of the products available today
can do everything, although it may
seem like it when you first open them
up. But the developer’s design choices GINO ROBAIR
can make it feel like there is an infinite EDITOR IN CHIEF
number of options. That’s an impor- grobair@nbmedia.com
tant distinction and one we not only
address in the roundup but what we
strive to clarify with all of our gear-re-
lated articles. Because sometimes we
might think we want the ability to do
everything when, in reality, the sense
of limitlessness of a software package
can actually have the effect of limiting
our creativity with its top heaviness.

The Prague Synth Library

Bringing the joy of modular to the people
In our March 2017 issue, we introduced EM read-
ers to the Portland Synth Library (s1portland.
com/synth-library). Founded by Alissa DeRubeis
and Felisha Ledesma in the city’s S1 nonprofit arts
center, the Synth Library’s mission is to provide a
community resource for exploring electronic mu-
sic—and modular synthesis, in particular—that is
accessible to anyone. The organization strives for
inclusiveness, and its class fees and membership
costs are offered on a sliding scale (nobody is
turned away). A special effort is made to engage
women and non-binary people through work-
shops and hands-on studio time.
In the intervening year, the S1 Synth Library has
grown, both in terms of the number of people who
have taken part in classes and residencies, and in
its collection of instruments acquired through the
generosity of manufacturers such as 4ms, Make
Noise, Erica Synths, and Moog Music, among many
others. The success of this unique form of synth-
based community outreach has led its founders to
consider ways to expand it internationally.
“We have been wanting to establish a sister
Synth Library in Europe to further share our mis-
sion and vision,” DeRubeis explains. The challenge,
however, was to find just the right location and
person to run it. Enter Mary C, a producer, music
journalist, DJ, and radio host based in Prague.
During a visit to the city in April 2017, where she
joined by a number of designers from Bastl. They
are planning to hold workshops on soldering and
synth patching, as well as talks, including one
about how music helped fight communism in the
Czech Republic. 
was invited to give a talk about gender in modular
At Superbooth 2018 (superbooth.com) in Ber-
synthesis, DeRubeis was introduced to Mary C
lin this May, the members of both synth libraries
through their mutual friends at Bastl Instru-
will hold hour-long workshops each afternoon—
ments, a synth manufacturer that is also based
Introduction to Patching—for female and non-
in Prague. But it wasn’t until the autumn of 2017
binary people. From there, DeRubeis and S1 Synth
that DeRubeis got the idea of asking Mary C if she
Library facilitator Sofia Acosta will join Mary C and
would be interested in organizing S1’s first sister
a lineup of educators and artists in Prague for its
Synth Library. To her delight, the answer was yes. 
Synth Library’s opening week, featuring shows,
“It dawned on me one evening that she should to
workshops, and gatherings.
be the one to run it, and I messaged her, probably out
For more details, visit s1portland.com/synth-
of the blue,” DeRubeis remembers. “Mary C said yes;
library and s1portland.com/praguesynth-library
Felisha Ledesma and Alex Ian Smith, who co-founded
S1, said yes. Everything after that happened quite
naturally.” In the synth library, Mary C will be joined
by Pink Noise, a female collective formed from within
the Bastl Instruments community.
“The S1 Synth Library and the Prague Synth Li-
brary not only share values, female leadership, and
a passion for education, but we will also work to-
gether to help artists travel internationally between
the libraries for residencies,” DeRubeis says. “We
share curriculum and communicate regularly to talk
about our experiences and grow together. We are
working with the Prague Synth Library to provide
information and gear, but also to learn from the vi- Running the Prague Synth Library is
sions and experiences of our Czech community.”  Mary C, a producer, journalist, DJ, and
curator of music education events
To celebrate the opening of the Prague Synth
such as Music Ports (supported by the
Library, the Portland crew will host Czech Week Goethe-Institut). Her work focuses on
at the S1 Synth Library in mid-April and will be the empowerment of female artists.

MAY 201 8 | EMU SICIAN .COM 9

elm0518_Community_dc4_F.indd 9 3/15/18 12:27 PM

 Two years ago, I sponsored a clever Kickstarter
project called Ripcord (see Figure 1). The devel-
opers promised, “You already power your phones
and tablets with USB. Now you can power your
guitar pedals, amps, synths, and whatever else you
need on-the-fly.” Ripcord, from the Irish company
MyVolts, is a power cord with a USB plug at one
Fig. 1. The long-delayed MyVolts Ripcord
end, a barrel plug at the other, and a tiny voltage promises to power 9V music gear from a
booster in between. The circuitry is so small it fits 5V USB jack.
inside the USB end. Output choices range from
5VDC (the USB standard) to 18VDC, along with
9VDC, the standard for guitar effect pedals.
Ripcord still wasn’t shipping as of this writing,
but the MyVolts people gave me information that
inspired two DIY solutions. They said some of my
4.5V gear, like the Korg mini kaoss pad 2, would run
ADVENTURES IN DIY just fine from 5V; I’d just have to snip off the down-
stream end of a USB cable and attach the right con-
nector. That connector turned out to be an EIAJ-02

Battery
barrel plug (4mm outside diameter, 1.7mm inside
diameter), wired center-positive. Figure 2 shows a Fig. 2. With my DIY cable, this Monoprice
USB battery pack running my mini kaoss pad 2. You USB battery pack powers the Korg mini
kaoss pad 2 far longer than internal bat-
can also buy these cables premade.

Up >>
teries could. The blue MIDI module works
Notice the blue box in Figure 2—the wacky as a battery too.
MIDIPlus miniEngine. This $60 General MIDI
module is also a USB battery and host. It can charge
your phone or power a USB MIDI controller so you
Wiring Music can play the miniEngine’s internal sounds. An ad-

Gear to Go ditional five-pin MIDI input lets you play a second

MIDI controller simultaneously on another chan-
nel. Most of the sounds are comically bad, but shine
BY DAVID BATTINO when layered with better synths.
The reason I originally looked into the Ripcord
was to battery-power my 9V Korg Kaossilator Pro
and Wavedrum, which are terrific jam-session in-
struments. MyVolts said that would draw too much
current (the Ripcord maxes out at 1,000 milliamps).
I considered wiring a 12V battery to a 3-pin voltage
regulator, but 12V batteries are bulky and traditional
step-down voltage regulators are hot and inefficient.
Fig. 3. The brass screw on the DROK
Then I discovered the DROK digital boost con-
DC booster adjusts the output voltage,
verter, which takes an input as low as 3V and pumps shown on the LEDs. Pressing the button
it as high as 35V (see Figure 3). There are many vari- displays the input voltage.
ations of these boards online; I paid about $8 for the
DROK. Set to crank out 9V, it drew so little current
that my USB battery pack would fall asleep if I didn’t
quickly plug the DROK’s output into another device.
I cut the cigarette lighter plug off a RadioShack
universal car power cord, screwed the wires into the
DROK’s output, added an EIAJ-04 plug—5.5mm OD,
3.4mm ID, center positive—and fired up my Kaossila-
tor Pro (see Figure 4). (Korg Volcas use this plug, too.)
Switching the plug to 5.5mm OD, 2.1mm ID, center
negative, I powered a Digitech delay and lovely Neu-
Fig. 4. Here I’m battery-powering my
naber reverb pedal as well. The battery gauge barely
Kaossilator Pro through the $8 DROK
budged after an hour. Best of all, I didn’t hear extra voltage booster. By switching the plug, I
noise, a problem that sunk the Ripcord prototype. powered guitar pedals too.

10 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_Community_dc3_F.indd 10 3/14/18 4:45 PM


MOBY IN L.A. AND STEVE DUB IN THE UK
The darkness is intense on Moby’s just-
released new album, Everything Was
Beautiful and Nothing Hurt (Mute). The
new song “The Waste of Suns,” for ex-
ample, expresses profound loneliness,
and “Like a Motherless Child” relates
personal loss to a broader world of
brokenness. But like the blues, Moby’s
brooding, rhythmic music can spread
joy simply with its beauty and the reso-
nance of his understanding.
The sound of this album is so complex,
with layered and processed synths and
percussion, crooning and spoken-word
vocals, and more, that it’s almost fun-
ny to think that the artist recorded his
sounds in a small home studio, but Moby
fleshes out his copious song ideas in a
12x15-foot bedroom space that contains,
among other things, a Pro Tools rig and
some of the artist’s favorite keyboards:
an AceTone Top-5 electronic organ, and
Korg’s M500 Micro Preset and MiniKorg.
“I write around 300 songs a year, and
each song has its own odd and fairly
unique genesis,” Moby says. “Some start
with guitar, some with drums, some with
old broken synths, some with a tape de-
lay feeding back on itself, some with a
vocal sample or other sample. And then
elm0518_Community_dc3_F.indd 11
IN THE STUDIO
BY B A R B A R A S C HULTZ
over time I work on them, add things, take
things away, until I end up with some-
thing that seems ostensibly finished.”
“Finished” ideas are tracked to Pro Tools
mainly via a Shure KSM44 microphone.
“It’s my go-to for everything,” Moby says.
“For vocals, I keep it simple: just the
KSM44 to an API mic pre to a Neve EQ.
“For the most part, the sounds are pro-
cessed with tape delays and old spring
reverbs and old analog delays,” the artist
continues. “I don’t mind digital process-
ing, but I prefer older equipment that
doesn’t work very well.”
Everything Was Beautiful and Noth-
ing Hurt was mixed in Apple Logic X by
engineer/producer Steve Dub (Chemi-
cal Brothers, New Order, Slovenlie), who
brought the project to Silver Shark Music,
a studio owned by the production team of
Grant Strang and Pascal Glanville.
In addition to Logic and a Pro Tools 10
rig, Silver Shark is equipped with an SSL
G Series console, Euphonix Mix series
controller, and outboard equip-
ment from GML, Tube Tech,
Summit, Empirical Labs, UREI,
Chandler, and more, plus a host
of plug-ins from most of the ma-
jor players: Waves, Celemony,
SoundToys, and Arturia among them.
Dub made use of hardware and plug-
ins alike: “The vocals were mostly go-
ing through a UREI 1176 [compressor
limiter] or Empirical Labs Distressor,
and then maybe some very subtle delay
to give it space,” he recalls. “EQ-wise, I
was using the BX-Neve VR plug-in.
“On a lot of the tracks, they had also
been printed to tape, so in general most
of the parts already had a nice amount
of analog grit and dirt. So, it was just a
question of bringing that out as much as
possible. Effects-wise, I used a little bit
of chorus for width and an EMT plate re-
verb on a lot of the background vocals.”
And though he mixed in Logic, Dub also
made good use of the SSL console: “On
pretty much every mix, the SSL bus com-
pressor was used,” he says. “Most of the
drums were processed through the G Se-
ries. On many of those tracks, again, things
like reverbs and delays had already been
printed [in Moby’s studio] using plates
and tape delays, so it would be
a question of balancing those
in and getting everything to sit
correctly.”
Find more “In the Studio”
stories at emusician.com.
MAY 201 8 | EMU SICIAN .COM 11
3/14/18 4:15 PM

1
GEAR
NEW
1 2
SOUND DEVICES
MIXPRE-10M
Multitrack recorder, mixer,
audio interface
$1,499
HIGHLIGHTS 10-input, 12-track digital
recorder • 10-channel mixer • 12-in/4-
out USB interface with 24-bit/96kHz
resolution • 8 mic/line inputs, each
with 48V phantom power, 96 dB of
gain, limiter, low-cut • 3.5mm, 2-chan-
nel aux/mic input • 2 balanced outs
• 2 unbalanced outs • export mix to
SD card, thumb drive, or computer as
WAV or AAC file • vintage reverb and
air effects • metronome • cue points
• power from batteries or AC
TARGET MARKET Songwriters, musi-
cians, personal studios
ANALYSIS Pairs Sound Devices’ tech-
nology with features designed spe-
cifically for music production.
sounddevices.com
All prices are MSRP except as noted
12 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M
elm0518_Depts_NewGear_dc3_F.indd 12
PEARL
EM1 MALLETSTATION
USB MIDI mallet controller
$999 street
HIGHLIGHTS Silicone keys with Smart
Fabric Sensors developed by Keith
McMillen Industries • mallet damp-
ening and aftertouch capabilities
• adjustable 3-octave range • 3 user-as-
signable touch-sliders and 4 buttons •
steel and aluminum chassis • 3 assign-
able 1/4" pedal inputs • Low Note and
Octave buttons • USB bus powered
using iOS/Android mobile device or
computer • optional MIDI expander
for using external hardware
TARGET MARKET Percussionists, com-
posers, studios
ANALYSIS A low-cost, lightweight
alternative to other MIDI mallet
controllers that includes KMI’s pro-
prietary sensor material.
pearlmalletstation.com
2
3 4
PITTSBURGH MODULAR
MICROVOLT 3900
Semi-modular analog synth
$629
HIGHLIGHTS analog oscillator • wave
folder • harmonic-sine feature • 39
patch points • PWM • mixer with
overdrive • noise • audio input • filter
includes button to increase resonance
• VCA with lowpass gate • output
drive control • modulation: ADSR,
2-stage loopable function generator,
and LFO/S&H • MIDI-to-CV • arpeg-
giator • 16-step sequencer • tap tempo
and octave buttons • stereo head-
phone output • mono line output •
includes power adapter, 5 patch cables
and MIDI connector cable
TARGET MARKET Musicians, sound
designers, composers
ANALYSIS Interesting combination of
East and West Coast-style features.
pittsburghmodular.com
VERMONA
RANDOMRYTHM
Eurorack trigger sequencer/
clock divider
$349
HIGHLIGHTS Two independent trig-
ger sections with separate clock in-
puts, seq outputs, Dice and Offbeat
buttons • sliders for setting prob-
abilities of triggers—1/4, 1/8, 1/16,
1/3—with individual outs for each
• Swing controls • Dice mode gener-
ates random sequences based on 3/4
or 4/4 bar • Reset input can reset
the Dice or mute outputs • Edit and
Tap tempo buttons • runs from in-
ternal or external clock
TARGET MARKET Eurorack users, pro-
ducers, sound designers
ANALYSIS A dual groove generator
in a surprisingly small amount of
space.
vermona.com
3/12/18 5:36 PM
 BandH.com The
Visit our website for the most current pricing Professional’s
Source

JBL 7-Series 705P 5” Powered Arturia MatrixBrute Analog Monophonic Synthesizer Elektron Analog Drive Multi-Circuit
Master Reference Monitor ARMBAMS | $1,999.00 Distortion Pedal
JB705P | $999.00 ELPFX1 | $359.00

Universal Audio Apollo Twin MKII DUO Desktop Interface Positive Grid Amp Matching Softube Console 1 MKII
UNAPT2DP | $899.00 Guitar/Bass Amplifier Hardware and Software Mixer
POPGBIASHEAD | $1,299.00 SOCNSOLE1MK2 | $499.00

Auray Stylus Music/Microphone Stands Pittsburgh Lifeforms SV-1 Blackbox Desktop Warm Audio WA-87 Multi-Pattern
AUIA300/440/500 | Set - $597.00 Analog Modular Synthesizer - Eurorack Condenser Microphone
PIPMS1008 | $699.00 WA87 | $599.00

Tips & Techniques Shop B&H, where you will find all the latest gear
at your fingertips and on display in our SuperStore.
Cash in or Trade up
Used Equipment
We Buy, Sell, and Trade
os
From the Pr

1 You Don’t Need to Slam an Input at 24-Bit

In the analog days, it was often desirable to drive preamps as hard as possible,
for tonal purposes. The same held true in the 16-bit world, but for issues relat-
ing to the noise floor. However, neither of these issues apply to 24-bit, so give
yourself valuable headroom—you’ll need it later on. Consult a
Professional w/
Live Chat
online
2 Check for Mono Even though it’s 2017
In the old days, one often checked mixes for mono compatibility due to tech- www.BandH.com Visit Our SuperStore
nological constraints of the times. You should still do this today, since your
Where you will find information 420 Ninth Avenue, NYC
average listener won’t hear a mix in perfect stereo (think sitting in the driver’s
seat, or sitting on the left side of a couch). on over 400,000 items 800-947-5509

3 Try Out a Manual De-Esser on Vocal Tracks Free

What is a manual de-esser? The answer is, you. Go through the track and man-
ually gain down each sibilance, either by clip or pre-fader automation. Pretty Expedited
*Applies to In-Stock Items. Some restrictions may apply. See website for details.
quickly, you’ll learn to recognize the football-like shape of a peaky sibilance,
which will expedite the process. Sure, it takes time, but it’s one of the most
Shipping NYC DCA Electronics Store Lic. #0906712; NYC DCA Electronics & Home Appliance
Service Dealer Lic. #0907905; NYC DCA Secondhand Dealer – General Lic. #0907906
natural ways to tame those ear-splitting “ssssss” sounds. on orders over $49* © 2017 B & H Foto & Electronics Corp.

Electronic Musician June.indd 1 5/23/17 2:38 PM

elm523953_0817.indd 1 5/23/17 11:58 AM
ELECTRONIC

Hassell Free
GUITAR

Easily make your guitar sound like ambient pioneer

Jon Hassell’s trumpet
BY MICHAEL ROSS

J on Hassell is known for developing a genre called “Fourth

World,” which incorporates influences as diverse as minimalism,
Miles Davis, and world music, filtered through distinctive elec-
tronic manipulation of his horn. In the early ’70s, Hassell studied
the Kiranic singing style with Pandit Pran Nath and began using his
electronically treated trumpet to imitate these vocal techniques.

His breathy tone and use of harmonizers
has had an influence on Norwegian musicians,
such as fellow trumpeters Nils Petter Molvær
and Arve Henriksen, as well as guitarist Ei-
vind Aarset. Aarset has played with Hassell
and uses harmonizers to produce a similarly
evocative sound in his own music.
Hassell’s harmony makes extensive use of
fourths and fifths, producing a Gregorian chant-
like mystery. There are numerous hardware and
software harmonizers on the market that will add
those intervals to your guitar. Although Hassell’s
Eventide 8000 runs over five grand, you can get a
decent emulation using a Boss pedal that costs less
than a hundred dollars. On the other hand, if you
just want to try out this sound to see if it works for
you, save your money and download Pitchproof,
a free pitch shifting plug-in from Aegean Music.
Pitchproof is a “smart” harmonizer, mean-
ing that you can choose the key in which you
are playing from a dropdown menu, and the
harmonies will all be correct for that key. Al-
though it offers a blend control, I installed
Pitchproof on two separate tracks in Ableton
Live, both being fed by the original guitar
track. This keeps my original tone pristine and
enables me to feed the original guitar signal to
two separate pitch shifters.
Fig. 1
I used a Studio Devil amp modeler, set note with these two intervals, panned slightly
clean, to fatten the guitar sound. Live’s Auto left and right, gave me a larger, lusher effect. I
Filter let me roll off the top end in such a way set both Pitchproof plug-ins to full wet, adjust-
as to produce a brass-like tone (see Figure 1). ing the balance with the track volume sliders.
There is something about the character of this While you can get some terrific Hassell-
type of filtering that cannot be achieved with type tones from this setup, for an even more
an amplifier’s tone controls or even the Studio accurate emulation, you will want to use an
Devil’s graphic EQ. If your DAW doesn’t have a EBow. Make sure you are using a clean amp
filter, there are many free plug-ins you can try. tone or try just going direct into your DAW.
I set one Pitchproof track to a fourth below If you decide you like this sound and want
the original note. This already sounded very to take it into the hardware realm, you can go
Hassell-esque. Adding some delay and reverb all in and get an Eventide 8000, though you
helped me come even closer to the trumpet- can also achieve much the same effect with a
er’s atmospheric sound. I installed a second more affordable Eventide H9 or a Boss PS-6.
Pitchproof in track three, tuned a fifth above You will, at minimum, want to reduce your
(see Figure 2). The combination of the original guitar’s high end by rolling the tone down on
your instrument or
backing off a wah, but a
real filter pedal such as
the Electro-Harmonix
Blurst Modulated Fil-
ter or the Source Audio
Stingray Multi-Filter
will sound closer.
In any case, listen to
some Jon Hassell re-
cords, because, even if
you don’t want to imi-
tate his sound, you will
find inspiration there.
Hassell draws warmth
and magic out of tech-
nology, providing a
great lesson for every
Fig. 2 electronic guitarist. n

14 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_Depts_ElecGuitar-Hassell_dc3_F.indd 14 3/12/18 5:38 PM

 Essential
The Sterling Audio ST155 Large-Diaphragm
Condenser Microphone provides essential
versatility and sound quality for your recording
studio. Its large-diaphragm design delivers
richly detailed and articulate sound along with
incredible smoothness and warmth — while
the innovative shockmount ensures perfect
positioning and isolation.

Sterling Audio specializes in high-value

studio condenser microphones that capture
every performance nuance. Carefully
integrating traditional and modern microphone
technologies, Sterling has created a collection
of mics that cover a wide array of studio
applications. Now you can benefit from our
latest line of premium studio microphones that
offer bold new looks, unmatched versatility,
and advanced tube, ribbon and FET designs.

ST155
LARGE-DIAPHRAGM
CONDENSER MICROPHONE

SterlingAudio.net

elm537539_0518.indd 1 2/27/18 5:22 PM

 Battle of the Super Samplers
Three major sampling platforms duke it out for software supremacy

BY GEARY YELTON

When you and I talk about electronic musical instruments, we usually

mean synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, and MIDI controllers.
Although synthesizers are most plentiful and get the most attention,
samplers are equally essential. With a sampler, you can use readily
available sound libraries in your music and create your own virtual
instruments from any sound you can record. In recent years, the most
versatile samplers are all software. Understanding their differences is
essential to choosing one that suits your needs.

Let’s begin by explaining how a sampler dif-
fers from a sample player. Samplers allow you
to organize snips of audio and carefully craft
them into data structures we call instruments
and then organize those instruments into
sample libraries. Multisampling—gathering
related samples and mapping them to MIDI
notes and velocities for intuitive playback—is
precision work that takes patience and skill.
Once the work is done, anyone with compat-
ible software can play instruments you’ve cre-
ated with a MIDI keyboard or sequencer.
A sampler player, on the other hand, ig-
nores the first part of this two-part equa-
tion. It doesn’t let you arrange and rearrange
samples, but it does let you play instruments
crafted by someone with a sampler.
Either samplers or sampler players are
included with most DAWs, but most can’t be
used outside of their native environment. Ap-
ple EXS24, for example, works only in Logic
Pro. Ableton Simpler and Sampler are inte-
grated into Live, and you can’t use Propeller-
head NN-19 or NN-XT outside of Reason.

16 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_Roundup_SamplerRoundup_dc4_F.indd 16 3/14/18 9:01 PM

 On the other hand, Native Instruments
Kontakt, Steinberg HALion, and UVI Falcon
run standalone and in various plug-in formats
for both Windows or the Mac, which means
you can use them alone or in whatever DAW
you choose. For that reason, this article will
focus on Kontakt, HALion, and Falcon. Your
criteria for which sampler you prefer will
most likely depend on how you plan to use it.
THE CONTENDERS
Without a doubt, the most popular sampler in
recent years is Native Instruments Kontakt. It’s
extremely versatile, and it comes with a massive,
ready-made library of sampled instruments.
Kontakt’s deep and sophisticated synthesis ar-
chitecture supplies a vast assortment of filters,
modulators, and effects that support complex
routings. Kontakt also has some of the most
robust features available for virtual instrument
designers, allowing them to integrate complex
math functions and emulate multiple-micro-
phone setups, for example. You can get a free
playback-only version called Kontakt Player
with less than half a gigabyte of content in-
cluded. Although Kontakt Player can play many
third-party sample libraries for Kontakt, many
other libraries play only in the full version.
Steinberg HALion has been around the
Fig. 1. In this view of Kontakt, you can access an instrument’s insert effects and
change their parameters.
elm0518_Roundup_SamplerRoundup_dc4_F.indd 17
longest, but it has definitely kept up with the
times. It’s the only popular sampler software I
know that actually lets you sample (e.g., record
snippets of sound, one at a time, directly into
its memory, and map it as you go, the way you
could with hardware-based samplers of old).
As with Kontakt, you get plenty of factory
content. HALion’s capabilities take it beyond
just sampling, too, thanks to its wavetable and
granular synthesis features. Two players are
available, HALion Sonic ($250 separately, but
bundled with HALion) and HALion Sonic SE
(free), which doesn’t include any samples.
UVI Falcon is the upstart in this sampling
trio. It has been around for fewer than three
years, yet it has won over many enthusiastic
fans. Though marketed as a synthesizer, it is also
a formidable sampler. With Falcon, you can use
sampled material as the basis for granular and
plucked-string synthesis, and its mapping, pro-
cessing, and playback capabilities are compa-
rable to Kontakt’s and HALion’s. What’s more,
you can map a different type of oscillator to each
note, which means you can combine sampling
and algorithmic synthesis in a single instru-
ment. Falcon plays any sample library format-
ted for UVI’s free sample player Workstation,
which comes with well under a gigabyte of
content derived from UVI’s sample libraries.
ALL TOGETHER NOW
All three samplers have numerous traits in
common. They all stream audio from your
computer’s RAM, hard disk, or solid-state
drive, which means you’ll want to adjust the
audio buffer to match your computer’s re-
sources. All three support high sampling rates
and bit depth, as well as multiple outputs and
surround sound (as long as your DAW sup-
ports them). In addition, all three are multi-
timbral and allow you to load and play many
instruments simultaneously.
Samplers provide the means to create a
multisample map by assigning each sample
to play within a specified range of pitch and
velocity. For example, you could record A be-
low middle C played on a piano with moderate
force and then map that sample to MIDI Note
57 with a MIDI velocity range between 42 and
84. Sample the same pitch played softer and
harder, map the resulting samples to the same
note, and then assign them to velocity ranges
below 42 and above 84, respectively. Repeat
the entire process for every pitch you want in
your multisample. In all three samplers, mul-
tisample mapping is just a matter of clicking-
and-dragging individual samples from your
desktop or a browser to an onscreen mapping
editor that’s laid out on a grid.
All three samplers allow you to automate
musical events and processes though the use
of a scripting language. You can use prewrit-
ten scripts or write scripts yourself. Scripts let
you modify instruments to automatically play
glissandos, generate chords, or create instant
harmonies when you play a single note, for ex-
ample. You can also use scripting to custom-
ize an instrument’s user interface completely
or simply to add your own onscreen graphics.
If you want to create custom graphical inter-
faces without scripting, you can do that with
HALion and Falcon.
Another feature that Kontakt, HALion, and
Falcon have in common is that they all furnish
an outstanding collection of effects proces-
sors, ranging from algorithmic reverbs and
guitar amp simulators to unique filters and
multiband EQs (see Figure 1). Each lets you
create a complex chain of effects and place
them at various points within an instrument’s
organizational structure to optimize flexibil-
ity and control.
MAY 201 8 | EMU SICIAN .COM 17
3/14/18 4:26 PM
 NATIVE
INSTRUMENTS
KONTAKT 5
The most popular sampler by far is Kontakt, from
Berlin-based Native Instruments (NI). Many con-
sider Kontakt the sampler that toppled the long-time
supremacy of hardware samplers, if for no other
reason because it can access mountains of sampler
data. Soundware companies the world over have
embraced this software. Sample libraries formatted
for Kontakt are a de facto standard. Most commer-
cial sample libraries are available only for Kontakt
or Kontakt Player. The full version comes standard
with the Kontakt Factory Library, a 43GB collection
of multisampled instruments encompassing diverse
instrument types and musical styles.
Along with such near-universal support, Kon-
takt lets you create extensive multitimbral setups
that can host as many as 64 independently ad-
dressable sampler instruments and innumerable
effects processors routed any way you want them.
Kontakt also supplies a versatile array of tools for
customizing any sample library, whether it com-
prises third-party instruments or instruments you
create yourself. Another advantage is Kontakt’s
support for NKS (Native Kontrol Standard), a for-
mat that lets you share data with Native Instru-
ments hardware to enhance workflow.
You can buy Kontakt by itself, but NI makes that
a tough choice by offering the
software and soundware col-
lection Komplete 11 for $200
more. (You can upgrade from
Kontakt to Komplete later, if
you’d rather, but the upgrade
will cost you $400.) Komplete
comprises Kontakt and 44 ad-
ditional products such as Gui-
tar Rig Pro, Reaktor, Massive,
Absynth, Studio Drummer,
and enough high-quality sam-
ple libraries to fill almost any
musical need. Komplete has
roughly three times as much
sampled content as Kontakt,
giving you a huge range of
timbral choices.
ENDLESS LIBRARIES
Other than the occasional dia-
log box, Kontakt’s GUI is con-
fined to a single window you
can resize to your liking (see
Figure 2). Kontakt presents
three different approaches to
organizing files, depending on
which tab is selected in the Fig. 2. Kontakt displays most parameters in a single window. In this screen shot, late the human voice by mor-
you can see some installed libraries on the left and the Performance Views of
browser and whether a par- two instruments on the right.
18 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M
elm0518_Roundup_SamplerRoundup_dc4_F.indd 18
ticular sample library supports Kontakt’s library formance View. Performance Views are usually
format. With the Libraries tab selected, you have
easy and immediate access to any third-party li-
customized to take advantage of an instrument’s
unique characteristics. For example, an organ’s
braries conforming to Native Instruments specifi- interface may display drawbars you can easily ac-
cations, as well as Kontakt Factory Library. Click- cess, and a sampled synth’s interface may display
ing on any library’s Instruments tab will reveal its controls for the filter, envelopes, and effects.
contents, and double-clicking on any instrument
listed there will load it into the Rack. EDITORS APLENTY
Clicking on Kontakt’s wrench icon reveals or hides
For sample libraries that are not formatted to
its editors. You can choose exactly which editors
appear under the Libraries tab, you can view and
are visible by unfolding them. If the library’s de-
load them by selecting the Files tab. That will al-
veloper allows it, you can edit keymaps, individual
low you to navigate your computer’s file system to
locate Kontakt-compatible instruments. To helpsamples, modulation routings, scripts, insert and
send effects, and quite a few other parameters
you quickly find the instrument you need, you can
that affect and define an instrument’s sound and
search for file attributes by keyword. Similarly,
performance capabilities. Use the editors either to
you can open any instrument listed under the Da-
modify existing instruments or to define the pa-
tabase tab, which allows you to find any Kontakt
rameters of instruments you create yourself.
file arranged by category, no matter where it’s lo-
cated on your computer’s drives or network. The Wave Editor displays the sample assigned
Another tool for helping you organize and to whatever zone you select in the Mapping Edi-
quickly find instruments is the Quick-Load tor. View and edit the zone’s start and end points,
Browser. You may select any instrument listed display a grid derived from the sample’s rhythmic
content, place markers to divide loops into slices,
in the main browser under the Libraries, Files,
and much more. Kontakt can also map slices au-
or Database tab and drag it into the Quick-Load
tomatically. In addition, the Sample Loop tab lets
Browser, where you can also create custom direc-
you view, create, and edit as many as eight loops,
tories to organize sounds the way you want. If you
each with any of five loop types. The Wave Edi-
frequently use the same instruments, Quick-Load
will speed your workflow considerably. tor affects only playback and doesn’t change the
Once you’ve loaded an instrument, you can sample data destructively. For functions such as
normalizing to peak levels, copying and inserting
view or hide its main user interface, called Per-
contents from the Clipboard,
and reversing or fading por-
tions of a sample, Kontakt
provides a separate Sample
Editor. Whenever you need
additional audio editing capa-
bilities, you can link to an ex-
ternal editor application such
as Adobe Audition or Stein-
berg WaveLab, which will
open at the touch of a button.
Kontakt’s architecture de-
livers such an enormous as-
sortment of audio building
blocks within its various edi-
tors that it excels at subtrac-
tive synthesis, too. Using sam-
ples as oscillators, you have
37 filter types to choose from,
along with myriad envelope
generators, LFOs, and other
modulation sources. Available
filters include adaptive reso-
nance filters that vary the res-
onance amount in response
to changes in amplitude, and
two formant filters that emu-
phing between vowel sounds.
3/14/18 4:26 PM
 STEINBERG
HALION 6
HALion is the oldest surviving major sampling
platform in a field that has seen many competitors
fall by the wayside. Like Kontakt, most of its user
interface appears in a single window by default
(see Fig. 3). The window’s left side hosts the Slot
Rack, which holds as many as 64 instruments. On
the right side is the Program Tree, displaying all the
layered elements that make up the currently select-
ed program and allowing you to alter its structure.
Many functions have dedicated editors that al-
low you to focus on the task at hand, whether you’re
mapping samples, manipulating wavetables, creat-
ing libraries, or whatever. HALion’s user interface
lets you simultaneously open many different editor
windows and distribute them around your display.
You access most functions in the window’s cen-
ter, where you switch between the browser, various
editors, macro controls, a sample recorder, and much
more, depending on which button you click. Below
that, by default, are eight Quick Control knobs that
you can very quickly assign to multiple parameters
simultaneously. You can split any portion of HALion’s
GUI into as many sections as you need. You can also
undock any section into a separate, free-floating win-
dow, or set up tabs to access any section. Whether you
prefer the GUI in a single window or in numerous
windows, HALion lets you customize your workflow.
HALion 6 includes an excellent 30GB factory
sample collection, though it’s rather short on or-
chestral instruments, in particular. It also comes
with HALion Sonic 3, a multitimbral sample player
and virtual synthesizer workstation. Sold sepa-
rately, Sonic includes almost all the same content as
HALion, but is more limited in the number of MIDI
and audio channels and lacks any
sampling features.
Like Native Instruments, Stein-
berg sells an extended software and
soundware bundle. For $150 more
than HALion, you can buy Absolute
3, which also includes HALion Sym-
phonic Library, Groove Agent 4, Ret-
rologue 2, Padshop Pro, and more.
USER SAMPLING
As mentioned above, HALion is the
only popular sampler software that
lets you create samples without any
opening an audio recording applica-
tion. The technique is very much like
sampling with vintage sampler hard-
ware, except that you can sample Fig. 3. HALion’s interface displays a wealth of user
sounds originating in your computer parameters and information.
as well as sources plugged into your
computer’s audio hardware. Fig. 4. In HALion’s Wavetable Editor, you can create and
edit wave sequences and crossfade envelopes while
If you’ve ever sampled with a hard- viewing its spectrum in three dimensions.
elm0518_Roundup_SamplerRoundup_dc4_F.indd 19
ware instrument, the procedure may be familiar. Start
with a new program and open the Sample Recorder.
Choose an audio source and specify parameters such
as whether you want sampling to trigger manually or
to start and stop automatically when the signal level
exceeds and falls below a defined threshold.
You can set up the Recorder to initiate sampling
when it sees a MIDI Note On and stop when it
sees a MIDI Note Off. In Auto-Next mode, you can
automate sampling so that HALion records and
maps each successive note you play on an instru-
ment. The Fill Gaps feature transposes samples so
that pitches between samples are automatically
distributed across the keyboard—a real timesaver.
SYNTHESIS READY
HALion 6 also offers a nice range of waveform-gen-
erating capabilities using samples as source mate-
rial. Its wavetable synthesis, in particular, provides
some deep and interesting creative possibilities. Of
the two approaches that HALion takes, the more
flexible type of wavetable synthesis works with
user samples. You begin by opening a sample and
changing it from Sample to Wavetable in the Zone
Editor, which extracts the sample’s spectral data
and resynthesizes it as a wavetable oscillator.
The Wavetable Editor lets you specify as many
as 256 segments in a wave sequence, define markers
and their distribution, determine crossfade enve-
lopes, and change the rate that segments are scanned
(see Figure 4). Enable loops, edit harmonics, nor-
malize levels, shift formants, and more. Display the
wavetable in three dimensions and layer as many as
eight identical wavetables for a thicker sound.
In the second approach, Anima is the easy-to-
use, dual-oscillator wavetable synthesizer you’ll
find in HALion’s instrument library. It comes with
more than 300 preset wavetables, and its GUI
makes it more like using a typical softsynth, with
a suboscillator, its own modulation matrix, and
other features you’d associate with synthesizers.
Granular synthesis is available, as well, and it also
takes two approaches. As with wavetable synthesis,
the first works with user samples. Once you’ve trans-
formed an audio recording from Sample to Wave-
table in the Zone Editor, you can get a lot of mileage
simply by changing the number and duration of the
grains. Experiment with changing the Direction,
Pitch Interval, and Position parameters.
Skylab is HALion’s simplified granular syn-
thesizer. The instrument library supplies a large
variety of Skylab presets, with an especially large
number of sound effects, musical effects, and pads.
Skylab’s Oscillator page presents simplified con-
trols for editing granular parameters, and you get a
variable-state filter, three envelopes, a modulation
matrix, and an integrated arpeggiator.
BUILD YOUR OWN
In addition to giving you the means to create your
own sampled instruments, HALion furnishes all the
tools you need to create and customize an instru-
ment’s user interface. The Macro Page Designer is
an editor that lets you click and drag knobs, sliders,
switches, and other controls from a palette onto a
bitmapped background you’ve imported and map
all those controls to whatever parameters you wish.
Once you’ve created a custom multisampled
instrument, you can export it, along with all its
graphical assets and source files, as a Sonic SE in-
strument. That means anyone with Sonic SE can
open and play instruments you’ve created, which
gives HALion a tremendous advantage over other
samplers if you want to create and distribute origi-
nal sample-based instruments.
As you explore HALion, you’ll dis-
cover just how much depth lies beneath
the surface. Like Kontakt, it has capa-
bilities you won’t discover unless and
until you need them. If you’re serious
about assembling multisampled instru-
ments, HALion provides all the tools
you may ever need.
MAY 201 8 | EMU SICIAN .COM 19
3/14/18 4:26 PM
 UVI FALCON WORKING WITH SAMPLES
To create a multisampled instrument, begin with
as creating loops, normalizing, reversing, fading in
or out, and applying any of Falcon’s filters or effects.
Although UVI has long been well-regarded as a a new program and drag some samples into the
sample library developer, Falcon is marketed pri- Mapping Editor. The lower in the Mapping editor
marily as synthesizer. That may be why it’s bun- you drag a sample, the smaller its pitch range. If THE ONE YOU
dled with so much less multisampled content than you drag it to the very bottom, you assign it to a
its competitors. Its total factory content, called specific pitch. If you drag it to the vertical center, WANT
Falcon Factory, adds up to less than 1 GB of com- it gets a 7-semitone range. Near the top, it’s an oc- As you’ve probably guessed, each of these three sam-
pressed data. Although it has a terrific selection tave, and at the very top, it’s assigned to the entire plers has advantages and disadvantages. Kontakt has
of synth patches, you won’t find the type of multi- keyboard. This technique lets you rather quickly a wealth of useful features and extreme program-
instrument sample libraries that are bundled with map an entire multisampled instrument. ming depth, but its most significant advantage is its
Kontakt and HALion. UVI sells many such librar- Once you’ve imported some samples, Falcon popularity among sound developers. The sheer vol-
ies separately, though, and Falcon comes with a gives you lots of ways to massage them. It has sev- ume of content available for Kontakt is staggering. If
$100 voucher toward any purchase. en types of sampling oscillators that treat samples you work with third-party sample libraries, needing
Until Falcon came along, you needed the free as malleable material. The Sample oscillator sim- Kontakt or at least Kontakt Player is unavoidable.
sample player UVI Workstation to play UVI’s ply plays back samples and transposes their pitch Even if you never buy another sample, though, Kon-
sample libraries. Falcon can open any soundware if assigned to more than one note on the keyboard. takt is the hands-down winner if you want a large
that Workstation can, but instruments created in Unless the sample contains slice data, such as an collection of libraries bundled with your sampler.
Falcon open only in Falcon. You can’t export Fal- Apple Loop or Acid WAV file, transposing also On the other hand, if you prefer to do your own sam-
con instruments to any format other samplers can changes playback speed, as you’d expect. You can pling, Kontakt does not record samples on its own. It
read; nor can it open files created for other sam- change the start point and specify the transposi- also lacks any tools for wavetable synthesis, and its
plers or synthesizers. You can, however, export tion quality, and you can choose whether a specific granular capabilities are somewhat limited.
sliced loops or individual slices as WAV files. sample streams from disk or from RAM. HALion is one-stop shopping that delivers user
In many ways, Falcon’s GUI resembles HALion’s, The Slice oscillator automatically detects beats sampling, extremely versatile editing tools, and com-
except that it’s always contained in a single window. and converts them to slices, making it ideal for drum parable programming depth. It has a GUI that lets you
By default, parts in a multi are listed on the left side- loops and other repeating patterns. Stretch lets you open editors and spread them across your display, and
bar, but it can also host Tree view, which displays transpose pitch while keeping the tempo steady or it has some very respectable synthesis capabilities. It’s
a part’s hierarchical structure, or List view, which change the tempo without affecting pitch. IRCAM also the only sampler that lets you create a custom-
displays all the settings for a part and the program Stretch can transpose by greater pitch intervals or designed, multisampled instrument anyone can open
assigned to it. The browser that appears on the right time multiples with fewer undesirable artifacts, with a free sample player. Unfortunately, HALion is
sidebar is where you access samples, programs, even with complex audio content like a full mix, but not supported by most soundware developers, mak-
modulators, effects, and so on. Between the two it requires more processing power. IRCAM Granular ing it less than ideal if you depend on sample libraries
sidebars, you can choose from several views, but delivers all the usual tools for granular synthesis, and from companies other than Steinberg.
you’ll probably spend most of your time in Edit view, IRCAM Multi Granular can play as many as eight Neither Kontakt nor HALion comes close to
which displays editors stacked in levels (see Figure grain streams simultaneously. IRCAM Scrub com- matching Falcon’s versatility as a synthesizer. With
5). That’s where you edit parameters for programs, bines IRCAM Granular and Stretch, making it ideal several sample-based oscillator types to choose from,
layers, keygroups, oscillators, and mapping. Like for modulating the play position in real time. you might be surprised how much Falcon can do with
HALion, Falcon also gives you the ability to create Rather surprisingly, Falcon does not allow you samples. However, it plays only soundware from UVI
custom GUIs for the instruments you create. to use your own samples for wavetable synthesis. and companies that license UVI’s sound engine, such
You can select from as MOTU, PSound, and a handful of others, and its
an impressively large sample-editing tools are less robust than the tools in
assortment of preset dedicated samplers. If you want a sampler for devel-
wavetables, but you oping sound libraries you can distribute to a large au-
can’t import samples dience, Falcon is not a good choice, but if you want a
or even slices into its sampler with unmatched capabilities as a synthesizer,
Wavetable oscillator. it may be your best choice.
No matter which As I said, which sampler you choose depends on
sampling oscillator what you want to do. If you want the broadest choice
you choose, select- of sample libraries, Kontakt is the obvious choice. If
ing it in the Mapping you want to do your own sampling without relying on
Editor will display its external applications, HALion is the way to go. But if
waveform in the Os- you want the most versatile software for sampling and
cillator Editor, which synthesis, you won’t go wrong with Falcon. They’re
functions as Falcon’s all worthy of owning and learning to use, and I don’t
sample editor. There, think you’d be disappointed with any of them. n
you can click-and-
drag to select portions EM editor-at-large Geary Yelton has been using software to
FIG. 5: In this view of Falcon’s user interface, you can see Tree view and then right-click edit sampler data since 1986, when he first got his hands on
on the left, the oscillator module browser on the right, and a few
open editors in between. to select actions such Digidesign Sound Designer.

20 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_Roundup_SamplerRoundup_dc4_F.indd 20 3/14/18 4:26 PM

 SHAPE TWIN
This standard bearer of the Shape series features two passive radiators, woofers equipped with a new Flax
cone, and the latest “M”-shaped Aluminium/Magnesium inverted dome tweeter. Perfect weapon of mass
production for professionals. Shape Twin is made in France, just like Shape 40, 50 and 65. Designed to meet
the needs of nearfield monitoring, these monitors combine an ingenuous design and numerous settings
optimised for the acoustics of small listening rooms.

U S A w w w. a u d i o p l u s s e r v i c e s . c o m w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / a u d i o p l u s s e r v i c e s

elm535440_0518.indd 1 3/1/18 11:54 AM

 Tony Banks
Genesis founder shares his approach
to creating his latest classical work
From the opening strains of “Prelude to a Million
Years,” you’ll recognize the work of famed Genesis
keyboardist, composer, and founder Tony Banks.
The fluid harmonic movement, the lack of clichés,
Banks has always had a cinematic approach in his
best works. And on 5, his third classical release, he
comes across as a confident orchestral composer.
Released at the end of February, 5 features an or-
chestra, plus a few soloists, with supportive piano
parts played by the composer. Fans might long for
some exposed piano and/or synth showcase mo-
ments, but this is a piece for orchestra, and Banks
remains within the ensemble for the duration.
22 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M
022_elm0518_Interview_TonyBanks.indd 22
By Jerry Kovarsky
We caught up with Tony via phone so he could
share his creative approach and methodology for
writing and recording this new music.
How do you approach this kind of writing? Do
you sit at the piano? Do you use technology?
I normally start with the piano and have a string
pad going along with it. I just improvise and let ideas
come. I use [Steinberg] Cubase to record MIDI data,
so I play it back and find something I’m interested in;
that’s my most common way of starting. Sometimes
I start with a string sound or a combination of the
string with the flute, or something like that.
3/14/18 4:22 PM
 MAY 201 8 | EMU SICIAN .COM 23

022_elm0518_Interview_TonyBanks.indd 23 3/14/18 4:22 PM

 Are you using the instruments that are bun-
dled in Cubase, other plug-ins, or outside
hardware?
I use various kinds of things. Doing this or-
chestra project, I used a lot of the [IK Multimedia]
Miroslav Philharmonik collection. I also use a lot
of Vienna Symphonic libraries, particularly the
oboe and woodwinds. I still use a few old Emula-
tor sounds that I never weaned myself off of; some
French horns and trumpets and such. I know I can
do the whole thing using software now, but I’m an
old fashioned type: I have these old boxes and I
carry on using them.
For my last two orchestral albums, I’d do demos
and then we’d go into the recording studio with
the orchestra and start from scratch. This time I
decided I wanted to try and do it more like I’ve
done a lot of stuff—whether it’s on my own or with
Genesis—where the demo is much more finished.
So, the actual tempo changes and everything that
occur in the piece are all defined and I go into the
studio with my demo. In fact, the piano part that
was on the original demo actually made it right
through. Then we’ll replace a lot of the sounds
with real orchestral sounds, and we’ll add to the
rest of it and record everything separately.
So, I had a trumpet player in, and then I had a
sax player in, and a choir, and then strings. We re-
corded it in sections, with them each playing along
to my demo. In this way, it’s much easier for me
to control everything as compared to when you go
in and record the whole thing in one pass. When
you record with an orchestra, if you’re recording a
piece they’ve never heard before, you’re expecting
them to both learn it and to play it with some feel-
ing in a session of a few hours, and come up with
something that you can use. But this way, you can
scrutinize each part and get everything just as you
24 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M
022_elm0518_Interview_TonyBanks.indd 24
We recorded in
sections. You can
scrutinize each part
and get everything just
as you want it. I find it
a much more satisfying
way to work and I’m
very happy with the
result.
want it. I just find it a much more satisfying way to
work and I’m very happy with the result.
I also worked closely with an orchestrator, a
chap called Nick Ingman. He’s an experienced or-
chestrator over here who conducted the orches-
tra. When he came onboard, I’d done pretty ex-
tensive arrangements on all the pieces. So, his first
job was just to transcribe what I’d written. And
then some places we wanted to substitute some of
the piano parts for another part for the orchestra.
Sometimes I had pads going on things because I
can’t stop myself having them. I wanted to make
the string parts so they contained both moving
parts and the more sustained strings. He fiddled
around a bit, and worked his magic on it.
But while we were doing this, we went back
and forth quite a few times. That’s the great thing
about using computers: You can say, “How about
this?” and somebody would say, “No, that’s no
good,” and you change up as you go. We modified a
few things as we went through and ended up with
something we were all happy with.
When we went in the studio, I didn’t have the
shocks that I sometimes had in the past. Many times,
when you go in with an orchestral score, you’re
spending the first half hour working out all the little
errors in the scores. That didn’t happen this time
because we’d already perfected it. You already know
exactly how it’s going to sound. The process sounds
artificial but the result doesn’t sound artificial at all.
It sounds like an orchestra playing together, and
that’s the most important thing.
Being the third classical project you’ve done,
did you find that you were able to get to this
point because you are that much more com-
fortable now, compared to the first record?
You do get more used to it. Making the first one
was quite a traumatic experience; classical atti-
tudes of classical musicians, not necessarily terribly
accommodating like people from the rock world.
So, the first time around you feel you’re fighting up-
hill, slightly. But I had an excellent arranger, Simon
Hale, who’s quite a well-known musician in his
own right. As for the second one, I kind of worked
out a way of working, which was much better.
3/14/18 4:22 PM
 LiKe No OtHeR DeViCe, ThE ToNeWoOdAmP
GiVeS ThE ArTiSt – AnD MySeLf – An InStAnT
FeEl Of HoW ThE GuItAr WiLl SoUnD
ReCoRdEd Or In A LiVe SiTuAtIoN. It
GrEaTlY InSpIrEs To WrItE NeW MuSiC.

elm541125_0518.indd 1 2/27/18 4:58 PM

 This time I worked out another way, which I
think is probably the easiest way for me to work, and
if I was ever to do another one, probably the way I
would do it again; or something very similar because
it means I’m in control and I feel more confident. I
didn’t have that kind of feeling, sometimes, that I’ve
let something go by that I shouldn’t have done. By
the time you get to the end of the record, you’ve run
out of time, money, and patience, really. [Laughs.] But
this time I felt still very enthusiastic about it.
Yeah, the clock is ticking and you’re just try-
ing to get it down, period.
That’s true. It’s just one of those things. We
The Pop Filter.
Reim
Reimagined.
"|uom]
"|uom]ķY;Šb0Ѵ;ķ-7-r|-0Ѵ;
-m7†m
-m7†m1olruolbvbm]ĺ
www.popaudio.co.uk
USA — Distribution by www.audioplusservices.com // CANADA — Distribution by www.plurison.com
26 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M
022_elm0518_Interview_TonyBanks.indd 26
worked out, quite definitely, how we were going to
do this [album] in advance. And that’s one thing Nick
Ingman is very good at, is knowing how long he reck-
oned each section was going to take. It was invalu-
able because we don’t really know, sometimes. We
left ourselves a lot of time for certain things.
We spent a long time on percussion because
that was the one area I hadn’t really focused on
in my demos. Orchestral percussion is slightly out
of my zone. Apart from a few timpani and cymbal
crashes, I hadn’t had much going on. So, we spent
a long time doing that and we could perfect it.
When you’re doing everything together, you just
overlook certain things because you cannot con-
centrate on every single part.
Would you say that the percussionist offered
any insights or collaborated?
I don’t think anybody really collaborated. We
had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted, but, ob-
viously, we asked sometimes what they could do in
little bits and pieces. But to be honest, all the parts
were pretty much written by the time the guys
came in. They’ve got to do their interpretation of
it and they have some ideas.
The chap I’ve worked with quite a few times,
who’s a saxophone player, Martin Robinson, was
very keen to use the instrument the duduk on the re-
cord somewhere. So, I have this little bit, which is on
the final piece, “Renaissance,” where he could try it
out and see if it worked, and it actually worked fan-
tastic, so I was very into that. But it wasn’t something
I had done on my demos or anticipated doing. I’ve
got a different sound there. So, you do take onboard
stuff. But when I’ve done solo records with guitar-
ists, people sometimes contributed more in compo-
sitional terms perhaps, in terms of their solos, than
anybody did on this particular project. Pretty much
everything was defined before we started recording.
How would you describe your writing process?
Do you play around with harmony? Do you hear
a melody? Is it all of the above at different times?
Normally I just bang around on the piano, re-
ally. I think the harmony is very important, and
some degree of melodic movement as well. But
quite often, this is true for songwriting I’ve done;
often the top line is something I do afterwards.
Sometimes it’s very integral to the piece, obvi-
ously. But when it’s not, a lot of different melodies
could work on a particular foundation that you’ve
got, and so you improvise various different lines.
For example, on the piece “Ebb and Flow,” where
the saxophone/soprano saxophone has the main
melodic line, the section is repeated a few times, but
each time it has a different melody on top. I just im-
provised and played lots of different things and then
put them together in a way that I felt made sense and
worked. Sometimes I would try not to use the piano
3/14/18 4:22 PM
 NEW!

H E AV Y
VI BE
B ES
Introducing Little Plate

Push the limits of reality and take the sound We

We tracked down,tuned
tracked down, tunedupup
and
and teched out
out five
fiveanalog
analog
of classic plate reverb from zero to infinity with
plates to capture the classic
plates to capture the classic
one simple knob twist. The unmistakable EMT 140vibe.
EMT 140 vibe.That’s
That’s one
one and
and
EMT 140 sound – warm, rich and spacious – aa half tons
tons of
ofplate
reverb.reverb.
is now at your fingertips in this fun and musically
inspiring plug-in that takes you places the
original hardware only dreamed of.

Trademarks are the property of their respective owners, which are in no way associated
or affiliated with Soundtoys. Trademarks are used only for historical reference or to
identify products whose sounds or tone were studied in the development of Little Plate.

Free 30-day trial at soundtoys.com

elm534663_0118.indd 1 11/8/17 6:19 PM

 so that I’d have something different, and I would just
play strings and keep it very slow. I might introduce
a lead instrument on top of the strings like an oboe
or a flute. But these things may not last in the end.
Sometimes the composition changes very radically
from the original idea. It’s a very fluid process that
slowly crystallizes out into a final piece.
And the technology really makes that so much
more possible nowadays.
It does. The way you can work nowadays is fan-
tastic. In the old days, you had to keep a lot more in
your head and you could forget things; just trying to
remember what you did could be difficult. So now,
LISTEN
PROFESSIONAL
CLEAR
PROFESSIONAL
FIND OUT MORE AT
WWW.FOCAL.COM
U S A w w w. a u d i o p l u s s e r v i c e s . c o m w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / a u d i o p l u s s e r v i c e s
28 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M
022_elm0518_Interview_TonyBanks.indd 28
you’ve always got it there. And the great ability you
have now, you can try out anything you can think of.
You can instantly change a key, or tempos—all that
makes it so much easier as a writer. The ability to
get inside a piece and just move little bits and pieces
around without having to affect the whole thing.
And you’re conversant enough in Cubase to
do most of that for yourself?
Well, I can do what I do. The trouble with all
these programs is they’ve got hundreds of things that
you can do that I probably never do. I know what I
can do and certain areas that I’m good with. I’m ob-
viously in the basic editing pages and everything, and
I work entirely using the piano-roll editor.
The other thing I use a lot is the tempo track,
because when I’m doing it like I’m doing now,
where I’m actually controlling the whole orches-
tra tempo, you can add little nuances and some ral-
lentandos, and also sometimes markedly different
tempos and more fluid tempo changes. I got quite
good at doing all that kind of stuff. The only audio
recording I do is when I want to record the MIDI
part as a sound file to take it further, if you’d like.
In the days of
Genesis, I used to
be very much into
whatever was new.
Every instrument
seemed to have a
couple of songs
in it.
Do you keep up on technology and gear,
reading or otherwise?
Not really, no. I used to be very dependent on my
roadies and staff back in the day. They’d often say,
“This is something new that’s come out.” So, in the
days of Genesis I used to be very much into whatever
was new. Also, every instrument seemed to have a
couple of songs in it. So, you’d use it, and then the next
one would come out. But now, I have no idea what’s
going on. I don’t like everything on the computer. I’m
very good at certain bits of it, and completely useless
at other bits. I think I’m probably how most people are
actually. You never know everything.
Of course. Your role is the music first and
foremost.
That’s it. You don’t need to know how to build a
car in order to drive one. n
3/14/18 4:22 PM
elm536217_0518.indd 1 3/6/18 9:26 AM
 MARTIN
BY JON REGEN
“Sorry about that,” keyboardist, producer and
label head Martin Kierszenbaum jokes, after nu-
merous attempts to reach him by phone failed.
“Believe it or not, I was recording sound effects for
a new Sting song, and I lost track of time!”
Kierszenbaum has certainly made the most of his
time in the music business, inhabiting myriad roles—
from recording artist to industry
executive and founder of the Cher-
rytree Music Company: an artist
Sting’s
management, label and publish- Manager
ing firm that has sold more than Plays,
35 million records and launched Produces,
artists such as Lady Gaga, Ellie
Goulding, Robyn, Far East Move-
and More.
ment, Feist, and LMFAO. These
days, in addition to running Cherrytree, he’s busy
managing Sting, writing and producing new music,
and above all, staying musically curious.
I read that you grew up studying classical
piano, yet you’ve worked across a wide array
of genres and roles. To what do you attribute
your musical flexibility?
I can answer that in two words, believe it or
not—music theory. My mother’s a pianist, so she
encouraged my sister and me at an early age to
30 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M
elm0518_Interview_Kierszenbaum_dc5_F.indd 30
KIERSZENBAUM
start taking piano lessons. We had a pretty nomadic
lifestyle in my early childhood—we lived in South
America and Europe. When we got to Connecticut,
near New Haven, I was able to start taking regular
piano lessons, and I studied things like scales and
technique. Then we moved to Michigan, and I stud-
ied with a wonderful neighborhood teacher named
Mrs. Green. She insisted that
I study an hour of technique
and performance every week,
but also an hour of music
theory as well. And that just
lit-up my world because all of
a sudden, I could deconstruct
everything I was playing.
It wasn’t long before I
started to believe that I could construct my own
things as well. Soon I started writing for other peo-
ple in ensembles, thinking “Well, they can play it
better than I can!” I got obsessed with songwriting
and composing, and because I moved around the
world, I was exposed to a lot of different kinds of
music. What seemed to amalgamate all of them was
pop music, and I wanted to learn how to do every-
thing; not just write songs, but produce, record, en-
gineer, and market them once they were done. So,
my trajectory has been fueled by curiosity.
What accounted for your nomadic lifestyle?
Both my parents are research scientists. The way
that works is that you apply for a grant at a university
or laboratory, and if it’s approved, you “set up shop”
at a place for a couple of years. Then you run your ex-
periment and publish your results.
That went on until my dad was offered a job as a
professor at Michigan State University. I ended up
going to high school and college in Michigan, and
that was great because I was able to start playing in
bands—learning how to arrange, deal with club own-
ers, and do press and promotion. That led to starting
a little record label called Arb Recordings with my
friend Will E.P. in Ann Arbor, where we formed a Hip-
hop group called Maroon. We were praised by [famed
New York critic] Robert Christgau from the Village
Voice. It’s actually timely that we talk about this be-
cause it’s the 30th Anniversary of our debut album,
and we’re reissuing it on April 27th.
How did you get involved in the business side
of music?
I graduated from University of Michigan and
then I drove to Los Angeles because I had gotten
into the Master’s Program at the Annenberg School
at USC. That gave me an anchor to move to where
I thought the epicenter of the music business was.
3/14/18 9:35 PM
 Far left: JX Riders show, LA Science Museum. (Photo by Micah
Smith) Left: NYC Performing on The Tonight Show. (Photo by
Jerry Fuentes) Right: Sear Sound, NYC, recording on Sting and
Shaggy’s 44/876 album. (Photo by Tony Lake) Below: Sear
Sound, NYC, recording with Sting and Dominic Miller. (Photo by
Salvador Ochoa)

My classes were at night, and USC actually helped
me get an internship at PolyGram Records during
the day. From there I got a job at Warner Brothers
Records doing international publicity, because I
could type fast and I could speak Spanish! I worked
there until 1991, when I was offered a job at A&M
Records. And that was amazing. My record collec-
tion was probably one-third A&M, and I was always
fascinated with [label co-founder and trumpeter]
Herb Alpert. The first record I ever owned was by
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass.
Is A&M where your relationship with Sting
started?
Yeah. Literally, the second day I got hired, I
was sent to the Fox Theatre in Atlanta to cover
international press from Holland with Sting. This
was back in ’91 for his record The Soul Cages. So
that’s when our relationship started, and he’s been
nothing but generous and gracious to me since.
I’ve worked for him in various different capaci-
ties over the last 27 years, and he’s been a mentor,
friend, big brother, a client, and a music teacher to
me. I’m so grateful for that relationship because
it’s changed my life. I’ve been managing him for
the last two-and-a-half years. He was on my label
Cherrytree from 2007 on, and the first record we
put out was his lute album Songs from the Laby-
rinth. We also released The Police reunion album
and DVD on Cherrytree.
At the time I was taking my label out of the
Universal system, his longtime manager was re-
tiring, so it was perfect timing. We jumped into
the studio right away and we started collaborat-
ing. I ended up producing and playing a bunch of
keyboards on his last album 57th & 9th. Then the
idea for a Reggae/Caribbean record came up. I
was friends with Shaggy. He sent me a song, we
played it for Sting and he loved it. When they went
to cut it, they realized that their voices sounded
great together. And lo and behold, now there’s a
new album with both of them on it. [44/876, out
April 20 on Interscope Records] Everything with
Sting is magical, because his compass is musical.
I notice you use an interesting mix of vintage
keyboards and modern modules.
I want my palette to be as wide as possible
when I’m painting musically, but I do a lot of my
work in a mobile way, because I think that’s when
you catch a moment. But when I’m in my studio
at home, I love the comfort and robust sound of
classic keyboards like the Yamaha CP-70. In fact,
I signed a band called Keane whose sound was
based around a CP-70. They used to keep theirs
in my office. And it was my CP-70 that Lady Gaga
played on the acoustic version of her song “Pok-
er Face.” Kanye West later sampled it for a song
called “I Poke Her Face” featuring Kid Cudi.
I also love my Roland JX-3P for analog synth
work. I’ll go to that over the Juno-60 or 106. On
this new album with Sting and Shaggy, I used a
combination of old and new things—from a Roland
XV-5080 module, to the Steinway grand piano and
Hammond organ at Sear Sound in New York. I
also like the plug-ins Keyscape and Nexus, and M-
Audio’s semi-weighted Axiom 61 MIDI controller.
When I’m on the road, I use the Korg microKey
61 for composing, as well as the Akai MPK mini
which always lives in my bag.
You’re a great example of what it takes to
succeed in the music business today.
Lou Dennis, the head of sales at Warner Broth-
ers, came up to me on my first day of work in Feb-
ruary of 1989 and said, “Hey kid, welcome to War-
ner Brothers. You missed the heyday of the record
business!” [Laughs.] But despite that, for 29 years
I’ve been very lucky. You have to hustle, you have
to be nimble, but music is still a beautiful vocation.
I’m living my dream. n

MAY 201 8 | EMU SICIAN .COM 31

elm0518_Interview_Kierszenbaum_dc5_F.indd 31 3/14/18 9:35 PM

 THE ART OF SYNTH SOLOING

Jens Johansson
The OG of Metal Keyboards?

BY JERRY KOVARSKY
HOW-TO

T here are a lot of fine players working in the genre known as Progressive Metal,
and I have covered a few of them in past columns. But credit must be given to the
player who many point to the as the earliest, and perhaps most influential artist to
help establish the role of keyboards in this style. (I am talking about the last few de-
MAGAZINE

cades, as everyone would point to Jon Lord as keyboardist zero!) That man is Jens
Johansson, a formidable player with a self-effacing personality who would not like
the pedestal I just placed him on.

Jens is a Swedish musician who first came to
prominence during the seven years he toured and re-
corded with Yngwie Malmsteen (from 1983 to 1989).
Standing toe-to-toe with Yngwie—playing those
virtuosic, classically inspired lines and trading fiery
solos—certainly honed Jens’ chops and helped him
to develop his unique voice, which blends a melodic
style drawing from Bach, Mozart, and Paganini with
the execution and tone of a lead guitar player. After
freelancing in a variety of diverse groups and solo
projects, in 1995 Johansson joined the band Strato-
varius, where he remains to this day.
In his early years, his instrument of choice for
lead playing was a Korg Polysix, which is perhaps
a surprising choice. But Jens made it his own and
developed his signature style and sound with it. He
then moved on to using a Roland JV-1080 module,
driven by a Yamaha DX7 keyboard, used as a control-
ler. Now the rig has evolved, and we’ll discuss the
gear and his sound more in next month’s column.
CLASSIC(AL) JOHANSSON
To bring you into Jens’ world, I transcribed
a 2011 live concert intro that he played be-
fore Stratovarius went into their popular song
“Black Diamond” (available at youtube.com/
watch?v=1GULbmm9UfI). This solo excursion
shows his classical (and Yngwie) influences cou-
pled with extraordinary technique. Note that Jens
plays with a lot of tempo changes (accelerandos

q = 130 D‹ ÍÍÍÍ
œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙
D‹ A7
? b4 w œ
4 & œ œ œ œ œ œ #˙
2 3 œ œ #œ 4 5 #œ 6

accel. rit.
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ œnœ œ nœ œ
D‹ A7
Œ œ
q = 152
&b œ œ œ œ œ œ œbœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
7 8 9

œ œbœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ#œ œ œ
A7

& b œ œ œ œ# œ œ œ ?
nœ œ œ
n œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 11
œ
10

?b
A7
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ
nœ œ œ œ œ œ
12 œ œ œ #œ nœ œ 13
w
Ex. 1. The opening of Jens Johansson’s live intro to “Black Diamond” makes use of dramatic volume
swells and then progresses into a blistering descending run down to a low A. It is a tasteful way to
show off a bit and get the crowd’s attention.

32 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_HowTo_SynthSoloingJensJohansson_dc5_F.indd 32 3/12/18 6:17 PM

 A7
&b Œ
14 œ œ œ bœ nœ 15 œ œ bœ nœ œ œ bœ nœ #œ œ bœ nœ œ œ bœ nœ
A7 3 3

&b œ œ œ œfiù œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
œ
œbœnœ œbœnœ 17 # œ œ
. .
16

bœ. œ. œ. œ.
œ
A7
b ? œ
3
& #œ nœ œ œ œ œ
nœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
œ
18 19 rit.

?b
A7 B¨‹

˙™ œ 21 œ œ œ œ œ œ
20
œ
Ex. 2. Continuing from Example 1, Jens uses a familiar Baroque melodic figure for a few bars and then
unleashes another volley of notes before descending down to a low Bb.

b œ œ œ œ œ nœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
4 œ œ œ nœ œ œ
G&7
& b4
œbœ œ
27 3 3
œ
C‹

œbœ œ œ œ œ œbœ œ œ œ
bœ œ œ œ œ
&b bœ œ œ œ œ ? bœ œ œ
28
œ bœ œ œ29
œœœ
bœ
?b bœ œ œ œ œ™ &
C‹
nœ nœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
œ œ œ œ œ œ32 œ œ
30 œ n œ œ œ b œ œ 31 œ b œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
˙™
bœ œ œ œ ù
bœ œ œnœ œ œ nœ fi
bœ œ œ œ
C‹ œù
& b œb œ œnœ œ œ
bœ œ œ œ
33 œnœ œ œ 34 35

Ex. 3. Moving ahead a few bars, Jen’s modulates to get ready for the tune itself. A bar of G7 moves him
into C minor, with a mix of arpeggios, four-note ascending figures, and then a multi-octave scale run to
a dramatic finish.

and ritardandos—the musical terms for speeding up
and slowing down), which is hard to convey in no-
tation. To make the music easier to read, I doubled
the length of the notes; the notated quarter note is
really the feel of an eighth note when listening to
the track. I added some implied chord changes to
make it easier to discuss the note and scale choices
he is playing. Finally, the band tunes down, so Jens
actually plays this a whole step higher, but the notes
I am showing are what you hear.
Example 1 shows the opening bars of the solo.
Jens is using the data entry slider on his DX7 as
a volume control, so each note is swelled into as
I notated with the small crescendo markings. Jo-
hansson is playing in the key of D minor and is us-
ing the harmonic minor scale, which is all white
notes except for the flatted sixth (the Bb) and the
major seventh (the C#). This creates the sound for
the V chord of an A7 with a flatted ninth.
After the dramatic ritard going through bars
six and seven, Jens breaks loose with the phrases
starting in bar eight. Notice how he keeps chang-
ing between using a B-natural and the Bb during the
runs. It is the difference between the ascending me-
lodic minor scale (the B-natural) and the harmonic
minor scale (the Bb), and the changing note choice
makes the lines more interesting. This passage cas-
cades across the range of the keyboard, dramati-
cally coming to rest on a low note. Notice how he
often uses four-note groupings, and some five-note
groupings in the lines. They remind me of my years
working through Hanon and Czerny technique
exercises: Anyone looking to get proficient in this
style of playing should be working on those types of
exercises, along with a healthy dose of Bach.
MORE SHREDDING
Example 2 continues from where we left off, with
another classical figure, which Jens starts slow
and takes off with. Starting in bar 18 he again al-
ternates the B and Bb notes, until descending to
another dramatic low note, this time a Bb.
Example 3 happens a few bars later, and this
is where Johansson moves his key center from D
minor to C minor to set up the song. In bar 27 he is
using the notes that imply a G7 with the added Eb
note, the sound of resolving to C minor. This flurry
of notes moves into arpeggiated figures on a C mi-
nor chord, with a few colorful notes added. Start-
ing in bar 30 he plays ascending four-note group-
ings based on the C melodic minor scale, and then
moves into an ascending scalar run that alternates
in its use of the major seventh (B natural) and the
minor seventh (Bb), finishing with a dramatic reso-
lution of B to C.
MORE TO COME
Next month we’ll get some insights from Jens
himself on his sound and playing, and we’ll look at
a few more of his classic solos. n

MAY 201 8 | EMU SICIAN .COM 33

elm0518_HowTo_SynthSoloingJensJohansson_dc5_F.indd 33 3/12/18 6:17 PM

 HOW-TO
MAGAZINE
Organ Workshop
Tap into these pedal techniques and warm-ups
BY JIM ALFREDSON B ass pedals are a fun and important aspect of Hammond-style organ playing. Un-
like classical organists, most jazz organists use only the left foot, assigning the
right foot to the expression pedal in order to create dynamic contrast.
For many clonewheel players, the thought
of using bass pedals can be intimidating. But it
doesn’t need to be. After all, the pedals are simply
an enlarged keyboard that is played with the feet,
and adding them to your setup allows both hands
to focus on other duties, including drawbar regis-
tration changes, Leslie speed switching, or playing
another musical part and sound altogether.
Using the following concepts and techniques,
you can incorporate bass pedals into your own
playing with a few months of diligent practice.
THE TAP
Before the Internet and YouTube, learning the secret
techniques of your favorite musicians proved very
difficult. For example, according to all the liner notes
I read, the great jazz organist Jimmy Smith played
his bass lines with his feet, chords with his left hand,
and melodies with is right hand. As a young aspiring
organist, I tried to do just that, but the sound wasn’t
right. My bass lines sounded too heavy and clunky,
whereas Smith’s bass lines were languid and smooth.
The tone was completely different, too.
34 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M
elm0518_HowTo_OrganBassPedals_prod_f.indd 34
I eventually learned that Smith played the ma-
jority of his bass lines with his left hand and ac-
cented those lines with his left foot, a technique
known as “tapping.” Furthermore, tapping is often
done on a single pedal; the Bb in the middle of the
pedal board.
In other words, the notes of the bass line are
played using the left hand, while the bass ped-
als are simply used to add an attack to the front
of each note, like the pluck from an acoustic bass.
Tapping the Bb pedal in a staccato manner, just
ever so slightly ahead of the left hand, provides
this attack (see Example 1).
How does that work? If you’re constantly play-
ing a low Bb on the pedals while walking a bass line
with the left hand, wouldn’t the two clash?
The reason they do not has to do with the
staccato nature of the tapping and the design of
a vintage Hammond. The pedal system in those
instruments has four separate contacts, two for
each drawbar. Consequently, when you play very
staccato, all four contacts might not close all the
way (or at all). This is similar to the nine busbars
3/14/18 4:55 PM
 Ex. 1: To get the hang of tapping, start slowly at first, playing quarter notes and a simple walking bass line in the left hand.

Ex. 2: In the first bar, the left foot shadows the left hand, tapping the same notes. In the second bar, rather than over-
extend, the left foot simply taps on the C until the left-hand bass line goes back down again on beat 2 of the third bar.

Ex. 3: Hold the bass note on that low C, accenting beat 1, while the left hand tackles the syncopation. Notice the
shadowing at the end of bars 2 and 4. That figure could also be played by tapping the Bb pedal.

Ex. 4: Developing the heel/toe technique will make it easier for you to navigate the pedal board. An ‘o’ below a note
denotes that it should be played with the heel, whereas a ‘^’ denotes the note should be played with the toe. Notice
that there are two toes in a row at the end of bars 1 and 3. The toe of the foot should slide off the sharp and on to the
next note, allowing the foot to pivot to the heel for the following note.

in the Hammond manuals and is the reason for
the famous key-click that Hammond players know
and love. This same electrical contact or key-click
happens in the bass pedals, as well.
SHADOWING AND SPLITTING
Shadowing is similar to tapping except that you
play the same notes on the pedals as the left hand,
still very staccato. This allows you to accent spe-
cific notes in the bass line by holding down the
appropriate bass pedal longer. Most jazz organists
use a combination of tapping and shadowing, de-
pending on the song and the context (Example 2).
An exception to the rule of playing staccato is bal-
lads. Again, referencing the master, Jimmy Smith,
the approach is either to play all bass notes on the
pedals and chords with the left hand or to shadow
the bass pedals but play slightly longer notes so that
the bass note is actually voiced fully, while holding
down the same note in the left hand for sustain.
Another style is used when playing funky bass
lines or straight-eighth feels. Known as “splitting,”
the idea is to think of the bass pedals as the low-
est string on an electric bass guitar and use the left
hand for the upper parts of the line. In essence,
you are splitting the bass line between the pedals
and the left hand, with beat 1 usually being on the
root and played on the pedals (Example 3).
WARM-UPS
Before a gig or session—even before practicing—I
often warm up my left foot using the heal/toe tech-
nique; the heel is used mostly for the naturals while
the toe is used for the sharps/flats. The heel is also the
pivot, allowing the foot to gently turn in anticipation
of the next note. I use this technique to run chromatic
lines up and down the pedal board at a slow tempo
(Example 4). This loosens the ankle muscles while
also orienting the foot to the pedal board.
Another warm up I do is tap quarter notes on
the Bb at a medium tempo while walking a bass line
with the left hand. Again, this loosens up the ankle
muscles and helps lock the two limbs together.
Next, I run some intervals, such as the circle
of fifths, to practice muscle memory. A common
movement in a walking bass line is from the root
to the third and then chromatically up to the fifth
in quarter notes. Another common movement is
from the root down to the dominant seventh and
chromatically down to the fifth.
FEET, DO YOUR DUTY
As you play, let the rhythm of the pedal notes res-
onant through your body to form an inseparable
link. There’s no better feeling than when the band
is in the groove and your entire body is involved in
the music, from head to toe. n

MAY 201 8 | EMU SICIAN .COM 35

elm0518_HowTo_OrganBassPedals_prod_f.indd 35 3/13/18 4:17 PM

 Envelopes as LFOs
Increase your modulation capabilities with these tips
HOW-TO
BY FRANCIS PREVE W ithout modulation resources, a synthesizer is just a sophisticated organ. Modu-
lation breathes life into a sound, adding motion to oscillators, filters, and amplifiers.
Naturally, sound designers want as many options as possible for modulating synth pa-
rameters, but as is often the case with instrument design, pleasing every user equally
MAGAZINE
is a daunting task: Some users want oodles of envelopes; others want LFOs galore.
What’s more, the feature set of a synth is a core
component of its overall sound. While it’s fun to
fantasize about softsynths and modular rigs hav-
ing unlimited possibilities, the instruments that
stand the test of time have a particular sound. And
Fig. 1 that sound is partially defined by the modulation
tools that are available.
This month, I will demonstrate ways to use
envelopes as LFOs. Not every synth supports this
level of versatility, but quite a few mainstream
products—both software and hardware—do. Here
are techniques for three of the most popular synths
Fig. 2
available now.
MOOG SUBSEQUENT 37
The Subsequent 37 may be one of the most preva-
lent Moogs ever, thanks to its array of modulation
amenities, including two loopable DAHDSR (de-
lay, attack, hold, decay, sustain, release) envelopes.
Because of the extra envelope segments, you can
create both classic waveshapes and complex pa-
rameter articulations that would be impossible to
duplicate using standard LFOs.
The rate of the modulation, of course, is deter-
mined by the envelope segment times. For exam-
ple, it may seem intuitive that a triangle wave is
created by adjusting attack and decay times—leav-
Fig. 3 ing the sustain at zero—but to dial in the correct
speed, you’ll have to increase each of their times
accordingly. To get started, turn on the envelope
Loop parameter (Figure 1). A slightly resonant,
low filter cutoff frequency with 30% to 50% enve-
lope depth offers the clearest sonic representation
of the shape, but from there you can experiment
with the amp envelope and other options.
ABLETON LIVE WAVETABLE & OPERATOR
Live’s Operator was one of the first softsynths to
popularize looping envelopes, which sound fan-
Fig. 4 tastic in the context of FM synthesis. Live 10’s new
Wavetable also includes this feature for all three of
its freely assignable envelopes (Figure 2). The only
36 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M
elm0518_HowTo_SoundDesign_EnvelopesAsLFOs_dc4_F.indd 36
difference between the two synths is that Opera-
tor allows the envelope loops to be synchronized
to tempo—perfect for creating rhythmic effects—
while Wavetable’s envelopes are entirely depen-
dent on their segment times.
That said, Wavetable’s envelopes offer adjust-
able curves and assignable values for start level,
peak level, and final level, giving it the edge for un-
usual shapes. For example, this looping Wavetable
envelope in Figure 3 would be nearly impossible
to create via traditional LFOs. Applied to pitch,
this type of contour (with very subtle modula-
tion amounts, controlled via the mod wheel or
aftertouch) will yield pitch articulations that are
normally the territory of acoustic instruments like
violin or flute. Alternately, applied to parameters
like cutoff or wavetable position at greater depths,
it’s useful for wild timbral shifts that can be handy
for electro or complextro styles.
PROPELLERHEAD THOR
Available both in Reason and as a standalone iOS
app, Thor is another classic softsynth with loop-
ing options for both the modulation envelope (per
voice) and global (paraphonic) envelope (see Fig-
ure 4). Moreover, the duration for each segment
can also be synchronized to tempo. The main dif-
ference between these envelopes is that the global
envelope is based on a DAHDSR configuration, so
it can also re-create square and pulse LFO wave-
forms.
To experiment, set the attack, decay, sustain,
and release segments to zero, and then assign the
envelope to oscillator pitch. From there, adjust the
delay and hold segments to vary the duration for
the “down” and “up” sections of the pulse, respec-
tively, with equal values delivering a square wave.
Note that Reason’s new Europa and Grain synths
also offer envelope looping, but with nearly unlim-
ited breakpoints for designing complex shapes.
Next month, we’ll invert this concept and apply
LFOs as envelopes. n
3/12/18 5:43 PM
elm543188_0518.indd 1
SamAsh_EM_MAY2018.indd 1 2/28/18
2/27/18 12:54 PM
4:03 PM
 REVIEW

Fig. 1. One of the new pianos in

Piano V2 models the sound of
a grand piano whose strings
have been plucked, rather
than hammered, resulting in a
uniquely hollow yet organic tone.

ARTURIA

V A rturia has built a solid reputation for accurate soft-

ware emulations of coveted analog synthesizers,
adding to the collection of vintage models year after
that Arturia didn’t bestow some
of the same sound-sculpting
features that grace its synths

Collection year. This time around, the V Collection (V6) boasts

five more instruments: a revamped acoustic piano
with three new models, a virtual Clavinet, an expand-
and electronic instruments, al-
though Analog Lab has a modest
assortment of effects, including

6
chorus and flange.
ed take on the DX7 and, arguably the two stars of the
new offerings, the Buchla Electric Music Box and CMI I, CLAVDIVS
V, a re-creation of the Fairlight Computer Musical In- Clavinet V captures the Hohner
A BOX SET OF strument. Additionally, Analog Lab, which provides a model D feature set, and then
some. The basic sound-sculpt-
real-time control platform that lets you recombine
SYNTH AND the instruments in different ways, is now at version 3
ing switches of a Clavinet sit on

KEYBOARD with a redesigned user interface.

the left-hand side of the key-
board. The instrument’s pair of
HISTORY V2 ROCKET 88
pickups are similar to those of an
electric guitar, with the B (near the bridge) pickup
BY MARTY CUTLER To my ear, and apart from the presence of three new producing a brighter, more piercing tone and the C
models, Piano V2 sounds even more natural than ver- pickup, which is positioned closer to the hammers,
Marty Cutler is the author sion one. The three new models provide distinctive producing a more mellow sound. C and D switches
of The New Electronic
STRENGTHS additions to the Piano stable. The Japanese Grand, function as taps, and you can choose a single pickup
New pianos, keyboards,
Guitarist (Hal Leonard). modeled after a Yamaha grand and perhaps my new or both. When you select both pickups, the A and B
and synthesizers, all
with enhanced sound- favorite of the acoustic-grand instruments, has a more switches move the pickups in or out of phase.
shaping features. pronounced high end balanced by an up-front, full Four tone-control buttons model Clavinet EQ
Analog Lab lets you
bodied tone. Plucked Grand is ineffably cool, sound- settings, with Soft and Medium buttons acting as
combine and control
instruments in a unified ing like a hybrid of piano, koto, and kora (see Figure lowpass filters and Treble and Brilliant as high-
app. 1). Quick flicks of the pitch wheel went a long way pass filters. As with a physical Clavinet, when all
toward imparting an Asian flavor to the instrument. filters are off, Clavinet V produces no sound and
LIMITATIONS A superb-sounding convolution reverb gives the combinations of the four produce tonal variations.
Acoustic and electro-
instruments a sweet finish, and two new mic arrays The Mute slider on the right serves to dampen the
acoustic instruments
have more conservative have been added: Player and Under. I especially, instrument’s attack and tone.
modulation capabilities like the player-perspective mic setup, although it is As far as I’ve described, Clavinet V works in the
than synths. Docu- not available on the upright instrument. That place- same manner as its hardware counterpart, but as al-
mentation imprecise at ment might be physically difficult in the real world, ways Arturia packs surprises under its virtual hood.
times.
but once you have modeled glass- and metal-bodied A click on the upper panel reveals a top-down view
$499 pianos, what concept of realism are we clinging to of controls you won’t readily find in a real-world Clav
Arturia.com here? As terrific as Piano V2 sounds, I’m surprised (see Figure 2). The pull-down menu of harmonic pro-

38 MAY 2 01 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_Review_ArturiaVColl6_dc4_F.indd 38 3/12/18 5:48 PM

 files includes Default that furnishes the normal here, including a powerful, easy-to-under-
tonal properties of a Clavinet; Boost 2nd and 3rd stand Mods section, which, in conjunction
produces a rounder tone; Soft reduces the nasal with a remarkably flexible step-sequencer,
qualities of the Clavinet with a sort of lowpass fil- can play notes while performing multiple
ter effect; Soft Boosted enhances the aforemen- modulation tasks on your choice of operators.
tioned odd harmonics and subtly restores a bit of For anyone who felt the DX7 didn’t quite live
the nasal Clav tone; Dark re-creates more organ- up to its potential, you need to check out Ar-
like tones; and you could easily tweak the Bass turia DX7 V.
profile into a serviceable Fender Precision-like
instrument. You can also adjust string resonance, VIRTUAL ELECTRIC MUSIC BOX
release time, and various artifacts such as key re- The Buchla Easel V is a semi-modular synthe-
lease, hammer, and pickup noises. sizer. The basic audio-signal flow feeds from
Naturally, the character of the instrument the complex oscillator to the Dual LoPass
Fig. 2. Clavinet V grants access to sonic variations
changes more appreciably once the virtual you couldn’t achieve with the hardware version, Gate, which can simultaneously act as a volt-
amp is powered on: Arturia doesn’t state a including a variety of harmonic profiles including age-controlled filter, an amplifier, or both. The
specific amp model, but it looks somewhat boosting of odd harmonics and bass instruments. left-hand side of the panel harbors most of the
like a Fender Deluxe, so that might provide modulation controls, including the Sequential
a clue. The amp’s convolution model of a spring And if you’ve ever programmed the original in- Voltage Source (Buchla-speak for sequencer), the
reverb furthers the impression. strument, you’ll surely appreciate the programming Envelope Generator, the Pulser, and the Modula-
Though it isn’t depicted, a modeled Shure SM57 layout of DX7 V. At the top is a header that includes tion Oscillator. The Modulation Oscillator can per-
mic is included, with a toggle between on- and off- global transposition, tuning, amplitude modulation, form as a secondary audible oscillator, used for fre-
axis positions. Tonally, Clavinets and guitars aren’t and pitch modulation depth and sensitivity. The four quency or amplitude modulation, or can be tuned
that far apart, and I was only a step or two away user-definable macro controls can be assigned to tasks to subsonic frequencies to serve as an LFO.
from finding a decent nylon-string guitar when I such as adjusting carrier release time, modulator en- You create patches by dragging short, color-
moved the mute slider to the center position, and a velope depth, filter cutoff or resonance, reverb depth, coded cables to appropriate destinations. The color
decent Duane Eddy tremolo electric guitar when I and practically anything else you may find useful. coding serves to identify the sources and destina-
added a bit of tremolo, spring reverb, and some slap- Center stage is DX7 V’s algorithm window, where tions: For instance, orange identifies patch connec-
back-style delay from one of the excellent-sounding you can assign the desired configuration of carriers tions to and from the Envelope Generator, purple
foot-pedal effects. Stompbox effects include filters, and modulators, using the left and right arrows, or denotes key pressure, and blue designates the
delay, chorus, and flange. The wah pedal is always just scroll up or down by dragging on the numeri- complex oscillator. Most often, a source can have
the last pedal in the chain and no self-respecting cal display. Color-coded operators are consistent multiple destinations, and you can simply drag an-
Clavinet should be without one. You can choose through all algorithms, as an aid to keeping track of other cable which will appear at the source when
between a velocity- or foot-controlled wah-wah. their position and function. You can mute operators. you click on it. You can also route MIDI Velocity,
Arturia’s Clavinet V is easily the most playable Right-hand controls include an arpeggiator section, Modulation Wheel, or Note Number (Key Follow)
and expressive Clavinet I’ve encountered in the portamento and glide adjustments, and more. messages. A narrow panel just below the program-
virtual instrument cosmos. There is an enormous Open Mode—as with all other Arturia instru- ming section adds additional control voltages to the
amount of sonic variety, and the best part is how easy ments—discloses the synth’s inner workings and keyboard, including pulse (a repetitive attack and
it is to shape to your needs. And as with all Arturia features six tabs. The first two, Overview and En- decay envelope), portamento, and the Arpeggiator.
VIs, clicking on the MIDI-plug icon opens practical- velopes, display all of the conventional DX7 param- Buchla Easel V offers a choice from single to
ly every parameter to MIDI control and automation. eters, and a few new features, including waveform four-voice polyphony. The instrument wasn’t
selection for each oscillator/operator. The selec- terribly demanding on my CPU, but the load can
THE COMEBACK KID tion is intriguing and includes waveforms from the change from patch to patch, and cutting a voice
FM synthesis as a concept is no more intuitive on Yamaha TX81Z, OPL2 and 3, a handful of additive will give you back some cycles.
Arturia’s DX7 V than it was in the days of its Yamaha synthesis waveforms, and some stock analog types Clicking on the pair of disclosure triangles
ancestor: You still need to understand the hierarchy and variants such as parabola and cosine. introduces several unique and rich modulation
of algorithms, carriers, and modulators. But the good The Complement of envelope types in DX7 V are features, which Arturia calls the Modulation Uni-
news is that Arturia’s user interface organizes pro- a programmer’s delight, verse. A panel on the
gramming tasks in a way that streamlines the process, offering a choice of the left accesses Left Hand,
and nearly everything is accessible from an overview original DX7 Envelope Right Hand, and Grav-
window with tabs that focus on programming details. Generator, DADSR, and ity pages, in addition
To a certain extent, DX7 V hews to the same Multi-Segment (MSEG) to the Effects section.
six-operator, 32-algorithm structure as the original types (see Figure 3).
DX7. However, Arturia sweetens it with a bevy of MSEG allows for up to Fig. 3. Multi-
useful waveforms as opposed to only sine waves, 16 points with indepen- segment envelope
as in the original, as well as lowpass, bandpass, and dent rates and levels, and generators for each
operator take DX7
highpass resonant filters for each operator, which the ability to drag curvi- V’s capacity for
adds a great deal to the sonic variety and depth of linear slopes between animated sounds
the instrument. You can also pan operators, which stages. well beyond those
of its hardware
you couldn’t do with the original monophonic DX7. There’s lots more ancestor.

MAY 201 8 | EMU SICIAN .COM 39

elm0518_Review_ArturiaVColl6_dc4_F.indd 39 3/12/18 5:48 PM

 Left and Right Hand actually do not refer to release a key. The filter is a nonresonant, lowpass
anything such as splits, or layers, as one might type, but if we know anything about Arturia’s de-
expect; instead, use the Left Hand panel to add sign, this is not the end of the story. The accom-
complex multisegment “voltage” envelopes for panying PDF manual provides a list of features
each of up to five destinations. Click on the ad- added to CMI V, including the mixer, effects, and
joining rectangle and choose a module and the additional instrument slots, but I’m pretty sure
parameter you’d like to modulate; for example, that the original Fairlight did not have the modu-
selecting Modulation Oscillator and its wave- lation chops Arturia endowed to CMI V.
form type. Apart from the MIDI Learn capabilities
The Right Hand is a sequencer section, and built into all of the V6 virtual instruments,
here, the input is very similar to a simple, step- CMI V has a pretty sweet Assign section
entry piano roll, but with a twist: The addition which links typical controller gestures such
of a subsection that accesses the four Voltage as key follow, aftertouch, velocity, and the like
Preset pads that let you transpose a range of to your choice of parameters. Likewise, you
steps on-the-fly. The sequencer is polyphonic, Fig. 4. Repellers, Planets, Walls, and Wormholes can assign the virtual controls, sliders, and
and you can get up to 32 steps and alter and comprise the Gravity section, a sonic-modulation switches on the instruments panel. Click on
randomize gate times. pinball machine that Arturia has added to its the Map rectangle, then click on the voice pa-
rendition of the Buchla Easel.
The most interesting new feature is the addi- rameter to assign the destination. Click over
tion of the Gravity section. Here, as with the Right one more tab, to the set of six multisegment
Hand section, you have an arena to create com- function generators, which can serve as aux-
plex modulation, except your tools are objects— iliary envelopes or LFOs, and these can simi-
Repellers, Planets, Walls, and Wormholes, which larly be mapped to any available parameters.
attract or repel a projectile initiated by triggering CMI V features a redesigned version of the
a note or other event (see Figure 4). You can grab Fairlight sequencer (better known back in the
objects and drag them (up to four of each type) day as Page R). Rather than select a note dura-
into the center rectangle, or Universe—actually, tion from a menu and input it in the sequencer
an X/Y axis with two modulation routings per grid with a light pen, you simply click in the
pole. Repellers are small spheres that bounce the pattern grid, insert a note, and drag right or
triggered projectile on collision, Planets have a left to edit note duration. Patterns are strictly
gravitational pull. Walls bounce and contain pro- monophonic. You can also drag events to one
jectile ballistics, and can emit their own triggers. of the other tracks. Each of the ten instrument
Wormholes are pairs of objects that can be posi- slots has eight patterns with up to 32 events
tioned individually, and can transport the projec-Fig. 5. One of the highlights of Arturia CMI V is the per pattern, and each pattern can have its own
tile from one area to another. ability to import and resynthesize samples. swing and polyrhythm settings.
Buchla Easel V may not be everyone’s cup Sonically, the factory sounds are imbued
of tea, but its complexity and its potential for with a nostalgic charm for electronic musi-
vivid, animated sounds can be seductive. ging (see Fig. 5). Dropping in samples from Native cians of a certain age: The trademark breathy Fair-
Instruments Absynth yielded gorgeous results. I light voices, the resolutely ’80s-sounding dance
FAITHFULLY FAIRLIGHT like the interchangeability between synthesized grooves with fat-toned, oversized snares—they’re
The CMI V is an updated version of the Fairlight waveform and sample; you can then convert the all here. And combined with your own samples,
Computer Musical Instrument. Although it’s more wavetable back to a sample, and from there back and CMI V’s resynthesis capabilities, you’ve got a
than 30 years old, and music technology quickly to a wavetable, and so on, until the sound is no lon- terrifically versatile instrument that goes beyond
outpaced the Fairlight, it was a highly sought-af- ger recognizable. the scope of its vintage sibling.
ter instrument in its time and found its way into a Technically speaking, CMI V supports mul-
great number of top artist’s recordings. tisampling, but only in a limited sense. A preset A SOUND DEAL
CMI V divides its programming area into four only provides 10 slots, each of which holds a single Overall, V Collection 6 is an unbeatable bargain,
main pages, which subdivide into lower-level sample. You can map each sample to a specific as Arturia has added additional instruments to
functions. The Sound page divides into several range of the keyboard, but that’s about it: There is the collection without raising its price. More than
lower-level tabs, hosting three main synthesizer no velocity crossfading, switching, or round-robin that, it is a superb and diverse collection of 20 vin-
engines: Sample, Time Synth, and Spectral Synth. articulations. If you scroll through the presets, it tage synthesizers and electronic keyboards at your
You can convert samples into wavetables in the should become obvious that, with the exception of fingertips. The accompanying Analog Lab is an in-
time Synth or use the Spectral Synth to create your drum kit and loop combinations, CMI’s stock-in- strument unto itself, letting you combine any two
own from scratch. You can import your own 16-bit, trade is layering and processing to build unusual instruments in the collection in a number of ways,
44.1kHz samples up to 30 seconds in length. sounds, rather than faithful acoustic instrument including knobs, faders, and the same sophisti-
I created some spicy waveforms by dropping re-creations. cated MIDI Learn capabilities as the individual
a mandola sample into one of the slots. Analyz- The envelopes and filters are relatively bare- instruments.
ing them opens the Time Synth, which converted boned. You get an attack time with two Damp Overall, Arturia’s V Collection 6 is an essential
it to a wavetable. I could then edit its harmonics Modes, which are alternate release settings, and a virtual kitchen of vintage analog flavors, and I sug-
by selecting segments of the waveform and drag- Trigger mode that plays at full amplitude until you gest you taste them all. n

40 MAY 2 01 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_Review_ArturiaVColl6_dc4_F.indd 40 3/12/18 5:48 PM

 THE #1 RESOURCE FOR MUSICIANS WHO WANT TO
RECORD, PRODUCE, AND PERFORM BETTER MUSIC

SPECIAL OFFER
ALL ACCESS
SAVE OVER 50% OFF SINGLE COPY PRICES
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE TODAY
Single Copy Price Subscription Price
12 issues $71.88 12 issues $29.99

ALL ACCESS
INCLUDES
PRINT + DIGITAL + iPad
SUBSCRIBE NOW AT:
WWW.MYEMMAG.COM/EMVIP1

EMHouseAd.indd 1 6/11/2015 7:24:04 PM

EM_FPad.indd 1 10/6/15 2:47 PM
 Articulations Microphone perspectives
matrix

Humanize features

Fig. 1. Here’s a detailed

look at the Room
Mix Preset for the
8-player cello section.
REVIEW

In the upper right

you can see the Mid
and Mix microphone
perspectives, which
you can blend to taste
using mixer channels
1a and 2a. In the center
is the 5x12 matrix of
articulations, which
can be selected using
a combination of mod
wheel (vertical) and
keyswitches (horizontal).
VIENNA
SYMPHONIC LIBRARY

Synchron W hen Vienna Symphonic Library (VSL) landed on

the orchestral sample library scene, it ushered in
an innovative approach to producing sampled in-
round (3D). You’ll
find corresponding
Patches, Matrices

Strings I and struments. Recorded in a specially designed studio,

VSL’s instruments were virtually devoid of any rever-
berant characteristics, which allowed the developers
and Presets for each
of these perspectives
that you can com-

Percussion I
bine to create cus-
to build in an unparalleled degree of performance tom multichannel
flexibility. Fast-forward to VSL’s new Synchron Series, mixes. Additionally,
and they’ve gone 180° in the other sonic direction. Strings I features
A ROOMY These collections—Strings I and
Room Mix Presets,
and Percussion I features Stereo Mix Presets—
COLLECTION OF Percussion I on review, here—were re- these comprise the Standard library’s four mic

EXPERTLY SAMPLED corded with multiple microphone per-

spectives at the Synchron Stage Vienna,
perspectives, allowing you to dial in the amount of
direct and room sound from a single instance of
INSTRUMENTS VSL’s own recording facility, which was
formerly a scoring stage that the de-
the Vienna Instruments or Instruments Pro plug-
in (see Figure 1).
BY JOHN KROGH veloper renovated for soundtrack and Speaking of which, these sample player plug-
sampling work. The result is a set of in- ins have been updated to address aspects of the
John Krogh is an struments presented in multiple formats ranging Synchron series. There are now options for man-
award-winning
STRENGTHS from simple mono and stereo configurations up to aging CPU resources when loading multiple mic
Rich, reverberant character.
ASCAP composer 5.1 surround and Auro 3D 9.1. patches and for controlling the delay of room
Highly flexible and dynamic
and producer with
instruments. Multichannel microphones with the Room Mix Presets. In ad-
more than 1,000
sampling allows for a variety PLAYERS IN THE ROOM dition, a new Synchronize Control Map command
music placements in
of mix formats.
media. As with previous VSL collections, Synchron lets you quickly and easily apply MIDI controller
LIMITATIONS Strings I, and Synchron Percussion I come in Stan- mappings to all instances in your session.
Instruments Pro plug-in dard and Full editions. With their earlier libraries, For example, say you’re fine-tuning your work-
player can be unwieldy when the Full editions offered additional articulations, flow by assigning and adjusting MIDI controllers
trying to work with many mic but with the Synchron titles, the Full editions sim- to affect multiple articulations and performance
perspectives/articulations.
ply offer more microphone perspectives beyond characteristics. When you’re happy with your set-
Full libraries are expensive.
the Standard libraries. The articulations are the up, you can instantly apply the controller assign-
Strings I: $655 Standard, same in both Standard and Full. ments to all other loaded instances. This can be a
$1,200 Full, $545 Upgrade The microphone perspectives are consistent real timesaver.
to Full among the collections, with Close, Mid Layer, Reverb-wise, Synchron Stage has a decay time
Percussion I: $875
Main/Room (Decca Tree Stereo L/R), Main/ of 1.8 seconds. The acoustic room characteristic
Standard, $1,640 Full, $765
Upgrade to Full Room (Decca Tree Mono Center), Main Surround strikes a nice balance between tight and ambient;
vsl.co.at (Stereo L/R), High Stereo (3D), and High Sur- not so wet that it would sound too big for small

42 MAY 2 01 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_Review_VSLSynchron_dc4_F.indd 42 3/13/18 3:24 PM

 Fortunately, there’s especially impressed with the new Blur Legato
good news on the ho- function, which lets you vary the amount of “slop”
rizon. When I attended between notes. If you’re going for ultra-realistic
this year’s NAMM show, MIDI mockups, Strings I is up for the challenge.
I was treated to a demo
of the upcoming Syn- PERCUSSION I
chron player (in beta as Percussion I includes 16 types of instruments:
I write this) that looks Timpani (x5), Bass Drum, Snare Drum, Concert
to be much more user Toms (x8), Xylophone, Glockenspiel, Celesta, Sus-
friendly (see Figure 2). pended Cymbals (x2), Piatti (x2), Tam-Tams (x2),
Tubular Bells, Tambourines (x2), Triangles (x7),
STRINGS I Woodblocks (x5), Castanets (x2), and Shakers
Strings I is based on (x2). Patch, Preset, and Matrices are programmed
a 46-piece string sec- in similar fashion to Strings I.
tion divided into 14 1st The source percussion instruments were ex-
violins, 10 2nd violins, pertly performed and meticulously captured, with
Fig. 2. VSL’s upcoming Synchron Player promises to make loading, 8 violas, 8 cellos, and 6 special attention paid to low velocities, resulting in
playing, and mixing multichannel sampled instruments easy and
intuitive. Here, multiple articulations that would normally be loaded double basses. This en- a collection of highly playable and dynamic sampled
into separate cells within Vienna Instruments Pro are combined semble size is slightly instruments that can go from delicate and nuanced
into a single unit. Behind the scenes, Synchron Player intelligently smaller compared to to brash and bombastic. There is a fair amount of
chooses the right articulation based on your playing technique.
similarly oriented li- “distance” in the sound that you’ll probably want
braries, but it’s exactly to compensate for (depending on your production
screen work, and not so dry that you’d need to the same makeup and number of players used in style) by increasing the close mics in the mix, but
add some other reverb to fill out the sound. Tim- VSL’s “mid sized” Orchestral Strings collection. on the whole, these are some exquisite exemplars
brally speaking, the room has a pure, pleasing, and You’ll find Patches, Presets, and Matrices for of orchestral percussion that pair nicely with their
slightly rounded tone. I found the recorded ambi- each section (no solo strings), plus “all strings” bowed counterparts (see Figure 3).
ence to mix nicely with other convolution and al- ensemble patches for sketches or simple projects
gorithmic reverbs, and I was able to create a more that don’t require multitrack writing. Essentially, SERIOUS SYNCHRON SOUNDS
“Hollywood” cinematic sound by judicious use of there’s just one master Preset and Matrix setup for VSL’s Synchron Series sets a new bar for multi-
my favorite verbs. each section, making it possible to load all of the channel sampled instruments and further show-
articulations for a given section in one fell swoop. cases the developer’s expertise in marrying musi-
NEXT GEN If you’re familiar with the naming convention cality with technology. Strings I and Percussion I
VSL’s Instrument player plug-in was designed from VSL’s previous string collections, Synchron are wonderful collections that can be made to re-
for samples that were not recorded with multiple will be a bit of a departure. For example, terms alize a tremendous range of compositional ideas,
microphone perspectives, so there was never a used to describe short notes, such as staccato, provided you have the requisite MIDI skills.
need for the kind of features we’ve come to ex- spiccato and détaché, are not part of Synchron’s Bottom line: Synchron Strings 1 and Synchron
pect from other libraries that offer multichannel vernacular. Instead, such articulations are simply Percussion 1 are serious tools for media compos-
samples. In the Age of Synchron, however, this referred to as “short” and “very short” notes, of ers who expect the best and won’t settle for less. n
has all changed, and in the near future VSL will be which there are several varieties that are selected
releasing its Synchron Player software, which will by mod wheel position.
make loading, playing, and mixing multiple mic The recording quality, variety of
perspective samples easier. articulations, and musicality of
Until then, there’s a level of complexity in the Strings I (and Percussion I)
way these instruments are programmed within is what I’ve come to expect
Vienna Instruments that may be difficult for some from VSL. Beautiful, de-
users to come to grips with. For example, while tailed, and wide ranging,
VSL has done an admirable job creating Presets with a level of precision in
and Matrices that comprise a full range of articu- the performances and pro-
lations for a given instrument or section, there’s no gramming that results in a
easy or intuitive solution for managing and mixing very high degree of playabil-
multiple microphone variations using the discrete ity. Note, however, that artic-
mic perspective choices. There are some included ulations such as con sordino
templates for Vienna Ensemble Pro that will load and col legno are not included;
different mic samples into separate instances of these will be in the forthcoming
the Instrument player, complete with busses for Strings II.
Fig. 3. This overhead diagram
each string section, for example. This is certainly a New in Strings I are four types of legato (Slow, shows the arrangement of percussion in
good starting point that you can use to build your Regular, Fast, Slurred) that collectively make it relation to the other instrument families,
own mix configurations. But it’s hardly an elegant possible to cover a lot more musical territory as well as to the surround microphone
positions, which correspond to Presets and
solution. compared to VSL’s other string collections. I was Matrices in the library.

MAY 201 8 | EMU SICIAN .COM 43

elm0518_Review_VSLSynchron_dc4_F.indd 43 3/13/18 3:24 PM

 With its matrix of 256 steps and single-
Rotary encoder/ One Menu 8 tracks with level editing, Seq offers a high level
of intuitive, real-time performative
buttons level 32 steps control over electronic instruments.
REVIEW

POLYEND

Seq “S it down, relax and take a deep breath, smile.”

It’s refreshing when the manual of a tech

or tablet, but the inspiring ergo-
nomics of a well-designed inter-
face, such as this one, is difficult to deny.

A POLYPHONIC product reminds you of such things, especially

when it’s intended for music. For those of us old
MIDI enough to remember the impenetrable manuals
that accompanied products at the dawn of MIDI,
SEQUENCER it’s wonderful to read an instruction like this and
BUTTON PUSHER
Seq’s buttons have a rounded top and a light inside
that indicates when they are engaged. They are small,
easy to press with a fingertip, and close enough to-

FOR REAL-TIME know that the manufacturer actually has tried to

“keep things as simple as possible.”
gether that you can draw patterns across the matrix
of 8 horizontal tracks with 32 steps in each.
PERFORMANCE Such is the case with the Polyend Seq, a poly-
phonic MIDI step sequencer designed for sponta-
Another plus for a hardware device, particu-
larly this one, is that each of its functions is imme-
BY GINO ROBAIR neous use in performance. But why would you use diately available; no cursors or mousing around,
a hardware sequencer that and no squinting at a densely
Gino Robair is Editor in Chief costs as much as a small Eu- packed GUI to find a tiny
of Electronic Musician and
STRENGTHS rorack system, in the era of icon to click on. On Seq, you
Easy to use. Flexible
keyboardmag.com. powerful software (much of tap the track button you
MIDI implementation
over DIN and USB. Sol- it available free or inexpen- Seq is meant to want to work with, then
idly built. Link function. sively on an iOS device)? touch the steps to toggle

LIMITATIONS The first answer, of serve as a conduit them on and off.

Expensive.
course, has to do with touch.
It’s a different experience for creativity. To
$1,299 when you run your fingers
polyend.com over an array of 32 bumps this end, Polyend
(e.g., buttons) rather than
across a glass screen with has succeeded.
images of buttons below.
For many musicians, a fully
tactile interface is inspir-
ing, and not just to those of
us who started out on hardware devices, either.
(Moreover, Seq feels solid with its metal top and
bottom plates and wooden case.)
Second, it is usually more satisfying to make
music with a dedicated instrument rather than a
general-purpose computing device. Of course, such
an instrument takes up more room than a laptop
On the far left are 8 ad-
ditional buttons, as well as
6 encoder/switches and a
small, 4-line screen with
just one menu level. From
the austere look of Seq, I ex-
pected to encounter a deep
feature set that would take
hours to figure out, but this
was not the case. You can
begin using Seq without knowing what most of its
functions are, although they’re intuitively named
and understandable to anyone who has prior expe-
rience with a sequencer.
Play and Stop are self-explanatory. To play a
track, touch the track number followed by On/Off
(or vice versa): When a track button is lit, it will

44 MAY 2 01 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_Review_PolyendSeq_dc4_F.indd 44 3/13/18 3:25 PM

 play through its data. Holding down whole step.
Stop, then Play, will give you a 4-beat This is where the Random button
count-in (shown using banks of step comes in handy, because it selects notes
lights). Press Play and Stop simultane- within the chosen scale as well as a ran-
ously to record MIDI data from an ex- dom number of steps, while at the same
ternal controller. Once you’ve recorded time retaining global settings of the
a sequence into Seq in this manner, use track such as Length, playback direc-
the Quantize button to line things up tion, and so forth. And at the step level
rhythmically in each track. under Notes, you can select a chord
You can easily turn tracks on and (from a list of 20) or set a transposition
off, and modify their data, while the interval.
sequencer is running. Let’s say you Link To is a powerful tool found
have tracks 4 and 5 switched off, but in this section. Here, you can select a
you want to swap them with the oth- specific step in a track that, when the
er tracks. Simply press On/Off, then sequence reaches that point, changes
sweep your finger down from the top the entire sequencer to a new Pattern.
to the bottom of the column of track For example, you can program it so that
buttons: This turns off the ones that are when your sequence hits Track 2, Step
on, and 4 and 5 will begin playing once 32 you have Seq jump to a new pat-
your finger goes over them. tern—say, 3-1. But if Track 2 (in this sce-
You can instantly erase the contents nario) is turned off, the pattern won’t
of a track by pressing Clear and the change as the sequence passes step 32.
track number. Or, immediately popu- This clever feature is easy to program
late a track with randomly selected and lets you nest sudden pattern chang-
data by pressing Random and the track es, or plug them in on-the-fly.
number. Random will also add mul-
Poly is an 8-channel MIDI-to-CV Eurorack module that supports
tiple beats per step, or rolls as they’re the new MPE standard. MIDI, MIDI, MIDI
referred to on Seq. At any time—with or Seq has four standard MIDI ports—In,
without the sequencer in Play mode— Thru, Out1, and Out2—and a USB port
you can adjust the number of triggered notes of a Pressing a knob reveals the three or four pa- for bidirectional MIDI transmission. Each track
roll inside a step by holding down the step button rameters in the display that are available to you. can be assigned its own MIDI Channel as well as
and pressing and turning the Roll knob. In fact, Press Length to select the Play Mode (forward, its own MIDI port (the latter is done using the
many editing features can be performed on indi- backward, ping-pong, random), and press again to Note knob while the user is holding a track but-
vidual steps as well as full tracks, allowing you to set the Gate length (5%-100%). ton). This flexibility allowed me to input MIDI
subtly alter sequences as they play. You can use the Move knob to slide an entire data from an external controller, as well as to play
Furthermore, each of the 256 step buttons is track forward or back in time, step by step, or hold it instruments in Ableton Live over USB at the same
also used to store a preset pattern. You store and down to select Nudge, which can incrementally ad- time as various hardware instruments using the
recall patterns by pressing Pattern followed by a justs the amount of delay (0-94%) for any step. The DIN connections.
step button. For example, pressing the fifth button Humanize setting determines if the Nudge amount For modular users, Polyend sells Poly ($399),
in track four calls up pattern 4-5 (and the number is included when you randomly populate a track. a Eurorack MIDI-to-CV converter with USB and
is shown in the display). Because patterns cannot Under Velocity you can set levels or have them DIN connections and 8 channels of four outs—
be renamed, you’ll have to remember the numbers chosen randomly for a track. You can also choose gate, pitch, velocity, and modulation. It also sup-
for the patterns you want. Nonetheless, this sys- which CC the track accepts for modulation as well ports the MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression)
tem is simple to use. as set the modulation level to Random. standard.
Duplicate makes it easy to not only copy the Holding down a track number then pressing
steps of one track to another, but also the track and turning Roll gradually fills the track with SEQ AND YE SHALL FIND
parameters such as root note, scale, track length, notes. Holding down a step button while pressing Sure, there are software MIDI sequencers that run
playback direction, and so on. One inspiring way Roll gives you options for the number of repeats circles around this unit in terms of exotic function-
to use Duplicate is to modify the various aspects of (up to 16) and the volume curve (flat, increasing, ality, but Seq was not intended to offer every feature
the duplicated track, such as its length and play- decreasing, etc.). imaginable. Rather, it was designed to be so intui-
back direction to create interesting patterns. With the Notes control, you can assign a specif- tive to use that it becomes invisible once a musician
ic scale to a track based on any root note you’ve se- figures out how to use it: Like any well-designed
PUSH AND TURN lected: There are 40 scales to choose from. As you instrument, it is meant to serve as a conduit for cre-
That’s where the rotary encoders come in. For ex- tune individual steps, the note choices are con- ativity. To this end, Polyend has succeeded.
ample, you hold down a track button and turn the fined to the chosen scale. If you change the track’s And while one could argue that it’s expensive
Length knob to quickly change the number of steps root note, the note in each step is transposed by for this day and age, Seq is clearly one of those cas-
in that track—perfect for creating polyrhythms on the same amount: For example, if you started with es where you get what you pay for. Anyone who
the fly. The lights in that track indicate, from left a G3 root using the BeBobMaj scale, changing the performs with hardware and step-sequencers
to right, how many steps are selected. root to, say, F3, transposes all the notes down a owes it to themselves to check it out. n

MAY 201 8 | EMU SICIAN .COM 45

elm0518_Review_PolyendSeq_dc4_F.indd 45 3/13/18 3:26 PM

 One has easy-to-
use parameters

Create signal-
processing chain

Different
effects per
REVIEW

song

Fig. 1. In both the

T-Racks 5 Suite plug-
in and the standalone
version (pictured here)
the selected processor—
the new module One, in
this case—is presented
quite large.

IK MULTIMEDIA

T-Racks 5 T -Racks has been around for many years and has
evolved into a significant collection of mixing and
mastering software tools. The recently released T-
songs that you can not only pro-
cess but also re-order and add
metadata to. In both versions,

EXPANDED Racks 5 offers a redesigned GUI, powerful new fea-

tures and four new modules.
you can set up four entirely dif-
ferent effects-chain options for
CAPABILITIES each track (chains A, B, C, and
D), allowing you to try different
AND A FRESH T-Racks 5 functions as both a standalone mas- processors or settings to see which works best.

LOOK FOR THIS tering application and as a series of plug-ins that

you can open in your DAW or audio editor, either
INTEGRATED individually or in effects chains inside the T-Racks
Suite plug-in. You can purchase T-Racks 5 in
COLLECTION three different-sized bundles as well as à la carte
In the standalone version, each song has its own
processor chain, and each chain can have four varia-
tions: A, B, C, or D, between which you can switch
to compare. One missing feature is a master effects
slot. As it stands, if you want to apply the same effect

OF SIGNAL through the free T-Racks Custom Shop applica-

PROCESSORS
BY MIKE LEVINE
Mike Levine
STRENGTHS
is a composer,
Assembly window for album
producer, and multi-
projects. Expanded meter-
instrumentalist
ing. Multiple export options.
from the New
All-in-one mastering using
York area. Check
One. Dyna-Mu module. Equal
out his website at
offers filter shapes from
michaelwilliamlevine.
classic EQs. Master Match
com.
frequency matching.
LIMITATIONS
No master effects slot. No
Equal Gain features for ABCD
effects-chain comparisons.
Manual lacks detail. Can’t add
fades from Assembly window
T-Racks 5: $149
T-Racks 5 Deluxe: $299
T-Racks 5 Max: $499
Ikmultimedia.com
tion. Currently, there are 38 T-Racks processors in
the full collection. The available bundles include
T-Racks 5 with 9 processors, T-Racks 5 Deluxe
with 22, and T-Racks 5 Max with all 38.
NEW LOOK
The user interface sports a more contemporary
look than before and IK gave a facelift to all the
T-Racks modules to match the new vibe. More
importantly, the GUI for both the standalone ver-
sion and the T-Racks 5 Suite plug-in are resizable,
which provides a lot of flexibility. Both include a
prominently displayed effects chain with graphic
depictions of the modules. You can drag and drop
processors into the chain from a window on the
right that shows all your available modules. When
you edit a processor’s settings, it appears in an im-
pressively large window above the chain, making
editing easy (see Figure 1).
The plug-in and standalone versions have some
significant differences. The latter is a self-con-
tained mastering workstation that lets you load
(by menu command or drag-and-drop) multiple
across all the songs in a project, you have to do it one
track at a time from the individual track chains
The standalone version has a handy new fea-
ture called Equal Gain, which allows you to com-
pare processed and unprocessed audio at the same
volume level. It eliminates the “louder sounds bet-
ter” phenomenon that can cloud your judgment
when comparing. In a future update, it would be
cool to see this feature extended to the ABCD
chains and added to the Suite plug-in.
Support for IK’s ARC Acoustic Room Correc-
tion System plug-in (not included) is also provid-
ed in T-Racks 5, allowing you to turn it off and on
without switching programs.
METER READER
T-Racks 5 offers a revamped and more powerful
metering section, part of which appears by de-
fault on the upper right of both the standalone
version and Suite plug-in. Here you get graphical
and numerical readouts for Peak, RMS, LUFS and
dynamic range. In the standalone version, click-
ing on little VU meter icons in the middle of the
metering section opens up T-Rack’s full metering

46 MAY 2 01 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_Review_IKMultimedia_dc4_F.indd 46 3/12/18 6:08 PM

 suite in its own window. It includes a Spectrum
Analyzer, Phase Scope, Spectrogram display and
four large VU meter emulations for left, right, mid
and side. (Most T-Racks modules give you the op-
tion of stereo or mid-side processing.)
The Suite plug-in doesn’t offer the full set of
meter features, but you can insert an instance of
the T-Racks 5 Metering plug-in, which is fully fea-
tured, into an insert slot that’s after the Suite in
your DAW and get the full metering features.
LET US ASSEMBLE
Also new in the T-Racks 5 standalone version is
the Assembly window, which opens outside the
main GUI (see Figure 2). It shows you waveform
displays of all the songs you’ve loaded and lets you
easily trim the beginning and ends, as well as add
and edit track and album names, track IDs, and
ISRC codes. There’s even an option for turning on
copy protection, although the manual doesn’t give
any details about what type it is or how it works.
This illustrates a shortcoming of T-Racks 5: a
manual that lacks in-depth information.
You can add and edit fades for one track at a
time in the Waveform window (a part of the main
GUI that toggles with the effects Chain view). You
get a choice of several fade types, and once you
add them, they’ll show up in waveforms in the As-
sembly window, at which point you can edit them
there as well. Why you can’t initiate the fades from
the Assembly window is puzzling.
Once you’ve imported all your songs and added
all your metadata, you not only get four dithering
options, but you can also choose to export your
project in several different professional formats
including DDP 2.5, Wav Cue or PQ Sheet. With all
its new capabilities, the standalone T-Racks 5 is
now a more serious mastering platform.
IS IT THE ONE?
Of the four new processors added in T-Racks 5
(all of which are included in the standard, Deluxe
and Max versions), perhaps the most significant
is an easy-to-use all-in-one mastering processor
called One. Its three EQ knobs—Air,
Focus, and Body—can boost or cut in
the high, mid, and low frequencies,
respectively. Although their frequen-
cies are preset, IK chose them wise-
ly, and they’re effective for subtle
tweaks, which is what you want in a
mastering EQ.
Another knob, Bass Punch, pro-
vides a low-end boost and increased
attack. You also get a dedicated Tran-
sients control knob, as well as one for
Fig. 2. The updated metering
window is on the left and the new
Assembly window on the right.
elm0518_Review_IKMultimedia_dc4_F.indd 47
Width. The knob called Analog lets you add subtle
harmonic saturation.
The GUI features two very large knobs called
Push and Volume. The former lets you dial in a
compressor with a fixed set of parameters. Volume
takes a similar, one-knob approach to limiting, mak-
ing it easy to pump up your song’s level. As with any
limiter, if you turn it too high, you’ll add distortion.
Although One doesn’t offer the precision of a
typical mastering processor, it’s great for quickly
creating usable settings and will be especially use-
ful to those new to mastering.
WHAT’S MU?
Another new module called Dyna-Mu bears a re-
semblance to the Manley Variable MU tube com-
pressor, although it’s not a knob-for-knob emula-
tion. It sports two identical rows of controls that
can function independently or together, which is
dictated by how you set the Link switch. Each row
offers controls for Input level, Threshold, Attack,
Release (a stepped knob with five settings), and
Output level. You don’t get a lot of ratio choices;
either 1.5:1 or 4:1, depending on if the Hard switch
is on or not. A sidechain for each channel is also
included.
If you look at the presets, most are for indi-
vidual instruments, and I found Dyna-Mu to be
an excellent choice on bass, drums, acoustic gui-
tar—pretty much any source I tried it on. Its tube
emulation provides a subtle but pleasing fattening
to the sound.
SEPARATE BUT EQUAL
The new Equal Module is a 10-band EQ designed
to be both transparent and precise. It offers a se-
lection of filter shapes that emulate SSL, Neve, and
API hardware EQs among others. Controls for the
different filter types vary and are not all fully para-
metric. Some give you frequency and cut/boost
controls but no Q.
Equal sounds quite clean and you can vary the
sound by selecting different EQ curves. It’s signifi-
cantly different from the Classic T-Racks Equal-
izer that comes in the standard version of T-Racks
5, and it’s a nice addition to the full collection.
YES, MASTER
The other new module, Master Match, is a match-
ing EQ designed to go last in the chain and allows
you to match the EQ curve of your music to that
of a reference track—or tracks—that you’ve loaded
into it. It analyzes the reference material in sec-
onds and creates a visible EQ curve in its GUI.
Once that’s done, you press the Learn Source
button and initiate playback of your song (either
from your DAW if you’re using Master Match as a
plug-in or with the standalone version’s transport
controls). Neither the GUI nor the manual tells
you how long to keep playback going to analyze
the source correctly. I always gave it at least 10
seconds just to be sure.
Pressing Learn Source a second time ends
the analysis and you then see a curve from your
music juxtaposed with that of the reference. The
next step is to press the Match button, and Master
Match then automatically sets a level and percent-
age of matching EQ to apply to the source sound,
based on the analysis. You can adjust both of these
parameters and even click on the frequency dis-
play to create up to eight filters for further EQing.
I tried Master Match with several different types
of source material, using references in the same
genre or that at least had similar production styles.
In most cases, I found that the matched EQ curve
improved the sound of the source, at least a little. It’s
not a magic bullet, but definitely a useful tool.
RACK ‘EM UP
From the four new modules to the upgraded me-
tering to the sleek new look, T-Racks 5 is a sig-
nificant upgrade that’s well worth the price. The
changes made to the standalone version—particu-
larly the addition of the Assembly window and the
new export options—make T-Racks 5 a viable plat-
form for DIY mastering. And with the new pricing
for T-Racks 5 Deluxe and Max, it’s more afford-
able than ever. n
MAY 201 8 | EMU SICIAN .COM 47
3/12/18 6:08 PM

Fig 1. Vir2 Sticks lays out
REVIEW
its four Engines with their
step sequencers and all
other features in a single
window. The color-coded
Kontakt keyboard displays
the zones and trigger keys
for each Engine.
VIR2
Sticks
GROOVE IS
WHERE YOU
FIND IT
BY MARTY CUTLER
Marty Cutler is the author
of The New Electronic
STRENGTHS
Detailed sampling.
Guitarist, Published by Hal
Easy-to-use step se-
Leonard.
quencer with pitch and
panning steps. Inde-
pendent triggering of
Engines.
LIMITATIONS
No independent Rates
per Engine Scene. No
Presets. Effects are
strictly global. No latch
feature. Scene chang-
es can be unwieldy.
$199
vir2.com
48 MAY 2 01 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M
elm0518_Review_Vir2Sticks_dc4_F.indd 48
O ne of my earliest musical experiences was jam-
ming with salsa and Latin jazz on the radio by bang-
ing on the sheet-metal post of my bed. As a five-year-
old amateur conguero, I tried to emulate the chang-
ing timbres and rhythms I heard. Although my skills
didn’t quite match up, I came to appreciate the value
of found objects as percussion. Decades later, I find
myself doing something similar with Vir2 Sticks, a
sample library of found percussion.
Sticks is a relatively simple instrument. Its diverse
library is driven by step sequencers, and everything
is accessible from a single window. Pencils, brushes,
mallets, hands, and sticks of all kinds collide with
cardboard boxes, coffee cups, paint cans, cardboard
tubes, and other sticks as one-shot samples.
The samples are intimately recorded with up
to four velocity layers and multiple round-robins.
Four engines host individual percussion compo-
nents, each with its own bank of 10 Scenes. Engine
settings include volume, pan, tuning, attack, and re-
lease. Those last three settings can radically repur-
pose a coffee cup into a glassy snare or turn a card-
board box struck with a mallet into a punchy kick.
The global effects include EQ, phaser, delay,
compressor, convolution reverb, and an especially
effective transient shaper that is useful for sharp-
ening envelopes on low-tuned samples. There is
no mixer page and, consequently, there are no in-
dependent sends for the Engines or Scenes.
A Scene comprises a step-sequencer pattern, with
sequencing for pitch and panning as well as note-on
velocity. Scenes range from 1 to 32 steps with values
(expressed as Rates) of quarter-notes to 32-note trip-
lets. Each scene can have an independent number
of steps, though you cannot set independent Rates
Four separate
sound engines
Transient
shaper
Keys select
scene
within an Engine; if one Scene
is set to 16th notes, all Scenes for
that Engine follow suit, but each
Engine can have its own Rate.
Scenes for the four Engines
are sequential on the keyboard,
with a one-shot for each Engine
followed by the ten scenes; D5
acts as the Play All key and trig-
gers all four engines, whereas
F5 through B5 mute individual
Engines. Sticks makes it easy to create interesting
grooves, but it doesn’t let you arrange composite pat-
terns into a song form. If it's hard to memorize which
key triggers a Scene, you can embed the triggers in
DAW tracks. This method of constructing songs cre-
ated pattern variations I hadn’t considered.
Additionally, if you hold down the Play All key,
you will need to retrigger it in order to hear your
Scene change (or hold down the Scene’s key). A
workaround when sequencing is to click on the
Scene list to latch the Play All button. A separate
latch button would help here. Global pattern-
switching would be a time saver, too.
Altering the length of a scene, coupled with
adding pitch variations per scene can add exciting
and musically dynamic changes in feel, so the lack
of independent note values is frustrating. Accord-
ing to Vir2, some features were omitted to enable
a lower price point. And while Vir2 Sticks’ lack of
presets is balanced by its ease of use, it’s not quite
up to the level of a drum machine.
Nevertheless, I have very high hopes for this vir-
tual instrument. Vir2 Sticks would increase its value
immensely if the above issues were remedied, allow-
ing it to become the top-of-the-line rhythm beast for
alternate sounds that it was meant to be. n
3/12/18 6:09 PM
elm541190_0518.indd 1 2/22/18 9:52 AM
 In iMPC Pro 2, you can play
a hosted Audio Unit plug-
in instrument with the MPC
pad interface, including Note
Repeat, the touch-pad Flux Link
performance effects, and more.
REVIEW
6 View
modes
AKAI PRO/
RETRONYMS
iMPC
Pro 2
EXPANDED
WORKFLOW
PUTS FULL
SONGS ON TAP
BY MARKKUS ROVITO
Markkus Rovito writes
STRENGTHS
words and music from the
Audio Recording
Urban Hermitage in San
tracks. Audio Unit
Francisco, California.
plug-in tracks. Track
view. Sampling from
Spotify catalog. Real-
time warping of audio
to match tempo.
LIMITATIONS
Not as many editing
features and effects
for Audio tracks as for
individual samples on
Drum tracks. Sampling
from Spotify limited to
30-second clips.
$24.99
akaipro.com
50 MAY 2 01 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M
elm0518_Review_RetronymsiMPCPro2_dc3_F.indd 50
New Track types
F or 30 years, Akai’s MPC workstations have helped
steer the course of sample-based music production,
evolving their features with new technologies while
remaining centered on sample flipping with a clas-
sic 16-pad workflow. While the latest flagship MPC
X hardware represents the pinnacle of the series’
achievement, on the other end of the spectrum, iMPC
Pro 2 remarkably distills the core capabilities of the
latest desktop MPC workflow into a sleek iPad app.
With Akai and Retronyms as joint developers, the
huge iMPC Pro 2 update mirrors many of the new
features from the recent MPC 2.0 desktop software,
including full audio track recording and real-time
time-stretch and pitch-shifting for warping that re-
corded audio and other clips to match tempo chang-
es. With iMPC 2, you can also sample directly from
Spotify music, record from Inter-App Audio (IAA),
upload your tracks directly to YouTube (as well as
SoundCloud), and, my favorite, host iOS Audio Unit
plug-ins.
In addition to its existing Drum Tracks, which
construct MIDI tracks from the sample banks of 16
MPC pads, iMPC Pro 2 adds two track types that
help make the app a full songwriting workstation:
Audio Recording and Audio Unit tracks. You can
record to an audio track from the iPad’s internal
mic or an externally connected microphone, a line
input, or from an IAA-compatible app. The record-
ing screen provides a VU input meter, and recorded
audio can be split, reversed, duplicated, and time
stretched/pitch shifted when you change a proj-
ect’s tempo, with pleasant-sounding results up to
±30bpm.
An Audio Unit track will host any compatible
app on your iPad, and you can play it and record
Classic MPC
setup
it either from a piano-style key-
board set to any scale you like,
or from the classic 16-pad MPC
environment, including Note
Repeat, Note Variation, Time
Correct, and iMPC Pro’s Flux
Link touch-pad performance
effects. Not only is it amazing
to add full tracks to your iMPC
project from great synths like
Moog Model 15 for example, but
also playing them from the MPC interface adds a
new twist to favorite instruments.
The overhauled iMPC Pro 2 interface matches
the black color scheme of today’s MPC hardware
and software. Additionally, it adds more title-bar
and menu options, a new Track view, and has an
improved Song view for stringing sequences to-
gether. Moreover, it does a great job utilizing the
full iPad screen in six view modes for performing
from the pads, tweaking sounds, editing tracks
from the timeline, and working the 64-track mixer
(with 3-band EQ and four effects per track).
Several all-new soundpacks draw from modern
hip-hop/trap and electronic styles, but the addi-
tion of the Spotify catalog to the sampling Turntable
(along with your iPad’s iTunes library), really sky-
rockets your available sound palette. You only get a
30-second clip of a Spotify song that’s supposed to
have the best hooks to sample from, but nonetheless
you can take any one-shot or loop and use the full
suite of editing tools to give them a feel of their own
for your tracks.
That, along with Audio and Audio Unit tracks
make iMPC Pro 2 a whole new song-production
world built atop the good old MPC beat-produc-
tion foundation. n
3/14/18 4:56 PM
 BUY THE
SOFTWARE
YOU USE
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
craft and the work of others.
possible to record an album on your laptop.
make sure there is a future version of the software you are
using, buy the software you use.
www.imsta.org
INTERNATIONAL MUSIC SOFTWARE TRADE ASSOCIATION
New York • Toronto • Berlin • Tokyo
Tel: 416 789-6849 • Fax: 416 789-1667
Email: info@imsta.org
BUY THE SOFTWARE YOU USE
elm0518_imsta.indd 1
Respect yourself, your
The software community made it
If you want to
It’s the smart thing to do.
The International Music Software Trade Association is a non-profit organization that represents
the interests of music software and soundware publishers. One of our most important functions
is to advocate for the legal use of software in the music production and creation landscape. We
do this primarily through public education campaigns. We are supported by our members who
are software and soundware developers, distributors, retailers and publications. We are fighting
piracy on moral grounds appealing to the good in all of us. We are trying to change behavior.
3/14/18 9:22 PM
 Creates 3 Separated
stems from WAV files
a mix

4 separation
algorithms
REVIEW

Cloud-based processing is used by Xtrax Stems to

separate a full mix into three component WAV files.

AUDIONAMIX

Xtrax X trax Stems is a Mac application that creates sep-

arate stems from a full mix. The input is any audio
file, and the output is three WAV files labeled Vocals,
tion, and you can alter their mix
by changing individual levels
and pan positions. After running

Stems Drums, and Music (everything but drums and vocals).

Once separated, you can export the track in Native In-
struments Stems file format.
all four algorithms, clicking on
any separation algorithm button
loads its extraction. Switching
from one to another pauses ev-
AUTOMATICALLY erything for about five seconds.

SEPARATE Processing occurs offline, not in your comput-

er, so an Internet connection is required. Import-
SONGS INTO ing a song immediately uploads it to Audionamix’s
cloud servers. When extraction is complete, the
TH REE STEMS application downloads the stems.
At the top of Xtrax Stems’ GUI are three trans-
BY GEARY YELTON port buttons—Play, Return to Beginning, and
Loop—and a ruler-like timeline. Below is a Source
Writer, synthesist, and
STRENGTHS button for playing the original file, level slider and
Electronic Musician editor- bar graph meter, a pan slider, Mute and Solo but-
Usually distinguishes
at-large Geary Yelton
vocals, drums, and tons, and a waveform display. At the bottom are
lives in Asheville, North
solo instruments from four buttons for selecting the separation algorithm,
Carolina.
other parts. Supports
a bar indicating upload and extraction progress,
all common audio for-
mats. Easy to use. and an overall level slider and meter. Clicking in the
timeline repositions the playhead, and dragging in
LIMITATIONS the timeline selects a region to loop.
Results seldom sound To import an audio file, click and drag it into
completely natural.
the window or choose Import from the File menu.
Running all four algo-
rithms takes a while. The software recognizes WAV, AIFF, MP3, AAC,
and M4A files up to 32 bits, 96 kHz. When you
$99 click on one of four separation algorithm buttons—
audionamix.com Automatic, Automatic HQ, Generic, or Generic
HQ—you’re prompted to log in. The file uploads to
the server, and extraction begins. Uploading and
extraction each take approximately the length of
the song, but HQ separations take longer.
Once extracted, the three stems are displayed,
each with its level, pan, mute, and solo controls. You
can solo each or play them together in any combina-
I extracted stems from several types of songs with
female or male voices and simple or complex arrange-
ments. For songs with vocals, I usually started with
the Automatic algorithm, which uses a process called
Automatic Voice Activity Detection. If the resulting
Vocals track had dropouts, I tried Generic, which is
recommended for enhancing instrumental solos.
In practice, I couldn’t tell that any algorithm
was consistently better than another for any par-
ticular type of audio. On some songs, Automatic
yielded the clearest vocals; on others, Generic was
better. I had to try them all and choose the best.
On one song with female vocals, no matter
which algorithm I chose, the flute and soprano sax
were clearer than the voice on the Vocals stem, and
hand percussion was clearer on the Music track
than on Drums. On another song, Generic made the
voice sound rather saxophone-like, and snippets of
bass were on all three stems. To some degree, ev-
ery part bled into stems where they didn’t belong,
though usually not enough to be a problem.
I’d hoped Xtrax Stems would produce stems I
could use for mixdowns, but I found it more useful to
minimize vocals or clarify instrumental parts to make
them easiy to learn. However minor, unwanted arti-
facts are all but impossible to eliminate, and they’re
most audible when you solo a stem. Yet, the Xtrax
Stems technology seems miraculous, and I hope
Audionamix keeps refining it. n

52 MAY 2 01 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_Review_AudionamixXtraxStems_dc4_F.indd 52 3/12/18 6:11 PM

 3 1
Ways to Stay in
Tune with
2 3
Visit Download the Sign up for Keyboard’s
keyboardmag.com Keyboard iOS app weekly enewsletter

Find all-new product reviews, lessons, and web-exclusive

stories and video, plus vintage articles from the archive at
Keyboardmag.com, the ultimate resource for keyboardists.

elm0517_AD_KMweb.indd 2 2/6/18 5:54 PM

 Drum kit Record
templates to pads

Friendly
REVIEW

tutorial

Although simple to use,

Samplebot’s tutorial
quickly runs you through
the app’s features.

A TASTY PIXEL

Samplebot S ample-based drum machines for iOS are plentiful,

so one would think that the territory has been thor-
oughly staked out by both big name and boutique de-
fast recorder for audio of any
kind. Of course, you can also
import audio from a variety of

THE FAST AND velopers. Apps such as Intua Beatmaker occupy the
high end, with so many professional features that it’s
FRIENDLY WAY essentially a full DAW. In the middle ground are famil-
TO GET YOUR iar platforms like Akai Pro iMPC 2 and Native Instru-
ments iMaschine.
GROOVE ON
While these apps offer deeper tools, along with
BY FRANCIS PREVE
more complex workflows, sometimes you just want
to start making a groove right now. And when it
Francis Preve has been
designing synthesizer
STRENGTHS comes to that kind of immediacy, Samplebot is so
Impressively intuitive straightforward that it’s worthy of attention.
presets professionally
approach to real-time
since 2000. Check out his
sampling and beat
Upon first launching Samplebot’s friendly toy-
soundware company at like interface, you’re greeted with a short tutorial
making. Doubles as
symplesound.com.
quick and efficient that guides you through the process of making a
editor for basic audio basic vocal beat-boxing kit using your iDevice’s
recording. Integrated microphone. There’s a lot of digital handholding
tutorial. Ableton Link
and Audiobus 3 com-
involved, but the tutorial is immensely enjoyable
patibility. and within a few minutes, you have basically mas-
tered the app.
LIMITATIONS Each of the 15 pads immediately starts recording
No envelopes, filters, or as soon as you tap it. Tap it again and the recording
effects.
stops. From there, you can trigger your recording,
$3.99 or swipe right to edit or delete it. Editing allows for
atastypixel.com start/end trimming, along with independent pitch
and time stretching for each sample—and that’s
it. While envelopes, filters, and effects would have
been useful additions, this app is about making
sampled beats quickly, not option overload.
That said, while you are inside any given pad’s
editor, Samplebot will happily export that sound
to the AudioCopy clipboard, save it to the de-
vice, or access a cloud service such as Dropbox or
iCloud. This lets Samplebot double as a lightning-
sources including your music li-
brary or document picker, then
do a quick edit before loading it
to your selected pad or export-
ing it to your preferred cloud
storage.
Sequence recording can be
either real-time (via the pads) or event-based us-
ing a standard timeline that displays all pads as
individual tracks. A handy drum kit icon opens a
small gallery of classic kick-snare-hat sequence
templates that includes essential presets like rock,
pop, reggae, and funk, as well as adventurous se-
lections such as “Motown” and even the Amen
Break. These give you a great way to fire up a
groove and then rapidly customize it.
As for software compatibility, Samplebot in-
cludes Audiobus 3, Ableton Link, and one of the
most extensive MIDI implementations I have
seen on an app this affordable. In addition to the
usual options for triggering samples and adjust-
ing parameters like volume and panning, there is
a unique feature called Binders. These are short
scripts that can control a series of actions, such
as saving the current project, then loading a new
project, followed by setting a new tempo—all from
a single MIDI event.
As a side note, Samplebot’s friendly interface
and brilliant tutorial makes it worthy of serious
consideration for K-through-12 music programs.
For more advanced users, Samplebot may not be
crucial if you currently rely on other drum ma-
chine apps. Nonetheless, the $3.99 price tag makes
it an impulse buy that is well worth it. n

54 MAY 2 01 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_Review_TastyPixelSamplebot_dc3_F.indd 54 3/12/18 6:12 PM

elm0418_EM_sub.indd 1 2/8/18 3:22 PM
 Macro control Five editing
pages

Two sample
REVIEW

sources per patch

The main page hosts four

Macro controls, which
can modulate up to six
parameters each. The
Macro editor on the upper
right, and the source
selection at the bottom,
appear on all pages.

OUTPUT

Analog A s synthesizer and sample libraries go, brass and

woodwinds are counted on as “meat and ’taters”
sounds. Output, however, rarely takes the conven-
occur: slowly emerging, pulsat-
ing rhythms or harmonics; me-
lodic motifs; abrupt changes in

Brass and tional path with its virtual instruments. In the case
of Analog Brass and Winds, the developer blends
these sampled musical staples with analog synth
envelopes or timbres. These are
not artifacts of the sample itself,
but a programmable, complex

Winds
tones and uses innovative DSP tricks to take them
far outside their usual lanes with exceptional re-
sults. If you are expecting the usual brass stabs and
AN INSPIRING hits, guess again.
HYBRID The entire library—comprising more than 15
interplay of gates, filters, arpeg-
giators, and effects, all of which
can be tweaked and synced to
your DAW’s tempo.
A patch consists of A and B
sample sources, each with its
own signal path of effects, and modulation con-

APPROACH TO GB of brass, woodwind, and synth tones—requires

Kontakt or Free Kontakt player 5.7.1 (R35) or later.
trols. Five tabs divide the instrument into the
Main, Edit, FX, Rhythm, and Arp sections per
VIRTUAL WIND The entire library loads at once from the Kontakt
browser, with single patches select-
source, in addition to the Global effects section.

INSTRUMENTS ed from the left and right arrows on

the snapshot section or with a click
BY MARTY CUTLER on the snapshot title. This opens a
preset menu and key-word filters so
Author of The New
STRENGTHS you can select sounds that suit a par-
Electronic Guitarist (Hal ticular function or mood: Orchestral,
A unique blend of
Leonard), Marty Cutler
brass, woodwind, and Ensemble, Synth, Hybrid, Ambient,
points out that the Tibetan
synthetically derived and so on.
Yak is not native to New
samples. Elegant and
York City.
logical user interface.
Rhythmically intricate SLEIGHT OF HORN
modulation and arpeg- To be sure, you will find sounds
giation capabilities. that appear to fulfill the traditional
roles of brass and woodwinds, such
LIMITATIONS as pads, ensembles, swells, and the
Nothing significant.
like, but in almost every case, some-
$199 thing unexpected and musical will
output.com
Fig 1. A view of the Rhythm page
in Analog Brass and Winds, with
a partial selection of modulation
shapes on display.

56 MAY 2 01 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_Review_OutputAnalogBrass_prod_f.indd 56 3/13/18 4:08 PM

 Parameters can be assigned to the four Macros, on you can create terrific, squelchy rhythmic sounds. tically encouraging you to dig in and build your
horizontal sliders, for real-time control, Control Likewise, the Arp section hosts a ton of differ- own sounds. During the review, I rarely needed to
Change messages, or automation. Each Macro is ent note patterns that you can freely edit. Pedal consult the PDF manual. But if you do get in over
freely assignable to up to six parameters from a is a cool feature that sets your choice of a high or your head, click on the question mark next to the
small panel at the top right of the library, which— low pedal tone, based on the top or bottom note snapshot icon: A descriptive contextual map list-
along with the sample source windows at the bot- of the chord you play. Topping it all off is Output’s ing all of the features is there to help. Precious few
tom—appears in all pages. You can quickly assign Flux, which lets users program their own rhythm software instruments stay out of the way of your
new sources from the Source menu or use left and sequence for modulation. muse the way Analog Brass and Winds does.
right buttons; there is practically no load time. Overall, the instruments in this collection are
Without going into deeper edits, you can tune in DIG IN eminently playable and full-sounding, and the
cents, semitones, or octaves, and some sources can With Analog Brass and Winds, Output has done a presets run from delicate and lyrical to fat and
be looped and reversed. remarkable job of building a streamlined, elegant ominous. Output seems to top itself with every new
The Edit window lets you set ADSR amplitude user interface with richly creative sound design release, and Analog Brass and Winds is a virtual in-
and pitch envelopes, with a curve adjustment for options. The features are logically arrayed, prac- strument you will definitely want to check out. n
the amp’s Attack time. Flutter is a very cool ad-
ditional LFO that can create trills or—using the
fade parameter—emulate human vibrato more
realistically than garden-variety LFOs. Clicking
on a source’s Advanced tab accesses (among other
parameters) its key-map range and color settings,
the latter of which changes the timbre by adjust-
ing the sample root-key assignment.
Studio furniture
A well-appointed filter section, replete with 11
filter types, resonance and ADSR envelopes, ap-
pears under the FX tab and includes Talk, a for-
mant filter, which you can assign to a macro for ee- 3 x 4U Rack Bays

rie vocal-like effects. Other effects include reverb,

distortion, delay, EQ, and compression. Chorus and
phase-shifting are available from a separate, Global
window, along with an additional filter section.

Precious Extra-large Rolling Tray

for 88-key Keyboard
few software
instruments stay Miza 88XL
STUDIO DESK FOR MASTER KEYBOARD,
CONTROLLERS, RACKS, SCREENS AND SPEAKERS
out of the way of
your muse the way 2 x 4U Rack Bays

Analog Brass and

Winds does.

OSCILLATIN’ RHYTHM
The instrument’s rhythm chops extend way be-
Rolling Tray for Keyboard
yond the simple gating of notes: Volume, panning,
filter resonance, distortion, and various distortion
parameters can be modulated from a slick library Miza 88
STUDIO DESK TO PLACE KEYBOARD, CONTROLLERS,
of LFO shapes (see Figure 1). Alternately, you can
8 RACK UNITS, SCREEN AND SPEAKERS
choose from a generous menu of step-sequencer
patterns or use them as templates to design your
www.zaorstudiofurniture.com
own. Modulation is bipolar, so by setting filter cut-
USA — Distribution by www.audioplusservices.com || CANADA — Distribution by www.plurison.com
off and resonance modulation to opposing poles,

MAY 201 8 | EMU SICIAN .COM 57

elm0518_Review_OutputAnalogBrass_prod_f.indd 57 3/13/18 4:09 PM

MASTER
CLASS

Live 10 Wavetable
Learn how to harness the power Ableton’s new synth

BY FRANCIS PRÈVE
Fig. 1

A lthough Ableton Live 10 is packed with workflow enhancements and

impressive new effects (such as Echo and Pedal), the biggest news
for sound designers is Wavetable, an impressive new approach to
wavetable-based synthesis, with an interface that lets you see nearly contents of the 11 wave-table categories and inspect
every design and modulation element on a single screen. the tonal character of each, while sweeping them
with the wave position slider (see Figure 1).
This month, we’ll examine Wavetable's fea- Those three generators feed a pair of multimode Pro Tip. Setting the wave position to 50%,
tures in depth, along with a few additional tips filters that can be arranged in parallel, serial, or split then applying a slow triangle LFO to the “Osc 1
from Ableton’s Lead preset designer and sound- configurations. This is followed by an amp (volume) Pos” routing in the mod matrix with a value of 50,
team member Huston Singletary. section and topped off with a unison effect that in- is a great way to sweep each table automatically
cludes several modes that break new ground. as you familiarize yourself with the content.
ARCHITECTURE Unlike other plug-ins, there’s no dedicated ef- Each wavetable category has a distinct flavor.
Some users have compared it to Serum and Mas- fects section, because Wavetable is baked into Live Basics: Aptly named, this category covers bread-
sive, but Wavetable’s engine is different, with its Suite. Consequently, if you want to add final pro- and-butter tables, leaning toward analog oscillators,
own unique collection of wavetable data and cessing, you can take advantage of Ableton’s mas- but with a few FM-derived options mixed in.
filter options; it doesn’t replace either of those sive library of audio effects. Of course, if you’re a Collection: Named after colors such as Olive
synths, but instead, expands the range of this Max for Live user, you can design your own. or Sapphire, this is a set of go-to Ableton-fla-
popular synthesis method. Wavetable’s archi- vored tables that are both unusual and flexible.
tecture is key to its capabilities. OSCILLATORS Complex: These consist of more radical
Its two oscillators include nearly 200 preset Getting the hang of Wavetable’s dual-oscillators is wave-tables with a lot of harmonic complexity.
tables organized into 11 categories. This makes best done by simply dropping the instrument in a Distortion: While these tables are derived from
it easy to find a starting point if you know what track and starting with the default preset, which various distortion and waveshaping processes, this
type of sound you’re after. In addition, Wavetable consists of oscillator 1 only (osc 2 and the sub-oscil- is also where you’ll find a few options oriented to-
includes a flexible sub-oscillator that provides a lator switched off ) feeding a 2-pole lowpass filter, ward a more “West Coast synthesis” approach.
wide range of functions that belie its name. with cutoff at max. From here, you can audition the Filter: These tables are based on filter

58 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_HowTo_Masterclass_AbletonLive_dc4_F.indd 58 3/13/18 3:50 PM

 sweeps and work nicely when you want to stack
filter types in series (or if you’re new to synthesis
and want immediate results without learning the
subtleties of multimode filtering).
Formant: This category focuses on vocal-like tim-
bres, with appropriate names like AEIOU and Tuvan.
Harmonics: For experienced wavetable fans,
this category is loaded with wavetables that are
excellent starting points for layering, additive, and
timeless sweeps that evoke the PPG and Synclavier.
Instruments: These tables are based on actual
instruments such as piano, marimba, and oboe,
among others. The options here really shine when
swept with an envelope, as opposed to an LFO.
Noise: While converting noise into wavetables
may seem like a strange choice, since they contain
no easily translated harmonics, these tables are
useful for adding a chaotic element to sounds: Sev-
eral of the options come to life when modulated
with an LFO, often yielding a sound that is much
like a tuned flanger that tracks the keyboard. (Note
that some of these tables, such as Vinyl Noise, have
unusual frequency response characteristics, so
keep that in mind as you gain-stage your sounds.)
Retro: Like the name implies, these tables
evoke the early years of wavetable synthesis.
Vintage: This collection is packed with re-
ally useful tables that are derived from classic and
modern analog gear. With a bit of LFO modula-
tion, they deliver impressively realistic results if
you’re going for a circuit-based oscillator sound.
At the bottom of each oscillator window is an FX
section, which is similar to Massive’s Spectrum and
Serum’s Warp options, allowing you to manipulate
the wavetable’s shape and spectrum further (see Fig-
ure 2). In fact, the FX functions are so crucial to ex-
tending the value of the oscillators’ wavetables that I
urge readers to devote extra time to modulating these
parameters with LFOs and envelopes to understand
their sonic range. Here are the three FX modes.
FM: This mode applies an FM modulator to the
wavetable, with visual feedback so you can see the
results. In this mode, the two adjustable param-
eters are tuning and amount.
Pro Tip: You can achieve familiar FM effects by
starting with the Sines 1 table in the Harmonics cat-
egory (with a wave position of zero; pure sine), then
adjusting the modulation amount parameter with an
envelope. The tuning hot spots, where the FM effect
retains harmonic coherence (without dissonant ar-
tifacts), are -100%, -50%, 0, 50%, and 100%. These
Fig. 2
elm0518_HowTo_Masterclass_AbletonLive_dc4_F.indd 59
correlate with ratios of 0.25:1, 0.5:1, 1:1, 2:1 and 4:1,
respectively. Between those values, the Sines 1 sine
wave is a fantastic resource for organic bell and mal-
let textures. Because FM is more controllable with
simple carrier waveforms, complex wavetables will
yield results that are more unpredictable.
Classic: This mode offers the two most familiar
analog waveform modifiers: Sync and pulse width
(PW). The sync parameter value is equivalent to
adjusting the tuning of a synced oscillator, though
the term “pulse width” is a simplification; the pro-
cess actually compresses the wavetable while add-
ing a zero-amplitude segment on either side of the
table, depending on whether the value is positive
or negative. For classic PWM effects, start with
the square wave in the Basic Shapes wavetable.
Pro Tip: Huston Singletary is a big fan of the pulse
width parameter: “One of my favorite techniques for
adding vintage animation to our wavetables is to mod-
ulate the PW parameter gradually for only one oscil-
lator with a very slow triangle or sine LFO playing
against a second oscillator, with Osc 2’s PW base value
set to none or its FM amount slightly raised.”
Modern: These two modes are more akin to the
shaping tools in Serum and Massive: Warp com-
presses and stretches the entire waveform in either
direction (positive or negative) similarly to Serum’s
asymmetrical mode; Fold behaves like a cross be-
tween Serum’s Mirror and hard sync. As a result,
each of these modes can serve as a more contempo-
rary variation on pulse width and sync, respectively.
SUB OSCILLATOR
Even on its own, Wavetable’s sub-oscillator is flexible
as a timbral resource. In addition to Volume, there
are parameters for Octave, Transpose, and Tone.
Transpose has an 8-octave range (±48 semitones),
in addition to a switch that can lower the range two
octaves. As a result, it can be used for virtually any
non-detuned interval, making it great for adding
fifths to leads if the two main oscillators are tied up
with timbral duties. It’s also great for bell or electric-
piano tones when tuned four octaves higher than the
wavetable oscillators and appropriately blended.
The Tone parameter extends its usefulness even
further. Setting this parameter to 0% generates
a sine wave, while at 100% it’s a 60% pulse that’s
nearly square, with a slight saw-like angle for ad-
ditional even-numbered harmonics (see Figure 3).
What’s more, the sub-oscillator tone parameter can
be modulated by a wide
range of parameters, so
it can tangibly contrib-
ute to the harmonic mo-
tion of your designs.
Pro Tip: When
working with animated
wavetables that consist
Fig. 3 mostly of upper har-
monics, you can use the sub-oscillator to empha-
size the fundamental by setting it to the zero (0)
octave. This helps retain the body of the sound,
while the upper harmonics swirl above it.
FILTERS
Wavetable inherits the impressive analog filter
models introduced in Live 9.5, so there are five
different resonant multimode filters available for
each of its two filters: Clean (Ableton), OSR (based
on the Oxford Oscar), MS2 (MS20), PRD (Moog
Prodigy) and SMP (a custom modification of the
Sallen-Key topology). The MS2, PRD, SMP, and
OSR modes are switchable between lowpass and
highpass, with variable Drive for adding grunge.
Pro Tip: Instead of using velocity to control vol-
ume, experiment with applying it to filter Drive.
You’ll still get a change in amplitude, but with a
corresponding increase in warmth and intensity.
The Clean and OSR modes also offer bandpass,
notch, and state-variable behavior, allowing them
to smoothly morph between a vast range of curves,
much like an Oberheim SEM or Dave Smith Instru-
ments OB6. Best of all, the Morph parameter can
also be modulated by any of Wavetable’s sources.
Pro Tip: As an alternative to flanging or phasing,
try applying a slow triangle or sine wave LFO to the
Morph parameter with a very slight amount. It’s a dif-
ferent timbral effect, but nothing else sounds like it.
The dual filters can be configured in Serial,
Parallel, or Split modes. The Serial and Parallel op-
tions should be familiar to many readers, with Se-
rial placing filter 2 after filter 1’s output. That said,
Split mode is noteworthy as it routes each oscilla-
tor into its own dedicated filter, allowing for even
deeper customization of their individual timbres.
Pro Tip: While you can always layer two sounds
using Ableton’s Instrument Racks, challenge your-
self to create unique layered effects by selecting
contrasting wavetables and routing them into dis-
crete filters via Split mode. For bonus points, give
one of the oscillators a sharp plucked envelope and
the other a smooth pad envelope. This is handy for
emulating LA synthesis techniques.
MODULATION MATRIX
There are two ways to access Wavetable’s modula-
tion resources: Using individual tabs (synth sourc-
es, matrix, and MIDI) or from an expanded view
when the upper window is open. Because it is so
much easier to access everything when the win-
dow is open, we’ll focus on that approach, since it
combines both LFO and envelope routing (color-
coded blue) and MIDI routing (green, Figure 4).
Nearly every synthesis parameter can be quickly
accessed by clicking on the desired parameter while
the matrix is visible. From there, it will appear in
the matrix's bottom row until you assign a resource
to modulate it (Figure 5). If no resource is applied,
MAY 201 8 | EMU SICIAN .COM 59
3/13/18 3:50 PM

Fig. 4
Fig. 5
it disappears when you
select a different synth
parameter. After a few
minutes, assigning pa-
rameters—and seeing
routings at a glance—be-
comes intuitive.
The MIDI modula-
tion resources consist of
the essentials—velocity,
note number (keyboard
Fig. 6 tracking), pitch bend,
aftertouch, and mod
wheel (with standard defaults for velocity to amp,
pitch bend with ±2 semitones, and mod wheel to
wavetable position for oscillator 1). If you prefer to
use your own assignments as defaults, just set those
up, then right-click on the title bar and select “Save
as Default Preset” (Figure 6).
Note: If you do this, make sure the other synthe-
sis parameter defaults are initialized to your pref-
erences, as this will wipe out the original factory
settings. It’s always a good idea to save the factory
defaults as a user preset before you begin tinkering.
Pro Tip: Not everyone uses pitch bend for solo-
ing. By deleting its default pitch assignment, you
can use it for synth resources such as filter fre-
quency cutoff, FM, or even unison amount.
ENVELOPES
Wavetable’s envelopes allow you to tailor both the
time and slope (curve) for each segment, which is
great for customizing attack swells or adding im-
pact to percussive decays. Envelopes 2 and 3 have
an additional set of parameters for setting the lev-
els of the initial state, peak, and final state.
Pro Tip: One of Huston Singletary’s favorite
techniques is to apply velocity to envelope 2 or
3’s peak parameter, which serves to tie that enve-
lope’s modulation amount to the impact of hitting
a key or Push pad.
Additionally, each envelope can operate in one
of three modes: None, Trigger, or Loop (Figure 7).
None is for traditional behavior, Trigger completes
the envelope regardless of when you lift your finger,
and Loop repeats the envelope (without the sustain
segment) until the voice finishes (amp envelope).
60 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M
elm0518_HowTo_Masterclass_AbletonLive_dc4_F.indd 60
Pro Tip: For very
sharp attacks, set up
a spare envelope to
instant attack and a
50-millisecond decay—
no sustain or release.
Then, apply it to a pa-
Fig. 7 rameter that governs
pitch or timbre (Figure
8). This will add a quick
“click” to the begin-
ning of the sound and
is great for mallet and
drum patches.
LFOS
In addition to the usual
rate, depth, and tempo-
Fig. 8 syncing, Wavetable’s
two LFOs offer a few
additional features that give it more range than
most. For example, you can continuously vary
each of the standard waveforms’ shape in clever
ways. Here’s a list of those transformations.
Sine: Expands or contracts the peaks, with ex-
pansion veering toward a square-like shape.
Triangle: Adjusts the degree of the angle for
down/up sawtooth hybrids.
Sawtooth: Expands or contracts the peaks.
Square: Adjusts pulse width. Great for adjust-
ing rhythmic timing when tempo-synced.
Random: Varies the extremes of the random steps.
The LFO also includes a phase offset parameter
that allows you to determine the starting point in
the waveform, which is most pronounced when the
LFO retrigger (per key event) option is toggled on.
Pro Tip: While it’s ideal for vibrato, the LFO
depth is bi-polar, so you’ll need to factor in your base
parameter values—as well as phase offset values—for
rhythmic effects when using square and sawtooth
waves, especially relating to pitch. To get a feel for
this technique, experiment with square waves for in-
key pitch trills or sawtooth waves for timbral pulses.
Pro Tip: Another LFO technique in Huston
Singletary’s bag of tricks is fantastic for creating
extreme stereo effects: Apply slightly different
LFOs to the panning parameter for each of the
oscillators, then combine these with a healthy bit
of velocity panning modulation, together with the
unison effects described below.
REAL-TIME PERFORMANCE
Because the most common MIDI controllers are
readily available in the matrix, here are a few
experiments to give you a feel for adding perfor-
mance dynamics to your patches.
1. If you have a controller with an x/y joystick
(instead of pitch bend and mod wheel), assign the
modwheel to change wavetable position and apply
pitchbend to adjust the oscillator volumes. With a
bit of tinkering you can approximate the real-time
aspects of the Prophet VS (vector synthesis) sound.
2. Apply aftertouch to each oscillator’s panning
with opposite (positive and negative) amounts. When
you add pressure, the sound will instantly widen.
3. Route the mod wheel to unison amount for re-
al-time control of the “size” of your leads and stabs.
4. For live soloing, assign the mod wheel to LFO
amount for classic vibrato effects. Then, use after-
touch to control the LFO shape parameter (or vice
versa). This will give you more nuanced control
over your modulation dynamics.
5. Use velocity to control the volume of the sub-
oscillator. When tuned very high, this will add a
dynamic “glistening” effect. When tuned to lower
octaves, you can control the amount of subs with
your playing style.
UNISON
Wavetable’s Unison modes are a real standout and
are capable of far more than the usual supersaw de-
tuning. It’s extremely important to note that each of
the unison modes will increase the voice count for
every note, thus increasing the demands on your
CPU, accordingly. For example, if you set unison
voices to 8 and play a four-note seventh chord, you’ll
be using 32 voices of polyphony. Add some long re-
lease times and your CPU will probably hit the wall.
(Note: This CPU utilization is the same for all synths
with unison options, and not specific to Wavetable.)
Each of Wavetable’s unison modes has unique
attributes, so here’s a closer look at the character-
istics of each.
Classic: This aptly named mode pans and de-
tunes each voice equally in alternating directions.
Shimmer: Here, the detuning has a touch of
smooth random LFO modulation that increases with
the parameter value, with Lorenz-like characteristics.
The wavetable position is also offset very slightly.
Noise: This mode uses noise to modulate the
detuning and wavetable offset.
Pro Tip: Try using Noise mode on one of the
formant (voice) wavetables, with a high voice
count and medium amount. Here, the noise will
add the breath component to choir sounds. On
other wavetable types, adding a long release with
Noise unison will create a reverb-like effect.
Phase Sync: Very similar to classic mode, but
with the wavetable start points synced to note events.
Pro Tip: Phase Sync mode with medium-to-
high voice counts and extremely small amount
values results in a flanger-like effect.
Position Spread: This mode shifts the focus to
offsetting the wavetable positions combined with
extreme panning (and slight detuning)—excellent
for wide stereo effects.
Random Note: Randomly changes detuning
and wavetable position for each note event. n
3/13/18 3:50 PM
 GAIN UNMATCHED ACCESS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS TO AUDIO’S
BEST IN THE STUDIO, LIVE, OR ON THE DUB STAGE

SPECIAL OFFER
ALL ACCESS
SAVE OVER 50% ON SINGLE ISSUE PRICING
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE TODAY
Single Copy Price Subscription Price ALL ACCESS
INCLUDES
12 issues $83.88 12 issues $35.99

PRINT + DIGITAL + iPad

SUBSCRIBE NOW AT:
WWW.MYMIXMAG.COM/MXVIP1

MixHouseAd.indd 1 6/11/2015 7:25:50 PM

elm0518_MIX_all_access.indd 1 3/14/18 9:28 PM
 HOW-TO

Vinyl Checklist
After preparing Elton John’s catalog for reissue, engineer/producer Matt Still offers
expert advice on what to listen for, before you approve your album test pressings

BY BARBARA SCHULTZ
EM managing editor Barbara
Schultz is also the senior editor
of Mix magazine.
M att Still is helping to bring Elton John’s music to a new generation of hipsters and
audiophiles (not that those two are mutually exclusive). With the help of top master-
ing engineer Bob Ludwig, and the lacquer-cutting team at Abbey Road Studios, he’s
prepared 10 albums from Elton John’s vast catalog for vinyl reissue. Though many
of these releases were originally released in the vinyl format, others are hitting turn-
tables for the first time.

Elton John’s Vinyl
Reissues
Empty Sky (1969)
Honky Château (1972)
Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the
Piano Player (1973)
Caribou (1974)
Rock of the Westies (1975)
Blue Moves (1976)
Sleeping With the Past (1989)
The Big Picture (1997)
One Night Only - The
Greatest Hits (2000)
“And some of those digital releases are double
albums now,” Still says. “You could put 80 minutes
of music on a compact disc and no one necessarily
thought in terms of album sides. We had to think for
the first time about where to split up those tracks
musically, but we also had to consider that you don’t
want to put too much information on one side be-
cause then the grooves won’t be far enough apart to
keep the audio quality high.”
Still was tasked with ensuring the highest stan-
dards from remastering through vinyl pressing. His
insights are important for anyone who’s working on
a vinyl release.
Please give a general picture of the process for
reissuing these releases on vinyl.
First we had to find the best master we could.
Bob Ludwig would then remaster and send me the
new masters for approval. To check and approve
the new masters, I would reference my original
vinyls and CDs.
Bob did an amazing job, of course. He’s the best
at what he does. I was there mainly to make sure the
masters stayed true to the original Elton recordings,
and stayed true to the original intent of the records.
Once the remasters were approved, we would
send them to Abbey Road for them to cut the lac-
quers. From that point, they would then go off for a
test pressing and the test pressings would come to me
to listen and approve. Approved test pressings could
go for full press and be released to the public.
What are some of your front-end concerns,
during mixing and mastering, when you’re work-
ing on music for vinyl release?
You have to be very careful with the dynamic
range because there are physical limitations to vinyl.
With CDs, dynamic compression was more of an aes-
thetic, a creative choice, whereas for vinyl it was a ne-
cessity. If the dynamic range is too great, the needle
would jump all over the place; it wouldn’t be able to
stay in the groove.

62 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_HowTo_TestPressings_dc4_F.indd 62 3/14/18 4:30 PM

 How many test pressings do you typically re- vinyl where the curvature is greater, but the grooves served the record better.
ceive of each album? can’t be quite as deep on the inside.
Two. I always need more than one, because I have There was one record that had inner groove dis- What happens when you receive flawed test
to be able to compare vinyl to vinyl. The process tortion on a classic track of Elton’s, and we actually pressings?
I would always use is, I would have the [Pro Tools] changed from a lacquer cut to a copper plate because One time I got pressings back and they were
master files that Bob Ludwig gave me, and I’d play those handle high frequencies a little bit better. Lac- warped. I don’t know what happened—they may
each of the test pressings back on my turntable and quer has more of that warmth that people seem to have sat in a hot truck for too long—but they were
import it into Pro Tools. like with vinyl, but in this instance a copper plate like bowls. I couldn’t play them. Then I just had to
I’d listen to the import of request more test pressings.
the first test album, and then Another issue is, when
I would import the second al- you get a crackle or a pop,
bum and compare each little that can be because of
imperfection that I’d hear on something called “non-
one record to the other, and fill.” That’s where the vinyl
determine whether those doesn’t flow fully enough
cracks or pops occur in the to produce a well-formed
exact same spot on both re- Tips for Preparing a Vinyl Release groove, so there’s a little
cords. gap. So I have to determine
If the flaws occurred in Simply pressing an LP or a 7-inch from the same mix you’re using for a CD does not if any crackle or pop I hear
different spots, then it’s not guarantee the best results that vinyl has to offer. Often a number of decisions, and is from non-fill at the press-
on the master or the original even some compromises, have to be made to get a great-sounding record. ing, or if it’s a problem with
lacquer. If there were identi- Song Sequencing: LPs typically contain less than 40 minutes of music, and the the original lacquer cut.
cal imperfections on both re- amount of good-sounding space on the disc is important to consider. The rule of If there’s something sig-
cords, depending on what it thumb is that the greater the circular distance over which the music is cut into the nificant that I’m concerned
was, we would possibly have record, the better the reproduced sound quality will be. about, then I will send notes
to look at asking them to re- The distance around the inside of a 12-inch record is about half the distance the needle back to the pressing plant
cut the lacquer. travels around the outside. As the distance of each revolution decreases, high frequen- and ask them to address it.
cies become harder for the stylus to read. Inner tracks will sound duller than the outer But to some extent, engineers
What equipment do you tracks because the high frequencies cannot be reproduced the same as if they were cut need to understand that a lit-
recommend for playback? on the outside of the disc. Typically, a loss of high end begins about halfway through an LP. tle bit of hiss and crackle now
Use a turntable you know Song sequencing for a vinyl release is very important if you want to maximize sound and then is inherent to the vi-
and trust. I have an Audio- quality, particularly in the upper frequencies. Many classic albums were sequenced nyl medium, but the benefits
Technica LP1240. A mod- with a softer song or ballad on the inside and louder cuts on the outside. In some cas- can outweigh the flaws
erately priced turntable is es, you may want to sequence the vinyl version of your release differently from the CD. Listening to a vinyl record
what I recommend, because Length vs. Volume: There is a direct correlation between album length and loud- is a very tactile experience.
this is what the end user will ness. The shorter a record is, the louder it can be. That’s because there is only so much There is a specific smell to
be listening to. If your press- room to cut the groove. Therefore, the longer the time per side, the smaller the groove vinyl. You have artwork to
ing sounds good on a mod- needs to be, and the lower the volume must be to make it fit and to prevent skipping. look at, and lyrics and credits
est turntable, it will sound The mastering engineers we spoke to recommend putting no more than 18 min- to read while you listen. Plac-
great on the higher-end stuff utes of music on each side of a 12-inch record at 33 1/3 rpm. If you’re doing a club ing the vinyl on the turntable
as well, and you want it to track and you want strong levels, definitely keep it under 10 minutes on a 12-inch and lowering the needle onto
sound great for everyone. disc at 45 rpm. Disc manufacturers post their recommended playing times for dif- that first song is an intention-
ferent record sizes and various speeds on their websites, al act. It’s not like selecting a
What other types of anom- Check Your Reference: To get a sense of how their project will sound on vinyl, the playlist or passively allowing
alies are you listening for? pros get a reference disc cut before creating a master lacquer. Similar in composi- some algorithm to choose the
A problem we came tion to the master lacquer, the reference disc is a 12-inch, lacquer-coated aluminum next song for you.
across on one record was in- record that the artist or producer can listen to at home to see whether or not they Sitting down and listen-
ner groove distortion. That want to make any EQ or level adjustments. ing to a vinyl record allows
occurs when, as you get Although it’s tempting to skip this step to save money, it’s better in the long run you to connect to the artist
closer to the center of the vi- to have a reference disc made. Otherwise, the first time you’ll hear how your mix in a way that other formats
nyl where grooves are closer translates to disc is from a test pressing, which is more expensive to produce than can’t. Yes, there are crackles
together, sometimes you will a reference disc because of the steps involved (cutting the master lacquer, plating, and pops here and there, but
find high-frequency distor- producing metal stampers, and pressing), all of which you’ll pay for. And if you want I think any perceived short-
tion. You have to be particu- to make changes at this point, you’ll have to pony up for the entire process again. comings of the medium are
larly careful when you’re cut- Know Thy Master: Be sure your master sounds the way you want it to, and the songs outweighed by these aesthet-
ting to watch your dynamic are in the proper order, before you send them for disc cutting. We’ve heard stories of ics alone. n
range on that part of the artists who hadn’t auditioned their master mixes (or even test pressings) and wound up
vinyl. You can have deeper pressing records they didn’t intend to. —Gino Robair Read our full feature on “Preparing
grooves on the outside of the a Vinyl Release” at emusician.com.

MAY 201 8 | EMU SICIAN .COM 63

elm0518_HowTo_TestPressings_dc4_F.indd 63 3/14/18 9:31 PM

 SPOTLIGHT
HV-32P and HV-35P Mic Preamps
Millennia
Available Now
The critically acclaimed Millennia sound in their most affordable
and portable packages yet. Hear the improvement in quality and
clarity these high resolution preamps make with your music.

Street: $1079.99 HV-32P, $719.99 HV-35P

www.mil-media.com
sales@mil-media.com
(530) 647-0750

ATH-M50x Professional Monitor Headphones

Audio-Technica
Available Now
The critically acclaimed Audio-Technica ATH-M50x headphones provide
exceptional clarity with deep, accurate bass response. Features large-
aperture drivers, 90° swiveling earcups and three detachable cables.
Ideal for studio/DJ use or personal listening. Available in black and
white.

$149.99 ATH-M50xBK; $169.00 ATH-M50xWH

www.audio-technica.com
pro@atus.com

MARKETPLACE

FROM 35 YEARS OF

THE BEST OF THE ’80s CLASSIC ROCK SYNTH GODS

The Artists, Instruments,
and Techniques of an Era
Features 20 interviews with noted
players, producers, and pioneers like
Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Duran Duran’s
Nick Rhodes, Peter Gabriel, The Human
League, Chick Corea, and Frank Zappa.
ISBN 978-0-87930-999-2 $19.95
It’s all here: the gear, the songs, the
road stories, and the inspiration behind
some of the greatest songs of the
’60s, ’70s, and ’80s.
ISBN 978-0-87930-952-7 $14.99
This book spotlights artists who changed
the course of music history and inspired
generations. Features in-depth profiles
of Jan Hammer, Wendy Carlos, Rick
Wakeman, Brian Eno and many more.
ISBN 987-0-87930-930-5 $16.99

Free U.S. shipping on orders

of $25 or more! USELEAST EXPENSIVE METHOD APPLIES.
PROMO CODE MDKEY AT CHECKOUT.

800-637-2852 musicdispatch.com

64 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_SPOT_MKPL.indd 64 3/14/18 9:55 PM

 MARKETPLACE
“Since installing GIK treatments, -Rupert Neve Studio HQ
the sonic difference has been
really astounding.”
To advertise
in

Electronic Musician’s FREE ACOUSTIC ADVICE

GIK Acoustics products are QUALITY,

meaning beyond simple do-it-yourself
YOUR BEST panels that are found on the market today.

Product Spotlight GEAR IS

INNOVATION allows GIK to have launched
creative, unique products. Dollar for dollar
VALUE, GIK Acoustics’ products absorb

or
more sabins (sound) than any other product
on the market. We start by our SUPPORT

unplugged.
with customers, helping them determine the

Marketplace,
best products to treat their space with our
free, expert Acoustic Advice. We
DUH ĆUP EHOLHYHUV LQ HGXFDWLRQ
so we are INFORMATIVE
and our website is full of
Educational Articles and Videos. Greensafe

please contact:
means GIK Acoustics products are
ENVIRONMENTAL and friendlier on air
quality, the environment, and your budget.

Jon Brudner
jbrudner@nbmedia.com
917.281.4721
ORDER DIRECT (404) 492-8364
gikacoustics.com

Glenn
Rosenstein
Producer/Mixer/
Engineer
(U2, Talking Heads, Ziggy
Marley, Whitney Woerz)

“From room to room, I always have a

consistent and predictable monitoring
environment, thanks to Auralex.”

Piano Note-for-Note
1630-218.Electronic Musician AD (April 2018).indd 1 2/16/18 1:43 PM Organ
Sheet Music - MIDI Files
Synth

TRANSCRIPTIONS
Learn Your Favorite Keyboard Parts
Exactly As They Were Recorded

Visit ManyMIDI.com
Free Sample Money Back Guarantee

MAY 20 18 | EMU SICIAN .COM 65

amAsh_EM_8thH_SEP17.indd 1 9/5/17 5:05 PM

elm0518_SPOT_MKPL.indd 65 3/14/18 9:55 PM

QUESTIONS

Fabrice Sergent
FIVE

The cofounder of Bandsintown wants to shake up the

concert ticket business, and artists stand to benefit

BY SARAH JONES

we created Big Break.

C oncert discovery platform Bandsintown is rethinking the way artists and We will identify and spotlight as many as 50
fans connect around concert events. The model works like this: Bandsintown artists per year that our data suggests will break
creates a fan’s “music DNA” based on listening behavior across various plat- that year. We look at the 50 fastest growing art-
forms, identifies the fan’s location, and delivers personalized concert notifi- ists over a period of six months, who have be-
cations as soon as tour dates are announced, while letting artists post per- tween 100 and 5,000 trackers. Those that we
sonalized messages to fans. identify will get free emails from us to fans of
similar artists, showcase opportunities, and
With a network of more than 450,000 art- the day before the show. Fans who RSVP to a touring opportunities as part of the program. 
ists, 35 million concertgoers, and 15,000 pro- show are reminded by the platform about the  
moters, venues and festivals, it looks like the show via a specific alert, for example. With the new Bandsintown Manager plat-
company is on to something. form, you’ve given venues and other ser-
Recently, Bandsintown launched a Big How are artists using your platform to con- vice providers tools to promote themselves.
Break emerging-artist program and Bandsin- vert “interested” fans into ticket buyers? How does that create new opportunities for
town Manager, which gives venues and festi- Personalization is key, and timing as well. artists?
vals advanced tools to promote events. This Bandsintown sends over 100 million event Artists can now post messages directly to
month, the company will produce the first alerts via emails and app notifications each their fans. Because Bandsintown users are the
data-driven artist showcase at SXSW. month,  and each alert is targeted to fans superfans—engaged, willing to pay to go see
Cofounder Fabrice Sergent explains how based on their “music DNA” and where they artists live in addition to streaming them—art-
artists can make the most of the Bandsintown live.  Artists can now fill in an Artist Profile ists and their teams understand that messaging
platform. and own their page in the Bandsintown app, so a Bandsintown fan is far more valuable than a
fans can better discover their music and learn “like” on Facebook. Venues now have pages on
How is fan ticket-buying behavior evolv- more about who they are.  A deep integration the platform. Our search engine will better
ing lately, and how does Bandsintown tap with music services enables fans to listen to identify them if they enhance their profile via
into those trends to help artists increase tracks without leaving Bandsintown.  Bandsintown Manager. 
ticket sales?  
The live music industry has been enjoy- Tell me how your Big Break emerging artist Can you please share one really great ex-
ing strong growth over the last few years, at a spotlight program can help propel artists ample of an amazing artist success story—
5 percent rate per year. More fans go to more to the next career level.  someone who has tapped into the power
concerts in general. There is definitely a re- It is really difficult for young artists or of the Bandsintown platform in a unique,
newed interest from Millennials in emerging bands to emerge out of the noise. Our algo- successful way?
artists and bands. Additionally, Millennials rithm is very sophisticated and already makes Right now, 450,000 artists are using this
buy their tickets much later on average than sure that 60 percent of our alerts are for events platform to better connect and communicate
the casual concertgoer. we recommend—and not just for shows by with their fans. Thousands of artists post to
We’re working with ticketing companies artists that the fan already knows and tracks. their fans. Check out how our Big Break art-
and concert promoters to communicate about And it works: More than 50 percent of our ists such as Peach Pit, Foxtrax, and Sneakers
shows at different times of the promotion cy- fans went to a show of an artist they had never engage with their fans on the platform on a
cle—at the time of announcement, and up to heard of thanks to Bandsintown. In that spirit, regular basis as they grow their careers. n

66 MAY 201 8 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M

elm0518_Depts_FiveQuestions_dc3_F.indd 66 3/12/18 5:40 PM

 u-he_bazille_EMMay18.pdf 1 2018-02-26 10:12

elm536836_0518.indd 1 2/27/18 5:02 PM

elm536856_0518.indd 1 3/7/18 4:57 PM