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FM | CONTENTS
Contents | This Issue

INTERVIEW

Carl Craig
One of techno’s most consistently
innovative artists sounds off on the
genre’s visibility and heritage

6
 This Issue | Contents

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS

54
Feature
Better collaboration

70
REVIEWED

Ableton Live 12
Is version 12 Live’s most significant
update in a generation? We find out...
48
Masterclass
AI sample organisers

90 58 20 66
Review Interview Classic Album Interview
Baby Audio Atoms Ben Frost Bible of Dreams Julia Holter

REVIEWS ARTISTS REGULARS SOCIAL

70 Ableton Live 12 18 TALKING SHOP 12 Filter: The latest news Find us online at
FOLLY GROUP futuremusic.co.uk
74 Beetlecrab.audio Tempera 20 Classic Album: Juno Reactor,
Bible of Dreams
77 Erica Synths 24 SAVE MONEY, subscribe today! Watch our videos
Hexinverter Mindphaser 36 INTERVIEW 26 Releases: What’s caught our ear
youtube.com/
CARL CRAIG this month?
futuremusicmagazine
78 PreSonus Eris Studio 8 44 IN THE STUDIO… 48 Masterclass: AI Sample Organisers
80 Native Instruments X1 MK3
82 Allen & Heath CQ-18T
PARANOID LONDON 54 Feature: Make music together
Follow us on Twitter
84 t.bone HD 515 headphones 58 INTERVIEW 64 Pioneers… Autechre @futuremusicmag
86 Kali Audio WS-6.2 studio sub BEN FROST
88 Denise Audio Bass XXL Join us on Facebook
90 Baby Audio Atoms
66 INTERVIEW facebook.com/
92 Sounds and Samples JULIA HOLTER futuremusicmagazine

7
FM | DIGITAL
ACCESSING YOUR BONUS
DIGITAL CONTENT

musicradar.
com/how-to/
future-music-
407-downloads
Head to the link above to
grab the latest samples
and downloads!

44
IN THE STUDIO

Paranoid London
INCLUDES VIDEO
Quinn Whalley of the UK acid house duo
invites us into the band’s London studio
for a hardware jam and Q&A session

8

IN THE ARCHIVE – UPDATED!
FM’s Sample Archive gives you
over 18GB of royalty-free sounds.
Here’s what’s inside...
2024 PACKS RHYTHMIC IDEAS
BASS BUNDLE 2024
> DigiBass
> Kick Meets Bass
> Techno Bass
CREATIVE HARDWARE
> Bent and Modded
> Budget Effects
> Ring Mod
CREATIVE SAMPLING
> Casio SK-1
> Tape Loops
EXPERIMENTAL SOUNDS
> Liquid Sound
> Micro-Tonal
> Out-the Transitions
GENRE PACKS 2024
> EBM
> Liquid DnB Pads and Melodies
> Neon Pop Synths
> Psych Rock Synths
GLITCH & GRANULAR
> Glitch
> Glitch Textures
> Glitch Toplines
> Granular Processing
HIP-HOP, FUNK & SOUL 2024
> Classic Boom-Bap
> Hip-Hop Crunch
> Soulful Keys
HOUSE & TECHNO 2024
> Classic House Chord Hooks
> House and Techno Toolkit
> Vintage House and Techno
LATE-NIGHT MELODIES
> Ambient Piano
> Balearic
> Dream Pop
> Old School Euphoria
MELODIC IDEAS
> Minimal Melodies
> Yacht Rock Licks
PERCUSSIVE INSPIRATION
> 808 and 909 Reimagined
> Percussive Noise
This Issue | Contents
TECHNIQUE & FEATURES
> Rhythmic FX
> Rhythmic Noise
> Sidechain
> Swung & Skippy
SYNTH TONES
> Arpeggiation
> Dub Chords
> Synth Mallets
> Wavetable & Wave Synthesis
28
UNIQUE FX
> Artificial Metal
> Horror FX
Bass synthesis
> Piezo FX
> Synth FX
ARCHIVE
Create better bass using any synth
CLASSICS with our guide to the core
’70S SYNTHS concepts, tools and techniques
> ’70s Synths Pt 1
> ’70s Synths Pt 2
’80S SYNTHS
> ’80s Synths Pt 1
> ’80s Synths Pt 2
EXCLUSIVE SAMPLE PACKS
’90S SYNTHS
Bass Synthesis
> ’90s Synths Pt 1
> ’90s Synths Pt 2
’00S SYNTHS
CYCLICK SAMPLES PRESENT…
> ’00s Synths Pt 1
> ’00s Synths Pt 2 To complement this month’s cover
ATMOSPHERES &
BACKGROUNDS
feature, we’ve produced a pack of
> Atmospheric Beds killer bass synth sounds ready-to-
> Noise, Crackle & Hiss
> Sounds of the City
go for your next track
Lo-fi Bass
ESSENTIAL DRUMS
> 808 and 909
> Ultimate Cymbals
> Ultimate Kick Bundle GROOVE CRIMINALS PRESENT…
> Ultimate Snares & Claps
> Vintage Drum Machine Hits
Kick drums, bass loops and sub
PERCUSSION hits, imparted with added crunch
> Modular Percussion and character through lo-fi effects
and creative processing
> Shakers, Tambs & Toplines
> Sticks, Knocks & Rims
9
Contents | This Issue

BONUS SAMPLES DOWNLOAD AT MUSICRADAR.COM/HOW-TO/FUTURE-MUSIC-407-DOWNLOADS

01 02

03 04
loopmasters.com
01 Loopmasters Vibe Series 60’s Psychedelia 2
02 Singomakers Tech House X Female Vocals
03 21STRXXT Samples Blueberry Phonk Vol 1
04 Munchies Jukebox Afro House
05 Hy2rogen Future Techno Universe
06 Tonekitchn Cali Future Pop 2

05 06

10

Generate new musical
ideas in Ableton Live
Coming up with good melodies is difficult. Sometimes you
just need a little bit of extra help spark creativity
W
hether you’re a seasoned songwriter, or
just getting started, having a little help
coming up with melodies is always
valuable. Using Live’s MIDI Effects in
creative ways has always been a useful tool for generating
interesting melodic patterns, but it’s been supercharged
by new features in Live 12, like Scale Awareness.
Let’s explore how to chain several MIDI effects
together to create a 1-note riff generator that will create
infinite melodies by playing a single note on your
01
Set your project’s key
The first step is to set your Project’s scale so that all of
the notes we generate are in key. In Live 12, we now
have Global Key and Scale. This is found in the Control
Bar at the top. Make sure it’s enabled and set to a key
that you like.
02
Load MIDI Devices
Next, load the MIDI Devices we’ll use. Head
to the MIDI Effects label in Live’s Browser
and load Arpeggiator, two Velocity devices and
a Random device, all in their default state.
The order of MIDI devices can change your
results dramatically, so make sure they’re in
that exact order.
Get Creative With | Ableton Live
keyboard. We’ll leave it up to you to choose a sound, but THIS MONTH”S EXPERT
this technique works well with sounds that have short
envelopes; things like plucks and stabs. Tom Glendinning is a
Once you’ve followed the steps, play a note to hear session musician,
your generated melody. We’ll set up some defaults in the sound engineer, sound
MIDI devices, but experiment with different values for the designer, music
controls to see where you end up. producer, composer,
As with any random process, record your results to and VJ. As an Ableton-certified trainer
another track using Live’s Resampling feature to fix things he helps musicians be creative with
in place. Ableton Live. More at elphnt.io/about/
03
Configure MIDI devices
Next, set the following controls on the MIDI devices;
Arpeggiator Rate to 1/16, first Velocity’s Random to 64,
second Velocity’s Mode to Gate and Lowest to 85 and
Random’s Chance to 100%. If you’re unsure, make
sure your devices match the image.
04
Enable Scale
Awareness
Right now, played notes sound a little wonky.
The last step is to enable Scale Awareness to
lock everything in key. You generally only need
to enable Scale Awareness in the last device
in a chain. Enable it by clicking the b/# icon
on the Random device.
11
FM | FILTER
Filter | The Future Of Music

12

Akai Pro’s MPC Key 37
is a standalone synth
and sampling keyboard
that promises to blend
portability with power
The MPC Key 61 gets a new, downsized sibling
>
When Akai Pro added the number ‘61’ to the
name of its first MPC Key standalone music
production keyboard, it always seemed to imply
that smaller and/or larger versions of it could be in
the offing. And it now turns out that it’s the former;
following multiple leaks, the MPC Key 37 has been
officially announced.
It won’t surprise you to learn that this drops the key
count from 61 to 37, instantly making this MPC Key
much lighter and more portable than its predecessor/
sibling. The keys support aftertouch, and there are
dedicated pitchbend and modulation wheels. Further
control comes via the four assignable Q-Link knobs.
This being an MPC, you get a bank of velocity-
sensitive pads, too. These sit alongside a 7-inch
touchscreen that enables you to navigate the now
well-established MPC standalone workflow, which
includes both sampling and sequencing.
MPC Keys 37 comes equipped with more than 8GB of
sounds and sample content, and new owners will also get
The Future Of Music | Filter
a voucher for one additional plugin from the available
range. This includes classic synth and other keyboard
emulations and the Flex Beat plugin, and you can also
bolster your content selection via MPC Expansion packs.
There’s a direct link to Splice over Wi-Fi, too, and support
for the MPC Stems music separation feature is apparently
still to come.
Effects are also included, and MPC Key 37 ships with
the MPC2 desktop software so that you can continue to
work on projects on your computer, adding more tracks
and using VST/AU plugins.
In terms of hardware specs, MPC Key 37 offers a
quad-core ARM processor, 2GB RAM and 32GB of
storage, 16GB of which is available as user storage.
There’s audio and MIDI I/O, CV/Gate connectivity and an
SD card slot. Sadly, it looks like there’s no battery power
option, so portability is limited in that you’ll need to have
access to a socket for the supplied mains adapter.
MPC Key 37 has a street price of £770 and it’s
available now.
13
Filter | The Future Of Music
Cherry Audio releases its
first drum machine
>
Cherry Audio has released
its first drum machine, a
plugin emulation of the
much-loved Roland
CompuRhythm CR-78 from 1978.
The CR-78 used analogue
synthesis to make sounds that are
more delicate than you’ll find in
later boxes like the 808 and 909. It
can be heard on records by the
likes of Blondie (Heart Of Glass),
Phil Collins (In The Air Tonight) and
Hall & Oates (I Can’t Go For That
(No Can Do)).
SoundGhost Jumble: "An ode to the
limitlessness of generative music"
>
SoundGhost makes fun,
intuitive plugins that are
easy to use; last year
brought its granular reverb
plugin Scatter, but this month the
brand has announced the release of
a new plugin: Jumble.
Jumble is described by
SoundGhost as a "randomised
sample explorer". Drop any audio
into this sampler plugin and its
sample playhead will shift between
random positions within the loop to
create new patterns and ideas in
sync with your DAW's tempo; the
length of the gate can be adjusted
along with the rate that the
playhead shifts to a new position.
14
As you’d probably expect, Cherry
Audio’s emulation promises to
recreate the sound and look of the
original, but potential buyers will be
pleased to see it also adds 16- or
24-step X0X-style programming for
a smoother sequencing workflow.
There’s a song mode for pattern
chaining and looping, swing and
velocity features, and an extensive
preset library that gives you more
than 250 additional sounds and
beats in multiple musical genres
and styles.
The plugin's amp section lets
you adjust the fade in and out
times for each sample snippet,
Rather than use samples for the
sounds, Cherry Audio has used
“modelled synthesis”, and if you
open up the voice edit panel you'll
find extensive parameter tweaking
options that take things way beyond
the original.
The effects and mixer panel,
offers level and mute/solo controls,
and the option to adjust overdrive,
flanger, delay, and gated reverb.
There are effect send buttons for
each voice, a master compressor
and a six-band graphic EQ.
along with a handy gain knob.
Jumble is also equipped with a
state-variable filter with low- and
This particular software
emulation of the CR-78 was
modelled on the machine owned by
Greg Hawkes, keyboard player and
founder member of The Cars. "It
sounds great, and I'll be spending a
lot of time with this," he says.
"Cherry Audio has done an
awesome job… I'm very proud to be
a facilitator."
The CR-78 runs on PC and Mac
in VST/AU/AAX and standalone
formats and it's available now,
priced at $49.
There’s also a 30-day demo, and
if you want to go beyond the
extensive preset library, which
promises to take the machine “from
wild to mild”, you can also get a
Compu-Rhythms for CR-78 Preset
Pack, which is available for
purchase separately.
high-pass modes along with a basic
delay and reverb for sound-shaping.
Jumble also offers two LFOs,
which control the filter cutoff and
the sample amplitude. LFOs can be
synced to the DAW's host tempo
and modulation patterns can be
entered via a step sequencer.
Live performers will be pleased
to know that Jumble's manual
mode can be used to deactivate the
internal gate and shift the playhead
via MIDI input, so that samples can
be jumbled in real-time using
keyboards and sequencers.
Jumble is available now for
macOS and Windows in VST3/AU
formats. It's priced at £79.

Audacity gets free AI plugins for music
separation, generation and remixing
>
It might be free and
open-source, but Audacity
certainly isn’t an audio
editor that’s failing to move
with the times. It recently got itself
a new suite of plugins that are
powered by Intel’s OpenVINO AI
toolkit, and it sounds like some of
them could be pretty useful.
First up, we have Music
Generation and Music Style remix,
both of which use the Stable
Diffusion AI model – specifically in
its Riffusion guise – to create either
new music from a prompt, or
existing music.
Music Separation, on the other
hand, does what it says on the tin:
breaks a song up into either vocal
or instrumental parts, or into vocal,
drums, bass and a combined
‘anything else’ part.
The Access Virus TI 2 has been
discontinued: is this the end of the line
for one of the synths of the century?
>
We’d suspected it for a
while, but it now seems
that the Access Virus synth,
once the gold standard for
virtual analogue instruments, has
been discontinued.
A report on Amazona.de cites an
interview with Christoph Kemper of
Kemper Amps fame (as well as
Stem Separation is increasingly
common; not only does it form the
basis of a number of desktop and
browser-based applications, but it’s
also being included in an increasing
number of DAWs and other music
production packages.
being the mastermind behind the
Virus). He confirmed that the Virus
TI 2, the final model in the range,
has been out of production for a
few months.
The TI 2 was released back in
2009, the last in a long line of
Viruses that included the likes of
the Polar, Snow and Darkstar. There
The Future Of Music | Filter
Among the other new features
are Noise Suppression, which is
designed to remove background
noise from an audio file, and
Whisper Transcription, a tool for
transcribing spoken word audio or
vocal recordings.
were both keyboard and desktop
models, and for a long time after
the release of the first version way
back in 1997, the Virus seemed to
be the synth that every producer
wanted in their studio.
Times change, though, and with
the rise in popularity of ever-more-
capable softsynths coinciding with
“We decided to add AI features
to Audacity so that we could offer
capabilities that were previously
unavailable or just really difficult to
achieve,” Audacity product
manager Martin Keary told Intel
Business. He also confirms that
“the plugins run locally on your PC
rather than from a server,
addressing privacy concerns”.
According to Keary, there could
be more to come, too. “This is just
a first step,” he says. “We hope to
continue partnering with Intel to
develop all kinds of new AI tools in
the future to help take Audacity to
a level no one’s ever seen before.”
The only downside here is that
the AI plugins are currently only
available to Windows users, but
we’re hoping that they’ll be coming
to Mac and Linux, too.
the analogue hardware resurgence,
the Virus no longer seems as
essential as it once did.
That said, a new version could
still have been a winner. These
days, the closest you’ll get to a
‘new’ Virus is probably Waldorf’s
Kyra, but the original story also
indicates that Kemper hasn’t totally
discounted the idea of producing a
TI3. However, as things stand, he’s
focusing exclusively on his
successful profiling amps business.
The Access Virus is one of a
number of synths that can be
recreated in software via a Motorola
DSP56300 chip emulator – others
include the likes of the Clavia Nord
Lead 3, Waldorf Q, Microwave II
and Novation Supernova – but there
is a catch. As with the video games
market, the emulator itself is legal,
but sharing the ROMs to make it do
anything definitely isn’t.
15
Filter | The Future Of Music

The Dirtywave M8 handheld tracker has a

Model:02 version coming this summer

>
The Dirtywave M8 Tracker
Model:02 doesn’t particularly
look much like a music-
making device, but the
software trackers that inspired it
didn’t look like traditional sequencers
either, so maybe that’s appropriate.
This is the successor to the original
M8, and promises the “same brains
with improved physical features”.
To recap, the original M8 was a
handheld tracker that was powered
by the Teensy microcontroller and
took its inspiration from Game Boy
tracker Little Sound DJ. It offered
users eight monophonic tracks/
voices, each of which could
potentially be used for one of the
built-in synthesis engines or to trigger
external MIDI hardware.
The Model:02 takes this concept
and adds a new machined aluminium
case, a larger 3.5" IPS TFT display
(up from 2.8") and improved battery
life of up to 12 hours. There’s also a
built-in mic for onboard sampling and
a USB-C connection that can be used
in device mode.
If you own the original M8 then
there’s no need to panic: your model
will continue to be supported with the
same features as the 02 in
concurrent firmware updates.
Available for pre-order now, priced
at £525, with shipping set to start
from May 2024.

Grubs up: Dada

Life serve up the
recipe to their
Secret Sauce
>
The proverb is that "anyone
who loves the law or sausages
should never watch either
being made", but Swedish
duo Dada Life appear to disagree.
Famed for their much-loved
Sausage Fattener plugin, they are
now giving you access to their
Secret Sauce. This takes the form
of a three-plugin bundle that
contains a reverb, a riser effect and
a stereo widener.
The term secret sauce is often
used to describe that almost
intangible stardust that the best
producers seem capable of
sprinkling on their tracks, but Dada
Life seem to think that they’ve
managed to distil this into
something practical and real. “They
say you should never give away the
secret ingredient,” they explain.
“Well, we just did!”
The first cab off the Secret
Sauce rank is Space-In-Your-Face,
a reverb plugin that’s “just wider
and better than the rest”. This is an
enhanced version of the reverb that
was included in Dada Life’s Endless
Smile plugin, and can range in size
from small to huge.
Eternal Return, meanwhile, can
take your risers and buildups higher
(quite literally, by the sounds of it),
whereas Wide Awake Rainbow is a
stereo widener that promises to
“smear out the sound like ketchup
on a mayo sandwich”.
Each plugin has just a couple of
knobs, so the name of the game is
really about tweaking to taste, they
say, rather than calling up presets.
The Secret Sauce bundle runs
on PC and Mac in VST/AU formats
and is available now priced at $39
from dadalife.com.

16

The new Omnichord has finally broken
cover with retro and modern sounds,
keyboard/drum pad modes and MIDI Out
>
It’s happening: Suzuki has
confirmed that the new
Omnichord, which it
announced last year, will be
called the OM-108, and will be
released in July 2024.
The Omnichord has always been
an instrument that’s been designed
to be playable even by those with
little or no music-making
experience, and the OM-108 stays
true to this philosophy. A set of
chord selection buttons sits to the
left, and a strummable touchstrip
enables you to play them (as well as
individual notes from the chords).
There’s a definite ‘can’t go wrong’
vibe here, and you can choose the
flavour of your chords with the
major, minor and seventh buttons,
Is it an EQ? An effect? Who cares?
Oeksound Bloom promises the world
>
Oeksound is one of those
companies that brings
plugins that make your
music sound better, but
you're not always quite sure how or
why. The company's new Bloom
processor looks to continue the
trend; after reading and re-reading
its press release, we're still not sure
what it is or how it works. But
knowing Oeksound, it will work.
Oeksound doesn't release that
many plugins, but they have all
made a big impression. 2018's
Spiff was originally designed as a
corrective vocal processor, but
turned out to be an equally useful
tool on almost any sound source.
And as for Soothe2, well that is one
of the great plugins of our time, one
that we would describe as "a
dynamic EQ plugin that no
producer should be without".
Big pressure for Oeksound on
this latest release, then. Bloom is,
also dialling in sus4 and add9
variations where appropriate.
The OM-108 uses analogue
circuitry to emulate the sounds of
the classic OM-84 models (you can
actually start it up in a dedicated
OM-84 mode and use its presets)
but there are new tones, too. You
can beef up your sound using the
layering options, and the rhythm
section has new drum beats.
If you’re more interested in
playing melodies or basslines, you
can turn the chord buttons into a
playable keyboard (a handy overlay
gives you a visual guide), and you
can play the OM-108 as a drum
pad, too. MIDI Out means you can
also use this Omnichord as a
creative controller for other gear.
according to the company, an
"adaptive tone shaper". Basically it
sounds like it makes your music
sound better… well, depending on
how it sounds in the first place.
The Future Of Music | Filter
While the news of a new
Omnichord has attracted a lot of
interest – it definitely has a certain
kitsch appeal – it remains to be
seen whether this will translate into
sales. We suspect that this will
"It analyses the character of a
signal and applies corrections to
the perceived tonal balance for a
more even and refined sound,"
advises Oeksound helpfully,
largely depend on how much it
eventually costs; the rumoured
price is around $800; toppy for
something that might end up only
being used occasionally, but this
hasn’t been confirmed.
brilliantly saying both everything
and nothing in one sentence.
Bloom does seem to do 'stuff' in
various frequency bands, though, so
we'd call it, broadly, an EQ, though
we suspect that description is not
quite correct, either.
"Four frequency balance sliders
can be used to further shape the
tone to taste, enabling both fine
adjustments and radical
transformations. These sliders
change the overall tonal balance
that Bloom is working towards,
rather than making absolute cuts or
boosts as found in an EQ."
Which leaves us bemused,
especially after Oeksound itself
concludes: "Bloom steps away from
explicit problem-solving and
towards colour and tone-shaping. It
can be used to fix audio, but also to
sculpt it creatively."
Basically you probably need to
try it yourself. Out "soon".
17
 Talking Shop | Who??
M
arrying the snarling
savagery of post-punk
with an array of wider
influences that spans
dub, trip-hop and electronica, Folly
Group is one of the UK’s most
exciting new bands. With a fresh and
experimental outlook, the group’s
debut album, Down There!, sets
frontman Sean Harper’s sharply
observant lyrics against a patchwork
of angular guitars, restless
percussion and squealing synth
lines to exhilarating effect.
Alongside Sean, Folly Group’s
Louis Milburn, Tom Doherty and Kai
Akinde-Hummel self-produced the
record in the backroom of a vintage
gear store, making use of the various
bits and pieces of equipment that
would pass through the shop. This
experimentation led to an eclectic
palette of timbres and textures that
mirrors the band’s complex,
genre-blending musicality.
We spoke with Louis Milburn
to hear more about the making
of Down There! and he was kind
enough to leave us with three
production tips.
How did you all start making music,
© Matt Ritson
and how did you first get started?
“It varies for all of us, but I started off
18
––––––+ TALKING SHOP +––––––
Folly Group
The rising UK group discuss
WhatsApp flute loops and
recording “the punk way”
in a very band-oriented way. I got
a Boss BR-800 digital 8-track to
record my first band that was inspired
by stuff like The Buzzcocks. I always
wanted to record our own music
in this punk way instead of going
into a studio.
“I got the BR-800 because I didn’t
get computers at all. I always thought
the coolest music was recorded
outside of studios by self-recording
artists, and I wanted our records
to sound like demos. From there,
I graduated to a Tascam 38 ½” 8-track
tape machine and then eventually
went on to Ableton and then Logic
and then Pro Tools – it was
a strange journey.
“For other members of the band,
they very much started with
electronic music and Logic. Sean, for
example, had a house music project
as a teenager before later coming to
the world of band stuff.”
Where was the album recorded
and produced?
“The album was largely recorded at
my work after-hours, as well as my
flat in Leyton. I work at a place called
Funky Junk where we buy and sell
new and used recording equipment.
We have these rooms where we test
the gear and we just about managed
to stuff some drums and amps in
there occasionally to be recorded with
whatever just happened to be in and
ready to be tested.
“This is great because sometimes
you get to use some stuff you’d never
have access to without spending loads
of money, but sometimes you’d want
to redo a synth part but the vintage
Jupiter had already been sold and
we’d have to change the sound of the
part completely and use something
else. This informed the sound of the
project, using whatever equipment
had been passing through at the time.
“I’d then take the tracking from
there to my studio at home where
I have a little mix room where I edit
and process things. I have some
distortion boxes, tape delays, spring
reverbs and tape machines that things
get a pass through to bring a bit more
vibe to things. After that the record
eventually went to the brilliant Matt
Wiggins, who mixed the record in
his studio.”
We’re told the band self-produced the
project. How do you divide those
responsibilities between yourselves?
“Generally we all chip in by writing
individually, which will form the basis
of the programming and direction of
the song. After that point I’ll take over
and begin engineering the tracking,
dialling-in drum sounds, etc. Once
the basic tracking is all done, we
commune and really finish off the
tunes together, adding more synth
layers, sound design, backing vocals
– either together or remotely, with
people sending parts over to me.”
Guitars are a central feature of your
music. Do you have any go-to pedals or
effects for processing these and nailing
the Folly Group guitar sounds?
“There’s a few stages to the guitar
sound, but the main part of the sound
is the Z-Vex Lo-Fi junky pedal which
is like a vibrato and compression box
that goes at the end of the chain after
the delays etc. This is key for getting
the extreme delay stutters that I like to
do on my two Boss DD3s, as well as
making my playing sound way more
consistent than it actually is!
“Then I’ll record my amp with
a condenser mic like a Soyuz Bomblet
or a vintage AKG C414 to bring some
brightness back into the sound and
crank it through a tube mic pre. After
that, I’ll often send it to some tape
delays and spring reverbs if needed.”
What kind of electronic elements do
you incorporate into your sound?
How do you strike a balance
between incorporating these and
other production-based details
and retaining a ‘live’ feel?
“There’s quite a lot of programmed
drums in Folly Group, and we play
live with a drummer on an acoustic
kit and another one on an SPD,
reproducing the programmed
sounds. Drums are very much
the focus of the live show.
“On record, often it will be
something that came from the demo

that Sean or Tom have programmed
in Logic which I’ll always print to
tape, or something to bring it into the
real world. If it came from me it will
be sampled drums via a Teenage
Engineering KO-33 [as heard on
Freeze] or a drum machine loop I’ve
made from the OP-Z [Big Ground].
“The key then for keeping this
feeling live is to have a great drummer
who doesn’t need too much editing,
and we’ve got two! Then you go into
the edit, which is the hardest part – go
too far and you kill the vibe, don’t
go far enough and it sounds really
sloppy. Thankfully, Kai is always
on-hand to tell me when I’ve got
it completely wrong.”
There are some interesting synth tones
on the new record. We love that drone
that can be heard in the intro to East
Flat Crows – how did you make that?
“That was something Tom brought
to the table with his original demo
of that song. This tune has changed
about five times but that sound stayed
as it was key to the gloomy aesthetic
of the song and really was a bit of
a reference point for sounds
throughout the album.
“Tom made the synth in Logic
either using one of the stock plugins
or something from Arturia. To make
it weirder, I then ran it to cassette,
layered it with a patch from a UDO
Super 6 and then played this all out
my guitar amp in the warehouse at
my work when we were closed, and
put a pair of mics down the other
end of the warehouse to capture the
reverb. I did this with a bunch of
sounds throughout the record but the
effect is quite subtle when mixed in.”
We were also drawn to the lo-fi
keyboard sound and the distorted
drums in the intro of Nest...
“The flute-y sounding patch is a loop
© Nicole Osrin
cut from a jam me and Tom did at my
flat. He was playing my Behringer
Pro-1 while I was messing about with
an Eventide pitch pedal and recording
the whole thing, then I cut it up to
make the loop. I put the loop in our
band WhatsApp group and within a
few days Sean came back with the
whole of Nest written – it was pretty
crazy, and we were all blown away by
how cool his programmed drums
sounded on the track.
“I then put them through the
Pope Audio Dirty-C chorus twice and
hard-panned at different speeds to
make them super wide, and recorded
the acoustic drum kit in mono to
make it punch through the middle.
I’m super happy with the effect that
was created between the two.”
Are there any standout moments in the
production of the new record that
you’re particularly proud of?
“I think Strange Neighbour is probably
from an engineering standpoint my
favourite full-band recording I’ve
done, but Nest has the coolest mix of
electronic and acoustic production.
Big Ground is the one I’m most proud
of as it feels like we each really have
a bit of ourselves in it.
“I wrote the basis for the song as
a programming only number and
then Sean came up with the
doubled-up drum kit rhythms, as well
as taking on vocals as it suited his
Folly Group | Talking Shop
range better, and even doing some
crazy distorted prints of my
programmed drums through his
plugins on Logic. Tom then totally
changed the second verse by adding
this harmonic bass part, and then Kai
brought his signature brand of chaos
in the breakdown which just adds so
much energy, which was really fun to
do. He was playing some chair legs
with drumsticks and I had that mic’d
up and going through a delay pedal,
which I was modulating in real-time.”
Did you face any challenges or learn
any new techniques when recording
and producing the new project?
“The challenge for the album was
really representing ourselves and
finding a way of recording that was
authentic to us. The first EP had been
recorded at home, which we loved,
but was maybe a little lo-fi. The
second EP was recorded in a studio
which sounded maybe a bit too
normal, and like a classic band record
to me. So it was about upping our
game and sonics while still keeping
our character.
“A technique I certainly got more
into during this record was room
miking. The rooms where we
recorded the drums are quite dry, and
so to get a bit of space and energy
around a drum kit or percussion you
have to be quite creative with how
you’re using room mics. On the
drums it was generally a pair of Soyuz
013 FET pointed down at the floor to
accentuate the reflections coming
from there.”
What one piece of gear in your studio
could you not do without, and why?
“I’m lucky enough to work with
Adam Pope who runs Pope Audio.
Most of the record – apart from
guitars – was tracked with his mic pre,
the Pre-BX, as he was designing these
at the time and was kind enough to
lend me some of the prototypes. They
impart a lot of colour on what you’re
doing and make it sound like a record
a lot quicker. His Dirty-C chorus was
also on nearly all of Tom’s bass
recordings of the record, sometimes
a lot and sometimes just a tiny bit.”
FOLLY
GROUP’S
TOP TIPS
Move quickly
1
“Nobody wants to wait around while
you get the phase just right on
a drum kit or flick through a million
synth patches. Keep things simple where
possible and don’t doubt yourself.
Sometimes the first thing you land on
sounded right at the time because it
was right!”
Use drones
2
“In Folly Group we strongly believe
in the use of a drone in the
background of a song. Vocal not
sitting right? Try a nice, quiet synth pad
behind it. Drums sounding odd? Use
an ambient recording of a tube hurtling
past underneath it. If you see us live
you’ll notice just how much we lean
on that crutch!”
Compress your delays
3
“To make a delay sound really
extreme, try putting a compressor
after it so it jumps up and is the
same volume as your dry sound. This also
works great for reverbs.”
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Folly Group’s Down
There! is out now on
So Young Records
19
 FM | CLASSIC ALBUM
Juno Reactor
Bible Of Dreams
Blue Room Released, 1997
T
rance and techno pioneers Juno Reactor began life as
a loose and lively art collective. Head honcho, Ben
Watkins, fondly remembers the time he and his wife
drove a surface-to-air missile past Big Ben as an anti
Gulf War protest.
As the ’90s soldiered on, he and his ever-evolving lineup
focused more on the music, turning out three albums that pushed
the envelope for the electronic music genre, before work began
on their masterpiece – Bible Of Dreams.
The album was pieced together in Watkins’ Dickensian
warehouse over by Shoreditch, a studio space made sonically
Words by Roy Spencer
perfect thanks to a recently installed system that was hand-crafted
by sound expert (and now Watkins’ label boss) Robert Trunz.
“That changed it all,” Watkins says. “He put in a really big
Raindirk Symphony desk, which is really quite specialised.
20
Robert actually first started making desks for Deep Purple,
and what he built rattled the whole building.
“That desk was amazing. It had this really beautiful EQ. And
when you pushed the bass end, it just purred at you. That made a
massive impact on the music we could make, because suddenly
we had a three-dimensional sound in the studio.”
Watkins began to create bass-heavy, 360° soundscapes,
pulling live African percussion, Middle Eastern influences,
live vocalists, rock guitars, and analogue drums into the mix.
Developing themes across the album’s tracks were inspired
by the concepts of dreams, death, religion and sharks, all
while finding space for sampling actual Formula 1 racing cars,
alongside dialogue snippets from movies including Ed Wood
(1994) and The Ten Commandments (1956).
It would be deep-dive dance music, out on the fringes of the
underground, with a shattering sense of tribal rhythm and an
emotional depth unlike anything else on the scene at the time.
“It was around that time everyone started saying things like
‘Goa trance’,” says Watkins. “But, we didn’t really like those sort
of pigeonholes. And we didn’t like the idea of being labelled.
“Me, [and band members] Mike [Maguire] and Stephen
[Holweck] just didn’t want to have a blueprint. We just tried
to make the music that we wanted to hear.”

Track by track
with Ben
Watkins
Jardin De Cecile
“I’ve got this sort of imaginary
musical cooker where I put ideas
in when they’re just sounding a bit
dodgy. I just chuck them in there
and leave them until they’re ready
for pulling out again and working on.
This was one of those.
“I originally started the track with
a guy called Xavier [Morel], who’s
a DJ. And it was a pretty… well, it
wasn’t that good.
“I think Xavier got taken to prison
for six months, which sort of allowed
him a bit of respite. And, in that
time, I came across the story of this
18-year old French girl who was
murdered by an English truck driver.
And, when they found her body, the
father wrote on a tree, ‘Jardin De
Cecile’. Which means, ‘The Garden
of Cecile’.
“I had just had my daughter
around this time – in ’96 my
daughter was born. And it really
affects you, when you’ve just had
a kid. Your emotional well is like,
times 100. So it really affected me.
“After that, I thought, ‘Okay, let’s
take this track out of the cooker,
and manipulate it into like a sonic
garden of Cecile. And that was the
story behind it. And there are other
writers on there as well [Mike
Maguire and Paul Jackson].”
Conga Fury
“This features [South African conga
king] Mabi Thobejane. He had
a really big life story, and he was an
amazing person to be around. When
he was 17, he was out doing live
shows with Duke Ellington, Miles
Davis, and those sorts of artists.
“We met through Robert Trunz,
who recorded him for his jazz label,
M.E.L.T. 2000. He took me on a trip
to Namibia, where we filmed and
recorded the bush people, and
spent another two weeks down
in the desert.
“Mabia started telling me about
how he wrote tracks. And it seemed
very similar to the way I do, which is
very much about images, or stories,
and there’s always a fixed element to
it. It’s not just about, ‘Oh, let’s have
Trance pioneers Juno Reactor have
announced that that’ll release a 5CD box set,
through Edsel Records, containing their first
five landmark albums. Entitled Imagination,
Use It as A Weapon, and retailing £35, each
one comes with an exclusive art print, signed
by Ben Watkins himself.
Meanwhile, the seminal Bible Of
Dreams gets a standalone limited edition
heavyweight double vinyl pressing release
via Demon Records.
Both will be available from March 15th,
with more Juno Reactor releases and live
shows planned for the rest of 2024.
a good time’. And Conga Fury pretty
much came out of that. We said,
‘Let’s do a song about the dreams
of the Bushman or Sand People’.
“He was an amazing
percussionist. And before that,
percussion was like, things that
white guys did, badly. Like T-Rex,
and you know, people just sort of
‘seal-flapping’ on congas.”
God Is God/106
“I was working far more with real
acoustic drums, at the time. We had
Nick Burton on percussion and drum
kit. He was great on this [track].
“He’s a great drummer and had
a rockabilly band called Westworld.
But, he had great rhythmic sense.
And he had really good electronic
sense, as well. So, on things like
God Is God, we’re very much
working with him.
“This also features Natacha Atlas
on vocals. She was a friend of Nick’s,
because I think Nick was working
with someone else from her band,
Transglobal Underground. And he
Classic Album | Filter
“I did the video for God Is God. I used
[Russian director Sergei] Parajanov’s
film, The Color of Pomegranates. We
did a deal for five grand for the original
telecine reels, which we digitised
and edited.
“It became a big hit on MTV. Then
Tommy Mottola called saying, ‘Mariah
Carey wants you for her next video’.
“My manager rang back saying, ‘Ben’s
not into it. He just edited Parajanov’s
film’. He said, ‘Well, we still want you
to do it’.
“I turned it down, because we were
quite busy, and I wasn’t really into
doing a Mariah Carey video.”
said, ‘Let’s get Natacha Atlas down’. had installed this amazing gear.
And so she came down. And she Stuff like a huge Raindirk Symphony
really looked like Elizabeth Taylor. desk, and monitors with all these
She looked beautiful. And she had bass drivers.
a little wheelie bag, because she “He was CEO of M.E.L.T. 2000,
hadn’t got anywhere to live at the which was the umbrella company
time. She was always going to which ran the Blue Room record
different houses to stay in. So, label that put the album out, as well.
she brought in her wheelie bag of “We also had 24-track tape
everything she had. And then she machines, so everything was going
came into the vocal booth, and it down to tape with the Cyclosonic
just sounded amazing. 3D panner, which we used to have
“God Is God has been quite to hire in every day for like £100
a transitional track for Juno Reactor, or something.
because of the much slower BPM “And then, when all of these
difference as well. It was never a hit. sorts of panners became useless,
But it, you know, like a lot of Juno’s I rang up FX Rentals and got one
stuff, spread through, in a sort of for like £120, and now they’re
below-the-radar type of way.” worth thousands!
“Like a lot of the tracks, this is
Komit like eight minutes long. I mean,
“I just remember working with Paul I don’t know why writing tracks
Jackson, who was one of the writers, for that amount of time was so
and him being so precise on this important to us. But, with the sort of
track. It ended up taking a great deal longer tracks you got a better story.
of long nights to get this one done. “So, a lot of the thinking, in
“It was OK, though. I mean, we those days, was to have a longer
had my studio in which Robert Trunz intro. Then you’d get into it.
21
Filter | Classic Album

LIKE IT? TRY

Then you’d fire it up, and then hit
a crescendo.”
Swamp Thing
“This is also Mabi, again, on
percussion. And, I think I got my old
mate Pete Glenister down on guitar.
“I did some guitars, too.
Stephane [Holweck] is the bass
player. And he played like electric
bass on it as well. It’s all very
‘swampy’… ‘swampy rock’.
“I’ve always liked that sort of
“THAT DESK WAS REALLY
AMAZING. WHEN YOU
PUSHED THE BASS END,
IT JUST PURRED AT YOU”
crossing over between dance and
rock. Yeah, the first two albums we
did are not really doing that. And
[third album] Luciana, didn’t
have it, either.
“Before I was working in Juno,
I was in the band The Flowerpot
Men. That was electronics and cello,
voice, guitars. Then I was in
Sunsonic, which was the extension
of The Flowerpot Men, with acoustic
instruments and electronics. So, I’ve
always liked that. Because you get
like, whether it’s singers or players,
Kaguya Hime
“Well, this is based on the stories
from the Japanese folklore tales of
the princess and the moon. And
I had done a track called Samurai
before [Hypnotic Records, 1996].
And Japan was really quite an
important birthing pool for
Juno Reactor.
“We did a lot of things there, way
before we did anything outside. And
that was a nod to them, really. And
I liked the story.
“It has great
percussion by
Nick Burton,
as well.
I think it’s
a lot of his
knowledge as
a drummer
coming
through, but
I think it’s all pretty much electronic.
“It’s got a darkness to it. I think,
maybe at times, I’m a bit Gothic.
I sort of [insert] myself into that
world quite easily. Although you
don’t get that much Gothic stuff
on Juno, but I quite like that
darkness in tracks.
“And there’s a credit to Yapo.
That was one of the guys in our
family in Japan. And he did
the voiceovers.
“I was always recording stuff. I’ve
been doing that for years, just with
Children Of The Night
“That’s me and Johann [Bley]. And
I remember thinking that I wanted
to get Formula 1 cars recorded.
So I went up to [UK racetrack]
Silverstone, I think.
“I got an invite from, the
Marlboro team [Ferrari]. And, I think
at the time, Schumacher was racing
for them. But the majority of the
cars that I used were actually the
Benetton ones.
“Besides the cars, I think there’s
a bit of the Johnny Depp film,
Ed Wood. So those had to give the
record company a big task to get
the licences through; all of this stuff.
Like the Charlton Heston samples
we used in God Is God from
The Ten Commandments.”
Shark
“We just love sharks, and the
protection of sharks. I mean,
generally, the whole protection of
the sea. The sea and the marine
life, globally, has been quite a big
thing for us.
“What really gave this track,
and the whole album, its sound,
was having such a great desk. I still
love working on analogue desks now.
Whether working with samplers or
live percussion, it really added
a new sound.
“It was like another member of
the band, really. I think it gave us
THESE…
Natacha Atlas
The Best Of
Natacha Atlas
Stunning compilation of the Egyptian
dub princess, God Is God and
Transglobal Underground singers’
finest songs.
ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST:
‘Leysh Nat’Arak’, ‘Mon Amie La Rose’,
‘You Only Live Twice’
Mabi Thobejane
Madiba
1997 tribal jazz classic from the Bible
Of Dreams percussionist, on Robert
Trunz’s M.E.L.T. 2000 imprint.
ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST:
‘Thabo’, ‘Madiba (Nelson Mandela) (Part 1)’,
‘Thabo Tando Nico’
The Flowerpot Men
1984
Before Juno Reactor, Watkins was in
this innovative electro duo. And this
gem of an album collects their best
tracks from 1984-87, and recently
dropped on vinyl and digital.
ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST:
‘Jo’s So Mean to Josephine’, ‘Walk on Gilded
Splinters’, ‘Alligator Bait’

you just get so much more onto tape. a Zoom or tape recorders. I once a big advantage over other bands.
You get an emotional content.” recorded an Indian singer in a taxi.” And I think that’s why the album
still sounds okay now.
“We had great engineers as well. Juno Reactor
Greg Hunter was there. And there Imagination, Use It
was Richard Edwards. They took as A Weapon
tracks to a new level, you know? This new 5CD retrospective boxset
“I could not have mixed them rounds up the band’s first five seminal
as well as they did. I’ve got proof, albums, and gives them a modern
because I’ve got some of the mixes mastering polish.
ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST:
I did for demos. They taught me ‘High Energy Protons’, ‘Luciana’,
a lot about mixing. And there was ‘Guardian Angel’
mastering by Kevin Metcalfe. I’ve
In the studio with Ben Watkins been working with him since the
“My studio was like a huge warehouse over by Shoreditch. Robert Trunz ’80s. The first record he mastered
came in and added a massive Raindirk Symphony desk and massive
was David Bowie’s Hunky Dory, so
monitors with nine 12” bass drivers each side. Juno Reactor
we were in good hands.”
“We’d got rid of the Atari ST, and were on an early Macintosh tower, The Mutant Theatre
running everything through some sort of MIDI device. It was all Cubase. Juno’s 12th album from 2018,
Like, 2.0. I’ve always used Cubase since the very beginning. containing the band’s most recent
“A lot was arranged in the computer, but we used to jam a lot on the WANT TO KNOW MORE? take on the pulsating psy-trance
desk. We had certain amounts of automation, but were always hands on dance they helped bring into
deck, come the mix. For all the latest news the world.
“I had a Korg MS-20, but my favourite was the Mono/Poly. Then on their mesmerising ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST:
‘Return Of The Pistolero’, ‘Our World’, ‘Alien’
a Roland MC-202, 303. The Korg DW-8000 and EX-8000. And we’d hire
an Oberheim keyboard. But, generally, it was those things and samplers. live shows and any
“I had a couple of Akai 1000s. Or, maybe a newer one? And some new and forthcoming
Oberheim Matrix 1000s. And we also had the Cyclosonic 3D panner,
for spatial effects, and then 24-track tape machines.” releases, head to:
junoreactor.com

22
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FM | RELEASES
ALBUM OF THE MONTH
Jlin, Akoma
Planet Mu
U
S producer Jerrilynn
Patton – aka Jlin – first
emerged from the 2010s
footwork scene, starting
out under the mentorship of artists
including DJ Rashad and RP Boo.
While the frantic rhythms and
staccato sample chops of footwork are
still an important element of her
sound, Jlin’s ambitions and musical
output have stretched far beyond the
edges of the genre in the years since
her debut release, leading to
26
collaborations with some of the
leading lights of electronic music,
ambient, contemporary classical and
visual arts – and scored her a Pulitzer
nomination along the way.
It’s testament to the level of
respect that Jlin commands as a
producer that this latest album comes
complete with starry guest
appearances from Bjork, Philip Glass
and the Kronos Quartet. As
eye-catching as those names are, it’s
Jlin’s distinctive style of intricate and
restless production that remains the
star of the show on Akoma.
Perhaps more than ever before in
her career, here Jlin blurs the
distinction between club music, jazz
and classical. Throughout the album,
stuttering drum machine grooves and
grimy bass hits sit alongside rhythmic
and melodic influences pulled from
diverse corners of 20th century
experimental music and African
traditions. On Eye Am, for example,
complex layers of traditional
© Lawrence Agyei
percussion wind around propulsive
waves of synthesised sub bass.
Sodalite, meanwhile, pairs tense
strings from the Kronos Quartet with
Jlin’s frenetic drum sampling, the two
elements initially sounding as if in
competition, before later resolving
into something more unified.
The album’s most distinctive
moments come with Summon, on
which Jlin swaps the drums and bass
for orchestral samples, yet still
arranges everything in the style of a
stuttering footwork banger, and the
final majestic payoff of Philip Glass
collaboration The Precision of Infinity.
Si Truss
ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST
Summon, Sodalite, The Precision of Infinity
VERDICT 9.0

ON OUR
PLAYLIST
REISSUE
Sandwell District,
Where Next?
The Point of Departure
REISSUE
The Monitors, Redux
Palette Recordings
Highly respected techno producer and
DJ Juan Mendez, best known as Silent
Servant, sadly died in late January. As a
result of the unexpected nature of his
passing, the weeks following his death
have seen the release of two reissue
packages, both of which were scheduled
well before Mendez’s death, but now act
as sadly fitting testaments to his skills
and influence.
Firstly, Where Next? is a newly-
compiled collection of tracks from
Sandwell District, the atmospheric
techno outfit that Mendez belonged to
alongside fellow producers Regis,
Female and Function. Following last
year’s reissue of their influential album
Feed Forward – and in anticipation of
scheduled live dates this summer –
Where Next? compiles tracks from the
group’s members that previously only
saw limited releases, combined here to
create what Regis describes as “the
purest hit of the SD sound”. Among
those tracks are several examples of
Mendez’s best production work,
including the pulsing, ominous synths
of Mad Youth and hard-hitting, insistent
percussion of Discipline.
Aside from showcasing Mendez’s
personal talents, Where Next? highlights
just how pivotal Sandwell District have
been on modern techno in the
decade-and-a-bit since the collective
originally disbanded. In tracks like
Function’s Ember and Regis’s Man Is
The Superior Animal, as well as the
group’s general sound and aesthetic, it’s
easy to see the influence the four artists
have had on the sound of their
contemporaries in Berlin and beyond.
Separately, February also saw a vinyl
reissue of a single Mendez released as
The Monitors in 2011, in collaboration
with LA-based producer John Tejada.
With a little less emphasis on the
industrial grit and post punk
atmospherics of much of his Silent
Servant releases, the two tracks here
– essentially two versions of one idea –
focus on synth-driven, minimal techno.
This Redux take has new rhythm tracks
created by Mendez before his death,
along with a fresh master from Tejada.
Si Truss
Releases | Reviews
RECOMMENDED
Elkka, SINGLE
R
Make Me
eleased ahead of her
debut album Prism of
Pleasure this May, Make
Me is the latest single
Ninja Tune from Cardiff-born, London-based
artist Elkka. It’s an excellent
example of how to craft an emotive
© Alexandra Lambert
and driving club track. Built
primarily around an insistent vocal
sample and rising, euphoric piano
chords, in lesser-hands Make Me is
the sort of track that could easily
feel saccharine or overblown. Elkka
pulls it off though, by keeping the
track structurally restrained –
looping the main idea but switching
up the beat with bursts of drum
break and filtered breakdowns. Half
way through the record, strummed
acoustic guitar chords push the
track in the direction of vintage
’90s pop, without ultimately
diluting the power of the driving
bass hits. Si Truss
VERDICT 8.0
Squarepusher,
ALBUM
D
Dostrotime
ostrotime is
Squarepusher’s ‘lockdown
album’, inspired by the
“novel, eerie, sublime
Warp records silence” of that time. It opens in
unusually sedate form with the
sparse, finger-picked acoustic guitar
© Caspar Stevens
of Arkteon 1, a style he returns to
multiple times throughout the album.
While Dostrotime is hardly ambient
– see the chaotic acid of lead single
Wendorlan – it is indicative of a
record that feels, at times, a little
more sparse and intimate than much
of his other work. It’s these moments
when Dostrotime is most distinctive,
as on Holorform, when the beats
leave space for brooding synth swells
and jazz guitars. That said, there are
still few people who can slice a break
like Squarepusher and when tracks
like Duneray get going, even
Squarepusher’s lockdown sounds
remarkably ravey. Si Truss
VERDICT 7.0
27
Feature | Bass Synthesis

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28

Bass is a staple
element of all kinds
of music, from piano
compositions to rock
or jazz music. While
the upper
frequencies might be
home to hooks and
harmonies, it’s the
lower frequencies
that provide the
foundations…
This is particularly true of electronic
music, where the quality of a bassline
can make or break a track. While
there are many ways you can source
your bass sounds, synthesis might be
the most versatile approach (more on
this shortly). Synth bass can come in
a multitude of forms, though, from
smooth analogue lines to
harmonically complex digital patches.
As such, bass synthesis can be
both one of the simplest and most
complex processes in electronic
music making. At the basic end of
the spectrum, a solid sub can be
made with little more than a simple
sine or triangle oscillator, an amp
envelope to control volume and
a low-pass filter to shape the
frequency. While this might be
© Redferns
US dubstep king turned all-rounder
Skrillex is no stranger to complex
earth-shaking bass sounds
enough to provide a deep foundation
under more complex sounds in your
track, for a bassline that cuts through
other elements and doesn’t get lost
in a mix you’ll need to turn to
techniques such as oscillator
layering, modulation or distortion.
This issue, we’re focussing on
bass synthesis in all its forms, guiding
you through the basics to some more
advanced concepts, ideas and mixing
considerations. So, grab whatever
hardware or plugin synth you have to
hand, and let’s lay down some bass.
WHY SYNTHESIS?
As with all forms of sound creation,
when it comes to making basslines,
there’s more than one way to skin the
proverbial cat. Traditionally, of course,
the lower frequencies in a musical
composition would be filled by an
acoustic instrument specifically
designed to work in that range, such
as an upright bass or the lower
registers of a piano – or in more
recent times, an electric bass guitar.
All of these remain viable options in
the electronic realm, as does
sampling. There’s no end of quality
bass loops and one-shot hits available
via the usual sample sources
(including numerous available to
download with this very magazine).
In the electronic music realm,
however, synthesising your bass parts
Bass Synthesis | Feature
Moog’s Minimoog Model D is the
instrument that defined ‘synth bass’ as
we know it today
from scratch is undoubtedly the most
flexible and versatile approach. The
advent of modern music technology
has changed the way we approach
bass sounds on two fronts. On one
hand, with the arrival of the first
commercial synthesisers in the
1960s and ’70s, the conception
of what a ‘bass’ sound could be
expanded vastly. Where bass
instruments had previously been fairly
simple in terms of the timbre, used
largely to underpin the more complex
harmonies and melodies, synth bass
could do far more – it could straddle
the divide between adding a low-end
foundation and high-end hook.
Secondly, as speaker, headphone
and amplification technology has
evolved, the range of lower
frequencies present within modern
music has vastly expanded, too. The
concept of sub-bass – bass below
60Hz, at the very bottom of the
audible spectrum – wasn’t
a consideration 50 years ago, but
now plays a vital role in producing
music designed for club systems.
Conversely, portable media, from
car stereos to phones and Bluetooth
speakers, means that music is
regularly consumed on devices that
might not translate those lowest
frequencies at all. This presents a real
challenge for modern music makers
– how to craft bass tones that have
the power to work on big systems,
but also translate to small speakers.
Synthesis offers the best set of
tools to tackle these conflicting
needs. In the analogue realm, by
layering oscillators and applying
precise filtering and modulation,
we can shape bass sounds that fit
perfectly to fill the frequencies our
track needs, whether that’s a deep
sub or a cutting mid-range bass – or
a sound that has elements of both.
Digital synthesis techniques such as
FM or additive let us take this further
still, building sounds from the ground
up to create complex, rich synth
tones full of movement that span
the full frequency range.
Even if you do intend to turn to
samples, presets or your trusty bass
guitar for your music making, there’s
real benefits to exploring how to
create synth bass from scratch.
An understanding of the basic
foundations can help you make the
right creative decisions and know
how to find the right bass for the job.
29
Feature | Bass Synthesis

Bass basics
Whether you’re using
an analogue, virtual
analogue, digital or
sample-based synth,
all approaches share
a few general
principles that
can help you craft
solid, characterful
bass patches
KEEP THINGS SIMPLE
Always try to approach bass design
with some method or plan for making
sounds, so that you aren’t just trying
stuff randomly. First off, decide what
type of sound you are going for. Does
it need to be punchy? Resonant?
Thin? Fat? All of these? Once this
has been established, you can then
start to think about your sound, the
number of oscillators required and
types of waveforms you’ll need
(more on this over the page).
Often, you’ll find you only need
one or two oscillators to make your
sound, so always start off with
a single oscillator and try getting the
sound you’re after, then add more as
you need (a basic form of additive
synthesis). To a large extent, the
success of a single oscillator sound
depends on the power and richness
of the oscillators in the synth you are
using and how you process them.
Every synth has its own character,
but try to use one that has powerful
oscillators, filters and snappy
envelopes like the Korg MS-20,
Novation Bass Station II or plugins
like Arturia Pigments or Kilohearts
Phase Plant.
OSCILLATOR LEVELS
It’s easy to overlook the levels of your
oscillators and just set them all to full
when making multi-oscillator bass
sounds but you can soon hit on
undesirable results. The frequencies
and waves of each oscillator interact
differently depending on how their
levels are set against each other and
how hard they are driving your synth’s
mixer stage. Many synths, particularly
analogue ones, allow you to overdrive
the mixer stage for added harmonic
richness and growl. Though this may
be what you’re after it’s no good if you
want a clean-sounding bass, so keep
your levels in check.
Combining triangle and pulse
waves is a great method for achieving
a bassy but cutting tone. However,
if you set the volume of the pulse
wave too high on your mixer and
the triangle wave too low, you’ll find
you’ll get a harsh sound that cuts
through the mix, but with little or
no bass presence
OSCILLATOR DETUNING
When choosing the pitch of your
oscillators, generally start off with
them both set to the same octave and
work from there. Set both at 32’ – ie
a lower octave – then listen to the
result. Then set one at 32’ and one
an octave above at 16’ and listen,
then one at 32’ and one at 8’ and
listen, and so on. It often helps to
have an oscillator set at a higher
octave in the mix, as this will help
the bass cut through on smaller
speakers as well.
Bear in mind that if you space the
pitches of two oscillators too far apart,
then you’ll find it harder to get the
sound to gel together as there will be
a large frequency gap. Sometimes
this is a useful effect, but often the
closer together the pitches, the more
solid your sound. Using subtle
amounts of detune – kept to just
a few cents – between oscillators
can also add chorus, movement
and thickness.
PHASE CANCELLATION
Using two or more oscillators together
can cause phase cancellation. This
happens when two oscillators are set
to the same wave and one is slightly
detuned, with the net result being
that they cancel each other out at
certain points in their cycles, taking
power away from your bass sound. If
you hold down a note and the power
of the sound appears to be fading in
and out at certain points, then it’s
likely you have phase cancellation.
Adjust the detuning, wave shapes and
relative oscillator volumes until the
phasing stops.
Sometimes phasing is good,
though, creating sounds similar to the
classic Reese bass used heavily in
techno and drum & bass. Using
oscillator hard sync is great for
pitch-locked phasing or vocal-like
sounds, too. Try syncing osc 1 to osc
2, then using your mod wheel to
adjust osc 2’s frequency.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FILTERS

Almost all analogue-style bass patches will make use of a low-pass filter – one
which filters out a certain amount of the higher frequencies to leave just those in
the lower ranges. Different slopes, 12db, 16db or 24db (aka 2-, 3- or 4-pole) will
When it comes to crafting synth bass apply a differing degree of filtering, resulting in ‘darker’ or ‘lighter’ bass sounds.
patches, your source oscillators are The design of the filter itself can play a major role in the character of your bass,
too. A Moog ladder filter, for example, is renowned for smooth and deep tones,
obviously important, but a synth’s filter while Korg’s MS-20 is more aggressive, with self-oscillating resonance that can
will play just as influential a role act as an oscillator by itself. And the way the resonant filter of a Roland TB-303
interacts with the accents and envelope helped create acid house and techno.

RESONANCE MODULATION DRIVE

> > >

Resonance will create a ‘peak’ at the cutoff
frequency. At low levels, this can help to
accentuate your bass sound or add a punch in
the higher frequencies. Cranked up and modulated,
it will create the ‘bubbling’ tones of acid basslines.
Modulating a filter can be key to bringing a
bassline to life. A short, sharp envelope will
allow for mid-range ‘punch’ whilst keeping the
body of your bass low and subby. Slowly increasing
filter cutoff is a great way to ‘build’ your track.
Many synth filters include some kind of drive
or distortion. Cranking your synth patch at the
filter stage can be a great way to add extra
harmonics that will add much-needed mid-range
presence to help your sound cut through.

30
 Bass Synthesis | Feature

What’s in
a waveform?
Pick any synth and
INCLUDES
AUDIO

whether it’s digital

or analogue, the
chances are that it
will employ a number
SINE
of oscillators or A sine wave is the ‘purest’ form of synth waveform, containing only the fundamental frequencies with no overtones. As
a result, it sounds clean and smooth. Sines are perfect for creating simple, powerful sub bass, although you’ll need to
sampled waves as layer an additional waveform over the top, or apply distortion or modulation, in order to hear it on many speaker setups.
the building blocks
of every sound. Take
for example the
Minimoog – it has
three oscillators,
each of which has TRIANGLE
several waveforms A triangle wave is soft and contains odd harmonics from the fundamental frequency (the lowest point on the wave’s cycle).
including triangle, It doesn’t have much bite, midrange or tops, though it has a little top-end buzz and is perfect for adding weight.
reverse saw tooth
(ramp), square wave
and two pulse waves
(one narrow and one
wide). These waves
each have their SAW
own unique sonic A sawtooth wave is the basis for many bright or cutting sounds, and contains both odd and even harmonics. It has a nice
characters, which bite, buzz and bright edge to its character, while it sounds solid enough on its own to make bass and lead sounds
(especially when filtered).
give Minimoog
synth bass sounds
a particular feel. The
most effective synth
bass sounds employ
anywhere from one SQUARE
to three oscillators, Like a triangle wave, a square wave contains only odd harmonics, giving it a more hollow sound. However, its flat edges and
using a blend of corners impart its character with a more solid tone and some brightness, making it suitable for hollow, yet cutting basses
different waveforms and leads.
to add low-end, bite,
width and air to
the sound

PULSE
A pulse wave’s character is biting, yet quite nasal, and is suitable for thinner-type basses and leads. It contains both odd
and even harmonics. Evolving bass sounds can be made by varying the width of the wave (using an LFO to modulate) or
by manually changing the pulse width.

31
Feature | Bass Synthesis
Wavetables and
digital bass
If you own NI’s
original Massive, load
up its Brutal Electro
preset, play a few low
notes and tweak the
synth’s macros. This
wavetable patch was
infamously overused
in dubstep circles in
the 2010s, and you’ll
recognise its thick,
modulating character
A wavetable synth’s oscillator is
a collection of single-cycle
waveforms, scanning through which
can create harmonically-complex
tones. Older hardware wavetable
synths had a ‘stepped’ feel when
sweeped, but modern plugins now
provide smooth scanning between
wave types for unique harmonic
32
Korg’s Minilogue XD offers the winning
combination of analogue grit and
digital complexity
textures. Massive isn’t the only
wavetable synth – its follow-up,
Massive X, updates the concept,
while the likes of Kilohearts Phase
Plant, Arturia Pigments or Ableton’s
Wavetable all offer a more
contemporary take.
Many modern ‘bass music’ artists,
the likes of Skrillex and Noisia among
Massive X updates the design of the
synth that defined ‘bass’ in the 2010s
them, have attributed part of their
bass sound to FM synthesis, a digital
type of synthesis famous for
complexity and dissonance. Made
popular in the early ’80s by the
realistic bell and piano-like tones of
the Yamaha DX7, FM synthesis uses
the frequency of ‘modulator’
oscillators (or operators) to modulate
the frequency of ‘carrier’ operators.
NI’s FM8 and Ableton Operator are
stalwart FM plugins, while Tracktion’s
F.’em is probably the most powerful
FM synth going. FM has made
a resurgence in hardware, too, with
the likes of Elektron’s Digitone and
Korg’s Opsix both being powerful
machines for bass design.
All sounds are made up of
multiple sine waves, or harmonics,
and additive synthesis combines large
numbers of these ‘partials’ to create
harmonically rich and interesting
synth tones. NI’s Razor is a staple
additive synth plugin with subtractive-
like parameters, integrating features
like filtering and reverb at a deeper
harmonic level. Logic’s Alchemy and
Arturia Pigments also have capable
additive engines.
These modern takes on bass
aren’t entirely confined to the
analogue realm, though. Novation’s
Bass Station II, Korg’s Monologue
and Arturia’s Brute range are all
hardware synths capable of
cross-modulation with enough grunt
to spew out nasty bass patches for
days, with the bonus of hands-on
control and tweakability. Hybrid
analogue/digital synths, meanwhile,
such as UDO’s Super 6, Arturia’s
Mini/MicroFreak and Korg’s Minilogue
XD, all offer the combination of
analogue grit and digital complexity.
 Bass Synthesis | Feature

INCLUDES
USING FM AND OSCILLATOR
SYNC TO BRING ANALOGUE
AUDIO

BASS TO LIFE
Audio-rate modulation is the main technique behind synths like
Yamaha’s DX7, but a more basic version can be used in many
analogue or analogue-style synths. Let’s use a touch of FM as well
as oscillator sync to add harmonic interest to a simple bass sound

1 2
We’re starting with a simple
analogue-style bass patch
from Arturia Pigments. It
uses a square wave with a sine
sub-oscillator provided by the
Utility Engine. A low-pass filter
with a short modulation envelope
is adding a punchy attack. It’s a
decent sound, but hardly original.
Pigments’ analogue engine
lets us apply frequency
modulation to oscillators
1 and 2 using Osc 3 as a source.
For now, let’s keep the volume of
Oscillators 2 and 3 down to zero,
but we increase FM to osc 1
a little to 0.020. Our square
wave starts to sound ‘hollow’.
3
Altering the shape and
tuning of Oscillator 3 lets
us get creative with this
effect. Tuning Osc 3 up by seven
semitones, adding a little detune
and switching to a triangle wave
gives us a more interesting,
slightly dissonant tone.

4 5
Oscillator sync gives us
another way to introduce
interesting timbres. To try
this, we turn off the FM and raise
the level of Osc 2. This is set to
a pulse wave with a width of
0.800. Now we disengage key
tracking for Oscillator 2 but
engage oscillator sync instead.
6
This effect becomes We now reintroduce
most interesting with the FM effect too,
modulation. We set up experimenting with
LFO 1 to modulate to coarse different wave shapes as well as
tuning of Osc 2. Oscillator sync modulation levels/speeds lets us
keeps this from sounding too create all sorts of unusual effects.
harsh, but it still creates an
interesting timbral effect.

33
Feature | Bass Synthesis
synth bass 2
mixing tips
Now that we’ve gone
through the basics
of building solid bass
sounds using several
oscillators and wave
types (plus tips for
detuning, pitching
and optimising
levels), let’s explore
how to use those
sounds, spice them
up and some bassline
mixing tips
STACKING AND LAYERING
1
Stacking analogue, VA or
sampled oscillators to
make a sound is a great
way to thicken up and
obtain multiple characters from just
one sound. Don’t forget layering
with more unusual samples
– whether it be a piano bass note,
cowbell, white noise, the attack
34
Sidechaining allows for some great
‘pumping’ and ‘cutting’ effects to add
to your basslines
portion from an acoustic guitar/
string, or another analogue single
or multi-oscillator sound – is
often a good way to obtain
something unique.
If you’re a competent player, try
tracking a three-osc sound into your
DAW as audio, then double track it
with a completely different sound.
Another option would be to track
a MIDI part into your DAW, then
trigger as many sounds from as
many keyboards as you like using
Try layering sampled sounds wth
analogue-style oscillators to add
character to your bass
this MIDI information to form
a monster bass stack. You can then
tweak the MIDI info as you like,
drawing in volume and MIDI
parameter automation (such as
filter and modulation changes) to
add movement to your basslines.
Then bounce it all down to separate
audio tracks and treat each part
with EQ, compression and effects
as you like and/or send all the parts
to a bus and compress, EQ and
effect the stack as a whole.
SIDECHAINING
Try sidechaining to
change up your grooves.
Call up a compressor or
gate and put it on your
bass track and set its sidechain
input to trigger from any piece of
audio in your DAW (such as a kick,
hats, beat or chords). You can get
some great pumping and cutting
effects using sidechaining in this
way, and it can help avoid clashes
in low end elements such as bass
and kick. To achieve this, add a
compressor to a synth bassline, and
set the compressor’s sidechain to
trigger from a kick drum, so that
when a kick drum sounds, the
compressor pulls and pushes the
bassline in time with the track.
USING PORTAMENTO
3
Often, you don’t want
every note to sound
separated in a bassline,
so use glide and legato
mode to smooth note transitions

(much like sliding between notes
on a bass guitar). Try recording in
a line while manipulating the glide
time, or write glide information into
your DAW using automation.
Many monosynths and plugins
also have a legato option, which
enables short notes to sound
IT’S BEST TO KEEP MID-RANGE AND HIGH-END
SOUNDS STEREO BUT KEEP BASS AND KICKS
IN MONO TO AVOID ANY PROBLEMS
cleanly, while at the same time
allowing you to smudge one note
into the next by playing the next
note while still holding down the
previous. It takes a bit of practice
to get the technique right but it’s
a powerful tool. Use short glide
times for faster basslines and longer
glide sweeps for breakdowns and
builds, to release and build tension.
STEREO/MONO BASS
4
If you are cutting your
track to vinyl or likely to
have your tracks played
out, then ideally you
should keep your bass in mono.
Many club systems are mono and
won’t reproduce stereo signals
accurately (plus the human ear
can’t accurately detect directional
sounds at low frequencies) and
stereo bass will usually have to be
summed to mono if cutting to vinyl,
to avoid cutting head damage and
unusable masters.
Generally, vinyl mastering
engineers will sum bass to mono
below 150Hz, so most of the stereo
information would be lost anyway.
Also, if your bass is wide stereo and
your kick is mono, the bass is likely
to eclipse the kick and get lost.
Distortion can help a sub bass sound be
heard on weak speakers and ‘trick’ the
brain into hearing more low end
Thus, it’s best to keep
mid-range and high-end sounds
stereo but keep bass and kicks in
mono to avoid any problems. You
can successfully create the illusion
of stereo bass by keeping your sub
information in mono and the
mid-range information layered on
Ableton Live’s Utility tool features a
very useful Bass Mono function for
mono compatibility
top in stereo. If you do want to go
ahead and use stereo bass, then
make use of tools such as Ableton’s
Utility, which allows frequencies
to be narrowed below a certain
user-defined threshold – but always
check your mixes in mono just to
be sure. Finally, if you want to have
stereo bass that’s
mono compatible/
phase coherent, try
sending your synth
bass out through
your studio
Bass Synthesis | Feature
monitors, mic the room with two
omni-pattern mics set in X/Y
configuration, then blend the
resulting recording back in with
your direct synth sound.
REVERB AND OTHER EFFECTS
5
Short mono reverbs and
delays can work well in
the right context. Just
remember to use a long
enough pre-delay time, so that the
attack portion of the sound remains
dry. Chorus, flange, phaser and wah
can work too, but try these in mono
to avoid any phase issues and mono
compatibility problems.
EQ AND DISTORTION
6
When using particularly
subby sounds you’ll
likely find that while
they sound great on big
systems, they can hardly be heard
on smaller speakers. This is
because the speakers or amps on
systems such as headphones have
narrow frequency responses. While
you are never going to feel the
subby lows on these kind of
systems, you can trick your ear into
thinking the sub bass is there by
either adding subtle distortion or
overdrive to the sound using
a plugin, or by duplicating the
bassline in your DAW and EQing
each track, so that one track’s
bassline contains all the sub info
and the other track is high-pass
filtered, rolling out the lows from
when the sub track’s highs roll off.
For example, the subby track
can cover the low end from 40Hz to
250Hz and the high-end track can
cover 250Hz to 10kHz. This way
you can mix and blend the highs
and lows separately, which is a very
flexible way to work within a mix.
35
Interview | Carl Craig

Second generation techno pioneer Carl Craig

chats to Danny Turner about the genre’s
cultural visibility and how he’s keeping
the flame alive

36

ne of the leading visionaries behind
Detroit techno’s second generation
throughout the late ’80s and early
’90s, Carl Craig picked up the torch
from the genre’s forefathers, The
Belleville Three, releasing classic
tracks under his own name and aliases
such as Innerzone Orchestra. Widely
considered one of the go-to authorities on the genre, Craig is
still pushing the boundaries with his innovative live sets and
futuristic ethos behind his long-running techno label, Planet
E Communications.
Alongside his encyclopaedic knowledge of electronic
music past and present, Craig has been keen to promote
awareness of Detroit techno culture through various
multidisciplinary activities, from educational discussions
at college campuses to being artistic director of the Detroit
Electronic Music Festival. Meanwhile, his booming,
club-oriented Party/After-Party sound and light installations
are a recent example of his foray into the world of ‘living art’.
Take us back to your involvement in techno’s second
wave. How indebted are you to those who came before
you and defined techno as we know it?
“Of course I wanted to display my influences from the
techno, jazz and classical worlds, as well as being a Prince
fanatic. I put all that stuff into whatever I did, whether it was
making techno or rap music, which I could have done just
as easily as techno because that was another sound that was
emerging at the time, even though it wasn’t as big as we
now know it.”
As a primarily electronic artist, how important was it for
you to have been schooled on conventional instruments?
“You know, techno guys like Kevin Saunderson and Derrick
May weren’t trained musicians, and Juan Atkins learned to
play bass early on and that was his instrument. I was playing
guitar, upright bass and drums, and had the experience of
playing in bands and school orchestra ensembles, so it did
play an important role for me. I usually do everything in
a minor key, and learned how to translate sounds to
synthesisers at my aunt’s house in Georgia with my guitar
by learning guitar voicings on the piano. It’s funny because
when I’m in front of a synthesiser I never start at E, I always
start at C or F, because they’re the easiest keys outside of the
black keys to play, but I think it was Martyn Ware who said
that where they fucked up with synthesisers was by putting
a keyboard on them [laughs]. If the Minimoog or Pro One
had MPC pads instead of keys we’d have played the music
totally differently.”
For people who have never visited Detroit and got
a first-person feel for the city, how important do you
feel techno has been to the region, culturally?
“It’s not the new Motown. People travelled from all over
America in order to visit Motown and become a star, but
Detroit techno is where people travel from Europe in order
to meet the stars, such as Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson
and Juan Atkins. So Motown was a much bigger deal than
techno was and even though we knew techno in Detroit, it
was still very underground – our own quiet little secret. New
York kind of knew about it, but they were always into doing
© Tim Saccenti
their own thing. It was something we were proud of and
we followed the legends, but it didn’t have a huge impact
because it wasn’t commercial music. Unlike rap, nobody
Carl Craig | Interview
thought they could become a millionaire from making
techno and there are no techno millionaires, but J Dilla
knew who we all were – if you listen to Big Booty Express,
it’s like a slow version of a Cybotron record.”
How does techno culture permeate the city today? Are
there fliers everywhere for techno-related events?
“Nah, there’s no flags to say techno after-party at 6am. The
only signage that ever comes up about techno in Detroit is
during the Movement Music Festival. Even though we have
a song called Techno City, it was never as big as Detroit Rock
City by KISS. By the time the music had made its way to
being quite popular in Europe, we were going over there to
promo Techno 2: The Next Generation compilation. That was
during the early days of the travelling DJ and I remember
being in the UK in 1990 and seeing David Morales play
Pump Up the Jam at Heaven in Charing Cross. That was
the hot record when I came over.”
How do you feel techno as a genre has morphed over
the years?
“Even though techno had a street sound, it had a fantasy
message about technology and things that are probably a bit
nerdy. Early electro acts like Nucleus and Egyptian Lover had
a similar vein, although Egyptian Lover was locked in with
Uncle Jamm’s Army, which is where Ice T and Dr. Dre came
from. Detroit didn’t have that same cultural shift; it was just
appreciated by the nerds and English journalists, who had
a habit of always looking for the next big thing. In many
cases, a new name was put onto something that was already
there. You put a little twist on something and it isn’t techno
anymore; it’s progressive techno – just like jungle and drum
& bass are the dark and light versions of each other.”
You were second generation techno and people speak
about a third or fourth wave. Is there room for techno
to reinvent itself again or have something come along
that has a new classification?
“As a people we have to have some way of identifying what
we’re interested in – if we go outside of classification we’ll
no longer be able to call a sneaker a sneaker. I don’t have
a problem with people saying that what they do is ‘future’ or
‘21st century’ techno as long as the respect goes back to the
founders. We use paper money every day but don’t know
who the hell invented it, but we should have an idea of why
we stopped weighing gold and silver and started using coins.
I want people to have that knowledge and understanding
of the roots of techno visionaries like Derrick, Kevin, Juan,
Cybotron or Jeff Mills. With anything that’s created, there’s
always controversy because people are left out, so of course
people get butt-hurt when some guy says he spearheaded
the whole thing, but as long as you talk about techno and
its founders then people will get curious and want to find
out about that history.”
Do you still have discussions with your techno peers
on these topics?
“Derrick never really talks about it that much because he’s
always so busy, but I always say to him that techno and jazz
have many parallels in terms of how the fans relate to them.
In the ’90s, people who were into techno had this idea that it
was always supposed to be about the 808, the 909 and the
303. When Miles Davis started putting a wah pedal on his
trumpet, people started losing their minds and saying that’s
not jazz and I have that same parallel when I go on stage with
37
 Interview | Carl Craig
Francisco Mora who uses a live drum set. They say it’s not
techno because there’s no 808 or 909 on stage.”
In the past, genres were formed by the gear that artists
used as much as the people using it. Is that as
achievable now that technology has become so
sophisticated and democratised?
“About 10 years ago, one of the fourth wave techno guys,
Seth Troxler, said that Apple Loops is going to lead all music.
Before, there were factory sounds that you could tweak and
now you can chop up factory loops. As long as you think
of using them in the same way as how J Dilla or DJ Premier
took records and cut them up, you can change the flavour
of things, but I also saw an article a couple of years ago about
the emergence of AI and the future for music, and now
everything sounds like everything else I hear on the radio.
All they want to do is make sure they get a hit, and that’s
what’s screwing things up because it’s so lazy. There might be
a different producer’s name on a track, but it just sounds like
the same beatmaker made a thousand tracks and changed
the triplets on the hi-hats. So AI is here and what Seth said
at the time was really valid.”
Would you say the problem is not so much the
technology that artists use but that the industry
model is not conducive to popularising people
who are genuinely unique?
“Yes to the last part. The industry execs know that my
© Ollies Journal
38
15-year-old kid listens to tracks on Spotify for 30 seconds, so
they’ve got to get your attention in 30 seconds. Being esoteric
or creative within those 30 seconds, especially with electronic
music, is really difficult, so they just lean on whatever’s going
to make it. Going one step further, they’re also looking at
what the algorithm is going to accept. Popular demand has
made the algorithm function in the way that it does, so if
it says it’s got to sound like Drake or Taylor Swift, then it’s
out of our hands. Swift is putting out music so fast that the
quality level or likelihood of every track hitting the target
means that help is definitely there to make it easier for that
to happen, whether using Apple Loops or AI. They’re now
living the same serious techno dream that we were back in
the ’90s when we adapted to the sound of whatever synths
we could afford to make our music sound as futuristic as
possible. What they’re doing now is just using the technology
that spits it out to make it easier for them to keep generating
hits. On a Detroit level, if Motown was still around today as
it was in the ’70s, they’d be doing exactly the same thing.”
As the label owner of Planet E Communications,
how have you had to adapt to some of the current
industry challenges?
“I recently finished a book from the vice president of a big
disco label from the ’70s called Casablanca Records, and
if I implemented everything they were doing at the time
I wouldn’t even be able to call Planet E a record label. They
were talking about million dollar budgets for releases that

“I DON’T HAVE MY WHOLE PLAYLIST SETUP
IN THE ORDER OF WHAT I’M GOING TO PLAY;
I CAN HAVE THE TRACKS THERE BUT I PLAY
THEM DIFFERENTLY EVERY NIGHT”
didn’t even become big, but I never had the kind of money.
I came from the viewpoint of it being guerrilla warfare and
doing remixes to stay in business. Adapting to how formats
have changed has always been part of the music game, and
like I said, I can’t call Planet E a label after reading that book.
For my music game, when streaming came around I saw that
people were relating 300 sales to being a hit and that really
pissed me off. I didn’t want to play the game anymore
because how does it make sense for me to put out something
in physical form that sells 300 copies worldwide? There’s no
art to doing that. Kevin Saunderson talked about pressing
thousands of records, throwing them into the trunk of his
car and selling them on the streets of Chicago before coming
right back to Detroit to buy some more. That sounds
interesting and fun – fighting to sell 300 records to some
place 5,000 miles away sounds more like trading cards
to me.”
What inspired your All Black Digital series and how
do you showcase it?
“It started out during Covid as All Black Vinyl as a means
to express myself, but also to promote Black History Month,
which has been a big deal in the US since I was a kid.
© Tim Saccenti
I wanted to post music on my Instagram account that people
didn’t know anything about, so I played one piece of vinyl
each day for a month and got a really good response. That
Carl Craig | Interview
was a lot fun, and it felt like I was giving people
something during a time when a lot of them
needed lifting up.”
We’ve read that you’ll be giving a series of talks
to various college students in Michigan State
and New York during Black History Month.
What lies at the core of these lectures and
in what way are you hoping to educate
and inspire?
“For me, educating is the same as what we’re doing
right now, which is having a discussion and trading
conversation. That’s what I expect to do at MSU
and NYU for the lectures. I’m not somebody
that can stand in front of a whiteboard and start
scribbling. King Britt is doing a great programme
at University of California, San Diego and he told
me a few times that I should do this teaching thing,
but I can’t stand in front of anybody with the
calculated idea of what I’m going to do because,
as an artist, I don’t do that. When I DJ, I don’t have
my whole playlist setup in the order of what I’m
going to play; I can have the tracks there but I play
them differently every night.”
Can you comment on the Frankfurt museum
MOMEM and accusations of whitewashing
when it comes to how the origins of techno
are perceived?
“It’s a techno museum in Germany, so what the hell
else are they going to say [laughs]? They’ve done
their work to reach out to all of us here and we’ve
donated some things, but it’s a German museum,
not an American or world museum, so of course
they’re going to focus on all of their techno groups.
They put a heavy impact on Kraftwerk, obviously,
but then we were all influenced by Kraftwerk and
hyping them up, too. Kraftwerk are typically
thought of as the originators of, not just techno,
but virtually all genres of electronic music. Is that misguided,
or is there a sphere of influence that’s less obvious in terms
of what techno ultimately became?
“Mark Ennestus from Basic Channel and I had this
discussion some years back and I said to him, ‘Hey man,
Kraftwerk’s fingerprint is on all modern music in some way
or another’, but he comes from a reggae background and
hears more Sly & Robbie than Kraftwerk. When he said that,
we had a debate, and it seems clear that they did have as big
an influence – maybe because of the stronghold that rap has
with pop music. That Sly & Robbie influence comes from
Kool Herc and all the Jamaican-born pioneers of hip-hop
and I use Kraftwerk, of course, because of Afrika Bambaataa
and the Lil Kim record that used the We Are the Robots
sample. We saw what Kraftwerk was doing as being real,
but when we went to the UK people in London thought
The Model was a novelty record. We were hyped about it,
because the gangs were getting down to it, but Pocket
Calculator was also a novelty record. If you look at Sly &
Robbie, even their corniest stuff isn’t as corny as Pocket
Calculator, so I think there’s probably more realness to
what they did.”
What other electronic artists were influential to you
at the time?
“We loved Gary Numan. He had a novelty record in Cars,
39
 Interview | Carl Craig

“AFTER-PARTY IS AN EXPERIENCE THAT

YOU CAN WALK INTO AND BE IMMERSED
IN BASED ON MY EXPERIENCE AS A DJ
OR TOURING MUSICIAN”
© Tim Saccenti

40

but that was a huge record. I probably knew of Cars before
I knew Kraftwerk. The three singles I used to listen to at the
time were Cars, I’m Coming Out by Diana Ross and Wide
Receiver by Michael Henderson. I used to travel everywhere
with those little seven-inch singles. The Human League’s
Don’t You Want Me was a big track for us here, alongside
Things That Dreams Are Made Of, and M.K. Mark Kinchen is
a huge Depeche Mode fan, so stuff like Master and Servant in
the early ’80s had a big impact. Another band that did a lot of
really cool things, albeit not from the UK, is Yello. They were
thought of as silly and kind of gimmicky, but they had a lot
of really cool ideas and I know Boris [Blank] and love him
to death.”
You clearly have fond memories of that period…
“I have no problem talking about the history and impact of
those records. Some people get so snobby about music, but
these are the things that developed me, in the same way that
I developed from getting kicked out of high school because
I was going to record stores and playing video games. There’s
no shame in that because I’m still alive, travelling the world
and doing more than a lot of people who were in school
every day and went on to work in the plant at Ford or
General Motors.”
What can you tell us about the techno museum,
Exhibit 3000, owned by Mike Banks?
“Is that what he calls it? I didn’t even know – I just know it as
the Techno Museum. He has some instruments in there from
Juan, Derrick, Kevin and Jeff Mills, and I believe he has Ron
Murphy’s cutting lathe that was used to cut most of our
records during the ’90s. It’s great that Mike’s done that, but
the grim reality that comes from having a museum is that in
© Ollies Journal
order to take things to the next level you constantly need
funding. Even though Mike is a Detroit techno legend, it’s
still hard for him to try to fund it out of his own pocket.”
Carl Craig | Interview
Have you bumped up against a similar problem
with your own Party/After-Party sound and
light installation?
“I lucked out because Dia Beacon was in all the way.
They found the money to make it happen and
I didn’t even really know how much it cost to do the
project until it moved to the artist-founded MOCA
museum in Los Angeles. My background is sound
and music frequencies and trying to put together
out-of-tune samples in a way that makes sense,
so people shouldn’t expect to walk into a Party/
After-Party installation and see a white wall gallery.
I have a friend who was a director of a modern art
museum here in Detroit, and her background is
dealing with people who don’t believe art is art if
you can’t hang it on a white wall. I say no, I have
a movement that I call pro-black walls, which is
the anti-white wall idea that art shouldn’t be so
regimented. With my philosophy, art has to
represent my experiences. I’m not going to paint
something and say, hey, look at my art – I’m going
to give you an environment that I live in every
week in a way that you’ve never seen before. Party/
After-Party is an experience that you can walk into
and be immersed in based on my experience as
a DJ or touring musician. For me, this puts art into
another tagline where you can experience it and
make up your mind whether you want to call it
living art or a sculpture, albeit on a grandiose
scale – a 20,000 square foot sculpture [laughs].”
Finally, how has your studio evolved over the years? Are
you still reliant on tools that you used in the early ’90s,
like the SH-101 or classic Roland groove boxes?
“I have an SSL desk, some huge PMC speakers and find that
I do a lot of stuff on my iPad now. The reason for that is I can
travel with it, mess around with ideas and, hopefully, expand
on them by taking them from the iPad’s DAW to Logic,
Ableton or an MPC before integrating all of the classic gear.
So many times I’ve tried to work on a plane in economy
class when somebody puts their seat back and suddenly
the computer keyboard is on my chest, so the iPad makes
it much easier for me to be able to touch and do the things
I need to within a confined space. It goes back to that
statement I mentioned about Martyn Ware, the thing that
I can’t stand about laptops is the computer keyboard because
when I try to find a place to set up in my hotel room, the
keyboard’s always in the way. I sometimes carry around
a BeatStep Pro or a little Roland J-6 synth and love how the
interface for the iPad is right there. I can just touch it, sync
those instruments and do what I need to do.”
Are you working on new music right now?
“Like every writer and artist, I’ve gone through dry spells,
but I’ve been working towards releasing new music for
a while, so it’s just about trying to find the right time
when it will all flow.”
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
For tickets for future Carl Craig
events, including Detroit Love in NYC
and DC and his all-night-long set in
Miami, visit ra.co/dj/carlcraig
41
 ––––+ IN THE STUDIO WITH +––––

Paranoid
London
Quinn Whalley of the UK acid duo
on studio sessions and capturing
© Sam Neill

the magic of analogue gear

44

Quinn in the
band’s studio (top);
new album Arseholes,
Liars and Electronic
Pioneers (below)
Paranoid London – the
duo consisting of Quinn
Whalley and Gerado
INCLUDES Delgado – are an
VIDEO example of how success
can come from sticking to your
guns and doing what you do well.
Their sound is defiantly old school,
a raw and unpolished take on acid
house and techno, created by the
interplay of hardware synths and
drum machines with oddball
sequencers and effects units. With
little in the way of industry support,
the pair have become cult heroes
in the UK underground on the
strength of their vibrant electronic
jams and energetic live shows.
Paranoid London | In the studio with…
The band have also become
known for their diverse and exciting
pool of collaborators. New album
– the excellently titled Arseholes,
Liars and Electronic Pioneers –
sees the pair working with the likes
of rising house star Josh Caffe,
Berlin musician Jennifer Touch,
Chicago’s DJ Genesis, and Primal
Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie.
We met up with Quinn Whalley
in the band’s envy-inducing gear
cave of a studio.
Can you tell us how Paranoid
London started out?
“About 20 years ago I used to do
this thing, what we used to call
engineering. There were a bunch of
people like me that knew how to
connect MIDI cables and set up
scuzzy effect chains and stuff. We
would charge DJs, like, £200 to come
to our studios, and they would bring a
bunch of records, which we’d sample
up for them and make them a track.
There were loads of us that used to
do that, basically just supporting our
hobby of being in this studio.
“Del had tried working with a few
other people, but it hadn’t worked.
Then we got put in touch through
a friend of mine, Justin Drake, who
I used to do music with. At this point,
me and my mate had just opened a
studio and we had nobody coming in.
45
In the studio with… | Paranoid London

We were completely broke, and I had
loads of time. Del lived in Tenerife at
the time. He would come over about
four times a year and we’d get in the
studio. He’d bring a bunch of records,
and each time it would be different.
It would be whatever he was into at
the time. He used to work in FatCat
records, and he was a brilliant DJ, so
he had a really good record collection.
One time he might come over and say
he wanted to make something like
a Danny Tenaglia tribal record, or
it might be a Derrick Carter,
bumpity‑bump thing.
“We were doing this for ages and
he never put anything out. I started
feeling bad about it. I’d say, ‘Mate, you
keep coming down here and paying
me to do this, but you’re not really
happy with any of the stuff that we
do’. We went back to his house one
night and were getting drunk and
talking rubbish, and I said to him,
‘What is it that you’re actually into?’
He said, ‘I’m just into banging acid
house’. I said, ‘Yeah, me too. Why
don’t we just do that?’ So we did.
“This was exactly the time that
the arse had dropped out of selling
records. Suddenly, nobody was buying
any records. But the great thing about
Del was that he didn’t care if nobody
bought the record at all. He just
wanted to do stuff that he liked, and
couldn’t care less if nobody else liked
it. I think the first record we put out
was the heaviest vinyl you could
possibly make. It was a really
expensive record and there was only
one side of it. All the distribution
companies were like, ‘No, we’re not
going to give you a P&D deal because,
a. nobody wants this music and b.
there’s only one side of it and it’s really
expensive’. So Del just said he’d pay
for it himself.”
Your new album is called Arseholes,
Liars and Electronic Pioneers – how
does the sound of the record tie
into that title?
“We did the album but didn’t have
a title. It’s the worst thing in the world,
sitting there trying to think of a name
for something. It just never happens.
Again, I think we were maybe getting
drunk or something and Del just
popped out with it as a joke: ‘Why
don’t we call it Arseholes, Liars and
Electronic Pioneers?’ But it actually
trips off the tongue quite nicely. And
also there’s just loads of fucking
arseholes and liars around at the
moment, aren’t there? We’re
bombarded with them from
every angle. Everything you see on
television, our whole media is full
of arseholes and liars. Our politicians
are all arseholes and liars. But then
there’s loads of these, like, really
cool electronic pioneers. You know,
women, black people, Latino people,
blind people… They’re just way
more fun and more cool.”

Tell us about the studio…

Quinn advocates
recording everything,
even early scratch takes:
“When you think you
know what you’re doing,
that’s boring…”
“I rent this room from Margo Broom,
who’s an absolute genius. She builds
synthesisers and drum machines and
stuff like that. She built our ARP 2600
with the sequencer on it. We’re going
mental on that at the moment,
I absolutely love it – it’s brilliant. She’s
always just coming in and dumping
something that she’s either made or
she’s bought. So we’ve got all this
amazing stuff to play around with.
“We only moved in here just
before we made the album. I’m not
a massive fan of using loads of gear.
Even though we’ve got lots of stuff in
here, each time we do a track we’ll
only have a couple of little things. For
example, we know the 303 and the
808 inside out. We tend to stick with

ONE STUDIO TIP… stuff like that, which we know, then

add in other little bits and bobs in.
“Margo also got us the Sequential
“Record everything. When you’re going to set Circuits Pro One, which I’ve always
something up, and you think that you’re going to wanted to have a go on. And lo and
use that, record you setting it up, because that’s behold, it’s brilliant! That’s all over
the album as well.”
the bit that’s great. The bit when you’ve got it,
when you think that you know what you’re doing, What dream bit of kit would you
love to add to the studio?
that’s boring. It’s always the bit before, when “Again, it’s from Sequential Circuits;
it’s a bit out of tune and you’re still stabbing at the Studio 440. It’s the drum machine
buttons. Record everything all the time and keep and sampler that Mantronix used to
use. I remember it from when I was
it all. The good thing [about DAWs] is that you can a kid, and he came over here on tour.
drag something in that you did, like, three years At that time, because there was no
ago. That might have sounded really boring over internet, you were desperate for any
little bit of information you could
whatever you were doing at the time. But then if find out about any equipment at all.
you take a bit of that, and put it over something He did a bunch of interviews on the
radio, and he was on The Tube and
that’s in a different tuning or whatever, that’s stuff like that. And at one point he just
when weird stuff starts happening.” mentioned the name of this thing, the

46

Sequential Studio 440. He was going
on about how he could sample stuff
live. Bearing in mind at that time, it
probably only had, if you’re lucky,
four seconds worth of sampling time.
You could only sample little drum
noises and stuff like that. But yeah,
just because Mantronix had it. I’ve
always wanted a Sequential setup.
I’ve never even been in the same
room as one, though.”
You use a lot of classic hardware,
but also have some modern
emulations. What’s your view
on how the two compare?
“We toured with our 808 for, like, 10
years. Just last year it started playing
up. We’d do a soundcheck and
everything would be great, then
a couple of times when we came to
do the show it just wouldn’t turn on.
We used to take the 909 with us as
well, but it was all too big to take in
hand luggage on flights. In the end
we had to do a couple of shows where
we just had the Boutique 909 that
Roland did, because our main 808
had broken, but since we only used it
on one track we only had one pattern
programmed into it. Luckily it was a
really busy one. That’s the great stuff
about having stuff with knobs on it;
even with just one loop you can make
it work for a whole show.
“We eventually decided we had to
retire the 808 and get the Behringer
ones. Because everything goes though
the Korg Monotrons, which kind of
distorts and compresses them, so
when it goes through a massive PA
it’s kind of alright.
“Annoyingly, our 808 is
completely different to everybody
else’s in the world. The snare drum
and the kick drum on them are
ridiculous. When we first had it fixed
the guy opened it up and said that
someone had done a load of weird
stuff to it. Instead of using glue to fix
it they’d used hairspray, or something
like that. Basically the circuits on the
bass drum and the snare drum go
“YOU’VE JUST GOT TO
DO WHATEVER YOU
CAN WITH WHAT
YOU’VE GOT, REALLY”
ridiculously long. So using other ones
is not quite the same. We’ve started
taking that out again now, though,
as Margo’s sorted it for us.
“Really, though, it’s just about
using whatever you can make a noise
with. Because we couldn’t rely on that
same 808, we just did different things
on the Behringer. And that worked
alright. You’ve just got to do whatever
you can with what you’ve got, really.”
Tell us more about how the live
shows work…
“We have the drum machines, as
Paranoid London | In the studio with…
we’ve said. Whether that’s the
Behringer one or the original 808, it
goes into the Monotron Delay. Our
303 broke, again, because we were
touring with it for like 10 years, so
we’ve got one of those Cyclone ones.
That’s pretty good. That goes into
a Monotron as well. Then we’ve got
a [Doepfer] Dark Time sequencer
and our 202 that goes – funnily
enough – into another Monotron.
“Then there’s a vocalist who goes
into a Monotron too, then there’s
some percussion loops and stuff like
that. It all gets clocked
from Ableton, and
there’s some bits of
samples and stuff that
come through there.
We sort of just mute
and unmute stuff on
the desk and muck
about with it all,
and off we go.”
How do you find the vocalists who
feature on your tracks, and what’s
the writing process with them like?
“We’ve always been really lucky with
vocalists. Josh Caffe and Clams Baker
– who does Mutado Pintado, or
whatever name he’s going by this
week – are ridiculous, you know what
I mean? We’re really lucky. I’ve known
Clams for 20 years or so. I used to play
for him in his club in New York. And
then we were in a band together,
actually with the two guys that I now
do Decuis with as well, but that’s
another thing entirely. Then Josh
Caffe I met through a guy who runs a
party called I Love Acid, Josh Doherty.
We just have a scream in the studio.
It’s total chaos, and it’s a great laugh.
In different ways, they’re both
completely unique and individual.
They’re not trying to sound like
anyone else.
“The rest are just people that you
bump into along the way. I don’t
know. We just sort of happen across
these people. For example, our
manager knew Bobby Gillespie. It was
his idea to get him to come down,
which was amazing. He came down
and at first we tried to do a techno
thing with him. It was kind of all
right; he was good, but couldn’t do
anything that really fitted with it. So
we said, ‘Look, why don’t we try an
old, sort of like, Primal Scream,
blissed‑out thing?’ And he was like,
‘Yeah, yeah, cool.’ He went away and
wrote this song. Then he phoned us
up when we were in the studio, really
excited about it and started playing it
to us down the phone. We were like,
‘fucking hell, Bobby Gillespie’s playing
us a song down the phone, this is
nuts.’ He’d written that song, then he
came down and recorded it.
“What we do a lot of the time is
we’ll give someone a backing track to
write to. We do something quite
musical for them, so they’ve got
something to sort of grab onto. Then
we’ll take that all away and make
something gnarly underneath. But
then with a couple of the people, like
Joe Love from [London band] Fat
Dog, he came down here and we
wrote together. Clams and Josh just
come down and we’ll get really drunk
and I just literally record everything
they say. Then we’ll make something
out of that.
“Jennifer Touch – we sent two
tracks, and both times we didn’t even
do anything to her vocal. What she
sent us was brilliant. We just left it as
it was. Jennifer lives in Berlin, so it
would have been more difficult to
write with her. Luckily, it turns out
she’s amazing at writing songs and
did it all on her own anyway!”
WANT TO
KNOW MORE?
Arseholes, Liars… is
available at: paranoid-
london.bandcamp.com/
47
FM | MASTERCLASS
Masterclass | AI sample organisers
AI sample
organisers
Discover the latest time-saving
programs and workflow features
that samplists should know
A
rtificial intelligence is well
and truly here, and even
past naysayers must be
finding it harder to deny its
inevitable further symbiosis with
human life across the board. AI has
been with us for a while in music
technology, with noise removal and
restoration software being the most
48
viable use case, and some
compelling uses in mixing and
mastering technology too.
More recently, as AI booms across
disciplines, we’ve seen more powerful
uses of AI in music tech, from the
generating professional singers of
Voice-Swap and the sample-
interpolating powers of Synplant 2 to
tools like Riffusion that will generate
whole songs – or at least snippets –
that sound pretty legit.
Perhaps one of the least expected
areas of musical workflow to be
impacted by AI is that of sample
library management: a seemingly
menial, overlooked part of our
creative process that, on the surface,
might not seem like it needs much
attention. However, applications like
Atlas 2, Cosmos, XO and Sononym
have proven that this is an area of
everyday work that can not only be
enhanced but made fun and creative
with the implementation of AI.
These sample management tools
are built to change how we interact
with and navigate our sample
libraries, breathing life into a fairly
tedious task. Using AI, they can
accurately sort samples into
advanced categories based on the
audio’s characteristics. Applications
like Atlas 2 go further, letting you
build kits and sequences from your
samples that can be imported
directly into your DAW as MIDI data
or raw audio, with great efficiency.
In this article, we’ll look at some
of the leading AI sample
management software/plugins and
attempt to demonstrate the pros and
cons of each, to better inform you of
their potential applications. We also
hope to show you just how effective
these new AI-driven technologies are
at enhancing our workflow as
musicians. After all, if something
simple like sample management can
benefit so deeply from artificial
intelligence, imagine the potential
 AI sample organisers | Masterclass

improvements in other areas of our

creative process.
Maybe there’s a place for all of
these sample managers in your
digital toolkit. After all, they all have
their strengths and weaknesses,
proving efficient in different
applications. There’s no reason why
you couldn’t rely on Sononym to
collate some truly similar samples,
and then import them into Atlas 2 for
an easy-to-navigate visual map of
them grouped together.
The choice is yours, but we
recommend jumping into each
sample manager at your leisure to
find a workflow that suits your needs.
After all, you’re sure to find some
AI tools like Voice-Swap are making great pace,
benefit from the AI’s assistance in but sample managers might be the area where
one form or another. they make the most impact

Generating whole sample packs from prompts

with Output Co-Producer

1 2 3
Let’s create our very own AI-generated sample We went for a ’90s hip-hop style pack and even And, just like that, you have an entirely original
pack. First, head over to the Co-Producer web gave the AI three producers to reference. The sample pack tailored to you personally. You can
page, sign into your account, and hit the ‘Start more info you give, the better. Once you’ve repeat this process as many times as you like,
Creating’ button. Then fill out the text prompt to generated four new packs, you can play through, and ask the AI to generate another four sample
your choosing, and click Generate 4 New Packs. and hit ‘Download’ on the one that resonates the most. packs based on the same prompt if you wish.

4 5 6
You can generate numerous packs and create Let’s create a quick loop using our AI-generated Lastly, let’s see what happens when we ask
one big custom pack. We’ve generated a few samples. We’ve chucked together a bunch of Co-Producer to give us a random text prompt.
different packs, added them together, and 91bpm, eight-bar loops in the key of F minor. Head back online and click ‘Try Random
imported the samples into FL Studio ready to Co-Producer can also provide more loops of a Prompt’. You can then generate four packs, or
start producing something. specified tempo and key, for any missing elements. add to the newly generated prompt beforehand.

49
Masterclass | AI sample organisers

YOUR SAMPLES:
Building an AI sample map ON THE MAP
in Atlas 2
>
Atlas 2, Cosmos and
even XO, all follow a
very similar model of
displaying samples. But
naturally, they all have
distinct differences.
Cosmos is the most basic
of the three, with the
cheapest price point.
However, it still serves as a
handy addition to any toolkit
and brings AI categorisation
with Cosmos View.
Atlas 2 and XO include
numerous additional features

1
to help you compile kits of

2
In Atlas 2, you can import samples or use the After Atlas has finished building your map, you’ll
packs that come with the software. To build a map be able to navigate your samples in the Browser. samples together in a
from your own library, head over to the Maps tab, You can change from Earth, Galaxy, and List
and hit ‘Create New Map’. Then, select your view to your preference. The first two options let
never-before-seen speedy
library’s file directory and wait as the magic happens. you view samples across a visual spectrum or ‘map’. fashion. These two, in
particular, also include
controls to help you shape
your samples before importing
them into your DAW, going
above and beyond expected
roles of traditional sample
management software.
When paired against
Sononym (the next entry in
our list), Atlas 2 and XO have
more features and a larger
potential for widespread use;
however, Sononym stands in
its own lane, with highly

3 4
To create a custom kit, hit ‘New Kit’. The AI will It also has many internal controls, letting you advanced AI categorisation
manipulate samples in the application. To
randomly assign samples. To lock samples to
keep, toggle their padlock icon. You can also playback/audition audio, click any of the
and similarity readings.
generate a sequence using the Sequencer and samples on the map, or in the kit panel. In the
save kits and sequence presets for future needs. kit, you also have access to macro controls per sample.

Cosmos: A simple but efficient sample manager

1 2 3
Let’s dive into Cosmos, Waves’ take on AI sample Once Cosmos has successfully scanned your file When a sample is selected, click the … button
management, and explore some of its functions. directory, you’ll be able to see all your samples to see its details (sample rate, file size and file
First, activate Cosmos via the Waves Central app, in List view. You can switch between two list type). You can change its tags and attributes
open it up, and use the left-hand column to set a views and the Cosmos view using three icons from here. You can use the filter buttons in the
file directory for your sample library. just to the right of the Key and BPM dropdown menu. top bar of the interface to filter between sample types.

50
 AI sample organisers | Masterclass

Sononym: A slightly
applications in this article, that rely
more on general similarities like
sample type, genre, tempo etc.
Sononym’s interface might not

different approach
have the same visual flare or bonus
features as other entries in this
article, but it proves to be a highly
effective sample manager that excels
at what it’s designed to do. Its AI also

Want to compare your samples with
greater precision? Sononym’s AI provides
similarity metrics to compare and
categorise samples in ways other sample
managers can’t
>
Sononym is unique in the AI
sample manager field, as it
measures similarities
between samples based on
more informative and practical
metrics than some others.
It will analyse a chosen sample
and then list a bunch of similar ones,
giving readings based on a few
similarity stats. The readings of
similarity are: Overall, Spectrum,
Timbre, Pitch, and Amplitude.
This is perhaps Sononym’s
strongest feature, as it doesn’t have a
visual spectrum to categorise
samples. Compared to XO, Atlas 2,
and Cosmos, however, you can see
why attributing similarity statistics
would be highly beneficial. Let’s say
you like the sound of a certain kick
drum and want to build a library
based on that. Sononym can identify
similar kick drums with extreme
precision, unlike the other
groups samples into relatively ‘niche’
categories when compared to its
competitors, dividing audio into
‘Whooshes & Whips’, ‘Cracks &
Rustle’, ‘Zaps & Blips’, and many
other fruity sound types.
There’s only one way to find out if
Sononym is the right AI sample
manager for you: by jumping straight
into the action. Sononym comes with
a free 30-day evaluation period for
you to test it out.

Compare and contrast: using Sononym to

analyse your samples

1 2 3
Let’s explore how effective Sononym is. Open the With your library now imported, you can navigate Open the ‘Categories’ filter tab in the bottom
software, and click the + next to the top-left samples from the list. The top panel displays a panel, and select ‘Snares’ so that only snare
Libraries tab to index a chosen sample library. We selected sample’s waveform. The left-hand panel samples are displayed in our list. Then, we pick
recommend importing a library of a relatively large lets you switch sub-folders in your library, and a snare, right-click it and select ‘Search by
size so that the AI has more samples to go off. the bottom panel lets you select filter types. Similarity’ to prioritise our list by similarity.

4 5 6
The list has changed. Now, the right column Adjust your similarity filtering by interacting Finally, Sononym has many advanced
shows colour-coded readings of each similarity with the Similarity Aspects panel, top-right. We categorisation features that you can customise
metric (Overall, Spectrum, Timbre, Pitch, and can set our list to, say, prioritise similarity based by right-clicking on any given sample. For
Amplitude) according to the base sample. A on the Amplitude stat alone by disabling the example, if the AI has wrongly recognised a
blue bar shows results from your similarity filtering. other metrics, and setting Amplitude to 100%. kick as a snare, you can manually reassign its category.

51
Masterclass | AI sample organisers

Exploring Jamahook’s extensive

feature set

1 2 3
Jamahook’s AI allows us to scan existing audio and Let’s open Jamahook Sound Assistant on the We’d like some more harmonious loops to spice
discover similar sounds that would complement it Master output, click ‘Match’, and playback the up our composition, so we’ll search samples in
– giving us the ability to overhaul a current loop project to let the AI analyse the current loop. the ‘Harmony’ tab. You’ll notice the AI
completely or find finishing touches. Let’s test it by Once finished, you’ll see a list of samples from automatically picks loops of similar tempos,
loading a half-finished eight-bar project. We’ve opened an the Jamahook cloud, similar in sonic characteristics. You keys, instruments, and genre types. Check out the neat
old project and looped the chorus section. can switch between ‘Harmony’, ‘Rhythm’, and ‘Drums’. synth loop we found and added to our project.

4 5 6
Note that you can also direct Jamahook Sound Also note that Loopcloud Sounds (Loopmasters’ This is also especially useful if you want to
Assistant to search for similar sounds only internal DAW sample library plugin) also collate a library of matching samples. You can
located on your HDD by clicking the cloud icon features Jamahook’s AI to help search for select a base sample, like the drum loop in our
on the left-hand menu. This is useful if you’ve similar samples. Just open Loopcloud Sounds, previous step, and then add a bunch of similar
already got a cohesive sample library but you’re not sure find a sample you like, click ‘…’, and Find Similar. Useful sounds from the list to your Favourites by hitting the
what’s missing from your project. if you like a sample, but it’s not quite perfect. heart-shaped icon in the right-hand column.

POWER
TIP
It’s crucial to choose the right
property to match samples by. In
something like Jamahook or
Loopcloud, matching by harmony
(ie, by key) can work great, but
won’t suit rhythmic material. For
that, many AI tools let you find

7 8
You can then easily locate sounds in future by Repeat the process from step five: identify a
heading to your Favourites collection. Or, create base sample and click Find Similar. Instead of things with a similar groove,
your own specific collection using the Loopcloud adding to your Favourites, click ‘...’ and Add to helping you know that they should
desktop app. Head over to the Loopcloud collection. Repeat the process to find samples
desktop app, open the ‘Collections’ panel, and click of different types. Then you can access them all from your
fit with your music’s feel; an often
‘Create new collection’. Rename it if you wish. ‘Collections’ panel. Voilà! A library of similar sounds. overlooked aspect of production.

52
 AI sample organisers | Masterclass

THREE OF
THE BEST Ableton Live 12’s browser
>
We’re deep behind enemy 12 browser lets things down a
lines, reporting from the little is the lack of automatic
Ableton Live 12 Beta. tagging for your existing,
Here, the new browser has non-Ableton sample content.
been given some new sample- While this may seem like a big
XLN Audio XO friendly features, giving you ask, programs like Loopmasters’
categorisation and tagging over the Loopcloud, XO, Atlas and Mixed In
€129 sounds that come with the DAW; Key have been offering analysis for

1
XO is up for the crown of
top AI sample
management tools.
Combining some key features
we see in other AI-driven
sample managers, XO comes
with a well-sculpted GUI and
something that’s also available for
plugins, instruments and effects.
This means that you can filter
down to the sort of sound you’re
looking for quite easily, and
audition the resulting matches
within your project. Where the Live
third-party samples for several
years, and recent tools like
Sononym, have only made this
trend more obvious. Hopefully
automatic tagging can be added to
Live 12’s browser makes swift work of
Live in future, making the browser searching through in-built instruments,
even better for sample users. effects and samples

an easy-to-navigate design.
Import your samples and go!
xlnaudio.com

Samples in Ableton 12’s

new browser
ADSR Sample
Manager
FREE

2
The best thing about
this: it’s completely free!
This tool automatically
labels samples on their
sample type using its AI
Smart tagging feature.
Simpler than other entries in
this article, but still a worthy,
reliable tool.

2
adsrsounds.com

1
Here’s a fresh instance of the Live 12 browser,
pointing at Samples. We can filter by Type (Loop/
One-Shot), Sound (Bass, Pad, Mallets etc), Drums,
Character, Genre, Key etc. You can add your own
Samples via places, but they’re not automatically tagged.
We can search for, in this instance, a One-Shot
Guitar/Plucked sound that’s a Chord rather than
a note. We get four results from this particular
search. Hitting the Edit pane lets you tag a
sample with the properties for being found in the browser.

Mixed In Key 10
$58

3
Boasts the most
accurate key-reading
algorithm currently
available, stating that other
sample-analysing algorithms
often label samples with the
wrong musical scale. With a
long history in the field,
MixedInKey still keeps with

3 4
the times, competing with the To search across another dimension, we can ask
Live to search for Similar Sounds to the one we
Similar Sounds really shines in the Drum Rack,
letting you ‘hot swap’ a currently placed sample
other software on this list. have selected. In this case, we get a lot more with more options that are close enough to keep
mixedinkey.com options, and it’s not just limited to samples; we things together, but different enough to change
get offered a patch for the Ableton Collision synth too. up what you’re building.

53
 Feature | Make Music Together

Make music
makes it easier than ever to
collaborate remotely. Doing so can
be a great way to break through
creative roadblocks and broaden
your musical horizons, but it’s also a
way for artists to open up new

together
revenue streams. By opening
yourself up to working with others,
you’re able to provide your services
to other musicians and producers
who might lack your skills. This
could mean creating synth sounds
or playing an instrument as a
session musician, or offering up your

It’s never been easier to collaborate.

mixing capabilities to help another
artist mix their latest track.
This is a process that goes both

Here’s why you should... ways though. As well as being able

to provide support to others,
collaborative tech means you can
plug holes in your own skillset too.
lectronic music that suggests a somewhat lonely communal environments, and a Over the following few pages, let’s
makers have a bit of a image of creativity; the solo musician quick scan of the latest dance take a look at some ways to make
reputation for being hunched over a screen with just their charts and playlists will make it collaboration go more smoothly;
solitary creatures. The music gear for company. evident just how many great tracks from how to tactfully and effectively
phrase “bedroom This is a bit of a misnomer are a product of artists working go about mixing another artist’s
producer” is often though. Electronic music is an together or remixing one another. work, to a few ways to optimise your
used to describe modern, laptop- inherently sociable artform, Even if it’s not done in person, next collaborative session for
based music makers, and it’s a term designed to be consumed in modern communication technology maximum creativity.

Play to your strengths: if you have

friends who excel at different areas of
music, make the most of it!
© Joby Sessions

54
 Make Music Together | Feature

and start working. It’s recommended

to take a break if you are the
producer of the track before you
start mixing it so that you can listen
with as fresh ears as possible.
Some artists will want to sit in on
the mix sessions from the jump, but
from our experience, having the
artist sit in on the session is not
recommended, as much of your role
as a mixer is focusing on the small
details, which can be tedious and
annoying for the artist to sit through.
It will also just invariably slow you
down, as you’ll have to explain your
plugin choices to the artist which
will take you out of the flow. There
are exceptions to this rule; for
example, if you have already mixed
tracks for the artist and a rapport is
already established.

Fresh ears
Workflow is incredibly important
when working on mixes in a digital
environment. Keep a list of tasks at
hand, preferably on a paper pad, so

H O W T O that you can stay focused on what

actually needs to get done. It’s also
best to sleep on a mix if you’ve put

…approach mixing
in a long session. Send over the mix
to the client in the morning as
opposed to firing off something in
the wee hours. Fresh ears can reveal

another artist’s track

something that you might have
missed, and the client’s first listen is
going to make a big first impression;
if they don’t have a good first listen,
they can quickly lose trust in you.
Imagine a scenario where you’ve been hired to mix another artist’s Listen to your mix in different
track. What should you do to prepare in advance and have this environments before sending it to
the client, not just in your studio.
process go as smoothly as possible? Here are some tips to keep This will reveal issues and
your workflow efficient and moving forward inconsistencies with the mix.
Lastly, keep things organised in
the session so that you can find
T H E F I R S T T HI NG you’ll the final mix. There’s no point in mix in a new direction, but 95% of things quickly. Label and colour-
want to do is to ask the artist for a spending time recreating effects the time, outside mixers are hired to code tracks, ideally with a system
few references before you start that the artist already likes, like a simply improve on the rough mix. If you’ve decided upon in advance.
working so that you can get on the vocal reverb that is already working you’re also the producer of the track, Many producers have set colours for
same page sonically. This is going to for the track. Most EQ and then you have both an advantage drums, bass, etc and have a
be much more helpful than using compression in the mix you will predefined way to
adjectives that you might have
different meanings for. Words can
want to handle, however.
THAT FIRST LISTEN BY THE set up sessions. Use
folders inside your
only go so far. Play your part THE CLIENT IS GOING TO DAW, if possible, to
Most importantly, communicate After you’ve got an idea of what keep your session
with the artist about what they’re you’re going for sonically, import MAKE A BIG clean. Save as you
looking for with the final mix. If their rough mix into the session and go and create new
there are any tracks that have make it a point to consistently check FIRST IMPRESSION sessions for every
effects that are crucial to the feel of what you’re doing against it. Your day you work with an
the song, ask for those effects in job as a mixer is usually to just and a disadvantage, as you can be artist. Make sure to bounce the
both dry and wet versions. Ideally all make the ideas in their rough mix so familiar with the material that day’s work at the end of each
the stems are bounced without any better, not put a whole new spin on you lose perspective. However, being session so there’s something to
master bus processing so that you the mix. The exception to this is if familiar with the parts of the track quickly refer back to. This can keep
can do your own bus processing in they tell you explicitly to take the could also make it faster to dive in you on-track as the song develops.

55
Feature | Make Music Together
TOOLS AND SOFTWARE
TO AID COLLABORATION
While working remotely can’t replace the feeling of getting together in a room with
another artist or producer, we’re fortunate that there are a plethora of online tools to
help aid in collaboration from afar, especially in the post-pandemic world that we all
live in. Here are a handful of tools that can make working with other artists easier,
even if you happen to live across the world from each other
AUDIOMOVERS was a gamechanging
tool in high quality audio streaming
A U D IO M O V E R S
1 4
Audiomovers launched in
2017 as a way to stream high
quality audio from a studio to
any other location in the
world. The company, which is
backed by the famed Abbey Road
Studios, picked up traction when
the pandemic hit and now has more
users than ever. The software works
with a bespoke plugin called
ListenTo, and sends 32-bit audio to
stream directly from your DAW to up
to 150 devices.
N IN J A M
2
The idea of collaborating
with someone remotely and
hearing their contribution
in real time without
noticeable latency seems
impossible, and given the physics of
information transfer, it is. However,
the concept behind open-sourced
software tool Ninjam solves this
problem with a unique idea, notably
by making the amount of latency
longer. Ninjam records and
synchronises audio from several
sources and plays back each audio
source with a latency amount of two
measures. In this way, you know
56
SOUNDBETTER is a kind of 21st
century Yellow Pages for finding
musical collaborators
exactly how far behind you are,
timing-wise, from your collaborators.
It was famously used by Amsterdam-
based Speedy J for a host of
collaborative jams during the
pandemic, the results of which
came out on a compilation entitled
the Stay Home Soundsystem. Videos
from these sessions can also be
seen on the STOOR Youtube page,
the studio where Speedy J operates.
SOUNDBET T ER
3
Soundbetter is a way to
find mixing, mastering and
recording engineers (as
well as singers and
instrumentalists) to work with, all
remotely. The company, which was
bought by Spotify a few years ago
but has since become independent
again, prides itself on the quality of
its members, as there’s a vetting
process prior to approval.
NINJAM offers an ingenious solution to
the problem of latency
SP LIC E
Splice started all the way
back in 2013 and has
grown exponentially in the
decade that’s passed
since. Offering a cloud-based
approach to samples, it offers users
the ability to subscribe to their site
and not need to store massive
sample libraries on hard drives in
their studio. Working from a
cloud-based sample pool means
collaborators can all pull the same
samples into their DAWs and work
on ideas simultaneously without the
need for tedious file transfers.
ABLETON LINK presents a MIDI-cable
free method for people on the same
WiFi network to sync their clocks
DROPBOX
5
Speaking of file transfers,
they are inevitably a
necessary evil when
working remotely, and one
of the best services for such a thing
is Dropbox, the long-running
cloud-based storage solution with
several tiers of membership. One
huge advantage of Dropbox is the
ability to sync folders to several
places at once, so if you’re
collaborating with someone across
the globe, any change they make to
a shared folder will automatically be
shown in your folder as well.
A BLE TON LIN K
6
Launched in 2016,
Ableton’s Link feature
allows users who are
connected to the same
WiFi network to automatically work
to the same clock. Link works with
Ableton sessions, iOS apps and a
handful of other hardware as well
and eliminates the need for
connecting MIDI cables to get on
the same clock. Incredibly handy for
just getting down to the art of
making music.

H O W T O
…get the most out of a
collaborative writing or
production session
Sometimes even the most organic musical collaborations can
benefit from a methodical approach
IT ’ S E A S I E R T HA N it’s ever
been to make music on your own
from the comforts of your home
studio without any input from
outside sources. More affordable
gear, a huge array of video learning
resources and online mastering have
all made it possible to create full
albums without ever stepping
outside of your bedroom. While this
is great for many music-makers, it
also robs us of the joy that making
music with others brings. Music has
been a collaborative art form and
activity since the beginning of
© Marie Staggat
humankind and there’s a certain joy
that comes with it that is not as easy
to replicate on your own. With that
in mind, let’s look at some ways to
get the most out of a collaboration,
whether you’re working with another
producer, writing with another
songwriter, or simply building
something with another
instrumentalist from the ground up.
Go in with a plan
The first thing to keep in mind is
that communication is key. Even if
music can inherently be something
that doesn’t need discussion –
simply pick up your instruments and
go – it helps to be on the same page
with your collaborator from the
get-go. Decide what the goals are
and what each person’s role will be
Make Music Together | Feature
in advance. Decide what you’re
trying to accomplish, even if that
simply means you’re deciding to
improvise together.
MAKE IT A POINT TO BE
READY AND HAVE YOUR
STUDIO READY BEFORE
THE ARTIST SHOWS UP
If you’re working with an artist in
the role of a producer or a songwriter
for hire, you’re going to want to
decide in advance if there is a fee
involved. There’s nothing worse than
thinking you’re getting paid for your
creative efforts and then finding out
that the artist you’re working with
assumed you were donating your
time. Take the time to write up a
contract that the artist signs, even if
the only fee is that you are properly
credited. Do this even if you are
friends with the artist, just to be
safe. Your reputation is important,
and you are probably hoping that
your invested time will bring future
work. Credit is how that happens.
If you’re producing an artist,
especially someone who you don’t
have a previous relationship with,
make it a point to be ready and have
your studio ready before the artist
even shows up. Set up microphones,
make sure every piece of gear is
working. Have your studio in tip-top
shape before any collab sessions.
You don’t want a paying client
sitting around waiting while you
fiddle with your patchbay.
Similarly, listen to and research
the artist’s previous releases and
recordings. Try to find live videos of
them if you can. Read interviews
with the artist to understand them
better. All of this won’t replace good
direct communication but it can
help you be more prepared.
Space for ideas
It’s also incredibly important to
create an environment where the
artist feels safe and is willing to take
risks. Find a way to make
suggestions without criticising. Your
body language is just as important
as what you say. Artists are often
sensitive souls and can shut down
with even the hint of negative
language. This is the last thing you
want as a producer. Get to know the
artist a bit before you even start
working, don’t just jump right into it:
you’re creating art together, not
running a business.
Lastly, it’s helpful to decide in
advance if you want
to bring in other
instrumentalists or
vocalists, and have a
list of people ready
if you do decide to.
Again, this is going
to speed up the
process as you start
working. Similarly, decide in
advance if you’re going to be the
one mixing the track as well, or just
producing it and handing it off to
someone else to mix.
57
Interview | Ben Frost

© Topper Komm

On Scope Neglect, Ben Frost extends his guitar

obsession by re-engineering our perception of metal
music. Danny Turner finds out more

58
 Ben Frost | Interview

ustralian-Icelandic sound designer

and producer Ben Frost arrived on the
music scene in relatively subdued
fashion with the ambient glisten of his
guitar-oriented LP Steel Wound in
2003. However, it wasn’t long before
his fascination with black metal began
to blister and crackle through visceral,
ear-churning albums such as Theory of Machines and the
suitably titled By the Throat. Widening his palette via
increasing use of electronics on subsequent releases, Frost
instinctively ventured into the world of sound design for TV,
theatre and video games.
Yet despite Frost’s dalliances into soundtrack creation,
his attraction to guitar has never wavered. Following a
conversation with Mute boss Daniel Miller, he fell upon the
idea of recontextualising familiar tropes from the metal genre
and enlisted guitarist Greg Kubacki from progressive metal
band Car Bomb to help realise his vision. Frost’s latest
album, Scope Neglect, is as captivating as it is
groundbreaking, recalibrating our understanding of metal
music via a vapour trail of remorseless, grinding riffs and
decaying particles of sound.

Around five years into your career, you worked with

Brian Eno. How did that come about?
“It was part of a mentorship programme sponsored by
Rolex. I received an email about it at some point, which felt
very suspicious at the time [laughs], but it turned out I’d
been nominated by some committee as a potential candidate
and very quickly accepted. The next thing I knew I was in
London meeting Brian for the first time. I was obviously a
fan, curious to meet him and we spent the day talking for
hours. The one thing that connected us was a general
curiosity for the world and how systems operate and
interconnect. The game theory of the universe and how that
influence shapes the creative process that lies at the heart of
what he’s about and I see a lot of that in myself. To be honest,
I’m not sure that Brian is a huge fan of my music, but there’s
a resonance in terms of how music and art works and why
we respond to some things and are left cold by others.”

In similar terms, what did you learn from working with

producer Steve Albini on your previous album, The
Centre Cannot Hold?
“You can’t be in a space for an extended period of time with
someone like Steve and not learn or come out of that
changed in some way. I’d played myself into a space where I
wanted subjectivity in my work while still requiring a sense
of objectivity, so I came round to the idea that it would be
great to have somebody else behind the glass. Steve was
inevitably behind a lot of the music that was very important
to me, so I reached out and he was up for it. As a recording
engineer, he’s the equivalent of a war photographer – he’s not
composing images and dictating proportions, he’s
documenting what’s occurring in a space. He’s also militantly
opposed to the idea that he’s imprinting himself upon the
process, which of course he is, but working with Steve allows
you to feel that sense of space, so I was thrilled to be around
him, watch and listen.”

Albini once said pop music is for “children and idiots”.

Obviously, the comment is a bit exaggerated, but as
someone who takes a more abstract approach to sound,
what’s your take on the pop music form?

59
Interview | Ben Frost
“In recent years, some of the more adventurous moves in
music production have come from pop music and there’s
definitely something to be said for the Trojan horse that is a
great pop song. I’ve got three kids and my eldest daughter
brings a lot of that into my daily life, so I’m often surprised
and fascinated by what’s going on there. Is it for children and
idiots? I think it’s more complicated than that. Within my
film work, there’s zero compromise in some of the music’s
sonic extremes, yet people seem to like those records
irrespective of the shows themselves.”
You’ve mentioned that making music is a process of
absorption via osmosis. Does that infer you need to
take periodic breaks to allow something to take shape?
“It always frustrated me as a teenager when bands that I
loved, like Portishead, for example, would take four or five
years to make a record. I used to think, what are you doing in
all that time? When you’re in your early 20s, the ideas come
thick and fast, but as the discography tails out, the whole
system plateaus and rather than go back down the mountain
you’re looking for the next peak, which seems to take longer
and longer. A big part of what I do is about pushing the
envelope, which does require recalibration when it comes to
“METAL HAS AN EXCESS OF TROPES,
SPECIFICALLY THE SCREAMED VOCAL
THING, WHICH IS SOMETHING I COULD
NEVER CONNECT WITH”
60
thinking about what I want to do next or what will be the
hardest thing to do.”
So in those terms, what was the starting point for your
latest album, Scope Neglect?
“I remember having a conversation with Daniel Miller from
Mute in Berlin and the subject came around to metal and I
was saying that I wished the genre could work in another
way. Every genre has baggage and metal has an excess of
tropes, specifically the screamed vocal thing, which is
something I could never connect with even though the
mechanics of the music still fascinates me. Then I listen to a
band like Car Bomb, which is at the bleeding edge of what is
possible from a metal band in 2024, and I wanted to play
around with that.”
How did you meet Car Bomb guitarist Greg Kubacki?
“I sent some fan mail to see if he’d be interested in working
with me for a few days. As it turns out, he’s a big fan of what I
do and within an hour of meeting it was clear that the DNA
of what he does is very much connected to electronic music,
specifically stuff like Autechre and Aphex Twin. Greg is truly
a master of his instrument; he has a notation method that he
invented, which is wild – it’s
almost like Morse code with all
these weird dashes and dots. I’d
explain to him how I wanted
something played and he’d write
it all out, because that’s how he
constructs Car Bomb songs.”
The opening track, Lamb
Shift, sounds very aggressive
and provocative, but in what
way is that related the track’s theoretical title?
“Titles and music tend to arrive in parallel while
I’m in the process of making a record. I go on these
weird little Wikipedia spirals and ended up reading
about Willis Lamb, the physicist behind the
quantum field theory. There is no direct correlation,
but there was clearly a resonance behind the idea
that I was gravitating towards, so I wondered
whether there was a way for those things to shape
each other. People can Google it, but the Lamb Shift
refers to deviations in accepted theories that don’t
add up, and that relates to how I was approaching
metal from a different angle by taking familiar
elements and putting them out of balance.”
Guitar riffs and feedback play a big role in the
sound of the record, yet you seem to put
elements of the production that producers
might normally clean up right at the forefront?
“That’s pretty accurate. I worked with an engineer/
producer called Ingo Krauss in an amazing space
called Candy Bomber, which is actually at
Tempelhof Airport in Berlin. We’d worked together
on the last two Swans albums and I recognised that
he has a very detailed ear and understands how
time plays into recorded music. We wanted to
investigate building a meditative space where Greg,
bassist Liam Andrews and I could do long takes
where things would evolve slowly and find their
shape. Greg is used to having a drum set behind
him and a lot of kinetic energy, but with electronic
 Ben Frost | Interview

“I GO ON THESE WEIRD LITTLE WIKIPEDIA

SPIRALS AND ENDED UP READING
ABOUT WILLIS LAMB, THE PHYSICIST
BEHIND THE QUANTUM FIELD THEORY”
© Imago / Alamy Stock Photo

61
Interview | Ben Frost
music there’s not always a lot to grab onto, so I constructed
certain rhythmic elements that really only existed for the
purpose of fuelling a certain way of performing, knowing full
well that I would delete them afterwards.”
What amplification techniques did you create to
achieve some of the effects you were seeking?
“I asked Ingo to give me more spaces to feed these elements
into, so we put additional speakers in the hallway with mics
at varying distances to create makeshift reverb effects that
would echo the proximity of Greg’s playing. Then we’d play
around with different ribbon and dynamic mics for the sole
purpose of grabbing the tail ends of things. Where it got
interesting for me was taking those parallel recordings and
applying really complicated side chain relationships whereby
the ambience of a particular sound isn’t audible in the
transient moment but opens up as the sound fades away. In
that particular way, the negative spaces between the guitars
will start to take on a life of their own, creating a different
kind of silence.”
Those guitar trails are complemented by electronic
sounds. What was the source for those?
62
“For this record, there was a pretty specific palette in terms of
the sound source, for example, the Oberheim OB-Xa was a
big source because it has a texture, width and depth that
really spoke to me and could form a relationship with the
guitars. I also used Mutable Instruments Braids and Plaits
quite a lot – anything that had a certain metallic resonance
and purity to it. The hub of my studio is a 10-channel Neve
Kelso console, which I’ve had for nearly 20 years and is
amazing to work with, but I hardly used it for Scope Neglect. I
was really leaning into the surgical grit, compression and
gating of SSL G-Series channel strip EQs, because the severity
of that circuitry made more sense to me than the roundness
of using an A Class Neve preamp. I wanted sounds that were
muscular and lean in shape and Ingo records through a lot of
beautiful old bespoke gear and definitely chose a lot of things
that had a vintage quality to them as opposed to something
clean and digital. That allowed me to lean more into
squeezing out the high end and carving out any low-mid
fluff from the mix.”
What other tools were you reliant on in the studio to
record and modify sounds?
“All of the bass guitar parts were recorded by Liam, also from

“THE DIVIDE BETWEEN AN ELECTRIC
GUITAR AND ELECTRONIC MUSIC IS WAY
HARDER THAN IT SHOULD BE TO
CONVINCINGLY BRIDGE”
Melbourne, who has an amazing band called My Disco. He
was recording with a fully aluminium, single-piece,
metal-bodied bass guitar made by an instrument builder
called Obstructures. Weirdly, Steve Albini’s band plays a
similar guitar that gives a very pure resonance. I’m still a huge
fan of GRM Tools. I haven’t updated them for 15 years, but
I’ve still not come across a group of VST effects that sound
like their resonator and comb filter. I’m also a massive fan of
SPL’s hardware Transient Designer, De-Verb, Mo-Verb and
Vitaliser, although I inevitably end up using the box versions
because of the automation possibilities. There’s something
really fascinating that happens when you start trying to
remove room from a sound and then put it back using the
opposing effect. I guess what I’m trying to do is make
elements work harder than they’re supposed to and use the
artefacts in such a way that they produce a new space or
reality somehow.”
Does software cut it or do you need to turn towards
using analogue hardware to match the power and
intensity of Greg’s amplified guitars?
“I was having a conversation with Alessandro Cortini from
Nine Inch Nails the other day and we were talking about
exactly that. Even now, the divide between an electric guitar
and electronic music is way harder than it should be to
convincingly bridge, so that you don’t feel the edges of either.
Creating that dissolve between the two is what’s at the crux of
the record and you’re right that some of the instrument
choices were the result of looking for textures that will speak
to that world in a way that doesn’t feel like, here’s the guitar
and here’s everything else.”
Ben Frost | Interview
Is it possible for the power of an amplified
electrical signal to ever really be matched by
in-the-box sound sources?
“There have often been points where I’ve been
blowing out the meters within Ableton or Pro Tools
and everything is red and visually saying this isn’t
right, but for whatever reason the cumulative effect
of squeezing everything through that little doorway
in the master bus creates a summing that makes
things sound good. The only way to actually
capture that is not to render it down or make stems,
but feed it physically out of an analogue output and
print it back into the system. Asking the system to
make a copy seems to fail in translation, so taking it
outside of the computer and turning it into an
electrical signal is required to capture the essence of
that. There’s a lot of that in my work and creating
that randomness is intoxicating.”
We read that some of the recording techniques
you used on Scope Neglect were inspired by
the late Mark Hollis of Talk Talk?
“There’s an amazing book by Phill Brown, the
engineer responsible for those
Talk Talk records, which has a
huge section about the process
of making them that I and a lot
of musician friends of mine have
pored over religiously. What
Phill and Mark Hollis would do
in those sessions is have 20
channels of recording and invite
in, for example, a harmonica
player but maybe only give him
three or four channels, so he’s responding to a skeletal idea
for a song. They would then do another take and, for
example, remove the drums or bass, so now there’s only a
piano part to respond to. At some point, the musician would
leave the session and Phill and Mark were left with five or six
takes that are harmonically connected and responding to the
same idea technically but through a drastically different
range of approaches. They would then start to edit those
takes to form a narrative that the listener only hears as a
singular take, constructing a perception that didn’t exist in
reality. For me, that’s a fascinating idea that speaks very
clearly to me as an electronic musician in terms of how to
relate to other musicians. It’s akin to sampling rather than
dictating to a performer and saying, ‘Can you play this thing
I’ve already designed for you?’, then editing those responses
to create something that nobody could have planned for.”
You’re referring to the late Talk Talk albums rather than
the ones leading up to Colour of Spring?
“For me, Spirit of Eden, Laughing Stock and Mark Hollis’s
solo record are in my top five albums of all time. I constantly
return to them and it never ceases to amaze me how there is
always something new to find in there.”
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Ben Frost’s new album Scope
Neglect is out March 1 on Mute
Records. For more information, visit
ethermachines.com
63

© Independent / Alamy Stock Photo
E We explore the genius of the
lectronic music is a
spectrum. On one side,
we have the crowd-
pleasers, the big-room
bangers, the tunes you might hear
on an AI-generated playlist at the
gym, soundtracking your spinning
class. By and large, these follow
many of the same rules as
conventional pop music; tonally,
timbrally and rhythmically
colouring within familiar lines to
produce familiar – and often
brilliant – results. On the other
end, we have the weird, the wonky
and the experimental; music that
64
––––––––+ PIONEERS +––––––––
Autechre
divisive, Warp-affiliated duo
who have taken the shears to
electronic music staples
harnesses the near-limitless
potential of 21st-century
technology to create sounds like
nothing that came before them.
No electronic act is more closely
associated with this abstruse
corner of music than Autechre.
Rob Brown and Sean Booth
met as teenagers in the late ’80s.
Speaking to Future Music in
1994, Booth recalled how the pair
bonded over a shared interest in
hip-hop, electro and DJing. “We
used to do turntable mixes
together at Rob’s house and then
go to my house and edit and cut
’em up, imitating early Mantronix
stuff with pause-button edits on
my cassette deck,” he told us.
The duo’s early experiments
made use of the Casio SK-1 and
Roland TR-606, and a pre-
computer recording setup saw the
Roland R-8 drum machine,
Juno-106, Tascam 4-track and a
DJ mixer turned towards creating
ghostly, fractured beats that would
catch the attention of the
now-revered label Warp Records in
1991, leading to a feature on the

imprint’s highly influential 1992
compilation Artificial Intelligence.
Since signing with Warp,
Autechre has released 15 studio
albums with the label and even
more EPs. The duo’s style has
evolved dramatically in that time,
but such is the varied and
freeform nature of Autechre’s
music, any attempt to categorise it
within a fixed style or mode is
largely futile. The pair’s early work
arrived at the zenith of what has
often been dubbed, for better or
worse, IDM; electronic music that
scissored up the blueprints for
acid house, techno and breakbeat
and rearranged the pieces into
adventurous new shapes.
But Booth has since gone on to
label the term as “silly”, asking
one interviewer, “is our music
abstract and weird? To us or our
mates it’s not! Maybe if you’ve
only listened to pop music, then
yeah, it’s weirder, because you’ve
not been exposed to it [...]
everyone has a different idea of
what weird is”.
Autechre’s esoteric approach is
underpinned by a relentless
curiosity and a desire to master
the tools used to make their
music. “There isn’t one thing
about the gear that we’re using
now that we don’t understand,”
they told Future Music in 1994.
Since then, they’ve shifted their
focus from hardware to software,
becoming fluent in the visual
programming language Max/MSP,
which they use to design synths,
sequencers and effects from the
ground up in code; Autechre’s
vastly complex Max patches have
become the stuff of music
technology legend.
In 2016, the duo told Resident
Advisor that they hadn’t bought
any new gear in five years, such
was the depth of their immersion
in Max-based music-making. “I
just use Max/MSP now, because in
Max I can generally build the thing
I need, and if I don’t know how to
do that it’ll generally be worthwhile
learning,” Booth told RA. “So
rather than spend my money on
equipment, I spend my money –
as I spend my time – in learning
how to build stuff.”
From the acid-tinged
electronics of Incunabula and the
crackpot glitch-hop of Chiastic
Slide through to the mind-
expanding abstraction of their NTS
Sessions and the luminous
textures of 2020’s SIGN, the only
consistent feature in Autechre’s
output has been an unflagging
commitment to experimentation.
That term is thrown around a lot
these days, but in the case of
Autechre’s music, it applies quite
literally; you get the sense you’re
eavesdropping on a kind of sonic
research project. It’s this
uncompromising and radically
inventive approach that makes
them true pioneers of electronic
music-making.
Autechre | Pioneers
AUTECHRE IN
FOUR RELEASES
Autechre, Flutter (1994)
The environment in which Autechre formed is a world
away from today’s hyper-commercialised, TikTokified
electronic music culture; thousands of pill-happy
ravers were congregating every weekend for multi-day
DIY outdoor parties. Tabloids sensationalised the rave
movement and the government introduced the
Criminal Justice And Public Order Act 1994, providing police with
the power to break up unsanctioned, open-air gatherings at which
sounds “characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive
beats” were played. Autechre took this as a challenge, releasing a
track that winkingly evaded the government’s laughable restrictions;
containing no identical beats or repeated phrases; a satirical middle
finger to the establishment’s ill-advised attempts to stifle the
burgeoning free party scene and the electronic music that inspired it.
Autechre, Confield (2001)
Autechre’s sixth album, Confield, marked a shift from
the (relative) accessibility of their earlier work
towards something that sounds more like an
electronic take on free jazz; while not entirely atonal
or arhythmic, it’s byzantine music that tests the
limits of comprehension. It was around this time that
the duo began experimenting with Max/MSP, software they used to
design generative systems that would spit out sequences and patterns
that operated within pre-defined limits, that they would then
manipulate in real-time.
The Bug, Skeng (Autechre
Remix) (2010)
Autechre are prolific remixers, having taken on
material by everyone from Squarepusher and
Stereolab to Giorgio Moroder and Sophie. Our
favourite is their rework of The Bug’s iconic, Flowdan-
featuring Skeng, which trades the ominous gloom of
the original for glitchy textures and industrial
percussion, creating a leaner and more spacious arrangement that
does equal amounts of damage on a massive soundsystem.
Autechre, NTS Sessions 1-4
(2018)
This colossal project collates original works debuted
during a 2018 residency for London’s NTS Radio.
Across its 36 tracks, some nearing almost an hour in
length, the duo traverse an alien soundscape devoid
of familiarity, genre signifiers and musical reference
points. Capturing its scope in just a few sentences is
impossible, suffice to say that this is a high-point of Autechre’s
artistry that has divided and delighted listeners in equal measure.
65
 © Wayne Fox/Shutterstock

JULIA HOLTER
The composer-producer’s latest album
continues her quest to distil feelings we never
knew had a name. Kate Putttick learns more
 Julia Holter | Interview

ulia Holter’s work is about synthesis in its purest

form. The California-based musician is gifted as
a lyricist and musical worldbuilder, weaving in
literary themes, concepts and reference points,
from Greek mythology (Ekstasis) through to belle
epoque Paris and the film Gigi (Loud City Song).
But she most notably of all shines when it
comes to all things phatic and unspoken in both
her vocals and composition. Holter’s true genius comes from
a process that she describes as akin to “drawing feelings”.
The Domino Records artist knows a thing or two about
conjuring atmosphere – in both her grandiose performances
and the technical skills to translate that to record, as lead
producer on most of her discography.
Despite being the child of a folk musician and an
academic, her childhood musical turning points will be
familiar to many – the Beatles and film music. Educated at
the “casual and cool” CalArts as well as the more
academically rigid University of Michigan, Holter experienced
musical formation in an array of formats. Yet somehow, the
kind of virtuosity of expression that Holter possesses is
anything but studied. And on the way up her time spent with
bedroom synthpop kingpins (Ariel Pink) and eccentric
autodidacts (Linda Perhacs, whose backstory deserves its
own page) certainly nourished her capacity to embrace the
jagged edges of musicianship too.
Moreover, and something that Future Music readers will
truly empathise with, is the significance of her discovery of
self-production. As she told Financial Times in 2019, “I
started recording, and that freed me up a lot. That’s where a
turning point happened where I had confidence. I didn’t have
to communicate to anyone and I realised that I enjoy
expressing myself performance-wise, which I never was aware
of. I thought I was an introvert. But I got to express more
poetically and freely by recording, and I loved the process.”
Holter’s discography and its relationship with the
3-minute song structure is complicated. Have You In My
Wilderness turbo-charged her Spotify listening numbers in
some respects, before follow-up Aviary took a more avant
garde reprise. But the constant of both is, without doubt, that
dedication to synthesis and sonic distillation of passing
emotion. So while the explanation for the title of new album
Something in the Room She Moves – that the flipping of
words in the title when playing around in Logic simply
appealed to her sense of humour – might be disappointing to
Beatlephiles, it’s also completely on brand.
When creating Evening Mood, she deliberately set out to
recreate in musical form the feeling of oxytocin – the
hormone associated with being in love in all of its forms. If
she hadn’t very much succeeded in doing so, that would
seem like a bold quest, but with her experience and mastery
of textures, timbres and deft ear for their placement in a mix,
if anyone was going to pull it off it’s Holter.
We were lucky enough to be present for an unveiling of
the new record in the setting of Tileyard Studio’s Dolby
Atmos-bedecked Gallery the day before our interview with the
good-humoured Californian, and had plenty of questions…

Tell us a bit about the album’s overriding themes..

“It’s perfect to focus on the production for me because that
was the starting point. More than the poetic themes I was
thinking about that. This one I went deep for sure. I think I
was mostly going for a visceral feeling. That was more
important to me than a story. The themes revolve around the
labour of love. Being in love versus faraway love and

67
 Interview | Julia Holter
troubadour love. The love that’s real that has difficulties and
changes you. So poetically that is a theme but also the
importance of change and transformation.”
Many of your albums take literature or media forms as a
startpoint. Were there any particular focus-points for
this new one?
“I was mostly trying to capture feelings around the above.
That sounds general but that’s different to other approaches.”
You’ve said that you like to “draw emotions”, eg how you
were trying to capture the feeling of “oxytocin”? What is
your process for sound design?
“I wanted the record to have lots of continuous pitch
instruments, like fretless bass. Dev Hoff’s bass played a big
role in this record. And I used the Yamaha CS-60, Blade
Runner synth, one of my favourites – it wasn’t mine but in
the studio. And we did a lot of drum programming. I was
working with the drummer Beth Goodfellow but then I
would filter her work very heavily with GRM plugins – using
the resonance plugin. Super-filtered sound, bringing up the
resonance and making it metallic sounding. That’s in Talking
in a Whisper and Evening Mood. So lots of filtering and
atmosphere. Creating a fluid world or something. And it’s
kind of a warm sound in general in this record, whatever that
means. Also the CS-60 has this ribbon controller that has this
ability to do lots of glissandi and portamento that’s just so
good. You hear that on tracks like Ocean where I play a lot
with it. There’s something where it can go all the way down
[impersonates a whale]. I love that. Kate Bush’s productions
in particular influenced me. She was really involved in every
aspect of the music. Breathing [released 1980, from the
Lorne Thomson/Redferns
68
album Never Forever] is a track which was something I was
curious about the production for. That era of bass and
synthesisers. And the topic of a foetus breathing air after a
nuclear fallout. I think the thing with breathing so much
with COVID is a good example of something going on
recently that had an effect on the record.”
The fretless bass really does stand out on the album.
Were there other particular instruments to note?
“Flute and piccolo is something that I hadn’t worked with
before [played by Maia (aka Sonjia Denise Hubert Harper)
on the album]. There’s no real answer why I wanted flute but
I really wanted it. I think because I wanted to sing breathily
and high pitched. One thing I haven’t mentioned before is
other than the bass, there are no strings on the record.
Unusual for me. So that’s of note. Lots of wind. Maia and
Chris Speed [saxophone, clarinet] are both really
accomplished in jazz and improvisation, very abstractly
doing their own things. Those two were amazing. My partner
Tashi Wada played the Prophet and OB-X. He recently got
the Oberheim. So that sounds really nice. He plays bagpipe
on one track. It’s subtle [on Sun Girl].”
What’s your favourite instrument to work with?
“The obvious one is keyboards as it’s my main one. I love
strings but I thought it was interesting not to do it this time.”
You’ve spoken about how you made the move from
composition to production headspaces. Can you expand
on that?
“There was an obvious connection between composition
and what you do in production. In composition you’re

“SO MUCH OF PRODUCTION IS THINKING
ABOUT ORGANISING SOUNDS IN A
SIMILAR WAY TO ON A SHEET OF MUSIC.
THE TYPES OF TEXTURES”
looking at orchestration and organisation. Timbres, and
ranges of instruments. So much of production is thinking
about organising sounds in a similar way to on a sheet of
music. The types of textures. For me there has always been
this grey area between production and writing because it’s
always been part of the writing in a way. So it’s confusing
sometimes to separate it out. So much of Evening Mood is
about production and the story that tells. It worked similarly
with Sun Girl.”
Is your process of putting an album together any
different to how it was when you started?
“For me it’s about trying things. I don’t have a big idea. I sit
down with a keyboard and I put on a vocal mic so that
there’s a vocal and keyboard recording at the same time. I
don’t usually have a preconceived idea of what I want. I come
Rodolfo Sassano / Alamy Stock Photo
up with something. And I start to follow what I’m doing.”
In terms of collaborators, how do you seek people out?
Is it specific or à la carte?
“Generally it’s the same group but sometimes I switch it up a
bit and try new things. I am the main producer on the track
but there’s also Kenny Gilmore. He is with me for a lot of
Julia Holter | Interview
stuff. He is doing the recording engineering and
mixing. I loved working with him because he’s so
talented and gets my music. I think he was actually
at my first concert ever. I just think because he
knows the music and is so fun to work with, he
knows how to make all sounds sound good. He
knows about the layers of percussion and that stuff.
To really bring them out. Sounding rich and full.”
Because you’re so involved in the choices
yourself, how does collaboration feel for you?
“No it’s great. Kenny will do stuff on his own too.
But I work on stuff on my own at home and then
send it to him. I wouldn’t be good at that. I have
mixed my own music before and it’s OK but it
sounds a lot better when he does it.”
Being such intimate music, choice of studio
must have been important…
“We recorded mainly at 64 Sound in Highland Park
in Los Angeles and I did most of the stuff there. I
recorded a lot of keyboard stuff at home.”
What’s your home studio like?
“It’s not soundproof but it’s more like an office. My
little Apogee Duet interface which is ancient. Not
very exciting and very messy. Stuff everywhere.”
What’s your desktop like?
“I’m really simple. Just Logic. I tried Ableton Live
briefly. And Pro Tools. Text Edit for all of my lyrics”.
Is there any particular gear on
your wishlist?
“Some kind of newer version of
the CS-60 would be great. I
believe what I’m thinking of is a
spin-off of the Black
Corporation’s Deckard’s Dream
[possibly Deckard’s Voice]. The
smaller one, but it was less
pivotal? I’d like either one of
those anyway!”
What would you save in a fire?
“Probably my hard drive. I don’t have that much gear. My
Nord which I bought in 2012. Not because I don’t want to
buy more but it somehow doesn’t occur to me!”
How do you plan your onstage setup? Your music being
often less about repetition than organic movement…?
“I prefer not to have a lot of pedals. I did looping at an early
stage. But I prefer not to have anything strange in any way
when I’m onstage. Simple. Sometimes I even just play the
keyboard. And when I’m with the band it’s also fine just to
do that. For me the fun of performing is getting lost in the
music. I don’t like thinking too much.”
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Julia Holter’s Something In The
Room She Moves is out now on
Domino Records. Visit juliaholter.com
for upcoming live dates
69
FM | REVIEWS

Ableton Live 12 Suite

£539
v12 introduces some major changes but, Si Truss asks, does it
risk wrong-footing long-time users?
CONTACT WHO: Ableton WEB: ableton.com KEY FEATURES DAW update adding new tools, sound content, UI and workflow changes.
Pricing: Live Suite: £539, Live Standard: £259, Live Intro: £69. Check site for upgrade offers

70
 Ableton Live 12 Suite | Reviews

THE PROS & CONS

WHAT ABOUT PUSH?

+
UI changes add in
How does Push 3 fare with Live 12? As a controller, the
new devices seem tailor-made for use with Push’s MPE
interface. Meld and Granulator 3 make great use of the
real flexibility to
expressive pads and are easy to control with Push’s
Live’s workflow
rotaries. Roar’s animated distortion looks great on Push’s
screen too. At the time of writing, none of the new
Meld and Roar are
features or devices have rolled out for Push’s standalone
both deep and
OS. Ableton tells us this will be rectified though. Sadly,
powerful, but also
there’s also no way to interact with the MIDI generator/
fun and
transformation tools using Push – in controller or
approachable
standalone configuration – which is something we’d love
to see implemented.
Generative MIDI
tools offer a deep
well of creative
experimentation

ost DAW updates
are sold on the
back of flashy new
features, but
really what a DAW
lives-or-dies on is
consistency. Whether used in a
professional or hobby capacity, these
are foundational platforms for modern
music makers. A transition from one
version to another needs to be as
seamless as possible. While the
promise of exciting new features
might be what sells a user on paying
for the latest updates, it’s the small,
-
The revamped
browser requires a
bit of time and effort
to get the most from
Implementation of
some MIDI tools
feels a little messy
No way to use MIDI
generation or
transformation
from Push
incremental enhancements to an
application’s workflow that make
them stick around for the long term.
Traditionally, this is something
Ableton has been good at. For all of
the devices added in the 22 years
since it launched, Live’s overall
design has remained remarkably
consistent. So much so that it would
be possible to skip several versions
when updating and still encounter
few unexpected roadblocks, since
most elements will be where you’d
expect them: the browser to the left,
devices down the bottom, clip
launcher and arrangement living in
their own individual UI views. Version
12 is arguably Live’s most significant
update in over a decade because it’s
the first time that Ableton has risked
messing with this familiarity.
This is most evident in the layout
of the UI. Previous versions of Live
have maintained fairly rigorous
constraints on how its workspace can
be arranged. While it’s been possible
to resize certain elements to an
extent, and hide/show others, there
have always been hard-and-fast rules
about how Live is laid out. The clip
launcher and timeline live in separate
windows; the Mixer is only available
in Session view; clip and device
parameters can’t be viewed
side-by-side.
Version 12 does away with a lot of
these constraints and makes the UI
far more flexible. While the divide
between the clip-launching Session
view and Arrangement timeline
remains, it’s now possible to call up
the mixer, clip and device panels
from anywhere. This means you can
use the Mixer alongside the
Arrangement view, but also display
MIDI or audio clips alongside device
interfaces simultaneously, mostly
within a single window.
Admittedly, this can feel a little on
the cluttered side with everything
displayed at once – particularly on a
laptop screen – but the flexibility it
adds to Live’s workflow is a real
benefit. For those used to quickly
tabbing between views and using
familiar keyboard shortcuts to show/
hide elements, the new interaction
between these elements may take a
little getting used to, but once it
becomes familiar, there’s no going
back. Out of curiosity, I returned to
Live 11 after using 12 for several
weeks, and the old UI already feels
remarkably restrictive.
Où est le bibliothéque?
The UI element that took me a little
longer to get to grips with is Live’s
revamped Library browser. This
modernises the way users find
devices, clips, samples and other
content, doing away with the previous
system of sub-folders in favour of
dynamic tags and filters. On the one
hand, this new system is objectively
better – there’s more flexibility,
particularly when it comes to saving
custom search parameters, and it
means there’s less of a divide
between content types. A top-level
search for ‘bass’, for example, will
bring up a long list of device presets,
clips, loops and samples, which can
be filtered down by content type,
source or sound characteristics. If the
resulting combination of search terms
and filters is something you’re likely
to use again, hitting the ‘+’ symbol
next to the results will add it to the
library sidebar, creating a shortcut
that will be updated as new content is
imported or tagged.
The system does, however, create
something of a divide between
Ableton’s own content – which comes
conveniently pre-tagged with
information on its characteristics –
and your own library of samples and
third-party plugins, which by default

71
Reviews | Ableton Live 12 Suite

THE ALTERNATIVES can only be filtered by the bare
minimum aspects of what it is (eg
instrument, MIDI, sample), who made
it and the file name. To get the most
out of the new system, it’s really
worth taking the time to apply as
many relevant tags as possible to your
Bitwig Studio $399 most used plugins and samples,
Live’s closest which is a simple process but can be
competitor, also annoyingly time consuming.
recently updated.
Bitwig arguably New tools
A highlight of the new browser tools is
offers more depth
the Similarity Search. This can be
and flexibility, but accessed from the library or within a
loses some of Live’s drum rack, and uses neural networks
slick immediacy to suggest similar sounds based on a
bitwig.com source sample. While results can be a
little hit and miss – it works best with
percussion – it can be a hugely
inspiring way to mix up the sound
palette of an idea, particularly when
used in the context of a drum rack
kit, where it’s possible to swap out
Apple Logic Pro £199 single elements or roll the dice on the
For Mac owners, full kit. The one disappointment is
Logic would be the that, right now, you can’t access the
best value DAW on feature within Live’s Simpler device,
the market, and where it seems a natural fit.
recent years have
seen it adopt more
and more Live-
inspired ideas
apple.com
PACK IT UP
UI changes aside, one of Live 12’s
most eye-catching additions is its
suite of generative MIDI tools. These
are an assortment of features within
MIDI clips that are divided into two
categories: Generators, which will fill
an empty clip with MIDI data, and
Transformations, which will alter
existing MIDI patterns. Within each of
these categories are a variety of tools
aimed at different use-cases.
Generators, for example, include tools
designed to build percussive patterns
(Rhythm), melodies (Seed), chords
(Stacks) or arpeggiated riffs (Shape).
For Suite owners, these are expanded
with the ability to use Max MIDI
generators within clips too.
Transformations can do things like
arpeggiate chords, adjust the
quantisation or humanisation of
notes, alter the position and timing of
MIDI events, or embellish patterns
with flams and ghost notes.
These MIDI tools are a fantastic,
inspiring addition to the DAW, that
practically beg you to lose hours down
creative rabbit holes exploring their
full potential. That being said, the
implementation lacks refinement in
places. Creating progressions with the
Stacks chord generator, for example,
involves manually altering the shape
and root note of each chord, and it
feels like it’s crying out for a function
to auto-generate common
progressions. It’s also a shame that
the chord shapes aren’t labelled with
their names, which could provide a
handy learning tool. Elsewhere, the
general setup also makes it a little too
easy to get lost and accidentally
overwrite or transform notes you
didn’t mean to alter. This can be
easily undone, but has the effect of
making the workflow feel fiddly and a
little messy.
Live 12 also introduces a new
master scale setting, whereby users
can set a scale for the whole project,
which is then automatically applied to
new clips. This is handy, but it’s also
easy to override by setting scales
within individual MIDI or audio clips,
allowing users to change key/scale
mid-project or track, which is useful
for live performance. These scale
settings take on added importance as

Naturally, Live 12 Suite adds additional content downloadable in the form of Packs from
Ableton’s site. There are two new Packs for users to download. The first, Lost and Found,
is a percussive-leaning sample pack that draws heavily on recordings of household objects
Image-Line FL Studio and material textures. These come organised into some nicely curated, fun drum kits and
£515 (all plugins esoteric instruments.
edition) The second, and more interesting, is the Max-powered Performance Pack: a bundle of
Often wrongly four customisable devices that
derided as an ‘entry are essentially aimed at patching
level’ DAW, like Live, up some of the more advanced
FL Studio has a and niche gaps in Live’s
unique workflow performance workflow. For
that’s well suited to controller users – and Push in
electronic music particular – Performer offers a
image-line.com handy tool that lets you configure
banks of top-level macro controls.
It can also be used to set up
complex, multi-destination
modulation that goes beyond the
slightly basic modulators in Live’s
stock library. Beyond this, there
are also tools aimed at facilitating
live looping in the arrangement
view, plus creating on-the-fly
arrangements and variations.

72
 Ableton Live 12 Suite | Reviews

of Live 12, as the DAW adds a ‘scale

awareness’ mode to several of its
stock devices. This allows for certain
pitch-based parameters – such as
MIDI effects, synth oscillator tuning,
pitch-shift effects – to be locked to
the current scale. Not only does this
avoid unwanted harmonic clashes
(although it can be turned off, to
avoid things sounding too ‘perfect’) it
also means that changing from a clip
with one assigned key/scale to
another will cause all relevant devices
to follow suit.
On a similar front, Live 12 also
adds the ability to work with
micro-tunings and non-Western
scales. This is accessed via a tuning
pool that functions in a similar
manner to the Groove Pool. Engaging
a tuning from this pool deactivates
the global scale – which makes sense,
since the two functions are effectively
at odds with one another – and
applies the tuning across all project
clips. This pool also allows users to
edit and import custom tunings.

New toys
There’s a lot going on with this update
then, and that’s before we even get to
the headline devices. Live 12 adds a
new synth, Meld, a new effect, Roar,
and an update to the popular Max
instrument Granulator.
Meld is a dual-engine synth with a
variety of interesting oscillator modes
that lean into digital sounds and
textures. These range from simple
virtual analogue waves through to
creatively filtered noise, generators
that produce interesting harmonic
overtones, and animated rain and
water textures. It also boasts filters
that can double-up as resonators,
distortions and comb filter effects,
plus a powerful modulation setup that
lets users apply transformations to the
LFOs and route elements from one
engine to the other. Both in terms of
structure and sound, Meld reminds
me a lot of Arturia’s MiniFreak synth,
which is no bad thing; both
ROAR: This multi-stage distortion is
capable of everything from gelling
mixes to creating lo-fi delay effects
whereby distortion can be applied to
the input and feedback loop
individually. Like Meld, copious,
flexible modulation capabilities do a
lot to bring Roar to life, allowing it to
work for broad applications such as
refining the character of drum loops,
adding resonant glitches to pads and
creating lo-fi dub echoes.
The latest version of Granulator –
more of a new instrument than a
straight update – both refines and
simplifies the granular concept,
MELD: Live’s new synth features dual MIDI GENERATORS: Live’s MIDI GRANULATOR III: The latest version
engines, complex modulation and clips can now auto-generate rhythms, of this Max-based instrument is an
filters that can double up as pitch- chords, riffs and patches approachable, expressive take on
based effects granular synthesis
to access every element of Live Over the years, Ableton has
without using a mouse. I’m not become known for releasing updates
somebody who requires either of that are incremental and often subtle,
these functions to use Live, so can’t rather than revolutionary, meaning it
really comment on how effectively can be difficult to decide how much
they’ve been implemented, but it’s it’s worth paying for the latest version.
pleasing to see Ableton aim for If you’re a user who’s been holding off
advances in this area. on upgrading, Live 12 is the one
you’ve been waiting for.
To update or not to
update?
In all, Live 12 has a lot to shout
about. Compared to some previous FM VERDICT

instruments combine complex digital
synthesis ideas into a surprisingly
approachable and fun package.
Roar is a multi-stage distortion,
which allows up-to three stages of
distortion to be arranged in a variety
of ways. These can run in serial or
parallel, be applied individually to
different frequency bands, or to the
mid and side of a signal. It also has
an internal feedback routing, allowing
Roar to act like a simple delay,
making it more approachable without
sacrificing its depth. The biggest
enhancements are the addition of
MPE and improved capture
capabilities that allow users to record
directly into the effect.
Last but not least, it’s worth
mentioning the work Ableton has put
into adding to Live’s accessibility for
version 12. This includes screen
reader support, along with improved
shortcuts, which make it all the easier
9.4
iterations, there is a lot here that feels
fresh and like it could have a
significant impact on how users
interact with the DAW. Some of these
advancements feel like they’re due a
little refinement in future updates – I
wouldn’t be surprised to see subtle
tweaks to how the MIDI tools or
While some new features
browser behave, which would be are better implemented than
welcome. However you use Live others, Live 12 is a generous
though, there are new features here update stuffed with ideas
likely to appeal. and real potential

73
Reviews | beetlecrab.audio Tempera

beetlecrab.audio Tempera
€670 (excl VAT)
This granular instrument is unique and slightly baffling, but as
Si Truss discovers, it’s also hugely rewarding
CONTACT WHO: beetlecrab.audio. WEB: playtempera.com KEY FEATURES Multi-part granular synthesiser. 4096 grains, 16 voice polyphony,
per-voice filter, five per-voice routable modulators, 64 total emitters per-voice, four concurrent emitter configurations, 8GB internal storage, 16-bit stereo samples,
32-bit processing

74
 beetlecrab.audio Tempera | Reviews

THE PROS & CONS

+
Unique design belies
a smart and easy-to-
use workflow

Capable of
fantastic, complex
ambient sounds

Multitude of sample
recording and
import options

-
Better configuration
of the overlay
keyboard would
be nice

Emitter placement
can lag occasionally HANDS-ON CONTROL

Beyond the touch grid (used for Emitters and the overlay
keyboard) Tempera doesn’t have masses of hands-on
control, but it’s smart with what it has. Buttons down the
side of the grid are for navigation between menus, while
the four chunky rotaries are for parameter control.
Performance-wise, these have two main uses: in the
main sample view, they’re used to adjust the playback
volume of each of the eight tracks. But most useful is an
easily-assignable Macros mode whereby the rotaries can
control a custom selection of sound engine or effect
parameters for quick access during a performance.

empera is the second
instrument from
beetlecrab.audio, the
Czech company who
made the Vector
synth. Vector, which
arrived a few years
ago, was a highly unique, experimental
digital synth that combined multiple
synthesis approaches around an animated
‘vector’ interface. As unusual as it was,
Vector still resembled a standard synth;
labelled controls for filter, envelopes,
oscillators; Tempera’s appearance is,
instead, at least initially, a little baffling.
The majority of Tempera’s interface is
taken up by a touchpad housing an 8x8
grid of individual cells. Switching it on,
you’ll find some of these cells lit up in
different colours, matching the ring
lighting around the four rotaries that sit
across the top of the interface. Play a
note through the MIDI input and you’ll
see these cells, and those around them,
start to flash in jittery patterns as the
instrument creates sound. It’s reminiscent
of Yamaha’s cult classic Tenori-on. Pretty
to look at… but what exactly is going on?
Tempera is a granular synth that lets
users combine up to eight samples to
create layered, evolving synth tones. Each
column on the instrument’s touch grid
represents an individual sample track.
The four colours that delineate the rotary
knobs along the top of the unit each
represent one type of ‘emitter’. These
emitters are essentially granular
playheads. The eight rows of the
touchpad divide each sample column into
eight equal chunks. Place an emitter at
any point on one of these columns and it
grabs granular samples from that track at
the corresponding position.
Each of the four available emitter
types can be configured with its own
settings. These settings control the
playback behaviour of the grains, allowing
for adjustment of the duration, density,
quantisation, pitch spread and pan
position of grains. There are also fade and
spray controls, altering the abruptness
and randomisation of the created grains.
Emitters can also be configured to adjust
how they behave on the touch grid. There
are three placement modes: Instant,
where an Emitter disappears as soon as
your finger leaves the corresponding cell,
Toggle, where Emitters are placed and
removed with each touch, and Latch,
where all Emitters remain in place while

75
Reviews | beetlecrab.audio Tempera

THE ALTERNATIVES your fingers are on the touchpad, but

disappear when all fingers are removed.
In total, Tempera is capable of
generating 4,096 grains, with 16 voices
of polyphony. Beyond the Emitter
controls, the synth has a resonant,
Ableton multimode filter per voice, along with an
Granulator III assortment of per-voice modulators
£539 (Ableton Live including an ADSR amp envelope, and
12 Suite) several configurable LFOs. The final
The latest version of element in the sound engine is a trio of
effect processors, applying reverb, delay
Robert Henke’s
and chorus. Given the obviously
granular Max for Live
ambient-leaning sound palette, these are
instrument is equally a smart addition. The delay and reverb
flexible with its can sound fairly epic.
sampling capabilities The samples that feed Tempera’s
ableton.com engine can be sourced through a variety
of means. The synth has an audio input,
which can be set to line or instrument
levels with threshold controls to make it
easy to capture sounds. Tempera also
features an inbuilt mic, making it easy to
sample sounds even without an
instrument to hand. Samples can also be
Sonicware Liven loaded from the synth’s own 8GB memory
Texture Lab $239 – which comes stocked with a decent
Lexture Lab is crop of instrument tones and textures – or
another granular via USB and SD card ports. Finally,
synth and effect Tempera can also resample its own
processor that’s great master output, either pre or post-effects.

for ambient textures A basic sample editor allows for

samples to be trimmed, normalised and
sonicware.jp
renamed. Beetlecrab’s quick start guide
shares a few handy tips to help make the
most of the sampling process, like
capturing tuned sounds in lower registers
and ensuring rhythmic loops divide in line
with the eight cells of each audio column.
Sounds themselves can be triggered TOUCH GRID Tempera’s grid of ROTARIES The four rotaries on I/O An audio input, built-in mic,
cells is used to place its ‘Emitter’ offer can be assigned as macros USB and SD card slots and
using a MIDI input, USB input or a playheads as well as activate an in order to provide for easy live resampling capabilities offer lots

1010 Music touchpad keyboard which sits as an overlay keyboard performance of sampling potential

Nanobox overlay to the cells on the touch grid. This

latter option is configurable to occupy
Lemondrop £386 either two or four columns to the left or
One of 1010’s right of the grid. It is, at best, a
pocket-sized workaround. Beetlecrab itself states that
Nanobox range, the instrument is best controlled via an
Lemondrop is a external input, for both note and CC
polyphonic granular control of parameters. It’s also possible to
synth with a tiny configure Emitters to respond to different
touchscreen MIDI channels, which effectively allows
between pressing a cell and an Emitter anytime soon – but for drones, textures
appearing/disappearing, but it’s not too and ambient pads, this is one of the most
bad. On the whole, I’m really impressed inspiring, effective instruments I’ve used
with how well thought-out the workflow is. in a long time.
Despite using just four small screens and
a handful of physical controls, accessing
most sound elements is refreshingly easy,

1010music.com for the synth to play multitimbral as is the process of sampling or loading FM VERDICT

variations on the one global patch.
While the overlay keyboard isn’t the
best way to use the synth, it’s still handy
for auditioning sounds and playing with
the synth away from a larger studio setup.
It’s a shame, however, that there’s no
option to configure the keyboard to sit
horizontally across the bottom rows,
instead of blocking off full columns.
I have few other gripes with Tempera’s
design. Toggling Emitters can be a bit
laggy on occasion, with a notable gap
9.1
sounds. Renaming and trimming samples
can be sluggish, but it’s no huge problem.
Crucially, Tempera also sounds
fantastic. Layering tonal and textural
samples can result in wonderfully
complex soundscapes that evolve – either
smoothly or in an erratic, glitchy manner,
or both – and create rich, engaging
A granular synth like nothing
timbres without the need for additional else around. It’s niche, but
instruments or external effects. The for creating ambient textures
overall remit is fairly niche – you won’t be and drones, there’s endless
using this for basslines or synth hooks fun to be had

76

Erica Synths Hexinverter
Mindphaser £460
Rob Redman toasts the new incarnation of a Hexinverter staple
some thought would never again see the light
CONTACT WHO: Erica Synths & Hexinverter WEB: ericasynths.lv KEY FEATURES Dual complex oscillator, Waveshaping, Through zero phase
modulation, Comprehensive modbus
M
any modularists were sad
to see the end of
Hexinverter Electronique
and were relieved when
Erica Synths declared it would bring
back some much-loved modules,
including the Mindphaser, a complex
oscillator featuring lots of modulation,
that blends East or West Coast.
While larger than other options, at
30hp, it’s packed full of features, yet
remains readable and usable. The
layout and labeling are clear, with
pathways from patchpoints to
controls, so you know where you are.
Complex oscillators, as opposed to
a dual VCO, work interactively, where
the output of each VCO combines,
with one being the carrier and the
other the modulator. Nothing new
there. But the Mindphaser takes
things a lot further than some other
complex oscillators, with options for
modulation and sound design.
The two VCOs are similar but do
vary, with the modulator ranging from
LFO rate up to very fast. Separate
outputs are offered for square, saw,
triangle and sine. The carrier (with
white labels) has no sine output.
There’s also an output jack at the end
of the signal chain. There are
patchpoints for both linear and
exponential FM, next to volts-per-
octave inputs and a sync port. The
modulator can be hard-synced to the
carrier with a switch too.
Patchpoints are plentiful and offer
CV control for a lot of features. That
said there’s a lot of internal
modulation, with a handy triangle
icon next to controls that can be
modulated by the modbus, without
needing a single patch cable.
Which brings us neatly to the
modulation options. These range from
simple pulse width through to some
lovely waveshaping. There are five
octaves of waveshaping, with a level
control to tame, plus an amplitude
control which can function as a VCA.
Further sound-shaping can be
done using the onboard thru-zero
phase modulation, which gives the
module part of its name. This effect
sounds rich and adds lovely depth
Erica Synths Hexinverter Mindphaser | Reviews
THE PROS & CONS
+
Intuitive interface
Huge tonal
possibilities
Buckets of
modulation
and movement. The phase is driven
by a sine wave which can be patched
to override, for some extra interesting
results. The Mindphaser encourages
-
Large footprint
experimentation, ensuring plenty of
scope for fun and sound design.
The modbus itself is kind of the
brains of the module, allowing for
internal modulation routing (for
controls with the previously
mentioned triangle icon) as well as
patched. Similarly to the T0-PM the
modbus has switchable square,
triangle and sine waves but can be
patched and overridden. On top of
this, the modulation CV inputs can be
inverted with the touch of a button.
There’s more fine control to be
explored with numerous buttons.
But how does it sound? Though
there are soft, delicate sounds on
offer, the Mindphaser excels at the
gritty end. It’s easy to create grungy,
twisted drones, aggressive basslines,
or lead tones with attitude. Layering
using the various outputs is
rewarding, enabling split personality
patches that build to more than the
sum of their parts but it’s the motion
that really sells this module. If you
like evolving tones that can be finely
controlled or left to their own devices,
Mindphaser is for you. It’s fun and
sounds glorious.
FM VERDICT
9.0
An exceptional module,
offering a vast range of
tones, some class-leading
modulation and an easy-to-
learn workflow
77
Reviews | PreSonus Eris Studio 8

PreSonus Eris
Studio 8 £219 each
PreSonus Eris monitors offer incredible
value. Jon Musgrave powers up the newly
updated Studio 8
KEY FEATURES AMPLIFICATION: Class AB, LF 75W, HF 65W CROSSOVER FREQUENCY: 3.5kHz
FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 35Hz - 20kHz INPUT IMPEDANCE: 10 kΩ ROOM SETTINGS: Acoustic space
(0, -2dB, -4dB), low cut 12dB/octave 80Hz/100Hz EQ: +/-6dB at 10kHz, +/-6dB at 1kHz PEAK SPL:
106 dB @ 1m INPUTS: balanced ¼” TRS and XLR, unbalanced phono

78

reSonus has recently
revamped its popular
Eris line of monitors,
and the latest one I
have for review is the
Eris Studio 8. This
large 2-way nearfield
is an update of the Eris E8 XT, and
priced at just over £400, a pair offers
excellent value.
At 419mm high and just over
10kg, the Eris Studio 8 is a big
monitor, even for an 8” design. That
said, with a front bass port and the
incorporated bass tweaking options,
you should be able to mount them
reasonably near to a wall, and that
certainly makes them viable in
smaller rooms.
Visually, the front panel is very
similar to its predecessor, although
the power indicator is now a central
strip rather than an illuminated
badge. The LED doubles as a standby
indicator (white) if you have the
optional power save standby selected
on the back panel. The front baffle
includes a wide slotted bass port, and
the top section is dominated by a
large Elliptical Boundary Modelled
(EBM) tweeter waveguide. I have to
say, this delivers a very wide sweet
spot and makes working with these
monitors incredibly easy.
The monitors use quality drivers,
with a silk dome 1.25” tweeter, and a
woven composite 8” woofer. Back
panel input connections include two
balanced (XLR and TRS) and one
unbalanced (phono). These are joined
by input gain and a good selection of
acoustic tuning controls. You’ll note
there’s no digital connectivity or
remote room correction, but I
wouldn’t expect these features at this
price point.
The Studio 8 uses individual class
AB amps for woofer (75W) and
tweeter (65W). At full tilt the
speakers move plenty of air, delivering
not only punch but also noticeable
low-end extension. The spec quotes a
frequency range down to 35Hz and
using an oscilloscope I could hear a
gradual tail-off from about 50Hz. This
is pretty good going, and on kicks for
example, the fundamental pitch is
clearly audible and it makes EQing
with confidence a lot easier.
Acoustic tuning controls include a
low-cut filter (12dB/octave at 80Hz or
100Hz) and also Acoustic Space
adjustment, with 2dB or 4dB cut
below 800Hz. This is quite impactful
and certainly helps if you need to
back the speakers into a corner or up
to a wall. You also have two EQ bands
offering 6dB of boost or cut at 1kHz
PreSonus Eris Studio 8 | Reviews
THE PROS & CONS
+
Offers great low-
frequency delivery
Plenty of power
Onboard EQ and
room correction
Good choice
of inputs
Great value
-
No digital
connectivity
and 10kHz. I found the high
frequencies were ideal in the flat
position, but the 10kHz band offers
plenty of shaping if you need it. In
contrast I found the Studio 8
mid-range a little too reserved, and
pushing the 1kHz band by a couple
of dB was ideal. I think an additional
low frequency EQ band would be a
useful inclusion.
Overall, the Eris Studio 8 is a
very good-sounding monitor that
combines a traditional 2-way design
with quality components. If you have
space for this big, bold monitor, and
are happy with traditional rather than
digitally controlled room correction,
you won’t be disappointed.
FM VERDICT
9.0
The Eris Studio 8 is an
excellent update with great
low frequency delivery, and
despite its size should work
in rooms of all dimensions
79
Reviews | NI Traktor X1 MK3

Native Instruments
X1 MK3 £259
Charlotte Sterland gets to grips with
this portable controller for DJs who want
looping and effects at their fingertips
CONTACT WHO: Native Instruments WEB: native-instruments.com KEY FEATURES A good
device for those wanting a compact DJ mixing controller with a host of effects and looping options on
board. The OLED screens and colour coded lights are a bonus, with integrability with Traktor Pro software
really useful

80

he X1 MK3 is the
latest version of
Native Instruments’
compact Traktor
controller, adding
several new features
over the MK1 and 2
versions. Importantly, for club use:
it’s small and colourful (the indicator
lights that is, not the black box),
robust and relatively straightforward
to get to grips with.
The MK3 has a slightly updated
layout compared to earlier models,
including a pair of high quality OLED
displays instead of one. Moving
between mixer and effects modes is
done using the central button at the
top of the device. A shift press of
this also takes us between MIDI
mode and controller mode. In mixer
mode, the top three dials control
three bands of EQ, while the fourth
down controls the volume of that
mixer channel.
The X1 can control effects across
two decks simultaneously. When in
effects mode, the four dials on each
side of the controller can be used to
control a variety of effect parameters,
either set to control a single effect
with access to multiple parameters,
or for broader control over a full
effect group, with the top dial used
as a global dry/wet.
The next set of dials half way
down the device control loop length
and ‘beat jumps’. The lower keys
control the samplers as well as
cueing and syncing. A Pattern Player
is also available in Traktor Pro Plus
NI Traktor X1 MK3 | Reviews
THE PROS & CONS
+
High quality OLED
display screens
Portable and light
software (requiring an additional who prefer to be able to ‘slide’ deck Multiple USB inputs
subscription) and can be customised functions, rather than just have keys. for use in tandem
to play sequenced patterns and This was available on previous
with other hardware
rhythms from the controller. versions, and it was especially handy
The X1 MK3 adds stylish lighting for functions like pitch adjustment.
that can be used to indicate the The MK3 also comes with a soft
Mountable and
status of a deck in the Traktor 3 protector case and weighs only security lockable
software. Green lights indicate when 0.75kg, so could not be easier to
-
a loop is active and a red light pop in a backpack.
indicates a track is 30 seconds from This is Native Instruments’ first
finishing, although these lights can new Traktor controller in some time,
also be deactivated or customised in and we hope its arrival spells a Audio interface
the software. The additional screens renewed focus on the DJ software
are handy for displaying information and its associated hardware tools.
Some features from
such as volume and loop lengths.
Other devices can be connected
previous models
to the controller via the three USB have gone
inputs on the rear. This is useful for FM VERDICT
8.0
chaining other controllers to the No LED/colour coded
MK3, but doing so requires the use volume monitoring
of the included power supply.
The difference between the
rectangular and dome-shaped
buttons is great for more tactile
mixing, in dark rooms, and the cue
A great portable effects and
and play buttons feel different; a
variation on previous models.
mixing controller for DJs
One dissappointment is that building modular setups and
there’s no touch-sensitive strip in the those who want something
MK3, which is a drawback for those they can use in any club
81
Reviews | Allen & Heath CQ-18T

Allen & Heath

CQ-18T £899
Can one device solve all your studio and
performance routing needs? The CQ-18T
is giving it a go, says Chris Corfield

CONTACT WHO: Allen & Heath WEB: allen-heath.com KEY FEATURES 18-inputs, 8-outputs,
7” touchscreen, USB audio, 96kHz processing, WiFi, Bluetooth, Direct recording to SD card, Feedback
assistant, App control

82
 Allen & Heath CQ-18T | Reviews

t’s always baffled me that

there aren’t more devices that
offer the benefits of both a
multi-input mixer and a
computer audio interface. It
seems a natural fit, yet I could
count on one hand the number
of products that truly get it right. The
PreSonus AR8c was one such device,
which sat happily in my studio and
rehearsal room for years. When I
wanted to work free from the laptop,
I could plug in every synth, drum
machine and guitar pedal I wanted
and it would happily whirr away in
the corner of the room, facilitating
totally fuss-free audio routing with
tactile control of everything. Then, on
the (rare) occasions inspiration struck
me, I could plug it immediately into
my laptop via USB and it would
transform into an 8-input audio
interface, recording each hardware
device onto its own track in Logic. So
simple, yet so liberating from a
workflow perspective. So why aren’t
there more of these devices around?
In the Allen & Heath CQ-18T, we
may have found the new king, and THE PROS & CONS
it’s brought the bells and whistles.
It’s rare we come across a
+
Essentially, the CQ-18T is an

truly useful, multi-application

18-in/8-out hardware mixer/audio
interface, with plenty to get the home
studio owner and live performer
excited. Featuring eight XLR inputs,
and another eight XLR/jack combi
inputs (plus a stereo jack pair), the
CQ-18T has all the connectivity a
reasonably well-stocked studio or
rehearsal space could need. At the
centre of the fairly hefty unit sits a 7”
multi-touch display, which gives you
instant control over everything from
faders to track routing. Thankfully, in
my testing, the display didn’t suffer
from any noticeable lag or glitching,
which kept my own personal nerd
rage to a minimum. There’s also a
master rotary control knob, which
device like this
minimising angst directed towards
the venue’s sound engineer. Venues,
take note.
This functionality will soon be
expanded to laptops via a
forthcoming app too. In practice, it
worked like a dream, without any
technical hitches in the time we
spent testing. Always nice when that
happens. I also quite liked the
built-in ‘wizards’, which helped
The touchscreen is a
dream to use: no
annoying glitches
this world quaking in their boots, will It seems to know
help in a pinch. what you’re trying to
So who stands to benefit from achieve, often before
using the CQ-18T? Honestly, it’s rare you do
we come across a truly useful,
multi-application device like this, let
Build quality is
alone one that does everything so
simply and intuitively. For live
superb. Could easily
performance, studio and rehearsal, stand up to life on
the CQ-18T is as close to a eureka the road
device as you’re likely to find.

switches functionality automatically
depending which screen is displayed,
and then three customisable rotaries
for instant control over whatever
-
‘automagically’ combat feedback and
offered preset gain and EQ controls
tailored to a variety of different
situations. If you don’t need or want FM VERDICT An audio pro may

settings you’ve mapped to it.
For live performance, the six jack
outputs meant supplying on-stage
monitor wedges was simple, with
controllable EQ and effects on each.
Where the CQ-18T really shone,
though, was through its remote
control functionality. Essentially,
using the built-in wireless router,
each performer can quickly alter
levels using their smartphones,
ensuring everyone is happy and
9.0
your hand holding, however, you can
not find the various
easily get in there and tweak just
about everything.
wizards and
The CQ-18T’s usefulness is automatic settings to
rounded out via the ability to record be of use
high quality 96kHz audio directly to
SD card, so live performances can be
The perfect single device for
captured quickly and easily. There’s
also a smattering of reverbs, delays
routing, mixing, performing
and modulation effects to help colour and producing in small
your sound which, while they won’t to medium-sized setups.
have the Strymons and Eventides of Expensive but worthy

83
Reviews | t.bone HD 515

t.bone HD 515 £25

Jon Musgrave tries these new
headphones from Thomann’s low cost
brand. Can they provide a meaty sound?

KEY FEATURES DESIGN: Closed-back, over-ear TRANSDUCER: Dynamic TRANSDUCER

DIAMETER: 45mm FREQ RANGE: 10Hz to 26kHz IMPEDANCE: 32 Ohm MEAN SOUND PRESSURE
LEVEL: 97dB MAX. POWER HANDLING: 1500mW ACCESSORIES: 3m cable (minijack to minijack),
adapter 3.5mm to 6.3mm WEIGHT: 290g (incl. cable)

84
 t.bone HD 515 | Reviews

homann’s t.bone
brand is aimed
squarely at the
budget end of the
market. But the
vast majority of its
products I’ve tested
have been pretty decent, and
recently I was particularly impressed
by the performance of its RM 700
ribbon mic. Up for review now I have
the new HD 515 headphones. At
£25 a pair, you probably wouldn’t
have big expectations of these
headphones, but it’s fair to say other
brands such as Superlux have
certainly shown that it is possible for
budget headphones to challenge
more expensive designs, so I am
optimistic these can do the same.
As you might expect for a budget
offering, the design is simple and
the accessories limited to one 3m
lead. That said, the use of a regular
minijack connection on the
underside of the left earcup means
you can use any minijack-type lead if
you want to. There’s no locking
system for the plug, but the socket
produced a reassuring click when I
plugged them up.
Construction uses a combination
of plastic and metal, including metal
earcup enclosures, and this no doubt
imparts a quality feel. That said, the
earcup adjusters which slide into the THE PROS & CONS

Budget headphones can

headband are not particularly

smooth. Both the headband and
earpads use regular foam, which is
quite soft but feels good in use. I
found the overall fit tight but comfy.
The HD 515 has quite a classic look
that’s somewhat reminiscent of the
popular Sony MDR-7506, and
although they may not offer the
same finesse or foldability of the
Sony headphones, the finish and
new t.bone logo look stylish.
Thomann describes the HD 515
as a monitoring headphone and I
found the closed back over-ear
design delivered reasonable passive
noise cancellation. In a recording
+
certainly challenge more
Great value
expensive designs Good construction
the high frequencies are quite you and you’re simply after an Detachable standard
subdued. This means the overall affordable studio headphone for minijack lead
impression is that the mid-range is recording, they’re solidly made, look
prominent. I think this is preferable good and offer excellent value.
Good passive
for a recording headphone, where a
noise cancellation
more hyped hi-fi sound can be a bit
of a hindrance. That said, it means
the HD 515 is probably not best FM VERDICT Tailored sound
for recording

7.8
environment this means there’s not suited to other studio tasks such as
going to be bleed into any close mixing and mastering.

mics, and from a performer
perspective much of the room sound
is successfully kept at bay. This is all
good news as my interface
headphone output was easily able to
get them pretty loud.
The monitor remit continues with
the sound. This is chunky in the lows
and low-mids, although thankfully
doesn’t sound too flabby. Meanwhile
-
Finally, although the HD 515 is
listed at £24.90, it’s only available
from Thomann, so with the
accompanying £10 delivery charge,
Not suitable for
the real cost to the user is just under
Although not suited to mixing and
£35 per pair.
Overall, I think the HD 515 is a
mixing, if you’re simply mastering
decent product. As mentioned, I after a well-made budget
don’t think they’re suitable for headphone for recording this
mixing, but if that’s not important to could be ideal

85
Reviews | Kali Audio WS-6.2 studio sub

Kali Audio WS-6.2

studio sub £599
Simon Fellows gets big bass tones from
a sub that punches way above its size

CONTACT WHO: Kali Audio WEB: kaliaudio.com KEY FEATURES Powered subwoofer with
two 6.5 inch drivers AMP CLASS: D CONTINUOUS POWER: 400W, PEAK POWER: 1000W, DRIVER
COMPLEMENT: 2 x 6.5-Inch High Excursion Woofers, FREQ RESPONSE (-10 DB): 27-200Hz, FREQ
RANGE (+/-3 DB): 31.5-180Hz

86

nvesting in a sub that can
properly reveal low frequencies,
with little distortion and plenty
of definition, can be ruinously
expensive. The best units can be
huge too, as when it comes to
bass, bigger is better right?
Acoustic engineering is, of course, a
bit more complex than that. That
explains how Kali Audio has managed
to wring such exceptional bass tone
from its WS-6.2 sub, an inexpensive,
powered, compact unit with modest,
horizontally-opposed 6.5” drivers.
The little WS-6.2 really does
perform surprisingly well for its size.
First off, it has a frequency response
(-10dB) of 27Hz to 200Hz and a
frequency range (+/-3dB) of
31.5-180Hz, giving it more low end
than similarly priced but considerably
larger competitors, such as the
Behringer B1500XP and ALTO
Professional TS12S X.
Firing a variety of test tones from
Logic Pro, I can confirm that the
WS-6.2 is as smooth if not smoother
at around the 30Hz mark than the
Yamaha HS8s that usually sits
beneath my desk. It also has ample
oomph on tap, with continuous power
rated at 400W and peak power
1000W. It takes up a little less space
too at just 12.2” x 11”, welcome
news for those of us who work in
studios where room is tight.
To find out how the engineers at
Kali Audio have managed to generate
such a full-sounding tone from
relatively small drivers in such a bijou
It really does perform
surprisingly well for its size
enclosure, I turned to Kali Audio
co-founder Nate Baglyos. Not
surprisingly, the ample power output
is a key component of the sound.
“Good bass is the result of strong
power delivery to the appropriate
transducer,” says Nate. “You could
think of our duo of side-firing
6.5-inchers as being the same
surface area as one 10-incher but the
other important factor in power
handling is excursion, which is how
far the driver can move back and
forth from its resting position.
“High excursion drivers are an
excellent way to drive heavy bass,
with the caveat that you need a lot of
power to drive them. If you compare
the WS-6.2 to similarly sized subs,
you’ll see that we’re using two or
three times as much amplifier power
or more.”
Nate goes on to tell me that his
colleague and co-founder Charles
Sprinkle, who designed this sub, is
very proud that he has optimised
every square centimetre of space in
the cabinet, which explains its
diminutive size. Apparently, had I
taken it apart – believe me, I was
tempted – I would have found the
drivers stacked right against each
Kali Audio WS-6.2 studio sub | Reviews
THE PROS & CONS
+
Smooth bass that
hits all the low spots
without the high
price tag
Compact footprint
makes it ideal for
smaller studios
looking for a sub that
still sounds huge
LFE mode for
multichannel setups,
plus RCA inputs for
consumer devices
-
Crossover controls
are a little basic but
quite adequate
Bypass is very
useful, but it’s sadly
other, giving just enough clearance for
the front port tube to snake down and
only selectable via
around, with the amplifier tucked an optional
neatly underneath. footswitch
Controls on the rear of the sub are
relatively basic but cover most bases.
As well as the expected two XLR/TRS
combi input jacks, there are a pair of
RCA jacks for consumer audio gear
too. Output is handled by two male
XLR jacks and there’s a socket for an
optional bypass footswitch. Crossover
can be set to 80Hz, switched off or
there’s a dedicated LFE mode if you
want to feed the sub a dedicated low
frequency effects channel.
FM VERDICT
9.5
Packs a mighty punch for
such a compact sub. There’s
a lot of smooth, low-end
tone on tap for a relatively
modest wedge of cash.
87
Reviews | Denise Audio Bass XXL

Denise Audio Bass

XXL $69
Denise’s latest ‘single use’ plugin looks to
add harmonic presence to bass sounds.
Si Truss goes XXL

CONTACT WHO: Denise Audio WEB: deniseaudio.com KEY FEATURES Bass enhancement
plugin. FORMATS: PC/Mac, VST/AU/AAX

88

ecently acquired by
fellow US-based
developer Baby
Audio, Denise Audio
designs plugins
around a ‘single use’
mantra – essentially,
every plugin in the company’s range
is designed to do one specific thing,
simply and effectively. In the case of
Bass XXL, that intended function is
enhancing bass sounds to add
presence that works across any
speaker system.
Bass enhancement is, of course,
nothing particularly new. In hardware,
dbx’s 120 Subharmonic Synth was a
go-to tool for many dance producers
back in the ’90s, and in the plugin
realm, the likes of Waves’ MaxxBass
and Submarine, Brainworx’s bx_
subsynth and Leapwing’s RootOne all
aim to add power to your bass sounds
– each of them using a slightly
different approach.
Bass XXL is an overhaul of
Denise’s previous Bass XL plugin. It
uses what the developer calls a
“proprietary algorithm designed to
supersize the low end”. In practice,
this involves creating harmonic
overtones above the root note of the
bass, which create the effect of more
perceived low-end weight.
The plugin has three main
controls. Root sets the pitch used to
create the new harmonics. This can
be set to a fixed frequency or pitch,
or follow an incoming MIDI signal, in
order to match the frequency of a
bassline. Next, Harmonics alters the
intensity of the new harmonics
created, while Boost blends these in
with the dry signal, acting like a dry/
wet control.
Down the bottom of the plugin’s
UI are a set of controls to help further
refine the effect. A pre-delay control
creates a gap between the dry sound
and the harmonics, which is handy if
you want to preserve the ‘pure’
harmonics of the source sound. The
Mono control is useful for
maintaining mono compatibility.
Finally the Range and Slope controls
will adjust how abrupt and noticeable
the effect is.
Like other Denise plugins, Bass
XXL’s biggest selling point is how
easy it is to use. There’s a suite of
presets included here, but we’d argue
they’re almost redundant due to the
plugin’s simplicity. Since it’s so quick
to dial in an effect to suit your track,
and the parameters will need
fine-tuning to suit your bass as it is,
turning to a preset patch doesn’t
really feel like a timesaver here.
It’s worth noting that, unlike some
other bass enhancement plugins,
Bass XXL doesn’t synthesise low
frequencies below your existing bass.
While plugins like Submarine or bx_
subsynth can add sub frequency
Denise Audio Bass XXL | Reviews
THE PROS & CONS
+
Smartly designed
and easy to use
Well-priced
Can tighten a variety
of bass sounds
-
Results can be
subtle at times
Can’t add low-end
weight when none
already exists
content to a weak bassline, Bass XXL
works by enhancing what’s already
there, so it can’t, say, add missing
bass frequencies below a badly
recorded kick sound.
Bass XXL specialises in helping to
subtly accentuate existing bass so
that it stands out in a mix and works
on any speaker setup. We found
excellent results in boosting the
presence in subby, 808-like kicks. It
also has the capacity to nicely tighten
drum loops and breakbeats, providing
a subtle but noticeable increase in
the low foundations.
There are more powerful, versatile
plugin tools in this space, although
some are far more expensive. Bass
XXL is well priced and user-friendly
enough that it could become a go-to
for many producers.
FM VERDICT
7.8
A well-designed, hugely
convenient plugin. There are
more versatile bass tools on
the market, but the ease-of-
use here is a big USP
89
Reviews | Baby Audio Atoms

Baby Audio Atoms

$99
A network of springs? A shape-shifting
violin? Si Truss attempts to explain Baby
Audio’s new synth…

CONTACT WHO: Baby Audio WEB: babyaud.io KEY FEATURES Physical Modelling synth
plugin. MPE capable. FORMATS: PC/Mac, VST/AU/AAX

90
 Baby Audio Atoms | Reviews

hysical modelling is
a synthesis process
that works by
simulating the
resonant properties
of a real-world
object. Ableton Live
users will likely be familiar with the
concept through the DAW’s Collision
synth and Corpus effect, and it
provides the core of sound generation
in plugins such as AAS Chromaphone
and Reason’s Objekt. Physical
modelling is especially useful on two
fronts: firstly, it can be the best way to
synthesise mallets and bowed
instruments, thanks to its ability to
accurately emulate their natural
vibrations. Pushed beyond the realms
of what’s realistic, however, and
physical modelling synths take on a
second use thanks to their ability to
conjure thoroughly modern and
otherworld synth timbres.
It’s on this latter front that Atoms,
Baby Audio’s new physical modelling
synth, excels. Atoms generates sound
using a simulation of what Baby
Audio refers to as ‘interconnected
masses and springs’, which are
initially triggered by a bow-style
exciter. Broadly speaking, think of it
like a violin or cello with a morphing,
shape-shifting acoustic body.
The effect of this is controlled
using six parameters that surround
the plugin’s central display. The first THE PROS & CONS

Think of it like a cello with a

of these is Force, which controls how

aggressive that bow-like exciter is, a
little like a velocity control, albeit one
that introduces friction-like noise at
higher levels. Above this is Chaos,
used to introduce non-linear
behaviour to the modelled resonance,
resulting in slight drifts in pitch and
volume. Overtones, meanwhile,
adjusts the simulated position of the
bowing action, altering the amount of
higher frequency overtones.
The Order control acts as a
high-frequency dampener, while Filter
control rolls off higher frequencies
further with a low-pass applied to the
output. Finally, Drive applies
waveshaping and harmonic clipping.
Key to Atoms’ character is the fact
that each of these controls has its
own modulation tool. These can apply
a variety of LFO types, randomised
drift or route MPE inputs to each
parameter, in order to bring patches
to life with movement. This is
something that most of the synth’s
generous stock of presets show
brilliantly. Even at its most synthetic,
+
shape-shifting body Vibrant and ‘natural’
sound – even at its
there’s something pleasingly natural and otherworldly textures. What most synthetic
and organic about Atoms’ tones. surprised me, however, was how
Along the bottom sit controls to handy it is for bass sounds – with an Easy-to-use interface
further refine the sound. Here, users excellent array of modern, rich tones
can select between four different on offer. Great for otherworldly
character profiles for the central
pads and rich,
mass-spring network, offering more or
modern bass
less inharmonic and lo-fi sounds. The
differences between these can be FM VERDICT
-
9.0
subtle, but still add to the depth. The
remaining controls adjust the amp
envelope, global modulation and
apply a master reverb. Some rival physical
As physical modelling synths go, modellers have
Atoms lacks the breadth of some more breadth
rivals, which offer more variety on
Atoms is characterful and
exciter and resonator styles, but it
natural-sounding. Come for Difference between
benefits from focusing on a specific
palette. The synth is capable of the otherworldly pads, stay character profiles
realistic strings, but comes to life for the surprisingly hard- can be subtle
once you dig into the atmospheres hitting bass

91
FM | SOUNDS & SAMPLES
Spitfire Audio – Aska
Matsumiya Crystal
Bowls £79
UVI – Glass Orchestra
€199
>
Moving from crystal to glass,
UVI have recorded and
sampled a set of 14 glass
instruments for their new Glass
Orchestra library. The instruments
themselves are the brainchild of
Jean-Claude Chapuis, though
Benjamin Franklin’s Glass Harmonica
(based around the use of differently
sized rotating concentric glass bowls)
also finds a place here.
One slight frustration of UVI’s more
recent libraries has been the loading
time of some presets – even those
based on similar sample sets or
instruments. A faster computer
92
and storage drive will help, but even
on the latest systems connected to a
ridiculously fast SSD drive the loading
process is not a smooth as it might be.
That aside, UVI have clearly put
a lot of thought into this collection,
and as well as the depth of sampling
(equivalent to 71GB of WAV files) there
are over 400 presets and there’s lots of
scope for editing and experimentation
via the usual array of UVI Workstation
controls and effects. This means that
as well as more conventionally played
instruments there are arpeggiated,
sequenced and processed presets that
widen the sonic palette significantly.
As with the aforementioned crystal
bowls pack, the price here may also
put off some potential users, but it
is also available as part of UVI’s
>
Whether or not you believe in
the healing powers of sound,
there is no doubting the
appealing audio qualities of
so-called singing bowls.
The tone any given object is
capable of making is broadly defined
by its shape and the manner in which
it is struck. Circular objects tend to
give off a relatively unchanging sound
spectra, and one often heavily
dominated by a single fundamental
frequency. Singing bowls are no
exception, giving out a pure tone
almost like a sine wave.
It is with this spirit in mind that
Spitfire have embraced the recording
of seven quartz crystal bowls. These
were played by composer Aska
Matsumiya in the spacious
surroundings of Hackney Round
Chapel in London and recorded using
six different beaters with three
variously distanced mic positions.
The resulting presets are broadly
categorised into Longs, Swell, Rolls
and Normal Short and Damped Shorts.
There are also some tuning fork
recordings and Warps (processed)
versions thrown into the mix. These are
selectable via Spitfire’s custom Kontakt
GUI, which also offers some simple
editing capabilities.
The price may prove to be a barrier
of entry for some, but overall there are
some nicely playable tones for creating
ambient beds and ethereal backdrops.
Bruce Aisher
spitfireaudio.com
VERDICT 8.0
sonicpass subscription. Bruce Aisher
uvi.net
VERDICT 8.9
 Sounds & Samples | Reviews

Audiotent – Vapor £37

>
Boundary-leaping pack of bumping basslines,
pulsating pads, rich rhythms and dope drum
loops and hits. All the samples in this fully-
stocked library have been run through the
Audiotent team’s finest processing chains for
maximum clarity and warmth, and everything
drops like a dream into your DAW of choice.
The 700+ sounds, pulled from an enviable
collection of legendary analogue synthesisers, have all
been recorded in at a pacy 116bpm, and custom-built
and tweaked to inspire and dazzle in equal measure.
The atmospheric synth work throws up some angelic
chords, perfect for peak-time club theatrics, and the
crisp percussion grooves have bags of character and
punch through with bullet-hole precision.
It makes for a pack that you’ll be gleefully dipping
in and out of, whatever your genre.
Roy Spencer
audiotent.com

VERDICT 9.0

Sample Magic DECAP – Drums BHK Samples Blind Audio

– Dark Pop That Knock X – Premium DnB – Game Room:
From $7.99/month From $7.99/month & Jungle Breaks 8-Bit Hip Hop £4.95
£29.95

> > >

Live out your twisted, chart- The DECAP posse delivers another A cool collection of coin-up bleeps

troubling fantasies with this
delightful collection of radio-ready
pop samples. Amongst the
treasure trove of WAV, MIDI, Serum
presets, drum hits and one-shots, you’ll
find a bevy of brooding beats and
basslines to make your own. Plus, moody
pads and haunting synths, spiked with
enough production shine to glisten
amongst the darkness.
All the dreamy loops and licks in this
little lot are from the mind and studio of
Bika, collaborating here with Canadian
singer/songwriter Ashly Mikhow, under
her Milk moniker, and this pack oozes
with their combined ethereal synth-pop
balladeering and velvety dance music
dramatics. Roy Spencer
splice.com
single-minded drum kit collection
that does exactly what it says on
the tin. True to form, this
no-nonsense set of trap beats delivers
nothing but killer kicks, slapping snares
and speaker-shuddering bass booms that’ll
weaponise your workflow and armour-plate
your drum tracks.
Rifle through the samples on offer and
you’ll be pulling out club-level hits and
loops that’ll take your tracks up a whole
other level.
Everything is processed to punch, and
all the sounds occupy a wide range of
space across the sonic spectrum. So,
finding just the right subby 808 to link
up with a mid-range loop should be
a doddle. Roy Spencer
splice.com
>
Time to rinse out with this fierce
collection of fast and furious
breakbeats. This serious set of
expertly recorded drums groans
under the weight of ‘in-the-pocket’ funk
flavours, live playing, and a range of other
top-drawer sticksmanship.
Like the beatmakers of yore, it’s real
drummers they’ve chopped up and
reprogrammed here, giving you
pulse-quickening rhythms that are full
of lively kicks, stuttering snares and
wild percussive toplines.
It’s the perfect track-starting fodder
for anyone who agrees with that one
University Challenge host when he rightly
said: “We need jungle, I’m afraid.”
Roy Spencer
loopmasters.com
and bloops, for all you chiptune
enthusiasts out there to get your
sticky mitts on.
Picking apart the kits on offer in this
batch, you’ll also find a gang of hazy
basslines and earworm 8-bit melodies
to add to your arsenal, as well as
some crunchy drums, lo-fi pads and
atmospherics – and plenty of other retro
rhythms and arcade machine sonics to
power up your head-nod hip-hop beats.
Throw in some sultry synths, throwback
FX noises, and a few deep chord lines and
hits, and you’ve got more than enough to
take your tracks to that ‘end of level’ boss.
It might be a bitesize bundle, but it’s got
Mario-sized character, so it’s well worth
your fistful of quarters. Roy Spencer
loopmasters.com

VERDICT 8.0 VERDICT 7.0 VERDICT 8.0 VERDICT 7.0

93
Gear Guide | Essential Tools For Music Making
FM | GEAR GUIDE
DAWs
Ableton Live 12
From £259
While some new features are better implemented
than others, Live 12 is a generous update stuffed
with ideas and real potential.
Steinberg Cubase 12 £497
Review: FM382 Version 12 is a solid and
dependable update to Cubase, and offers some
excellent new features and small, but important,
updates to others.
Universal Audio LUNA free
UA might not want to call LUNA a DAW, but let’s
be honest... this is a slick and stylish recording
environment and a great freebie. It’s no longer
just for Apollo owners either.
94
Tracktion Waveform Pro
from $119
Review: FM345 Waveform is now friendlier,
contains more creative tools and brings workflow
ideas you’ll have missed from other DAWs.
PreSonus Studio One
Pro £345
Now up to version 6, Studio One now has a lot to
offer those working with traditional notation and
scoring for screen.
Image-Line FL
Studio From £85
The latest version of FL Studio 21 adds exciting
features including in-DAW stem separation and
Cloud-based libraries. Both likely to become
standard in other DAWs in the future.
Apple Logic Pro $199 Reason Studios Reason 12 £499
Review: FM361 Still no Logic 11, but seeing as Review: FM375 It’s debateable whether the
Pro has had so many updates (it’s now officially upgrade is worth it for existing Reason 11 users,
dropped the ‘X’ too), it’s hard to complain. In the but taken as a whole, Reason is looking the best
latest, spatial audio tools join the party. it has in years.
Avid Pro Tools from Bitwig Studio 5 $399
$199/$9.99p/m Review: FM399 At v5, Bitwig Studio is hugely
With its latest update, Avid is bringing creative, experimental and deep. That won’t suit
Live-inspired nonlinear sequencing to the DAW everyone, but in its niche it’s unrivalled.
in the form of Pro Tools Sketch.

MIDI KEYBOARDS
Arturia Keylab NI Kontrol S-Series
Essential Mk3 €199 Mk3 from £649
Full Review: FM399
Better and slicker than its predecessor, Keylab
Essential 3 delivers great control features, quality
design and good DAW integration.
Akai MPK mini mk3 £90
Review FM363 A very decent upgrade with
genuinely pro features, fixing its position in the
top rung of mini keyboard controllers available.
Novation SL MkIII £540
Review: FM338 Well-designed and versatile. For
those who work with both hardware and software,
this may be the best studio centrepiece that’s on
the market.
Novation FLkey | £89
Review FM383 Novation’s FLkey range has
provided FL Studio users with the pro-level
controller range they’ve always deserved.
Arturia MiniLab 3 £90
Review: FM392 A great value keyboard with an
updated feature set that makes this one of the
best mini controllers around.
Essential Tools For Music Making | Gear Guide
Full Review: FM405
The newly refreshed versions of NI’s flagship
Kontrol keyboards are of most use for heavy
Kontakt users, but the refined design has plenty
to recommend for all users.
Donner DMK-25 Pro £125 Novation Launchkey Mini Mk3 £110
Review: FM395 The DMK-25 Pro stuffs loads Review: FM349 Small but well spec’d, this is a
into a lightweight, compact, and visually convenient and well-made controller that’s great
appealing package. Ideal for on-the-go use. with or without Ableton Live.
Novation Launchkey 88 Mk3 Arturia KeyStep Pro £339
£200 Review: FM359 For melodic sequencing duties
Review: FM386 Launchkey 88 is a great and flexible hardware control, this is one of the
standalone controller but is best coupled with best keyboard devices around.
one of the script-supported DAWs.
95
Gear Guide | Essential Tools For Music Making
SYNTH PLUGINS
Baby Audio Atoms
$99
Full Review: FM407
Atoms is a characterful and natural-sounding
electronic instrument. Come for the otherworldly
pads, stay for the surprisingly hard-hitting bass.
u-he Diva €179
Diva is a little long in the tooth these days, but
it’s still one of the most powerful and popular
virtual analogue synths going.
Cherry Audio Sines $49
Sines is a unique and original synth based
around the complex interaction of sinewave
oscillators. It’s a bargain at under £/$50.
96
Kilohearts Phase Plant $199
Review: FM350 Phase Plant’s modular design
comes with a slightly high learning curve, but it
also brings masses of power and flexibility.
FabFilter Twin 3 £109
An update to a modern classic. Fabfilter Twin 3
is the perfect balance between vintage influence
and contemporary design.
Arturia Pigments
$199
Full Review: FM393 (v4)
The update to version 5 isn’t the most
substantial Pigments update we’ve seen, but this
is still arguably the most capable synth out there.
Cherry Audio GX-80 $59
Cherry Audio’s CS-80-inspired virtual analogue
synth is rich and powerful, capable of huge,
analogue-sounding chords and pads.
Spectrasonics Omnisphere $499
Omnisphere is huge, both in the sense of its
included sound content and its actual sound.
The blend of samples and synthesis results in
gorgeous, complex patches.
Tracktion F.’em $179
Review: FM373 F.’em is a hugely powerful
digital synthesiser – likely too powerful for some.
But for those that brave its depth there’s a mass
of potential here.
Sonic Charge Synplant 2 $149
Review: FM403 Already an esoteric classic, this
long awaited update adds the revolutionary
Genopatch mode, which uses neural networks to
mimic any sound.
 Essential Tools For Music Making | Gear Guide
ABLETON LIVE CONTROLLERS
Akai APC64 £339
Review: FM402 A fabulous evolution of the
classic APC form, and the standalone functions
will bring it into all kinds of new situations.
Ableton Push
From $999 Novation Launch Control XL £150
Review: FM285 Slightly long in the tooth and
Review: FM397 | Push finally lives up to Ableton’s vision less slick than the current gen ‘launch’ range,
of controller-as-instrument, and standalone mode is a but still the best mixer-focused device for Live.
great new way to use Live.
HARDWARE EFFECTS
Eventide H90 £935
Review: FM394 Countless synthesists swear by
Eventide’s H9 pedal, and the H90 doubles down
on the format by placing two H9 processors in
Elektron Analog Heat
+FX £829 Korg Monotron Delay £49
Over a decade on from its original release, Korg’s
This revamp of Elektron’s analogue distortion adds a full analogue ribbon synth/delay processor remains a
chain of effects that can be full reordered and modulated must have, and the best way to spend £50.
for wild, tranformative results.
Novation Launchpad X £180
Review: FM356 Neat, compact and more
flexible than ever before, the Launchpad remains
a must-try tool for Ableton Live users.
Novation Launchkey Mini £100
Review: FM349 The Mk3 is a small but perfectly
formed MIDI controller that works great with or
without Ableton Live.
OTO Bam €480
Review: FM314 This characterful digital reverb
unit is the highlight of boutique effect brand
OTO’s all-round impressive range.
Dreadbox Hypnosis €220
Review: FM353 Dreadbox’s brilliantly old-school
analogue delay and modulation processor, now
reborn as an affordable DIY kit.
97
Gear Guide | Essential Tools For Music Making
AUDIO INTERFACES
Universal Audio Arturia AudioFuse
Apollo Twin X £880 16Rig £1,150
As with Apollos before it, the Twin X is pricey for
the amount of ins and outs it offers, but the
quality of the build, preamps and design, plus
DSP in Duo or Quad justifies the outlay.
Audient iD4 MkII £138
Review: FM373 A simple 2-in/2-out design
coupled with smart, user-friendly features and
impressive build quality. Possible the best
budget interface out there.
Universal Audio Volt 76
from £215
Review: FM379 UA’s first affordable interface
are great, with a spritz of hard-to-resist recording
history magic on top.
98
SSL 2+ £226
Review: FM356 The 2+ more than lives up to
the promise of offering the Solid State Logic
name and sound from a piece of budget-friendly
audio gear.
Arturia MiniFuse 2 £115
Review: FM377 MiniFuse 2 is a compact USB
interface with plenty of features, but it’s also
incredibly intuitive to use and both looks and
sounds great.
Arturia’s new flagship AudioFuse interface is
designed as more of a studio hub than just an
interface, with MIDI, USB and CV connectivity
considered alongside audio I/O.
Focusrite Scarlett 4i4/8i6
from £200
Review: FM347 Slicker than ever, the 4i4 and
8i6 make good use of the excellent Control
software to deliver an upgraded user experience.
Focusrite Clarett+ 2Pre £400
Review: FM377 The latest generation of these
excellent interfaces delivers handy software
control alongside rock-solid audio performance.
Audient Evo 16 £400
Review: FM385 Audient’s goal with EVO is to
make recording easy. EVO 16 achieves this and
makes it flexible and affordable too. A really
great product.
Presonus Studio 24c £99
Presonus’s compact interface is a handy
all-rounder but particularly useful for streamers
with a tight budget.
9000 9021