Future Music

The world is going through some strange times right now, with lots of us shut up at home and – in the case of many musicians, DJs and those working in the live music sector – facing financial struggles. When facing uncertainty, it can be helpful to t

01 Loopmasters Egebamyasi: Original Acid House 02 Sample Diggers Big Screen Hip Hop 03 Organic Loops Pres. Disco Latino 04 rv_samplepacks Mark Fletcher: Massive Breaks 05 Loopmasters Material pres. Tech House 06 Loopmasters Deep Rolling Drum & B

Unless you’re reading this from one of the increasingly rare corners of the earth remaining untouched, undoubtedly many aspects of your life will have been affected by Corvid-19. The electronic music realm is far from unaffected – in fact, many DJs,

> The latest project from the creators of the excellent MOD Duo multi-effects box, MOD Dwarf, might look like a conventional guitar pedal but it’s actually rather more than that. Specifically, this little box can be loaded up with all the effects, am

We’re slightly confused as to how it differs from ACID Pro Next (which was announced last year but now seems to have disappeared) but Magix have announced that ACID Pro 10, the latest version of its loop-based DAW, is now available. This includes an

> Opened in 1958, Los Angeles’ Sunset Sound studios is a legendary facility that initially handled work for Disney – the music for Mary Poppins and 101 Dalmations, for example – before opening its doors to external clients such as The Rolling Stones,

Going down a storm on Kickstarter – already at five times its funding goal – Daisy is an ‘embedded platform for music’ from Electrosmith that can be used to create synths, Eurorack modules, guitar pedals and more. You can use Daisy however you want,

> SoundForce have announced their latest synth-specific MIDI controller, this time focusing on the legendary Prophet-5. Designed to work with the likes of the Arturia Prophet V and u-he Repro-5, this is known as the SFC-5 V2, and offers improvements

> Hit’n’Mix have updated Infinity, their ‘atomic audio editor’, to version 4.5. Unlike some editors, which offer editing of just the waveform and/or frequency spectrum, Infinity promises to ‘unlock’ audio and work with notes, harmonics and unpitched

Native Instruments have offered an intriguing update regarding the future of their Maschine platform, noting that the ultimate goal is to “get to a point where you can produce tracks start to finish” when using it. Of course, there are already many p

Parisian composer Jean- Gabriel Becker and Japanese multi-instrumentalist Susumu Mukai (aka Zongamin) have each had storied musical careers in their own right. The former is known for his cinematic work, and has partnered with the likes of Massive At

Since they first burst onto the scene in the last gasp of the ’90s, these disco-tipped Nottingham folk have been soundtracking good times with their trademark happy-go-lucky grooves, and cowbell-heavy productions. Each successive album saw them refin

Dani: “It was recorded in the studio we’ve had for over 20 years. In the ‘dark room’, which added to the vibe. It just created a… womb. The womb room! [laughs].” Jim: “There was quite a lot of outboard. We prefer stuff out-the-box because it’s a bit

The history of the synth has been what you might call ‘a bit of a rollercoaster’, from the expensive hardware beginnings through the analogue heydays of the ’70s and early ’80s when prices went from the ridiculous to the sublime, through to what some

First out of the gates, Arturia’s MicroFreak certainly lives up to its name, being the odd one out in so many different ways. There’s the capacitive keybed keyboard that has no moving parts but, at the same time, isn’t as unfeeling as a touch keyboar

As we’re looking at cheap synths, we don’t really expect too many optional extras, but some of the effect options thrown in are a nice surprise. The most out-there effects come from the Behringer Neutron with a bucket brigade delay which has to be he

1 Freak certainly stands out from the crowd. It has fairly robust feel next to some of the more plastic offerings here, and a more leftfield Buchla Easel-style 25-key capacitive keyboard. Inside you get a 4-part paraphonic architecture, a 12-mode dig

In light of the real world’s daily slide into something barely recognisable, what better time for a little slice of pure electronic escapism by jaunting to Cornwall where former Cabaret Voltaire stalwart Steven Mallinder and Ben ‘Benge’ Edwards (of J

Combining an eclectic array of influences into bite-sized chunks of pure pop perfection, Brighton-based four piece Fickle Friends are one of the most intriguing bands to emerge from the UK in recent years. Debut album You Are Someone Else, and latest

01 > “Everything is on the same rhythm as the riff, I didn’t want to make it too complicated,” begins Jack. The first layer of the bassline comes from the Circuitrix Subz patch in Omnisphere. This is compressed with the help of a Waves CLA-2A. “It ju

MORE UNMISSABLE VIDEO TRAINING FROM FUTURE MUSIC Discover our line-up of exclusive YouTube goodness. Head online for all this and more! Leading producers go in-depth on the sounds, ideas and techniques behind their latest releases The multidiscipl

As those working in music production develop their skills and begin to pay closer attention to the way in which music they admire is made, one question arises more frequently than any other: ‘how do I make my music sound like that?’. Rarely are those

1 It’s easy to choose a ready-made sound design hit but it’s more creative to make one from your own sources. Start with Omnisphere and a sound called ‘Deep Air Impact 1’. Having programmed one note of MIDI (C3) we’re rendering this sound as audio.

1 Take a basic arrangement for Kick Drum, Bassline, mid-range Arp, Finger Snaps and a bubbling pad part. We’ve added a Volume fade via Automation, but no other effects, to the Output channel. The mix peaks just below -1dB. 2 Add a couple of effects

1 Start with some heavy perc parts from Laboratory Audio’s Strikeforce library and a Taiko instrument from Action Strikes, both playing a (mostly) 1/8ths rhythm. Velocity hits help demark the pulse. The texture is dense but could be more impactful.

1 High intensity string writing is key in dramatic film, game and trailer soundtrack writing but writing a string section can be tough. Let’s start by recording a chord progression for a ‘pad-like’ full String Ensemble patch. 2 We set up separate i

1 We’re starting with the track we built from scratch in the Cinematic Percussion 8-step walkthrough on the previous page. We’ve doubled the length, adding RotoToms and a Bassline in the second half. There’s a gap of a bar and a couple of beats betwe

Composer, remixer and multiplatinumselling producer Tom Holkenborg has overseen a remarkable career change. Born in the tiny municipality of Netherland’s Lichtenvoorde, the classically trained teenager became consumed by electronic gear after working

Despite almost instant success with quirky tech house classics such as Revox and Mr Dry, and touring the globe with DJ residencies at world-renowned clubs including WOMB, Fabric and Watergate, London-based producer Tim Green has always harboured plan

1 We’re deliberately starting with a classic mistake! While there’s nothing wrong with the rhythm we’ve written for our first Tom part, it’s trying to do too much at once. Every Velocity is high, and every ‘gap’ is filled in by reverb. There’s only o

1 As an interesting offshoot of ambient music, generative music is an approach in which software generates melodies and patterns based on adjustable parameters. Priced from £1.99, the series of iOS and Android apps produced by Brian Eno and Peter Chi

Elektron’s Model series made its debut with last year’s Model:Samples – a sample-powered groovebox based around the engine from the brand’s Digitakt sampler. Housed in a white, lightweight chassis – distinct from the company’s usual dark and weighty

The effects offering here is identical to that found on Model:Samples, featuring both reverb and delay as auxiliary effects, along with a per-channel volume control that doubles as a subtle digital distortion when pushed into the upper levels. The tw

One of the less surprising announcements of January’s NAMM show, this new version of Novation’s top-end Live controller follows hot on the heals of updates to the rest of the company’s Launch range. Despite being labelled Mk3, this is actually only t

SL continue to S expand their product range to include more affordable gear, and last year’s brilliant ultra-compact, all-analogue mixer, SiX, is a perfect example. But one thing they’ve yet to deliver is a truly affordable desktop audio interface, a

Despite a fairly epic back catalogue of synth emulations developed over 20 years, it was only back in 2018 that French outfit Arturia released their first software effect. Two years on, their array of processor plugins now totals 15, grouped into tri

A recent update to iZotope’s free stereo imaging plugin, ripped from the iZo flagship Ozone software, Ozone Imager 2 is a dab hand at visualising, collapsing stereo signals to mono, and widening mono signals into stereo. Visualisation is available in

> After going through many headaches with vintage gear purchases over the years we’d highly recommend thoroughly trying any prospective gear purchases in person for at least an hour to see if any faults appear and to see how everything works after a

Ethereal choirs and pads are one of the staples in many factory preset collections, but rolling your own original versions can give you far more customised results for your own tracks. Even vintage analogue synths can create decent, albeit artificial

01 Starting with Serum’s Init preset, select the Basic Mg wavetable and adjust the wavetable position so that the result is a warm sawtooth. Since choirs are comprised of multiple voices, use the Unison parameter for a thick supersaw. If your CPU can

Full Review: FM350 Phase Plant’s modular architecture is an incredible resource for conjuring real and otherworldly sounds. A powerful, flexible synth in every way! Full Review: FM348 A long time in the making, NI’s follow-up to the most successful

Full Review: FM350 Having the ability to use Reason’s Rack tools as a plugin is something of a revelation, and the new effects are great. Full Review: FM348 A powerful, inspiring update that further cements Bitwig Studio’s stake as the creative pro

> If this is a hardware synth, you could likely use both busses simultaneously (or either MIDI or CV independently). If you are connecting your synth to other MIDI gear, use the MIDI out; if it’s to CV gear then use the CV or gate outputs so that bot

With the release of his 1978 album Ambient 1: Music For Airports, Brian Eno defined a new genre. Wholly unsurprising, we’d add, from a man who has dedicated most of his career to the pursuit of the original. Eno never claimed to be the first artist t

M-200 is V-Moda’s latest release and joins a line-up of both wired and Bluetooth headphones, earbuds and speakers. At £325 it’s their most expensive headphone to date and is a wired, closed-back studio reference model designed for mixing, mastering a

Dropping in 1999 to a warm reception from artists and press alike, the Korg Triton workstation became integral to the pop sound of the ’00s thanks to its adoption by the likes of The Neptunes, Scott Storch and Timbaland. The continuation of a long li

In a world full of smartwatches that focus on fitness and phone calls, it’s a bold move to create a product that caters exclusively to the needs of musicians. Two years back, Soundbrenner released their Pulse smartwatch, which focused on providing a

This month, we’re taking a look at two quite different voice-based libraries, but both take quite a novel approach to the creation of vocal textures. The new offering from EastWest sits in an altogether different musical space to Mysteria (more on wh

> Gear that has a nice weight to it is often considered higher quality, however this isn’t always true. For example, Roland’s System-8 and JD-XA are both built into very light plastic enclosures and many touring artists attest to its sturdy roadworth

The Jupiter-Xm can look daunting as it has so much power under the hood, crammed into a tiny case! However, rest assured, it’s not complex to set up ‘bread and butter sounds’ and save them in a Scene for easy selection. Let’s give it a go… Pick a s

01 Starting with the Default initialised preset, select the all-carrier algorithm (no FM modulation), since we won’t be using FM for this sound. Then set Osc A’s amp envelope to a soft attack (100 ms) and medium release (1000 ms), with full sustain.

Full Review: FM349 It lags behind some rivals on the sampling front, but on the whole the 707 is a powerful and well-designed groovebox. A welcome return for the company’s MC line. Full Review: FM356 More than just a cut-down version of the Digiton

Full Review: FM338 Well-designed and versatile. For those who work with both hardware and software, this may be the best studio centrepiece on the market. Full Review: FM324 Komplete Kontrol MkII brings a whole sonic universe under your fingertips l

Full Review: FM355 The Matriarch is very inspiring. It’s well built, has the classic Moog Modular sound and is complex yet intuitive. A future classic! Full Review: FM355 The Erebus V3 is a powerful, well-specified and flexible synth, capable of bot

Full Review: FM350 Though the Peak is still great, Summit is even greater. A powerhouse polysynth, perfect for classic tone emulation as well as next-level, out-there sound design. Full Review: FM336 A stunning piece of hybrid synth design – setting

Full Review: FM348 KRK’s Rokit monitors look and sound the best yet, and the RP7 represents an excellent balance of power, footprint and price. Review FM321 The D3s are the best looking and best sounding BX5s ever. These diminutive monitors remain