June 2022

Electronic Musician

Record * Produce * Perform

Electronic Musician1 min read
Editor's Choice
Universal Audio's new Spark subscription flips the Californian brand's business on its head by taking the UAD platform into the native realm for the first time. It's got me excited! See more: Page 10 This issue sees us sitting down for a chat with th
Electronic Musician1 min read
A Good Vintage
An outsider unfamiliar with electronic music makers would be forgiven for thinking that we're an invariably forward-thinking bunch. After all, we work with the latest cutting-edge technology, whether that's mixing in 3D audio, processing sounds with
Electronic Musician1 min read
Electronic Musician
Editor-in-Chief Si Truss simon.truss@futurenet.com Content Director, Music Scott Rowley scott.rowley@futurenet.com Art Editor Steve Dawson steve.dawson@futurenet.com Production Editor Jem Roberts jem.roberts@futurenet.com Editor at Large: James Russe
Electronic Musician2 min read
New Gear
It’s not quite hell freezing over, but Universal Audio’s decision to start releasing native versions of its UAD plugins on the new Spark subscription platform (VST3/AU/AAX), so that they can run in pretty much any DAW without any UA hardware, still c
Electronic Musician2 min read
Ezdrummer 3 Is More Songwriter-friendly Than Ever
Toontrack has launched EZdrummer 3, the latest version of its accessible drum sampling and groove generation software. This is designed to make it easier (EZier?) than ever for songwriters and other musicians to quickly create rhythm tracks that soun
Electronic Musician2 min read
Korg Releases Wavestate And Opsix Soft Synths: Hardware Keyboards Are Now Available As Native Plugins
We’re used to seeing vintage synths being remade in software, but plugin reboots of contemporary keyboards are less common. This being the case, we’re surprised but delighted that Korg has just released ‘native’ versions of the Wavestate and Opsix –
Electronic Musician1 min read
Native Instruments Releases Playbox, “An Instant Solution To Writer’s Block”
Native Instruments has unveiled Playbox, a new Kontakt-based software instrument that’s designed to kickstart your workflow and refresh your creativity. Playbox is the brainchild of Antonio de Spirt, Mickaël Le Goff and Nadine Raihani, who says: “Our
Electronic Musician2 min read
Tracktion Software Says That Waveform Pro 12 Is “The Most Creative, Inspirational And Affordable Daw Ever Created”
We’re used to DAW developers talking about releasing the ‘biggest’ update to their software in a while, but in the case of Tracktion’s Waveform Pro, we’re told that version 12 is the ‘broadest’ revision in a decade. Presumably, this refers to the fac
Electronic Musician1 min read
Roli Returns With Seaboard Rise 2
If you thought that you’d seen the last of ROLI and its Seaboard range of controllers, think again, as we now have the prospect of the Seaboard Rise 2. Launched in 2015, the Rise was a more affordable version of ROLI’s full-size Seaboard MPE controll
Electronic Musician4 min read
Higher Hz Delay
Music equipment reviewers and tutors Higher Hz have branched out into the world of audio effects with their debut plugin, simply entitled Delay. This free plugin does a lot more than just simple repeats, though. The makers behind the plugin make it v
Electronic Musician2 min read
Crystalline Is A Next-gen Algorithmic Reverb Plugin That Sounds “Almost Unreal”
Said to “stand on the shoulders of 60 years of chasing ‘the holy grail of DSP’,” Crystalline is a new algorithmic reverb plugin that harks back to classic digital reverbs of the past while taking advantage of modern processing power. The result is a
Electronic Musician2 min read
Fall In Love With Music Technology
Can you remember what made you want to be a producer, songwriter, mix engineer or remixer? Or recall the fuel that set your imagination on fire enough to consider making music a significant part of most of the days of your life? Of course, the inspir
Electronic Musician2 min read
Pultec EQ Mix Flexibility
01 Here’s our starting mix. We’ve programmed some sequences from Zebra, and added beats on individual channels from Battery 4. There are no EQs on any of the sounds but we’ve added auxiliary reverb (Valhalla VintageVerb) and Waves’ H-Delay to some so
Electronic Musician1 min read
Get That Vintage Mix Sound
With due deference to Macs and Windowsbased PCs, it’s fairly certain that your current computer won’t go down in history as a ‘classic’ tool for music production. Computers have become the central cog in the workflow of nearly every music producer on
Electronic Musician2 min read
The Joy Of Patchbays
What should become clear from much of this article is that it’s possible to integrate vintage mix tools into your workflow, even if you invest in just a single channel strip or hardware preamp. However, if you decide to go much further and you’re kee
Electronic Musician3 min read
A Connection Is Made
There are two main ways of bringing analog hardware into your DAW-based workflow and one is a bit more straightforward than the other. If you turn to vintage preamps, such as the Neve 1073, or a hardware recording channel, such as the Manley Voxbox o
Electronic Musician1 min read
Classic Lo-fi Tape Delay
Delay is a hugely popular spatial treatment, for good reason. Echoes have the potential to do all kinds of things to a mix, from adding excitement and purpose to synth parts, to actively reinforcing the weight of a vocal part in a pop production. How
Electronic Musician1 min read
The Distressor: A Modern Classic
Whilst it’s tempting to assume that ‘classic’ mix tools must refer to technology of a bygone age now reaching astronomical prices on the second-hand market, there’s no disputing that there is some wonderful technology being made today which deserves
Electronic Musician1 min read
Vintage Mix Tips
Check out the trial/demo periods for software companies who model vintage mix tools. Many offer 14-day free trials, so if you want to see what all the fuss is about, have a go. Don’t be surprised if you try a piece of vintage hardware and find that i
Electronic Musician4 min read
Frankenstein Revisited
Edgar Winter was one of the seminal rock/blues artists to popularize using a synth in rock music, and surely was the first artist to “strap on” a keyboard and prowl the stage with the machismo of a lead guitarist. His 1973 hit “Frankenstein” from The
Electronic Musician3 min read
It’s What’s Inside That Counts
Vintage technology has endured due to its sound; it’s that simple. But to understand why particular tools work so well in particular circumstances, it pays dividends to know how certain hardware is designed and why its architecture makes it right for
Electronic Musician3 min read
No Pain In Considering Gain
It’s no secret that a DAW’s mixer is designed to mimic the wellestablished workflow of recording consoles. However, right up there at the top of an analog console’s channel strip will be a gain dial and of all the options a console provides, this one
Electronic Musician5 min read
Exotic Scales
For the most part, us electronic musicians are quite happy to stick with the usual major or minor keys that make up 95% of the stuff we hear on the radio or in clubs today. Every now and then, though, wouldn’t it be cool to color outside the lines? T
Electronic Musician7 min read
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream are one of the most iconic names in electronic music. The German band defined the Berlin sound in the seventies, and alongside Kraftwerk laid the groundwork for electronic music production across the world. But where Kraftwerk went on
Electronic Musician1 min read
Making A ‘Classic’ Reverb With Modern Tools
One of the most prized ’80s drum sounds came from the AMS RMX16 reverb and one of its algorithms: NonLin. Producing a gated, hyped reverb tail with a hefty sustain, it adds real weight to any sound you pass through it and is really effective on claps
Electronic Musician3 min read
Urei LA-3A
Ask any budding recordist to name a famous compressor and they’ll likely respond with one of Universal Audio’s other proliferate pair, the tube and opto-isolatorbased LA-2A or the solid-state 1176. They’d be right to do so, too, as those units have w
Electronic Musician7 min read
Cubase Pro 12
$653 steinberg.net Major DAW updates always come with a certain amount of trepidation, as it’s inevitable that every user will have their own personal preferences when it comes to functionality, and therefore what makes it onto their ‘top feature req
Electronic Musician3 min read
BiG SiX
$2,888 solidstatelogic.com For those of you familiar with SSL’s SiX, you’d be forgiven for thinking this is just a larger version of that device, and to an extent there is some truth in that. It clearly follows the same design language and I’m sure m
Electronic Musician5 min read
Sonic EXtensions
$149 sonicextensions.com Amid much secrecy, Spectrasonics released a teaser video as a warm-up ahead of its latest release. “It’s not going to be what you think,” the advert warned us — and it isn’t! It’s probably fair to say that many were hoping fo
Electronic Musician3 min read
Vintage V12
$1,440 jzmic.com The Vintage V12 is the latest reissue from JZ. Originally released a decade ago, this large-capsule, phantom-powered cardioid condenser has had a visual refresh. With its flattened elliptic cylinder shape and huge headstock, the desi
Electronic Musician2 min read
AudioBox GO
$80 presonus.com PreSonus’ new wedge-shaped AudioBox GO interface is tiny, light, and about as complex to use as a corkscrew. The diminutive twin-channel AudioBox GO is now PreSonus’ entry-level audio interface, short on features and low in price but
Electronic Musician7 min read
Effects Pedals
from $160 dreadbox-fx.com Dreadbox is expanding its range of synths (Nymphes and Typhon) and Eurorack modules with a set of five stompboxes, four of which are currently available. All four pedals reviewed here share control layouts and three (all ana
Electronic Musician2 min read
Audio CC8 Stereo Set
$944 austrian.audio If you want to record in stereo you can either use a stereo mic or a matched pair of individual mics. It’s the latter configuration I have up for review in the form of the CC8 Stereo Set from Austrian Audio. The Stereo Set include
Electronic Musician2 min read
Hugh Hardie – Liquid Soul
£30 Hospital Records’ own master of the dreamy DnB gets let loose on his first ever sample pack, and it’s a keeper. Jazzed up pads, riffs and plaintive pianos meet live and organic hat sounds, dynamic snares and a wide range of his signature kicks, w
Electronic Musician4 min read
Tom VR
Over the past five years, Tom VR has issued a series of releases while developing his own imprint, Valby Rotary. His latest full-length project is his most ambitious yet, transmuting the aesthetic he’s explored hitherto into a 10-track statement that
Electronic Musician5 min read
Sun-El Musician
With his latest album AEDM (African Electronic Dance Music), South African DJ and producer Sun-El Musician is on a mission to piggyback African sounds onto the global phenomenon that is EDM and help introduce some of his local sounds and vibes – and
Electronic Musician2 min read
The Love of Cry
A wah-wah pedal (technically known as just a wah pedal) alters the guitar’s tone by sweeping the peak response of a frequency filter up and down with a treadle. Essentially a tone control operated by foot, it originally sought to emulate the crying s
Electronic Musician2 min read
Lifeline Expanse
$66 excite-audio.com Lifeline Expanse from Excite Audio serves five different ways of re-defining the sound of your track. By harnessing some clever re-amping techniques, the Excite team deliver multiple digital chains that you can send your audio th
Electronic Musician10 min read
Arps, Riffs And Sequences
In the 1980s, developments in music programming inspired a whole new way of writing and producing music. Drum machines, which had been steadily creeping into popular music for a while, were suddenly everywhere, as were sequenced melodic patterns from

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