Table of contents for 08-2021 in Beat English

16-track DAW with 23 synths & FX Avid Pro Tools | First In recent versions, Avid‘s DAW has transformed from an exclusive tool for professional studios to a DAW that is as powerful as it is beginner-friendly. In addition to its 23 compressors & EQs, 16 tracks and the unprecedented range of creative sampling and time-stretching tools, Pro Tools | First even offers two amazing extras: the Xpand!2 workstation from AIR Music and UVI‘s PlugSound Library. By the way, syncing with other DAWs is no problem using ReWire. Download: www.bit.ly/BeatDL187 | License: www.bit.ly/BeatPTFirst win | mac Rocks! Fully modular amp modeling giant Overloud TH-U Beat With TH-U Beat, Overloud has created an exclusive version of the modular studio for guitar and bass sounds for Beat readers. The plug-in comes up…

Which hardware plug-ins do others like to use, what do they pay attention to when producing their music, how is their studio set up? When working with labels, producing remixes or at live events, one thing quickly became clear to our host Rüdiger Keller: everyone has their own style, not only musically, but also when it comes to creating. This led to the idea… hey… let‘s make a podcast out of it! Talking with musicians face-to-face The concept is simple: each show features a producer and three of his tracks, we talk about his approach to producing, tools and techniques and most importantly: the fun of it all. It doesn‘t matter how successful the guests are. Rather, it‘s what they have to say that counts. We talk about technology, production…

It is now considered a supreme discipline to be listed in a genre-typical popular playlist. With 158 million premium members and over 356 million monthly active users, Spotify is arguably the most popular online music streaming service worldwide. The most-followed playlists are heard by dozens of people, such as “Today’s Top Hits” with over 28 million followers or “RapCaviar” with over 13 million followers. In addition, the playlists with the greatest reach are monitored by experts from the music industry, who are always on the lookout for the next star in music heaven. The million dollar question is of course: How do you secure a spot on one of Spotify‘s popular mood or genre-typical playlists? Here are my top 5 tips for musicians to catapult themselves onto one of the…

JONAS BLUE FEAT. JP COOPER – PERFECT STRANGERS: TROPICAL FLUTE A LA NI MASSIVE 1 Noise & feedback A good layer basis for tropical flutes, as in the tracks by Jonas Blue, is provided by Massive with its filter capabilities. After calling up “new sound”, the only signal supplier is the noise oscillator with color turned to the right and the amp at 9 o‘clock. OSC1 - 3 remain deactivated. Additionally we activate Feedback with Amp at 1 o‘clock, so that the noise gets tonal character. 2 Filter, part 1 Next we select comb as the operating modes for filter 1 & 2 and bring the small output fader to the right of it to the center position for filter 1 and 2, but lower it a little further for…

Success should actually come on its own. According to current data, there are two billion users on Facebook and one billion on Instagram, who are supposedly all waiting to click on the next single or album project. In the end, according to Medium.com, the only thing left to do is to tap into this huge target group and „promote your own songs like crazy.“ [1] As more and more musicians are now discovering, this seemingly simple calculation does not work out. Although they dutifully do several posts every day, their accounts look more like graveyards. When the British electronics duo Swayzak wondered on Facebook a few years ago that they had 10,000 fans but were selling practically nothing, They were treated with malice in return for this honest disappointment. Since…

1 Beat to MPC If your smartphone has a mini SD card, the easiest way to record to the MPC is with an SD adapter, otherwise connect the phone via audio cable and sample the beat. The quality doesn‘t matter at this stage. Then, switch to SAMPLE EDIT and normalize the recording. In our case, however, this is not yet enough … 2 Sample pimping … because, apart from the subterranean timing, the volume varies too extremely. We place the sample on a pad, load the AIR Maximizer in the EFFECTS section, switch back to SAMPLES and press the arrow symbol above for FLAT PADS. Now we go back to SAMPLE EDIT, where we switch to CHOP mode by touching TRIM. 3 Slicing Since neither THRESHOLD nor REGIONS work for…

1 The initial sample Open the Lower Zone in your Cubase project and navigate to the Sampler Control tab. Now drag the enclosed sample Dooh Vocal Sample into your project and drop it on the Sampler Control. Then set Root Key to E 3 to correctly match the original pitch of the sample. 2 Legato & glide Lead instruments are often used monophonically. To do this, turn on Monophonic Mode in the top row and then click Legato Mode. This will cause the sample to continue playing when new keys are struck in a bound manner. Set Glide in the Pitch section to 100 ms and activate Fingered mode with FING. 3 Extend the sample To be able to play longer notes, a part of the sample can be looped…

The main focus of this free update was on improving the operation and general handling, which is already evident when loading the plug-in. Loading is now noticeably faster than with its predecessor, and the optimizations are also apparent when switching presets. The user interface has been adapted to modern hardware with higher resolution; four sizes are available and the plug-in automatically detects the perfect resolution for your monitor. The increased contrast is easy on the eyes and makes navigating in the browser easier. In addition, there are numerous improvements to the standalone version, which now offers an audio recorder, among other things. Variety of digital synthesis Nemesis is digital from the ground up and doesn‘t even try to compensate for this with virtual-analog borrowings. Over twenty synthesis types that can…

The MS-20 paved the way for many musicians (including the author of this article) to enter the world of electronic sound generation due to its comparatively low price at the time. FS compared to Kit and Mini In order to be able to properly classify the latest model MS-20 FS in Korg‘s portfolio, here is first an overview of the replicas. FS stands for Fullsize, the size of the housing and the controls correspond to the original as far as possible. Korg has already presented a version in this size with the MS-20 Kit. This limited model, which has been sold out for a long time, was only delivered as a kit in individual parts and had to be assembled relatively complex. As such, one also had the option to…

In the past few years the market for training and further education opportunities in the audio engineering segment has grown enormously. But not every offer is suitable for everybody how is interested. While some prefer to work through a specific crash course on a specific topic as a video tutorial online, others even plan their entire professional career in the form of a multi-year course of study. Get started now! The need for in-depth knowledge in the field of music production, sound design, etc. is obvious. Professionally implemented audio content is becoming more and more important in the constantly growing media world. This also increases the need for skilled workers. As a result, the demand for specialists is also growing, so that both a comprehensive (correspondence) course of study lasting…

Abbey Road Institute Advanced Diploma in Music Production and Sound Engineering is the name of the full-time course for interested music producers and sound engineers who want to study at the Abbey Road Institute. It is divided into the three main areas of music production, sound engineering and business. Students can graduate in one year at the only classroom location in Germany, Frankfurt/Main. The German-language curriculum covers acoustics, analog equipment, analog and electronic music production, DAW, arrangement techniques, mastering, microphones, mixing, musical craft, music theory, and publishing and marketing. Theoretical knowledge transfer is implemented in a practical way on large consoles, among other things. Practical handson lectures deepen the knowledge. The lecturers and guest lecturers have many years of experience, have already worked with very well-known artists and some of…

Beat / Paul, you‘ve been running your successful YouTube channel for many years. How did you come up with the idea of setting up a training platform like MeinHomestudio.de? Paul / Since 2015, a new video about music production has been released on my channel “Paul Marx Media” almost every week. In the comments there was already a lively exchange about questions dealing with Cubase and various production topics. Over time, I‘ve noticed that some questions keep popping up and at certain points often remained unanswered for beginners and advanced users. That gave me the impulse to produce my own courses that take up these questions and answer them comprehensively but in a practical way. In autumn 2016 I programmed the MeinHomestudio. de website and, in addition to the first…

1 Real-time analysis The tempo follower analyzes an incoming audio signal in real time, interpreting the tempo. The tempo information is then applied to Live as a global tempo and is constantly adjusted so that Live can flexibly follow tempo changes. To turn on and view this feature, open the Preferences in Live. 2 Turn on function In the Preferences, go to the Link, Tempo, MIDI section. There you will see the Show Tempo Follower Switch function and click on the adjacent field so that it reads Show in Field. As soon as this lights up, a field labeled Follow will appear at the top of the Session or Arrangement window to the left, next to the Tab button. 3 Set signal source Next, you need to determine the source…

Let’s dive straight into it. On the following pages we reveal the hit recipes from chart toppers like Tiësto, Derulo, Lil Nas X, Jonas Blue Feat. JP Cooper, Ed Sheeran and Riton x Nightcrawlers and show you how to create the top ten sounds yourself. We also take a close look at the preferred synthesizers and creative tools from Joris Voorn, Chvrches, Tycho and Stephan Bodzin. When the potential hit is finally produced, it is important to reach the largest possible audience. Our tips on how to increase music awareness through Spotify playlists - and hopefully hit the charts - should help. How are the charts created? The official single and album charts are calculated based on sales figures. The basis for this is sales of physical sound recordings to…

1 Finally friday! Too many cooks spoil the hit song? This does not apply to the big hit „Friday“. Riton and the songwriting and producer team The Invisible Man have turned samples from the “MK Dub Edit” of the 1992 hit “Push The Feeling On” in a contemporary house sound. In the process, the hypnotic synth hookline from the Nightcrawlers song was adopted. 2 Hit sounds imitation Spiced up with crisp club beats, an outrageously grooving bassline and catchy vocals, the result sounds remarkably fresh and modern. We have recreated some of the most distinctive synth sounds from “Friday” so that you can use them to enhance your tracks. For this we use the semi-modular synthesizer kiloHearts Phase Plant [1]. 3 Bass First, we recreate the bass sound of the…

Pro Tools | First lets you create up to 16 audio and MIDI tracks. It shares the same engine with the larger versions of the DAW and offers powerful audio and MIDI recording and editing, excellent sound processors, and full mix automation. Features like offline bounce, track freeze, and automation of parameters like volume, pan, sends, and plug-in parameters ensure an intuitive workflow. Gone are the days when you needed a physical iLok dongle to use Pro Tools: Now all you need is an iLok account to authorize the software. Pro Tools | First includes 23 must-have plug-ins, including AIR Xpand!2 and UVI Workstation sound workstations, plus great-sounding equalizer, compressor, limiter, de-esser, and expander/gate plug-ins. Pro Tools | First ships with 3.1 GB of sounds, including Plugsound Avid Edition, an…

1 Load loop The best thing about this technique is that it can be applied to song ideas, as well as to any loops from your library. Ultimately, it‘s all about extracting multiple ideas from a loop that help build an arrangement. For our workshop, we‘ll use the orchestral loop ORCHESTRAL 4 PROMO 02 (see project data). 2 Slicing Load the loop on a free pad and switch to the SLICE section under SAMPLING. We select Split as the MODE and set 32 slices (which in this case means one slice of 1/8 length per pad). With APPLY, we confirm the split and place the slices on a free pad. We leave the pattern as it is, but pitch the sample down -8 semitones. 3 Pitching and reverse Switch to…

1 Loop slicing If the muse just won‘t show up or you simply want to remix a melody, new approaches can be created in a flash. Load the desired loop or bounce an existing melody to audio. Right-click the audio clip and select the Slice to Drum Machine option. We‘ll use the four-bar loop PIC_116_Fm_Cinematic_Piano. 2 The Drum Machine In the Slice popup, we switch to Slice Raw (because we don‘t need any previous bouncing), set 1/8 notes, and generally limit the number of slices to 32 so that it doesn‘t get too small. Adjust the settings to your particular loop and click OK. Then mute the loop and switch to the resulting track with the Drum Machine. 3 The random trick Using the notes C1 to G3, the loop…

Low Wave Studio SpikeQ SpikeQ is a frequency-dependent transient shaper to emphasize the attack phase of a sound and, therefore, make things like bass drums, snares and basses crisper and more punchy in the mix. With simple transient processing, all frequency ranges are always affected equally. This can lead to washed-out or overemphasized basses or aggressive and exhausting highs. To avoid this undesirable side effect, SpikeEQ has four semi-parametric equalizers for separate processing of the different frequency ranges: Two cow-tail filters for low and high frequencies, and two peak filters. For clean processing of a drum loop or other more complex audio tracks, Attack and Sustain can be processed separately to control overemphasis of decaying instruments and resonances. The intensity of the effect can be doubled for less dynamic audio…

Atlas presents itself in a simple look with drum pads and the so-called sample map, which consists of countless points, each of which represents a sample. The color of the sample depends on its type, and predefined terms such as Clap, Snare and Kick help with the overview. When clicking on a point, the sample is played; and by right-clicking, it is loaded into the current slot of the drum kit. New kits can be created quite quickly and without tedious rummaging in the browser, because if you are looking for a snare, for example, they are literally all in one pile. Since not all samples can be displayed at the same time, the sample map offers the option to zoom the view. If that‘s not fast enough, just click…

Touch Loops Sunset Soul Groovy and dusty with LoFi vibes, but always soulful and warm, the Sunset Soul sound collection from Touch Loops has an effect on the reviewer. The character of the US Soul label Stax Records of the 70s, with artists like Isaac Hayes, resonates here. The Hip Hop, Nu Soul and Lo-Fi Soul oriented loops are divided into Guitars (36), Bass (33), Synthesizers (12), Stacks (68), Keys (35) and an Effect, with BPMs ranging widely between 80 and 150. Fifty individual samples, consisting of guitars and bass have also been carved out. Particularly the Rhodes sounds and layered, lounge-suitable stacks stand out benevolently, which were here and there happily underlined with vinyl crackling and complement each other well with the gliding Fender Telecaster guitar loops. Verdict Sunset…

The UltraLite series has a good 15 years under its belt; a long time for an audio interface, considering the rapid advancement of technology, especially in the computer sector. Now Motu presents the fifth generation of the all-in-one solution, which can also be used autonomously without a computer, thanks to DSP, and is equipped for almost all application scenarios with two high-quality microphone preamps and a variety of analog and digital inputs and outputs. Overview Externally, the only tweaks have been to the details. The technology of the Ultra-Lite is still in a robust metal case, but the corners have been replaced by rounded rings. With dimensions of 22 x 17.5 4.5 cm and a weight of a solid 1.3 kg, the interface is primarily designed for desktop installation. Rack…

The DRM1 analog drum synthesizer can quite rightly be called a classic, because the expander has now been on the market for 25 years. Although the external design and name have changed, the DRM1 was also offered by the German company Music and More (MAM) and Touched by Sound (TBS) and add to that Syncussion (not to be confused with the SY-1 Syncussion from Pearl). But not much has changed in the concept and structure of the sound generation; and Version 4, tested here, is also limited to detail improvements compared to its predecessors. Why not, after all, the concept has proven itself over the decades. And analog drum synthesizers are still very popular with their lively sound and direct access to all parameters, but as ready-made complete solutions, mostly…

BIMM Institute Berlin If you attach importance to studying directly at the pulse of the international music scene, then the BIMM Institute Berlin is extremely interesting. It is located in the Berlin district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg - an area that is undisputedly the creative and economic center of the German music industry. The BIMM Institute Berlin has been at home in the House of Music, Berlin‘s music hub, since 2019. It shares a location with Music Pool Berlin, Noisy MusicWorld and well-known companies such as Yamaha, Shure, MOD Devices and iZotope. The building has state-of-the-art professional premises with equipment and software from the world‘s leading musical instrument manufacturers who actively support the institute. The students have direct access to the institute‘s own college rooms, and 20 rehearsal rooms are also available…

For those who hate manuals, find recording books too dry and spending hours searching YouTube too stupid, we deliver 99 compact answers to the most burning questions about studio and technology, as well as useful power tips from creative boosters to songwriting, arranging and sound design tricks up to well-kept mixing and mastering secrets. Also included: the best add-ons, shortcuts and workflow accelerators specifically for your DAW. Make producing less work and more fun again! Review: IK Multimedia UNO Synth Pro The first hardware synthesizer of the Italian company caused a respectable success with its distinct sound, but also had to take criticism for the toy-like packaging. The successor UNO Synth Pro is a different caliber, the solid metal housing and high-quality Fatar keyboard are professional. The sound generation has…

Delay effect for sound designers from FabFilter The feedback specialist Timeless 3 from FabFilter, not only appears with a new design, but some exciting features have also been improved and added. This effect plug-in is not intended for classic mixdown, but also for creative sound design. In addition to the already existing analog delay, up to six filters can now be used in the delay. Up to 16 delay taps can be created, leading to inspiring rhythmic patterns. The taps can also be modulated, so that the destinations and sources of the modulation can be visualized. Conveniently, drag and drop connections between sources and destinations can be made in the 50-slot matrix. In addition, delays can now be set to ping-pong back and forth. Other innovations include distortion, lo-fi character,…

1 Minimalism With „The Business“Tiësto has not only cracked the charts, but probably also a record in terms of „the fewest notes in a song“. The entire piece has only three chords, which are played by very subtle instruments that create atmosphere instead of blowing the speakers as usual. 2 No hookline?! Also unusual: there is no hookline, this part is taken over by the vocals, with only the bassline running alongside the beat. This is maximum minimalism. With a little trick though, because during the chorus the singing changes from a deep, monotonous voice to significantly more expression and emotion, accompanied by a pad. 3 Sing-along potential It‘s precisely this combination of minimalism and emphasis that can easily be applied to your songs and has two major advantages: On…

Level 1: Sample packs Here we can already anticipate with the answer: Clearly “yes and no”. There are certainly solutions and approaches that we divide into three levels here. If you want to be on the safe side, you can always use countless sample packs and their drum and bass loops. The samples are usually mixed, well matched and work in the club, both in terms of sound and groove. Beginners in particular can thus circumvent the problem of having good ideas, while the foundation on a PA just doesn‘t want to rock. The downside is the renunciation of individuality, because especially with good packs it can be assumed that other artists will also use them. And the more ready-made material is used, the more difficult it becomes to put…

1 Perform it! To sound like Capital Bra, it‘s important to deliver a good performance when recording the vocals. The musician is known for working with a lot of emotional emphasis. Don‘t be afraid to pretend that you‘re about to cry or burst with anger. You should also keep changing the dynamics of your voice to match the lyrics. 2 EQ it! In today‘s Hip Hop, bass and drums need a lot of space. So the other instruments get a high Low Cut. For the vocals, we used the Channel EQ to set a steep low cut at 142 Hz and emphasized the frequency range for speech intelligibility around 3 kHz with a high bandwidth of 8 by 3.4 dB using Vintage Tube EQ. 3 Tune it! Using Pitch Correction,…

1 Kick tuning Select a kick sample from the drum hits folder in the drums category that contains a lot of low end but still sounds dry and direct, such as an 808 kick. Tune the kick drum sample using the tuner audio effect or the Spectrum effect, and adjust it to the root of your bassline using Transpose and Detune. 2 Limit subbass To prevent the subbass of the kick and bass from overlapping too much, reduce the subbass bump of the kick a little with a Transient Shaper. To do this, load a Drum Bus behind the Kick and set Drive to 0%. Move the Transients slider to -30 to sharpen the Attack of the Kick and reduce the Sustain at the same time. 3 More punch Reduce…

1 Thin snare You‘ve found the perfect snare, but somehow it doesn‘t carry through in the mix or sounds stale. Just turn it up, and the transient shoots skyward, blowing up the dynamic range of the song. What you need is a distortion device to add harmonics and white noise so the snare can assert itself. 2 Load distortion The first step is to load a distortion device like the FabFilter Saturn into the insert slot of your DAW. The signal chain looks like this: Distortion, EQ-ing and then Limiting, and it serves the following purpose: First distortion is added, then musty noise frequencies are filtered out, then the transient is limited. 3 Select algorithm For our project, we select the Warm Tube algorithm. You only need one frequency band,…

Roland JD-800 Model Exp. The original JD-800 was released in 1991 and combined the currently fashionable digital synthesis with a sprawling user interface with lots of faders for the most important parameters. Despite its impressive appearance, the synthesizer sold only moderately at first, which was also due to the sound that took some getting used to because the JD-800 sits somewhere on the fence. It can‘t really sound warm and round like an analog; in particular, the filter sounds very digital and distorts unpleasantly at higher resonance. And for the emulation of natural instruments, there were better alternatives even back then. It took some time to get to the strengths of the instrument in the area of independent pads and atmospheric sounds. This special 90s charm has now been reissued…

Lil FrEQ is an analog equalizer with a very musical sound that can be used on almost any instrument. Whether on the drum bus, a vocal track or a bass, Lil FrEQ almost always fits sonically. Softube has, therefore, done well to adopt the concept faithfully. Four parametric equalizer bands are available for lows, low and high mids, and treble. They are each adjustable in bandwidth, frequency and level and can be switched on and off individually. Using the blue markers, a Neve 1073 EQ can also be recreated. The four bands are supplemented by two shelf EQs for the low and high frequencies. A highpass filters out unwanted low-frequency noise such as footstep sound or inaudible sub-bass, which could otherwise have an undesirable effect on a downstream compressor. De-Esser…

Apogee ECS Channel Strip Do you really need a channel strip plug-in when every DAW comes with its own equalizers, dynamics processors and saturation effects? Of course, you can achieve similar results with a selection of high-quality effects plug-ins, but the big advantage of a channel strip is that it combines all the necessary signal processors in one interface and they have been carefully matched to each other. Apogee‘s ECS Channel Strip features an equalizer section and a compressor tuned by legendary engineer and producer Bob Clearmountain. The three-band equalizer is based on a classic hardware equalizer from the seventies. The high-pass filter can also be used as a sidechain filter for the compressor to avoid pumping effects. With the compressor, you can condense the input signal or compress it…

SKULPTsynth SE is the new edition of the extremely compact and yet very powerful virtual-analog synthesizer from Modal. Even if the technology inside has remained almost unchanged and SKULPTsynth SE thus also remains patch-compatible with the well-known SKULPTsynth, a second look is worthwhile because, in the course of time, there were some interesting extensions in the context of free updates. Moreover, the SKULPTsynth SE with a street price of less than 200 Euro is once again a good deal below the regular price of its predecessor. Perfect for on the road Externally, the differences in design and color scheme are unmistakable. The compact dimensions and the low weight have remained, but the casing seems to have a higher-quality finish. However, you should not expect miracles at this price; the SKULPTsynth…

Alex Pfeffer Trailer Music Course Alex Pfeffer is one of the most famous German trailer composers. In his trailer music course he shares his knowledge in videos in the usual competent and informative way. The course covers the entire process of composing and producing contemporary trailer tracks: from the first idea and inspiration, preparation and structure to instrumentation, harmony, melody, arrangement and tension build-up to mixing and mastering and delivery of the finished track. A video is also dedicated to the creation of templates that speed up the workflow. But not only the musical aspect is covered in detail, but also business basics and valuable tips on the subject of mental health. Exclusive tracks and Cubase and MIDI files as well as a selection of Alex’ sample libraries provide informative…

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