Beat 08 2024
Beat 08 2024
Beat 08 2024
# 223 | 08-2024
LOFI SAMPLING VOM SAMPLE BIS ZUM FERTIGEN TRACK
SOFTWARE
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17 PAGES TRICKS & PLUG-INS
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8 1 ETHEREAL VOICES, ELVEN FLUTES
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Beat 08 | 2024 • 3
BEATSOFTWARE
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4 • Beat 08 | 2024
BEATSOFTWARE
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Beat 08 | 2024 • 5
INBEAT
Table of contents
Table of contents
LO-FI SAMPLING
Build your most emotional beats! From the lo-fi girl to the cassette boom to the ambient wave - lo-fi sounds have
xperienced a real hype in recent years. In our big special, we have tips, tools and sounds to help you quickly produce tracks
e
with the broken sound aesthetic. But what is lo-fi anyway? And how do you produce this style? From page 20
006 Contents
040 Portrait: Solar Fake
Sven Friedrich, known from Dreadful
Test: Digitakt II
Shadows and Zeraphine, has been sha- Is Electron‘s compact groovebox
008 Navigator: Best of Beat #223 ping the electro scene with Solar Fake the perfect control center for
since 2007. In this interview, he talks DAWless jams? Page 68
016 BEHIND THE BEAT Podcast about the longplayer „Don‘t Push This
Episode #37 with Hainbach Button!“, his production philosophy and
performing the songs live.
018 Editorial: The Beat team introduces itself
042 Digital Culture:
074 Music treasures of the month
The state of electronic music
Has electronic music lost its original Top workshops
creativity and power? The thought is not
082 Imprint & preview entirely wrong. And yet it is completely Free: Efektor Modulation Beat
Beat 09 | 2024 will be out on 02.08.2024 absurd as well – and by no means an Chorus, Flanger, Phaser and
excuse for giving up.
Tremolo in one sweet spot
effect! Page 44
048 Photo competition „Face your (e)motions“
Together with Samsung we are looking
for your best photos on the theme „Face
your (e)motions“. Valuable prizes await
Zampler: Harmony of Realms
the winners! Hands-on: Trip-Hop
meets Lo-Fi
Page 62
6 • Beat 08 | 2024
INBEAT
Table of contents
049 Power Producer: Ableton Live 066 Test: Behringer Pro VS Mini
051 Mix tricks: True stereo image 071 Modular test: Bela Gliss
from mono sources SoftBeat
072 Modular test: Hexinverter Mindphaser
060 Dope Tracks: Top Ten Sounds Deconstructed 054 Test: Synapse Audio The Legend HZ
062 Zampler Constructor: Harmony of Realms 056 Test: Arturia MiniBrute V On Stage
076 Clean up for macOS Sonoma 057 New sounds & samples 073 Power Producer: Push-DJing
Beat 08 | 2024 • 7
INBEAT
Navigator
8 • Beat 08 | 2024
BEAT SOFTWARE
FOR DOWNLOAD
bit.ly/BeatDL23
VIEW AND DOWNLOAD IN YOUR BROWSER. WITHOUT REGISTRATION! (PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO UPPER AND LOWER CASE)
SUBSCRIBERS FIND ALL DOWNLOADS AND LICENCES AT WWW.BEAT.DE/DOWNLOADS
Beat 05 | 2019 • 9
Magazine
Facts | Opinions | News | Products
by Carl-Philipp Schmeller
nomadfactory.com twitch.tv/dj-program
More info More info
10 • Beat 08 | 2024
BEATMAGAZIN
Facts | Opinions | News | Gear
Synth classic as a plug-in Less resonance when monitoring Nithonat 2 – more than a clone of
with a vintage feel with Fostex studio headphones the TR-606 with 900 presets
While the MiniBrute synthesizer from Arturia al- Fostex has introduced the new T50RPmk4 stu- The TR-606 from Roland is still one of the most
ready caused quite a stir in the hardware world dio headphones for all musicians and sound en- influential drum machines in electronic mu-
12 years ago, the MiniBrute V now follows in an gineers, which have now reached the fourth ge- sic today. The developers at D16 Group presen-
expanded form as a plug-in. The sound genera- neration of its RP technology since 1974. This ted the Nithonat 2 software emulation on June 6,
tor for sound designers can now be played eight new coil shape of these RP drivers is designed 2024, which is far superior to the hardware mo-
times polyphonically and has an extended ef- to reduce resonances even better and lead to an del in terms of functionality. Although the focus
fects rack. The multi-waveform oscillator is now even better transient response. Further advanta- is on the authenticity of the seven drum instru-
supported by a sub-oscillator. Mono and unison ges of the headphones are the semi-open design, ments, the additional sound design options are
modes have also been added. The effects inclu- which ensures a linear sound and that less power enormous. Each drum sound can be assigned to
de the in-house JUN-6 chorus and BL-20 flanger, is required for a headphone amplifier. It is prefer- two effect buses with five effect slots each. Addi-
as well as various reverbs and delays. The Bru- ably used for monitoring tasks. Its detachable ca- tional effects with multiband compressor and li-
te-Factor provides a powerful saturation and rich ble guide can be connected either on the left or miter can be found in the master bus. In addition,
overtones. The iconic Steiner-Parker filter from right. The frequency response of the T50RPmk4 each drum sound can access a channel strip with
the French is also a must. To emphasize the ana- covers 10Hz - 40kHz. Its impedance is 28 ohms EQ and compressor. An extensive sequencer with
log vintage feel, there is now also the V control, and the maximum input power is 3000mW. A random generator provides rhythmic variations.
which provides subtle sound changes in cha- sensitivity of 97 dB is specified. Also new are the Three trigger outputs, various trigger modes and
racter. There are two envelopes for shaping the thicker ear pads with less elasticity, so that they a whopping 900 presets are further features of the
sound and the LFO with switchable waveform is are comfortable to wear even when listening for plug-in. Stylistically, the drums range between 80s
used for modulation. The internal sound selecti- long periods. The headband is self-adjusting. A pop, experimental and modern EDM. The user in-
on already includes 150 presets. two meter long cable with stereo jack including terface is also scalable.
Arturia MiniBrute V is now available for 199 adapter is included. The Nithonat 2 plug-in is now available for the
euros. The tool supports the formats VST, VST3, The Fostex T50RPmk4 is now available intro price of 69 Euros (regular price 119 Euros).
AAX and AU, but can also be from specialist retailers for It supports the formats VST2,
used in standalone mode. 314 Euros. VST3, AU and AAX.
arturia.com | tomeso.de More info fostexinternational.com More info d16.pl More info
Beat 08 | 2024 • 11
BEATCULTURE
SUPERBOOTH24
The SUPERBOOTH24
Beat was represented by three people at the
Superbooth this year. Marco and Carl were veterans
and knew their way around. I, as a newcomer,
in Review
was getting my first taste of the Berlin trade fair. A country bumpkin with a
soft spot for modules in Berlin at Europe‘s biggest trade fair for electronic
musical instruments – that could only lead to absolute sensory overload.
After some time to recover, everything has settled down and it‘s now time for
a look back.
Input, Input, Input passing. Instead, I let myself drift, and in doing so, I
» Conservation with an
and how to deal with it found one or two bangers from small and large Eu-
DIY workshops, performances, talk concerts, events rorack manufacturers. alternate Superbooth motto «
and, of course, the many exhibitors - it became cle-
ar on the very first day that even three days of Su- Gear Gems – a highly
perbooth would not allow you to see and hear, let subjective selection
alone try out everything. Sound everywhere, gear Indie manufacturer SetonixSynths had positioned analog, granular MultiMode Filter. We will defini-
everywhere, people everywhere: If you don‘t fil- itself inconspicuously at the edge of the hall on the tely be taking a closer look at this in a future review.
ter, sort and structure, you‘ll blow a fuse after half first floor and presented the Shaka-8 Voltage-Con- Oxi Instruments also had something new in
a day. So, I‘ve scaled back my claim to a complete, trolled Stereo Matrix Mixer. With two Shaka-4 ex- store. Meta is an end-of-chain effect that, together
detailed overview and let myself be guided by per- panders, the module can be expanded to a 4x4 ste- with the two products One and Coral from the same
sonal preferences. reo matrix - a flexible, creative tool which, as far as I company, can virtually form a complete setup.
I have, therefore, only touched on many ma- know, is not yet available in this form. Klavis, at the Schlappi Engineering also has some relea-
jor manufacturers from the synth sector. Pro audio stand diagonally opposite, presented a completely ses planned for 2024 and is working on realizing a
and studio equipment were also only touched on in new concept with Grainity: a digitally controlled, complete Schlappi system. Bastl had moved into
12 • Beat 08 | 2024
BEATCULTURE
SUPERBOOTH24
» Bastl´s Booth
with news:
Thyme and Crust «
» A look in the tent: See the gear
in a personal atmosphere «
any attention to the analog oscillator, but the pow- My attention was particularly drawn to the wa-
erful sound brought me back to the demo table. De- cky and experimental Redondance‘s Quad Head
finitely a candidate for a closer look! Stereo Delay.
Supercritical Synthesizers were in good com-
More treasures in the pany with Doepfer and Flame. With Redshift 6, they
Tent City and Bungalow Village had their new analog desktop polysynth based on
In the Tent City, Bela was the first to catch the eye the Demon Core Oscillator with them. At the back
with a 1U version of their Gliss Touch Control- of the village was the WMD / AMMT Synthesis hut,
ler. Especially with a 1U row at the bottom, this which had a MkII version of the Performance Mi-
offers some advantages in terms of playability, xer in the rack.
which should be particularly noticeable in Key-
board Mode. Acts, people, atmosphere –
Befaco presented Oneiroi, an interesting Superbooth Vibe
combo of Oscillator, Filter, Resonator, Effects and I was deeply impressed by the discussion con-
» Not just monster racks! Looper. First impression: an instant A mbient Ma-
chine. We continued in the Bungalow Village
cert with Vlad Kreimer, who delivered a 20-mi-
nute performance on the Soma Flux, impressi-
Microrack goes the opposite with Eowave, who presented some new things. vely showcasing its expressiveness. Afterwards, he
direction: small & affordable «
14 • Beat 08 | 2024
BEATCULTURE
SUPERBOOTH24
» Boss‘s favorite:
the Acid Booth «
summed up the essence of the concept in a few
words: concentration on spontaneous, artistic ex-
pression. Cool number!
In addition to all the focus on the equipment,
there were, of course, live acts on a number of stages
on the site to ensure a great atmosphere. The inter-
national relevance of the event was demonstrated
by the presence of many well-known synth YouTu-
» Busy soldering in one
bers and musicians. Those who dared could have a of the fully booked DIY
chat or get a photo together. As reserved as I am, I workshops «
saved that for next year.
What ultimately makes the Superbooth so ma- year and share the Superbooth vibe with us and
gical is not 100% clear. Berlin with its special, open make it even bigger. Lasting impressions, new con-
flair and the spacious, natural location certainly tacts and many weeks and months of fresh inspira-
play their part. The decisive factor for me, howe- tion are guaranteed afterwards. r
ver, was the „normal“ people - you and me - who,
despite all their differences, all came together here
because of their shared passion. In this respect, my
clear recommendation goes out to all hobbist dood- One thing‘s for sure: We‘re
lers, musicians, gear nerds, producers and anyone » Ohmforce: known for definitely going back again
else who is simply interested to come to Berlin next their plug-ins, now there‘s next year, right boss?
also modules «
Beat 08 | 2024 • 15
BEATCULTURE
Producer Podcasts
6.000 listeners
are already on board! You too?
T
o the eye, things are simple: big things cast big shadows. In the
world of the ear, however, these laws do not apply. Here, tiny sound
sources can produce noises of an enormous magnitude. This is the
world of Stefan Paul Goetsch, better known by his stage name Hainbach.
Although Stefan has been working with sound for half his life, it
has lost none of its fascination to him: loud and quiet sounds, brutal
and sweet sounds, familar and mysterious sounds, old and new sounds,
simple and complex sounds - they all have their place in Hainbach‘s
music. The same applies to the often unusual instruments, tools and
objects which he‘ll use to create and manipulate, release and capture
these sounds. Stefan‘s equally passionate and playful research is at the
heart of a cosmos which encompasses anything from compositions,
YouTube clips, podcasts, and his own plug-ins. LISTEN IN! WHERE AND HOW YOU WANT!
16 • Beat 08 | 2024
BEATCULTURE
Producer Podcasts
Hainbach is also regularly invited to compose film will understand why his pieces still work away from
music. This may not seem entirely obvious, as his the cinema, why even seemingly randomly placed
music doesn‘t seem to have the typical „cinematic“ dots and dabs of sound always feel like they‘re ex-
characteristics. His current score for documen- actly where they should be: Because each sound has
tary The One Who Runs Away Is The Ghost ma- meaning here.
kes for a good example: The emotions are epic, but
the acoustic backdrop is intimate; undulating pat- On your favorite platform!
terns emerge from airy tones while fluffly rhythmic You can find our podcast on all known platforms
clouds and gaseous melodies sail weightlessly past such as Spotify, Amazon, Apple Podcasts, Goog-
the mind‘s eye. This is music that makes the images le, Pocket Casts, Deezer and Podcast.de, as well as
more beautiful, music that tells the stories that the every Monday on Radio Evosonic! Use the following
camera can only hint at. Anyone who has ever seen link or scan the QR code to listen in. Have fun!
how deeply Stefan immerses himself in the connec-
tion between images and sounds for such projects www.beat.de/podcast
Beat 08 | 2024 • 17
INBEAT
Editorial
BEAT introdu
Scherer
Producer, Sound Designer, DJ and
Gear Nerd with a big soft spot
for samplers. Marco has been
making music for as long as he
can remember, loves his studio
and even runs around outside with Mario
Mario Schumacher
Schumacher
microphones and recorders to find
and bend the best sounds. Produces Mario has been on board since the
Psytrance under Datacult, Techno first issue. His musical output is
under the name Villa Violet and as versatile as his contributions
creates with his „Drum Depot“ kits to BEAT: While his Edge Of Dawn
for current drum samplers. At BEAT, explores the field of tension bet-
he is the contact person for (almost) ween Synth Pop and Electro, Mario
Jan everything and puts his heart and
soul into it.
produces Cinematic Electronic Music
for Film, TV and Advertising under
Wilking the name Raging Silence for, among
others, Mercedes Benz, Porsche,
Synthesizers, samplers and drum Audi, Philips and Puma.
machines have defined his life for a
good four decades. Inspired by the Sascha Blach
emerging Synth Pop of the early
80s, particularly the first concerts Passionate music nerd who likes
as a budding teenager like Depeche variety as a listener, as well as a
Mode, Nitzer Ebb and Shock Therapy singer, musician and producer,
shaped his further development, because he thinks variety is what
which led to the founding of the makes life interesting - from
Tobias Fischer
Tobias Fischer
EBM/Industrial project STERIL in melancholic Folk to Pop, Electronica
1990, which was successful mainly and Techno to Indie Rock and Metal, Journalist, author, label
in the USA. From the simple cassette there‘s a lot here. Busy songwriter. owner, listener. Tobias has
recorder, Casio keyboard and mono Besides his own various projects, been writing about music for
sampler with mini-memory to the he also makes production music. almost 20 years; 15 of them for
modern DAW with almost unlimited Convinced Apple and Logic user. BEAT. In doing so, he prefers
possibilities, Jan has witnessed the Loves guitar pedals. Likes to work on Maya Consuelo Sternel to go deep below the surface.
development of electronic music a mix for months and still claims to This is also the case in his
production, with his personal work effectively. Prefers profundity Maya Consuelo Sternel, a.k.a. Donna „Behind the Beat“ podcast. As
conclusion: Less is often more! to small talk. That‘s why he‘s also Maya, is a musician, producer and sound long as there is music, Tobias
doing extensive interviews at BEAT. artist. She plays Theremin and releases will ask questions - either for
In short: Somehow damn versatile, Underground Techno. After earning her new book projects or, in the
our Sascha! Audio Engineer degree, she worked in New meanwhile, for the almost
York at Unique Recording in Times Square, 4000 interviews for his project
overseeing productions from Run DMC to „15 Questions“.
Joe Lynn Turner. She is an Ableton Certified
Trainer, runs Upstart Electronic Music
Education and is co-founder of the Ableton
User Group Berlin.
Daniel Bock
New addition to the BEAT team. Actually a guitarist and actually plays Funk, Rock,
Alternative & Metal, but secretly always squinted to the synths and Electronic Music.
Tells himself that jamming is actually the real music making and producing tracks is
not really necessary. Loves gear and creative gear. What would be better
for this than a modular system? Consequently, therefore, also
responsible for the Eurorack corner of the BEAT.
Carl-Philipp Schmeller
Philipp Sterszewski
Carl-Philipp has been with Beat
Ricarda Becker
Ricarda Becker
since issue 1. His home is Commer- Good Fairy, Layout Fairy or simply
cial Electronic Music, which he has Graphic Designer... Ricarda has Dagmar Pawlowsky
been passionate about since the 90s many titles, but only one task: to
and also produces in his own home make the magazine as beautiful Responsible for sales and
studio. He also conducts seminars in as possible. The graphic design is co-operations. Dagmar loves Berlin,
the field. At Beat, he is responsible analogous to music: underneath the her dog Leo and BEAT magazine.
for News, Workshops, Reviews and final result lies a lot of work, sweat She enjoys listening to Electro Punk
Tests; especially for the last two and technology that you don‘t even and always likes to be at the front
years now for the English edition see when you just look at it. We are at concerts. In her spare time, she
and for Beat.de. all the more pleased to have her! organises small concerts and
other events.
18 • Beat 08 | 2024
Would You Like a Little More?
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LO-FI SAMPLING
17 PAGES TRICKS & PLUG-INS
FROM SAMPLE TO FINISHED TRACK
Is it pure nostalgia, the reduction to the essentials or the retro charm in the sound that is so popular thanks to Lo-Fi?
Either way: While battleships like Kontakt, Falcon or HALion boast ever more complex features and make entire
orchestras playable in a realistic way, trackers and old-school samplers are celebrating one revival after another. We‘ll
show you why this software and hardware is so popular, how you can produce emotional tracks with the popular lo-fi
flair and provide the right plug-ins for the most important tricks. We‘ll also give you our own tracker, which lets you
relive more than just the vibe of the 80s. by Laura Emiliano, Tobias Fischer and Marco Scherer
F
rom the Lo-Fi Girl to the cassette boom to the so successful over the last few years that there are Whether you‘re doing your homework, studying
Ambient Vave, Lo-Fi sounds have experienced YouTube channels like the famous Lo-Fi Girl with for your next exam, riding the bus to university
a real hype in recent years. In our big special we millions of followers and quite a few lo-fi artists can and staring into the rain, or doing your tax return,
have tips, tools and sounds so that you can quickly even make a living from their music by ending up these relaxed grooves make it even better. Playlists
produce tracks with the broken-beautiful sound on major lo-fi playlists. on Spotify like „chill lo-Fi study beats“ or simply
aesthetic. But what is Lo-Fi? And where does it „lo-Fi beats“ have millions of followers who feel
come from? Lo-Fi House & Hip Hop, the same way.
While the beginnings of lo-fi sounds can be Synthwave – what‘s the difference? Lo-Fi House isn‘t quite that big, but with Four
found in the 1990s, Lo-Fi Hip Hop and Lo-Fi House Lo-Fi is not Lo-Fi. The second part of the genre Tet, who recently enjoyed great success with Skril-
came into being in the middle of the last decade. name already indicates where the musical focus lex and Fred again..., you have a pretty prominent
From the very beginning, a strong DIY ethos lies. In Lo-Fi Hip Hop, stumbling beats, like those representative here too. „Ross from Friends“ also
played a major role. Recording yourself, producing built so incomparably by J Dilla, play just as much enjoyed great success in the last decade. Lo-Fi
yourself, duplicating your own sound carriers. of a role as dreamy pads, like those known from House is also about unobtrusive sounds, but it
Since the origins lie in the (more or less) analogue various chill-out genres. This is also the music that often grooves and pushes even more, you can even
1990s, this is also about analogue reproduction, you can hear on an endless loop from Lo-Fi Girl. dance to it! Four-to-the-floor beat, noisy sounds,
i.e. tapes, vinyl, tape machines and more. It should The music is also so successful because it dreamy glockenspiel melodies, the November rain
tug, stumble and rustle. The movement has become creates relaxed vibes through its unobtrusiveness. can come!
20 • Beat 08 | 2024
BEATSPECIAL
LO-FI Sampling
And with Synthwave, Vaporwave and the like, nos- What is Lo-Fi? down to the last detail and synthesizers that sound
talgia is taken to the extreme in terms of producti- Lo-Fi is short for „Low Fidelity“ and is the coun- smooth to the point of pain, humming into your
on. In almost everything, you are connected to the terpart to HiFi, i.e. „High Fidelity“. Where HiFi smartphone and sampling it, using effects not gent-
sound aesthetic of the eighties. Booming drums, sounds celebrate the beautiful sound, the perfectly ly but brutally - that‘s what lo-fi has done for me in
heavy synthesizer pads, driving an angular Lam- produced piece of music, where everything can be many ways.
borghini into the violet-orange sunset, all framed heard crystal clear and every detail appears as if
by a VHS collection. From the soundtracks of „Dri- under an acoustic magnifying glass, Lo-Fi does the Lo-Fi sounds – This is what
ve“, „Throne: Legacy“ and „Stranger Things“ to the opposite. We are not quite in the land of noisescapes the big special contains
epic „Blinding Lights“ by The Weeknd, Synthwave and sound installations yet, but there can be endless For the electronic tinkerers among the Lo-Fi fans,
has become deeply anchored in Pop culture over noise, scratching, tugging, wobbling and stumbling. it starts with an insight into the world of trackers
the last ten years. The Lo-Fi Girl channel even has The basic emotions are nostalgia (the longing including a workshop with the Renoise tool. Then
its own permanent Synthwave stream. for the dreamed-of past, when everything was bet- we talked to Paul-E about how the creative mind
ter and simpler) and melancholy. Many people as- built a guitar pedal for Lo-Fi sounds from an Amiga.
Who is Lo-Fi Girl? sociate Lo-Fi with this past with tape tangles, wo- If you would like to get an overview of software and
We can‘t avoid at least briefly dealing with Lo-Fi bbly VHS tapes, bone-dry drum samples, scratchy hardware solutions for Lo-Fi sounds, you will find
Girl, now that we‘ve mentioned the YouTube chan- vinyls and noisy cassettes. And this sound aesthetic, some suggestions from us for both categories. We
nel a few times. With almost 15 million subscribers, this broken and unfinished, is what is attempted to also have a whole range of tips and workshops ready
the French channel is one of the absolute top music be achieved in styles such as Lo-Fi Hip Hop, Lo-Fi to help you get closer to the Lo-Fi sound aesthetic. r
YouTubers. The highlight: There are several live House or in parts on Synthwave, using various pro-
streams running continuously with Lo-Fi Hip Hop, duction techniques.
Synthwave and other lo-fi genres.
Because the streams are always live, YouTube‘s Lo-Fi and me:
music is never interrupted by advertising. In 2015, My top Lo-Fi tracks
Lo-Fi sounds:
the YouTube channel ChilledCow started livestrea- I have to admit that in the first few years when I
ming lo-fi music. This calm, relaxing music quickly discovered Lo-Fi Hip Hop and Synthwave, I couldn‘t
reached a large audience. After YouTube interrup- really get into either of them. I‘m interested in
The more
ted the livestream for a while in 2020, it relaunched what‘s new, where music reinvents itself, breaks
in March 2021, now under the name Lo-Fi Girl with boundaries, provokes people, and also helps me
the Japanese animation of a dreamy girl studying, progress in terms of production. And I hardly ever
broken, the
originally an animation from the Studio Ghibli film just use background music. But through my very
„Whisper Of The Heart“. close connection to Trip Hop of the 90s, as we know
In March 2023, the Lo-Fi Boy joined the chan- it from Massive Attack, Tricky or Portishead, I redis-
nel. In this second livestream on the channel, in-
more music.
covered lo-fi and especially Synthwave for myself.
stead of Lo-Fi Hip Hop, Retrowave is playing, a The soundtrack of “Drive” with its super tracks
genre very similar to Synthwave. Where does the “A Real Hero” and “Nightcall” was on repeat for a
never-ending music in the livestreams come from? long time, as was M83’s Synthwave epic “Hurry Up,
From the in-house label. Apparently, however, the We’re Dreaming” with the gigantic “Midnight City”.
demand there is so great that they explicitly point And anyone who takes a closer look at the dizzy-
out on the website and the in-house Discord ser- ing stumbling grooves of J Dilla, the “Godfather of
ver that they are not currently looking for new mu- Lo-Fi Hip Hop”, will find inspiration for new beats
sic and are not listening to demos. for all eternity.
And in general, I have been influenced by lo-fi
production techniques over the last few years when
I was stuck with a new track. Because the idea of
making it sound broken and noisy was the attitude
that Rock ‚n‘ Roll and Punk were founded on. Not
using crystal-clear vocals, drums that are s traight
Beat 08 | 2024 • 21
BEATSPECIAL
LO-FI Sampling
22 • Beat 08 | 2024
BEATSPECIAL
LO-FI Sampling
1 2 3
Dry drums en masse RX1200 in detail Broken Beats
… are available with the RX1200 from Inpho- We‘ll make one or two more detailed set- It‘s not just the sounds that are broken, the
nik. For the price (29€) you get an incredibly tings. First, go to the „Tune“ area and adjust rhythms are too! Don‘t worry, we‘re not
„real“ sounding plugin that emulates the SP-1200, the pitch of the kick and snare. Set the kick to talking about new music here, but the beats are
in terms of workflow, but above all in terms of -3 and the snare to -4. Then switch to „Decay“ meant to wobble and stumble as much as they
sound. Because it emulates the converters of the and turn the control in column 2, i.e. the snare, can in memory of grandmaster J Dilla. If you
SP-1200. In Lo-Fi, the motto for drums is: as dry down to 3. This way, the snare sample will sound just can‘t get your fingers to groove, you can
as possible, slightly distorted, not too brutal. The shorter and crisper. Set column 3 to 12. 1 program the beat and then let it gallop using
„Down Trip“ drum kit is perfect for this vibe. 1 the swing parameters. 1
4 5 6
Vinyl for Free Pad & bass from Arturia RC-20 to the rescue!
We use the freeware iZotope Vinyl to make For the pad sound I chose Jun-6 V with Let‘s go with THE lo-fi plugin of all - XLN
the beat sound „old“. Set it to 1970, activate the sound „Celestial Homeland“ and for Audio RC-20. I changed both sounds, bass
the „Lo-Fi“ button, and increase „Wear“ by 20 the bass I chose Prophet-5 V with the sound and pad, with one instance each and strong
percent. Then slightly increase „Mechanical“ and „Got Some Bass“. The notes should be kept to a doses of all six effect modules. Distortion and
„Electrical“ for background noise and hum. You minimum, no overly large chords and no quick banding from the wow flutter in particular
should always be careful here with lo-fi produc- changes, we need a rather sleepy vibe. For both provide lo-fi vibes - in doses! To do this, turn
tions, otherwise the noise from all the tracks will sounds I mainly adjusted the filters and effects. 1 „Width“ all the way down - in mono the sounds
quickly add up. 1 sound even older. 1
7 8 9
Dancehall Amigos Choose your fighter! Ready, Set, Sound!
According to people around me who worked What you need, which is not included in Now it is mainly the „LEN“ parameter
with a Commodore Amiga in the 1990s, the Amigo, is a sample. Since we already have (=Length) that you use to get the tinny
small, fine sampling plugin Amigo comes very a beat, bass and pad, it could be a vocal sample time stretching out of the sample. This sets the
close to the original. The interface is consistently or a drum loop. Drag the WAV file from its folder playback speed. The higher, the slower, the
pixelated and the workflow is rather choppy. But into the plugin, activate Loop at the bottom and more broken. Then add a delay, a reverb and
if you load a sample into it and loop and stretch then set the loop area in the middle. Clicking on a low-pass filter after Amigo. All three should
it, the VST unfolds its acoustic magic. 1 „Stretch“ at the bottom right catapults you into make the sound sound even
the nineties. 1 more dreamy. r
24 • Beat 08 | 2024
BEATSPECIAL
LO-FI Sampling
Lo-Fi sounds
Comparing sampling
cloud services
No more getting stuck looking for inspiration. Being able to load every
sound of every instrument into your current production with just one search.
Having drum loops, vocals and all kinds of noise sounds available in virtually
infinite abundance without much effort - that‘s not what the next music AI
promises (yet). But sampling cloud services like Splice, Arcade, Loop Cloud
and FL Cloud do. How do they differ?
Beat 08 | 2024 • 25
BEATSPECIAL
LO-FI Sampling
1 2 3
Where/what to sample? Public Domain ... ... or AI?
In the beginning there was the sample: You can listen to the freely usable songs in You can of course add properties such as
but where to get it from? Simply recording your browser and, if you like them, simply instruments, tempo, pitch or gender to the
sounds from vinyl or YouTube is fine if you take download them as a WAV file. So it‘s „crate prompts, but usually after one or two attempts
care of sample clearance with the label in the digging“ without any ifs or buts. If you want to be you will get good, usable melodies. Suno spit
event of a release. But there are also alternati- a little more targeted, Suno‘s AI [2] is a possible out a whole band for us, but we only want the
ves: the first is called Citizen DJ [1], who operate a alternative: after registering, a prompt like „intri- piano, so we‘ll separate it. There are various
gigantic library of public domain music with their cate classic piano, relaxed feeling“ is enough for tools here. 1
“Free Music Archive”. 1 a great melody. 1
4 5 6
Stem separation Lalal Stem Splitter Clean up the mix
One option is of course stem separation, If you don‘t have any of these tools, online But first we‘ll clean up the mix briefly,
which is being integrated into more and services like Fadr [4] or Lalal [5] can help, al- because in the range from 400 to 750 Hz
more software - see Logic, FL Studio or Akai‘s though the latter can separate significantly more the piano sounds harsh and mid-range, so we‘ll
MPC. This can only become problematic if the instruments. Therefore, we used its Stem Splitter generously reduce this range by 8 dB using the
relatively rough division into „drums, bass, to extract the piano. We load the resulting samp- EQ and also filter out the bass below 60 Hz - but
vocals and instruments“ is not enough to isolate le Piano Recording.wav into a sampler and finally gently, with a 12 dB band. And now let‘s get
a specific instrument. Then Steinberg‘s Spect- start the creative work. 1 started with the retro sound, for which we‘ll use
raLayers can help [3]. 1 several tools. 1
26 • Beat 08 | 2024 [1] https://citizen-dj.labs.loc.gov/; [2] www.suno.com; [3] www.steinberg.net; [4] www.fadr.com/stems; [5] www.lalal.ai
BEATSPECIAL
LO-FI Sampling
7 8 9
E-mu or Akai? Vinyl crackling Adjust
Let‘s start with the most common candidate: For Scream, we turn off CUT and BODY, set This creates not only the typical crackling
the bitcrusher. We use Scream from Reason, the DAMAGE CONTROL to zero and select but also fluctuations in pitch, making the
the freeware Krush from Tritik [6], d16 Decimort DIGITAL mode. We set the RESOLUTION to 87 and piano sound like an absolutely authentic vinyl
[7] or others do it alternatively. We apply the the RATE to 120 so that the sound just doesn‘t (!) recording. You should definitely experiment
effect without using very minimal settings to give have the typical clanking bitcrusher sound. We with the settings to ensure the sound is exactly
the sound the typical 12-bit aesthetic of vintage then load Vinyl from iZotope [8] with Wear 28% what you want. Finally, we load a generous plate
samplers à la E-mu and Akai. 1 and Dust and Warp to around 60%. 1 reverb with a mix of 40% onto the track. 1
10 11 12
Duplicate Separate copy Provisional beat
The piano sounds good now, but how One of them provides a highpass from 60 We load the loop mellow-lo-fi-drum-lo-
do we make a song out of it? We need Hz, the other a lowpass from 180 Hz - so op_80bpm_G_minor.wav from the work-
some variation and of course a beat. We create only the bass-heavy part remains. The first vari- shop data onto a new track and use the EQ to turn
variation by loading the sample again, but this ant in the sampler is given a highpass from 180 down the highs above 4.5 kHz so that the sound
time onto an audio track, stretching it to 200% Hz in the same way so that the two don‘t get in becomes more muffled. We also don‘t let the loop
length and transposing it down an octave. We each other‘s way. So all that‘s missing is a beat, run through, but add cuts, pauses and breaks
also activate two filters. 1 for which we‘ll use a sample for now. 1 every few bars so that it doesn‘t get boring. 1
13 14 15
Arrangement part 1 Arrangement part 2 Arrangement part 3
Let‘s start arranging! Since we only have To ensure that the sound is not too off, When the sampler melody starts, the
a few tracks, we have to be even more we stick to jumps of 3, 5, 7 and 9 semi- audio track is already in the second
creative. We start with the sampler melody, but tones. After eight bars, the bass-heavy copy is half with the melodic variations. This creates a
only play the first half, because the second con- added, which then continues on its own with the surprise and reduces predictability enormously.
tains variations that we want to save. To do this, beat. After 16 bars, the sampler version is added From bar 65, randomly played „strumming“ no-
we add notes that are only played briefly to the again, this time with 32 bars. The trick is that the tes again provide a new element, after which the
loop - this is where the use of a sampler comes bass-heavy version plays offset! 1 arrangement is reduced piece by piece. r
in handy! 1
www.bit.ly/RenoiseDiscount
I
n the summer of 2012, visitors to the Synthto- ately found this extremely limiting. And so he deci- and achieve unimagined subtleties in sample edi-
pia website, which is popular in relevant circles, ded not only to write the music, but also to program ting; every single parameter of the micro-structure
were asked to vote for what they thought was the the editor. The samples from his Yamaha DX21 were can be edited individually.
best DAW. [1] The campaign turned out to be a cle- barely recognizable and the interface looked more
ver move by the site operators. Not only did several like a Word document after a virus attack. And yet Verdict
thousand users cast their votes, but the result also the result was a milestone. The finished songs - or, to Renoise has taken this basic principle of trackers
led to long, heated discussions that drove a lot of use Obarski‘s language, modules - could now be si- and for the first time cast it in a form that is not only
traffic to the site. Firstly, there was the fact that FL gnificantly longer and more complex, and yet could open to programmers, but to anyone who is wil-
Studio (formerly Fruity Loops), which many profes- be integrated into the games in a much more spa- ling to invest a little time in learning how to use it.
sionals have reviled, won the race by a large mar- ce-efficient manner. In doing so, he laid the foun- It is no wonder that experienced specialists such as
gin with almost 30 percent of the votes. Then the- dation for true multimedia in the games sector and the American industrial pioneer Velvet Acid Christ
re was the problematic fact that some well-known created the conditions for the exchange of music fi- swear by the software and sing the praises of its un-
applications did not appear on the list at all. And fi- les over the Internet, which began a few years later. matched editing options and sound quality, which
nally, Renoise‘s triumphant sixth place caused ir- Many people have already been honored for lesser outshines those of conventional DAWs [2].
ritation. If there were indeed some excellent, intu- achievements. The Renoise developers are well aware of the
itive interfaces, why did so many musicians opt for fear of new things, as well as the fact that their pro-
chaos instead? Not a mass product duct will never be as popular as FL Studio. But that
The fact that most users today no longer know is not the decisive factor. For anyone who wants to
Kohl, MacGyver, Tracker Obarski‘s name is partly because he sold the licen- explore new ideas using new production tools, tra-
To better understand Renoise as a phenomenon, se for his invention, the commercial version was a ckers still offer fascinating possibilities today. After
you have to go back about 30 years - to a time when flop and the 8-bit aesthetic of the early trackers only all, chaos not only creates confusion - it also prepa-
Helmut Kohl was still chancellor, MacGyver didn‘t became a cult much later. On the other hand, tra- res the ground for true creativity. r
yet drive a Citroën and the Commodore Amiga was
considered the ultimate in the IT industry. It was
a time when game music composers had to do a With trackers, producers can switch
from object-oriented thinking to
lot. After all, the software limitations of most ga-
mes only allowed them to write short passages las-
ting twenty seconds, which were looped endlessly.
When developer Karsten Obarski was commissi-
oned by a friend to write a soundtrack, he immedi-
p rocess-orientied thinking. «
[1] www.synthtopia.com/content/2012/06/01/whats-the-best-daw-in-the-world-2012-poll/#more-40776
28 • Beat 08 | 2024 [2] www.velvetacidchrist.com/2010/10/31/renoise-2-51-music-tracker-studio/
BEATSPECIAL
LO-FI Sampling
1 2 3
Turbo intro Rapid Record Automation 1
Trackers are not necessarily old school, but The Y key triggers the kick, which is recor- Next, load the sample Misc02.flac into the
their concept opens creative doors that would ded directly in the sequencer. The timeline third slot and record a sequence on track
otherwise remain closed. And you don‘t have to automatically moves to the next 16th note. Since 3. We will add a filter to the instrument whose
do without the convenience of a DAW! So go for the kick should only play on every quarter note, cutoff will be automated. In the Track DSPs area,
it: load a kick into the first instrument slot, press set the step length to 4 (CTRL + 4) and move back double-click on Filter and set it to BP (bandpass).
F9 to jump to the beginning of the pattern and one step using the cursor key. The timeline now Activate recording and move the desired para-
activate the recording with ESC. 1 jumps forward four 16th notes after each entry. 1 meter with the right mouse button. 1
4 5 6
Automation 2 Instruments Arpeggios
This records the movements directly. Alter- Instruments can be modified in more detail Now let‘s take care of a melodic arpeggio.
natively, click on the Automation tab, select than simple samples using the Instrument Click on the arrow next to FX (at the bottom
a parameter and draw the variations from left to Settings and also offer the option of creating of the Pattern Editor) and select the arpeggio
right. Another track should play an arpeggio with multisamples using the Sample keyzones. But from the sample commands. An A with two
an instrument. Click on Instrument in the top left now we only want to adjust the instrument‘s values behind it will now appear in the track‘s
of the browser, select the Square from the Chip envelope by double-clicking to delete all but automation data, each of which represents a
folder and record an eighth note pattern. 1 two of the reference points so that only a short note that is added to the root note. You can enter
decay remains 1 the note values when recording. 1
7 8 9
Send effects Sequence matrix Jamming with clips
Now let‘s add reverb to the arpeggio. Switch A great feature of Renoise is the Pattern Create three more sequences with the
to the send track S01, load the track DSP Sequence Matrix, a kind of song mode. + symbol and set each one to pattern 0
Reverb and turn the dry mix to 0. Return to the Press F7 to call up the saved workspace, where with the arrow keys. By double-clicking on the
arpeggio track and add a track DSP to it, the rou- everything except the matrix and the tracks is colored icons (or right-clicking and selecting the
ting effect #Send. S01 is entered on the receiver, hidden. The visible row in the matrix represents Mute option) you can mute individual tracks of
so we only need to set the amount and activate the current sequence, in which our Pattern 0 is the pattern, but independently for each sequen-
Keep Source. 1 shown with a simplified graphic of the tracks. 1 ce. Tip: to get to know the tool better, be sure to
download the included tutorial songs! r
Beat / Hi Paulee, welcome back again! It’s not too Lastly, the sound. Using OctaMED Soundstudio’s
long ago that you took part in out Beat Community BOOST feature, you can reclaim a lot of treble con-
and now it’s great to have you here again, this time tent, whilst keeping that Amiga Crust, and sample
talking about your passion for low fidelity sounds transposition is just stunning. Sometimes I drop the
and retro approach to making music. So let’s get octave of a sample and end up with something ac-
straight to the point: You’re still working with the cidentally beautiful! This is a big draw for me in ge-
OctaMED tracker on your Amiga. Why? neral with samplers. I have a Korg DSS1 which does
Paulee / Thanks for talking to me! I think it’s im- similarly beautiful things when transposing, plus
portant to first talk about my approach towards amazing analogue filters!
sampling. Some folks swear by whatever the mo-
dern version of crate digging is – taking records and Beat / Do you know Renoise? What do you think
The cover of my
splicing them together to make new creations. is the benefit of working with trackers nowadays Bleakwave EP.
With me, I’m not really doing that – I’m writing in general?
songs the same way I would in a DAW, but the pro- Paulee / I have had a quick play with Renoise. I like
cess of splitting, then down-sampling, my stems that modern trackers exist, but a big draw for me Beat / Is there more effect software like this
into a series of crusty 16726 Hz loops, satisfies me to OctaMED is the nostalgia. I got the software for available?
on a number of levels. free on a March 1997 coverdisk and then made mu- Paulee / I always think I’ve found every piece of
Firstly, working with the Amiga gives me a bit of sic with it throughout my teens. Loading it up is like weird Amiga audio software, but then – bam! – ano-
a beacon: I can access a passionate fanbase of other coming home, something I don’t feel for other tra- ther one turns up!
Amiga users, post my songs in their online spaces ckers. But I do think Renoise is a good way of seeing
and perform at events – like the Kickstart Amiga Expo if the tracker way of life is for you. Beat / I’m pretty sure that some guys still have their
- June 29th, where I’ll be cooking up a storm with Pete retro computers in their attic or shed. Do you think
Cannon, H0ffman & David Wise (of Donkey Kong Beat / On my search for pedals I recently stumbled this special lo-fi sound (or the fun) is worth the ef-
Country Fame – Yes, he wrote Aquatic Ambience!). over a video of yours using an Amiga as a guitar fort to reanimate and use retro computers?
Secondly, OctaMED Soundstudio imposes cer- pedal. I wasn’t aware that this is possible! How did Paulee / To be honest, you need quite a bit of
tain limitations. If you want to create a standalone you find out about that? How does it work? knowledge and tinkering before you even get to
song that will play back on any Amiga, you only get 4 Paulee / When I came back to Amiga in 2019, I star- the fun! Some machines need recapping, batteries
charming channels of 8-bit 28 kHz sound (or more, ted looking through big online archives of software. snipped, or aftermarket expansions added before
but the quality gets unacceptable for me). There’s By this point, progress had been made in adding SD they can use modern storage devices – suitable dis-
no EQ or plugins, so everything has to be baked into or CF cards to the old machines, making it quite tri- plays are also an issue. But yes, for a certain type of
the samples! So between the samples you’ve loaded vial to try out a lot of things on the real hardware. I patient tinkerer, it’s definitely worth it for fun and
& a bare-bones wavetable engine you have to make had a Technosound Turbo sampler cartridge back unique sound opportunities. I think that since CO-
your song by layering and automating parameters in the day, a sample ADC device that came with a VID – “the time where we all escaped to childhood”
with a series of Hex commands. few drunken dalek real-time effects, but nothing – more and more people have been reanimating
The commands allow you to do all sorts of prepared me for the wealth of software I found, soft- their retro machines.
things: arpeggiate notes, change the sample start ware like TREG and Lowengard’s HARM.
offset, do slides, volume changes and vibrato and As far as I understand it, the Amiga sound chip Beat / Which advice can you give our readers on
every time I come up with results that I wouldn’t (Paula) can play back audio with little overhead, so how to achieve a particular lo-fi sampling sound?
have anywhere else. Additionally, there are another the CPU just has to sample the incoming audio, apply Paulee / My sound is all about dropping down to
64 monophonic tracks that you can run out to MIDI the effect and then spit it out for Paula to play. Some 8-bit and 16.726 hz (which tunes nicely to C) and
devices, and these tracks can play a different note, of the pitch-shifters, delays and distortions sound then using the tools in OctaMED to reclaim the treb-
channel or sound per step if you want. Again, a dif- pretty unsophisticated compared to modern algo- le, whilst keeping the grit. Seeking crust can be done
ferent workflow. rithms, but they do sound interesting, in a lo-fi way. in many ways – in a general sense, you could pitch a
30 • Beat 08 | 2024
BEATSPECIAL
LO-FI Sampling
My beautiful “Snow White” Amiga 1200 surrounded by The Lofi-12 XT is a really fun device and sounds amazing, but
friends, synthesizers and Akai samplers. its workflow is quite modern in many ways.
sample up an octave or two before importing it into Beat / Do you know the open source DIY Open
your sampler, perhaps using EQ or an exciter to ac- Amiga Sampler project?
centuate the top end? Paulee / I do, and if I didn’t already own a few Ami-
ga Samplers I’d be getting one of theirs! It’s true what
Beat / With Polyend Tracker, LIVEN Lofi-12, they say: The second hand prices for Amiga Samp-
Ami Sampler and Amigo by Pozenza DSP – just lers are often obscene, so open-source DIY came to
to name a few – the retro community got plenty the rescue, as it often does in these communities!
My Pacman Yellow Modular from Ikocase!
of new hard- and software to play with. Do you
think these tools will replace the classic retro Beat / Besides OctaMED you’re also working with
tools, as their output is near to the originals? Do Cubase and Reaper. Do you use them together or ga t hrough modular gear, triggering envelopes & fil-
you use any of these yourself? do you switch? How’s your workflow look like with ters! All of these textures will then be layered in the
Paulee / I’ve just completed a video review of the tracker and DAW? DAW, and vocals added on top. This allows me to
Lofi-12 XT and really enjoyed it, so look out for that Paulee / On my new EP, two of the tracks were com- create an Amiga-centric sound with unique timb-
soon. It sounds lovely, has a bunch of cool things pletely produced on the Amiga, 4 channels and all. res, but less limitations.
like ringmod, bitcrusher, lots of modulation etc., but In that case, Reaper just acted as a mastering en-
is a very different experience to that stripped back, 4 vironment to sweeten up the Amiga’s somewhat Beat / By the way, for all readers who don’t know
channel Amiga experience. brutal hard-panning and add a little EQ, so they you yet: What kind of sound do you produce?
Also, within the Amiga ecosystem I have some didn’t stand out from the other tracks. Paulee / I write songs that show a love for the 80’s,
sample editors I use (Sample Wrench, ASound, etc) Those other tracks were produced using a hyb- with an Industrial edge. I call it “Bleakwave”.
to mangle my loops a bit, not to mention a bunch of rid method. Often, I’ll sequence a bassline in Octa-
amazing softsynths that I can resample into Octa- MED or Bastien Spiegel’s “Art of Noise” – which has Beat / Nice one! Thanks for all the tipps and ad-
MED and well, it means I can’t really get these spe- a killer 2OP FM synth on board! Maybe I’ll also run vices. Now what’s coming up next on your side?
cific results anywhere else. Also, nothing can match MIDI out to an external drum machine (I love the Paulee / I have an EP out next month (released first
that BOOST feature for adding treble! RX11!) or synth. Sometimes I’ve even run my Ami- physically at the Kickstart Amiga Expo – June 29th)
called Vogue Renege – Bleakwave, please get in
touch via Facebook or Youtube if you’d like a copy!
And also, I have plenty more interesting videos
planned for Magical Synth Adventure, thanks! r
youtube.com/@magicalsynthadventure3216
youtube.com/@voguerenege1426
Play guitar with the Amiga‘s real-time effects. The screen goes crazy while you play because the computer saves memory by
removing the usual windows and graphics.
Beat 08 | 2024 • 31
BEATSPECIAL
LO-FI Sampling
D
espite their power, samplers are often used pu- Usually, several sounds can be placed on one note, notes of an instrument are recorded per octave so
rely as players that play a sound here and there divided into zones with different attack strengths. that the individual samples do not have to be trans-
that has at best been slightly transposed. Even This means that drums and percussion, for examp- posed too much. Depending on the source sound,
freeware samplers like the TX16Wx have enormous le, can be sampled and played back extremely rea- even a difference of one or two notes can sound very
capabilities that turn a simple sample into a creati- listically. Depending on the force of the attack, the plastic and fake. With the right number of samples,
ve playground. And you don‘t even have to master sound doesn‘t just get louder, but harder and more even sensitive instruments such as pianos or guitars
a complex sound laboratory like Kontakt or Halion. intense, as different samples are played. Just like can be captured on the computer in high quality.
with real percussion.
Sampler - A short digression
Basically, a sampler plays back previously recorded Multisampling
or loaded sounds. These sounds can be assigned fil- If you record just one note from an
ters and effects and played chromatically via a key-
board. This was the end of the line for older hard-
instrument, it can sound interesting
when played several notes higher or
You can find the installer
ware, but current plug-ins are just getting started.
They offer elements familiar from synthesizers such
lower, but it is by no means realistic.
However, authentic reproduction of
of the even skinnable
as envelopes, LFOs and step sequencers, which not
only affect pitch and filters, but can also move loop
instruments and synthesizers is pos-
sible if you do the necessary prepa- TX16Wx sampler in the
points or modulate themselves. This is where sound
design really begins.
ratory work. This is where so-called
multisampling helps, where several magazine downloads. «
TX16Wx Basics
1 2 3
Overview Mapping Editor
With the TX16w, developer Cwitec delivers Already loaded programs are assigned to Each sample has its own sound controls, i.e.
a sampler based on the Yamaha TX16, but the slots via a dropdown menu. You create filters, envelopes and much more, which
which stands out from the original thanks to its new programs by pressing SHIFT + clicking on you can find in the lower area. If you want se-
clear interface. The plug-in is multi-timbral and the yellow folder. The samples, their mapping veral samples to have the same sound controls,
has 8 mono and stereo outs. In the Main area and a wave editor are located at the top right. select them while holding down the SHIFT key,
at the top left you will find slots with loaded Samples are loaded and moved via drag & drop. press the right mouse button and combine them
programs including channel settings and the You can touch each sample on the left and right using Combine Groups. You can also edit samples
file browser. 1 to change its range. 1 in the Wave Editor. r
32 • Beat 08 | 2024
BEATSPECIAL
LO-FI Sampling
Scrap metall
1 2 3
Percussion Record Trim
Household items are a popular source for If everything is OK, switch to the Wave Edi- Set the start and end points for each samp-
drums. A simple can can be used to create a tor in the plug-in and activate the internal le, right-click on the waveform and select
great percussion sound. Place a can, glass or me- sampler using the button at the top right. When Trim to remove the unnecessary sections from
tal object next to a microphone or recorder and the input signal arrives, activate the recording the recordings. Normalize each sample. Go to
use a spoon or stick as a percussion instrument. and hit your „instrument“ several times with the Keyboard Mapper and in the Main section go
Create an audio track in your DAW and route it to different strengths. We recorded three versions to the Programs and create a new program. We
the TX16Wx. 1 of our can and therefore duplicate the waveform need three groups to fit our samples. 1
twice after recording. 1
4 5 6
Mapping Samples Filter
Each should cover the entire keyboard (C-1 Group 1 contains the softest sample, group In the Filter section at the bottom right,
to G9), but react to velocity. Right-click in 2 the middle and group 3 the hardest. Select select HighPass from the dropdown and
the mapping area and create three groups using the samples using the wave dropdown. Now use turn drive to 3 o‘clock. For ENV1, we program a
New Group. Expand them all using the + symbol SHIFT to select all three groups so that we can short attack phase with a slightly longer decay
and enter the velocity behind the range. The first set the sound controls for all of them. First, just and assign the envelope in the matrix to the filter
group ranges from 0 - 60, the second from 61 - turn up release to play the samples. 1 frequency, with amount +12800 Hz. This causes
100 and the third from 101 - 127. 1 the filter to snap briefly when triggered, which
gives it more punch. r
Creative loops
1 2 3
Extension Loops FM sounds!
One way to extend a sound is to use loops in Right-click the waveform, select Add Loop While a note is pressed, the shorter second
conjunction with release. Load the sample and expand the details in the list below loop takes effect and when you release the
into a new program, map it across the entire using the + symbol. There we set Loop start to first one for the duration of the release. We‘ll
keyboard and turn the amp release to 3 o‘clock 11000 and end to 27000. Add another loop from take it up a notch with a panorama modulation.
so that the sound fades out. Then play a melody. 5500 to 13000. Back in the Keyboard Mapper, Set the LFO1 rate to 2 o‘clock and connect LFO1
That sounds nice up until then, but a loop brings expand the group details and select the second via matrix with pan at +1.00 amount. To do this,
more momentum to the music. Switch to the loop under loop/s (sustain) and the first under the mod wheel should modulate the LFO1 rate
Wave Editor. 1 loop/r (release). 1 with +20000 Hz to create FM-like sounds. r
Beat 08 | 2024 • 33
BEATSPECIAL
LO-FI Sampling
Glitch bass
1 2 3
Wavetable Chromatic Loop
Following the principle of a wavetable, we Drag the file to C3 in the mapping and In the editor we define a loop area: Right-
want to create a glitch bass that sounds extend it to the entire keyboard. To play the click in the waveform and select Add Loop.
different every time it is triggered by moving bass chromatically, the scale setting must be set Drag the loop start and end fairly close to the
the starting point and loop using the LFO and to Normal. With Fixed, the sample would always beginning of the sample and keep the distance
sequencer. Create a new program, switch to the be played at the same pitch, which makes sense between the two points small, as shown in the
browser and navigate to the sample Buzz Bass for drums, but not here. Switch to the Wave Edi- image above. To ensure that different parts of
- 117 [F#].wav. The sound is ideal as a wavetable tor and select the sample in the list. 1 the sample are always played, the start point and
with its filter curve. 1 loop should be modulated. 1
4 5 6
LFO Sequencer Filter
To do this, we switch to the Modmatrix and In the matrix we connect the first step Things get even more interesting if you use
link LFO1 to Wave Start. Set the Amount to sequencer SEQ1 with Loop Start at 290ms a low-pass filter and modulate its frequency
around 1 second, or a different value for other and Loop End at 360ms. With SEQ1, 8 steps are and resonance with SEQ1 and LFO1. Set the fre-
samples. The LFO rate is fine at 1.36 Hz, but the sufficient at a rate of 1/1, i.e. one bar. For mode quency to 6100 Hz, resonance to 0 and link SEQ1
waveform should not be retriggered with every we select Tempo as the synchronization source to Filter Freq at -5000 Hz and LFO1 to Filter Res
note, but should run continuously. To do this, and for sync we select None instead of Key. Every at +0.10. Also turn the Filter Drive to 1 o‘clock to
change the Key setting to None. 1 time a note is played, the sample now sounds make the sound a little rougher. r
different and the loop point varies. 1
Sound morphing
1 2 3
Second face Modmatrix Trigger
Transform one sound into another while play- For the second sound, turn the volume to This can also be automated, e.g. for trigger
ing using the mod wheel? An instrument into 0. In the mod matrix, we connect the mod pads that should change sound in sync with
a vocal? No problem! Load any two samples – wheel to volume. For the first sound, use amount the song. Again, load two samples into different
make sure the instruments are in the same pitch -0.50 and for the second, +0.5. If you have chan- groups and turn the volume of the second one to
– into a new program and map them across the ged the volume, for example to 0.7, then make 0. Program an identical sequence for both in the
entire keyboard. Load both samples separately sure that the amount in the matrix is -0.7 or +0.7. first step sequencer and link SEQ1 to volume in
so that separate groups with sound controls are You can now morph between the sounds using the mod matrix (again with +0.5 and -0.5). r
automatically assigned. 1 the mod wheel. 1
34 • Beat 08 | 2024
BEATSPECIAL
LO-FI Sampling
Loop slicing
1 2 3
Sharing Threshold Mapping
Loops are useful, but they don‘t always fit The plug-in divides the sample into slices Select the Layout Slices option from the po-
perfectly. Thanks to the slicing function, they based on its transients, which you can move. pup menu to assign the slices to individual
can be made to fit and open up creative doors. Threshold and cutoff determine the threshold MIDI notes and switch to the Keyboard Mapper.
Load the loop DOWNTEMPO HIP-HOP wtPROMO values for volume and frequency at which the The new notes will be treated as a group, so you
04.wav into a new program on C3 and switch sample is separated. With ALT + double-click you can start adjusting filters or other modulations.
to the Wave Editor. Select the sample there and create a new area or remove an existing one. If Try how the loop sounds when the slices are
click on the slice button (to the right of cutoff). 1 the slices fit, right-click the waveform. 1 transposed by an LFO. r
Power tips
1 2 3
Crossfades Individual outs Chords
With crossfades, even awkward loops run With drums, it is quite practical to be able You don‘t need to do any finger gymnastics
smoothly. Select the sample in the Wave to use individual sounds outside of the to play chords: map a sample across the
Editor, add a loop and activate Crossfade, sampler. For example, the kick as a sidechain entire keyboard and duplicate the group twice
which is displayed with a white envelope. The signal. In the TX16Wx, the outs can also be and transpose it using shift. You get a classic
right part shows the area that is faded out, the used for samples. Distribute your drums on the chord with 0, +4 and +7. To combine the groups
left part the fade-in. You can move the right keyboard and group those that should have into one group, right-click in the mapping area
part with the mouse. The fade is included with their own outputs. Then select the out in the list and select Combine groups. 1
Execute Crossfade. 1 below the keyboard. 1
4 5 6
Filter FM Vibrato Velo filter
Hard FM sounds are child‘s play for the A classic effect on synths is vibrato. Usually In almost every synth or sampler, velocity
TX16Wx. Set the filter to 24dB LowPass, linked to the mod wheel or aftertouch, it re- controls the volume. Why not try something
bring the frequency down and modulate it in the moves the static from a sample or adds tension. different and control the filter frequency instead?
matrix with LFO1 at maximum amount. We set Set LFO1 amp to 0 and rate to 8 Hz. In the mod Turn the velocity control in the Main section of
the LFO1 rate to 0, but let ENV1 control this and matrix we connect LFO1 with pitch at +30 Ct. Now the Sound Controls to 0, select the LowPass type
LFO1 Amp. Program a short decay phase for the link the mod wheel with LFO1 amp at full amount for the filter and set the frequency to 0. Connect
envelope and then trigger the sample. 1 and the vibrato is ready. 1 Vel in the matrix to Filter Freq at full amount. r
Beat 08 | 2024 • 35
BEATSPECIAL
LO-FI Sampling
1 2 3
Kickstart Piano Lead Muffled sound
The biggest secret behind Lo-Fi‘s recipe for We start typically with a piano melody at For a muffled sound, we load a Pro-Q
success, apart from the playful, anti-hectic 75 BPM, so you can‘t go wrong to begin 3 behind the piano and apply an 18 dB
melodies and beats is, of course, the retro feel with. We‘ll use a simple piano from Reason‘s Highcut at 1 kHz with a 0.7 Slope (Q). Behind
with elements such as the typical crackling of ID8-Rompler, but any other piano will do. And this, we load the new Pro-R 2 Reverb and come to
vinyl, 12-bit drums and low sample rates for the if - like us - you‘re not a keyboard virtuoso, feel the real trick: instead of using the existing presets,
sounds used. These are no problem at all and we free to help yourself to the LOFI PIANO MIDI we use the import function for Impulse Responses
even use a LoFi Reverb to round things off! 1 FILES folder in the workshop downloads. 1 and load a reverb from the Akai S1100. 1
4 5 6
Import IR Add vinyl crackle Akai again
Let‘s do LoFi properly. In the workshop If necessary, load another instance of We load another Pro-R 2 onto the track with
downloads, you‘ll find 20 responses iZotope Vinyl [2] onto the track, but turn the the recording and import the S1100 Shaft
from AudioBombs [1], from which we import Dust down to zero, because we have a different Impulse Response. Here, turn up CHARACTER
Small Room 1. For more fullness, turn plan. Load the same effect onto an empty audio and DUCKING so that the reverb doesn‘t sound
PREDELAY almost all the way up, CHARACTER track, turn Dust all the way up and record the so static on the one hand,but the crackling still
and DUCKING to 9 o‘clock and WIDTH and crackling over eight bars. We then use time comes through on the other. We subtly mix in the
THICKNESS to full. The last one is also new and stretch to double the length of the recording. 1 result and create an enormous amount of width
enhances the reverb with saturation. 1 in the overall mix. r
36 • Beat 08 | 2024
BEATPERSONALITY
Portrait
L
ike a mantra, like an incantation, like a prayer, Many years later, she will mould these influences Zaho‘s love of electronic orchestration is mir-
like a plea, she tells herself over and over again into a solid form, shaping the thirteen little epics on rored in Alexis‘ love of modulars and his inte-
„Don‘t look at yourself“. But 3,000 pairs of eyes „La Symphonie Des Éclairs“. rest in loops is echoed by her penchant for loops
are fixated on this woman in the black one-piece Zaho de Sagazan once described the piano as and repetitions. Zaho‘s tools are the voice and
don‘t care. This is the climax of the show, a soli- her first great love, even as „the man in my life“. It the piano, just as Alexis‘ instruments are vinta-
tary dance on a huge stage, an unadorned voice is a love that keeps growing. Since „La Sympho- ge synthesizers, plugins and his dearly beloved
over cold, mechanical machinery, an interlocking nie Des Éclairs“ was released in March of 2023, the Octatrack. But their composition process is re-
and drifting apart of sensual verses and the thun- French-speaking world has welcomed her as a sin- markably similar: „I find chords, I start to play
derous stroboscopic discharges of the chorus. Af- gular voice. The disc has since achieved gold status and then I’m in a half-sleep, I almost fall asleep“
ter four minutes, the song ends, all structures dis- and won an award at the prestigious „Les Victoires Zaho describes her solitary moments in front of
solve and the music collapses into a black hole of de la Musiques 2024“. And all this despite the fact the piano, „At some point, I add words, repeat
brutal bass vibrations and cascading sound crys- that the LP‘s stylistic fusion is as beguiling as it is them a lot, like a loop. I feel like I must hypno-
tals until the deep, sonorously swelling wave shat- confounding. Here, Kraftwerk is flirting with chan- tise myself.“ Probably no one else writes three-
ters and splinters, shreds and scratches like a wild sons, acoustic intimacy is meeting the euphoria of and-a-half-minute songs with such an elabora-
animal in a cage and the singer‘s voice mutates into the dancefloor. It is a vision that is entirely hers. But te method, without the help of backing tracks
a scream on the verge of madness. It is dark, it is in- it is a vision, too, that she could not have realised and away from songwriting camps. For her, the
tense, it is pure and naked emotion, and everyone alone - nor would she have wanted to. length of the process is precisely what makes it
here knows that this moment is something speci- good: „I can spend hours on one sentence, that’s
al, that it expresses an urge that has been building Flaming robots no problem. I love to dig for a very long time. I
up and is now finally, finally being released. The Everything begins with a friendship between a love taking time to create. I always have the fee-
singer‘s name is Zaho de Sagozan, the song is cal- group of musicians formed around the band In- ling that a truth exists. When I write a song, the-
led „Ne te regarde pas“ and her debut album has üit, a sixpiece with an exciting blend of rock and re is a truth. Frequently, I will look for the melo-
taken France‘s heart by storm in just one year with electronics. Zaho is not the singer of Inüit, but dy for a long time, telling myself ‘’it’s not it, it’s
its electronic poetry. she quickly forms an alliance with three mem- still not it’’ ... and suddenly, I‘ll go: ‘’Yes! I got it,
bers: Alexis Delong, Pierre Cheguillaume and Si- I found it!’’.
Electronic revelation mon Quénéa. From this alliance, „La Symphonie
But it was a long road to get there. And at its begin- Des Éclairs“ grows in a process that is as free as Cold and marvelous
ning, there were tears. Tears that 13-year-old Zaho it is focussed. Nevertheless, the thirteen songs on „La Sympho-
shed when she heard Tom Odell‘s „Can‘t Pretend“ Inüit has a multi-layered sound, and for nie Des Éclairs“ might never have turned out the
for the first time, a song of both infinite pain and everyone involved it is the perfect playground way they did if Covid hadn‘t turned the world up-
sultry sweetness, either a slice of mournful geni- for discovering and fully realising their own cre- side down. The French government decided on a
us or saccharine overkill - depending on the liste- ativity. Alexis remembers his first steps with financial aid package to support struggling pro-
ner‘s emotional state. The song breaks Zaho‘s he- electronics: „I bought my first synth in 2009, a fessional musicians and suddenly Zoha, Alexis
art, it is a revelation, the key that opens a lock inside microkorg, to celebrate the fact that I was quit- and Pierre were able to dive deep and channel all
her that she previously had no idea existed. Shortly ting college after two weeks studying art histo- their attention and energy into the production.
afterwards, her father recommends she listen to a ry. I spent like two months seeing barely nobody They know that these songs were good, excep-
record by oddball producer Koudlam. The track is and learning how to use it.“ Laughing, he remem- tional even, but that they needed a very speci-
called „Alcoholic‘s Hymns“ and takes the teenager bers Simon dropping by one afternoon during fic sound to unfold their magic. Alexis remem-
into a galaxy of unimagined sounds, the galaxy of this phase: „I was in underwear and I said to him bers exactly how he created a sensual theremin
electronic music. She is instantly hooked. With just «listen to this patch I made, it sounds like crying patch on the MS-20, playing the melody of the
two songs, the cornerstones of her musical world robots.» As I said it before, I was a total nerd.“ At song „Le dernier des voyages“ with it and how
are now set, soon, she is listening to French cold- some point, Delong started making experimen- suddenly, they all realised that the pieces of the
wave and krautrock while all the while singing in tal tape loops before founding Inüit with friends puzzle had magically fallen into place. The title
the prestigious school choir with her best friend. and releasing the first EP, Bastion, in 2014. of that piece translates to „The last journey“, but
38 • Beat 08 | 2024
BEATPERSONALITY
Portrait
in reality, for the musicians it marked a begin- how always seems uniquely French and is the re- „Hors Saison“ which he produced and which is
ning. Zaho instantly recognises: „That‘s it!That‘s sult of an organic combination of analogue and somewhat reminiscent of Joy Division and New
the sound of the album. It‘s cold and marvelous.“ digital techniques: „I spend most of my time Order and on which the drum machines and se-
Alexis expands the equipment with a Juno, Oc- building systems, both in real life and on Modu- quencers contrast with a more sultry vocal style.
tatrack, various Moogs and a TB303 and adds largrid, a website where you can build modular
some industrial field recordings. The palette for systems with every module available on the mar- For Alexis, one thing is certain: „I learnt how im-
the music is set. ket to plan a system you’d actually buy. It’s like portant time is during the process of making a re-
As personal as the search and its end re- a puzzle game. At the same time, I’m building cord, to find an interesting sonic palette, to take
sult may be: „La Symphonie Des Éclairs“ also re- a new rack based on the Erica Techno system the time to draft 4050383 versions of each song
flects and refracts entire decades in which Fran- but with my own take on it. It‘s centered around and to be sure that we took the right path for us.“
ce has built up its own musical tradition, ranging the brand new Boredbrain mixer, Xcelon.“ His That sounds a little obsessive. But the live tour,
from the progressive chansons of the 60s via syn- sound is modern, but simultaneously remini- which has been winding its way through France
th-pop and coldwave to the triumphant French scent of the 70s and 80s, as on Alexia Gredy‘s for months now with ever new, triumphant da-
Touch of the 90s. There is no need to overcome a tes, backs up this statement. The spectacular, al-
stale Schlager heritage here, as had been the case most ten-minute-long live performance of „Ne
for many German acts. Rather, it is about retra- te regarde pas“ is the best example of this. The
cing the lines and sowing torn threads back to- studio version almost pales in comparison, but
gether. This is why Zaho‘s cover of the classic neither could exist without the other. They are
„La Bonne Etoile“ or a piece by avant-gar- both part of a truth that had to be discovered -
de legend Brigitte Fontaine seamlessly through tears, loops and time.
fit into her oeuvre without ever see-
ming contrived or alien.
Delong‘s synths, on the other www.instagram.com/
hand, have a sensual warmth zahodesagazan/
and elegant coolness that some-
and with Zeraphine. Since 2007 he has been pursuing Electro with
Beat / How did you go about transforming the elec-
Solar Fake and is currently releasing his seventh album „Don‘t Push tronic arrangements?
This Button!“. We spoke to the sympathetic Berlin artist not only about Sven / I left the vocals as they were and rearranged
his new long player, but also about his production philosophy, his everything around them. I‘m lucky that I can actu-
favorite instruments and the live implementation of the songs. ally play all the instruments myself, which is really
helpful when arranging. It was basically the same
Interview: Sascha Blach, Photos: Annie Bertram Photoart way I approach remixes. I sang some of the songs
again, Jeans did the drumming and André added
some guitars. There are three songs with just one
version. The conversion only worked „okay“ but
that‘s not enough for me. That‘s why I refrained from
Beat / I had the impression that you initially foun- Sven / We play a few shows every year, but starting doing the other version.
ded Solar Fake as a side project alongside Zera- something new with the band? I don‘t know. A lot
phine. But now it‘s fair to say that it‘s your „main of time has passed and everyone‘s focus has shifted. Beat / In contrast to many other electronic acts,
band“. Could you have imagined 15 years ago that But we enjoy the shows and there are still people your songs are more in keeping with a classic song
electronic music would one day be your mainstay? who want to see them. We made an album of cover format. Do you start writing songs as a singer with
Sven / Not really. Especially since almost everyone versions two or three years ago, but it‘s only availa- a focus on singable melodies or as an electronic
told me back then that a „side project“ would ne- ble to fan club members. tinkerer?
ver come anywhere close to the success of the main Sven / No, not as an electronic tinkerer. I usual-
band. I was also really unsure because it was very Beat / On “Don’t Push This Button!” there are Al- ly have fairly finished arrangements in my head,
new for me to work completely alone and anyway, ternative Rock versions of all the songs as a bonus, which I then implement. I‘m someone who likes
it‘s a different style of music and all that. But ulti- which could probably have been released under songs with melodies that stick in your head and that
mately it became more of a follow-up project. I had the name Zeraphine. How did that come about? you recognize. Songs that are just about sounds, or
a lot of fun with Solar Fake right from the start. Of Sven / I think it sounds different to Zeraphine. It‘s about serving a certain style, but ultimately forget
course I started a few steps below Zeraphine, but snottier and dirtier. I just experimented a bit with about writing a real song, tend to bore me. I often
things went uphill pretty quickly and everything the songwriting and thought it was a cool idea that have ideas when I‘m out walking my dog. They‘re
felt good and right. And it still does today. On tour we were going in a different direction than the remi- usually relatively finished synth hooks or sometimes
we‘re like a great family and ultimately Solar Fake xes on CD2. I don‘t know any other Electro act that even vocal parts. But in my mind, everything is re-
has been by far the most successful project I‘ve ever makes Indie versions of the songs without changing latively complex.
done for a few years now. the whole style. The actual album is the Electro ver-
sions. At first we thought about making it a side pro- Beat / How well do you know music theory?
Beat / And what‘s the status of Zeraphine no- ject because the three of us all have a guitar backg- Sven / I actually have training in classical guitar, pi-
wadays? You play live occasionally, but you don‘t round. But somehow I quickly thought the idea was ano, drums and singing. I also studied musicology,
seem to be drawn to the studio anymore, do you? stupid and so I thought about how we could bring where I focused particularly on composition, harm-
40 • Beat 08 | 2024
BEATPERSONALITY
Portrait
ony and ear training. So, above all, things that really then I take the time later to tinker with the sounds Beat / How do you prepare the songs for the shows?
help me progress. That helps me to quickly achieve until they‘re right. Of course, there are sometimes Sven / We have a digital mixer on stage and of cour-
the effects I want. I hate trying things out and having detours, but that‘s just part of it. se drums, bass, keyboards, microphone and a com-
to hope that something useful will come out of it at puter. Luckily we can create our own monitor sound
some point. Working like that would be totally frus- Beat / Are you someone who finds songwriting and with an app. Many of the basics of synths come from
trating and limiting. production easy? the computer. André on the keyboard is more res-
Sven / I don‘t settle too quickly, but I also recog- ponsible for the show and not for delicate synth me-
Beat / Do you have sound generators that are nize the point at which things are only slightly dif- lodies. So he plays more percussive things live or
part of the standard inventory of your album ferent, but not better. In songwriting, there are al- we limit the range of tones on the keyboard depen-
productions? ways moments when you can‘t go any further or it ding on the song. The bass is of course live and so
Sven / I now work completely without hardware doesn‘t work out to the point where you‘re still ex- are the drums. Some bands, especially in the elec-
instruments and effects. I come from a generati- cited about it the next day. I throw these song frag- tronic area, have drummers play on stage, but out-
on where we still recorded with tape machines and ments away immediately and don‘t listen to them side you still hear the programmed drums - or so-
produced in large studios with an insane amount of anymore. That can happen at different times. For metimes almost only those. With us the drums are
outboard equipment for an unbelievable amount the current album, I had already written and sung completely live and you only hear those, although
of money. I have to say that I really enjoy not ha- the lyrics for one song, but then realized that I didn‘t Jeans also fires off samples via an SPD-SX and uses
ving to save everything in every device, because it like the song 100%. For the current album, there a trigger in the form of the tom instead of the rack
was so easy to forget and then have to reassemble were 27 ideas, which ultimately became 13 songs. tom. The vocals are of course live too. You can hear
the sounds. I am grateful that computers have been that when I mess up the lyrics or don‘t hit a note
so good for some time now that you can build re- Beat / And what about the mixing? quite right (laughs).
ally complex mixes and arrangements with them Sven / In productions, especially when it comes to
and there are great synths and emulated old synths mixing and mastering, I‘m very meticulous and al- Beat / In addition to the album versions, you have
that don‘t constantly go out of tune or always sound ways a little unsure. Of course it helps if the speakers already done a lot of remixes, piano versions and
slightly different (laughs). A blessing for someone and the room are properly calibrated and you know Rock versions. Are there any other musical fields
who always wants to have their mixes under control. your reference monitors and headphones well. But that would appeal to you in the future?
I use a lot of the Spire, Massive, Omnisphere, Brain- it‘s always very special for me and I keep working Sven / For me, film music would be one such field.
worx Oberhausen and numerous synths in Kon- on the result until I‘m really happy with it. It‘s ac- So far I‘ve only written things for TV shows, but doing
takt. For drums, I have created and collected my tually hard for me to say: „That‘s enough, it‘s going music for a series or a film would be a dream. r
own sample library over many years. There are just to stay like this.“ But at some point it happens and
so many incredible sounds. At some point I had to that‘s very liberating. www.solarfake.de
build something of my own so that I didn‘t have to
spend hours searching until I finally found a sound Beat / To what extent are
that worked. your live musicians involved
in the productions?
Beat / How can we imagine your studio? Sven / Normally André and
Sven / It‘s basically like a normal workplace. I Jeans only come into play
have a relatively large table with a computer key- when we do the live version,
board, screens, a master keyboard and my moni- but this time they also cont-
tors (Adam, Blue Sky and other consumer stuff ). ributed things for the ampli-
And of course I also have my microphone or several fied versions, which is great!
of them. I prefer to use my TLM 49 on a table micro- Otherwise I do everything my-
phone arm. I can use it either standing up to sing or self. But I also like to send the
sitting down to record our podcasts. Somehow it still mixes out to people who can
always looks chaotic with external hard drives, cab- give me very precise techni-
les, pieces of paper with texts or notes. Until recently cal feedback. I think it‘s gre-
my workplace was also in a kind of cage so that the at to hear other opinions and
rabbits that run around freely couldn‘t eat anything, I‘m always in very active cont-
but recently this was optimized a bit and now only act with Norman, the guitarist
the cables are „locked up“ under the table and on from Zeraphine, for example.
one side wall (laughs). Jeans‘ opinion is also very im-
portant to me.
Beat / Keyword “Don’t Push This Button!”: Do you
often press the wrong buttons in the studio, e.g.
when searching for a sound, until you get the right
result?
Sven / I‘m actually a bit impatient with the abun-
dance of sounds that accumulate. It‘s easy to get lost I now work completely
without hardware instruments
in them. That quickly frustrates me. I usually have
something specific in mind and then I know whe-
re to find something that‘s halfway suitable so that I
can move forward. When the basic framework for a
song is being created, things have to go quickly. But and effects. «
Beat 08 | 2024 • 41
BEATCULTURE
Digital culture
Culture shock
Destination: America and Asia
The triumph of electronic club music in the USA,
twenty years after its triumphant march from De-
troit and Chicago into the old world, would beco-
me a life-changing experience for many. EDM, re-
Has electronic music lost its original creativity and power? The thought viled by the old guard, was heralded by younger
is not entirely wrong. And yet it is completely absurd as well – and by no audiences for its dynamism and freshness, estab-
means an excuse for giving up. by Tobias Fischer lishing itself as a veritable counterculture to Rock
and Hip-Hop. Just like in Europe in the 90s, struc-
tures emerged from the vacuum it filled: festivals,
labels, studios and PR and management agencies
that turned ordinary artists into stars. And just as
Garnier had attempted the sideways leap to jazz
I
n the 18th century, the revolution was still de- Back to reality with Unreasonable Behaviour, the EDM stars took
vouring its children. 250 years later, in the mu- Elektrochock did not come falling out of thin on comparable crossover projects: Avicii‘s True,
sic industry, it is simply getting old and spen- air. Garnier wrote these lines shortly before his on which four-to-the-floor beats met country,
ding its last years on the comfy couch. Techno fortieth birthday and thus in a phase classically the labyrinthine patterns and sample acrobatics
and house are approaching their fortieth birth- referred to as a “midlife crisis.” His view of things of Flume‘s debut, the metal-inspired dubstep of
day and, measured in human years, have long is undoubtedly subjective and, for a pioneer dea- Skrillex. What was considered extremely uncool
reached the age of retirement. Sometime bet- ling with his legacy and succession, suitably pes- by advocates of an underground philosophy at the
ween 2008, when the Love Parade‘s visitor stats simistic. The release date also marked a turning time is now repeatedly cited by leading producers
peaked, and 2010‘s catastrophic events surroun- point for him personally. Three years earlier, he as a massive influence.
ding the ill-fated Bochum event, an era came to had released Unreasonable Behaviour, an al- At the same time, Techno, House, EDM and,
an end in which a local, radically uncommercial bum rightly regarded as a classic and a creative above all, downbeat and trance reached the Asi-
music transformed into a global mass phenome- milestone for himself, one which he must have an continent and were met with a slow but stea-
non. All that seems to be left today is a gradual sli- secretly understood he would never be able to dily growing response.There had always been
de towards the bottom, a once vibrant body that surpass. It was an almost archetypal product of small centres of activity here: Japan had caught
is quickly turning cold. At least that‘s how none its time, a work full of genre breaks and experi- the house fever early on, but its development
other than Laurent Garnier describes it in the epi- ments, huge gestures and an immense produc- into a leading creative force in this field had been
logue to his autobiography Elektrochock, which tion effort. The 90s had been an extremely ferti- hampered by the very tight legislation governing
doubles up as a highly entertaining historical in- le ground in this respect, but the major record club life. In Goa, the trance and psy scene orga-
vestigation into the scene‘s glory years: companies gradually discovered that the acclaim nised open-air raves that lasted many days as far
„If we want to ensure the survival of this gen- of critics did not justify the financial investment back as the 90s. Now, inspiration flowed to In-
re, we need to rediscover the pleasure of discovery into these pure works of art, some of which were dia and back via the expat community, and to-
and fusion, we need to dive back into eclecticism. deliberately written not to meet the tastes of the day this nation of billions has a dedicated and
Maybe a few years from now, the new generati- general public. lively party scene. The diaspora, especially in
on will treat Chicago House and Detroit Techno Garnier had to come to terms with the re- the UK, discovered house as an ideal breeding
like retro music that their parents once listened ality of shrinking budgets and shifting audien- ground for a blend between modern sounds and
to. (...) Techno will [then] be a part of popular mu- ce interests and so did several of his colleagues: the traditions of a homeland they had either lost
sic. In this sense, it will have become solidified, Sven Väth shifted his focus towards DJing around or never experienced in person. In China, on the
classified, catalogued. Its golden age will be ex- 2002, and wouldn‘t enter a studio for 20 years. other hand, the raw, experimental, unruly tech-
perienced like a visit to a museum. The Sumer of Ludovic Navarre (St. Germain) practically reti- no of the Tresor era is making a comeback, tur-
Love will be seen as an episode of sympathetic red after the triumphant Tourist and the equal- ning this music into the sonic laboratory it once
debauchery - as harmless as the escapades of ly lucrative and depleting tour which followed it. started out as.
Woodstock - with no trace of subversion or inno- And after Daft Punk re-exported dance culture to The diversity of electronic music in Asia is as-
vation. Films will be made that strike our nostalgic the USA with their spectacular light-and-sound tounding and confusing at the same time - and
chords in a sentimental way, showing the mad- show, the scene‘s centre of gravity increasingly it belies all assumptions that techno and house
ness of raves in the nineties (...). The accompa- shifted to the other side of the Atlantic. At the have reached their final destination.
nying soundtrack of rave anthems will be sold at end of the decade, the Black Eyed Peas sold over
rock bottom prices in supermarkets.“ [1] ten million units of their club-orientated The A different discourse
These lines were written in 2003 and not long E.N.D. and every pop song in the charts was flir- It has to be said, though: The music has not re-
afterwards, documentaries and books about the- ting with the dancefloor. Garnier‘s instinct had mained the same, the communities no longer
se formative years started to mushroom, Paul Kal- not let him, down - techno really had become have the same ideals they once had. Club culture
brenner‘s Berlin Calling turned into a blockbuster part of popular music. everywhere has overcome its fear of corporatism
in German cinemas and record companies bund- The supposed demise of electronic music th- and big money, openly embracing sponsorship,
led the hits of the era into multi-CD box sets. Was erefore only came as a shock to European obser- product placements, and brand ambassadors-
Garnier right? Has the development of electronic vers. For the rest of the world, the situation was al- hips. That said, this applies not just to the house
music come to a halt? most entirely reversed. and techno scene, but to society as a whole, and
FOKUS
Further info:
Modulation Rate
The Rate control in this
plug-in controls the speed
of the modulation. The
A/B Function inconspicuous Sync button
Efektor Modulation Beat at the top right synchronizes
has a practical A/B function. the rate to the host tempo.
This allows you to save two This makes great beat-syn-
effect settings and switch chronized effects such as
between them. Auto-Wah and pulsating
Tremolos possible with the
last two types.
Stereo!
Be sure to try out the Stereo Modulation Depth
Switch in Efektor Modula- Instead of getting lost in a
tion Beat. By using slightly plethora of settings options,
different rates for the two Efektor Modulation Beat
stereo channels, you can concentrates on the essentials.
achieve very broad effects in All four effect types offer the
this mode. same settings options. Depth
determines the depth of
the modulation.
Modulation All-rounder
REGISTRATION & INS TA LL A
T ION
For the Efektor Modulation Bundle, software developer Kuassa has
analyzed more than 20 legendary modulation effects from the last As usual with our Software Highlights, Efektor
Modulation Beat is registered via our www.serialcenter.
70 years. Our software highlight Efektor Modulation Beat combines
de. After registering the data from the current Beat edition,
the best of the four effect plug-ins in one compact interface. The you will receive an e-mail containing the password for the
switch on the left allows you to switch between the different effect archive with the installation files in various formats.
types of chorus, flanger, phaser and tremolo.
1 2 3
Modulation all-rounder Fine electric guitars Stereo!
Whether you want to give electric and You can also use our Electric Guitar Does it remind you of the guitar sounds
acoustic instruments, drums, vocals or Lick loop from the issue data. Now of The Police? For an even more pro-
synth tracks that certain something: Efektor load Efektor Modulation Beat as an insert nounced effect, you can activate the Stereo
Modulation Beat is the perfect toolbox for mo- effect. The Chorus effect is selected. Turn up Mode. Why not try a Flanger effect on a beat
dulation effects of all kinds. This plug-in can, Depth slightly for a more intense Chorus (for like our Punchy Rock Beat to create exciting
for example, give clean licks from an electric example to 7.00) and experiment with the sonic accents in a break or buildup? Select the
guitar a sophisticated sound. Load a correspon- Rate control. A value of 0.40 Hz produces a Flanger Mode here, of course. 1
ding audio recording or a loop. 1 beautiful, floating Chorus effect. 1
4 5 6
Flanger for Drums Tremolo for E-Pianos Cool Synth Sweeps
A slow Rate of 0.19 Hz and a Depth value Select the Tremolo type here. A Rate of The Phaser mode in Efektor Modulation
of 3.50 deliver good results here. The 9.09 Hz and a Depth value of 6.50 are Beat, on the other hand, is ideal for brin-
more you turn up Depth, the more metallic it good starting values here. The Stereo Mode ging static synth sounds to life. You can test
sounds. Efektor Modulation Beat can also add also provides more width here. Want tem- this right away with our String Machine audio
impressive accents to electric piano riffs and po-synchronized Tremolos? Simply activate file. Select the phaser here, with a Rate of 0.31
licks. Try this out with our Fender Rhodes Sync Mode and try out different rates. Fast Hz and a Depth value of 6.44. Also activate the
Lick! Here, too, we load the plug-in as an modulations with a Rate of 1/16 or 1/32 sound Stereo mode of the plug-in. 1
insert effect. 1 particularly cool. 1
7 8 9
Wah and Formant Juno Chorus Variants
These settings are a good starting point You can also automate other effect pa- For Type 1 of the Juno Chorus, set Rate
for subtle phaser effects, but of course you rameters. Speaking of dry synth sounds: to 0.51 Hz and Depth to 5.60. The se-
can do even more! The higher the Depth value, one of the most popular effects for giving cond, more intense chorus mode of the Juno
the more intense the sweeps sound. With Sync them more life is the chorus from Roland‘s le- can be simulated with a Rate of 0.81 Hz. Do
Mode activated, you can also create Auto-Wah gendary Juno series. With Efektor Modulation you want the even livelier chorus from the
and filter effects with a vocal-like sound. Tip: Beat, you can recreate its character and make Juno‘s „2-Button-Mode“? Simply place two
Automate the rateSync value for modulations synth sounds like our 80s Brass Loop shine. 1 instances of the plug-in one after the other
with a dynamically changing tempo. 1 with the settings described. r
Beat 08 | 2024 • 45
WORKBEAT
Power Producer
1 2 3
The sidechain effect Into the mixer Delay
Everyone has probably heard of the sidechain The whole action takes place in the FL Let‘s move on to the routing. Let‘s route the
effect. And if not, you have at least heard it Studio Mixer. Select the kick in the Channel signals of all instruments not directly into
in use. You know it from the radio, for example. Rack. Then, go to any mixer channel and use the the Master, but into the Instrument Bus. Now
When the Presenter speaks, the music beco- shortcut Ctrl + l to send the kick signal to the we come to the aspect from which the effect gets
mes quieter at the same time so that he is easier Mixer. Repeat this with all the instruments. Also, its name. We route the kick signal to the instru-
to understand. We now want to apply exactly the name the Mixer channel directly next to the kick ment bus by right-clicking and then selecting
same principle to our kick. 1 as an Instrument Bus. 1 Sidechain to this track. 1
4 5 6
Fruity Limiter Threshold and ratio Attack and release
We load the Fruity Limiter into the Inst- As already mentioned, the threshold can be After threshold and ratio, attack and release
rument Bus. Select the kick signal in the used to specify the point at which the effect are the most important parameters for
COMP section under Sidechain. The Fruity Limit- should start to take effect. The Ratio controls the successful sidechain compression. The attack
er now functions as a sidechain compressor. This amount of volume reduction after the threshold control determines how long it takes for the
means that, if the kick volume exceeds a certain is exceeded. It is important to create a balance compression to kick in, while the release time
threshold, the volume of the instruments is between a present kick and instruments that determines how quickly the compression sub-
automatically reduced. 1 are not too quiet. 1 sides. Fast attack and release times between 10
and 50ms are recommended. r
1 2 3
Retro Synth Full effects The softener
„Blinding Lights“ by The Weeknd is a dance- Due to the 80s character of „Blinding To further process the basic sound of the re-
able pop song that is reminiscent of the 80s Lights“, we load Logic‘s Retro Synth onto tro synth, we open the chorus plug-in. This
due to its instrumentation featuring all kinds of our track. The interesting thing about the sound makes the sound a little softer. We set the Rate
retro synths. We set the tempo to 171, create a of the main synth is that we shape its sound to 1,133 Hz with an Intensity of 13% and a Mix
new track for a software instrument and play the character using all kinds of effects, as the default of 34%. We leave D-Mode at OFF. This creates a
main synth‘s part. You can save yourself this step preset of the software instrument is the perfect more spatial filter effect, but we don‘t need it. 1
and find the MIDI in the download files. 1 starting point for our further processing. So-
metimes less is more!1
4 5 6
Create space Exciter Magic
Next, we open the Channel EQ and set a We load Logic‘s Exciter onto our track. We We have now prepared our sound so that
Lowcut at 442 Hz. This creates space for set Frequency to 1500 Hz. We switch on the we can take care of the final polish. We send
the bass and other elements in the mids. The Q „Dry Signal“ parameter as we want to add the our signal at -9.2 via a send to Bus 1 and load
parameter is set to 0.71 and we set the slope to a original signal to the effected signal. The mixing ChromaVerb with the Cathedral preset. We make
smooth value of 12 dB/Oct. As our sound is res- ratio can be set via „Harmonics“, which we set the following settings: Attack 0%, size 75%, den-
ponsible for the main melody, we need to bring it to +155%. We also select „Color 2“ for a more sity 70%, decay 3.50s, distance 80%, dry 0% and
forward a little. 1 intense harmonic distortion. 1 wet 100%. The predelay remains at 8ms. r
Beat 08 | 2024 • 47
WORKBEAT
Power Producer
1 2 3
Percussion! More power Build a groove
Let‘s start with the Cubase arrangement that For more powerful percussion, we load the You can create the desired drive with
we set up in the last two issues. Load a new Tube Compressor from Cubase as an insert high-frequency instruments such as hi-hats
instance of HALion Sonic and then click on Ico- effect. The AM Floor Tom preset does a good job and set accents with the cymbals. Other inst-
nica Sketch. Then, select the Percussion Map here. Now you can record or program a groove ruments such as castanets, congas or toms are
preset from the Drum&Perc category. In this that fits the arrangement. Create a basic groove suitable for a rhythmic boost. You can now use
preset, the various percussion instruments in the with bass drum, snare and toms and vary the the existing musical elements to create a varied
library are mapped and ready to play. 1 velocities for more dynamics. 1 and exciting arrangement. 1
4 5 6
Arranging Tension build-up Climax
Start this with piano chords, for example, After you have gradually built up the arran- Increase the intensity by playing crescendos
which are gradually joined by strings - first gement, it would be a good time for a break. of the sustain instruments with the modu-
double basses and cellos, then violins and violas. For example, you can leave out the piano and lation wheel or increasing the velocity of short
You can then double the piano ostinato with spiccato strings and only let the string ensemble articulations. A further increase is possible by
spiccato strings. It becomes even more epic play in order to build up the arrangement again octaving parts such as the piano ostinato. After a
when you bring the percussion ensemble into afterwards. By adding brass and percussion, you grand finale with all the instruments, you could
play. Slowly increase the velocity. 1 can achieve an increase. 1 end your track with the piano chords. r
48 • Beat 08 | 2024
WORKBEAT
Power Producer
1 2 3
Reverb rumble Rumble tuning Shaping character
Load a 909 kick into a Drum Rack. Program a Select 110 Hz as the filter frequency in the If you want to intensify the rumble, turn
four-to-the-floor beat. Place a reverb with a autofilter. To tune the rumble to the kick, up the decay time of the reverb. You can
short echo chamber in the track behind the rack load the freeware spectrum analyzer, Voxengo influence the strength of the rumble by selecting
and group the device. Create a second chain in Span, into the chain. Select the High Res mode. the amp mode. For a moderate rumble, select
its chain list through which the kick runs without Check whether the peaks match the fundamental the Rock Mode. If you want to focus more on the
effects. Load an amp and an autofilter behind the of your kick. If the high transients do not match rumble, increase the number of harmonics by
reverb and set Dry/Wet to 100% for both. 1 the key, move reverb size a little until they are in turning up the Filter Freq of the auto filter. 1
the desired tonal range. 1
4 5 6
Rhythmize Delay rumble Sample rumble
To rhythmize the Rumble, modulate the You can create a different type of rum- You can generate another rumble by
filter frequency using an LFO. Activate Note ble using delay instead of reverb. To do loading a low tom into the Drum Rack for
mode, select 1/16 for rate and set Amount to 6 this, copy the previously created rumble track. a 4-on-the-floor kick and programming it on all
or higher. To avoid phase problems, always load Replace the reverb with a delay. Activate stereo 16th notes in between. Vary the velocity. Load
a utility into the track last and activate Mono link for the delay time and select 1. Set Feedback three LFOs into the track and modulate the
mode. Adjust the gain so that the reverb rumble to about 30%. Then, shape the character of the Decay and Release of the tom, as well as the
blends well with the kick. 1 rumble using the amp and autofilter parameters Attack slightly. Select different waveforms and
described above. 1 values for Rate, Depth and Offset. r
Beat 08 | 2024 • 49
WORKBEAT
Power Producer
1 2 3
Loop it all away Comping workflow Only the best!
We „misuse“ Bitwig‘s looping function for Bitwig‘s comping workflow is very simple. Double-click on an audio clip with a Take
lightning-fast mixing of different loops. This As soon as you record repeatedly at the Stack to open the editor at the bottom. If
requires exactly these loops. Ideally, all the loops same point in an audio track, the DAW generates you now click on the Comping button, the Take
you select should have the same length, in other the Take Stacks, that is, a collection of repetitions Lanes with the recordings will open. And now
words 1, 2 or 4 bars. Whether they are all very from which you can cut out the best parts. Audio you can mark the best moments of each repe-
similar drum loops or sounds from completely clips with take stacks can be recognized by the tition by moving the mouse over them. Bitwig
different instruments is up to you. 1 small, cubed symbol at the top right. 1 automatically moves each snippet to the comp
track at the top of the editor. 1
4 5 6
Comping with Loops Drag and Chop Manual multi-effect
Now for the sound design! Import one of Now, if you drag the mouse over indivi- Under the Comping button in the editor,
the selected loops into Bitwig. Double-click dual sections of the new loops, Bitwig will there are also areas for stretch, onsets,
the audio clip and click (without recording!) on automatically merge them in the Comping track gain, pan, pitch and formant. If you switch here,
the Comping button in the Bitwig editor. Now in the editor. This way, you can create crazy you can now, for example, distribute each loop
drag a second loop from a folder on your hard melodies or drum loops that jump around wildly snippet differently in the panorama with Pan or
disk directly under the imported loop into the between the sounds. I often use this technique to change the pitches with Pitch and produce loops
Comping window. Repeat the process with addi- make boring drum loops more exciting or to give that are still running - almost a multi-effect in the
tional loops. 1 vocals a new spin. 1 middle of the DAW! r
50 • Beat 08 | 2024
WORKBEAT
Production tricks
1 2 3
More width Mid/Side processing Stabilize width
We load the audio material to be widened Now we boost individual frequencies in We stabilize the dynamics of the new stereo
onto a stereo track in the sequencer of our Side Mode by approximately 3-10 dB, signals so that they do not cause any unrest.
choice. We make use of the human echo limit of depending on the audio material. This creates To do this, we compress the frequency range of
40 ms, known as the Haas effect, to create width. a subtle width. We select frequencies above the the new Side signal with the Pro-MB at a Ratio
To do this, we set a Delay Time of about 35 ms, bass range that add detail to the signal without of 4:1. Click on the Expert Button in the Band
with Feedback of 40% and a Mix value of about overloading it. We can recognize the Side Mode Control window to set the Mode to Side and drag
30% for Timeless from about 200 Hz. 1 by the S symbol of the respective curve node. 1 the slider to 100% Side-Only. 1
4 5 6
Create spatial depth Overtones Check stereo width
For a more natural sense of space, we add For a more striking Side Signal, we enrich it To ensure mono compatibility, the settings
some depth to the widened mono signal. with overtones. To do this, we first set the should always be monitored with a
Therefore, we load Pro-R with a Decay Time output on Saturn to M/S and, depending on the Correlation Meter. Most DAWs should have one
of approximately 0.6 s and Width of 120%. We source material, Drive to 60%, Style to Subtle on board. If the meter is in the red range, the
lower the Decay Rate EQ steeply from around 250 Saturation and the frequency bands between new stereo signal may audibly lose frequency
Hz so that the bass and lower mids do not overlap. 1-5 dB. The pan control on the level pot can be components during mono monitoring, as these
The wet component should be around 25%. 1 used to weight our new side signal in relation to cancel each other out. r
the mid signal. 1
Beat 08 | 2024 • 51
INSPIRATION WHEN
& WHERE YOU WANT
for all Producers, DJs and Musicians
Want it?
Get your subscription here:
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* Only while stocks last. Software is delivered as a download with a serial number.
SOFTBEAT
Test
A
Win, Mac
collaboration between Synapse Au- sizer a true sound monster. The Legend Epic cinema effects
dio and Hans Zimmer - a very am- HZ can sound extremely powerful and On the „back“ of The Legend HZ, you can
Facts bitious project that can only sound broad, especially in Unison Mode. With adjust global settings and the sound beha-
gigantic, right? Well, let‘s have a listen! the additional oscillators, it is also pos- vior of oscillators and filters. You will also
Developer: Synapse Audio
The L egend H Z i s b ased o n t he m anu- sible to play significantly more complex find the Effects Section here, which has
Web: synapse-audio.com
Distribution: Download facturer‘s popular Minimoog emulation, and denser sound structures or complex been significantly expanded compared
Price: 179 US Dollars which meticulously reproduces the sonic chord voicings that are not possible with to The Legend. In addition to the classic
characteristics of the original hardware. the original hardware. Oscillators 3 and 6 Delay and Reverb effects, Phaser, Chorus
J Authentic, powerful
sound The Legend already had features that the can also be used as powerful LFOs, also and Compressor are now also available.
J Six oscillators per vintage model did not offer, such as po- for FM sounds. They can also be synchro- The Fixed Filter Bank, which integrates
voice lyphonic playability, a Unison Mode and nized to the host tempo. Even though the twelve parallel Bandpass filters and one
J Polyphonic the Delay and Reverb effects. A nd n ow Minimoog does not offer Oscillator Syn- Highpass and one Lowpass Filter, is parti-
J Lush modulation
section The Legend HZ brings even more expan- chronization and Ring Modulation, these cularly noteworthy. This module was mo-
J Outstanding effects sions and additional features to the game. would have been a great addition. deled after Hans Zimmer‘s Moog Fixed
J Inspiring step sequencer The c oncept o f Th e Le gend HZ wa s de - Filter Bank 914 and is ideal for distinctive
/ arpeggiator veloped by Synapse Audio, Hans Zimmer The legendary filter sound colorations and vocal-like sounds.
J Great presets and sound designer Kevin Schroeder. What makes the iconic Moog sound? The All effects can be controlled via the Mo-
J Intuitive operation ladder filter circuit undoubtedly plays a dulation Matrix.
n No undo function Iconic features significant role in this. The Legend HZ re-
Sound: The V intage Minimoog‘s f eatures a re a s produces this very convincingly, inclu- Cinematic rhythms
Operation: beginner-friendly as they are legendary: ding the typical resonance behavior up to One of the most exciting new features in
Price/Perf: 3 Oscillators, one of which can be used as self-oscillation. You can select the slope of The Legend HZ is the combination of ar-
Total: an LFO, a Noise Generator, a Lowpass Fil- the filter between 12 and 24 dB, and the- peggiator and 32-step sequencer. This duo
ter with a slope of 24 dB/oct., and two ADS re is also a Bandpass mode. It‘s just a sha- allows you to create thrilling sequences
Envelopes. The Legend HZ, on the other me that it can‘t also be used as a Lowpass and dynamic rhythms. The presets show
Alternatives hand, expands these simple but effective Filter. Thanks to the Filter Drive, Feed- that pulsating sequences like those from
Softube Model 72 features considerably: the up to six oscil- back and Saturation circuitry, even biting the soundtracks of „The Dark Knight“ and
159 Euro lators per voice and the increased poly- and aggressive sounds are achieved with „Inception“ by Hans Zimmer are also pos-
www.softube.com phony of twelve voices make this synthe- flying colors. These features give the syn- sible. With the 20 integrated factory pat-
Arturia Mini V thesizer an additional analog character
199 Euro and ensure punchy sounds.
www.arturia.com
UAD Moog Minimoog Modulation magic
217 Euro The Legend HZ‘s modulation options
www.uaudio.com are also impressive. With a comprehen-
54 • Beat 08 | 2024
SOFTBEAT
Test
VERDICT
soft, mystical pads to punchy, percus-
sive basses and hypnotic sequences.
Preset management is accessible via a
clearly laid out browser. A search fun- In The Legend HZ, one of the best-sounding Mi-
ction and categorization of patches nimoog emulations meets the vision and sound
simplifies navigation and selection. of Hans Zimmer. The result is a software syn-
A particular highlight is the Genetics th with an excellent analog sound that is per-
function: this allows you to create new fect for classic Moog sounds, as well as modern
patches based on the sound characte- timbres and contemporary film music. This
ristics of 2-3 selected presets. This in- plug-in scores with multi-faceted and unusual
novative function allows you to create sounds that you wouldn‘t have expected from
The star of The Legend HZ‘s lavish Effects Section is the Fixed Filter Bank, which
you can also use to create vocal sounds. fresh sounds quickly and easily. Top! r the Minimoog.
The spectrum ranges from enormous-
ly expressive polyphonic sounds such as pads
terns and the import function for importing your and keys to hypnotic sequences, brute unison
own MIDI files, the sequencer offers a wide range sounds and vocal timbres. The large selection
of creative possibilities. of inspiring presets and the extensive modula-
tion options make The Legend HZ a true secret
Hans Zimmer in your DAW weapon for film music and beyond. The virtual
The Legend HZ comes with over 200 factory presets Minimoog knows how to inspire sound purists
developed by Hans Zimmer and Kevin Schröder. and sound designers alike. A big hit! r
These cover a wide range of cinematic sounds, from More info
Polyphony 12, Unison Monophonic 6, Unison Monophonic 16, Unison 16, Unison
(Voices)
Oscillators 6 3 3 3 3 3
Filter Modes Lowpass, Bandpass Lowpass Lowpass Lowpass 2 Lowpass Modes Lowpass
Additional 12 Mod Slots, 4 None LFO, Motion Recor- LFO, Sample & XLFO, XADSR Sidechain-Input
modulation MSEG, 2 oscillators der, Mod-Matrix Hold
options can be used as LFOs
Effects Reverb, Delay, None 3 effect slots with No Reverb, Delay Reverb, Delay,
Chorus, Phaser, 17 effect types Phaser, Chorus
Compressor, Fixed
Filter Bank
Format VST, AU, AAX VST, AU, AAX VST, AU, AAX, VST, AU, AAX VST, AU, AAX VST, AU, AAX,
Standalone Standalone
Price $199 US Dollars 159 Euro 199 Euro 217 Euro 100 British Pounds $39 US Dollars
Strengths Authentic sound, Authentic emula- Very flexible mo- Authentic replica Extended modulation Good Price/Perfor-
6 oscillators, step tion, high fidelity, dulation options, of the Minimoog options, Pulse Width mance Ratio
sequencer and effect plug-in, mo- additional en- Model D Modulation
arpeggiator, Hans dules for Softube velopes and LFOs,
Zimmer presets Modular great effects
Beat 08 | 2024 • 55
SOFTBEAT
Test
M
iniBrute was one of the first synthe- trolled in terms of frequency, resonance For stereo sounds, you‘ll have to fall
sizers of the newly awakened ana- and BruteFactor. BruteFactor is a feed- back on the extensive range of effects.
log wave in this millennium and back loop which, depending on the inten- Arturia uses the in-house FX-Collection
Facts offers some special features. Although it sity, resonance value and filter type, can and V-Collection for this. Whether it‘s the
Manufacturer: Arturia only has a single VCO, it can produce fair- lead from slight saturation to a complete Juno Chorus, OPP Multiband Compres-
Web: arturia.com ly complex sounds. And the Steiner/Par- rollover of the sound. This is often remi- sor or the Prophet-5‘s Tape Delay, the
Distribution: Tomeso ker multimode filter, with its adjustab- niscent of the typical Korg MS-20 sounds; four available slots can be equipped with
Price: 99 Euro
le BruteFactor, has its own unique sound and at more extreme settings, the filter really good-sounding effects and elicit
J True to original sound characteristics, which means that the Mi- can get really screechy. But a more subt- sounds from the MiniBrute V that the ori-
J Powerful filter niBrute with its unmistakable sound can le thickening is also possible, for rich and ginal couldn‘t deliver, such as wide pads
J BruteFactor always be heard. Arturia has captured this fat analog basses. A big compliment to or BoC chords.
J Polyphonic
sound characteristic really convincingly the Arturia developers - many plug-ins
J High-quality effects
in the plug-in! and digital synthesizers fail to implement Verdict
n No sequencer
this analog circuit, but the BruteFactor in Arturia has managed to bring its debut
n High CPU consumption
Flexible VCO the MiniBrute V sounds really impressi- synthesizer into software form in a very
Sound: The structure of the sound generation and ve and is very close to the original. We impressive manner. In terms of sound,
Operation: the user interface of the plug-in are stric- were able to use the SE version for sound you hardly have to make any concessi-
Price/Perf:
tly based on the original. The basis is an comparison. ons to the hardware; in particular, the
Total: oscillator with sawtooth, square and tri- filter including BruteFactor has the raw
angle waveforms. These three waveforms No extras analog sound of the original. This makes
can be mixed continuously. Each wa- For modulation, there are two ADSR En- MiniBrute V perfect for characteristic bass
veform also offers a few extras. Sawtoo- velopes for Filter, Amplifier, PWM and lines, arpeggios and leads. Polyphony and
th can be modulated to a supersaw with Metalizer. An LFO with six waveforms can an extensive range of effects extend the
adjustable speed, square offers pulse modulate pulse width, filter, pitch and vo- sound spectrum even further compared
width modulation (PWM) and triangle lume. Another LFO is reserved for Vibrato. to the original. r
Alternatives has a built-in wavefolder called Metali- The final part is a fairly simple arpeggiator.
GForce Axxess zer to provide additional harmonics and Normally, the V-versions of synths
89 Euro metallic, FM-like sounds. There is also a from Arturia offer a hidden, hinged panel
gforcesoftware.com Suboscillator (Sine/Rectangle), which sporting additional functions, in addition
Korg MiniKorg/MS-20 can oscillate one or two octaves lower to the faithful reproduction of the original
149 US-Dollar and a noise generator. hardware. We would have liked this on the
korg.de MiniBrute V, as well. Unfortunately, the-
Cherry Audio PS-20 Filter with BruteFactor re‘s only a small panel that can be opened
29 Euro The filter works as a lowpass, bandpass, for adjusting the „analog“ fluctuations of
cherryaudio.com highpass or notch filter and can be con- the Vintage Control in MiniBrute V. More Info
56 • Beat 08 | 2024
SOFTBEAT
Soundware
Beat 08 | 2024 • 57
BEATCULTURE
Photo competition
PARTICIPATE NOW
We are looking for your best photos on the
topic „Face your (e)motions!“ Take part now
and win valuable prizes at
www.digitalphoto.de/face-your-emotions
W
hether it‘s an emotionally charged portrait or portunity to convince the jury. After the submission SD and microSD memory card from the high-qua-
an adrenaline-soaked shot of people in acti- deadline, we will then select the three best pictures. lity PRO Ultimate series. If you take first place in the
on: the choice is yours! Together with Sam- competition, an additional highlight awaits you.
sung, we are looking for your best shots on the theme These prizes are waiting for you You can then look forward to a photo shoot that
of „Face your (e)motions“ - the photo competition Valuable prizes await the top three winners. They will accompany you in your photographic work and
that focuses on people. You have the chance to send will receive a complete package from Samsung showcase your creations. (red) r
us your most impressive pictures until July 31 at 12 Brand Memory, which includes a fast Portable SSD
noon. Send us your best photos and take the op- T9, a robust outdoor SSD T7 Shield, as well as an www.digitalphoto.de/face-your-emotions
BE WELL-EQUIPPED
Samsung has the perfect storage media
for demanding photographers. The fast SD
and MicroSD cards from the Pro Ultimate
series are ideal for sports and action photos
in demanding continuous shooting mode,
as well as for high-resolution videos with
high frame rates. The robust T7 Shield and
the fast T9 are suitable for backups during
shoots. The portable SSDs are available in
capacities from 1-4TB.
The Samsung T7 Shield is the ideal
www.samsung.com companion for your outdoor activities.
58 • Beat 08 | 2024
WORKBEAT
Workshop: Dope Tracks
out of your ear, unites us Producers. Listen once, turn the knobs, done. But Material: DAW, diverse plug-ins
transferring what you‘ve heard to the right parameters with the right values Time required: 1 – 2 hours
Content: Reconstruct the sounds of popular Pop &
takes training. Every month in the Track Spotlight, we present two sounds EDM tracks.
from current hot songs - this month „I like the way you kiss me“ by Artemas Difficulty: Advanced to Professional
and „Stumblin In“ by Cyril. by Julian Schmauch
1 2 3
21 weeks at No. 1 Grunge House Vital sounds
At the tender age of 24, Artemas Diamandis is Artemas says in interviews that Kurt Cobain, Unfortunately, the developer of Vital has
a Brit with Greek roots and has been producing legendary frontman of the Grunge band, been very quiet these days and the future
hit after hit under his alias „Artemas“ since 2023. Nirvana, inspired him to produce music when he of this freeware synth seems uncertain. But Vital
He made a name for himself back in October 2023 was 16. And if you listen carefully, you can actu- is still one of the best wavetable synths. Program
with „If you think I‘m pretty“, but „I like the way ally hear a very grungy guitar in the C section. a bass line with off-beat quavers and the notes
you kiss me“ finally shot him into the stratosphere Otherwise, the song bangs with a pounding beat, G#1, E1, B1 and D#1. Then, open Vital on the
of the charts at the beginning of 2024. 1 spherical vocals and a dark bass line. 1 track and set Voices to 1 at the bottom. 1
4 5 6
Two oscillators Filter and envelope Effects, Effects, Effects
The synth plays monophonically, which is For Oscillator 2, also set Filter 1 as the Set an extremely short envelope: Attack to
important for bass sounds. In the already destination. Change the filter type at the 0.003, Decay to 0.14, Sustain to 0. For the
loaded saw wave oscillator, increase Unison bottom of Filter 1 to Analog: 24dB. Set the cutoff effects, load Distortion with soft clip algorithm,
to 16v on the right and activate Oscillator 2 frequency to 260 Hertz and the resonance to the EQ Module with powerful damping in the
below it. Set Pitch to -12, one octave lower. 40% on the right-hand side of the module. For mids, the compressor in multiband mode (as with
Then, load the Basic Shapes wavetable and Envelope 1, set Release to 0.4 seconds. Now OTT) and the Filter Module with Lowpass Filter
move the wave frame parameter until you can connect Envelope 2 to the Cutoff of Filter 1 at a (Dirty 24) at 3300 Hertz and a slight Drive. r
see a square wave. 1 modulation level of 0.43. 1
60 • Beat 08 | 2024
WORKBEAT
Workshop: Dope Tracks
1 2 3
Back to 1978 Cyril remix Arrangement
„Stumblin‘ In“ joins the ranks of songs that And, as is the case with viral hits, nobody In his remix, Cyril concentrated on the
have had more than one successful remix. knows exactly what goes viral when and, essentials of the original: the Chorus, a
The older among us will be familiar with the above all, why. But ever since some FC Bayern Verse, all underlaid with a crisp four-on-the-
original by rock star Suzie Quatro and Smokie players shared the remix by Australian producer floor, but actually a whole lot slower, at 126 bpm.
singer Norman - a cuddly Pop song that was an and DJ Cyril on Tik Tok, there has been no In addition, the producer gave more space to the
integral part of Pop Radio in the eighties and stopping them. „Stumblin‘ In“ has been in the dreamy keyboard of the original, somewhere
nineties and their biggest commercial success. 1 charts since January and has risen and risen and between Rhodes and Electric Piano. 1
risen... all the way to number two! 1
4 5 6
Phase Plant FM I saw the Sine FM away
If you want to create Electric Piano, The easiest way to get started with FM is Load a second Analog Module, set a Saw
Marimba or other caribbean synth sounds, to start with Sine Waves. No harmonics, less Wave and deactivate the Output. The
you quickly end up in the land of FM - Fre- risk of noise when modulating. So load an Analog module should not be audible, only modulate.
quency Modulation. As great as the sounds are, Module as an oscillator in Phase Plant and switch You can modulate at audio rate speed in Phase
it is difficult to create them in many FM synths. to a Sine Wave. Change the envelope underneath Plant, where the green plus signs are visible.
Phase Plant from Kilohearts offers an approach to a short, crisp movement without sustain and Connect Out from Osc 2 with Harmonic from
without algorithms and complex manuals. 1 with about 500 milliseconds of Sustain. 1 Osc 1 at a level of about 16,000. 1
7 8 9
Oscillator 2 and Vibrato Chorus and Lowpass Epic sound
In Harmonic, set Oscillator 2 (not 1!) to Load the Chorus and Ladder Filter modules Compared to the original, our sound still
x2,000 and adjust the Envelope: Attack at in Effect Lane 1 on the right. Turn chorus sounds a little too small. Load the Delay
12.4ms, Decay at 39ms, Sustain at 51 percent depth (= Intensity) up and mix down: 25 percent. and Reverb in Phase Plant in Effect Lane 2. Set
and Release at 5ms. Now load an LFO as the For the Ladder Filter below, set the Cutoff to 540 delay to sync mode and here to 2/16, turn the
modulator below. Connect this to Semi/Cent of Hertz, the resonance to 37 percent and switch to mix control to 15% and raise the duck parameter
Oscillator 1 at an Intensity of 0.1. Set a speed of Diode mode. To do this, activate Saturate and turn to 65%. For the reverb module, you can leave
0.4 Hertz for the LFO. 1 up the Drive very slightly: 2 decibels. 1 everything as it is, possibly turning the mix
control down a little. r
Beat 08 | 2024 • 61
WORKBEAT Zampler plug-in, soundset,
Zampler Constructor: Trip-Hop meets Lo-Fi
audio demo and MIDI files:
download see Page 9
Facts
Harmony of Realms for Zampler:
J 2.4 GB Soundbank
J 81 Patches
J 4 Basses, 12 Drums & FX
J 24 Instruments, 17 Leads & Synths
J 9 Pads, 15 Voices & Choirs
J Compatible with Zampler, UVI Falcon,
Native Instruments Kontakt, Steinberg
HALion and all samplers that can load
SFZ files
62 • Beat 08 | 2024
WORKBEAT
Zampler Constructor: Trip-Hop meets Lo-Fi
1 2 3
Hypnotic flute Sequence Legendary bassline
Yay, a brand new Zampler expansion with Turn up the Cutoff and Env fully and For the bassline, we use Synapse Audio The
fresh sounds! Load it into Zampler//RX by set the Filter Envelope as shown in the Legend HZ [1]. The Polymath EX preset
clicking on Load Bank and selecting „Zampler previous step. Then, adjust the modulation immediately heads us in the desired direction.
Harmony Of Realms.fxb“. With the preset 017: In assignments in rows 2 and 3 of the Zampler// Adjust the Filter and Envelope parameters as
Intricate Flute, an idea for a hypnotic sequence RX matrix as shown. If you now turn up the shown. In addition, deactivate the Delay and
immediately comes to mind. First, deactivate the Modulation Wheel, the sound becomes duller make the adjustments shown at the bottom left
Mono playback mode for the flute-like sound. 1 and more percussive. We use the sound to play of the synthesizer‘s Modulation Matrix. 1
the sequence shown at 100 BPM. 1
4 5 6
Percussive bass & beat Pad chords Small hooks
When recording the bassline, you control Now it‘s time for some atmosphere in our You can then add a rich reverb to the sound,
how far the Filter opens with the Velocity track. Harmony of Realms comes with some for instance, with Eventide Blackhole [4].
and the Modulation Wheel. We add a percussive wonderful pads and atmospheric sounds such The overtone-rich sound 013: IN Fairy Arps is
sound to the main bass with 027: IN Tonkori, as 063: VO Elven Choir. Use the preset to play a a great addition. We send it to Blackhole (Mix:
which is reminiscent of a slap bass and plays chord sequence that matches the other sounds. To 100) to transform it into a breathy pad. Patches
a syncopated sequence. The rhythm section is rhythmize it, we chop it up in a eighth note rhythm such as 056: SY Xylovox and 060: VO Ciccio
completed by a beat from XLN Audio XO [2]. 1 using the Cableguys VolumeShaper [4] plug-in. 1 Robo are recommended for small melodies. 1
7 8 9
Epic reverb It‘s alive! Experimental textures
A long, dense reverb works wonders here, Then, transpose them accordingly to D, the You can listen to these by clicking on the
too. What do you think about transforming root note of the song. Arrange them on the central Play button. Activate the Sync
the sounds of Harmony of Realms into experi- audio track so that they are one to two quarter no- function at the bottom left so that the rhythm is
mental sequences? Well, let‘s reach into our bag tes long and cut them so that they do not overlap. played in sync with the host tempo. If you click on
of tricks! Load some of the samples from the Record your sample collage and import it into randomize, a new sequence will be diced. Ingeni-
folder where you installed the sound bank onto XLN Audio Life [2]. Life automatically recognizes ous! You can create cool textures in no time at all,
an audio track. We‘ll record some samples using the slices and creates a sequence from them. 1 which can be edited in detail on the edit page. r
the pitches C2 and C3. 1
[1] www.synapse-audio.com; [2] www.xln-audio.com; [3] www.cableguys.com; [4] www.eventide.com Beat 08 | 2024 • 63
HARDBEAT
Desktop Audio
Features ters with flexible routing. the selected track. Of course, a moto-
The Shape section of- rized fader instead of an endless cont-
Hybrid controller
fers a Gate and transient roller would have been the icing on the
27 Touch-sensitive rotary processing. This is follo- cake, but we missed it less in the test.
controls
wed by a flexible 4-band A motorized fader would have meant a
2 High-resolution Equalizer and a Com- surcharge on the already high price, as
screens pressor. With Drive/Cha- well as additional power consumption
2 Instances per shape, EQ racter, you can control and noise.
and compressor the saturation of the sig-
CoreMixingSuite included nal; and finally, there are For UADx and Fabfilter
Volume, Pan, Mute and Softube supplies a high-quality chan-
Compatible with UAD(x)
Solo. The order of the in- nel strip. If you have other channel strips
and Fabfilter
dividual sections can be from the Swedes, you can switch to tho-
2 USB-C ports changed and you can di- se at the touch of a button. But you can
Integration in DAWs rectly switch between also replace parts of it with compatible
VESA and 19-inch rack two alternatives for Sha- plug-ins from Softube, UAD(x) and Fab-
mounting pe, EQ and Compressor. filter, for example, by combining a Fab-
filter equalizer with a UADx compressor.
Two color This can be done directly on the hard-
T
he workmanship of the housing and displays and LEDs ware and the parameter settings (such
Facts controls is excellent. Although pri- The multi-colored LEDs in the buttons ad- as Frequency/Q for EQ) can be transfer-
marily plastic was used, the Console opt the track colors selected in the DAW red when switching between compatible
Manufacturer: Softube
1 Channel MK III still feels very high-qua- and three LEDs above them show the le- plug-ins. Undo/Redo and Snapshots via
Web: softube.com
Distribution: Retailer
lity. The touch-sensitive endless encoders vel of the track in real time, which makes buttons make the workflow easier.
Price: 966 Euro are easy to grip and have a pleasant tur- the whole thing much clearer. The small
J Sophisticated controller
ning resistance and generous spacing OLED color displays can be switched bet- Verdict
concept between them, the buttons do not wob- ween different displays, such as VU meter, The hybrid concept of Console 1 Chan-
J High-quality feel ble and have a clean pressure point. With gain reduction or set compressor curve. nel Mk III combines the advantages of
J Excellent sound its flat and modern design, Console 1 is The displays also provide assistance, ma- software (storability, virtually unlimi-
J UADx/Fabfilter- still compact enough to find a place in king it easier to familiarize yourself with ted number of channels, copy function,
compatible the sweet spot of even the smallest desk- the system. etc.) with direct access via hardware. In
J Undo/Redo/Snapshots
top studio. The USB port is recessed in the The hardware serves solely as a cont- fact, due to the classic design of the con-
J DAW integration
housing, the plug does not require any ad- roller; the Console software is responsible troller, we were able to master the entire
n Higher price
ditional space. for audio processing. It consists of a custo- mix after a short time without reaching
Workmanship: mizable on-screen display, which can be for the mouse.
Features: Power via USB-C shown and hidden using a button on the The integration of many Softube, UA-
Price/Perf: The USB connection can also take over the hardware, and the Console plug-in in the D(x) and Fabfilter plug-ins significantly
Total: power supply. This works best via a USB-C DAW. If you want to work like with a classic expands its sonic possibilities. The set-up
port with the appropriate power, but fortu- mixing console, place the corresponding is uncomplicated, the service is very good
nately, Console also works with older USB plug-in on each channel. Depending on and the entire concept seems very well
ports (slightly less LED power) despite ha- the support of the DAW, the controller fol- thought out and mature. The only dow-
Alternatives ving two displays and lots of LEDs (which lows the selected channel and displays the ner is the rather high price of almost 1,000
SSL UC1 surround the endless controllers in rings, Track Name. It doesn‘t matter whether you Euro, which makes Console Mk III a good
669 Euro allowing the current value to be read). Al- change something on the computer using twice as expensive as its predecessor. r
solidstatelogic.com ternatively, the supplied power supply unit the mouse or on the controller, in the test
Ableton Push can also be used on the second USB port. with Cubase everything worked perfectly
949 Euro The controller reproduces a classic bi-directionally straight away.
ableton.com channel strip, supplemented by some ex-
Nektar Panorama C12
citing extras. The arrangement of the con- DAW control
299 Euro trols follows the signal flow from left to The controller can also take over DAW
nektartech.com right, starting with the new Tape/Preamp functions and control the Volume, Pan-
section, as well as High and Low Pass fil- ning, Solo/Mute and Send functions of More Info
64 • Beat 08 | 2024
HARDBEAT
Desktop Audio
tates correct leveling. It becomes even more convenient when using the associ-
ated software. It guides recording beginners through the setup of the audio in-
terface in an exemplary manner. In addition to the Preamp and Compressor,
the software also sets up noise reduction, if required, and dynamically protects
the recording from clipping using the clipguard function. These additional fun-
ctions actually improved the recordings in the test. Overall, we were pleasant-
Lewitt ly surprised by the sound quality of the test recordings. The headphone output
Connect 2 delivers a clean signal, the microphone preamp works with low noise and wi-
thout distortion and the instrument input, with its Hi-Z differential input, pre-
vents unwanted humming.
Connect 2 is a compact audio interface for the desktop. It is connected to the
computer via USB-C, which also provides the power supply. Like all other Verdict
connections, the USB port is located at the rear of the housing, which is raised Lewitt Connect 2 is a compact audio interface perfectly suited for the desktop
accordingly at the back. There are two headphone connections, convenient- with convincing sound quality, sophisticated operation and a very practical ran-
ly both as 3.5mm and 6.3mm jack sockets. This is followed by two 6.3 mm jack ge of functions. The creation of good-sounding recordings is also possible for
outputs for forwarding the audio signal to monitor speakers, amplifiers or mi- recording beginners thanks to the useful functions and the intuitive automatic
xers, which are commendably wired symmetrically and are, therefore, less su- setup via software without any problems and without much training time. If you
sceptible to interference noise with suitable cabling. There are inputs for instru- can manage with two inputs for instrument and microphone and want to get
ment (jack) and microphone (XLR) with switchable 48V phantom power. Stereo good-sounding recordings quickly without having to struggle with manuals and
recordings are, therefore, not easily achieved. The interface is designed for re- correct setup, we can recommend this interface without hesitation.
cording instruments such as electric guitar or mono synth and vocals, which is
also possible in parallel.
It is operated using the buttons and touch wheel embedded in the rubbe- Manufacturer: Lewitt
rized surface, supported by multi-colored LEDs. Brightness and coloring can Web: lewitt-audio.com
be individually adjusted via software, which is something you rarely find. Ope- Distribution: Retailer
ration of the device is intuitive and requires little training. The input signal and Price: 198 Euro
playback can be mixed continuously for direct monitoring, and Autogain facili- Rating:
The touch keyboard is good for using the arpeggiator and easily triggering sounds, but for serious playing
Additional connections
Facts it is better to use an external keyboard. There is also a USB-C socket for connec-
Manufacturer: Behringer ting to the computer, which also provides
T
Web: behringer.com he special feature of the Prophet VS it doesn‘t look particularly attractive with the power supply. Unfortunately, battery
Distribution: Retailers is the vector synthesis, which mixes its membrane keyboard and somewhat operation is not provided, and here the
Price: 99 Euro four digital oscillators, each with its bulky-looking protrusion behind it. At Compact series from Roland with its built-
J Charismatic sound own waveform and tuning via joystick first glance, the design is reminiscent of in battery for mobile use clearly has an ad-
J Flexible vector synthesis and/or mix envelope. Pro VS Mini also Skulpt and Craftsynth from Modal. vantage. If used without a computer, howe-
J Analogue filter has an analog low-pass filter that the four ver, a USB power supply or a suitable power
J Fully MIDI-controllable voices have to share. You can find out how Compromises in terms bank can provide the power supply when
J Very portable it all sounds and what such a mini synthe- of design and feel on the move. MIDI data is also transmitted
J Very affordable price sizer is recommended for in the test.. The 12 controls for programming the syn- via USB, but unlike the small Roland syn-
n No internal battery/ thesizer are also quite small and, due to thesizers, no audio signals. These must be
rechargeable battery
n Limited joystick function
Instrument or toy? the compact dimensions of the housing, fed analogously via the headphone output
It wasn‘t that long ago that Korg caused quite close together, so tweaking the (3.5 mm mini jack) into the mixer or sound
a stir with the mini synthesizers of the sound live is only somewhat fun. The joy- card. There is also a sync input in the same
Sound: Volca series. Other manufacturers like stick is a bit larger, but also has a fairly format for analog synchronization of the se-
Processing:
Roland with the Boutique series have short control range. The Pro VS Mini quencer with other equipment.
Price/perf.:
taken up the idea and have also had to probably won‘t win a design award eit-
Total: endure some criticism. Many users, espe- her. The Pro VS Mini is just as unsuita- Vector synthesis
cially fans of classic synthesizers, consider ble for large hands as it is for people with VS is the abbreviation for vector synthe-
the compact devices to be difficult to use, poor eyesight, because the display is also sis. This digital sound generation was pre-
impossible to use, or even as useless toys. quite tiny. sented to the wider public in 1986 in the
Alternatives
Roland S-1 Small and bulky
185 Euro If you share this opinion, you don‘t need
roland.com to read any further. Because the debut
Arturia MicroFreak
synthesizer in Behringer‘s Mini series
299 Euro (aptly named) is even smaller than the
arturia.com aforementioned devices. The minia-
ture synthesizer, which weighs just 400
Korg NTS-1/Volca FM
89 Euro grams, measures approximately 19 x 12 x
korg.com 4 centimeters (at its highest point). And Unfortunately, there is no additional audio output, there is only a headphone output.
66 • Beat 08 | 2024
HARDBEAT
Test
2 LFO, 2 ADSR
For modulation, there are two LFOs that are per-
manently assigned to the envelope and the filter.
They are well equipped with 5 waveforms inclu-
ding S/H, but unfortunately the speed cannot be
synchronized to the MIDI clock and thus to the song
tempo. Two ADSR envelopes take care of the filter
and amplifier curve and are fast enough to gene-
The Pro VS Mini looks like a toy, but it sounds pretty good! rate crisp basses and leads. In addition, there is the
more complex mix envelope already mentioned.
Sequential Prophet VS and caused a great stir with 4 voices...
its new sound possibilities in a market that was still In contrast to the original, the Mini-VS only has four Sequencer, arpeggiator
dominated by analogue synthesizers at the time. voices instead of eight, making it more difficult to Both the 16-step sequencer and the arpeggiator are
Four oscillators are available for each voice, each of create full chords and long, sustained sounds. The quite rudimentary and, like the membrane key-
which can access 128 waveforms - no analogue syn- filter also ensures that the Pro VS Mini is no com- board, are primarily useful for not having to use
thesizer can keep up with that! petitor to real polyphonic synthesizers. Because it external hardware when tweaking sounds. Unfor-
is only available once, all four voices have to share it. tunately, unlike the Volcas, Boutiques and Modals,
Crossfading using the envelope parameter changes cannot be recorded and the
And that‘s not all, because you can even crossfa- ... but only one filter sequencer is also quite cumbersome to program.
de between these four oscillators. This can be done This restriction is not a big deal for chord stabs or At least the Pro VS Mini processes MIDI CC, so that
using the joystick in combination with the complex short leads or basses. However, with pads with an sound changes can be programmed via DAW and
mixer envelope, whose elements can even be lo- ascending filter envelope or long leads, you will the larger controls of a master keyboard can be used
oped. However, this is quite fiddly to set up with the notice it if you play additional notes on held or to tweak the sound.
small controls and the tiny display. It would have fading notes. These new notes then either restart
been enough for us if we could have crossfaded di- the envelope. Or the new notes do not rise slowly,
rectly between the individual oscillators using the but have to use the course of the envelopes trigge-
joystick, but the envelope always got in the way. We red by the first notes and then start with the filter VERDICT
would like an update here that would also deacti- fully open instead of fading in slowly. If you adapt
vate the envelope and allow the mixing ratio to be your playing style to this, it can also lead to interes- The Pro VS Mini offers the sound of the Prophet
determined using the joystick alone. And that these ting sound effects that would not be possible with a VS in an extremely compact form at a very rea-
movements can also be recorded directly, instead of classic polyphonic synthesizer. sonable price of under €100. We recommend
laboriously programming the mix envelope. the mini synthesizer in combination with a
Analog low-pass filter good master keyboard or a synthesizer as a
Original waveforms of the VS In terms of sound, the analog 4-pole low-pass fil- compact sound addition on stage, in the rehe-
The 128 waveforms contain the original waveforms ter is quite unspectacular and doesn‘t put its own arsal room or when jamming without a compu-
of the Prophet VS. Since there was very little storage stamp on the sound. But that didn‘t bother us, ter. Because if you play the mini synthesizer on
space at the time, the waveforms are very short and because the oscillators already sound spectacu- a real keyboard, it can sound really good. The
not particularly complex. The resolution is also low, lar enough and the filter is more about taming the paraphony is a certain limitation when play-
but this is precisely what makes the original sound so rough digital sound and making the whole thing ing polyphonically, but this is not so noticeab-
rough. Behringer had originally underestimated this sound a bit rounder and more organic. We liked the le when layering with another synthesizer. And
somewhat and had to endure some criticism from fact that the filter doesn‘t thin out the bass range too both the combination of the characteristic hy-
sound purists. An update then added a quality set- much, even at higher resonance. brid sound with a digital synthesizer and with
ting that allows the resolution to be adjusted in three a purely analog sound generator worked really
levels. This means that the Pro VS Mini can sound well in the test! In our opinion, the mini synth
more or less LoFi depending on requirements. is not worth it in a DAW-based studio, because
The waveforms are short, but well chosen. By plug-ins like Arturia‘s Prophet VS V are at least
cleverly combining them, icy digital pads, bell-li- as good in terms of sound, are truly polyphonic
ke metallic sounds, but also dry basses or ana- and are much easier to integrate into the work-
log-sounding strings and leads or weird effects are flow. And the Pro VS Mini doesn‘t necessarily
possible. We therefore did not really miss the lack of score points with its special design or feel. r
an option to import our own waveforms. More info
Beat 08 | 2024 • 67
HARDBEAT
Test
Features
Sample-based groovebox
Stereo sampler
16 tracks (audio or MIDI)
5 audio/filter machines
each
3 LFOs per track
extra boost when needed. Like all machi-
nes and effects, it is digital, but like the fil-
Reverb, delay and chorus
ters and channel overdrive, it sounds very
Master overdrive good and definitely „analog“ in a positi-
400 MB RAM, 20 GB ve sense, i.e. more warm and round than
storage sharp and scratchy-aggressive.
Sequencer with up to 128
steps Maintaining the
proven concept
Otherwise, Digitakt is essentially identi-
cal to the old model, so the changeover
Facts is possible without getting used to it.
Manufacturer: Elektron 16 tracks can control connected MIDI
Web: elektron.se devices or be filled with samples that
Distribution: Retailer are either transferred from the computer
Price: 999 Euro (which is currently somewhat unstable
A
J Stereo sampler good two years after the Syntakt, bars/128 steps long, which is twice as long and slow with larger amounts of data)
J 16 audio/MIDI tracks there is finally a new groovebox from as in the predecessor. or recorded directly. Digitakt II is a ful-
J Large memory Elektron. The announcement of the The memory has also been massively ly-fledged sampler and can record both
J Flexible sequencer Digitakt II alone has led to classifieds por- upgraded. 400 megabytes of sample me- external sound sources and the internal
J Up to 8 bars per track tals being flooded with offers for Digitakt mory (RAM) are available for a project, and sound generation (resampling) without
J New machines and FX I. So if the more limited options of the the internal storage space has even been additional hardware or software. And now
J Polyphonic MIDI tracks older model are enough for you, you can increased to a generous 20 gigabytes. finally in stereo! Like its predecessor, Digi-
J Long-lasting workm- currently easily get a cheap used Digitakt. takt is also suitable as a control center in
anship
J Overbridge connection
But let‘s first take a quick look at the Additional machines a hardware setup, especially since inco-
n No individual outputs advantages of the new model that might Since version 1.5, Digitakt has had so-cal- ming audio signals can also be extensively
have encouraged so many owners of the led machines, based on the first Elektron mixed and processed in real time with the
Sound: predecessor to sell immediately. product MachineDrum. These are speci- internal sound generation and effects.
Workmanship:
al algorithms for processing audio mate-
Price/perf.:
What‘s new? rial, and the number of these has been in- Solid hardware
Total: Visually, the two versions are almost creased to 5 in the Digitakt II. There are The solid metal housing of the Digitakt
indistinguishable. The labeling is some- also 5 filter machines that complement corresponds to its predecessor in terms of
what reduced on the new model, and the the existing filter and expand the already size, appearance and workmanship, so it
elimination of predefined track names very diverse post-processing and modula- can take a beating and survive rough ever-
Alternatives such as kick, snare, etc. is probably tion options for a sampler. The new mas- yday touring. The endless controls with
Akai MPC One/Live intended to underline the more univer- ter overdrive also gives the Digitakt II an push function and the buttons are also in
from 699 Euro sal application possibilities beyond the the proven Elektron style, feel good and
akaipro.com classic drum computer. In keeping with make a durable impression.
NI Maschine+ this, there are now up to 16 audio tracks, The OLED display is not particular-
888 Euro which (and this is probably the most ly large, as is typical for Elektron, but it
native-instruments.com attractive improvement for many) can is easy to read under normal conditions.
Sonicware SmplTrek now play both mono and stereo samples. Numerous graphics such as the envelope
499 Euro Also much requested and now finally or waveform display support operation.
sonicware.eu implemented: Each track can be up to 8 With eight endless controls to the right of
68 • Beat 08 | 2024
HARDBEAT
Test
as long as in the predecessor. « each pattern. Performance kits allow you to retain
a kit even when switching patterns, which can pro-
duce interesting results.
the display you can change the parameters shown Or you can use the velocity trigger mode. Then you Sample machines
there, with five buttons you can choose directly bet- don‘t trigger the respective sound of the track with In addition to the classic OneShot mode, there are
ween the menus trigger, source, filter, amplifier, mo- the 16 buttons, but the same sample with different other algorithms that are particularly interesting
dulation and (newly added) effects. The white pixels velocities and corresponding modulation of up to for playing loops. Repitch adjusts the pitch of the
also seem a bit more serious to us than the yellow four adjustable parameters. Other trigger modes al- sample so that it plays in time - the original form of
pixels of the predecessor. low you to play the sounds directly from the current tempo adjustment. Werp is a type of time stretching,
sound pool or retrigger samples (ratchets, unfortu- but with a certain lofi/old school touch. Stretch is a
Robust multifunctional buttons nately not for MIDI tracks). new addition; this machine offers you more modern
With the 16 buttons in the lower area, which are time stretching with fewer artifacts. And with slices,
arranged in two rows of 8, you can trigger the Individual outputs only via USB you can break the sample down into its individual
sounds, select patterns and tracks and program the All connections are located on the back. The sound parts and put them together to form a new beat.
built-in step sequencer. All buttons are provided is sent to the outside world via a headphone and
with numbers or symbols for easy operation and are a stereo output, but unfortunately you still have Digital with analog sound
backlit. The feel is reminiscent of the keyboard of to do without individual analog outputs. In stu- The resonance-capable filter from the predecessor is
old home computers such as the Commodore C64 dio use, however, this is bearable, as all tracks will fortunately still there. It packs a punch, hardly thins
or mechanical gamer keyboards, which works well be available for separate editing in the DAW via out at higher resonance values and, in conjunction
in practice. In addition, these buttons can withstand the Overbridge connection via USB. At the time of with the fast envelope, allows for nice snapping bas-
years of continuous use. testing, Overbridge support was not yet officially ses, among other things. We recorded a few basic wa-
available, but was already in the beta phase. veforms from hardware synthesizers with the filter
Trigger modes fully open, then processed them with the Digitakt II
The disadvantage of this solution is that the keys are Stereo sampler
not velocity or pressure sensitive like drum pads. As The outputs are joined by a stereo input for recor-
with a classic drum computer, you have to set ac- ding external audio signals. As pleasing as it is that
cents afterwards and cannot play them in real time. you can now record stereo samples, the recording
of mono samples (which are often sufficient for
drums, for example, and save storage space) seems
to have been eliminated. Hopefully Elektron will
add this later, as well as increasing the currently
quite low line-in level.
More pleasing are the three MIDI sockets,
two of which can be reconfigured as DIN sync for Each track can now be up to 8 bars long, and the number of
connection to older drum computers. LEDs has doubled accordingly.
Beat 08 | 2024 • 69
HARDBEAT
Test
400 megabyte sample RAM are available with an adjustable probability of 1 to 99% or only
when you press the fill button. This means that even
T
he haptic experience of a modular Features
synth is usually achieved by turning
Touch controller for
knobs, moving sliders or pressing
eurorack
buttons. Gliss solves the problem of
4 Performance modes
direct, intuitive interaction with the
sound using a touch-sensitive surface. CV Real-time control via
Movement and Pressure - in this case to five notes - including Glide and Vib- touch
the size of the surface - can be translated rato. The second output can be used, for Recording gestures (up to
into CV in four modes and, therefore, example, to open a VCA or control other 75 seconds)
influence the sounds in the system. This parameters via the size of the touch. Here Output of custom LFOs,
requires a sure instinct. again, the multiple is an excellent playing envelopes, wavetables,
partner. The notes can be freely configu- waveshapers
Navigation through red via CV or touch input. The result is an Visualization, scaling and
the functions ingeniously simple, expressive touch key- clipping of audio or CV
The module looks inconspicuous at first, board. With a trigger in the input, Gliss
Playable, expressive
as it only has one input, two outputs, a can be used as a step sequencer with mini-keyboard
button and the illuminated touch strip. Glide and Reset on touch. As the voltage
One CV-In, two CV-Outs
The modes with their sub-functions and range for each mode can be set individu-
the global settings all need to be naviga- ally between -5 volts and +10 volts, the
ted through. However, the creators have right CV value is available for every appli-
gone to great lengths to familiarize us cation - a useful detail. A second panel is
with the module. Thanks to excellent ins- also included to mount Gliss with either
Facts
tructions, including a cheat sheet to print the top or bottom connections. Manufacturer: Bela
MUST-HAVE Web: bela.io
out and a video manual on YouTube, you 08/2024 Distribution: Website
can quickly learn what you need to know. Verdict Price: 155 Euro
Further operation is then very intuitive. Awesome machine! I have no choice but
The visual feedback via the button and the to recommend buying it. For a fair price, J Highly customizable to
your own needs
23 colored LEDs on the surface are defini- The user interface of the Bela Gliss. you get a lot of functionality in a very J Long recording time, for
tely helpful. small space. Sophisticated details, such as example, for custom
adjustable voltage range, make modular LFOs
J Accuracy and responsi-
Four function modes - up to 75 seconds and play them back life much easier. There is a task for Gliss veness of the surface
guaranteed something looped or triggered. This provides you in every system. In addition, controlling J Expressive mini touch
for every system with self-created LFOs or envelopes. If various parameters by gesture is incre- keyboard
Mode 1: Control outputs CV in real-time you divide the surface into two parts, you dibly fun and leads to creative results that J Visual feedback
depending on finger movement and the can, for example, give a stereo oscillator would otherwise have remained undis- J Open-source hardware
and software
size of the area touched. The touch strip two different envelopes with an intuitive covered. Gliss is a surprisingly expressive
can be used as one field or divided into gesture and, in this way, bring movement mini-keyboard with Vibrato, Glide and Concept:
two areas. The values output either fall into the sound. The long recording time other options. This, as well as the ability to Application:
back to zero when the touch is released enables slowly changing progressions record gestures and, therefore, have your Price/Perf:
or retain the last value. A multiple can be - great for animating ambient pads. By hands free again, makes the module the Total:
used, for example, to control several para- increasing the frequency of the recorded perfect partner for performances that are
meters in the system - Open Filter, Effect gestures, Gliss becomes a graphic oscil- spontaneous and individual. r
on Wet, Increase Trigger Rate - Riser and lator that can be played tonally via the Alternatives
Drops by Touch! Mode 2: Record has a input. Clock quantized recording and a
Intellijel Designs –
similar structure and can record gestures Waveshaper function are also available. Tetrapad
Mode 3: Signal lets you visualize audio 358 Euro
or CV, scale, smooth or clip by touch. intellijel.com
Hard-clipping Distortion, VU-Meter and Soundmachines – LS1
Attenuator are just a few applications. Lightstrip
Mode 4: Notes transforms Gliss into a 80 Euro
keyboard. The surface can reproduce up Demo Video sound-machines.it
Beat 08 | 2024 • 71
HARDBEAT
Modular test
M
indphaser is an analog com- ge in noise fests. The modulator‘s hard Hexinverter has reinterpreted the classic
plex oscillator consisting of a sync switch and Octave switch ensure concept of the complex oscillator and si-
modulator, carrier, modulation that you can stay safely within the tonal gnificantly upgraded it with Thru-Zero
Facts bus, waveshaper section and Thru-Zero range if you prefer. The waveshaper con- phase modulation, among other things.
Manuf: Hexinverter phase modulator. Inside, two rampwaves sists of a wavefolder with associated fee- Thanks to Erica Synths‘ redesign, this
Web: hexinverter.net work as core oscillators. This distinguishes dback path and an Amp section that can module has not disappeared into obscu-
Distrib: ericasynths.lv the module from most complex sound ge- work as a VCA or ring modulator. A soft rity as a rare piece, but remains available
Price: 539 Euro
nerators in the Eurorack, which normally clipping switch at the output of the wa- to everyone. Operation is intuitive. There
J Diverse sound palette rely on a triangle core. This is intended to veshaper provides additional grit. The is no menu, no key combination or dis-
J Thru-zero phase achieve a more stable Thru-Zero phase whole thing is animated either internal- play. Nevertheless, the module requires
modulation
modulation. The modulator has a large ly by the ramp or sine wave of the mo- a little familiarization time, because the
J Rough, unpolished
sound range that extends into the LFO range, dulator or by external sources. Thru-Zero possibilities are enormous. Mindpha-
J Classic, analog which is visually displayed on the panel. phase modulation takes place in the TZ- ser can sound both modern and classic.
waveforms In addition to coarse and fine tune con- PM bus, which operates independent- Metallic, cool FM sounds, noisy-atonal
J Price trols, both oscillators have inputs for V/ ly of the modbus. The pre-patched mo- and fat, analog warmth are all part of its
Sound variety: Oct as well as exponential and linear FM. dulation source here is the sine wave of repertoire. Brutal aggression and glassy
Concept: A Sync-In for the carrier, the option of the modulator. fragility - both can be created. The patch
Price/Perf: varying the pulse width of the Modulator‘s and the modulation are decisive. Des-
Total: squarewave and the switch for inverting Sounds until you drop pite its versatility, Industrial and Tech-
both rampwave outputs round off the In addition to the main output, which no systems are likely to benefit the most
oscillator section. outputs the signal after passing through from this module. Mindphaser has the
the Waveshaper and the TZ-PM bus, the potential to carry and dominate such
Modbus, waveshaper, square-, ramp-, triangle- and sine-out a rack, flanked by drums. Anyone who
TZ-PM bus – This is where of the modulator, as well as the square-, sees themselves there should immedia-
Alternatives the magic happens ramp- and triangle-out of the carrier are tely check out the Mindphaser. r
Cosmotronic – Vortex The modbus determines the waveform available. When fed back into the modu-
728 Euro of the modulator. Square, ramp and sine le, you have additional modulation op-
cosmotronic.nl are available for selection. These can tions. Complex, interwoven sounds are
Instruo – Cs-L be replaced by external sources via the created simply by processing, mixing
598 Euro CV-In. The index control acts as a mas- and overlaying the outputs in different
instruomodular.com ter controller for the five internally pre- ways. The architecture of the module is
Make Noise – DPO patched modulation targets. These are designed to tease out the maximum of
675 Euro marked with a triangle in front of the re- textures and overtones from the analog
makenoisemusic.com spective attenuator and, therefore, provi- oscillators. The calculation works. The Demo Video
72 • Beat 08 | 2024
ONSTAGE
Power Producer
1 2 3
Faster workflow Anchor percussion The transient form
Sound design is an important part of today‘s Load a percussion loop to the drums in a To attenuate the treble somewhat, set
EDM productions. With the help of Roar, you new track. Place an Autofilter with Lowcut the Filter Frequency Flt 1 Freq. to 5 kHz.
can tweak sounds in real time, change them con- Filter Type and a frequency around 500 Hz in Reduce the output by about -7.5 dB. To keep
tinuously and create a musically extraordinary the track. Load a Roar behind it. Increase drive the sound percussive, load a drum buss into
sound performance. So, a tip first: Group Roar to 8 dB and Shaper 1 Amt to 50%. Experiment the track as a transient shaper. Select a value
and map the parameters you use most frequent- with Shaper 1 Type. For example, select Fractal of -0.70 for Transients and adjust the track
ly to the Macros. 1 and use Shaper 1 Amt to control how strong the volume so that the percussion blends in well
signal distortion is. 1 with the drums. 1
4 5 6
Multiband distortion Adjusting the bands Modulation matrix
For the next application, select a track with Set Shaper 1 Amt to 44% and Filter 1 Freq In addition to manual changes, you can also
a synth pad. Load another Roar into the to 420 Hz. Set Shaper 2 Type to Noise, use Roar‘s extensive modulation matrix. To
track. Select the Input Section submenu and Shaper 2 Amt to 52% and Flt 2 Freq to 567 Hz modulate the filter frequency of the mid-band,
Multi Band under Routing. Set the crossover with a bandpass, that is, Flt 2 Type to Bp. Reduce select the Modulation submenu, for example,
frequency Low Mid X-Over to 460 Hz and Mid Shaper 2 Level to -10 dB. Set the following for Flt 2 Freq as the Modulation Target, and LFO 2
High X-Over to 1.5 kHz. In the Shaper submenu, Shaper 3: Shaper 3 Amt 41%, Flt 3 Freq 5.67 Amount to 18. Press the button above Go to LFO
select the Low, Mid and High bands for editing kHz. The individual bands can be temporarily 2, set LFO 2 Wave to Triangle, LFO 2 Rate Mode
under Stage Select. 1 muted via Stage On. 1 to Free and LFO 2 Rate to 0.23 Hz. r
Beat 08 | 2024 • 73
ONSTAGE
Music treasures
After 20 years in the business, the German Techno producer wanted to For a long time, Becker & Mukai – whose real names are Jean-Gabriel
present some of her most successful tracks from a different perspective. Becker and Susumu Mukai – worked on the tracks of their second
She gathered a variety of renowned remixers such as Paramida & E-Tal- album in East London. Collaborations were an important approach for
king, Radio Slave, JakoJako, Julian Muller, Cassy, Deetron, Erobique, this follow-up to their debut album „Time Very Near,“ with many tracks
Jaymie Silk, and Ackermann, and also did some reworking herself. The result is a double created with other artists such as Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip), Yama Warashi, Kadialy
album with 18 tracks that offer a wide musical variety. Of course, there‘s plenty of hard, Kouyate, and Fimber Bravo. Their backgrounds range from Electro to World Music,
driving Techno, as that‘s Anja‘s specialty. The cool Scubas D-U Mix of „WMF“ stands out resulting in a captivating sonic journey that spans Psychedelic, Dub, Ambient, Jazz, and
as a chic Drum’n’Bass number, while the Leafar Legov remix of „Belize“ is very chilled Electro to World Music. It‘s definitely experimental music, rhythmically and tonally
and relaxed. Things get funky in the Erobique mix of „Sanctuary,“ which was created in operating outside conventional listening habits and incorporating improvisation. Those
collaboration with Stereo MCs. A high-quality, consistently danceable double album who enjoy adventurous listening experiences will find plenty to be inspired by here.
that also provides a good cross-section of Anja‘s artistic output. Genre: Electro, Dub, World Music | Label: SaS Recordings
Genre: Techno | Label: Sous Music
74 • Beat 08 | 2024
SOFTBEAT
Clean up for macOS Sonoma
F
or many users, the installation of macOS Sono- 2 TB costs 690 Euro for the MacBook Pro, for ex- Show volume usage
ma is preceded by clearing out the startup disk. ample. With every further doubling of capacity, the Since Ventura, you can find the memory usage dis-
Most people are probably familiar with this surcharge also doubles. play in the system settings. For a quick overview,
problem: Over time, the Mac‘s internal mass stora- With a little discipline and tidying up from time open the „General“ section and then click on „Sto-
ge has secretly filled up with all kinds of data. You to time, you can save a lot of money when buying a rage“. Here, macOS displays the allocation of the
may not notice it during your daily work, but if you computer. And the effort involved is not as great as startup disk and the remaining available storage
have tasks that require a lot of free storage space, you might fear. space as a graphic. The sections of the memory bar
you need to tidy up first. This can be the download are color-coded to distinguish the individual file ty-
of movies for offline use, the transfer of a photo col- Create storage space pes such as documents, photos or programs. If you
lection or a major system update such as the one to In the following, we provide numerous tips on how move the mouse pointer over a part of the graphic,
macOS Sonoma. to create more free space on the start volume. The the Mac displays the respective size and file type.
With the switch from conventional hard disks measures are basically divided into two groups. The This will give you an initial idea of where it is par-
to SSDs, the problem has become even worse. Al- first step is the classic clean-up, that is, first analy- ticularly worth looking for memory hogs. If several
though they are much faster, they are also smaller. zing what is currently taking up storage space. The volumes are mounted, the „All Volumes“ button ap-
Nevertheless, it is worth installing an SSD, especi- main aim here is to find the big chunks and remove pears above the bar, which can be used to display
ally for older Macs. old, no longer needed files from the Mac. storage graphics for all volumes.
The second stage is intended to improve the si-
New Mac for Sonoma tuation in the long term. The aim is to optimize the
With current Macs with Apple chips, buyers no lon-
ger have any real choice. Anyone who buys a new
workstation, more precisely the organization of the
mass storage. This is because not all data needs to
BACK-UP
computer for Sonoma automatically gets an SSD, be constantly available on the start volume. You
which cannot simply be replaced. For cost reasons, can book additional space on cloud services, set Before cleaning up, we
many opt for the basic configurations with 256 or up an old Mac or NAS as a server or simply and strongly recommend
starting a backup run
512 GB of mass storage. Although larger versions inexpensively create an external archive for ra-
with Time Machine. This ensures
are available and are no longer quite as expensive rely used data on a USB hard disk. A great deal can that accidentally deleted data can
as they used to be, they still drive prices up con- often be achieved through manageable organiza- be restored.
siderably. The step from 512 GB to a comfortable tional changes.
Beat 08 | 2024 • 77
SOFTBEAT
Clean up for macOS Sonoma
OLD SYSTEMS
On systems up to macOS 12 (aka Monte-
rey), you can still access the functions
for cleaning up the startup disk via
„About this Mac“ in the Apple menu.
Switch to the „Hard Disks“ tab and click
on „Manage“.
1 2 3
Open „General > Storage“ in the system Under the graphic, the app offers recom- This is followed by the selection of individual
settings for an overview of the startup volume mendations for saving space. These include data types. Select one to check it and delete
allocation. Click on „All volumes“ above the automatically emptying the recycle bin, data. In „Documents“, for example, you can
graphic to display additional storage media. 1 using iCloud for documents or optimizations in search for large files and downloads. r
the TV app. 1
78 • Beat 08 | 2024
SOFTBEAT
Clean up for macOS Sonoma
Beat 08 | 2024 • 79
SOFTBEAT
Clean up for macOS Sonoma
Reduce local data You can activate the use of iCloud for photos in the local downloads via the context menu. If you work
One of the bad habits from the hard disk era is to Photos settings and the outsourcing of the standard with the data, the Mac automatically downloads it
collect all data on the internal mass storage de- folders „Desktop“ and „Documents“ in the iCloud again from the server. This works completely trans-
vice. As this is no longer up-to-date, a strategy for settings under „iCloud Drive“. Both offer the afore- parently without you having to do anything.
integrating external storage media is needed. The- mentioned „Optimize Mac Storage“ option to au- You can also work with Dropbox, Google Dri-
re are various options for this. The first choice for tomatically replace local copies with links to the ve, One Drive from Microsoft‘s Office subscriptions
Mac users is often iCloud, as they already have iCloud server when space is limited. In the iCloud and many other cloud services to provide additional
at least one free account to synchronize data Drive settings, you can also choose which apps are external storage space. These appear in the sidebar
from their own devices and use integration fun- allowed to create folders for their data there. iCloud under „Places“ and are usually well integrated into
ctions or other Apple services. With iCloud+, Drive appears as a separate area in the sidebar of the Finder.
more storage can be added to create space for a the Finder window. In addition to the various fol- Cloud services make it very easy to reduce the
large photo collection or documents on iCloud ders created by the system and apps, you can also load on a small boot volume. And in a price com-
Drive. For example, 200 GB costs 3 Euro per month, create your own folders there so that the Mac saves parison with Apple‘s surcharges for larger SSDs, the
2 TB costs 10 Euro (iCloud tariffs on page 38). them on iCloud. For all of them, you can remove the subscriptions for cloud storage are not bad at all.
1 2 3
Open „Apple ID > iCloud“ in the system Select „Change Storage Plan“ in the storage Click on „iCloud Drive“ in the first screen
settings. You can see how much space is used management to book iCloud+. It should be of the iCloud settings. Activate the entry
on your account. Click on „Manage“ for infor- 200 GB or 2 TB (for 3 or 10 Euro per month) for „Desktop & Documents“ to move your
mation on which apps are using it and to book to support the internal SSD noticeably. 1 folders of the same name to iCloud Drive. 1
more storage. 1
4 5 6
Make sure that the „Optimize Mac Storage“ Click on „iCloud Drive“ in the sidebar. Select You can also start the download of items
option is active under the graphics, so that items and choose „Remove Downloads“ in stored on the iCloud Drive manually. To do
macOS automatically removes the local the context menu to manually free up the this, click on the Cloud icon next to the file or
copies of files that have not been used for a long local storage used by files. 1 folder name or use the context menu. r
time from the SSD if there is a lack of space. 1
80 • Beat 08 | 2024
SOFTBEAT
Clean up for macOS Sonoma
Outsource data
An external USB drive is a classic option for additi-
onal external data storage. This can be a large hard
disk as a cheap data storage device or a fast SSD if
you often want to work directly with the files on the
external storage medium.
Large folders for which it is worth outsourcing
are the media libraries for music, TV and photos.
The apps can easily use an external volume. Howe-
ver, you will then have to do without the data when
you are on the move.
Anyone who produces large amounts of data at
work can outsource their archive of old projects. In
this case, not only the sheer volume of data speaks
against cloud storage, but also the confidentiality of
customer data in professional use. Attachments opened by email can take up a lot of space over time. They can be safely deleted if you know where they are.
1 2 3
Close the music app. The app‘s media library Open the music app and hold down the Music starts and shows the usual collection.
is normally located in the „Music“ folder in the [alt] selection button to activate the Music In the app settings, you can check whether
home directory. Search for the „Music“ folder Library in the new location. Click on „Select“ it is in the new location. If everything
and copy it to the external storage medium. 1 in the Start dialog and then open „Music > Music works, delete the old „Music“ folder from the
Library“ on the USB drive. 1 startup disk. r
Beat 08 | 2024 • 81
Beat 09 | 2024
available Aug. 2nd, 2024
Publisher (V.i.S.d.P.):
Kassian Alexander Goukassian (kg@falkemedia.de)
Editorial staff:
acoustics for recording? From comprehensive buying advice and reviews of all models to Daniel Bock, Laura Emiliano, Stefan Hofmann, Heiner Kruse,
Matthew Mann, Ruben Mantel, Paul Marx, Stefan Molz,
technical details and practical miking tips – our huge feature provides all answers you need Julian Schmauch, Frank Schreiber, Maya C. Sternel, Vera
Schumacher, Georg Berger, Igl Schönwitz
for the perfect recording of vocals, instruments and podcasts. Benefit from the experience of
renowned producers and find the perfect mic for you in our comparison with over 30 candidates. Editorial enquiries/Reader letters: redaktion@beat.de
Publisher:
Falkemedia GmbH & Co. KG
Pahlblöken 15-17
most affordable Oberheim synth available. In addition Data protection officer: Jürgen Koch
see Publishing House Address •
to classic Oberheim elements such as the SEM multi- Mail: datenschutzanfrage@falkemedia.de
mode filter, it offers a number of special features such
Subscription Support:
as Through-Zero-FM, sequencer and effects. falkemedia GmbH & Co. KG
Pahlblöken 15-17
24232 Schönkirchen
Germany
Phone: +49 (431) 200 766-0
info@falkemedia.de
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Purchase Possibilities:
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Photo: Maximilian König
Unit Price Euro 6.99
Annual Subscription: Euro 89.80
Foreign countries per issue plus 0.90 €.
The prices include the legal value added tax and delivery.
Test: Moog Spectravox Manuscript Submission: Manuscripts of any kind are gladly
accepted. They must be free of third party rights. By sending
With the Spectravox, Moog has added a vocoder/filter in the manuscript, the author agrees to the printing of the
manuscript on data carriers of the company Falkemedia.
bank to its compact, semi-modular and Eurorack-com- Sending in the manuscript does not guarantee publication.
Fees according to agreement or our AGB. The publisher does
patible instruments. Spectravox can not only generate not assume any liability for unsolicited manuscripts.
the classic vocal effects familiar from Kraftwerk & Co.
Copyright: All contributions published here are protected by
but can also be used to distort any audio source or as a copyright. Reproductions of any kind are only allowed with
the permission of the publisher.
stand-alone synthesiser. The freely patchable ten filter
bands and the option of replacing the internal oscillator Publications: All publications in this journal are made
without consideration of possible patent protection. Trade
with an external audio signal provide plenty of scope for names are used without guarantee of free use.
Applied Acoustics ........ 084 falkemedia ......... 005, 083, MusicLab ....................... 075
Audiowerk ..................... 065 ................................ 052-053 Sound Service .............. 037
FabFilter ........................ 002 Heckmann Audio ......... 059 Tascam ........................... 019
82 • Beat 08 | 2024 Subject to change due to current topics and delivery situations! ISSN 1866-3737
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