Music Tech Focus

Of course, we shouldn’t be encouraging anyone to rush music making. Production should be all about taking your time and tweaking every piece of the arrangement. Your mixes should be just right and you should spend time moulding them and perfecting ea

Hardware Software Mobile Technology Accessories Welcome to the MusicTech Focus Buyer’s Guide, where we round up some of the best products recently reviewed in the magazine. For the first installment, we have six of the best monitors for all price poi

Interviewee Tommy Jansson Contact tommy@talla3.com Web www.facebook.com/talla3production and www.talla3.com • Favourite Gear The FMD Electronics VOC-10 vocoder module. I use it a lot and it’s also the only one there is. I know that, as I built it 20

We all know DAWs are great at helping you put together music. Beats, basslines and leads can be produced easily with plug-in instruments in Logic. And the software also has ways to record external sounds and instruments in, of course it does. So far,

Imagine if there was a suite of plug-ins, held deep within Logic Pro, which could radically transform not only the sonic effectiveness of your mixing, but also your ability to navigate the mixing process. Where previously you might have struggled to

In 1999, hustling session player Will Gregory was introduced to backing vocalist Alison Goldfrapp and the electronic-pop duo Goldfrapp was born. Despite their now cult status, initial albums Felt Mountain and Black Cherry only vaguely registered with

MT: Clearly, you have quite a bit of modular gear. Is that new for this album? WG: I’m still a bit of a novice, but I like the fact that you can use not just the oscillator sounds, but some of the other processors. I quite often use filters and thing

So it kind of goes without saying that you need a computer at the hub of your studio these days, plus some decent software to record and sequence music. Then, you’ll need a microphone to get sound in via an interface, plus a set of monitors to listen

It is probably the question we get asked the most: ‘I have £XX amount of cash, and I want to make XX type of music, so what do I need to buy?’ The answer, of course, can vary, but we think we have narrowed down some pretty good ideas of studio setups

SOFTWARE: Korg Gadget £38.99 Gadget put iOS electronic music making on the map with its superb touch sequencing and vast array of synths and drum machines. It is, quite simply, one of the best DAWs out there and now available for Macs. Gadget allows

SOFTWARE: GarageBand £2.99 Yes, it’s GarageBand again – see earlier for the full reason why! www.apple.com SPEAKERS: Presonus Eris 4.5 £150 With a band on the road, we’d probably recommend headphones for production, especially if your iPad is the cen

With so many people all using the same tools to create electronic music, it’s becoming harder and harder to stand out from the crowd, which is why creativity is your greatest weapon. Whether subtle or extreme, most modern club music favours some form

Perefecting the bass end of your mix can be one of the hardest parts of the mixing process, either resulting in a muddy, ill-defined low-end, or a mix that lacks the rock-solid foundation of a professional recording. Although it’s easy to think of on

The most basic Template requirement is to set up both MIDI and audio channels with your favourite instruments or samples. This will give you a good starting point, as you’ll know you have a decent armoury already installed and ready to get producing

Some might say that using technology to make music is already ‘cheating’. We say to those people: “No way, leave us alone and take your chastising elsewhere. Is using a phone cheating at ‘making a conversation’? Of course it isn’t, it’s using technol

Hardware Software Mobile tech Accessories Details Kit BT Phobos Developer Spitfire Audio Price £209 (normally £269) Contact via website Web www.spitfireaudio.com Minimum system requirements 2.8GHz i5 (dual core), 8GB RAM, 35GB free HD space Mac OS 10

Details Manufacturer Korg Price $299 Contact www.korg.com System requirements Installer size 3.91GB Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite Intel Core 2 Duo (Core i5 or better recommended) 4GB RAM (8GB or more recommended) 7GB free disk space (SSD recommended) Key F

Details Manufacturer UVI Price €349 (£268 - based on current exchange rate) Contact via website Web www.uvi.net Key Features • Complex virtual synthesiser • Plenty of synth capability and modulation possibilities • Mac/PC versions • AU/VST/AAX plug-i

Details Manufacturer Heavyocity Price $199 Contact www.heavyocity.com Minimum system requirements PC: Windows 7 Mac: OSX 10.8 Pro Tools 10.3.5, Live 9, Cubase 8, Logic Pro X (10.2.4), DP9 iLok account (no USB dongle required) Key Features • 3 choices

Details Manufacturer IK Multimedia Price $299.99 (download)/$229 (USB drive/boxed) €299.99 Contact via website Web www.ikmultimedia.com System requirements Mac OS X 10.9 or higher; Windows 7, 8, or 10; 4GB RAM (8GB suggested) Key Features • Physicall

Details Manufacturer Plugin Alliance/Black Box Analog Design Price $249 Contact via website Web www.pluginalliance.com Minimum system requirements Windows 7, Intelcompatible CPU with SSE2 instruction set (P4-compatible or higher, min 2GHz recommended

Details Manufacturer Wave Alchemy Price £149.95 Contact via website Web www.wavealchemy.com Minimum system requirements Kontakt Player 5.6.5 or Kontakt 5.6.5 Mac OS X 10.10 Intel Core 2 Duo Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10 (latest Service Pack, 32-

Details Manufacturer Faderfox Price €549 Contact www.faderfox.de System requirements PC or Mac with USB 1.0 or above. Or any USB hub Key Features • USB or mainspowered MIDI controller • Dimensions: 290x220x55 mm • Weight: 1.6KG • 68 knobs, 8 buttons,

Details Manufacturer MeldaProduction Price $108 Contact info@meldaproduction.com Web www.meldaproduction.com Minimum system requirements Mac OS X 10.6 32-/64-bit VST/VST3/ AU/AAX host Windows XP/ Vista/7/8/10 32-/64-bit VST/VST3/ AAX host Key Feature

Details Kit Loopcloud Manufacturer Loopmasters Price £Free! Contact via website Web www.loopmasters.com Key Features • Sample management plug-in • Search by genre type, label, format, instrument and key • Free 1GB of content when you join • Runs as a