Computer Music

It’s time to celebrate the polysynth! Let’s be clear, that pretty much encompasses every synth you use on your computer. What we once called a polysynth is essentially any synth where you can play more than a single note simultaneously. Today, we’re

Of course, all synths we use at Computer Music are polysynths at heart, simply because computer processing is now up to speed to deliver as many notes as you can physically play for any plugin you load up. However, you can trace a lot of our current

cm: Firstly we must talk about StageOne 2. It’s such a 21st century plugin, with its superb stereo visualiser and the smart phase recovery algorithm really changing the game for a lot of people. Was saving people time and headaches a big motivation w

This year’s NAMM show brought an intriguing array of product launches to the table… NAMM 2024 had a lot riding on it, being the first fully-fledged January show since the pre-pandemic era. The industry collectively pondered whether the NAMM show woul

As we’ve seen, throughout the first half of the 1980s, polyphony crept up, but it didn’t really hot up until the invention of multitimbrality. This then gave rise to the synth workstation, the second kind of polysynth that we’re including in this fea

As the imminent release of Ableton Live 12 makes the inevitable waves, we all begin to focus on our new favourite features, things that we just know will become part of our daily workflow. Then, there are the additions which have less widespread appe

As seasoned music technology journalists, we’ve been very much writing about the separate worlds of hardware and software polysynths over the last two decades. They’ve long been very different beasts in terms of cost, with hardware, and, especially v

In many ways Falcon is the greatest software polysynth… and sampler… and effects box. All the power does cost, it’s not the prettiest, and you need a large monitor to get the best from it. And yes, it does pretty much everything with a layer hierarch

From the brilliant and warped mind of Dawesome (aka Peter V) comes a synth that stands out from most of our choices by trying very deliberately to do something different. Here we get ‘Strangely Attractive’ oscillators, and a fantastic UI that makes A

It’s rare for any new video game to receive near-unanimous praise, but in the case of Alan Wake 2, Remedy Entertainment’s follow-up to 2010’s underrated action/horror thriller, the prevailing giddy response was justified. Centred around the titular A

Billie Eilish and her producer/songwriter brother Finneas have been the success stories of 21st century pop music. They have won multiple Grammys, an Oscar for the theme to the 25th Bond film No Time to Die, and countless other awards, the most recen

When it comes to lead synth sounds of the last 50 years, the patch described as ‘oscillator sync’ is about as iconic as it gets. Created by synchronising the pitch of one oscillator against another, while also modulating the pitch of the secondary os

The Swedish DJ producer Tim Bergling – aka Avicii – was one of those musicians whose careers were cut far too short. But he’ll always be remembered for crafting unforgettable melodies. A lot can be learned by studying Avicii’s melodies and using his

A mixing technique that’s commonly mentioned but not always understood is submixing. This technique groups audio signals together prior to the main mix bus and can help balancing and mix cohesion. Long before DAWs with massive track counts became the

It’s becoming increasingly common to find electronic artists and creatives having a hand in the development of the types of creative tools they themselves want to use. It’s often the case that those questing, idea-filled creatives are used as the ori

Whether you know it or not, it’s a pretty safe bet to assume that you’ll have heard a Moog synth playing a bass sound somewhere on a recording at some stage in your listening life. From modulars to Sub Phatty, via the Minimoog and the legendary Tauru

Ever since Toontrack premiered EZDrummer nearly 25 years ago, it’s carved a unique path. The upgrade provided by the next-level Superior Drummer suite has extended drum sampling to new heights, with ever-more packed in via their SDX expansion packs.

Every type of hardware synthesiser has now been emulated in software and Falcon 3 is pretty much every type of synthesiser under one roof. The nearest hardware comparisons are perhaps the all-conquering workstation synths from the likes of Yamaha and

Native Instruments’ Kontrol keyboards were incredibly ground-breaking when they were released nine years ago. The idea has been to get control of your software ‘off-computer’ – to be able to select plugins and tweak parameters using keyboards rather

Mixing and mastering plugins have completely revolutionised how we produce music. But one of the most significant enhancements in mixing related plugins has undoubtedly been the rise of products which can assist you with troublesome elements, such as

UltraSpace (AU, VST) from Tone2 is a multi-effect plugin designed to provide all aspects of space simulation. It’s super flexible and normally retails for $79, but this month it’s yours absolutely free. Tone2 are best known for their excellent synth

We ordered some delicate guitar textures and that’s just what we got. Robbie from Cyclick explains his approach… “Electric guitars are highly textural instruments, especially when treated to heaps of compression, EQ, reverb, modulation, pitch-shiftin

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Follow along with the video as we dive into this extraordinary free reverb, which retails for £55! Read the full article from p84 Our resident music production gurus walk you through their specialist field every month Read the full article on p52

Next issue, we go beyond the typical applications of reverb and illuminate how turning a little off-road can create unnatural, mind-bending effects. Our tutorial-packed guide spans many ways that reverb can be harnessed to explode your track’s potent