Music Tech Magazine - Issue 104

Alternative uses for distortion explored, vintage compressors and today’s counterparts, Logic Pro, Reason 6 and Ableton Live Workshops, Metropolis engineer Sam Wheat interviewed, the latest reviews, industry news and more.

Publish date: 19 October 2011

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In the issue…

Music Tech Issue 103 Cover

Features
Creative Distortion
Traditionally the territory of the electric guitarist and the bane of the engineer’s life, distortion is now a staple studio tool that’s found its space in many genres of music . We explore some unusual and interesting applications for this versatile effect.

New vs Vintage Compressors
A vital part of every studio’s signal path, the humble compressor has appeared in myriad forms that attract awe and mystique in equal measure. Huw Price explains why.

Studio Icons: EQP-1A
Still going strong at 60 years old, the EQP-1A is a legendary tone-shaping design that has yet to be equalled. John Pickford explains why.

The MTM Interview: Sam Wheat
Tracking and mixing live is nothing new, but recording it all direct to vinyl while simultaneously shooting for TV is pretty impressive. MTM finds out more…

Ten Minute Master
Audio Plug-ins
Audio plug-ins offer us a dizzying array of virtual studio technology, from vintage compressors to cutting-edge synths. Mark Cousins gets connected.

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This Month’s Workshops
25 Tips For… Programming
From MIDI to audio, there are a variety of tips and tricks that can help you to execute your ideas more successfully and keep you out of trouble. Liam O’Mullane shares his favourites…
Special Effects in Live 8
Live is a fast and creative environment for audio tracking – and this is also the case when it comes to sound design, too. Liam O’Mullane shows you how.
Logic Pro: Reversed Sounds
There’s a lot more to reversed sounds than hidden Satanic messages, especially with a DAW as powerful as Logic. Mark Cousins shows you why and how…
Reason 6: Composing with Blocks
Blocks are a great way to quickly build up tracks – and now, in Reason 6, they also enable you to incorporate audio parts, as Hollin Jones explains.

Reviews
New products coming under the eyes of Music Tech’s experts this month include Propellerhead’s much-anticipated Reason 6, Steinberg’s RND Portico Plug-ins, the Novation Impulse 49, Radial’s Workhorse 5000, the Generic Audio Compactor, Thermionic Culture’s Phoenix Mastering Plus and the new budget DAW from Cakewalk - Music Creator 6.

ON THE DVD - 4GB of Content!

Vintage Electric Keys (1.19GB)
This month’s pack from the samples masters at PinkNoise Studio features seven electric piano instruments with additional distorted patches to give a lo-fi, vintage vibe. The sounds have been hand-crafted using a Korg MicroX and Nord Modular G2X, plus some subtle processing courtesy of the Fairchild compressor, Neve 1081 EQ, Roland Dimension D and CE-1 Chorus UAD plug-ins. On the disc you’ll find 24-bit/44.1 and 24-bit/96kHz versions, plus a number of ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ patches for Kontakt and Reason. The dirty Reason patches combine the Combinator and the Scream 4 distortion module, and for those lucky enough to own the new Reason 6 there are bonus patches that utilise the new Pulveriser sound-crunching effect.

Tech House Construction Kits (164MB)
The bouncing sounds of tech house are proving massively popular in clubs around the globe as hungry clubbers search for the middle ground between house and electro – and our friends at Equinox Sounds have put together four construction kits for producing tech house tracks. In each folder you’ll find full-mix audio plus component parts covering kick drums, percussion, deep basses and progressive synth riffs. Each folder is also labelled with tempo from 125–128BPM, although you can easily time-stretch these samples as they are provided in ACID WAV as well as Apple Loops formats.

Reason Instruments Explained (52 minutes)
All eyes are on Reason at the moment following the release of version 6, which has some tasty new features. One thing that remains the same, though, is Reason’s solid collection of virtual synths, samplers and drum machines. The experts at Groove 3 have provided over 50 minutes of video taken from their Reason Instruments Explained Volumes 1 & 2 tutorials. Topics include an overview of the instruments, selecting and playing instruments, assigning controls, using patches, the Thor synth and using the effects in Kong. To view the videos in hi-res, download the files from the disc and click on the relevant ‘gPlayer’.

Producting in Live, Cubase & Logic (44 minutes)
If you’re after concise dance music production courses, check out Point Blank Online, who offer a range of four-week internet-based courses (on page 100 you’ll find a competition to win a place on a Cubase, Logic or Ableton Live course of your choice). We’ve got tasters from several Point Blank Online courses including the new Deep House Ableton Pro Producer course. There are six videos in total, covering the Novation Launchpad and creating a sample montage with Live, beat-analysis and the binaural panning plug-in in Logic, plus scale correction and vocal cutups in Cubase. Download the files from the disc to view all six videos in high resolution.

Prime Loops Taster Pack (180MB)
The prolific team at Prime Loops has put together a tasty selection of cutting-edge samples taken from seven of the company’s latest releases. First up there are bouncing house beats and riffs with the Masters Of Funky House pack reviewed in this month’s Mini Reviews. You’ll also find massive sweeps and effects with Epic Build-Ups & Breakdowns, heavily effected robot voices with Hyper Vocals, jump-up dubstep beats, hits and synth stabs with Ravestep, plus an array of urban riffs and drum loops taken from the Southside Kings, Urban Ikonz and Urban Kandy packs.

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Ableton Live 8 Ableton Live 8 Deutsch Native Instruments Mastering Mastering Deutsch Logic Pro 8 Guitar Tech Propellerhead Reason Cubase Pro Tools Ableton Live 7 Music Tech Masterclass

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