words ALEX BLANCO
TECHPRODUCER
MIX DOCTOR
Every month, we pluck a track from our
forums at
djmag.com and our Mix Doctor
We reveal some handy tips and tricks to help you on the
gives it a medical. For your check-up, surf to
the Pick ‘n’ Mix section and check out the
road to wicked productions...
Mix Doctor sticky for instructions.
SI MORGAN
KIll
Er S
OU
nd
S
‘Sunstream’
http://forum.djmag.com/viewtopic.
How t
o creat
e the fr
eshes
t sounds
OUT OF TIME EFFECT
php?p=117330#117330
on the dancefloor
...
HAiLiNg from the on different instruments.
‘Sunstream’, by Si Morgan, is a perfect
Californian village of Win- Alternatively, you can even
example of a track that is built on solid
netka, Flying Lotus has groove-map Flying Lotus’s
enough components but still sounds dated.
been hailed as a modern beats and extract the
We’re not saying everybody should just
innovator thanks to his au- quantise using ReCycle and
emulate the big sounds of the moment but
dio experiments in glitchy, Reason or Logic.
if a track made in 2008 sounds like it was
atmospheric, instrumental Occasionally, with bleeps
made in 2000 then it needs to go back to
hip-hop. and other non-percussive
the drawing board.
One of the defining char- sounds the timing might
Driven by one main percussion loop, which
acteristics of the Flying vary at seemingly randomly
sounds like it was lifted from a section that
Lotus sound is the wonky points.
had the snare roll coming in, creates the
and seemingly out of time
effect of the snare constantly bubbling
aesthetic. By using beats Next, add a glitchy vibe
away underneath. It’s an interesting effect
in unusual but consist- by using noisy samples
and adds a sense of urgency from the off.
ently spaced places — for — ideally those with hiss
But Si never capitalises on this and the
example, a snare ride placed and turntable crackle on
listener is left feeling short-changed.
further forward or backward them — and then chop up
In fact, the whole arrangement needs more
than the normal placement those samples and shorten
attention. A trippy, tribal progressive epic
— Flying Lotus creates his them so that there are silent
with some nice moments, ‘Sunstream’ still
own tripped-out, almost gaps in between the dirty
feels like a collection of loops rather than a
hallucinogenic time effect. samples, adding more of a
complete track — it lacks any real
groove and accentuating the
evolution.
The easiest way to emulate crackle.
A more varied and eventful arrangement is
this is to use extreme Distortion and saturation
Flying Lotus
needed, as well as some more current
channel delay settings effects won’t hurt either.
sounds and percussion. Some extra
processing and FX would also lift the track
up.
But all of this could be done in a session or
SAMPLE TANK: KORE ELECTRONIC EXPERIENCE
two. And as Morgan clearly has an ear for a
good sound, there is no reason why this
won’t be a top track when it’s finished.
gRAB A HOLD of ‘Kore Electronic Experience’ — a edge sounds without having to tackle the black
fat selection of seven soundpacks that includes art of sound synthesis in itself.
Deep Transformations, Transient Attacks, Massive Expect exotic soundscapes from Absynth and a
Expansion, Synthetic Drum Reloaded, Best of full complement of bleeps from Reaktor. Both
Absynth and Best of Reaktor, as well as the Kore can be daunting for beginners so the limited
Player. A free voucher comes with the pack and can control section can be a blessing in disguise for
be used to order any other Kore soundpack free of that very reason. The selection of eight knobs
charge. and buttons is enough to explore a range of
Having reviewed several of the packs already, we quality sounds without ever getting lost.
put three new ones to the test — Best of Absynth,
PRICE
Best of Reaktor and Reaktor: Animated Circuits, Animated Circuits offers a bunch of self-playing
£169
which we claimed with the voucher. sequences — some organic sounding and some
VERDICT
The ‘Best Of’ packs both contain 200 sounds, each gloriously electronic in nature. Some patches
CONTACT
with eight interesting variations on the theme. also have a pitch control and pattern randomisa-
nativeinstruments.
They give users instant access to complex, cutting- tion for relative degrees of chaos or order.
com
5/5
108
www.djmag.com
DJ470.tech_producer.indd 108 16/1/09 16:03:11
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