words: MICK WILSON TECHPRODUCER
We reveal some handy tips and tricks to help you on the road to wicked productions...
Killer SoundS How to create the freshest sounds
on the dancefloor... PIEMONT’S LIVE FLAVOUR
GERMAN tech house specialists and label bosses Piemont are back with a new EP on their own Suchtreflex imprint, ‘Cool Arrival’. This is how they get their killer sound…
“In fact, we started our musical ‘career’ as guitarists and singers in various rock bands about 10 years ago. Although these bands weren‘t successful at all, the musical experiences during these years were still very important to us, and a huge inspiration when producing new tracks. “That‘s why we often start to create a new tune by simply jamming on an instrument. Once we have the right chords or melodies, we record them or start replaying them on synths. First of all, you get much better grooves when using real percussion instead of clicking notes on the screen. Using a real bongo, for instance, is just more spontaneous, creative and fun. Among other things, we recently bought a snare drum, which is perfect for discovering new grooves and creating flashy drum fills. As we don’t want to destroy the characteristics of the grooves, we use iterative or humanized quantization, or don’t quantize them at all. Too much quantization usually kills the charm of a track. “We do use a large number of plug-ins. Mostly emulations of vintage and old school synths from Moog and ARP instruments. We also use several plug-ins from Ableton Live. We use Live because of its intuitive editing options for sample material. For extra production slickness, we’ve started to run the synths back through hardware pre-amps. We re-record these to ‘warm-up’ the digital audio signals coming from software-based sound sources. What you get is a first-class analogue sound right out of the box.”
SAMPLE TANK:CliCksound Cassettro ‘dubstep Midi eleMents Vol.1’
CLICKSOUND are a relatively new name on the block when it comes to sample libraries, but it is here that they do something slightly different. Instead of the usual array of samples and loops, they utilise software like Ableton Live and soft-synths like Native Instruments’ Massive to create the samples and sounds that can be used in productions. Cassettro’s ‘Dubstep MIDI Elements Vol.1’ is one example of this new approach that Clicksound have taken. Clicksound’s various ‘sample packs’ are created using MIDI templates, which load up straight into Live, Logic or any DAW that producers might be using. The one minute MIDI templates make up what would commonly be known as construction kits, the bare bones of a track; Dynamic Drums, Screaming Leads, Phat Basses, FX and so on. This gives the producer the tools to start to create tracks by incorporating parts of the loops. Alternatively, producers can use whole segments or even rearrange the MIDI notes into a pattern that fits their tunes. It’s the first of many templates created exclusively for Clicksound by Cassettro, and the sounds that he has made for this pack stack up against any other full-blown sample library. The beauty in this is that users can change the virtual synths used in Live to create new variations of the sounds: almost infinite possibilities. What you’re missing with regards to physical samples you gain in the fact that there are endless permutations of sounds to be created just by using various soft-synths and presets, or even hardware synths connected to the DAW via MIDI. A concept worth a look at, especially for the price.
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www.djmag.com
Welcome to Plug-in Corner, our monthly exposé of some of the best plug-ins around for creating electronic music
sponsored by PLUG-IN: PRICE: PHOSCYON
DEVELOPER: D16 GROUP FORMAT:
RTAS, VST, AUDIO UNITS AND STANDALONE $44.30
D16 GROUP has paid homage to the little silver box that started the whole acid craze — none other than the Roland TB-303. The sound that was made commonplace by Phuture’s ‘Acid Trax’, to this day it’s often emulated, but never quite equalled in terms of the sonic quality of the actual sound. D16’s Phoscyon goes some way to recreating this classic sound, and for a price that beggars belief. To buy an original version of the TB-303, it would now set you back anywhere in the region of $2000! The Phoscyon comes in for less than $50, but with a host of added extras too. D16’s Phoscyon takes its visual lead from Roland’s hardware design. The representation of the knobs is just like the original TB-303’s, but D16 have added a few more parameters, so there are a lot more buttons on the soft-synth version. It looks vintage, with the controls of the plug-in all being available to hand. As a clone it sounds remarkably similar to the original, and one would be hard pressed to tell the difference in squelchy sounds, but the fact it has new features such as an arpeggiator means that the sound of the plug-in can sound drastically different from the original 303, which opens up the Phoscyon for other uses than merely just a 303 impersonator. In use there were no performance problems, just nice detailed sound that had substance and depth. To get users up and running the plug-in comes with some presets all ready to use. The more technically minded can program their own riffs akin to the original manner of the 303 or simply record a phrase in your sequencer and get the Phoscyon to play it back. The user can then add all those resonance and filter controls that make the now-famous acid sound. Just add beats, and enjoy.
pluginboutique.com
VERDICT 7/10
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VERDICT 7.5/10 PRICE
$20.14 CONTACT
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