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...
ADAM FIELDING’S ORCHESTRAL VIBES
ADAM FIELDING on how he captured killer sounds with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra on his new record, ‘Icarus’...
“Most of my electronic production work takes place with a rather minimal set-up, of my computer and a copy of Reason. I’ve been using Reason for the best part of 12 years and I find it incredibly inspiring to use, though I do use Cubase and a plethora of plug-ins for additional sound design work and string composition. I composed some early string parts using Cubase and East West Quantum Leap’s Symphonic Orchestra software — these were pretty straightforward, and set the mood for what I was after, but nothing beats the sound of a live string recording. “I’d had this idea of writing an album that dealt with issues of light versus dark and a great rise followed by a great fall for quite a while, and ‘Icarus’ was the ideal embodiment of that. “Something I was very keen to do with the track and the record as a whole was to combine my electronic production style with more of an organic edge, to give it some warmth and a more human, very cinematic feel. Using a combination of the earlier parts I had written and some additional references, I worked with Pete Whitfield on arranging some live orchestral parts for the track. Pete was able to come up with a truly fantastic orchestral arrangement, swelling and contrasting in just the right places. These parts were performed and recorded by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, and upon receiving the final
Welcome to Plug-in Corner, our monthly exposé of some of the best plug-ins around for creating electronic music
sponsored by PLUG-IN: TURNADO
DEVELOPER: SUGARBYTES FORMAT: PRICE:
VST, AU AND AAX £101.53
recording session, I decided I needed to re-work ‘Icarus’ to bring out the strings a bit more. “Most of my electronic work is quite texturally dense, but the strings added such a huge emotional weight to the track that I felt like they deserved more attention. I stripped back the electronics, brought up the live instrumentation in the form of piano, vocals and guitars, and gave the strings space to breathe. The whole process took about a month. It really brought out that cinematic edge without taking away from the emotional clout I wanted, combining the emotional live instrumentation with the more polished, clinical electronic production.”
SAMPLE TANK: ‘LIVE HI HATS VOL.1’ SM101
THIS month’s offering is more of a utility library than a full-on track-creation pack. Sample Magic’s 101 series basically gives producers 101 samples that they can use within their productions. ‘Live Hats Vol.1’ serves up 101 live hi-hat loops expertly recorded and precision-cut to add irresistible funk and groove to beats and productions — regardless of the genre. The pack can be employed in any of the popular styles of dance music — breaks, deep house, disco, drum & bass, dubstep, garage, house, indie-dance, nu disco... the list goes on.
Using this pack is pretty simple: once the bare bones of a beat are programmed — kick, snare etc — it’s time to turn the attention to the hi-hats. Simply grab one of the loops and see if it works — as with all samples, they can be cut-up and re-arranged to suit a track. The loops have been recorded by one of the world’s most in-demand session drummers, so what users are getting is a real drummer on their productions. Definitely worth a peek.
SUGARBYTES make the amazing Cyclops bass plug-in, which is featured on many dancefloor fillers and is many a producer’s go-to soft synth for dynamic basslines. With this great heritage it’s no surprise that their Turnado plug-in has won the hearts of many dance music producers. Turnado is a tasty multi-effect tool, designed especially for real-time audio manipulation. It’s a great performance tool as well as perfect for studio applications. It is pretty easy to use and doesn’t take a virtual degree to operate — unlike some other sound manipulation plug-ins we could mention. It combines unique and dynamic effects with the most intuitive and immediate control, which makes using it a doddle. Simply turn it on and get messing about.
The idea is to keep the sound mashing process as easy and instant as possible, and this is achieved by just using one knob. Turn it on by twisting the knob, tweak it further to adjust effect parameters and apply modulations, and to calm it back down, simply turn the knob off to end the madness. Loading up the effects is pretty straightforward. There are eight effects slots under each of the eight knobs: simply drag one of the 24 effects presets onto the slots.Turnado does a great job of adding extra dimensions to audio, and is a worthy tool for serious dance music creation as well as live performances. All sorts of glitching, cut-ups, slow- downs, delays and more are available to really take sounds to the next level.
PRICE £14.90
CONTACT samplemagic .com
92
www.djmag.ca VERDICT 7.0/10 VERDICT 8/10
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