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NEW RELEASES > COMMENT > INDUSTRY HAPPENINGS
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15 questions with… Suki Sou
Musician, sound designer and radio presenter Suki Sou may have a studio full of bespoke hardware and software that denotes a precision-based mindset, but she’s also big on adaptability. And her music – influenced by everyone from Raymond Scott to Joanna Brouk, Aphex Twin to Teresa Teng – puts that multifaceted approach on show
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ARRANGE TRACKS LIKE A PRO
Taking the time to work up your sketches into fully-fledged tracks can be a tricky process. That’s why it’s important to understand how an effective arrangement works to take listeners on a journey…
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What’s your goal?
Writing an effective arrangement starts with determining just where you’re aiming your track
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Ways of working
Although the default for arrangement might be DAW-based, other alternative routes can stimulate fresh angles…
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Elements
The vast majority of arrangements orient around the same key structure…
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The song’s structure – writing drama
Treating your track like a narrative journey is key to holding attention
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Excitement-building plugins
Are your track’s energy levels low? These tools can help…
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15 questions with… Tom Salta
Not content with being one of the video game industry’s most acclaimed composers, Tom Salta has turned his attention to plugin development, with the wonderful Auto-Bounce taking the sting out of finalising Logic productions. We spoke to Tom about this life-saving new tool and what motivates his creativity…
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#27Make a Gorillaz‑style synth string patch
This month, we use a retro sound in an über-contemporary setting, as our synth strings get the Gorillaz treatment
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#07Gain staging
Being in control of your levels is a vital aspect of mixing, but how should we approach this when mixing in the box?
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MANON GRANDJEAN
From working to bring Stormzy’s decade-defining debut to life to switching tracks from studio engineer to mixing specialist, Manon Grandjean’s expertise has been widely acclaimed by the industry. Following a trio of MPG Award wins, Manon is now keen to expand her career into new areas. We caught up with Manon to learn more about her studio work, and glean some insight on how to make it as a mix engineer…
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Cherry Audio Mercury-6 $69
Cherry Audio’s latest softsynth arrives from the orbit of Mercury, with vintage stimulus from one of the biggest gas giants of them all
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JMG Sound Retronaut $95
Promising to infuse the crackle of yesteryear into your tracks, Retronaut goes beyond its lo-fi headline to deliver thrilling sound-shaping abilities
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Digit Music Cmpsr £299
A hardware controller that merges accessibility, music, and gaming practices into something everybody can use… with a very large joystick!
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Image-Line FL Studio 21 £85 to £409
FL Studio 21 is not celebrating a birthday, as the previous version did, but is introducing some significant additions to this most popular of DAWs
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Toontrack EZKeys Synthwave & EZX Expansion $79/€89
Want your track to sound like it was birthed in the technicolor 80s? Toontrack are on hand, transporting us to when synths ruled the waves
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Sonora Cinematic Harmonic Bloom £119
Bloom is all about extracting harmonics and chaotic waveforms based on noise… but fortunately, it’s a lot better than that sounds
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Polyverse Supermodal $99
By using 27 models – ranging from physical bodies to maths formulae – Supermodal could well be the filter you didn’t know you need
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W.A. Production KSHMR Reverb $49.99
Globally acclaimed music producer KSHMR collaborates with W.A. Production to deliver his first reverb plugin with many distinctive features
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Spectrasonics Twisted Trees Sonic Extension $149
If you go down to the woods today, you’ll be surprised to find a sound-designer not so much hugging trees as hitting and twisting them!
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MODALICS EON-ARP
If your synth arpeggios just aren’t cutting it, this month’s giveaway could be just what you need
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Distorted and Mangled
This month, we’ve smashed, crunched and tortured a number of sources to create two packs of gritty goodness. Download from bit.ly/cm322downloads
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Classic samples Transition Tools
As we’re exploring the depths of arrangement this month, we felt it was a perfect time to give our Transition Tools a second airing…
