This is the latest Max for Live device from Point Blank which currently is only compatible with Live 9. The kick drum designer is based on some of the techniques we cover in the Ableton Sound design course when looking at Operator, and synthesises bass drums by using a series of envelopes to modulate the pitch and amplitude of basic waveforms.

In this video we explore the main features of the kick drum designer and also look at how to install a Max for Live plugin in Live 9. The device features an integrated preset system and a morphing slider which allows you to morph between the different presets for some interesting sonic potential.

There’s also a resonant filter to further help sculpt the sound and add variation, check out the video for a full demonstration of its capabilities.

Click on this link to ‘like’ our Facebook page and activate the download! 

The post Point Blank’s Weekly Tutorial – FREE Max for Live Download appeared first on MusicTech.

By comparison to Eve Audio’s SC205, the greater internal volume of the rear-ported bass-reflex enclosure and the larger woofer of the SC207 combine to extend the bass response down an extra 9Hz, to 44Hz.

This 6.5-inch SilverCone woofer has a honeycomb structure and glass fibre coating for maximum stiffness. It’s driven by a sophisticated magnet system with a 1-inch voice coil to optimise linear excursion and dynamic range.

The resemblance between Eve’s folded ribbon tweeter and those featured in Adam monitors isn’t merely skin-deep – Eve company founder Roland Stenz was a co-founder of Adam (in charge of production and finances though not product design or R&D) in 1999 and remained with the company until 2010. This RS2 AMT (Air Motion Transformer) ribbon tweeter was designed and manufactured specifically for Eve monitors and features a bigger front plate and a larger magnet.

A PWM amplifier with built-in limiters to protect the drivers provides 50 watts for the tweeter and 100 watts for the woofer – so it’s 50 watts up on the SC205. Of course, it’s not so much about maximum volume but rather pre-distortion headroom. Headroom is important because you’ll experience greater clarity and less ear fatigue. Eve claims a maximum output level of 106dB (SPL@1m), which should be more than enough for any project studio.

Between the analogue inputs (RCA and XLR) and the re-emergence of the sound waves into the physical world, the signal is processed digitally. Burr-Brown converters handle the transformation from A to D, after which the signal can be manipulated by Eve’s DSP engine before entering the PWM amplifier stages.

This onboard processing has enabled Eve to install an ingenious multi-function control knob on the front panel. It switches the SC205s in and out of standby mode (where it idles at 1-watt power consumption) and provides access to several different filter settings to tailor the response to your working environment.

Filter Fun

Press the knob once and the volume ramps up gradually. This is a nice safety feature, plus they ramp down on switch-off, too; the LEDs illuminate up to the preset volume level. Press the knob again and the High LED lights up, and you can move the knob to select High, Desk or Low. Press the knob once more and you can adjust the levels at four pre-selected frequency bands.

It has to be said that setting the frequency response using a front-mounted control with clear metering was a real treat for us – far better than having to climb over a pile of gear to peer at tiny DIP switches. We found the ‘Desk’ midrange cut superb and the SC207s integrated into our monitoring system seamlessly with a further 1.5dB of treble filtering.

Verdict

+ All controls on front panel

+ Impressive low-end weight

+ Transparent acoustic quality

+ No port-chuffing

+ Nice and loud

+ Ease of use

+ Standby mode

- Best placed away from walls and corners

A fine-sounding pair of monitors with excellent sound quality and über-convenient and practical front-panel controls.

9/10 

For the full review pick up issue 123, or subscribe here, download the app version from here.

The post Eve Audio SC207 Review appeared first on MusicTech.

Given the potential for large, custom-designed GUIs and an almost infinite number of parameters, it’s surprising to note how rare it is to find a plug-in developer really exploiting the possibilities offered by computer-based signal processing.

Despite a raft of major plug-in developers chasing the allure of modelling past glories, there is a dedicated group of audio pros pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved in the virtual domain. One such team is DMG Audio’s Dave Gamble and Krzysztof Oktalski, who have produced a series of plug-ins that attempt to reinvent conventional signal processing tools – such as compression and EQ – for the modern age.

The two plug-ins we’re looking at here are DMG’s EQuilibrium and Compassion, which are available both as a bundle and as single plug-ins. Common to both tools is keen attention to detail, and a wealth of parameters covering every angle. Despite their apparent complexity, though, the clean design of the GUIs is both approachable and informative, offering levels of control and visual feedback few other plug-ins can match.

Software Squeeze

On first use, Compassion looks and feels much like any other software-based compressor. The principal parameters – Threshold, Ratio, Attack and Release – are familiar enough, although we were pleased to note the inclusion of a wet/dry control for parallel compression effects. Its deeper qualities, however, are hinted at by the real-time waveform display, which provides an immediate visual guide as to where and how the gain reduction is taking place. In particular, the red-and-green colour-coding enables you to see the interaction between the attack and release, making it easy to determine where the compressor starts to distort at wave level.

Tooled Up

Whether you’re looking to move beyond the signal-processing tools offered in your DAW or want to augment your plug-ins folder with a precise and flexible set of mixing tools, we’d wholeheartedly recommend DMG Audio’s offerings. For the money, few other developers offer this degree of sonic flexibility coupled with such a user-friendly interface, all of which make both Compassion and EQuilibrium powerful tools when placed in the right hands.

Verdict

+ Detailed sonic tools

+ Impressive operational flexibility

+ Informative metering

+ Clean and focused sound

- Steep learning curve

-  Editability rather than immediacy

DMG Audio’s no-compromise approach is a real hit for those who like sonic detail and flexibility, but it might challenge those who prefer a one-button solution.

9/10

The post DMG Audio EQuiiibrium and Compassion Review appeared first on MusicTech.

When it comes to picking a vocal microphone for recording, most engineers will insist on testing several different models to find the one that best suits the vocalist and the song. However, live engineers rarely have the time to test a bunch of microphones with each vocalist, and house engineers in particular will usually simply stick with one mic that they know well and that works across a wide range of vocalists and styles. This is why, despite considerable advances in hand-held vocal microphones, the humble Shure SM58 still reigns supreme onstage. 

Audio-Technica’s ATM510 is a cardioid dynamic microphone designed for live vocal use. It comes with a leather carry case and a mic clip. Audio-Technica has designed a new internal shockmount system to reduce handling noise. The capsule has a neodymium magnet, which Audio-Technica claims produces a high output while being lighter than alternative magnets. Less mass in the capsule means better transient response and the grille is a multi-stage design that the company claims produces excellent protection against plosives and sibilance without compromising high-end clarity.

The New Contender

In a head-to-head with an SM58 on male vocals, the ATM510 demonstrated a more clear upper midrange. The slightly nasal character of the SM58 was replaced with a more open, smooth-sounding vocal. The top end seemed to really open up the vocal by comparison to our SM58, producing a distinctly more hi-fi sound. It made the SM58 seem small-sounding and a little saturated during louder sections.

King of the Stage?

If you’re a house engineer considering a workhorse vocal mic, the ATM510 is a great choice. The voicing is similar to an SM58, which means you should be able to use it on a wide variety of vocalists and visiting techs will be able to get great sounds out of it quickly.

If you’re a vocalist looking to buy your own mic to tour with then the ATM510 should definitely be on your shortlist. The differences between this and the SM58 are subtle, and the slightly more open characteristics might not be to everyone’s taste, but this is certainly a mic with class. If you can, try to find a store that stocks this and several other hand-helds and see which one best suits your voice and budget.

Verdict

+ Inexpensive and versatile

+ Sturdy build

+ Clear and open top end

- Nothing!

The ATM510 is a great-sounding microphone – easily a match for the Shure SM58.

9/10

For the full review pick up issue 123, or subscribe here. Download the app version here

The post Audio Technica ATM510 Review appeared first on MusicTech.

Music Tech Magazine – Issue 123 is on sale now and this month we’ve got an extensive feature looking at making money from music. A variety of industry professionals are questioned about their own paths to success and we offer help and guidance for those who are hoping their own creative works will one day come good and provide a healthy bank balance…

This month’s features:

Make Money Now

Any of you may already be mid-career, reading Music Tech for supplementary tuition to enhance your existing skill set. Another percentage of you will be in the romantic ‘first years’ of making music and may not have even thought about trying to generate any serious income from your wares yet. This month, therefore, we’ve decided to answer the question that many of you put to us via email, our website and in person at the various trade shows we attend throughout the year. And that question is: how do I make money?

Studio Session: Richard Devine

Richard Devine started to gain recognition in the music world way back in 1995 through his debut, self-titled EP on Schematic Records. The Lipswitch LP on Warp Records in 2000 further confirmed Devine’s interest in the exploration and manipulation of sound. Fast-forward to today and that manipulation has completely taken over – in fact, he states that his job description has really been as a sound designer for the past 14 years. We catch up with Richard for a chat and a studio tour!

Check out the preview:

The post The New Issue of Music Tech Magazine Is Out Now! appeared first on MusicTech.

Steel String Strummer is the follow-up to 8DIO’s Steel String Guitar library. But while Steel String Guitar focuses on multi-sampling individual notes of the guitar, enabling you to create intricate arpeggiated rhythms and acoustic lead parts, Steel String Strummer focuses on rhythmic, strummed chords. 

The library uses NI’s Kontakt Player and requires Kontakt 4 or above. The install includes instrument patches in both 16- and 24-bit, plus separate Kontakt 5 patches, ‘lite’ versions that use less memory, and a DFD version that streams the samples from disk but omits the X-Legato option and works only at 80BPM, which seems a fairly heavy price to pay.

The manual recommends using the 16-bit versions for composition and switching to the 24-bit version for the final bounce. However, we didn’t encounter any problems running the full Kontakt 5 24-bit patch on a Mac Mini alongside a full mix. Kontakt reported that the patch was using 2.73GB, but individual chord types and rhythms can be de-selected from the interface, which unloads those samples from RAM.

Keeping it Real

 

The post 8DIO Steel String Strummer Review appeared first on MusicTech.

The post Ulrich Schnauss Studio Tour Video appeared first on MusicTech.

Kalle Paulson – Product Manager for Propellerhead Apps stated:

“If you want ReBirth for iPhone for your collection of Propellerhead apps, you have until June 1st to purchase it, after that, you’ll be able to use it as it is, but we won’t be supporting it and you won’t be able to upload your songs. You also won’t be able to download it again if you delete it from your device and your iTunes apps folder”

ReBirth has proven to be a highly popular app , an emulator of Roland’s TB-303 Bass-synth and TR-808/909 drum machines and this announcement will undoubtedly come as a shock to those who regularly use the app for their mobile music making needs. ReBirth started life as a desktop program before being re-released as a fully formed iOS app in 2010 and has been very highly regarded as an innovative app.

Could this mean that a replacement app that does a similar job is on the way? We’ll have to wait and see!

The post Propellerhead ReBirth for iPhone to be Pulled appeared first on MusicTech.

Pricing will be £949 in the UK and will be available at some point this summer. Keep checking back here for the latest info and availability.

Here is the official press release, for more detail go to Shure’s website

Shure Incorporated today announced the introduction of the SE846 Sound Isolating™ Earphone, featuring a Quad High-Definition MicroDriver with a three-way system configuration for dedicated low, mid, and high frequency distribution. The SE846 patent-pending design includes a groundbreaking low-pass filter, a true subwoofer that enables deep low-end performance without sacrificing clarity or detail.

Designed for professionals and audiophiles, the SE846 extends the legendary heritage and performance of Shure’s widely-adopted SE215, SE315, SE425, and SE535 Sound Isolating Earphone models. The SE846 delivers strong, impactful bass, enabling the midrange and high frequencies to shine individually. The natural roll-off of the subwoofer provides the tweeter and midrange drivers the acoustic space they need to be heard clearly and accurately.

“Audio quality and durability are signatures of Shure products, and these innovative earphones are no exception. The SE846’s unprecedented low-pass filter is a combination of simplicity and effectiveness that ensures an unequalled, perfectly tailored listening experience,” said Matt Engstrom, Category Director for Monitoring Products at Shure. “The SE846 achieves subwoofer sound quality with clarity and detail in less than half of a square inch.”

The SE846 provides a combination of sound quality, noise isolation, and durability, in a comfortable, sophisticated design. Lightweight with a low profile shape, the SE846 has a detachable cable for easy replacement, and an optimized nozzle angle that’s designed to rest comfortably in the ear. A first for Shure, the earphone features a customizable frequency response allowing adjustable sound signatures — balanced, warm, and bright options are included. A premium accessories package includes sleeves in multiple shapes and sizes, an additional detachable cable, and two carrying cases.

The post Shure Unveil New SE846 In-Ear Headphones – True Subwoofer Experience appeared first on MusicTech.

Martyn’s career has taken some remarkable twists and turns – from composing pieces for the Royal Ballet, working with Tina Turner on some of her career highlights, being a founder member of the 5D Institute and recently creating the remarkable David Bowie sonifications.

In addition to his already impressive CV he’s also a member of BAFTA, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Visiting Professor at the Queen Mary College in London. He has also recently been voted onto the Board of Featured Artists Coalition alongside Nick Mason from Pink Floyd, Ed O’Brian from Radiohead and many other industry representatives. His latest project is masterminding the third British Electric Foundation album, ‘Dark’ – featuring a range of big-name artists including Boy George, Andy Bell, Sandie Shaw and Shingai from the Noisettes. We caught up with Martyn to discuss the new record and his illustrious career…

Hi Martyn,  you’ve recently hit the news with your sonifications of David Bowie’s album sales, lyrics, and musical elements. How did you begin making these sonifications, is this your first?

Well I was asked by a friend of mine, Alexis Kirke who’s a visiting professor down at the university of Plymouth, and he was asked by the V&A to take part in this ‘Bowie Weekender’ which featured lots of installations and one off events, talks and seminars associated with the ‘David Bowie is..’ exhibition at the V&A. We had been talking about working together for a while and he knew that I was a big Bowie fan so he basically asked if I would like to help out and come up with some ideas, so I did.

I came up with the idea of taking data from David Bowie’s career, by analysing all of his studio songs (from 1969’s ‘Space Oddity’ album right up until Bowie’s recent number one record ‘The Next Day’) for tempo and the proportion of major to minor keys. Its always interested me in songwriting terms. That took me a few days to do, and then my friend Alexis looked at the data and said “what would happen if you multiplied the percentage of major chords by the tempo – it should give you a kind of ‘positivity quotient per-album.” We then put that on a graph, and decided to compare that data with estimated worldwide sales, to see if there was any correlation – and there was!

That’s fascinating, I suppose the ‘Let’s Dance’ period altered the graph somewhat..

Actually the shape of the graph was almost identical, ‘Let’s Dance’ sold ten million which was by far his biggest selling record, and after that it was kind of like he was chasing his tail to less effect. The ‘positivity’ graph kept getting more and more positive but sales kept declining and declining. It’s very interesting.

So how would you typically begin to dissect a Bowie track in this way, what’s your starting point?

Well there’s two separate things going on here, Alexis looked at sonifying the emotional content, I was very much focused on the percentage of major chords in a song , or an album when you sum it all up, and tempo of song per-album. There wasn’t really an overlap between our sonifications. So we each had our area. You can’t always say that because something is faster-paced it’s more upbeat and more likely to be successful, it certainly used to be in the early stages of his career, but more recently it’s proved not to be.

Your career has spanned decades as both producer, writer and performer, how do you find working in a modern studio environment compared to when you first began?

Oh, totally, incredibly different. Can you imagine a world without MIDI for a start? Our first recording setup was a stereo tape machine, a microphone, two synths and that’s it – literally! The only way we could create multitrack recording was to record on one side of the stereo and then bouncing and adding at the same time onto the next track, which of course would degrade it to a certain extent, that’s how we made ‘Being Boiled’ (one of the first pieces of electronic pop music produced in the UK)

Being Boiled – a pivotal moment in the genesis of electronic music, recorded in the pre-MIDI era!

So that is really rudimentary recording, but now of course we’ve been through ridiculous amounts of technological change. I could do an hours speech about the changes in music production since I’ve been working. Now of course you can make symphonies on your laptop, but what have we lost along the way? That is the question really

There’s still those that prefer analogue straight-to-tape recording, in fact it seems to be slowly creeping back in, there’s a kind of retro-chic sound aesthetic that’s growing in popularity..

Yes, well I’m a bit ambivalent about all this retro-chic stuff, I mean I totally get where they’re coming from, and I understand why they find it so amazingly engaging. Because it is! You’ve got a visceral connection with the medium, so if you’ve never been through that process then I can completely understand it. But the last thing I want to go back to is having a 24-track in my house!

I quite like the sound of recording on tape, but that’s not an incentive for me to go back there when there’s easier alternatives. I think it’s a bit of a fetishist’s fantasy world, but y’know I totally dig where people are coming from! I was asked recently ‘have you got a studio full of analogue synths?’ and I said well really, all I have now is the original Roland System 100 and the rest is virtual.

The classic Roland System 100 – Martyn’s synth of choice

So would that imply that you rate the System 100 as your favourite analogue synth?

Yes absolutely, just because it taught me so much, by the nature of its modular and patch-able nature, it taught me how to create my own sounds from scratch really, which is an important thing. The process of sound design. So almost by default, using it was akin to a university course! On the job. Nowadays of course the equivalent is to start with presets.

Could you explain the principle of ‘World Building’ and how you first got involved with the 5D Institute?

Right, so a while ago I was introduced by a mutual friend to a guy called Alex McDowell, who is a very famous Hollywood production designer. He’d worked on films like Minority Report, The Terminal and lots of others, working with Steven Spielberg quite a lot. A lovely guy, and he had an idea, when I first met him it was still in the prototype stage really. It was kind of inspired by ‘Future of Sound’ – a touring show that I had put together earlier in my career.

At first he wanted to create an organisation called ‘Matter’, which was about new, immersive experience technology, but he was coming at it from a kind of visual, film-point of view, ‘visioneering the future of entertainment’ and anyway, he heard what we were doing and was inspired by it and so I helped him realise his vision and became a founder member of this thing called Matter which was like a think tank really, with a range of different creative disciplines, the film side, the production side and specialists in the immersive experience world. This all then transmuted itself into 5D – the future of immersive design which is now a fully fledged organisation. It’s really all about discussion and bringing together people from around the world to create new experiences. It’s largely based in LA but it runs conferences around the world, and I go and lecture there.

So of all the projects in your career, what has brought you the most creative fulfilment? And what advice would you give to our readers who would like to pursue a similar path?

Gosh, well it’d be difficult for them to follow a similar path! I’ve had a kind of weird ride. Most creative fulfilment would probably be … I’ll have to answer that in two ways, in the recording field I’d have to say working with Tina Turner, on a musical level working with Phoenix Horns from Earth, Wind and Fire was just a mind-blowing experience. But as an overall thing I’d have to say that writing music for several projects with the Royal Ballet was definitely the most creatively fulfilling thing I think I’ve ever been involved in. The thought of going down in the archives with people like Stravinski y’know, puts all the pop stuff in the shade really.

Speaking of the pop stuff, what are the chances of some original Human League line-up shows? You, Phil, Ian and Adrian on stage with some original analogue gear, doing tracks from Reproduction and Travelogue?

I’ve been trying to persuade Phil to do this for about eight years!, but unfortunately he’s not having it. I think his concern is that there’d be no role for the girls in it.

I guess they’re two separate entities really..

Yeah, and Adrian wouldn’t be involved anyway because he and Phil don’t get on. But yeah Ian would come out of retirement and I’d be extremely keen to do it. I do feel like it’s unfinished business.

And obviously there’s a lot of people that would be very eager to see that happen

To be honest I think it would sell out probably 3 or 4 nights on the Southbank. I definitely would be up for doing it. Simple as that

The new BEF album, ‘Dark’ features a range of big-name artists performing some classic covers, it’s the third in the ‘Music of Quality and Distinction’ series, how did the idea for this series of albums come about?

Well the first album was when me and Ian split from The Human League, and I wanted to create a manifesto for electronic pop really, it was hardly known then and I thought the best way of getting it into the public attention was to use people everyone was familiar with and songs that everyone was aware of, re-interpreted, so that was the inspiration behind the first album. And also I wanted to create more production work., and it worked. Through that of course I got to work with Tina Turner, she asked me to do Private Dancer and then we did Let’s Stay Together.

I had no idea how often we’d do them and if the first one had been a massive commercial success then the second one would have followed immediately. A bit like a super successful film or something. But it wasn’t a massive commercial success, it was a critical success, it was then ten years before I came up with another concept and had the money to do it. Volume 2 was completely self-funded, then sold it to Circle Records who were a part of Virgin at the time. They lost money on the deal which was my own stupid fault! But I’d just made quite a bit doing the Terrence Trent-Derby album so I had money to spend on it. I wanted to invest that in something creative.

I was very proud and still am very proud of Volume 2, but the main issue was that it never properly got released in America. It was after all , pretty much designed for the American market, but that’s a very long story and not for here! Fundamentally it was planned to be a huge release over there but got dropped.

Martyn with Noisettes frontwoman Shingai and icon Sandie Shaw during the making of’Dark’

So of the three records in this series, which are you most satisfied with?

I don’t know really, it’s a tough one that. As an entire body of work I think that Volume 2 and 3 are equal. I think they’re both concepts that hang together very well, the second one I had more budget for, the third one I’ve had no budget for! I was relying on people’s goodwill, but the third did have the most clearly guiding artistic principle. Happy pop-songs done with a dark, electronic theme. But because I had no budget I had to do it all really in my own home studio, I was always fighting against the odds if you know what I mean? But I am very proud of it, there’s some pieces on there that actually make me cry, without meaning to sound melodramatic, I think we really touched something..

There are some very uniquely arranged pieces on there, Boy George’s version of ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ for example puts an unusual slant on a well-established track

Well that’s kind of like a bit of a Johnny Cash thing, I think it really works because that’s the next level down – it’s getting back to narrative in pop song writing, which I think it a massively missing thing at the moment, it seems there’s not many ‘story stongs’ around anymore. There’s a lot of generic lyric writing. I like narrative in songs.

It’s sad isn’t it, I mean what happened to songwriters like Jimmy Webb for instance? Setting the scene in the first two lines, putting you in that world, an alternative world. This is just my view, and people might think I’m stupid but I don’t care, artists like Coldplay, I mean the lyric writing is so vague and incomprehensible. They’re not really saying anything. But yeah, lyric writing can be a fine line. I really believe in narrative songwriting and always have done

Were the song choices on the record a decision made by yourself and the artists together?

Essentially I was inspired to do this album by listening to ‘The Night’ by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and also ‘Didn’t I Blow Your Mind This Time’, when listening to those two songs I thought God, the lyrics are so weird and creepy, if you put a different musical backing to them, something much more filmic, you could force a re-interpretation of the songs. That’s exactly the inspiration for the whole album. And it works.

So I made a long list of songs that I thought would fit that bill, sent them out to various artists, most chose from that list but some chose their own songs that they wanted to try out in this way.

So who did you enjoy working with the most on this record?

Well that’s a really difficult answer to give because they’re all on the record out of the goodness of their own hearts and faith, it was an artistic enterprise. I have massive admiration for all of them for having that trust in me

Thanks for chatting with us Martyn, best of luck with the new album!

The new BEF album ‘Dark’ is available from the 27th of May,  join us next week when we’ll bring you Martyn’s track-by-track commentary! Read more about Dark at Heaven 17.com

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