Zebra CM go-getta bass

Creating a square bass with movement is a cool commercial trick. Let's widen the pulse of Zebra CM's oscillators, David Guetta-style

WILLIAM ORBIT

After working with Madonna, U2, Blur, Robbie Williams and Britney Spears, William Orbit’s career went on hold after battling with drugs and his confidence. The joy of painting and a beginner’s guide to Pro Tools got his mojo back and now he is about to release his first new album in eight years

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO ANALOGUE DIRT

Your digital mixes may well be too perfect! Here's our guide to bringing some humanity back into your productions and how to get deep, down and dirty with some 'analogue' processing

15 questions with...John Newman

John Newman may already be known as the charttopping singer with hits like 2012's UK number one Feel The Love (with Rudimental) and global top 10 Love Me Again, but this year he's taken his own advice - "move on before it's too late". He's now embarked on a new chapter, John Newman 2.0, which is more dance-orientated, but actually returns to his production roots where he discovered computer music via some breakfast cereals...

Leapwing Audio UltraVox £59

Delivering a consistently sparkling vocal sound every take is the goal of this new algorithmically-directed vocal plugin

What does A.I. mean mean for your music?

As artificial intelligence seeps into every aspect of modern life – self driving cars, telephone answering systems, speech and facial recognition - so its impact in the world of music production continues apace. Here we reveal how it will impact on your music making. The good. The bad. The future!

SOUND +VISION

A-V artist Halina Rice tells Martin Delaney about the evolutionary process that took her immersive live show from dream to reality

Universal Audio MAC Spark from $20/month

With a seismic change in plugin policy, one of the world's most renowned audio companies hopes to spark your imagination... without hardware

The 21st Century

As we waved goodbye to the '90s, the bedroom producer concept paved the way for song writers and solo artists alike. And the synth was just about to explode everywhere...

Sinevibes Skew £22

Cleverly dicing your input signal, Sinevibes Skew manipulates the fabric of time via some complex reverse engineering...

BLEASSP Phase Mutant £32.99

FM synthesis is known for its deep expressiveness. With their new effect plugin, BLEASS aim to bring that quality to your audio parts too

AudioThing Noises €69

Ever felt inspired by background hums and whirrs? Award-winning soundsmith Hainbach has made a plugin that takes them further...

Arturia Efx Fragments £80

Whether you want to build a glitchy vocal, stutter up your rhythms or just bring aural chaos, you'll find a capable ally in this new sound reshaper

THE HISTORY OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC

We’re covering 60 years of the synthesiser in this issue but, as we discover as we look back in time, the synthesiser and electronic music were actually with us well before the 1960s. Here we break down their history into component parts – ironically, rather like a modular synth – and discover their rather ‘shocking’ beginnings…

Steinberg Cubase 12

Cubase have just announced version 12 of Cubase, so in our excitement we’re doing a news special to give you the full lowdown on what to expect

THE 1980S: GETTING POPULAR

Launching into orbit… but then going digitalsynthy with the mighty Zebra CM | The 80s All analogue and chips | As the 80s dawned, the scene was set for a decade where synth technology would become available to all, and synthpop would rule the charts. But then things got very digital

THE 1970S: PROG TO PUNK

From modular to Moog… and getting cheaper | The 70s Once the 60s had laid down the framework, the 70s picked up the baton and turned the synthesiser into a musical entity and idiom. It started off being used by the rich kids and then the very cool kids…

THE 1960S: A SYNTH START

How the synth – in electronic form – started | The 60s As we begin our sojourn through 60 Years of the Synth, we go back to the 1960s to consider where it all started, laying praise at the door of the synth forerunners and revealing the first ‘proper’ synth from 1962…

Spitfire Audio Abbey Road Two: Iconic Strings Professional £449 PC MAC

Adopting an intimate persona, Spitfire’s latest sample-based suite pops iconic strings right inside legendary surroundings

Odd Studios ODD Ball £95 PC MAC

Is this for real? A MIDI controller without pads, keys, or even corners. Just bounce it, and watch out for your studio fish tank

Applied Acoustic Systems Multiphonics CV-1 $99.00 PC MAC

Going Modular needn’t be all about the hardware and expense. We head for our desktop and grab a virtual cable or ten!

15 questions with… Hinako Omori

Hinako Omori combines analogue synths with plugins to mesmerising effect, with her new album – recorded at Real World Studios – dazzling with rich textures and transformative atmospheres…

Moog Animoog Z $19.99

Proving that the old masters can still show us new tricks, we get animated by Moog’s latest update to their affordable software synth

PSP Audioware: PSP Saturator $99

Saturation can be a fantastic tool for bringing sounds to life, but does this new offering from PSP have what it takes?

Producer Masterclass: MOUSSE T.

Mousse T. is a legendary dance music producer whose hits back in the 90s paved the way for a three-decade – and counting – career in remixing and production. It has taken him everywhere from the top of the charts to Eurovision, and co-writing a Tom Jones smash to being a judge on the German version of Pop Idol. Here he gives us a couple of lessons in remixing, three decades apart…

Free software: W.A. PRODUCTION MULTIBENDER CM

Get to know this issue’s freebie: a cm edition of W.A.’s incredible multiband, tempo-synced delay

THE BEST FREEWARE PLUGINS

It seems with each passing year, the number of exceptional free plugins, DAWs, instruments, tools and services increases tenfold. With such a rich field to harvest, we know how overwhelming it can be to know just where to begin when collecting free music-making software – and avoiding that feeling that your precious hard drive space is being clogged by software that you’re never likely to actually use. Luckily Computer Music is on hand to help, with some carefully considered groupings of the very best – and genuinely useful – free swag that you can download this very day…

Delay effects

Our attention turns to a family of effect types that takes your signal and does weird and wonderful things

15 questions with…Keinemusik

Keinemusik first caught our ear back in 2017 with their ambitious debut album You Are Safe. Since then, the Berlin-based trio have refined their creative process, linking up with a variety of collaborators to produce an impressive sophomore effort that expands their sound while remaining firmly focused on the dancefloor

#12 LFO sequence

If you’ve ever wanted your Zebra CM to help you out by playing short phrases, it’s time to step up to the LFO. Dave Gale gets sequencing…