15 questions with…MORCHEEBA

As producers of lush, downtempo tunes, Morcheeba have had more than a quarter of a century of success. It’s been quite a ride, and we’re not just talking about the transition from Atari to Mac…

Caelum Audio Tape Pro £39.99

Tape saturation can be an excellent flavour-enhancing tool. Let’s see if this new affordable plugin from Caelum Audio tingles the taste buds

TOM HOLKENBORG

Having just scaled his personal ‘Mount Everest’ with a four-and-a-half-hour score for Justice League: The Snyder Cut, Tom Holkenborg reflects on isolation working methods, casting out his old kit and his enduring passion for boutique Eurorack synths

Spiritual Sounds

It’s time to raid the mighty Vault, and we have found a much-needed collection of samples to calm us all down a bit. One, two, three: breathe…

Tom Wolfe Premier Collection £239.99

This preset collection for softsynth classics could catapult your next soundtrack into the top division, but is it in the premier league?

New keys samples

We have two all-new packs of highly-processed keyboard samples for you this issue. You can get both packs on the DVD or download direct at filesilo.co.uk

Neuratron PhotoScore & NotateMe Ultimate 2020 £199

To scan and edit existing musical scores, the best option is a dedicated application (and one with a very long name)

The cm guide to MODULAR SYNTHESIS

Modular, aka Eurorack, synthesis has taken the production world by storm. Here’s your complete guide on how to get going, as we go from zero to modular hero…

Spitfire Audio Contemporary Drama Toolkit £169

Spitfire invite you to enjoy a world of effortless, feel-based scoring. But are these simple routes to sonic success just smoke and mirrors?

15 questions with…SNARL

Snarl might not be old enough to set foot in a club yet, but he’s already producing tracks so good that he has been described as ‘dance music’s next great prodigy’. Not that Prodigy, although he does come from Essex…

15 questions with… JIMMY EDGAR

Playing games with music, using three EQs, no compression, nor reverb. Welcome to the glorious mind of Jimmy Edgar

Recording Masterclass

Recording external instruments or an entire band into your computer can seem a daunting prospect if you’ve never done it before, but with today’s tools – and advice from the following pages – it’s surprisingly easy to get great results. Welcome to the Recording Masterclass!

UVI: Shade

UVI are well known for their instruments but also do great effects too, and their latest EQ might well, wait for it, put others in the shade

KRUST: Moving in cycles

Along with Roni Size, Krust was at the forefront of jungle in the 90s, helping to launch the genre and one of its most legendary labels, Full Cycle Records. After taking a seven-year break from music production, he is back with The Edge Of Everything, his first album in 14 years, an extraordinary cinematic production that came together with the best of old and new technology…

JEFF RUSSO

Jeff Russo is one of the world’s leading film and TV composers, currently on a mission to boldly produce exceptional soundtracks for both Star Treks Discovery and Picard. For these critically-acclaimed soundtracks, he even had his own custom-built sample library co-developed with Orchestral Tools (now available for us all to use) complete with a Klingon Choir…

CM diary

In part two of his exploration of the human side of computer music-making, Ashley talks about how to keep social – outside of your usual beat-making bubble

Using repetition and variation

Dave Clews talks us through how to use repetition in a way that even your harshest critics won’t detect as anything more than ‘catchy’

The Sequencer, pt 1

Scot takes us through the history and development of another synth staple and advises how to use it in a modular setting

Arturia: V Collection 8

The move to improve, enhance, add to and tweak already impressive software bundles continues apace with this latest package from Arturia

A touch of chaos

The experts from Audiotent bring extra dimensions to your synth sounds by exploring chaos generation, random LFOs and velocity

15 questions with… SOPHIA LOIZOU

The composer and academic produces intense electronica “inviting us to see the Earth through the eyes of others”…

15 Questions With… Mild Minds

Benjamin David’s new LP? As the kids now say: “mood.” It’s also called MOOD. And it all started with eJay and a dream…

cm/the 6 best… Lo-fi Plugins

Get the vibe and nostalgia behind lo-fi hip-hop, or just add some crust to purely digital projects with these six devices

Valhalla DSP PC MAC Supermassive £Free

Every now and then a freebie comes along that needs special mention, and this reverb/delay is one such example

Steinberg Cubase 11 £499 PC MAC

Cubase updates typically combine new features, expanded content and tweaks. Does v11 of this flagship DAW do enough to tempt us? Let’s see…

cm Producer Masterclass PHILTH

Philth – aka London DnB polymath Phil Robinson – takes us into the dark world of techstep, via his personal studio, with this in-depth tutorial and track breakdown

Accusonus ERA 5 Bundle Pro $39/month, $299.88/year, $999 forever PC MAC

When you’re fixing up compromised audio you want a toolset that’s quick and reliable. This updated package could well be the answer

CLAUDE VONSTROKE

The California-based dance powerhouse and Dirtybird label boss shares a wealth of business, gear and life advice – including his patented (or should be) “find the f*** you moment” songwriting approach. We’ll let him explain…

15 questions with… KELLY LEE OWENS

The producer behind acclaimed album Inner Song talks sonic warmth, love/hate MIDI relationships and calming the heck down with our gear obsessions

cm/diary

Musicianship is more than just gear (we were shocked too!). For a new column, we asked one of our favourite new musicians to talk the human side of computer music