Author: George Robinson

[the_ad_placement id=”top-content-300×250″] Kilohearts, the Swedish developers behind the awesome PhasePlant synth and the MultiPass multi-band effects plugin, have announced that they are discontinuing active development on their kHz ONE synth and making it free to download. kHz ONE is a fairly straightforward subtractive virtual synth, featuring two main oscillators and a sub-oscillator, two filters, three envelopes, chorus and delay effects, two LFOs for modulation, and a modulation matrix to assign them. While obviously not being as full-featured and flexible as Kilohearts’ flagship PhasePlant, or even as versatile as the also-free Surge XT and Vital, this synth’s strong point is its…

[the_ad_placement id=”top-content-300×250″] With so many Black Friday deals now being announced early and spread throughout November, it’s easy to miss or lose track of some of the very best offers. So here we cut through the huge crowd of assorted options of varying degrees of usefulness and quality, and highlight a selection of genuinely world-class software effects, synths and bundles — tools that will actually give you the most inspiration or access to features and raw processing quality that will truly help you improve your craft and the results you can achieve. Ready for a fresh start in 2022! Audio…

[the_ad_placement id=”top-content-300×250″] Arturia’s polychrome synth Pigments brings together a huge amount of the considerable synth knowledge that the French company has spent the last 20 years collecting and refining while building the instruments that make up their much-loved V Collection and classic effects collections. But Pigments goes further than being simply an amalgamation of Arturia’s greatest hits: it features several different synthesis and sampling types, it’s own novel modulation system and powerful sequencing possibilities, and it attempts to house all this power and complexity in a sleek and intuitive interface that is fast and easy to use. With Pigments now…

Effects processing is in many ways at the heart of modern music production. How we musicians, producers and sound designers creatively combine and chain together different processing tools and plugins is a fundamental aspect of getting a modern, professional and engaging sound. And particularly in most electronic-based genres, the production processes and effects are not just an afterthought or sprinkled on at the mix stage, but are often a large part of the initial idea-generating, songwriting and arrangement processes too, with clever use of unique effects contributing to the freshness or character of melodic and rhythmic hooks, or making a…

With so many Black Friday deals being announced at this time of year, it’s easy to miss or lose track of some of the very best offers out there right now. If you’re anything like us, you’ll probably appreciate the short list we’ve put together below to highlight a few of the most exceptional deals we’ve noticed for musicians and producers this weekend in the realms of world-class software effects, synths and bundles. Whatever your budget or style, there are some real bargains to be had: 1. Soundtoys: Up To 70% OFF the bundle and individual plugins Until: December 03,…

I’ve scoured the world to bring you a rundown of the very best-sounding saturation plugins, whatever your budget and stylistic preferences.

We’re rounding up our 10-part Sound Design series with a look at granular synthesis, and take a deep dive into some of the very best granular plugins for breaking your sounds into tiny grain particles and smashing them back together in interesting and never-quite-heard-before ways. Let’s go… What Is Granular Synthesis? Granular synthesis is a method of splitting a constant, referred to as grains, which can then be reconfigured, modulated and resequenced, and spat out the other end as a new, generally quite ethereal sound. The degree to which the new sound is recognisable to the original source is determined by…

Filters allow you to chop out large sections of a sounds frequency range, providing the ability to change the character and tonality quite radically. They can also be used to emphasise the specific frequency around the filter cut-off point, making a sharp and, if desired, resonant peak that draws maximum contrast between the filtered/silenced and remaining unfiltered sound. As a lot of successful sound design is about balancing broad, dramatic strokes of processing and effects with an ear for maintaining focus, clarity and precision, the humble filter is an absolutely key sound designers tool. What’s more, filters can also be…

So much of good sound design is about turning relatively static sounds into living, breathing, multilayered, evolving experiences. And to achieve this movement, modulating – or “changing over time” – certain aspects of the sound is the key. In this part of our sound design series, we’re going to look at how step sequencers and envelope generators can be used not just to trigger notes for creating melodies and bass-lines, but to step-automate volume, filters, pitch, panning and a host of other useful parameters. Catch up on the other parts in the series: Part 1 – Delay Part 2 –…

With Black Friday fast approaching and many sales from the leading music tech brands, manufacturers and music gear stores now in full swing, here is our shortlist of the deals that have really caught our attention and which we think you’d be wise to investigate! In particular, this a great time for investing in bundles and other big-ticket items, where you can take advantage of the sales to reap the biggest savings possible on the studio essentials that will really help level up your productions. For ideas on which are the best music production plugin bundles right now, check out…