The 4 Element Synth! 

Rob Papen is probably best known for teaming up with top-notch programmers and developing some of the most popular virtual synthesizers currently available, He’s also perhaps one of the best known sound designers in recent years. 

No Longer Out Of Reach….. 

Synthetically Pleasing! 

We can honestly say that the book is indeed very nice, Well laid out and the choice of colour make it look and feel almost as if it should be part of a vintage analogue collection….

If indeed thats even remotely possible from a book!

Either way it feels and looks the part and very fitting for the subject Subtractive synthesis.

 

The book itself is a good weighty hardback with thick heavy quality paper pages that should stand up to the constant referencing the book will undoubtedly receive with out too many accidental rips and tears.

 

 

Multitasking Is A Must!

Something Unique! 

Get Equipped!  

Drumcodes Vol.1

Drumcodes Vol.2

Loops and Snippets Vol.1 & Vol.2

FX Pearls Vol.1

Here’s an idea!!!

When Freshly Squeezed Samples and Rob ‘Activa’ Stevenson decided to produce a sample pack I’m sure they sat down and dreamt of producing something different, breath taking, ground breaking and inspirational. I’m sure they dreamt it because I’m sure thats pretty much what goes through the mind of ever sound designer when they start a new project like this.

DJ’s think in similar ways about their next set and I’m positive that music producers alike feel the same about their next track or album, In truth though most of us either fall short of fail completely. However where many of us fall Rob and Freshly Squeezed Samples have seemingly achieved what they set out to do, what they dreamt they could do.

In essence they could have actually produced a near perfect sample pack. Sure on the surface it may be just another Trance sample pack but spend any amount of time using Activa Trance Essentials  and you’ll soon realise just how well it’s crafted, The level of quality in this library of sounds is second to none with every single hit and loop being truly usable as it is.

Activa Trance Essentials has enough samples to produce album after album with out ever needing another sample pack and enough well written loops to grab some inspiration from so you can forget Vengeance Club Essentials, Forget Synthation Producers collection or Sounds of Revolution, infact forget all those big names you’ve come to love in sample providers, Freshly Squeezed Samples is where its at and Activa Trance Essentials could honestly be the only Trance sample pack you’ll ever need!

You’ll be able to tell from the off that this pack was created by a Trance producer for other Trance producers, However unlike some artist series sound sets that sound nothing like the artists, you can really hear Rob’s involvement was more that just simply putting his name to a product, His sounds can be heard throughout the pack and I’m sure you’ll all agree how great that sound is.

Simply put this pack is pure brilliance, It has easily the best FX for Trance we’ve ever heard in any sample pack, hundreds of absurdly good single hit sounds, Great synth and bass loops as well as some really great drum loops to help you kick start your own inspiration, Construction kits for when you really can’t get started or just simply want to learn the basics of how riffs and bass lines are written.

All of loops are Key and Tempo labeled not to mention that almost all of the loops come with MIDI for complete flexibility.

The sound quality is second to none, we really honestly don’t think these samples could sound any punchier, tighter or more detailed. If you’ve purchased other Trance sample packs and been happy with them then trust us you’ll love Activa Trance Essentials and know its going to be your new and only goto sample pack.

• 30x Bassline Loops (with BPM/key information + MIDI files for each loop)
• 30x Bassline Multisamples (for each sub bass) for easy sampler import
• 113x Top Bassline Loop Samples (included in wet/dry variations with MIDI files)
• 200x Top Bassline Single Hit Samples (all with root key included)

• 8x Complete ‘Building Blocks’ Construction Kits (including all audio stems + MIDI files)
• 5x Complete ‘Melodic’ MIDI Construction Kits (Please hear ‘Alternative Demo’)
• 7x Bonus Kits packed with melodic ideas
• 3x Remix Kits included for reference/educational purposes

• 50x Clap Samples
• 50x Closed Hats
• 25x Crash Cymbal FX
• 25X Crash Cymbals
• 62X Kick Samples
• 25x Open Hat Samples
• 150X Percussion Samples
• 10x Ride Cymbals
• 25x Shaker Samples
• 50x Snare Samples

• 225x Fully Unique Drum Loops (all provided with BPM + Full, Stripped and Percussion variants) (670+ Drum Loops in total)

• 30x Explosions
• 62x FX Loops (All with Key + BPM Information)
• 71x FX One Shots
• 50x Percussion FX
• 20X Reverb Kicks
• 50X Reverse FX
• 50x Snare Rolls
• 154x Vocal Stabs

• 111x Synth Hit Samples (provided in wet/dry variants)
• 100x Synth Loop Samples (all with BPM + Root Key + MIDI Files)

Loop Tools & Grooves combines cutting edge layering and sound design techniques with creative outboard processing to give you a set of highly effective and useful groove assist tools which can be used to instantly add movement, groove and character to your music.

Price: £34.95 (around $56.00)

Available to buy direct at: http://www.wavealchemy.co.uk/loop_tools_and_grooves/pid95

International Distribution Partners: http://www.loopmasters.com/wavealchemy

The course totals 1 hour 25 mins and is broken down into 10 bite size’d tutorials all of which are presented by House Guru Dom Kane. As well as being a huge name on the house scene, Dom, if you didn’t know already, is one of the sound designers featured on the preset backs list of some of your favourite software, Xfer Nerve, Fxpansion D-cam and Geist as well as hardware like Moog not to forget his also a growing list of loopmasters libraries….. In short the guy knows his onions. Besides knowing his way round a synthesiser Dom Kane is a really well spoken guy, Which makes it easier when the learning starts. Trust us when we say that there is nothing worse than feeling confused about a new subject only to have to struggle working out someones accent. The broken down tutorial all focus on individual sections of Sylenth1 starting with an intro and overview and working all the way through Oscillators, Filters, Effects, Envelopes, LFO’s Modulation and Finally onto making bass and lead patches. The smaller videos make the whole tutorial easier to digest and learning each section of a synth individually is going to progress your sound design skill set much faster than being taught how to re-create one sound after another. Each lesson has its own set of PDF notes for you to download to your PC/Mac as well as a nice little selection of presets from loopmasters Sylenth1 presets bank collection. The Course itself is steamed online and is accessible for as long as you need it, So if you ever forget anything you’ve be taught you can always just jump back online. Of course this has its own advantages and disadvantages but we’ve always thought advantages always outweigh, The main advantage is of course you’re never going to permanently loose online access like you could a DVD.

All in all you really can’t go wrong with this tutorial, Dom Kane does a great job of teach you the ins and out of Sylenth1 and i really hope to see him doing more in the future, maybe some full blown House productions or even more sound design and synth tutorials, either way if you’re wanting to learn Sylenth1 or just simply learn a bit more about Subtractive Synthesis this will be the best £35 you spend this year.

Price £34.99

Available Now at http://www.synthcourses.com/

Like the sound of the rack extension platform? Then BOOM, how about a new freebie from the team at Propellerhead? As a deal sweetener the rack — Pulsar — will be gifted to everyone who is using Rack Extension compatible versions of Reason and Reason Essentials for the first three months after release, a $49/€39 freebie.

Pulsar is a dual-LFO mono-synth with lag and shuffle controls, to help you care out plenty of unique tones.

Want to know more about the Reason and Pulsar, along with some audio example? Just click here for the goods.

It’s a brand that has become synonymous with the hottest sounds, and deservedly so. The same company also involved in other projects, such as Producertech, and Live-courses learning resources. Now, its latest venture is into the world of plugins. Makes sense really.

Previously, getting your hands on these little zip-files of joy was usually a case of visiting each manufacturers websites independently, or possible a trip over to KVR. This worked fine, but when it came to updating them, or logging in to retrieve your license again (after a machine upgrade etc) it could get messy. Especially if you are as useless at remembering login info as we are. Pluginboutique.com looks to sidestep all that nonsense, by bringing you all the goods under one roof. This means you can have one single log in for all your plugin needs. Not only that, being able to browse software all in one place, from a store that has Loopmasters’ experience behind it can only be a good thing right? We’d say so.

If you’re quick, there’s even a juicy introductory offer for new customers. Each first order will earn you a free sample CD, and until the end of May, subsequent orders over £100 will earn you another. To claim your free CDs, you’ll need to comment on the Loopmasters Facebook page with your order number and productions style / genre. Plugins from Fxpansion, Ohm Force, Flux, PSP, D16, Sinevibes, Waves, Sonic Charge G-Sonique and more are available right away, and we wager that this list will continue to grow at a steady rate.

What we think is also a bonus, is being able to view, and discover things that you might not necessarily been looking for. It’s these serendipitous finds that really can be the most fun. Sound good? Then head over to the link below.

www.pluginboutique.com

…amongst the DJ’s at least. As its name suggests, it’s the latest new tool released by DJ giants Pioneer, and in some ways continues on from the EFX-1000 effects unit, but has taken a slightly different direction towards today’s Digital DJ. So does it tick all the boxes? I wanted to see.

It’s obvious that controllerism is the way a large part of the DJ industry is heading, with more and more demand for live remixes and mash-ups using samples and loops. Pioneer has clearly noticed this and the RMX-1000 could be its most experimental unit ever. It is perfectly adapted to its purpose though; in typical Pioneer style it’s all controlled by a simple yet intuitive interface, ideal for live performances. In keeping with the current trend of the DJ and Producer becoming one the RMX-1000 comes with a VST/AU plug-in to allow the unit to be used as a controller.

The Pioneer Remix Station is a cool and ultra-modern looking unit. It’s also quite a small and slim unit, at just 13.4” by 6.18”. But, within this small exterior lies four primary remix functions:

Isolate FX, which allow the DJ to control hi, low or mid frequencies for kill and filter effects. These are controlled through three separate, clearly labelled rotary controls.

X-Pad FX has two main features; it allows you to manipulate and add samples through the ribbon strip. You can also use an SD card for easy and convenient loading, transferring and saving of sounds and effects. Also it acts as a beat machine so you can add kicks, snare, claps as well as a preloaded bank so you can add your own effects.

Release FX removes the program signal leaving only the effect. So the classic Vinyl effects such as braking and backspins can be added to this category. You also have another switch allowing you to speed up or slow down the effect.

Scene FX gives you the option to choose between 5 build up or break down effects including echo, reverb, spiral etc. This is controlled by the large rotary control on the right of the unit. As well as this, you can also control the intensity with the control in the centre for optimal manipulation.

The great thing about the RMX-1000 is that it can be fully customised through the onboard Remixbox editor software. You can also connect to a computer through USB whether it’s for editing purposes or to use the unit as a controller.

The RMX-1000 Remix Station is a giant step forward, not just for Pioneer but for the DJ industry in general. It allows the DJ to be creative and fully express themselves during live performances, watch this video for a perfect example of this.

Unfortunately as you’d expect it comes with a pretty heft price tag but despite this they’re expected to sell very fast so if you’re interested make sure you act fast.

Words: Steven Williams

Dawsons Music

Pioneer RMX-1000

There are also others that take a completely different tack. Scratch DJ Academy MIX! from Stanton somehow sits between those two extremes, it resembles the likes of Traktor and Serato to some degree, but where it differs, is that it’s largely hands off. At least in the way you are probably thinking.

Software

MIX! Is more of a — as the name might suggest — mix creation program, rather than a performance tool. In its most basic form, you drop and drag tracks from the library onto the timeline, and MIX! does the rest. This is, of course, a somewhat simplistic overview, but you get the idea.

The first step is adding tunes to the library in the first place. This is a simple drag and drop affair, and the software gets to work analyzing them right away. This is a task it seems to do particularly well, working through the list of tracks impressively quickly. Not only is the software checking for that all important BPM, but also musical Key, which is a nice added functionality if you don’t have something like Mixed In Key already.

Once your library is in place, you’re set. Simply drop tracks over into the playlist panel on the right, and they’ll appear in the timeline in the order you specified, already beat-matched and joined together in a short mix. This is where you come in.

If you’re just wanting to make a simple mix tape for sharing, or listening to, effectively you can just keep dropping tracks in, and let MIX! do the rest. If, as we suspect, you want a bit more control, then there are some options to help you do that.

Once the software creates the “mix” you can control its length, either by dragging a selection box out to cover the parts of the track you want to mix, or by choosing the length in bars from a drop down. Likewise, you can choose where to mix from, also measured in bars, from the end of the track that is mixing out. So, if you want the tracks to mix for 32 bars, but to begin doing so 64 bars before the end of the outgoing track, this you can do.

Frustratingly, there doesn’t seem to be an obvious way to choose the point where the incoming track mixes in from, it seems to be “beginning or nothing”, a pretty big pain in the ass if we’re honest.

You can also determine, to some degree, how the mix fades over: linear, hard drop, consistent gain, consistent power etc, which seems to work well enough. There is also some automation-style control over individual track bass / mid / treble for those smoother, more authentic crossovers.

Another novelty is the addition of scratch effects that you can have drop in to introduce each new mix. These kinds of things tend to be horrendous gimmicks, and rarely sound any good. In this case, we’ll be fair and say they weren’t terrible, or too intrusive, but you still might want to limit your use of them over all.

Beat matching

If you have ever used Ableton live to DJ with, or warp tunes, then you will be familiar with the process here. You can open up the track details and readjust the beat-grid if the software didn’t get it right — which happened a few times, although it was never terribly far off.

Likewise, if MIX! thinks your track is 70 BPM, and you know it’s actually 140 (hello Dubstep), you can tell it this also — if you don’t it’ll mix the next track in at half speed, so definitely worth doing! The same is true for the musical key it has determined, if you know better you can change it.

Harmonic Mixing

One neat little feature we also liked was how, when you click on a track in your play list, it highlights all the tracks in the library that are either the same BPM, or complimentary musical key. This makes cooking up harmonic mixes a cinch. We didn’t know if it was actually guessing the key right all of the time, but the mixes sounded good enough, and it’s definitely handy for helping you with your playlists — even if you use another DJ software for performance.

Wrap up

MIX! Is definitely more for creating a party sound track, mixtapes, or possibly for working out a set in advance, but then it never really claims to be anything else. It does it’s basic tasks fairly well. You may find yourself touching up the beat-grids, and manually readjusting the mixes along the way, but it’s a task you soon get the nack of, and one that the software doesn’t make difficult.

The speed at which it scans tracks, including musical key is impressive, and the key-matching suggestion is a great tool all on its own. Perhaps not as advanced as some of the other programs that it shares functionality with, but it does touch a few bases, and only commands a $49 price tag.

If you’re looking for a simple app that helps you create basic mixes and keep your library in check, then this is definitely a good option. If you have any ambition beyond passive mix creation, however, you might want to look to something more fully featured.

Rating: ★★★★★★½☆☆☆ 

 Scratch DJ Academy MIX! Webpage

…and runs through the same basic structure as week one with plenty of reading, videos to watch, three mini tests — to make sure what you are learning is actually beginning to sink in — and the weekly assignment. In week two, the content continues on from the previous week this time touching on copyright, copyright enforcement, MCPS, PRS, and how they all join up. We also took a look at what the record companies own, and how you would go about approaching splitting monies earned from record sales and performances (including how bands divvy-up) and more.

All of the material covered, both text and video, starts to get much more interesting as we progress through the course. If you’re anything like us, and think you already know everything, you need to know that you may be in for a surprise or two. Some of what we thought we knew turned out to be slightly, but commonly, misunderstood information while other bits that we didn’t think affected us actually turned out to be quite the opposite.

When you’re making your music, it’s easy to think none of this involves you, especially if you never want to sell your music or don’t mind people using your music to make money.  But, if you’re just starting out as a producer, singer, song-writer or even a sample supplier, and want to earn money from your music, then this course provides some essential information. If you want to earn money from music, but you’re thinking to yourself that something like this isn’t really of interest to you for what ever reason — then you’d be wrong. In fact, even if you’re none of the above, and simply just want to manage a band then we’d still advise to consider this course as investment in your future.

For instance generally speaking many of the guys reading this at bangthedj.com will be solo artists, and probably think they won’t really benefit or be interested in information involving such things as song splits, but it’s all still good information to know in case your future involves you collaborating with other artists, writing for someone else, or engineering. In fact, any little thing you might do with, or for, another artist… it’s always good to know, or at least be aware of, ways that money should or could be worked out — and hopefully help you get paid for your time and effort.

Of course, once you know all the above, then knowing which agencies you rely on to collect moneys for radio plays, live performances, TV shows, Movies and such would be the next logical step. Week two covers much of what you need to know about the way in which MCPS, PRS work as well as the role the publisher and the two copyrights (mechanical and performance) involved with every recording. We felt that the second week of the course proved to be a very interesting week, and although there is a lot of information to take in — even with our busy schedule — we still managed it.

As a positive aside, despite nearly every post, on just about every music forum, suggesting that you can’t make a living from music these days, this Pointblank course will show you that despite the major changes in the industry over the last ten years, there is still a living to be made from a career in music. Maybe not just on record sales alone, but hey times change and you have to be able to adapt to survive.