Future Music

Editor-In-Chief Si Truss, simon.truss@futurenet.com Reviews Editor, Music Technology Simon Arblaster, simon.arblaster@futurenet.com Features Editor, Music Technology Matt Mullen, matt.mullen@futurenet.com Art Editor Phil Cheesbrough, philip.cheesb

> It’s been a minute – more than 18 months, in fact – but Korg have finally launched Drumlogue, their “first hybrid drum machine”. Offering both analogue and digital sounds, this also includes an expanded version of the Multi-Engine found in other ’l

SCAN TO GET OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER It’s a full three decades since Future Music launched in 1992. While it would be disingenuous of me to try and reminisce about those early days, seeing as I was still in primary school at the time, I’ve had the plea

> Universal Audio have made good on their promise to bring the UAD Spark native plugin subscription service to Windows, so PC users can now access some of the company’s best-loved instruments and effects in their DAW without any additional UA hardwar

> Having previously worked on a synth with Novation and a microtuning plugin with Oddsound, Aphex Twin (aka Richard James) has now released a free “custom sample mashing app” known as Samplebrain. This open-source software works by chopping samples u

> Following a limited-time production run in 2019, Moog have now formally brought the Model 10 modular synth back into production.  First introduced in 1971, this compact, fully analogue instrument features 11 discrete modules, including the 907 Fixe

> Best known for their expressive controller gloves, Mimu have now released Jellyfish, a “granular dream weaver” plugin. Essentially, you’re getting a granular synthesis engine that can accept real-time audio input and generate all-new sounds – drone

> A USB MIDI controller is the perfect foil for your computer-based DAW setup – just plug it in and you should be good to go – but what if you want to use it with your hardware synths and it doesn’t have any standard MIDI ports? The usual workaround

> Apogee have become the latest pro-level audio company to release a more affordable audio interface, following the trend set by SSL and Universal Audio. It’s called Boom, and is a 2-in/2-out device that connects via USB-C. There’s a little more to B

Often when writing drums and fills we end up repeating the same patterns, or unconsciously imitating what we are used to hearing. A way of finding inspiration is to let our software create patterns for us, and we can then decide what we like and what

Unsurprisingly, making electronic music in 1992 was a considerably different process to what it is now. When the first issue of Future Music arrived in October of that year, digital music making technology was still in a state of relative infancy. In

In 1993, dance music was at a peak, with the tools used to create it having been produced by Roland a decade before. One of these, the now iconic TB-303 Bass Line, had become a pillar of the dance community because of its ability to produce tearing a

The 1990s were all about virtual analogues or feature-packed digital synths. The company that kick-started the former category – so arguably also had a hand in much of the software we use today – were Clavia, with the original Nord Lead 1. With just

In the 1990s the big Japanese synth companies finally woke up to the obsession for hands-on control and liquid analogue sounds. While Roland soldiered on with expandable modules (until their JP-8000), both Yamaha and Korg steered their oil tankers ba

In the 1990s, Access were creating MIDI controllers for the likes of Oberheim and Waldorf but it wasn’t a direction the company would pursue for long. “We found that building our own synthesiser would be much more fun,” they decided. More fun and suc

Massive analogue polysynth in the early 2000s? Alesis? Are you kidding? Even two decades on we’re still in shock that Andromeda actually happened, let alone it being produced by a company that is now famous for cheap speakers and controller keyboards

The story of Bob Moog and his company name is: he invented the modern concept of the synth with the Minimoog in 1970, then lost the Moog Music company name, but by 2002 had mostly (bar the UK) got the rights back. To celebrate, what could be better t

In the 1990s, you could criticise Roland for not reacting to the needs of the market which was demanding classic analogue Roland sounds. To give them their due, they were trying to forge ahead in other areas. By the start of the 21st century they’d p

Like Clavia in the 1990s, Elektron were another Swedish company who designed products on their own terms. With the Monomachine they took the concept of the synth and sequencer groovebox into new dimensions, stuck it into an aluminium box and a keyboa

It has tiny keys, not enough controls for its virtual analogue engine, is quite difficult to use, and suffered pretty middling reviews on release. It even has the wrong name if you think about it (microSynth anyone?). Yet Korg’s microKorg is quite po

As production software became increasingly powerful throughout the ’90s and ’00s, hardware samplers and sequencers began to look obsolete. Why would anyone want to work with a limited and expensive piece of equipment when soft samplers offered vastly

Maschine was essentially (if obviously, indirectly) pitched as an MPC for the laptop generation. With its square frame and 16 pads ready for sample slicing and finger drumming, the similarities between Native Instruments’ beatmaker and Roger Linn’s o

It took until the release of the Mother-32 in 2016 for Moog to properly wade into the modern modular waters. That first entry into the ‘Mother’ range was a fairly straightforward instrument, a single oscillator monosynth equipped with a 32-step seque

No other brand had the enduring effect on dance music that Roland did with their early ’80s run of synths and grooveboxes. For much of the ’00s, however, Roland were reluctant to revisit the machines that provided the foundations of house and techno.

The Minilogue arrived against the backdrop of a boom in affordable analogue synths. By 2016, hardware-loving music makers were spoiled for choice, with the likes of Arturia’s Mini- and MicroBrutes, Novation’s Bass Station 2 and Korg’s own Volca range

As we enter Alex Crossan’s home studio, housed in a modestly sized room at the end of his shady South London garden, we’re politely asked to remove our shoes. This isn’t only to preserve the white carpet, though – the producer tells us that the no-sh

Initially a duo, Elias Landberg’s now solo project Skudge arrived in 2011 with the economical techno LP, Phantom. Following Gustaf Wallnerström’s departure, Landberg widened his sound palette on the flawless, cerebral-sounding album Balancing Point a

Many artists shun modern, digital equipment in favour of analogue instruments: it’s a story that’s been told through countless interviews, in these pages and elsewhere. But none we’ve spoken to seem to have pondered this preference quite as deeply as

Based in Portugal and no strangers to each other’s music, Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) and Peter Kember (Sonic Boom) first began working together on the former’s Tomboy album in 2011, with the duo also co-producing Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper four y

CONTACT WHO: Roland WEB: roland.com KEY FEATURES TONE GENERATION: Various ZEN-Core MODEL sound engines (Juno-60, Juno-106, Juno-X, XV5080, RD-Piano, Vocoder) KEYS: 61 velocity-sensitive, synth-action with channel aftertouch DIMENSIONS: 1,072 x 333 x

KEY FEATURES I/O: Comprehensive podcast production kit with twin channel Vocaster Two interface, DM14v dynamic mic and HP60v headphones. Vocaster Two interface: 2 XLR mic inputs, mic input gain range: 70dB, mic input frequency range: 20Hz – 20kHz, st

> Polaris is a collaboration with electronic music composer BT (Brian Transeau), who has had an enduring interest in pushing the boundaries of dance music and beyond (as hyperbolically put by Spitfire). Nevertheless, it is clear that Polaris distills

KEY FEATURES Base board with interchangeable controller templates. Free app for quick results with how-to projects and sounds of different genres. Can send MIDI/MPE to more pro software. USBpowered and portable. App can host up to 4 Plays at once. Ec

> If you’re a fan of free plugins, you have to check out Full Bucket Music. The German developer has released some great – and great value for money – plugins that can be tracked down at fullbucket.de. Synths like ModulAir and WhispAir, plus the FB-3

>An amazing rinse-out round of loops, samples, MIDI, and Serum presets, taking us back to the DnB days of yore. The blistering beats and basslines in this 1GB+ old skool pack are ready to transport you to a time when heavily chopped Amen loops, ravey

CONTACT WHO: Akai WEB: akaipro.com KEY FEATURES All-in-one sampling and sequencing workstation running Akai’s MPC 2 software. Can also be used as a controller for the desktop version. Akai’s MPC series grew by… one with the new MPC One, released in 2

Over the past 30 years, we’ve been first-hand witnesses to a lot of changes in the ways we make music. Having spent much of this 30th anniversary issue taking stock of where we’ve been, let’s take a punt at guessing where we’re going. What will music