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Mar 01, 2010
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Say “vocoder” and most producers will
immediately think of classic Kraftwerk or
’80s funk and rap, but this tool has far more
uses than simply generating robot voices. In
essence, a vocoder is a highly specialized
filter
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Feb 25, 2010
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If you were an early-MTV generation
teen, you probably have the image of singer
Patty Smyth’s stockinged leg etched into
your brain, thanks to Scandal’s giddy “Goodbye
to You” video. You probably also remember
the groovy
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Jan 22, 2010
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Lady Gaga stormed the charts last year with “Poker Face,” produced and programmed by studio ace RedOne. In our interview in the Oct. ’09 issue, he confessed to being a big user of the soft synths included with Apple Logic Pro, so
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Jan 22, 2010
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Everybody who uses a sequencer has worked with a “piano roll” editor, but the first time you use Image-Line FL Studio 9, you may be surprised. Like many other aspects of FL Studio, its piano-roll editor is a little
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Jan 22, 2010
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As
one of Brian Eno’s Oblique
Strategies
cards states, “Repetition is a form of change.” For dance music,
this isn’t merely a strategy, but a mantra. However, the fact of
the matter is — unless your audience’s intoxicants
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Jan 01, 2010
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“Electric Avenue” was one of the
biggest MTV hits of the ’80s, and still gets
crowds bumping on the dance floor.
Recently I had to recreate its synth parts
for a cover band’s backing track. Listening,
I realized the
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Jan 01, 2010
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Sample libraries. We all rely on them
for sweeping strings, funky basses, and
punchy drums. And every week, someone
somewhere thinks, “My [insert unique or
vintage instrument here] is so unique and
musical, I bet that 1,000
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Jan 01, 2010
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One exciting new feature in Notion 3 is
support for both ReWire host and slave
functionality. Originally designed to let
you stream the audio output of Propellerhead
Reason into the DAW of your
choice (as Reason doesn’t
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Jan 01, 2010
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Remixing can be much more
complicated than creating an original
track, as counter-intuitive as that seems.
With a remix, you have to stay true to the
song while leaving your thumbprint. You
have to please the label, the
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Dec 02, 2009
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Learn how keyboardist Arlan Schierbaum used layering on the Roland Fantom-G workstation to create unique string, choir, and electric piano sounds for pop sensation Daniel Powter's dates in Japan. Can't see the videos below? Click
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Dec 01, 2009
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The control input and output jacks on the rear panels of the virtual rackmount devices in Propellerhead Reason make it a full modular sound design environment. But older Reason modules, such as Subtractor and Malström, have only
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Dec 01, 2009
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Juan Patino is a quadruple threat. The Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum producer, mixing engineer, singer-songwriter, and instrumentalist has been one of New York City’s busiest and most sought-after sonic sorcerers since
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Dec 01, 2009
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In 1997, French synth-house duo Daft Punk burst onto the dance scene with the infectiously hooky four-on-the-floor jam “Da Funk.” It’s such a simple tune that it could almost be a nursery rhyme if it weren’t for the radically
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Dec 01, 2009
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I’m constantly asked about kick drums. After all, in dance music, it’s quite possibly the single most important element in a track. With zillions of kicks available via factory presets and third-party soundware, finding the
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Nov 25, 2009
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In 1997, French synth-house duo Daft Punk burst onto the dance scene with the infectiously hooky four-on-the-floor jam “Da Funk.” It’s such a simple tune that it could almost be a nursery rhyme if it weren’t for the radically
More...
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