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Drift adds extra MPE-ready synthesis into Ableton Live
Live 11.3 puts the emphasis on expressive instruments for a generous free update
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Joyce Muniz
The Brazilian producer on her eclectic new album and love of hardware sequencers
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THE SECRETS OF SONGCRAFT
Whether you’re creating dance music, pop or left-field experiments, an understanding of the theory behind what makes a song work can be the difference between a flop and a hit
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Breaking the rules of harmony
For every key you can write in, there is an ‘expected’ group of chords which sound ‘right’. Sometimes, breaking this expectation provides a more memorable melody
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The power of inversions and chord voicing
By inverting the notes of a chord, you can ‘re-voice’ them to add greater lift to a track
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Working with melodic suspensions
Delaying the resolution of melody notes produces a powerful musical technique we call a ‘suspension’
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Dance music theory in action
Let’s move beyond theory and see how progressions, melodies and composition can be deployed
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Modern music theory tools
Learn how to use today’s top theory tools to hit the target or get creative
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JAMES HOLDEN
Ever the innovator, the London-based producer tells Matt Mullen how broken synths, 3D printers and Max for Live helped create his stellar new album
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Lewis Thompson
From DJ duo Just Kiddin to work with David Guetta, Becky Hill and more, we meet one of the UK’s most prolific songwriters
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Developing the ideas behind Enchanté
Lewis talks us through the process of developing his recent single with vocalist Clementine Douglas
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NYOKABI KARIUKI
The formally trained composer tells Kate Puttick how sound-journaling opened a world of experimentation to explore on her debut works
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Programming the OP-1 Field
Charlotte Sterling sits down with Teenage Engineering’s Jonas Åberg and Tobias von Hofsten to pick up some OP-1 tips
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Exploring the OP-1 Field’s creative tools
The updated OP-1 comes stacked with new tools. Here are some of the most essential
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OCTAVE ONE
Despite diverging from their techno roots, Octave One tell Danny Turner they’d sooner stop the music than sell their 909
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Wendy Carlos
From laying the foundations of ambient music to advising Bob Moog, Wendy Carlos’ impact cannot be understated
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Roland Jupiter-X £2,432
Is the 21st century Jupiter a dream machine to conjure sounds of the past and the future? Or just a box of plugins with some pretty lights on? Dave Clews finds out
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Erica Synth Zen Delay Virtual €99
The Ninja Tune-branded sound-mangler comes to the plugin realm. Si Truss asks if it can live up to its hardware counterpart
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Roland FP-E50 £864
Is it a piano, a synth, an arranger or something else? Ben Rogerson meets the Roland keyboard that wants to do it all
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Focal ST6 Solo6 £1,149 each
Rich tones for the wealthy? Or invaluable monitors regardless of cost? Listen to reason, urges Simon Fellows
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Audient iD24 £300
Charlotte Sterland is spoiled for connectivity choice on this interface from the audiophile-favoured brand
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Control voltages
Before the advent of MIDI, there was only one realistic method for interfacing all of your pieces of equipment with each other. Control voltage, more commonly known as CV and more accurately known as CV/Gate, is a system that uses very simple analogue electrical signals to trigger equipment
