Computer Music

Computer Music's goal is to help its readers create great music with a PC or Mac. Each month find easy-to-follow tutorials for all sorts of music software, unbiased reviews of the latest products and answers to technical questions.

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news • NEW RELEASES > COMMENT > INDUSTRY HAPPENINGS

App watch • We report on the latest developments in phone and tablet music making

Get with the programmers • WA Production supplied our free sample pack this issue and also make some superb plugins. Here’s CEO, Roman Trachta, to tell us more…

Computer Music 10 years back • Our monthly shake-of-the-head at our earlier selves’ news choices…

Ins & outs

15 questions with… Sigala • His incredibly catchy blend of dance pop has lit up charts and dance floors globally and with 10 million worldwide sales, 3.5 billion audio streams, over 1 billion video views and eight UK top 10 singles, you could say that Sigala – aka UK artist and producer Bruce Fielder – must be doing something right. And he also knows how to tackle our 15 questions, dishing out some of the best tech advice ever…

PLUGIN SUITE V2.0 • We’ve updated the CM Plugin Suite with new titles and have stripped some of the older and less functional titles out. Here’s our guide to some of the best new additions of what is still the greatest free resource in the world for music producers (and one which still comes free with this very magazine!)

A NEW EERA • Former Ninja Tune artist EERA, aka Anna Lena Bruland, has just supported Public Service Broadcasting on a successful and extensive tour, produced a session for BBC 6 Music and also released her second album, Speak. Here she explains how her love for Queens Of The Stone Age and the odd Russian synth all combined to help her create her unique sound

Playing out live

Top 4 plugins used on the record

Those little imperfections

What’s a measure of success?

The 90s • As the 80s drifted from mostly analogue to largely digital, would the 90s be the decade when the synth scene settled? Not really…

GM General MIDI

Top 10 of the 90s • The most important releases that powered this most digital of synth decades

Air - Sexy Boy • For our first 90s sonic recreation, we create the formant filter effect from the opening of Air’s Sexy Boy with a little help from Zebra CM

William Orbit - Barber’s Adagio for Strings • The mid-90s was all about the supersaw; an iconic sound, used on one of the most iconic dance tracks of the era, by William Orbit

6 of the best plugins to nail the 90s sound

#03 Sidechain bass and drums • In this tutorial you’ll learn how to use sidechain compression more effectively with your bass and kick drum

PRO TIPS • TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Ashley Thorpe

#14 Next level pad sounds • An essential part of contemporary production, this month we take our synth pads to the next level, with some pulse-width modulation

PRO TIP • GOLDEN VOICINGS

Dave Gale

The Pro Producer’s Guide To LIMITING • After guiding you through the basics of compression a few issues back, it’s time to look at its mastering brother in arms, the limiter, and all of its subtleties

Alternatives to limiting

How to get your free sample pack worth $24.90! • A free copy of Electric Chill by W.A. Production for every reader!

How to download your free sample pack • The Electric Chill sample pack normally costs $24.90 but as a Computer Music reader you can download it for free!

GForce Software M-Tron MkII £299.99 • If vintage kudos and retro styling appeal to you, the latest update from GForce Software may provide some contemporary inspiration...