All posts by Mikey Backpack

Captain Melody 3.0 – This Plugin Will Help You Write Better Melodies

Captain Melody 3.0 – This Plugin Will Help You Write Better Melodies Mixed In Key just released Captain Melody 3.0 for Mac and Windows, the latest update to their award-winning Captain Plugins series. Captain Melody 3.0 includes six powerful new tools for writing melodies. The newest innovation is the “Idea Box,” that helps craft melodies appropriate for plucks, pianos, analog and VST synths, guitars, voice and other instruments. The resulting melodies can be played by the built-in Captain Plugins sounds, or routed to a virtual instrument of choice. It’s a surprise update that we didn’t know we wanted so badly! If you haven’t read our overview of the Captain Chords and Captain Suite 2.0 update then check our other article! Built for Making Hits     David Guetta wrote the melody and chords for his “Stay (Don’t Go Away)” remix with R3hab using Captain Melody 3.0 beta. This legendary artist …

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UJAM Virtual Drummer 2 – Update to the Slammin’ Plugin

UJAM Virtual Drummer 2 – Update to the Slammin’ Plugin AVID and UJAM have teamed up together to release UJAM Virtual Drummer 2! It’s available as a VST, an AU, or an AAX plugin. We wrote an article a year ago when they offered the first version for free, and we loved it. We were very excited to see what the update had brought and were not disappointed. So what is the plugin? Well, it is a playable instrument filled with 720 drum patterns ranging across 30 various styles of music. The samples were all recorded from 5 drum kits each with 6 different ‘character’ styles. The acoustic kit sounds pretty darn good and can be modulated to mix in some electronic drums. We had the pleasure of looking at one sample pack – PHAT – which has a beautiful interface and is a breeze to use. The top left …

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How Pros Make Hits: Sicko Mode – Travis Scott

How Pros Make Hits: Sicko Mode – Travis Scott This blog post is a chapter from How Pros Make Hits by Tom Frampton, posted with permission. Most critics and fans consider SICKO MODE to be the highlight of Scott’s 2018 album ‘Astroworld.’ Astroworld was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards in 2019, with ‘Sicko Mode’ receiving nominations for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song. The song was Travis Scott’s first number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. 32 songwriters and 6 producers are credited as being part of the production process of this track. With guest vocals from superstars Drake, Swae Lee and Big Hawk posthumously. The phrase ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’ clearly doesn’t apply in this circumstance. Let’s unravel the components of the track and see what can be used as inspiration in our next production.   su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-JBBNg8YKs” …

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EboSuite – Next Level Video in Ableton Live

EboSuite – Next Level Video in Ableton Live This week we’ll take an in-depth look at an amazing video manipulation plugin called EboSuite. EboSuite is a suite of MaxforLive devices that you can use to edit, cut, and manipulate video within Ableton Live. Technically it is operated through MaxforLive devices but the actual application runs outside of Ableton Live. This genius tactic is what makes is so darn useful in avoiding the common fallbacks of MaxforLive and video. Most MaxforLive video devices give you the fun ole’ start-stop-start-stop clunkiness we’ve grown to love but EboSuite bucks that trend. In this article, we’ll run through the initial steps of setting up video with the plugin, then cover the large swath of devices and FX you can use with it. Read below! su_divider top=”no” divider_color=”#d2d2d2″ size=”1″   su_box title=”EboSuite Rating: 9.5/10″ style=”glass” box_color=”#333333″ su_row su_column size=”1/2″ Pros: – Easy to use – …

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Arturia MicroFreak Review – A Fun & Freaky Compact Synthesizer

Arturia MicroFreak Review – A Fun & Freaky Compact Synthesizer This week we have the pleasure of sharing with you our review of the Arturia MicroFreak. The MicroFreak is true to its name as being a freaky freaky synthesizer. It’s packed full of different amazing waveforms that allow experimentation to the fullest. It has a riveting form factor with its PCB Keyboard and single digital oscillator layout. We love it and wish we could have kept it. Watch the full review below!   su_youtube_advanced url=”https://youtu.be/6wP5hpTwYrk” width=”400″ height=”200″ rel=”no” modestbranding=”yes” https=”yes”

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Sugar – The Ultimate Audio Sweetener

Sugar – The Ultimate Audio Sweetener This week we are covering an incredible multiband plugin called Sugar. Sugar is made by Process.Audio where they are all about the music. They are a collection of artists and music makers who got together to shift the focus of modern production back onto the music-making and less on the minutia of music editing. Sugar is the result of this mission, and is appropriately dubbed the ‘ultimate audio sweetener’. Sugar is a one-stop-shop, a plugin that is meant to put mastering-level processing in an easy to use package. In this article, we will run through the plugin’s features and tell you what we love and think could improve (if anything). Continue below! su_divider top=”no” divider_color=”#d2d2d2″ size=”1″ Workflow The workflow with Sugar is simple, it is made to enhance audio. There are limited controls so you only need to face a limited amount of parameters …

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