Should I Buy it? – Future Audio Workshops SubLab
Should I Buy it? – Future Audio Workshops SubLab Welcome back everyone to our latest edition of Should I Buy It! It’s been a wild few months of spring as we’re sure most of you can relate. We’ve gotten a bit more settled now that summer is here, we’ve reopened the school and our diving into our review schedule. First up is FAW’s killer plugin SubLab. Read below for our score and breakdown. Breakdown Future Audio Workshpos touts SubLab as the one-stop plugin for all your bass needs. Use it to design subbass sounds for Hip-hop, Future bass and Trap genres. We put it to the test. Interface / Layout SubLab sports a minimal look, opting for the flat design style that’s been a favorite of modern plugins. The dark theme, and the separation of the plugin’s modules, helps avoid the normal pitfall of flat …
Read MoreCaptain Plugins 5 – A Big Beautiful Update
Captain Plugins 5.0 – A Big Beautiful Update MixedinKey just released their most recent update to their killer composition suite – Captain Plugins. We’re here to announce the newest features and let you know what we think. Read on below. What are the Captain Plugins? Captain Plugins 5 for Mac and Windows, comes with five VST plugins. The updated VSTs allow for super-fast songwriting and creation of chords, melodies, bass lines, and drums for any genre of music. Captain Plugins are designed for use by producers, DJs and songwriters. The Captain Plugins have had a solid place in our DAW workflow ever since reviewing Captain Chords 2.0 and Captain Melody 3.0. The plugins are fantastic tools for any producer whether new to the practice or a seasoned veteran. What’s New? You saw our scores above, and our shortlist of pros/cons. So, what’s new with the …
Read MoreHow to Change the Game When Mixing Low-End
How to Change the Game When Mixing Low-End Introducing – Mastering the Mix’s Bassroom Whether you’ve got great studio gear and acoustic treatment or not, getting a well balanced low-end is really hard. It’s a make-or-break part of the production process and getting it wrong will guarantee that your track doesn’t reach it’s fullest potential. The team over at Mastering The Mix recognized that this was a huge problem holding back a vast number of producers. In response, they created BASSROOM – a final mix and mastering EQ that helps music producers get a well balanced low-end in seconds. In this article, we will tell you all about the new plugin and how to use it to shape your low-end to your picture-perfect settings. Quality Is Essential High-quality EQ filters are essential when adjusting the low-end of your entire mix. The leading school of thought is that linear phase …
Read MoreBeat Lab Reviews – Fresh Tracks of the Week February 1, 2019
Hello again! Welcome back to Fresh Tracks of the Week where we share the hottest music of the week. This will be our second installment of the new format (twice monthly posts). We hope you enjoy the bonanza, listen below! Shakti – Crescendo Ethereal vocals , synthesizers and booming sub-bass open this track with great appeal. Halfway through we’re greeted with a fantastic horn melody which eventually fades into a build plus drop. The production on this song is as crystal clear as the waters of the Big Island from which the producer calls home. We’re as happpy to drop this on the dance floor as we are to bump it in the car. Listen below. Post Traumatic – Do You Like It Do You Like It is an electro-bass beat with a glitch-tastic twist. The beat features a horn lead along with crunchy synths which drop you into a …
Read MoreHow To Get The Perfect Amount Of Bass When Mastering Audio
How To Get The Perfect Amount Of Bass When Mastering Audio We’re happy to announce a new partnership with MasteringtheMix, a website with amazing audio plugins. When Tom reached out to us we were excited to see what his plugins could offer. Levels, Animate, Reference, and Expose all have proved to be super helpful in the mixing and mastering process. We’re featuring an article written by Tom guiding you in how to achieve an awesome bass balance while mastering. He uses a few of his own plugins as tools and we would highly suggest trying them out. Read below! This is where so many potentially awesome tracks fail. Too much bass and your track will sound bloated and lack clarity. Not enough bass and your track will sound weak. I have a process that helps me set the perfect amount of bass for my clients every time. Since …
Read MoreBeat Lab Reviews – Fresh Tracks of the Week August 24, 2018
Beat Lab Reviews – Fresh Tracks of the Week August 24, 2018 We’re back for our second installment of Fresh Tracks of the Week, this week we’ve some more of that new new – new to us, new to you – whether these tracks have been surfing the airwaves for awhile or not doesn’t make them any less Fresh. Listen below! Forin – Airlock Forin tries out a new name and new sound with a debut two track D’n’B EP – Gateway. The second track is full of dope blips and bloops but make sure you got the subwoofer plugged in for the deep down lows on this banger. Agmook – Redlines Agmook released his debut EP – Concentrated Wealth a few months ago, the name represents “the concept that wealth attracts wealth. Instead of spreading around, money concentrates into megalithic towers of bougie culture, supported by tactics of …
Read MoreBeat Lab Artist Series Recap: Brady Watt
Beat Lab Artist Series Recap: Brady Watt Last weekend we had another Beat Lab Artist Series presentation and we were graced with the presence of talented bassist Brady Watt. Brady has been the bandleader for Talib Kweli and has had his funky hand involved in countless recording sessions. He joined us to share some production tips but mostly to give a presentation on his live-performance solo set up using Ableton as a companion and controller. Brady began by sharing a bit of history – he grew up with hip-hop influences like Wu-Tang, Tribe Called Quest, and Gang Starr. His affinity for hip-hop clearly worked to his advantage as he’s been professionally recording for hip-hop greats like Talib Kweli, Ski Beats, Curren$y to name a few. Brady opened up Ableton and gave us a look at one of his live sets where he explained how simplicity can be used to your advantage. …
Read MoreSound Recipes #3: Future House Bass (Free Download)
Sound Recipes #3: Future House Bass You can check out previous Sound Recipes HERE This type of sound uses Frequency Modulation (FM) to get a plucky metallic sound. We will use 3 layers inside an Instrument Rack: Low Mid wide FM Bass Mid-High Distorted FM Bass Sub Layer We’ll be using Operator exclusively to create all the layers of the sound Low Mid wide FM Bass By default, Operator function as an FM synth which is exactly what we want. Meaning that only Oscillator A is audible. Oscillators B, C & D do not output any sound but rather alter the sound with Frequency Modulation. It is common to use Sine waves for FM synthesis and we’ll stick with those. Turn up OSC B volume until you hear the sound change. Now you can adjust the Envelope to be shorter to give us that pluck character. Turn down …
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