Electronic musician by letruongan

PLUS Moog Matriarch
In-Depth Review
Morgan Page
Talking Studio Tips & More
Resonators
Sound Design Masterclass

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] J U N E 2 0 2 0 £ G l t | z p j p h u U j v t
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ElectronicMusician(ISSN0884-4720)ispublishedmonthlybyFuturePLC,28 East 28th Street, 12th ﬂoor, New York, NY 10016.PeriodicalsPostagePaidatNewYork,NY,and
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32
MOOG
Matriarch
42
KORG
COLLECTION
Triton
62
ROUND-UP
Free Reverb
Plugins
tvynhuG
whnl
26
HOW TO
Two Handed
Soloing
28
MUSIC THEORY
Understanding
Octaves
30
CLASSIC GEAR
ProphetVS
31
INTERVIEW
DavidBaron
M A G A Z I N E
13
SOFTWARE NEWS
All the latest plugin
and DAW info
64
ELECTRONIC
GUITAR
Guitar Synths Part 2
22 52
36
TEENAGE
ENGINEERING
PO 400
40
NOVATION
Launchpad
Pro Mk3
58
TECHNIQUES
Sound Design:
Resonators
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{yhw
39
PSP AUDIOWARE
PSP oldTimer MB
54
18
10
NEW GEAR
A hardware tracker,
DIY synths and more
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Hear all of
this month’s
tutorial audio:
musicradar.com/
how-to/em426-june-
2020-examples-
and-ﬁles
46
ARTURIA
MicroLab
44
SOUNDBRENNER
Core
48
PRESONUS
E8XT
50
DREADBOX
Erebus v3

_ J U N E 2 0 2 0 £ G l t | z p j p h u U j v t
Vol. 36 No. 6
www.emusician.com
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CONTENT
Editor
Si Truss simon.truss@futurenet.com
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Editor keyboardmag.com
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Editors at Large: Francis Preve, James Russell
Contributors: Francis Preve, Scot Solida, Jerry Kovarsky,
Dave Clews, Michael Ross, James Russell, Ronan
Macdonald,
Jon Regen, Rob Redman, Bruce Aisher, Dan 'JD73'
Goldman
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JUNE 2020
SI TRUSS
EDITOR
l‹›–™˅šGu–›Œ
{”ŒG–™G”œšŠG”ˆ’•ŽUUU
For many of us around the world,
these are disrupted, unusual and
difficult times, and in such situations
it can be helpful to take some solace
in what's familiar and comforting for
us – such as making music.
In a hopeful attempt to offer a
little light relief, this issue we're
taking a dive into the history, design
and appliications of one of the most
important electronic instruments of
all time – the TR-909. Despite being
considered a commercial ﬂop upon its
release, this humble hardware
beatmaker has gone on to become the
very foundation of modern electronic
music. You'd think those sounds
would be done to death by now, but
there's still plenty of scope for ﬁnding
new inspiration from those classic
kicks, snares, cymbals and percs.
There's plenty more inspiration to
be found in this issue too. In our latest
reviews section, we're testing out not
one, not two, but three new analog,
semi-modular synths. These three –
the Moog Matriarch, Teenage
Engineering PO 400 and Dreadbox
Erebus 3 – might all have patchability
in common, but each is unique in its
own ways. From the Moog, which is
much like a self-contained classic
modular system, to the affordable,
DIY PO 400, there's a modular
approach to suit all budgets and
studios. See how each fares in our
tests in this issue's reviews section.
Our experts have plenty of
tutorials to help occupy your isolation
time too – from Jerry Kovarsky's
latest synth playing masterclass to
Francis Preve's deep dive into the
realm of resonators. Whether you
want to improve your playing or
create new sounds, we're here to help.
We hope you enjoy everything
inside this latest issue of Electronic
Musician. Stay safe!

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NEW
GEAR
NEWGEAR
Following numerous teases, Polyend has finally taken the wraps off Tracker.
This, unsurprisingly, is a hardware tracker, though not, as Polyend says, “the
first hardware tracker in the music world”.
What Tracker does appear to be, though, is a refreshingly different kind of
standalone, portable music-making device. It offers a sampler and wavetable/
granular synthesis (plus an FM radio to grab random sounds from), a step
sequencer and song arranger so that you can put together complete tracks,
and a performance mode that enables you to take your Tracker productions to
the stage.
Tracker doesn’t have to work in isolation, though; bi-directional MIDI means
that you can use it with the other software and hardware in your studio, too,
while a large screen, mechanical keyboard and big knob control are designed
to make operation and navigation fast and easy.
The vertical sequencer timeline will be familiar to anyone who’s ever used a
software tracker before, but Polyend suggests that even those who aren’t
familiar with this way of working should be able to get their head around
Tracker after a few minutes. You can import samples or record directly into the
hardware via mic and line inputs, and once you have your sounds inside, there
are a variety of slicing, editing and tweaking options.
Tracker can be pre-ordered now for the price of €499.
Polyend Tracker is a
different kind of portable
music production device
Elektron releases
Model:Cycles FM
groovebox
Elektron has dropped
Model:Cycles, a new six-track
FM-based groovebox and a
sibling for the Model:Samples.
The FM engine inside here
contains six ‘Machines’ that
cover both percussive and
melodic synths, enabling you to
produce complete tracks on the
device. These are known as
Kick, Snare, Metal, Perc, Tone
and Chord.
Sound-sculpting starts with
four core Synth Controls, and
each Machine also has
dedicated knobs for more “wild
and unexpected” tone-shaping.
The Control All feature,
meanwhile, lets you adjust a
single parameter across all
tracks simultaneously.
Naturally, there are sequencing
features in here, too: you can
record everything in real-time
or one step at a time. Elektron’s
per-step probability, sound
switching and Parameter Lock
automation is included too.
Designed for both live and
studio use, the Model:Cycles
offers MIDI and audio
connectivity and can run on
mains power or an external
battery pack.
It’s out now priced at $299.

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NEW
GEAR
Daisy is the $29 audio
board that can be turned
into a synth, guitar pedal
and a whole lot more
Going down a storm on Kickstarter – it’s already raised
more than five times its funding goal – Daisy is an
‘embedded platform for music’ from Electrosmith that
can be used to create synths, Eurorack modules,
guitar pedals and more. What’s more, it’s available
from just $29.
You can use Daisy however you want, but the
barebones headlines are that it offers two channels of
24-bit/192kHz audio (you can add more if you wish)
and full support for USB MIDI I/O. It features an STM32
ARM Cortex-M7 CPU running at 480MHz with internal
32-bit floating point processing, and 64MB of SDRAM.
We’re promised low latency (less than 1ms), full
compatibility with the Arduino platform and a suite of
software libraries and documentation.
To show you what Daisy is capable of, Electrosmith
have used it to create four devices, all of which are
available as rewards. There’s the Pod breakout board
($79), Petal guitar pedal ($299), Patch Eurorack
module ($329) and Field desktop synth ($399). You
can also get the whole lot for $999.
Ultimately, though, it seems that Daisy is designed to
inspire you to code your own devices, and the standard
audio development board – which is about the size of a
stick of gum – costs just $29. If you’re ever had the
urge to build your own custom hardware devices, it
could be just what you need.
The MOD Dwarf puts effect
and instrument plugins in a
stage-ready stompbox
The latest project from the creators of
the excellent MOD Duo multi-effects box,
MOD Dwarf might look like a conventional
guitar pedal but it’s actually rather more
than that. Specifically, this little box can
be loaded up with all the effects, amp
sims, cabinets, virtual instruments and
MIDI utilities that you need, and then
taken to the stage.
Originally conceived as a guitar product,
the MOD Dwarf could also attract
keyboard players, thanks to its class-
compliant USB MIDI connectivity. You
also get two independent audio channels,
three assignable knobs, three
footswitches and three push buttons.
Designed to offer the complexity and
power of computer-based processing in a
self-contained piece of hardware, the
MOD Dwarf can utilize both free and
commercial plugins that can be
downloaded via a dedicated online shop.
These can be patched together using a
browser-based interface, with setups not
only being transferrable to the hardware,
but also uploadable to the cloud. You can
also share them with other users.
The MOD Dwarf is currently on
Kickstarter, with a pledge of €255
potentially getting you a unit when
December 2020 comes around.

XZ
J U N E 2 0 2 0 £ G l t | z p j p h u U j v t
SOFTWARE
NEWS
Although I’m concerned with the software side of
music technology, it couldn’t have escaped my notice
how much Behringer has been in the news recently.
As well as releasing and announcing a huge number
of synths, modular gear and a lot more besides, the
controversial company also continues to be outspoken,
to say the least.
And so when Behringer announced this month
it was planning to develop its own DAW software,
it came as an expected surprise. Actually, the
DAW will likely be released by Behringer’s
parent company Music Tribe, but I’ll stick to the
B word here.
“This is a massive undertaking,” said the company
on Facebook, “which will take at least 18 months and
for that purpose we have now assembled a large
development team.” The DAW is anticipated to include
VST plugins as well as acting as a host for the format,
and the company called for input from its fanbase.
“Best of all, the DAW will be free of charge,” the post
went on.
Where next for a company with its own dedicated
manufacturing city, featuring both accommodation
SOFTOPINIONS
One of the most infamous companies in our world seems to be
branching out into software development. What comes next?
and recreational facilities
for its employees? The
answer, it seems, could
well be software.
Over by Christmas
Could this mean the start
of Behringer’s presence in
the world of plugins, too? It
would be a reasonable way
to test their DSP output
and build their brand,
although maybe the DAW
itself is simply a way to give
users of the company’s
existing synths an easy way to record, edit and mix
their signals.
The claim of building this comprehensive software
in 18 months may be a little off. DAW developers I’ve
spoken to in the past have told me it would take a team
of expert developers about five years to put together a
new package. Although Behringer have “assembled a
large development team” to tackle this, that tactic
tends to be counterproductive in the speedy creation
of software, as most developers will be able to tell you.
Unless Behringer is using something like the open-
source Tracktion Engine to help in development, it
seems to me that creating this project from the ground
up will likely take a lot longer than first expected.
More free DAWs
It’s honorable that Behringer intend to make their
forthcoming DAW available for free. The host market
has seen a number of disruptions in pricing since
Apple reduced the price of Logic and made the sister
application GarageBand available for nothing.
With this and the added disruption of subscriptions
in the music software world, the zero-price-tag
strategy isn’t new. As well as GarageBand’s entryway
into Logic, there’s Tracktion’s Waveform Free and its
entryway into Waveform 11; Ardour, the free and
open-source DAW; the now-free Cakewalk by
Bandlab, and Universal Audio’s Luna, which aims to
make a purchase of UA software (and hence
hardware) more valuable.
So it’s not unusual to see a free DAW on the
horizon, but given the history of Behringer and Music
Tribe for disrupting the market, it’ll be interesting to
see where this goes after 18 months… or longer.
By James Russell
As one of Electronic Musician's cadre of Editors At Large,
James is responsible for keeping his finger on the pulse
of the music software world, reporting on the latest
developments in plugins and DAWs. He also takes a more
irreverent look at music software as co-host of Appetite For
Production Podcast, and is often to be found creeping about
on Twitter: @rusty_jam
Universal Audio’s Luna adds value
to the UAD ecosystem for Mac users
Ardour is a free
and open-source DAW

14 J U N E 2 0 2 0 | E M U S I C I A N . C O M
SOFTWARE
NEWS
ACID Pro 10 DAW lands with new features,
and the Suite version includes Xfer’s Serum
soft synth
We’re slightly confused as to how it differs from ACID
Pro Next, which was announced last year but now
seems to have disappeared, but Magix has announced
that ACID Pro 10, the latest version of its loop-based
DAW, is now available.
This includes an “all-new” version of Zynaptiq’s
Stem Maker audio separation technology,
which enables you to extract individual elements
(drums, vocals etc) from mixed audio. Stem Maker
2 promises refined separation and better overall
sound quality.
There are also ACID Morph pads; assign audio
tracks, instruments or busses to a pad and you can
then morph sounds and effects, giving you a new
creative option. The MIDI Playable Chopper,
meanwhile, gets a new transient detection feature
and enables you to play extracted samples,
ACIDized loops or your own recordings from your
MIDI keyboard.
Those who purchase the ACID Pro 10 Suite will
also receive a complete copy of Xfer’s Serum, which
must undoubtedly be one of the finest soft synth
plugins on the market. Both versions of ACID Pro 10
come with Melodyne Essential for flexible pitch and
timing correction.
ACID Pro 10 is available now priced at $170. Acid
Pro 10 Suite, meanwhile, costs around £345. Find out
more on the MAGIX website.
MusicRadar
Sample Logic’s Motion Keys promises to
“breathe new life” into sampled pianos
and keyboards
You might think that there’s nothing left to add to
the world of sampled piano/keyboard instruments,
but Sample Logic has other ideas and has released
Motion Keys.
Offering 483 instruments derived from 12GB of
sample content, this includes Grand Pianos, Upright
Pianos, Toy Pianos, Harpsichords, Accordions, Organs,
Digital Classics, Synthetic Keys, Vintage Keyboards
and Wavetable Synthesizers. These tones can be
combined and animated to produce shifting, evolving,
hybrid sounds in all
kinds of flavours.
Motion Keys
includes Sample
Logic’s Step
Animator and XY
motion engines, also
offering both insert
and master effects.
Finding, loading and
tweaking sounds is
said to be quick and
easy, and
“intelligent”
randomization
options could lead to
happy accidents.
Motion Keys runs in the full version of Kontakt only
(5.8.1 or later) and is currently available for $300.
MusicRadar
Infinity 4.5 promises to take you beyond
other audio editors
Hit’n’Mix has updated Infinity, its ‘atomic audio
editor’, to version 4.5. Unlike some editors, which offer
editing of just waveforms and/or frequency spectra,
Infinity promises to ‘unlock’ audio and work with notes,
harmonics and unpitched sounds. The developers
claim that editing is so deep and flexible that it can feel
like you’re working with MIDI rather than audio.
Infinity 4.5 comes with a raft of new features. You
can rip and export video and MIDI files, import and
paint your own samples into rips via the Instrument
Palette, auto-detect and set BPMs/tempo/scales/keys,
and remove background and foreground noise. A
whole host of other audio processing and workflow
improvements are included, too.
Hit’n’Mix says that these improvements will save
users more time and effort than before, giving you
more options when you want to edit the timing, pitch
and loudness of vocals, instruments, dialog and sound
effects. We’re told that, as well as being useful for
corrective tasks, Infinity can also be used creatively.
Infinity runs on PC and Mac, costs $349, and a
demo is available. The version 4.5 update is free for
existing users.
MusicRadar
THIS MONTHINSOFTWARE
DAWs are updating, the past is coming to life in emulated form,
and the way for pay for music software continues to change
Acid Pro 10 comes with
improved stem isolation
and a copy of Xfer Serum
Sample Logic returns
with Motion Keys

15
J U N E 2 0 2 0 | E M U S I C I A N . C O M
Waves launches “affordable” plugin
subscription plans starting at $6.99/ month
Waves has become the latest music software developer
to hop aboard the plugin subscription train, announcing
the Waves Music Maker Access platform. This enables
you to choose monthly or annual subscriptions to the
company’s Silver, Gold and Platinum bundles, with
prices starting at $6.99 per month.
Whichever plan you choose, you can start with a
free one-month trial, with subscribers receiving
unlimited updates and “premium customer service”.
You can cancel and restart at any point.
The $6.99 per month price applies to the Silver
bundle (also available for $69.99 a year), which
contains 16 plugins, while the Gold bundle gives you 42
plugins for $9.99 per month or $99.99 a year. If you
want to max out, you can go for the $19.99 a
month/$199.99 a year Platinum bundle, which contains
57 plugins.
Those who sign up to a Gold or Platinum plan also
have the option of becoming a Custom 5-Pack
subscriber. For an additional $7.99 a month or $79.99 a
year you can choose a further five plugins from the
Waves catalogue. You can find out more and start a
subscription on the Waves website.
MusicRadar
Reason 11.2 is here, and the Reason Rack
Plugin can now send MIDI Out to your DAW
Reason Studios has announced Reason 11.2, which
brings significant improvements to not only the main
Reason 11 DAW, but also the new Reason Rack plugin.
Specifically, the plugin now supports both MIDI
Out and ‘Drag MIDI notes to track’ – two features
that users have been asking for. This means, for
example, that you can use Reason’s excellent Player
devices to control plugins in your host. You can send
both note and MIDI CC data, opening up all kinds of
creative possibilities.
There’s also a new MIDI Out Device in the
standalone version of Reason 11.2 – this replaces the
previous External MIDI Instrument device and
enables you to patch up to eight CV signals and route
them as separate MIDI CCs to external MIDI gear.
Reason and Reason Suite are getting a new Rack
Extension, too: Beat Map is an ‘algorhythmic
drummer’ that generates drum patterns based on
built-in beats, algorithms and simple controls. It’s
designed for use with
Reason’s drum
instruments (Kong, Rytmik
and Umpf) but can also be
applied to melodic ones.
Find out more on the
Reason Studios website.
MusicRadar
IK Multimedia’s new
reverb puts Sunset Sound studio spaces
right in your DAW
Opened in 1958, Los Angeles’ Sunset Sound studios is a
legendary facility that initially handled work for
Disney – the music for Mary Poppins and 101
Dalmations, for example – before opening its doors to
external clients such as The Rolling Stones, Led
Zeppelin and Prince. Now, thanks to IK Multimedia,
you can recreate the ambience of this classic space in
your DAW with the T-RackS Sunset Sound Studio
Reverb. This runs as both a plugin and within T-RackS
5, and is powered by IK’s Volumetric Response
Modeling technology and physical modelling of the
studio’s consoles.
The software was created in collaboration with
producer/engineer Ross Hogarth (Van Halen, Doobie
Brothers) and many of Sunset Sound’s engineers, and
recreates the mic positions and placement used on a
slew of hit records. Each space was captured using the
studio’s high-end mic collection to capture both its
acoustics and “vibe”.
Physical modeling was used to capture the vintage
custom consoles, preamps and signal paths, resulting
in a reverb that promises a “special” warmth and tone
and a “signature ambient sound”. Obviously, you get a
selection of controls for tone-shaping, too.
Studio owner Paul Camarata says: “For 60 years, the
sound of our studios has been heard on hit records
around the world. Now, we’re proud to be working
with IK Multimedia to bring our famed sound to
everyone’s recordings. Sunset Sound Studio Reverb
really nails the essence of our distinct character.”
You get a variety of vintage reverb options from each
of the three studios (including the Echoplate and EMT
140 plate reverb, and an AKG BX-20E spring reverb)
and you can keep track of what’s going on via the
control room style interface. Sunset Sound Studio
Reverb is available for the introductory price of $150.
Find out more on the IK Multimedia website.
MusicRadar
Sampleson’s Suit73 Rhodes plugin is a
“35MB suitcase electric piano that sounds
like 8GB”
We’ve heard some bold boasts by plugin developers,
but Sampleson’s claim that it’s extracted the DNA of a
Rhodes Suitcase 73 piano and put it in a plugin is up
there with the best of them.
Unsurprisingly, Sampleson says that this is the most
detailed Rhodes emulation that it’s created so far. It
features the second generation of its spectral modeling
engine (DNAudio 2.0) for a sound that promises to be
“realistic and warm”.
The spectral modeling process is based on real
samples – although Suit73 still magically manages to
weigh in at a mere 35MB – and promises low CPU
usage. Sampleson says that it’s mapped more than 64
groups of timbre components (releases, bells, key
noises, main timbre, resonance etc) and then carefully
recreated them.
Suit73 also includes drive, phaser, tremolo and
reverb FX and comes with a scalable 4K interface.
Running on PC and Mac both standalone and as a
VST/AU/AAX plugin, Suit73 is available now for $59.
Find out more on the Sampleson website.
MusicRadar
IK’s Sunset Sound reverb
Sampleson’s Suit73
models a suitcase Rhodes

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SOFTWARE
NEWS
TonsturmFRQSHIFT
H
ere's a recent software release that
sees the process of audio frequency
shifting taken to its extremes,
While the better-known pitch shifting
effect is all about multiplying or dividing
signals, frequency shifting is all about
addition and subtraction. While the former
can give musical, harmonically sensible
results, frequency shifting is much more,
shall we say, irrational.
Tonsturm's Frq Shift plugin does the
frequency shifting basics, but it also takes
things further with feedback controls, effects
added in the feedback loop, and modulation
from a choice of sources to practically any
destination. Let's take a look…
3. Frq Shift
Tonsturm's Frq Shift plugin gives you not one
frequency shifter but two, letting you shift
by two different amounts and then blend
between them. Here, a positive pitch shift
of 615Hz and a negative one of -35Hz are
blended together at 50/50. With the original
signal still peeking through (thanks to the
Wet/Dry control), we can turn a simple
percussive synth pluck into an inharmonic,
demonic note that would make any horror
director proud. It's also possible to 'spread'
the shift in frequency or in phase, to thicken
things up a bit.
1. Pitch shifting
Most pitch shifting is just that – we use a
pitch shifter plugin (as shown on the left)
to increase or decrease the pitch of a whole
signal. Start with a 100Hz saw wave, shift
it up by an octave, and you end up with a
200Hz saw wave. Not only that, though,
that original saw wave's harmonics (200,
300, 400, 500 Hertz and so on) are shifted
by an octave too, so 400, 600, 800 and 1000
Hertz. The result is, on paper, the same note
that you would have got if you'd played an
octave up to begin with. Everything remains
harmonically in line.
2. Frequency shifting
But with frequency shifting, things are
different. Here, your input audio is still
changed in pitch, but everything is skewed by
a fixed amount – you're adding or subtracting
frequencies, rather than mutliplying them.
The result when we add 100Hz to the whole
signal sees harmonics at 300, 400, 500,
600 Hertz, and so on. Since we shifted by
100Hz, the same amount as the fundamental
frequency, the tone doesn't sound too
disimilar, but we'll get there…

X^
4. Stick shift: tuning drums
One of the best uses for frequency shifting is
on percussion. If the process turns harmonic
things inharmonic, what better use than
something that starts out inharmonic? When
we put Frq Shift onto a tom track, the result
is a useful way of changing the pitch that's
not like much else out there. Still, it takes a
little time, and some hit-and-miss attempts,
to get something we're truly happy with.
There's no rulebook for frequency shifting, as
it depends so much on your material.
5. Feedback time
Frq Shift is pretty unique in that it offers a
feedback circuit after the frequency shifters,
letting you pipe the output signal back
through that process. To tame the feedback –
or simply to get creative with it – there are
Delay, Resonator and Filter effects too. Delay
lets you select a decay time and left/right
feedback amounts, with the resulting shifts
appearing in the graphic at the top of the
plugin. There's a pair of filters and a stabilizer
control, both of which act to tame the
feedback path, calming the result and not
letting things overload as signals build up.
6. Resonator
In this panel, a frequency of between 10Hz
and 20kHz is used to affect the feedback
path, resulting in some haunting tones,
depending on the material. An offset dial is
available for creating some spatial effects.
As with the Delay and the Shifer feedback
modules, controls are available for Left-side
feedback, Right-side feedback, and X feed
(one side into the other).
7. Modulation power
As if adding effects to a frequency shifter
wasn't unique enough to begin with, there
are also three types of LFO (traditional,
custom-drawn and random) as well as an
envelope follower to assign to any of Frq
Shift's available parameters (which is most of
them). All are bipolar, although you can tune
the envelope follower to react only positively
or negatively, depending on your input signal.
In a final stroke of modulation brilliance, any
modulator can modulate parameters of other
modulators – even its own. With frequency
shifting taken to its extreme, this is a creative
powerhouse that many producers would have
never realised they needed.

909
SESSIONS
W
hen it comes to legendary names among drum machines,
Roland stand firmly at the top, having created a number
of seminal beatboxes that have pounded their way into
our collective consciousness over the years thanks to the
innumerable hit tracks in which they’ve appeared. From the delicate
pitter-patter of the CR-78 that opens Phil Collins’ 'In the Air Tonight'
to the shutter-shaking TR-808 kick that rumbled through Afrika
Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force’s 'Planet Rock', these machines
have shaped the soundtracks of the last four decades.
And though the 808 is the one drum machine everyone can name-
check, it was its follow-up that arguably shaped the musical direction
of the 1990s and beyond. Along with another underrated Roland also-
ran, the TB-303 BassLine, the tight ’n’ punchy sounds of the TR-909
would become the de facto sonic signature of house, acid house and
techno styles – initially underground genres that eventually found
their way into the mainstream.
While prices of the original 10,000 units inevitably escalated out of
reach of the average muso, hardware and software developers alike
would clone and copy its features, model its sounds, and otherwise
exploit an entire generation’s desire to nail that sound. Of course,
many would claim such a thing impossible, citing ageing and
obsolescent components and that indescribable analog mojo that
seems to drive secondhand prices up.
Most of us don’t have a hardware TR-909 to play with, of course,
but that doesn’t matter –today’s software makes it easier than ever to
get those famous beats into your tracks for little to no cost. If you
prefer to work with a self-contained instrument, most DAWs come
bundled with at least one sampled 909 kit, and there are heaps of
third-party virtual 909s out there – we’ll outline a few of these over
the page. Alternatively, if you like to use drum samples, you’ll find
plenty of one-shots and loops in commercial sample packs, and even
more for free download online. Heck, we’ve even provided a few for
you to use – head to musicradar.com/how-to/em426-june-2020-
examples-and-files and download the House Essentials pack!
One thing to bear in mind is that every producer has access to the
exact same palette of TR-909 sounds, making it quite tough to really
stand out from the crowd. However, once armed with an
understanding of the original hardware’s operational quirks and
limitations, you can emulate those nuances in your DAW for a
completely authentic sound.
To that end, then, let’s take a tour of the original unit and its
various software replicas. You’ll be a 909 aficionado in no time!
909
SESSIONS
Unappreciated upon release, Roland’s TR-909 drum machine reshaped
a musical era and still sets standards for new generations
909
SESSIONS

X`
It seems impossible to imagine today, but the
TR-909 was, in fact, a commercial failure.
Coming in at exactly the wrong time at precisely
the wrong price, the 909 fell flat, selling a meagre
10,000 units – far fewer than Roland had hoped
when it was released in 1983.
The story was familiar – almost identical to
that of the 909’s predecessor, the TR-808. That
particular unit had – astonishingly – been pitched
as a cost-effective competitor to Roger Linn’s
LM-1, the first drum machine to use samples for
each sound. Those samples had helped to make
the LM-1 a runaway success, and created a
demand for realistic drum machines.
The crisp, digital smack of the LM-1 made the
808 sound positively archaic. Further problems
arose when improvements in semi-conductor
manufacturing made critical transistors used in
the 808 impossible to source.
Roland’s response? To replace it with a new
model that used samples for hats and cymbals but
analog circuitry for everything else. Its punchy
kick may have been seen as an improvement over
the simple, booming bass of the TR-808, but fully
sample-based units like the Linn and Oberheim
DMX ruled the airwaves in 83. The 909’s
smattering of sampled hats and cymbals seemed a
lame compromise at the time, and worse –
though it cost less than half the price of the DMX
– it was pitched as a pro unit, and came in at a
whopping £999.
That isn’t to say that the
TR-909 was entirely behind
the times. The addition of
three five-pin DIN
connectors around the back
proved that. Indeed, this was
the first Roland beatbox to
include MIDI support,
meaning it could
communicate with any other
likewise-outfitted gear that
might be coming down the pike. Mind you, MIDI
had yet to become the accepted standard it is
today, so Roland hedged their bets by also
including its usual DIN-Sync port, as well.
As ever, the grid-based programming was
relatively easy to grok, and improvements to the
Accent function provided some interesting
dynamics to the proceedings. With an impressive
96 patterns and eight song slots at hand, there
was enough memory to satiate even the most
prolific producer.
And yet those sounds! As much as we love
them today, in 83 they were nothing short of
catastrophic. It’s hard to imagine the 909
competing with, say, Oberheim’s cut-down DX,
which cost only slightly more, and offered user-
swappable samples on optional EPROM chips.
Roland finally caught on, and a year after the
909 was released, it was gone, replaced by the
sample-based TR-707.
It wouldn’t be long before sample-based drum
machines were being priced for the gigging
musician rather than the studio pro. As sample-
based keyboard ‘workstations’ would take the
market by storm within a few years, it seemed
drum machines of any sort had seen their day.
But had they? Studio pros may have grown
weary of premium-priced drum machines, but
there were plenty of second-hand units to be
found cheap. As happened with both the TR-808
and TB-303, pre-owned machines were snapped
up by skint musicians desperate for gear and less
concerned with the pop charts. Hip-hop and club
producers had no trouble with the analog sounds
of the 909 and, in fact, recognized that the raw
analog power of the kick, snare, and clap could
shake a warehouse to its rafters. Artists like Jeff
Mills and Frankie Knuckles used secondhand
TR-909s to create classic tracks that would be
imitated by those that followed, creating a
demand for the once-overlooked 909.
Three virtual TR-909 clones
RO LAN D TR-90 9 SO FTWA RE
Rhythm Composer $19.99
Roland have never ceded to demands
for an analog recreation of their lauded
analog beatboxes, but they have seen fit to
recreate them in various digital guises over
the years. Of great interest to our readers,
this particular incarnation comes as part of
the company’s monthly Cloud subscription
service. Take a look at the walkthrough later
in the feature for a closer look.
rolandcloud.com
Revolution 909
D 16 GRO UP
Drumazon $99
A constant resource for killer clones of
classic kit, d16 Group have given us their
take on quite a number of Roland classics,
including the TR-808 (Nepheton), TR-606
(Nithonat), and this, a 909 knock-off. As
ever, the sound is pretty much spot-on, and
the interface will be familiar to users of the
original. They’ve added in all mod cons, too,
including their wicked randomizer.
d16.pl
AUDI OREALI SM
Drum Machine (ADM) $95
Mike Janney’s essential virtual instrument
features three classic Roland bangers in a
single plugin. Yep, ADM includes models of
the 606, 808, and 909, and you can intermix
them as you see fit. With per-step control
over parameters like filter cutoff and Q, it’s
not limited to the beats of old. And to add to
the bargain, you can import SYSEX from an
actual TR-909.
audiorealism.se
Artists like Jeff Mills cemented the
909’s position in history

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909
SESSIONS
01Shift button
Even as long ago as 1983, tabletop gear was
plagued by the ever-present Shift button. Then, as
now, it was necessary to access a secondary level
of functions below select dual-purpose buttons.
You can tell which ones they are by the field of
orange that surrounds some of the legending
across the panel – Track and Pattern Write
functions are among them.
02Tempo Knob/Display Window
Unlike many drum machines that came
before it, the TR-909 at least gave some indication
of global BPM via the Display Window to its left,
assuming that the various external sync functions
weren’t being used. That three-digit LED display
was also used to indicate the current measure,
among a few other helpful indicators.
03Transport controls
These buttons likely need no explanation
to even the greenest electronic music producer.
However, do keep in mind that, at the time, such
things were not as standardised as they are today.
It was old machines like the 909 that would bring
us to expect not only a Start key, but also a Stop
button that doubled as a Continue function.
04Main keys
So much of the action takes place using
this row of 16 keys across the bottom. These keys
act not only as a means by which to enter musical
notes and perform various editing functions, they
also serve admirably as a crucial visual
representation of the 16 steps in the sequence,
aiding our analog minds.
05Instrument Selector
Here’s another operation that has
become all too familiar thanks to modern
beatboxes seeking to honour the legends of yore.
Used to select an instrument for, say, step writing
a pattern, the Instrument Select button is held
down while tapping a Main Key assigned to the
desired instrument.
06Shuffle AND Flam
Even at the time of the TR-909’s release,
drum machines were considered robotic and
lifeless (which didn’t stop the Musician’s Union
from attempting to have them outlawed), but
today, instruments like the TR-909 are revered
for their ‘groove’, aka shuffle. This is where the
‘push’ and ‘pull’ of a pattern is defined – the offset
of even-numbered 16th notes, natch. Flam,
meanwhile, is another way a drum programmer
can introduce humanity and life into a beat. On
the TR-909, it could only be applied to bass, snare,
or tom tracks.
07Sound Section controls
One of the defining features of the big TR
boxes, Sound Section Controls are real-time
parameters used to shape each drum sound’s
pitch, timbre and/or dynamics. Each drum sound
gets a Level control. Decay can be adjusted for
bass, toms, hats, and cymbals. Bass, toms, and
cymbals all have Tune, while the snare is outfitted
with a Tone control, as well as the now-famous
Snappy knob.
08Tap Write
The finger drummers of 1983 dished out
their ditties not on velocity-sensitive rubber pads
like we do today, but on the same sort of clunky,
clicky keys that one imagined were used to enter
the launch codes on a nuclear command console.
Nevertheless, the real-time Tap Write method
was a favourite among the digitally dextrous:
when on, simply bash those clicky keys to enter
note data per part.
09Accent
Roland were especially proud of the
improvements made to the TR-909’s Accent
functions. The 909 offered two different Accent
types. Accent A (Total Accent) was set per step:
all voices that appeared on that step would be
accented. Accent B allowed an accent to be
applied to any voice on any step. Both could be
used together, depending on the value of the Total
Accent knob.
10Track/Pattern Play (Write)
It’s worth mentioning that, upon power up,
the default mode of the machine is Track Play. It’s
more likely that you’ll want to start with a
Pattern, so you’ll probably need to use that Shift
button to access the Pattern Write (edit) mode,
select one of the Pattern Play buttons, then tap
one of the 16 chunky buttons along the bottom to
select a Pattern. Easy when you know how!
01
02
03
04
06
09
07
05
08
10
Anatomy of the TR-909
Image courtesy of perfectcircuit.com

YX
Step by step Exploring Roland Cloud’s virtual TR-909
01
As you’d expect, Roland know a thing or
two about how the TR-909 should sound,
and have rolled that knowledge into their
own plugin version, available through their
Roland Cloud subscription service. Let’s fire it up and
have a play.
04
If you look to the section just above
the Main keys, you’ll see a browser
section, where you can select
presets banks, patterns and kits.
Currently, the 909 Basic Kit is selected. This is fine. We
want to build our own pattern from the ground up, so
we’ll need to either create or select an empty pattern.
Go ahead and click the List button.
02
There’s a familiar row of 16 keys
along the bottom, just like on the real
deal. Depending on how they’re used,
these keys are associated with
pattern steps or various drum voices. Go ahead and
give each of them a click or tap. Note that Bass, Snare,
and each of the Toms have two keys – the leftmost for
accented volume.
05
Here, we see the current preset’s
various Kits. If we click the Pattern
tab up top, we’ll see that there are 50
patterns associated with this preset.
If we click the New button in the upper left, this list
clears as a new preset starts. We select the first
pattern slot to load it into our 909. We can then
rename the new slot.
03
Those sounds are achingly familiar, if
a bit vanilla. For now, note that
clicking the Start key or engaging
your DAW’s transport will set the
currently selected pattern into motion. Note the
flashing A button on the left side of the GUI: this is the
current pattern variation being played. This pattern has
two variations. Press the B button to hear the other.
06
Closing out the List window, we now
have a blank pattern with which to
play. We can trigger the various
drums used in our kit using the
onscreen keys or an attached MIDI controller. However,
we’ll create our pattern using the Editor – click the Edit
button. The various drum sounds are shown in a
vertical column on the left.
07
The steps are, of course, represented
by horizontal rows, one for each
sound. Let’s click every fourth button
in the Bass Drum row for a bland four-
to-the-floor beat. Let’s add some hi-hats. To add
dynamics, click the Weak button, then click on the
steps you’d like to be played at a lower level.
08
We add a few more drum hits to our
groove, including a rather active
snare pattern. To really make it
groove more, though, we’re going to
need to add a bit of that ol’ '80s drum machine swing.
We’re going to take the easy way out, simply cranking
the Shuffle knob up to a rather pendulous +58.
09
We can’t resist using the sound
section controls to tweak our drum
sounds a little. That Snappy knob is
hard to resist. Note that you can
save a kit with any changes you make. Once you have a
groove you like, you can write that to your preset, too.
Click Option to allow both MIDI and audio clips of your
patterns to be dragged right from the plugin.

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MORGAN
PAGE
MORGAN
PAGE
From tracker software beginnings to top ten hits,
Morgan Page is a producer par excellence. After
dispensing production tips on Twitter, what’s
his advice for working in the industry?
favorites for your synths and stuff. That was
always a big headache when it came to the
Nexus expansions.
You can’t get far in dance music without
seeing another producer or DJ raving
about Nexus2…
It is funny, it was so ubiquitous that they
almost don’t need any testimonials from
anyone. They told me they already had too
many testimonials. I work with so many
companies and it’s like pulling teeth to get
quotes from artists, but Nexus has so many
fans that they don’t need any extra help.
You’ve got a few analog units in the rack
– it’s not just digital all the way, then?
It is interesting now. People ask you to choose
if you go analog or digital. Why bifurcate it?
Why be forced to choose? Use both where you
can. In my studio I have a rack of analog gear
for tracking vocals. Some of it’s unused but I
love what Universal Audio are doing – I have
two of those Apollo X8Ps. To me it’s all about
workflow, as long as the audio quality is good,
it’s all good. The downside with analog is
when something breaks down and a tube
needs to be replaced. That’s a huge headache.
If I can’t track vocals because a tube is in the
shop getting replaced, that’s a big
disadvantage. So I love both. I kind of like
having both versions of the same gear. Like UA
just launched the Avalon VT-737. I’ve had that
in my rack since college, and so it’s cool to
I
t’s 2008, and EDM is beginning to explode
in the USA, where acts like Deadmau5 and
Avicii will soon be household names. After
years of toil, staring at blank screens and
slaving away on tracks and remixes for little
reward – a feeling most of us are familiar with
– all Morgan Page needed was one spark to
ignite his career. Fast forward to 2020, and the
spark has been and gone, leaving Page as one
of the seminal acts of the EDM explosion,
with an enviable string of achievements under
his belt. So how did it all happen? We talked
with Morgan to try and pin down the roadmap
for a journey to stardom…
We’re talking just after one big release in
the software world, reFX Nexus 3. You’re
on the record as a big Nexus2 fan: are you
liking v3?
To me it’s all about the workflow with this
update. I guess they’ve added new sounds, but
that’s really not the draw. It’s more the color
coding, the timbre, the sounds… everything’s
in a better layout. Also some really cool stuff
they’re doing with the effects – you can add
impulse responses and tails to sounds, which
is really interesting. The effects weren’t that
innovative in Nexus before. The arpeggiator is
a big improvement. Now it’s almost a DAW
within a DAW – this is a long time coming.
One big thing for me is that all your presets
are saved in the cloud. I have a mobile setup
and I have my studio setup, and it’s usually
such a pain to keep two versions of your
By James Russell
have both. When you know it inside and out,
you can see where the software may be
different; it actually has some different
features to the analog version, so you can use
them in different ways.
Have you compared the Avalon emulation
to the real thing yet?
Yeah I’m still trying it out. After having it for
15 plus years in my rack, I feel like I should be
able to tell the difference, but it’s just nice even
to have preset recall on these plugins. I do
think it’s really nice with analog stuff that,
even though there are breakdowns, there’s no
updates and you’re not thinking about latency.
Those are huge differences now. The most
powerful use of it all is just a combination of
both. I’m especially using the UAD Apollo
Console. I’m using that for tracking, and that’s
a huge advantage. It’s like having a mixing
desk on the front end, which is really nice. It’s
getting more and more complex now dealing
with authorizations for plugins, but that’s
getting a little better now that everyone’s
doing cloud installers – that’s helped a lot.
What was your first DAW?
The first thing that got me into music DAW-
wise, and it was barely even a DAW, was
tracking software – I used Impulse Tracker
and Scream Tracker way back in those days.
So I started with computer stuff way back
before they were powerful enough. Trackers
felt like a player piano almost. It was this scroll
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YZ
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
“Analog or digital? Why
be forced to choose?”
YZ

Y[ J U N E 2 0 2 0 £ G l t | z p j p h u U j v t
of little notes and vibrato programming; it was
such a backwards way to make music but it was
the only way I could afford at the time. I
definitely couldn’t afford a Pro Tools rig back
when I was 12 years old.
I started with trackers, moved to more of a
MIDI-based MPC studio where everything’s just
running off the MPC as a brain. Then I graduated
to Pro Tools, and I used it for a long time, but I got
so frustrated with the MIDI and error messages
and stability. Pro Tools is a great platform, but
when I discovered Ableton, that was a creative
gamechanger. Especially now – it’s so stable.
When did you first make the switch to
Ableton Live? There was a time there when it
was still somewhat underground, but it’s now
a very well established DAW amongst most
music producers…
I wouldn’t have expected such a sea change to
Ableton – Logic was the holy grail of dance music
for a while. I think Logic looks the best and feels
amazing, but Ableton’s got a little of that
intuitiveness in how it strings together the
presets and the workflow.
I think about ten years ago I started using it for
live shows. These days, I DJ with CDJs and
rekordbox, but back then I was using Ableton for
everything: for the radio shows, for live shows
and for production. Today I even do vocal
tracking in Ableton as well.
Max for Live is more user friendly; then there’s
the ability to color-code your plugins. It’s hard to
make creativity work if the workflow isn’t good; if
the plumbing isn’t set up ahead of time. That’s
really what I look for.
Live updates are often a little restrained
compared to other DAWs. Is there anything
that you feel is missing in the current version?
They made a lot of small changes. It’s funny that
only recently they let you rename your inputs and
outputs on your soundcard. They added these
exotic things like capturing MIDI after you’ve
played it, but there’s still some basic stuff they’ve
got to upgrade.
It’s all FL Studio and Ableton now. I think the
biggest problem was that Ableton’s presets have a
very flat, clinical sound to them. They don’t have
this beefy, processed Splice pack sound to them
– I kind of want to throw them into a multiband

Y
INTERVIEW
equipment, new ways to combine my love for
music and technology.
I think my favourite moments are maybe the
early tipping points in my career when I had
Deadmau5 remix ‘The Longest Road’, and just
watching things take off. You feel your whole
world shifts. You go, “Woah, this just changed my
life”. I think the most exciting moments are when
things tilt off-axis and you’re in a whole new
arena. Those are fun to me.
Things have changed in the music industry in
general, of course. Have you found your own
way to stay current and interesting now that
so much is based around streaming?
Now you have to one-up yourself every few years.
Now it’s a shorter cycle. It’s not about thinking
year-to-year now, a year is too long to strategize
things these days. You’ve got to be thinking
month-to-month to strategize your releases,
which is a new pressure but it’s also new
flexibility. Like how Chainsmokers are doing the
‘building an album’ approach, where they add a
new song, take the old version down and in that
way they build a whole album one song a month.
It’s genius…
When one income stream dries up, there’s
always a new river of possibility you can tap into.
Remixes on their own were a great living for a
long time, but then that dried up and I thought I
should probably be focusing on originals anyway.
There’s always a little silver lining when one area
explodes or even dries up slowly and you’re
forced to improvise and evolve.
You’ve given the world a lot of technical and
creative advice, but how about a Quick Tip on
careers? Getting signed, making it work…
I remember when I was sending out demos
early on… you’re going to get rejected by a lot of
different labels. I thought I was going to make it
at 21, that I was going to have this Avicii skyrocket
to stardom, but it took ten years. When I was
younger I thought I’ll do about a dozen songs a
year and I’ll get lucky and somebody will take me
under their wing, some AR is going to fly me
out. That did happen later but then those deals
fizzled. A major label flies you out and then they
want everything done already.
But I had this tendency, I would be buying
Future Music, paying 15 dollars in Vermont in the
country I grew up. I’d sit in bars and I’d read the
magazine and I’d read about guys who’d got
signed, sitting on a train with some major label
AR who said, ‘Cool, we’ve got you from here,
here’s this huge advance and now ride off into the
sunset’… But it doesn’t work like that. Q
compressor and just smash them to add more
flavour. The stock plugins are also so flat that I
think it influenced people in how they thought
the DAW sounded. There’s a placebo effect to the
visuals too – whereas in Logic, everything’s
glossy, Ableton’s very flat and cartoony, it’s almost
like you’re reading a paper. That changes your
perception of the sound.
Has it ever crossed your mind that there may
be something to the idea of DAWs sounding
different, beyond placebo?
Maybe it’s down to your converters too. I have the
top-of-the-line Pro Tools, the HDX card
converter, and that’s a very loud converter. So if
something’s just a dB louder, you’re going to think
it sounds better. Now I’m doing everything
through the Apollos and UAD, and even those
sound a little quiet. I’ve done all the tests,
summed everything down or done null tests;
there’s almost no difference.
These days I think it’s all about your
ingredients, the quality of your samples, how you
sidechain, how you mix, and staying diligent to
the end. That’s the hardest part – not giving up
and finishing the song or having someone else
take off the heavy burden of mixing.
You’re not a fan of sending your music off for
mixing then? Not even when it means you can
get more tunes started?
Ultimately, if you hear a song too many times and
you don’t get goosebumps anymore, you lose all
objectivity. I guess one thing they’re paying for is
a pair of fresh ears.
I did a pack for Splice and it was really tedious,
but at the same time it was amazingly rewarding
to use these presets that I made for Serum every
day, and to use these loops and audio that I made
for them. It took so much work, but because I was
focused on designing sounds rather than
switching between that and mixing and
songwriting, I found I was much more effective at
that one task. You feel like you’re greased for the
job and you can get that done. Just like the DJ.
When I get into DJ mode, I have the ear and the
muscle memory for playing out, and if I have to
shift back into studio mode, it becomes a whole
different mindset.
You’ve got a nicely restrained studio setup
there – we often see people with hundreds of
synths that they probably don’t use often.
I was almost going to write a blog post about this
because I do the Quick Tips [Morgan’s series of
production tips on Twitter and mpquicktips.
com], a side project where I collect my ideas.
There are a lot of rabbit holes that you can get
into, and you can get out into the weeds a little
bit… but with some things that’s part of the
process. You could get into modular synths –
that’s probably one of the deepest rabbit holes
you can go down. Totally valid and awesome. But
it becomes like collecting sneakers or something.
It’s easy to turn the profession into a hobby – you
can go backwards; usually you turn a hobby into a
profession. If it’s your bread and butter, you have
to have a process where you’re getting things
done. It’s easy to get caught in just doing A/B
comparisons on gear, but that’s what you guys are
supposed to do, that’s your job!
You’ve had Grammy nominations, big-name
remixes, successful albums, but what are your
proudest achievements so far?
You start your career with goals, and then the
goals shift and change. Getting a Grammy is a
nice goal but it’s not a good goal – to me it’s more
about creating exciting music that makes people
come to shows. The most rewarding goal? Playing
to a crowd of 10,000 people for the first time
rocks. That was a very gratifying moment.
I mean obviously the Grammy nomination was
a big one, they’re all little rites of passage and
then it’s kind of a threshold shift. You achieve
something and then it’s like, ‘Now what?’.
For me it’s more about how to sustain that
excitement and that momentum – the goal isn’t
the outcome of the process, it’s not about making
money and flying around the world, it’s about
loving the process and continuing to love the
process. You’re in there and you’re doing the
work because you like the work.
Do you think having big goals can backfire?
Over the years I started having these big tipping-
point moments… started thinking I’ve got to get a
Grammy and I’ve got to sign to this label. But it
puts pressure on you to have these singular
achievements, so in the end it has to be more
holistic – loving the whole process. I’m a tech
nerd, I love the process of learning new gear, new
INTERVIEW
“If you hear a song
too many times
and you don’t get
goosebumps any
more, you lose
objectivity”

Y] J U N E 2 0 2 0 £ G l t | z p j p h u U j v t
HOW-TO
thnhpul
T
his month we’ll explore
using both hands to learn
to play rapid repeated
notes and two-handed figures
that can be used to build some
cool high points into your solos.
Think Like A Drummer
To get started I want you
to think of your fingers like
drumsticks, and learn to play
crisp, detached short notes.
Use a mono synth lead sound
that has no release tail, and an
immediate, percussive attack.
See Example 1, and alternate
your right hand and then left
hand on the same note. One hand
will have to move forward on the
key just a little so there’s room
to fit both hands over the same
note. As you get comfortable
with that, try switching up the
rhythm to triplets (the second
example), and then sixteenth
notes. Then reverse the hands, so
you start with the left (Example
2). Focus on playing very even,
but short notes.
Adding Variations
Next, try varying the notes
played with one of the hands,
leaving the other playing a
constant pitch. Example 3 starts
with the right hand and varies
it. Example 4 starts with the left
By Jerry Kovarsky
THE ART OF SYNTH SOLOING
Two-Handed Techniques For
Soloing On A Mono Synth
Get in touch with your inner “finger drummer” with these two-handed
rhythmic figures to add some flashy excitement to your solos
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1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
3
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3 3
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Ex. 1
1 1 1 1 1
3
1 1 1
3
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
3 3
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Ex. 1. Start by practicing alternating each hand playing on the same key. Here we start with the right
hand, and play in different rhythms.
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1
Ex.2
1 1 1 1 1 1
3
1 1 1
3
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Ex. 2. Now we alternate each hand on the same note starting with the left hand. Think of your fingers as
drumsticks!
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Ex. 3. In this alternating exercise we start moving around the pitches we play with the right hand while
keeping the left hand constant.
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Ex. 4. Now try varying the left hand pitches while keeping the right hand constant.

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Ex. 5
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
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Ex. 5. Mix up your groupings of notes – here you play two notes in the right and one in the left.
and varies it. These are just basic
examples to get you started; you
can create an infinite number of
variations based on each of these
concepts. I will point out that it
is much more difficult to do the
two-handed repeated notes on
a black key, but other than that
you should try these concepts on
different keys and in different
key signatures so you can play
them against various chords.
Mix Up Your Note Groupings
Up to now we’ve been
alternating the hands, but things
get more interesting when you
mix up some different groupings.
Example 5 shows two in the
right hand and one in the left,
and then starts mixing up the
notes in the right hand. Example
6 flips the groupings/hands.
Both of these ideas are written
in triplets, so the figures always
repeat on the beat.
You can make it even more
interesting by changing it to a
duple feel, as I do in Examples
7 and 8 by playing the patterns
as sixteenth notes, which now
takes three bars to get the full
cycle to start again on beat one.
But the idea is to not make the
patterns line up so squarely:
the irregularity of it makes the
parts more interesting and less
predictable. These are great
pattern ideas to work out with
your drummer, so you both play
the same accents.
Another easy grouping concept
is to play two notes in each hand,
as I show in Examples 9 and
10. As in all these examples it’s
important to play crisply and
evenly so the notes don’t overlap.
You want each note to have a
clear attack. Q
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Ex. 6
1
3
2 1
3
2 1
3
2 1
3
2 1
3
4
1
3
3
1
3
3
1
3
2 1
3
5
1
3
5
1
3
4
1
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4
1
3
3
1
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3
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3
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Ex. 7. Switching the rhythm to sixteenth notes makes the pattern repeat on different beats in a more
irregular fashion.
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Ex. 8
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4
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1
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Ex. 8. This is the same concept as Example 7, but starting with the left hand.
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Ex. 9
2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1
3
1
4
1
3
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Ex. 9. Explore pattern ideas grouping two notes in each hand – this starts with the right hand.
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Ex. 10
1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1
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Ex. 10. This example offers two-note-per-hand groupings starting with the left hand.

Y_ J U N E 2 0 2 0 £ G l t | z p j p h u U j v t
HOW-TO
thnhpul
EASY GUIDE
Octaves
They’re the most basic intervals of all… but how do they work?
And why do they contain twelve notes? Dave Clews explains all
I
n this month’s Easy Guide, I’m looking at
one of the most compelling mysteries you
come across when exploring music theory
for the first time: what is an octave, and why are
they called octaves when they contain twelve
notes? OK, that’s two mysteries, but to address
one means addressing the other, so let’s start
picking at the thread and see where it leads.
It’s become a sort of unofficial Easy Guide
tradition to start off with a diagram of a C
major scale, largely because an understanding
of how a scale is formed is integral to so many
other aspects of music theory. An explanation
of octaves is no different, but what you’ll
have noticed if you’re a regular reader (and
why wouldn’t you be?) is that sometimes I’ve
described the scale as having seven notes,
other times as having eight notes, depending
on the topic. The main difference is that,
technically, there are seven note pitches in
the scale – C D E F G A B – but if you add the
repeated scale tone that’s one octave higher than
the root, you end up with eight notes:
C D E F G A B C. Those two Cs are eight scale
tones apart, which is where the octave gets its
name – most of the important scales are written
with eight notes. Music theory is full of this kind
of thing, like how an interval of seven semitones
is called a perfect fifth. But I digress! Let’s delve
deeper into the origin of the octave.
Step by step Exploring octaves in theory and in use
01
An octave is probably the simplest
interval to define – it’s the shortest
distance between two notes that share
the same letter name. As discussed
earlier on in the introduction, here’s a typical example of
a C major scale, played over one octave, eight notes
from C to C, which just happen to be the white notes on
a piano keyboard.
04
Conventional MIDI notation labels
octaves with numbers. On a standard
49-note MIDI controller keyboard,
spanning four octaves, the lowest
note will be C1 and the highest C5. To play notes
beyond these extremes, most controllers will have an
octave shift button that transposes the entire
keyboard an octave up or down with each press.
02
However, as we’ve seen, there are
twelve actual note pitches contained
within an octave, rather than the
eight you’d presume from its name.
The non-scale tones – the notes that aren’t in the scale
– are overlooked. So the term ‘octave’ just relates to
the notes in the scale, with the eighth note the repeat
of the root note, but an octave higher.
05
Because musical notes exist as
vibrations of air, a bit like ripples in
water, the pitch of any note can be
represented mathematically. Each
note has its own frequency, and this is the speed at
which it makes the air vibrate, expressed in Hertz. For
example, a synth set to concert pitch playing middle C is
generating a note at a frequency of 261Hz.
03
Here’s how an octave interval looks,
both in a traditional score and in your
DAW’s piano roll editor. When MIDI
was first dreamt up back in the 80s,
each note was assigned a number from 0-127, with
middle C being 60. Luckily, this range means that MIDI
can easily accommodate all 88 keys found on a normal
piano keyboard, and then some.
06
Shown here are the frequencies of
all of the notes that make up an
octave, and it reveals an interesting
fact. The frequency of the note at the
top of the scale, C4, is 522Hz – exactly twice the
frequency of the note at the bottom, C3 – one octave
below it. Each note’s frequency is 1.059 times the
frequency of the note immediately before it.

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07
So now we’re clear on what an octave
actually is, what use is it in the real
world? There are loads of examples of
melodies in popular songs that
contain octave jumps. One that springs straight to
mind is 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' from The
Wizard of Oz. “Some” is on D3, while “where” is an
octave higher on D4.
10
Because there are twelve semitones in
an octave, to get the effect of a low
octave double we need to set the Pitch
control to -12. We can use the Formant
control to make it sound a bit more like a male backing
singer, then blend it in with the original vocal using the
aux return channel’s fader.
08
Another example of an octave leap is
the gliding, alternating synth
octaves found in classic hip-hop and
RB tracks, like Ciara’s 'Goodies'.
Here’s a typical example, with a monosynth lead sound
gliding between C4, C5 and C6. Looking at the synth’s
display, you can see that each octave we go up, the
frequency of the sound’s waveform doubles.
11
Finally, another useful trick with octaves is in
a string arrangement: doubling a single violin
part with high octaves is a great way to
thicken the sound. The violin in this piece is
playing in the instrument’s lower register, and is getting
a bit lost in the mix as it’s occupying the same
frequency range as the piano chords.
09
One effect that’s pretty popular in
the mainstream right now is the use
of a vocal doubled with a pitchshifted
low octave. Here’s one way to
achieve this – we’ve got a snippet of a track here with
a sampled vocal. On the vocal track, I’m going to insert
a send to an aux channel loaded with a pitchshifter
plugin called Soundtoys Little AlterBoy.
12
If we duplicate the track a couple of
times, and transpose one copy up one
octave and the second up two octaves,
we get a stack of violins, each playing the
same part in three octaves. Effectively, we still hear all
this as just one note, but the thicker timbre of the extra
registers all playing together makes it sound a lot
clearer and more epic.
Roland vs Korg
Hardware manufacturers have adopted different
conventions when naming the octaves of the notes their
instruments produce. On any keyboard, pressing middle C
outputs MIDI note number 60. Korg, for instance, have
opted to call this note C4, while Roland and others call it
C3. In both cases, as you go up the keyboard, the octave
number increases when you get to each new C.
Score blimey
When scoring for orchestral instruments, there are some,
like the piccolo trumpet or bass for example, whose
natural pitch range falls way outside the scope of the
normal five-line stave. For these instruments, one option is
to use octave clefs. These look like a normal treble clef but
with a small figure 8 attached either to the top or bottom
of the clef symbol, depending on whether the notes need
to be played up or down an octave.
Pro tips
By Dave Clews
Over the course
of his 25-year
career, Dave
has engineered,
programed and
played keyboards
for numerous artists
including George
Michael and
Tina Turner
Recommended listening
JAX JONES FEAT. RAYE,
You Don’t Know Me
This track features many examples
of the low octave vocal effect,
especially the chorus “na-na-ay…
ED SHEERAN,
Castle on the Hill
The last word of the verse melody –
“home” – ends on a D note, followed
by the ﬁrst word of the chorus – “I’m”
– on D an octave higher
lyric.bit.ly/JJyoudont
bit.ly/EdCastle

ZW J U N E 2 0 2 0 £ G l t | z p j p h u U j v t
CLASSIC
thnhpul
Three great plugin alternatives
BLAST FROM THE PAST
Sequential Prophet VS
Today’s musicians take features like sampled waveforms
and X/Y pads for granted, but there was a time when they
were cutting edge
W
ith the relatively recent
announcement that Dave Smith,
the man behind Sequential Circuits,
had reacquired the Sequential name, we were
reminded of the company’s contributions to
music technology. We’ve already covered the
seminal Prophet-5, the programmable polysynth
that put Sequential on the map back in the 1970s,
but it wasn’t the only innovative instrument to
trundle out of the factory. The company was
also responsible for the very first MIDI synth
(Prophet-600), a brilliant monosynth (the Pro-
One), one of the first multitimbral instruments
(the Six-Trak) and a super-cool drum machine/
sampling workstation called the Studio 440 that
predicted the later MPC series from Akai.
However, only the company’s Prophet VS,
released in 1986, would be held in anywhere near
the same reverence as the beloved Prophet-5, and
for good reason. Sequential’s mid-80s products
had been seen by some as cheap, and sales
were not what they once were. The Prophet VS
resurrected the Prophet name and attached it to
a product as innovative and inspiring as had been
the Prophet-5 so many years before.
The Prophet VS was a hybrid instrument. Like
Ensoniq’s ESQ-1 and the PPG Waves, the VS
made use of sampled waveforms – 128 of them,
to be precise – and fed them through an analog
filter and VCA section. What set this instrument
apart were two very important factors. First, of
the 128 waveforms, 96 were factory supplied. The
remaining slots could be filled by the user using
the then-new MIDI Sample Dump standard.
More importantly, four waveforms were used
for each sound, blended together using a joystick
– the “vector” part of the process. To put the
icing on the cake, the joystick path could also
be recorded, allowing the user to create patches
with evolving waveforms for instant, interesting
timbral variations.
That was only the beginning. The onboard
filter was a classic four-pole Curtis design and
was accompanied by a dedicated five-stage
envelope generator. Dual LFOs also had their
own envelopes. Further modulation was provided
by an aftertouch and velocity capable keyboard,
and if the keyboard itself was prone to failure, the
arpeggiator was one of the coolest we'd seen up
to that point.
Such power did not go unnoticed, with the
Prophet VS finding favour with the likes of
horror movie maestro John Carpenter, David
Sylvian (Gone to Earth) and Nine Inch Nails.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to resuscitate the
company’s coffers. Sequential would regrettably
shutter its doors for good only a year after its
release, effectively stalling the new Prophet’s
innovations before they’d even had a chance – or
so you’d think…
Yet a funny thing happened. Yamaha, who
had just done a deal with Korg, snapped up the
engineering team behind the VS, divided them up
and put ’em to work. The technology behind the
Prophet VS would be refined and re-introduced
in 1990 in the form of Yamaha’s SY22 and Korg’s
now-classic Wavestation. Like the latter, the
Prophet VS has also since been virtualized so
that it can be enjoyed by the modern desktop
producer – and for far less than the cost of a
second-hand VS! Q
Arturia ProphetV$149
The masters of mimicry strike again. Arturia
clone not only the Prophet VS, but the
venerable Prophet-5 as well and sandwich
them together in an interesting hybrid. All of
the original 96 factory waveforms are here, as
are the VS’s extensive modulation options.
Better still, you can mix the two Prophets for
unique timbres. www.arturia.com
SmartElectronix AugurFREE
If you’re in a bind for cash, you can seek
out Augur, a freeware clone of the Prophet VS.
No longer being developed, it offers vector
synthesis in the form of a virtual joystick along
with a very nice modulation matrix.
Smartelectronix no longer host it, but you can
find it with a little digging. We managed to track
it down at… bit.ly/SEaugur
UVI VectorPro$199
Like Arturia, sample mavens UVI have
combined the qualities of the Prophet VS
with another synthesizer, this time the direct
descendant of the Prophet VS, Yamaha’s SY22.
It’s based on samples so requires quite a large
amount of space (30GB), but you get 500+
patches to play with. It’s nice to see the SY22
getting its due, too! www.uvi.net
TECH SPECS
Year of manufacture
1986
Original sale value
$1,500
Current price
$2,175-$2,500
Number made
approximately 3,000
©
Image
courtesy
of
perfectcircuitaudio.com

ZX
I
bought my Sequential Circuits Prophet-5
many years ago in Woodstock, NY. I drove
from Manhattan to a band’s rehearsal space
where they just could not figure out what to do
with it. I think I paid about $1,000 for it. It was
in fair condition at best. I brought it to a well-
known NYC synth tech named Takeshi who went
through it and got everything up to spec.
I wanted a Prophet-5 because it was on so
many of my favorite records, like Peter Gabriel’s
“Security,” Japan’s “Ghosts,” Phil Collins’ “I
Don't Care Anymore,” Radiohead’s “Everything
in Its Right Place,” and the pads on New Order’s
“Blue Monday.” Also, all the high parts on
Devo’s “Whip It” and the entire soundtrack to
“Creepshow” were done on a Prophet-5. It was
everywhere in the ‘80s.
The Prophet-5 is a deceptively simple
instrument. A now-standard set of two-
oscillators, filter, and two-envelope generators.
One of the real secrets is the powerful poly-mod
section. That bit of warbly modulation can
add magic to what might be otherwise a fairly
standard patch. The 24db filter imparts a texture
that makes the instrument feel alive. The SSM
3320 is the filter chip used in the Prophet-5 is the
same one used in the Elka Synthex, the Oberheim
OB-8, and Sequential’s Pro-One.
The Prophet-5 is best known for classic ‘80s
style pads. I almost always slightly detune the
oscillators. I frequently use a small amount of
fast-ish modulation to the oscillators. I layer pads
– one for left and right. Sometimes more. The
instability of the analog-ness plus the modulation
make it sound huge.
A lot of people rely on Minimoogs for bass
parts, but the Prophet can be a secret weapon
in this category. I read a rumor that the bass
on David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” was not working
until it was replaced by a Prophet-5. The snappy
envelopes come in really hand because you match
the feel of the kick drum to make a bass/kick lock
that smolders.
Many of the famous “swishes” and bells on
the Prophet are great, but I love it more for the
meat and potatoes. You can make an entire track
out of a Prophet and it would sound amazing.
Also, it sounds strangely current if you add
modern processing. It is not a particular clean
sounding instrument. The grit seems to add a
layer of “realness” to everything. The bass feels
substantial. The pads feel deep.
I seldom use it for lead sounds, but you can do
the classic hard-sync stuff like the Cars’ “Let’s
Go” sync sweep sound. The Prophet-5 It looks
great in the studio and is always inspiring to play.
I am quite certain that a lot more great music will
come from Prophets in the future.
Get the sound
You can always find real Prophet-5s on eBay
or Reverb for between $5,000 and $8,000. In
terms of modern alternatives, Arturia makes
a plugin version that gets you close to the
sound and feel of the original Prophet-5 for
a lot less money. Dave Smith is also making
some fabulous new instruments including the
Prophet-6 and Prophet Rev2. I have used the
Prophet-6 a few times and there are enough
similarities in a modern design to make the
option appealing. Q
The keyboard that changed my life
David Baron
David Baron is a keyboard player, producer, and engineer based in the New York City
area. He has produced acclaimed artists like Jade Bird, Peter Murphy, and Bat for
Lashes, and performed and arranged on records for the Lumineers, Shawn Mendes,
Meghan Trainor, Lenny Kravitz, Keith Urban and many others. He runs a private
recording studio with a large collection of analog synthesizers and vintage recording
gear near Woodstock, New York. Find out more at thedavidbaron.com
INTERVIEW
thnhpul

ZY J U N E 2 0 2 0 £ G l t | z p j p h u U j v t
M
oog is still the most well-recognised
name in synthesis, some 67 years
after launching. The company has
gone from strength to strength since it
launched the Voyager in 2002 (which is now
regarded as a modern classic). Following on
from the Voyager came the Little Phatty (the
last synth design Bob had a direct hand in
before his death), the Sub and Subsequent
range, the ﬂagship One and the ‘Mother’ range
of semi-modular machines.
In front of me today is the rather colorful
and playful-looking Matriarch; but make no
mistake, this is one serious piece of kit.
Opinions are divided on the look but I love the
pastel shades on the front panel. Recent Moog
designs have been more in line with classic
Moog design language (black front panel and
wooden sides), but the Matriarch (and its
Grandmother sibling) hark back to the more
colorful plastic/metal designs laid out by The
Source, Satellite and Realistic MG-1 (a Moog
design sold by Radio Shack but manufactured
by Moog). The rainbow effect isn’t just there
for looks, of course – the colors serve a
function, making clear distinctions on the
panel between the ‘modules’, and the various
inputs and outputs on the rear are also
color-coded, linking nicely to the front panel.
It all feels warm and friendly right from the
get-go. With regards to the front panel, there’s
no silk-screening for the panel legending
(which can scratch off easily); the whole front
panel is a super-tough ‘Lexan’ sticker. Every
one of my synths with Lexan stickers for their
panels still looks like new.
The knobs on the panel are all familiar
Moog issue (either ‘chicken head’ style or
skirted black plastic with silver-disc inserts)
and feel premium under the ﬁngers with a
nice resistance and accurate response so you
can dial sounds in reliably every time. There
Strengths
+ Itsoundswonderfuland
it’sbeautifullybuiltand
designed
+ Thoughcomplex,it’s
surprisinglyintuitiveand
thepatchabilityallows
forfullmodular
exploration
+ Cancoverallmannerof
classicanalogand
futuristic/spaceytones
Limitations
- It’snotcheap(butyou’re
essentiallygetting
aself-containedMoog
modular)
- Thecolorfulpanel
mightnotbeto
everyone’stastes(butit
isverypractical)
- Nopresetsmeansonce
yoursoundisgone,it’s
goneforever!
The colorful Matriarch sits at the top of Moog’s
semi-modular ‘Mother’ range. Dan ‘JD73’ Goldman
gets connecting…
Moog
Matriarch
$1,999
moogmusic.com
By Dan Goldman

REVIEW
ZZ
Delay, Utilities and Modulation
In contrast to the Matriarch’s ‘Grandmother’ sibling, featured here is the Moog 500
series delay (in glorious stereo and clock-syncable). Moog delays are some of the finest
around (their Minifooger Delay and 104-SD are mainstays in my setup) and this module
doesn’t disappoint. It’s smooth, classy and textured (and can be grainy at longer time
settings) and can sound like a reverb at shorter settings as well. You have ping-pong and
standard modes, time, feedback and spacing controls, a tap tempo for jamming with and
you can sync it to the internal clock to work in time with the sequencer and arp too,
which is all very handy. Of course, it’s also patchable with six inputs in total (audio and
CV) which all makes it a great external
delay processor.
The three bipolar attenuators and
two four-jack mults allow further
detailed shaping and deeper patching
of the CV/gate (internal or external)
signals to satisfy the modular heads,
whilst the modulation section offers an
audio-rate capable six waveform LFO
which can be applied to Oscs 1 and 3, 2
and 4 or all oscs simultaneously. Sonic
complexity is always nearby and
exploring the patching is addictive!
are also some lovely sturdy flick switches with
white caps for various functions and some
super-stylish ‘sweet-shop’ style backlit
buttons on the left-hand controller for
sequencer/octave control/hold and for osc
sync, delay controls/tap tempo. Altogether
these quality component parts form a rather
unique, inviting and very intuitive interface.
If we start on the left you’ll find the first of
the 11 modules (the sequencer/arp) and a
quick note: these aren’t removable modules
– they are embedded and pre-wired like an
MS-20 or other semi-modular synth but you
can use the included patch cables to
significantly reroute things via the
connections on each module and at the rear.
The sequencer section is surprisingly easy to
use and allows you to create keyboard-
transposable sequences at any tempo (and
with tap tempo) up to 256 steps in length with
up to four notes per-step. Simply set the toggle
switch to Rec, play some notes into your
sequence, hit the green play button on the
left-hand controller and you’re off – your
sequence will be auto-saved to the slot and
retained after powering down. In Rec mode
you can also add ratchets per-step (fills and
trills) or ties and rests easily too, all with no
screen in sight (there are no presets of any
sort on this machine apart from that you can
save up to 12 sequences over three banks,
selected with the oct/bank switch).
As expected, there’s also an arpeggiator
with octave range control and the direction
switch employs several modes which can be
applied to both arps and sequences including
random, forward/backward, and order (as
originally played) modes. Being semi-modular,
you can also send sequencer velocity, CV and
gate out and have external devices control
rate/division input. So in this first module
alone there’s plenty of power (and you can
seamlessly switch between sequences too for
more extended/smooth performances).
Moving onto the oscillator section, the
Matriarch has four beautiful sounding
oscillators with unison, two-voice and
four-voice paraphonic modes via a switch to
the far right of the panel. You can play chords
of up to four notes but each oscillator is
articulated by a single amp and filter envelope
rather than a standard poly, which will have
an amp and filter envelope per-voice.
The oscillators are based on the Minimoog
Voyager and not Moog’s modular range.
Therefore you get greater stability but still
plenty of fatness and bite (the Voyager has
been my go-to bass/lead machine since 2004).
Also notable is that the Matriarch gets up to
pitch almost instantly, unlike the Voyager
which needs about 15 minutes. Each oscillator
has a wide frequency range and a choice of
four waves – there are no variable osc waves
like the Voyager, but then that isn’t really an
issue with 90 physically patchable points and
the versatile controls available to shape
sonics! Oscillator sync is also onboard and
three round red backlit switches select which
oscillators have sync applied to them. For
modular heads, you also have three CV inputs
(pitch, linear FM, PWM) and a wave output
per-oscillator too.
Next up is the CP-3 Moog Modular-based
mixer for the four oscillators, which is key to a
lot of the Matriarch’s old-school Moog
Modular-ish character! You can really detail
your sonics here with the oscillator levels
having a huge bearing on how much the mixer
saturates and how the filter is driven. You can
go from clean to nicely driven and textured or
anywhere in between – versatile is the word!
And of course, this section also has five CV
inputs and an output for further patchability.
The filter section is also refreshingly versatile
(and sounds fantastic) and once again is based
on the highly regarded Moog 904A module.
This is a stereo filter (again like the Voyager)
but with three switchable modes – Series HP/
LP, Stereo LP/LP, and Parallel HP/LP. You
have a single big cutoff control, two resonance
dials (one per filter L/R and you can use
resonance to filter out lows too) a spacing
control to blend/pan between the filters, plus
envelope amount and keyboard tracking. Once
again, this is classic Moog and simply never

REVIEW
Z[ J U N E 2 0 2 0 £ G l t | z p j p h u U j v t
sounds bad – the way you can have high-pass
and low-pass filters panned left/right makes
for some very unique animated sounds, giving
the impression of more than one synth being
played simultaneously. There’s lots of
patchability in this section too; five CV inputs
and two outputs. The beauty here is that even
if you are new to semi-modular (or just want
to play without any further patching) you can
still get a very wide range of sounds from the
Matriarch from the get-go. It’s all very
intuitive/elegant but complexity is readily
available via the patch points too.
There are two typically punchy, patchable
Moog ADSR envelopes from the Moog 911
module; both with a lovely DJ-mixer-style
long throw sustain slider, both hardwired to
amp and filter. However, these can be patched
to control almost anything else on the panel
and with the use of the mult(iplier) and
attenuator sections, you can send signals to
multiple destinations with detailed control (as
applies for the other modules too). Patch
points here include env out and env end out
plus trigger inputs per-EG.
Finally, there’s the output stage which again
is based on a classic Moog Modular module
– the 902. This is nicely sensitive to level and
can be driven if required. Three modes allow
versatile control – Amp (both VCAs controlled
by the amp EG, leaving the filter to control
other choices), Split (one VCA controlled by
the Amp EG and one by the Filter EG), and
Drone which auto-triggers and decouples the
VCAs from the EGs. The versatility on offer in
this section is very handy and patch points
include two audio VCA inputs (plug in any
audio here) plus two VCA CV inputs (allowing
CV to control the VCAs’ output voltages for
tremolo effects, for example).
To sum up, the Matriarch is a very elegantly
designed self-contained synth; the nearest you
can get to owning an expensive Moog modular
but at a fraction of the cost. It has a great-
feeling Fatar keyboard, audio rate modulation,
intuitive sequencer and arpeggiator, killer
analog delay section, velocity and aftertouch
and a very engaging soulful sound. The
patchability is also very well thought-out and
allows you to travel very deep, if that's what
you want.
A truly inspired design and one that’s very
hard to stop playing/exploring once you get
your hands on it! Q
THE ALTERNATIVES
A RTURIA
MatrixBrute
$2,299
A three-voice paraphonic analog monster
with versatile ‘brute’ oscillators, ladder/
Steiner filters, killer analog effects,
presets and hybrid matrix.
arturia.com
SEQUENTIAL
Pro-3
$1,599
Upcoming for review, the Pro-3 is
Sequential’s latest hot-rodded ‘mono’! It
combines two VCOs and a wavetable osc,
a multimode filter, 16-step sequencer,
three LFOs and powerful effects. Up to
three-voice paraphonic too.
sequential.com
B EH RI NGER
Poly D
$698
The fully analog Poly D puts four Ds into
a single box with 37 keys, four-voice
paraphony, a Juno-style chorus, a 32-
step sequencer, an arpeggiator and a
variable distortion circuit.
behringer.com

REVIEW
Z^
T
eenage Engineering never take the
obvious route. Their range of products
now takes in everything from analog
cameras to a recent range of IKEA 3D
printing ‘hacks’. On the music gear, we see
some almighty swerves from the norm: the
PO range of unfinished calculator synths, the
OP mini synth/radio/sequencer/recorder/
everything modules, and now this, the
Teenage take on modular.
The PO Modular System 400 on test here
is one of three products announced over a
year ago at NAMM and described as “the
poor man’s modular” at the time, although
really it’s surely “the slightly well-off
person’s semi-modular”. There are three
products in the range: the Modular System 16
keyboard with sequencer (for $188); the
Modular System 170 monophonic analog
synth with nine modules for $381; and this
400 synth with 15 modules for $568. It’s not
‘normal’ modular by any stretch of the
imagination; it’ll connect to your Eurorack
system, yes, but the modules are
preconfigured to sit behind a pre-built fascia,
so it’s not customizable. Really, it’s a synth
with modules rather than a modular synth –
you might even call it a ‘semi’ if you like. Oh,
and you build it yourself.
PO System 400 comes in an IKEA-esque
flatpack. The metal panels that make up the
unit are ready to ‘fold’ into shape, alongside
15 boxes, each containing a module ready to
mount. TE’s instructions are mostly good but
assembly isn’t without issues. If you’re a
seasoned flatpacker, you might be done in
under an hour. Us? Two hours plus.
It’s not as long-winded as the Korg MS-20
kit I built some years ago, but equally
satisfying when the LED does light up. OK,
you’re assembling pre-built modules – not
soldering resisters and capacitors – but the
feeling that this synth is more personal to
you is worth the time.
You get the full synth experience with PO
400: three oscillators, noise and random
modules, LFO, two envelopes, filter, mixer,
two VCAs and a sequencer – everything you’d
expect, but their interconnectivity is perhaps
more than you may have bargained for. On
each oscillator there are three outs; the same
with the filter and sequencer, and with pretty
much every ‘module’ having a control input,
there are a lot of routing options. The manual
has a few patching ideas to get you started,
but just wading in pays dividends.
I start with a three-oscillator combo just to
hear them all in action together, and quickly
build a huge sound driven by the sequencer.
The manual details how the Reset and Arrow
slots can control the sequence position and
direction, while other pots set to maximum
reset it to step 1. While they work, getting a
melody together can feel imprecise in pitch
Strengths
+ Includesallthemodules
youcouldneedtomake
greatsounds
+ Thesynthlookscool,
andfitswelltogether
oncebuilt(ifcarefulwith
thewires)
+ Easytoexploresonically
–youcan’tgowrong
plugginganythingin
Limitations
- Takesuptotwohours
tobuild
- Theunitmoveswhen
pluggingandunplugging
forpatching
- Somerotarycontrols
arenotveryprecise,
particularlythe
tuningcontrols
TE’s ‘poor man’s modular’, is really more ‘beginner’s
semi’, but there’s plenty of fun to be had here... If you
put the effort in
Teenage Engineering
PO 400
$568
teenage.engineering
By Andy Jones

REVIEW
Z_ J U N E 2 0 2 0 £ G l t | z p j p h u U j v t
and control terms. However, getting the
sequencer in full flow is easy and effective.
Once I have it driving all three oscs, I bring
in some FM on the square and sine wave
oscillators using the LFO square wave, with
both outputs connected directly to the FM
inputs for a thumping, ringing metallic type
effect on the sine and a driving rasp on the
square. It’s easy to hear them in action
individually via the mixer or as one fat sound
when played together. Then, routing the
square wave through the (slightly
disappointing) filter allows me to underpin
the sound with a gradually sweeping square.
I say ‘gradually’, as moving many of the
controls doesn’t always give subtle results.
The tuning of the oscs, for example, is
massive so you’ll find it hard to home in.
However, after some experimentation, time
flies by. This is an all-in-one modular that is
easy to get to grips with, you can’t really go
wrong, and it will draw you in. The results
won’t always be musical – the sequencer and
tuning options aren’t quite precise enough
– but the results are invariably big and
interesting, especially with the Noise and
Random modules adding their parts. You’ll
inevitably find yourself in one of those
sessions where your path is random, as you
plug and unplug, but recording everything to
your DAW will result in very usable and
varied audio.
As for the ‘poor man’s modular’ concept,
it’s neither truly modular, nor is it necessarily
for poor people – this kind of cash can get
you a very good semi-modular machine. The
construction is not without its fair share of
annoyances, it could probably do with a
keyboard, the quirky controls don’t always do
‘precise’, the angle of the front panel doesn’t
make for a robust experience when you plug
in (and out), and the Eurorack expansion
possibilities are really quite vague (though
individual modules in Eurorack size have
been demoed).
But with all that noted, the leftfield
thinking, and determination by TE to
challenge the norm does reel you in. And as
you start to invest the time in it, it can yield
great results. You may not end up using it as
much as the price deserves, but it’s a
curiosity that demands attention. It looks
great, it’s versatile, has loads of modulation
options and a fat, varied sound. Q
THE ALTERNATIVES
ERI CA SYNTHS
Pico System III
$479
A full analog synth with a 2-3-4 step
sequencer, two VCOs, mixers, syncable
modulator, two ASR envelope generators
and more. Pretty cheap too.
ericasynths.lv
M OOG
Mother-32
$649
A semi-modular with expandability, so
while it might only have a single oscillator,
it can grow. Its semi-modular approach
means lots of sonic flexibility and, well,
it’s a Moog.
moogmusic.com
PI T TSBURGH
Modular Microvolt 3900
$629
Featured as the number one semi-
modular on MusicRadar, Pittsburgh’s
‘love letter to the analog monosynth’
features some of the best elements of
both west and east-coast synthesis.
pittsburghmodular.com
The build
Putting PO Modular 400 together starts with the bending and slotting of the main panels
into a pleasing upright frame. As you bend, you’re reminded to ‘think twice, bend once’.
Fear not, though, as you should succeed here with just a few beads of sweat.
Stage 2 comprises adding spacers and screwing in the various modules. There’s no
choice in the order of modules – they’re clearly dictated by the front panel which has all
the final positions of rotaries and other controls pre-mapped. But it’s a logical order, so go
with the flow. Mounting modules is straightforward; you’ll get into a system with the
screwing and fixing and realise that having a container to keep screws and spacers to
hand might be a good idea.
The final stage involves mounting the power distribution unit and connecting each
module. In hindsight, this maybe should have been the first stage, as we had to disconnect
two modules to screw it in; there simply isn’t room to screw the spacers in with fingers.
Otherwise, I found it a pleasing experience, albeit one that took a great deal longer than
we actually expected.

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