Issue 183 of Computer Music magazine hit the shelves this week, and nestling between its covers you’ll find not one, but two features from me this month.
On page 55 you’ll find a five-page guide to sampling the sort of everyday objects that you find lying around the house, to convert into unconventional musical instruments. With affordable, powerful audio workstations available to everyone these days, it’s never been easier to create your own sounds from scratch, and this guide shows you some easy ways to do it using a microphone, Logic and some of the amazing free plug-ins that are out there. So, if you want to record some coffee-tin percussion, make a one-octave wineglassophone or transform a grill-pan rack into a playable synth patch, it’s well worth a look. There’s also a page of tips to inspire you to create your own sounds from whatever else you can find to hand, from matchbox shakers to laundry-tub kick drums and more.
Following straight on from this, on page 60 you’ll find my feature on how to get things moving if you get stuck writing a melody. Kind of a sequel to the chord progression feature in last month’s issue, this tutorial illustrates a few reliable, theory-based techniques for taking melody lines in a new direction should you find yourself not knowing where to go next. Backed up with audio examples and another set of video tutorials produced and narrated by me, all of which can be found on the cover-mounted DVD, this four-page guide should hopefully supply you with some inspiring tricks that you can rely on time and time again.
Elsewhere in the issue, there’s the usual excellent mix of news, reviews and interviews, along with a big feature on unmixing and another massive batch of free samples and a free mix bus plug-in (Satson CM) on the DVD. Congratulations to the CM team on another great issue, which can be picked up from all good newsagents or downloaded as a digital version via Newsstand for iOS or Zinio for Mac and PC.