Beat English
Ausgabe 09/2023

Write superior melodies: 75 tips on circle of fifths, chords & hooks

They are a producer‘s most powerful asset: Melodies decide about goose bumps, recognition and hit quality. So far so good, but what makes a successful hookline? Of course, it has to stick in your head and should not be too complicated, but also not too simple.
We dive fully into the creative phase and show you in 55 tips how you can quickly create chords with or without a circle of fifths and develop memorable melodies from them – which become catchy tunes and get your audience singing and dancing along.

For free: MixBox SE – Get 24 SSL console-style effect units for your perfect mix

Wouldn‘t that be cool? A plugin in allows free arrangement of the most important effects for your session – just like you do with the famous SSL consoles. You get this with MixBox Special Edition, which IK Multimedia is giving to all BEAT readers. On board are 24 modules, including a channel strip, various amps, equalizers and dynamics processors, distortion, lo-fi and modulation effects, as well as Delay and Reverb.

In review: Behringer PRO-800 – Features of the 400-Euro-Prophet

A polyphonic analog synth, fully MIDI controllable and storable, for under 400 Euros? Behringer makes it real and presents a price breaker. And the PRO-800 sounds good, too, the rough vintage charm of the Prophet-600 was well met.
Thanks to GliGli modification, the PRO-800 is more flexible than you might think at first glance: additional LFO waveforms, customizable envelopes, noise generator are just some of the advantages over the original. Minor disadvantages with operation and documentation are forgivable, because the PRO-800 sounds really great – especially if you spice it up with external effects like reverb, delay and chorus.

“DJs are usually ten years behind the common consumer in terms of their access to music.”

The entire music world is dominated by streaming... except for DJing. That, however, could soon change. The industry is doing everything it can to break resistance against the format. This is about more than just a technical update. It it came to pass, streaming DJing could change the craft forever...

Review: Arturia’s MicroFreak turns into a granular sampler

First your own wavetables, then the vocoder and now samples and granular synthesis: Arturia‘s update policy with the MicroFreak is truly outstanding. Even playing it back in classic sampler fashion provides sounds that are not so easy to create in the DAW due to the downstream analog multimode filter, paraphony, modulation matrix and sequencer.

Free synths & sounds galore: 18 Gigabyte of downloads included

Enhance your mixes with the first-class effects of the MixBox Special Edition from IK Multimedia. Our issue highlight includes 24 SSL-style effect modules that will significantly enhance your mix. Plus our semi-modular sound giant u-He Beatzille 2023 with lots of presets, as well as the professional DAW Reason 12 & Reason Rack, with which you can produce three months for free.
Sound designers and science fiction fans will get their money‘s worth this month with timeless spherical pads for our Zampler and the Akai MPC series. Here you can expect our Pack Wave Runner with over 800 MB and 82 exquisite atmospheric sounds for Ambient, Chillwave & Motion Picture.
The Zampler sound package is complemented by 5 GB of further sound fodder from Prime Loops and ZTEKNO, among others. From heavy dubstep sounds (The Sound Of Calvertron) to acid and elctro there is a versatile potpourri of sounds for free use.