Create Better Music, One Plugin at a Time
Modern music production gives us incredibly clean instruments, samples, and recordings. However, that digital perfection can sometimes leave a beat sounding sterile, flat, or disconnected from the vintage records that inspired it. XLN Audio’s RC-20 Retro Color was designed to solve that problem. RC-20 combines noise, pitch instability, saturation, bit reduction, reverb, and volume fluctuations … Read more
Bloom KSHMR Review: Is This Excite Audio Instrument Worth It? Finding sounds that immediately make a beat feel different can be surprisingly difficult. Most producers already have access to hundreds of synths, drum kits, sample packs, and virtual instruments. The problem isn’t necessarily having enough sounds — it’s finding sounds that inspire you to create … Read more
How to Make Hip Hop & R&B Beats with Minimal Audio Current 2.0 Minimal Audio Current 2.0 may look like a synthesizer built primarily for electronic sound design, but there’s a lot here for Hip Hop and R&B producers. Its combination of wavetable synthesis, granular processing, sampling, an additive sub engine, modulation, MIDI effects, and … Read more
Minimal Audio Current 2.0 Review: Is This Modern Synth Worth It? Modern producers have no shortage of powerful software synthesizers. Serum, Pigments, Phase Plant, Vital, and other heavyweight instruments can handle everything from simple presets to incredibly complex sound design. So where does Minimal Audio Current 2.0 fit into the picture? Current 2.0 takes a … Read more
Lo-fi production isn’t really about making your music sound bad. It’s about making it sound imperfect in the right ways. Warm keys, slightly degraded textures, subtle movement, washed-out ambience, dusty drums, and chords that feel like they could have been sampled from an old record are all part of the aesthetic. That’s exactly where LANDR … Read more
There is no shortage of plugins promising producers instant vintage character. But getting a convincing lo-fi sound usually involves more than simply adding vinyl crackle to a clean piano. The best lo-fi sounds have movement, imperfections, warmth, texture, and a sense that the instrument has already passed through some kind of aging process. LANDR Retro … Read more
Electric piano and R&B were practically made for each other. From the warm chords of classic ’70s soul to ’90s R&B, Neo-Soul, Trap Soul, and modern alternative R&B, the electric piano remains one of the easiest ways to give a production warmth, emotion, and sophistication. That makes AAS Lounge Lizard EP-5 particularly interesting for R&B … Read more
Electric piano sounds have been a cornerstone of R&B, Neo-Soul, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Funk, and Pop for decades. From warm Rhodes-inspired chords to gritty reed-style keys, there’s something about an electric piano that can instantly make a production feel more soulful. That’s exactly the territory Applied Acoustics Systems Lounge Lizard EP-5 is designed to cover. Instead … Read more
Reverb can completely change the emotion of a Hip Hop or R&B mix. Use too little, and your vocals, keys, drums, and melodies can feel dry and disconnected. Use too much, and suddenly everything sounds distant, muddy, and washed out. The trick is creating depth without sacrificing clarity. That’s exactly where the Universal Audio EMT … Read more
Universal Audio EMT 250 Review: Is This Classic Reverb Worth It? Some reverbs are designed to disappear into a mix. Others become part of the sound. The Universal Audio EMT 250 Classic Electronic Reverb falls firmly into the second category. Based on the legendary EMT 250 hardware introduced in 1976, Universal Audio’s plugin brings one … Read more