Computer Music 123 - Complete vocal guide, Cubase 4.1's new features and more!

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7.9GB OF CONTENT ON THE DUAL-LAYER DVD

• 1097 Time+Space samples

Fill out your mixes with some of the best samples around! Time+Space, the UK's leading UK sample distributor, are giving you 1097 of the blighters, with content plucked from top titles by Zero-G, Digital Redux, Sample Magix, Digital Redux, Equipped Music and Philtre Labs. Pro-quality beats, basses, atmospheres, synths, real instruments, vocals and more are all here for the taking.

• 2014 royalty-free Sweet Love samples!

Around this time of the year we manage to tame our gear-lust long enough to craft a selection of samples celebrating the kind of love that happens between real-life human beings. Sultry guitar licks, slinky percussive grooves, firm bass and seductive vocals are all to be found - if you can't make a sweet, love-filled groove with these samples, then you have no soul!

• Producer Masterclass tutorial and video: CLSM

UK hardcore renegade CLSM remixes a track right before your very eyes in an hour-long masterclass video. Tearing down his happy hardcore track

Power Builds

, he reconstructs it as a dark, grinding dancefloor devastator, showing off his flair for editing breakbeats, programming gritty basslines and using sidechaining to create a big, big sound.

IN THE MAG

• Mic check!

Vocals can make or break a track, but recording, editing and mixing them can be a daunting prospect, and that's before taking into account the 'human factor' of working with a vocalist. It's a good job CM is here, then, with a comprehensive guide taking you through the technical aspects of mic'ing and recording, getting a good performance, and right on through to the mixing stage.

• The CM Guide to Chip Music

There are few musical genres as quintessentially 'computer music' as chip music, born as it is of the bleeping 8-bit ditties found in the video games of yesteryear. We speak to chip-chomping whiz kids gwEm and Goto80 about making music with Atari STs, C64s, Game Boys and more, and show you how to make your own tunes using emulative software on your PC.

• System 7

The 'ambient for life' duo have been crafting spaced-out techno for nearly 20 years now, but how are things working out for them since they ditched most of their hardware in favour of laptops, Logic and Live? Miquette Giraudy enthuses about soft synths and sampling, Steve Hillage reveals his views on guitar amp modelling plug-ins, and more in the CM interview.

• Brass for beginners

Getting brassed off with your sax life? Don't worry, as CM is here to give you the horn with our guide to sequencing honks, parps and blasts into slick brass stabs that will lend your hip-hop, house and soul tracks that undeniably funky edge.

• Reviewed!

MAGIX

Samplitude 10

• Tone2

Gladiator

• Cockos

Reaper 2.0

• Notion Music

Progression

• KeyToSound

Production Pack

• URS