MusicTech April 2019

Aside from the art of writing a melody, crafting the perfect lyric and finding the most suitable chords for your music, beatmaking (or sculpting the rhythmic elements of your track) is perhaps the most important stage to get right, particularly if you work in the EDM arena. It's often, however, something that can start to feel quite 'samey' and characterless for some, as those musical elements tend to take priority. In our cover feature this month, Martin Delaney explores a variety of routes to making your own distinctive beats in unique ways. Follow his do-it-yourself guide and before long, your tracks will have extra oomph and rise above the din to sound unlike anybody else. Also this issue, we speak to the fascinating Cleaning Women, a Finnish band who adopt a similar DIY approach to beat and music-making. They have built their own instruments out of former household appliances and have performed with them for over 20 years. Elsewhere, we catch up with Alexander Archer, a young producer who is currently working with some of the industry's hottest names as he engineers recordings for Vevo UK. On the review front this month, we dive deep into Native Instruments' veritable ocean of delights, Komplete 12, as well as Ableton's latest hefty point update to Live. I hope you enjoy this issue.