Computer Music

After a seemingly endless period of testing, begging and compiling, we’re finally ready to give you what, in our well-travelled opinion, is the very best free gift a magazine has ever given its readers. The CM Plugin Suite v3.0 is the definitive 2024-ready version of our legendary plugin collection, with 21 absolutely brilliant new instruments and effects added to its number (including some really quite remarkable full versions of feature-packed synths). As our extended cover feature underlines, we’ve worked hard to guarantee that the items in our suite play nice with modern hardware architecture. That has meant having to painfully jettison some of those former CM stars that no longer work or cause today’s computers to turn green. The overall aim was simple – to make the suite (once again)…

news NEW RELEASES • COMMENT • INDUSTRY HAPPENINGS A brand new AI vocal tool that seeks to redefine how you sound, Vocoflex promises a remarkably simple interface. Simply drop a recording of you singing, as well as a recording of someone you want to sound like into Vocoflex for the plugin to analyse as a target voice, and it’ll morph the vocal timbre in your first recording into that of the second. Dreamtonics says Vocoflex only needs 10 seconds of a clean and unprocessed vocal to create an AI vocal model. That’s pretty impressive in our book. The target voice recording appears as a line of joined dots in the plugin’s interface, with each dot representing a segment of the audio; you’re able to morph between the timbre of each…

plugin suite v3.0 At Computer Music, one of the biggest things that we’re still proud of – especially compared to other music-making magazines – is the fact that every issue, not only do we offer up a unique free giveaway item (often with quite high RRPs, we’d add) and freshly-brewed new samples, but we provide our massive, world-famous CM Plugin Suite. It’s been a staple for years, however, since our last major tidy up of the Suite back in 2022, we’ve noticed that many of the oldest plugins no longer play nice with today’s tech. Apple’s new silicon-based processors are one factor, coupled with the general advancement of plugins and instruments over the last decade which has left many of our former favourites looking a little pale in comparison. To…

It’s fair to say that, for a vast contingent of our readership, it’s been CM’s track record of giving away excellent software tools, instruments and effects that remains the biggest draw to our humble magazine. But, we know all too well the pain and frustration that can be caused by attempting to open a project following an update, only to find that one (or more) of your effects or instrument plugins no-longer work. As the CM Plugin Suite is so fundamental to who we are, it was made an absolute priority earlier this year to fully audit and overhaul our famed box of delights, making sure that both what we were giving away each issue fully worked with modern hardware, and that we could reinforce its brilliance with a selection…

PLUGIN SUITE Our CM Plugin Suite is a collection of complete instruments, effects and tools designed to aid you in your music production endeavours. It’s an incredible resource, now boasting 71 pro-quality Mac and PC plugins that, in many cases, you won’t find anywhere else, in both VST and AU formats. We’ve also got a solid selection of full products, which require licence code registration. These are marked on our matrix beginning opposite. Some items were created exclusively for us by developers like GForce Software, Lunacy Audio, IK Multimedia, u-he and many more. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Where do I get the plugins? Once you access this issue’s downloads page, scroll down to the CM Plugin Suite logo and link, and take note of the current access code (that rotates on…

INSTRUMENTS SYNTHS We’ve got some of the best software synths ever in our collection, from world-class legends to state-of-the-art sonic playgrounds. They’ll be effective in any music production scenario GForce Axxess • A superb virtual version of the Axxe from 1975• Over 350 presets, a new sub-oscillator, an arpeggiator as well as a 16-step sequencer• Full version! gforcesoftware.com Lunacy Audio CUBE Mini • 3D sample-morphing engine, sampler and vector synth• Load multiple sounds and blend them together• Deep FX suite and advanced modulation lunacy.audio u-he Zebra CM • Blendable oscillator waveforms• Super-programmable step LFOs• Slick delay, reverb and chorus• Original synth designed just for CM u-he.com u-he Bazille CM • Patchable modular synthesiser• Sequencer and Mapping Generator• Audio-rate modulation, Fractalizer u-he.com Dmitry Sches Thorn CM • Dual spectral oscillators/analogue/harmonic filters/spectral/real-time…