Top 10 of the ’00s

The 21st century toys that friends said were fine and friends said were good, when it came to music tech

01 RISE OF THE DAW

While digital audio workstation software existed pre-’00s, its rise has exponentially contributed to the democratisation of music production. While the plugin VST came to fruition in the ’90s, it was the ’00s when we started to see thirdparty companies producing software synthesisers that would rival hardware. Now hardly a track is produced without plugins, infiltrating all aspects of the production, from sound creation to mixing and mastering.

02 MINIMOOG VOYAGER

Bob Moog’s Voyager was first launched in 2002, remaining in production for 13 years. It adopted the classic architecture of the original Minimoog, but included new elements of control via MIDI, as well as the addition of LFO, meaning that you could apply for vibrato, while using all three oscillators as a sound source. Many Minimoog aficionados reported that the Voyager lacked the grunt of the original, but it did include a stereo filter, which was a production gem.

03 DOWNLOADS AND STREAMING

The last 20 years have seen the music industry almost implode financially. With the advent of the illegal downloading platform Napster, the public at large began to question why they should pay for music. Arguably, this extends to the present day, with streaming platforms such as Spotify paying artists very little for their creative outputs, while providing a never-ending source of music for anyone with a smart phone or computer.

04 NATIVE INSTRUMENTS - KOMPLETE/ MASSIVE/KONTAKT

As the market for plugin synthesisers was developing during the early part of the ’00s, so did the concept of the software package deal. Nothing personifies this further than the colossal suite from Native Instruments called Komplete. Rammed to the brim with usable synthesisers and effects plugins, Komplete continues to offer plenty, at a bargain price. The highlights included the extraordinary synthesiser Massive, which lived up to its name in all regards.

05 THE IPOD/IPHONE/IPAD

First came the iPhone, then the iPod touch, and finally the iPad. The former arguably changed phone usage forever, providing a platform for developers to create software apps for creating music on the move. With the advent of its big brother, the iPad, the software took a deeper turn, with full-sized synthesisers available, offering a real touchscreen alternative to conventional hardware. Look no further than Moog’s Model D app, for a sense of how good a soft synth app can look and sound.

06 ARTURIA SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE

Arturia first came into being in 1999, but it was their collaboration with Bob Moog that resulted in the release of their first software instruments, emulating circuits from the Moog 3C and Moog 55. Using a system known as TAE (True Analog Emulation), they continue to model numerous hardware classics, offering one of the most abundant software portfolios, replicating the sounds of classic hardware. They also provide a line in mostly analogue hardware synthesisers, from petite monosynths, to fully spec’d polys, enforced by two Frenchmen who dressed up like robots.

07 DIRECT-FROM-DISK SAMPLING

Hardware samplers changed music production considerably, but they were always limited to their RAM capacity, dictating the amount of audio that could be held and replayed. Direct-from-disk sampling reproductions changed all of that, with limitation only from a computer’s CPU speed and hard disk size. The result being ever larger sample libraries, with capacity for multiple zoning in pitch and velocity. The biggest impact has been in the domain of orchestral and acoustic samples, where ever-more believable packages have entered the market.

09 SPECTRASONICS - STYLUS RMX AND ATMOSPHERE/ OMNISPHERE

Throughout the ’90s, Spectrasonics produced a large number of sample libraries, geared toward hardware sampler users. Even at that time, the quality of their products was undeniable. In 2002 Spectrasonics switched tack, to create computer-based software instruments. There were three in this initial salvo; Stylus,

Atmosphere and Trilogy, with direction toward drums, pads/synths, and basses respectively. Atmosphere morphed into Omnisphere; a behemoth of a synth which is highly prized and respected today.

10 THE RETURN OF ANALOGUE

Having dipped in value during the late ’80s, the classic analogue synthesisers from the earlier part of that decade have recently enjoyed something of a renaissance. Prices rocketed, leading to calls for new versions of the old classics. Moog arguably started this trend, with the Voyager and subsequent re-release of the Minimoog, but it took another 19 years for Dave Smith’s Sequential, to rerelease the Prophet-5. The Roland Jupiter 8 also received various rereleases in digital form, with no sign of the reproduction of an analogue original. (Yet.)