I know there's supposed to be a mac version in the pipeline, but I'm in a desperate need for a great sounding drum synth for the mac. I like what I hear about DR008 as well, and again I know Drum 9 is on its way.

But I can't wait... no, really, I've waited too long, I've got projects that are finished except for the beats. I'm tired of spending so much time trying to twist my existing loops / vinyl loops into new, fresh, clean beats. Its really doing my head in.

I make trippy house music (progressive, clubby stuff)... I can post influences / respected producers if necessary, but if you can point me in the right direction of equivalent mac drum synths to the likes of microtonic, that would be a great help. I'd like to stick to soft drum synths for now - I'll post elsewhere for info on samples / libraries.

thanks

markoos

Wasnt Waldorf's Attack available for the Mac?

is my only option a drum synth which is no longer available?

I've had microtonic for 2 days now and I notice one of the things that enables it to create sounds that really cut through mixes is the fact that it has a stereo noise generator.

I don't know what you're supposed to do with that bit of information, but there you go.

There will be a mac osx version soon. In fact there is a closed beta running at this moment, contact magnus at microtonic and ask him about it

hasn't the successor to bitshift-audio such a thing?

http://www.glaresoft.com/products/idrum/index.html

Yep. I would say just hold on a wee bit longer. MicroMac should be shippin' real soon. Unless there's a way to convert Wave to OSC?

You're thinking about idrum. No, that is a sample-based drum machine, and a quite nice one, at that. It has patternbased programming like microtonic, though. The thing about microtonic is not the patterns. It is the supersweet, clear but funky sounds that it produces, and the ease of programming. It is almost impossible not to come up with nice sound in a few minutes of know-tweaking.

If I was on a mac, I'd be all over this thing..but MicroTonic is a killer instrument as well.

I say get both

MicroTonic has some pretty silly sounds to though. Almost comical. But it's all fun. I LIKE IT. Best purchase I made so far. Can't beat the price.

Oops, an omission - I'm one of these freaks who still use OS9... is there any hope?

thnaks for the links though, I'm checking them now.

okay, so to summarise (read 'bump'):
the suggestions so far are attack and iDrum...
is that really it...?

does anyone else have any suggestions, please? just to recap I need an OS9 compatible drum synth which is flexible and great for use in club/tech house tracks. Any further suggestions, please?

Yep! ...but if you use Logic, I-drum has a really cool feature... you can drag the whole pattern to the arrange window as a midi clip... just drag and drop the little midi icon in the interface... then you can change it and make variations within Logic... pretty slick... no multi-out though! But if Micro-tonic goes AU, that could be the bomb! Why are you using OS9 anyway??

why am I using OS9? because I like it! no, really, I just don't want to be forced in to moving across if i can avoid it - I'll take the plunge when its absolutely necessary, but I'm not buying a new OS, new DAW and new plugs just because I can't find the right bloody drum synth!!


I might have to do the library thing...

Are you looking for really messed up blips and bleeps or just solid kicks and snare sounds?

If you have Reaktor/Reaktor Sessions, the new Limelight in the NativeInstruments vol.2 looks promising.

chagzuki, I'm looking for the whole drum & percussion package in a programmable drum synth, if available - yes, solid kicks and snares, hopefully I could come up with a nice variety in useable snares...by that I mean I'm not looking for a representation of an acoustic or rock-type kit. And no, I'm not looking for blips & clicks-type percussion - I just want to programme my own nice clean clubby grooves.

sluggo, I don't know anything about NI's Limelight. I'll check it out now. Thanks for the pointer.

The tweakability of MT is nice, but it would be easy to reproduce the same types of kick/snare sounds with samples, recreating the tone and noise generators as separate samples and overlaying them. MicroTonic lacks controls such as ASDR and other things that all drum samplers tend to have these days.

so to sum up, my options are: Attack, iDrum and Limelite... well, thanks for your inputs, but its lookin' like I'm not gonna find my OS9 mean dream drum machine... (someone should trademark that...) so it looks like it might have to be the library thing...

sighs: bring on the samples...

markoos wrote:

so to sum up, my options are: Attack, iDrum and Limelite... well, thanks for your inputs, but its lookin' like I'm not gonna find my OS9 mean dream drum machine... (someone should trademark that...) so it looks like it might have to be the library thing... sighs: bring on the samples...

Aren't there any Pluggos that do what you're looking for?

Groet, Erik

what's wrong with using Battery? You have a shitload of multi-layered sample slots & it comes with a decent group of drum kits & has a really good expansion for it.

What sequencer are you using? That's as important for what you're going to program as the vehicle you load samples through..

MicroTonic is very cool, but at least for now it's off-limits, so if you wanna have a REALLY nice kit, you should try one of the big guns..Battery is my first choice amongst them all.

markoos wrote:

Oops, an omission - I'm one of these freaks who still use OS9... is there any hope? thnaks for the links though, I'm checking them now.

your options are very limited. i don't even know if there IS anything that does drum synthesis besides Attack for os9. You use logic right? i know it's not much help now but version 7 will have ultrabeat, which will be a microtonic killer. synthesis and samples and full sequencing, etc. but again, osx only.

tetra, I never considered the pluggo option. but there is so much in the bundle that maybe the drums in it may be a little too(dare i say, without hearing them) 'general', perhaps? (read 909?)

basically what I'm trying to say is, I don't mind spending the equivalent of 199 dollars if the drums are gonna be what I'm looking for... but at this stage in my (financial) life, I need to make sure I buy the right product. Hopefully I've already made my most expensive mistakes I'd like something totally dedicated to percussion, rather than an all in one...

sickle, I do consider battery an option; but I wanted to make sure that there are no current drum synths around I haven't heard about... I like the idea of not just programming my own beats/loops but creating the hits as well. but you're right about going for the big guns, NI is a definite contender - I'm also interested in the e-lab range, especially the forthcoming 'perfection' percussion library - if the hits can be accessed individually, that is...

hmm, logic seven...ultrabeat... just when i though it couldn't be less clear thanks ttoz

this is bloody confusing mate, I tell ya! I could really do with something here and now, there's a really great project I'm gonna be on soon that I want to do some groudwork for...

god, i'm so bloody picky, aren't i?

so from suggestions, I can see that my choice of OS is holding me back from having the right drum synth... I don't really want to upgrade everything just for that (i mean OS, DAW, plugs). looks like its gonna have to be a library/loop player thing... bugger... and there's only, like, eleven thousand sample cds and libraries... see you in about five years...

Re logic 7. Unfortunately if you have a mac which osx will bugg down (read single cpu g4) and therefore want to remain on os9 for a while. (I know it's obsolete but it runs like a devil on my machine, will be a long time before i'm on osx) logic 7 is not an option. It will be osx only.
Kim

Man..I really recommend Battery with the Studio & Electronic drum expansion disks..

Battery is available in both pre & post mac OS's & you have a range of control that years later is still not out of date..

You're not limited to hits, you can toss in full loops, set your start/end position, volume envelope, have modulation choices, 54 velocity-layered sample slots, so much shit I can't list AND if you upgrade to Kontakt you can load up any/all your battery kits (despite what someone said about Kontakt not loading Battery kits, you can..) into Kontakt, which just takes you one level higher with even heavier modulation options and all the other shit that makes Kontakt one of the best.

I'd pick up battery off Ebay (which is actually exactly what I did..& consider upgrading to Kontakt later(which I also did on Ebay..), or just go for the throat & grab Kontakt.

ooh, mate - you on commission? you should be...! i've been window shopping at NI for the last coupla hours... you've almost got me sold. it looks like it should be Kontakt - but I still have confusion about Intakt & Kompakt. knew this wasn't gonna be easy, but Kontakt is my current preference; I mean, Battery sounds great, but if Kontakt's better... I need to spend more time reading the reviews and doing comparisons.

thanks for the clarity, sickle.

No sweat man..

All I can say about NI is this:

Two years, three machines, five DAW's & two OS's later, NI products are still the survivors through it all. I've tried many VSTi as I have been through this learning experience (that I am nowhere near even a real level of competence), but the NI stuff is always on my HD & usually the first thing I reach for when I'm 'making music'

No paid endorsement here, just recognition for solid products that work as advertised & work well.

Ciao,