I've been following the conversations regarding the long awaited drum machine from U-he or the Drum Thing which has been mentioned from the old thread. While searching for a dream Drum Machine, I can't stop thinking about it and some of the possibilities using what's already available. A drum machine, with a simplified Zebra Engine, using the Quality of Diva's osc and Filter. But with a tight integration with the other as well, mainly the Full Zebra, Diva, Ace and Bazille. So, the owner of those synths are able to use the engine exclusively within the drum machine. Urs has mentioned years ago that he planned for a Live performance oriented drum machine, which sounds really great. May be supported with a dedicated controller, combining the MPC style pads, with the 16 step TR style buttons and some other innovative features, utilizing the great processors of U-he such as the Uhbik, Filterscape and MFM, again with an exclusive benefit for the owner of those processors. Also the ability to load user samples, vst and stand alone mode. Could be anything that I wish from a software drum machine.

I'm using Ableton Drum Rack to make a very flexible drum kit. But it's just not the same from using a dedicated, live performance oriented drum machine. Is there any progress on the Drum Thing?

I'd rather see a u he drum machine be a standalone product in keeping with the usual u-he model.

it would need very flexible envelops like the mseg in zebra but tighter/precise if possible for shaping drums sounds it's the bomb

It's too early to tell yet, but imo Arturia's Spark points the way to the future. It's a really great piece of hardware with superb knobs, controls and pad quality, and the price is low. It's both sequencer and MPC-pad-style. You can do everything - change drums, kits, patterns or songs, record, record effects and knob tweaks, right from the machine. The price is low because the software is in the computer. So it needs a computer to run, but the advantage is after recording with the Spark, it's ALL in the computer for any sort of editing you want either standalone or vst. It has analog emulation, drum modeling, and samples, including tons of sampled classic drum machines, and you can import your own samples as well as drag and drop midi or audio right from it to your DAW or your sound or patch library. It also has a utility to map its midi functions for use strictly as a controller for other synths like Geist, BFD or ... Zebra.

I'm just learning the Spark now, but I fully intend to use it control my U-He synths for drums. I'd love to see a U-He drum synth like Spark that has a dedicated hardware controller and which permits sample import.

exactly
Last edited by crystalmsc on Thu Aug 23, 2012 6:58 pm; edited 2 times in total

I almost get that with a special price from a good friend of mine, who is the distributor of Arturia. But the layout of the controller did not fit me, specially some knobs are not properly placed for my taste. Also what I meant by MPC style pad is the 4 X 4 layout, which is very useful for people who were usual to this effective layout, specially when playing live, to hit several pads at once vertically. But I like the concept where the Analog Laboratory has a special editing facility for owner who has the dedicated synth, and imagine a concept like that is going to be cool for a drum machine as well. The software looks rather interesting, but as a fan of the Waldorf Attack with the rich engine, I'd rather wait for something else.

I prefer having only 8 larger, higher quality pads, that you can switch to a second bank of 8 = 16 total on the fly. I don't like overlapping small pads, because of the way I play - more like an actual percussionist. I do lots of very fast and rather sophisticated rolls, flams, etc. where more knobs, and fewer pads, spaced a bit further apart and not where my fingers will interfere with each other ala Maschine, are preferable.

I think a device such as the Roland HPD-15 would be even better for controlling Zebra. Too bad it's over $1,000. A device like that that was tied to great software would rock my world.

hmm..an innovative, unthinkable controller is going to very interesting as well. Risky..but challenging, just like riding a Dark Zebra

Totally agree, spark is amazing- the new 1.5 upgrade should be out soon and it will be even better the controller suits me as I had that type of drum machine in the past (boss, alesis) and I love the step sequencer etc, effects (very playable) and overall sound (and well done to Arturia for releasing so many free sound packs)

It's all a matter of taste and preference, I sold maschine (today!) as I just didn't get on with the MPC layout or workflow (I prefer Live for that sort of stuff).

Tremor is also amazing (If uhe did a drum vst, I would expect it to be more like this) for analog synths drums, lots of innovation and very fun to play with- bit of a CPU hog, but that just comes with quality emulation .

and the MKII is coming



http://www.guitarcenter.com/Native-Instruments-Maschine-MKII -108117334-i2603285.gc[/img]

I don't know. I think a lot of people don't realize how complicated/a pain in the ass designing a sampler is (a good sampler). When you take a look at Spark, you'll see that their sampler implementation is absolute piss. You can import a sample and play it back. Yay. It'd be great if Spark had more options like Battery (greater gain-boosting for quiet samples, looping, better sample editor). When you import a sample, you can't zoom/fine tune the damn thing.

It seems that most samplers that people deem as "good" are bloated as hell to compensate for the various slippery-slope features that everyone asks for. I'm guessing someone out there is already asking for a granular sampler to be built into the u-he drum machine. Then someone's going to ask for velocity layering. Then someone is going to ask for cell grouping.

So the options for a built in sampler are as follows:

1). Drum synth with a shitty sampler
2). Drum synth with a good sampler, but with a convoluted design to cater to everyone's last wish.
3). Drum synth with no sampler.

Personally I'd vote for 3.

And standalone...I like that Urs focuses more on the plugin itself rather than nitpicking on the various stupid frameworks for standalone. Free plugin hosts are easy enough to find.

My 2 cents anyway.

Is there any actual need for another drum machine?

I'd vote for 3 as well...

I have no need for yet another drum sampler... gimme synthesis baby!

ok then..let's start with the drum synthesis and keep the sampling option for future upgrade

okay, but Bazille first!!