NUSofting has launched a public beta for their new "Audio Controlled Drum Synthesizer" - Groove Analogizer. Working like a vintage electronic drum tone generator the percussion sound is triggered by an audio signal, not by a MIDI message. Groove Analogizer can be used both as pure drum synth or as an additive and addictive drums loop spicer.

Groove Analogizer loads as a VST effect, usually in an insert slot, and features three oscillators that can be triggered and shaped by the audio input. A trigger can be any kind of percussive sound, both mono or stereo - it can be a .wav file or another VST instrument for example.

For each of the three generators you can choose left, right or left+right input - input can be both mono or stereo. A band pass filter allows you to select which frequency range of the audio source will be used for triggering, so you can separate hi, mid and low tones in the audio input, allowing you to isolate different trigger patterns from the same complex audio source. Groove Analogizer also features Pre-Listening, so that you can monitor which part of the source is selected as trigger.

The Sensitivity control allows you to select the loudest triggers filtered by the band pass - so that you may include ghost notes or avoid them.

Sound Controls: for each generator

• Release time: amplitude and pitch envelope time.
• Bending: positive or negative pitch envelope amount.
• Offset: pitch base.
• Timbre: from pure tone to noise, with FM option.

Output Controls: for each generator

• Effect: send to internal stereo delay.
• Pan: stereo image.
• Volume: output level.

Master Controls:

• FM: global amount.
• Smooth: slope time for all envelopes.
• Delay effect controls.
• Dry: output of the trigger (source audio).
• Master: output level of all three generators.

Audio examples and public beta download are available here.