Rhythmic Robot releases Boss DR55, Magnus Reed Organ and StyloDrum Kontakt Instruments

Rhythmic Robot have released three new instruments for Kontakt 4.2.3 and later:

• Doctor 55: a sampled recreation of the Boss DR55 analogue drum machine.
• Magnus: a reed organ emulating a 1950s Bakelite Magnus organ and a 1970s plastic version.
• StyloDrum: a glitchy drum machine with four kits sampling scratches, crackles, pops and squeals from vintage Stylophones which have been pitched, looped and trimmed to form electronic drum sounds.

Doctor 55 costs £4.95. Magnus and StyloDrum cost £3.95.

Doctor 55 is a Kontakt version of the Boss DR55 analogue drum machine. It samples the original with great precision at 24-bit. Each of the four original kit pieces (kick, snare, hats and rimshot) are covered, plus an additional "hidden" snare sound that only showed up on the original during programming. This additional snare has been given its own Attack and Decay parameters, hidden on the rear panel, which allow the user to create brushed snare sounds or snares with long decay tails.

Additionally, as usual with Rhythmic Robot drum machines, multiple samples have been taken through the entire travel of the DR55's "Accent" control. These differently-accented samples can then be accessed either by tweaking the "Accent" control on the GUI panel, or by velocity from a MIDI keyboard (or by drawing velocity automation straight into a DAW lane). Accent amounts change the tonality of the kit pieces considerably, and can be dialed in on a per-kit-piece basis, which of course was not possible on the original instrument (where Accent functioned globally).

The Doctor 55 rounds things out with a Tone control, plus effects control over tube saturation, bit-crushing effects, Drive distortion and an output compressor / limiter for "gluing" and pumping effects.

Features:

• All the sounds of the DR55 captured through the entire travel of the Accent control.
• Kit pieces individually adjustable for level, pan and Accent.
• New "hidden" snare sound sampled, and adjustable for attack and decay.
• Velocity Retrofit button allows incoming velocity to vary the Accent level dynamically (for humanised beats).
• Bitcrusher, tube saturation, distortion and compression / limiting on the outputs.

Magnus is a reed organ instrument sampled from two vintage Magnus reed organs: a Bakelite model from the 1950s, and a red plastic model from the 1970s. The Bakelite model was Magnus Organs' first ever model and is extremely rare.

Magnus allows the user to blend the "Bakelite" and "Plastic" samples to taste via the front panel controls, and adds Tone and "Electrify" -- which brings in tube harmonic distortion to the sound. Attack and Release controls are available for the amplitude envelope, and longer release times invoke a slight pitch drop-off as the sound decays, which mimics the behaviour of a real reed organ having its keys very slowly let up (air pressure through the reeds drops, and the pitch falls as a result). Stereo spread, chorus and phaser effects are available on the rear panel.

Magnus is designed for unusual organ sounds and breathy pad textures.

Features:

• Bakelite 1950s and Plastic 1970s samples can be blended to taste.
• "Electrify" control for adding harmonic distortion; Tone control for high-end roll-off.
• Attack and Decay parameters.
• Original pitch drop-off emulated on long ADSR release settings.
• Stereo spread, chorus and phaser controls on rear panel.

StyloDrum is an analogue drum machine built from sampled scratches, bleeps, bloops, fizzes, noises, crackles, thumps and glitches -- all taken from vintage Stylophones. These have been pitch-shifted, looped, trimmed and fiddled with as necessary to turn them into old-school-style analogue hits. StyloDrum incorporates four kits spread over four octaves, each with at least two kicks and two snares. Most have hats, some have crashes, toms, claps or other "classic" sounds. Interspersed are a lot of random scratches, glitches and other Stylophone-based weirdnesses.

Kit pieces can be adjusted in level and pan position, and there's a comprehensive effects section with Saturation, Drive and "Pump" compression to really kick things into gear. StyloDrum is a unique source of left-field electronic sounds for any genre, with a glitchy, grainy edge.

Features:

• Four kits built entirely of Stylophone scratches, glitches, squeaks and squeals.
• Pan and level controls.
• Tube saturation, Drive distortion and "Pump" compression.
• Unique and unusual electronic elements for any genre.