Wave Alchemy Triaz [Kontakt]

[Ohlson_M]

Played around with the demo for a couple of hours and I must say I’m impressed. Chance and start sequencer and velocity modulation are really nice to have, although I wish you could velocity modulate any parameter you want (can be done with an instrument rack in Ableton or similar so no big deal).

Really nice layering options as well, and FINALLY!, the option to import your own samples . Perhaps the most important feature a drum machine can have.

[dblock]

Played around with the demo for a couple of hours and I must say I’m impressed. Chance and start sequencer and velocity modulation are really nice to have, although I wish you could velocity modulate any parameter you want (can be done with an instrument rack in Ableton or similar so no big deal).

Really nice layering options as well, and FINALLY!, the option to import your own samples . Perhaps the most important feature a drum machine can have.

I agree the import samples was a huge request from users. I was a bit disappointed though that it doesn't appear you can do any kind of batch import like point to a folder and load a bunch of samples and instead you have to do this one off thing unless I'm wrong.I haven't gotten far into the manual yet.

[dermage]

Email says I'll get an extra discount if I click the link but I don't get an extra discount on the store page or in my cart (yes, I'm signed in).

The email I got had a discount code above the first image that you have to enter. FWIW, the price is roughly $120 USD with the additional 25% off of the $160 intro price.

For me it's pounds. After extra 25% it's about £90 which is about $120 or 106€

[Dirtgrain]

Anybody can compare with UVI Drum Designer and/or Steinberg Groove Agent?

[wltchris101]

I'm not sure I understand it right, but where's the big difference to Drumvolution?
- Polyrythm possible in sequencer now
- Tagging
- new Samples (but hey, are they soo different from Dromvolution?)

Polyrythm and Tagging were requested features for Drumvolution, seems these are not developed further now.

In my eyes, this is Drumvolution 1.5 or 2, as it has mostly the same features (sequencer, effects, layering)

I agree. This seems to me like a Drumvolution update, and a pretty expensive one at that. I'm sure it's great, but owning Drumvolution as I do, I'm not sure even the extra loyalty discount is going to be enough to convince me to get this.

[dblock]

Triaz is nice forsure but I must admit I may have been expecting too much and I'm slightly disappointed. I was hoping you could point Triaz to a sample folder on your hard drive where you can view and audition multiple samples and have however many samples you have show up in the Triaz browser like Battery or XO. I was also hoping you would be able to save changes to individual drums. As far as the gui goes, I'm also not a fan of the 2 shades of grey background. Just a bit dull to me compared to Drumvolution but that's just me. Compared to Drumvolution, Triaz looks a bit washed out. Drumvolution is flat out beautiful imo but I'm sure some will argue Triaz is easier on the eyes after a few hours. Maybe a couple skins would be a cool alternative.
To be fair, Triaz does sound great and I think it may be more streamlined and easier to work with. Sometimes Drumvolution was hard for me to get an individual drum to sound like I wanted it too. Maybe too many options (I know, can't have it both ways but I want it both ways) but that's all the more reason to want to be able to save an individual drum edit after all that effort and I was almost expecting that feature in Triaz. I will probably still use Drumvolution more but Triaz will get a fair chance to see how the workflow may be better or not. Either way, it's great to have both and hopefully WA will take note of some of the requests for future updates. All in all, great job though WA. jmo.

[telecharge]

jmo.

Thanks for posting your take on it.

None of the presets in the video in the OP really wowed me. Some nice drum sounds, but the beats are too rigid and quantized for my taste.

Here is a playlist with a walkthrough of the features:

[dblock]

jmo.

Thanks for posting your take on it.

None of the presets in the video in the OP really wowed me. Some nice drum sounds, but the beats are too rigid and quantized for my taste.

Here is a playlist with a walkthrough of the features:

You bet telecharge. I like to post what I think because I know WA takes feedback and sometimes implements them in future updates. I like their demos but I don't really care how their beats are since I don't use their beats and they can be changed anyway. To me it's can I save the changes I make,usability,reasonable simplicity and a gui I wouldn't mind staring at all day gets it for me.

[tq]

The new engine looks a bit easier to use than Drumvolution, despite the added functionality. I am wondering whether it would be possible to port the drum sounds from Drumvolution or Revolution to the new engine, like an expansion pack? Having both, I'd love to have all in one place... Also, an intelligent batch import would be fantastic (but it's probably outside of what you can do in Kontakt?).

[wave alchemy]

Thanks for posting your take on it.

None of the presets in the video in the OP really wowed me. Some nice drum sounds, but the beats are too rigid and quantized for my taste.

Hi Telecharge.

Thanks for your comments. I'm not sure if we are referring to the same video but the vast majority of beats in the Preset Video demo have complex off-grid and polyrhythmic sequencing happening. Nothing is on beat or rigid here, except for a few of the House / Techno ones which typically by nature require a more quantized sound in order to keep them sounding powerful.

Anything more off grid / unquantized in some of these presets would render them useless in real-world production. Although TRIAZ can very easily do that if this is what you are looking for.

It's easier to show an example, and so here are three examples (MP3) of the same preset (one of those from the preset demo):

https://www.wavealchemy.co.uk/demos/TRIAZ_Quantized.mp3
https://www.wavealchemy.co.uk/demos/TRIAZ_Orignal.mp3
https://www.wavealchemy.co.uk/demos/TRI ... Looser.mp3

The first example is quantized and rigid.

The second example is the exact version from the Preset demo, and features complex off grid sequencing using TRIAZ.

The third example takes things even further, to a level of unquantized nature that is almost unusable. It can go further than this still of course, if you really wanted that sound!

For your info, TRIAZ has independent Start Offset position for each drum's sequencer lane, but not only this, but also every single note within each sequencer lane. This allows you to pull any sound before or after the beat as much as you like. I used it a lot in the above preset as you can hear when comparing to the truly quantized version.

Furthermore, we have a Slop parameter in the sequencer in addition to the above, which randomly moves sounds off and on grid and never repeats. This effect can be set via a slider and introduces great humanization to patterns.

In addition, we have note chance, for every single note in the sequencer - allowing you to choose set the probibility that a drum will play. Again, great for creating patterns that always evolve and never sound the same.

Finally, each of TRIAZ's sequencer lanes has it's own step length (1-32 step), but also it's own step rate too. This allows you to create 16 bar patterns that evolve over time, using just a single sequencer view. Or drum fills at the end of patterns and all manner of complex polyrhythms.

I'd recommend checking out this video here from Red Means Recording on YouTube:

He does a very good job at showing off these sequencer features

[wave alchemy]

The new engine looks a bit easier to use than Drumvolution, despite the added functionality. I am wondering whether it would be possible to port the drum sounds from Drumvolution or Revolution to the new engine, like an expansion pack? Having both, I'd love to have all in one place... Also, an intelligent batch import would be fantastic (but it's probably outside of what you can do in Kontakt?).

Thanks for the feedback tq,

I can confirm that the TRIAZ Engine was built from the ground up. No code at all was used from Drumvolution. You are right in what you said with regards to workflow, however I'd say that say that the workflow is vastly superior in TRIAZ. We focused heavily on making this lightning fast to build beats and layer drums. Since we built this from the ground up, we spent a ton of time optimizing this and so you'll also notice much lower CPU / RAM usage

All in all, the only similarity between TRIAZ and Drumvolution is that we use a similar visual way of layering samples using a 3-way XY Pad engine (as we feel this is the best way of doing this!). However, as you probably saw, this is also vastly improved in TRIAZ since everything is now on one page - making layering drum sounds super quick. You can also now load ANY sample onto any layer, and import your own too.

Other than this detail, everything else is completely different. The sample content (which is also a true step above that in Drumvolution), browser, sequencer, effects, master stage, and one of my personal favorite features - the randomization functions. Those are really cool as it gives you many ways of randomizing kits. Such as:

Randomizing just one sound within it's tag label
Randomizing one sound outside of it's original tag label
Randomizing the same layer on all 12 voices, with or without tags
Randomizing the entire kit, with our without changing the tags

And more.

This is super fun to use!

Let me know if you have any others questions and I'll be glad to answer them for you!

[Mr Arkadin]

As a disgruntled BFD3 owner I was hoping for a bit more on the real kit side. The description mentions acoustic drums, but I havent really seen any rock groove examples. Is it not really geared towards natural sounds and rhythms?

[telecharge]

I'm not sure if we are referring to the same video but the vast majority of beats in the Preset Video demo have complex off-grid and polyrhythmic sequencing happening.

You forgot to mention swing per lane.

I believe you, and I wasn't trying to be disparaging. I like the Wave Alchemy stuff I have. Again, this is just my taste and the impression the video made on me. I even listened a second time. Sorry, but I just get an EDM drum machine vibe. That will be a selling point for some. I'm sure TRIAZ is much more capable than those presets, and that's why I posted your playlist.

[wave alchemy]

You forgot to mention swing per lane.

I believe you, and I wasn't trying to be disparaging. I like the Wave Alchemy stuff I have. Again, this is just my taste and the impression the video made on me. I even listened a second time. Sorry, but I just get an EDM drum machine vibe. That will be a selling point for some. I'm sure TRIAZ is much more capable than those presets, and that's why I posted your playlist.

I apologies for any confusion at my end in this case. I guess I read it the wrong way

For your info, in case you're interested, here are some other presets recorded directly from TRIAZ (probably around 100 in total) that show off some other genres:

https://www.wavealchemy.co.uk/demos/TRI ... o_MSTR.mp3

https://www.wavealchemy.co.uk/demos/TRI ... o_MSTR.mp3

https://www.wavealchemy.co.uk/demos/TRI ... o_MSTR.mp3

https://www.wavealchemy.co.uk/demos/TRI ... o_MSTR.mp3

You'll find a lot more acoustic sound sources utilized in these ones overall, that show off a different side to TRIAZ

[wave alchemy]

As a disgruntled BFD3 owner I was hoping for a bit more on the real kit side. The description mentions acoustic drums, but I havent really seen any rock groove examples. Is it not really geared towards natural sounds and rhythms?

Hi Mr Arkadin,

As well as electronic sounds, TRIAZ does indeed feature a lot of acoustic sounds too (around 3,000), however unlike BFD, the aim was not to emulate the nuances of acoustic drums in depth with multiple velocity levels and many round robins, but rather to deliver a diverse collection of wonderfully designed sounds that are recorded with lots of character, depth and unique sonic imprint in order to give you sounds you have not heard before. For example we recorded acoustic drum kits in non traditional ways to give almost Foley like textures, recorded huge cinematic mallet drums through unique processing chains, acoustic bass drums through unique bass /guitar amps and so much more - just to give a brief idea!. We also did things like record electronic drums through huge rooms in one of the best drum rooms in North America, and picked these back up using characterful vintage mics for a hybrid type sound.

As well as all of the unique, sound design content we of course also did record more traditional acoustic sounds. These were primarily recorded at 'Revolution Recording' in Toronto, in Studio A - a wonderful sounding room, through a wonderful Neve desk - http://www.revolutionrecording.com/studios.php

You can see some the acoustic sources we recorded for TRIAZ below:

• A vast collection of beautifully recorded Found Sounds, Foley and unconventional Percussion - making use of bowing, smashing, dropping, hitting, re-amping, layering, creative mic techniques, re-pitching to analogue tape, processing and experimentation.
• Adams 26" copper Timpani
• Adams 32" copper Timpani
• Chinese Red Drums – Multiple Sizes
• Chinese Cymbals
• Chinese Timpani
• Tuned Gongs
• Frame Drums
• 20" Dream wind Gong
• 28" Dream wind Gong
• A vast selection of various characterful Cymbals & Hi-Hats (prepared & unprepared)
• A large selection of huge Mallet Drums & Cinematic Drums
• A vast collection of various Shakers, Cabasas and Guiros
• Various Cajons
• Various Bongos
• A large selection of Congas, Tumba and Quinto Drums
• Various Tambourines and small percussion
• Tam Tam
• A diverse and creative selection of Acoustic Toms of all sizes
• A vast, diverse collection of Snare Drums, from Dunnett, Ludwig, YC, Slingerland and many more.
• A large collection of Blocks, Bells, Sticks and other small acoustic percussion
• A diverse collection of Acoustic Bass Drums
• A large collection of creatively recorded Modern Acoustic Drum Kits
• A large collection of creatively recorded Vintage Acoustic Drum Kits
• Adams Rosewood Xylophone
• Adams Rosewood Marimba
• CB Orchestral Glockenspiel


If you'd like to know the exact drum kits used, let me know and I can find out for you. We recorded a lot of them and hence why I didn't list the details for every one above!