Baby Audio Tekno - Drum Synth

[Ah_Dziz]

Neat. I love drum synths. Does baby audio have some kind of dumb activation/ authorization system? Otherwise it's bought when I get home from work.

[Ah_Dziz]

Can you load the whole instance with one model? Like all kicks with different settings? Also does it have choke groups. These two bits are kind of a big deal for me for a drum synth. I don't always want an entire kit of sounds.

[mi-os]

Neat. I love drum synths. Does baby audio have some kind of dumb activation/ authorization system? Otherwise it's bought when I get home from work.

I checked their FAQs. They use challenge/response authorization. So, yes. It's very unlikely i'll buy their stuff.

[mi-os]

I wonder how it compares to the Cubase 14's built in drum machine. I haven't started using it yet.

[pekbro]

It’s just a key code, people don’t like those? It’s better than a lot of other systems if you ask me.
I am constantly running out of activations with
the machine ID type, since after every update
they see my pc as a different machine.

Baby audios, doesn’t do that ime.

[mi-os]

No, it's not just a key code. It uses a server.

[pekbro]

No, it's not just a key code. It uses a server.

Like most of them do, but I can see why you
wouldn’t like that. Too bad, they make good
stuff imo.

[Ah_Dziz]

I'm not concerned with the activation, but the interface is rough. It seems like decent dsp but the stupid parameter names and arbitrary splitting off of parameters to a menu of "calibration" along with no choking (even for hi hats), no velocity control and being stuck with their choice of kit may put me off especially for 80 bucks. I might have a nicer feeling towards this but I haven't been able to make a clean kick with either engine and both snares appear to have set envelope lengths that are far longer than I generally prefer. I dunno.... I'll keep fiddling with it. While I'm complaining, I would always prefer to be able to pull up a full mixer to adjust the relative levels of all the parts. I've only been playing with this for 15 minutes or so, but I'm very underwhelmed.

[Ah_Dziz]

Adding Linked triggers could be useful too to get around some of the weak bits. Why the hell would someone make a snare synth with no Noise/Osc balance control?

[billinder33]

Looks like BA prioritized simplicity over features.

I like and use Baby Audio's stuff (Transit2, Spaced Out) and if I was into this kind of device I'd definitely give it a try. Until recently, I primarily used dedicated plugins for kick & snare (Kick2, DC Snares). But I've recently gotten into Triaz as a fully-featured drum machine w sequencer to create patterns, then exporting the separate MIDI and audio outputs into the DAW. Teckno doesn't really fall into either category of device, so I'll probably pass.

A few years ago I was looking for a device like this but didn't really love the options at the time. So if it's easy to use and sounds good, it will probably have some market demand.

[BABY Audio]

I'll keep fiddling with it.

We hope you will! While you might not find everything you're looking for at least a few things you were missing should actually be there if you dig deeper:

- We have a ducker for all voices, which - with the right settings - can mimic a choke function.

- There IS velocity sensitivity (settings menu to turn it on and 'other' in the master section for setting the range)

- Snare envelope: most of the drums are not triggered by oscillators but by a voltage pulse running trough a resonant filter. It means you have slightly different controls than on a subtractive synth but you can still control the length pretty flexibly. Sometimes it might take some back and forth between the main sliders and the calibration but you should definitely be able to get short snares

Either way, thanks for checking it out!

[Igro]

Looks like BA prioritized simplicity over features.

I like and use Baby Audio's stuff (Transit2, Spaced Out) and if I was into this kind of device I'd definitely give it a try. Until recently, I primarily used dedicated plugins for kick & snare (Kick2, DC Snares). But I've recently gotten into Triaz as a fully-featured drum machine w sequencer to create patterns

Triaz is a sample based drum machine. I don't see the point of comparing them. In Tekno you can generate, for instance, a kick from scratch and it has a decent amount of shaping controls for that. And that's its primary point, I guess. All the rest can be made in Bitwig for me. It has sequencer and modulation system. Look, Unfiltered Audio has all those sequencers, patterns (?) and LFOs, but its kick engine has only 5 controls. In tekno its 10. Other modules has even more.

[c_voltage]

Liked first beat example in video, reminded the Young Gods lol (plug not tried yet, something with server it seems, dl speed 32kb\s for me, but definitely will check)

[Igro]

I found that Snare A (when Init), when the noise is removed (ring, sizzle, spark and all the effects on Zero) can produce lots of crackles. I hope BA will look at this. Moving the "repitch" slider back and forward can sort of reset that behavior, but I guess it's a bug.

Second thing - I often, instead of selecting the module, pressed accidentally on the Randomized button instead. I'm not sure if the randomizer icon is placed well on the GUI.

Third. Some modules (especially Hat A) are quite unstable with every hit. Especially audible with the reverb. I know it has a real synth engine behind that, but it would be cool to control that behavior (phase reset control?)

Fourth. When dragging a module which has a reverb on it into the DAW arranger window (to export it into a wav sample), the reverb tails get cut out. It stops quiet abruptly. Moreover, I just discovered, that even without the reverb, the exported samples have abrupt tails. Can be seen in any audio editor pretty well. So this feature is not quite usable yet.


Win 11. The problem in various DAWs.

[Ah_Dziz]

I'll keep fiddling with it.

We hope you will! While you might not find everything you're looking for at least a few things you were missing should actually be there if you dig deeper:

- We have a ducker for all voices, which - with the right settings - can mimic a choke function.

- There IS velocity sensitivity (settings menu to turn it on and 'other' in the master section for setting the range)

- Snare envelope: most of the drums are not triggered by oscillators but by a voltage pulse running trough a resonant filter. It means you have slightly different controls than on a subtractive synth but you can still control the length pretty flexibly. Sometimes it might take some back and forth between the main sliders and the calibration but you should definitely be able to get short snares

Either way, thanks for checking it out!

it has good sound quality. It also has decent CPU use for analog models. I'm getting old and stuck in my ways though so I'm not especially interested in models of circuits if they also model all the shortcomings of the circuits. I'd be more interested in a model where I can adjust the time constants, amp feedback and filter/osc frequencies by adjusting capacitance and resistance values. Otherwise I'd just as soon have less "analog" sounding stuff with full digital control. I've made some fun loops and it does sound nice run through a pile of distortion. Being pretty well set for drum sounds, I'm probably gonna pass. I wish y'all the best though. I'll keep an eye out for updates.

JJ