Drum One

I realize that this is pitched as "beta" software, however, "beta" usually means that all the features are in place but they need a wider testing base before shipping. To quote Wikipedia on the subject, "A beta phase generally begins when the software is feature complete but likely to contain a number of known or unknown bugs."

I'd call this somewhere between "mockup" and "alpha." And for anyone who thinks I'm quibbling about something that I got for "free," well, my time to download it, figure out the password(!) for the .ZIP file and install it, set up a drum map in my DAW so that I can play some MIDI tracks through it is a price I wouldn't have paid if they rightly advertised this as an alpha release. I'm often happy to try a beta release if it's something I might be able to use, but I'm not interested in alpha releases with missing features.

Most of the controls don't do anything when clicked on, the manual doesn't match the labeling of the UI, and the most interesting feature, "the latest modeling technology" seems to be nowhere to be found, unless they consider samples in .SF2 format to be that. For anyone who expects anything from this but a static sample player with one sound for each drum, replete with a needlessly non-standard drum map, is going to be disappointed.

Their site pitches it as something that's supposed to make you want to buy their payware products, but sorry, quite the opposite. A company that doesn't know the difference between an alpha release and a beta release may also not know the difference between a beta release and a final release.

One star because it actually does produce drum sounds, with some effort. If you're curious as to what they want this to look like when released, it's better to just examine the picture here than it is to download and install the whole thing.

My advice to the company: either pull this completely or properly label it as an alpha release or mockup. It's not going to win you any new customers.