In Step mode you can create and edit patterns on the Step buttons using the TR convention; in fact you can do this at the same time as live recording. Regular triggers light blue, and Accented steps are shown as red. Slightly confusingly, to add Accents you switch to a dedicated Accent mode. From here you can create new Accented steps or convert regular trigs. But if you switch a step to Accented, then tap it again, it will remove that step entirely, rather than revert it. In other words Accent is a property of specific notes, rather than being a separate layer that modifies trigger events. Deep Impact Arturia's Drumbrute Impact boasts the unique tonal signature punch and sizzle of it's distant cousins - the Minibrute 2Sand Microbrute, as well as the seamless sequencing architectureof the original Drumbrute. 10 high-energy, refined drum tones provide the foundation of an electronic drum kit for any style of music.

Each machine with special features will benefit you in different ways, thus broaden the whole creative music horizon! However, this could be ideal for producers working in the techno genre. While some aspects of the DrumBrute are a nod towards vintage Roland units, it is certainly not an emulation of any particular machine and really does have a unique flavour once you tweak everything to your personal taste and get a pattern The Drumbrute has the advantage in terms of sheer number of sounds and also the amount of dedicated parameters you can tweak per sound (I count 36 dedicated rotary encoders for sculpting the Drumbrutes sounds and 22 for the Drumbrute Impact). The snare section also allows for a similar amount of control, letting you to play with the tone of the initial ‘snap’ of the snare, its length and how loud it is. The tone of the ‘body’ of the snare sound is also tweakable, allowing you to tune it to taste. Decay and tone knobs are offered for the clap sound. Continuing across the various sounds, there are Rim/Claves, Closed Hat, Open Hat, Tom Hi, Tom Low, Cymbal, Maracas/Tamb and ‘Zap’ instruments available, all 100 per cent analogue. My most praised features are the "Color" function which transforms each sound, and the FM drum, that acts like a wildcard! Meaning you can transform it to many other sounds. Finally the distortion at the master bus makes the sound gritty and harsh, adding that special "brute" sauce!

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If you can’t get enough cowbell then note that the Impact comes with one pad for 808 style Cowbell (shared with Cymbal) whereas the Drumbrute offers Tamborine and Maracas instead. In addition, the main output also features a handy distortion control, which can be turned off with the adjacent button. I found that keeping it on around 60-70% added a nice glue to the proceedings. It’s worth noting that using the individual outs does remove that instrument from the main output and thus the distortion circuit. The mono main mix out is the tool you need to find this time. It is a common instrument cable that enables you to connect any music device such as a mixer, a guitar amp, etc. Do I Need To Connect Drumbrute With My Computer? Arturia’s BeatStep and KeyStep sequencers have become pretty much standard issue in hardware synth rigs, and the DrumBrutes get the technology built in. As far as I can tell, the sequencer is identical across both Brutes. Bank and Pattern are selected from the step trig buttons via specific modes. Pattern launching defaults to instant take-over, ie. the pattern changes instantly but maintains the same beat position. This is how I like it and is ideal for preparing and performing variations and fills. You can choose ‘At End’ behaviour if you prefer pattern changes to queue until the current pattern finishes playing.

Both snares have wide ranging decay controls, which can go from long washes of sound to tight rim-like hits. The low and high toms are fairly vanilla, Roland-style sounds, but both have enough punch and body to cut through a groove. Although they can be sequenced independently, the two sounds share a pitch control, so it’s impossible to tune one without affecting the other. Both lean towards the low-mid end of the spectrum, making them good for techno-style bass. Yea I tend to agree - I LOVED the interface and the feel of the device as well as the knobiness but the sounds just weren’t that good with exception of what you mentioned. The hi hats were particularly unusable for my taste.I had a drumbrute and replaced it with the impact, and I think the impact sounds better, but not just because of the distortion.