The Machinedrum SPS-1 is an advanced drum machine and drum synthesizer. It can synthesize wonderfully convincing analog sounds from the classic drum machines as well as crisp electronic and acoustic drum sounds, and they can all be tweaked and morphed into unique and dynamic new sounds! It has 39 drum sounds ready to be played or tweaked and customized by you! Its eight real-time control knobs offer total hands-on synthesis and control.

At the core of the Machinedrum are four separate percussion instrument synthesizers. They include a TRX synth that emulates Roland's classic TR-series drum machines. An EFM synth that uses FM synthesis to create crispy percussion sounds. The E12 synth is a sample-playback synth using sounds from the E-mu SP1200 and Simmons electronic drum machines. The PI synth uses physical models of acoustic drums for realistic acoustic drums. Each of these synth engines give you excellent quality drum sounds and you can mix and match sounds from all of them among the 16-voice polyphonic drumkits. Your custom 'Kits' can be saved in any of the 64 memory locations. This will also store any custom tweaks you made to the individual drum sounds in each of your kits.

Drum editing features include amplitude modulation, a 1-band EQ, multimode resonant filter, distortion, sample-rate reducer and effects (delay, reverb). All of these parameters are available on each drum sound independently for total control of each sound in your kit! There's also a compressor and 3-band EQ to process the overall mix. Stereo plus four assignable outputs give you plenty options where to send your sounds and the stereo inputs let you trigger drum sounds or process external sounds as a drum voice.

The built-in sequencer offers two programming methods: Classic and Extended. Classic is a pretty limited mode. It works like the classic TR-series in which you assign a drum tone to a 'step' in the pattern using the 16 buttons along the bottom of the instrument. You can store your patterns but the 'Kit' associated with it and any tweaks you do are not stored. Extended mode is more in-depth and stores 'Kit' info with patterns. Extended mode has real and step (grid) time editing, supports odd time signatures, and patterns can have up to 32 steps. Also on-board is an Accent assignable to any step with 15 levels of intensity, and continuously variable swing and slide, assignable to the whole pattern or individual steps within the pattern.

MIDI is fully implemented and can control the sequencer and synthesizer functions of the Machinedrum. Trigger sounds or entire patterns synced to MIDI clock. All edit parameters can be controlled by continuous MIDI controller numbers. This machine has it all, giving you total control and the flexibility to create your own unique drum sounds across a wide range of sonic percussion possibilities!

Morten

July 31, 2011 @ 11:40 am

Open question: I have no experience at all in using drum machines, samplers and all that. I have only been making music in logic. But after I've become a huge fan of electronica a la autechre, I really want to make that kind of music myself (and I think I need some hands on equipment). But how difficult is it to get to know this machine, and how to work with it? Can an eager beginner have a good time straight away after a little manual reading/tutorial watching, or does it require tonnes of time and effort to make good music w. the machinedrum? Any thoughts on this are greatly appreciated.Thnx

michael

July 27, 2011 @ 8:27 am

Had the thing for just over a day now - great piece of gear!
Bought it as my first drum machine as I liked the sound and parameter tweaking abilities.
Price? Worth every cent. Built like a tank (encoder knobs excluded) and feels solid to use.
Sure, it won't be everyone's piece of cake sound wise, but it really pleases the inner tweaker =)

phil jones

July 21, 2011 @ 2:53 am

i got a classic model....know where i can get a 6v ac power supply? im in Europe....elektron only have us models of power supply in stock :(

Denizen

June 20, 2011 @ 9:51 pm

I have a large collection of drum boxes... R8, RY30, RX5, RX7, XD5, TR707, Simmons SDS8, Mbase and quite a few grooveboxes... yet this just about does the job of all of them. Hands down interface winner of all the gear I have used, MkII UW version is irreplaceable. Am seriously considering the + upgrade, though it seems very overpriced. Get frustrated at the digital sound but its easy to sequence analog gear so the workaround is there. Love the midi machines and ram resampling techniques. P-locks seem so obvious once used and I must question why every other manufacturer hasn't copied this idea

md

February 27, 2011 @ 1:41 am

a friend described this machine's timbre as 'sound healing'. truly, it's tone is lush, full, and very powerful. with its intense LFO routing capabilities, deeply detailed sequencer, and unique dsp algorithms, this machine opens up many creative doors.

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