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!

phil jones

October 22, 2011 @ 1:42 pm

a 9v ac adapter works!

weatherkop

October 22, 2011 @ 8:46 am

Everyone is so starstruck with this machine. Here is the cold reality. The Machinedrum and the Monomachine have plastic pots that degrade heavily and quickly with use. The feature of push/turning the pot to quicken the parameters must have been an afterthought since since the standard increment is too small. they didnt back up this feature with a pot that can withstand the continuous pressure. The result is loose and crooked knobs that occasionally miscalculate the the turning of the pot. dont try to replace these pots yourself, I've seen people selling broken SPS-1's because of this.

goose68

October 2, 2011 @ 11:17 am

@Phil Jones - check out Maplins for 6v AC PSU's - I bought a spare for my MachineDrum and it works like a dream - part number N58AT - and no I don't work for Maplins! - Good luck Phil.

phil jones

September 1, 2011 @ 3:31 pm

shame this crap company doesnt sell power supplies for its EU customers...lol.....what a piece of crap 6v ac......ridiculous amatures

Simon P

August 18, 2011 @ 6:31 pm

Michael: this machine is pretty flexible and offers some advanced, complex possibilities, but regarding ease of use, intelligent interfacing and intelligible manual, its unsurpassed in the realm of drum machines. It can be as simple as you like ;-) Also is a great user group at www.elektron-users.com that are happy to answer all questions and issues. On top of that the company still release updates for a machine thats now over 10 years old... what other music company can offer that sort of support for a product? As you can tell I am a fan and own all their machines except the sidstation.

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