Recording - January 2018 - 40

The past informs the present

Arturia

DrumBrute
A real analog drum machine
with serious hitting power...
at a not-so-serious price
REVIEW BY PAUL VNUK JR.

rturia started as a software company,
creating emulations of famous synthesizers.
Over the past decade, an unexpected
move into hardware has led to a line of controllers
and analog synthesizers that work and sound great
yet don't break the bank. The popular MiniBrute
and MicroBrute analog keyboard synths were
recently joined by two very cool new Brutes: the
MatrixBrute (review forthcoming) and the DrumBrute analog drum synthesizer, a great fit for this
issue on drum recording.

RECORDING January 2018

In looks, sound, and functionality, the DrumBrute leans
mightily on the things we love about classic drum machines.
At 16.5 x 11 x 1.75" the DrumBrute is solidly built with classy
dark wood panel sides. It offers 40 smooth rugged pots, three
continuous control knobs (2 semi-stepped), 45 soft backlit
function buttons, and 12 playable 3/4" square drum step pads
that are also backlit. There is also a retro LED display, and a
4-position ribbon-slider with its own LEDs.
Sounds are triggered by hitting the pads and can be recorded
in real time and/or via step entry. Patterns can be stored and
recalled in one of 32 onboard slots and also chained into
songs. Patterns can be up to 32 steps long in sections of 8,
but you can program odd length polyrhythms as well. For
example: If you have a kick and snare pattern running as a
16-beat groove, you can program the toms to play and cycle as
12-step patterns against the main 16-step section, then your
hi-hats could run as a 7-step cycle, and so on.

Boom, thwack, clip, clink, zap

The 100% analog sound engine on the DrumBrute contains
seventeen drum tones spread out over the twelve pads as
follows: Kick 1, Kick 2, Snare, Clap, Rim/Claves, Closed
Hat, Open Hat, Tom/Conga Hi, Tom/Conga Low, Cymbal/
Reverse Cymbal, Maracas/Tambourine, and Zap. (Gotta
have Zap! It's an old-school resonant sweep sound.) Certain
pads control two different sounds, which share the same pad,
controls, tuning, and output level, but can have independent
programmed patterns.
For sound shaping, each voice has at least two adjustable
parameters. They all have a level (volume) control along with
Tone (EQ) or Pitch (tuning), depending on the voice. Many
also offer Decay, and some instruments like Kick 01 and
Snare have up to five controls with the additions of Impact and Sweep (Kick 01) or Snap
Pitch and Snap Level (Snare).
In vintage fashion, the sounds/beats
play back at one of two velocity levels, normal or accented. This can be
accomplished through real time played
velocity or with the Accent button. The
DrumBrute also offers a metronome/
click track with its own on/off and
volume control, useful for setting up
real time grooves and overdubs.
The only audio effect on the
DrumBrute is a Steiner-Parker
filter, similar to the one found
on all the Brutes. It can be either a highpass or a lowpass
filter and is global for all
sounds at once. The other effects are pattern based. Swing
and Random add shift and feel to the rhythms; they
can be global or on a per-sound basis.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - January 2018