Arturia DrumBrute Impact - Drum Computer

Product Information

The Hat channels appear to share the same synth as they are always choked and use the same Tone control, which sounds like it adjusts both filter frequency and resonance. They are bright and ringy, and range from sharp to mellow depending on the Tone and Color settings. The Open Hat gets its own Decay control. I can’t fault them, they’re what I’d be going for if I wanted to patch my own analogue hat sound. The Impact’s FM Drum unit, meanwhile, is a much more versatile percussion and sound effect generator part based on FM (Frequencey Modulation) synthesis. Four dedicated knobs give you control over Mod Pitch, FM Amount, Carrier Pitch and Decay. Turn up the Modulation and the FM Drum is capable of some interesting tones. It obviously isn’t going to be as capable as a dedicated FM synth but it is an easy to use and proves to be a useful sound generator. Color mode can be activated for the FM Drum too. Step Repeats (‘ratchets’) can be added to existing gates using the same convention of holding the step button. While a step is held you’ll see its number of triggers light up on the Step Repeat LEDs above the Looper/Roller touchstrip. You can change this from the default 1, to 2, 3 or 4 by tapping the zones on the strip. Repeats are divided evenly into the sequence step, so a setting of three will produce a fast triplet. This is a great feature often overlooked by more expensive machines. Taken together, we really like the sounds of the Impact. It’s perhaps not the most sonically flexible drum machine on the market, but producers of certain electronic genres will find a lot to like. To our ears, these sounds lend themselves most to rugged analogue house and techno, but there’s also enough punch and bass for hip-hop production too. Individual sounds can sound a little dry straight out of the box but we don’t find that too problematic. 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.

Each machine with special features will benefit you in different ways, thus broaden the whole creative music horizon! Judge the DrumBrute Impact by its size, do you? And well you should not, for theArturia's ally is aggressive, full force analogue sound. 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? The Toms are fixed as short and punchy, with Hi and Low simply two different variations of the pitch, which is the only user-controllable parameter. Color lengthens the decay a touch and gives a little drive push. Cymbal is characterful, ringy and grungy with a rattly decay with an almost low-res digital character. It’s rather wonderful. You can control the decay manually, and lower the pitch with the Color effect. The Cymbal channel shares its trigger pad and level control with the Cowbell, which has no user-adjustable parameters. It’s a straightforward 808 cowbell, although it doesn’t quite capture the original’s exciting zing.Upon taking the DrumBrute out of the box, we were impressed by the weight and overall build quality of the unit. Our eyes were drawn to the large pads at the bottom of the machine, which are satisfying to bash and pleasingly firm and springy. Once you’ve honed your drums to tonal perfection, you can either record a sequence by turning on the metronome (which you could consider a bonus 18th instrument!) and playing in your pattern with the fully velocity-sensitive pads, or you can program it manually in ‘Step’ mode. If you look at the chart above you can see an overview of the key differences between the Drumbrute and Drumbrute Impact. Below I take at a look at the differences in more detail, starting with the heart of both machines – the drum sounds. The Drumbrute works as a sole analog drum machine, so it is not necessary to hook it up with the computer.

I think Drumbrute Impact sounds great with the build in distortion, so I would probably like to add analog distortion for bigger Drumbrute too. 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). Arturia have added a feature called “Color” that changes the timbre slightly for each instrument. Color can be added per instrument or per step, and paired with the accent function, meaning there are four different levels for each sound (Normal, Accent, Color, and Color with Accent). 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. Which brings us onto Snare 2. This is a filtered noise source, with the filter swept by the Tone control. The Decay can go long, producing swooshes that are one of the defining character sounds of the whole instrument. In Color mode this module turns into a Clap, with brighter filtering and the classic analogue clap flam. The Accent variation is nice here, slowing the flam down and producing a smooth mellow clap.

A compact, affordable drum synth with added punch

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. It would have been great to see the inclusion of a cowbell, but once again, we must remind ourselves of the price of this unit. Sounding Off 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. Finally, you turn on the Remote features on the Drumbrute, and you can gain access with the sync from the Drumbrute in Ableton. Can I Use Drumbute With An Amp? The faux-wood panelling on the sides of the unit isn’t fooling anybody, but considering the low price, it’s perfectly acceptable and ties in nicely with the design of other Arturia products. Compared to its obvious competitor, the Roland TR-8, the design of the DrumBrute is more mature and classic, which was definitely a plus from our perspective.

French developer Arturia create not only emulations of vintage synths but original hardware products too. In recent years Arturia have released not one but two analog drum machines in the shape of the Drumbrute and the newer Drumbrute Impact. Arturia’s Drumbrute has found a home in many a professinal setup. Composer Tom Salta is a fan and DJ/Producer Carl Craig is a fan, to name just two. Who Uses the Drumbrute Impact? When it comes to built in effects you’ll need to decide if you’re a filter or a distortion kind of person! With the Drumbrute you can toggle a high-pass/low-pass Steiner-Parker filter on and off and adjust the filter’s resonance control. Other features include the touch strip which allows you to create real-time breakdowns with completely natural sounding inflection. You can use the “Random” knob to get more of an organic feel to your instrument or the entire pattern or syncopate your groove with the “Swing” function. Hands-On Tactile Control The snare and claps are ok as well, but the biggest letdown are the toms which are almost inaudible, really a missed opportunity which Arturia doesn't seem to care to fix or even aknowledge (I suppose it could be fixed through firmware update) those looking for a drum machine that can do toms should look elsewhere.

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The reverse cymbal is great if you want to add a little bit of groove effect and create drum loops. Being in the lookout for an analog drum machine I stumbled upon this little beast! The DrumBrute Impact made quite an impression to me, considering the price and the features: Be aware that the Drumbrute’s sounds are not meant to be direct emulations of Roland’s sounds but given the analogue nature of the Drumbrute’s architecture it is only natural that you’ll be able to detect certain sonic similarities. 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 Output distortion: rich, specially voiced distortion on the output to add some filth when you need it, and bypass when you don’t.