DrumCore 1.5

DrumCore has had an application for Mac that has had my interest for a while, so, when I was told they are working on a Windows version, I was excited to take a crack at it. When they asked me to help beta test it, well, I jumped at the chance.

Installation and Registration

After I got my copy of DrumCore 1.5 for Windows XP I went down to install it, whoa...3 DVD's of data, all of which must be installed, as the install requires 9 GB of free space. OK, I have well more than that available so what the heck. The install, as expected, takes quite a while. During the install I did my nightly treadmill, walking to the PC now and then to check on progress and occasionally inserting the next DVD.

The install process, while very long and somewhat interactive, needing to supply 3 DVD's when asked, was uneventful and smooth. After that I open the app, it asks for registration, I supply my serial number, it gives a challenge code, you go to a web site, supply the info needed and it gives you the authorization key to unlock the app.

Unfortunately, due to the frequency and ease of pirating software in this age of technology and broadband internet connections, interactive registrations such as this are necessary for a company to protect it's product. While I dislike it, I understand the need for it. However, given the fact that the install requires the install of 9GB of samples and loops, I wonder how many people would actually download it, or, how many piracy servers would host it. That's a BIG package.

Launching The App

Wow...that's a whole bunch of orange going on there...perhaps not the most eye-pleasing choice in color, but it certainly got my attention, and the appearance of the interface will not sway my further opinions of the applications functionality and useful, just kinda stunned me for a minute.

The application, upon opening, is quite simple. It contains a sine wave viewing window, a couple of select menu that show the artist and style lists, a tempo slider (in an interesting curved layout), a window showing the different patterns in any given selection and a few random buttons which we will dive into later.

To start any loop, just select an artist in the left select menu, then select a style in the right and the loops starts playing. In the button portion of the window you will see, as you flip through loops, that the contents of that window changes. That is different patterns within that loop collection. These collections generally contain a couple of primary patterns and varying numbers of fills and other patterns.

One thing that may not be readily apparent, as it is not shown by default, is that the inconspicuous little "More >" button up above the lower window reveals a search and sort type of filter function which you can select from dropdown list menus and text fields and use them to select criteria by which to show the beat you want. From my playing around it seemed very functional and quite powerful. Should the time come that you have many, many patterns (here I should mention that is ships with 8+ GB worth all by itself) this is a useful tool to quickly find what you are looking for.

Editing Kits

Each artists kit can be opened up in an editing window that shows the user 24 pads of drums, and you can toggle between drums and other percussion instruments. Also, once opening this window, you are not limited to working on the kit assigned to the currently playing loop. At the top there is a drop down menu that allows the user to load the kit of any artist into the editing window. It makes quick and easy access to the entire collection of drum kits.

In this main editing window, each pad has an independent volume setting and the entire kit has a volume setting. When adjusting the volume of any specific pad, you will also see a little button under the volume control that says "Edit Sample Layers". This button proves to reveal one of, what to me is, one of the coolest features of the drum editing in DrumCore.

Each pad in a kit can be edited to have different sounds depending on the velocity the pad is set to play at on any specific beat. Whereas many drum machines just have a single sample that is played louder or softer with velocity, DrumCore takes that concept a step further and allows you to change the actual sample played at specific velocities. This is helpful with some sounds more than others, so while it isn't always a useful feature, on sounds with a level of sound difference between soft and hard hits, such as cymbals for instance, it can make a dramatic difference in the realism of the sound.

It's also well worth noting that you are not simply stuck with the kits that ship with the application, and the DrummerPacks (which will be discussed later). The drum editing window also allows the user to create new kits and import their own samples, layer them to respond at different velocity levels and adjust the velocity thresholds for each layer. While the user doing this DrumCore is adding those audio files to a special folder and configuring the kit with it's native configuration files and building the user their own custom DrummerPack. With all that, the kit can be copied, moved and shared between DrumCore users with ease.

All in all the editing features of DrumCore are quite impressive and offers the user a great deal of control over the sounds of each hit in each kit. What would add to the power might be having some sort of reverb control as well over each drum to add some spatial control over the kit. Maybe even just reverb over the whole kit. Panning would be useful as well.

"Gabrielize" It

The so-called "Gabrielizer" is a cool little feature in DrumCore that adds a human touch to the drum loops that, by way of the user setting some basic rules, occasionally changes up specific, or random, hits in a loop by randomly changing up the velocity and using the velocity level pad rules mentioned above to change up the sound a little bit. Doing so adds a little inconsistency to the loop and thereby making it sound a little bit more real. And it does work, the results are pretty cool.

Sequencer and Multitracker Integration

DrumCore is usable inside your favorite sequencing/multitracking application via the rewire standard. During beta there were some issues regarding ASIO sharing and such things, but it does appears, in the last beta I got to use, that the rewire bugs have been fixed so it can be used as easily as any DXi or VSTi virtual synth in any application that support rewire.

With the fully editable and layered drum kits you can build, and linking each pad to keyboard or MIDI trigger notes, this makes DrumCore a pretty darn powerful drum sequencing instrument for your music beyond just the drag and drop use of the included loops.

In addition to the standard sequencing like any other virtual instrument, DrumCore has one pretty unique ability. All the beats, fills and loops that are contained within the app can be dragged and dropped into any audio track within a host application, even if they are different bpms. If you have a project set at 120 bpm in your host application, and your favorite DrumCore artist beat is different, use the tempo meter to drag the speed of the beat to 120, select that loop in the bottom window, click, drag and drop right into a track. It'll drop in at perfect timing.

I have found this drag and drop feature to be most useful during moment I just need a beat to work out guitar riffs or bass lines, get 'em down, then perhaps remove them and sequence my own drums with that same kit.

DrummerPacks

OK, as if 9+ gigabytes of drums loops, sample and grooves isn't enough (I know some people it's not enough for:-), DrumCore also provides add-on "DrummerPacks". These DrummerPacks are collections of samples, loops, fills, single hits and other content from some of the best drummers in the business. They are also producing more as time goes on.

For your Mac users out there they also sell DrummerPack AL, which is the same thing as standard DrummerPacks, except they are in AppleLoop format for use in applications like GarageBand, Logic and Soundtrack. DrummerPack AL has a very wide range of drummers across many styles to suit almost any use.

My Opinions

Thus far my experience with DrumCore has been a very good one. While I do find the bright orange interface somewhat unattractive, it is a useful and functional application that, for people that are very picky about their sequenced drum sounds, this could be a very useful tool.

I have found a few issues that I personally feel would make it a better application in the future:

• Lack of WDM support. While the majority of software today is supporting ASIO, common consumer level hardware does not, or, does not always support it well, and not everyone is aware of projects like ASIO4All.
• The biggest surprise was probably that it doesn't allow the user control over the stereo field. On the upside, the default settings they have are very good, so they sound good as it is. If you are the type of person that doesn't want to have to mess with the details like that, you might actually be happy about the lack of that feature, I for one, miss it.
• It would be advantageous at some point would be a certain level of reverb and compression options to further tweak the sound of each pad.

That said, with the drag and drop beats, rewire virtual instrument support, gigs and gigs of included kits, loops and samples, as it is, DrumCore stands up against the competition as a pretty damn nice drum constructing tool for computer-based composers.