FXPansions DR008 is to my mind the best 'indie' drumbox software out there & has to be ranked up there with the other 'good ones', yet it has some different ideas which make it stand out... It's geared right to all styles of dance and other electronic music & has DXi & VSTi capability with multiple outs to s/w mixer in the main sequencers for further tweaking, fx etc.
Dr008's uniqueness is it's ability to load any of a variety of sound generating modules to ANY of it's pads!! - I've used it alot and it's a doddle to use that's the other thing, I never findmyself going 'how do I....' - it's all obvious to the experienced user who might need to not get involved in a laborious learning curve. If you know a few softs already this is childs play... Open it, install, and start to work it's that well laid out. For the newbie user, it's simplicity rolled in with depth when required, will allow them to crack on and get making music straight away.
Some spec's
- 96 sampling / synthesis channels
- Eight programmable exclusion (choke) groups
- Immediate sample preview; drag+drop support
- High-quality 32-bit modular sound engine
- Available for Windows as a VST Instrument and DXi
- Low CPU load
- Compatible with Cubase VST, Cubasis VST, Logic Audio series v4.x, Cakewalk SONAR, Sonic Syndicate Orion, Fruity Loops and more...
- Two per-channel aux sends, switchable pre/post.
- Up to eight stereo outputs and eight stereo aux sends, configurable.
- Supports stereo WAV and AIFF files, and bank files in LM-4, DR-005 and Battery format.
- Fully automatable
- On-line soundbank exchange area for registered users
Modules included in DR-008 AS mentioned, each pad can accept a module, here's what you can choose from.
- Easy Sampler - ultra-lightweight, low-cpu sample player with filter, pitch decay and amp. decay
- Quad Sampler - four-way sample player with velocity crossfading and vector mixing
- SFX Sampler - creative sampler with loop modulation, ring modulation, drive etc.
- Velo Sampler - 128-way velocity switching sampler.
- TheEights Bass - fat, juicy bass drum
- 809 Bass - a recreation of the 80s classics
- HiHat - vintage analog-style hi-hat
- HiHat2 - vintage analog-style hi-hat #2
- 808 Hat - accurate 808-like hi-hat
- 809 Snare - snappy "early 80's" analog snare
- Ana Snare - old-school 70's style snare
- HxDrum - hard-hitting synth drum
- HxBass - hard-hitting bass drum
- AnalogClap - analog-style "hand clap"
- AnalogCow - cow bell and other percussion
- SynPerc - assorted agogos, spoons and glass bottles
- HandDrum - bongos, congas etc.
In edit mode you can see various settings for output, group muting, pan, volume, note number etc etc
Here's a closeup....
Also here's a close up of a few of the modules which can be installed to pads...
All in all it's very good value and does alot... just add a sample collection basicaly... for detailed sampling you can assign a module as listed above that offers 128 levels of velocity switching, it'll trigger loops off keys which can be messed with, etc etc...
Overall it gives good variety... You can always dial up a some good sounds in an easy to follow format and each module does what it does well so it's easy to create sounds and concentrate on what TYPE of sound you are adjusting and making... Oh, also the DR-008 is included with Cakewalk's SONAR XL - Checkout the demo!
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