I rarely spend time with drum machines since I usually synthesize my own drums and percussion, but for a good long while, I’ve been looking for a workflow-efficient drum plugin seriously focused on sound design that also functions as a drum machine. Sugar Bytes DrumComputer not only satisfies my need for such a plugin but also has a number of features I never realized I wanted.
Basically, DrumComputer is a drum machine with eight sound engines, each with three synthesis layers (analog Resonator, Wavetable, Resynth) and a powerful 8-track sequencer with as many as sixteen separate patterns, among several other impressive features like auto-fills, sample import, a finalizer with dynamics and distortion processing, randomize options all over the friggin’ place and a fully-fledged stereo mixer with independent Room and Hall reverbs on their own dedicated send bus.
See also: Best FREE Music Production SoftwareEach of the Sound Pages has a Random button that will randomize settings in accordance with a Random Profile, adjusting controls within the context of a specified drum sound i.e. kick, snare, etc. There’s also a corresponding Kit Page where you can quickly access settings for all eight channels, and in the Header, next to the preset window, there’s a Make Kit button that will globally randomize settings for all eight sound pages at once. So yeah, there’s a lot happening here.
Underneath the Random button, within the Global controls section, there’s a Key Pitch button that will transpose the pitch of a drum sound in accordance with its keyzone within the Mapping/Zones section. Similarly, the Key Roll button will create drum rolls that change the speed in accordance with notes above the root note of the keyzone. There’s also a Flam Time control that generates three separate triggers and determines the amount of delay between the triggers.
Each oscillator has some basic controls for output Level, modulation/transposition of Pitch, a Decay knob and a Filter button used to assign the oscillator to the global Multimode Filter, which is switched on by default. The analog Resonator is basically a self-resonating highpass filter excited by an internal envelope and/or white noise, or audio coming from the Wavetable or Resynth oscillators. A Resonance control determines the peak resonance of the self-oscillating filter and the overall length of the resulting sine wave, which is interwoven with the Decay knob in a way that’s somewhat different from the Decay knobs in the other oscillators: In the Resonator, the Decay knob only controls the length of white noise or audio from the Wavetable or Resynth oscillators passing through the highpass filter (instead of the overall output) while Resonance controls the length of the body. There’s also a Tone knob, which is basically a 2-pole lowpass filter with a bit of resonance, and a dedicated control that will introduce two extra Partials into the frequency domain to help you determine the shape and material of the drum.
Rather than the exciter envelope in the Resonator oscillator, the Wavetable and Resynth oscillators each have a notably different decay envelope with eight envelope shapes and a button that will invert the envelope. In the Wavetable oscillator, there’s a Wave knob (assigned to Modulation Generator 2 by default) that will scan a series of single-cycle waveforms, and a context menu with a selection of factory wavetables and also a Sample Import option that will convert almost any audio into a wavetable. You’ve also got Frequency and Ring Modulation knobs that use the output of the Resonator oscillator as either a modulator signal or a bipolar multiplier signal modulating the Wavetable oscillator’s amplitude.
The Resynth oscillator also has Sample Import, as well as several looped samples in a broad range of categories including chords, synths, ambient textures and all kinds of atonal “noise-tables“ to play with. The Color knob is either a lowpass filter when set below 50%, or a highpass filter when set above 50%. I really love this oscillator because it plays back looped samples instead of just single-cycle waveforms, opening up a whole new world of possibilities for rhythmic sound design.
The Filter & Insert Effects section provides a bypassable Multimode Filter offering half a dozen filter types and a Compressor knob that will adjust the level of gain reduction with the automatic makeup gain. There’s also inter-engine sidechaining that will use any one of the eight sound engines as an external sidechain signal, and two available distortion types: Drive and Reduce (bit-rate reduction).
The Modulation section has two Modulation Generators and a Modulation Matrix with four sources and targets. Each of the Modulation Generators provides two assignable modulation destinations and basic controls for modulation Speed either in tempo divisions or Hz, a velocity sensitivity button, looping, retriggering of looped signals and nine different envelope/LFO shapes.
In the Sequencer page, you have eight differently colored tracks with up to sixteen separate patterns and a powerful Modulation Sequencer with a Step Editor modulating Velocity, Probability, Roll, Offset, Decay (ModSeq 1), Pitch (ModSeq 2), and a freely assignable Modulation source (ModSeq 3). There are Randomization buttons for all eight tracks, each of the Modulation Sequencer lanes and a Global Randomization button that will randomize all of the above. There’s also Chain Sequencing within the Pattern Sequencer enabling you to play patterns in any order, a Copy & Paste function that lets you copy/paste patterns and a View Follower that follows the chain sequence.
In the Mute Action & Mapping section, there’s a handful of keys that will mute any one (or all) of DrumComputer’s synth engines, which are represented by the corresponding colors in the Mapping/Zones section that also has a preset menu that allows you to save custom mappings.
Some master effects are available in the Finalizer at the top-right corner of the Kit Page, wherein you’ll find a Transient Shaper/Compressor/Maximizer with five dynamics profiles and a master Warmth circuit with three distortion modes: Sine, Tube, and Tape. Each of the five profiles has a meaningful impact on the dynamic character of your drums, and the Wavefolder and Tape/Tube emulations are really colorful.
In the Settings screen, there are options for isolating Key Mappings and also MIDI Mappings, sorting of the Random Profiles, autofill settings, Initialize & Random functions, Internal MIDI/Host triggering of the clock and the ability to route each of the sound engines out of the plugin to separate audio channels in your DAW so you can process and export tracks externally.
Most drum machine plugins are romplers (sampler instruments) that don’t allow much creative control in terms of sound design, while most drum synthesizers are more focused on the design process itself rather than drum sequencing. That being said, there are a number of noteworthy drum plugins that do both, but DrumComputer’s powerful three-tiered synth engine produces sounds unlike anything we’ve heard so far in similar instruments, and the sequencer might be the most flexible rhythm machine you can find. This might be the first and last drum plugin you buy.
More info: Sugar Bytes DrumComputer ($119)
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DrumComputer Review
DrumComputer’s powerful three-tiered synth engine produces sounds unlike anything we’ve heard so far in similar instruments, and the sequencer might be the most flexible rhythm machine you can find. This might be the first and last drum plugin you buy.
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