As a software developer, the bold is always the hardest bit to come by. So many old VSTs just don’t work anymore (or don’t work without an old VM, which has its own problems). Kudos to the Microtonic team for keeping it going
Agreed. It’s almost all the drum synth a person could ever need.
I agree with the notion that if a plugin is still good it doesn’t matter it’s age.
But, there seems to have been a lot of developments in modelling technology and cpu power in the last 15 years, so you’d imagine there might have been developments and improvements.
An even older one, Waldorf Attack is probably worth checking out
Hell yeah, I’m after the Rack Attack.
…nothing wrong to pay for something that has proven it’s timeless quality…
especially in the fast, faster, fastest product cycle terror of next new fancy software tools…
this damned thing (microtoniq) is worth every penny…promise.
runs smooth, fluid and slim on 10 year old outdated machines as same as on the latest cpu hot rod…
without any need for further updates and support, while the developer is still doing all fine, is super responsive, totally alive and kicking…a timeless classic is a timeless classic…also in pure code…
i once also had hi hopes for waldorfs attack…but that was always a little buggy and sadly way more a classic example for a trendy but unfinished one shot product…and was not even half that versatile, unique and expressive while also easy to use as the tonic…
and while sugarbytes drumcomputer is a great latest example for a hot drum synth plugin, i gotto say, i still use tonic way more often, not to say always in some way or the other while drumcomputer already lost my intrest again…same price tag…not the same good and serious investment…if u want the biggest bang for ur buck in software drum synthesis, sonic charge got u all covered…promise…again.
so stop looking around…spent 60 bux on ess’ opal, since u got mfl already in use…and 99 bux for microtonic and never look back…u got all the possible truu equivalent at ur disposal…
I use the built in Bitwig drum machine quite a bit.
Interested to hear how people rate it compared to others.
Drum Computer looks cool but people consistently say it doesn’t sound that great.
My secret wish is for Arturia to make a spin-off of Pigments that repurposes the engine into a ridiculously powerful drum synth.
That would be absolutely amazing!
…bitwigs drum machine is one of my main tools…from containing all sorts of custumized sample snippets, to hosting all sorts of drum and percussion sets…in fact i use the multimapping/sampling option only rarely…but slicing and what not to end up in the drum machine container all the time…while it’s single dedicated drum synth instruments find their use here only for dedicated underlining/accenting missions…and if so, then also mostly again hosted by the drum machine container…u can’t rate it, since it’s “just” the standard tool for hosting all kinds of sampled sounds in bitwig, the equivalent to ableton drumrack, but only in this little more straight forward bitwig integrated flexible fashion/workflow…with that essential difference that even each synth and what not else can live in each cell of bitwigs “drum machine” right next to another single sample slot / cell, also with it’s very own chain or paralell container for endless insert fx combos…the whole daw/mainframe is simplly one big modular studiolab…
+1 for bitwigs drum synths, which also come with the entry level 16 track version.
Not relevant to the thread though, ‘Bitwig’ is not really an option for a drum synth plugin.
I’ve been back into Arturia Spark, that’s not too shabby in terms of its options… but the GUI is horrid these days.
I also got the demo of Softube’s Heartbeat… I like what that does… it’s kind of limited to Roland-esque sounds, but good.
I’m not keen on the Softube environment though where you have to have 650mb of their bullshit on your computer to use one drum plugin, and iLok. It baffles me how companies don’t realise how counterintuitive that approach is. (Prob another thread topic).
I sometimes also use Hex Drum :
It comes with no sequencer which I don’t think is an issue at all. It’s pretty inexpensive. But it’s more limited than Microtonic. Hard to make it glitch and to go out of synthwave territory.
I think I’ve settled on Microtonic and Heartbeat.
Between the two of them it’s giving me the drum synth sound design tools I was wanting in place of my Rytm and Syntakt for working native in Ableton.
Thanks for the advice folks.
Great choice! Microtonic is so awesome. The ‘newly’ launched beatspace is so inspirational. Have fun
Thanks for that heads up on Beatspace! I just found that and a few other features that are really good! (Euclydian seq being another one).
iOS only but FAC Drumkit has synth engines and samples. IMO Sonically it leaves Drumcomputer in the dust. Probably the best sounding software drum synth I’ve tried, including Mictotonic. Pitch and level envelopes can be drawn with multiple points, including separately for synth and sample in the same part. It doesn’t have a sequencer.
Don’t forget the skins, this brings the look and feel to 2023
I love microtonic so much, I bought a teenage engineering po 32. So I can take 2 microtonic drumkits with me anywhere I go.
You know Microtonic must be good, it never seems to be on sale and there are hardly ever any second hand licences for sale on KVR or Knobcloud!
This seems like a good deal:
https://teenage.engineering/products/po-32
Anyone rocking the hardware Tonic?