A lot.
Playbeat’s variation/randomisation and the ability to easily store the results, is superb.
It’s much more of a sequencer than XO is… it’s inspiring, it’s fast and it’s intuitive.
If I get a pattern/beat going in it that I like, it’s SOOOOO fast in generating a full songs worth of alt/variation/fill parts.
You can midi map it all too… so it’s more of an instrument than XO.
XO beats it for sample selection (obviously) and sample editing/manipulation (XO’s mixer is great for this).
If you like XO, I’d definitely give it a try.
EDIT- oh yeah, and the audio/midi export options from Playbeat are as strong as XO too… that’s something I lean on heavily with both apps.
DrumComputer is great too, and I go to that if I want something less natural/more glitchy/experimental. DC’s strength is in it’s modulation options, and it’s sequencer is good too. I especially like it’s ‘humanize’ function.
Awesome. So for workflow you use sononym maybe to choose your drums and then drag them into Playbeat?
Audio export is key so that is good. I want to dial in the swing and movement of each hit and then get it into clips as audio and be done with that part and onto arrangement.
Most of the time yes… I like creating projects in Sononym and just having sessions where I’ll build a collection of one hits and loops for a particular project I have in mind… then I’ll export that to a folder and have Playbeat (and Loopmix) point at it.
As you’ll know, nothing can touch Sononym for what it does… the categorisation it has, being able to search/filter/find similar on so many attributes, it’s just amazing to have, and it makes sense of all those samples we’ve all collected over the years. Combine that with Playbeat and Loopmix and it’s happy days.
Got it. I am not using Sononym to it’s full capacity. I didnt know you could create projects. That’s pretty sick. Ill try that because it’s pretty similar to how I import samples into the Play.
FYI, Wave Alchemy is about to update Triaz to a standalone VST3, M1 and M2 compatible. May be worth a look. It’s discounted now, and comes as a Kontakt plugin. I say this because the update to standalone will be free.
This is now starting to click for me. I am still working out the lock/unlock feature that allows selective randomisation - but I have to say that while XO is very impressive as an all in one package for a beat starter - I think what Playbeat brings to the table is the automation, and further development. Personally, my music is closer to “static” or straight type beats. But I can see a situation where you have 2 instances of Playbeat - one plays the core drums on the “slight variant” mode in the top right, and then another track for percs is a bit more free to make wild changes. I will investigate that + Sononym as an approach before my trials end.
Honestly the big thing with Playbeat is probably when bought as part of the bundle (if that ever goes on offer) you’d get that and then Loopmix to re-mash your own loops up. I’m sure the other apps are great, but this automated remixing thing these 2 apps are honed in on is really what I’d put to work in my own tracks.
Note; I found out that that the trial of Playbeat unfortunatley doesn’t do MIDI out, so I can’t trial it using the drum rack, so I’m doing this with built in sounds.
This thing looks pretty good as a sequencer as it has elements of all the VSTs we’re talking about here, but it seems to be a bit more manual for the drum selection (ie; you have to click and drag each individual sample into their kits to put it in the system.) That said, while it doesn’t have the map feature of XO or Atlas, it does seem to have a kit/layer randmisation button. So I’m wondering if the new version will offer a quickload way of pointing it at a folder of samples and randomising those. At that point, this could be a decent compromise between XO & Playbeat.
If you have sononym this is easy since for me that has replaced XO. Sononym plus drum sequencers of your choice is the way to go imo.
Triaz is cool because the sounds that come with it are super legit. So you can layer those sounds very creatively and get something going rather quickly. I believe the next update will be pretty major and drops soon. So I bought a the discounted price now just to get it cheaper since the upgrades are free.
I don’t mind drawing in most of my drums. For me the random stuff is usually no more than 20% or so of the beat. But its super important so I love trying out stuff like triaz and others mentioned here.
But then you miss out on the wondeful Elektron like workflow with sequence + sounds in a patch, also just selecting a preset and then quickly testing different smart sample swap suggestions. It feels super fast and inspiring to me
Yup, it’s a different thing for sure. I’ll probably get synonym some day as well.
In an XO preset the samples, rhythms and mix are made as a coherent thing. Limited in some ways, almost like a groovebox for drums. I really like that. I’d love to have more presets though, the expansions aren’t my cup of tea.
Yeah my issue with XO is they never update the software. I wrote them a year ago and asked if they ever would, and they were non committal. So the sequencer is ok, but it’s pretty far behind something like Playbeat for example.
So really XO for me was just a nice drum sound finder at its core. But I find Sononym to be better at doing that. I got that on sale and I also got Algonaut Atlas very cheap as well. And I find that Sononym has the most power for me since I can build kits quickly and throw them into hardware or software samplers and get to worj.
But thats just my workflow. What made Triaz appealing was it was a very nice and fast sequencer, great sounds and effects built in and reminds me of hardware in many ways as a result.
My rules on this stuff is I never pay full price and if I am not using something over time, I sell the license to someone else.
In a slight curveball - and this is very much YMMV as I haven’t trialled it yet - I noticed that DrumComputer seems like a pretty decent mid-point of all these devices from a sequencing point of view, except it’s got a synth engine at its core. But the sequencer has some of the fancy features of Triaz (lots of randomisation, easy chaining of patterns) as well as some I’ve not seen elsewhere such as fills. It also has a very simple layout for togggling between chance/probability and other bits & pices. So theoretically, you could create a track using its presets (eg: no time mucking about with sound design) and then export that midi (including pattern chains, fills and the rest) to design the drum sounds properly at the end. And if you ever wanted to go there, it also allows Triaz-like mash up of synth, wavetable & sampled sounds. If the sequencer was available standalone I’d snap it up I think.
I hope they do! Got it yeah as always it’s super subjective. For me I really like the less complex design of the xo sequencer, it’s very fast for me and I drag the midi out to an ableton clip if i want to polish a sequence, use chance etc. The individual groove per track is dope as well.
But I can totally see why it’s underwhelming for people who like complex beats, glitch stuff etc
*will check out Triad as well. One cant have too many drum machines… right? 🥲
I have this one too. It came in a discounted sugar Bytes package I bought. It’s really. really deep, and I need to spend more time with it.
One cool way to use it right away is as a percussion generator to layer over your main drums. It is capable of doing everything, but I found this to be a cool way to at least get something going quickly with it.
Have anyone used Loopcloud? It’s a sample manager/store. Yes it’s a subscription, but starts at €6.99 /mo, and includes enough credits for my use anyway. Also, you keep your samples/credits even if you pause your sub.
The sample library is vast, and their plugin/desktop app is quite advanced, you can audition samples in time with your DAW, you can combine them, pitch to key, add FX and even chop them before buying. I think they have some kind of drum machine as well that I haven’t tried.
