Yeah I’ve used it, although something about the fact that you can sequence drums via what is in effect a shopping cart feels a bit weird. When I first started using it, it started looping a kick I had selected when I was trying to select/buy it. I believe Splice has a plug in that allows you to try and buy stuff directly in a DAW but I haven’t tried that either. I guess I’m slightly wary of site specific packs (eg: Loopcloud Drum, Splice’s synth) where it’s in a proprietry format that requires a subscription. Personally, I download them all into one giant repository where I have genre specific packs.
Side note: I find Loopcloud really excels in genres like minimal techno or future garage, and often has some authentic sounds in deep/dub and house. Splice seems more attuned to more popular genres with producers like maybe lofi or mainstream EDM; so I switch between them interchangeably. And then I load them all into one of these machines in the thread to mix & match, which is where these kit builders come in.
Thinking about it, I could see one of those 2 companies buying Atlas or copying XO in some way, as this kind of workflow is a mainline into people using their product more.
Yup, loopcloud has an app + companion plugin that does that as well. You could produce an entire track in your DAW with their loops, time stretch, pitch shift, crop etc, before deciding to buy a single sample.
Yeah, I had Splice as well, you can do anything with samples ofc but I think the genres of Loopcloud suits me better.
I like to hoard samples as welll ;D Loopcloud is more of an addition to that, where I might find musical ideas/loops/vocals etc, don’t think I’ll use it to for snares or hi hats for example.
So I’m coming to the end of a some trials. Some general thoughts on Atlas & XO with nods to others.
XO - really is a bit of an inspiration machine. The kits it offers up are very musical and hit the spot 9/10. But for me the magic trick is how quickly you get going with a sequence and - this is the big part - how rolling the dice on your samples pool also then offers up a completely new set of rhythm suggestions in the sequencer for all tracks. Because of this can have such a lot of raw material in almost no time. I imagine there’s some logic behind this randomness, but it always feels like the suggestions are new, which is the kind of playful trick the best software has. The sounds shaping tools are fine - but to be honest this is redundant to me as I only shape the drums in the DAW once the tune is down. The one tool I do like in the sequencer is that mini-LFO which randomises the velocity on selected tracks, although Atlas has a nice click & drag interface that offers something similar.
Atlas - to me this wants to be an all in one software and this is both it’s strength and it’s weakness, (but given the track record of updates this is not to be underestimated.) For randomising kits, it definitely feels more, erm… random… than XO, which could be a good or a bad thing depending on what you want. Most of the time though, the kits are pretty good - not to mention the fact that 16 samples brings options to the table quickly. On sequencing it’s solid but for subtle variations to an existing pattern (eg: A/B variants), it falls a little way short - here I found it better to cycle through grooves from the presets, (which is a lot easier to do in XO, as it shows you multiple options per track.) It feels like the variations outside of that are either a bit basic or very chaotic. XO sits nicely in the middle of those 2 points. Where Atlas does gain points back is that you can both play your pads in and also use the sequencer, which puts you in a lot more control of the drum track.
In terms of these 2 slugging it out, it’s interesting that I’ve just spent most of this talking about the sequencers. As sample managers they are both really good, and my hunch here is that they’re both good enough that the other features probably make more of an impact on your choice. With XO seemingly not being developed and Atlas going through growing pains, I think the power in these lies in pairings for your style of music.
For a basic groove in mainstream genres, XO gets you a long way there and arguably could be your only drum machine/sequencer VST if you use one shots as the core of your drums. But if you think the XO output is a bit static - a natural pairing might be to put it with a more advanced sequencer like Stoches or Polyrandom in Ableton. It feels like Atlas needs more help as a sequencer, so unless you prefer to play your MIDI in, or if you want the chaos that it could give you; something like Playbeat brings generative goodness to the table or Stoches too (and this is the point that you might even leave the Atlas sequencer behind at that point).
Honestly things are moving so fast in software that both of those drum AIs are almost dated. Sononym + Playbeat is the best sample picker + random beat creator out now.
If I had to pick between those 2 I would go Atlas simply because XO never gets updated.
Tested both Atlas and Playbeat, but I still prefer XO, even if it didn’t get a single update. It’s such a musical and intuitive drum machine as is. Even the included samples are so good that I haven’t added more yet.
I’m only in it for the drums though, and not the whole glitch thing
This is a good point. I didn’t mention that my music is somewhat simple, and so my drum needs are similar, which is the appeal of these tools. The clincher is my process too is all about starting with a basic sample/rhythm combo and fine-tuning the sound design or the beat itself towards the end. These 2 factors combined make XO or Atlas perfect because they are workflow enhancements for exactly that.
Yeah I dont make glitch either. I do like to come up with odd percussion rhythms, hi hat patterns and other things that I wouldn’t think of on my own. So this is where my system of Sononym and an AI sequencer pays off.
A piece of hardware I like to use for this is the Kastl Drum. Pretty amazing little box for this stuff. But in software I can use my own samples, which I really love. A 727 sample pack is gold for stuff like this.
Fun thing I noticed with Atlas - I kinda like the mis-classification of samples, since if you have a decent collection of one-shots they should work well. I currently have an “open hi-hat” in a groove which is blatently a sort of synth stab thing. Nice for happy accidents.
One thing I will say (as I have a few extra days with it) is that some of the nice features are a bit buried in the UI. I found the switch sample thing really nice, but it’s not as obvious as XO and required a bit of digging on tutorials to work out what was. Also the velocity being sent to other parameters like pitch is fun - although in fairness you have to re-create this in the DAW after as it can only export velocity.
You can use Atlas as the sample player which is what I’ve done and then you get the velocity mod carried through.
You can also make it output on 16 channels so you can also put FX on the various drums etc.
Atlas gives me that nice vibe of FL Studio where you always have the TR sequencer to get a groove going before moving on to more complex stuff in the piano roll.
Yep I think when I researched DAW’s literally the only thing that I found cool about FL was the sequencing part. I love Ableton but the piano roll for sequencing isn’t as good as these tools for my money. One thing I will say is that I really like how you can pop open the sequencer in Atlas into full screen so you just get to focus on the beat, and it’s just way easy for messing with the specifics of a track.
