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BPM: something like a software MPC.

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MOTU's Beat Production Machine (BPM) virtual instrument is the newest urban drum software on the block and looks like it has a lot to offer.

An iLok is required for authorisation, and you can then start installing the 15GB of content, which includes individual drums, hits, loops and instruments – make sure you have a permanently free USB port and plenty of HD space available.

Also, it's worth reading the manual to find where to drop the content files for your particular DAW as this can be confusing.

Getting started

Once installed, you can either run the BPM standalone or as a plug-in from within your DAW. For our review, we used the BPM as a plug-in within Logic 8 on a MacBook Pro.

Once loaded, be warned that BPM's interface window is a large so you'll need plenty of screen real estate to accommodate it, especially as it can't be resized.

On first look there's a hell of a lot to take in visually - it's fair to say there's a lot crammed into the interface - but after a little time, it's easy enough to get to grips with. Plus, if you hover over a button, a message pops up outlining its function.

The top of the GUI hosts three menus. The first is a folder menu that contains several import and export options. Patterns and songs can be imported or exported as MIDI or audio very easily, though it would be great if there was a way to directly drag the MIDI info in a pattern onto your DAW's Arrange page.

Note that this can be done with audio exports and it's a very slick process. REX and Apple Loops can be imported too. Also in this folder is a preferences menu that currently seems to crash Logic, though it's the only bug we found.

The second menu deals with MIDI assignments for using BPM with an external MIDI controller. You can route your controller to a single part, a bank of sounds and to individual MIDI channels.

Though you could use a mouse to input notes we highly recommend connecting a controller keyboard or MIDI pad controller to get the most out of the BPM.

Display

The large orange window displays the piano roll sequencer, sample editing facilities, step sequencing, FX setups, audio mixer, scene menu (a scene is a snapshot of current patterns, instruments and loops and can be timestretched/rendered as audio) and, finally, song/live modes where scenes are arranged in a timeline/song form.

This is great for live situations; loops/sequences can be dragged, dropped or triggered via MIDI on the fly. You can also sample directly into a pad. It's worth going through the tutorials at the start of the manual (no matter how tempting you think it is to skip them) as there is just so much that BPM is capable of.

To the right of the screen are controls to access the main function areas and global controls for quantise, position (controls the amount of the selected quantise applied) and global velocity, tuning and volume controls.