MusicRadar

There's more going on with Nerve than its interface might suggest.

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• Review

Following on from the success of last year's Deadmau5 sample pack, Xfer Records has launched into the software world proper with Nerve, a drum machine with a powerful effects section and sequencer, up to eight stereo outputs and, refreshingly, no authorisation codes or dongles to contend with.

Nerve's interface is divided into three main sections: the pattern editor, the pads and waveform section, and the mixing section. The pattern editor has two different views: '1' and '16'. When '1' is active, you program one parameter at a time, accessed via tabs such as Velocity, Cutoff, Pitch and Late. '16' mode changes the view to the classic piano roll-style programmer. There are also keyboard shortcuts - eg, Alt-dragging introduces a per-step repeat that's ideal for glitchy stutters.

The system for loading and saving kits and patterns is pretty comprehensive – it's possible to load/save kits, complete patterns, individual pad patterns, the step sequencer automation data sans notes, grooves, MIDI note out mappings, and the whole lot as one FXP file. Confusingly, though, none of the kits have names referring to what they sound like, which is frustrating when seeking something specific.

Of course, it's possible to load sounds from your own collection of AIFFs and WAVs onto the pads, or from the Nerve library (via the Load button underneath the waveform). But, as there's no way to preview what you're about to load, it becomes a guessing game. Nerve's thorough sample editing capabilities do come to the rescue here, though, as it's possible to rapidly reshape any sound.

In detail

In the lower part of the GUI you'll find the pad section and waveform editor - where Nerve really comes alive. There are 16 pads, each loaded with a sample or loop – more on loops shortly. Clicking on a pad will display its waveform, where you can adjust the amplitude envelope by dragging nodes. It's very straightforward, enabling you to, say, trim the snare or tighten up the kick quickly.

Clicking on the PreCalc button will take you to the effects section. The depths to which you can dig into sound shaping really can't be overstated, ranging from fairly typical effects like pitchshifting, standard pitching, ring modulation, bit-crushing and clipping, to more esoteric ones such as subharmonic synthesis, PWM and sine/square/saw/triangle resynthesis. You can create distorted, crunchy, lo-fi monsters from samples in seconds. Anyone familiar with Deadmau5's sample pack will know exactly what kind of swirls and bleeps to expect.

"The depths to which you can dig into sound shaping really can't be overstated."

All of the effects are precalculated, meaning that they're applied directly to the sample data and thus take no toll whatsoever on your CPU. The downside is that you can't manipulate or automate their parameters. In use, we didn't find this much of a hindrance, as once you craft and carve your sample into its new form, you'll tend to leave it be. If you do feel that a sound is too static, each pad has an LFO that can control numerous parameters – it can even send out MIDI CCs for controlling other devices, too.