In recent years we’ve really been spoilt for choice when it comes to hardware drum machines, from top-end beatmakers like Roland’s TR-1000 or Polyend Drums to wallet-friendly gadgets like Sonicware’s Deconstruct Minimal or Akai’s MPC Sample. Now German hardware brand Vermona is rejoining the fray with its latest drum machine, drumDING.
Vermona is a brand with a long and storied history that reaches back to Soviet-era East Germany. While the company is known for its effects and synthesizers, including the excellent PERfourMER and desktop Lancet range, perhaps its best known instrument is the DRM1 – a digitally-controller analogue drum machine first launched in the mid-1980s, and currently sold in a revived MKIV iteration.
The company’s latest release, drumDING, is said to be an evolution of that concept. However, where the DRM1 is built around multiple analogue voices, drumDING combines elements of analogue and digital generation and a workflow that emphasises internal sampling.
At the heart of the machine is a single analogue voice designed to generate a broad range of percussion sounds, from kicks, toms and snares through to hats and tuned percussion. It does so through a combination of a wide-range VCO, noise generator and ‘click’ impulse generator, all of which can be combined in the internal mixer and fed through a multi-mode filter. The synth voice also includes a variety of modulation tools including an LFO and snappy decay envelopes.
drumDING then lets users quickly capture sounds created with this voice and turn them into samples that can be sequenced and processed with digital effects.
“Press a button, and your analogue sound becomes a sample – ready to be shaped further and layered with effects on the digital side,” Vermona says. “From there, drumDING's sequencer makes it easy to turn those sounds into driving, distinctive beats. Then the cycle begins again: a new sound, a new sample, a new idea.”
As well as sampling its own internal voice, drumDING is also designed to sample via its external input, which allows users to patch in a synth or modular system.
Once captured, samples can be turned into patterns using the versatile step sequencer. This features six tracks with up-to 64 steps per track. The sequencer tracks can be set to individual lengths in order to create polymetric patterns and also includes features such as ratchets, micro-timing, parameter locks and probability. There is also a per-track LFO and pitch, envelope and reverse playback capabilities for sample manipulation.
On the effect front, drumDING has two delay sends and one reverb send. It can also make use of per-track insert effects offering drive, bit reduction and amplitude modulation.
The hardware includes individual outputs for each of its six tracks along with a main output and separate output for the synth voice. It has MIDI, USB and CV connectivity for interfacing with other gear.
To see more of it in action, check out the preview below from musician and YouTuber OoraMusic.
All told, drumDING looks like a powerful and excitingly original drum machine. While the exact release date is still TBA, the instrument is now up for pre-order priced at £1299/€1499.
Head to the Vermona site for more.
