Synesthesia Coporation have revealed that their Mandala 2.0 drum and synthesizer will begin shipping at the start of December. The product has been co-developed by Tool's drummer Danny Carey and is being billed as the only electronic drum to offer a genuine emulation of an acoustic one.
Designed to respond to your playing in several ways, Mandala 2.0 is described as a 'high-def' drum trigger. It features 128 strike positions (from the centre to the edge of the pad) and can output 128 strike velocities.
The Mandala 2.0 hardware ships with a 'virtual brain' software application, and it's this that hosts the extensive sound library. In fact, more than 4GB of sample content is included; this covers a wide range of both percussive and other instrumental sounds. It's also possible to load your own samples into the software.
Unlike Mandala 1.0, the new product is USB-compatible, meaning that it's easy to connect to your computer. In fact, you can hook up multiple Mandalas to create a complete drum kit, and the hardware is said to integrate seamlessly with today's DAWs.
Mandala 2.0 retails for $349 and can be purchased from Synesthesia's new product website.
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