Description

Vermona drumDING

The drumDING from Vermona is an innovative hybrid drum machine, combining analog drum synthesis, sample manipulation, and deep sequencing for complex and performative control over your drums. The top of the module borrows from Vermona's long history of analog drum machines, providing the foundation of your drum sounds. However, rather than approaching it as an analog drum machine, it's best to look at the top section as a way to sculpt analog sounds for the digital part of the drum machine. It starts with the VCO, a dual-range oscillator with dedicated pitch envelope and wave knob that blends from sine to square wave. A secondary routable modulation oscillator provides FM for either the VCO or the VCF, further coloring your sounds with harmonic complexity. The resonant filter blends from lowpass to bandpass to highpass filtering with a dedicated pitch envelope. The drumDING includes a four channel mixer that allows you to both mix and route the elements of your drum sounds. In addition to the VCO, the top section includes an internal click or transient generator and a noise source with either lower frequency pink noise or high frequency blue noise. The click and noise source share an envelope and the VCO includes a second amplitude VCA. Moving the mix knobs to the right sends the sources directly to the VCA, while turning to the left first sends them to the VCF. Finally, an Aux input allows you to augment the already capable analog drum voice with external sounds.

Once you've sculpted your perfect analog drum tones, the real fun begins. Pressing the sample button and one of the six tracks saves the entire drum voice into one of the six primary sample slots, sampling it into memory for sequencing and digital manipulation. Each project includes the ability to sculpt, sample, and save up to 32 drum sounds at a time. The samples are saved to the SD card, so you have access to them for future projects. You aren't limited to solely using the analog voice as the basis for your samples, the aux audio input allows you to run any sound you want into the signal path. Additionally, you have the ability to route the internal tracks for resampling and further sample manipulation. The high contrast OLED works in tandem with the four encoders, displaying the four sample and sequencer parameters that each encoder corresponds to at a time. The sampler includes a repitch function that adjusts the sample's pitch up or down two octaves, either playing it forwards or in reverse. An additional sample envelope provides another avenue of time based sound sculpting. The suite of digital FX includes a pair of delays, reverb, panning, bitcrushing, drive, and ring modulation. Further manipulate your samples over time using the drumDING's parameter lockable sequencer.

The sequencer runs for up to 64 steps and includes per-step parameter locks to dynamically vary your sounds on a per-step basis. Parameter locks come in two forms, indicated by the red and green LEDs. The red LEDs indicate standard parameter lock behavior, where pressing a step and changing a parameter only changes that step. The Alt mode, indicated by the green LED, allows you to place multiple steps that share Alt settings. Changing the parameters in alt mode changes the parameters of every Alt parameter locked step. While the total sequence length is up to 64 steps, you have arbitrary control over the sequence length of any of the individual tracks. A modulation routing section gives you another level of dynamic sequencing, providing synced or freerunning modulation, as well as sequencer parameters such as velocity. The sequencer also includes control over per step or global probability, retrigger, velocity, and level. The sequencer parameter locks extend to the many sample manipulation parameters, unlocking new performance possibilities.

Each drum voice includes a dedicated output for further processing and individual external mixing. The headphone output includes a mode that only outputs the analog drum voice. This comes in handy in live settings where you want to switch up your drum sounds on the fly, but don't necessarily want the audience to hear you audition drums while they dance. While the drumDING is a departure from the analog drum machines Vermona is best known for, it represents a huge step forward in terms of hybrid drum machines. You have easy access to a gigantic range of drum sounds from the analog synthesis section, and the digital sampler and sequencer provide complex performance features. The drumDING allows you to sculpt your sounds from start to finish, perfect for use in the studio or for live improvisation. Suffice to say, the drumDING is just the thing for you.

drumDING Features

• Hybrid analog/digital resampling drum machine
• Sculpt analog drum sounds, then sample and sequence them
• Analog drum voice using Vermona's analog drum architecture
• 64-step sequencer with two flavors of parameter locks
• Built-in FX including bitcrush, ring modulation, drive, reverb, and two delays
• Save up to 32 samples per project
• Aux input for sampling external sounds or resampling any internal sounds
• Four-channel mixer with dry or filtered routing
• Two noise modes and transient shaper
• Internal modulation routing
• Large OLED with corresponding parameter encoders