Arturia DrumBrute Impact - Drum Computer

Product Information

My most praised features are the "Color" function which transforms each sound, and the FM drum, that acts like a wildcard! Meaning you can transform it to many other sounds. Finally the distortion at the master bus makes the sound gritty and harsh, adding that special "brute" sauce! Output distortion: rich, specially voiced distortion on the output to add some filth when you need it, and bypass when you don’t. The other significant change from the original DrumBrute is the master effects. The Impact loses the Steiner-Parker filter of the original, but gains an output distortion with level control and on/off switch. While this isn’t the most extreme analogue distortion in the world it adds a nice bit of saturation and compression-like gel to the overall sound. Snare 1 sounds like it’s based on DrumBrute’s, but with the controls re-imagined. It’s 808-esque, with body tone and noise (snap) components. The original had granular control over the tones of the body and noise, as well as the decay and level of the latter. The Impact Snare circuit has fixed tones for the body and snap, a Decay knob which only affects the snap, and a Tone/Snap knob which crossfades between the two. Color mode pitches up the body tone. This is more limited overall but does mean you can almost make a pure noise sound. Another factor you might like to consider is size. The original Drumbrute is both bigger and heavier than the Drumbrute Impact. What Type of Genres Are the Drumbrutes Best Suited to?

If you’re looking at purchasing one of the Drumbrute machines it can be a bit confusing to know which one to plump for so in this article I will compare the two and offer some opinions and advice and hopefully this will help you decide which of Arturia’s drum machines best suits your needs. Arturia’s team clearly took some time thinking about usability, and it shows in small details like the fact that pushing shift with either mute or solo clears the previously-selected groups. In this way, building up and taking out parts in groups is much easier to control, as hitting mute will automatically mute the instruments that were previously selected. The Impact’s sequencer will be familiar to anyone who has used a drum machine. Steps can be input in real time or while the sequencer is stopped. Handily, there’s the ability to record without quantization, which immediately gives the DrumBrute Impact a leg up over much of its competition that is tied to a 16th note grid. Copying, saving, and erasing patterns are all simple affairs. Thankfully, there is a metronome with its own separate volume control, as well as individual buttons for mute and solo.Finally, you turn on the Remote features on the Drumbrute, and you can gain access with the sync from the Drumbrute in Ableton. Can I Use Drumbute With An Amp? Pads turn orange to show when Color mode is active and each step in your beat can have Color activated or deactived on a per instrument basis. Overall the Color feature is a worthy addition to the Drumbrute, especially if you tend to favour drums with bite and grit. If you like clean, sterile or clinical sounding electronic drums then you might find the Color mode is not to your tastes. In addition, the main output also features a handy distortion control, which can be turned off with the adjacent button. I found that keeping it on around 60-70% added a nice glue to the proceedings. It’s worth noting that using the individual outs does remove that instrument from the main output and thus the distortion circuit.

The Drumbrute has a ‘Zap’ part while the Drumbrute Impact has a capable FM Drum part. Of the two the ‘Zap’ part is the least interesting and is not ‘Zappy’ enough for my tastes. Don’t expect the Zap effects to send clubbers running for cover – it’s an adequate but pretty tame affair and something of a missed opportunity in my opinion. Judge the DrumBrute Impact by its size, do you? And well you should not, for theArturia's ally is aggressive, full force analogue sound. Metronome: removed from the main output when headphones are connected, so you hear it and not your audience.As well as Color, the Impact employs the tried-and-tested Accent concept, implemented the same as on the original DrumBrute. Sounds have two trigger levels (accented or not) and generally sound slightly different from one state to the other. As we’ll see later, Accent sequencing is handled differently to Color. First though, let’s run through the sounds. Other features include the touch strip which allows you to create real-time breakdowns with completely natural sounding inflection. You can use the “Random” knob to get more of an organic feel to your instrument or the entire pattern or syncopate your groove with the “Swing” function. Hands-On Tactile Control Yea I tend to agree - I LOVED the interface and the feel of the device as well as the knobiness but the sounds just weren’t that good with exception of what you mentioned. The hi hats were particularly unusable for my taste. The snare and claps are ok as well, but the biggest letdown are the toms which are almost inaudible, really a missed opportunity which Arturia doesn't seem to care to fix or even aknowledge (I suppose it could be fixed through firmware update) those looking for a drum machine that can do toms should look elsewhere.

The reverse cymbal is great if you want to add a little bit of groove effect and create drum loops. The Drumbrute works as a sole analog drum machine, so it is not necessary to hook it up with the computer.Arturia Drumbrute vs Drumbrute Impact Feature comparison chart. Specifications & prices correct at time of writing (June 2021) Drumbrute vs Drumbrute Features: Key Differences Explained.