DrumPerfect Brings ‘Human’ Drum Sequencing To The iPad

drumperfect-ipad-drum-machineMarinus J.G. van de Molengraft has released DrumPerfect – a drum sequencer for IOS 7, designed for creating natural sounding drum tracks.

DrumPerfect features three extensive editors to create very ‘human’ drum sequences:

  • An extensive pattern editor in which each individual drum stroke has its own velocity, timing and probability. Each pattern has its own BPM, time signature and beat subdivision settings. Multiple strokes can be linked to a single probabilistic event.
  • An extensive kit editor with up to 16 different drum kits with 16 instruments each. Every instrument consists of up to 16 different user-selectable audio samples.
  • An extensive song editor in which a song is built of pattern/kit events.

The ‘Two-handed’ and ‘Humanize’ features give a human feel to the rhythm by modeling the human drummer restrictions and variations.

Here are audio demos of DrumPerfect in action:

DrumPerfect offers extensive options for audio-transfer with other apps:

  • Live-audio source for other apps via Audiobus and Inter-App-Audio.
  • Audio rendering/upload to AudioShare, AudioCopy2, SoundCloud and Dropbox. Both mixed and separate track export.
  • Import of audio samples via iTunes or AudioPaste2.
  • Midiclock sync input with midi song pointer, midi start and midi stop.

DrumPerfect is available now in the App Store for US $14.99.

If you’ve used DrumPerfect, let us know what you think of it!

21 thoughts on “DrumPerfect Brings ‘Human’ Drum Sequencing To The iPad

  1. (I just took a quick gander at the manual and…. drum roll…..)

    Finally! …

    …an app that provides nice dynamics, gives you the ability to load/play samples with flexibility AND (!!) has incredible flexibility both with meter and with beat division!!!

    You can set the meter to any number of beats 1-32, and beat-value (denominator) to 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32. You can divide the beat by 1-16, either per pattern or per each individual beat! Finally— over kill. I love it.

    The interface isn’t very pretty, and I predict it will be a bit clunky to use (compared to the DM-1- which has a pretty nice interface but is limited in other ways).

    After all the bitching I do on here about all the apps that are limited to 4/4&16th apps, I’m going to put my money where my mouth is and will report back after giving it a good test.

    1. stub, looking forward to your findings. I’ve been using the iPad more and more for drums and am currently using iElectribe since it allows MIDI messages to be sent to change upcoming patterns while playing. I don’t think that DrumPerfect does this yet, but I contacted the author about it.

  2. Does anyone know if this app supports midi in? There’s no mention in the manual. It would be great to use this as a drum sound module…

  3. Mr stub thanks for posting and when you come back could you give your insights on the workflow, feature wise the app looks quite rich but all I’ve seen is the soundtest room clip on it and the workflow I’m not so sure about. When crafting drums workflow is king so inquiring minds want to know, and thank in advance

  4. Ok. Here’s a little set of first impressions.

    Let’s start with the good. The features listed are for real. And it is capable of producing a huge range of grooves. And the ability to tweak velocities, probability and the fine-timing of each “stroke” (subdivision/hit) is all there. Though a formal overall swing control is absent, by multi-selecting hits and using the time shift, swing can be fine tuned in both standard and non-standard ways. The included samples are fantastic. The ability to create very dynamic custom kits is all there. It appears that you can make very complex things happen and you aren’t limited in that way. Provides midi sync in, so it can lock to external apps (but I have not tested this).

    As predicted, the interface is pretty crude– I was not at all surprised when a full qwerty keyboard appeared when I tapped on the numerator for the time-signature. The interface does not make very effective use of the touch screen for pattern or song editing. You can edit things, but it is one instrument at a time (snare only, kick only, etc.). You tap “select” then click on the notes of that instrument you want to change. Once selected, you can adjust velocity, timing, probability, etc. The sliders are absolute, so you can’t select a group of notes and adjust them relative to their current position.

    As workflow goes, I think DrumPerfect will be a little frustrating/tedious for creative work. That said, for me, there is nothing more frustrating than not being able to do something I need done. DrumPerfect seems well-suited to provide a very high level of work– but unfortunately it must be done “the hard way”.

    I also think $14.99 is a steep price for a program with such a limited interface. I’m not feeling ripped off because the developer created something that works. But I wonder if the ability is there to make this a professional-level app down the road. Hopefully, the file format and other factors will allow for easy future developments.

  5. This sounds as mechanical and in-human and any drum machine I’ve heard. DM-1 blow this our of the water because it is exactly what it purports to be; A drum machine. There are all kind of tell-tale ‘give-aways. Perfect ‘drags’ following snare hits, switching dynamics with only 2 levels. It’s the musical equivalent of painting by numbers… if you stand way back and squint, it almost looks like a painting. But pay attention and you hear all kinds of repetition.
    The problem with any of these ‘attempts’ at making a drummer through programming, is that there’s no interaction to the other parts being played. A real musician reacts and responds to the sounds around them. And, yes, drummers are real musicians. Not a series of randomizeds algorithms with a crap load of dynamics thrown in.

  6. Mr. Jiggers, you are being a bit hyperbolic and inaccurate.

    Compared to the DM-1, DrumPerfect is a much more flexible & powerful drum machine– as far as what you can ultimately do with it. You can assign up to up to 16 samples per instrument (8 velocity layers per hand– left & right hand hits). You misunderstood the two dynamic levels. You can assign every hit to have a main velocity of 0-127, and you can also assign a secondary velocity level (0-127) for that same hit then assign set the probability between the two velocities. And I’ve already mentioned the more unusual and complex things you can do with meters & beat divisions.

    Obviously, the DM-1 has a MUCH bigger/better/quicker interface, better workflow, HUGE library of sounds, effects, automation, etc. etc. Overall a more polished product.

    And you’re right that no developer should make grand claims about creating a human-sounding drummer. I just assume everyone knows to take those claims with a grain of salt. But you can get SO much closer with these features then you can with a simple DM-1 step grid.

    Do I recommend it? Well, I can recommend it for people who are .. well… like me, I guess. Not everyone cares about unusual meters, and being able to program more interesting patterns & fills. And some may not have the patience for a work-flow that is neither efficient nor very elegant. I think with some practice I’ll be able to get pretty quick with it. It will require that I build some drum kits and some starting points.

  7. once they lower the price to $5.99 it will be a good buy. All of the bells and whistles don’t mean anything without the proper workflow. This app might be suited better somewhere else besides an ipad as the ipad is for enhanced workflow.

  8. IMPORTANT UPDATES:

    Ok, I’ve had some time to tinker with the app and I have GOOD NEWS to report. After playing around with it and using the realtime record and the velocity-ramp-tap area, the workflow for creating the grooves is much better/easier than I thought. And after editing a bit, I came to realize that the interface is pretty clever (considering it’s somewhat plain layout). The other GREAT news is that the developer does have plans for improvements and was pretty quick to respond to my email.

    I was disappointed to discover that Mr. Jiggers was indeed correct about the “two dynamic levels” (apologies, Mr. J). in that DrumPerfect has a set of up to four low (quiet) samples and a set of high (loud) samples and randomly chooses from the four for quiet/loud hits based on velocity. To be clear, the app provides all 128 velocities, but has only two velocity ranges for sample switching– with a random sample choice thrown in. I had not understood that yesterday. I did submit a request for full velocity switching in the kit editor. That seems like a must.

  9. my thanks to you as well Stub for the info and update,
    I sure hope a drumbreak slicer is going to end up in this drumsample app!

  10. Not to steal DrumPerfect’s thunder… Just saw Molten (by One Red Dog– maker of Arctic synth). It looks like a hybrid of DM-1, but with tuplets up to 9 per beat. It plays user samples, has some DSP, per hit velocity, up to 8 sounds (no velocity switching on samples), and up to 4 “pages” so you can divide meters in logical ways. Has MIDI i/o and interapp audio. Looks brand new, and is perhaps still a work in progress.

    DrumPerfect is I think more flexible and has more potential (with the ability to tweak the exact timing of every event)– but Molten does seem to offer more the DM-1 type workflow. $4.99 BTW.

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