Waldorf Attack Drums Now Available For iPad

Waldorf Music has introduced Attack Drums – a software synth for iPad that they say is designed mainly for drum sounds, but that also can be used for everything else – including vocals.

Based on the Waldorf Attack VST PlugIn from 2001, it consists of a 24-part sound engine, now packed with a pattern sequencer and a versatile effects section.

One highlight of the effects section is the new Phrase Vocoder, a vocoder that uses written text instead of spoken words. Lyrics in – vocoded vocals out.

Specifications:

  • 24 Sounds
  • Four independent effect slots with selectable effect:
  • Delay
  • Equalizer
  • Overdrive
  • Phaser
  • Flanger
  • Chorus
  • Phrase Vocoder
  • Reverb
  • Compressor
  • Pattern Sequencer
  • 999 Patterns
  • Polyphonic steps – up to 8 notes per step
  • Fractional track/step timing
  • Audiobus
  • Inter App Audio
  • MIDI
  • Export song to audio file
  • compatible with iPad 2, iPad 3 (Retina), iPad 4, iPad mini (1,2,3), iPad Air (1,2)
  • Minimum iOS 7.0 required
  • AudioCopy / AudioPaste
  • Content control via iTunes File Sharing
  • Trigger Pads
  • Mixer
  • Recording

Waldorf Attack Drums is available now for US $14.99 in the App Store.

If you’ve used Attack Drums, leave a comment and share your thoughts on it!

31 thoughts on “Waldorf Attack Drums Now Available For iPad

  1. Does SeekBeats have competition? 😮 Elastic Drums was a good one, but sooo laggy and drifts almost instantly when synced to midi

    1. That was my first thought, too. This plays samples and seems to have more sonic options. Though the sequencer seems quite powerful, SeekBeats is so flexible and able to do more advanced stuff.

      I think I’d rather just stick with SeekBeats, and use some of the other dozens of sound sources I have for playing drum samples.

    1. Several complaints about bugginess on the App Store page too.

      It sounds like this may be one that we may want to wait for the bug fix update.

  2. We’ve been asking Waldorf for years to seperate the 3 plugins in their Waldorf Edition so we can buy them one at a time. 5 Years later they released Waldorf Edition 2, and you still can’t buy them seperately. Now this…

    1. Originally they were available individually. And they were about twice the price each. The current pricing seems ok to me.

      1. I dont care about the prices, we want to be able to buy/demo them seperately. I don’t need PPG2 or D-Pole, i’m just interested in Attack. And btw, we can’t even “demo’ any of them. I like Waldorf, but this the slowest and the most “hard of hearing” company i know of. I used to own a Microwave XT, but now i only buy products from developpers who care & listen to their existing & future clients….

  3. Only the phrase vocoder fx is buggy on my ipad air 2. rest seems ok so far. Soundwise its very different from seekbeats. Sounds a bit more oldschool to my ears. It has a mixer and 24 tracks, that makes it more complex in my eyes., but its not so easy to do dial nice sounds in as it is with seekbeats. Also, i miss a performance page. And wheres automation? Only 3 velocities to automate parameters?

  4. Just played with it for 2 hours and it can’t be looped in song mode only in pattern style so to create a 4 bar loop you have to copy paste. For the rest it is promising!

  5. awesome, i always wanted the rack mount version, then there was the vst but i always had trouble with the installer on windows. im excited to try this

  6. MIDI through my external keyboard (novation Launchkey) is not working correctly either… The pads are only triggering sound #10 and the keys are triggering sound #1 – seems like they mapped each sound to a midi channel.

  7. Anyone deliberating purchase should know
    Fact /Great sound engine from VST, first release ;
    No Midi clock Sync (master or slave ) or IAA transport sync .
    Parameter automation not possible within app; step edit MOD function doesnt work ,nor realtime .
    No Midi implementation of CC parameters so can’t control or record with external controllers.
    No midi port / channel selection .
    External midi plays Selected instrument , so cant map keyboard /pads across instruments to play multiple parts of drumkit together .
    Multiple patterns cannot be chain looped to jam/record e.g 4 bar section.
    Sub Folders not possible for samples .
    //Fact .

    My opinion/
    Sounds great & is usable for ( non automation) basics , but Waldorf have done their reputation no favours with a premature release .
    //Opinion

    1. Judging from my experience with Waldorf products and support I have the impression that they as a company are in denial about their issues with quality assurance. There have been so many issues like plugins not propertly installing, glitchy authorization, delays with porting older stuff to 64 bit or making sure that the plugins work consistently across different hosts. I know that testing is not a trivial issue and takes a lot of time and resources, but somehow in the case of Waldorf I also suspect that there are deeper cultural issues that support their less than favourable reputation with regard to product quality and support.

        1. It is just you, obviously COMPANY culture. Or do they hide swastikas on their circuit boards or something?
          And it’s fair criticism, Blofeld was a mess when it was released and it has taken years to fix most of its issues.

          1. There is nothing bad about just saying that a company does not live up to your expectations, but using the N* word is way out of line. Shame on you folks. Next time, it really can´t hurt to actually THINK before posting such statements.

            1. We are artists and we must push the boundaries of freedom. Nazis and Ni99ers are two “N” words that we should be free to use. Otherwise hang up your artist boots and go home.

              1. This line of discussion is drifting from the real point here.

                Random Chance didn’t use the N word. He didn’t. And I don’t think his post even implied it. Timothy asked if he meant to imply it, then before Random Chance could answer suddenly there was a lot of offense taken even though no one had asserted anything, just a comment, and a request for clarification.

                Random Chance brings up the point that there are different customer service styles of different companies and he suspects these styles might be related to culture. He brings up testing, product quality and support, says he thinks Waldorf has a poor record on these issues, and wonders if it is related to, implicitly, German culture.

                I think this is incorrect on product quality and testing grounds because German engineering has a very good reputation. German engineers are known for being meticulous, thorough, and often even over-engineer things with tolerance for a wide range of operating environments.

                My own experience is that German companies have a hard time with customer service and support, or at least do it differently than the american style business where the customer is always right and it’s common to promise and not deliver. German style seems to be more of a take it or leave it proposition. Someone has designed a product. It is a good product. Buy it or not. Got questions, need help? You are expected to figure it out on your own by studying the manual. There are always exceptions, but my experience is that German run companies in general have less customer engagement and handholding. They also generally have more robust and solid engineering.

                With Waldorf they are a very small company and there’s one guy that does most of the engineering. The Blofeld is quite solid now, but it took a few years after release to get there. This is par for the course compared to american engineering, but surprised a lot of people used to german engineering. However, if they waited until they had the design stable without customer feedback before releasing, they’d have had no income for 3 years and would not be around, so releasing before everything was perfect was the only choice available. They have fixed the issues over time though, to their credit.

  8. Very disappointed to have no sync. Was looking forward to its release. It does sound good though. But sync greatly reduces it’s usability

  9. This sound terrific if you enjoy drum synths, better to edit than the VST & I like the in app sequencer. The midi spec is a little annoying though seemingly fixed to one midi channel per sound. I’ve set up PadKontrol so you can play it this way but it would be great to have the option of standard note per sound mapping in one midi channel.

    Importantly unlike many ipad drum apps (electribe for instance) it doesn’t seem laggy.

  10. I was excited when I first saw Attack for iOS, but I’d say that for now, Franke’s Stroke Machine for iPad is certainly a better alternative. The current version works flawlessly on my iPads 2 and 4, and Midi Sync is not only there but actually works very well, also in slave mode.
    Support might be better too – the developer has done a lot to make the thing rock-solid.
    The only thing I’d prefer in Attack is the UI design. I wouldn’t even say Attack is better to work with, but it just looks fancier 😉

  11. I was excited when I first saw Attack for iOS, but I’d say that for now, Franke’s Stroke Machine for iPad is certainly a better alternative (if you can do without the phrase vocoder). The current version works flawlessly on my iPads 2 and 4, and Midi Sync is not only there but actually works very well, also in slave mode.
    Support might be better too – the developer has done a lot to make the thing rock-solid.
    The only thing I’d prefer in Attack is the UI design. I wouldn’t even say Attack is better to work with, but it just looks fancier ????

  12. Hmm – this is kind of very exciting and very frustrating at the same time. Exciting because it’s pretty playable in terms of performance – the pattern grid is nice and the poly sounds give a lot of options (the phrase vocoder is cool but chances are it’s a bit of a novelty item dunno yet) – BUT without Midi sync or deeper midi control then its just the wrong side of limited – if I could play with filters a bit with a controller then the lack of sync wouldn’t be an issue – if I could have sync then I could run it against sequences on my other synths.

    So near and currently so far…..

    (and much as I love Waldorf (i’ve got an XTk , a pulse ( the old rack version) , Nave is a big part of my setup and now this) I’m not holding my breath for timely updates sadly – not how they’ve ever seem to work)

  13. Just got lost in a sonic design playground. I remember using the original vst. Well done. Looking forward to the updates that shut down anything negative people have to say about this. I’ve been on the edge of my seat in anticipation for this app since the day it was announced.

  14. This app WAS good until IOS 9 was released. Since then, Waldorf released compatibility updates for Nave. But yet 2 months later, no updates for Attack. Be aware of this before spending your money. Waldorf mentioned in the app store that they will release an update soon. But that was over a month ago. For now it deserves the 1 star rating it’s been getting until they finally get around to fixing the app.

  15. It seems there was an update that fixes these issues. I also see midi sync and control on the list. What is the current opinion about it? I’m considering buying it. But not sure whether SeekBeats would be better, or maybe Stroke Machine.. and then there is Elastic Drums, Synthpad Drums, MoDrums and Impaktor…. choices choices and not one that seems to be exactly what I need..

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