Randomwaves shared this sneak preview of Drumboy Pro Edition, a new, open-source workstation design that they say will be available to pre-order in mid-March for about $240 USD.
The describe Drumboy Pro Edition as ‘studio quality’ hardware, with a large screen, lots of hands-on control, flexible input/output, and a rechargeable battery for portability.
It’s designed to be hackable and modifiable, with complete source code to available on Github.
Detailed specs are to come.
Pricing and Availability:
Production of the Drumboy Pro is being funded via a Kickstarter campaign, which is expected to launch March 15, 2026. The Drumboy Pro will be available to project backers for $239 USD.
On the site, if you pay $1, you secure a spot for earlybird pricing.
Though there are lots of good (and even great) drum machine apps/plugins, I still have an itch for a really good hardware version. So far what has always put me off is the lack of rhythmic flexibility. In short, most drum machines are stupid when it comes to the sequencer. The other thing I’d love to see in a drum machine is the ability to have velocity-layered sounds, so you can have decent dynamics.
WRT to the latter, if there is velocity in the sequencer, and velocity can modulate pitch and/or filter cutoff, that’s a pretty decent compromise.
My main concern with the Drumboy Pro sequencer is what beat divisions it allows. Will it allow for 12th notes (8th note triplets) or 24th notes (16th note triplets)? Does it have swing that is assignable to either 8ths or 16ths? With the fill generator, can it do off grid rhythms? What kind of micro-editing is available?
The hardware looks fantastic.
Hopefully they also hardware update their Synthgirl to Pro!
Yeah, 100% agree; I’m hoping for a Synthgirl Pro as well. I got in on the Kickstarter for the OG model and love it. The only issue I still have is with the limited polyphony, so hopefully a Pro version would address this (and maybe add a few things like multi-timbrality or MPE support, but honestly I’d be happy just to have more voices).
I like the open source angle, and the design, and the price.