German DJ and producer Martin Stimming shares his take on the new Arturia DrumBrute Impact drum machine.
In the first half of the video, Stimming gives an overview of the DrumBrute Impact. In the second half, he demonstrates it in use.
Check it out and let us know what you think of the DrumBrute Impact in the comments!
His reaction at 18:55′ …Pure Gold.
Agreed. His reaction is priceless. And the wrong pattern almost works!
Martin Stimming is an excellent guide. His honest assessment about the machine’s strengths and weaknesses is refreshing. Even if he doesn’t say the words, Stimming’s facial expressions tell the story when he reacts to the noises coming out of the monitors. It’s a long video but definitely worthwhile.
why must the kick always sound distorted to apparently be “cool”?
because they are thin & ploppy when not distorted ^^
distorted kicks sounds wrong to me. always will
Then don’t distort them.
I must say, doesn’t sound great to me at all. But the social media campaign is examplaru, I want one just for the sheer frequency with which it appears on my screen on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram as well as the blogs I read…
Theres a certain proportion between marketing and quality which this case is a fine example
Ik think it’s a good machine for a good price. Sounds are basic but good.
I will argue like I did with the Drumbrute that being analog simply isn’t enough in this day an age. The hats sound crap-tastic in a good way not unlike the 606 hats do but the rest of the sounds leave me flat.
I have to agree. It does not sound good to my ears either and it most closely resembles my Tom Cat. People hate to hear that and will argue vehemently against that but it’s the first thing I think of when I hear this machine. Had the same reaction to its bigger brother too. As you said, simply being analog does not make it great.
The original Drum Brute didn’t do too well, since it’s pretty easy to get one for $300 which is either “open box” or “used mint.” Sounds are always a subjective thing; a talented electronic musician can make anything sound good. That said, this does sound better than the older Drum Brute: The drums have more punch to them, suitable for an industrial vibe or an early Daft Punk vibe, or for aggressive sounding hip hop. Compared to the DrumBrute Impact, a TR-808 sounds more pristine and thinner; a TR-606 sounds more trashy (I remember when both of those drum machines were available for $200 or less).
Keep in mind that comparing a Drum Brute impact direct output to a heavily processed TR-808 is not a valid or fair compression. A TR-808 snare sounds good through a Strymon Big Sky (or, more likely, a Lexicon 224); I’m sure the Impact’s snare will also sound good going through a Big Sky!
In all fairness, even a fart would sound great through a Big Sky.
My 6yo is going to be rolling on the floor in hysterics when I try this tonight 🙂
Just remember to use a pop filter
I think you mean poop filter.
Can someone please do this demo video.
I’d say 60 – 70% of the amount for a new unit on ebay is an average price tag, considering the drumbrute is still sold new and still in production. For $300 I would definitely snag one if I hadn’t bought it when it came out. It has a great, easy to use sequencer – I wish the sequencers on my other drum machines were that good. If you run it through a nice preamp it sounds great.
Just needs 20 fx pedals (2 per sound) and a voodoo labs mondo. Still cheaper than a real 808, right?
Actually, yes, a good deal cheaper than an 808. An 808 is what, $3000 used. A Drumbrute Impact is $300, effects pedals are about $30 a pop over at Amazon (analog, things like chorus, phaser, distortion, etc.), and you only have five outputs on the Impact, so you only need 10 pedals, so you’re looking at $600, probably about $650 once you get power supplies for all those pedals.
Take the other $2300 or so and buy, I don’t know, an entire electronic music recording studio (For example: DP-32SD, so you can go DAW-less: $500; Korg Monologue, for more of that authentic analog[TM] goodness: $300; Roland JD-Xi: $500; Strymon Big Sky, to make your farts sound so heavenly, they induce spontaneous orgasms: $500; and Waldorf Blofeld: $500).
Ya, Analog is a buzzword so people seem open to it without examining it in further detail. I bought a rytm because Elektron finally released a drum machine that allowed you to manipulate various drum sounds in more extreme ways than just decay and pitch. Could care less about the analog but get a lot more bite adjusting the transients per step and the sweep in a hardware device. 16 steps with no shifting is a joke but there is a world of music that follows the grid but being able to humanize a pattern sequencer is awesome.
But dont be surprised if we continue to see a ton of gear that just scratches the surface and only look good because of the price and the analog tag.
Pretty sure you can shift things off the grid manually per step, or record unquantized (perhaps only to a certain resolution so not fully unquantized i suppose). A Rytm or whatever probably does it better but for a lot more money. For people doing this stuff as a hobby with limited disposable income, price is a big deal. And it doesnt sound that bad, especially the kick and the FM voice but that’s a matter of taste obviously. It does 64 step patterns and has a song mode, says so in the video.
His first complaint was about the clash of orange and red, which nearly had me switching off, but he did apologize, and after that it was an incredibly fun demo.
Haters gonna hate.
It’s a $300 box, so you should expect it to be better than a volca kick or a Tom Cat, which it is, but not as good as a TR-8S or a Analog Rytm, which it isn’t.
What a lot of people really want is a cheap analog drum machine that sounds like a TR-8S – not a device with its own unique sound.
What I personally want is an affordable digitally synthesized drum machine with a great sequencer and FX. A successor to the MachineDrum. I have a Rytm and love it but for beats I couldn’t care less if it’s analog, and digital would just open up way more possibilities.
Wow, fantastic personality and super cool review!
I am usually one to hate, but I have no hate for this nice peice of kit. My one complaint is that it does not use full size audio outputs.
I have the original and actually love it, I have about a million drum samples but they all live in folder after sub folder, its nice to have something that is so hands on and immediate. I would say the sounds aren’t very flexible, but most are very useable especially if you want analog drum tones….. Duh? Anyway I think you have to commit to the drumbrute to get the most out of it, as its multiple outs really make it shine. Im using mine next to a volca kick, keys, bass station rack, minilogue and juno 106 and it fits right in.
His final words and impression is priceless
i wouldn’t oppose it if it had a
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“she liked displays” – that’s on my tombstone when i die.
We all hope that will be soon
Cant wait
totally inappropriate considering that i live in a hospice for the terminally ill since may. but, hey, how are you to know?
no display in the hospital neither. gonna die soon. at least fingers still type. no display on fingers either.
hey ragnhild, do you have a display?
useless!!! without a display.
I definitely do not need this but I do love a nice drum machine. It doesn’t sound the best but it has a unique flavor. I think I’ll get one.
A meta observation: The commenters here saying very negative things about the Drumbrute Impact’s sound do not have links where we can listen to their music; people saying positive things about the Drumbrute Impact have links where people can go and listen to their music. The people being positive about this drum machine are not afraid to share their music; those who are being negative aren’t sharing their music with us.
For me, this Impact triggers my G.A.S. in a way the older Drumbrute didn’t. I think it’s because of the snares, which I like on this machine; I have everything nailed down in the drum department except for a really good snare. I’m not sure I will end up pulling the trigger, but I do like this drum machine, more than a TR-606 and about as much as a TR-808 (to save you two clicks, my electronic music is described by my friends as being somewhere between “Electro” and “Ambient”). The sounds in this demo are a bit distorted to my taste, but other videos show that it can sound a good deal cleaner. Also: For me, the Rhythm Wolf and Tom Cat —I have both—have a lot of weaknesses, but both have a limited range of usable sounds.
You can post links to your website? Who woulda thunk it!
Don’t take the comments personal, or at least personal enough to take aim at the lack of a link to music making it seem like those users (me included) comment and don’t make music. There is enough sharing going on, I can even share my exercise now so I join in none of it.
This discussion has been pretty modest compared to a Behringer post. The sound of “good” is very subjective so some may take into consideration the other features of this thing which are pretty interesting. I have nothing against the sound, since im listening through a laptop (until you have it, you really dont know how thumpy the kick is or how snarey the snare snares). But those limitations are the weakness. 1 kick, it can sound like this…or that and thats it. Buy it sample it, put those 36 samples of all the drums in a folder and your done.
The reason why I like having people share their music is otherwise I have no way of seeing how relevant their opinion is to me. If someone says “Drumbrute suxors” (or “Boutique suxors”), and they aren’t linking to their music, how I am to know they are noting more than a non-musician trolling the forums? But if they say “I think the Drumbrute sounds good and here is an album I made on Soundcloud/Bandcamp using it”, then I can listen to their music and get a better idea of how the Drumbrute works in their flow, and how it sits in a mix.
I agree it’s limited—something at the $300 price point is going to be a one-trick (or, should I say, 10-trick) pony, but it has a good sequencer; the 808 was similarly limited, but became a staple for a lot of music types. Considering that most people on a limited budget will be recording in to a computer and using a DAW, they should be able to get more drum sounds from VSTs. My main concern is that we may get a “Drumbrute dead maracas issue”; I also wish the two toms had individual outputs, but five outputs is three outputs more than the usual drum machine at this price point.
i think the akai tom Cat sounds better and it’s cheaper
And is discontinued. Good luck finding a new one. Further, there is also only the main out and there are only “five percussion voices”.
Sound is subjective….but to me sounds worse, has less features, and less flexibility. I had a Rhythm Wolf…which is very similar. I tried to be creative with it but it was a big hindrance. This sound so much better, has a better flow, more features, and seems like a better creative tool.
I have both the Tom Cat and its brother the Rhythm Wolf (got them for $100 a pop on closeout). Both boxes have a couple usable sounds (Rhythm Wolf: Snare can work, but needs a bunch of reverb; the percussion sound is nice; the hi hats may be usable; Tom Cat: Kick and snare are pretty good, don’t care for the other sounds), but the sequencers are limited and broken (they think MIDI start means “continue”, which makes them difficult to work with my setup), and are good to have if one already has another drum machine (the snares, in particular work nicely to fill out my Korg ER-1, which sounds good for everything but snares).
Shameless plug time: I posted a full review of these at https://caulixtla.com/JP-08/rhythm-wolf-review.html
Compared to the Drumbrute Impact, I get the sense, based on the Sonic State review and on the other videos, that the Impact has a nice kick, a nice snare, a usable if not great clap, some cheezy toms of questionable value, a “cymbal” which sounds more like a hi hat, an interesting cowbell which may be usable in some contexts, some pretty good hi hats, and the FM synth thingy for interesting sound effects. Two really good sounds, which are the most critical in a song (kick and snare), and six sounds which get the job done (notably, one can lay down kick/snare/hats with this, freeing up other machines when doing a live jam). The “flat” sound people complain about is mainly because it doesn’t have the “sheen” an old 808 has, which means it better when a strong, slightly aggressive sound is desired (or when someone would rather spend $300 instead of $3000 on a drum machine). I think the 808 mainly has that sheen because it came out in an era when tape machines would cut the hi end; it boosted treble to compensate for this.