Bradshaw Instruments has introduced Drumkid Eurorack Aleatoric Drum Machine for Eurorack systems.
At its core, Drumkid is a four-voice drum machine with a built-in step sequencer, enabling normal drum pattern programming with both per-step and live recording for making patterns on the fly.
Where things get interesting is in Drumkid’s tools for introducing random variations into your rhythms, which they say are “perfect for anything from algorithmic fills to far-out audio rate freak outs.”
Features:
- Chance adds more chance for adding or subtracting beats
- Zoom changes metric resolution of random variations
- Velocity changes volume of voices
- Vel range changes range of possible velocities for dynamic variation
- Magnet increases regularity of variations on chosen subdivision
- Cluster adds more repeated hits on each random addition for ratcheting rhythms
- Swing control with 8th note triplet to the left and 16th note triplets to right
- Crop chops end of samples for a gated effect
- Crush adds bitcrushing effect
- Pitch changes sample pitches down to reverse playback
- Drop rand increases randomized dropouts for ensemble variation
- Drop all mutes voices down to just kicks to the left or just hi hats to the right, with full drop outs at both extremes
- Supports tuplets for complex triplet / quintuplet /septuplet rhythms
- Load .wav samples from SD card to make your own drum kits (SD card not included)
- Independent trigger outputs for each voice
- CV inputs for Chance, Zoom, Pitch, and Velocity
- Clock in and out for external synchronization
- Dual audio outputs
Pricing and Availability:
Drumkid is available now for $399 USD.
Owned for about a month now and love it – especially being able to trigger external drums.
Looks like lots of fun, and a good decision to include some crusty sample playback options for those who don’t want to devote a whole row of rack to drum sounds.
I did think it was a bit cheeky to feature a photo of Autechre; they’re quite explicit about *not* liking randomness and deriving all their sequences from the interaction of simpler components. Even if the results sound chaotic they’re not random but deterministic, and on many tracks that initially sound messy you can hear the same structures repeating at different speeds or frequency ranges/drum assignments, depending on how things are configured. You can’t get that structural quality with random triggers.
Loved the desktop version years ago! Congrats to the creator