Some interesting noise and loops work overall to present a well rounded expressive palette with Magenta. The eclectic library and design flexibility allows for its electronic drums to be used for any style or genre (Ambient or Experimental to Glitch and Techno).
[Free samples] Blip Drums has released Magenta, a compact yet powerful drum machine for use with Ableton Live 8 Suite. Magenta, developed by eclectic electronic musician and composer Saul Stokes of Oakland, California, is a fully integrated third party plug-in within an Ableton drum rack. This live pack contains a completely original sound bank with 16bit wav files created from scratch utilizing “custom made modular synthesizers, software and location recording.” The Magenta drum rack consists of 16 pads with over 1100 all new and unique electronic drum samples accompanied with drum accents as well as 3 synthesizers for percussion sound design. Blip Drums emphasizes that each pad is a “self-contained Ableton instrument” itself and far from simply sound file triggers. The drum rack’s digital layout provides over 128 pad specific knobs to tailor sound to the user’s precise liking. Many options for dialing in sound are possible; from basic variation parameters (e.g., using pitch, filter and envelope settings to name a few), to more complex attributes and modulation by routing through effects (as adding delay/echo, punch, distortion and, vocal and metallic textures) to each pad separately. In addition are 8 knobs that control, shape and modulate the sound for the overall drum rack; which include reverb, drum accent echo/decay, pitch and drum pad selection. The basic electronic drum setup consists of 127 bass kicks, 127 electronic snares, 84 hi hats (open and closed), 127 toms for low, mid and high separately, 82 claps, and 67 crashes. 353 accents are provided for shaping the sound of the bass drum, snare and hi-hat. Also, 127 extra accents, micro loops and uncategorized sonic files are provided for additional creative possibilities. Detailed effort has been devoted to reproducing hardware and software synthesizer sound using Ableton’s own synthesizers, devices and effects in order to cut down on CPU usage versus using third-party synthesizers and effects (VST’s) and to insure maximum software stability.
The overall percussive sound texture spans the realms of fresh “cutting edge” digital to, thick and warm analog sound. From glitchy blips to liquefied and reverberated hats. Laser infused crashes and snares ranging from harmonic chimes to “kats” that smash and self destruct upon contact. Bass kicks that easily morph from tight and intricate, to full sound system induced seismic P-waves. Some interesting noise and loops work overall to present a well rounded expressive palette with Magenta. The eclectic library and design flexibility allows for its electronic drums to be used for any style or genre (Ambient or Experimental to Glitch and Techno). The “building up” of drum sounds allows for both digital and analog realms to be seamlessly layered, mixed and/or muxed. A highlight of the live pack design is the ease at which drums can be swapped within a pad with a simple turn of a midi controller knob or flick of a mouse. Upon installation, 127 sounds can be interchanged per pad which can be fully explored during playback and is considerably faster than Ableton’s already quick Hot Swap mode, saving time and allowing the creative process to flow more freely. This knob based sample selection and sound tailoring/effects is especially useful during playback, and all can be modulated with time during a Live recording. The synthesizers and accents for the bass drum, snare, toms and hi-hats present many options for designing a drum set and personalizing each hit; allowing for a great degree of flexibility in dialing in textures and frequencies to the user’s taste. Magenta is fully modifiable to integrate your own sounds, effects and processing (work flow) in Ableton’s work environment. The rack can be opened up with additional devices (instruments, effects etc.) to be placed within specific pads, the rack can be placed in a series of desires devices within a track. Specific pads/sounds can be routed to sends in their separate production space. The macro maps and midi routing can all be reconfigured and/or reassigned as well (no surprise for those readers familiar with Live’s intricacies) for full versatility in customization. Magenta’s internal instrument parameters are easily modifiable, allowing the user to get under the hood and make personal alterations.
Note that the complete suite version (8.1 or later) is required for functional installation. Magenta is Mac and PC compatible. Depending on your computer’s performance, Magenta CPU load can range from mild to significant. The reviewer has seen loads (for one instance) anywhere from almost 10 to 25 percent with standard to full usage (with all the pad’s devices operating on a MacBook Pro with decent performance specs); not bad for all the drum kit can do.
For producers and musicians interested in utilizing Magenta’s sound library (and then some) with Propellerhead Reason, DJ Kris Moon of Laptop Battle and Moon Bass radio has worked to create a Reason Refill of these custom sounds in 30 kits and 30 combis. This Refill also contains the full Blip Drums Library of 1178 drum samples. Mentioned due to being centrally relevant, however, this product is not covered in depth in the current review. If you do not have the latest install of Ableton Live Suite or use Reason as your DAW, Blip Drums has released the full custom drum sounds library for sale as a bundle of 1178 16bit.wav files. An assortment of 40 free samples can be downloaded on the product’s website for preview. For further information or to purchase and download Blip Drums Magenta, Blip Drums Reason Refill or the Blip Drums Sound Library, check out the Blip Drums website at www.blipdrums.com.
Magenta is out now and available at www.blipdrums.com. [Download free samples here]
[audio:http://igloomag.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/magenta_partymouth.mp3|titles=”Partymouth” sample]
[audio:http://igloomag.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/magenta_criminal.mp3|titles=”Criminal” sample]
[audio:http://igloomag.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/magenta_platinum_club.mp3|titles=”Platinum Club” sample]
[audio:http://igloomag.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/magenta_flashrobot.mp3|titles=”Flash Robot” sample]
[audio:http://igloomag.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/magenta_freeformblip.mp3|titles=”Freeform Blip” sample]
