Addictive Drums creator readies XO random beatmaker & pattern generator
If you are stuck in a rut with making beats, XLN Audio might have readied something to bring the spark back. The creators of Addictive Drums announced XO, a beatmaker and sample explorer which fuses together sounds from sampling services like Splice, Beatport, and Loopmasters in a visually appealing and creatively chaotic visual environment. It all looks like a hive of sorts, with tiny dots moving around like busy bees.
XO’s facilities include a sequencer, an Accentuator for added dynamics and punch, Groove Templates; essential effects like reverb, delay, pitch, filter, distortion, and tone; over 8000 factory samples and presets; Playground Mode where you toy around with beat and sound variations, patterns and randomization. This mode is designed for happy accidents, so keep that record button pushed in while you are at it.
A novel feature is the so called Live Filter Mode that lets XO randomize samples according to a specific criteria – for example, home in on sounds tagged “808”, “trap” or whatever happens to rock yer boat. You can add some order in the chaos this way.
All in all, XO is something refreshing and seemingly easy to get into. I will give it a spin when I get bored with my regular workflow. Love me some randomized, chopped up beats anytime! Meanwhile, I’d love to hear some demos and videos of XO in action, but XLN is yet to publish such material on its website. Alas, information is scarce at the moment, which only serves to peak my curiosity.
Price and availability
XLN will release XO on April 9 (Tuesday) at the price of USD/EUR 180. Got to say, that’s a bit of an investment – the plug-in costs as much as some modern DAWs. Hopefully, there will be an adequate demo version to really sell us on this beatmaker.
More information
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