Twisted Electrons Deton8 is an explosive 8-bit drum machine
Twisted Electrons is bringing us Deton8, a little drum machine that uses a mix of 8-bit samples and wavetable synthesis. Don’t be fooled by the size of the tiny box: It packs a lot of explosive power and comes with many good ideas.
Deton8
After the Crazy8 Beats sequencer and the hapiNES and uAcid8 mini synths, Twisted Electrons is once again releasing an inconspicuous little box that looks like a whole lot of fun. Deton8 is a compact drum machine that relies on a mix of 8-bit sampling and wavetable synthesis to generate its eight voices. In addition to Kick, Snare, Metal (hi-hats), Clap, and Tom, there’s a track called “Can” which delivers tinny sounds and one called “Nut” for woody sounds. The “Synth” track contains a triangle wavetable synthesizer inspired by the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). There’s no option to sample your own sounds, but the Deton8 comes with six kits which you can upload to the machine via USB for a bit of sonic flexibility. They include 808- and 909-style kits as well as sounds for big beats, jungle breaks and more.
Tweaking and shaping the sounds
For tweaking the sounds and sequences, Deton8 offers some interesting options. There is a sound variation knob which affects the kick, snare, hats, and synth in different ways. Pitch and decay can be sequenced per step for every voice, and samples can be played back in forward or reverse per track. There is also a delay and a ring modulator effect, as well as distortion and a global pitch shifter. For spicing up a live performance, the machine features eight stutter modes: Beat repeat, forward and reverse granular, pendulum granular (scratch), buzz/texture, random granular and spin up/spin down. Finally, the Deton8 offers a sidechain compression effect. Any track can “duck” the others to create the classic pumping sound.
Sequencer
The sequencer stores 16 patterns of up to 16 steps each, which can be chained together to make a song. There’s tap tempo and swing, and individual tracks can be soloed and muted. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can use the randomize option to create a random beat. A copy/paste function facilitates the creation of related patterns. With USB-MIDI, MIDI In/Out and Sync In/Out, the Deton8 has all the necessary options to integrate into any setup.
Twisted Electrons says that the Deton8 will ship in April 2019. It is now available for pre-order at the company’s website for 255 Euros.
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One response to “Twisted Electrons Deton8 is an explosive 8-bit drum machine”
update: via a dedicated editor it will be possible to upload yout own samples…