Ableton Forum

hey all. looking to upgrade from mda's drumsynth to something a little sexier and user-friendlier. it's more or less down to these two. what are ya'll's experiences with them? is microtonic worth the money if all i want it for is the synthesis? (my plan is to create percussion with whichever one i get, and then do my programming with battery or shortcircuit.)

Don't know about Drumular but Microtonic is the Shiznit. I am constantly amazed by the sounds I can create in it. The latest version gives you multiple channels and better midi implementation as well. It's worth twice what it costs in my opinion.

Comes in a cool tin can too if you want it.

That's what I finally ordered. Install from a USB key.

rob.

Never played with the other one but Microtonic rocks pretty hard

and it's fairly inexpensive (dirt cheap for what you get)

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robtronik wrote:Comes in a cool tin can too if you want it.

That's what I finally ordered. Install from a USB key.

rob.

Oooohhh, you got the TinTonic? I'm jealous!

µTonic is great!

The Microtonic to my ears sounds more flashy/brighter/distorted.

I tried it for a while, but somehow it didn't do it for me plus I was well put off by what to me is the ugliest looking interface I have ever seen.

Drumular somhow really grabbed me when the beta came out it has this kinda warm retro feeling about it which I really like (I make Electro).

It doesn't sound as spectacular as Microtonic when you hear it completely dry, but in the context of a mix, it is not always the most spectacular sounds that work the best.

You need to get the demo's and play with them, see which one grabs you. That's the one for you.

PS whichever one you get, checkout these freewares:

Odo Rhythmv3.6 (what a name!)
E-Phonic (3 different ones)

The E-Phonic are plain good.
The Odo does nasty metallic inharmonic hihats & percussion, that combines well with the Drumular.

For me anyway

so, i got the demos for both, and i really like the way drumular sounds, but it's a little esoteric in terms of operation. i'm gonna spend some more time with it and try to wrap my tiny little head around it.

microtonic simply opens a blank vst window when i load it up - single or multi. i'm using live 5, no other apps running, 1 midi channel, nothing else going on, and my setup is usually *uber*stable...anyone else had issues like this?

I've worked intensively with both and I'd have to say that for my money Drumular kicks microTonics ass. I would agree that microTonic sounds really good, but I hardly ever used anything other than the kicks - the other stuff sounded too much like basic analogue, and I had better results using fm synths like operator for the rest of my sounds.

Drumular on the other hand has a much wider pallet, and the clap sounds are simply fucking great![/u]

I got drumular when version 1 came out, and i've also tried out the demo of microtonic. For me drumular has a lot more features synthesis wise and it also has some sample based modules. And the devs seem to be working on it constantly, it's already at version 1.03, they intruded a very cool additive modul in version 1.02.
Microtonic sounds good and i like the stepsequencer, but it is kind of limited compared to drumular as a drum synthesis tool.

Machinate wrote:I would agree that microTonic sounds really good, but I hardly ever used anything other than the kicks - the other stuff sounded too much like basic analogue, and I had better results using fm synths like operator for the rest of my sounds.

Agree 110%

a

T_Zox wrote:...

And the devs seem to be working on it constantly, it's already at version 1.03, they intruded a very cool additive modul in version 1.02.

i wish they'd work on a helpfile...synthesis is one thing, i don't expect them to learn it for me or anything. but getting stuff like midi learn to work is not particularly obvious (to me, at any rate), and i'd think that if your product was out of beta there'd be at least a bare-bones helpfile that went through the menus and the settings and such.

oh well...it sure sounds lovely.

Machinate wrote:and the clap sounds are simply fucking great!

Yes! The "eclap" module is fan-fucking-tastic!

does drumular have a step sequencer in it?

Komplex wrote:does drumular have a step sequencer in it?

No.