FXpansion DR-008 Drum Machine

1 DVD, 3 Gb of samples, Full original version

DR-008 is an extremely powerful tool for generating and arranging drum and percussion sounds, one shot samples and rhythm patterns in your DAW or sequencer. Intuitive and streamlined user interface makes creating your own sound palettes incredibly quick. A huge choice of different sampling and synthesis algorithms gives you unprecedented control over your drum sounds; with 96 instrument slots DR-008 far surpasses the competition in every respect.

DR-008 is quite simply the most advanced and capable software drum module on the market. Its design and architecture is quite unique and puts it on a different level to other packages commonly regarded as being in the same class. Yet, despite and indeed because of its advanced architecture, it remains as quick and easy to use, and at least as CPU-efficient, as any of its competitors.

Features:

* 96 drum pads
* 21 sample and drum synth modules
* Up to eight stereo outputs and eight stereo aux sends, configurable
* High quality 32-bit modular sound engine
* 15 unique drumkits
* More than 200 midi loops and grooves
* Supports stereo WAV and AIFF files, and bank files in LM-4, DR-005 and Battery format

Modular Architecture
Key to DR-008's capabilities is its unique modular architecture. If you're new to software synths and drums, don't be put off by this:- although DR-008 is complex under-the-hood, it's been carefully designed to remain incredibly easy to use. Basically, DR-008 has a large (and extensible) library of modules built for a variety of tasks - sampling, analog-modelled or other forms of synthesis, MIDI event processing for performance features, pattern sequencing, and import filters. When loading ready-made kits or samples, however, it automatically knows the right ones to use... the power is always there when you need it, but never gets in the way when you don't.

Sampling
Sample playback is key to many peoples' drum sound - whether it be realistic velocity-layered acoustic kits, warped and mangled waveforms, or simple and quick playback of a large palette of one-shot hits and fx. DR-008 comes with four different sample playback algorithms each optimized for a different task: high-fidelity acoustic sample playback, ultra-CPU-light one-shot playback, or intense wave twisting.

Synthesis
Equally important for many modern and electronic music styles, from contemporary pop and R+B through to experimental IDM, is programmable drum synthesis. DR-008's modular architecture really comes in to its own here:- it comes with over ten different algorithms, each geared to producing a particular class of sound. Want an analog hi-hat? Just pick one of the analog hi-hat models and tweak the five or six parameters until you get the sound you want. All parameters are, of course, fully automatable.

MIDI Processing
Making music on a computer should be fun and intuitive, and that's where DR-008's MIDI processing modules come in. These easy-to-use modules let you easily create layers, rolls and flams that you can trigger with a single key.

Sequencing
An integral part of DR-008 is the built-in pattern sequencing. Unlike other virtual drum modules, DR-008 has pattern sequencing you can trigger from MIDI keys, to quickly build groove menus and variations. With the SlicyDrummer and FillInDrummer add-ons from MusicLab, this takes on a whole new dimension. Make sure you demo these two extras if you're checking out the DR-008!

Sound Library
When you just want to get composing, having the right sounds available at your fingertips is vitally important. That's why DR-008 comes with a huge (800+MB) and comprehensive (100+ kits, from rock and jazz acoustic kits to abstract IDM electronics and pretty much every vintage drum box ever built) library of ready-made kits. We also have an online file exchange area where users can share kits they've made themselves with the rest of the DR-008 user community.

Workflow
DR-008 is an immensely powerful machine - but power alone is no good without the ability to control it. That's why we spent a lot of time making DR-008 faster, easier and more convenient to use:- despite its complexity, it still far outpaces all the competition in these important areas! Drag + drop: drag and drop wave files or presets from the built-in "tree" browser or directly from Windows Explorer. Multiple select lets you pull in an entire directory of waves at once.
Preview-in-context: finding the perfect sound for your song can be tricky and laborious, especially when you've got hundreds to choose from. With DR-008's preview-in-context, it's a breeze:- start your song playing in your sequencer, doubleclick the pad you want to change (for example, the snare drum), then just scroll through a directory of all your snares with the mouse or arrow keys. As each sample or preset is hilighted, it will play in the context of your song - auditioning a huge directory of sounds just got a whole lot easier.
Preset management: right click a pad or access its popup editor window to allow easy stepping through and auditioning of new synth presets or samples.
Intelligent kit management: DR-008 has smart management of drum kit files, never again will you find yourself in a situation where your song is rendered useless simply because you moved some samples around on your disk.
MIDI Learn: with all those controls, sometimes you just want a way to control them. Fortunately that's easy - DR-008 has a straightforward MIDI learn mode. Just click the Learn icon, move a control on DR-008, move a fader or knob on your control surface, and you're done!

Compatibility
In this day and age, it's very important that all your software works together. DR-008 is compatible with all major VSTi, DXi and RTAS hosts on the Windows platform; it imports audio files in all WAV and AIFF formats, and can use the huge variety of third-party kits available in LM-4 and Battery formats. With the AWave utility from FMJSoft, it can also import SoundFonts (.sf2) and Akai programs.

DR-008 is also drag+drop-compatible with Bitshift Audio's pHatMATIK Pro (great for beat slicing), and works superbly with MusicLab's FillInDrummer and SlicyDrummer groove librarians. And with its publicly-available Module Developer Kit, other individuals and companies can develop a wide range of new modules for the DR-008 system - current developers include DelayDots, TenCrazy, and Smart::Electronix.

Performance
Because DR-008 only loads modules as you need them, and each module is highly optimized for a specific task, DR-008 is much easier on the CPU than other drum modules which attempt to carry out a variety of functions with a single fixed architecture. The end result is that with DR-008 you get more voices out of the same CPU load. Of course, DR-008 has the same high-quality 32-bit internal processing and sample-accurate timing that you've come to expect from soft synths today.