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 Glaresoft iDrum At a Glance  
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DAS writes:
A sampling drum-machine "AudioUnits" plug-in for the MAC OS X platform "only". I really see no need to invest in anything else for my drum production. This gets the job done for me the same as Battery or RMIV, but for a fraction of the cost, and with the same pro-audio quality.

I use this plug-in professionally all of the time for "all" of my productions without any complaints. Including some things that I have produced that have been aired on major US prime time TV.

For $50, you can't afford not to get this plug-in/app!

Good Points
This plug-in is the "best" $50 I ever invested into my music production setup! There is nothing out there for $50 that even compares to what this can do for you. 1st, you can create and use an unlimited number of tracks (or as referred to in the manual as channels) for your patterns. No limitations whatsoever. Doesn't matter if you want to create 55 seperate drum parts, it can create all of them and play them all back. 2nd, iDrum can be used within a music app as a plug-in instance, or it can run standalone without being used as a plug-in. 95% of the time I use it like this. In other words, iDrum has its' own built in sequencer. 3rd, iDrum allows you to "bounce" your drum patterns or songs as a 2 track .wav/.aiff audio file, or as seperate audio files of each track used in your patterns. So you can work on your pattern, and bounce it down as a .wav and import that into your DAW's project. Or if you created a pattern with 8 different parts, you could bounce down 8 seperate .wavs and import those into your DAW to mix seperately. 4th, iDrum uses "grid" based step entry. If you're familiar with any Roland X0X instrument, then this is no different, but much more powerful. iDrum also has a "swing/shuffle" amount you can apply, and it will go as high a 64th note resolution for your tracks. This makes for a nice variation in programming, especially for fills in things like drum&bass or reggeaton that use nice ghost rolls. 5th, you can easily control the velocity of "each" note on the grid. iDrum also gives you a high pass filter and low pass filter that can be used on each seperate channel. And it allows you to lower the bit resolution of each sample per track to get a dirtier 12bit or 8bit sound if you desire.
Bad Points
You can't program anything in odd time signatures by itself, just 4/4 time. But what you can do, if this is necessary is, program all of your drum parts through you DAW, and sync iDrum to your DAW with the relevant time signature. Your sequencer will then trigger all of your samples the same as if you were programming any other softsynth that plays back to your sequenced midi tracks. Personally I don't think this is that big of an issue at all. iDrum does not have any f/x that you can use, such as reverb, delay, chorus, flange, etc. But I personally think that for most of the time this is a good thing because the reverb in your DAW is always better than what you would get in a plug-in anyway. Definitely get the updates, because this thing can act a little flaky with stability in some AU DAWs in the first revisions. But is extremely stable and doesn't crash once you get all of the updates. Other thing, this doesn't come with a manual. You'd have to purchase one from Glaresoft if you choose, besides what comes as a .pdf with iDrum and the physical getting started manual that comse with the case, if you purchased it that way. Of course if you downloaded it and paid for it, then this will be different. Honestly though, you don't need a manual, iDrum is soo easy to figure out in no time. And what few questions you may have are "all" posted in Glaresoft's support/faq section of their website.
 

 Glaresoft iDrum Specifications:

Software supported:
MAC OSX apps that support AU plug-ins

 iDrum Links


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