Published 18/3/08
New electronic drum kit turns heads
A new electronic drum kit from a recently formed Swedish company caught our eye at Musikmesse.
The manufacturer is 2box and their product is called DrumIt Five, but interestingly it’s not just a load of trigger pads and a sound module.
Instead, it’s what the manufacturers call an ‘open sound’ system, which means it can be loaded with standard WAV, AIFF or REX samples from the user’s PC or Mac.
Files are loaded on to flash memory inside the sound module using USB transfer, and a piece of included software acts as a sample librarian, enabling the user to drag and drop everything from single files to entire multi-sampled drum kit patches from the computer’s file manager.
This means that DrumIt Five can be used to trigger any samples, not just drums, and it can also be loaded with kits from third-party virtual drummer applications. Despite this functionality, DrumIt Five comes with its own built-in drum sounds.
The pads are available with different heads: rubber, mesh or standard drum skins, and they are interchangeable just like they are on an acoustic drum. The hi-hat pad operates on a conventional pedal, and a special continuously variable sensor sends information to the ‘brain’ to increase hi-hat realism.
All the pads and cymbals have multiple zones, so users can play rim clicks and rim shots on the drum pads, and alternate between the edge and the bell of the cymbals. What's more, you can choke the cymbals by catching them in the same way as you would with a conventional cymbal.
Pricing information for DrumIt Five is not yet confirmed, but the manufacturers expect that it will cost just under 2000 Euros when it becomes available in the Summer. Keep your eyes on the 2box web site for the latest information.
www.2box.se
A new electronic drum kit from a recently formed Swedish company caught our eye at Musikmesse. The manufacturer is 2box and their product is called DrumIt Five, but interestingly it’s not just a load of trigger pads and a sound module.
Instead, it’s what the manufacturers call an ‘open sound’ system, which means it can be loaded with standard WAV, AIFF or REX samples from the user’s PC or Mac.
Files are loaded on to flash memory inside the sound module using USB transfer, and a piece of included software acts as a sample librarian, enabling the user to drag and drop everything from single files to entire multi-sampled drum kit patches from the computer’s file manager.
This means that DrumIt Five can be used to trigger any samples, not just drums, and it can also be loaded with kits from third-party virtual drummer applications. Despite this functionality, DrumIt Five comes with its own built-in drum sounds.
The pads are available with different heads: rubber, mesh or standard drum skins, and they are interchangeable just like they are on an acoustic drum. The hi-hat pad operates on a conventional pedal, and a special continuously variable sensor sends information to the ‘brain’ to increase hi-hat realism.
All the pads and cymbals have multiple zones, so users can play rim clicks and rim shots on the drum pads, and alternate between the edge and the bell of the cymbals. What's more, you can choke the cymbals by catching them in the same way as you would with a conventional cymbal.
Pricing information for DrumIt Five is not yet confirmed, but the manufacturers expect that it will cost just under 2000 Euros when it becomes available in the Summer. Keep your eyes on the 2box web site for the latest information.
www.2box.se
