Umpf Retro Beats

[Aosta]

[fotizimo]

$125 CDN for a rebranded regular Umpf???????

It comes with gated and tape effects, but looses the compressor... on a drum machine.

This is NOT what i was expecting.

[MrFigg]

Hmmm. Audio inputs for effects. A tape effect. A picture of a tape deck. Now didn’t I just see one of those somewhere?

[Hydrosonic]

Just what I have come to expect from Propellerhead, half baked, half finished, expensive things. Milk that money while you can PH because with stunts like this people will vote with their cash. A basic sample playback with a few limited effects added on. No thanks PH, I didn't buy DUMPf and I won't be buying DUMPf Retro! But yeah nice way to treat your customers, just DUMP on them.

[antic604]

Just what I have come to expect from Propellerhead, half baked, half finished, expensive things. Milk that money while you can PH because with stunts like this people will vote with their cash. A basic sample playback with a few limited effects added on. No thanks PH, I didn't buy DUMPf and I won't be buying DUMPf Retro! But yeah nice way to treat your customers, just DUMP on them.

[chimp_spanner]

I think I saw on Facebook that existing Umpf owners should have an email with a crossgrade code, so it wouldn't be full price if you already have it. Check your emails!

[Wobbleburger]

Looks neat but yea, no thanks. It would have made more sense (in my eyes) to make it a refill. I get cashing in on the hype surrounding synthwave, retro and vaporwave. People will buy it. These all-in-one devices + samples are getting really popular. It's pretty much the drum equivalent to Layers Wave.

[hurricane]

I think I'll continue using those free 80s drum machine samples that are widely available on the net, and that free AMS RMX impulse response pack that you can find also, and will continue to drag and drop wavs to the sequencer.

This UMPF + Drum sequencer is overkill and I don't see how it will save me time.

But hey look nOObs, it's "easy" to make retro 80s beats now.

[KirkMarkarian]

Y'all have heard me crabbin' about the UMPF! drum machine. Man alive, could we just have ONE with ALL the effects? I don't need more samples. It would be a nice update to the Sample section of Kong. Much easier to use, sounds better, just fantastic.

And we have a gated reverb on the original UMPF. Tape effects? Just got the brand new one in the store yesterday. Don't need more. We got a great compressor too in the original UMPF. Excecpt y'all won't put the effects to individual channels. WHY? Don't know.

And stop using UMPF! just for drums. It can play all kindsa audio, and it could be a granular stretch monster, like 8 Ableton/Bitwig samplers in one machine. I don't understand the remake. I mean, I do understand it - it's a quick bait sale. Some people need the stuff RIGHT NOW and will buy it, but c'monnnnnnnnuhhhhhh!

Please, Propellerheads? Please? This could be so much more than the sum of its parts.

[tobypearce]

Just got the email. Crossgrade is £44

[EnochLight]

Just what I have come to expect from Propellerhead, half baked, half finished, expensive things. Milk that money while you can PH because with stunts like this people will vote with their cash. A basic sample playback with a few limited effects added on. No thanks PH, I didn't buy DUMPf and I won't be buying DUMPf Retro! But yeah nice way to treat your customers, just DUMP on them.

Counterpoint: neither are just "basic sample playback" devices - they are full samplers (which also sample on-the-fly). They also both come with a nice curated selection of sample content and are presented in a nice GUI/UX. But sure, you can get similar content free on the web if you're so inclined - always a lot of options in free-VST-land and plenty of samples floating around the web.

But then again, many like the quick and easiness of working with a packaged RE.

[Prints]

WTF I just paid how much for UMPF Club Drums only a few months ago, and I have to shell out another $50 if I want this better version..

Also, I can't even use my "rewards" for the crossgrade??

LAME

[Loque]

Audio inputs for effects. A tape effect. A picture of a tape deck.

Ok, now i gonna check what this does and if the fx provide something i want.

As i said to Umpf - might be interesting for a few ppl, but not to me. I already have too many synths and samples and stuff.

[Undistraction]

It's like they've given up trying to do anything original.

Pump out that low-grade product for the fanboys and completists.

I'm guessing they spent more on the promo video than developing the rack extension.

[two shoes]

I like the original UMPF, but it was way overpriced like everything Propellerhead sells these days except Reason itself. This is a really bad look for Props, did they learn nothing from the reaction to Layers Waves edition? Changing the interface color and the sample set and removing the compressor (from a drum sample player? really??) and asking another $100 for it?

[WongoTheSane]

I kind of disagree with the general sentiment here. Once you've developed an engine, it makes sense to tailor it to several niche markets. There was a club version (which I didn't like too much, not being a club head myself), now a retro version (more tailored towards my own tastes, I quite like this one) and I expect more will come, like a Trance version, or a Future one, or whatever. The engine itself is quite powerful, it's a nice change from Kong (very different beasts), and it's packaged with a free Drum Sequencer which is a fit made in heaven if you ask me. Pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest, no need to go "PH have gone so low that they're now catering for people other than me". No one forces you to buy all of them.

[EnochLight]

I kind of disagree with the general sentiment here. Once you've developed an engine, it makes sense to tailor it to several niche markets. There was a club version (which I didn't like too much, not being a club head myself), now a retro version (more tailored towards my own tastes, I quite like this one) and I expect more will come, like a Trance version, or a Future one, or whatever. The engine itself is quite powerful, it's a nice change from Kong (very different beasts), and it's packaged with a free Drum Sequencer which is a fit made in heaven if you ask me. Pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest, no need to go "PH have gone so low that they're now catering for people other than me". No one forces you to buy all of them.

Right. This.

Also, has it occurred to anyone that people are actually buying things like Wave Layers and Umpf - and loving them? I mean, I can't fault Props for trying to branch out and add shit people like. Virtually every company under the sun does this sort of product rebranding and niche stuff. I don't know why people are surprised that Props have caught up and started doing it themselves...

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Ermitage]

I kind of disagree with the general sentiment here. Once you've developed an engine, it makes sense to tailor it to several niche markets. There was a club version (which I didn't like too much, not being a club head myself), now a retro version (more tailored towards my own tastes, I quite like this one) and I expect more will come, like a Trance version, or a Future one, or whatever. The engine itself is quite powerful, it's a nice change from Kong (very different beasts), and it's packaged with a free Drum Sequencer which is a fit made in heaven if you ask me. Pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest, no need to go "PH have gone so low that they're now catering for people other than me". No one forces you to buy all of them.

What do you mean by engine? It's just a cut-down sampler with a fixed set of effects and a small mod section. It's a very convenient solution and all that, but let's not pretend it's more advanced than it really is.

[guitfnky]

Tape effects? Just got the brand new one in the store yesterday. Don't need more.

this is false. one can never have enough good tape effects.

[joeyluck]

I like the original UMPF, but it was way overpriced like everything Propellerhead sells these days except Reason itself. This is a really bad look for Props, did they learn nothing from the reaction to Layers Waves edition? Changing the interface color and the sample set and removing the compressor (from a drum sample player? really??) and asking another $100 for it?

Not to continue things off topic, but you can't assume that all products are just thrown together and perhaps they don't come about the way you think.

In regards to Layer Wave Edition, this is from the interview with Peter Gorges a few months ago:

"In the last 3 years I had been looking for ways to put these samples into a virtual instrument for my own purposes, and when I saw LAYERS come out last year, I thought that was the perfect platform for them and so easy to do. I proposed it to Propellerhead and we did it almost guerilla-style – it was a fun project, and it’s successful too, which is particularly gratifying like everything you do for yourself and see other people benefit from it."

https://www.reasontalk.com/2018/06/an-i ... er-gorges/

And what WongoTheSane commented is right on point.

[guitfnky]

I kind of disagree with the general sentiment here. Once you've developed an engine, it makes sense to tailor it to several niche markets. There was a club version (which I didn't like too much, not being a club head myself), now a retro version (more tailored towards my own tastes, I quite like this one) and I expect more will come, like a Trance version, or a Future one, or whatever. The engine itself is quite powerful, it's a nice change from Kong (very different beasts), and it's packaged with a free Drum Sequencer which is a fit made in heaven if you ask me. Pick the ones you're interested in and ignore the rest, no need to go "PH have gone so low that they're now catering for people other than me". No one forces you to buy all of them.

and how cool would it be if they made a version of Umpf with realistic multisampled drums like the Reason Drumkits Refills?

I mean, I love the Addictive Drums VST, and my BFD and RDK refills, but it would be amazing to have that all built into a Rack Extension.

[chimp_spanner]

Disclaimer; I did a few kits and sequences for this, so I had a chance to play with it and it's a bunch of fun! The tape section is actually really nice - I dig the drive on it. And you can get some interesting sounds with the sidechained gate. Remember you can also use the sounds from Club or Retro with either device so if you like the retro sounds but want glitches just put them in Club.

Of course that said, yeah if you already have a bunch of these sounds then that's cool - you're set. It *is* optional afterall And afaik it's Ujam developed so it's not like Props were doing this instead of working on Reason. So ya know, it's whatever

[Aquila]

So basically this is just a fancy sample pack and fx? I might've been interested had it been £20-odd, not £89!

[guitfnky]

the biggest takeaway for me is the slack quality of Props' video. normally they do a good job of quickly demoing the main features in a way that makes them seem interesting. this one was mostly just reading down a list of settings you can mess around with, with no real meat behind it, so it's not hard to see why some people don't feel very excited about it.

[WongoTheSane]

What do you mean by engine? It's just a cut-down sampler with a fixed set of effects and a small mod section. It's a very convenient solution and all that, but let's not pretend it's more advanced than it really is.

I mean a base app that can be skinned and tailored to fit a particular purpose. Much like UJAM's Beatmakers, or the Klang/Pangea/Humana suite, or Radical Piano/Radical Keys, or, in the VST world, SWAM Violin/Viola/Bass/Cello, or pretty much all orchestral VSTs where you have one device for Oboes, one for Flutes, one for Bassoons, made on top of the same code base, with different samples and a few changes from one device to the other to account for that particular instrument's specifics.

Your description of a cut-down sampler with a fixed set of effects and a small mod section describes at least two thirds of musical devices, all encompassed: emulations of old devices, pianos, organs, all orchestral stuff, all drum machines, whether VST, RE, AU, etc, etc. I don't care whether it's advanced or not, I only care whether I can make music with it. As I said, I didn't care for Club Drums, I love this one.

And the argument (not from you, Ermitage, I'm just grouping answers) that PH is a bad company because they're selling products, well... That's weird, isn't it?