RetroDrums DMX Drum Module

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dioxide
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17 Jul 2019

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RetroDrums DMX Drum Module

The RetroDrums DMX Drum Module brings the sounds of the legendary Oberheim DMX drum machine to your Reason rack.

The RetroDrums DMX Drum Module is modeled after the iconic Oberheim DMX hardware unit. Introduced in 1981, the DMX was the second digital drum machine ever to be sold as a commercial product, following the Linn LM-1 Drum Computer in 1980. Its popularity among musicians of the era contributed to the sound and evolution of 1980s new wave, synthpop and hip hop music, with its legendary sound instantly recognizable on hit singles like Run DMC's "It's Like That", Madonna's "Holiday", The Beastie Boys' "No Sleep Till Brooklyn", New Order's "Blue Monday" and Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit”, and has been used by a diverse who's-who of artists past and present such as Justice, The Chemical Brothers, Eurythmics, The Police, Reflex, Grandmaster Flash, Dr Dre, and of course: Davy DMX.

https://www.propellerheads.com/shop/rac ... um-module/

This was in the Shop yesterday but I think everyone missed it. The new arrivals section in the new Shop also includes Refills and VSTs, so this flew under the radar completely.

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MrFigg
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17 Jul 2019

Description says:
“The original hardware unit consisted 11 8-bit sampled sounds that were played back at 12-bit resolution, with the upsampling through an analog playback circuit resulting in its signature “fat” sound. “

Hmmm. So what’s the difference between this and just loading a selection of DMX samples into ReDrum?
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dan_g
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17 Jul 2019

MrFigg wrote:
17 Jul 2019

Hmmm. So what’s the difference between this and just loading a selection of DMX samples into ReDrum?
thats what i thought when reading through :?:

Just a sample player?
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cgijoe
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17 Jul 2019

I would love some sound previews on the product page!

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MrFigg
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17 Jul 2019

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sleep1979

17 Jul 2019

MrFigg wrote:
17 Jul 2019
http://www.dubsounds.com/dmx.htm
Just add ReDrum
I kind of agree , i already have a pack of samples like this that i got free from samplephonics ( think there paid now )

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Boombastix
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17 Jul 2019

Lot's of misunderstandings in this area out the inter-web world. These old drum machines used uLaw compression (it is a digital compression, think mp3, not a LA2 compressor), before storing in a 8-bit memory. This means the sound is more or less equal to a 12-bit uncompressed sample.
When you play back a uLaw stored sample you must decode (decompress/"un-code") it again, so it sounds good (close to the original).

Now the old "trick" is to re-pitched the uLaw compressed sample and as it runs through the uLaw decompression but at a different pitch (slower play back speed) the sound becomes very gritty and it looses a lot of high frequency content. Since I know the science I can simulate this with plugins, but no, Redrum or NN-19 does not achieve this if you just re-pitch a sample the same amount as an original DMX/Linn. You have to get the uLaw algorithms in there or something similar that simulates it, but regular bit crushers does something different and that sound is not even close.

Unfortunately I cannot see the developer mention uLaw so it is difficult to know if this really does what the old machine did, or if it is just some re-pitched "fakery". However, anyone knowing how it should sound can just try the unit and listen. If they did not code the uLaw then maybe they have multi-sampled the drums at different pitches.
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hurricane
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17 Jul 2019

The GUI is lazy.
And no demos? Come on, man.
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QVprod
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17 Jul 2019

Boombastix wrote:
17 Jul 2019
Lot's of misunderstandings in this area out the inter-web world. These old drum machines used uLaw compression (it is a digital compression, think mp3, not a LA2 compressor), before storing in a 8-bit memory. This means the sound is more or less equal to a 12-bit uncompressed sample.
When you play back a uLaw stored sample you must decode (decompress/"un-code") it again, so it sounds good (close to the original).

Now the old "trick" is to re-pitched the uLaw compressed sample and as it runs through the uLaw decompression but at a different pitch (slower play back speed) the sound becomes very gritty and it looses a lot of high frequency content. Since I know the science I can simulate this with plugins, but no, Redrum or NN-19 does not achieve this if you just re-pitch a sample the same amount as an original DMX/Linn. You have to get the uLaw algorithms in there or something similar that simulates it, but regular bit crushers does something different and that sound is not even close.

Unfortunately I cannot see the developer mention uLaw so it is difficult to know if this really does what the old machine did, or if it is just some re-pitched "fakery". However, anyone knowing how it should sound can just try the unit and listen. If they did not code the uLaw then maybe they have multi-sampled the drums at different pitches.
The comparisons to Redrum are more about simply loading samples of this module into it. Not the actual processing of the module. Depending on the quality of the samples, the resulting sound will be very similar. According to what you say, perhaps the tuning aspect would have a different sound if that behavior was modeled in this RE though.
hurricane wrote:
17 Jul 2019
The GUI is lazy.
And no demos? Come on, man.
Agreed, instrument devices really should have audio demos. GUI basically looks like the hardware though. sure it could be refined a bit (particularly the knobs) but I don't see how it could be significantly improved.

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hurricane
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17 Jul 2019

There are no patches/no patch loading or saving capabilities. This is a bare bones sample player. Rush job. Rubbish. Save yourself $25 and download any of the free DMX samples floating around out there.
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phithegoldenratio
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Joined: 30 Jul 2018

17 Jul 2019

and why on earth does it not accept gates from Propulsion or System 9 but from Redrum....

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