Beat Machines

hear

An encyclopedia of classic vintage drum machines

From ‘60s swing to ‘80s hip-hop, ‘90s house and beyond, the iconic machines included here have shaped the course of music history. From the earliest Ace Tone machines to the iconic, essential TR-808 and -909, plus esoteric novelties, far-out drum synths and even modern designs, this anthology is packed with endless inspiration, each carefully studied to capture its most recognizable sounds.

Easy to use and versatile

Over 200 kit presets are mapped to the General MIDI drum mapping standard so that you can drop them into any DAW session and instantly put these classic sounds to work. The GM mapping is also consistent with the other drum kits available for SampleTank 4, so you can mix and match kit components or even layer entire kits.

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Need more cowbell?

To give your beats that extra punch, the presets for each individual machine also include the full General MIDI set of vintage electronic percussion sounds constructed from across the full library of hardware instruments. This extends the sound of every original machine, making this collection of vibey percussion a must-have and one we know you’ll love to use.

Build your own kits

In addition to the main presets, there are hundreds of additional “single element” presets that represent each kit piece. This lets you use SampleTank 4’s Multi Mode to combine up to 16 different elements from this collection and others. Start with a Roland® TR-808 kick drum, add a snare from the Maestro Rhythm King, toms from the Simmons® SDS-V, hi-hats from the Elka Wilgamat, and so on.

Add space and effects

Using SampleTank 4’s Multi Mode, each kit element has its own 5-slot effects section so that you can process your kicks, snares, toms, hi-hat, cymbals and percussion separately. Then use the sends and returns for kit reverbs and even buss compression. And finally, add up to 5 more effects on the master buss.