Now we’re talking!
This will sell a lot of Xenodrives.
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best demo so far from Erica on the Hexdrums and what it can do. To be honest, even without an overdrive/distortion unit, it already sounds massive! I had to balance it with Perkons as it was more heavy than Perkons! I love Perkons and Hexdrums combo. For me the immediate fast workflow is a win. I can see jamming live with Hexdrums, DB01 and a small desktop synth like Waldorf Protein or Virus Snow.
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Sure always glad to help out fellow Elektronauts! I do wish that Erica Synths had included a chart for MIDI mapping for CCs on how to trigger notes on the Hexdrums. Perhaps if you sent them an email in support they can assist? I would be interested since I could setup my Hapax sequencer to do this as well.
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This sounds better than the actual xenodrive demo
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agree and I think it is because the techno guy is a pro and making it killer just like how Baseck did an awesome jam on Hexdrums.
I’ve just created a support ticket and will report back.
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That’s allways a challenge for hobbyists like me because real pros have the skills to develop great music with the worst tools and worst workflow implementations.
But this insight doesn’t prevent me from buying to much gear. 
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same here I mean we do not have the experience and skills these pros have but with patiences, dedication and effort we can reach a good level. I sucked bad when I first learned guitar and synths and now I just suck less 
The best complement came from my mother right before her passing when she told me that my guitar playing went from horrible in the beginning to sounding close to professional guitarist level. She was talented in music and played a few instruments. I need no other praise than my late mother. Anyways be glad we can enjoy fine instruments and do not need to deal with the horrific stress of making a living from music. I love gear as much as anyone else but hope to not buy any for a long time. There really are only a couple things that interest me in the future.
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Well, not what I wanted to hear:
There is no MIDI CC implementation.
The voices (BD1, BD2, … Ride) can be triggered with MIDI notes 36 to 45.
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well I guess the best we can hope for is a future firmware update.
They’ve pretty clearly said that there is no way to automate or save any of the knob positions, and that is not changeable with firmware fwiw.
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bummer well at least it works for my needs and really fun easy to use with perkons and jomox alphabase. I am set for drum machines.
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Ok, I had little desire for this thing based on the noisier/harsher demos and hadn’t paid much attention to the release or this thread. This one sounds really good though, as do the @Claid demos above. I don’t need this thing, I think my Syntakt covers all the ground I’d use it for, but I’m glad it exists.
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it is definitely a really fun and immediate drum machine. In spite of linits, easily one of my favorite drum boxes. It reminds me of all the good bits from Erica Synths sequencers, Roland drum sounds with unique Hexinverter Mutant drum dna flavor. Having two different bass kick drums in one box is really fun.
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Quickfire round: what do I love the most and the least about the HexDrums?
Most: The low-end in general - BD1, BD2 and Machine (which makes for a nice tom). Low-end is meaty, varied, and takes nicely to the master compressor/drive circuits.
Least: The Hi-Hats. Which can be made up for with the sample voices, but still… I dunno. Maybe it’s because the last analogue drum machine I bonded with was the TR-606 but the HexDrums hats grate on me, and what’s worse, there’s no control of them beyond filtering. The 606 hats have no control at all of course, but they sound wonderful as-is. I’d love to know what others think of the HexDrums hats!
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I agree. I also hated all of the noisy LXR-02 demos that were posted when that drum machine was released, but I had a sense that it could do something different. I ended up getting one and I love the more analog, TR-606/808 type clean sounds I’ve managed to get out of it. I’m hoping that the Hexdrums is also capable of making the kinds of sounds I prefer.
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yup the hats are the weak link but overall it is a superb techno monster and the master compressor circuit is great. Fortunately the hi hats on my jomox AB are great so I can use those.
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How about loading up a 606 hihat sample into it? I wonder if it would sound similar to the TR-606 or if there’s some magic in the 606 that makes the hihats so special.
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I really don’t like the noisy distorted industrial sounds that Erica seems to like using in all their demos. It makes it hard to figure out how I can personally use most of these boxes. I know it’s just a taste thing and other people go for that sound so I’m not throwing shade. I think Erica has a lot of techno enjoyers on the staff.
The LXR-02 example is a good one, I’ve heard so many cool demos from that that don’t sound noisy.
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Totally agree, but at least their Hexdrum demos up until release sounded pretty vanilla imo. Which got me interested in the first place, since I was pleasantly surprised they’re making something that’s not as brutal.
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