Vermona - drumDING

The drumDING is a hybrid drum machine built around a slightly different idea. Rather than giving every track its own fixed kick, snare or cymbal circuit, Vermona provide one extensive analogue percussion synth for creating the whole kit — and it's the first entirely new standalone instrument out of Erlbach in years, so this is something of an occasion [!]. Its oscillator, noise and impulse generators can be mixed, filtered and modulated in different combinations, covering straightforward electronic drums as well as clicks, metallic tones and less easily named percussion. Once a sound is ready, it can be sampled instantly with a push of a button directly onto a track — and the analogue section is immediately free to make the next one.

This turns the upper panel into a dedicated drum-sound workshop feeding a six-track sampler and sequencer. Up to 32 sounds can be stored within a project, and the AUX input means the raw material does not have to come from the internal circuitry: external instruments can be captured, while existing tracks may be routed back through the machine for further sampling. Once recorded, samples can be repitched, reversed and shaped with their own envelopes, then treated with drive, bit reduction, amplitude modulation, delays and reverb. Build a clean kit from scratch, or keep processing and resampling until its analogue beginnings are barely recognisable — both routes equally viable.

The six sequencer tracks each run for up to 64 steps and may use their own lengths, start points, playback behaviour and clock divisions. Parameter locks, ratchets, probability, micro-timing and per-track modulation provide plenty of movement, and the lock system works on two levels: ordinary per-step locks for individual edits, and linked ALT locks that tie several marked steps together, so changing one brings the rest along with it. The analogue voice can be worked on while a sequence keeps playing, with a cueing option for auditioning privately — a nice touch for anyone building sounds mid-set. Navigation stays quick throughout: a high-contrast OLED with four encoders beneath it, never more than four parameters to a page, so everything is a glance and a turn away rather than three menus down.

The drumDING is an interesting meeting point between Vermona's analogue percussion circuits and a modern sampling workflow. Make the sounds yourself, collect them into a kit, then treat the pattern as another part of the instrument. Anyone who enjoys the sound-design half of drum programming as much as the rhythm half will get on with it very quickly — the whole kit ends up being something you made rather than something you just loaded. A very very interesting drummachine!

Features:

• Hybrid analogue percussion synthesizer, sampler and six-track sequencer
• One flexible analogue voice for constructing complete drum kits
• Analogue architecture inspired by Vermona's drum-synthesis experience
• Dual-range oscillator with continuously variable sine-to-square waveform
• Dedicated pitch envelope and amplitude decay for the oscillator
• Pink and blue noise generator
• Adjustable impulse and transient generator
• Additional modulation oscillator routable to the main oscillator or filter
• Resonant 12 dB/octave multimode filter with continuous low-pass, band-pass and high-pass blending
• Four-channel mixer with direct and filtered signal paths
• AUX input for external sounds and internal resampling
• Direct sampling from the analogue voice to the six sequencer tracks
• Up to 32 samples per project
• Sample import and export via SD card
• Sample repitching over a four-octave range
• Forward and reverse sample playback
• Individual sample envelopes
• Per-track drive, bit reduction and amplitude modulation
• Two delay effects and reverb
• Six sequencer tracks with up to 64 steps each
• Independent track lengths, start points, playback patterns and clock divisions
• Standard parameter locks and linked ALT parameter locks
• Ratchets, probability, velocity, micro-timing and swing
• Per-track modulation
• FILL, TEMP and LOCK performance functions
• Pattern chaining, mute and solo
• High-contrast OLED with four directly corresponding encoders
• Separate output for each of the six tracks
• Dedicated analogue-voice output
• Cueing option for privately auditioning the analogue voice
• Trigger output and CV control input
• Balanced stereo main output
• DIN MIDI input and output
• USB MIDI
• Device Dimensions (W x D x H): 33 x 21 x 11 cm
• Device Weight: 2.5 kg