Borsta

What it does

A drum and percussion instrument built around a simulated brush stroke rather than fixed samples. One instrument plays per instance, over three sequence lanes: the brush itself plus two one shot layers, each drawn as points you add, drag and delete. Stroke intensity, the tap where the brush lands, velocity, snap to grid, shuffle and time randomising all sit under separate control, and any instrument can be swapped in while a pattern keeps running.

In the demo

Jade strips a pattern back to the bare swirl so the brush motion is audible on its own, then draws taps back over the top. She assigns rhythm presets to individual keys on an Arturia KeyStep, stacks instances on different instruments in AUM, and later sits it under a funk drummer kit with the snare and toms muted.

Worth knowing

The drag, add and remove icons above each lane are small, which Jade returns to as her one sticking point, and a stylus helps. Klevgrand sell Mac and Windows versions separately. Anyone after a straight sampled kit is in the wrong app, since the brush engine is the point of it.