Pulsar-ES

What it does

A drum machine modelled on an old Ukrainian preset unit, and the developer’s first iOS app. Pads hold the kit, kick, snare, hat, clap and toms, and the rhythms are fixed factory patterns recalled by typing a two digit number, covering polka, tango, disco, waltz, hip hop and heavy metal among others. An accent control, an overdrive, a reverb and a resonant filter sit alongside, with a drive and a noise control for the old hardware hum. The interface can be switched to Ukrainian, and it sends MIDI out as well as taking it in.

In the demo

Jade cycles the patterns in AUM and plays the pads over the top, then adds the effects. Because the note mapping is spread widely across the keyboard with no remapping, she drives the pads from MKR, and later routes its MIDI out into Hammerhead.

Worth knowing

The patterns cannot be edited, and there is no next or previous button for stepping through them. In the demo it will not play in GarageBand and a saved project needs reloading, so check the current version before relying on it there.