Earlier this 12 months, 1010music launched the Lemondrop and Fireball, two surprisingly full synths in extremely small packages. The corporate’s Nanobox lineup covers lots of floor between these two devices, however neither was significantly well-suited to driving drums. So the corporate took the identical core {hardware}, put a percussion-focused FM engine on it, together with a sampler, gave the entire thing a enjoyable pink paint job, and dubbed it Razzmatazz.

The latest member of the 1010music household is a drum machine with wealthy sound and a easy 64-step sequencer. Whereas it could lack among the fashionable conveniences you’d anticipate from a $399 instrument, it makes up for it with a stable set of sound design options. And sure, even 10 months later, the Nanoboxes are nonetheless surprisingly small.

{Hardware}

I will not spend an excessive amount of time refreshing the {hardware} as I’ve already lined it in my Lemondrop and Fireball evaluate, however this is a fast rundown. All the pieces measures 3.75 inches huge, 3 inches tall, and 1.5 inches thick, sufficiently small to slot in even the smallest of luggage or a big pocket. There is a two-inch touchscreen on the entrance, plus 4 navigation buttons and a pair of encoders. On the again, you get ⅛-inch MIDI inputs and outputs, ⅛-inch audio inputs and outputs, a USB-C port for energy, and a microSD slot (pre-installed with a 32GB card) for storing samples and presets. .

The one notable exterior change from earlier Nanobox entries is the colour. There is not any purposeful benefit to the Razzmatazz being sizzling pink, however I find it irresistible. As I discussed in my evaluate of Cre8Audio’s East Beast and West Pest, synths needs to be enjoyable. I’ve nothing towards the Korgs, Elektrons and Moogs of the world. However his devices typically take themselves very severely. And I, for one, suppose that the world of synths might use a splash of shade every now and then.

the sound engine

On the core of Razzmatazz is an eight-voice engine that mixes FM synthesis and pattern playback. Every pad will be one or each, which is fairly distinctive. I am unable to consider one other reasonably priced {hardware} drum machine that means that you can mix FM tones and samples in the identical manner. You may merely layer the 2, however you would additionally, for instance, use a pattern from an actual timpani for the assault, then let the synth fade out afterwards.

It is a actually enjoyable impact and just like what you discover on late ’80s Roland linear arithmetic synths just like the D-50. The one downside is that determining obtain it is not instantly apparent. Because the two envelopes listed here are easy maintain/decay affairs, you may’t simply soften the assault and be carried out with it. As an alternative, you need to assign the envelope to manage the amount of the digital oscillators, however set the modulation depth to destructive 100%, at which level the decay acts because the assault.

One other key distinction is that the Razzmatazz can’t be performed chromatically. So you may’t create a room-shaking bass line to accompany your drum sample. You can also’t do the trick of utilizing the modulation sequencer to manage pitch, like you would on the Lemondrop and Fireball. In truth, there is no such thing as a modulation sequencer, simply two LFOs and two envelopes. And pitch will not be a modulation goal. You may change the pitch of particular person pads and create one thing melodic that manner, however that is about it.

Nonetheless, the sounds themselves are glorious. The gathering of 120 preset kits tends in direction of the electro and glitch aspect of issues. Nonetheless, since there’s a sampler, along with the FM engine, you can even get convincing actual drum sounds. Many of the included samples do not lean into the acoustic realm, however you may simply load or file your individual if you would like. The one factor to notice is that there is no such thing as a option to minimize samples within the Razzmatazz. So if you wish to cut up a breakbeat, it’s important to do it earlier than importing it as separate information. Identical for loops.