MacMusic  |  PcMusic  |  440 Software  |  440 Forums  |  440TV  |  Zicos
rhythmate
Search

Rhythmic Robot release RHYTHMATE – the world's first drum machine!

Monday May 20, 2019. 09:16 AM , from Gearslutz
Hi guys,

If we've been quiet for a while, it's largely because we've been working hard heppy The result of several months of careful work, Rhythmate is now finished – and will be of particular interest to fans of seriously old, crusty bits of musical history. This is both a faithful Kontakt recreation of the world's very first (tape-based) drum machine – the amazing Chamberlin Rhythmate – and an extension of that machine into something far more versatile and interesting...

Born in the 1950s, the Rhythmate was the first brainchild of Harry Chamberlin, who went on to make the Chamberlin tape-replay keyboard (which in turn was the precursor to the Mellotron). The Rhythmate used looped recordings of real percussion performances, running on 1" tape, to create backing rhythm sections; sliding the tape head across the tracks gave access to different patterns (and, sometimes, mashups of two patterns when the head got lodged halfway). The patterns could be varispeeded up and down to the tempo of your choice, though of course with inevitable pitch-shifting as well; and the whole thing was done up in a tasteful wood veneer kfhkh

Our Kontakt version does two thing. Firstly, it faithfully recreates the authentic Rhythmate tape loops, complete with varispeed; so if you want the authentic sound of the original, it's here, with all its patterns, in all its glory. You can set two loops going simultaneously (to create the original "tape head lodged between tracks" glitch) and you can filter and adjust the loops to taste. Perhaps more usefully, you can both varispeed and beatslice them, giving you the choice of either matching your track's tempo by shifting the pitch (authentic operation) or by slicing the beats (modern operation)... or a combo of the two. In short, you can lock these patterns to your DAW tempo as perfectly or imperfectly as you wish.

Secondly, though, we've extended that authentic functionality considerably, by harvesting over 1000 individual drum and percussion hits from within the loops, and mapping these – with multiple round-robins – to the MIDI keyboard. Using these, you can create brand new loops which are nevertheless stamped with the Rhythmate's unique sonic fingerprint (which is, basically, the sound of 70 years of hot oxide). Take a listen here to find out what the Amen Break sounds like coming from the Rhythmate, for example. This makes our Rhythmate a fantastic resource if you want the thick, compressed sound of the original tape Rhythmate, but want to harness its sound to your own drum patterns.

Oh, and there's compression, convolved Spring and Lexicon reverbs, additional Hiss and Crackle controls for help glueing your beats together, a full kit-piece Mixer pane with EQ and FX sends, and tons more.

More details and the all-important audio demos are on our website here:

Rhythmic Robot RHYTHMATE for Kontakt

And finally, there is of course a tasty launch offer on the pricing, so you can grab Rhythmate for 20% off the list price – just €20. Given that original machines are going on eBay for around $12,000, we hope this is tempting:lol:

Enjoy timewarping your tracks back to the 1950s!

Best wishes,

The Professor (and Mongo)

Rhythmic Robot Audio... Kontakt instruments with character!
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/new-product-alert/1265563-rhythmic-robot-release-rhythmate-worlds-fi...
News copyright owned by their original publishers | Copyright © 2004 - 2024 Zicos / 440Network
115 sources
Current Date
Mar, Fri 29 - 16:27 CET