1.5

you can mix and match drum elements from
other kits, and build your own Frankenstein kit
to better suit your needs. That’s not all though:
each constituent part can have their virtual
skins swapped, be retuned, have the buzz
dialled up or down, and re-deine the shell
proile. This is all down to the mind-boggling
synthesis technology that certainly trumps the
conventional approach to capturing samples.
This lexibility is further evidenced by the
breathtaking efect of changing your virtual
drum room via IK’s deft use of convolution, and
efect-soaking certain kit elements in the Mixer.
Playstation
While the kit’s sound is highly malleable, MODO
Drum is also loaded up with a range of
playability options. Going well beyond what
we’ve seen elsewhere in the ‘virtual player’
domain, MODO Drum’s Play Style option allows
for the precise choosing of sticks, exactly where
on each drum element the sticks are hit, and just
how accurate this digital drummer’s impacts
are. Quite frankly the sculptural scope is
astounding. The Grooves section is the easiest
way to hear the results of all of this in full light,
with a pyramid of pre-determined drum
patterns. As with MODO Bass, these samples are
super easy to slot into your project.
Using MODO Drum to build up a series of
demos results in a rewarding experience, and
while we ind it very easy to get entirely
comfortable with the surface level oferings of
the library, there’s a veritable ocean of
possibility beneath the surface. While size might
be an issue, thankfully you’re able to download
only those kits you need. While other drum
libraries trade of on bringing you accurate,
IK Multimedia
MODO Drum 1.5 £250
Verdict
For Unprecedented kit and beat editing
via modal synthesis
Great playability/humanisation options
Simple UI and easy to use
Deep room shaping, kit-mixing scope
Against A real disk-space hogger!
Another win for IK, MODO Drum 1.5 excels
at being a multi-layered drum sample
library that goes above and beyond what
was previously thought possible
9/10
Alternatively
Toontrack Superior Drummer 3
249 » 10/10 » £320
This powerhouse was previously
our top pick for versatile kit-
shaping and control
XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2
207 » 9/10 » £140
While a diferent approach to
MODO, it’s still a solid kit handler.
Some of MODO Drum’s most
extraordinary abilities, such as the
option of having ininite round robins,
is thanks to the real-time modal
synthesis technology used to create
these virtual kits. Unlike traditional
sample capture, this innovative tech
mathematically models the physical
parameters (dimensions, skin,
materials, durability etc) and all the
in-between variables including play
style, stick-type etc and room vibration
to swiftly produce what is, in efect, a
very real model of the kit within your
CPU. You can afect it in real-time,
without any processing lag or having to
settle for approximations of what
certain changes ‘might’ sound like. In
efect, it’s like tiny virtual engineers are
shifting mics, swapping drum elements
and more instantly within your hard
drive. It’s a technology that IK have
been working on for 11 years, and the
irst version of MODO Drum, released
back in 2019, marked IK’s irst
commercial deployment of it.
Simulation theory
Every drum component can be switched and re-tuned
“well beyond that seen
elsewhere in the ‘virtual
player’ domain… quite
frankly the sculptural
scope is astounding”
playable recordings of premiere kits in world-
class locations, IK instead hand the keys to you,
with the player, room, kit and character entirely
at your control.
Web www.ikmultimedia.com
The wealth of player and kit control is all down to modal synthesis
November 2022 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 71
ik multimedia modo drum 1.5 / reviews <
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