Randomwaves Drumboy Pro: the open-source portable Drumboy Mini groovebox grows up with new hardware and software.
In 2024, the new company Randomwaves launched two new open-source music devices on Kickstarter: the Synthgirl wavetable synth and the Drumboy drum machine/groovebox. My criticism was the touch-only interface, which didn’t seem very intuitive.
Two years later, the developers are back with an upgrade. With Drumboy Pro, Randomwaves presents the pro version of their groovebox, completely re-engineered at both the hardware and software levels.
Randomwaves Drumboy Pro
Drumboy Pro is a new open-source, portable workstation/groovebox based on the initial Drumboy Mini but completely redesigned on many levels.
The upgrade starts with the hardware and the way you use it. Instead of touch buttons, it now features many silent tactile buttons, allowing you to easily select sounds and navigate menu systems. This has also become easier.
According to Randomness, they have switched the display manufacturer and now come with a larger, more responsive 5.3-inch display compared to the one in the Drumboy Mini.
Above and below the display are now eight rotary knobs in total, assignable to up to 10 banks of eight parameters, giving you hands-on control over up to 80 settings.
On top of that, it now features a charge pad, giving you up to five hours of mobile music production on batteries.
Upgraded Engine
Like the Drumboy Mini, the Randomwaves Drumboy Pro is a drum machine, or more accurately, a groovebox. However, compared to its little brother, it offers more features and hands-on control.
Don’t forget: the entire engine is open source, which means the feature set will continue to grow.
Drumboy Pro features 10 layers, each powered by a sample-based engine. In the new version, they unlocked total control over the engine. You have real-time access to the entire sample engine, including level, pitch, playback direction, sample starts and end points, bit-rate, and more.
Neat, the routing is also now fully flexible. For example, you can now freely route layers through different filters and effects. 10 assignable multi-wave LFOs let you modulate the built-in parameters and expand the sonic spectrum.
These 10 layers are powered by a sequencer engine in the song layer that is now more powerful and easier to use. You can now easily add notes, delete or shift them, add probability, work with time shifts, and more.
Further, it hosts a new dynamic fill generator that provides instant, inspiring pattern fills. They promise all this programming can be done without menu-diving.
Randomwaves Drumboy Pro First Impression
I found the Drumboy Mini an interesting project, but I doubted whether it would be practical to use. I’m happy to see that the developers feel the same way and are now working on a Pro version that looks really lovely and is more usable.
I’m curious to see what else will be added to the engine and whether the community will continue to develop it. Perhaps we’ll even see a Synthgirl Pro in the future.
Randomwaves Drumboy Pro will launch on Kickstarter on March 15, 2026, at a very early-bird price of $239 instead of $399 (MSRP). If you make a fully refundable $1 deposit, you will get a private purchase link when it launches.
More information here: Randomwaves
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