Noise Lab Drum Designer, initially previewed at SB 24, is a new 7-voice analog drum synth voice for your Eurorack system in just 18HP.
From the developer’s desk to the shops, it takes time. Whether it’s a synth or a module, development can take months or even years. The Drum Designer module, announced at Superbooth 2024, was no exception.
In a recent interview, Noise Lab said the Drum Designer module should have been available long ago, but it underwent 3 additional revision phases to improve it. But now, for the good news: it’s available.
Noise Lab Drum Designer
Drum Designer bundles seven original all-analog drum voices in an 18HP module. According to Noise Lab, the Drum Designer’s voices draw inspiration from legendary analog drum machines we all know and love.
They are not clones but reinterpretations produced by an entirely new circuit design, resulting in something familiar yet unmistakably original.
Drum Designer has seven voices: kick, snare, hihat (closed/open), metal, resonator, and clap, each with a dedicated output, and which can be triggered independently using the gate inputs. Using a sequencer module, you can quickly create a drum machine in Eurorack.
The first generator is a kick drum with controls for decay, tone, and pitch. Noise Lab promises that it’s a kick that really kicks and is heavier than you’d expect.
Next to this is the snare generator with controls for the decay, pitch, and three switchable body (transient) characteristics. From short, light, and snappy to heavy, long, and dark, it gives many analog snares to play around with. That should provide enough variety.
Then, it’s time for the hihat with decay and tone controls. Thanks to the dedicated open hi-hat gate input, you have two hi-hat voices in one section: open and closed hi-hat. It’s capable of creating ultra-snappy ticks to long, clangorous textures.
Unique Generators
The metal section lets you create a light jazz ride to a full-on sheet of heavy metal sounds, including all kinds of cymbals. You can tweak it with decay and pitch controls and choose between three distinct metal colors.
A beautiful oddity in this bundle is the resonator. Its voice architecture consists of a selectable noise (left switch position) or a mix of three square waves (center) that feeds into a resonant band-pass filter that can easily self-oscillate.
Alternatively, you can route the module’s AUX input external waveforms and shape them in the same way, giving you an unlimited number of new percussive elements.
The seventh and last drum voice is the hand clap (clap) with an optional extended tail to add extra room to the sound. Each voice has its own dedicated output, normalled to a main mix output for flexible patching.
First Impression
Drum Designer looks like a very practical drum voice module for anyone who wants a compact solution without having to build drum sounds from individual components. The latter option would also be significantly more cost-effective.
Besides the compact size of the 18HP, I also really like the sound of the snare drum. It stands out nicely.
Noise Lab Drum Designer is available now for 370€ (MSRP). The module is currently being shipped to dealers.
More information here: Noise Lab
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