Okay, Synthesizer Bingo is a new, fun drum machine plugin for macOS and Windows, powered by a hybrid engine with samples and multi-type synthesis.
808, 909, 707… and all the other legendary drum machines of the past 40 years. Almost all of them are now available as clones or plugins, or even as samples if necessary.
In my opinion, drum machines that embrace modern concepts are more exciting. Like the Elektron Syntakt or the Erica Synths LXR-02 in hardware. There are also great developments in software. A new release comes from Okay Synthesizer.
Okay Synthesizer Bingo
Okay, Synthesizer has previously produced the Eurorack and VCV module Lowstepper LFO, but with Bingo, they now offer their first plugin.
Bingo is a new modern drum machine plugin for macOS and Windows, powered by a hybrid sound generation. By hybrid, I mean 15+ different colorful drum engines as well as a sampler player with granular synthesis.
Parts of it are based on the open-source code of Mutable Instruments, such as Plaits, Rings, and more. You’ll find both analog-like and digital sound engines, including physical modeling, within the engines.
For example, the Karplus String core lets you tweak parameters such as the volume, frequency, brightness, damping, nonlinearity, excitation type, and more. There is even a synth type that emulates the legendary 303 bassline synth.
Alongside these, you can also find a granular sampler that ships with a curated sample library and a sample import option, supporting WAV, AIFF, and MP3. It offers loop, slice, stretch, and other features.
Sound sculpting isn’t finished here. Each track has its own independent multi-FX chain. It includes freely rearrangeable multimode filter, delay, reverb, distortion, and utility modules. Plus, there is a multi-FX master chain.
Animate Everything
Okay, Synthesizer Bingo isn’t just a hybrid drum synthesizer; it’s also a drum machine. Therefore, a creative and, above all, powerful sequencer is essential. It houses a 64-step sequencer with variable track lengths and Elektron-style parameter locks.
This allows you to have different parameter settings for each step. For example, pitch, filter, decay, or master effects. Then, it offers probability, ratcheting, and clock dividers. Yes, all these gives plently tools in your hands to mould complex patterns.
To shake your sounds one step further, it also includes a modulation matrix with eight global multi-wave LFOs that can be used in tempo-synced or free-running mode.
Plus, there are eight assignable macro controls that can host multiple parameters across tracks. And a mod matrix gives you fine control over the assigned modulations.
First Impression
An exciting, fun hybrid drum machine plugin. It strongly reminds me of Elastic Drums from iOS, which hasn’t yet made it to macOS/Windows. Maybe we’ll see Bingo on iOS in the future; that would be great.
Okay Synthesizer Bingo is available now for $99/85,95€. It runs as a VST3 and AU plugin on macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows.
A 14-day free demo is available on the website, but please remove the annoying full-info registration barrier to access the trial.
More information here: Okay Synthesizer
Beats and noise and beats and noise. Nothing new. Not music.
Hissing, clacking, booming – electronic noise rhythms are fun. Sure, you can’t use them in classical orchestral/piano music, but in many electronic genres.
What is music according to you?
I agree, just terrible tbh
UI is such a mess, I was not able to do almost anything even after few minutes of thinking and trying… visually it seems like a bad copy of Battalion. Funny marketing visuals and copy, though. Could be good after redesign and a proper user testing.
Politely disagree; this is the closest I’ve been able to get to an elektron-like flow in a vst with parameter locks controlling more stuff per track. Plus the randomisation is a lot of fun and spread amongst several sections. UI has already been fixed and the devs are a motley fun crew. Appreciate also that tracks are not all just samples
Glad to hear it works well for you! Have you tried https://www.unfilteredaudio.com/products/battalion ?
I actually find the UI very well designed, the UI of Battalion I really hated, found it unpleasant to look at and annoying to navigate. Also find the sequencer and plocking/modulation setup in Bingo very well implemented.
The problem I have with Bingo so far is the synthesis. The parameters in the sound engines are ranged/scaled in a way that doesn’t really makes sense and makes the synthesis needlessly fiddly, especially with regard to pitch/amp envelopes. As a result (and you can tell just from the demos in the trailer) all the envelops are weak and ill-defined, something that no amount of speed or distortion can cover up (makes it worse in fact).
It shouldn’t be this hard to get good, solid envelopes going quickly. The samples also have softened attacks when loaded into the engine and the minimum attack value doesn’t seem to let it all through. I think the engines need a lot of fine tuning.
All these years and all these self-hyping drum synth plugins later and no one seems to be able to top Microtonic. Getting good, well-defined envelopes in that thing has always been an absolute breeze. More devs need to study and learn from that plug if they want to fulfill all their marketing-heavy promises of PUNCHY BANGING SMACKING drums etc.
Indeed, Microtonic is the king of all drum synths 🙂
MDrummer is the king of all drum synths. People sleep on it because the UI is intimidating but the sound that thing produces is unparalleled.
but MDrummer is based on samples so a virtual drum instrument while Microtonic or Bingo are mostly drum synthesis so a Drum Synthesizer
Hi Tom, I’ve had Microtonic since it came out and I love it. I also used to use Waldorf Attack with was great (if perhaps a bit buggy).
Recently I got the Cherry CR-78, which if you like Microtonic I think is definitely playing around with. Like the others I mentioned it’s also a synth I believe, no samples.
Hey! This is actually incredibly thoughtful feedback and we REALLY appreciate you taking the time to clearly outline the problem. Our team is in agreement, a lot of fine tuning is needed. Leaving granular on kinda messes with the attack and we’re still sorting that one out!
LOL we are on a discord call reading this thread and taking notes.
MDrummer has both sample and full synthesis based drum engines. The UI puts people off but so far, this is the most powerful drum VST for both sound and sequencing.
MDrummer is like $300 more expensive than this
I’m not so sure I’d say MDrummer is “slept on.” The interface and the crazy price tag clearly drive people away, which means they probably weren’t great development/business decisions. Powerful isn’t necessarily better. It’s probably apples and oranges to compare them, but Microtonic is an all-time classic precisely because it balances/combines its very high sound quality with very high usability and extremely low CPU load. That’s the mark of a great instrument I think.
Holy shit. Thank you SO much for writing about our first ever plugin Synth Anatomy, it is truly mind boggling to see something my friends and I made on a website I’ve spent so much time browsing.
I’m sitting here with a dumb smile on my face reading the comments. We’re extremely grateful that we have this feedback to learn from. The entire team is in agreement that we have a long way to go, especially when it comes to refining / fine tuning what we already have in the plugin.
We’re happy to work through anyone’s concerns and ideas for improvement! You can join our discord (link on our website) and post in our ideas/suggestions channel, we try to address as much there as we reasonably can.
I’m begging for this to come to iPad.