Cem Olcay BreakBud is a new breakbeat drum Synthesizer plugin for iOS and macOS with 100% synthesis and a built-in generative sequencer.
There are tons of synthesizers available on iOS. Most are designed for basses, leads, or pads. There are also drum synthesizers specifically geared towards drum and percussive sounds.
My favorite so far is Elastic Drums, even though the app doesn’t support AUv3. Cem Olcay now also has a drum Synthesizer app in his portfolio called BreakBud.
Cem Olcay BreakBud
BreakBud is a new drum Synthesizer app and AUv3 plugin for iOS and macOS. It consists of 16 (4×4) instrument pads, each with its own full sound engine, pattern, and groove setup.
Cem Olcay has divided the BreakBud app into four sections: steps, groove, voice, and mixer. On the steps page, you can create your patterns as you would on a traditional sequencer.
On the right side, you can switch pads instantly to move between variations without stopping the flow.
The groove section lets you customize each pattern, including the step amount, rate (timing), swing, nudge, and humanize to get an organic vibe. Thanks to voice-independent step count, you can create polyrhythms, uneven loops, and evolving patterns with ease.
Neat is the possibility to generate fresh breakbeat ideas on the fly. With the four controls swing, density, offbeat, and complex, you can regenerate all 16 pads at once or just one. This generative engine randomizes each pad independently, giving you ready-to-play variations.
100% Drum Synthesis
Then, the voice page features the drum Synthesizer engine that relies 100% on real-time synthesis. There are no samples involved. BreakBud includes six synthesized drum voices: kick, snare, closed hat, open hat, rim/clap, and FM hit.
Every sound consists of an oscillator, a decay envelope, a filter, a drive, and a click generator, which is a noise source. A very clear selection of parameters.
A bit more depth would have been nice, but as it is, the app can be used by anyone without extensive knowledge of synthesis. You can program it via pad input or voice input.
According to Cem Olcay, Breakbeat is also fully MIDI compatible with host automation. You can use MIDI to switch pads, trigger voices independently, or send note data to other gear and apps. For example, you can use the sequencer to trigger other apps.
It works with virtual MIDI, USB MIDI hardware, and Bluetooth MIDI. Alongside standalone operation, Breakbeat also supports AUv3, allowing for hosting multiple instances. Excellent is that it provides nine stereo output buses, so you can process drum sounds separately.
First Impression
At the time of writing, a demo video wasn’t available. No problem, I installed the app to try it out. At first glance, it’s a very nice, user-friendly drum Synthesizer/drum machine that’s very fluid and quick to work with.
A few more synthesis parameters would have been nice to make the drum engines more extensive. However, I can understand the decision to keep the whole thing a bit simpler so that it remains very immediate in its operation.
Effects are also missing; they would have nicely polished the sounds. However, thanks to extensive AUv3 routing, this can be done externally.
Cem Olcay BreakBud Break Beat is available now for $6,99 on the Apple AppStore. It runs as a standalone app and AUv3 plugin on iOS and macOS (native Apple Silicon)
What step rate options/values/resolution/range is available?