‘Gene III’ is the first fully analog, grid-free, polyrhythmic, flexibly quantizable drum machine ever made (that we know of). Handmade in limited quantities by Sam Dust aka LA Priest, this machine is the culmination of nearly 10 years of electronic experiments.
Each row (from top to bottom) features controls for the bass drum, tom drum, snare and hihat / module drum. Each drum has the following controls: volume, tone/pitch, decay, four trigger positions (the drums can be triggered anywhere in time by rotating these controls), an "x / all / y" switch for each pair of trigger positions (so you can set up 2 different patterns and assign triggers to them), and a set of global controls.
The global controls are:
- Separate bar length switches for the top two drums & bottom two drums
- A 4x reset switch that can re-sync the polyrhythms back to the same point after 4 rounds of the top or bottom bar length
- Play/stop switch
- Tempo dial
- Quantise switch (with quantise off the triggers play anywhere in time that you have set the triggers, 50% or 100% quantisation can be selected to assist with more regular patterns)
- Finally the "x / y / alternate" switch selects the patterns or allows the machine to alternate between the two.
The outputs are stereo (two drums left, two right) but if you only use the left output all four drums are mixed in mono. the output level of each drum also lets you introduce germanium overdrive at a certain level without any intrusive artefacts or loss of dynamics (at early stages of break up it behaves like subtle compression). an 8 pin module connector will be present on the final version to allow expansion modules to be used, adding a range of drum sounds that can be played in place of, or along with, the hi hat sound using the "module / hi hat" switch.
Purchase includes a power supply (9v centre negative 500mA - the same as most guitar pedals) and though there is no battery compartment it should be possible to use a 9v battery and a special adaptor cable to power the drum machine away from a mains supply for a short time.
All Gene III machines are fully designed, hand made and carefully calibrated by Sam Dust aka LA Priest
The purchase is a preorder only. The first batch of 10 machines are selling at a special early bird price.
Orders take up to 12 weeks for LA PRIEST to build.
Contact genesynths@gmail.com for more information.
