You’ve probably got one or more drum machine plugins installed already, but do any of them contain ‘beat pizzas’ and a wheel that can be used to slice them up? Thought not.
Beat Scholar bucks that trend by providing a deep-pan programming experience that enables you to slice up your rhythmic pies as you wish. Or, to put it another way, you get a step sequencer full of circles (beats), which can be subdivided individually to create interesting rhythmic variations.
What’s more, each sound doesn’t have to be on its own lane - you can place any drum on any beat, or any part of a beat (each ‘pizza’ can be divided into up to 42 slices). Adding bars and changing measures and beat values can all be done with just a few clicks, giving you huge scope for experimentation.
This unique programming interface is accompanied by a sampler, which comes stocked with more than 250 sounds that cover classic drum machine tones and more esoteric timbres. You can also drag and drop your own samples, tweaking them with a variety of controls and effects.
Despite its academic and slightly intellectual sounding name, Beat Scholar looks like a lot of fun, and the good news is that there’s a 14-day trial version for you to try. It runs on PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX formats, and is available now for the introductory price of $79 (regular price will be $99).
Find out more on the Modalics website.
