SOMA Debuts the Pulsar-23 Semi-Modular Drum Machine

soma 23 modular drum machine

In the current oversold hardware reissue era of 808s, a new drum machine by Vlad Kreimer and the team at SOMA laboratory cut through the boom and blaps with their Pulsar-23.

SOMA have developed a fresh take on what a drum machine can be, taking it as far as giving you the ability to patch the machine with your body.

PROTOTYPE PULSAR 23

Semi-modular in design with 23 independent outs and over 100 patch points, this is a drum machine like no other. Full specs below:

  • 4 drum channels: Bass drum, Bass\Percussion, Snare drum, Cymbals\Hi-Hat
  • 4 envelope generators with the unique ability to generate a sustain for the drum channels, turning them into noise\drone synthesizers
  • 4 independent loop recorders with the option for individual clocking (they record triggering events, not audio)
  • Clock generator with an array of dividers (a very powerful tool for rhythm synthesis)
  • Wide range LFO (0.1 – 5000Hz) with variable waveform
  • Shaos – a unique pseudo-random generator based on shift registers with 4 independent outputs, sample and hold
  • FX processor with CV control
  • CV control of the entire DSP’s sample rate
  • Distortion
  • 2 CV-controlled gates
  • 2 CV-controlled VCAs
  • 2 controllable inverters

The prototype was debuted at the recent Superbooth 19 event where Nick Batt of SonicState interviewed Vlad. Pretty mind-blowing examples of the Pulsar-23 capabilities in the video below…

SOMA Pulsar-23

The drum machine will be manufactured in Russia and Poland and released in the next couple of months with an approx price point of €1500/$1,699. If you’re interested in owning this organismic drum machine, you’re best heading over to SOMA and jumping on the pre-order list.

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