drumDING is a drum machine with a workflow all its own. Instead of separate channels for kick, snare, hi-hat, and the rest, you get a single analog voice that can produce any electronic drum or percussion sound you can imagine. Press a button, and your analog sound becomes a sample — ready to be shaped further and layered with effects on the digital side. From there, drumDING's sequencer makes it easy to turn those sounds into driving, distinctive beats. Then the cycle begins again: a new sound, a new sample, a new idea.

You'll find your way into the drumDING workflow faster than you'd expect — and before long, you're working with it as naturally as if you'd always worked this way. drumDING is an instrument, and it's you, the player, who shapes its tone and emotion.

The Analog Voice

Inspired by our classic, the DRM1, Vermona built drumDING's analog voice around circuitry that's genuinely sophisticated, wrapped in an interface that's refreshingly simple. Between the oscillator, noise and impulse generators, the flexible multi-mode filter, and a handful of well-chosen modulation sources, the voice covers far more ground than you'd expect from a classic drum synth. That's the appeal: keep turning the knobs, and you'll keep landing on sounds you didn't plan for — and that spark ideas of their own.

drumDING isn't limited to its own circuitry, either. Patch in an external synth or modular system, and it becomes a sample for the sequencer just as easily as anything generated onboard.

The Sequencer

Step sequencers used to be simple tools. Over the years, they've picked up a lot of complexity — and plenty of what once counted as special is standard today. drumDING's sequencer covers that ground, and goes further:

• Polymeter: Set each of the six tracks to its own length, start point, playback pattern, and clock divider/multiplier.
• Parameter Locks: Give every step its own settings.
• Trigger Repeats/Ratchets: Every repeat can sound different from the last — anywhere from a subtle variation to a full-on transformation.

Beyond that, Vermona put their own stamp on it. ALT-Lock ties parameter locks to multiple steps at once. LOCK, a feature already proven on our meloDICER, holds your changes in place until you're ready to release them. TEMP does the opposite: changes take hold right away but can be undone completely with a single press. Even copying patterns and steps — about as basic as sequencing gets — got rethought: one simple gesture, and it's done.

What matters most: everything here works while the sequencer keeps running.

Simplicity Despite Depth

Like every VERMONA instrument, drumDING was built to stay simple and intuitive to use. A few turns of a knob are all it takes to shape an entirely new sound on the analog voice. On the digital side, drumDING's page structure stays flat and clear — each page holds no more than four parameters, all within reach of their own knob, so nothing gets in the way of what you're making.

The SD card holds up to 64 projects, each with room for up to 64 patterns and 32 samples. Every sample is stored as a plain WAV file, so it's just as usable outside drumDING as it is inside it. The reverse works too: drop your own WAV samples onto the card, and they're ready to play in drumDING.

Every drumDING is built in Vermona's Elektroakustische Manufaktur in Erlbach, right in the Musikwinkel, a corner of Saxony with centuries of instrument-making behind it.

Key Features:

Reviews