Digidesign Strike

$299

www.digidesign.com

Digidesign’s newly-released RTAS drum module Strike goes a long way towards solving a familiar dilemma: You crave expressive percussion, but wrangling with mic placement and uninspired drummers is a drag. Sure, there are plenty of products for beat-makers, but this one has more subtleties than most. Pro Tools users should be psyched, and everyone else a little jealous.

A seamlessly integrated, highly tweakable drum plug-in for Pro Tools is cause for celebration. Still, Strike isn’t quite an all-in-one answer to every rhythmic riddle. The library is suspiciously lacking in fresh hip-hop and authentic world-music sounds, and it doesn’t allow for the importing of third-party samples. We can no doubt expect add-on packages in the future, but for now, you have to make due with what Digidesign has provided.

Still, there’s plenty to love. Strike’s design is extremely user-friendly, especially for a plug-in with so many features. Human-sounding drum tracks are back in fashion, and Strike is an excellent tool for creating them.

In Use

I tested Strike on a 2GHz PowerMac G5 running Pro Tools LE 7.1, employing it in several plug-in heavy sessions. Although Strike demands its share of computational resources, I didn’t encounter the kind of CPU drain that hampers productivity. When loading sounds into the module, it’s advisable to stop playback to avoid hiccups. Of course, that can be said of many devices.

Each of Strike’s four pages features a step-style keyboard from which patterns are launched. This interface is easy to operate, and should feel familiar to most drum-machine users. It’s divided into Intros, Fills, Outros, and Patterns tabs, which can be launched in any sequence you desire. Playing Strike is as simple as loading up sounds and patterns from the browser and clicking on a tab.

The browser itself is pretty intuitive. There are 61 Styles to choose from, as well as five kits featuring up to 12 instruments. You can “borrow” fills from different presets, making for a broad percussive palette. Kits can also be mixed and matched—combining a fusion kick with a vintage rock snare is as easy as dragging and dropping your choices onto the appropriate channels. You can save your customized Mixes, Styles, and Kits in the appropriate user folders.

Strike’s real power is in its broad array of tweaking options. In fact, it’s likely the most sonically versatile drum plug-in I’ve used. From hit randomization to fluctuations in timing and intensity, the level of articulation is amazing.

The Main page hosts knobs that affect overall sonic character. Here, you can make adjustments to tuning, timing, and so on. The interface is subdivided into Style, Kit, and Mix sections. A Kit Display provides a look at the drum set and its corresponding hits, but is mostly a cosmetic flourish.

The Complexity fader is a bit like slipping “smart drugs” in your drummer’s coffee. It adds spice to a beat by busying it up—a little or a lot. The Intensity control captures the harmonics of harder or softer hits, making for more realistic performances. Strike’s Hit Variation knob eliminates the robotic sound of many drum machines by alternating samples; after all, real drummers don’t always whack the center of the snare. The Feel function adjusts whether the hits are on, ahead of, or behind the beat. You can also make timing tweaks to just parts of the rhythm. For example, the 2 and 4 can be rigid, while the 1 and 3 might swing a bit. (While there’s no setting for “drunk,” it can no doubt be approximated.)

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