![]() And finally, those eight sequencer lanes are resolutely fixed at 16 steps, which limits the compositional potential somewhat.Īll that said, XO absolutely succeeds in its goal of serving up an endlessly adventurous, great sounding and fun-to-use drum machine with a truly unique and effective workflow.I am also an XO user and it is great (It was certainly better than ATLAS 1 IMHO) but ATLAS 2 now seems to have a lot of advantages over XO and perhaps more importantly, still has active development with lots of other stuff coming soon. You can move it around within the UI, but it can’t be pulled out of it entirely. The GUI is scalable up to 200%, but at its default size and below, the Search & Filter pop-up is intrusive. Happily, though, the auditioning of samples in the XO Space is perfectly responsive, fast and fluid at all times. XO is dealing with a vast database, and that becomes apparent when searching and filtering, which often results in pauses of a few seconds, even when running off the insanely fast internal SSD of our 2018 MacBook Pro. As a librarian, it transforms the mundane process of exploring even the most oceanic collection of one-shots into a joyous voyage of discovery but that sequencer is no mere afterthought, either, providing an effective platform for designing beats and drum sounds in its own right. XO makes an immediate positive impression with the XO Space, and that impression only improves as you get to know it. And needless to say, a sizable library of preset beats and kits is also onboard.įinally, XO’s export options are comprehensive, with outward drag and drop of individual sounds or the whole kit, processed or raw, and the sequenced beat as audio and MIDI. The Accentuator is a clever inclusion, enabling independently adjustable accenting or attenuation of notes falling on half-, quarter-, eight- and dotted eighth-notes for selected lanes. ![]() The sequencer features A and B patterns with AB or AAAB cycling velocity control 14 per-channel and global groove presets with variable depth up to a 16th-note of nudge backwards or forwards per channel and rolls of up to four repeats. If you like what you hear in the Playground, hit the accept button to bake it into your actual patch if not, click cancel to duck out of the Playground and get back to where you started, no questions asked. And activating Live Filter mode lets you replace the whole kit based on search results. With the Similarity List able to be repopulated at a click, promoting the selected ‘similar’ to slot 1 with its own new set of 14 alternatives, this can easily take you miles from where you started. The Sample Combiner works along the same lines, but gives access to the Similarity Lists for all eight lanes, for swapping sounds. Click a pattern to initiate playback of it, the hand icon under a column to switch all lanes to that stack of patterns, or the Random button to set every lane to a random pattern from those on offer. As well as the currently programmed pattern and an empty one, you get a choice of three instrument-defined Basic patterns and seven extracted from XO’s preset library. The Beat Combiner sees a row of preset patterns loaded into each lane, each visualised as a segmented wheel. Together called the Playground, XO’s pop-out Beat and Sample Combiners let you non-destructively play with sound selection and sequencing. We’re surprised there’s no compression and EQ. The sends feed into a pair of identical processors, offering 15 preset reverb and delay algorithms, with Length, Tone and Level controls and there’s distortion (eight algorithms) and a filter on the master output. These comprise pan, pitch, playback direction, transient and envelope shaping, LP/HP filtering, velocity sensitivity, sample start and end points, two effects sends, and output routing to the host DAW, as well as a 16-step sequencer. The Edit view brings together collective editing and sequencing (though you can use XO as a static MIDI-triggered sound source) of the whole kit, with eight lanes replicating the per-sound controls in the Space view. These mirror that sound’s channel in the multi-channel Edit view, which forms the other ‘half’ of XO. Selecting a sound reveals a strip of adjustable parameters at the bottom of the GUI. You can then hotswap samples via the XO Space and Similarity List, and use the Kit Visualisation panel to step through entire similar kits. Once you’ve made your choice, drag the sample directly out of the GUI to your OS or DAW, or assign it into one of the eight circular sound ‘pads’ on the left to build up a kit.
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