XBase 999 Analog Drum Machine

Anyone who is familiar with great analog instruments knows that analog sound is punchy, organic, powerful, living, warm and brilliant, often all at the same time! Moreover, the best analog instruments offer tactile interfaces (usually good old knobs!) for immediate and intuitive access.

Continuing in the grand tradition of these unique and intuitive analog instruments, while at the same time updating their abilities with the latest technologies, Jomox is putting the finishing touches on their latest analog drum machine, the XBase999. It combines the ultimate vintage sound with a modern, intuitive interface for both modern studio and live requirements.

• 9 Instruments
  Bass Drum, Snare Drum, Lo Tom, Hi Tom, Hi Hat, Clap, Rim, Crash and Ride. All instruments are polyphonically playable and have individual outs. From HH section onwards it's short 8-bit samples played back with an analog envelope as with the AirBase99. The sample flash ROM is bigger than ever: per instrument there are 32(!) samples.
• Real analog sound production
  BD, SD, LT and HT have ﾑdigital controlﾒ, which means storability and midi-controllability of all parameters. To minimize the disturbance of the analog circuitry, all D/A converters are specially adapted to the circuits and being integrated - with proven XBase09 technology.
• 16 knobs
  Sound editing is done by endless rotary encoders for every analog parameter which lets you edit the sounds without any jumps or awkward turning jobs. Close to each knob there is a 3-color LED indicating which parameters for the selected instrument are editable.
• Improved kick drum
  The most famous sound of the XBase09 is actually the kick drum. We have even put a parameter on top and provided the most wicked bass drum in the world with a compression value that lets you decide between a 909-style ultra compressed envelope or an 808-ish exponential curve (hint: MBase01).
• Analog tom toms
  For the beat freak there is also some extremely good sounding and widely editable analog tom toms included - as with the AirBase99.
• Internal step sequencer
  As with the XBase09, the XBase999 has a built-in step sequencer. There are some improvements now: all patterns are A/B patterns, and it's your choice if it's two alternating 16-step patterns or one 32-step pattern. As with the XBase09, the sequencer indicates the individual step edit modes, but it is more intuitive with its 3-color LEDs. The micro shuffle can now be edited for each instrument individually. ﾑBank Selectﾒ now has its own switch. There are 4 banks, each with 16 A/B patterns, which results in 128 actual 16-step patterns.
• Analog step sequencer with X-filter
  As an additional feature, the XBASE 999 has also a built in 16 step analog sequencer for the included external filter. Each of the 16 rotary knobs has a click function to activate an analog step which controls the X-filter cutoff. The filter is a stereo 2-pole multimode filter with an interdependent resonance and Q-control which sounds great for external audio signals. It can be used as a signal source in resonant modes too. If the resonance is low, the Q control can make it narrow, but never starts to oscillate. Only when the resonance is increased will the filter start to whistle. The bandwidth can still be controlled (within certain borders) through the Q control. Each of the 2 filters can be individually arranged as lowpass, highpass, bandpass and notch. Plus, the 2 filters can be programmed as stereo, in parallel or in series or with cross feedback. Each instrument and the external input can be individually routed into the filter or being spared out. The stereo filter signal is mixed into the stereo bus with a VCA or can be purely led out via the ring of the stereo output jack. The LFOs can also control the filter to make it a real internal FX section. All this runs along with the beat sequencer...
• Analog input
  A stereo signal can be inserted and sliced by a VCA with an own envelope over the step sequencer. Or an external effects being inserted into main mix. Or just being filtered by the X-filter over the analog sequencer.
• Stereo mix with pan control
  All instruments except for kick drum can be panned in the stereo bus. If a plug is inserted to an individual input, the signal is spared out of the stereo bus.
• External midi tracks
  As with the XBase classic there are at least 5 midi tracks to control external devices in known manner. The instrument keys program the 12 halftones.
• 2 LFOs
  Of course the XBASE 999 has again two phat LFOs that can be beat syncronized or run freely and can be routed to any destination.
• Hi Hat Filter
  The Hi Hat section contains a great sounding analog band pass filter with independent lowpass, highpass and resonance controls. Other than the 8-bit HH samples, analog noise can be the sound source as well.
• 2x24 Character LCD display
  For a more convenient and clear operation the XBASE 999 has now a big alphanumerical LCD display. Kits can be named and the analog step sequencer has a bar display.
• Flash sound ROM
  The sound flash memory in the percussion section (HH, Clap, Rim, Crash, Ride) which contains 32 samples per instrument can be overwritten by the user via midi sample dump in order to create own samples. Later on we will provide a small tool that converts your *.wav samples into the right formatted XBASE999 structure and lets you dump your own created short samples into the XBASE999. Analog input.