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MusicRadar

Entertainment

Si Truss

“Fairly conservative in its design but makes up for it with quality sounds and smart workflow features”: Klevgrand OneShot review

Klevgrand OneShot: What is it?

At a glance

Features: 15-slot drum machine with two effect buses and master effects. PC/Mac, AU, AAX, VST.
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Against the backdrop of a market currently awash with beat-makers utilising AI tools and ultra-modern sequencing tricks, Klevgrand’s new drum sampler OneShot looks decidedly old-school. This is a fairly straightforward, sampler-based drum machine, very much in the same lineage as Native Instruments’ once omnipresent Battery.

OneShot lets users load up to 15 drum sounds per kit. Each sound is given its own slot with controls for volume level, pitch and pan position, along with the ability to add up to two insert effects for each sound. On top of this there are two effect buses, each of which can house up to two effects, to which each sound can be sent individually. Finally, the master output features another two effect slots. Each of these effect slots can be filled with one of the same list of 10 processors, which range from EQs and compressors through to reverb, delay and several flavours of distortion.

Klevgrand OneShot: Performance and verdict

Although the basic setup is fairly simplistic, what really sells OneShot is the quality of its included sounds. There are 200 presets included with over 8,000 individual sounds, representing a broad range of acoustic drums, interesting percussion kits, electronic sounds and hybrid instruments. There’s obvious quality to the recordings all-round, and the effects are well-judged and capable of bringing kits to life. The stock sounds can be expanded too, either using a simple upload process to add samples from your own library or via extension packs available from Klevgrand’s site, which can expand the remit with tonal sounds like kalimbas and glockenspiels.

OneShot has a few further tricks up its sleeve. Clicking on the MIDI trigger assignments along the bottom of the UI brings up the Trigger Settings window. Here, any of the sounds can be assigned to respond to a MIDI note of your choice. However, OneShot also goes deeper by allowing the user to assign volume, pitch and filter settings for each trigger, with AHD envelopes to apply movement to each. This is a neat feature as it means it’s possible to set up a single sound to be triggered by several different MIDI notes, but with different pitch, volume, filter and envelope settings applied to each.

OneShot also features a set of effective humanisation tools, again applied to each trigger, along with round-robin capabilities for each sound generator. This latter element can be randomised, sequential or linked to velocity levels. There’s also a flexible system of choke group assignments. These are handy tools and add to the realism of the sound. Our only minor quibble is that we wish OneShot was capable of receiving MPE that could be routed to sample assignments and trigger settings.

There’s no sequencing capabilities within OneShot, which some may see as a negative, but we don’t think it’s an issue; unless they really commit to the bit with cutting-edge features, onboard sequencers in plugins like these often pale in comparison to your DAW’s capabilities anyway. What we do miss is some form of LFO, in order to add movement and modulation beyond that offered by the trigger settings.

While not the most radical drum instrument out there, for those looking for a natural successor to Battery, this might be the one for you.

MusicRadar verdict: A drum machine that’s fairly conservative in its design, but one that makes up for it with quality sounds and smart workflow features.