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Praise for our plugins
Supercharge your drums
Tekno is a modern take on the legendary drum machines that defined electronic music – hitting harder and deeper thanks to 21st century upgrades. It gives you the power to design infectious synthesized drums from the ground up.
Produce drums without samples
Skip the samples and craft your own signature drum sounds instead. Tekno offers 18 unique drum synth engines, spanning kicks, snares, clap, hats, percussion and more. With deep editing access, you can create any electronic drum character for any genre.
Sequence Tekno via MIDI or drag and drop its sounds directly into a DAW, external sequencer, or any folder.
Next-generation circuit modeling
To build Tekno, we teamed up with Jatin Chowdhury, one of the leading engineers in analog circuit modeling. Our goal: to create a modern spiritual successor to the legendary drum machines of the 20th century. Not an emulation, but something more tweakable and harder-hitting.
Tekno combines analog modeling with cutting-edge DSP to deliver the punchiest synthesized drums ever put in a plugin.
Deep tweaking or fast inspiration
Click the ‘Gear’ icons next to any synth voice or FX section to unlock deep calibration and circuit-bending options and take total control of your tone.
Or hit the onboard ‘Dice’ icons to let Tekno’s smart random-algorithm generate new and usable drums with every click.
You can also start from 72 global presets and 1296 individual voice presets by leading sound designers such as Mr. Bill, Virtual Riot and Yoad Nevo.
"Tekno is the perfect plugin to start drum ideas in. All the sounds are fresh, and the plugin algorithm just seems to have this glue which makes even just a kick and snare pattern sound like a record. One of the most creatively inspiring plugins I've used in a while! Instant vibe."
Nick Lee
Grammy-Nominated Producer, Composer, and Musician - Ariana Grande, SZA, Lil Nas X, Megan Thee Stallion
"Tekno is a drum machine that finally emulates the one major characteristic that makes hardware drum boxes magical."
Venus Theory
Artist and Sound Designer
“Tekno is by far the most playable, creative and fun to use drum synthesizer I know! I really enjoyed making some of the presets”
Yoad Nevo
Producer, Mixer, and Engineer - Sia, Pet Shop Boys, Ed Sheeran, Moby, Air
“Tekno sounds amazing!! Love the randomize button in the top. So good for making sketches or for getting inspired.”
Parallx
DJ and Producer
"Tekno really shines when combining a good midi pattern with its randomization feature. The cymbal and hi-hat engines are particularly strong!"
Virtual Riot
Artist, Producer, and Sound Designer
“It’s so easy to dial in the perfect drum kit in seconds! And it sounds SO GOOD!”
Mike Schmid
Songwriter and Musician - Miley Cyrus, Kylie Minogue, The Chainsmokers, Troye Sivan
Each hit is unique
Tekno is a synthesizer, it generates every drum hit from scratch through a complex, non-linear VA circuit. That means it never hits exactly the same way twice – a quality it shares with the classic analog drum machines (and a big part of their magic). Compare this to samples, which are static snapshots and you’ll find that Tekno’s subtleties make your tracks come more alive.
Tekno allows you to exaggerate this behavior further: Use the on-board humanize parameters to introduce extra variation in timbre, velocity and timing for more interesting drum patterns .
Loaded with analog-modeled effects
Tekno’s onboard effects have been crafted with the same deep circuit-modeling efforts as the drum voices.
There are no ‘copy-paste FX’ in Tekno, but a unique suite of coloration tools created especially for this instrument.
Enhance individual drums with analog-modeled tape saturation, excitation and compression. And make the whole kit shine with a punchy limiter/clipper combo that will cut through any mix.
Explore the features
More details
Tech specs
✱ Plugin formats: VST, VST3, AU, AAX (64-bit). Also included: Standalone version for non-DAW use.
✱ Platforms supported: macOS 10.11 and up (including native Apple Silicon M-Chip compatibility). PC Windows 10 and newer.
✱ DAWs supported: All major DAWs, including Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Logic Pro, FL Studio, Cubase, Studio One, Bitwig, Reaper, Reason, etc.
Get the free trial
Download a free trial of Tekno here.
Voice list
Each of the 18 onboard voice engines is its own unique drum synthesizer. The voices utilize a combination of analog circuit modeling, FM and digital synthesis. Full list below.
- Kick A
- Kick B
- Snare A
- Snare B
- Hat A
- Hat B
- Hat OP
- Tom L
- Tom H
- Clap
- Rimshot
- Conga L
- Conga H
- Ride
- Tonal
- Cowbell
- Block
- Crash
What genre of music is Tekno for?
Any. Tekno’s versatility and depth makes it useful for any musical genre that relies on electronic elements. From dance, hip-hop and pop to underground techno – and way beyond.
Avoiding distorted drum patterns
A big contributor to Tekno’s punchy sound is the analog-modeled clipper that sits at the end of the chain. However, you’ll want to calibrate this effect based on the intensity of your drum loop. Busy patterns will require you to dial-down the “Clip” slider (located in the master section) to avoid distortion. Single drum hits tend to benefit from being clipped more aggressively.
There’s no right or wrong here since Tekno is designed to never digitally clip in your DAW. So use your ears and tune the clip slider - as well as the onboard limiter - to the right temperature that fits your tracks and your vision.
Who is Jatin Chowdhury?
For the development of Tekno, Baby Audio collaborated with Jatin Chowdhury, one of the leading engineers in analog modeling. Jatin has made major contributions to the music software field through his open-source projects and academic publications. He holds an M.A. from Stanford University in Music, Science, and Technology and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at MIT.
We teamed up with Jatin in 2021 with a joint vision to make ‘the ultimate drum synthesizer’. Four years later, we’re proud to share Tekno. You can explore some of Jatin’s popular tools and free plugins over at chowdsp.com
Tekno
Drum Synthesizer
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