I've noticed that Wave Alchemy have recently released Drumvolution, which is yet to appear to the sister site but definitely looks really good, and a evolution of, er, well, Evolution.

However, they are still selling their Revolution library for the same RRP as Drumvolution. I'm just wondering whether it's worth having both? It looks like Revolution is more of a hardware emulating instrument whereas Drumvolution is more of a drum designer instrument. It seems to me like Drumvolution is more versatile and diverse, with way more customisable options to create your own fairly unique drum sounds. However, I'm just wondering whether it's worth having both, or would only having Drumvolution cover everything the Revolution offers, or are they different enough to justify having both?

Any thoughts?

 

If I remember correctly, they said that Revolution contains >40k samples so I guess Drumvolution with its claimed 28k samples would hardly be an alternative - although I'd also like to hear that from somebody who has used both.

 

EDIT: Wave Alchemy had the insight to clarify what I wrote below, therefore, out of respect for Wave Alchemy I would suggest that you read the official explanation given by the company, and take what I wrote as nothing more than a personal opinion based on available information at the time of my post.

Drumvolution is nothing more than an Evolution update under a different name.

A marketing strategy by Wave Alchemy. Of course, Wave Alchemy is not going to admit to it but the fact is that Drumvolution is Evolution on "steroids". Drumvolution, accordingly has taken the place of Evolution. If you visit Wave Alchemy's website you will notice that Evolution no longer is being sold. Both share the same GUI and almost same features and the same soundsources. There are no new instruments or Fx in Drumvolution. The more noticeable differences found in Drumvolution are:


Play and sequence any sound over a 4-octave range of pitch to create musical percussive rhythms, 808 sub bass-lines or anything in-between...(in Evolution you were limited to 2 octaves)


Drumvolution28,000 sounds compare to 25,000 sounds in Evolution ( a necessity for the 4 octave range)

Gone from Drumvolution is the DAWs presets for Maschine and Logic Pro X. Drumvolution features Ableton Live & Push integration


Note: Both manuals are the same word by word with a few necessary changes. I have attached both.

 

Last edited: Jan 23, 2019

Hi Guys,

It's Dan here from Wave Alchemy.

I came across this thread via Google, and wanted to clear some things up and explain the differences between both products.


I can confirm that Revolution and Drumvolution are completely different products, and share none of the same sound content, nor many of the same features.

Both are drum machines, and both also share a vaguely similar name - And that is where the similarities end... Drumvolution and Revolution are in fact totally different in every way, and sound nothing alike:

Drumvolution

Drumvolution is a completely different beast to Revolution, and our finest achievement to date. Unlike Revolution, Drumvolution’s focus is NOT emulation. Drumvolution doesn’t emulate any drum machine/s, and unlike Revolution it includes no vintage drum machine sounds. Drumvolution’s focus is solely towards forward-thinking and modern drum production. Sounds that push boundaries and (hopefully!) inspire...

The 28,000+ sounds that power Drumvolution have been a true labour of love, spanning 5 years. Every single sound in Drumvolution has been created from the ground up – each individual sound taking up to an hour to perfectly sculpt.

To achieve this, we intricately designed and recorded hundreds of thousands of sound sources, making use of a vast amount of sought-after modern / analogue drum machines, powerful modular synth systems, world-class live rooms and acoustic instruments, found sound, processed Foley, prepared percussion, re-amped drums, tape machines and much more. All recorded through mastering grade conversion in world-class recording environments, through high end Neve desks and outboard signal chains.

We then took these hundreds of thousands of source sounds, and finely tuned them even more – intricately layering them together to create new, never been heard before sounds – along with passing them through lush analogue signal chains to impart an expensive, production ready character that Wave Alchemy is known for. These sounds form the backbone of Drumvolution’s sound library, which are then driven by the instrument’s ground-breaking layering engine, sequencer, in-depth parameter controls and Macro System.

Drumvolution features zero sounds from Revolution.


Revolution

Revolution delivers extremely faithful and authentic emulations of 14 vintage iconic drum machines (808 / 909/ 606 / Drumtraks etc) inside a single virtual instrument. It's sole aim is bringing these classic drum machines to your DAW.

Revolution captures the true authentic sound of these 14 vintage drum machines through many tens of thousands of samples, capturing every possible sound / tone variation and nuance of the original drum machines, along with the subtle differences in behaviour inherent of analogue electronics. This essentially means that Revolution is not a digital ‘emulation’, it is the real authentic sound of 14 of sought-after vintage drum machines.

If you are looking for the most authentic and true sounding emulations of these 14 vintage drum machines, then Revolution is the best choice. If you're looking for modern sounds with tons of sound design capabilities and layering, then Drumvolution is best.

Revolution features zero sounds from Drumvolution.

I hope this helps, and shows that these two products are completely different.

It would be like comparing 'Monark' by NI (Minimoog emulation) to something like Serum (the latter which doesn't emulate anything).

 

Hi The Pirate,

Evolution has been replaced with Drumvolution. The reason for the name change was due to the to the name being too similar to 'Revolution', which confused quite a few customers. Whilst changing the name we also decided to add a ton of new features at the same time (polyrhythmic step sequencing, a new Module version and more) , which have all been free features. in fact, we also gave all existing Evolution customers Drumvolution completely free of charge. And they also get to keep their old Evolution license too. It's sold at the exact same price as Evolution.

There is a new instrument in Drumvolution, called the Drumvolution Module, and there are many new feature enhancements:

Poly-rhythmic (Poly Step) sequencing capabilities for evolving and experimental pattern creation

New Module instrument for drum layering - Design powerful new drum sounds, create complex organic layered percussion, or play melodic drum patterns

More in depth Ableton live & Push Integration

Play and sequence drums over a 4 octave range of pitch

Host automation support in any DAW

Customizable MIDI mappings, per Voice

FX Sequencer can now be used at the same time as MIDI drag / drop

Default voice button

Sequencer Lock functions

Lower CPU usage

- and a few other little things.

.........

I'd just like to clear this up, as this is not a clever marketing tactic. Just a simple name change to help out future customers based on customer feedback. In fact, it's a great thing, as all Evolution customers have received Drumvolution completely free - including all of the above new features. Nobody loses out, and everybody gains something

P.S The opening poster was asking about Revolution, which is a totally different product altogether (as described in my previous post)

I hope this helps clear this up.

Dan

 

I also want to clarify that all Evolution received an e-mail explaining exactly this. That Evolution has been replaced by Drumvolution, listing the new features and reasoning for the name change. As well as a download link and serial for Drumvolution (free of charge)

 

Thanks @Wave Alchemy, that's the most elaborate differential description I've seen on the whole net by now!

 

i've seen shittier service from companies

 

@Wave Alchemy I only wish that every time a member writes a post about an upcoming product, anyone from that company would take 5 minutes to explain it in order to avoid confusion and misrepresentations. Thank you for doing just that. I also congratulate your company for making Drumvolution available free of charge to existing Evolution customers. That is a departure from what has become SOP for companies nowadays. Always trying to milk the last penny from returning customers. I can only wish you success. I believe that every member here feels the same way. Thank you.

 

Cheers Dan! This is much appreciated!

It is as I thought. I guess the angle for my question was more is it worth getting both or is it best to go for Drumvolution. I love hardware emulation, but as I make techno and cinematic scores, everything tends to be quite heavily processed anyway. I guess I'm trying to work out whether to get both or just get the latest product. Your post definitely helps clarify the differences though, and I think you may want to do a bigger PR explanation of this as I remember when Evolution came out I saw a lot of reviewers and videos explaining it as an evolution of Revolution, as if it was the same product evolved. Obviously the same people will now see Drumvolution as an evolution ('scuse the pun!) of Evolution, and therefore an extended evolution of Revolution, if that makes sense?

Great to have you here responding direct to user questions though. Always good to have manufacturers and developers involved in user communities!

 

Last edited: Jan 23, 2019

You're very welcome!

We will very likely also look at communicating the above detailed comparison with our customer base via a Newsletter in the future

 

@The Pirate You're welcome! I am happy to help and thanks for the positive feedback

I'll be totally transparent and open about this: We are positive that the original confusion stems from the fact we followed up Revolution with the instrument named 'Evolution', which in hindsight was probably not the best decision due to the striking similarity of the name. We accept that this has unfortunately proved to cause a little confusion amongst some customers.

From our perspective, we now have two main drum instruments that focus on two different things:

Revolution - A product (potentially product line) that offers authentic emulation of a number of drum machines. What's unique here is that we sample these drum machines in a very unique (and very in depth) way - sampling every possible variation of each control of the original machines and utilizing round robins - which ultimately results in an instrument that delivers the raw sound and full tonal possibility of the original machines.

Drumvolution - A product that moves away from the above approach completely, and doesn't emulate any drum machine (that's not the goal). But instead a product that is fresh, totally unique and targets modern / layered drum sound design - making use of a very large number of sound sources, including synths, live drums, layering tools, processed / layered drums etc. With much more of a focus on sound design, layering and modulation.

To make another comparison that people may relate to. It would be like the difference between an accurately multi-sampled bass guitar library (emulation), and something like Substance by Output. The former aimed at emulating a bass guitar in the finest of detail, and the latter not emulating anything, and instead being an instrument that makes use of a large number of varied processed sound sources, allowing the user to layer and create new and unique bass sounds covering any style.

 

Thanks for the message @Bunford !

To answer your question, it's really hard to say which would fit your workflow / sound better. Both products will give very different results as mentioned earlier.

Revolution has a much rawer tone. Essentially it would be very much like having access to those original drum machines, with the full control over every parameter as found on the original machines. If you are looking for a very authentic sound, then Revolution would be the best choice. We've had a surprising number of customers who have contacted us to tell us they have sold their 808/909 after purchasing Revolution.

The sounds in Revolution haven't been layered or heavily processed in any way - however we have also recorded all of the sounds to analogue tape at multiple saturation levels, alongside the clean / raw sounds - so you have a choice of how much character you'd like from each sound.

But bare in mind, Revolution will sound like classic drum machines. If you're wanting something more creative, modern and versatile, then Drumvolution would probably be best.

In Drumvolution, as well as all of the unique sound sources, we've also included some drum machine sounds from classics such as the 808/909 and many more. However, any sounds that have been recorded from drum machines have been designed to take them to something much more modern and interesting. Just a few examples of what I mean:

909 Hi Hats - We recorded many hundreds of different hi-hats for Drumvolution, from hundreds of different sources (both synthetic, analogue electronic and even acoustic). But we also included our unique take on some classic 909 hats and other machines. For example, I remember we did stuff like record a TR-909 hi-hat through a huge speaker into a large, amazing (and very expensive!) live recording room, and picked up the signal via 5 different microphones - thus giving a very interesting sound. We also did similar stuff like playing sounds through guitar amps and recording many different mic positions - then blending the results with completely different sounds to create something unique.

We also did stuff like printing some sounds to vinyl, and recording those back, and layering them with cleaner sounds. Printing stuff to analogue tape and using tape varispeed to create interesting and huge sounding results.

We spent months recording and editing Foley / Found sound recordings, and processing and layering these to create very abstract sounding drums.

We created drum sounds on modular synths, processed them through extremely impressive analogue outboard gear.

We layered drum machines with acoustic sounds, and synthetic sounds and much more.

I could go on - we spent years doing this type of thing. Sourcing interesting sound sources, machines, synths; and recording and processing acoustic material.

You can download a small free collection of drums from Drumvolution here, in Wav format to give you an idea of what to expect: https://we.tl/t-ezXCBPqda4

.........

The easiest way for you to make the choice may actually be for you to purchase both products, and then for us to agree to refund you for the one that you don't gel with as much! I am happy to honour this for you. with no questions asked. This way you can use both products, and decide for yourself which one you prefer - and we can simply refund you for the one that doesn't fit your productions as well. Or, you may really like both and not even need to request the refund

I'm happy to offer this to any others out there too, who may be torn between both of these products

 

Excellent description Dan! You should be in charge of the marketing campaigns for Wave Alchemy

 

Last edited: Jan 24, 2019

Thanks @The Pirate

I am glad to hear that this helps! I'm happy to answer any other questions that yourself or anybody else may have!

 

Guys check out my review and guide to drumvolution: