Korg Drumlogue

As an avid Volca player and all-around Korg enthusiast, you can imagine how happy I was to hear about the new Drumlogue. The plastic still being on the screen, I haven’t had the chance to plug it in yet. This is going to run through a UAD 4710D – the same mic pre that used to power my drum microphones. You know the times have changed when you’ve traded a drum set for a drum machine. I’m interested in seeing how this box differs from IK Multimedia’s UNO Drum. I took to that machine almost immediately as it shipped with a plugin interface to control all parameters along with tactile controls on the unit for live performance. The plugin offered instant recall of settings in the DAW which was fantastic but it only shipped with one stereo output which made it impractical even for simple tasks like separating the kick and snare. 

I’ve finally plugged everything in. I chose the Providence K-204 cables for connection as they come in stereo pairs with colored tips and can cover both low and high-end frequencies quite well. Providence says they’re specifically for keyboards but I have had good luck using them with drum machines and even effects pedals. My synths sound fuller and “rounder” using the K-204 as opposed to a patch or guitar cable. That being said, as long as you don’t use a balanced cable you should be fine. Using balanced cables for unbalanced signals will reduce level output and in my opinion, the overall quality of the signal.

The 4710-D only has TRS inputs on the front for the first four channels. This is actually once of UA’s most versatile mic pre’s; you get 8 channels of input, four being adjustable from the front and the other four as line inputs on the rear. My 4710’s rear inputs are occupied by Arturia’s Drumbrute Impact. I ran one channel of Left/Mono from the Drumlogue into channel one of my Apollo x8p as I didn’t feel the need to occupy two inputs for stereo out from the Drumlogue. Drumlogue has four assignable outputs – that means you can assign four of the tracks to individual outputs for processing in your DAW or mixer. I will probably use the four analog tracks for individual processing in my DAW and then use the mono out for either the whole mix or another single track (if that’s even possible).

The 4710d comes loaded with 1176 “style” compression and UA’s conversion so I will need to adjust these values to taste. The first thing to do is to get the levels set for the kit that I will spend the most time with on the Drumlogue; the “Retro Bossa Kit” – something not unlike the CR-78. 

The decision not to run stereo out for the mix was not a good one. Mono will not process the effects and stereo spread of what’s coming out of both left and right channels so you will need a total of 6 outputs if you’re going to get the most out of this machine. One thing I have noticed is there is a slight high-pitched ringing sound coming out of the high-tom which might be an effect or a side-effect. The sound lasts exactly the same duration each time the instrument is played so it might be a reverb tail but it will require some investigation and manual diving which I’m not in the mood to do just yet. I think it was J Dilla who never read the manual of his MPC and chose to figure things out along the way. I believe he attributed this method to developing his own style and deep knowledge of the instrument. But don’t quote me..

To recap, I’m currently running all six outputs into my DAW which leaves one stereo pair for L/R mix, and four mono assignable outputs that can are currently occupied by the first four tracks. I decided to use Providence K204 keyboard cables, a 4710d mic pre for the four mono channels and the stereo pair is running through an Apollo x8p with no insert effects. I actually tried the 1073, 1084 and Avalon and nothing sounded as good as the dry signal so I am going to record out clean – for now.