hen Battery first hit the streets a couple of years ago, it made a sizeable impact on the drum-programming community. Supporting a variety of sampler import formats, an interesting albeit limited set of lo-fi/sound design effects, a respectable collection of included kits, and a straight-forward, no-nonsense user interface, Battery provided groove addicts with enough fire-power to create all manner of live-sounding and synthetic beats. Time and technology have marched on, however, leaving Battery behind the curve compared to other drum synths and samplers. Naturally, this brings us to Battery version 2 (or simply B2), which boasts a number of improvements both large and small, along with a healthy dose of new drum sounds to get your creative juices going.

FROM THE TOP

Interface-wise, Battery uses the now familiar “matrix/cell” model, in which samples are assigned to cells within a matrix. There can be a maximum of 72 cells, each of which can be triggered by a single MIDI key or a range of keys. A cell can contain up to 128 samples, so it’s possible to program highly dynamic velocity-switched and velocity-crossfaded drum and percussion hits.

New in B2, the matrix can be set up to show nine or 12 columns. The number of rows can also be reduced from six down to one, which allows for very small kits and space-saving kits with no more than nine cells. This may seem like a small thing, but having a smaller matrix is helpful when dealing with a smaller pool of samples, because with fewer cells, there’s more space to display their contents.

The expanded library is a considerable improvement from the original content (which is included for backwards compatibility). There’s a wealth of choice kits comprising “best of” samples from FM7, Reaktor, Limelite, Krypt, Absynth, and other synth beat boxes in NI’s lineup. I was especially impressed by the selection of glitch and sound design-oriented kits such as Dusty Circuit. On the other end of the spectrum, the Jazz Brush and Multi-Mic kits are both superb for natural, realistic performances.

Several features have been ported over from NI’s flagship sampler, Kontakt. Among them, direct-from-disk streaming. Instead of loading samples into RAM, they can be streamed off the hard drive, which means it’s possible to load very lengthy samples without maxing out your computer’s RAM. DFD is a nice touch, but not exactly necessary for a drum or percussion sampler, as drum hits are generally short and don’t require much RAM. Still, there are some kits — the aforementioned Multi-Mic kit, for example, offers samples of each drum recorded from various microphones (overhead, close, room, and so on), and requires 261 MB, whereas the Multi-Stick kit, a complete acoustic kit played with six different kinds of mallets, requires a whopping 528 MB. Considering this kind of memory consumption, DFD may be your only option if you’re computer is light on RAM.

Another feature taken from Kontakt’s playbook is B2’s new multimode filter, which is super-smooth and quite capable of serious sonic shading. Not only will you find the usual suspects — low-, high-, and bandpass with variable slope — but you’ll also find phaser and vowel filters along with 1/2/3-band EQ with selectable Q. It gets better. Each cell can have its own filter choice. Just be forewarned: Engaging filters for every cell within a kit will put considerable strain on your CPU.

Groups of cells can be enabled and disabled for playback via MIDI controllers or MIDI notes similar to how different sets of samples can be selected within Kontakt or GigaStudio. This allows you to add more expressiveness to your drum parts — for example, you could play a snare with “hotrods” during a verse, then switch to sticks during the chorus. The included Multi Stick kit is a great example of how this feature can be used effectively.

The original Battery featured an FX Loop that allowed you to create stutter and drum roll-type effects from one-shot samples. Essentially, a sample loop could be defined along with the number of repetitions. FX Loop has been updated to include tuning and crossfade parameters for smoother repetitions. Modulating loop parameters is the sort of thing that tweakers in search of bleeding-edge rhythmic maneuvers die for, and leave mainstream musicians scratching their heads wondering why on Earth anyone would want to loop small portions of a one-shot sample.

Speaking of modulation, the Mod section has been beefed up. At the top of the list is an assignable LFO, and you’re free to use any of the envelopes along with any MIDI CCs to modulate up to eight parameters per cell. There’s room for improvement, though. Some parameters (such as loop tune and count) aren’t available for modulation, and while there is a MIDI learn function, it doesn’t extend to any loop-related parameters. What’s more, none of the parameters are listed by name (at least not in Logic or Live, the two hosts I used with B2), so it’s a bit of a guessing game when trying to modulate parameters not available from within the Mod section. This qualifies as a significant shortcoming in my book, and I’m hoping it’s addressed in the very near future.

Replacing version 1’s Shaper is a bonafide compressor. B2’s isn’t anything out of the ordinary: There are controls for threshold, ratio, attack, release, and makeup gain. But hey, a true compressor is mighty handy for punching up drums, so I’m not complaining. As with other synthesis and sound-shaping aspects of B2, the compressor can be disengaged to conserve CPU resources.

Rounding out the effects section is the Modify module, which includes controls for sample tuning, bit-depth reduction (instant crunch for even the cleanest of pristine samples), Hertz (a sample rate reducer that sounds not unlike a classic ring mod), and Sat (short for saturation, read “thickening agent”). All of these add up to a potent mix of lo-fi processors that can be applied per cell. Fun stuff.

WAX ON, WAX OFF

I never clicked with the original Battery, but B2 has made a believer out of me. The new modulation features, though not complete, afford a greater degree of sample manipulation and sound sculpting. I found new ways to manipulate my existing samples, twisting and torturing them until they were unrecognizable as percussion sounds. On the flip side, I was able to lay down convincing “live” grooves using the new acoustic kits. These are very well done, although not quite as detailed or comprehensive as some drum sources (check out my Reason Drumkits Refill review on page 96). Still, their contribution to B2’s library is almost worth the price of admission.

I experienced few difficulties while working with B2, whether I was using it as a plug-in or in standalone mode. In fact, sample load times were surprisingly fast, even with 500 MB+ kits. I never waited more than a couple of seconds.

The only major frustration was the limited modulation routing options. I’m happy that the Mod section has been improved, but there really ought to be a way to modulate FX Loop parameters via MIDI learn or directly by choosing them as Mod destinations.

THE SKINNY

As a sample-based drum and percussion sound module, Battery 2 is at the top of the heap. There are other software drum modules that have larger acoustic libraries, but that’s not what Battery is all about. It’s a combination of powerful synthesis features that can be applied to sampled kit sounds, whether they’re derived from acoustic or synthetic sources. A lot of sonic damage can be done just with B2’s sounds and feature set. Add to this a drum synthesizer such as Waldorf’s Attack, Logic’s UltraBeat, or NI’s own Reaktor, and you’d have all of your drum and percussion bases covered.

Strengths:

Wealth of top-notch sample content

Creative sound design possibilities

Sophisticated trigger modes

Easy-to-use interface

Limitations:

Some critical parameters not available for modulation

Limited built-in effects (no reverb, delay, and so on)