As we continue crowning MusicRadar's Gear of the Year, today we turn our attention to drum machines and grooveboxes, spotlighting four beat-focused rhythm generators that tinkled our collective hi-hats in 2023.
1. Roland SH-4d
Roland has released a lot of new hardware in recent years that trades on the brand’s heritage. This year’s SH-4d stands out against this backdrop though; while its look and many of the onboard sounds are inspired by Roland’s back catalogue, it puts more emphasis on innovation than anything else Roland has released recently.
This sequencer-focused synth-drum machine hybrid combines Roland’s quality analogue emulations with several genuinely unique synthesis modes and a deceptively complex, multi-layered drum synth. The real innovation lies in the fact that nothing about the SH-4d feels beholden to the workflow of instruments that have gone before.
- Read more: The producer's guide to the Roland SH-4d
2. Polyend Tracker Mini
Polish brand Polyend released reworked versions of its Tracker and Play in 2023. Tracker Mini takes the retro-inspired format of its predecessor and places it into a handheld format, enhanced with a rechargeable battery and onboard mic. The Mini format really suits Tracker, the user experience is enjoyably gamified, feeling like a modernised Amiga–Gameboy hybrid.
3. Polyend Play+
More recently, Play+ keeps the same format as the original Play groovebox – one of our highlights of 2022 – but adds a more powerful processor. In a touch we like, users of the original can send their units to be upgraded to ‘+’ status (albeit at almost half the price of a new one).
4. Korg Drumlogue
Over the past few post-Covid years, the length of time between products being announced and actually hitting the market has, at times, dragged out.
Korg’s long-awaited hybrid drum machine, Drumlogue, first teased at the (digital) 2021 NAMM show, took a full two years to finally land on our test bench. Perhaps due to this weight of expectation, we were slightly underwhelmed by the final product – it was held back by a few clunky workflow implementations.
Firmware updates, however, addressed a few of our complaints as well as expanding the potential of the Sinevibes-powered synth that comes loaded into its customisable user engine. All things considered, it’s a great tool for combining rich analogue beats and glitchy digital rhythms.
