Stimming reviews IK Multimedia’s UNO Drum (Electronic Beats TV) 

so, I did a double check today in our local music instrument store and I have a mixed outcome: first, the touchpad is of the type I mentioned: usable but not 100% reliant. at times of 'smartphones' this kind of touch input quality is really a minus. now the hum and noise: as some people mentioned it has something to do with the usb power. when running on batteries the sample engine is clean (still noisy and lo-fi but in a charming way) but as soon as you use a usb charger (and I used two different ones: a huawei and one from apple) the hum comes in again. I'm not totally sure if it was as bad as in the machine I had, but definitely audible not in a good way. what I doubted in another comment seems to be true: the sample engine has a power circuit which suffers from usb power and you hear this only when it is playing (maybe thats the reason why the elektron m:s doesnt allow power through its usb port?) I honestly feel a bit sorry for putting ik multimedia in this situation especially as the machine has a weird kind of charme with its radical lo-fi approach (and great sounding comp and drive) but I double checked my complaints and they are valid. use batteries!

awesome to get such an honest review

Guys , Stimming is officialy the synth reviwer of this channel

lol people are always so salty that stimming isn't just raving over every piece of gear. If you want that, there are plenty of influencers doing that.

Awesome review, thank you for honesty.

Am I weird because I like the hum noise ? It adds almost a tape hiss to it. This is a good drum machine for a very specific person.

Master Martin and the regular honesty. Thank you Sir, this very much evens my expectations. Digitakt ftw 💜

Yay! Another Stimming review!

Schlimming back once again. Love your reviews....

Von Stimming würd ich mir auch ein Review über nen Haartrockner ansehen!

Great review. Thanks!

13:08 every drum machine should make this sound

Stimming.. yo a man who's reviews may even surpass his music in its honesty!! Thanx 4 all u do & say & play... maxium ratings from the UK mush

Good review. Love the sound, buying anyway.

I experienced this noise issue with the TYPHON and a Roland drum machine that was USB powered. I, too, was only able to use those devices with a USB Battery pack. The noise went away with the battery pack. Both of those devices have been sold. Not because of the battery pack requirement (though that is probaly why I didn't use them that often). But, because neither suited my needs. The UNO drum, as you said, has a charm about it. I think the workflow and the sounds will suit my needs. I ordered one today. Thanks you, agai, for a very informative review.

Any plans for a Korg volca drum review… you do some of the best reviews on here 👍 !!!

Thank goodness for Stimming. He’s like the Nick Batt of drum machine reviews.

That was a great review! In fact kinda quite funny for some reason ...

Happy I recently bought the Drumbrute impact instead of this. Stimmings review on that machine is great, check it out!

Okay, so the touch buttons suck to play on (who'd 'a thunk it!), but can you hook the thing up to a midi keyboard and play that way?

Please keep the honest reviews coming.

Hey Stimming, please review the Toraiz Squid. It looks like it might be right up your alley.

That’s why Stimming is an inspiration for me, even thought I’m no artist. Everything needs to be right in the minimal details, in search for work perfection

hiii great! What is the brand of the acoustic console piano it the back ?? :-) :-) Thanks !!!

im almost definitely getting this over the drumbrute. i prefer the cleaner warmth over the dirty fuzz pedal sound anyday. i nearly bought a digitakt but its a 600 quid sampler really, with a massively complex workflow. like a sony camera.

7:06 😳 hahah. Great review as always.

You saved my money again;)

Have you tried other cables or a different channel on your mixer? My Uno has no buzz sounds!

So nice to see a review that explains pros and cons with clear proofs of what is being said. Someone may like a humming lo-fi sound.

I bought this, had the same experience. Returned it. The music site I bought it from wont put up my review though. How curious...

How do you use the demo sounds

I was about to buy this thing, thanks)

thanks :)

Hey Stimming. Those playing pads have two sections the bottom is normal speed and above the line is a higher velocity trigger if the same sound. I noticed you are playing the button as if there’s only one trigger in the pad. I think that may explain your difficulty with playing this.

could be because the samples are 8bit and what you hear is the aliasing. i think with a notch filter you could remove only that harmonic part of that humm. will still be audible but for sure a lil bit better.

I know it's a bad review but I really like the analog sounds on this thing. The PCM noise is a drag but like you said they're kind of "bonus" sounds. It's maybe not a good choice for techno or minimal where you're listening to just drums and a bass for minutes on end but would go great in a funk/disco track (*cough* linndrum *cough*). Biggest limitation IMO is the mono output (why???), but for live sets would be a great portable machine that sounds a lot better to my ears than anything else in the price range. Will likely pick one up.

I like this guy.

I see a Stimming review of a new drum machine, and I upvote!

What's is a good alternative for minimal music? I need a analog drum machine with this low fi sound and warm sounds... please help me 🙏🏼

Hi Stimming did they fix these issues do you know? The analogue sounds are pretty nice but I agree that the PCM engine is lacking with only 54 samples it seems small.

We need more reviewers like this...… I remember buying Future Music magazine during the 2002 - 2007 period. They'd never give a bad review to anything. Consequently I still have IK Multimedia's SampleTank version 2 sitting on my Hard Drive doing nothing. The amount of Romplers + VSTs that got great review scores despite not even bothering to level their presets correctly(or even bother creating any decent presets) was baffling. Thank you Stimming. Maybe 1 day music Tech companies will figure out they need musicians to co-produce and play test their products.

The hum might be groundloop noise. The UNO Synth has the same problem, and also other USB powered synths like the Roland Boutique. USB just was never designed for studio equipment, it's meant for cheap peripherals and maybe some crappy portable speakers. I solved it on my UNO by using an audio isolation transformer (about €10) between the synth output and the input of my audio interface.

Humming and noise! You should try the metasonix D1000... : )

Hey isnt it the power bank causing the noise? Ive had it happen to me when powering the MS70CDR

HELLO STIMMING!!!!! After the arrive of the UNO SYNTH PRO X I sincerelly wait for a PRO X version of the UNO DRUM too ........ It would be just massive ...... is ever they take it serious . What do you think ?

Is there an issue with the sound in this video? For example, KICK 2 sounds like just a click basically and the sequences just sound like a lot of clicks.

Tried the synth they did an was the same, noisy as hell...nice video!

Got one a few days ago. No noise problems here.

@ikmultimedia What are doing there guys? Martin is just destroying your Analog Drum Machine! I'm really curious about how they will answer! Stay tuned!

i'd buy it if i have the latent of music sense that stimming has. :D

That is what I expect from an independent reviewer of an instrument.

Stimming has not even addressed many of the problems. Micro-USB connection, mini audio jack, the new samples can only be called up via computer (not internal memory), etc. This device also eats up an enormous amount of power. Apart from the apparent weaknesses of the IKM synthesizers, what annoys me the most is that all hardware is bound to their software. If you don't register your hardware in the "IK Product Manager" via a license key, you don't get any firmware updates and other goodies like extra samples. If you want to sell the device at some point, you must pay around 21€ for a licence transfer. We are talking about hardware here.

the only synth reviewer i fully trust

hehe nice , brands better get it right , before sending stuff over to stimming to review ;)

I'm from the future. A firmware update fixed the hiss. It never should have been there and it will still be there off the shelf but it goes away with the update. Battery life is virtually nonexistent. Either that or I am consistently doing something which drains it. If you want a home unit, get a drumbrute. This is a Volca Beats on steroids. And, I've never had a pad not fire. No idea what's going on here.

Mr. Stimming wurde zum Benchmark für mich. =D

Watching this video again because of Audiopilz's review of the same unit. Brutal honesty and the sad truth about this drum machine gets dropped right around 9:26. Kind of sad because it didn't sound half bad for the money.

look at you pushing elektron 🤙🏽 yeah that sad that noise /humm build up is in there

it's not a vintage sampler problem, my Akai S612 and S900 were silent as a graveyard on a desert island. Just IK's cheap components. Please fix it, the uno drum is nice.

sorry, guy selling stuff on craigslist... stimming just helped me dodge a bullet on this one. I won't be buying your used ik uno drum. thank you, stimming. I owe you one.

You have to use the cable that came with it! If you use 3rd party ones you will get the hum...

I have this one and i have pads that work always when i tap them. I think yours is broke!

UNO if you ever make something good, you should hire this guy to review it!

It looks like the interface on my dentist's torture machine.

Also: no stereo out...

He’s obviously not getting paid for this review:D

Fred Armisen would play you in an adaptation of this RU-vid channel.

But they're not pads, they're membrane buttons, meant for programming.

For those that desire a touch quality real time player, get a maschine or MPC. This is designed to be an entry level step sequencer, and not intended to compete with finger drumming heavy weights. The sound quality and flexibility is superior to Volca and that's enough ! Giorgo Moroder made super hits with alot less

My Uno Drum doesn't make the hhssss sound at the end of the samples. Works perfectly. Not too sure which unit they sent to you for testing. Try to update the firmware. Also missing beats is a question of practice. Again mine works perfectly after getting used to it. Fantastic sounds and functionality for an unbeatable price. A bit up nose video IMHO

Has great tones, and decent parameters to effect those tones, with lots of different presets to manipulate. The lack of pad sensitivity is a fail. That lo fi noise hum is a huge fail.

maybe it uses apple's discarded butterfly switches?

I can buy this for $110. Should I pull the trigger

honest review - thoro but painful. This series is clearly designed to pair with another main groovebox like a MPC or ELEKTRON OCTATRACK/DIGITONE. You canNOT compare it to the RYTM or roland MC series. These units all run over $800 brand new. I was between a volca beats & the drumbrute impact & I bought the italian IK UNO to go with my MPC LIVE. I’m disappointed by the pads/outputs/wack mini-MIDI but for $200 I can deal with it. I imagine i’ll have to re-do a lot of drums with my electribe/roland MC, but I doubt i’ll take those units everywhere with me. At $200 I can take this unit everywhere . . . . . . . . . . I just hope the unit proves to be durable.

I think IK Multimedia needs to hire more musicians when designing products. I can't imagine any passionate and experienced drum machine users preferring to use these flat touch buttons instead of raised buttons like all the classic drum machines have. These flat buttons are more suited for splash proof medical equipment buttons or airconditioning remotes etc.. but NOT drum machines. The KORG Volca drum/beats range has a flat keyboard too but they are great because they're super sensitive, not like this thing. I think this machine is a nice try but not as good as it could have been. It needs more charm.. a built in speaker, proper buttons, and a more streamlined set of sounds.

the noise is coming from usb power. getting one of these eliminates it (same for UNO synth) www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XQYN77L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

thank you for saving me from the horrors of this machine

So it´s the Rhythm Wolf of the drummachines? Oh, wait a second..

We do appreciate honest reviews. Note that the mentioned allegedly unusable issues of noise and accuracy of the pads may be due to the specific unit being used here. There's another honest review (definitely has some constructive criticisms as you can see) at ask.audio/articles/review-ik-multimedia-uno-drum There you can see in the video that they didn't have issues with the pads (even with some fairly inaccurate taps near the edges of the pads, though it does look like there was one hit that was between the pads which of course doesn't trigger sound) nor any issue with noise even when the unit they're using is being powered via USB.

13:08 is humorous.

Touch screen is cold.

There's new firmware available, version 1.0.2. - Added support for UNO Drum Editor. - Improved PCM playback. www.ikmultimedia.com/firmware/unodrum/

Skip to 11:00 to find out what he really thinks.

Poor IK Multimedia. Seems like Stimming got a noisy lemon.

“Ouch!!!” Maybe use it as a “sound module” via MIDI.... “TOUCHSCREEN PADS”have ALWAYS SUCKED!!! that sad!! .... “YA GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR” I guess!!

This guys the only one with no bullshit! Pleas give him more products to review please. Thanks -signed internets P.S. I wish my wife have a humanize button..

what I find upsetting about a lot of this new suoer-cheap hardware that's been coming out in the past few years is the mentality that goes along with it. it's disposable: you buy the new thing for a couple hundred bucks and then in five years when it stops working you can just trash it and buy the next new thing. I don't see things like the Uno drum or any of the volcas being serviced by techs in 20 years time to keep them running strong. I don't think the components are even large enough to be handled by human fingers. can we please try not to fill up the earth with unnecessary plastic waste? you know it doesn't actually go away. it breaks down into billions of tiny grains of plastic sand and then it pollutes the ocean. I would love to see more modern manufacturers pay attention to build quality and do their best to ensure their new products are made to last a lifetime.

For the price of this, just go buy two different Volcas.

$269 ain't that cheap for a cheap drum machine

same sounds as the last 100 drum machines made in the last 20 years... nothing new YAWN !

Thank you for being absolutely honest in this review. The main objective was missed very badly with this unit. First and foremost, a drum machine should have pads! There is no substitute for pads, except for velocity and pressure sensitive pads. I'm so annoyed with this company who could have made a real formidably mid level, and affordable , fun to use drum machine. Instead, I got a noisy wast of $. Value and quality can never part ways no matter the price point. There is no value in having a portable instrument that you can't make good music with and immediately isn't a joy to use! Very very dissatisfied and returning mine asap! No thanks IK... This noisy box is absolute garbage!

nah fam

....this humming noise...it...er...it's Rubbish...hahahhaha

I see many comment cheer you about your honesty, and a "true review" :) It seems you didn't know the pads are double velocity You don't seems to know about noise from some USB powered devices You didn't try a wall charger or even the internal battery You didn't contact IK to check if you did something wrong or you missed something. It seems you lacking on the technical side quit a bit.

IK Multimedia has, in my experience, horrible quality control - what leaves the factory shouldn't always leave the factory. And: their support stinks. Arrogant, and they act as if they don't give a shit.

It is good for $20...

Did everyone else have the bad hum he’s talking about??

waste of hard-earned money...no buy

Better off buying 2 (TWO!!) Volcas

289€ ???? really,....?! way to much I think, sorry.