Donner unveil Essential D1 Performance Beat Machine

Published 18/7/24

Compact drum machine boasts 12 tracks & onboard effects

Following its initial preview at NAMM 2023, Donner have announced that their Essential D1 Performance Beat Machine is now shipping worldwide. Aimed at musicians of all levels, the compact drum machine boasts 12 tracks, onboard effects and both real-time recording and step sequencing capabilities.

The instrument features a 12-channel sample playback engine loaded with a factory library developed by Loopmasters. There are 16 drum kits and 64 patterns included, and the unit also supports user-imported samples. Pitch, filter, envelope, distortion, bit crusher and humanise processors are available as insert effects on each channel, and there are also send-based reverb and delay effects along with a master bus processor that can be applied to the stereo output. As for programming, the Essential D1 offers real-time recording, and also comes equipped with a 64-step sequencer capable of storing 64 songs.

An LCD display screen is joined by a healthy selection of physical controls. A clickable endless encoder takes care of navigation duties while five endless rotary encoders offer parameter control — they’re touch-senstive, so their values are instantly displayed on the screen as they’re adjusted. A set of 16 backlit function buttons are then joined by four backlit RGB faders, and a set of 16 RGB backlit velocity-sensitive pads provide hands-on triggering of the instrument’s drum sounds. Each of the 12 tracks are assigned their own unique colour, which is reflected by all RGB-capable controls for intuitive operation.

A pair of line-level outputs are provided on quarter-inch TRS sockets, while a pair of mini-jack connectors offer both a headphone output and stereo line-level input. finally, MIDI I/O is provided by a pair of five-pin DIN connectors as well as being available over USB.