Baby Audio Tekno 1.0 makes drum synthesis easy, but I’m frustrated by its limitations$129 ($79 introductory price)
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Tekno is a new drum synthesizer with an impressive sonic range, which joins Baby Audio’s fashionable and powerful lineup of audio plugins.

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Because hardware drum machines are so enthralling to use, their plugin counterparts have often suffered as a result, failing to live up to the experience of using the real thing. It’s hard to match the immediacy of a TR-style sequencer, and nothing feels quite the same as using a TR-909 with its vintage computer-style buttons. With this in mind, Baby Audio has moved in a more niche direction, by designing Tekno with synthesis-exclusive sound generation. So can Tekno stand up to the competition on the strength of its sound engine alone?

How do you use Baby Audio Tekno?
As you open the plugin, you are immediately confronted with a hexagonal matrix of 18 independent drum voices, each with a synthesis engine appropriate for the creation of the respective drum sound. As you select and audition each sound, you’ll notice that the set of Synthesize controls change depending on the type of drum voice.
This becomes more evident still when you access the Synthesis Calibration parameters to dive deeper into the sound shaping tools of each sound engine. One of the first things I notice about Tekno is that it has no sequencer. This means you’ll be programming patterns within your DAW or you’ll need an external MIDI controller, which again narrows the creative scope of Tekno as a drum machine plugin. However, in response to initial user feedback, Baby Audio has just announced that the forthcoming v1.1 will include a sequencer.
However, once you’ve put a MIDI sequence together in your DAW, you can skip through the presets to find a kit that either suits the style of your music idea or inspires you to create. Also, when you approach each sound individually, you have the controls to really shape your drums to perfection, and you have the choice of using the internal mixer or using the 16 output busses for discrete channel routing in your DAW.
Each drum voice also has a range of effects, including saturation, compression, and an exciter, as well as a send that feeds the master reverb. Like the Synthesize section, you can access a wider range of controls by opening the Effects Calibration menu, which also contains the filter and transient shaper sections.
Master Calibration in Tekno. Image: Press
Going deeper into Tekno
Despite its shortcomings, Tekno is still a versatile sound creation platform for drums and percussion. Any drum voice can be exported with or without effects by simply dragging the sound from the hexagon into your DAW or directly onto your desktop within your OS. This makes Tekno a useful tool for creating unique sample packs or creating soundsets to load onto a hardware sampler.
What’s interesting, too, is that Tekno has processes that act on incoming MIDI signals, so you can add swing or use the Human time and accent functions to achieve more variation. Besides the internal mixer, there are a few other features that encourage you to produce your drums entirely inside Tekno. First is the ducking function, which allows you to use any of the drum voices to sidechain the others with an amount control, while the release time of the ducking compressor can be adjusted in the Other tab of the Master Calibration section.
The master bus also has an impressive limiter section with a drive control for introducing harmonic distortion, and a variable high-pass filter to preserve the low-end elements all the way up to 500 Hz. When you start combining all the drum production features, a simple drum pattern with the Human control cranked up can produce truly compelling results. Not only do the timing and velocity change over time, but other parameters too, which is especially interesting when pitched percussion elements are playing.
Clap Synthesis Calibration in Tekno. Image: Press
Where could Tekno improve in future updates?
There is no doubt that Tekno is a serious sound creation tool with a range of impressive drum synthesis engines, but some of its features can become oxymoronic when you put the plugin through its paces. Although the multicoloured hexagonal visualizer looks incredible, the Calibration controls don’t have the same aesthetic detail, riding the line between minimalistic and lazy user interface design.
Another wondrous feature is the modal synthesis engine inside the Tonal drum voice, which lets you create an incredible range of pitched sounds. However, I found it frightfully limited without at least an octave range of chromatic MIDI input, which is something Logic’s Ultrabeat had over 20 years ago.
Tekno does have the ability to mix and match voice presets from any kit in the library, which can produce results quickly. The only drawback is that the drum synth engines are fixed in place, which unfortunately prevents you copying a sound from one voice to another within the same kit.
Without a sequencer, Tekno becomes more of an additional sound engine for your OXI One, BeatStep Pro, or Push, rather than a standalone beat production tool. While the MIDI humanisation features are welcome, you can’t access swing without menu diving, which is frustrating. What’s more, I even experience crashes when trying to export audio from Cubase. Although the software is still in version 1.0, this is a frustrating glitch that I work around with the Render in Place function. I’m told by Baby Audio that the v1.1 update is currently in development and will address this issue, which is encouraging.
Regardless of its prowess as a sound creation tool, Tekno doesn’t come close to the creative user experience of Sonic Charge Microtonic from 2003. If you consider these pitfalls and a $129 price tag, the plugin starts to feel like a product that has been rushed to market.
As a synthesis and drum machine fan, and as much as I want to like it, Tekno leaves me scratching my head. Many of the poor design decisions could have been easily avoided with further market research from the Baby Audio development team.
Drag-and-drop in Tekno. Image: Press
Key features

Drum synthesizer plugin (VST, AU & AAX)
Sound library with 73 global presets and 1314 individual voice presets
18-voice sound engine
Multiple types of synthesis
Drag-and-drop voice export
Per-voice and master effects

The post Baby Audio Tekno 1.0 makes drum synthesis easy, but I’m frustrated by its limitations appeared first on MusicTech.

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