After recently acquiring a second-hand UNO Drum I've really enjoyed playing with it and, because I'm a software engineer, tinkering with it technically. I love the 12-bit 32kHz lo-fi crunch of the PCM samples, and the analog sounds are very nice too - IK has done a good job of creating sounds that feel "classic" yet don't attempt to re-create a specific device, e.g., the Roland TR-808, so it has its own unique vibe. Nice.
However, after reading the manual cover to cover several times, and delving deep into the unofficial software that allows user samples to be uploaded, I've discovered some issues/quirks and have some Wish List items of my own. To prevent me repeating anything that has already been requested I took it upon myself to summarise every post on this thread into a spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharingSome items I have "closed" because I know they can't be implemented, e.g., panning, because the device hardware is only mono, which cannot be changed.
My first issue, also noted by others, was that "MUTE ALL" doesn't seem to be available as suggested in the manual, Section 4.2 - Master Section:
SELECT ALL: enable this function to select all of the elements at once and then make tweaks or effects on all the elements at the same time. Possible tweaks are: Mute, roll, random, and all the parameters showed on the DRUM row.
I opened a Support Ticket #9236136 on February 2, 2024, querying the documented MUTE/SELECT ALL functionality and await a response.
I then looked at and documented the 3 firmware releases to see what issues/features had been addressed, which after 1.0.1 so far seems to be very little. 1.0.1 contained lots of fixes, which is great. 1.0.2 basically added support for the UNO Drum Editor software and 1.0.3 added compatibility for the Factory Preset Installer. It hasn't escaped my attention that the
last firmware update was over 3 years ago.
A popular request was for new PCM sounds which was addressed in the landslide release of the 10 Drum Anthology Libraries. The sounds themselves were well received, but lacked documentation about which sounds from which machines had been allocated to which pad numbers.
By far the most popular outstanding request is a tool to upload your own custom samples. I know that this is technically possible because I've done it myself, but it's fiddly, and requires a level of technical skill and manual manipulation. Users just want a simple software utility to obfuscate all the hard work.
My hope is that by nudging this thread and others here on the forum the UNO Drum will move back onto the radar at IK and its potenital will be fully realised (actually, I just wish I could get hold of the firmware source code and start making fixes and improvements myself!)