Mixed In Key Captain Beat $50

Take command of your dance, urban and electronic music drum tracks with the latest addition to the gradually expanding Captain range

The fifth in Mixed In Key’s series of ‘smart’ track composition tools is a sample-based drum machine aimed primarily at newcomers to music production. All Captain plugins are designed to actively assist in the creative process, with inter-plugin communication between Captains Chords, Melody and Deep (9/10, cm256) keeping them on the same harmonic page at all times. Captain Beat (VST/ AU), however, is an entirely independent instrument, which makes sense, as drums don’t correlate to the tonal structure of a track.

The manner in which Mixed In Key have applied their assistive philosophy to the realm of percussion, it turns out, isn’t quite as exciting as the chord- and tune-generating acrobatics pulled off by its stablemates, but that’s probably to be expected, given the less complex subject matter. No, what makes Captain Beat helpful to the beat-making novice is its sizeable library of ready-to-go sequences and one-shot samples (see Aye aye, Captain!), and the well-judged simplicity of the whole thing.

Bird’s eye view

Captain Beat’s resizeable interface adheres to the established Captain design language, centring on a 16-track sequencer, in which each hit is represented by the actual waveform of the sound it triggers – a lovely touch. There’s a velocity lane below, a tabbed panel above, and a pattern/kit/sound selection panel on the left. To get a beat up and running, select a pattern from the pop-out Pattern menu panel and a bundled set of 16 drum sounds (Kick, Clap, Snare, Open and Closed Hats, Toms, etc) from the Drum Kit menu panel. From there, you can change either as you see fit, auditioning sounds and grooves while the beat plays. Switching of both is instantaneous – it’s a seamless, enjoyable flow.