Nektar Aruba £255 PC MAC

Sprucing up its MIDI drum controller with a raft of new features, Aruba offers a slick new way of performing your software drum instruments

We’re not necessarily hardware averse here at Computer Music, but it has to be said, we’re typically inclined to let our sister title Future Music take on any new hardware drum and synth instruments that turn up at our door. Aside from saving on postage costs, we’re always keen to channel our focus to the onus of our magazine: computer music-making. But, when we took Nektar’s 16-pad drum controller for a spin, interfaced it with the versatile Nektarine plugin and sank into its incredibly fluid DAW integration, we realised that it was worth covering in detail.

Firstly, a little history… Nektar launched the first version of Aruba, then titled ‘Aura’ in 2020. Over the last three years, a series of updates to both the internal hardware, the Nektarine plugin, and the unit’s moniker have essentially transformed this beat-building behemoth into a completely fresh instrument. Its 16 RGB pads are among the most sensitive we’ve fondled, offering dexterous scaling of velocity layers and instantaneous sample triggering. Aruba’s internal step sequencer and built-in Repeat mode makes generating spontaneous patterns exceedingly easy, while the refined DAW integration – particularly with Ableton Live – take it beyond just being a simple finger-drumming pad controller, becoming an all round transport-controlling DAW interface.

Making a monster