Eurorack Aleatoric Drum Machine

You may have seen it in our Bristonica 25 coverage, and now Drumkid from Bradshaw Instruments is officially on sale. Here's the full details direct from Bradshaw Instruments...

Drumkid is a Eurorack version of Bradshaw's potent aleatoric drum machine that lets you sequence drum patterns and keep them fresh with deep randomization controls. At its core, Drumkid is a four voice drum machine with a built-in step sequencer, enabling normal drum pattern programming with both per-step and live recording for making patterns on the fly. Where things get interesting is in Drumkid's powerful tools for introducing random variations into your rhythms, perfect for anything from algorithmic fills to far-out audio rate freak outs.

Using the Chance control, you can introduce additional hits to the four voices to the right of center position, and randomly remove them to the left. Zoom adjusts the resolution of these random variations, increasing in metric division across the knob's travel. Control loudness of hits with the Velocity control, and introduce fluctuations within a range of volumes with the Vel Range control. To help keep these randomized rhythms clocking along in more regular intervals, the Magnet control determines the likelihood that variations occur on regular beats like quarter notes. Cluster increases the amount of repeated notes which occur in random variations, adding ratcheting rhythms amidst your pattern. A Swing control lets you adjust timing to follow eighth-note triplets to the left and sixteenth-note triplets to the right. Drop Rand and Drop All controls allow you to mute individual voices in various discrete or random ways, for example dropping everything down to just the kick drum or hi hat in a transitional musical moment.

Despite its playful demeanor, Drumkid is a precocious young machine with even more up its sleeve. Adjust the pitch of drum samples with the pitch control, reducing all the way down to reverse playback. Crop and Crush are onboard effects which cut off the ends of notes or add bitcrushing, respectively. Using the SD card slot, you can store your own drum samples as .wav files and load them to Drumkid as a kit, enabling endless exploration of percussion sounds and more. Drumkid plays well with others, too, featuring dedicated trigger outputs for each voice, alongside CV inputs for Chance, Velocity, Zoom, and Pitch parameters. From fresh fills to glitchy ratchets and buzzing audio-rate rhythms, Drumkid from Bradshaw Instruments is an honor student in any Eurorack rig.

Drumkid Eurorack Features

•     Chance adds more chance for adding or subtracting beats
•     Zoom changes metric resolution of random variations
•     Velocity changes volume of voices
•     Vel range changes range of possible velocities for dynamic variation
•     Magnet increases regularity of variations on chosen subdivision
•     Cluster adds more repeated hits on each random addition for ratcheting rhythms
•     Swing control with 8th note triplet to the left and 16th note triplets to right
•     Crop chops end of samples for a gated effect
•     Crush adds bitcrushing effect
•     Pitch changes sample pitches down to reverse playback
•     Drop rand increases randomized dropouts for ensemble variation
•     Drop all mutes voices down to just kicks to the left or just hi hats to the right, with full drop outs at both extremes
•     Supports tuplets for complex triplet / quintuplet /septuplet rhythms
•     Load .wav samples from SD card to make your own drum kits (SD card not included)
•     Independent trigger outputs for each voice
•     CV inputs for Chance, Zoom, Pitch, and Velocity
•     Clock in and out for external synchronization
•     Dual audio outputs

Pricing and Availability:
$399

More information:

• Drumkid

• Bristronica 25: Bradshaw Instruments - Drumkid Aleatoric Drum Machine Module 28-Sep-25