Every drum in Rattle is a chain of beads knocked by a striker — tight and tuned when squeezed, a loose clatter when not. Grooves taken from how real drummers play keep it swinging, and every bar can play out anew.
No samples, no recorded drums, no loops.
Every hit in Rattle is worked out fresh as a chain of beads knocking into each other, so no two hits are ever quite the same — and the grooves swing the way people play, not the way a grid ticks.
Hear it
Each loop below is one kit playing one groove straight out of the plugin, with Alive and Feel on. No samples, no effects added afterwards.
Rattle borrows its sound from the physics of granular crystals — rows of touching beads that behave like nothing else.
Here is what happens inside, in plain words.
Every drum is a row of elastic beads lying between two walls. A striker hits the first bead, each bead pushes the next, and what you hear is the chain pressing on the walls. Beads can push but never pull, so gaps open and close between them as the hit travels — that is where the rattle comes from.
Hertz 1882 · contact of elastic solidsA chain of loose beads has no ordinary speed of sound at all. A hit runs through it as a single compact wave whose speed grows with its force, so harder hits arrive sooner and sound higher. Press the beads together and the chain turns back into a tuned drum. Physicists call the loose state a sonic vacuum; Press moves between the two.
Nesterenko 1983 · Dynamics of Heterogeneous Materials, 2001Change the weights along the chain and a single strike splits into a roll of smaller waves, or is swallowed whole, or bounces back. Weights picks the pattern: even, pairs, a light tail, heavy beads, fading, growing or scattered.
Chong, Porter, Kevrekidis & Daraio, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 2017The grooves are not drawn by hand. Each one carries how real drummers play a style: how often they hit each step, how hard, and how far ahead of or behind the beat. Feel keeps that timing; Alive lets every bar play out anew from those odds, so the beat breathes like a person.
158 grooves · 10 styles · each at its own tempoBead chains have been studied in physics for decades, but when we went through plugin catalogues and audio research we did not find a drum machine — or any instrument — that plays them. As far as we can tell, nothing else plays like it. Listen above and decide for yourself.
Pick a kit and a groove, then reshape any drum by its physics: pitch, number of beads, how tightly they are pressed, their weights, the striker.
Each drum is a row of beads lying between two walls. A striker hits the first bead, the beads knock into each other, and what you hear is the chain pushing on the walls.
Squeezed beads ring like a tuned drum. Loose beads have no ordinary speed of sound at all: a hit runs down the chain as a single wave whose speed grows with its force, and turns into a clatter.
Kits are physics, not samples: glass beads, iron shot, seed pods, a coin jar, chain mail, a rain stick, mercury and more. Reshape any drum with its own knobs.
Every groove comes from how real drummers play: how often each step is hit, how hard and how far off the grid. Funk, hip-hop and soul pockets, shuffle, rock, jazz, latin, afro, reggae and disco, each at its own tempo.
Alive plays every bar anew from the drummers’ own odds, so the beat never repeats exactly. Feel keeps their timing and dynamics, or puts everything dead on the grid.
Automatically softens harsh, piercing spots in the kit. It works by itself; amber bars light up when it is working.
$24 AT
LAUNCH.
THEN $39.
Rattle is $24 at launch (until 31 December 2026), then $39, plus applicable tax/VAT. One-time purchase, one key for up to three computers, Mac or Windows.
Try the full drum machine free for 7 days first. No card, no account.
A chain of touching beads with no pressure on it: it carries no ordinary sound, only solitary waves whose speed depends on how hard they were started.
Rattle is on its way. Leave your email and we send the download link the moment it is out — try it free for 7 days, then $24 at launch (until 31 December), $39 after that, plus applicable tax/VAT.