Onderstekop

Hydrogen is an advanced drum machine for GNU/Linux, although there also appears to be a Windows installer available (it could be dated -I haven't tested it-). 'Its main goal is to bring professional yet simple and intuitive pattern-based drum programming', reads their website, and by god, intuitive it is!

Now, because of the fact that Hydrogen is so intuitive, this description is going to be very short, so there will be more time for you to start creating your own beats, loops or songs. People who have used the pretty mediocre, but still popular program FruityLoops before will know exactly what to do when they first open the program and see the interface, but don't worry if you haven't, because Hydrogen is very easy to learn.

Every song is split into patterns. Which patterns will be played at what time can be set in the song editor.


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Each pattern on its turn defines when which instrument plays. Using the pattern editor is similar to the song editor; the big difference is that you have to select instruments instead of patterns:


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Tweaking the volume, panning, swing, FX and other things can be done in the mixer:


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When you've finished your song, you can export the result to a wav or midi file, which is very convenient. It doesn't stop there however, because Hydrogen can be extended with several drum-kits, instruments and effects to make your beats even more diverse.

Demonstrations (MP3)

Still not convinced to give it a try? Listen to some of the demonstrations I made:

Demo 1 [mp3] [h2song]
Demo 2 [mp3] [h2song]
Demo 3 [mp3]

Please don't laugh at my song-writing, this was just made to show you what's possible.

You might want to get cracking or read and hear some more: Hydrogen's homepage