NUSofting has just released Broken Drum Machine (BDM), a virtual instrument inspired by a combination of several old school beat boxes and the circuit-bending culture around the "toy" Casio and Yamaha keyboards of the 80s.
BDM is a plugin instrument designed for the musicians who love chaos and usually find the unpredictable behaviour of an uncontrollable sound machine stimulating and inspiring. It offers four drum pads in the style of an old beat box- one each for Bass Drum, Snare, Hi-Hat and Stick. Each pad features the usual suspects for shaping the synthesized sound, including tone, decay, pitch, pan and gain.
On top of the standard controls comes the broken factor - each pad features its own sliders for chaos and chance. Chaos sets the amount of variations to the original sound, and chance is the probability algorithm for the chaos to occur. By varying and automating the chaos and chance sliders, you can achieve an infinite range of wild and unpredictable sounds, similar to creating glitches and bleeps by manipulating an analog circuit.
BDM is available for Windows as a VSTi. Until the 15th of February, 2008, BDM can be purchased at the special introductory price of $44.90.