Hi Baby Audio team,
I’ve been using TEKNO extensively and wanted to share a few suggestions that could make the workflow smoother.
High Priority
// Preset Saving
When saving a preset, the plugin always asks to type the name manually. how possible and PITA is that ;) ?
It would be great if the name field was autofilled with the current preset name, allowing quick overwrites without retyping. Or a simple overwrite button. see last korg native vst preset managment it is a good reference (in multi/poly vst for example)
// Pad Layout and Shape
The current octagonal pad layout is visually sci-fi but not practical for sequencing.
Suggestion: use square pads arranged in rows of 8, with the kick a at the bottom-left and other instruments organized upward:
This would align with most hardware sequencers like OXI Instruments, also Analog Rytm layout.
// Pad freedom: engine and midi note assignment
First, allowing custom MIDI note assignment per pad would improve integration with external sequencers and controllers.
Second, would be great if each pad could freely choose any drum engine (e.g allowing to use multiple pads as [Kick A] or [Tom L] if desired). Maybe limit the total amount of each engine per preset to 3 to save CPU.
Also turn-off a pad (visually and technically) if not used instead of just muting its output it in the mixer.
Current drum engines are good; specially the a and b variants for kick snare hats is a good concept to keep imo. Very versatile.
// Master FX Rack as a Separate Plugin
The built-in limiter and clipper sound excellent to really get this nasty ruff tekno sound. Good shot. This is what we want, heavy sound out of the box with limited post processing.
However, when routing pads to external outputs, the master FX chain is lost.
Suggestion: make the Master FX rack available as a standalone plugin so we can apply the same filter/limiter/clipper/level chain and settings to grouped tracks in the DAW. MAybe add the effects in it as well, so we could use it as proper Drum Bus
Low Priority
// Allow to laod samples in it, add a sampler engine :)
// Have a minimal channel strip for each pad. (is cancelled if we have the Master Rack as separate plugin as we will do our own channel strip on each Tekno outputs)
Distortion, graphic 3 bands eq/filter, basic and ruff compressor on all 18 pads , with minimum amount of buttons but efficient.
Thanks for building such a forward-thinking drum machine.
TEKNO sounds amazing already — these tweaks would make it even more flexible in real-world production setups.
Best