Jomox MBASE 11

I trigger this bad boy from my Digitakt sequencer. The Jomox MBASE 11 does not merely produce kick drums. It produces events. Geological ones ;)

The controls let you go from tight electronic punch to full-on tectonic plate movement. Sub frequencies appear that I’m fairly sure were previously only theoretical haha. Even better to hook it up to an analogue distortion pedal for that crunchy gabber oomph.

Yes, you can make tasteful kicks with it. But let’s be honest: the real reason I own an MBASE 11 is to generate that iconic Jomox low end that makes club and car systems question their life choices. Also, it needs a bit of EQ after all the processing... to make it sit in the mix responsibly.

In summary: not a kick drum module. A small, dedicated earthquake machine.

I needed an analog kick drum for my live PA techno setup. My choices were to go modular, or to find a clone of a 909 to use. After much searching I landed on the Jomox MBase 11. There weren't many demos of the unit online that demonstrated it's full capabilities so I bought it largely on a gamble. It turns out that the machine sounds great. I would give it a solid 8.5 in terms of sound and versatility.

What's interesting is that the module does have a character sound to it which is somewhere between a 909 and an 808. It doesn't have the attack "blip" of an 808, it's a little more on the subdued or overdriven side so more like a 909. The "MetNze" parameter combined with the attack and a few other gives you the ability to change this to varying degrees.

The body is full, round, and warm, again not quite an 808 in my opinion, but in between and great nonetheless.

The user interface is a bit strange, but easy to navigate once you read the short manual. The best part is that you can change presets via MIDI. You have 10 user presets a and bunch of factory presets to use. I found for my music about 4 factory presets I liked. It does state in the manual that you can write over the factory presets, but the memory only has a limited number of "writes" to it. Personally, I would only write to the factory presets one or two times. The user bank does offer nearly unlimited rewrites and 10 is plenty to work with.

The build quality is up to par of anything out there and the small size of the module makes it convenient to place in a setup. The 2 knob interface is a little clunky, but given its size works well. I would recommend that a perspective buyer listen to all of the sound demos they can and see if they like the sound as that thread of similarity runs through everything it does. If you like it, then you can coax numerous sounds out of it. If you don't like it, then you would need to continue searching because you will still hear that character sound with additional external effects. It's hard to describe, but the Jomox sound is unique and welcomed.

Overall, I recommend it to any kick arsenal and I currently use it as my main kick module for my techno performances.