Atlas by Algonaut Review

Atlas 1.2 which we are reviewing today is a tool that helps you to compile sample-based drum kits and has a unique approach to sort the many samples that are sitting on your hard disk.

Algonaut was founded in 2018 by Matt Weir and Tim Corin, and is based in Auckland, New Zealand. Algonaut did send a review copy with no strings attached.

“By using Atlas, people will realize that they have all the samples they ever need in their own sample library, and may never need to buy a sample pack again,” says Matt Weir.

Artificial Intelligence is here and where Algonaut sees its potential to create products that enrich musicians, remove the barriers that block creativity, and inspire musicians to try ideas they never would have thought of.

Installation

You download the software codes to authorize the software which you can download the tool here. 

There is also a ten day full-featured Trial of Atlas that you try out.  Atlas is a plugin that works in any DAW such as Ableton, Logic Pro, FL20 etc. Atlas supports both Windows and Mac in both VST and AU plugin formats. It was designed for MacOS 10.10+ or Windows 8+, and 64 Bit DAWs only. 

Sound

Atlas is a sampler software powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The tool can find all your samples, categorize and understand them. To sort your wide range of samples the tool creates a map of your drum and percussive samples. Through the UI  you can browse all the drums in one place.

With the integrated Drum Kit, you can use to produce unique collections using your samples on your hard disk. Combine that with the included  MIDI clips to commence creating drum loops.

Key Features of Atlas 1.2

• Easy-to-navigate visual map of all your drum and single-shot samples that can be scrolled and zoomed.
• Samples organized together into clusters of their type and character making it easy to find the right sound.
• Powerful Drum Kit with 8 slots where samples can be loaded in with a colored animated waveform on the pad.
• ‘New Kit’ button that can fill/replace the Drum Kit with 8 different sounds that match the user configured types that are already loaded. Kits can be saved and shared with friends.
• Individually randomise or lock samples in the drumkit and randomise the rest.
• Like/dislike samples and over time Atlas will learn the kinds of sound you like, factoring this into the ‘New Kit’ process.
• Drag and Drop a sample from anywhere into any app means you can use Atlas as a browser for you favorite drum samplers.
• Bundled MIDI clips of various genres provide drum patterns that can be dragged to a
• DAW to get drum going quickly. You can add to these with your own.
• Combo controls for each drum slot provide quick access to tweaking the sample: Gain, shape (attack + release), filter (low pass + high pass), pitch (resample) and pan.
• Analyse any sample library folder of any size. Use this to create multiple maps based on genre, brand etc. Each library can have its own color scheme.

User interface & Usability

Atlas has a modern UI, all needed features to use the tool as a drum library organizer and sampler are clearly accessible in the main screen. Atlas Interface meets the need to easily select the needed drum sound and helps you in creating drum kits.

 Atlas locates and analyze every drum sound in your sample library for type, character, and style and create a browsable visual map.

The first step when adding your content is in creating your map. You add all folders that you want to include and start the scan all your content.

Atlas can by using its AI algorithms group all your samples into the different percussive and drum sounds. The result is a dynamic visual map of all your sounds. On the map, you can zoom in to show more similar samples in the same neighborhood.  A modernized way of browsing and finding sounds fast.

Atlas SoundClass Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Powering Atlas and their future products are based on SoundClass, a proprietary Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence.

“We have our own theories on the future of AI and music. But rather than directing AI to write songs, we think the better application for AI is to solve problems that block the creative process, so anybody can jump in and express themselves through music,“ says Tim Corin.

SoundClass achieve accuracies that human test subjects have achieved when picking the category of a sound. The difference you did not have to spend time on this lengthy task or spend money as you did give up finding a sample on your disk as it could just be bought somewhere. 

Can artificial intelligence assist in picking the perfect drum sample? Short answer yes it works and it helps you to spend more time composing. Atlas produces a kit of eight samples for you with a single click. Select one of the included MIDI loops, drag that in your daw and you started way ahead in the process to produce a drum beat.

Rating:  Five out of five stars

Atlas 1.2 does help you to finally use your samples sitting on your hard drive, hiding from you and you may (under GAS syndrome) prevent a purchase of yet another library of sounds that you have already.

There are several tools available now that address a similar need. Atlas focuses on Drums and helps you to select the right samples and get you away from searching your hard disks. Through its approach and easy to use UI you can focus and get busy composing again.

Atlas helps to save a lot of time browsing for the appropriate sound, the looking for sounds task at least for me is a time waste and I am glad that I shorten it by using the AI from Atlas.