Ploytec have announced the availability of Boom Kick, an automatic stomp box and bass drum synthesizer that has been co-developed with DobBroMan, a Berlin-based singer/songwriter and blues artist.
Boom Kick is equipped with three preset kick sounds, each of which have seven parameters that can be edited on the pedal itself, offering a wide variety of kick tones. A foot-switch labelled 3-4-1 Tap provides a tap tempo function, and upon being pressed twice, the pedal will calculate the tempo and begin a kick drum loop with a hit played on each quarter note.
The tempo can be adjusted once a loop is running by continuing to tap the switch, and pressing and holding the switch for more than a second will stop the loop. The pedal also features a Single Tap mode, where the foot-switch simply triggers a kick sound, allowing the device to function as a manual electronic stomp box.
A pair of quarter-inch jack connectors provide an input for an instrument, and an output to feed an amplifier or PA system. When an instrument is connected, its signal is combined with that of the generated kick drum, providing a single output that contains both the instrument and kick signals. A second foot-switch offers a mute function, which prevents the kick sound from reaching the output whilst still maintaining the loop playback and tempo. A large master volume control is placed at the top of the pedal's front panel.
A MIDI Clock output is also provided on a 5-pin DIN connector, allowing the Boom Kick to be used to synchronise other instruments and MIDI-equipped gear. Monitoring is provided via a 3.5mm mini-jack headphone output on the rear panel, which is unaffected by the pedal’s mute switch. The headphone volume is controlled by the front panel volume control.
A PSU is not included with the pedal, which accepts a standard 9V centre-negative power supply, and requires a current of 300mA.
Pricing & Availability
Boom Kick is available now from the Ploytec website, and is currently being offered at an introductory price of €349, reduced from its usual price of €399.
