Erica Synths Prkons review: A uniquely thunderous drum machine

In many ways the $2,059Prkons seems like the drum machine sibling of Erica Synths SYNTRX. Its not just that they share a chassis and knobs. But theyre both pricey, niche instruments that focus on having a unique character, rather than cramming in as many features as possible. But, while theyre both compelling yet impractical devices, thats where the similarities end.

Talking about using Prkons is going to get very complicated, very quickly. So lets ease into things by talking straight specs. Its a four-voice digital drum machine with multiple different sound engines and algorithms per track, paired with analog multimode filters and drive. There are four 16-step sequencer tracks with four different shuffle algorithms, ratchets and probability settings. In addition to a master output, headphone output and master send and return effect jacks, there are also individual outputs for each voice, along with separate sends and returns and trigger inputs for each, not to mention MIDI In and Out. Plus an analog bucket brigade delay (BBD), an optical compressor and an LFO.

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In short, theres a lot of sound shaping power here. Sure, it doesnt have microtiming, and you have to chain multiple patterns together if you want to have more than 16 steps, but theres still a decent number of features to take advantage of.

The four voices dont have prescriptive uses, but some are better for certain sounds than others. And each has a unique set of engines with multiple modes. For instance, voice one has a wavefold drum, a wavetable drum and a simple drum algorithm. The mode switch then chooses between three different transients for the fold drum, three different wavetables or three different simple waveshapes depending on the algorithm chosen. And each algorithm has different controls assigned to the parameter one and two knobs.

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This basic setup is spread across all four voices, just with different algorithm options. So while voice one and two work better for kicks and toms, voice three is your best bet for claps and snares, and voice four is ideal for high hats and cymbals.

I feel like its important to pause here and point out that, while I may say things like best for snares, these are not typical drum sounds. Dont come to Prkons expecting 808 kick youre not gonna get them. But, thats part of its appeal. It doesnt sound like other drum machines and it oozes character. Thats quite refreshing in an age of countless clones and rehashes that simply try to repackage beloved sounds of the past.

That character and unique timbre might put some people off, though. Even I initially was underwhelmed with what I was coaxing out of the Prkons my first couple of days with it. But once I stopped trying to bend it to my will, and simply let it do what it was designed to, I came around pretty quickly. Those sounds are decidedly digital and err towards the aggressive end of things. Do you dig 90s industrial music? Youre gonna like Prkons. Digital hardcore? Have I got the drum synth for you.

In fact, after years of mostly making more laidback and ambient styles of electronic music, I found myself dialing in harsh, blown-out guitar tones, a la Nine Inch NailsBroken to jam along with Prkons. I was transported back to my high school days of black t-shirts and long greasy hair. And I wasnt mad about it.

The one tip I have is, keep that drive knob pinned and be generous with the compressor. I think part of why I was a bit lukewarm on it at first was because I was trying to be subtle and judicious with dialing in those effects. Which, frankly, it was probably pretty stupid of me to expect subtlety from a drum machine named after the Baltic god of thunder.

Once you accept the sound palette at your disposal, you have to come to grips with the technical functions of Prkons. This is where things can get a little messy. While programming in a basic 16-step drum pattern and playing it back is relatively simple, some of the more advanced functions arent always that intuitive. At least at first, Id highly recommend keeping the manual handy. Even if just to reference what the parameter knobs are controlling for each voice mode.

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The Prkons is decidedly old school in its approach to interface design. Theres no screen or menus to dive through. Instead, almost all of the machine's functions from the sequencer playback mode, to the shuffle percentage to the LFO target, are controlled via the 64 step buttons or four trigger buttons. This means that basically anything beyond simply inputting individual drum hits requires pressing some combination of two or three buttons simultaneously.

For example, if you want to set the probability that a particular step will play you have to hold down the step you want to change, the probability key and one of the four trigger buttons to select a percentage (10, 25, 50 or 90 percent). The benefit is that, since you dont have to do any menu diving, its simple to manipulate a pattern while its playing. And once you figure out the basics of how the interface works, its pretty easy to grasp since everything is labeled. The downside is that some things have relatively limited options, like probability. If you want to have a step to have a 33 or 75 percent chance of playing, youre out of luck. Similarly, shuffle is in predetermined percentages, though those arent labeled.

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You also have to be careful to hit the buttons you want in the right order. If you press the pattern / ratchet button before you start holding down a particular step, then youre not going to add a ratchet, you're going to change patterns. And if you havent saved the one you were currently working on, it will be gone for good. Prkons can be fun, but it can also be very unforgiving.

Even though the interface is old school, Prkons does have a number of new-school features to help keep it from being too robotic. In addition to shuffle and probability, you can change the length, add accents, multiply or divide the tempo, select one of four grooves and choose one of four different playback modes: forward, backward, ping-pong or random. And each of these can be done on a per-track basis. So you can make track four only 13 steps long and ping-pong from beginning to end and back at half speed, while track one plays at double speed with a 50-percent shuffle and track two has a unique groove but is only eight steps long.

All of these options are welcome, but can feel a bit unwieldy to manage at times. The lack of a robust menu system is both a gift and a curse. While it keeps everything at your fingertips, it also means you have to remember a bunch of button combinations to change or review settings.

Another thing worth discussing is that, while Prkons is primarily a drum machine, its also a synthesizer. But, dont expect to plug in a keyboard and play funky basslines. Instead, its best approached as a drone instrument. You cant play the voices chromatically, at least on the current firmware. That said, if your ear is good enough, you can tune each step individually to create a bassline.

Changing the parameters for each step is simple too. You just hold the target trigger button and start turning knobs. It functions almost exactly like parameter locking on unabashedly modern instruments from the likes of Elektron. If youd prefer to tweak things on the fly, you can just press record and start turning knobs to record automation. You can even change the algorithms and voice modes on a per-step basis, which really broadens the variety of sounds at your disposal in a given pattern.

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The most important thing, though, is that Prkons is an absolute delight to play. Frustrations with some of the interface aside, it lends itself towards live tweaking. And the hardware, just like with its distant sibling the SYNTRX, is incredible. The trigger keys on the right feel like theyre ripped straight from an IBM Model M. The individual step buttons have an insanely satisfying click. And the knobs have basically the perfect amount of resistance. All of this is in a large, metal body with wooden cheeks that feels like it was built for the express purpose of being abused.

All of that being said, I cant simply recommend that anyone rush out and buy a Prkons. It definitely caters to a particular audience. And its $2,059 asking price means you need to be really invested in that more aggressive aural aesthetic. While it does pack a lot of features and connectivity for the money, they're definitely targeted more at a professional audience than the casual bedroom producer. But, if youre looking for something rugged, wholly unique and powerful enough to explode a few heads with a thunderous kick, the Prkons might be the perfect drum machine for you.