Unfiltered Audio Battalion - Walkthrough | Plugin Alliance

In this Unfiltered Audio Battalion tutorial, Charles Hoffman presents the ultimate drum machine plugin. Discover how Battalion combines classic synthesis with modern sample design to create unique drum sounds for electronic, pop, and hip-hop tracks. Whether you’re a seasoned producer or just starting out, Battalion offers endless creative possibilities.
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00:00 - Intro
00:45 - Battalion Audio Examples
01:31 - Overview
03:44 - Voice Page
10:54 - Performance Page
13:34 - Sequencer Page
18:59 - All Page
19:38 - Mix/FX Page
23:13 - Global Controls
25:06 - Outro
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[@PluginAllianceTV]

Demo all of Plugin Alliance's products for 30 days. Start a free MEGA Plan trial here: www.plugin-alliance.com/mega?

[@LaPlant_Mastering]

I was waiting 20 years for the drum plugin like this one. Actually since fxpansion stopped support for their DR008 (2005)... Great job guys!

[@BursaProduction]

Totally agree! Same thing here~

[@bsbazzman]

can't believe this comes with the bundle. this thing is incredible. Seriously been wanting a drum synth for a while and the fact that you can blend real samples with the synthesis opens up sooooooo much

[@dzaxys4643]

Been producing for over 25 years this is one of the best plugins of all time I love this thing, combining the reverb and the maximise thing give some naughty results

[@buckycore]

I litterally screamed when i saw this video, then download the demo. After one hit of the random button i bought it. This is the dream drum synth!!! Unfiltered Audio: the unsung heros of the truly creative plugins

[@critical-thought]

Thanks Charles. I had to put on a lab coat and laugh maniacally to get in the right head space for this plug. The mad genius of UA shines in this one. So many thoughtful features and capabilities - this will require some serious play time.

[@moonmonkey303]

Really creative drum machine, like it a lot already, but please answer all the midi questions here. Your manual doesn't cover midi options properly at all... 1. Can you send midi out of the sequencer? 2. How do you turn off the sequencer and just let the daw clips trigger midi? Is the only way is to do this to delete all fills? this is annoying when switching presets. 3. Is there a quick clear all sequencer button?

[@doctortoomuch]

i treid to trigger battalion from a hyakken sequencer in ableton live. it does soemthing, but heck knows what and how. and you have to delete all voice settings in the internal sequenvcer manually, otherwise it would play internal and external sequncer alltogether. so, after i subbed to test this plugin breifly, its like: great sound possibilieties, but the lack of any state of the art midi implementation borks this plugin into a useless thing in my workflows, whre it already has to compete with microtonic, drumcomputer, geist2, d16 808 909 second versions et al. so fierce compoetition and all with midi. pa/unfiltered audio has to bring that on the table soon

[@MultiMam12345]

Looking forward to the OS version. Please do not forget midi mapping for sound skipping. Next kick, prev kick. Next hat/prev hat. Also midi mapping for start and end point. Batch/folder import for custom sounds. And for the randomization. Do it per section. Take an example from FAC drumkit.

[@VolterSvainber]

Really powerful - those who have used grooveboxes will really understand that this thing is close to digitakt in terms of usability! On-the-fly rocking groove with changing dynamics and palette of sounds It has its own sparkle! even FORS OPAL in terms of the sample part, those who understand the topic will lag behind! In general, it’s surprising that everyone strives to get closer to electrons, this is a phenomenon! firstly add individual FX to each track and not just sand effects

[@sokoleski]

NOW THIS ‼ is pure love... THE one i was dreaming of (without knowing it) thank you Unfiltered Audio 💚 A masterpiece ❣

[@frankjager1647]

I'm surprised there were no "Drag MIDI" or "Generate WAV" functions added. Unless I'm missing something you can't chain multiple sequences together either.

[@meru_lpz]

Yeah being able to chain multiple sequences would be much appreciated!!

[@ColdComp]

Can’t believe there is no chain! For me, it was between this and Drumcomputer. And although I made a better decision based on sounds, drumcomputer seems to have more pattern features

[@ucheattoh]

is there a way to export created sequences to a midi clip??

[@PluginAllianceTV]

Not at the moment. We've passed this feature request along to the Unfiltered Audio team. Many of our product updates are inspired by KZbin comments, so thanks for the idea.

[@ucheattoh]

@@PluginAllianceTV hope they roll it out soon...its the one limiting factor Im experiencing with the product

[@treat_audio]

Instant All Time Classic 🔥 congrats Unfiltered Audio ❤

[@WillisZzz]

This looks like a really well thought out drum plugin. The random features look great for adding realistic variation to repetitive hits, things like hihats and shakers.

[@sebbosebbo9794]

Reminds me on Micro tonic but reinvented the big old brother with features and look like its coming from a warzone underground facility.. I LOVE IT. .. 💪💥🗯🔥💭❤💨🕊

[@icondark]

I was JUST about to complain about the lack of UI scaling or a dark mode. Glad I watched until the end!

[@SzopenOffiziell]

I'm using your mega bundle since couple of months and you're just making it better❤

[@URRBANELEKTRO]

Finally !!! Time to ramp up production again !!

[@directed6924]

Getting some very interesting textures from this plug-in.

[@everybodyhasoul5438]

Don’t love the UI but this plugin still looks really cool and powerful! Unfiltered Audio is a company that lowkey has some of the best original software algorithms around. Much love for bringing to market an awesome creative tool for producers!

[@meru_lpz]

Is there a way to make multiple patterns and maybe chain between them? The internal sequencer seems fun but i would love a song mode to make the most out of it!!

[@untilde]

Yeah I wish it had something like DrumComputer does! You can chain different patterns and reorder them, it's pretty intuitive.

[@thomasandmegumilichtenstei7573]

Midi drag and drop should be the first thing mentioned IMO. Does this have it (I didn’t get through the whole video)? Without midi drag and drop I can’t easily adapt patterns to a song so it’s always the very first thing I need to know. Everything else is just details.

[@mrAlphavilla]

I does not 😒

[@PluginAllianceTV]

MIDI drag and drop is currently not available. We've passed this feature request along to the Unfiltered Audio team. Thanks for the great idea.

[@thomasandmegumilichtenstei7573]

@@PluginAllianceTV Maybe some people compose around a preset rhythm, but I always have piano parts (and other instruments) with a particular rhythmic structure especially in transitional sections. A preset is a great starting point for rhythmic ideas r(ather than just one-shots) and I use that method almost every time. Then in midi in my DAW I can easily adapt the rhythm to the idiosyncracies of my composition. I'll check this again when there is midi drag and drop. Thanks for the update

[@countflanders]

Straight up the midi drag and drop is a must have feature

[@subradial]

This plugin is something else! Congratulations, an instant purchase, mind blown after 2 hours of sonic journey, thank you!! 🙌

[@PluginAllianceTV]

Thank YOU for the nice feedback!

[@subradial]

@@PluginAllianceTV I have large collection of plugins from you and others but this is just whole new universe, from fairly 'simple and typical' beats to total mayhem this thing can do it all! one of the best plugins I own for sure, just randomizing various things leads to so many happy accidents and discoveries, truly a no-brainer, just incredible!!

[@southlandrecordings]

Nice feature would be drag & drop midi in to DAW

[@mataya909]

Amazing! It has everything I could wish for. Just my cup of tea. I own all of their plugins and this one will join them for sure. Congratulations! As for the design. I don't understand the complaints, All of their plugins are simple and minimalistic, but loaded with features. I feel at home with them. Love those guys. Thanks.

[@simonlegrec]

Amazing tool

[@the_crude_guy]

Very nice Plugin. But the randomizer goes mostly way over the board. The results are just noise and chaos. A more controlled, fine grained, control over the randomization would be a very nice addition.

[@aesilveira]

The idea is very good. But the design could be way better, not for the aspect itself, but for the general workflow. And I say this as someone who really likes the Unfiltered Audio software. I hope this is taken in a constructive way and that it helps.

[@bonwowo]

what u mean specifically? i think it could help to improve it to know what things lacks in this design to fix it

[@shanecgriffo]

It's definitely one for sound design and drum machine aficionados.. You can get a lot of mileage out of automating just a few parameters here and there tho, to get nice and/or crazy pattern variations.. pretty easy to do with clips in session view in Ableton.

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

Can Battalion trigger MIDI out?! What if i want to trigger external midi instruments?

[@teddym2808]

Also, why only 8 slots? It's a plugin. Why limit it?

[@battlezonetrading]

Most likely memory issues I’m assuming especially with the other features it includes.

[@teddym2808]

It seems no one can make a drum plugin as intuitive as Spark was. I lament the day Arturia discontinued it as it's the best drum sequencer plugin ever made to this day. Since it still works on Windows at least, I'm even considering buying one of those little tiny silent PC boxes for a couple hundred bucks and slaving it via midi as a normal hardware drum machine but using Spark (and I have the controller, so it really is just like any other digital hardware synth). This looks crazy powerful and sounds GREAT (I am always honest, I will not say it doesn't sound fantastic), but the GUI is so oversaturated with information cramped all together, that it's actually hurting my eyes, and I'll always be looking for the thing I want to tweak and I can already imagine my eyes getting watery and me even getting dizzy looking at it. Sorry guys. Gui has killed it for me. Edit, spelling.

[@igorscorreia]

This looks incredible.

[@igorscorreia]

I can't find a way to stop the sequencer from triggering when hitting play on my DAW. Is that not possible? Thank you!

[@Amusesmile]

@@igorscorreia hit the stop button at the top twice

[@igorscorreia]

@@Amusesmile Sweet! Thank you. It worked for a bit, but then it just stopped working. Thank you though!

[@Amusesmile]

It’s a bug. Sending in a patch today.

[@igorscorreia]

Amazing. Thanks for responding!!@@Amusesmile

[@VEsound]

Nice one! Not entirely sure the synthesis section is deep enough but there are other parts of the instrument which bring interesting features to the table. 🙂 It asks to be tested!

[@PluginAllianceTV]

Let us know how it works for you!

[@88yttam]

🔥🔥🔥

[@jonneves01]

As with everything Unfiltered Audio, this thing promises to be my go to drum machine for a very long time!

[@ChoopCgen]

Very fun , very complete , engine , modulation , random , polyrythm etc but one instance and my cpu 🤯 !!! But one instance is enough :)

[@mr-iz8cx]

Is it possible to route each Battalion drum channel to a DAW (any) mixer channel? That would be amazing. Trigger midi and easy resampling button, please and thank you. More power! Most drum synths are superficial in their approach to synthesis, I think. Go deep 😁 can't wait to try it out

[@TimesOfTheSines.official]

This is great, I own lots of Elektrons & this is a good in the box machine with a lot going for it in ways Elektron is great for imo

[@aviatedviewssound4798]

We need a sampler only screen.

[@Amusesmile]

Thanks- will consider adding something like this. It would be pretty cool.

[@GEELASOUNDTV]

Don't worry I will update this for you on Saturday. Check back then.

[@HalfBakedBeats]

Hi. Does this have MIDI learn (so that it could be assigned to say some TR-8s knobs / sliders)?

[@PluginAllianceTV]

To see and hear how our plugins work for you and how they compare to existing plugins or hardware, you can try individual plugins for 14 days by activating a trial license from your DAW - or just test our entire catalogue and services for 1 month! Please head over to our website to start your free month of MEGA: www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products.html#mega-bundle-subscription

[@HalfBakedBeats]

@@PluginAllianceTV I don't think you answered the question?

[@tenebrvm.]

just from checking the manual, looks like midi learn isn't native - but seeing as this plugin doesn't have a standalone mode, you might be able to assign midi controls to different parameters using whichever DAW you load it up in! i know Ableton and Studio One both support that sort of thing.

[@Amusesmile]

Not yet but we'd like to add it in the future.

[@everybodyhasoul5438]

Logic has midi learn

[@adamsmith7058]

Is it possible to randomise a selected section of the plug rather the whole thing, coming up with pure madness and hoping based on the slim possibility of something good happening?

[@PluginAllianceTV]

There are Dice buttons throughout the plugin that randomize certain sets of features. Within the Settings page, you can also limit the range of randomization applied if you're looking for less intense randomization.

[@Amusesmile]

I’d like to add this- more refined randomization controls. Technically it’s simple, but need to find a good UX/UI

[@berkloader]

Just downloaded the plugin, does not show up after installation in logic pro even after full au reset. logic is up to date as is the installer.

[@PluginAllianceTV]

That's hard to fix from KZbin. We'll gladly investigate, if you contact us through our support channels. support.plugin-alliance.com/hc/en-us/categories/10092652316445-Installation-and-Activation

[@stefanb988]

So this and a Surface Pro and a Pen?

[@richardwilkinsonmusic]

I can't switch the sequencer off! Where's the option to stop the sequencer so we can hear/record playback in the DAW without hearing Battalion's sequencer over the top of it? I'd also love an option to have the GUI update the drum in 'focus' based on the last pressed MIDI key, so you don't have to keep clicking back and forward through the different drums.

[@royklerks1266]

Hey man , you've figured out to shut the seq off , yet ??

[@richardwilkinsonmusic]

I just saw the Dev mention on a forum that it's a bug, due to be fixed next week. All good!

[@royklerks1266]

Thx man ... really annoying 😂

[@Amusesmile]

sending in a patch today

[@royklerks1266]

@@Amusesmilethanks a lot

[@SonicVibe]

Will it come to iOS ?

[@PluginAllianceTV]

Unfiltered Audio has already released five of their plugins on iOS, so we have high hopes.

[@VolterSvainber]

very good sample stretching But Why is this thing eating up so much CPU? Digitact and the sample model cope with having all the same and more effects on board))) And these devices are 100 years old))

[@beatenbeats]

yeah, my cpu complaints as well...😔

[@auskell]

I feel like I must be completely missing something but, how the heck do you actually record these sequences into your daw? I can trigger individual voices via keyboard, which record in as midi, but the actual sequences just sit there and play while your track plays, triggering no midi (or audio) data whatsoever. Looked through the manual but found nothing. This video doesn't actually explain it either. Maybe cause it's so obvious? If so, I'm somehow missing it.

[@chadferfence]

Hey! I struggled with this too. What I did to get my sequences recorded in pro tools was create a few stereo audio tracks and routed Battalion's outputs to the inputs of the audio tracks. I armed each track for recording and clicked the input monitoring (the little green "I" haha) button. Then with each track enabled to record, I hit record on the transport and started playing the sequence in pro tools. The individually routed plug-in outputs recorded as audio in the tracks. Hope that helps!

[@auskell]

@@chadferfence Ah, yeah okay, I'll try whatever is equivalent on Logic! Thank you 🙏🏻

[@un-ku_son]

Ducking for the delay but not the reverb? This looks rad, but reverb ducking would be my number 1 update request.

[@Amusesmile]

You can clear the reverb from a drum via choke on the mixer. Duck would be a nice addition. I’d like full sidechain control for everything, honestly. Been trying to think of a good method and UX.

[@GINA-dg2zq]

The plugin is unusable on my laptop. I can’t see the lower portion of the UI, So I can’t get to the sequencer and other stuff on the bottom. AND I CAN’T RESIZE THE UI BECAUSE THE RESUME TAB IS IN THE LOWER RIGHT HAND CORNER, WHICH I CAN’T GET TO. Any suggestions?

[@GINA-dg2zq]

Edit* not resume tab, but resize tab

[@Amusesmile]

Sorry it’s not supposed to be possible to get into this situation. I’ll post instructions for finding the uao file where you can manually set compatible size for your machine when I get a sec.

[@mr.justice3220]

No drag and drop midi rip

[@slenmusic1025]

Why does the preset sequencer automatically start as soon as I press play on my DAW?

[@slenmusic1025]

Thanks for the reply 😅👍🏻

[@Amusesmile]

The stop button prevents this but doesn’t stay latched. Sending in an update to fix this now.

[@tothefinlandstation]

Is there no way to make modulations bipolar?

[@tothefinlandstation]

I guess I should specify the random modulation source. If I'm applying random to pan position, for example, it would be intuitive for that to be bipolar.

[@tothefinlandstation]

Also feel like the pitch on at least some of the drum synths should be by note name (like C3 or F#2). And there should be a fine tune!

[@tothefinlandstation]

Also there should be an optional master DC offset filter.

[@tothefinlandstation]

The cloner sampler module introduces quite a bit of time offeset making the sample start quite a bit behind the beat.

[@tothefinlandstation]

There should be a dedicated click/transient drum synth that is designed to be layered with samples. Or a dedicated high-pass low-pass for both the sample and the synth so you can have one focused on just the highs the other just the low end.

[@Colorsinspace]

To me that sounds way better than elektron analog Rytm

[@jasoncruizer]

This plugin looks like it could bring a dash of ableton inside another DAW ! Its like Drumrack with inbuilt modulation and fx. Hopefully Unfiltered audio can build a synth similar to operator or analog, t be used in any DAW.

[@Amusesmile]

We created the pattern engine partially from inspiration by the Ableton 12 permutation concept, however it's organized by density, so spaced out Euclidean style patterns are on the left, fully packed patterns are on the right, and there's a world of variation in between.

[@assistantassistant5516]

Sequencer triggers at all times on DAW VST3 so that's pretty useless in a reasonable workflow. Other than that could be cool.

[@heety9]

If I’m understanding your problem correctly - hitting the stop button (at the top) twice will stop the sequencer from running on DAW playback

[@Amusesmile]

Sending in an update today to fix the stop button not staying latched bug.

[@assistantassistant5516]

@@Amusesmile Great thanks for fixing. Now we just need an automation parameter for start and stop to make it useful in a DAW. Not sure why that was left out.

[@WARDISWARD]

Fastest attack time of 1ms for a drumcomputer , sorry but that should be faster We want transient clicks when we need them .

[@Amusesmile]

It goes all the way down to 0.0

[@WARDISWARD]

@@Amusesmile Good to know

[@tg_grunwald]

Love it! but guys, cmon, now you're "by" Native Instruments, make it NKS Compatible!

[@PluginAllianceTV]

Internally, we're all very keen to make every Plugin Alliance product NKS compatible. There are some technical hurdles that we need to jump through to make that happen, but it's a very hot topic.

[@user-nb4wt3ig8g]

One more BreakTweaker?

[@va941]

Thisbstylenlf UI works for valhalla, but its because they have like 5 parameters, this just looks messy/unclear...sore eyes 😢

[@jensschettler1732]

Why max 16 steps? Skip for me..

[@doctortoomuch]

hmmmhhhh.... midi?

[@JohnnyVbeats]

I'm a beatmaker so I'm always happy to try new beat making tools. But the interface makes this almost unusable. It has to be one of the slowest, laggy interfaces I have encountered in recent years. High CPU usage too, no way to properly import my samples other than adding them one at a time, sequencer is not very intuitive. No thought to user experience, quite buggy in places. What a shame. I suppose it's ok for making eclectic IDM beats but not for serious music making.

[@captain_crunk]

Bummer. But yeah, their UIs have always been less than ideal.

[@GEELASOUNDTV]

Don't worry I will update this for you on Saturday. Check back then.

[@geOrge_carlin]

No exporting of sequences to MIDI? Hard pass. I`ll stick with my 10-year old masterpiece called *Microtonic* (Sonic Charge).

[@va941]

Unfiltered audio is one of those companies that have killer plugins, but whatttehell is up with that UI? It looks like my 3 yo nephew draw it at art class using windows paint 98😂😂

[@teddym2808]

Seriously, just reverb and delay? So instead of a stereo instance, I will need 8 DAW channels. If they do *anything* on the first major update, please add some saturation and compression and EQ to start with at a bare minimum. Yet another reason why Spark 2 will always be king.

[@Amusesmile]

Master compression or per voice or what? Drop your request and reasoning and we’ll see what’s possible.

[@teddym2808]

@@Amusesmile I have to check out the plugin properly. In spark you have a ton of insert effects per sound which is what I would like if it can ever replace it for me, including dynamics per sound. Routing to multiple channels in Logic and Pro Tools is a painful workflow and with Spark I was always able to avoid it, but there will never be a native Apple silicon version. Would also love to see traditional step sequencing, i.e select a drum sound, have 16 pad steps in front of you for each different sound rather than a whole grid overlay for all sounds. I need to watch the video again as I can't remember the sequencing in this one since I saw it last. For me, Spark was the best drum machine plugin ever made, and still is, and I am honestly gutted about its demise, but I am always looking for apple silicon replacements that also happen to not be crash happy like Spark always was at the best of times.

[@Amusesmile]

@@teddym2808 Nice! Honestly I haven't spent time with Spark, so I'll try to make that happen sooner than later as we refine/add some of these features. People have asked for per-voice effects but adding all of BYOME into this would be pretty absurd. Cool, definitely, but crazy. We need to optimize it asap before deciding on something like that. Appreciate the feedback! Sequencer page does have pretty standard 16-dot step for programming

[@teddym2808]

​@@Amusesmile Wow yoiutube keeps deleting my replies even posting a link to a timestamp on your own youtube video! It's so annoying. In the video yours looks like an overview grid. I am talking about pressing a drum pad and seeing 16 step inputs only for that single sound, then moving to the next pad and so on. Programming one by one. Old school TR like. Hardware like. Anyone I have spoken to recently about it, as I was curious, agrees - some even went as far as to say it's the only good way to program drums. EDIT, on further inspection, I think yours does have what I am talking about. At 23 seconds into your battalion trailer, I see the grid which I thought was for sounds but it's for data like pitch sequencing etc, I see a single row of 16 steps at the top, which I presumed can be accessed individually for each sound. If so, awesome. I missed into sale I think but will grab next sale but might even buy full price if the dynamics and effects per channel get added. That might make it really the best all in one. Can it load samples by the way? For example I usually find my best kick drums are made my combinations but always including a sample.

[@Amusesmile]

@@teddym2808 Yes the sequencer page has the dot display at the top where you can enter hits for each drum voice individually. This is 16 by default but can be set to any number up to 64. The ALL page shows a simplified view for triggers and a parameter for all 8 voices at once, so it's the fastest way to program beats on the whole set.

[@shogunarki1139]

I like all unfiltered audio plugin....until now This is not it ya guys The main problem is the confusing user interface

[@KYTHERAOfficial]

The gui is really eeeh not so nice :D

[@shogunarki1139]

@@KYTHERAOfficial It look as if it was made by a coder before consulting any producer or UI/UX designer (sorry if I insult any one but this is not good design) All the previous synth and fx are hard to understand but at least you know where all the buttons are This one is just plain out confusing for not that great result

[@DrScythe]

@@shogunarki1139 as a dev: looks pretty much like that yeah. I guess it's not the case because I can't imagine they had noone look at this from a UI angle but it would explain a lot.

[@URRBANELEKTRO]

Focus on the features and engine !! this thing is a production monster !!

[@shogunarki1139]

@@URRBANELEKTRO Ok I admit my defeat, I still keep my opinion (this thing look confusing) but it capabilities is AWESOME :x

[@jeromejamies3641]

The Gui is not inspiring at all, it's terrible frankly speaking

[@Shane-zo4mg]

It's no nonsense. If you want stupid animations and pretty colors moving across your screen and a bunch of empty space hogging screen real estate you can pay extra

[@GEELASOUNDTV]

Don't worry I will update this for you on Saturday. Check back then.