OTTO

Hear It

Screenshots cannot show you the part that actually matters, which is how it feels to play. These walkthroughs are the sound and the playing.

The OTTO instructional series. New walkthroughs land in this playlist as they are finished — open the full playlist on YouTube.

What Makes OTTO Different

Drum machines sound robotic because every hit lands on a perfect grid at one fixed intensity. Real rhythm sections breathe — they shift energy, push and pull feel, and arrange parts that answer one another. OTTO brings that to electronic drums: four independent players, each with its own kit and part, performed through an energy system that changes how a pattern feels without changing the notes.

Key Features

• Four independent playersEach with its own role (Drums, Percs, Shakers, Hands), kit, part, level and pan, sharing a single transport. Any player can take any role, so all four can be drummers, each playing its own kit and part. The December release plays Drums; Percs, Shakers and Hands are being recorded now and will follow as add-ons when they are finished
• Energy-driven feelSeven energy levels, from Asleep to Energetic, reshape velocity, timing, and articulation in real time without altering the underlying pattern
• Role-based arrangementPatterns carry a section role and energy and are placed on each player's lane to build a living performance
• Hybrid sound generationEvery kit blends sampled and procedurally-synthesized voices, decided per articulation
• Built for the stageStrict discipline on the audio thread — no allocation, no locks, no file access while sound is playing — because OTTO is played live, not programmed
• One engine, two livesThe same code runs as a standalone instrument or an embeddable engine
• Flexible output routingA stereo sum, a per-player split, or a per-element split, all from one shared mixer

Platforms & Formats

One instrument, everywhere you work — on the desktop, on stage, and inside your DAW.

• Operating systemsmacOS, Windows, Linux, and iOS — the same OTTO on every device
• StandaloneRun OTTO on its own, no host required — built for the stage
• Plugin formatsLoad it in your DAW as VST3, CLAP, or AUv3

Screenshots

Captured from a development build with a demo song playing. The Percs, Shakers and Hands players use temporary stand-in sounds while the real ones are being recorded.

White Paper

OTTO is documented in depth — its first principles, the four independent players, role-bearing pattern playback, energy-driven feel, and the real-time discipline that holds the timing together on stage.

FX Modules

OTTO's signal path is shaped by a family of in-house effects modules, shared with IDA. The compressor and the reverb among them work differently from the usual approach:

VectorMorph VectorTape VectorComp VectorReverb

Pricing

Quick Pick stays free forever. Try the full OTTO workflow for 14 days through the Full App button, which shows how much trial time remains. After the trial, Quick Pick is still yours to play. Its factory beats and player presets stay fixed during free use and the trial. Purchase Full Unlock for continued full-app access and the ability to save your own beats and player presets into the Quick Pick slots.

The $179 Full Unlock is the drums. The drum library is finished, so OTTO launches with it in December rather than waiting. All four players work: any player can be set to Drums, so you can run up to four drummers at once, each with its own kit and part. Percussion, shakers and hands are being recorded now and will follow as separate add-ons when they are finished. Their price has not been set yet; it depends on how large the recording job turns out to be.

Quick Pick, the trial, Full Unlock and Kit Packs pricing goes live when OTTO launches in December 2026 — get notified at the top of the page. The percussion add-ons may not be finished by then, and their price will be set once the recording is done.

Licensing

OTTO is free to download, and Quick Pick is free to play without a time limit. The full OTTO workflow is available in a 14-day trial. Quick Pick slots have fixed factory contents until you purchase the full version. The app itself is commercial, proprietary software — licensed, not sold. Music you make with OTTO is yours, and no royalty is owed on it.

The Larry Seyer Acoustic Drum Library is proprietary content. You may use it freely in your music productions, including commercial releases, but the sample files themselves may not be extracted or redistributed.