Native Instruments Battery
The record on Battery is thin. It's software, not a hardware box, and the period documentation in the archive is a handful of magazine mentions. What the press of the time establishes: Battery was Native Instruments' sample-playback drum module, a percussion sampler built around a grid of cells. In its original form, EQ (March 2002, p.98) counted 54 cells. Each cell could hold up to 128 samples assigned to its own velocity layer, with independent tuning, volume envelope, pitch envelope, bit reduction, and wave-shaper settings. The same issue noted Battery's place in Native Instruments' Studio Collection, which added Pro Tools-hosted plug-in versions of the range.
Battery 2 was a substantial overhaul, reviewed by EQ (March 2005, p.56) at $229, or $119 as an upgrade from Battery 1. It ran as VST, Audio Units, and DXi plug-ins (the OCR reads "ATAS" for what was likely RTAS) with ASIO2 driver support. Native Instruments' own advertising in Sound on Sound (July 2005, p.31) stressed the customizable sample-cell grid and a "dedicated drum sampler" identity. That's the company's pitch, not an independent verdict, but it lines up with how the reviews described the instrument.
Battery stayed in use long after launch. EQ (September 2008, p.46) demonstrated drum-map MIDI recording in Sony Acid 6 using Battery. Beyond those mentions, little is recorded - no release dates, no hardware specs (there are none), no collector lore.
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