When I first brought the Perkons HD-01 by Erica Synths into my studio, I didn’t quite know what to expect. I was aware of its reputation — that sonic brutality, the sharp-edged design, the power of its hybrid synthesis — but it was only after turning it on, touching it, listening to it, that I realized it wasn’t just a drum machine: it was a living presence in my setup, something that pushed me to compose in a physical, visceral, instinctive way.

In my creative flow, the Perkons quickly became a primary generator. I don’t just use it to program beats. It’s an instrument that forces me to think in layers, in textures. I like to start a session by loading a single pattern, then letting it loop and manipulating it in real time — pushing and pulling the faders as if I were modulating a modular synth, shaping the groove slowly and organically through envelopes, filters, and overdrive.

One of my favorite uses is as a “controlled chaos machine”: on channel 2, for example, I’ll program very short metallic percussive sounds, run them through the band-pass filter, and heavily distort them. With an external delay inserted and a touch of trigger randomization, I get unstable, alive rhythms — perfect for building tense, cinematic atmospheres. I often use these in the intros of my live sets or during the darker ambient breaks in my tracks.

In the studio, I connect it via MIDI to my synths, but I let Perkons lead the rhythmic flow. It’s like having a crazy but loyal rhythm section — always in time, but never in the same place. The four channels work in symbiosis, each with a clearly defined voice: deep, saturated kicks, sharp hi-hats, percussive glitches, and drones emerging from seemingly simple patterns.

What fascinates me most is how it pushes me out of my comfort zone. It’s not an instrument for presets or routines: every session is different, every pattern evolves into something I hadn’t planned. And for someone like me who experiences music as performance, that’s essential. The Perkons doesn’t give you the perfect sound — it gives you the real one: dirty, raw, alive.

I often use it to compose full tracks as well: I sample long passages straight into my DAW, then cut, manipulate, and resynthesize them. It has become a primary sound source, especially when I’m chasing that sense of urgency and imperfection that no VST can replicate with the same intensity.

In an era dominated by in-the-box production, the Perkons HD-01 brings me back to the body, to gesture, to matter. It’s my distorted metronome, my mechanical drum, my most unpredictable creative partner.