The Nektar Aruba Beat Composer controller comes equipped with a set of 16 multi-coloured LED pads that offer deep control over drum plug-ins as well as instruments and effects. Dynamic rolls can be created using adjustable parameters like gate, accent interval and swing and, when you flip this desktop-friendly box into sequencer mode, you're given access to a tight and genuinely interesting step sequencer. The Nektar Aura Beat Composer: Deep DAW & Plug-In Control The heart of the Beat Composer lies in the onboard software: Nektarine 2.0, which functions much like the AAX, VST or VST3 plugins in your DAW. In this way, it offers countless options for manipulating VST-instruments, effects, loops and other sequence samples with your bare hands. The software provides sixteen slots for adding plugin instruments with their own ideal configuration, and you can then add four effect plugins to each instrument using the buttons assigned to control them. This pulls your instruments out of the computer and places them on a fully playable composition tool or stage instrument. A Highly Creative 16-Step Sequencer In sequencer mode, the Beat Composer transforms into an incredibly creative sixteen-step sequencer where the solo and mute buttons below the eight rotary knobs become triggers for four parts, each with sixteen steps, so that a 'pattern set' can be triggered. Since each part and set can have different lengths, this box is able to spit polyrhythms as easily as standards -and accents, gate and swing can also be set per step. Outside of your DAW, the Nektarine 2.0 software can also act as a stand-alone application for OSX and Windows and, since the Beat Composer itself has a MIDI out port, hardware can be controlled without the need for your computer. With the addition of its smart sequencer, the humble Aruba Beat Composer does precisely what other controllers simply can't, by literally taking the creativity out of the box and placing it in your hands.