There are a bunch of products I wish Apple created – a projector, an SSD, a drone, a printer (in fact, here’s a list of 10 of them), but Dorum Simsek’s tapped into yet another category and product I wish Apple delved into… electronic music. Designed to be what I can only imagine is Apple’s first (and only) MIDI music-making instrument, the iDrum brings quick ideation and composition to the Apple ecosystem.

Remember when Apple used to put the letter ‘i’ in front of devices? The last device with the i prefix (believe it or not) was the iPad, which released 15 years ago in 2010. Apple has since, rejected the prefix, opting for more directly named devices, like Watch, TV, and Vision Pro. The iDrum is a relic of that Steve Jobs-ian era, and to be honest, it has the simplicity of something Jobs would unveil. 14 pads, a touch-sensitive surface, and 6 function keys. The iDrum is simple, and evokes the same kind of playful joy that ROLI’s products do.

Designer: Dorum Simsek

Most conceptual devices created for companies usually follow the design language of said company. Someone mocking up a concept for an iPhone 17 would obviously try to make it fit into Apple’s design DNA – but the iDrum does something entirely different, it goes for a music-ready design language, balancing minimalism with practicality. The iDrum is an all-black ‘slab’ with keys, mimicking the black colorway seen on products from AKAI, M-Audio, KORG, etc. It’s simple, intuitive, and works perfectly with Apple’s own music production software, Logic Pro X.

Metal isn’t a very music-friendly material, if you ask me. Buttons need to be mashed repeatedly if you’re composing away, and the standard practice is to make buttons (and by extension product housings) out of some soft material like rubber or a rubberized plastic. To that end, the iDrum has a rubberized design, with rubber buttons that have edge-lighting, and a touch-sensitive tab that lets you play around with effects. The way most drum machines work is by letting you program a sound, loop, effect, or instrument to a pad. The iDrum has 14 such pads, giving you a veritable smorgasbord of audio options. The effects panel further lets you push the boundaries to making music.

Connect the iDrum to your machine, fire up Logic Pro X, and you’re quite literally ready to make music. Although conceptual, I’m assuming assigning audio to keys should be absolutely child’s play, and the iDrum actually lets you create four ‘scenes’ with different key-bindings. So you could, in theory, shift between techno, dubstep, house, and classic drumpad styles.

Sadly, the iDrum doesn’t exist, and there’s really no plan for Apple to enter this market. However, if it did, the MacBook and iMac would easily become the de-facto music making machine for most electronic artists. I’ve seen deejays like Skrillex and Porter Robinson make entire masterpieces with just a laptop – imagine what magic they could create with a dedicated MIDI drum machine!

The post Concept Apple MIDI Drum Machine makes me wish Apple had created Logic Pro X hardware first appeared on Yanko Design.

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