Both electronic and acoustic drums -- some old, some new -- are coming your way, courtesy of Arturia. The company's latest offering is Spark, a new kind of drum machine made up of a software application and a dedicated hardware controller.

Spark combines the power of analog synthesis, physical modeling, and samples and puts its instruments and kits at your fingertips. Arturia's Spark offers a total of 480 instruments and 30 kits based on vintage drum machines (like the TR-808, TR-909, Simmons SDS-V, and Eprom based LinnDrum, Drumtraks, DMX, and more) and its sounds cover a range of music styles, such as dub, house, techno, hip-hop, and R&B. The Spark drum machine also includes acoustic drum kits that get their realistic sound from a combination of physical modeling and samples.

The new unit has a 16-track mixer with 9 effects, real-time automation on all parameters, a 16 key / 64-step sequencer, 8 Velocity-sensitive pads, a touch-sensitive FX pad, 30 knobs, Advanced Loop mode with divide and move functions, Song Mode with up to 64 patterns by song, and much more. Check out Spark's complete list of features below:

• 480 Instruments and 30 kits
• Vintage drum machines: Analog recreations in the spirit of the TR-808, TR-909, Simmons SDS-V, and Eprom based LinnDrum, Drumtraks, DMX, and more
• Electronic kits covering modern music styles, including dub, house, techno, hip-hop, and R&B
• Acoustic drum kits mix physical modeling and samples for high audio realism
• Quality sound engines include TAE Analog synthesis, multi-layered sampling delivered by reference third-party companies, and physical modeling
• FX Pad with Repeat, Tape, Reverse, Strobe, Pan, Mix, 3 mode Filter, and Roller
• Advanced Loop mode with divide and move functions
• Real-time automation on all parameters
• 16 track mixer with 9 effects: compressor, reverb, bit crusher, multiband EQ, chorus, delay, distortion, phaser, and plate reverb
• Song Mode with up to 64 patterns by song
• Shuffle and Shift modes to humanize grooves
• 16 key, 64-step sequencer
• 8 Velocity-sensitive pads
• Touch-sensitive FX pad
• 30 knobs for in-depth sound control
• Aluminum enclosure
• Works as a universal MIDI controller toward any third-party software

Frédéric Brun, President of Arturia, reflects on how Spark came to be: "For many years, Arturia has been mainly dedicated to creating synthesizers. Three years ago, looking at the solutions available for drums, we thought we could bring to this area a little bit of our expertise in virtual analog synthesis and physical modeling. Since we also wanted to include samples, we turned to reference companies such as Sonic Reality, Ultimate Sound Bank, Ueberschall, and Modern Beats.

"The project has now come to an end and I believe Spark is a creative, simple and fun instrument to use. It offers recreations of many classic drum machines, an expected delivery from Arturia, as well as innovative drum sets and high quality sampled-based acoustic kits. We added many real-time effects and a great controller to offer hands-on workflow. To me, Spark is a great alternative to all the MPC-style, Gigs-of-samples-based, complex solutions available today."

Arturia Spark will be available for $599 (MSRP). For more information, visit arturia.com.