Besides the drum software packages I picked below, I’m aware that there are a ton of other options out there like Steven Slate Drums, Abbey Road Drums, and Battery 4, but I wanted to pick my top 3 favorite drum VST plugins that appeal to me personally. 6 of the best VST plugin drum samplers. BFD3 is arguably the finest software solution for creating acoustic drum parts that you can buy. It's seriously impressive. VST Drum machine. Virtual drums, Free drum kits and drum loops. Archives of the best free VST plugin instruments. GTG DPC 3, SoFtDrum Synth, atlas, Wollo Beat, Freqatic.

Virtual drum instruments are mighty powerful these days as they enable us to produce realistic sounding drum sections with minimal fuss and effort. Many boast some form of built-in groove engine which enable us to get amazing sounding drum parts down quickly in our songs. This feature alone is a valuable one for those with no access to a real drum kit as well as all the gear needed to record it.

Drum VI's are the perfect tool for self producing songwriters who need rhythmical ideas to help them write a song or a groove to produce a track to. Many of the top drum VI's today sound as good as the real thing, if not better in some cases as many drum VI’s have radio ready sounding mix presets included but what are the best drum libraries and instruments? In this article we feature a selection of the most popular virtual drum plug-ins on the market today.

Toontrack EZ Drummer 2

EZ Drummer 2 by Toontrack is bundled with a great selection of kits accessible through what we feel is one of the most straight forward drum virtual instrument UIs around. The EZ Drummer 2 internal mixer is a no-nonsense approach to mixing featuring basic volume & pan control with varying fixed dynamic processes such as compression and other tone shapers. The dynamic options vary depending on whatever kit preset is loaded.

The EZ Drummer 2 mixer makes it very easy to route each drum channel output to Aux tracks in a DAW. Many hardcore drum VI users like to work this way as they prefer to use their third party plug-ins in their DAW domain for mixing. EZ Drummer 2 is not just one collection of drums, it is an expandable system with countless expansion packs available that all sound absolutely amazing, good value for money as well. These packages are titled with the acronym of EZX. The EZX packages I find I use all the time are:

• EZX Traditional County

• EZX Seventies Rock

• EZ Drummer 2 Modern (bundled free with EZ Drummer 2)

One of the best user features in the EZ Drummer system is the stand alone Toontrack Application Manager. It's by far one of the best Pro Audio application managers around. It's a simple three-click process for downloading, installing, updating and authorising purchases within a single window.

Here are a selection of EZX expansion packs we’ve reviewed.

A stand out feature of EZ Drummer 2 is the Song Creator. Users simply play a kick and snare pattern on a MIDI controller and the engine will provide a selection of MIDI grooves that either match closely the pattern or resemble in some way. This is a great way of getting drum parts arranged fast. Users that have limited abilities in either performing or sequencing MIDI drum grooves will also get a lot out of the Song Creator.

Native Instruments Abbey Road Drums

Using the Abbey Road drum library collection by Native Instruments is like taking a trip down memory lane. Each seminal music pop period has been covered with each having a unique library available in Kontakt:

• Abbey Road 50s

• Abbey Road 60s

• Abbey Road 70s

• Abbey Road 80s

• Abbey Road Modern Drums

Like EZ Drummer 2, each library has a built-in mixer which feature sophisticated EQ, compression and saturation controls. A feature set I adore in these libraries are the humanise controls. These impart slight human vibes to the MIDI parts by delaying the timing in random fashions ever so slightly off the beat like real drummers do naturally when performing and recording to ridged click tracks. A neat trick is to automate the timing of the humanise feature so that the drum performances are slightly looser in verses than in chorus sections.

The 70’s Abbey Road drum library well worth checking out as it includes two sets of very punchy dry kits. Listen to the example song below to hear these in action with the timing humanise feature automating between 10% to 15% off the click.

Sometimes a song doesn't require realistic sounding acoustic drums. Native Instruments Battery is the drum virtual instrument I use when I need electronic sounding drum parts fast. It comes bundled with a vast selection of drum hits and the UI is laid out like a drum pad.

The effects engine in Battery is well kitted out which is great for mangling hits and samples to perfection. In short, this is an electric drum VI that has no creative limits for getting unique drum sounds from.

Beatbox Anthology 2 by UVI features over 11,000 drum samples across 111 kits which demands a reasonable 3GB of hard drive space (2GB download). Like Battery, Beatbox Anthology is a one-stop-shop for electronic drum production. We awarded UVI BeatBox Anthology 2 an Expert Choice award because we felt this package delivers a great deal of sonic variety for electronic music production. The UI clearly took some inspiration from UVI's over anthology product, that being Synth Anthology 2 - and we liked that a lot as well.

What makes Beatbox Anthology 2 special is the ability to layer two drum samples along with a tone pulse, perfect for sculpting precious kick samples. A built in sequencer with groove engine makes this a powerful creative tool either in songwriting or full production stages. All in all, Beatbox Anthology 2 has it all.

AIR Boom

AIR Boom is an old favourite of ours which is also bundled free with Pro Tools. It’s a great stand alone drum instrument but it’s also very good at thickening up main drum parts in a production. The 808 sounds in Boom work well as supporting samples for acoustic drum VI kick and snare notes. Listen to the example below as you'll hear the snare and kick are very bold in the mix. This was achieved by copying the snare and kick MIDI notes from the acoustic drums MIDI and running them through Boom.

Recorded at Galaxy Studios, described as probably the world’s quietest and ideal location for sampling, the core sound library boasts in excess of 230 GB of raw sound material captured in immersive 11:1 audio by award-winning engineer George Massenburg.

• Six (6) kits (Ayotte, Gretsch, Pearl, Premier, Ludwig, Yamaha)

• Tom shell dimensions cover ranges from 6” to 20”

• Optional tool selection available on select kits and instruments (sticks, brushes, rods, felt mallets)

• Optional drum head selection available on select kits and instruments

• Approx. 350 electronic drum sounds, sampled from vintage and classic drum machines

• 25 unique acoustic snares, 35 recorded configurations

• 16 unique acoustic kicks, 27 different recorded configurations

If you are looking for an all-in-one drum production suite then look no further, Superior Drummer 3 will have you covered. This features the same clever Song Creator that EZ Drummer 2 boasts, all be it more advanced, as well as a full mixer with dynamic and effect modules, deep routing capabilities as well as a drum replacement section called Tracker which totally rethinks how we augment the sound of live multitrack drum recordings.

Read:Toontrack Superior Drummer 3 - Everything You Need To Know

Watch our first look video showing the headline features of Superior Drummer 3

Learn how to get drum parts down quickly using Superior Drummer 3

SSD 5 is Slate’s latest drum VI rebuilt from the ground up, that’s what we’ve been told. SSD 5 might be new on the inside but the basic layout of the UI is a nice familiar place to be. The basic functionality is the same, which means we were able to get up and running quickly with it.

SSD 5 does give us new stuff though. The new Deluxe 2 kits are very nice. SSD 5 loads fast and is not all that heavy on CPU or RAM usage. There are plenty of new and original drums to choose from and in total we get 77 Snares, 84 Kicks, 58 Toms, 11 Hi-Hats, 14 Crashes, 6 Rides, 4 Splashes, 3 Chinas, 9 Percussion Instruments including 1 Clap, 1 Tambourine and the all important Cowbell. Everything a growing audio professional could need.

One of the best features of SSD 5 is the Edit Instrument Window. Here we have access to all the tweakable stuff for each drum or cymbal. Special note goes to the tune control. We like there to be a good interval between Tom Toms but tuning the drum more than 10% in some drum samplers causes nasty artefacts in the tail of the sound. Not so in SSD 5, we were able to tune the drums as we wanted them.

Read:We Test The New Steven Slate Drums 5 Drum Sampler In A Real World Recording Session

UJAM SOLID

When Production Expert team member Julian Rodgers reviewed SOLID from UJAM, he was so impressed he gave it an Expert's Choice Award.

SOLID is a virtual drum instrument which bucks the trend by embracing simplicity over comprehensive control and proves that this approach can set us free to get on the what's really important - creating music, without compromising the results.

Simple UI, Lots Of Features

SOLID offers a library of kits and patterns with a standard layout of patterns across a MIDI keyboard with access to individual hits for those who wish to dive deeper into programming.

Features:

• 5 meticulously recorded kits.

• 30 styles, 720 patterns (intro, verse, chorus, ending).

• Full control over tempo, timbre and variations.

• Custom FX algorithms.

When comes to make a drum track using our DAW, many producers are accustomed to using Drum Samples packs that include one-shot sounds in Wav format. Others use soft samplers, such as Kontakt with some free or commercial Drum Libraries added.

This choice is based primarily, I think, because of the affordable price compared with a Drum Machine VST Plugin. But who wants more originality, flexibility and to really dive into drum creation and drum sound design this list of best virtual drum machine plugins fow Windows and MAC worth a look.

Virtual Drum Machines plugins can be divided into two categories, those designed to emulate a specific classic hardware drum machine and others that feature original concepts and innovations capable of creating new drum sounds.

All the drum plugins listed in this post are available for purchase at PluginBoutique.com, one of the biggest plug-ins distributors on the Internet.

EZ Drummer 2 drum plugin is the latest version released by Toontrack for their big success with the first version of this virtual drum machine. EZ Drummer 2 brings powerful innovations that, we can say, erase any technical barrier between you and your creativity when comes to make drum on your computer. You can customize any groove in real-time, write an entire drum track without leaving the program and more awesome features, all sustained by a powerful audio engine. Priced at £99.00 is A MUST HAVE for any producer.

Break Tweaker drum VST is built on a futuristic MicroEdit Engine and turns everything you know about drums and rhythms. With this virtual drum plugin, you can manipulate, re-invert any beat by controlling pitch, rhythm or/and texture with maximum resolution and quality. Break Tweaker brings powerful wavetables designed by today’s top producers and also includes some great presets and drum samples. This virtual drum machine available at PluginBoutique for £138.99.

As has accustomed us, Rob Papen has released over time some amazing plugins and Punch is not an exception. His virtual drum machine software delivers synthesized drums in the finest audio quality for today’s producer. Punch features classic samples taken from some of the most popular classic analog drum machines. Punch has 2 envelopes, 2 LFOs, and 8 modulation slots, which allow you to use a wide variety of modulation sources to control Punch’s parameters and is priced at £39.94. Also, read Punch-BD Review

Wave Alchemy delivers with Evolution a completely successful drum engine software plugin. Not only does the interface look damn good, it’s also designed for a quick workflow. The many editing options and onboard effects should leave no wish unfulfilled even for those who love the sound, and the more than 25,000 analog and electronic drum samples include love and the demand for high quality.

Among many big names in the industry, Arturia certainly has a top place in many producers heads. Arturia is a reference for quality and innovation in this filed, whether it’s about hardware tools or music software. Spark 2 Drum Machine features a cutting-edge sound library, multiple synthesis engines, and advanced sequencing functionalities. Spark 2 is perfectly suitable for real-time live performances and also for studio use. Also supports REX files. Spark 2 is one of the most innovative virtual drum machines released these days using the latest audio engines and programming technology. Priced at £137.43.

Nerve has earned a leading position in our “Best VST Drums” list, being as one of the best and highly rated software drum machine for both Windows and MAC producers.

Featuring a huge sound bank of over 2GB, Nerve offers everything you need: one-shots, drum kits and even drum loops created by world-class sound designers like SampleMagic, Dom Kane, SampleSquad, PowerFX, Richard Devine, Bitword and more.

This Groove Machine plugin you can find in FL Studio, allows you to automate every parameter of the sampler, synth and effects channels on PER-step basic. If you want to use Groove Machine live, Image Line recommends to use this plugin along with a MIDI controller for best performances and efficiency. As the main highlight, this drum virtual instrument features 5 hybrid (Subtractive/FM) synthesizer channels, 8 flexible sampler channels, each with 4 sample layers, 10 DJ-style effects + EQ and Stutter PER channel and many more. At PluginBoutique.com, Groove Machine is available at £113.95.

TRAX is a perfect drum machine for any Hip Hop, Trap, or RnB music producer looking for the best drums and the best way to make drums. Instead of a classic drum library (sample pack), this Trax plug-in offers you 50 Drum Kits with over 400 drum samples, numerous controls and effects in an interface that looks very good and which it is very easy to use. We have this plugin already in our store at a special price, so do not hesitate to find out more details.

ANALOG TECHNO DRUMS is created by BeatMaker and includes some of the best drum samples recorded by Marci Scherer. Yes, it’s a sampler drum machine that includes 66 drum kits totaling over 1,000 drum samples from 808 analog drums to electronic drums and more. For its price is a great tool to have it. ATD drum plugin is available for both Windows and MAC music making software via ProducerSpot.com priced at $30.

10. BIG Kick by Plugin Boutique – £39.94 (Check BigKick Review)

11. Nepheton by D16 Group – £81.94

12. Drumazon by D16 Group – £81.94

Best Drum Vst For Reaper

13. MicroTonic by SonicCharge – £71.04

14. DrumSpillage 2 by AudioSpillage – £75.00

Best Free Drum Vst Plugin

Prices listed on this post are the regular prices. Plugin Boutique runs many promotions each month, so you can find this plugins at much better prices.

Vst Plugin Nexus Download Free

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