VST drum machines
VST drum machines
OK...
I've been using Logic's Ultrabeat for drums and percussion since I picked up production again a year or two ago, I've gotten used to it and I feel like in conjunction with Mattias' kicks, samples of various drum machines and other random stuff, I've gotten perfectly fine results.
For the last couple of days I've been playing around with Audiorealism's ABL3 (happy birthday to me)... seriously, the quality of the sound, the controls changing the tone in such a satisfying way and the clear interface makes me wince in disgust every time I go back to Ultrabeat's grainy awkwardness.
I want the same satisfaction from programming drums.
I can see there's a lot of stuff out there, Audiorealism's ADM, D16's 606, 808 and 909 emulations among a bunch of others. Which is the daddy?
Is it worth getting and learning a proper real-time software drum synth or would a better sampler type plugin be the way to go?
Cheers in advance,
H
(I had a little dig around the search engine for a recent and relevant topic, I found the odd mention of one thing or the other but not much aside from hardware talk. If I've missed something feel free to link me up).
I've been using Logic's Ultrabeat for drums and percussion since I picked up production again a year or two ago, I've gotten used to it and I feel like in conjunction with Mattias' kicks, samples of various drum machines and other random stuff, I've gotten perfectly fine results.
For the last couple of days I've been playing around with Audiorealism's ABL3 (happy birthday to me)... seriously, the quality of the sound, the controls changing the tone in such a satisfying way and the clear interface makes me wince in disgust every time I go back to Ultrabeat's grainy awkwardness.
I want the same satisfaction from programming drums.
I can see there's a lot of stuff out there, Audiorealism's ADM, D16's 606, 808 and 909 emulations among a bunch of others. Which is the daddy?
Is it worth getting and learning a proper real-time software drum synth or would a better sampler type plugin be the way to go?
Cheers in advance,
H
(I had a little dig around the search engine for a recent and relevant topic, I found the odd mention of one thing or the other but not much aside from hardware talk. If I've missed something feel free to link me up).
Last edited by HowieRis on Fri Jul 21, 2017 7:24 am, edited 2 times in total.
- terryfalafel
- Component
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Re: VST drum synths
I always liked the D16 VSTs for emulating the classics.
Battery 4 is a great drum sampler.
Battery 4 is a great drum sampler.
Re: VST drum synths
Yeah, D16 are running a 30% discount at the moment which makes them a tempting option.terryfalafel wrote:I always liked the D16 VSTs for emulating the classics.
Battery 4 is a great drum sampler.
If it was your money... Nepheton or Drumazon?
Re: VST drum machines
As you are on Mac be shure to check out:
http://www.audiospillage.com/drumspillage.html
I use it a lot and think it sounds great.
There is a lot more than drums you can do with it.
http://www.audiospillage.com/drumspillage.html
I use it a lot and think it sounds great.
There is a lot more than drums you can do with it.
Re: VST drum machines
Of the 808 and the 909 plugins from D16, the 909 immediately felt like the one I'd rather get.
Seems like it would lend itself to more weirdo sound design within the plugin itself with the FM elements etc. I'll demo it tonight, thanks!
That looks super interesting.collide wrote:As you are on Mac be shure to check out:
http://www.audiospillage.com/drumspillage.html
I use it a lot and think it sounds great.
There is a lot more than drums you can do with it.
Seems like it would lend itself to more weirdo sound design within the plugin itself with the FM elements etc. I'll demo it tonight, thanks!
Re: VST drum machines
the d16 stuff is cool. but it is limited in scope of sounds, they sound like the old gear.
i'd say it might be an idea to get more samples and get into layering and effecting samples to make new drum sounds. for me, making new drum sounds is pretty interesting and probably what i enjoy most at the moment. but i would concede that it isn't instant like turning the knobs on the d16 plugins.
i'd say it might be an idea to get more samples and get into layering and effecting samples to make new drum sounds. for me, making new drum sounds is pretty interesting and probably what i enjoy most at the moment. but i would concede that it isn't instant like turning the knobs on the d16 plugins.
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- Alf Garnett
- Posts: 176
- Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:35 am
Re: VST drum machines
d16 Punchbox is the best kick vst I've ever used.
Re: VST drum machines
I have tried most of the drum machine VSTs. I'm not really fully satisfied with any of them. Most of the 808/909 modelled ones offer way to little parameters. Attack, Decay and Pitch is the least I expect from a VST drum machine, otherwise I might aswell use fucking samples. Also a lot of them have so much crap that nobody needs like 10 different FX and sequencers, I'm in a DAW, I have like 23 different ways to sequence drums, I don't need a big fucking sequencer in there.
Then there's stuff like Microtonic which is more minimalist but it has a pretty clean digital tone which isn't really what I'm after. I just want something like a Vermona or an Xbase ITB. I'm sticking to just processing the crap out of Roland samples right now, much faster for me.
Then there's stuff like Microtonic which is more minimalist but it has a pretty clean digital tone which isn't really what I'm after. I just want something like a Vermona or an Xbase ITB. I'm sticking to just processing the crap out of Roland samples right now, much faster for me.
I prefer Synapse Audio EKS, it has much more control over synthesis parameters than Punchbox. But if you have a ton of kick samples, Punchbox is probably better.Huck Farper wrote:d16 Punchbox is the best kick vst I've ever used.
- Lost to the Void
- subsekt
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Re: VST drum machines
I still make the majority of my kicks with Sonic Charge Microtonic, and use it loads. It`s probably still, to me, the best vst drum machine as it can do so much.
I just want a hardware version.
It can sound really crisp, or really warm and loose like a really old analogue machine.
I just want a hardware version.
It can sound really crisp, or really warm and loose like a really old analogue machine.
Re: VST drum machines
Microtonic is the shit indeed. Recently fell in love with Elastic Drums for iOS. What a capable and fun thing!
http://mominstruments.com/elasticdrums/
http://mominstruments.com/elasticdrums/
Re: VST drum machines
I demo'd the Audiospillage plugin briefly last night, really nice kicks but I felt otherwise it sounded a bit thin. Also, the demo is super irritating, it plays a loud 5s burst of pink noise every 3 seconds so I tapped out before I really got a feel for it.
Checked out Battery 4 yesterday too but I think I'm after more of a simple, intuitive drum maker that inspires creativity rather than a monster of a thing bursting with every conceivable feature... I get bogged down in detail waaay too easily and need to escape that rut with something that sounds good and grooves like hell. That's definitely what's attracting me to stuff like the D16 909.
This looks good, I'll check it out tonight. Would you say it does more than just kicks really well? dubdub's comment about a clean digital tone kinda threw me off the scent with this one.Lost to the Void wrote:I still make the majority of my kicks with Sonic Charge Microtonic, and use it loads. It`s probably still, to me, the best vst drum machine as it can do so much.
I just want a hardware version.
It can sound really crisp, or really warm and loose like a really old analogue machine.
This would be a perfect work lunch time-filler when nobody's around!!rktic wrote:Microtonic is the shit indeed. Recently fell in love with Elastic Drums for iOS. What a capable and fun thing!
http://mominstruments.com/elasticdrums/
Checked out Battery 4 yesterday too but I think I'm after more of a simple, intuitive drum maker that inspires creativity rather than a monster of a thing bursting with every conceivable feature... I get bogged down in detail waaay too easily and need to escape that rut with something that sounds good and grooves like hell. That's definitely what's attracting me to stuff like the D16 909.
Re: VST drum machines
Wave Alchemy has some great drum samples their latest product is classic drum machines loaded up inside a Kontakt Instrument, you can also use it inside Albleton Drum machine:
http://www.wavealchemy.co.uk/
I recently bought the full Cable guys volume shaper, you can throw these in basically anything and it mangles the sound of the drums, you can also manually control parts or automate pretty much everything: http://www.cableguys.com/volumeshaper.html
Lastly Soniccoutre Konkrete http://www.soniccouture.com/en/products ... -konkrete/
I've got some awesome drum sounds out of it as well
All three a self contained machines, the two drum machines are built for Kontakt. It you don't have to own Kontakt pretty sure you can use the free version
http://www.wavealchemy.co.uk/
I recently bought the full Cable guys volume shaper, you can throw these in basically anything and it mangles the sound of the drums, you can also manually control parts or automate pretty much everything: http://www.cableguys.com/volumeshaper.html
Lastly Soniccoutre Konkrete http://www.soniccouture.com/en/products ... -konkrete/
I've got some awesome drum sounds out of it as well
All three a self contained machines, the two drum machines are built for Kontakt. It you don't have to own Kontakt pretty sure you can use the free version
Re: VST drum machines
Maschine 2 allows you to synthesize drums and it has the feel of a drum machine with its hardware. Native Instruments has that rep of clunky interfaces though, but its still good.
Re: VST drum machines
Been spending all my time recently prepare g live projects for transfer to a new computer. I've listened to hundreds of things I've made & every time I open up something with microtonic, it sounds fucking special.
Really cool plugin.
Great for oneshots & those little background loops that spice things up. It always adds a fresh vibe if you use use the hats & Porc. I really should use it more. It's a beast. Reminds me of the Korg Er1.. but better
Really cool plugin.
Great for oneshots & those little background loops that spice things up. It always adds a fresh vibe if you use use the hats & Porc. I really should use it more. It's a beast. Reminds me of the Korg Er1.. but better
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Re: VST drum machines
You can never have too many drum synths. Check out Drumatic 4 and Tremor, although the latter takes some getting used to.
- Lost to the Void
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Re: VST drum machines
If you surf the presets then it can make you think clean and digital because there is a lot of minimal techno presets.HowieRis wrote:
This looks good, I'll check it out tonight. Would you say it does more than just kicks really well? dubdub's comment about a clean digital tone kinda threw me off the scent with this one.
But it gets real dirty if you want it to.
Like monstrous.
And you can make truly massive kicks with it, any of my tracks that have mahoosive kicks, mostly down to microtonic.
It's great for snares, nice white noise shakers, toms, rimshot, clava, and you can set it to midi pitch mode so you can make melodic parts.
It's great for sub bass lines too.
It also has some weird modulations so you can get FM type percussion.
Tuning the wet\dry between noise and osc, tweaking the noise and the noise filter and then being gentle with the drive gets wonderful results.
If there was a hardware version people would go nuts. It's both simple and deep at the same time.
Re: VST drum machines
I know it can get dirty but even when dirty it still has kind of a digital tone to me. Not that that's necessarily bad, it's just not what I'm looking for in drums. Or maybe analog-digital is the wrong ditochomy, I like organic sounding drums and Mictronic (from my admittedly rather short experience with it) sounds very synthetic, unless you do a shit ton of processing.
Re: VST drum machines
I've spent the last hour dicking about with the Microtonic demo and yeeeaaah.... it's pretty roundly exceeded any expectations I had for a drum synth when I started looking.
So far this thing splats the D16. The loops I'm coming up with sound thick and vibey and it's definitely what I was craving - something really fun that sounds effortlessly good and doesn't have a bazillion different interfaces and modes.
So far this thing splats the D16. The loops I'm coming up with sound thick and vibey and it's definitely what I was craving - something really fun that sounds effortlessly good and doesn't have a bazillion different interfaces and modes.
Re: VST drum machines
Excellent!
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