The Punch Decay adds more attack to the Tone by giving the fundamental pitch an ultra-fast envelope at the very beginning of the sound. The Decay controls the decay of the whole spectra, with a choice of Linear and Exponential decay envelopes. A Dynamic Decay mode lets you set different Decay lengths for soft and hard strokes. When using the Subtractive synthesis mode, the Frequency parameter controls the cut-off frequency of a Low-Pass filter and the Dyn Filter controls how much the filter should respond to velocity . When using Resonant synthesis waveforms the upper parts of the harmonic spectra be controlled with velocity, giving it a brighter timbre when played hard. The Nord Drum 3P offers great control over the dynamic response of the harmonic spectras. The Ring Modulation mode features 2 different types of Ring Modulation. The FM Synthesis mode features 6 different FM algorithms where the Frequency parameter controls modulation amount and Spectra controls modulation frequency. The Subtractive Wave types include Sine, Saw, Square, Pulse waveforms and T-Bridge Oscillators and are brilliant for creating classic synth-type drum sounds and effects. A unique feature includes the possibility to tune harmonic spectra. The Resonant synthesis mode offers a wide range of complex spectras inspired by materials like drum heads, marimba, vibraphone, tines and cymbals.
The Tone Section is specialized for creating tonal and harmonically complex sound spectras and has four synthesis modes – Resonant synthesis, Subtractive Synthesis, Frequency Modulation and Ring Modulation synthesis. The sounds of the Nord Drum 3P are all synthesized in real-time - allowing you to both sculpt and play sounds with a unique dynamic response, regardless if you prefer to play with drum sticks or from a sequencer.
SSD5Free - free version of Steve Slate Drums comes with just one kit, but it’s a full blown, industrial strength drum module with gigabytes of samples, multiple mics, full routing options, etc.ĭrumMic’a - made by Sennheiser to demonstrate their mics, it’s another single kit that’s sampled to death with Sennheiser’s arsenal of mics (big library), and you have complete control over mixing them.The Sound generation takes place in the three sections Tone, Noise and Click. It’s a great sounding kit, but has some room noise you can’t dial out and has no routing options, just one stereo out.
Spitefire LAB drums - this is around 400MB, but has a much wider range of sampled dynamics than MTPD and is not processed. But if you want to replicate the feel of a good acoustic drummer, especially with dynamic playing, you’re going to need a deeper, less pre-processed sample set.įortunately free alternatives exists, with the caveat that they’re much bigger, ranging from hundreds of megabytes to a dozen gigabytes. It’s pretty heavily processed and lacking in dynamics, but good for sketching out ideas and might be all you need for power pop or rock stuff, where hammering on a kit makes sense. MTPD’s biggest strength is that it’s around 50MB. “MT Power Drumkit 2 - acoustic drums, best free drum VST” Also, for all the hip hop producers out there, don’t my article highlighting my five favorite drum machine VSTs. Looking for more free options? Don’t miss my roundup of the best free drum kits of 2020. What are your favorites? Let us know down in the comments below. I hope my article showcasing the best drum VST plugins has helped you in your quest for better productions.
Obvious as it may be, free drum software is no where near the level of the paid options on the list in terms of tone and versatility.
In addition, there are plenty of expansion packs you can download from producers like Chris Lord Alge, Terry Date, and David Bendeth.įor those on a budget, check out some of these free drum VSTs.
SSD5 is the latest iteration of Steven Slate’s drum library. If you browsed internet forums in the late 2000s, there’s no doubt you’ve already heard of Steven Slate.