1. Best Free Acoustic Drum Vst
2. Best Free Acoustic Drum Vst

This review is all about the best drum VST plugins of 2020. Drum VSTs come in all shapes and sizes. Finding the right drum VST for you depends largely on your goals musically. We will look at some of the most advanced and expensive drum VSTs, as well as some smaller free ones.

It’s worth pointing out that it’s perfectly possible to get up and running right away with a basic drum VST and in many cases these come at no charge whatsoever. If you consider yourself a bit of a nerd when it comes to an authentic drum sound then you’ll find our rundown of the top drum VSTs essential reading.

Another formidable entrant on our list, Drum Boxx is a free drum VST synthesizer that can craft thousands of unique synthetic drum sounds. It sports 12 individual signal channels each with an individual drum synthesizer that can be further tweaked, equalized, distorted, pitched, and filtered independently. Some Free Drum VST's. Use this topic to discuss VST and DirectX plugins for Mixcraft, Spin It Again or Beatcraft. My favorite free drum is Drummic'a. Spicy Guitar is a free plugin by Keolab which is a physical model of an acoustic guitar synthesizer. The great things about Spicy Guitar is that it has 2 different positions for each chord, chord inversions, one-hand up and down strumming, adjustable strumming speed, assignable switch key to trigger controls and much more.

As with all VSTs, it’s important to have a suitable setup with which to run them on. Many of the higher budget drum VSTs are quite heavy on resources and so will require fast computing speeds with lots of free disk space. If you plan on connecting controller kits such as electronic drum kits to the setup, it’s advisable to have a good low-latency sound card or audio interface. So, let’s crack on with the review.

Here are the best drum VST plugins 2020:

1. Toontrack Superior Drummer 3

First up on our list of the best drum VSTs is Toontrack’s Superior Drummer 3. This plugin is a behemoth when it comes to sound and detail. Toontrack have equipped this VST with practically everything you will need to create your own real-sounding custom drum tracks. There’s everything here, from thousands of acoustic drum samples to a host of vintage drum machine sounds.

Toontrack enlisted the help of musiclegend George Massenburg when putting together this catalog of drums. Georgerecorded the sounds at Galaxy Studios in Belgium, which is known for having oneof the best live rooms in the world. He has previously worked withinternational superstars such as Earth, Wind & Fire and Linda Ronstadt.He’s also credited with inventing the parametric EQ, so he’s bound to know hisstuff when it comes to getting a good sound.

In total there are 230 GB of samples onboard the Superior Drummer 3 VST. That will give you some insight as to the level of detail which is available here. Some of the drum kits used are from world leading brands such as Ludwig, Ayotte, Gretsch, Pearl, Premier and Yamaha. There are also 350 classic drum machine and vintage sounds to play around with should you wish. But with Superior Drummer you don’t just get one sample per drum or cymbal. Each instrument is played with several different drum sticks, from regular hickory sticks to mallets, brushes, blasticks and rods. Adjusting the velocity of the stroke will in turn change the response of the sample sound.

Mic placing is also catered too. With Superior Drummer 3 you can choose where you want to position your microphones about the drum set. There’s also the option to set the level on mic bleed. This is an extremely useful feature for increasing the realism of a drum track. Mic bleed is a natural occurrence in studio and live drumming and something that usually is impossible to replicate with a standard drum machine.

When it comes to the microphones, Toontrack have used only the best. Some notable names include Neumann, Sennheiser, Ehrlund, Beyerdynamic, AEA, Sanken, and Schoeps. There are also 35 studio effects which you can use to further enhance your drum tracks. These effects range from classy reverbs and delays to studio standard compressors.

Navigating around Superior Drummer 3 is quite intuitive. There is a handy search feature which can get you up and running right away if, for example, you need to find a genre of beat or kit type. You can search and browse to choose import sounds from the vast 230 GB of files or simply tap to find the tempo and begin that way instead. Superior Drummer 3 is compatible with 3rd party samples too and has full MIDI support. It even has a cool audio to MIDI conversion tool which lets you rid MIDI drum parts from audio files.

There’s no doubt that Toontrack have knocked the ball out of the park with Superior Drummer 3. It has everything that a recording studio aficionado should need for creating professional sounding drums at the click of a mouse. It has full multi-screen support and is rock solid when it comes to stability. A great drum VST and there’s no surprise that it’s regularly top rated by users.

2. XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2

If you like the look of Superior Drummer 3 but find it a little out of your budget, you’ll be happy to know that this VST is just a fraction of the price. Addictive Drums 2 is aimed at home recording enthusiasts who need a database of high-quality drum kits on a moderate budget.

This VST has won awards and plaudits around the world for managing to create an impressive library of kit sounds. There are over 5000 drum beats and fills in total in Addictive Drums 2. This is a lot of drums, by anyone’s standards.

If you’re not the most technically minded when it comes to music you’ll find the numerous presets extremely useful. They’re laid out in a way which makes it easy to pick and choose what type of drummer you want. You can choose the genre and customize the beat and kit sound. On the other hand, if you prefer to take full control over the kit from the get-go, then you can import your sounds, bit by bit and build the drum track that way instead.

Addictive Drums 2 has lots of effects to play with too. There are EQs, reverbs, delays, compression, distortions and a few others. You also have mixing capabilities such as buses for any parallel processing.

For the money XLN Audio’s Addictive Drums 2 packs quite a punch. It’s one of the most popular drum VST plugins around. The spec says it will work with most setups on only 2 GB of RAM (although they recommend at least 4 GB). To put this in context, Superior Drums 3 by Toontrack requires at least 8 GB of RAM. This makes Addictive Drums more suited to amateur setups and also explains the pricing. It lacks a few of the elite features of Superior Drummer 3 but makes up for that with value for money.

3. FXpansion BFD3

BFD is a drumming VST which has been around for some years now. It’s widely considered one of the top drum VSTs around. BFD has a huge collection of drum samples and loops which you can incorporate into mixes at the click of a mouse. The main man behind the sound sourcing on BFD3 actually worked for 2 years with George Massenburg, who we previously mentioned with Superior Drummer 3.

In total there is 162 GB of sample sounds, but wait, just before you throw your arms up, the makers have managed to squeeze this down into a mere 55 GB. How they did that, we’re not quite sure, but it does mean that you can now carry this entire portfolio of drumming goodness around on a tiny 64 GB flash drive. This makes it super-convenient when working across different setups.

BFD3 contains grooves played by legendary drummers such as Steve Ferrone, Brooks Wackerman, Peter Erskine and more. They’ve added 12 new effects too, which brings the total up to 33. Some of these include DCAM overdrive, new reverbs and envelope shaping tools.

When seeking to get started with a drum track you can choose to build your own kit or pick from one of the finely crafted presets. There’s a fully editable groove engine with a very handy rudiments tool. This tool allows you to work with many of the standard drum rudiments in order to create drum fills. Each rudiment is further explained through drum notation.

BFD3 is an impressive drum VST. While it’s not quite as expensive as Superior Drummer 3, it’s not far off the price. It has many cool features which make it a pleasure to use, and lots of slickly edited samples and loop which are a breeze to work with. This VST works well along with a DAW or as a standalone. It also has full MIDI operational compatibility.

4. Steven Slate Drums SSD5

If you’re after a quick and convenient drag and drop type of drum VST then you may like the SSD5 by Steven Slate Drums. This VST comes with lots of different kit sounds which are split up into different categories and styles.

There are kits such as the Spicy Rock kit, Old ‘n’ Dusty, the Thick Metal kit, the Pure 60’s kit, Steven’s Oldie kit, the Savage kit, the Ribeye kit and more. You can probably tell from the names as to how these kits sound. It’s pretty straightforward. In total there are around 100 drum presets and a couple of cool features such as ‘Rimshot’ mode. This allows you to replace drum accents with rimshot hits for added attack.

Overall, the SSD5 by Steven Slate Drums is a decent drum VST with a lot going for it. It’s easy to use and quite light on computer resources too.

5. GetGood Drums Modern & Massive Pack

For rock and metal fans we have a nice little drum VST without any additional fluff. GetGood Drums produce VSTs for the modern market and this particular pack is aimed at a bigger, punchier drum sound.

There is a nice selection of drum kits, all of which have been recorded at Middle Farm Studios in the UK. These kits certainly pack a punch, so if that’s what you’re after then this VST may be for you. It’s certainly one of the best-sounding acoustic drum VSTs around.

In total this pack contains 9 snares, 6 kick drums and 2 sets of cymbal packs. This may not sound like a lot but it’s plenty to get some nice rock or metal demo tracks off the ground. If you need more options, GetGood Drums also do other ranges of kit styles which are of an equally high-quality.

6. Tony Coleman Drums

Tony Coleman is one of the most famous names in blues drumming. He has played with legends such as B.B. King, Albert King, Etta James and Buddy Guy, among others.

With this collection from Sonivox we get access to an entire library of the great man’s sound and feel. This VST is aimed at lovers of blues, pop and rock. All sounds have been captured at Ardent Studios using only the best professional drum microphones.

This entire collection is only 20 GB in size, so it’s not one of the more bulky drum VSTs out there. In that 20 GB you’ll find beats, fills and individual sample hits as played by Tony himself. This is certainly one for lovers of a great R’n’B groove.

7. DJinnDrum

The DJinnDrum VST is a nice little free drum VST plugin which has apparently been used by megastars such as Michael Jackson, Prince and Peter Gabriel. Listening to the beginning of ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ by Micheal Jackson will give you an idea of what this drum machine is capable of.

It’s very easy to use with 12 drum pads to play with. There are also slidable faders for the volume of each voice and knob controls to alter the sounds further.

For the money we can’t argue with the DJinnDrum VST. It’s free to download so be sure to check it out. It lacks gigabytes of sample libraries but is quaint and fun to use. Definitely one to have in your collection of VST plugins.

8. DrumTROOP

If you’re looking for a VST with a few more drum sound options, then the DrumTROOP might fit the bill. This VST is packed with 20 free drum kits. These kits are largely digital-sounding drum kits and perfect for lots of genres from hip-hop to dubstep to EDM and pop.

The layout is clean and easy with lots of controls to alter the sample sounds. A very cool electronic drum VST.

DrumTROOPS is a cool little VST and is sure to help out budding music producers. Some users have complained about this VST being a little unstable on certain DAWs.

In order to avoid any unwanted crashing we advise that once you have created your beat on DrumTROOPS, then you should bounce it down to an audio file. Next import that audio file into your mix, disable the VST and you should find no further conflicts.

Conclusion

We hope that you’ve enjoyed this round-up of the best drum VSTs out there. Finding a good drum plugin can take time if you don’t know what you’re after or where to look. We’ve looked at acoustic drum VSTs as well as some electronic drum VSTs. Some of the more expensive options cater to both electronic and acoustic.

Whatever your preference, be sure to look at the spec and take note of the kits used in recording. There’s no point purchasing hundreds of gigabytes of pristine acoustic samples if you’re mainly going to be working in EDM. There are plenty more cheaper options out there, and as we’ve shown, some of them are free.

The spec of your setup matters greatly in how any particular drum VST will perform. A fast computer is essential in most cases, especially with the bigger drum VST plugins.

RAM is also important and it’s worth pointing out that you can upgrade the RAM in your computer or laptop in most cases. Some computers, such as certain iterations of the Mac Mini, do not allow you to upgrade the RAM, although the average PC will have no such issues. Having a fast system and plenty of RAM is always a good idea when making music on your computer. Processing will be quicker and you should notice a drop in any latency issues too.

Best Free Acoustic Drum Vst

Having a fast processor means that the VST and the DAW can work easily together and this means there will be less chance of your system crashing and you losing unsaved work.

Have fun on your quest for the best drum VST plugins!

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Have you ever wondered if you could create drum patterns yourself without scrolling through thousands of sample libraries? Yh!

With the advent of different drum VST plugins, it is possible to create percussion sounds, drum beats, rhythms, and even patterns without the need of buying any audio samples.

Basically, you would have different stock samples (Kick, Hats, Snare, Claps, Bongos and so on) in the drum VST plugin, and with that, it is possible to program your own rhythms and beats. Most of the time, I program my own loops and I export each and every loop created, this way, I can reuse it easily without opening my drum vst plugin every time plus this also saves your CPU load

That out of the way, let us look at some of the best free drum VST plugins for your music production toolbox.

Let’s dive in…

1.) Manda Audio – MTPower DrumKit 2

MT Power Drum Kit is a free drum sampler by Manda Audio that offers powerful, high-quality sounds of a real acoustic drum kit, one of the good thing about this free sampler is that samples have been specially recorded and carefully processed to make them suitable across genre of music such as pop, rock, metal music and more.

One of the tip I would give anyone utilizing this Drum VST is to carefully play with the varied collection of samples, and you could either save a preset of the one you like or if you are like me, you would render the collections you want, that way it would be reusable across multiple projects without pulling an instance of MT Power Drum Kit every time you wanna work on a project.

Another good thing about this plugin is that the samples are well compressed and Equalized to make them glue to your mix, moreover, you can choose from thousands of assorted rhythms in the comprehensive Groove Library and compose your own drum accompaniment. In particular, the innovative functions for creating fills generate very smooth and realistic drum tracks.

Lastly, On the right-hand side, you can listen to demo tracks to hear what you can make with it.

Video Walk-Through:

System Requirements:

• PC: Windows 10 / 8 / 7 / Vista / XP
• Mac: OS X 10.5 or higher, Intel processor
• Linux: Wine + VST bridge

2.) Audiosonic – DigiDrum Pro

DigiDrum looks a bit hard on the eye but it is more powerful than you thought, it contains a five-part drum and percussion VST plugin suitable for a diverse range of genres be it Afro beats, House Music, Pop and more.

I’ll say this again, the interface isn’t really intuitive but otherwise, it is packed with loads of sound editing parameters that can be processed as you see fit. I should also mention that you can use the Velocity section to give the sample some cool vibes.

Features:

• 5 separate DigiDrum parts with 5 user definable audio outputs
• 27 classic drum and percussion waveforms
• User wave file import
• Parts can easily be layered to create even more complex sounds
• easy sound preview ensures intuitive preset programming
• A Versatile filter setup capable of many different timbres
• Velocity modulation of the amp, pitch, and filter to ‘humanize’ the feel of the beat
• Full VST automation of every sound editing controls

Video Walk-Through:

Best Free Acoustic Drum Vst

3.) TromineGT

Tromine GT is a TR-808-style analog drum synthesizer. It features:

• 16 Analog drum synthesizers: Bass drum, Snare drum, Low tom / Low Conga, Mid tom / Mid conga, High tom / High tom, Claves, Rimshot, Maracas, Handclap, Cowbell, Crash cymbal, Closed hi-hat, Open hi-hat.
• 9 outputs.
• MIDI CC support.
• Automation support.

Video Walk-Through

4.) DrumTroop

DrumTROOP is a drum kit rompler coming with 20 free drum kits. It features:

• 20 free drum kits.
• 128 triggers on every kit.
• 16 outputs.
• Universal drum placement on the first 8 pads.
• Vol, Pan, Attack, Release per pad.

Video Walk-Through:

Download Win 32 VST / WIN 64 VST / Mac OSX VST / Mac AU

5.) Ugritone – Anarchy Drums

Anarchy Drums is a virtual drum sample library or an instrument that emulates the sound of the 1990’s California Punk. It was recorded with a handful of mics at a DIY environment on tape. According to Ugritone:

The idea was to capture nothing but the drums, the room and the preamp.We left the tweaking to a bare minimum so you could tweak more, or not tweak at all (insert a famous punk band name here, ha) Relive the golden days of never-ending skate parks with Anarchy Drums.

Video Walk-Through:

Download Ugritone – Anarchy Drums

6.) Rhytmus

If you’ve used an old rhythm machine before then you should definitely love this plugin, it is based on an old rhythm machine and features ten buttons. Each individual button can play two different rhythm sections, so basically you can play 20 different rhythmic loops such as samba, mambo, tango, waltz, rumba, tango, bossa, rock, etc.

When you click “open”, you can change the tune, volume, pan of each rhythm component such as snare, bongo, cowbell, hi-hat, etc. That’s not all – you can mix these rhythmic sections with Tambourine, Guiro, Quijada sounds.

7.) Junn

Junn is the virtual Linn drum machine and is only supports VST

8.) Arex2011

AREX 2011 is a free VSTi drum module based on a hardware drum machine from the early ’80s.

Features:

• 16 pads.
• 29 embedded drum samples of RX11.
• 12 individual/group outputs.
• Individual volume, pan, accent.
• Assignable MIDI note within 36 – 99 range.
• VST automation.
• MIDI automation of essential controls.
• Assignable MIDI CC#.
• 16 part multi-timbral MIDI Outflow.
• It can be used as a MIDI control surface of sorts.
  Bundled with RX11 MIDI swing templates and 55 demonstration patterns.

System Requirements:

• Windows XP SP2 and higher

9.) Lel UDS Drums

LEL UDS Drums is a free VSTi by Softrave that has 140 stunning samples of the famous vintage analog drum module Lel UDS. One thing I love about this plugin is the option to filter the high frequency of any bank and to also mix sounds to create the sample I want.

The idea behind this is to put all analog sounds together to save time for creativity and to have easy access to the best selection of LEL sounds, essential for techno production.

What really makes this instrument different from just samples is that you can tune individual analog drift to every snare. That makes snare lines less mechanical/repetitive and makes it more analog.

Video Walk-Through:

10.) AFX

AFX is a drum machine that is designed for 32/64-bits VST2/VST3 versions for Windows! It also supports .sf2 files.

According To beatassist:

We got some acoustic samples and we have transformed them in the digital world in order to create unique sounds for you to include in your productions.

The Drum Machine has 8 slots that load the soundbanks, such as:

• bassdrums
• clsHats
• cymbals
• digital snares
• opHats
• snares
• toms.

Each of these slots also has a distortion station and a state variable filter.