NUSofting has released version 1.0 of DK+ Virtual Drums for Windows, a powerful drum machine VSTi with 24 fully programmable drum pads, 6 output busses (3 stereo + 3 mono), an audio compressor/limiter for each stereo bus and a powerful step sequencer amongst its many features. It ships with a library of 36 drum kits with the sounds of the most widely used vintage drum machines, studio-quality acoustic kits and more. It also offers a wide library of drum styles ranging from Latin rhythms to classic rock and many modern styles.
DK+ Virtual Drums comes as a VSTi for Windows and costs US$75.90 / EU€59.90. A demo version is available. If you are one of the first 20 customers of DK+ you'll also get a free copy of their Mother Ship Astrobelt Synthesizer!
The DK+ Library is organized in 3 sections:
- Factory Library: with a pattern collection arranged per musical style. It features 26 drum kits and 22 styles (~4000 different patterns). More will be added with each DK+ update.
- Custom Library: with an internal pattern set per kit. It features 9 drum kits with internal style. The drum kits in the Custom Library section do not use the Style list, but they include a variable number of custom patterns inside the kit itself (e.g. the Tabla kit features two Bhangra style patterns).
- User Library: - fill with your own creations.
Pads, sample player engine:
- 24 Pads, each with:
- Cross-velocity support, 10 layers per pad.
- Random picking for layer with same cross-velocity value, this allows to mix Cross-velocity with random choice.
- Weighted randomization possible for all 10 layers as alternative option.
- Gentle low pass filter sensitive to MIDI velocity for natural dynamics.
- Note on/off support, off switchable.
- Decay, Level and Pitch control.
- Panning 100% mono compatible.
- FX Send for the on-board reverb.
- Automatically learns note as trigger.
- Single note triggering or note range selectable with pitch to note.
Mute Group (Choke). - Output selectable among the 6 available (3 stereo + 3 mono).
Mixer and outputs:
- 3 separate stereo outputs + 3 mono Aux outputs.
- 3 Level control for the 3 stereo outputs.
- Three analog-sounding compressors on-board with Threshold, Ratio, Attack, Release, Gain.
- Built-in audio meters for output and compressors separately.
- Reverb effect : Small Room and Large Room presets.
Sequencer:
- 10 Track step sequencer synced to VST host.
- Solo and Mute per track.
- All tracks visible at once in one window.
- Voice editor can be accessed for each track as pop up window.
- 24 patterns memory, to save in its own format and with MIDI file export.
- Pattern length up to 128 steps arranged in 8 pages.
- "Follow" function while sequencer is running.
- Step resolution selectable: 32, 16T, 8T, 16.
- Pattern selection is MIDI controllable.
- Features per step: On/Off, Velocity, Flam and Double stroke functions.
Others:
- 64 bit internal engine.
- Import wave files with 8, 16, 20, 24 and 32 bit integer resolution, and 32 or 64 bit floating point resolution, mono or stereo. DK+ will resample the files automatically if they are stored at a higher or lower sample rate than the sample rate used in the host application. All the samples loaded are normalized automatically.
- Polyphony selectable from 8 to 128 voices.
- Can export and import drum banks in its own format or as FXB.
- Can import LM-4 drum banks (with some limitations).
- Pitch-bend support.
- Velocity sensitivity, compression or expansion adjustable.
- Sample precise synchronization.
- Low CPU usage even with old processors.
- MIDI reset.
- Knob mode: linear, circular selectable.
- Almost every parameter can be controlled via MIDI.
- Skinable and comes with 5 skins.
