Drumart SLD

Nice look, good sound, free, lots of presets, some effects ....

...what ask for more ? .....

I like the Electronic Sound Lab Plugins, and especially this one.
I often use it to find out what sort of drum sound I like to use for my track.
After clicking through the many different presets I know what to choose and...in many cases
use Drumart SLD for the final result too. Why? Because it sounds really good.
Thanks ESL!

Two words to describe this plugin: Simple & Rompler.

I only installed the 64-bit PC version, but the install is very straight forward: Just unzip to your VST2 folder. This will place a new folder - SL DRUMS 2.1 PC 64 - in among your VST plugins. In the folder is an Instruments folder with 59 Rompler kits directed to a single output channel and 59 Rompler kits directed to multi-outs (8). Also in the folder is a VST2 plugin named SL DRUMS 2.dll - where the magic happens.

I have several DAW, but first tried MULAB 7, with an existing project. Fortunately the drum kits follow fairly common standards and each drum instrument is triggered by MIDI notes C1 - G1, eight drum instruments in all. In this case the drum kits fit the project fairly well and I was pleasantly surprised with the sound of the drums. I did not detect any bugs or misses with this simple test.

Additionally, i created a couple of MIDI breakbeats, to get some alternate rhythms. Simple to do and you can quickly experiment. Each drum instrument has three controls - volume, Pan, Release. These are well chosen and allow you to modulate each drum kit to better fit a project.

Since this is a Rompler, you cant select sounds outside of the many provided. For the most part, this is not a big restriction since the kits cover a wide variety of sounds. But, to select the sound you think you need, you need to listen to each kit in turn to determine what fits. Sending the drum channel to a Reverb bus will really enhance the sounds, which are mostly devoid of feedback.

Bottom line: If you want a simple beatmaker that uses hardly a drop of CPU, and you can settle for the hip-hop type sounds that are included, then it is a winner.