2021 - Favorite Drum Software?

[PhaseTransition]

Waldorf Attack for its per part FX section
Inear Display Ephemere based on FM-Synthesis (just found and amazed)
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/epheme ... ar-display

[DavidAntagon]

Drum Software???? Well, for real drums BFD3 and Superior Drummer 3

[EnGee]

I also like Softube Hearbeat. Maybe the best synth drums I have heard especially it comes with top notch effects

[Ploki]

Heartbeat is amazing. Not a lot of sounds but everything just works and sits so well in a mix.

[WasteLand]

al lot are mentioned already;

Heartbeat
Punch 2
Mdrummer
Battery 4
Maschine
Reason Kong
Reaktor

Breaktweaker; me like. mad drumhatter.

Arturia Spark 2, great one... not mentioned yet.

and indeed soft modulars like, Reaktor or Voltage Modular.

and don't forget Noise Engineering, for Reason, but VST's are coming. (still prefer the RE's, because of the integration.)
in a way soft modular.. or quite modular.. great sounds, at this moment i use mostly the Noise Engineering modules, but i don't use drums a lot anymore.

Kontakt, has some nice drums. don't use it very often. but still.

[imrae]

• Modular hardware for more unusual sounds; harsh FM plinks, chaotic noise hats, ringing filters, choppy samples... Reaktor or Reason can do this nearly as well, but hardware is more immediate and fun.

Im really close to selling my modular and going to Reaktor. I agree that hardware is more reactive and fun, but we are talking $200 versus over 2 grand in investment. And I feel like Reaktor can probably do 100x more than my modular. Anyway, just interesting that you brought that up.

For me, modular is more hands on and fun... I start recording in my DAW and make lots of drum/percussion sounds with my modular gear... then chop it up in the DAW to make drum kits.

I have Reaktor and could certainly do the same, but I find the workflow tedious and feels like a chore, not a pleasure... YMMV

I used to say the same thing, but I got over it. I enjoy making music, it doesn’t have to be hands on all the time, the joy comes from quickly getting the results I want.

Workflow is king! If your software setup is quick and fun for what you want that's great.

[noiseboyuk]

FWIW...

Acoustic - Superior Drummer 3 and a ton of expansions. Pretty much 100% happy, not looking for anything else.

Beats - Battery 4, XO, Stylus RMX. All have their place and are useful, none are my ultimate beat machine which I don't think exists. Yet. XO is such fun though.

Owned but ignored - NI Drummers, NI Drumlab, Spark 2, Breaktweaker, UVI Drum Designer, EZ Drummer (no need as everything runs in SD3)

[rcube]

FWIW...

Acoustic - Superior Drummer 3 and a ton of expansions. Pretty much 100% happy, not looking for anything else.

Beats - Battery 4, XO, Stylus RMX. All have their place and are useful, none are my ultimate beat machine which I don't think exists. Yet. XO is such fun though.

Owned but ignored - NI Drummers, NI Drumlab, Spark 2, Breaktweaker, UVI Drum Designer, EZ Drummer (no need as everything runs in SD3)

Exactly my experience with NI drummers too. I had all of them when I owned Komplete Ultimate and they just did not fit my flow or inspire me. I forgot I even had them

[noiseboyuk]

Exactly my experience with NI drummers too. I had all of them when I owned Komplete Ultimate and they just did not fit my flow or inspire me. I forgot I even had them

I think Kontakt is a bad host for this sort of thing. The sounds are perfectly good really, and they've made a brave enough effort with the scripting I guess. But if I were made king of NI (just waiting for that call...) I'd repackage the entire series under a dedicated plugin, more along the lines of SD3. I like Kontakt, but it can't compete in this area.

[MrBauer]

+1 for superior drummer

[Obsolete462444]

With the Kontakt NI drummers you have to setup the multi-output first initially, then they are quite straightforward to work with. I really hate Kontakts legacy way of handling multi-outs, but hey, you only have to set it up once and save it as a template and you are good to go.

[pdxindy]

For me, modular is more hands on and fun... I start recording in my DAW and make lots of drum/percussion sounds with my modular gear... then chop it up in the DAW to make drum kits.

I have Reaktor and could certainly do the same, but I find the workflow tedious and feels like a chore, not a pleasure... YMMV

I used to say the same thing, but I got over it. I enjoy making music, it doesn’t have to be hands on all the time, the joy comes from quickly getting the results I want.

When I say fun, that means quickly getting results I want. Fun = agility and speed of having/trying ideas and getting satisfying results. I find Reaktor pretty low on the fun meter...

For a software modular environment I much prefer Bitwig's Grid. Super fast and fun to work with. It doesn't try to look and act like hardware modular... which doesn't work so well in software.

[jancivil]

Never used Kontakt for a drum kit type of deal. I'm not usually kvetching about how small it is, but IMO it's too small to do drum kit very well.
Don't care about synth drums. BFD3, I have used Battery kind of extensively in the past but not in a long time.

[stash98]

I also like Softube Hearbeat. Maybe the best synth drums I have heard especially it comes with top notch effects

I have to say, I am demoing the Softube Juno now and it has to be the best plugin Juno I have heard. Prior to that I preferred the Roland Cloud, but this one really has something special to it.

It makes me think that I will need to demo Heartbeat next. Especially since they say that its inspired by 80s drum machines, but with a twist. Thats pretty much exactly what I am looking for. If I can route all 8 tracks out easily to their own channel in Ableton, I will be set.

Appreciate you all suggesting this one. It was on my radar a few years back and I just never demoed it for whatever reason.

[imrae]

I love the idea of Spark 2 but had the impression people found it a bit buggy and under-supported? Is that still fair?