Got excited about DrumComputer and now I'm upset.

[Architeuthis]

I stumbled upon this thread and learned that DrumComputer is a thing. Got excited, downloaded it, and, naa. It doesn't sound much better than Microtonic, granted it has built in effects, it has more capability, but at the end of the day, I'm still going to have to sweat over getting all the percussion to sound professional, beefier, more realistic, actually fit into the genre I'm composing in.

The effects chosen could have been better. Distortion needs to be multiband if they want to be innovative, it really helps. Honestly, a drum synth should be as deep as Addictive Drums. They got the fx selection down really well (see image). Audio plugin companies just don't seem to get that a drum synth should be treated as carefully and deeply as any acoustic drumkit on the market.

My biggest problem with it is the sampler and the resynthesizer. NO! NO! NO! Get ****ing samples away from my synthesizer! [no more pomegranates!] Resynth still sounds like a damn sample. It's like they made no attempt to give the resynthesizer some randomness/variation, to make it sound like it's synthesized from scratch.

I'm tired of Microtonic's lack of features as well. Tired of using noise bursts for hi hats. I'm going to make a drum synth eventually, and it will be able to do epic ensemble percussion, huge beefy snares, snare ensembles, kicks with a ton of character and usability, hi hats that aren't just noise bursts (I'll need to do some research on that), etc. It's going to have a good selection of effects to shape the sound so you don't have to go searching through your VST collection 10 times over.

[Ploki]

lol
sort of agree.
I do like microtonic tho, because it's pretty quick to work with and you can really make a lot with the limited feature set, and its really hard to make it sound bad.

My biggest beef with drum computer is that it's very complex, yet somehow most of the stuff you turn end up sounding useless. very narrow sweetspots. I never bought it

one of the best drum synths to me is still DrumSpillage, but i'm avoiding it because its fate is unknown.

[SLiC]

If you like drum synths try this

https://noiseengineering.us/products/basimilus-iteritas

You can drop half a dozen in a drum rack if you have Live or Bitwig (the latter is what I use with the unified modulation and operators) and I honestly don't think you can get much better.

[Michael L]

Ephemere by Inear Display is haf price now. Don't worry yusself none 'bout soundin' like a sampl, or any hit soundin' the same. Ooof!
https://www.ineardisplay.com/plugins/ephemere/

[kejkz]

https://rc-808.com/

[VariKusBrainZ]

Extreme DrumSynth, Bong and Drumatic are the only ones that ever did it for me in 20 years

[Architeuthis]

https://rc-808.com/

horrible interface, horrible that there's no "next preset" button so I can get a quick overview of how it sounds... but I was able to do one thing I've wanted to do for forever, that is synthesize and stereoize the open 909 hat, and this thing does it and it sounds awesome. I'd keep this synth around just for that, and it's free, so I will. Actually, rc-808 is kinda what I am thinking of making in terms of drum synth, but would do it from a different angle, and have a lot more features and synthesis techniques.

My biggest beef with drum computer is that it's very complex, yet somehow most of the stuff you turn end up sounding useless. very narrow sweetspots. I never bought it

YES! This is a common problem! It sounds good in isolation, but in practice it sounds bad. I'll tell you why. Because the sounds *actually* suck. When you put them against your more polished synth sounds, the synth drums lack character and depth. Sine sweeps and noise only get you so far.

Extreme DrumSynth, Bong and Drumatic are the only ones that ever did it for me in 20 years

Extreme DrumSynth from the little I got to hear sounds the most promising out of all suggestions. Bong demos were few, I wasn't impressed. I already tried Drumatic.

Ok, let me show you what you can do with synthesized percussion *crackes knuckles*: cyberpunk demo with epic synth percussion.mp3

Everything you are hearing is synthesized from scratch in this demo except for when the music starts I have a real kick/snare/hat just to add some extra flavor to the music, BUT notice how weak the acoustic drums sound against the synthesized ones. These sounds can be made with the right drum synth design, these sounds are just scratching the surface.

[Ploki]

nice.

might check this out, unfortunately it's only a snare.
https://www.chair.audio/product/excite_snare_drum/

if you're on mac, DrumSpillage is still an option because it works on Monterey, still, although it's largely abandoned.

[martiu]

Hi, i like to make percussion's with Chromaphone 3 and after that using them with sampler like Atlas, physical modeling sounds very natural and clean to me but you can go crazy if you want

[Ploki]

nice call, i completely forgot i had it lol

[Architeuthis]

might check this out, unfortunately it's only a snare.

https://www.chair.audio/product/excite_snare_drum/

I like it!

Hi, i like to make percussion's with Chromaphone 3 and after that using them with sampler like Atlas, physical modeling sounds very natural and clean to me but you can go crazy if you want

post some audio demos why don't ya.

[martiu]

here i made you a small 4 sec loop

chromaphone3_120bpm.zip

[highkoo]

lol thats funny, because my biggest problem with Drum Computer is making it just play a sample.

[rod_zero]

One feature drum synths plugins lack and would be awesome, drummaxx from IL had this, a single drum instance.

Sometimes you want some parts ungrouped or load them in ableton live drum racks in a single pad (same for bitwig) also facilitating navigation with with Push.

[Daru925]

If i dont want to layer samples and do purely synthesis, this one is pretty neat.

Otherwise fm8, or massive x with comb filter.