Looking for Drum VST recommendations/experiences

[(blacklight)]

You know I’d never considered that. I’m on Mac but in Ableton. Logic is probably not that much more than some plug ins & add on packs. I’ll have a look at YouTube, might be interesting to see a different workflow of Logic vs Ableton

[ClayUlti]

Well there is Battery from Native Instruments, but in my experience Drum One Shots are always the way to go

[nickthe3rd]

You can try MODO Drum. It does not take up much space because it is modeled and it sounds great IMHO.

[wwwill]

Lots of good recommendations here. Thought I'd offer my $0.02.

I just noticed one of my absolute favs, Jamstix mentioned. Every human acoustic drum pattern (non-electronica) starts with JS for me; played into Addictive Drums.

One that I haven't seen, but is worth looking at is StiX by Xils. Expensive but really nice modulation and included library with some nice WaveAlchemy selections. It's effectively sidelined Waldorf Attack in my lineup. Attack is nice and simpler programming, but not as much sound texture.

I use D16 for vintage Roland drum synth stuff. 808, 909, 606.

SofTube Heartbeat is decent by itself, but gets more interesting when used inside Modular.

I still have LinPlug RMV, synth and samples in one unit. A shame it's discontinued. Haven't installed it in years.

EDIT: Almost forgot to mention a nice tool, AAS Chromophone. Not multitimbral, but has some nice sounds. The PatchPool libraries offer nice some uniqueness.

Drum Sample Libraries:
Battery 4 is the go to for its library and round robin options, but WaveAlchemy sounds are my favs. Usually I load SFZ in TX16Wx or Battery when there is a B4 kit.

The old Doru Malaia (sp, RIP) percussion library has yet to be replaced in my toolkit. UVI's World Suite and Percussion Store come close. Speaking of which...

UVI's Beat Box Anthology offers nice value and variety. I'd get that over Heartbeat.

And while it may be hard to find, and might be dated, the drum libraries from E-MU ESC still inspire: Beat Garden, Protean Drums, Mo Phatt/Planet Phatt, Planet Earth. Killer unique. There was a time when I only needed to load Proteus VX and the libraries; many plugins feeling left out. Digital Sound Factory might have some of the library.

And the cherry on top is sequencing most of it through MPC Studio; I like having my patterns centralized instead of differnt modules and different sequences to pattern switch. Matter of taste; I'm likely biased (and old) towards MPC swing. I rarely use MPC sounds, I'm not sure why. It's not that they're bad quality; the sounds are great. It's likely that I feel like I have library overload, redundant duplicate, derivative sounds across libraries.

Whew. I know what you're thinking: who put a quarter in this guy.

[mixyguy2]

MT Power Drumkit
https://www.powerdrumkit.com/

Seconded. PS and oh btw it's free. So is Stephen Slate's SSD5 Lite kit. Don't dismiss either because they're free. Very good and well worth checking out.

If you're dying to spend money, EZ Drummer is really good IMO and more than enough for most. I have heard Superior Drummer isn't the easiest thing in the world to use and question if it's worth the extra money, but can't say.

[LoveEnigma18]

Instead of going with EZdrummer 2, which you can find under $100, I'd suggest go with Superior Drummer 3. You can find a used copy between $250-300. Of course, it is not cheap, but it is a one-stop solution for acoustic drums and even electronic drums.

Ability to stack drums, built in MIDI editor, importing your own samples, scalable GUI, can use EZX expansions (instead of spending money on expensive SDXs), multiple tracks for trying out song ideas, and many more good features over EZdrummer 2.

You can also import 3rd party drum MIDI files, for example from the NI Abbey Road Drummer series if you have it.

And yes, it is not that difficult to use. I got it earlier this year and learnt it pretty quickly. Do I know everything about it? Of course not. I am not interested either. I just felt it more flexible and convenient than EZdrummer 2.

You do not need to install the whole 230 GB content. The basic content (Part 1) is about 50 GB, which is more than sufficient. Think of it as a drum production workstation. The factory library is versatile enough, and if you need more drums, I'd suggest getting cheaper EZXs without worrying about "raw/dry" samples that you get in the (expensive) SDXs and which you wouldn't probably care about anyway.

[Halonmusic]

MT Power Drumkit
https://www.powerdrumkit.com/

Seconded. PS and oh btw it's free. So is Stephen Slate's SSD5 Lite kit. Don't dismiss either because they're free. Very good and well worth checking out.

If you're dying to spend money, EZ Drummer is really good IMO and more than enough for most. I have heard Superior Drummer isn't the easiest thing in the world to use and question if it's worth the extra money, but can't say.

i have yet to try SSD5. off to download

[pcohen12]

MT Power Drumkit
https://www.powerdrumkit.com/

Seconded. PS and oh btw it's free. So is Stephen Slate's SSD5 Lite kit. Don't dismiss either because they're free. Very good and well worth checking out.

Thanks to you both - wasn't aware of these!

I second the MODO drum recommendation. I wish the cymbals/hats were better (they seem like an afterthought here), but the modeled drums sound fantastic and are obviously really flexible. Great UI and lots of drag-droppable MIDI loops as well.