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Attack 3

Drum Synth Plugin by Waldorf
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Attack 3 by Waldorf is a Virtual Instrument Audio Plugin for macOS and Windows. It functions as an Audio Units Plugin, a VST 3 Plugin and an AAX Plugin.
Product
Version
3.0.1
Product
Version
3.0.1
Instrument
Formats

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Attack 3 is the next evolution of one of Waldorf Music's most iconic and longest-running instruments. A true classic reborn, Attack 3 redefines what a modern percussion synthesizer can be.

At its heart lies a mighty analogue-style synthesis engine, delivering 24 individual sounds per kit, with 12 sounds playable polyphonically as pitched instruments. From punchy kicks to melodic percussion, Attack 3 is built for rhythm that moves both bodies and speakers.

Attack 3 captures the unmistakable spirit of legendary 1980s analogue drum machines and the driving electronic club sound of the 1990s — and propels it boldly into today's productions. It's a future-ready instrument designed to shape the drum sounds of the next decade.

Specifications

Sound:

  • 24 percussion sounds per kit.
  • 64 voice polyphony.
  • Per sound:
    • 2 Oscillators capable of virtual analog synthesis and multi samples.
    • Frequency and ring modulation.
    • "Crack" module.
    • Filter with the modes 12/24 dB High-, Low-, Band-pass, Shelf, Bell, Notch as well as Comb +/- and Redux.
    • 2 Envelopes with ADSR and ADBDSR modes.
    • 2 LFOs with adjustable shapes, phase and speed as well additional delay and fade.
    • EQ, Compressor and assignable effect slot.
    • Delay, Drive, Phaser, Flanger, Chorus Reverb effects.

Stereo Outputs:

  • 6 Stereo outputs.
  • Each output bus with its own EQ, Compressor and 3 assignable effect slots.
  • Effect mix adjustable per sound.

Presets:

  • 36 percussion kits with over 850 sounds included.
  • Preset browser for drum kits and single sounds.

Extras:

  • Sounds 12–24 can be played polyphonically via MIDI channels.
  • Resizable graphical user interface.
  • Global tuning.
  • MIDI learn.

Plug-In Formats:

  • MacOS: VST3, AudioUnit and AAX.
  • Windows: VST3 and AAX.

System Requirements:

  • Windows: Windows 10/11, Intel or AMD based (only 64-bit).
  • MacOS: MacOS 10.14.x or higher, Intel or Apple Silicon based.

{See video at top of page}

Latest User Reviews

Average user rating of 4.10 from 20 reviews
Attack 3

Reviewed By mark77 [all]
March 11th, 2011
Version reviewed: 1.3 on Mac

I've played around with this on my friends computer years ago and now finally bought myself as part of the bundle. This is such a timeless classic. A lot of people underestimate its power just because it came out years ago and now it's long forgotten. But that's ok, because I can use it as my secret weapon.

This plugin is truly inspirational. Just load up any random drum sound, and tweak it in any random way and you're on your way to discovering lots of interesting sounds and surprises. Nice deep kicks, snappy snares, deep toms, crispy white noise and any other percussion you can imagine.

The drum sounds are awesome, but the biggest surprise for me was the discovery that you can also use this plugin as a synth. That's right, you can play melodies, play chords, whatever you want, just as if it was a keyboard. You can make bass sounds with it or you can make pads or nice clean bell sounds, and a whole range of other synth noises inbetween. It's also useful for creating your own sound FX and white noise, swooshes, build ups, etc.

Now to the problems:

* The interface is a little small.
* The knobs are fiddly and I only seem to be able to move them in circular motion (every other plugin today uses vertical motion to adjust knobs)
* Hard to dial in exact numbers because of the above two points. You only want to adjust a little bit of something then BOOM you just moved the knob all the way to the other side, completely destroying the setting you had.

Other than that, it's perfect. If you make electronic music, you can never be bored with a drum machine, and this is by far my favourite drum machine plugin.
Read Review
Attack 3

Reviewed By Debutante [all]
February 28th, 2011
Version reviewed: 1.24 on Windows

Only one thing is wrong with the Attack, and it bothers me sorely - FINE CONTROL - so direly needed in a respectable drum synth with such nice exponential envelopes, and horribly implemented in Attack. There's a shift option to dial things by smaller increments, but it's still very very chunky, and it seems that within the alloted values for any knob, there's just some numbers you will never see displayed because you can't dial into them.

Otherwise it would be my only payware Drumsynth. I'm glad there's not too many presets so you actually have to learn to use the thing. It lends itself quite easily to most things. Additional envelopes might have been nice for all such assignable parameters, instead of only two, but this is somewhat offset by the number of voices available.

Bottom line: needs a small overhaul to bring it into this decade. The last updates are 5 years old! (might be a goner). I've never had stability issues with it and despite my gripe, I'm glad to have met the Attack and intend to keep it.
Read Review
Attack 3

Reviewed By loungedumore [all]
January 16th, 2009
Version reviewed: 1.2.6 on Mac

Very convincing analog drum synth ...the best I've heard and I've owned/demoed a few, However it also has a character all its own as well (not many "emulators can claim that)
Stable ! I use it in Live, Logic, Cubase has never crashed since v1.2.6, old Steinberg distributed pc version was buggy.
Great for any electronic music style especially EBM, Industrial, Electro, Trance etc.

Note: want to hear Attack examples in commercial music ?
Check out nine inch nails-year zero it's all over that record;"the great destroyer" and "Capital G"'s main drum beats are undeniably Attack.

Pros:
Deep Programming options .
Ability to emulate every major classic analog drum synth .
Clean concise easy to use Gui .
Can be used as polyphonic synth .
12 Part multitimbral.
Pretty low CPU consumption on a modern machine.
Built in distortion .
The documentation goes through the history of vintage drum machines and how to emulate them with attack !
Cheap ! and comes bundled with PPG2.v and D-pole.
Waldorf Filters ! (even if they are only 12db)
Waldorf's customer service has always been ...very fast for me !

Cons:
No 24db or comb filter.
No global filter.
No built in sequencer.
Presets are almost non existent in the user/3rd party world (but it dose come with many).

But to be fair ...all of these are wants not defects or oversights .


Bottom line : if you need a 909,808, cr77, Simmons, etc. and you tire of static samples this is your groove box .
H377 I've made entire tracks with it alone (as the only generator).

Read Review
Attack 3

Reviewed By kalkin [all]
February 20th, 2004
Version reviewed: 1.2.1 on Windows

This synth is simply great. I use it for all of my synthdrum sounds (instead of sampling synth sounds). The supplied presets are great and tweaking them is easy.
This machine is a fully featured synth too, you don't have to stop with percussion. Although playing pitched sounds is a bit fiddly.
There is very little to complain about with this one. But some sounds are a little too crisp and digitaly (is that a word?) for some applications, though this nothing a little distotion or multiband distortion can't fix (the onboard filter overdrive doesn't realy do it for me except at minimal levels).
Read Review
Attack 3

Reviewed By warbug [all]
February 2nd, 2003
Version reviewed: 1.2 on Windows

i really dont like this drum synth. its really good for weirdo percussion and fx type noises but i find it really trouble some to get any useable xox type sounds out of it.

its really cpu hungry for what it does.

the knobs seem to be really sensitive; especially the tuning knobs. one small movement and your sounds has drastically changed.

if your looking for xox type drum sounds your better off finding samples or trying the free vsti drummatics.
Read Review

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Comments & Discussion for Waldorf Attack 3

Discussion
Discussion: Active
caf
caf
4 April 2014 at 2:07pm

hi i am new to this site. please can anyone tell me how i buy things?

T-CM11
T-CM11
4 April 2014 at 2:34pm

There are 4 links to the waldorf site on this page. There, at the top of your screen, you see "shop".

Here's a direct link to the Waldorf Edition, containing Attack: http://www.waldorfmusic-shop.de/epages/61933844.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61933844/Categories/Waldorf_Edition.

BlackWinny
BlackWinny
1 June 2014 at 10:35pm

At the top of this page, just beside the picture you see a link "Product". In almost all the product KVR pages it drives directly to the product page in the website of the company or of the developer.

Sometimes the link is dead. When it occurs you can tell by the link "Developer" just under the link "Product".

And if this second link doesn't work either... it means that the website itself is dead. And that... if it was the website of a company it is generally a very bad sign. But if the product was a shareware or a freeware it remains then two possible solutions:

  1. Search (or directly ask) in the KVR forums.
  2. Search by using a web search engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo...).

When the product was freeware, very often you'll find easily in the forums someone who knows where to download it, or even who has it and who will send you the product or upload it somewhere and give you a link.

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