Addictive Drums

Dollar for dollar, this is the best drum set VST you can buy. Not only are their sales incredible, but they offer discounts for teachers as well. The one I bought was the Rock and Metal edition because that is the style I play, and it came with also a Fairfax set, which is for all around pop and any music etc....so its complete but geared for metal.

And man is it! The Adpaks and Midipaks for Metal and Rock are excellent, you can build a song in seconds, drag and drop MIDI thats ready and segmented into parts (which is like SD3 but the interface and gui is superior).

The presets, kits, and grooves, all just come together perfectly in a balanced way - even though its the most extreme metal and rock VST, it actually is quite easy to handle unlike SD3 or BFD3....which require some tweaking, and mixing your own sets and kits....too much tweaking and settings for a non-drummer. Thats' the difference -

XLN is the happy medium between EZdrummer2 and SSD4 or 5.5 which are very useful but overly basic - bare bones VSTs and the top tier SD3 and BFD3, which are DAW's in and of themselves for drums. That's not to say they are better, they are just much more tweakable.

Addictive is compact but because its processed with 8 channels, it makes things very easy as all kits and Paks correspond to the same 8 pieces, so you can tweak the tones and sounds of each instruments. The studio tweak ability is somewhat like Logic Drummers, its not a lot, but its there and its enough.

These are virtual drum sets, or drummers, and special features are what stand out to me. Now to this point XLN wins in the overall, but not only is it simple, easy to start a song, and make great sound kits with, it also is easier to adjust than the rest. You can transform the sound, style, and MIDI programming of each groove you drop into the editor, and it's really cool to be able to get the same back bone while the pieces may change in their amount, velocity, timing or whatever parameter.

For the price, you can't get a better a deal, and it does fall between EZD2/SD5.5 and SD2/BFD3 - at $150 (on sale its under $100 though), especially Black Friday and summer time...so fi you are a metal guitarist or metal musician, or hard rock producer, and you wanted ONE best all- in one package deal - it would be this.

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Ive been using AD since version 1. One of the best purchased Ive made. I don't use this all the time, but when I NEED acoustic drums this is what I always use.

It's not the most feature robust, or the most detailed, or has the most expansive library.. but that's ok.. because it falls right in between all of the categories to make it a really good product. It's dead easy to use. It wont kill your CPU & loading up things are a breeze. Version 1 was kind of limited, but with the new version having 18 drum pieces vs 12, with more tweakability & better libraries, it's come a long way.

Im a firm believer in practice makes perfect. The 1st libraries for AD were pretty good. Not highly configurable, but good nonetheless. As time has evolved I believed XLN has definitely upped their game. Each of their expansions has a particular focus, but they can all be used within in genre you choose. The new Boutique Mallet library is unique & probably one of the best so far. Along with the Vintage Dry, & Black Velvet & Session percussion, they really make AD functional for a wide range of uses that don't bog you down in the CPU or in creativity. Could it do more & have mroe features? Yes... but I think many more features will detract from its character rather than add.

Alot of people frown upon anything but the absolute best. Sometimes the best thing to use is what is functional & expands as you see fit. This is AD2 in all it's glory. Every year I buy something new from them. Good company, good product .Oustanding sounds.

XLN... can we get a Trap Drum kit & MIDI pak now? And a triangle??

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I have a hard time giving anything a 10, but this almost deserves it. I've owned BFD, BFD XFL, BFD 2, Battery and now Addictive drums. First, I'm a musician/producer who needs quick tools that sound great without having to tweak forever. When I was younger and had more time, I loved all the synths with tons of controls. I was one of the few people who bought a Kawai K5 and edited each partial. anyway... I digress. Now that I'm busy in the studio with deadlines, I no longer want to tweak. I want great results and I want them very fast. I made all my own drum samples for Battery and then moved to BFD to make things easier. BFD was pretty good but I still have a hard time getting exactly what I want from them. I've used BFD since it came out, so I'm not new to this. I have also mixed many records with live drums, so I don't think my experience is what is lacking. I made drum kits in Addictive Drums over a weekend that I can't rival with BFD after years. It also works great with my electronic drum kit (Alesis DM10 with extra pads). And let's talk about load times. AD is almost instant. A large BFD kit can take a minute or two to load.

To say the least, I'm happy with AD. The price is completely reasonable and the sounds are great. If there were better variety of cymbals, I would give it a 10. I know many people think "How good can it sound with so few velocity layers and samples?". At first, I was concerned about that too, but it's proven to be a non-issue. These drums sound more real than the largest BFD2 kit I've used. They sit great in a mix too. I never get that machine gun sound out of them. In short, AD is the best drum library I've used. Great sound and easy on the CPU and RAM.

I highly recommend AD to anyone who is tired of tweaking and just wants great results fast.

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First of all, Addictive Drums sounds absolutely awesome, perfect, modern and powerful!
Addictive Drums is the supreme Drums solution for any of my productions.
I don’t mind which is the music style and genre I’m working on, thank to Addictive Drums I can assemble my drums track straight away, everything sound great, with the true feel, energy and brightness.
The all-in-one user interface is totally fantastic! I can choose and build my drums kit searching in the high-quality sample library, drag my favourite grooves and patterns in the sequencer , select and edit the right high-quality effects, having the total volume, microphone balance, filter and dynamic controls. Everything in a couple mouse clicks…

Moreover, the MIDI PAKs are the vital tools to build up your “real” drums track!
I'm using the astonishing Metal Midi Pak on my new works, it sounds totally fantastic!

Thanks to XLN staff for the great job.

If you are looking for an ultimate, high-end class and easy-to-use Drums plug-in, you have the key: ADDICTIVE DRUMS by XLN Audio.

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Mistheria

www.mistheria.comRead Review

I own AD since it was a baby beta version, the guys at XLNAudio kindly contacted me by mail to test it.

All I can say is, this drum set plugin blow me away since day 1. The overall sound is amazing and realistic, the CPU usage is a joke, and the tweak ability is superb.

The v1 kits were already amazing, and now the Retro Pack makes it way more versatile than most of the competition solutions.

I'm always after vintage drumkits to be able to emulate old school funk or disco, and this Retro Pak was exactly what I needed for ages.

Now, I use Addictive Drums in almost every project, I barely touch the other drum libraries I have, unless I seek for an specific sound.

From Rock, to ballad, to pop, to Funk, to Disco....AD is the thing.

I was sure AD was going to be very successful, and now I'm starting to see some big names using it. Bravo XLN. (by the way, as beta tester I found the guys behind the company very very very friendly)

I only gave 9 to the features section because I think AD could really benefit by using convolution internally to emulate vintage gear or reverbs.

The MIDI rhythms library is very good, I think it could be a bit more complete, but you can also do your owns and store them inside (as I did)Read Review