DR-008

This modular vsti comes with 38 modules :
4 samplers, 26 synths and 8 performance modules (sequencer, flam, roll...)
i just want to "update" some olders reviews that i just read and are now wrong :
There is 328 kits for 2.87 Go, 6 do more than 30Mo, 12 more than 50 Mo and 6 more than 100 Mo.
So there is a lot of excellent kit, some multisampled.
some kits are provided by Gmedia, Wizoo, Redshift and Yellow.
There is 26 synths, some with ring modulation or FM
some modules are written by top developer : MDA and SmartElectronix
And finaly you can buy it for the price of a sample cd
The DR-008 is the central vsti of my virtual studio.

I originally bought Battery back in the day to have a solid, sample playback drum machine, but there was still something 'lacking'. That void that needed to be filled was a synthesized drum machine. Well, I was glad to see that DR-008 blended those two desires together seamlessly, so it was hard not to fall in love! The interface is well laid out, the sampled sounds are fantastic, especially the WizLive kit, and the synthesized kicks will kick a hole right in your chest, it's hard to find something not to love about this drum module.

DR-008 now comes with well over 1 gig of sampled kits, and the addition of the new synth modules to go along with it, DR-008 has simply become the drum machine to beat. The value for money simply can't be matched in the drum market if you like to build and program your own beats by hand. Certainly worthy to take a look at the demo and judge for yourself if this will fill in the nitch for your drum module.

This vsti gets the heaviest use of any of my plugins. I'll quickly list some pros and cons.

Pros
very stable
fast and easy to use
several different types of samplers available
lots of synth modules
does everything a drum machine should be able to do
easy file browsing
supports drag'n'drop
supports mfx such as slicydrummer and fillindrummer
supports use with phatmatik pro
lots of sampler cells
good documention

Cons
I'm not sure I would call anything a "con"

There are a few features that I would like to see added (hide unused cells, amp envelope), but I believe things like this will be added in the next release.

I demo'd Battery, and found dr-008 to be far superior. Tech support is excellent. There is a large library of kits available to users. This product is winner.

DR-008 is the most flexible drum synth/sample playback instrument currently available. If you looked at the features you will see several drum synthesis modules, several pattern and fill creation tools and a rock solid performer as a VSTi.

Most everything has been said about DR-008 so I won't add too much more other than mentioning the smart idea to make a development kit available for people to create new modules for DR-008. This extends the use and purpose of this VSTi. Using something like the 3rd party Slicy Drummer module with DR-008 and you have a formidible rhythm section.

It is nice to see pattern sequencing in a drum VSTi. In fact, it's the biggest negative I have towards DR-008's competitors. It is especially nice to be able to set up a kit set up your drum rhythms and assign to a midi note. In effect you can get as simple or complex as you want and with tools for creating fills and shifting textures you've got an all inclusive kit.

The only negative (if you want to call it that) are the lack of high quality samples. That said there are good samples on the net for free and available at reasonable prices. If you have LM-4 you are in luck because you can import any LM-4 kit, very nice. I haven't seen the Battery kit conversion - been too busy creating and experimenting.

On the final note, DR-008 is great because it allows for simplicity but can be complex. It allows for working fast or with great precision. Although lacking Battery's sample editing tools DR-008 makes up for it with it's ease of use and different approach to how a drum VSTi should work. Attack users note, Attack is a good synth and different from DR-008. That said you can do a lot with what is provided and what will be.

BTW, there is a generous library of over 1 gb of drum samples available free in highly comressed kits. They range from good to excellent - tastes depending.

The reigning king of drum plugins.

If you haven't tried Dr-008 and you use another drum machine/sample player which isn't giving all you need then now is the time to test Dr-008.

The most useful aspect of Dr-008 is it's interface in my opinion. It's very quick and easy to understand how to set up a kit in Dr-008. I like the fact that samples or drumsynths can be assigned to notes. This makes it easy to programme midi notes in a sequencer and to play using a keyboard.

The drum synths are very functional and cover a wide range of presets for familiar kit sounds. I would have liked to see more cymbals and claps but it's easy to programme these. The ability to use samples as well as synth sounds is a great advantage over most other drum vsti's out there.

The modular concept of Dr-008 bodes very well for the future and this is another strong point in its favour. The possibility to add bass and lead synth modules could lead to the Dr-008 becoming a much more versatile instrument.

The reason I wrote this review was to discuss the benefits of using Dr-008 with MusicLab's plugins, SlicyDrummer and FillinDrummer. Both plugins can be used in Dr-008 and offer the facility of midi drum rhythmn sequencing. Drum sounds in Dr-008 can be played using MusicLabs plugins and these patterns can then be programmed in a sequencer.

The MusicLab plugins contain pre-programmed midi loops and multiple instances of the plugins can be opened in Dr-008. So the whole process of creating loops, fills and endings with whatever sounds you like is phenominally easy.

Dr-008, although reasonably expensive in my opinion, is a very versatile instrument and the added bonus of third party development in the shape of the MusicLab plugins has to make the Dr-008 an essential purchase for any musician who needs a drum programming work horse.

Now if only Fxpansions and MusicLab can get together and provide us with a more competitive bundle offer then I think those who have yet to buy will be in seventh heaven.