Product Reviews by KVR Members

Simple, cheap, and efficient. If you want to simulate the pump from sidechain compression effortlessly and with negligible CPU hit, this is your solution. 16 waveforms with the ability to adjust when in relation to the beat the waveform is triggered and a choice of whether to trigger as a one-shot or sync to your host at eighth. quarter, half or whole notes. Made by the guys at Cableguys. And yes, there's a demo. VST/AU 32/64-bit. Works in every DAW I have.

$15, uses almost no CPU, and gets the job done. It's a no-brainer. If you want or need the sidechain effect and don't want to part with a lot of cash, this is your solution.

There are several developers that have built VST and AU drum synths - this is nothing new. Where Kick stands out is ease of use and a unique take on building the perfect kick for a track.

In essence, you can work with one of the presets, and there are a ton of good ones, including some from Nicky Romero, and either leave as is or tweak to your satisfaction. You get to pick the "click" - the top part of the kick - from any of the included samples or supply your own. Then you add the sub to taste. You get pitch and amp envelopes, and the pitch even snaps to note values; if you haven't discovered the value in tuning your drums to the key of your project, I encourage you to try it.

Distortion and a limiter are also built in, and work flawlessly.

Your use case may vary - for Ableton Live users, it's painfully simple to add kick to a Drum Rack to either replace an existing kick sample or build your own rack.

It could be said that $40 for a kick drum VST seems a bit excessive. However, I'd encourage anyone producing in a genre where the kick drum is prominent, and that's more or less any EDM genre, to pick this up without hesitation. You get VST and AU, Windows and Mac. It's worth every penny.