Drum Sound Source Edition - A Must-See for DTMers! Recommended Sound Sources

Hey everyone!
Kaoru the composer here!

This time, I would like to talk about drum sound sources as part of my recommended sound source series with a focus on drums.

Drums play an important role as the foundation of a song.
They are often used regardless of genre, so you’re going to want to choose a sound source that suits you.

With that in mind, I’ve picked out some great recommended products.
Please be sure to use this article as a reference!!

XLN AUDIO / Addictive Drums 2: Custom　Download version

For those seeking a realistic, live drum sound, I highly recommend “Addictive Drums 2”.
Everything from the resonance of the cymbals to the texture of the snare is perfectly sampled, making it extremely realistic!

Moreover, all of the presets are immediately usable, so there’s no need for troublesome sound design.

It’s also easy to customize, allowing even beginners to operate it with confidence.

With this product, you can choose three each of drum kits, MIDI packs, and kitpiece packs, so you can tailor it to your own production genre.

The MIDI phrases are categorized by genre, making it easy to incorporate them into your track with simple drag-and-drop.

It also runs smoothly with light processing load, which is another great advantage for seamless production!

TOONTRACK / SUPERIOR DRUMMER 3 Software Drum Instrument

This may be one of the drum sound sources used by a great many professionals.
A key feature of this sound source is the vast amount of sounds it includes.

It contains approximately 350 types of vintage drum machine sounds and more than 235 GB of raw 44.1 kHz/24-bit samples.
Since it supports conversion from offline audio to MIDI, it can be edited in a variety of ways.

I think it is a product with excellent flexibility.

*Note that it includes relatively few electronic sounds

There are also expansion sound sources ↓

TOONTRACK / EZX LATIN PERCUSSION

TOONTRACK / EZX METAL MACHINE

MIDI phrase collections ↓

TOONTRACK / DRUM MIDI 6PACK / BOX

There is a wide variety available, so it’s great that you can choose freely!!

Buying everything would end up being quite an expensive purchase, though….
This is just my personal opinion, but I feel that products with expansion sound libraries available have more long-term potential!

Steven Slate Drums / StevenSlateDrums 5 Simplified Package

A drum sound source that covers drum sounds for almost all genres.
By consolidating information for each parameter into the user interface, it is designed to be easy to understand.
It looks like sound design would be easy, doesn’t it?

Being able to get an all-around usable sound source at an affordable price makes it easy on the wallet!

IK MULTIMEDIA / MODO DRUM Package Delivery

The MODO series drum sound source became quite a hot topic after its release.
Its defining feature is that it uses a physical modeling method rather than the traditional sampling-based approach.

One of the key characteristics of physical modeling is its flexibility.
You can customize a wide range of parameters such as the material and size of each part, so playing with these variations can also help you learn more about drums.

The deeper your knowledge of drums becomes, the more detailed your editing can be.

In addition, it includes a wealth of features, such as:

• 10 customizable drum kits
• Over 1,400 MIDI patterns
• 8 types of room selections
• 19 high-quality effects

Because of this, it can be used across a wide range of production genres.
You may see reviews saying that the sound quality is inferior compared to sampling-based methods, but I think it can be sufficiently compensated for depending on how you program it.

SPECTRASONICS / Stylus RMX “Xpanded” Drum & Percussion Sound Source

A sound source that includes the sounds needed for beat making, such as loops, one-shots, and fill-ins.

In addition to realistic drum sounds, it also includes electronic and cinematic styles, making it amazing for soundtrack composers as well!!

What I personally find especially useful is the “Chaos Designer” function.
This function allows you to add chaotic variations to a groove with simple operations.
It provides constantly changing variations, giving the impression that the audio groove is being created through improvisation.

In other words, it allows you to easily create human-like, realistic beats!

Since fine adjustments are unnecessary, it greatly reduces production time!

XLN AUDIO / XO　Download version

An innovative sound source that allows easy beat making through intuitive operation alone.
Just looking at the user interface, it’s hard to tell what’s going on, right…?

However, once you watch the official videos, I think you’ll understand.
You simply click and move toward the sounds you’re looking for!

A very unique piece of software with a playful design built in.
It really stimulates inspiration!

That concludes this recommended sound source feature: “Drum Sound Sources Edition”!
Each one has its own unique character, and I found them very interesting!

Choose the one that suits you and have fun making music!!

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