Vst Plugins Drum And Bass
XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2: Creative Collection Review. XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2 is the perfect drum library VST. It offers an incredible acoustic drum library that is packed with realistic and natural sounds, and the engine that powers the plugin is smooth and easy to use. 102 drum'n'bass drumloops, Releases, Rhythm Lab Free Wav Samples, Loops, Breaks, VST Plugins, Synth Presets and much more!
Howdy, well its a few months on from my last post about drum & bass plugins, so for all of you that missed the 4 part series you can check them out here but click here for all other drum & bass production goodies. A lot has happened in the last few months plugin wise, so that means a lot of sonic goodies for us to play with. Oh yeah baby! As the title of this post suggests I’m not going to work my way through the 9,000,000 new plugins that have hit the market, just the few that have grabbed my attention and the ones I thought would improve your drum n bass production. I’ll break shit up into sections for your reading pleasure.
Compressors
Well, when it comes to compressors I’ve been trying out a few new ones. The PSP Oldtimer is a nice quality comp that sits well over a drum bus or individual channels. I’ve only really tried it out over a whole mix a few times but its sounds pretty good on the Glue Preset. The Valve and Clean switch is cool for dirtying up the sound a little or adding that little bit of grit. Everyone probably knows by now that I love the Sonnox Dynamics on the Drum Bus. Very transparent and so easy to use its not funny. Also love that Warmth control and the way that Ian Carey uses it as a send effect is brilliant. Check out the videos here. The Waves SSL G-Buss is still an awesome plug that deserves a mention as well. The way it glues stuff together is legendary. Another plugin I use sometimes is the UAD Neve 33609. It could quite well be my new favourite. 🙂
Equalizers
When it comes to equalizers in the last few months I haven’t really been blown away by anything new I can think of. I’m still using my faithful UAD-1 Cambridge EQ for most of my EQ work. I’ll switch that up with the Cubase EQ’s every now and then just for convenience sake. The UAD Pultec Pro pops its head out every now and again on the drum buss for a little magic on any kicks and hats. The cut and boost feature on the plugin is amazing.
Reverbs
Wow, is the only damn thing I can say right now. Wow! Now years ago people were all up in the house saying that there was no place for reverbs in Drum & Bass Production but how wrong they are! With the move towards everything in-the-box a good quality reverb is becoming even more important. I always wondered why samples that I was making didn’t have that special vibe about them. Now I know why…. its all in the verbage! The amount of quality reverbs to grace our presence is simply amazing. My favourite would have to be the 2caudio Aether plugin. This plugin at first looks a little crazy but believe me it is the goods. Once you work out out where the mix level is and how to call up the excellent presets its “all good baby”. The plugin adds that little bit of space/vibe/atmos/magic to what ever you put it on. It even can get totally whacky if you want it to. Check it out here. Now the Space Designer in Logic 9 is always always always worth a proper mention. The new Logic 9 has added some more features to it with the warp impulses. Did I hear the word tasty being thrown around? Because trust me… Space Designer is tasty indeed!
Drum Kit Vst Plugins
Synths
There are some new synths around like the Native Instruments Komplete 6 pack with Absynth 5 and Kontakt4 etc but I haven’t had time to play with them yet. When I do I fill you in with the details or better yet, if you want to write a review please be my guest! Just drop me an email at info@dnbbeats.com. There is a few more synths worth mentioning like FXPansion’s DCam Squad synth, Camel Audio Alchemy and Sylenth2.2 but I’ll let you check them out. I think all of them are brilliant.
All in all a crazy few months of plugin madness to really help you produce them quality beats you’ve always wanted. I highly recommend the plugins above if you want to glue your mixes together, bring out/balance certain elements or add that bit of magic space to your tunes. Definitely try out the reverb it will improve your tunes instantly taking them up towards professional level for sure.
See you on the dancefloor.
Drums Vst Plugins Free
Dauntless
P.S. If you’ve wondered why the amount of stuff I’ve written lately has been a bit on the slow side I’ve been working my ass off since I’ve gotten back from Europe. /free-vst-giveaway.html. I’m going to take some time of this week to get back on the beats and get on with my drum & bass production.