Drum VSTs | The best sounds for your e-kit

An electronic kit is only as good as the sounds at the end of it. The module in the box is a starting point, and for most drummers it is also the first thing they replace.

A drum VST is software that plays real recorded drums from your pads. Not synthesised, not approximated: a kit, in a room, miked by someone who does it for a living, with every drum sampled at every volume. Plug the kit in, pick a kit, and it sounds like a record.

There are a lot of them. Which one? Let’s find out.

What a VST does that a module cannot

Two things. Detail: a module stores a handful of samples per pad; a VST stores dozens of velocity layers per drum, from each mic, so a ghost note and a rimshot are different recordings rather than the same one at different volumes. And the mixer: a VST gives you the close mics, overheads and room mics of the kit it sampled, so you mix the drums the way an engineer would.

The price is a computer and a short setup. After that, the difference between the module and the VST is the difference between a photo of a kit and the kit.

Superior Drummer 3

The deep one. Toontrack’s flagship samples its core kits with over 200GB of recordings, which is the kind of number that stops meaning anything until you play it and hear the room breathe behind a quiet snare hit.

The mixer is a full console with effects, bleed control and routing. The e-kit support is the best in the business: presets for every major module, positional sensing on the snare, and a hi-hat engine that tracks the pedal properly.

It is the most expensive, the biggest to install and the one with the steepest learning curve. It is also the one you stop needing to replace. If you record drums seriously on an e-kit, this is where you end up.

EZdrummer 3

Same company, half the depth, a fraction of the effort. EZdrummer 3 is Superior’s little brother: fewer mics, smaller libraries, a simpler mixer, and kits that sound great the second they load.

It also has the best groove library in the business, which matters less for drummers than for producers but is handy for writing. The e-kit presets are the same as Superior’s.

For most home drummers EZdrummer 3 is the right amount of VST. Buy it, play it, and move to Superior if you find yourself wishing for the room mic.

Addictive Drums 2

XLN’s kits arrive mixed. Where Toontrack gives you raw mics and a console, Addictive Drums gives you presets that sound like finished records, with a simpler effects chain that gets there quickly.

It is sold as bundles by style, so a rock drummer buys the rock pack and a jazz drummer the jazz one, and there is a custom bundle for picking three kits. The e-kit mapping is solid, and the light install means it runs on a modest laptop.

The knock is that it sounds like Addictive Drums. Some people love that. If you want the kit raw, look at Toontrack.

GetGood Drums

GGD sells individual packs, each one a kit recorded by a specific engineer or drummer, and the quality is as high as anything on this list. The modern metal packs are what made its name; the Benny Greb signature pack is a very different kit from the same company.

The packs run in Kontakt or in GGD’s own free player. Pick the kit you want rather than a library of all of them, and you pay for exactly that kit.

If you play one style and know which drummer’s sound you are after, a single GGD pack can be better value than any of the big libraries.

Steven Slate Drums

SSD 5.5 is the one that has quietly been on a lot of rock and metal records. Punchy, mixed-sounding kits, a straightforward interface, and a price under the Toontrack products.

It also has a free version: the SSD sampler with a kit included, which is the best free drum VST you can put behind an e-kit. Start there, and if you like it the full version is an upgrade rather than a new learning curve.

The free ones

• Steven Slate Drums free sampler. The pick. A real kit, proper velocity layers, works with every e-kit.
• MT Power Drum Kit 2. One good rock kit, free for years, runs on anything. The sound is a bit dated and it is still better than most modules.
• Sitala. A free sampler that plays whatever samples you load into it. Not a kit, but if you have samples you like, it makes them playable.

Free gets you the VST experience. Paid gets you the velocity layers and the mixer, and the difference is most obvious at low volume, where the free kits run out of samples.

Which one?

• “I want it to sound amazing and I do not want to learn anything.” EZdrummer 3.
• “I record drums and I want control.” Superior Drummer 3.
• “I want finished-sounding kits now.” Addictive Drums 2.
• “I play one style and want that exact sound.” A GetGood Drums pack.
• “I want to try before I spend.” The free Steven Slate sampler.

Whichever you pick, the hi-hat and the velocity curve are the two settings that make it feel right under your hands. The setup guide covers both, and the headphones guide covers what to hear it through.

Where can I buy them?

The right shop depends on where you are: Guitar Center in the Americas, Gear4music in the UK, or Thomann for Europe and the rest of the world.

Toontrack, XLN and Slate all sell direct too, and all of them run regular sales. If you are not in a hurry, wait for one.

Final thoughts

The module is the pads’ first voice, not their only one. A VST turns an electronic kit into the recorded sound of a real one, and the gap between a free sampler and a module is already bigger than the gap between a free sampler and Superior Drummer.

Start free, move to EZdrummer or Addictive Drums when you want more, and go to Superior when you want everything. The kit will not sound electronic again, whichever one you land on.