Request: Drum Sound-Design VST

lewoxy

Hello dear Native Instruments Team,

I would you like to ask you if Native Instruments could develop a VST instrument that makes it easy to create all kinds of electronic drum sounds from scratch using sound synthesis? In the vein of Kick 2 by Sonic Academy but extended for snare, claps & snaps, hi-hats, cymbals, toms, percussions, etc.?

Drum sound design is a rather obscure thing - at least that's how I've experienced it so far. On YouTube you can hardly find tutorials in which drum sounds are created on sample pack level. And most of the approaches you see are very small-scale and time-consuming. A VST instrument with which you can easily create all kinds of electronic drum sounds does not exist on the market yet! Maybe such an instrument could be extended with FM and physical-modeling modules besides typical subtractive synthesis methods.

I'm also thinking about a GUI that allows the user to intuitively and playfully adjust the timbre and texture of the sound via visual feedback.

I'm posting this idea in the Maschine forum, since Maschine already has a great drum synth and is focused on beat making. However, I would like to have such a requested drum sound design VST as a stand-alone plugin.

I am looking forward to your feedback!

Best wishes

D-One

Have you tried Maschine's very own Drum Synth?

It can do exactly what you're asking altho not as advanced and visual as the likes of Kick2.

On YouTube you can hardly find tutorials in which drum sounds are created on sample pack level.

I also find it hard to find info about drum sound design, at least from scratch and on a more advanced level, I guess people into this tend to not share what makes them $.

There's this new plugin called Emergent Drums that supposedly uses AI to generate drums based on a dataset, if they add a way to create our own data model based on out favorite samples that would be crazy, not cheap but devs have a public discord and whatnot... might be worth checking out.

darkwaves

I'm always tempted to buy Steinberg's Backbone; but I know I'm too lazy to make drums.

lewoxy

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/39542#Comment_39542

Hey D-One, I already use the Drum Synth and I love it. However, it does not match what I mentioned in my post. With the drum synth in Maschine, you can certainly create all kinds of drum sounds as well, but probably via layering of multiple instances and external effects processing rather than via a direct path inside the plugin itself. Also, the drum synth is not (yet) a standalone plugin and does not include visual feedback.

Murat Kayi

Maybe it's a good idea to let go of the idea of one plugin fulfilling your sound design needs and instead use everything you can get a hold of.

Sample your own sources. Drop heavy stuff on the ground for low booms. Ask in your local music store to sample stuff you need (thanks to that, I now have a nicely sampled jazz ride with a screw in it - something that none of my thousands of sampled drum kits had, why I don't know), sample spray bottles, doors, zippers, wrappings, go nuts.

Get familiar with modular and design from scratch. All the big systems give you access to subtractive, FM, AM, PM, additive and modal synthesis. Need visuals? Get a scope. Done. It's not exactly 3D, but it helps. Sample that stuff.

Added bonus: load your samples into the modular environment. Load your samples into MassiveX as noise source. Get into Reaktor. Drive your samples in the ground with Form, Prism, Molekular. Import all of that back into Maschine and release your inner sound design dolphin.

I mean. Just try stuff. If that is not what you're looking for then I will add this, maybe;

J3PO has a nice video on how he designs snares with noise and Envelopes.

Flexi

Built in drum synths as suggested, if you want more, Youtube Snare design in Massive, if you want more, use Reaktor.

Here is my hint for you, DON'T, sampling exists and every drum ever built will sound better than anything you ever synthesize if you want acoustic sounding, otherwise use the built in plugins.

ozon

Try to find an Elektron Maschinedrum and sample that. It pretty much offers what you described in a hardware box. It’s a pity they’re out of production.

Hector presents:

https://youtu.be/Y74vdIl4R8c

ozon

BTW, Native Instruments offers the Kontakt based Drum Lab, which has a couple of features you might find interesting:

https://www.native-instruments.com/de/products/komplete/drums/drumlab/

PK The DJ

D-One said:

There's this new plugin called Emergent Drums

I just grabbed this today, after seeing it as part of NI's "AI Plugin offers".

Planning on using it to create sounds for M+ kits, MPC X and Push 3.

So far so good!

Kymeia

Is it NKS compatible?

PK The DJ

No it doesn't do the whole pretty GUI and browse presets thing, but the hardware knobs control various parameters.

Fugazi81

So you are looking for drum-synth VSTi's, preferably also standalone.

I know a few off the top of my head that you could have a look at, which I use regularly.

Microtonic (Sonic Charge)

Drumcomputer (SugarBytes)

Heartbeat (Softube) - no standalone 

Which I don't have but which you could also have a look at.

Drumazon 2 (D16)

StiX (Xils-Lab)

A bit older but still interesting (no idea if you can still buy it)

Tremor (FXpansion)

Spark2 (Arturia)

Have fun.

D-One

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/106526#Comment_106526

Does it have the ability to train the AI/ML engine on your own library yet?

Any downsides you've found so far?

PK The DJ

Apparently yes it can work with your own sounds.

From their web site:

"Get variations on existing samples

With our transformative Deep Sampling technology, you can create countless variations of samples from your personal collection. Simply drag-in an existing sample, set the similarity slider, and click generate for infinite options."

dmori

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/7697/request-drum-sound-design-vst

I've been looking at Tympo by by Teletone. Maybe this will give you what you're looking for.

https://teletoneaudio.com/products/tympo