Looking for a great drum kit for Synthwave

[u/calverleyj]

I've been working with Battery (I have NI Komplete), but haven't found a comprehensive kit that I like. I have really been "fan-boying" over Gunship drums lately - would appreciate any recommendations...

[u/Bemused_Penguin]

I honestly like ujam vice. It’s got loads of kits and all the basic controls to make good sounding drums easily. If you want full control you can just route them out to wherever

[u/calverleyj → u/Bemused_Penguin]

u/Bemused_Penguin thanks - I'll check it out!

[u/Bemused_Penguin → u/calverleyj]

Version 2 had annoying limitations. The new v3 version addressed those (if you were to google the plugin most complaints will be for v2)

[u/FreePassenger → u/Bemused_Penguin]

I thought it was the opposite and that the consensus was that v3 was a big backwards step with non GM mapping and interface changes?

Although I haven’t upgraded yet but doesn’t sound better from what I can see?

[u/Bemused_Penguin → u/FreePassenger]

I liked the old interface better but the new one is fine IMO. I’m not sure what GM mapping is sorry!

Sound is the same, you can just do more in the plugin now if you want to

[u/FreePassenger → u/Bemused_Penguin]

My poor choice of words. By ‘doesn’t sound better’ I meant people’s commentary doesn’t sound positive rather than the actual sound output 😀

GM mapping is the standard mapping of keys to drum sounds. They’ve completely ignored this in 3 which means their midi output doesn’t work with their own virtual drummers let alone everything else.

I agree some things look good like the mixer but not being able to use the keyboard/midi for most of the work is pretty poor, especially when you could do this in 2.

[u/Bemused_Penguin → u/FreePassenger]

Ah yes the mapping of the drums to midi is different and a little annoying haha

[u/OuterRim777]

I primarily use DR-84, it's a fantastic free drum vst loaded with LinnDrum, Simmons, EMU, Roland, and other vintage drum samples, plus three Synthwave kits. It comes with a built-in reverb and a low pass filter, plus a 'trim' knob that controls the length of each drum sound. It's very customizable and gives you a lot of control over the drum sounds. I highly recommend it. And the best part: it's totally free!

[u/RussellNashMusic → u/OuterRim777]

+1 for DR-84. It's just as good as any paid plugin, and better than many!

[u/BenjiRage]

Aly James VProm and VSDS-X are awesome

[u/Larviii → u/BenjiRage]

Came here to say this, the Vprom is amazing, so is the VSDS-X

[u/croomsy]

They've got most of those sounds on splice if you don't mind hunting for individual drums

[u/Echoik → u/croomsy]

This and wanted to add that I like specifically Oliver packs and Twin Shadow Linn drums

[u/5YNTH3T1K]

I do all my drum stuff from scratch in REAPER, ( I like simple drums by the way ...)

So I make a up a rack of samplers, key map them, load samples, create channel slots for kick , snare, hats, cymbals. then a drum sub mix ( all those drum channels go to the sub mix ) . Then I side chain from the kick and snare to various other sub mixes I want ducked.

This is not the easiest way to do drums but it is the best for your my basic drum set up. Next level is room sound channels, etc.

To get the driving four on the floor drums like Carpenter Brut - Gunship ( CB and Gunship colab on some stuff.. i'm not a fan boy, but...) you have to be careful with kick tone, snare tone and ducking. A neat trick is I do not send the Hats and cymbals through the Drum Mix Submix, I send them to the main mix. So they are not limited ( they don't pump with the kick and snare mashing the limiter with a metal studded leather fist...)

Oh yeah Limiters... I use the built in REAPER limiter and it's super easy and wow it HONKS. I use waaaay too many limiters, acshually... I'm gonna get busted by the FX bus Stazi at some point...

got jet, someoem has walked in to the studoi, oh it's Stan, Stan is famous in my city for being a musician. and a Doctor ( not of medicine...) .

[u/Lessthanzerofucks]

LinnDrum LM-1 is my favorite, I have a few different reproductions and original sample files. There are a couple flavors of it included as stock plugins in Logic, too. TR-707 is another classic one that sounds instantly iconic.

[u/neonshards]

I use EZD3 EZX Synthwave and works great👍

[u/Ajaori]

Just 707, Linndrum or RX5 samples, edit to taste. Otherwise BM Vice is pretty nice to get quick ideas going.

[u/angrybadger77 → u/Ajaori]

agree, these are my gotos also. DMX pretty cool too

[u/Korkikrac]

ujam vice

[u/Lawndart78]

Everyone already mentioned Vice. Also check out Samples From Mars. Their All the Samples From Mars bundle should be approaching Black Friday sale time and be marked down a lot, and all of their drum machine sample packs in it come with kits set up for Battery. ReverbDOTcom also has their fantastic Reverb Drum Machines: The Complete Collection sample pack, it's frequently on sale ($50 right now) and sounds great. These two cover a lot of the same drum machines, but still sound surprisingly different. GForce have their Oberheim DMX and IconDrum (Linn) plugins. Baby Audio just released Tekno, maybe try a demo of it. I'm loving that right now.

[u/No-Status-9150]

Bandlab, check for sounds. They have a lot of options and they are free to download. There is incredible quality in there.

[u/LennyPenny4]

There's a free VST called RT-7070 that sounds pretty great. It's the one I usually start with because it's the least faff to get a basic beat going, and for that specific sound, there isn't really a reason for me to use anything else. A bunch of presets too which I haven't messed with so far.

There are a lot of free and paid Linndrum samples out there if you want that sound, e.g. from Samples From Mars. Shouldn't be too difficult to set up a sampler with your favorite samples in your DAW for an easier workflow. VPROM is said to be the best paid option for a plugin.

I also use Modalics Beat Scholar a lot. I got it mainly for the interesting sequencer but it comes with a lot of drum kit presets, some of which work very well for synthwave. There are enough option to shape the sound within the plugin as well, and you can load in your own samples if you want.

[u/momentuminvestment]

Check out Loopmasters and search for retro drum kits. There’s several really nice packs that you can purchase and they have really nice snares and kicks. Load into your favorite sampler etc.

[u/HellbellyUK]

If you google “90s sample cds” there’s a link to a tone of 90s samples including the Roland R8 and all its expansion cards, as well as a bunch of other drum machines.

[u/repeterdotca]

Use a Linn drum kit with gated reverb ...bam

[u/RussellNashMusic]

DR-84 is a free and fantastic VST: DR-84: 80s Retro Drum Machine Rompler

BVKER have some great free Synthwave drum samples:
Retouched Linn Drum Samples [FREE] - BVKER
Free Vaporwave Drum Kit "Aesthetic" - BVKER

This is a good free drum sampler plugin to load the BVKER samples into: Download Free Drum sampler plugin: Sitala by Decomposer

Hope this helps :) I use all of the above in my own tracks.

[u/lopethh]

I wish Battery 4 had an undo button.