One of the best things about GarageBand is that you can install third party Audio Unit plugins, which really opens up some exciting sonic possibilities. In the video below, I share some of my favourite Audio Unit plugins that you can add to GarageBand on Mac for free. If you are looking for some FREE plug-ins, then here’s the list, they often also work in any DAW that supports AAX, AU and VST, including Pro Tools, Studio One, Logic Pro X and many more. The list features FREE plug-ins from some top brands and is updated regularly. This is a searchable database; you can search for free plug-ins in various ways.
- Native Instruments Battery 4. Mac/PC VST/AU/AAX $199/£179/€199. One of the original cell.
- Not bad for a FREE plugin. All you have to do is enter your email and that’s it. Download it here for free. MT Power Drum Kit 2. MT Power Drum Kit 2 isn’t just a plugin for drums. In addition to top notch drum sounds that cut through any mix, it also has a fully pre-programmed groove library.
- Besides the best drum software packages I picked below, I’m aware that there are a ton of other paid options out there like Steven Slate Drums, Abbey Road Drums, and Battery 4, but I wanted to pick my top 3 favorite drum VST plugins that appeal to me personally.
There are a number of options out there to get your drum replacement work to work well. The names may change from time to time, but these are some great software choices. We encourage you to check them out (and, in the freeware cases, try them out!).
Trigger – Slate Trigger is a drum‑replacement plug‑in that can output MIDI for triggering external sample players or allow you to use your own samples from within Trigger’s player. Highly accurate triggering, it is a fast and easy solution for replacing exisiting drum sounds or blending in samples for enhancement. Visit Slate’s website for current pricing.
Drumagog – Still one of the biggest names in drum replacement tools, with a repuation that is well-deserved. If Drumagog can’t solve your drum replacement needs, very little else will either. In terms of quality, features, and ease of use, Drumagog is still the drum sample tool to beat. While not free (prices range from $199 to $379), this is a program you will find yourself using constantly. Worth every penny if you record drums often.
Massey DRT DRT2 can enhance or replace poorly recorded drum tracks with third-part samples like Drum Werks. You can trun a good drum sound into a great sound that sits better in your mix with the right combination of drum samples. According to their website, “DRT v2 ‘Works like a charm,’ it is ‘very accurate,’ and ‘very easy to set and tweak.’
TL Labs TL Drum Rehab[ProTools] – According to the product specs, “TL Drum Rehab™ offers a comprehensive set of tools to enhance or replace original drum recordings precisely, automatically, and in real time.
Free Alternatives
If you are on a tight budget, you are still in luck. Many free alternatives exist that will do drum replacing admirably.
apTrigga[VST/AU for Windows/Mac] – According to their website, “apTrigger features: Audio plugin for Mac OS X (VST/AU) and Windows (VST); Triggers mono & stereo samples by analyzing audio signals;ZERO samples trigger latency.
Like the other software listed here, it replaces recorded drums with samples but is capable of many other drum sample related processes as well.
KTDrumTrigger[VST for Windows/Mac] – According to their website, “KTDrumTrigger is a VST plugin with custom editor that triggers MIDI notes based on the sound level of the incoming audio stream in different frequency bands. It allows you to ‘detect’ occurrences of percussive sounds in an audio stream and send out a MIDI event whenever that happens.”
Drum Plug-ins For Mac
Peak Freak[VST for Windows] – According to their website, “PeakFreak is a plugin that converts audio input that falls into a certain frequency and amplitude range into midi notes of a certain length. This can for example be useful if you want to trigger the bass drum from your sound expander via MIDI automatically by the bass drum from an audio track.
Replacer[VST for Windows] – According to their website, “Replacer is a VST plug-in designed to replace drum and percussive sounds with other samples. Basically, it is comprised of a band-pass filter which selects the relevant frequency of the sound required to be replaced, and then the peak amplitudes at this frequency then trigger chosen sample/s. The samples can be 16 or 24-bit wav files recorded at any sample rate.”
More to come as products are developed and emerge…
| DrumExtract is an audio processing tool that extracts and separates percussive content (e.g. drums) from an audio mix. Based on recent digital signal processing research, it goes far beyond traditional tools, and allows results that no EQ, compression, or other classical tool could achieve. Audio examples (before / after): Courtesy of Tame Impala, thanks to Kevin Parker. Venetian Snares - Szamár Madár Courtesy of Venetian Snares, thanks to Aaron Funk. | DrumExtract Version 1.1 |
DrumExtract is available as a VST plugin (32 & 64-bit) for Windows and as a VST and Audio Unit for Mac. It works with Cubase, Ableton Live, Reaper, FL Studio, Sound Forge, Audacity, Audition, Logic Pro X, Studio One, MPC Software, Serato, Maschine, etc.
Of course, an audio mix is like a baked cake: it is difficult (and sometimes impossible) to recover each individual part of a mix. However, even if no perfect result can be achieved, DrumExtract goes beyond traditional tools and offers state-of-the-art separation.
DrumExtract works well on songs with harmonic instruments playing chords (strings, synths, pads, piano, etc.), but doesn't work on songs with instruments with fast pitch changes, such as fast instrument solos or vocal part. Currently DrumExtract is unable to separate voice from drums.
More generally, don't expect DrumExtract to work on every song or on the full length of a song. It is an essential tool in a music producer toolbox, that works better than pure EQ to extract drum samples, but it is not a magic wand. On some songs it does miracles, on others it just doesn't work.
Drum Plugin For Pro Tools
Discover new applications with DrumExtract:
Drum learning: isolate the percussive content of a song, to find the drum parts
Drum practicing: remove drums from a song and play it without drums, allowing the drummer to play on top of it
Remix / Sampling / Beatmaking: sample drum loops, drum elements or melodic elements that could not be isolated with usual tools. Akai MPC users and hip hop producers can use it to find new unused sampling material, and use it for new productions
Production learning: discover how great song drum tracks are crafted, by removing the other instruments
Mixing / Mastering: raise or lower the volume of the drums in a mix
- Advanced multi-layer processing: split a track into a percussive track and harmonic track, thus allowing further processing on each of them, before remixing them together
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