Beatmaker has introduced SL Drums 2, a freeware virtual drum rompler made with Maize Sampler, available in VST/AU plugin formats for PC and Mac based host applications.
SL Drums 2 is a rather basic drum rompler instrument with 59 drum kits in total (8 drum samples per kit). Each kit comes in two different versions, a standard stereo output version and a multi-out version in which every drum slot can be routed to a separate audio channel in the mixer.
The previous version of SL Drums (which we featured in our news section back in June this year) contained a smaller number of drum kits (15 compared to 59) and a somewhat simpler user interface. If you enjoyed using SL Drums, there’s no doubt that the new kits that are included in SL Drums 2 are well worth the update. On the other hand, if you tried the old SL Drums plugin and didn’t particularly like it, it’s safe to say that SL Drums 2 won’t be your cup of tea either.
In my opinion, SL Drums 2 is a decent choice for beginner beat makers who are searching for a free and easy way to add some nice sounding hip hop drums to their music. Featuring a brand new set of drum kits created by Coldman Beats, it is a solid pick for a beginner’s first freeware hip hop drum rompler. The user interface has been improved as well since v1.0, introducing separate release controls for each drum channel, along with velocity curve and resampling quality adjustments. The biggest drawback is still the fact that the included drum sounds can’t be combined to form custom kits, although that’s a common limitation for virtual instruments made with Maize Sampler (the software that was used to develop SL Drums 2).
In order to download your free copy of SL Drums 2, you’ll need to submit a valid email address (email verification is required). It seems that the 64-bit VST download for Windows still contains the old v1.0 plugin. The 32-bit download pack came with the updated DLL.
Beatmaker has also released a commercial rompler instrument called RomPlay. This affordable VST/AU plugin (€4,99 standard price, €1.99 special intro price until August 31st) contains 53 multi-sampled patches (based on a total of 212 samples). When you sign up for your free copy of SL Drums 2, you will also receive the download link for the Lite version of RomPlay which contains a set of four multi-sampled patches from the full version of the instrument.
SL Drums 2 is available for free download via Beatmaker (571 MB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit & 64-bit VST/AU plugin format for Windows & Mac OS).
3 Comments
Manu
onHello, I downloaded the 64-bit version of Windows and this updated plugin, all you the file name is the same: SL DRUMS x64.dll
Manu
onMust replace the old presets by new, you may have left some old preset and why you left the old version of the plugin
JBP
onI am a little bit confused why it has 16 stereo outputs though it has only 8 instruments polyphony?! So the last 8 stereo outs are useless and waste space in my DAW’s mixer. Is there any (maybe hidden) configuration option to fix this problem?