Autodafe has released Mega Drum Machines, a freeware virtual instrument in VST/AU plugin formats based on his successful NI Kontakt sound library of the same name.
Same as the Kontakt library which was released earlier this year, the VST/AU version of the instrument is based on drum samples captured from over 130 old-school drum machines. The sounds are grouped into kits and mapped according to the GM (General MIDI) format. This makes the browsing process a breeze, as notes in the sequencer will always correspond to the same type of drum sound.
Each drum kit consists of one kick, one snare, one hi-hat, one cymbal, and one tom sample. Although having more complex kits would be cool, I guess that featuring so many different drum machines in a single instrument would make it impossible to have the same type of sound triggered by a particular note in each kit. With that in mind, I think it’s best to use Mega Drum Machines as the main part of the drum setup in the project and then use additional instruments for adding more toms, cymbals, and other percussion sounds.
The user interface is limited, but I’m glad to see that the most important features are covered. Each drum slot comes with a volume and pan control, and it is also possible to route each drum hit to a different channel in the DAW. This way, additional processing like compression and EQ can be applied to each drum hit individually, making the lack of advanced controls on the interface itself less important.
Mega Drum Machines can be downloaded completely free of charge from Autodafe’s website, with optional donations (the developer suggests $5 as the donation amount). To download the plugin, add it to your shopping cart on the product page linked below and enter any amount you want (entering $0 will result in a free download). Once you complete the checkout process, the download packs will be avialable in your user account on Autodafe’s website.
Mega Drum Machines is available for free download via Autodafe (147.5 MB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit & 64-bit VST/AU plugin formats for Windows & Mac OS).
