Yurt Rock releases Pick Pocket audio-to-MIDI drum plugin for $49

Yurt Rock has released Pick Pocket, an audio-to-MIDI drum conversion plugin for macOS and Windows, priced at $49.

This one is useful if you want to extract the groove from a drum recording without losing the swing and quantizing the performance onto a grid. Pick Pocket preserves the original microtiming and dynamics, so you can replace the sounds or use the groove elsewhere while retaining its human feel.

You can capture audio directly from a track in your DAW or drag a WAV, AIFF, MP3, M4A, or FLAC file into the plugin. Automatic loop detection looks for a clean two, four, or eight-bar section, although you can adjust the detected area and source tempo manually.

Pick Pocket identifies the kick, snare, and hi-hat hits, then displays them in a hit-by-hit editor. Clicking a transient cycles through the available drum voices, and you can add, move, delete, mute, or change the velocity of individual notes.

The Sensitivity control can help you balance quieter ghost notes against the unwanted bleed. Pick Pocket also displays the number of detected hits, swing amount, average push or drag, and timing tightness in milliseconds, so you get the full overview of what gives the original performance its character.

The Pocket control lets you decide how much of that timing translates to MIDI. At zero, the result is completely quantized; at 100%, it follows the captured performance; and higher values exaggerate the timing. Dynamics offers the same kind of control over the original velocity differences.

You can audition the converted groove using Yurt Rock drum sounds, either on their own or layered with the source. The plugin includes starter grooves from Nate Smith, Clyde Stubblefield, Marcus Finnie, and Darren King, plus five one-shots for each drum voice.

Finished grooves can be exported as standard MIDI, an Ableton Groove file, or rendered as WAV audio. The MIDI mappings cover Superior Drummer, EZdrummer, BFD3, Steven Slate Drums 5, Addictive Drums 2, Groove Agent, and General MIDI, and custom mappings are supported as well.

Pick Pocket is also available as a browser-based tool, so you can try the workflow without installing anything. The free trial provides the complete analyzer and editor for the included grooves and your own loops, with exporting reserved for the full version.

The $49 purchase is a perpetual license with no iLok, while Yurt Rock Vault members get Pick Pocket as part of their subscription. Activation uses a Yurt Rock account, supports up to three computers, and only requires an internet connection during installation and activation.

Pick Pocket runs as a VST3 and AU plugin or standalone application on macOS 11 or newer, with native Intel and Apple Silicon support. The Windows 10/11 version is available in 64-bit VST3 and standalone formats.

Download: Yurt Rock Pick Pocket ($49/free trial available)

More:

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• The best free drum VST plugins

Last Updated on September 4, 2026 by Tomislav Zlatic.