Looking to buy the best drum VST plugins?
Perfect, you're in the right place!
In this insider's guide, you’ll learn the following:
- What Are Drum VST Plugins?
- How Do I Use Drum VST Plugins?
- Which Drum VST Plugin Is Right For Me?
- And much more!
Below is a quick list of all my top picks. Keep scrolling to learn more about my best buying tips and tricks to help you find the perfect Drum VST plugin!
| Image | Product | |||
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My Top Pick  | My Top Pick | XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2
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Best High-End  | Best High-End | Toontrack Superior Drummer 3
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Best Budget  | Best Budget | Steven Slate Drums 5
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 | Toontrack EZdrummer 2
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 | FXpansion BFD3
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My Overall #1 Rated Pick
Updated 4/19/2020
XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2
- Great sounding kits
- Easy to use
- Beat Transformer feature
Addictive drums 2 is a fantastic solution for all your virtual drumming needs.
With 3 beautifully recreated drum kits with over 5000 ready to go MIDI grooves, this plugin will satisfy both electronic kit players and music producers alike.
With the addition of the MIDI ‘Beat Transformer’ and a variety of built-in effects, it’s never been easier to craft drum tracks that will make your music come alive.
That’s what makes Addictive Drums 2 my top pick!
Top 5 Best Drum VST Plugins
In a hurry? Check out my top 5 picks below! Keep reading to learn more about these best VST plugins for your electronic drums.
- XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2 (My Top Pick)
- Toontrack Superior Drummer 3 (Best High-End)
- Steven Slate Drums 5 (Best Budget)
- Toontrack EZdrummer 2
- FXpansion BFD3
What Are Drum VST Plugins?
VST stands for Virtual Studio Technology.
A VST instrument plugin is simply a piece of software that emulates a musical instrument or synth (synthesizer).
In the case of ‘Drum’ VST’s, they are designed to emulate the sound and response of real, professionally recorded drums and drum kits as well as electronic drum machines.
Recording an acoustic drum kit can be a very difficult, time-consuming and expensive experience.
Also Read: What are the best drumsticks for your electric drum set?
You have to hire a studio, an engineer, a drummer (unless you can bribe one with pizza and beer)...then the tracks require mixing and mastering, which can also cost loads if you don’t know how to do it yourself!
Virtual Drum VST instruments are designed to give you amazing sounding drum tracks without the hassle or big financial outlay, which is often much more convenient for anyone into music production.
Virtual instruments can also be great to get those classic drum machine sounds for hip hop and EDM producers alike. (check out Geist 2 or Arturia Spark 2)
For the electronic kit drummers out there, drum VST software can drastically improve the experience. The electronic drum pads on your kit can be used to trigger the sounds in the VST software, bypassing the in-built sounds of your e-kit module….
Also Read: How To Record Electronic Drum Audio?
...making playing drums on that ancient Roland electronic kit feel and sound ten times better!
How Do I Use Drum VST Plugins?
Most VST Drum synth plugins come as standalone pieces of software. Meaning that you won’t need a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) such as Pro Tools or Logic to run it.
This is especially useful if you just want to trigger the VST sounds on your electronic drum kit, and aren’t too worried about recording.
However, Drum VST’s are also designed as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for creating drum tracks for your recorded music in a DAW.
They often have a heap of ready-made MIDI drum loops available for you to drag and drop into your DAW of choice.
Making creating realistic-sounding drum tracks for your songs easy and effective….much better than bashing away on a keyboard to try and input drum parts!
Also Read: What are my favorite kick pedals for an electronic drum set?
To use your Drum VST within your DAW, you simply treat it like any other plugin. Create an instrument (or virtual instrument) track, then go to plugins and assign your chosen Drum VST to that track. Then simply use the VST’s user interface to craft your drum tracks. Simple!
Which Drum VST Plugin Is Right For Me?
Most drum VST’s have very similar features. The price is determined by the amount and quality of the drum samples, as well as the overall sound shaping capabilities and effects included.
Also Read: Top 5 Best PedalBoards For Your Acoustic Guitar
If you’re looking for a VST to use with your electronic drum kit, that’s super easy to use and has great-sounding kits straight out of the box, you needn’t to spend hundreds of dollars.
Drum plugins such as Steven Slate Drums 5 is perfect for this and is relatively inexpensive.
On the other hand, if you’re a music producer looking for ultimate flexibility and depth in the number of sounds you have available, then a more detailed plugin such as Superior Drummer 3 or BFD 3 would be ideal.
Both these plugins are immense in their size and features. They allow you to customize every aspect of your drum parts, from mixed effects to crafting the perfect drum part in MIDI.
However, these plugins come at a pretty hefty price and they aren’t that accessible for anyone that doesn’t have much experience with audio mixing or DAW’s in general.
Choosing the right drum VST can be a daunting process, so I’ve put together a list of 5 of my favorite Drum VST’s for 2020.
You’ll be sure to find the one that’s perfect for your drumming ambitions, no matter what your budget!
Also Read: Top 5 Best Headphones For Electronic Drums
My Reviews Of The Best Drum VST Plugins
XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2 (My Top Pick)
Addictive drums 2 is a fantastic, affordable solution for the e-kit drummer or producer alike.
In the most basic version, it includes 3 detailed drum kits, as well as 5000 MIDI grooves and 100 different production presets for you to use.
My favorite thing about Addictive drums is the sheer ease of use.
The interface is very well designed and intuitive. It also has a whole host of effects such as delay, reverb and advanced EQ to fine-tune and shape the sounds of the drums...which again are a breeze to put into action.
Another very cool feature is the MIDI ‘beat Transformer’, which will analyze the music track you’re adding drums to and tailor the drum part to fit. Which is an awesome tool to save time when you’re crafting a drum track for a song.
Another nice touch is the ability to drag and drop drum parts as WAV’s straight into your session from the plugin.
Addictive Drums 2 is an awesome all-round drum solution that has the best ‘bang-for-buck’ around! (excuse the pun).
Pros
- Great sounding kits
- Easy to use
- Beat Transformer feature
- Big library of MIDI grooves
Cons
- Fewer kits than some other VST’s
Toontrack Superior Drummer 3 (Best High-End)
Toontracks Superior Drummer 3 is a beast of a VST. Clocking in at 230GB of pure drumming nirvana, whatever you need….it’s got your drum solution.
The mammoth amount of samples included were recorded by the renowned engineer George Massenburg at the beautiful Galaxy Recording studios in Belgium.
It includes highly detailed drum kit samples (both modern and vintage), recorded with 11 mics and in surround sound.
With the inbuilt mixer and effects section, you have a generous 35 insert effects to fine-tune your drum kit sounds...all the way down to adjusting individual mic bleed!
The plugin also allows you to build full drum tracks without having to ever leave the program. Keeping your DAW workflow tidy and easy to use. (love this feature).
The advanced options for mapping MIDI mapping for use with an electronic kit are also excellent. (especially dealing with the tricky hi-hat mapping!).
Be aware that due to its large size and the sheer volume of editable options, this may not suit someone that just wants to jump in and get ready-made drum sounds at a click of a button.
Overall if you’re a producer or drum enthusiast looking for the only thing you’ll ever need to create amazing-sounding drum tracks...Superior Drummer 3 has you covered.
Pros
- Huge library of high-quality samples
- Extensive mixing options
- Good user interface
- Large library of MIDI grooves
Cons
- Requires 230GB free space
- Expensive
Steven Slate Drums 5 (Best Budget)
Steven Slate has been a household name in drum samples since 2005. His samples have been used on some huge tunes...and now you can get access to them with his dedicated VST.
For the price, this sample library is extensive. It includes 84 bass drums, 77 snares and hundreds of toms, cymbals and percussion sounds!
In SSD5 the MIDI mapping for electronic drums has been reworked and is excellent and there are over 1000 built-in MIDI grooves for the bedroom producer to get their teeth stuck into.
Overall the preset kit sounds will suit more of the pop/rock, rock and metal fans. With punchy aggressive snares and ‘phat’ kick drums and toms, these samples are definitely designed to cut through those dense guitar-heavy mixes…maybe not the best choice for the subtle jazzer though.
This VST plugin is fantastic for the electronic kit player wanting to upgrade their sounds with minimal fuss or tweaking.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find such an extensive drum sample library at such an affordable cost anywhere else.
Pros
- Affordable
- Large sound library
- Big punchy sounding samples
Cons
- Mainly suited to rock styles
- Not as detailed as others
Toontrack EZdrummer 2
When I was comparing drum VST’s for this article, there was a massive dilemma between which of the products I’d choose as my top pick.
It became a toss-up between Addictive drums 2 and EZdrummer 2….and I’ll be totally honest, I’d have either of them!
Toontrack EZdrummer 2 is another fantastic drum sampler VST, made by the same company that has created the awesome Superior Drummer 3.
Meaning you’re in safe hands.
The best way to describe EZDrummer 2 is basically Superior Drummer-Lite.
It has many of the fantastic processing and sound options of its bigger brother but in a simpler and more stripped-down package (the full download size is 4GB, 226GB less than Superior!).
It still includes the in-built onboard step sequencer, allowing you to create full drum parts in the plugin itself (awesome). With 5 drum kits and an array of extra cymbals and snares, you’re bound to find the sound you’re after.
It also has an extensive library of MIDI grooves and features to create dynamic and realistic drum parts for your songs. With options to manipulate the MIDI grooves in real-time along to your track.
The only reason I didn’t pick EZdrummer as my number #1 is that personally I slightly prefer the sample sounds in Addictive Drums. However, that’s my preference and either would be a fantastic choice for a producer or electronic kit player alike!
Pros
- Great sounding drum library
- Inbuilt sequencer
- Easy to use interface
- Big MIDI groove library
Cons
- Fewer effects than rivals
FXpansion BFD3
FXpansion’s BFD is another behemoth in the world of Drum VST’s. BFD 3’s price, large size and ability puts it in competition with Superior Drummer 3.
However, I see these two different plugins as different beasts.
Superior Drummer is perfect for someone that wants to jump in and get great drum sounds that will work for their project, quickly and with minimal fuss (albeit there are loads of specific engineering options too).
However, BFD feels like it’s designed more with audio engineers or sound designers in mind. The drum samples are incredibly well recorded but are inherently just very detailed raw audio. Meaning that you start with a blank slate in terms of a drum ‘mix’.
This means getting those polished ‘mix-ready’ drum tracks takes a little more work...however can often mean more natural and better sounding drum tracks in the long run.
There are mix presets available to help you with this, however, but I still feel like Superior Drummer is a little more ‘accessible’ out of the box.
Although there are still some great expansion packs for different styles available (such as the Oblivion sample pack for the post rocker/ metalheads out there!).
One major advantage for BFD 3, however, is the extensive library of MIDI grooves that have been played by some of the world's top drummers (such as Peter Erskine or Steve Ferrone). Meaning you can get some real quality ‘feel’ in your music!
BFD 3 is another fantastic sounding and extremely versatile drum VST that will deliver excellent drum sounds for producer or e-kit drummer alike.
Pros
- Excellent sounding samples
- Lost of editing options
- Great MIDI groove library
Cons
- Not the easiest to use ‘out the box’
- Expensive
Final Thoughts On The Best Drum VST Plugins
The main thing I’d leave you with before you decide to pull the trigger on any of this awesome drum software... is that you should really take some time assessing what you want out of a drum VST, as well as comparing sound examples on their respective websites.
Drum sounds are inherently a personal choice, so some of these plugins will definitely appeal to you more than others. However, if you stick to this list, you can’t go far wrong!
Also for those on an extremely tight budget, there are some cool free drum VST plugins out there. Such as MT Power Drum Kit 2.
So there you have it!
A concise round up of 5 of my favorite drum VST’s on the market in 2020.
