Drum Synths 101

For many years now, the drum synth market hasincludes a total of three separate slots for different
been hotting up. More and more vendors are choosingattack samples that can be selected by the user. The
to release their own drum synth virtual instruments, andmodular nature of this drum module is outstanding, and
this leaves the consumer perplexed and verywith the sound quality to boot, this is sure to be one of
confused. What to choose? There are so many2010's premier VST offerings.
models indeed.As well as the separate loading slots, different amp
Step 1 is asking yourself exactly what your budget is.and pitch envelopes are made available for further
Once you've figured this out, some of the pieces willtwisting and tweaking. As far as effects go, a
sort themselves out; you may have 2 or 3 of thecomprehensive FX suite with plenty of modulation
dearer ones ruled out by default. But the price of aoptions is there, so you can easily create tailored
drum synth is not going to automatically increase yoursounds for your own music. We all like our own
music production quality. Sure, some of the base drumsignature sounds, right?
samples used for synthesis and sequencing can be aOne of the most impressive functions is one that has
little more clear and defined in some of the higher-endbeen implemented in a lot of virtual instruments, albeit
models, but in general price is not an indicator of quality,poorly. Not so in Metrum. What am I talking about? The
especially when choosing between the ultra-high-pricedrandom button, of course. That's right; if you haven't
synths and the mid-range editions.got the time to tweak the knobs and dials to your
Recently, Vengeance Audio has released theirheart's content, why not let the random generator
Multiband Sidechain drum synth in their Producer Suiteserve up a hot batch of unexpected for you? There
product. This is simply a superb synth that exceedsmust be some advanced rules in the Metrum
expectations in most departments. Sound quality is justrandomness generator as I could not find a
top notch!combination that was unlistenable! Every sound was
Going up alongside the first Vengeance offering ispalatable and ready for use in tracks right away. My
Metrum, a kick drum synthesizer that features aonly complaint is the interface which I did find to be
dedicated sine wave generator with a few specialvery confusing at times.
features that set it apart from its competition. It even