Drum8 by audiolatry: A Powerful Drum Instrument for the Modern Musician
In the world of electronic music and modern production, a reliable and flexible drum instrument is an absolute necessity. Such an instrument is Drum8 – a plugin from the developer audiolatry, which offers a large collection of high-quality drum sounds, assembled in a convenient format for quick and efficient work on your tracks. Drum8 is a sampler instrument that specializes in providing musicians and producers with a variety of drum sounds suitable for a wide range of musical genres, from hip-hop and EDM to rock and experimental music. Its main advantage lies in its ease of use combined with an impressive amount of content.
Features and Capabilities
The heart of Drum8 is its huge sample library. The plugin contains 40 unique drum kits, each consisting of 8 different sounds. In total, this amounts to an impressive 320 separate samples. These samples cover the full spectrum of percussion instruments needed to create a complete beat: rich kicks, crisp snares, various claps, voluminous toms, live hi-hats (both closed and open), as well as a wide selection of percussion, cymbals, sound effects (fx) and much more. This diversity guarantees that you will find the right sounds for almost any musical idea, regardless of its complexity or style.
Intuitive Interface and Control
The developers of audiolatry have made sure that working with Drum8 is as simple and intuitive as possible. The plugin’s interface is designed in a compact design that does not overload the screen of your DAW. The main control element is 8 virtual pads located on the screen, each of which corresponds to one sound from the current drum kit. These pads are conveniently displayed on the keyboard of your MIDI controller, starting from the note C1 to G1. This standard display allows you to quickly integrate Drum8 into your workflow and immediately start creating rhythmic patterns using familiar MIDI instruments.
Global and Individual Settings
Despite its simplicity, Drum8 offers enough features for shaping and adapting sound. Both global parameters that affect the entire set and individual settings for each individual sample are available. Among the global controls are the overall volume level (gain), the low-pass filter cutoff frequency control, which allows you to remove unnecessary “dirt” or soften the high frequencies, as well as the room reverb effect, which adds space and volume to your drums. At the individual level, for each of the 8 pads, you can adjust the volume level (gain), attack time (attack) to control the beginning of the sound, pan (pan) to place the sound in the stereo space, and also select a separate output stereo channel, which is very useful for further processing of each drum separately in your DAW. An important feature is the presence of a “choke” function for each pad, which prevents sounds from overlapping (for example, an open hi-hat stops sounding when a closed one is pressed), making your beats cleaner and more realistic.
Sound Quality and Sample Origin
Special attention in Drum8 is paid to the quality of the samples themselves. A significant part of the sounds was created using classic analog drum machines, which were passed through high-quality studio equipment, such as Radial JDI direct box, Warm Audio ToneBeast Black preamplifier, and Antelope Audio Discrete 4 Synergy Core audio interface. This approach provides a warm, rich and authentic analog character of the sounds. For acoustic drum kits, specialized modeling software and a large number of processing effects were used, which allowed to achieve realistic and dynamic sound. All samples included in Drum8 are 100% original and completely “royalty-free”, which means that you can use them without restrictions in your commercial and non-commercial projects.
Technical Details and Compatibility
- Size after unpacking: 291 MB
- Download size: 211 MB
- 40 drum kits
- 8 samples per kit
- Total of 320 high-quality samples
- Independent volume, attack and pan control for each pad
- “Choke” function for each pad
- Global low-pass filter
- Built-in room reverb
- Original royalty-free samples
Drum8 is available in VST/VST3 formats for the Windows operating system (64-bit versions only) and in VST/VST3/AU formats for macOS. An important note for Mac users is that the plugin is compatible with versions El Capitan to Mojave inclusive, but NOT COMPATIBLE with Catalina and newer versions of macOS. Make sure your operating system meets these requirements before installing.
Overall, Drum8 by audiolatry is a great choice for those looking for a versatile, easy-to-use and high-quality drum instrument with a large number of ready-to-use sounds. It will be a reliable assistant for both beginners and experienced producers, helping to quickly and easily create powerful and professional-sounding rhythmic foundations for your musical compositions.
