Air Music Tech, a sister company to Akai Professional, has taken the DrumSynth engine from Akai’s MPC Standalone and packed it into a plugin.
Like its hardware-housed sibling, the software version of DrumSynth is designed for deep drum sound design. Percussive tones can be sculpted from the ground up, then processed with effects and saved as user presets so that you can use them again and again.
Sounds are created using DrumSynth’s multi-synth generator, which combines FM, analogue modelling and physical modelling algorithms. There are eight individual engines - Kick, Snare, Clap, Hi-Hat, Tom, Percussion, Crash and Ride - so you can create complete kits.
Effects and tone manipulation features include a transient shaper, tuning, EQ, compression, reverb and delay, and there’s also a dedicated mixer. 52 preset kits come included, ranging in sound from classic to contemporary.
DrumSynth runs on PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX formats. The regular price will be $99/£99, but you can currently download it for the introductory price of $39/£39, and there’s also a 10-day trial version you can download.
Find out more on the Air Music Tech website.