A great drum VST can elevate your music to the next level, whether you’re producing tight electronic beats, realistic acoustic drum tracks, or experimental percussion textures. We’ve rounded up some of the most respected and best-sounding drum VSTs and now it’s your turn to choose the ultimate favorite! Cast your vote, have a look at how others have voted, and share your production tips to help fellow musicians.
1. Toontrack EZdrummer 3
Offers seven high-quality complete drum sets and six cymbal sets.
Additional kicks, snares and cymbals as well as supplementary percussion library.
MIDI library recorded by professional drummers with over 2500 grooves and fills.
Timeline arranger for creating complete drum tracks incl. recording.
Integrated grid editor, step sequencer and intelligent humanize functions.
2. Toontrack Superior Drummer 3
Over 230 GB of natural drum samples without effects.
6 drum kits by Ayotte, Gretsch, Pearl, Premier, Ludwig and Yamaha as well as additional Snares, Kicks and Cymbals.
Additionally about 350 electronic drums as well as percussions.
Integrated groove sequencer with grid editor.
Scalable mixer with 35 effects such as filter, equalizer, compressor, gate, transient processing and detailed adjustable bleed between the channels.
Professionally drummed MIDI library with 1640 grooves and fills.
3. Steven Slate Drums SSD5
Simple routing and mapping system.
Playback algorithms based on physical modelling.
More than 100 drum kits from various music genres.
Features 111 Snares, 103 Kicks, 115 Toms, 16 HiHats, 49 Crash Cymbals, 10 Ride Cymbals, 3 Splashes and 5 Chinas.
Drum kit or pad cell view with up to 32 drum instruments.
4. Ugritone KVLT Drums 2
Ugritone Drums VST/AU/AAX Player Plugin.
12 Snares, 2 Kicks, 3 Full Set of Toms, 12 cymbals (Hihat, Crashes, Chinas, Splashes, Stacks, Ride).
Over 100 Oneshot samples.
Includes Black Metal Anthology MIDI Groove Library.
Load your own WAV/AIFF/FLAC samples.
5. GGD - One Kit Wonder: Metal
Kontakt Player Library (with full NKS integration) and can be used with Kontakt’s Free Player – no need to buy the full version of Kontakt to use GGD.
Mix ready drum tones - good to go out of the box.
A brand new, fully-featured and intuitive UI.
Built-in Groove player.
Built-in Master EQ, Parallel Compression and Reverb.
The entire kit is tuned to perfection, so you’ll never be fighting against sour notes in your mix.
Every sample is phase-coherent for easy layering.
6. Steven Slate Audio Trigger 2 Platinum
Large library with Steven-Slate drum samples included.
Phase multi-layer triggers.
Each plugin instance allows seamless and timed triggering of different samples.
Velocity zones, dynamic control, envelope curves and other parameters of the multisamples can be customised.
Supports audio MIDI conversion.
7. XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2.5 Custom Collection
Includes Addictive Drums 2 with 3 freely selectable ADpaks, MIDIpaks and Kitpiece Paks each.
18 Kit-piece slots.
Kitpiece controls for detailed sound design.
4-Band EQ.
Compressor and Distortion.
2 Reverb processors with delay and EQ.
8. GGD - One Kit Wonder: Brutal
Kontakt Player Library (with full NKS integration) and can be used with Kontakt’s Free Player – no need to buy the full version of Kontakt to use GGD.
Mix ready drum tones - good to go out of the box.
A brand new, fully-featured and intuitive UI.
Built-in Groove player.
Built-in Master EQ, Parallel Compression and Reverb.
The entire kit is tuned to perfection, so you’ll never be fighting against sour notes in your mix.
Every sample is phase-coherent for easy layering.
9. GGD Invasion
Kontakt player instrument - no additional software needed.
Fully compatible with Native Instruments hardware.
Built-in processing allowing for mix-ready results in minutes.
Huge cymbal and drum array.
10. BFD BFD3
7 drum kits recorded in 2 studios.
Includes brush kits and sets that are optimised for Rock, Metal, and Jazz.
Modeling of tom resonances and cymbal rolls.
Integrated mixer and effects including eight-band EQ, reverb, DCAM EnvShaper, distortion, etc.
Wide selection of presets and grooves.
11. GGD Modern & Massive 2
This instrument is a standalone plug-in and no additional software is required.
Fully featured mixer and studio quality effects.
Unparalleled realism utilizing our Fluid+™ technology.
100+ mix presets created by the biggest names in rock & metal.
12. Ugritone Klangmacht Drums Helloween
Original Sonor Signature Heavy Bubinga “Keeper” drum kit.
Samples originally taken from the recording session of Helloween's chart breaking album (2021).
2x 22" Kick Drums.
5 Toms.
Sonor Signature Snare.
Original Paiste 2000 Cymbal Set.
Additional Sample Set from 2nd Recording Studio, Hamburg.
Both Digital & Analog Samples.
13. Klevgrand OneShot
Comes with a large collection of acoustic and electronic drum sounds with over 8000 carefully created samples from different styles and regions.
Realistic drum sounds thanks to velocity layers, round-robin samples, humanise function and choking.
Up to 24 instrument slots can be used simultaneously.
Each slot offers its own settings for volume, panorama, pitch, insert effects, send effects and much more.
Contains numerous additional effects such as EQ, compressor, reverb, delay, distortion, bitcrusher and many more.
Over 200 ready-to-play presets in many different acoustic and electronic styles.
14. Klevgrand Slammer
Easy-to-use drum plug-in with 30 different drum sounds to choose from.
12 parallel slots with many individual settings like pitch, filter, envelope, effect send etc.
Dirt section with distortion and compressor.
Complementary reverb effect.
Lots of presets for a quick start.
15. Native Instruments Studio Drummer
Three detailed, high-quality studio drum kits.
The Stadium Kit: Pearl Masters Premium Maple.
The Session Kit: Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute.
The Garage Kit: Sonor SQ2 Drum System.
Integrated mixer with control over the individual signals, overheads, room microphones and the snares' top and bottom microphones.
Integrated effects: EQ, compressor, transient designer, band saturation and convolution reverb.
Over 35,000 samples in 44.1 kHz and 24 bit.
Contains over 3,300 reworkable grooves, each with fills and variations.
16. WaveMachine Labs Drumagog 5 Platinum
Advanced triggering engine for accurate detection of hi-hat articulatory ions.
Auto Align 2.0 to avoid phase problems.
Integrated drum synthesizer and convolution reverb.
Direct use of VST instruments in Drumagog 5 Platinum.
6 GB of samples included.
17. AIR Drum Synth 500
Individual editable channels for kick, snare, hi-hats, clap, toms, percussion as well as 2 additional sampler channels with WAV import function.
Random function allows you to create new electronic drum sounds.
MPC Full Level and Note Repeat function per instrument.
3 Ddistortion effects, filters and compressor as well as 2 reverb and 2 delay sends per instrument.
Master channel with saturation effects, reverb, delay, compressor and kill EQ.
18. EastWest PRODrummer 1 & 2
Offers recordings from five different rooms with over 100 GB of samples of drums and cymbals from Craviotto, Drum Workshop, Gretsch, Ludwig, Orange County, Slingerland, Tama, Yamaha, Istanbul and Zildjian.
Integrated 16-channel mixer with bleed function and room miking.
Integrated SSL effects with filter, EQ, compressor, gate and transient shaper as well as stereo bus compressor.
Includes convolution reverb, Ohmicide multiband distortion and amp simulation.
Songbuilder sequencer allows the creation of complete drum arrangements within the software.
19. AIR Strike 2
An easy way to produce professional, highly realistic drum performances.
Control intensity, complexity, timing, groove, dynamics, and more for an incredibly organic sound.
Control room ambience, microphone levels, mic bleed, EQ, dynamics, and much more.
Dedicated EQ and two insert effects/processors per channel.
Effects and processors include: dynamics, distortion, filtering, modulation, delay, reverb, and more.
MIDI Learn functionality allows easy mapping to MIDI controllers.
20. IK Multimedia Modo Drum
13 Editable drum sets.
Over 1400 MIDI patterns.
8 Room simulations based on impulse responses.
19 Studio effects.
Detailed parameter set for each instrument in the set, such as diameter, height, cymbal, stroke position, etc.
Adjustable tuning for exact adaptation to the mix.
Optimise grooves with adjustable damping.
Snare adjustable in size and head tension.
21. Steinberg Groove Agent 5
Large selection of percussion instruments.
Over 1000 MIDI grooves from a wide range of styles.
Over 130 kits for electronic music.
Live sampling function allows direct sampling on the pads.
Easy creation of own kits Drag & drop of samples.
32 Velocity layers for very dynamically playable sounds.
Suitable for different genres such as rock and pop, jazz and funk or trap and EDM.
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Drum VSTs Briefly Explained for Newbies.
Drum VSTs (Virtual Studio Technology) are software-based drum kits and percussion tools that integrate with your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). They allow you to create, sequence, and customize drum performances with incredible flexibility, making them essential for music producers, composers, and recording artists.
Unlike static drum loops, drum VSTs give you full control over every aspect of the sound—velocity, timing, tuning, microphone placement, and even room ambience—allowing for performances that can be as precise or as human-feeling as you want.
Types of drum VSTs include:
Acoustic drum VSTs – Capture realistic drum kit sounds, often recorded in world-class studios with multiple mic positions. Perfect for rock, jazz, pop, and any genre needing authentic live drums.
Electronic drum VSTs – Focus on synthesized or sampled drum machine sounds for EDM, hip-hop, trap, synthwave, and other electronic styles.
Hybrid drum VSTs – Combine acoustic and electronic elements for modern, genre-blending productions.
Key features to look for when choosing a drum VST:
Sound quality – High-resolution samples and detailed velocity layers for realism.
Library size & variety – More kits and sounds mean more creative options.
Groove library – Built-in MIDI patterns for quick inspiration.
Editing tools – Ability to tweak pitch, dynamics, and effects within the plugin.
CPU & storage usage – Some large libraries require significant computer resources.
Drum VSTs aren’t just for replacing a drummer, they can be creative composition tools. You can quickly try different grooves, experiment with layered percussion, or mix acoustic kits with electronic beats for unique textures. Many modern producers also blend multiple drum VSTs in a single track to achieve their signature sound.
When deciding on a drum VST, think about your style and workflow. Do you need the most realistic drum kit possible for live-sounding recordings, or are you after bold, synthetic sounds for electronic production?
This list can help you discover which drum VSTs other producers trust most, making it easier to find the one that fits your music and creative vision.
