The 10 Best Drum VST Plugins for Electronic Music

Drums make or break a track, and the plugin you build them in shapes the result more than most people admit. An 808 emulation pushes you one way, a drum synth another, a pattern generator somewhere you'd never have gone on your own.

These are the ten drum plugins we'd pick right now for electronic music: classic drum machine emulations, drum synths for building your own sounds, and a couple of tools that write the groove for you. We sell all of them, and we'll say where each one falls short.

D16 Nepheton 2: best TR-808

The 808 sits under hip hop, electro, trap and plenty of techno, and Nepheton 2 is the most convincing software version we've used. D16 model the circuits rather than playing back samples, so the kick decays and tunes like the hardware, and it can be stretched into a long sub bass or tightened right up for faster tempos.

Version 2 gives every voice a channel strip with EQ, filter and dynamics, two effects buses and a master compressor and limiter, so patterns leave the plugin already glued together. The sequencer adds flams, substeps and drag-and-drop MIDI.

The catch: it's plugin only, with no standalone app, and it's an 808. If you want something that sounds like anything else, look further down the list.

• Circuit-modelled TR-808 voices with extra controls
• Per-voice channel strips, two FX buses, master section
• Over 1,200 factory presets and patterns
• VST2, VST3, AU, AAX; native on Apple Silicon

Get the sound: D16 Nepheton 2

D16 Drumazon 2: best TR-909

If the 808 is hip hop, the 909 is house and techno. Drumazon was already one of the most faithful 909s in software, and version 2 adds the same mixer, buses and sequencer upgrades as Nepheton 2. The kick has that tight, pitched thump that cuts through a club system, and the hats and rides sizzle over the top.

For four-to-the-floor music it's very hard to beat. It's less useful outside those genres, and the 909's open hat and ride are a love-it-or-hate-it sound.

• All 11 TR-909 voices
• Per-voice channel strips, two FX buses, 3-band master compressor
• Over 1,000 factory presets and patterns
• VST2, VST3, AU, AAX; native on Apple Silicon

Get the sound: D16 Drumazon 2, or the Classic Boxes Collection for the 808, 909, 606 and 303 together.

D16 Nithonat 2: best TR-606

The 606 was built as the TB-303's rhythm partner, and where the 808 booms, the 606 snaps. Short kick, barking snare, thin metallic hats that cut through without help. Nithonat 2 rebuilds D16's original emulation with the same channel strips, buses and sequencer as its bigger siblings.

It's the one that gets out of the way and keeps time, which makes it ideal for acid, electro and leftfield electronica. It's not going to give you a big kick on its own, so expect to layer one in for anything club-focused.

• Circuit-modelled TR-606 voices with extra controls
• Per-voice channel strips, two FX buses, master section
• Over 900 factory presets and patterns

Get the sound: D16 Nithonat 2

D16 PunchBox 2: best kick designer

A good kick is usually several sounds pretending to be one: a click on top, a body in the middle and a sub underneath. PunchBox 2 is built around exactly that, layering samples, synth engines (some modelled on classic drum machines) and a wavetable generator through ten routing options, then into a dedicated effects chain with a mono bass stage and limiter.

For techno, trance, hard dance and drum and bass, where the kick carries the whole track, it's a big time-saver, and the randomiser throws out usable starting points surprisingly often. It only does kicks, mind, so it's an addition to a drum machine rather than a replacement.

• Three sample layers, main kick generator and wavetable generator
• Four reorderable effects plus Mono Bass and limiter
• 1,119 master presets and 1,505 samples

Get the sound: D16 PunchBox 2

Sugar Bytes DrumComputer: best for experimental drum synthesis

DrumComputer synthesises every hit from scratch across eight engines, each layering a Resonator, a wavetable or analogue-style oscillator, and Resynth, which analyses a sound and rebuilds it. That last one is where the interesting stuff happens: smeared, liquid cymbals and tonal hits you won't get from an 808-style circuit model.

The sequencer is where it really earns its keep, with probability, rolls, step delay, per-track tempo and randomisers that build whole new kits in one click. It's at its best with clicky, metallic electronic drums for techno, electro and IDM. It isn't a realistic kit, and it takes a session or two to learn.

• 8 engines with Resonator, oscillator and Resynth or Sampler layers
• Finalizer master section and two send reverbs
• 16-step sequencer with probability, rolls and randomisers
• AU, VST2, VST3, AAX and standalone

Get the sound: Sugar Bytes DrumComputer

Baby Audio Tekno: best analogue-style drum synth

Tekno is a drum synth, not a sampler. It has 18 engines, each its own little synthesiser, combining analogue circuit modelling (built with Jatin Chowdhury), FM and digital synthesis. Because each hit runs through a non-linear modelled circuit, no two are quite identical, which is a big part of why old analogue drum machines feel alive. Humanise controls push that further.

It sounds hard, deep and punchy, with kicks that have real weight and a clipper at the end that gives the kit a finished, pushed sound. Aimed squarely at techno and house. The clipper can be too much on busy patterns, so dial it back.

• 18 drum synth engines
• Analogue modelling, FM and digital synthesis
• Sequencer with variable step lengths, lane speeds and chance
• VST2, VST3, AU, AAX and standalone

Get the sound: Baby Audio Tekno

Wave Alchemy Triaz: best all-in-one beat machine

Triaz is a drum machine, 15,000-sample library, polyrhythmic sequencer and mix bus in one. Each of its 12 channels blends up to three samples on an XY pad, so a sub-heavy 808, an analogue thump and a bit of crackle become one kick nobody else has. Every lane runs at its own rate, swing and length, which makes drifting polymetric grooves easy.

It's a natural fit for trap, drill and lo-fi, and the sound design depth makes it just as useful for techno. It's a deep instrument and a big library to install. If you already have a drum sampler you like, the sequencer and randomiser are what you're really paying for.

• 15,000+ samples and 700+ presets
• 12 lanes of three-layer drums
• Polyrhythmic sequencer and Motion Sequencer
• VST3, AU and AAX

Get the sound: Wave Alchemy Triaz

Audiomodern Playbeat 4: best pattern generator

Playbeat isn't really about sounds, it's about grooves. Eight independent sequencers, each with its own steps, density, pitch and flam, and a genre-aware randomiser that builds patterns to suit a style. Lock the kick and snare, let it keep rerolling the hats and percussion, and you've a loop that never quite repeats.

The bit people overlook is MIDI out: it makes a very good pattern brain for Nepheton 2 or any other drum plugin you already love. For hip hop, trap and techno it's a quick way out of a rut. Don't buy it for deep per-hit sound design, as that's not its job.

• Eight independent sequencers
• Genre-based randomisation, Infinity and Remix modes
• Drag-and-drop audio and MIDI, plus MIDI out
• VST3, AU, AAX, standalone and a Logic MIDI FX version

Get the sound: Audiomodern Playbeat 4

GForce DMX and IconDrum: best 80s digital drums

Before analogue drum machines came back into fashion, the early 80s belonged to sample-based boxes. GForce have two of them covered. DMX is officially endorsed by Oberheim and includes the 1981 and 1983 DMX sound sets plus DX and Sequential Drumtraks kits. IconDrum is GForce's tribute to another landmark early-80s sample-based drum machine, with 100 sounds, raw and produced kits and a three-slot master FX chain.

Both have that punchy, slightly crunchy digital character that sits brilliantly in synthpop, electro, early hip hop and anything with an 80s brief. They're sample players, so shaping is limited to pitch, decay, pan and the master effects. If you want to sculpt sounds from scratch, a drum synth will go further.

• DMX: original DMX, DX and Drumtraks kits, over 70 MIDI files
• IconDrum: 100 sounds, over 70 preset kits, separate outputs
• Both: AU, AAX, VST, VST3 and standalone; Apple Silicon supported

Get the sound: GForce DMX and GForce IconDrum

Cherry Audio CR-78 and KR-55C: best vintage rhythm boxes

For something softer and stranger than the TR series, Cherry Audio have two lovely late-70s and early-80s rhythm machines. CR-78 recreates Roland's 1978 CompuRhythm, which Cherry Audio describe as the first programmable microprocessor-controlled drum machine, with all 34 original rhythms and those little congas and metallic beats. KR-55C combines Korg's KR-55A and KR-55B Rhythm 55 machines, lightweight and ticky with plenty of new wave charm.

Both replace the awkward original programming with X0X-style step editing and add mixers with overdrive, delay and reverb, so you can push them a long way past their polite originals. They suit synthpop, lo-fi and retro electronica. Neither will give you a club-weight kick.

• CR-78: all 34 factory rhythms, modelled sounds, multi-out version
• KR-55C: both KR-55 models, 440 patterns and kits
• Both: AU, VST2, VST3, AAX and standalone; native on Apple Silicon

Get the sound: Cherry Audio CR-78 and Cherry Audio KR-55C

What about acoustic drums?

This list is focused on electronic drums because that's what we sell and know best. If you need realistic acoustic kits for rock, pop or film, Toontrack Superior Drummer 3 is the usual recommendation. We don't sell it, but it would be odd not to mention it.

Which one should you buy?

For hip hop and trap, start with Nepheton 2. For house and techno, Drumazon 2 or Tekno. If you want to design sounds nobody else has, DrumComputer. If your problem is ideas rather than sounds, Playbeat 4. And if your brief says "80s", one of the GForce or Cherry Audio boxes will get you there faster than any amount of processing.

All plugins are delivered as a licence activation code by email. For drum and percussion loops, see our SOUND7 sample packs, all 44.1kHz 24-bit WAV, labelled with key and BPM, and royalty free.