Preferably software but hw is fine as well.

I dislike browsing samples and like to synthesize stuff from scratch. I've used Serum a bit for this but looking for something more tailored for percussion synthesis. Several different motors (especially physical modelling) and lots of options to make all sorts of percussive sounds, from traditional to the more experimental.

What are my options in 2025?

Not physical modeling, but Erica Synths Perkons HD-01 might be of interest to you:

https://youtu.be/v4q0IaOoF0U?si=tVdUq1LFHkAWf5rH&t=554

https://youtu.be/VZtmg7yf0s0?si=WpUnX7W_JW4fuXtV

https://youtu.be/5GioxU47jG4?si=KUyp6S3lDxKPOvFA

Hardware-size, the Elektron Syntakt has a wide variety of drum and synth engines, including a simple physical modeling one. It’s intended for melodic sounds but you can definitely get some toms, bongos, and auxiliary percussive sounds out of it.

The Korg Drumlogue mixes analog, sample, and digital drum voices, including a custom synth/drum program slot. I’m sure someone has made a physical modeling program for it.

Software, Madrona Labs makes a physical modeling synth, although once again designed primarily for melodic sounds, not drums

Ironically, your best bet software-wise may be VCV rack. You can customize all the voices and sequencing to your liking, and there’s a ton of drum and physical modeling modules available, many of them free.

I made a post here with a lot of video examples of my fave drum sources, skip the RX if you don’t like 80’s PCM, but I demo the LXR, Drumlogue and MC307:

what's everyone using for drums these days?

Since then I’ve gotten the Tesseract Vinia which has a nice drum synth on board, FM and Ringmod on that one…and several other Eurorack modules. Magerit Metro is one that’s arriving this week - really looking forward to that.

I also have a pre-release instrument from a popular modular company which I can’t talk about much, but suffice to say it’s a real nice analog machine with FM on some of the drums.

Nord Drum 3P is often overlooked but it can make very interesting percussive sounds and more.

edit: Here's a good video. I think this person has a user account here.

Image Line Drumaxx is a dope drum synth if we talking plugins.. highly recommended! Goes beyond your typical Roland TR ish



Needless to say, the MID-OH software is also a must-have for any Roland TR fan:
https://rc-808.com/



RC 808 is from the original engineers of Roland TR beat boxes, and is the culmination of their vision for the Mid-Oh hardware platform (which sadly, never came to be in hardware)

EDIT: WTF? they removed the download links? I think I still have a local copy downloaded somewhere on my disks..

This probably only slightly fits into the experimental slot of what you are looking for: Sonic Charge microtonic. Add in some Synplant and then your are cookin'.

Hi @ Barfunkel , I was going to answer this question the other night, but I ended up spending about 3 hours going through my hard drive and the internet to find a certain drum plugin that I knew I bought, but I just could not remember the name of it. Doh! No trace of it at all on the internet. I knew it used AI and a couple of other things, but the whole internet is so sewn up now with SEO techniques it just returned the same 20 drum plugins over and over and over....

Anyway.

I dislike browsing samples and like to synthesize stuff from scratch. I've used Serum a bit for this but looking for something more tailored for percussion synthesis.

Seeing as you know your way around a synth like Serum, then it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to learn something like Bazille. It's kind of known for its ability to make up some really great drum sounds. Not the easiest synth to learn, but there's a cookbook for it by the mighty Howard Scarr on the u-he website. It contains extra presets for Bazille plus some logical laying of common ground of how one might get there themselves.

https://u-he.com/products/soundsets/....html#cookbook

There's a new soundset out for it and it's absolutely brilliant and it showcases what it can do drum/percussion wise -

The first section is specific to Percussion -



https://u-he.com/products/soundsets/...s.html#strobos

I think that showcases what it can do quite nicely. I'm hearing shakers, cowbells, claves, tabla and hi-hats and more in there. If there was one synth to dive deep in to do percussion, you could do worse than Bazille.

I don't tend to use synths to do drum sounds (I'm not that great a programmer), so I can't offer up any more synths here, I just know that quite a few people have got in to Bazille to do what you are trying to achieve. It's a kind of under the radar synth, and even then, not everyone is aware it really excels for drum/percussion stuff.

If you can't afford Bazille right now then dig out an old copy of Computer Music because it comes with a very similar version to get you started. It's extremely capable. I think Beat magazine did a version as well so you may be able to find that kicking around somewhere. I'd actually say that's a good place to start as the interface is not so 'intense' on these cut down versions.

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Several different motors (especially physical modelling) and lots of options to make all sorts of percussive sounds, from traditional to the more experimental.

I did a long post the other day in another part of the forum about some synths using Physical Modeling. Rather than me try to replicate that here, perhaps you could go read that thread. In a nutshell, there's a real bounty of some amazing sounding Physical Modeling Drums here -

http://flowstoners.com/quilcom

Here is the thread (you need to scroll down a bit) -

Plug-in deal discussion & general chatter


[screenshot of one of the plugins as a taster]



These are all free and they are a lot of fun. Again, not many people know about them, but they really are very good, and it costs nothing to try them out. You can even load in your own samples on some of the plugins and there's a built in recorder as well! I won't repeat myself further on these, just refer back to that thread, you'll see there's all kinds of lovely percussion there to try out and play with.

Or you could just scroll down the OG website I linked above. But be warned, there are a LOT of plugins! The background and notes to each of the plugins are a joy to read as well, and plus you get pointers to youtube videos that demonstrate how they sound and how best to use them.

When you find one you like the look of and want to download, just click on the image and it will download the plugin (often in 32bit and 64bit versions) plus the Flowstone schematics if you want to study how it works on a more intrinsic level; and on top of that it will often give you some deep background information, some of which is actual academic research on an extremely deep level. Here is an example of just the title from the 'SIM-DUNUN' plugin -

Perception of Nigerian Dùndún
Talking Drum Performances as
Speech-Like vs. Music-Like: The
Role of Familiarity and Acoustic Cues

It's an absolute treat to read these, and it displays what a magnificent labor of love these plugin works are, and all shared for free!

It's a very deep treasure trove of not just great sounding instruments, but of research and shared knowledge. There just aren't enough spare hours in one's day to experiment with the options available to you (plugin wise), and to also drink as deep as one might like of the presented information (notes wise).

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One drum plugin that has been mentioned is Image-Line's Drumaxx. Not sure if you can still buy it as a VST but you will be able to soon, or you could just get FLStudio if you don't already have it. Even a demo will allow you to play with the plugin and save the presets and render them out. Though you will need to buy it to be able to reload them.

Drumaxx can give some very convincing kicks snares and hats. I would say it's stronger on snares than kicks and stronger on hats than snares. Some of the sounds are very realistic so as you would never know it's not a real snare in a track, but you have to work to get there and the range of sounds is not massively wide, but wide enough to make it worthwhile. The hats are just something else and they can really cut a mix like mustard.

So that's an easy one to try and very available. Don't forget if you come up with a sound you like you can save it and render it out, all within the demo of the program. So if you do get some good sounds going you will be able to use them straight away and recall them later to work on. Maybe you already have FLStudio...

Drumaxx is 59 Euros to buy and is only included in the All Plugins edition. Its little brother/sister 'Drumpad' recently got a facelift to full vector graphics so it shouldn't be too much longer before Drumaxx gets that too. It comes with some nice drum patterns in varied styles and you can program your own in without too much difficulty. The VST plugin comes with 11 separate outputs.

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Here is a website devoted to Physical Modeling, and here is the percussion section -

https://physicalmodeling.net/categories/percussion

You will see the weird and wonderful Quilcom stuff there I talked about earlier, plus MUCH more.

I've tried a lot of that stuff. Just quickly, the Xhun stuff I've bought and I'm not a great fan of. It's limited in scope and the installers and whole shebang is just a bit janky compared to other manufacturers. I wouldn't discount them, but I'm not that impressed. Try them for yourself. I have the Kick and Snare, I don't know if they do others. Having said that, I've used their sounds in a few tracks now, so they are worth checking out.

Chow Kick is excellent like all the other stuff they do and it's free.

https://physicalmodeling.net/plugins/chow-kick

The Excite stuff is also excellent and free, though they do a higher paid for tier if you want to dive deeper -

https://physicalmodeling.net/plugins/excite-snare-drum



At 20 bucks it doesn't break the bank and I'm planning on getting them a little later on, after I've finished paying for all my other drum software I plan to buy. Try them out, you'll probably like them.

One I have bought is IK's Modo Drum -

https://physicalmodeling.net/plugins/modo-drum

It's kind of a hybrid and it works really well. I haven't used it loads and others can speak to its pros and cons better than I, but what little I've tried it on has worked very well. Beware the nightmare installation process that IK is famous for. I was already aware of it but still bought the plugin, so I guess that's some kind of endorsement from me. It's a nice interface and logical and it covers some useful ground. Others can chip in and say much more than me on it I'm sure...

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Others have mentioned Microtonic and that is alway a good plugin to have if you don't already own it. It covers a wide range of sounds and it really cuts a mix like nothing else, and you can also dial it back to fit in a mix if that is your objective as well. It's very drum machiney but with a bit of effort you can get some almost real sounding drums out of it.

If you were to run it through Synplant then you would surely come up with some interesting results but I don't think percussion is Synplant's forte because of its inherent 'AI' algos which are much better suited to synthy type sounds. Though for experimentation you could do a lot worse, and you certainly would have a lot of fun. Not sure this was exactly what you were asking for but I wouldn't discount this idea either.

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Talking of Re-Synthesis, you could try a synth like Harmor - again from Image-Line with the same deal as before. It's breaking the sound down in to many partials and it's practically like a sampler it's so good at it. From there you can experiment further and do all the wonderful things it's capable of. I find it very good at boingy and bouncy and forceful drum sounds.

https://www.image-line.com/fl-studio...ins/Harmor.htm

It's one synth that would compliment Bazille very well and you could make up whole drum kits with it just by itself. It's an additive synth and it can load in waveforms to manipulate and play with. It's also got the familiar feel and workflow of a Subtractive synth built in to its design. There's a very good manual out there for it if you want to dive really deep (it's not by Image-Line). It's not too hard to find with a quick google search.

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There are lots of new drum plugins that have just come out, but rather than just list them all here, I'll let you find your own way with them. So many plugins that just haven't been mentioned at all, some of which you'd probably quite like as well. I'm just giving my perspective here and giving a shout out to some of the under-dogs or maybe lesser known stuff.

One plugin I find to be really excellent is called Geonkick - https://geonkick.org/index.html

It's 15 bucks to buy but you can find older versions of it that do pretty much the same job for free. The dev only recently started charging money for it. You can also download the latest source code for it and if know how to use a compiler, that means you essentially get the otherwise paid for version for free - so that's always an option. I think 15 bucks is a more than fair price when the similar en vogue drum plugins du jour cost 5 or 6 times that amount.

https://geonkick.org/index.html



Don't let the name fool you, it's excellent at all kinds of drum sounds and percussion. I'm sure you'd have a blast with it. It's one of my go to plugins when I just want something quick as I've made up my own library of kick drums and other percussion, which I can then easily tweak a bit further again. It's easy enough to get to grips with what it does. It's also very easy to get lost in just making new drum sounds because it's just so eminently tweakable. The more expensive plugins probably do more, but I'm very fond of this one indeed.

Sometimes less really is more, especially if that 'less' gives you 'more' power than you could want in that very specific domain.

Another great drum plugin in the same sort of price range that I'm also very fond of is Drumatic 4 - https://www.e-phonic.com/drumatic.html#/

It's about 30 Euros and it is really really good. Kicks, snares, hats, percussion, it's all there. Another one worth a demo.

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And finally to the plugin I spent 3 hours looking for and couldn't find...

This one is 20 bucks to buy (that is the Early Access price) and it uses AI to come up with its sounds. I haven't installed it yet (probably why I couldn't find it on my hard drive).

It's called Mace.

https://tensorpunk.com/product/mace/








It uses generative AI to make its sounds. It currently has 19 models to work from and it's for both Mac and PC.



It doesn't explain too well what sort of synthesis it uses, but it sounds pretty capable to me. It covers the full spectrum of drum/percussion sounds it would seem.

I'm going to be installing it and having a play about with it myself over Xmas at some point.

I'm not exactly sure how this plugin works at all and opinions seem to be mixed but this video gives you another demo of it at least -



It's been over a year since I've bought it and there doesn't seem to be any news, so I'm not sure if it's hit a bit of a brick wall or they are busy beavering away making it better... I really hope it is still being actively developed. It's one that looks quite promising, I think.

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What are my options in 2025?

And if none of that butters your biscuit and you still haven't found what you are looking for or just want to dive deeper in to it all to see what's out there, have a look at 'Batallion' by Unfiltered Audio, and also 'Visco' by Forever 89 for more weird and wonderful drum modeling techniques using the latest state-of-the-art algorithms/interfaces.

Another one in the same kind of generative bracket as Mace is called 'Emergent Drums' if you like that kind of AI/ML thing that that one's attempting. Then again, it costs over 10 times more. Mace accepts that it's a bit rough and ready and that's reflected in the relatively low price. If I can find only one thing it's good at to fit in to my workflow then I'll have got my money's worth.

I've already bitten off more than I can chew. Some of those plugins are quite expensive (over a hundred bucks), but I don't feel tempted to even try them at the moment. I'm more than happy with what I've got and if nothing else, I'm actually knocked out by how good a lot of the free stuff is that is out there. Another honourable mention to the Quilcom stuff - it's not just functional and a pleasure to use, it sounds great and it's also educational and expands my musical horizons in ways that some of those paid for plugins could only ever dream of. No offense, but I don't actually need AI to make music, though it's an interesting pursuit from a curiousity perspective; albeit one I don't want to get too lost down the rabbit hole of. Learning the history of these instruments and also the science of how they actually work, along with the cultural aspects, is a far richer vein for me to explore and contemplate. For me, that is almost priceless.

So thankyou Quilcom.

Rex Basterfield is the dev's name I do believe and you very rarely find him asking for donations. But I did discover an 'about' page, and there is a donate button - https://flowstoners.com/about

So I will definitely be throwing a little something his way this Xmas time just to say thanks.

program them all

Thanks for the long reply! Will deffo check them all out.

I've just ordered a Digitone II for exactly this purpose.

I had a Digitone 1 on line, and it turned out to be just the bees knees for drum synthesis. You can find the OG for relatively cheap on the second hand market, and it's no slouch.

Especially since the sequencer allows you to make almost a full drumkit on a single track/voice, wth a different preset/sound per step.

On DN2, you have a dedicated percussion algorythm, with transient generation, noise and body. But you could already get similar results with layering some tracks/voices on the DN1, one for the transient/click, one for the body, etc.

I really recommend trying one out