FREE virtual Drums
A guitarist needs drums to rock. Here is a list of free Drum Machines.
The information on each individual drum machine does not contain all the features of the software, but rather the essence and most important data. Detailed information can be found on the provider's website.
guitar-sims.com is currently compiling the list. More virtual drums will follow.
- 5.25 GB Core Library
- A versatile selection of professionally sampled acoustic drum kits, including presets such as “80s Lover” (classic gated reverb drums) and “Ramen Breaks” (dry, dark sounds).
- 340 grooves and drum patterns recorded by top drummers (comprehensively tagged and searchable by criteria such as genre, tempo, timing, dynamics, and lead hand)
- Pre-made, production-ready presets
- Custom sound design
- Multi-out routing: Individual drum instruments can be routed to up to 8 stereo or 16 mono outputs for separate processing with external effects in the DAW
- Kit-Piece Browser
- The included grooves can be dragged and dropped directly into the DAW as MIDI data
- Support for numerous keymaps for other virtual drum instruments and electronic drum modules (e.g., Roland)
- Load your own samples: Drop in any WAV and DDD auto-generates 24 unique variations — pitch-shifted, EQ-tweaked, gain-randomized, start-trimmed
- Anti-machine-gun engine: 24 variations across 3 velocity tiers (8 per tier) with round-robin playback
- Per-hit micro-randomization: Pitch drift ±4 cents, amplitude ±1.5 dB, velocity brightness & tonal color on every trigger
- Track slaving & auto phase alignment: Lock tracks to fire in step — same technique as close mic + room mic alignment
- Per-track 8-band parametric EQ: HPF → Low Shelf → 4× Peak Bell → High Shelf → LPF
- Per-track compressor: Threshold, ratio up to 20:1, attack, release & makeup gain
- 3 parallel FX buses: Room Reverb, NY Parallel Compression, and Tape Saturation
- Mic bleed simulation for natural inter-mic depth & realism
- Up to 20 tracks, 64 voices — multi-bus output routing up to 16 stereo outputs
- Self-contained .ddd presets — samples embedded, sounds identical on any machine
- Global humanization, real-time spectrum analyzer, resizable UI & preset system
- 1 Drum Kit
- 1 Snares
- 5 Presets
- Mix Tools & Routing are limited
- full Mapping
- Volume
- Pan
- EQ
- Channel Settings
Requires the free Kontakt Player 8.1 or later from Native Instruments.
See the YouTube Video of Amner Hunter.
Drum Locker is a drum sample library player and it serves as a host for additional drum kits.
Drum Locker comes with 70s style super dry kit.
- Ultra-compact, fully featured drum libraries and player
- Per-channel FX, compressor, EQ, reverb, saturation, limiter, transient designer, and clipper
- Super-fast loading of drum kits
- Drum beat browser with user MIDI import
- Resizable screen
Audio Assault offers MIDI packs for purchase.
- Snare: 1
- Kicks: Plastic beater
- Toms: 3 toms - clear
- Cymbails: 7
- Mixer: Static mixer with a killer, mix-ready preset
- MIDI Grooves: 12 grooves performed by Krimh
- Presets: One, mix-ready preset
- made for metal
- Sound-designed by producer Jens Bogren
- Advanced algorithms for adding realism to programmed drums
Requires the free Kontakt Player 6.6.1 or later from Native Instruments.
The page says:
"Liquid Death worked with SJC Drums to manifest pure aggression into a snare… then (foolishly) sent one to producer Sam Pura. Known for already having some of the most colossal snare sounds, Sam then recorded over 500 samples and brought into existence the heaviest snare plugin ever released. Never again will producers wonder how they can make their drums hit harder; in fact, we put volume faders on each microphone just in case you get intimidated by the samples. Download at your own risk."
ML Drums is a modular drum sampler. The free version includes:
- Kick T SCWB B91A 22"x16"
- Snare T SCWB 14"x5.5" (1 tuning)
- Snare T SCWB V1 14"x5.5" Mid
- Tom T SCWB 12"x8"
- Floor Tom T SCWB 14"x12"
- Hihat S AX Stage 14"
- Ride S HH Rock 20"
- Crash S AX 18"
- China S HX 20"
Requires the free Kontakt Player v8+ from Native Instruments.
- 2 additional Toms
- 3 additional Snares (Low, High, and BFSD)
- Kick open articulation
- Snare dampened articulation
- Multi-output routing
- MIDI mapping functionality
- Tune controls
- 7 additional snapshots
- 1 Drum Kit
- Sounds are processed with compressors and EQs so that they blend well into the mix
- Mixer
- Groove Composer (For creating MIDI grooves from various loops)
- MIDI Loops / Groove Library
- MIDI-Mapping
- Presets
- Drum Map
- MIDI mapping presets for other drum plugins (so you can use the MIDI loops in other virtual drum kits)
See the Drum Presets + Drum Map + Midi Packs.
There is a free version and a paid version. The free version includes:
- Allows you to play and use instruments created in the full version.
- You cannot create your own samples.
- Ideal for loading kits created by others and using them in your projects.
- Includes a free demo kit with 8 instruments and a limited number of round robins.
- MIDI Loop Support
- Fully MIDI-compatible
- Customizable mappings
- MIDI Loop Support (loops by Groove Monkee)
By KVRaudio: perfect-drums-by-naughty-seal-audio
SSD 5.5 FREE
A time-unlimited SSD 5.5 demo featuring a Deluxe 2 kit, a classic "mix-ready" processed Slate snare, and three kit presets, including "Deluxe 2 Free," "Hugo," and "Dry n’ Tight."
Trigger 2 FREE
A demo version of Trigger 2 with no time limit, which allows you to replace and enhance drum recordings with professional drum samples.
The software includes 6 kick samples and 6 snare samples.