Reviews
Electronic Musician
There was planty of competition in the Software Drum Machine/Module category this year. But the product the editors kept coming back to for its sheer innovation was XLN Audio Addictive Drums. This cross-platform plug-in combines 2 GB of samples, an onscreen mixer with effects, and a collection of MIDI files of live performances. The drum samples are organized in an ssortment of layered, multimiked kits (with alternative hits), making it easy to tweak te included performances. A drag-and-drop groove browser provides quick access to the more than 3,000 beats and fills.
The 12-channel mixer gives you even more control over your performances. In addition to using the standard mixer controls, you can invbert phrases, create pitch and volume envelopes, and insert filter, EQ, compression, reverb, and other plug-ins effects. The content is rounded out with 100 production-ready presets covering a cross-section of styles. Whether you want to vreate your own drum parts from scratch, layer in a few top-notch performances, or use a preconfigured production setup, Addictive Drums gives you a lot of great material to work with.
Electronic Musician - Tony DiLorenzo
Every drum programmer has a personal approach to making tracks groove, but wouldn't it be nice to get the right feel and sound without much effort? Addictive Drums (Mac/Win, $249 MSRP) is an AU-, RTAS-, and VST-compatible plug-in with a huge library of MIDI beats and fills. It comes with nearly 3 GB of high-quality drum and cymbal samples from DW, Latin Percussion, Paiste, Pearl, Sabian, Sonor, and Tama. All the samples were recorded using a multichannel microphone setup for realism, and then optimized to minimize loading times.
Sound On Sound Magazine - Sam Inglis
When I got my first laptop computer, I naively looked forward to a life of unfettered musical freedom. At last, I thought, I could make music anywhere, without a care in the world. All I needed was a pair of headphones and a controller keyboard. Oh, and an audio interface. And a USB hub for all those copy protection keys. And a power supply for the USB hub. Oh yeah, and cables to connect it all together.
Suddenly, music-making with a laptop didn't seem quite so free or spontaneous, and it was about to get worse. I thought it would take me ages to exhaust my 60GB system drive, but I could have filled it three times over just with drum sample libraries like BFD and DFH. Clearly, an external hard drive was another must-have for the modern-day musician on the move. And a power supply for the external hard drive. And cables, and... I might as well have got a desktop PC, really, because the only thing I was going to get out of taking this lot on a long journey was a hernia.
So thank heaven for Digidesign's Strike, which squeezes its numerous kits into a relatively economical 6GB of compressed data, yet still sounds fantastic, and thank heaven for XLN's new Addictive Drums. At well under 2GB in size, Addictive Drums could find a home on even the most crowded hard drive, but it still provides a very comprehensive set of drum samples and processing options, thanks to a proprietary data-compressed file format that makes use of variable bit depth to avoid wasting disk space.
A Deep Hit of Drums
Addictive Drums is available for Mac OS X, including Intel Macs, and Windows, and supports the VST, RTAS and Audio Units plug-in protocols. Installed from a single DVD, it's authorised by a simple challenge-and-response process where you type your serial number into XLN Audio's web site. Once you've done that, you simply load Addictive Drums into the appropriate bit of your host application and away you go.
Most of the basic concepts behind the Addictive Drums interface are familiar from other products, but the way they're implemented here is uniformly slick and usually pretty intuitive. There are four main pages. The Kit window is where you assemble drum kits from the individual drums that have been sampled by XLN Audio, while switching to the Edit page allows you to make detailed changes to the sound of any individual drum. Processing available in the Edit page includes a variety of insert effects, but there are also two global reverb generators, which have a separate editing window. The fourth page, Beats, is a file browser that allows you to search and audition a library of over 3000 MIDI grooves. When you've found one you like, you can simply drag and drop it into the Arrange page of your host sequencer.
Beneath the main window is a mixer, which is permanently in view. This has separate mono channels for each drum, the cowbell and the hi-hat, plus stereo overhead and room mics. It also provides a single stereo bus to which you can route any number of the mono channels for group-based processing, along with a master stereo bus. Every channel has sends to the two reverbs, plus the mute, solo and phase buttons you'd expect, and all the channels are available on separate outputs in host applications that support this. The pan controls on the stereo channels are worth a mention, too, because they typify the attention to detail that has gone into XLN's interface design. Clicking and dragging from side to side does exactly what you'd expect, while clicking and dragging up and down keeps the overall left-right balance the same, but makes it narrower or wider. Neat.
Description
Presenting Addictive Drums, the most complete drum production toolkit in the world. Compatible with all major plugin formats, Addictive Drums gives you instant and easy access to every parameter, so you can program completely realistic drum tracks in any style or genre.
Addictive Drums is built on three essential components of a world class drum studio: superior multi-mic samples of a wide variety of premium drums, full production tools to tweak the sonic qualities of the kit (including envelopes, tuning, insert effects, reverbs, overhead and room mic control), and a full suite of more than 3000 built-in beats and grooves. You'll be able to get up and running quickly and easily, whether you're an experienced drum programmer or an aspiring experimenter.
Addictive Drums can sound extremely realistic, producing true acoustic drums, but it can also be tweaked and manipulated into machine-like kits or weird rhythmic effects. Addictive Drums is unique in its ability to deliver in a wide array of production styles.
Compatible with both Macintosh and Windows platforms (including Intel Macs), Addictive Drums ships in all major plug-in formats (AudioUnit, RTAS, VST). It is fully compatible with every major sequencing host, including Apple Logic, Digidesign Pro Tools, Steinberg Cubase and Nuendo, Cakewalk Sonar, Ableton Live, FL Studio, Mackie Tracktion, MOTU Digital Performer and Apple GarageBand.
New features in Addictive Drums v1.5 Adrenaline include:
Plug n Play
Addictive Drums 1.5 Adrenaline is compatible with virtually all E-drum kits on the market. Adrenaline comes with ready made presets for many popular models from Yamaha, Roland and Alesis.
Extreme Realism
E-drumming with Adrenaline is very realistic thanks to a number of included technologies. We fully support cymbal chokes, foot chicks, CC positional hi-hats (gradually changing from closed to open hi-hat) and positional sensing. Alternating samples also means a series of equally hard hits will always sound slightly different.
Map Window
The new Map Window gives you precise control of MIDI re-mapping. Using MIDI learn functions or dragging and dropping the various stroke types to a virtual keyboard you quickly map your drum set or pad controller. By adjusting velocity curves you can fine tune Addictive Drums to respond perfectly to your kit and playing style.
Live E-Drumming
Adrenaline works great for playing live on stage with e-drums. Thanks to rock solid stability and optimized performance Addictive Drums will load up quickly and never crash in the middle of a gig. Switching presets only takes a few seconds meaning you can quickly go from a heavy rock sound to a soft ballad groove with the click of a button.
Beat Transformer
Go for broke with louder hits and less dynamics in the chorus, remove ghost notes in the bridge or do a verse in half tempo. The new Beat Transformer tool lets you adjust any beat from Addictive Drums extensive library on the fly. Make the beats softer, louder, slower, faster, shorter, longer or less complex. Changes made to the beats are rendered once you drag and drop them into your project. This makes songwriting with Addictive Drums a quick and easy task.
Disc Info:
1 DVD-Rom with approximately 2 GB of content
PC and Macintosh compatible (including Intel Macs)
VST, AudioUnit, and RTAS plug-ins included
Features:
Top of the line drums and cymbals sampled from world-class manufacturers.
Kick, snare, and toms from Sonor, DW, Tama, and Pearl. Cymbals from Sabian and Paiste. Cowbell from LP.
Samples include every nuance from the softest to the hardest hits, many stroke variations and alternating samples bringing unparalleled realism.
Multi mic setup. Adjust all levels to your preference.
Over 100 kit presets, allowing instant access to complete drum productions of almost any style.
Beats page features over 3000 midi files. Drag and drop functionality and full search functions are included in the browser.
Edit Page with various insert effects, including EQ, saturation, compression, tuning, distortion, and mic control.
FX Page with the ability to add two reverbs at a time to any one channel.
Multi-output ability, allowing for every channel in Addictive Drums to be routed to a different output
Product Details:
The AD Kits
Sonor Designer (Kick, Snare, 5 toms)
DW Collector's Series (Kick, Snare, 5 toms)
Tama Starclassic (Kick, Snare, 3 toms)
Extras:
Pearl Signature Ferrrone Snare
Pearl Masterworks Piccolo Snare
Pearl Masterworks Kick
Cymbals (Sabian & Paiste):
3 Hihats
4 Rides
9 Crashes
3 Splashes
2 Chinas
Controls for each kit piece:
Solo/Mute
Main Level
Overhead Level and Pan/Width
Room Level and Pan/Width
"Single Sample" mode
Main Pitch and Overhead/Room Pitch Offset
Pitch Envelope (with velocity modulation)
Amp Envelope
HiPass/LoPass Filter
Effects (available on each channel):
Compressor
Distortion (4 algorithms, selectable bandwidth)
EQ (3 band)
Saturating Limiter
Master and Bus channels additionally include:
Tape Saturation
HiPass/LoPass Filter
Reverbs include:
4 algorithms (Ambience, Room, Hall, Plate)
Decay Time, Predelay, Damping
2 band EQ
Pan/Width control
Compatibility
This plug-in product is compatible with...
AU
Cubase
Digital Performer
FL Studio
GarageBand
Live
Logic
Mac (G5 or Intel)
Nuendo
PC
ProTools
RTAS
Sonar
Tracktion
VSTi
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