There are many drum virtual instruments out there, with the number of options within each being enormous. With some solutions offering to do more with less, we look at getting release-ready sounds with just a handful of parameters.
The Composers Friend?
Musicians and composers often find themselves in a rut when using some of the virtual instruments available today. While they offer incredible sounds and total flexibility, there is always a cost, with this usually being simplicity. With some tools offering all of the minutiae that engineers are hired to deal with (and be interested in) when working with real drums, the potential for non-techs to get lost is enormous. Of course there will always be the the time where engineers can later tweak sounds brought into a project by a composer. In this scenario, the composer can compose, and the engineer can engineer on longer-haul projects.
The Big Picture
Sometimes, composers need to concentrate on the single most important part of any mix; the music. Being able to load up and write is paramount; getting bogged down in endless parameters is not, especially when multiple VIs are involved. Even in the most ergonomic of tools, it’s inevitable that energy will be lost cruising presets, and while engineers may overlook a tool that doesn’t let the user adjust the amount of tape residue on Tom 7, musicians need to create. VIs bring control that engineer/programmers love, however composers need to keep their heads in the thing that listeners are actually interested in.
Zeroing In
UJAM Virtual Drummer HOT is a tool that sets out to give composers something that sounds great, with a control set that will make sense to most within minutes of use. Bringing together simple drag and drop functionality for fast composition (with the included MIDI), composers then have five kits, and six mix presets with two simple ‘amount’ controls on arc-shaped faders. The Juice control affords a crossfade between acoustic and a preconfigured electronic flavour, with the Amount control balancing the amount of processing from the chosen mix preset similar to a wet/dry control.
Watch in the video how we use UJAM Virtual Drummer HOT to fly in fresh, contemporary drum parts into an arrangement. We show its drag and drop functionality, before going through some of the kit and mix preset options. When then grab hold of its two feature sliders front and centre to add the final finishing touches.
More On UJAM Virtual Drummer HOT
UJAM elaborate:
The majority of today’s charting tracks use electronic drum samples or highly processed combinations of sample layers. However, these samples must undergo extensive engineering to sit properly in a radio-ready mix, as they are often stale, lifeless and difficult to manipulate. Virtual Drummer HOT provides real drum performances with punchy drum machine-like processing to replace your sample library with more lively and energizing drum grooves.
Features In Full:
30 Styles, 690 playable Phrases and 100+ Global Presets.
5 Drum Kits, 6 Mix Presets, 6 Reverb Modes.
MIDI Drag & Drop, Resizable User Interface.
Special ‘Juice’ FX Control - The ‘Juice’ fader offers a seamless transition from a completely natural drum variant to the archetypical sample aesthetic, much like that of the most popular drum machines.
New to Virtual Drummer line is a seventh instrument channel - You can now use clap sounds to supplement your snares and accentuate your grooves.
Radio Ready?
When choosing a VI, there is always the question of complexity and control, versus simplicity and immediacy. Up until fairly recently there has been one universal truth: the more time spent programming and tweaking a virtual drum instrument, the more realistic the results will be. As we approach the second quarter of this century, that ‘truth’ is starting to become a thing of the past. Certainly the thing mixes need is music; be it engineer/programmer, musician or composer, using a tool like Virtual Drummer HOT keeps the focus on just that.