Are you looking for a great emulation of the classic 909 Drum Synthesizer? The foundations for basically all electronic music. Well, Drumazon by D16 Group might be exactly what you need then.

THE OVERVIEW

Drumazon 909 VST PluginDrumazon is an emulation of the synthesis used in the original Roland 909 Drum synthesizer. However, even though the sound is the same, some functionality has been added to give you more flexibility.

You can route the individual drum sounds to 11 different outputs on the plugin. This means you can further shape each drum with external plugins if you want to.

It has an internal sequencer, with 8 banks and 12 patterns per bank. It even has a randomizer option, to create changes in your patterns, or even create new ones.

But not only that, you can turn off the internal sequencer, and use your DAW’s sequencer to trigger and program the patterns yourself.

And the best part of using a plugin version is that you get full MIDI learn control, so you can automate parameters quickly and easily in your DAW.

MY 3 FAVORITE THINGS

  1. The Sound
    It’s hard to fail with a classic drum machine like the 909. The sounds you get have punch, clarity and character. It’s simply much easier to get a good start with this plugin, than browsing through endless of sample libraries. With the 909 you know what you get, and it’s a classic sound that never goes out of time.
  2. The DAW Sequence Method
    I have to say that I am personally not a fan of sequencer drums in a step like fashion like the old drum machines. So having the options to turn off the internal sequencer is amazing to me. Now I get full control over all the individual drum sounds from right within my DAW’s sequencer.
  3. Individual Presets
    I love that you get individual preset control for each instrument on the drum machine. This means that you can choose to save/load a full kit, or switch out individual sounds within a kit.

MY CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK

Even though you can increase the size of the GUI, I find that I would want an even bigger version so I can zoom into the individual drum modules further when shaping the sounds.

Also, I would have loved some added effects like drive, EQ and compression even if it’s not supposed to be on the classic unit. Because even if I can use external effects, it is always easier to have instant recall on kits and sounds with every effect added and set.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS

I love having instruments that gives me close to what I need, as fast and easy as possible. I can instantly reach for this plugin, whenever I need a classic 909 sound, and then shape the drum sounds to suit the particular track I’m working on.

This is not only more efficient when composing and producing, compared to searching in folders for samples. It is also much more fun to use synthesis than samples in my opinion.

LEARN MORE

Learn more about Drumazon by D16 Group here. Get a full overview and specifications, listen to audio demos etc.