ML Drums
by ML Sound Lab · Drum Instrument · Acoustic drum sampler
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ML Drums is ML Sound Lab's acoustic drum sampler, with a mixer, room and overhead bleed controls, and a HUMAN mode for more realistic playing.
The player and a nine-piece kit are free; extra kits such as Essentials, Luxe, Meld and Grit cost €39.99 each.
Best for: Drums. Genres: Rock & Indie, Metal, Pop.
Keywords: acoustic drums, sample-based, free, multisampled, freemium, organic, round-robin, thick.
What it does
ML Drums is ML Sound Lab's acoustic drum sampler, built over four years with the aim of natural drum sounds from careful sampling rather than mix tricks. The free version gives you one full kit in the same player that hosts the paid expansions; the developer wants everyone "regardless of budget" to get a professional sound.
- Free kit: a 22"x16" kick, two 14"x5.5" snares, a 12" mid tom, a 14" floor tom, a 14" hi-hat, 20" ride, 18" crash and 20" china.
- Sampling engine: as many velocity layers and samples as each hit needs, with round-robin playback, and a volume curve based on measured loudness of real playing.
- HUMAN mode: masks the change between velocity layers and simulates drummer fatigue by nudging velocity and adding small timing offsets.
- Channel mixer: a fader and 3-band parametric EQ (frequency and Q) on each channel, "76 style" compressors on kick, snare, toms and room, and parallel compression on the master.
- Saturation and reverb: a saturation stage that adds odd harmonics for thickness without raising the level, and a built-in reverb with adjustable tail and sends.
- Bleed: set how much kick, snare, toms, hi-hat and ride spill into the overhead and room channels.
- Routing and presets: multi-out routing to your DAW in a few clicks, plus several mix-ready presets.
- Expansions: paid kits such as Essentials, Luxe, Meld, Grit, Dwell and Peril load into the same player.
The current version is 2.4.9. ML Drums Free costs nothing and includes the one kit above. Expansion kits are sold separately, and Paratera costs less than the others.
Source: ML Sound Lab product page
When to use it
ML Drums is the pick when you want a good-sounding acoustic kit for free and a short path from loading to a finished drum mix. Compared with EZdrummer 3 and Addictive Drums 2, it has no built-in groove library or song tools, but its free kit, mixer, compressors and bleed controls cost nothing. Superior Drummer 3 goes much deeper on mic control and library size; ML Drums keeps one simple mixer page instead. Steven Slate Drums 5.5 is the closer rock-and-metal alternative, while ML Drums lets you grow the library one kit at a time.
- Best for: rock and metal drum tracks with natural-sounding kits, demos, and producers who want a free drum player to start with.
- Genres: rock, metal and pop.
- Look elsewhere if: you want a big groove library and song arranger (EZdrummer 3 or Superior Drummer 3) or electronic drum design (Battery 4 or XO).
Where to buy
- ML Sound Lab: Free
Tutorials and reviews
- Introducing: ML Drums
- ML Drums - UI Run-Through
- First Impressions: ML Sound Lab ML Drums
- New FREE DRUM VST Plugin by ML Sound Lab - ML DRUMS - Review & Demo
- ML Drums 2.0 Update... already?!
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