Ambient Drums comes with its own synth engine

You can bolster the Ambient Drums sample library with additional soundpacks.
You can bolster the Ambient Drums sample library with additional soundpacks.

New from MHC Synthesizers, Ambient Drums is a drum plug-in with synth-like features. It offers 12 pads, a drum search application and an effects section.

The software ships with 700 sounds, though more can be added by purchasing the optional soundpacks, three of which are currently available. You can also add your own samples and build your own kits.

The synth section is pretty traditional, while the effects section offers an impressive 130 different modes. The velocity-sensitive pads can control the amp of the filter cutoff, and the drum search tool can be used standalone to find all the drum samples on your hard disk.

Ambient Drums is certainly a different kind of beast to the many multi-gigabyte, acoustic-emulating ROMplers that are now on the market, but this could work to its advantage. Available as a PC VST plug-in only at the moment, it costs $199, while the soundpacks can be purchased for $59 each ($41 if they´re bought at the same time as the main application).

You´ll find further details and audio demos on the MHC Synthesizers website.

By Ben Rogerson

Ben Rogerson
Deputy Editor

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.