an you hear that? It's the ever-pacing tick-tock of change. Or is it a kicksnare beat? In modern music, it's pretty obvious that the drums are an intrinsic part of any beat-led music's success. Sure, every single part of your music is vital, as is the treatment and processing that helps them stick together, as we regularly spend pages and pages explaining. The drums, though, set a piece of music on the road. Done right, drums can add energy, create pace, and generally define the energy level of a piece, whatever the mood. But that's not to say that perfectly-produced drums are the goal every time. Depending on the genre, drums might need to be stunted, vibey, repetitive or simply subtle. Staying within the confines of a genre's rules may put some limits on the drum sounds and programming you use, but those drums still define the same traits of the track that they do in any other. In this article, we're going to lift the lid on some of the techniques behind getting a modern drum sound, and we'll do it through the lens of some of the best instrument plugins that you can grab today for getting your beats to the next level. We'll tackle not just heavy-hitting ‘drum’ instruments, but some ways to play them better as well – there's MIDI effects on display to help you get a grip on making
