New Drum Replacement Tool: MDrumReplacer Plug-in

An easy-to-use tool to fix flaws, replacing weak- sounding snares, and lousy kicks in a matter of seconds.

Appreciating advances inherent in MeldaProduction’s MDrumReplacer plug-in perhaps involves an appreciation of drum replacement itself. In modern music production parlance, drum replacement is the practice of an engineer or producer recording a live drummer and replacing (or adding to) the sound of a particular drum with a prerecorded sample — say, replacing all the recorded snare hits with the sound of a handclap. History has it that the technique was pioneered in the late Seventies by American engineer, inventor, and producer Roger Nichols (R.I.P.) while working with American rockers Steely Dan in the studio. Subsequently, it became increasingly commonplace to replace every snare hit in a performance that may or may not sound subjectively ‘good’ with an ‘ideal’ snare drum hit, and has since grown in both popularity and complexity since computer-based technology took hold in music production — to the point where some suggest that the practice defeats the purpose of having a live drummer as opposed to a drum machine, making for an end result that is effectively exactly the same as what a drum machine would produce if equipped with a custom drum sample recorded especially for it. In reality, however, crafting more complexity in an increasingly automated world is not necessarily easy to achieve, but it does not have to be that way — which is exactly where MeldaProduction’s  MDrumReplacer plug-in comes into play.

MeldaProduction‘s itself pulls no percussive punches when posing some hard-hitting questions with a semi-serious delivery: “Does your snare sound like a bird vomiting on a plastic table? Does your kick sound like a horse s**t falling on the ground? Then just replace them!” That, then, is MDrumReplacer’s raison d’être, effectively. After all, not every drum hit is perfect, not every drum take is flawless, and nor does every drum sound good. Get this, though: with MDrumReplacer no drum recording is gone for good necessarily. No matter if it was suffering from poorly-positioned microphones or the sound of the entire drum kit is, in retrospect, simply not up to scratch or even to taste, MDrumReplacer fixes flaws in a matter of seconds. But best of all, the recordings will still sound spectacularly live after applying MDrumReplacer’s magic, thanks to the plug-in pairing the best drum-detecting algorithm on the market with perfectly-recorded multilayer samples.

MeldaProduction’s MDrumReplacer’s powerful drum-hit DETECTOR works with maximum precision, finding the hits to be replaced in both single instrument recordings and even mixed drum sessions with minimum user intervention. It is equipped with advanced analysis technology that thoroughly examines the audio material to identify the most prominent frequencies and sets the resonators accordingly, then users can audition just the filtered signal with the ‘listen’ feature so that they can easily adjust the filters to set them as precisely as possible. Ultimately, users can completely replace drum hits or get creatively effective by blending the original sound with the selected sample — enhancing kick drums with some added electronic flavour, for example. But better still, since MDrumReplacer basically includes MeldaProduction’s MDrumLeveler plug-in — itself marketed as the ultimate dynamics processing tool specifically designed for working with drums, MDrumReplacer need not necessarily only be used to replace ‘bad hits’ but also to iron out the drummer’s performance by simply letting the DETECTOR find an event and compute its correct level, with the requested DETECTOR GAIN then being applied to the event, so that the drummer sounds solid and firm-handed as a result.

MDrumReplacer makes for a creative user experience with an extensive feature set, including a powerful MIDI processor — listens to MIDI controllers and keyboards to allow realtime control of any parameters; multiple parameter control using a single so-called multiparameter — handy for automation or smartly morphing between banks of settings, for example; A to H slot switching — taking the A/B comparison concept to the next level by enabling users to access up to eight instances of the plug-in, copy and paste the slots, and freely switch between them, as well as allowing for morphing between the first four slots with an X-Y pad to find the perfect blend between four preloaded presets; and four fully-featured modulators that can control any set of parameters — including other modulators, to but scratch the surface of this deep diving-enabling plug-in par excellence.

MeldaProduction’s MDrumReplacer is available to purchase — as an AAX-, AU-, VST-, and VST3-supporting plug-in for Mac (64-bit only) and Windows (32-bit and 64-bit) — at an introductory discounted price of €29.00 EUR (inc. VAT) until January 3, 2021 — rising thereafter to the regular price of €129.00 EUR (inc. VAT) — from its dedicated webpage, which also includes further information, here: https://www.meldaproduction.com/MDrumReplacer

MDrumReplacer comes with a huge library of samples, multi-samples, rhythms, drum sets, loops, and other resources that are distributed for free via MeldaProduction’s MDrummer packs, including its latest Drum Empire 2020 addition available from here: https://www.meldaproduction.com/MDrummerDrumEmpire2020

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