VCV Drums

VCV Drums Manual

Each of the 9 standalone drum modules simulate the sound of an analog circuit based on classic drum synthesizer hardware. To trigger drum modules, click the trigger button or patch a trigger signal into the TRIG input and a drum sound will be played from the module’s audio output. For example, you can use a sequencer, random gate generator, or VCV MIDI-Gate with a MIDI controller to trigger drum modules.

On each drum module, the TUNE knob and CV input controls the pitch or size of the drum, except Clap which is pitchless and uses TONE instead.

ACC produces an accented drum sound when the drum is triggered with GATE, and the intensity of the accent can be adjusted. Some drum modules increase their volume when accented, while others increase transient intensity/harmonics.

⬤ VCV Kick

SWEEP specifies the starting pitch of the drum’s transient, relative to the final lower pitch. ATTACK specifies the intensity of the transient. DECAY controls the time of the drum decay.

Two models are available by right-clicking on the panel, based on an 808- and 909-like kick drum circuit.

⬤ VCV Snare

NOISE species the snare wire envelope decay, and SNAP specifies the snare wire volume level. Turn SNAP to 0% to hear only the snare drum. DECAY and TUNE control the snare drum decay time and pitch.

Model based on a 909-like snare circuit.

⬤ VCV Tom

See Kick for parameter descriptions.

Three models are available by right-clicking on the panel: Low, Mid, and High, having different harmonics of the oscillators.

⬤ VCV Rim

VELO controls the velocity/intensity of the rimshot strike. ATTACK and DECAY control the attack and decay time of the transient exciting the rimshot circuit.

Model based on a 909-like rimshot circuit.

⬤ VCV Clap

TONE controls the amount of filtering applied to the hand clap signal. VELO controls the velocity/intensity of the clap transient. SPACE controls the reverb diffusion, and DECAY controls the reverb time.

Model based on a 909-like hand-clap circuit.

⬤ VCV Closed Hat

METAL controls the amount of metalicity of the cymbal. 0% METAL sounds more noise-like, and 100% METAL sounds more resonant (metallic). ATTACK controls the strike intensity, and DECAY controls the envelope of the cymbal.

MUTE closes/chokes the closed hi-hat sound when triggered. It is a good idea to patch the open hi-hat gate into this input, so that only one hi-hat is played at a time.

⬤ VCV Open Hat

See Closed Hat for parameter descriptions.

MUTE chokes the open hi-hat sound when triggered. It is a good idea to patch the closed hi-hat gate into this input, so that only one hi-hat is played at a time.

⬤ VCV Crash

See Closed Hat for parameter descriptions.

⬤ VCV Ride

See Closed Hat for parameter descriptions.

VCV Drum Machine

This larger module combines all 9 drum instruments, with two tom channels, into a compact stereo drum mixer. All drum parameters are available with CV modulation inputs.

The global TUNE and ACC inputs and attenuverters affect the tune and accent of all drum channels. For example, you can send a gate from your sequencer to the ACC input to accent all instruments playing on a specific step. The two CV inputs are normalized to 10V, so when unpatched, the attenuverters can be adjusted to apply a constant pitch or accent adjustment to all drum instruments.

Each channel’s volume can be adjusted with VOL with up to 12 dB of gain. The PAN knob pans the channel left or right, with pan-law scaling like VCV Console.

Behind the Scenes

Vult DSP article: The Making of VCV Drums

Wolfram article: Modeling Analog Drums with the Wolfram Language and System Modeler

VCV Drums Changelog

2.1.10 (2024-04-28)

• Add dark panels.

2.1.9 (2023-09-16)

• Fix Tom type loading as Mid when saved as High.

2.1.8 (2023-08-14)

• Add manual URLs for individual modules.
• Adjust button light brightness.

2.1.7 (2022-03-30)

• Fix Rim trigger button on Drum Machine module.

2.1.5 (2022-01-08)

• Fix crash when modulating Rim Decay parameter with audio-rate noise.

1.1.0 (2021-09-18)

• Add Drum Machine presets. (More coming soon.)

1.0.0 (2021-09-11)

• Initial release.