FREE Plugin Review: VRAC by BEATSURFING

A drum kit is a drum kit is a drum kit, right? The concept of an eight-slot sample-driven drum plugin has been around since approximately the Old Kingdom days of ancient Egypt. Because you know they probably hung out making sick beats in between pyramid builds and mopping up Nile floods. I’m sure I’ve seen it in a hieroglyph somewhere.

With all the history behind them, could there possibly, in this modern and sophisticated age, be a take on simple drum kits that’s unique and clever enough to stand out? As it turns out, there could. The recently released – and completely free – “sample-based drum machine” VRAC by BEATSURFING carves a new niche in the world of drum kit plugins.

At a cost of precisely zero*, VRAC would be worth checking out just for curiosity’s sake – particularly with the creative and innovative team from BEATSURFING behind it. But is VRAC unique and useful enough to augment (or replace) the many drum kit plugins probably already stacked chest-high on your hard drive? Let’s find out.

* A paid version, VRAC+, has also now been released. We’ll discuss that a bit below.

Not-So-Simple Samples

If I told you that VRAC is a drum machine plugin (which I have) and also told you that VRAC plays kicks, hats, snares, and claps and ships with twenty factory samples, you’d likely make some basic assumptions about those samples. That they’re probably one-hit drum samples of kicks, hats, snares, and claps, for starters.

That would be quite reasonable, based on the long and mostly predictable history of drum kit plugins and the samples they employ. BEATSURFING, however, are just a little bit mental, so VRAC’s samples are nothing of the sort.

Some of VRAC’s library samples are snippets of music, up to thirty seconds long. Several are foley clips with various runs of banging, crinkling, clanking, or scraping sounds. One appears to be the roar of a very angry lion. Another is someone repeatedly blowing into a microphone. In fact, the closest thing to kicks, snares, or claps among VRAC’s library samples is the one with a person saying the words, “kicks, snares, claps”.

If that makes you wonder whether VRAC is some incredibly niche “drum” sampler, suitable only for Ono- (or Eno-?)esque abstract performance gigs – well, that’s also pretty reasonable, given just the info above. But BEATSURFING has a plan, VRAC is actually quite nimble and flexible, and (just in case you’re on the other end and want to get even weirder) you can also import your own samples. Here’s how it all works.

The Drummy Returns

The secret sauce in VRAC is a process BEATSURFING calls “drumification”. If the word sounds a lot like “mummification”, well, it’s not entirely dissimilar. Incoming samples are lovingly wrapped and shaped, but rather than coming out looking like a linen-clad King Tut, they’re transformed into various flavours of percussive hits.

(Given the multiple drum outputs, you could perhaps argue that VRAC’s drumification process is more akin to the olde Egyptians sucking out various innards and organs to put in the Canopic jars than the actual mummy-wrapping bit.

Sadly, I’m not authorised to carry analogies that far. Which is probably for the best.)

Put more succinctly, from the VRAC user guide:

“Drumification is a unique sample-shaping process. The Drumifier analyzes the dynamics of the incoming sample across the spectrum, and then sculpts its spectral and dynamic content to match one of the many kick, snare, hat and clap models developed especially for VRAC.”

As noted, several versions of each percussion type are supported, so nearly any input sample can be morphed into multiple interesting drums, which can be adjusted further in the sleek VRAC interface:

The left side of VRAC displays global information, with the currently loaded sample near the top. Drag and drop a sample – seriously, any sample, though longer files will be trimmed to the first thirty seconds – or work with one of VRAC’s library samples by loading a preset from the selector at top centre. Below the main sample view (which features a drag-adjustable start position) is a second schematic with a draggable tool to zoom in on any section of the full sample.

When a sample is selected (or a start position adjusted), VRAC will drumify the specified slice of audio into an eight-pad drumkit, represented at bottom left. Each drum pad includes Mute and Solo buttons, the trigger key name (the key range can be set via the options menu in the header), and a colour code, which we’ll discuss below. Simply mouse-click on a pad or play the corresponding MIDI key to sound your mummified… er, drumified, source audio.

Above VRAC’s drum pads are a few fine-tuning controls, starting, appropriately enough, with Fine Tune, which adjusts the original sample’s pitch by cents. It’s a bit oddly placed at upper left in the section, when Transpose to adjust up to a full octave in either direction is located at bottom right, but once you know, you know. Length sets a play length for all sounds, if you prefer all drum hits short or long, while Volume in this section dials in the volume of the incoming sample audio.

That leaves just the Drumify knob, which allows you to (again, globally) adjust the strength of the drumification process on the audio. Turned all the way down, the original sample will play, albeit modified by the other dials and slidey bits in this section.

The Rule of Drum

The current (which is to say, last played) drum is detailed on the right half of VRAC. Of special note here is the drumification models map at the top. The four corners of the schematic are labeled for each drum type (kick, hat, snare, and clap, in case the memory had slipped) and colour-coded, as well. The colours match those in VRAC’s pad diagram in the global section, so once you’ve learned that kicks are red and hats are blue, for instance, you can see what you’re dealing with at a glance.

In the models map, the shape and position of the object overlaying the grid give an indication of its sonic characteristics, while the position of the X-Y cross hints at which models are acting on the input sample to create that particular drum. VRAC’s handy and helpful user guide provides a schematic to illustrate:

Nothing in VRAC is set in stone, however. (Which is appropriate, since nothing in VRAC came into this world as a drum.) Drag the cross displayed in the model map in any direction to activate different drumification model combos for each drum in the kit. Create eight different snares, if you like. Or four claps and four hats. Position the cross nearer the centre and the colour turns progressively brown, as the drum morphs steadily away from a single identifiable type.

With all the talk of experimentation, this seems a good place to note the last button on the right in the presets area at top centre, which allows you to Save Preset with the current settings to the User Presets area in VRAC. Very handy.

Below the drumification slab are a few additional controls. Most are similar to the global controls, but here apply only to the current drum pad. These include volume controls for both the Original and Drumified sounds, another Length adjuster, and a Pitch slider, now with a range of two octaves in either direction. The central Drumify knob again allows you to mix drumified and pristine sounds – but be aware that if the global Drumify knob is turned down, this one won’t have much effect.

The bottom pad-specific section allows you to set up choke groups, adjust the relationship between incoming Velocity and volume, and set pan and volume for the specific pad.

Drumified If I Do, Drumified If I Don’t

That’s VRAC in a nutshell. A sample – of any wacky, wonky, or woolly sort you like – goes in, and eight tunable, shapable drums come out the other end. Tweak to taste and get on with making beats with drum hits fit for purpose, but still unique to the character and essence of the input material. It’s actually quite a clever twist on the familiar sampled drum formula.

If you’re the sort who likes to fine-tune every minute aspect of your drum sounds, VRAC’s controls may feel somewhat minimal. Outside the Length sliders, there are no advanced ADSR adjustments, nor layering capabilities, filtering, stretching, or send effects. That mostly makes sense here – the drumification models are the stars of the show, so VRAC gives them space to do the heavy lifting.

(But if you really want more control, BEATSURFING’s paid VRAC+ plugin is worth checking out. It does everything we’ve discussed here, but with a sixteen-pad kit setup, sample auto-slicing, an expanded sample library, onboard effects, longer sample lengths, multi-channel outputs, and more. If VRAC is a mummy, VRAC+ is the whole freaking Sphinx.)

Obviously, VRAC isn’t aiming to reproduce perfect replicas of real-life drum sounds. The fun starts with selecting samples quirky and meaty enough to give the drumifiers plenty to chew on, then adjusting the model map to hone in on familiar-ish, unique but usable sounds.

VRAC isn’t necessarily a glitch drum sampler – though you can go that route easily, of course. I’ve personally enjoyed using it as an “uncanny valley” kit creator. I couldn’t easily identify the source of the hits I’ve produced and they’re not quite drums nor recognisable drum machine sounds. But they work, they punch, they sizzle when asked, and add interest and novelty to beats across various genres. By adjusting the length, pitch, X-Y map, and drumification level, you can produce tight hats, ringing snares, clicks, booms, and (at longer lengths and with certain models) even evolving sound effects from interesting sample files.

For even more fun, take advantage of VRAC’s MIDI learn feature by right-clicking on most parameters and automate or randomise various settings. The MIDI learn even works independently for the X and Y axes on the model map. Sadly, the sample start position isn’t natively automatable in this way. But happily, if your DAW has its own automation capabilities, the parameter is surfaced, so you can grab it and shake it back and forth all you like.

If you’re in need of a unique and slightly quirky drum machine that changes and morphs with every sample you feed it, VRAC is definitely worth a look. Though free, it’s a full-featured kit creator with interesting tech under the hood and straightforward workflows and controls. And that’s everything you need to know about VRAC, all wrapped up like a… well. You know.

BEATSURFING’s VRAC is a fun and flexible drum machine plugin with a twist: each eight-slot kit is produced from a slice of a single sample, run independently through BEATSURFING’s “drumification” processing to produce various flavours of kicks, hats, snares, and claps. The resulting drum hits are adjustable, highly usable, and often adjacent to the specified drum type, while also being unique, lively, and creatively quirky. Why use a simple drum kit plugin, when VRAC can help you create dozens of custom kits from every random sample on your hard drive?

Learn more about VRAC at the BEATSURFING website.