Review: DB-30 Drum Butter by XLN Audio 

“Another drum plugin? Really?”

That’s what I thought when DB-30 Drum Butter by XLN landed in my review queue. Especially since I already have XLN’s RC -20 Retro Colour and DS- 10 Drum Shaper installed and in use on nearly every production and mix. I’m a big fan of XLN’s effects, but what’s left to do for drums?

At first glance, DB-30 just looks like XLN dropped those previous two plugins into a blender, spun them round, and repackaged the bits. By the time I first opened DB-30, I’d convinced myself it was nothing new and covered ground already well trodden by previous XLN offerings. Did Drum Butter manage to convince me otherwise, or is my wallet safe from another XLN plugin purchase? Let’s find out!

Designer’s Delight

I would argue that the DB-30 Drum Butter user interface is perhaps the best of any plugin released in recent years. XLN Audio have managed to find the perfect intersection of playful, colourful, fun, and practical. It feels like a plugin that the designers had an absolute ball designing.

Everything about DB-30 is designed to be instantly engaging. It’s as simple to use and understand as a one-knob plugin, while also providing an insanely staggering amount of control at each stage. 

The plugin is split into six modules: Boom/Shack, Shift, Space, Compress, Saturate, and More. Below the modules are global controls for EQ, transient shaping, and level management. At the top of the interface are the preset menu and a huge Magnitude slider, which acts as a mix knob.

Each of Drum Butter’s modules includes a lovely graphic visualisation which is program-dependent and reacts based on the current settings and activity. Four of the modules (all save Boom/Shack and More on the far ends) can be reordered to customise the chain of signal processing.

We’d Butter Zoom In…

…for a closer look. Let’s step through the modules: 

Boom / Shack: The first module is actually two processors built into a single knob with two nested controls. Boom (the inner knob) adds low-end material, while the outer Shack adds high-end character.

Mind you, these aren’t your usual exciter and sub generator; they add a lot more than most, with the fine tuning to match. DB-30 includes a whole panel of controls, including pitch, decay and colour, for the Boom. Shack offers multiple character options via a hidden drop-down menu, as well as stereo image control and something called Acid.

Acid adds substantial character that’s difficult to explain but fits the name perfectly. The subtle detail of the smiley face following your cursor is also a lot of fun. And providing the option to apply these effects in post indicates the amount of thought XLN have given to the different ways in which the plugin could be used.

Shift: This module is a frequency shifter with a difference. They way the frequency control and the formant control interact really takes this effect to another level. These two controls can also act with inverse effects. Shift includes a Target slider to select a frequency region to target and another Focus slider to zone in further. The Focus slider is also present in most of the other modules.

Space: This is the most familiar effect among Drum Butter’s modules. It’s a reverb with all the usual controls, including predelay, decay, and duck.

But even here, there’s something new in the form of a control called Stretch. This plays with the perceived size of the virtual room, yielding very interesting results. Space also includes multiple types of reverb via a small drop-down menu.

Compress:  At first glance, Compress seems like the sort of bare-bones compressor you’d find tacked onto an effects plugin — but this one is quite expansive! It has a wide range of modes, including an OTT-style option, as well as a very nifty slider to blend upward and downward compression. 

Saturate: This one packs quite a punch with six different modes — but it doesn’t stop there. Saturate includes a couple of novel and useful controls called Choke and Hype.

As above, the names for these controls match the functions perfectly. Choke appears to add a very rounded-off sort of saturation, almost like a thickening effect, while Hype adds a “poky” sort of saturation that helps audio cut through a mix.

More: The final module is a waveshaper and clipper combined into a saturation max package. And like everything else in DB-30, it does what it says on the tin. More has four levels, so you can dial it in at subtle amounts or nuke the signal to oblivion. At either extreme, nearly everything passed through gains character that could be useful, depending on the situation.

Funmaxxing

DB-30 Drum Butter is a testament to the results of developers just focusing on building something fun. This is a powerful tool disguised as a toy. Five minutes into testing (all right, playing) with this plugin, I was sold on it.

Most effects plugins include a bunch of presets, but too often those presets don’t work well in real-world situations. But with Drum Butter, nearly every preset sounds great and ready for practical use. They’ve clearly been carefully crafted and curated; the names are clear and controls are on point, which makes navigating DB-30 presets intuitive and fluid.

Indeed, it’s easy to scroll through the Drum Butter presets and pick out favourites with little additional faff. But if you want to get your hands dirty, you can also tweak away till the drum dairy cows come home. DB-30 provides an impressive amount of control, with results from individual adjustments being smooth and predictable.

The global controls in Drum Butter are adequate; the Air control really helps to restore sheen after all the processing from the other modules. Attack and Release help you to tame transients as you like. The Clipper is quite transparent and works without a lot of fuss. The EQ section is quite interesting. The controls resemble those for a simple high-pass/low-pass filter, but along with the Tone knob, the EQ becomes a very satisfying way to deal with the overall tonality of the source. 

Drum Good, Drum Butter, Drum Best

In the end, I don’t have a single negative thing to say about XLN’s DB-30 Drum Butter. Initially, I thought an advanced EQ might give more control, but later realised that would defeat the purpose of this plugin.

From design to function, DB-30 is intended to let you play rather than think — and it achieves that beautifully. Everything about the plugin’s layout and theme is meant to encourage exploration, as opposed to being concise and surgical with the effects.

Besides Drum Butter’s “fun” factor, certain modules like the compressor and reverb are good enough to use on their own, on any material. I find myself using the compressor alone on everything from basses to guitars, synths, and even vocals. While this plugin is amazing on drums, as intended, you’re really missing out if you don’t give it a go on synths and vocals, as well.

Suffice it to say XLN Audio got me again. DB-30 might look like some of their other plugins, but it’s a carnival of fun and powerful effects all its own. 

Buy XLN Audio DB-30 Drum Butter from our partners at Plugin Boutique.

Learn more about DB-30 Drum Butter at the XLN Audio website.