Spuma.

Spuma Pads and sound controls

Every drum synthesized from scratch.

A drum machine with 23 themed kits and no samples inside: each hit is built by the plug-in when the kit loads. Bring your own samples whenever you want them.

Free. Version 0.4.0. Mac only: macOS 12 or later, Apple Silicon or Intel. Audio Unit and VST3.

  • 23 kits: Synthwave, Italo Disco, Eurodance, Percussion and Classics
  • Every sound synthesized, with velocity layers and round robins
  • Kit builder: any sound of any kit on any pad
  • Drag your own samples onto the pads, or map a whole folder in one click
  • 16 stereo outputs with one-click routing

Screenshots

Sound packs

Free, and not included in the installer: each one is a separate download. Install from Spuma: menu … > Install pack.

Horror 80s cover

Horror 80s

3 kits · 46 MB

Drums and sounds for horror soundtracks: slasher kits with huge gated toms, a haunted house of knocks, creaks, chains and thunder, and a 1977 Italian giallo kit with timpani and gong.

New Age Rituals cover

New Age Rituals

3 kits · 36 MB

Soft and organic: mallets, frame drums, kalimba, singing bowls, chimes, rainstick and ocean drum; hand drums from the temple; and an 80s new age machine kit in big halls.

Installing on your Mac

  1. Double-click the downloaded .pkg file.
  2. macOS may say it can’t verify the developer: these plug-ins aren’t notarized by Apple. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down, click "Open Anyway" and confirm.
  3. Follow the installer. It asks for your Mac password.
  4. Open your music app: the plug-in is listed under VS Studio. If Logic doesn’t show it, go to Logic Pro > Settings > Plug-in Manager > Reset & Rescan Selection. In other apps, rescan the plug-ins.

The .zip is for installing by hand: the instructions are inside.

Technical specifications

COMPATIBILITY
  • Formats: Audio Unit, VST3 (instrument)
  • Architecture: Universal binary, native on Apple Silicon and Intel
  • Operating system: macOS 12 Monterey or later
  • Audio: stereo main output plus 15 additional stereo outputs (16 in total)
  • Audio Unit hosts: Logic Pro, GarageBand, MainStage, Ableton Live, Studio One, Reaper, FL Studio, Digital Performer
  • VST3 hosts: Cubase, Nuendo, Bitwig Studio, Ableton Live, Studio One, Reaper, FL Studio
  • Multi-output: Logic Pro "Multi Output (16xStereo)"; in VST3 hosts, activate the additional outputs of the instrument
  • Not available for: Pro Tools (AAX), Windows, Linux, iOS/iPadOS.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Mac with Apple Silicon or 64-bit Intel processor

macOS 12 Monterey or later

  • RAM: 4 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended
  • Disk space: 30 MB (expansion packs: 34-44 MB each)
  • Display: 1280 × 800 or higher (plug-in window 1120 × 720)

No internet connection, account or activation required

PERFORMANCE

CPU load per instance, percentage of one core (Apple M3, dense 140 BPM groove: sixteenth notes across the kit, shared reverb on):

Style          Kit                   48 kHz    96 kHz    48 kHz, 64-sample buffer
Synthwave      Neon Boulevard        0.29 %    0.59 %    0.31 %
Italo Disco    Riviera 84            0.25 %    0.53 %    0.26 %
Eurodance      Europa 95             0.26 %    0.57 %    0.29 %
Percussion     Percussioni Latine    0.27 %    0.54 %    0.28 %
Classics       Analog Boom           0.29 %    0.60 %    0.30 %
  • Memory: 5 MB per instance, plus the loaded kit
  • Kit memory: Classics 8-42 MB · Percussion 27-32 MB · Eurodance 40-46 MB · Italo Disco 40-90 MB · Synthwave 48-82 MB

Instances using the same kit share its sounds.

  • Kit loading: sounds are synthesized in the background when a kit is loaded, on all cores but one, without interrupting playback: 0.1-0.7 seconds (Classics, Percussion), 1.6-2.8 seconds (other kits). A kit already loaded in another instance opens in 3 ms.

At sample rates above 48 kHz, kits are synthesized at 48 kHz and resampled during playback: memory and loading time do not increase.

SOUND ENGINE
  • Polyphony: 64 voices, up to 6 per pad, choke groups
  • Sample rates: 44.1 to 96 kHz
  • Sound generation: offline synthesis with 2× oversampling and half-band anti-aliasing filter; 3-4 velocity layers and 2-3 round robins per pad
  • Classics: analog drum circuits modelled from their structure (bridged-T resonators struck by the trigger pulse, square-wave oscillator banks, filtered noise)
  • Latency: zero reported latency
  • Per pad: level, pan, tune, decay, tone, drive, velocity sensitivity, start offset, reverb send, choke group, output
  • Master: shared plate reverb, glue compressor, tape saturation
  • User samples: WAV, AIFF, FLAC, CAF, MP3, M4A, on any pad; whole sample folders are mapped to the pads by file name
  • Kit builder: any pad of any kit, including installed packs, on any pad of the current kit
MIDI AND HOST INTEGRATION
  • MIDI: General MIDI drum map (kick on C1, note 36), GM percussion notes for the percussion kits, per-pad note learn, velocity
  • Outputs: one-click routing (all on Main, one output per pad, or grouped: kicks, snares, claps and rim, hats, toms, cymbals, percussion and FX)
  • Automation: 181 automatable parameters, full state recall with the project (kit, notes, user samples)
  • Sounds: 23 factory kits and an empty kit; user kits; 2 free expansion packs (Horror 80s, New Age Rituals) with 6 additional kits; kits can be exported and shared as .spumapack files
LICENCE

Free. All sounds synthesized by VS Studio: no third-party samples.

Audio Units, Logic Pro, GarageBand, MainStage and macOS are trademarks of Apple Inc. VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. All other product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

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