In this article, we delve into the world of Drum & Bass production and unveil ten must-have plugins that can elevate your tracks from good to extraordinary.
Over the past few months, while interviewing some of the most exciting D&B production talent around, we took time to pick their brains and tease out the all important information on how they use their most trusted audio plugins! We’ve compiled excerpts from these interviews with key artists, who are all making waves right now, to give you an insight into the workflow of these popular artists.
Collectively the D&B artists featured in this article have had releases on premiere drum & bass labels such as Hospital Records, Device, LoveThatBass, UKF, Viper Recordings, Playaz, DarkMttr, Liquicity Records, Elevate, Suburban Base, DnB Allstars & Low Down Deep!
10 Essential D&B Plugins
Let’s dive in and discover the ten must-have plugins that will revolutionize your sound, catapult your tracks to new sonic dimensions, and elevate your music to extraordinary levels!
We posed the question to each artist; Do you have a go to plug-in that you use on every track? If so, how do you use it? Here are their responses…
Jaydan (Playaz / DarkMttr)
“Probably the Waves Rcomp, It’s as old as the hills but it works for me and I always use it when doing parallel compression on my drums”
Anaïs (Hospital Records)
“I love Addictive Drums and all the breaks and fills it comes with; Couldn’t live without that at the moment. I use it to add interesting variety to my drums and make them sound more human!”
Smooth (Ram Records / Eatbrain)
“Zebra2 is a plugin I’ve been loving very much lately. It has got a very organic sound and I always use it for intro leads and atmospheres!”
Kendrick (Sweet Tooth / Low Down Deep)
“Can’t give away too much here! But Fabfilter Saturn is a go to every time. I love the brightness you can bring out in your track from it. The Slate bundle has some great bits in as well for some shimmer and shine.”
Waypoint (Ram Records / DnB Allstars)
“If I really had to pick, it would probably be kiloHeart’s Multipass. It’s a versatile effects plugin that combines all of the kiloHearts FX plugins with LFO and macro capabilities. Just great for adding interesting movement to your sounds.”
Georgia Phoenix (Device / LoveThatBass)
“I use the Ableton built in plugin’s a lot!! I think it’s super important to make sure the dry sound is as good as you can get, then use plugins to enhance what is there already. I really like Cableguys plugins though, they’re so so good!”
T & Suga (UKF / Liquicity Records)
“In a world without Serum our favourite plugin would be ‘Endless Smile‘. It’s a one-knob riser plugin. You can simply put the plugin on a channel, bus or even the master, select one of the 7 presets and turn the big knob to create a buildup.”
“Behind the hood this plugin uses filters, reverbs, pitch effects and noises etc to do that, but you don’t have to worry about any of this haha. It simply works great and is really fun to use.”
Kbyat (Device / LoveThatBass)
“I enjoy using a lot of stock FL Studio plugins to try and show people that you don’t need to spend all your money to make good music. I use the stock FL studio plugin “Maximus” alot in my production.”
FreezeUK (Program / Liondub International)
“I have a few favourites I couldn’t do without but my most favourite is Serum. I can literally make a full track with just that! It’s such a powerful synth!”
Marvellous Cain (Suburban Base / Jungle Cakes)
“I’ve got more or less every plugin that I need to use from FabFilter, to the Sonnox bundles. Everything in one box!”
Free Plugins
Can’t afford the selection of plugins that have been recommended in this article? Make sure you check out the 5 Essential Free Plugins compiled by self confessed ‘plugin whore‘ AKAS which won’t cost you a penny to download!
He’s chosen a handful of plugins that he uses regularly… All of them are great free downloads & extremely useful tools for any drum & bass producer
Find Samples For Your Tracks
Inspired to make some music after hearing how the samples in the video above were used? Sign up to Loopcloud to get access to a whole world of samples & presets.
Loopcloud allows you to shape millions of royalty-free samples to your sound… Quickly find the sound you need with AI‑powered harmonic and rhythmic sound matching, similar sound recommendations and adjustable audio search filters. Find out more on the official Loopcloud website.
LoveThatBass is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
