Every drum but the kick, locked to it
Nebula Drums is a 12-pad drum instrument for everything in the kit except the kick, with synthesis and samples in every pad. It knows where the kick is, so each pad can duck, nudge or skip around it.
Also in Nebula Complete and All Access.
Highlights
What sets it apart
Kick Link
Each pad can duck under the kick, nudge a hit off it, or skip hits on it. It reads exact kick hits from Nebula DAW or a MIDI note 36, or Kick's length and pitch from Nebula Link.
Synth and sample in every pad
Six synthesis engines (Metal, Membrane, Clap, Tone, Modal, Noise) plus a sample layer, blended per pad.
No machine gun, and bit-identical bounces
Every hit varies slowly, seeded by its musical position, so a bounce matches playback and playing from bar 5 gives the same hits as playing from bar 1.
Features
Everything in Nebula Drums
Sound
- 12 pads, six synthesis engines and a sample layer per pad
- Samples as WAV or AIFF, held in RAM
- Per-pad effects chain and a kit bus with two returns
- Choke groups and key lock for tonal pads
Sequencer
- 16 patterns per kit, per-step velocity, probability, ratchet and nudge
- Groove styles: Full-on, Progressive, Dark / Forest, Goa
- Euclidean rhythms and variations with locks
- Drag-out of MIDI and audio
Kit
- Morph between the kit and a stored Kit B
- Render every pad to its own labelled stem in one press
- 1 stereo or 16 stereo outputs
Nebula Link
Works with the rest of the range
In Logic it reads Nebula Link v1, the region Nebula Kick publishes, for the kick's length and pitch, and assumes a kick on every beat. Exact kick hits come from Nebula DAW or from a MIDI note 36 on any channel.
Claude
Claude can help
In Nebula DAW, Claude can read the settings map, get and change any pad or kit control, read and write patterns, apply a groove style or a Euclidean rhythm, make variations, play a pad, and list, load and save kits.
Measured
What the tests show
- pluginval strictness 10 SUCCESS on AU and VST3; auval passed on arm64 and x86_64 under Rosetta (validate.log: ALL GREEN)
- Realtime contract: no allocation under the audio callback (rt.log)
- Host check through Apple's render API: 50 instances all sound and stay finite; saved, closed, reopened: 50 of 50 the same bits
- A note scheduled for sample 4800 sounds at 4800
- A full kit with its pattern, 32 bars at 145 BPM: 2.8% of one core
- Kick Duck equals its formula to 8.1e-8 over 2,864 samples; kick markers reach the engine 0 samples off in Nebula DAW
Questions
Nebula Drums FAQ
Does it play kicks?
No. Note 36 is left to Nebula Kick on purpose. Drums covers hats, claps, snares, rides, crashes, toms, percussion and FX.
How does it know where my kick is in Logic?
Copy the kick's region onto the Drums track: note 36 on any channel counts as a kick hit. Without that, it reads Nebula Kick's length over Nebula Link and assumes a kick on every beat.
Can I use my own samples?
Yes. Each pad has a sample layer for WAV or AIFF, held in RAM so a bounce matches playback.
Can I route pads to separate tracks?
Yes. Choose the 16 stereo output layout: bus 1 is the main mix and buses 2 to 13 are pads 1 to 12.
What does it need?
macOS 11 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel. It loads as AU or VST3 in Logic, Ableton Live, Bitwig, Cubase, FL Studio, Reaper and Nebula DAW.
Try Nebula Drums free for 30 days
Download, install, and every product runs fully for 30 days. No account and no card needed. Buy the ones you keep.