one is image line's drummax (the beta versions were called drummatrix) that i posted about earlier. it is finally seeing a full release version under a pay-what-you-will model (minimum $13, with $1 going to haiti relief efforts). i ordered a copy today, but since their orders are processed manually, i guess i won't get the download until this coming week. the beta version was pretty promising, and it's hard to argue with the price. i'll be interested to see what improvements were made in the final version. they also added a single-pad version of the plug-in which should be great to throw a bunch of instances into an ableton drum rack.
the second is drumspillage by the new company audiospillage. this mac-only plug-in is set for a march release, but there is a mini version available now. drumspillage promises multiple different models for different types of sounds, as opposed to drummax's one-model-does-it-all approach.
i downloaded the mini version and played with it a bit, and i was not exactly blown away. the mini version has three models: bass drum, wood drum, and electro hihat. the bass drum sounded pretty much like any other bass drum synth you've heard before. the wood drum was whatever. the electro hi-hat was the best model included and seemed pretty useful and flexible. i sounds basically like it's stacking a bunch of pulse waves and some noise, then running it through a couple of band-pass filters. so nothing revolutionary synthesis-wise, but depending on the quality of the other models in the full version, it could be pretty useful to have all these packed into one plug-in.
on a side-note, i've found the percussion synthesis section of this tutorial to be useful in the past if any of you want to mess with making your own drum sounds from scratch. this whole tutorial is focused on the nord modular, but should be pretty easy to adapt to reaktor or max/msp or something. the filter techniques section is also highly recommended. i found this site years ago, but have come back to it a lot over the years.
