by Brian Benoni
Brian Benoni operates a busy YouTube channel and website BenoniStudio.com, where he thoroughly reviews various music software and hardware.
We are delighted to have had him review our entire collection of Handy Drums plugins. He really dug in and demonstrated all of the bits and pieces and the various sounds of the whole collection.
Read the overview on his blog or better yet, watch the video below.
Get all the details about the Handy Drums collection of drum plugins.
“Review Of The BEST Drum Software Available”
by Reggae Drummer Dominik
Before officially launching the GoranGrooves Library, an excellent Reggae drummer/ producer, Dominik, stumbled upon our Handy Drums- REGGAE STANDARD VST plugin. He liked it so much that he decided to make a video review of the drumset.
We think he did an incredible job playing the virtual drums using his e-drums and keyboard and giving an overview of the software. Dominik is a very musical individual, and we know you will enjoy his presentation thoroughly.
Get all the details about the Handy Drums- REGGAE STANDARD plugin.
Below is the transcription of his video.
OVERVIEW OF HANDY DRUMS- REGGAE STANDARD PLUGIN
What’s up, everyone? I hope you’re having a fantastic day.
If you follow my channel, you know that I’m always looking for the best Reggae sounds on electronic drumset, and this time I found a real diamond.
There’s a brand new software called Handy Drums Reggae Standard. It’s produced by Goran Rista, a professional drummer and producer, and as you could already hear in the sound example, it sounds fantastic! It’s very warm, full, and punchy, in my opinion, and you get a pre-mixed drum kit right out of the box. You don’t have to worry about processing or manipulating too much. You just connect your drum kit or use it with your keyboard if you like or with midi loops, and you have an awesome Reggae sound.
The best thing about it is it costs only $35, so it is really affordable, and you get a lot for this little price. You have a vast selection of kit pieces: you get two different snares, one main and the side snare. You have four toms. You have lots of cymbals, including crash right, splash, and china cymbals. And another amazing thing is you get a lot of percussion instruments which are very useful and regularly used in Reggae music.
You can use this software as a plugin in your DAW, or you can use it standalone. Just open it up on your PC, connect your electronic drumset and have fun. You don’t need any other software or sampler like Kontakt or Superior Drummer. You just pay 35 bucks and have a fully functional drum software.
FUNCTIONALITY OF HANDY DRUMS- REGGAE STANDARD PLUGIN
So, let’s jump to the computer and let me show you what it looks like.
The interface is very user-friendly. You have all the necessary things visible. Here you have all the different kit pieces, and if you click on a kit piece, you hear a sound. For example, kick drum, the snare. The snare drum offers a side stick as well. You have the hi-hats, a ride cymbal, crash cymbals, splash, and china cymbal.
On the other tab, you’ll find the percussion instruments. Here’s the auxiliary side snare and different percussion instruments. In the bottom left corner, you have a possibility to view a keyboard where you can see the mapping, the current mapping. And if you want to change the mapping, you click on the symbol with the key and simply choose the note you want the kit piece to be mapped to. So, it’s very easy to handle.
Then, you have the routing option on this button here. You can route the different kit pieces to multiple outputs. This way if you use a DAW, you can have multiple tracks and continue processing each kit piece individually. Add reverb, delay, and effects only to the kit piece that you want to.
One special (thing) about this software is the variable hats controller curve. This means that by using the CC4 modulation wheel on your keyboard, you can trigger the openness or the hi-hats. So, you have a very smooth curve and a very realistic feeling as it would be on a real hi-hat.
If you use e-drums, you can adjust this curve manually by hand and just play around until you feel that the opening of the hi-hat is just fine for your individual electronic drum kit.
CONCLUSION
Yeah, guys, that’s basically it.
It’s very simple, but very powerful and very, very good-sounding software. I use it almost exclusively nowadays for my productions, as well as for clients’ works and I can recommend it 100%.
It’s cutting through every mix and it just sounds awesome on Roots Reggae tracks, as well as on modern Reggae tracks. You can hear the drumset in action on my website reggaebeats.net.
If you check out the latest beats that I uploaded there, you will hear this drumkit and you can also use my reggae drumset essentials midi pack with it if you load it up in a DAW. Use my midi loops and have a great drum groove instantly. Find everything in the description, please.
You will also find links there on where to buy the software and also my midi pack.
If you have any questions, please just them in the comment section below and if you find this video helpful, please leave a like. Subscribe to the channel to never miss another video and Reggae music. I wish you lots of fun with this great piece of software. Have fun making Reggae music and all the best!
Reggae Drummer Dominik