Review: DW Drum Enhancer Plug-in by Audified

Audified has teamed up DW (Drum Workshop) to create DW Drum Enhancer, a complex effect chain VST plugin for your drum processing.

The plugin features Gate, Compression, Eq and a variety of saturation possibilities all bundled together.

The idea is to give you a quick high-quality solution for getting precisely the drum sound you’re looking for without being a sound design expert.

DW Drums company is known for very high quality and powerful sounding drum kits. You can find their sets on huge stages all over the world and they are the dream of many drummers and electronic music producers.

Audifed collaborated with their studio engineers to create the DW Drum Enhancer plugin!

The DW Drum Enhancer plugin has all components typically used for processing drums and there are all the parameters you would expect in order to forge your drum sound.

The creators suggest using one of the presets provided to get instant results.

This is not a drum bus effect but rather intended to be used on each individual drum instrument.

You can choose a preset based on the drum you are processing, the type of music you are producing.

In order to test the plugin, I’ve loaded it on to the drums of a track I’m working on.

To begin with I have a Kick drum with 3 different layered samples. Applying a preset has a huge effect on the sound. In fact, it’s completely altered my original sound and left it sounding nothing like it did before.

Adding it to each layer has the same effect. The DW Enhancer hasn’t enhanced my sound it’s completely taken it over!

On the other hand, if I take a seemly flat boring kick drum and put the desired sound as a preset on it, it’s instantly the sound I ‘m looking for. Nice, and really easy!

The kick and snare are the cornerstones of any production and there are definitely sound standards that are expected across all music genres.

The DW Enhancer plugin offers you the chance to just choose the sound you want and have it in a very high quality.

If you’re new to producing or you’re a band without professional recording equipment this tool will help you achieve a very professional drum sound for your music.

The GUI is divided into 2 sections with dynamics on the right and Eq and saturation on the left.

These parameters help you to refine the sound and and make it more your own.

You can choose between different types of dynamics based on the the kind of drum sound you would like to emulate.

This goes for Saturation too, offering 5 different types of harmonic enhancement.

I also like the handy meters for keeping an eye on the levels!

Conclusion

The DW Drum Enhancer effect plugin for drums is more than a drum enhancer, it’s a drum sound design tool promising to make your life a lot easier as far as getting your drum sounds where they need to be.

The combination of Audified and a real analogue hardware company like DW is a fantastic idea. In all, there’s a lot of expertise and wisdom in this audio plugin.

I myself like to work out my own sounds and I would like them to sound like nothing else but this is an ideal not everyone cares for or has time for.

Adding the DW Enhancer on an already slightly processed sound had undesirable effects so I’m not sure if „Enhancer“ is the proper name for this plugin but it is none the less an excellent drum processor.

If you don’t have a lot of experience with recording or producing your drum sounds than this is an incredible plugin to have and It’s extremely easy to use.

DW Drum Enhancer Plug-in by Audified is available at PluginBoutique website priced at $205.25. It works on PC and MAC being available in VST, AAX, AU plugin format.

More Details: DW Drum Enhancer