Beat DownDrum distortion effect · grit for your drums, the sub and the hits kept
The only drum distortion plugin you'll ever need to make your drums hit dirty.
Distort your drums on purpose and keep what matters: snares that crack and spit, kicks with a fuzzy edge, the kick's sub kept clean and every hit kept sharp, at the same loudness. Four distortion characters made for drums, at zero latency.
- Use it on 5 computers per copy
- Lifetime updates
- 90-day money-back guarantee
- Download link in minutes
- VST3, AU and AAX, Windows and macOS
- Try it free
Formats and DAWs
Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit): VST3 and AAX
macOS 11 or later: VST3, AU and AAX
Works in any 64-bit DAW that loads VST3, AU or AAX plug-ins.
Licence
Use it on up to five of your own computers per copy you buy. Yours for good, no subscription. Unlock it with your email and a six-digit code, no dongle and no password. It checks in now and then and works offline in between.
Delivery
Download links by email within about five minutes, and always in your account under Downloads.
Hear the difference
The same drums, without and with Beat Down.
Hip-hop break, crunched
A boom-bap drum loop · Drum Crunch (the default)
Live rock kit, garage grit
A dry rock kit · Rock / Garage Grit (AMP, DRIVE 60 %, MIX 50 %)
Trap kit, hard clipped
A programmed trap kit · Trap / Clipped Kit (CLIP, DRIVE 55 %)
House beat, bit crushed
A programmed house loop · Lo-Fi / Bit Crush (CRUSH, DRIVE 50 %)
Head-nod beat, dusty knock
A hip-hop drum loop · Hip-Hop / Dusty Knock (DRIVE 35 %, TONE 30 %, ATTACK 50 %)
Funk kit, sixties overdrive
A dry funk kit · Sixties / Overdriven Kit (DRIVE 65 %, TONE 35 %)
Every clip is level-matched, so the difference you hear is tone, not volume.
Beat Down in action
Why Beat Down
Distortion made for drums
Beat Down's four characters are the ones producers reach for on drums: an overdriven preamp into a fast compressor for crunch, a cranked guitar amp for fuzz, a hard clipper for loud, flat hits, and bit and sample-rate reduction for lo-fi grit. Pick one with TYPE and set how hard with DRIVE.
The sub stays round, the hits stay sharp
Distortion usually smears a kick's low end and flattens every hit. LOWS keeps the band under 120 Hz out of the distortion, clean, and ATTACK puts the clean front of each hit back on top. At the default the hits come out as sharp as the dry drums.
Grit, not volume
Every knob is level-matched and an automatic makeup holds the result to your dry drums, so turning DRIVE up adds grit you can judge, not loudness that fools you. At the default the level sits within 0.1 LU of the dry on our test loops, and the output never passes -1 dBFS.
Drive. Lows.
Two big knobs do the work: how hard your drums hit the distortion, and how much of the kick's sub stays clean.
- VST3 · AU · AAX
- Windows and macOS
- 0 ms latency
- 14 presets
The drum distortion effect
- Four characters for drums. CRUNCH, AMP, CLIP and CRUSH: cracking snares, fuzzy kicks, loud flat clipping or lo-fi grit.
- The sub stays round. LOWS keeps the band under 120 Hz out of the distortion, clean.
- The hits stay sharp. ATTACK puts each hit's clean front back over the grit.
- Grit, not volume. Level-matched at every setting, with an automatic makeup to your dry drums.
- DRIVE, LOWS, TONE (3 to 20 kHz) and ATTACK.
- CRUNCH, AMP, CLIP and CRUSH; MIX for parallel distortion in phase.
- IN and OUT meters, the GRIT, ATTACK and LOWS meters and ENGAGE.
- 14 factory presets and your own preset files; A/B, undo and redo, MIDI Learn; a window from 75 to 200 %; the full manual.
TYPE
Four ways to break a drum.
CRUNCH, AMP, CLIP and CRUSH: crunchy, fuzzy, loud and flat, or lo-fi. Switch while the track plays; the change crossfades and the level holds.
What Beat Down does
Every control has one job: drums with grit, with the low end and the hits kept.
DRIVE
From an edge to wrecked
How hard the drums hit the distortion, from a light edge to completely wrecked. Each TYPE has its own range, voiced on real drum loops, and the level is matched as you turn, so you hear the grit change, not the volume. The line under the knob reads EDGE, CRUNCH, DIRTY or WRECKED.
LOWS
The kick's sub, kept clean
The drums are split at 120 Hz before the distortion. LOWS sets how much of the band below skips it: at 100 % the sub is untouched while the rest of the kit is wrecked, at 0 % everything is distorted for a blown-out sound. The default 70 % keeps most of the sub clean.
TONE
Dark or biting
A low-pass after the distortion tames its fizz, from 3 kHz at 0 % to 20 kHz at 100 %, with the corner printed on the cap (7.7 kHz at the default). Above 50 % it also pushes the mids at 1.5 kHz into the drive, up to 6 dB, so brighter is also crunchier.
ATTACK
Hits that stay sharp
Distortion flattens the front of every hit. ATTACK puts each hit's clean front back over the distorted drums. At the default 30 % the hits come out as sharp as the dry; at 100 % even a fully wrecked kit hits harder than the dry.
TYPE
Four characters
CRUNCH, the default: an overdriven preamp into a fast compressor, for cracking, spitting snares. AMP: a cranked guitar amp, fuzzy and band-limited. CLIP: hard clipping, loud and flat. CRUSH: bit and sample-rate reduction, lo-fi and digital. A change crossfades in 20 ms.
MIX
Parallel distortion, built in
The distorted drums against your clean drums, through the same split so the blend stays in phase. The default 70 % leaves 30 % of the clean drums under the grit; turn it down for the classic parallel trick, where the clean leads and the grit fills in.
GRIT, ATTACK and LOWS meters
See what it does
Three dotted strips in the footer: how much of the drums the distortion is rewriting, the clean fronts ATTACK is putting back, and the clean low end LOWS is keeping out of the distortion.
IN, OUT and ENGAGE
Levels and a clean bypass
Meters on the way in and out, input and output gain from -24 to +24 dB as host parameters, and ENGAGE: a click-free bypass that is exactly your dry drums when off. An automatic level inside makes DRIVE mean the same on a quiet stem and a hot bus.
14 sourced presets
Start from settings that work
Snares, kits, kicks and buses: an industrial snare, garage-rock grit, an overdriven sixties kit, trap clippers, lo-fi crush, a blown-out amp, parallel grit under the clean, a fuzzy kick and more, each built from documented drum-distortion practice and level-matched to the dry.
A face that moves
See every hit tear the drum
The snare on the face tears and scorches on every hit, the cracks reaching as far as DRIVE pushes them, in the TYPE's own character: warm amber, molten orange, white-hot or pixelated. The glow under the drum follows the output and the low end LOWS keeps.
Inside the plugin
The Beat Down window: two big knobs, four characters and the meters on one page.
Every feature
Everything in Beat Down, down to the smallest switch.
35 features
The distortion
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DRIVE
From a light edge to wrecked, level-matched in every TYPE
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LOWS
Keep the band under 120 Hz clean, so the kick's sub stays round
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TONE
A darkness low-pass from 3 to 20 kHz, with a mid push into the drive above 50 %
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ATTACK
The clean front of every hit put back over the grit
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TYPE
CRUNCH, AMP, CLIP or CRUSH: four characters made for drums
Mix and output
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MIX
Parallel distortion in phase with your clean drums
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GRIT, ATTACK and LOWS meters
See how much is rewritten, what is kept sharp and what is kept clean
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Auto input level
DRIVE means the same on a quiet stem and a hot drum bus
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Level-matched
An automatic makeup holds the result to your dry drums
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Peak safety
Never past -1 dBFS while it is working
Workflow and control
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A/B compare and A>B
Two complete settings, switch in one click
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Undo and redo
Step back and forward, or press Ctrl+Z
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MIDI Learn
Take complete control of your workflow: right-click any control on the face, move a knob
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Host automation
Automate every control from your DAW
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ENGAGE
Click-free bypass, to hear the before and after
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IN and OUT meters
See the level going in and coming out at a glance
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Tooltips
Every control explains itself as you point at it
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Resizable window
75 to 200 %, and the size you pick is remembered
Presets
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14 factory presets
Starting points built from real settings producers use
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Previous and next arrows
Audition presets one click at a time
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Save your own
Keep your settings as .drumdistortionpreset preset files
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Open presets folder
Back up or share your presets in one click
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Reset to default
Back to a clean start in one step
Performance
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Zero latency
0 samples at every setting and sample rate: play through it live
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Measured CPU
About 3.5 to 6.5 % of one core, AMP the most; about 1 % more with the window open
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Mono or stereo
On a drum bus, a loop, a kit or a single drum
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Audio-reactive face
The drum head tears on every hit, in the TYPE's character
Licence and compatibility
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VST3 and AAX, Windows 7 SP1 or later
Loads in any 64-bit Windows DAW with VST3 or AAX
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VST3, AU and AAX, macOS 10.13 or later
Loads in any Mac DAW with VST3, AU or AAX, Intel or ARM
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5 computers per copy
Studio, laptop and more on one licence
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Email and code unlock
No dongle, no password, no extra app
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Works offline
No internet needed between check-ins
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Check for updates
From the plugin's menu; nothing installs without asking
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Lifetime updates
Every future update included
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Platinum priority support
Questions answered by the people who build it
How Beat Down compares
Distortion voiced for drums, with the sub and the hits protected, in one insert.
| Beat Down | Typical drum distortion plugins | |
|---|---|---|
| Made for drums | Four characters voiced on drum loops: crunch, amp, clip and crush | General distortion, set up by ear for drums |
| The kick's low end | LOWS keeps the band under 120 Hz clean, built in | An extra EQ or a parallel bus to protect it |
| The hits | ATTACK puts each hit's clean front back over the grit | Flattened, or a transient shaper added after |
| Parallel blend | MIX against the clean drums, in phase | A mix knob, or a send and a second bus |
| Level | Matched to the dry drums at every setting | Louder the more you drive |
| Latency | 0 samples at every setting | Often added by oversampling |
| Try-and-compare | A/B, A>B, undo and redo | Often missing |
| Hardware control | MIDI Learn on every control on the face | Often host automation only |
| Licence | 5 computers per copy, no dongle, works offline | Often fewer activations, or a dongle |
| Updates | Lifetime updates included | Often paid upgrades |
"Typical" describes what we commonly see in this category; it does not describe any particular product. Beat Down facts are from the plugin and its manual, October 2026.
What you get
Vox Samples
90-day money back · Thank you
Specs and system requirements
- Formats
- VST3 and AAX on Windows; VST3, AU and AAX on macOS
- Operating system
- Windows 7 SP1 or later, 64-bit; macOS 10.13 or later, universal (Intel and ARM)
- Host
- Any 64-bit DAW that loads VST3, AU or AAX plug-ins
- Channels
- Mono or stereo
- Sample rates
- Whatever your session runs at
- Latency
- 0 samples at every setting and sample rate
- Drive
- 0 to 100 % (45 % by default): how hard the drums hit the TYPE's distortion, level-matched; the panel reads EDGE, CRUNCH, DIRTY or WRECKED
- Lows
- 0 to 100 % (70 % by default): how much of the band under 120 Hz skips the distortion, clean
- Tone
- 0 to 100 % (50 % by default): a low-pass after the distortion from 3 kHz to 20 kHz (7.7 kHz by default); above 50 % a mid push at 1.5 kHz into the drive, up to +6 dB
- Attack
- 0 to 100 % (30 % by default): each hit's clean front put back over the distorted drums
- Types
- CRUNCH: an overdriven preamp into a fast compressor. AMP: a cranked guitar amp. CLIP: hard clipping. CRUSH: bit and sample-rate reduction, 8 down to 2 bits
- Mix
- 0 to 100 % (70 % by default): the distorted drums against the clean, in phase
- Fixed inside
- An automatic input level; an automatic makeup of up to 6 dB either way; a 30 Hz high-pass and a DC block after the blend
- Level
- Held to the dry drums: at the default within 0.1 LU of the dry on our test loops; every preset within about 0.3 LU by the mean. Loops already near 0 dBFS can come out about 1 LU quieter, where the safety stage works
- Output
- Never past -1 dBFS while it is working
- Presets
- 14 factory presets; your own as .drumdistortionpreset files
- Tail
- Reported to your DAW: 0.5 s
- Window
- 960 x 600 at 100 %, resizable from 75 to 200 %
- MIDI
- MIDI Learn from any controller routed to the track
- Licence
- 5 computers per copy you buy. Unlock with your email and a code we email you. Checks in now and then and works offline in between.
- Internet
- Needed once to unlock, then for the occasional check-in
90Day money-back guarantee
Our guarantee
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90-day money-back guarantee
Not for you? Email contact@voxsamples.com within 90 days for a full refund.
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5 computers per copy
Use it on up to five of your own computers per copy you buy, and move it yourself from the plugin's Licence menu.
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Lifetime updates
Every future update and upgrade of Beat Down, included.
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Platinum priority support
A real person at contact@voxsamples.com, first in line.
Try Beat Down free
The whole plugin, with the same sound as the full version and no time limit. It goes silent for a moment every few seconds; the full version never does.
Windows and macOS installers in one download. Like what you hear? Get the full version on this page, with a 90-day money-back guarantee.
Questions
How do I distort drums without losing the low end?
Put Beat Down on the drums and leave LOWS at 70 % or higher. The drums are split at 120 Hz before the distortion, and LOWS keeps that share of the band below out of it, clean, so the kick's sub stays round while the rest of the kit gets the grit. At 100 % the sub is untouched; at 0 % everything is distorted.
What is the best way to use a drum distortion plugin?
On a drum bus, a drum loop or a single drum. The default, Drum Crunch, already gives the kit a gritty, crunchy edge with the sub clean and the hits sharp. Turn DRIVE for more grit, pick a TYPE for the character, and lower MIX to tuck the grit under your clean drums.
Can I use it as a drum clipper?
Yes. TYPE CLIP is a hard clipper: loud and flat. The Trap / Clipped Kit and Trap / Hard Clip 808 presets set it up with ATTACK at 0, so no clean fronts come back over the clipped peaks.
Will my drums get louder?
No. Every knob is level-matched and an automatic makeup holds the result to your dry drums, so DRIVE changes the grit, not the volume. The output never passes -1 dBFS while it is working.
Does it do parallel distortion?
Yes, built in. MIX blends the distorted drums against your clean drums, in phase. The default 70 % leaves 30 % of the clean under the grit; Parallel / Grit Underlay sits at 35 %, where the clean leads and the grit fills in.
Does it add latency?
No. Beat Down runs at 0 samples of latency at every setting and sample rate, so you can play and record through it.
Does it work in my DAW?
Any 64-bit DAW that loads VST3, AU or AAX plug-ins, on Windows 7 SP1 or later or macOS 10.13 or later. There is no standalone app.
How many computers can I use it on?
Up to five of your own for each copy you buy. To move it, deactivate it in the plugin on the old computer and unlock it on the new one.
Does it need the internet?
Once, to unlock it with the code we email you. After that it checks in now and then and works offline in between.
Is there a manual?
Yes. The full manual explains every control, every preset and the menus, with tips. It opens from the help key (?) in the plugin's top bar, and lives at https://voxsamples.com/beat-down-drum-distortion-effect-manual.
What if it's not for me?
Request a refund from your account within 90 days.
Founder's Story
"When COVID hit, I finally had time to dive into music production—only to discover I was missing the right tools. The plugins I tried were clunky, overloaded with unnecessary features, and killed my vibe with endless tweaking. I knew there had to be a better way.
So, with my engineering background, I started making free and simple audio plugins for my producer friends. They loved them! That’s when I set out on a mission to create plugins that save you time, streamline your workflow, and keep your creativity flowing."
- Ryan Svensson (Founder & CEO)
Drums with grit. The sub and the hits kept.
Four distortion characters made for drums, the kick's sub kept clean, every hit kept sharp, at the same loudness and zero latency.
$42.55 AUDRegular price $141.86 AUD70% off
- 90-day money back
- Five computers
- Lifetime updates
Pairs with
Beat Down Drum Distortion Effect
$42.55 AUDRegular price $141.86 AUD70% off