The fifth title in UJAM's Virtual Drummer Series is aimed at nu disco, synthwave and dance producers who want programmed tightness without losing the human feel.
UJAM’s Virtual Drummer NEON puts the punch of an electronic drum machine and the feel of a live player into one instrument, without making you choose between them. It’s the newest title in the company’s Virtual Drummer Series, built for nu disco, synthwave, funk, synth-pop and dance.
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Getting the tightness of programmed drums and the groove of a live player in the same track can be a tricky balance. NEON leans into that tension, pairing the impact of electronic drum machines with the dynamics of an acoustic performance. The grooves were written and mixed from a player who knows this well – musical director Nate Williams, a keyboardist who has worked with Jamiroquai and Steve Winwood.
“At its core, NEON captures the sound and energy of modern disco, but there’s so much fun to be had pushing those sounds toward rock, hip-hop and beyond,” said Williams. “I enjoyed creating grooves and mixes rooted in funk and soul that give people inspiring starting points for their own tracks while still leaving plenty of room to shape the sound and performance into something uniquely their own.”
Inside are five customisable drum kits and hundreds of performance-ready grooves, every one editable through drag-and-drop MIDI so a pattern can be reshaped note by note. Each groove works as a starting point rather than a fixed loop, ready to bend to the track. Mix presets cover the broad strokes of the sound, and the new Glam control handles the finer shaping, moving a performance from a natural acoustic feel toward the polished, punchy production heard on contemporary chart records. Turned up, it trades the live-room drummer for something tighter and more processed.
NEON runs as a VST2, VST3, AU2 or AAX plugin on macOS and Windows.
Head to UJAM to learn more.
