Toontrack launches Drum & Bass EZX with live kits and breakbeat grooves

Toontrack has aimed its new Drum & Bass EZX at a very specific problem: getting drum-and-bass power that still feels played, not pieced together bar by bar. Built for EZdrummer 3 and Superior Drummer 3, the expansion mixes live-kit impact with the programming flexibility and sonic vocabulary that modern DnB production demands.

That balance starts with the lineup behind it. Toontrack developed the library with drummer Andy Gangadeen and producer, mixer, engineer and DJ Peter Chapman, better known as Erb N Dub. Gangadeen’s resume runs through Massive Attack, Rudimental, Chase & Status, Fatboy Slim, Soul II Soul, James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Chaka Khan, while Chapman has worked with Fatboy Slim, Killer Hertz and TC. The result is less a generic genre pack than a set of sounds shaped by musicians who already speak the language of UK dance floors and live-band crossover.

The library includes four acoustic drum kits, electronic drum machine sounds, percussion, effects, MIDI grooves and presets, so the shortcut is not just about speed, but about range. Toontrack says the grooves were curated by Gangadeen and Chapman, and Chapman also supplied mix-ready presets. For producers building a track fast, that means immediate access to a hybrid palette that can cover crisp break patterns, heavier programmed layers and the kind of accents that keep a loop moving without sounding rigid.

The studio side matters just as much. Toontrack said the sessions were recorded at Rimshot Studio in Kent, UK, using an SSL desk and a vintage Decca valve console. Many microphones were driven through the Decca preamps for warm saturation and natural compression, and a dedicated horn mic spill channel was added to recreate the feel of classic breakbeat recordings. Toontrack also pointed to the Amen Break and Funky Drummer as key inspirations, which places the release squarely in the lineage of sampled drum history while still keeping one foot in contemporary production.

Listed at USD 89, Drum & Bass EZX is the kind of expansion that makes sense when the job is not to reinvent DnB from scratch, but to get there faster with more life in the hits. For anyone who wants live-feeling drums, breakbeat character and enough electronic control to keep the track club-ready, Toontrack has built a direct route into the style.