4 Best VST Plugins To Make Kick 2025

If there’s one element that defines the foundation of modern pop and electronic music, it’s the kick drum. That’s why today we look at top VST plugins to make kick for you to add that punch to your mixes.

It doesn’t matter if you are creating a chart-topping pop anthem or a floor-shaking festival banger; a punchy, perfectly tuned kick is the element driving the rhythm and setting the energy of a track.

With years of experience and trial-error, I have learned that getting the kick drum right is crucial for making a good mix. It is never just about volume but about the tone, texture, and how it interacts with everything else in the track. Yes, samples are great, at least as starting points, but they often fall short in terms of customization.

A sample might sound amazing on its own, but, for example, it may clash with the key of your song or lack the exact character you’re looking for. That’s exactly where kick drum plugins come to save the day.

These VSTs help you create kick sound from scratch with their ability to adjust the pitch to match it with the track’s key, fine-tuning the envelope for the right decay and attack, deciding the octave to have a solid punch, and even capacity to layer sounds for more depth and authenticity.

From my experience, plugins let you create your own signature sound. Whether you’re chasing that deep, rumbling bass for techno or the sharp, punchy hits for pop, the right plugin puts the power in your hands.

1. Sonic Academy KICK 3

KICK 3 is one of the best kick vst plugins out there. It lets you craft your kick samples, offering tools to tweak, layer, and fine-tune every detail. 

I enjoyed the plugin workflow as it is really simple. You start by simply dragging and dropping your favorite kick samples directly into it, and from there, KICK 3 isolates the transient and resynthesizes the sub-bass, giving you unparalleled control over each element of your sound.

One feature I find useful is that it lets you extract a kick drum from a full track. KICK 3 lets you isolate and refine kicks like never before.

• Up to 5 Independent Layers

For sound design enthusiasts, KICK 3’s layering capabilities let you stack up to 5 independent layers, blending subs, clicks, noise, and textures to build fuller and unique kicks. I appreciate that it allows you to manipulate each layer with high-quality Bezier curves for smooth transitions and precise control over pitch and amplitude.

• Selective Keytracking

This VST also features Selective Keytracking, meaning that you can have specific nodes in the sub-layers to follow key changes closely while keeping the rest static. With this feature the kick remains with a solid low-end foundation, independent from the key of the track.

• 4-band EQ

I love that it also has a powerful 4-band EQ with real-time spectral analysis, as when you pair it with the rest of the features, you get precise control over the kick’s frequencies.

• FX Suite

KICK 3 also has some choices in terms of FX Suite, including distortion, compression, reverb, delay, and more. It allows you to add the effects to individual layers or the entire kick, letting you fine-tune every detail. Plus, the built-in master limiter is great for hard-hitting kicks without clipping or distortion.

• Over 540 Presets

The preset section is rich with over 540 expertly crafted sounds, while the intuitive interface makes tweaking and navigating through presets pretty easy.

• TRIGGER Feature

The TRIGGER feature is one of my favorite additions in the plugin as it allows me to use a reference track as a sidechain input to automatically trigger KICK 3 without the tedious task of programming MIDI. I found this function to be a real time-saver as it opens up the road for a quick workflow with many different possibilities.

For instance, you can seamlessly replace, or layer kicks in production while keeping everything in perfect sync with your reference track.

• Logarithmic and Linear Workflows

Another feature I’ve come to appreciate is the ability to toggle between Logarithmic and Linear workflows. If you’re like me, you prefer tweaking the sound visually. The LOG scale is perfect when I’m dialing in the pitch of my sub-bass layer. It’s incredibly precise and gives me total confidence in my adjustments.

On the flip side, the LIN scale provides a clear view of volume dynamics, making it easy to tweak the overall balance of your kick. This dual approach means the interface adapts to how you work, not the other way around.

Sonic Academy KICK 3 is available in VST, AAX, and AU plugin formats and is compatible with MacOS 10.13 (or newer) and Windows 8 or later operating systems. 

2. The Him DSP Kick Ninja

If you’re after kick drum plugin that sound perfect and unique to your track, Kick Ninja is the tool you’ve been waiting for.

Kick Ninja‘s workflow is based on its AI Import functionality: You just drag and drop any kick sample, and the AI of Kick Ninja goes into overdrive, analyzing and then re-creating the pitch and amplitude curves of the original sound.

• Deep Customization Controls

You can further adjust the attack, body, decay, and tall curves of the kick sound. Additionally, you can layer the sample with the built-in oscillator in the plugin that lets you adjust up to 4 harmonic frequencies, the fundamental pitch, and other features.

• 3 Sample Layers

In all, you have 3 sample layers that can add attack, texture, noise, or anything that will make your kick rich and multidimensional. I use this all the time to layer modern, punchy kicks with vintage textures, and this really helps in finding that perfect balance between old-school grit and modern clarity.

• Phase Locking and Time Skew

Kick Ninja’s Phase Locking and Time Skew are great for precise phase adjustments. You can lock the phase of your kick tail while tweaking the transient so that there is no weird phase issue, and it keeps the tail smooth and consistent.

• Pitch Snapping and MIDI Tracking

Further, pitch snapping and MIDI tracking also seamlessly integrate, allowing you to perfectly tune your kicks in your track’s key. This is incredibly powerful if you work on melodic tracks where the kick has to harmonize with the bass.

• Two Oversampled FX Sections

This plugin hosts two oversampled FX sections with 9 types of distortion, a compressor, and automatable filters that will let you add punch, warmth, or grit to your kicks while keeping everything under control. Other key features include undo/redo, instant visual feedback, and extreme zoom via this powerful yet intuitive interface.

The Him DSP Kick Ninja is available in VST, AAX, and AU plugin formats and is compatible with both Mac and Windows operating systems. 

3. Dawesome Chop Suey

Chop Suey offers clean and distinct kick elements with its unique sequencing approach, avoiding phasing issues and muddiness, which is super common with layered kicks. Let’s discuss this kick drum vst in more detail.

Control freaks gather here! Chop Suey allows you to individually shape every part of the kick for a punchy transient, robust body, and clean tail, all without sacrificing clarity.

• Visual Editing

The visual editing it has is a highlight, allowing you to focus on the real deal without distracting you from your workflow. For instance, if you adjust the transient, the body and tail remain unaffected.

The powerful unit has high precision, which is great for refining even the milliseconds that can be the difference in defining the character of a kick. Furthermore, its ability to visually stretch the transients offers an easier and quicker workflow with more control over your sound.

• Surgical Precision Using Curves

Each curve element of the kick can be independently manipulated, which lets you create punchy sounds without muddying the waters. Another thing I like is that this unit prevents some usual problems in the filter section, like unwanted artifacts or “zipper noise,”  as the filters respond instantly to parameter adjustments.

• Punch Protect

For even greater control, Chop Suey includes Punch Protect. This feature secures the vital low frequencies, usually below 150 Hz, that give kicks their punch, letting you modify other aspects without losing impact. Tailored for dance music producers, this tool ensures your edits won’t soften the energy of the kick.

Dawsome Chop Suey is available in AU and VST formats and is compatible with macOS 10.15 or Later (64-bit Intel or Apple Silicon) and Windows 10/11 operating systems. 

4. Matt Tytel Vital (Free)

This is easily the best kick plugin that you can get absolutely for free. While primarily known as a wavetable synthesizer, Vital offers a variety of tools and features that allow sound designers and producers to craft their own unique kicks from scratch.

I included Vital in this list for its visual approach to modulation and sound design. Though Vital isn’t strictly a kick drum plugin, its multiple oscillator architecture lets you layer various waveforms and sculpt them into punchy, rich kick sounds.

• Powerful Oscillators and Envelope Control

Whether you want a booming low-end or subtle percussive click, Vital’s oscillators, combined with its envelope control, enable fine-tuning of your kick drum’s attack, sustain, and release phases.

One of the standout features of kick sound design is the ability to drag waveforms to create the ideal body for your kick. You can adjust the amplitude envelope to dial in that perfect decay for your sub, allowing it to thump without muddying up the rest of the mix.

• Modulation Matrix

Couple that with the modulation matrix, and you have precision control over how your kick shapes dynamically, whether it’s tweaking the pitch decay, amplitude, or filter cutoff.

•  Filters and Distortion

Additionally, Vital’s filters and distortion let you add grit or smoothness to each layer, ensuring your kick fits within any genre. With its visual routing interface, you can easily assign LFOs or envelopes to pitch sweeps, allowing you to automate the movement of every element over time for more dynamic kicks.

Though it’s technically a synthesizer first, Vital’s ability to integrate custom user-loaded waveforms and process them alongside rich wavetables makes it an invaluable tool for creating kicks that cut through the mix. Not to mention, the harmonic distortion and unison controls let you experiment with your kick’s timbre.

Matt Tytel Vital is free, is available in VST, AAX, and AU formats, and runs smoothly on both MacOS and Windows. 

Definitely go ahead and give this kick vst a try.. you will love it! 🙂