Beatsurfing VRAC+ Turns One Sample Into a 16-Pad Kit
Beatsurfing VRAC+ auto-slices any audio and morphs it into kicks, snares, hats and claps across 16 pads. Full review of the paid upgrade to free VRAC.
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Beatsurfing released VRAC+ in late July 2026, the paid, feature-complete version of the free VRAC it shipped earlier that month. The premise has not changed, and it is a good one. Feed it any audio, and it hands back a drum kit built from that sound.
What VRAC+ adds is control. The free version gets you to a playable kit fast, then stops. VRAC+ doubles the pads, adds an auto-slicer, and records audio straight from your DAW. Every pad gets its own shaping tools, and the kit spreads across eight stereo output pairs so you can mix it properly.
What is VRAC+?
VRAC+ is a sample-based drum instrument built around one idea the developer calls drumification. Load a sample: a vocal take, a field recording, a guitar chord. A large Drumify control pushes it through an engine that reshapes it into a percussive hit. An X/Y pad then morphs that hit across kick, snare, hat and clap models. The same source becomes four different drum characters depending on where you sit on the pad.
Every element shares a source, so the kit hangs together by default. That is a different job from what most drum plugins do. XLN Audio XO and Battery 4 organise and trigger one-shots you already own. VRAC+ makes the one-shots. If you have ever built a kit from five sample packs and spent an hour EQing them into agreement, the appeal is obvious.
Beatsurfing is the Liège-based developer trading as DRUW Audio, known for creative instruments like LunchTable and RANDOM. VRAC+ is its newest instrument.
What's new in VRAC+?
Auto-slicing. The free VRAC makes you set the sample start point by hand. VRAC+ runs a slicer that detects every transient in the source, with a sensitivity control governing how aggressive the detection gets. Step between hits with the arrow keys, jump to a random slice for a surprise, or add, move and delete slices yourself. On a two-minute drum break or a long field recording, that turns a chore into a workflow.
Record In. VRAC+ captures audio through the plugin's sidechain or audio input. Route a DAW track or a live input, hit REC, and the take lands in your recorded-samples folder ready to drumify. No bouncing, no file management, no leaving the plugin.
16 pads with real per-pad shaping. The free version gives you 8 pads and a fixed drumification blend. VRAC+ gives you 16, each with its own tool set. Warp is a three-band dynamic reshaper. Impact handles transients, and Instability randomises every hit so repeated triggers avoid the machine-gun effect. Tone Shift is a spectral shifter, Super adds saturation and stereo width, and every pad also gets a 3-band EQ. That is a full sound-design chain per pad, not a global tone knob.
Deeper velocity response. In VRAC, velocity controls volume. In VRAC+ it also drives Length and Tone Shift, so playing harder changes the tail and the timbre, not just the level. On hats and claps, that alone makes programmed parts sound less rigid.
Global controls. A global Tone Shift, a DJ-style low-pass and high-pass Filter, Transpose and Volume steer the whole kit at once. It is a quick way to seat a kit in a track without touching sixteen pads.
Multi-out mixing. Every pad routes to one of eight stereo output pairs. The kick gets its own channel, the snare gets its own bus, and you mix the kit like a multitrack drum session rather than one stereo stem. You can drag a single pad out to your DAW as audio, or drag the whole 16-pad kit at once.
Performance and automation. MIDI Learn works on any parameter, and choke groups behave as you would expect on hats. Settings copy across pads or across drumification models in one click.
A foley-recorded sound library. Beyond your own material, VRAC+ ships a curated library recorded for the plugin with Olivier Thys, a Brussels-based professional foley artist. It is raw material meant to be mangled, not finished drum sounds.
Presets travel both ways. Existing VRAC presets and preset packs open natively in VRAC+, and VRAC loads VRAC+ presets too — the free version simply ignores the advanced settings. Nobody loses work by upgrading.
VRAC+ specifications
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type | Sample-based drum instrument with drumification engine |
| Pads | 16 (free VRAC: 8) |
| Per-pad tools | Warp, Impact, Instability, Tone Shift, Super, 3-band EQ |
| Global controls | Tone Shift, Filter (low-pass / high-pass), Transpose, Volume |
| Slicing | Auto Slicer with sensitivity; add, move, delete, jump to random slice |
| Recording | Direct from DAW or live input, up to 2 minutes |
| Max sample length | Up to 60 minutes (free VRAC: 60 seconds) |
| Velocity targets | Volume, Length, Tone Shift (free VRAC: Volume) |
| Outputs | 8 stereo pairs (free VRAC: 1) |
| Export | Drag out a single pad or the whole 16-pad kit |
| Sound library | Curated library recorded with a professional foley artist |
| macOS formats | AU, VST, VST3, AAX |
| Windows formats | VST, VST3, AAX |
| macOS requirement | macOS 10.13+, Intel or Apple Silicon, 1.16GB free disk |
| Windows requirement | Windows 10+, 2GHz processor, 1.03GB free disk |
| Licence | Activates on 3 devices; 14-day refund policy |
VRAC+ vs XLN Audio XO
Both plugins solve the same problem — a kit that sounds like five different records — from opposite ends. XO maps the thousands of one-shots you already own by character, so you can find sounds that belong together. VRAC+ browses nothing — it manufactures the kit from a single source.
| Beatsurfing VRAC+ | XLN Audio XO | |
|---|---|---|
| Core idea | Generate a kit from one source sound | Organise and audition existing one-shots |
| Sound source | Your audio, DAW recordings, included foley library | 8,700+ bundled one-shots plus your own library |
| Pads / slots | 16 pads | 8 slots with visual Genius Space browsing |
| Per-slot processing | Warp, Impact, Instability, Tone Shift, Super, EQ | Per-slot effects |
| Sequencer | None — play or program from your DAW | Built-in step sequencer with 240+ beat presets |
| Outputs | 8 stereo pairs | Multi-out |
| Install size | Around 1.1GB | Large, sample-heavy install |
| Price | Not yet listed publicly | Around 149 EUR, frequently discounted |
Which one you want depends on where your sounds come from. If you own a big one-shot library and the problem is finding the right kick, XO is the better tool, and it is available through Best Service. If the problem is that everyone's kicks sound the same, VRAC+ is the answer, because your raw material is whatever you point a microphone at. The two also coexist: drumify a source in VRAC+, drag the kit out, and file the results into XO.
For a straight multisampled drum instrument with deep per-cell editing, Battery 4 remains the conventional choice. It does a different job again.
Who VRAC+ is for
VRAC+ suits producers who care about sonic identity, especially in electronic, hip-hop, experimental and score work. Percussion that is unrecognisable as a stock sample sets a track apart, and few tools get there faster. Sound designers get an obvious use too: any recording becomes a playable percussion instrument in about a minute.
It also makes sense if you already use the free VRAC and keep hitting its edges. Those are the 8-pad limit, the single stereo output, the 60-second sample ceiling and the manual sample start. VRAC+ removes all four, and preset compatibility keeps the upgrade painless.
Who should skip it? Anyone who needs realistic acoustic drums with round-robins, velocity layers and articulation switching wants a different category of tool. If you build kits from commercial one-shot packs and your workflow is already fast, VRAC+ solves a problem you do not have. And if you want a sequencer built in, look at Chopgrid instead — VRAC+ leaves sequencing to your DAW on purpose.
How much does VRAC+ cost?
This is the one place where the picture is incomplete. Beatsurfing lists VRAC+ on its store as Early Bird only, ahead of a public release stated for late July 2026. As of publication, the company has not published a list price. The Early Bird programme is automatic for existing Beatsurfing customers and typically runs for around two weeks before a public release.
For context, Beatsurfing's other instruments list between 79 and 149 EUR before discounts on the company's own store. That says nothing definitive about VRAC+. Its price will appear alongside them once it goes fully public.
Two things are already firm. The free VRAC stays free, and it is the intended way to try the concept. Beatsurfing states plainly that there is no separate VRAC+ trial, because VRAC is the light version. VRAC+ also carries a 14-day, no-questions refund policy, and each licence activates on three devices across macOS or Windows.
FAQ
What is the difference between VRAC and VRAC+?
VRAC is free and gets you a kit fast: 8 pads, one stereo output, manual sample start, a fixed drumification blend and 60-second samples. VRAC+ adds auto-slicing, DAW recording, 16 pads with full per-pad sound design, 8 stereo output pairs, 60-minute sample support and global filtering. Presets work in both directions.
Is there a trial version of VRAC+?
No. Beatsurfing treats the free VRAC as the light version and points buyers there instead. A 14-day refund policy covers VRAC+ if it does not fit your workflow.
Can VRAC+ record audio directly?
Yes. Route a DAW track or a live input to the plugin's sidechain or audio input and hit REC. Recordings of up to two minutes land in your recorded-samples folder, ready to slice and drumify without leaving the plugin.
What are VRAC+'s system requirements?
macOS 10.13 or later on Intel or Apple Silicon with 1.16GB of free disk space, or Windows 10 or later with a 2GHz processor and 1.03GB free. Formats are AU, VST, VST3 and AAX on macOS, and VST, VST3 and AAX on Windows.
Does VRAC+ have a sequencer?
No. VRAC+ is a playable instrument rather than a groovebox, so you trigger and program it from your DAW. Everything is MIDI-learnable, choke groups work as expected, and you can drag pads or the full kit out as audio when the part is done.
Verdict
VRAC+ takes a clever free plugin and gives it the depth it needed. The auto-slicer is the biggest single change, because it turns "find the transient" into "pick a hit". The per-pad tools mean you can finish a kit inside the plugin instead of repairing it later with six insert effects. Eight stereo output pairs is the detail that matters most at mixdown.
The caveats are real. Every kit carries the character of its source, the drumification models are morph targets rather than editable engines, and the public price is still unposted. None of that undermines the tool. If you want percussion that sounds like nobody else's, this is one of the shortest routes there. Our best drum machines of 2026 guide and the d16 PunchBox 2 review cover the neighbouring options if you want to compare first.
