UJAM Beatmaker VICE 2.4.0 — Mac version

Beatmaker VICE runs happily on Intel and Apple Silicon Macs from macOS Monterey 12 all the way up to Tahoe 26. You get VST 2, VST 3, AU 2 and AAX formats in one installer, so it slots straight into Ableton Live, Logic Pro, FL Studio, Cubase, Bitwig, Reaper, Studio One, Pro Tools and Reason. The UJAM App keeps version 2.4.0 tidy.

Under the hood it's a tight collection of ten kits sampled from classic 80s drum machines, then run through modern processing so they sit in a mix without hours of tweaking. The character is all gated reverb, punchy toms and crisp snares that glue together without sounding like a museum piece.

MIDI drag and drop means you can play a pattern on the pads, drag it into your arrangement and tweak the notes by hand. No fiddly routing, just a groove you can see and edit.

Eight gig of RAM is the only real demand. If you make synthwave, retrowave or just want drums that sound like a John Hughes montage, it does the job without a pile of other plugins.

Working up a full drum track from scratch

Open your DAW, add Beatmaker VICE to an instrument track. The plug-in loads with a default kit and the pattern browser ready. Rather than reach for the keys, hit the MIDI drag tab first.

Pick a style that fits the tempo of your project — say, a punchy Linndrum-inspired groove at 110 bpm for a synthwave verse. Click through the 460 patterns using the arrow buttons. Each one previews in time with your DAW transport. Settle on a verse pattern, then drag it onto your MIDI track. You'll see the notes land in the piano roll, fully editable.

Next, find a chorus pattern from the same style family so the fills and ghost notes match. Drag that onto a new MIDI clip a few bars down. Now you've got verse and chorus skeletons in under two minutes. Open the kit browser and flick between the ten kits while the pattern plays — Crushed Gated for a dark, moody feel or Tight Simmons for something percussive and bright. The samples swap instantly, no loading lag.

Flip to the mixer page. Each drum channel has a fader and a send to the internal reverb. Pull the snare reverb up a touch — VICE's reverb already has that 80s gated tail dialled in, so a small nudge goes a long way. Mute the shaker or rimshot if the arrangement feels cluttered.

Now the secret weapon: the Time Machine knob. Crank it anti-clockwise to darken the transients and pitch the whole kit down, giving you a worn VHS texture. Push it clockwise for a brighter, faster attack that cuts through a busy chorus. Automate a small shift on the last bar of your verse to signal the transition.

Once the skeleton is happy, duplicate your MIDI clips and delete individual notes to create variation — drop the kick on the first beat of the chorus, or nudge a hi-hat pattern off the grid for swing. Drag a fill pattern from the browser onto the last bar of your eight-bar section. With MIDI drag and drop, you can keep re-dragging new fills until one clicks. Bounce or freeze the track, and you've got a cohesive drum performance that took more taste than time.

Sub weight on 80s kicks

Does it only do 80s sounds, or can I get something modern out of it? The core samples are straight from the decade of shoulder pads, but the processing inside VICE is absolutely modern. The kicks have a sub weight that works under a contemporary pop mix, and if you back off the reverb and use a cleaner kit like Studio 80s, you've got a tight, punchy beat that doesn't scream retro. Plenty of producers use it for lo-fi house and chillwave because the samples take external EQ and saturation so well.

Will it choke on an older Mac? The plug-in asks for 8 GB of RAM and macOS 10.15 or later. If your machine meets those numbers, it runs. The resizable interface helps on smaller screens — drag the corner of the window and the pads, mixer and browser scale cleanly without turning fuzzy. On a 2015 MacBook Pro I've seen it sit comfortably alongside three or four other ujam plug-ins without the fan going nuts.

What happens if I already own another Beatmaker title? The first ujam Beatmaker you install drops a shared host plug-in onto your system. After that, adding VICE just adds the sound content. Your DAW sees one Beatmaker plug-in, and you pick the kit from inside it. The UJAM App handles updates for all of them together, which cuts down on housekeeping.

Can I use my own samples? Not directly. VICE is a closed drum machine, not a sampler. What you can do is process the output. Route individual drum channels to separate DAW tracks using the multi-output version of the plug-in, then treat the snare with your own reverb or crush the hi-hats with a bit-crusher. You keep the playability and the pattern browser while still shaping the tone your own way.

Lock the kit while browsing patterns

• Lock the kit while browsing patterns. There's a small padlock icon above the kit browser. Click it and you can flick through different styles and patterns without the drum sounds changing. Useful when you know the kit is right but the groove needs work.
• Alt-click a pad to solo it. In the middle of a dense pattern, hold Alt and click a pad — every other sound mutes until you release. Quick way to check if the snare and clap are flamming or if the kick pattern makes sense on its own.
• MIDI drag works from any pattern, not just the one playing. You can scrub through the browser while the transport is stopped, find a fill you like, and drag it into your arrangement without ever hitting play. The plug-in doesn't need to be running to hand over the notes.
• The UJAM App's silent install habit. The app sits in your menu bar and checks for updates in the background. If you're on a metered connection or just don't like things phoning home, toggle off auto-updates in its preferences. The plug-in still works fine, you just have to remember to check manually now and then.
• Resize isn't just a gimmick. On a laptop screen, shrink the interface to 75% and the pattern browser stays readable while leaving more room for your DAW's piano roll.

• macOS 10.15 or later (Monterey 12 through Tahoe 26 supported)
• 8 GB RAM
• Intel or Apple Silicon Mac
• VST 2, VST 3, AU 2 or AAX‑compatible host