Drum Replacement in Mixing: Using Trigger & DrumXchanger Effectively

Drum replacers are a neat tool – and once you get your head around them, they can transform existing drums without losing their feel.

They’re primarily sold as a way to introduce good-quality, tightly timed replacements to an already recorded drum track. They keep the original feel – and to be fair, they do that job very well. As long as the stems are clear and isolated, a drum replacer can do exactly what it’s designed to do.

But where they really become useful is in how flexible they are – they can go from subtle reinforcement to full replacement.

How Drum Replacers Work

The way drum replacers work is pretty simple.

You set a threshold, and once that threshold is broken, the sample you’ve loaded is triggered. From there, it’s just a matter of how much you blend or replace.

What’s surprising is how much control you actually have.

If you’re not getting the right hit on the snare, you can just tuck another one in underneath.

If you want to totally replace the sound in a recorded drum session, set the threshold accordingly and you can replace the whole kit if you want.

That range – from barely there to fully replaced – is what makes these tools so useful in real mixes.

Drum Replacers I’ve Used

There are a couple of drum replacers I’ve used over the years.

Steven Slate Drums Trigger and Trigger 2 are pro-level tools that work great. They come with some premium-quality sounds and are excellent for replacing or reinforcing an existing drum sound. They do exactly what you expect them to do, and they do it reliably.

But the one I tend to reach for most is SPL DrumXchanger.

Why I Prefer SPL DrumXchanger

The reason I lean towards DrumXchanger is the interface.

I find it more intuitive when it comes to shaping the new sound into the existing drum, rather than feeling like I’m just swapping samples.

The controls all behave as you’d expect:

• Attack and sustain do exactly what they should

• Tuning makes it easy to lock the replacement into the original drum

• High-pass and low-pass filters help shape the tone into place

• Dry/wet control makes blending feel natural

Everything is right there, which means I spend less time navigating and more time listening.

I used Slate’s Trigger for quite a while, and it does very similar things. It’s not that one is better than the other – I just find the page-swapping in Trigger a little tedious in comparison. That’s purely a workflow preference.

They both work. They both do a great job. It really comes down to how you like to work.

Drum Replacement in Today’s Workflow

In today’s world, drum replacement isn’t limited to multitrack drum sessions.

You might be sent remix parts where the groove and feel are already working – and that’s the important bit to protect. The job isn’t to erase that, but to keep the movement and intent of the original while bringing it closer to your own sound.

You can take a drum track straight from a finished song, split the stems using something like Acon Digital-Remix:Drums, and then replace or reinforce the sounds from there. That opens up a lot of creative options – especially when you’re digging the rhythm but want a fresh take on it.

Used this way, drum replacement isn’t about fixing mistakes. It’s about re-contextualising something that already works – keeping the feel intact while reshaping the tone so it sits naturally in your mix.

Final Thoughts

Drum replacers aren’t magic tools, and they’re not shortcuts.

They’re practical, flexible processors that – when used tastefully – let you add weight, consistency, or tone without losing the feel of the original performance.

Whether you’re subtly reinforcing a snare or completely reshaping a drum sound, it’s all about intent. The tool matters far less than how you use it.

In electronic production, where sound design and movement are everything, drum replacers become a way to reshape feel without redrawing the grid.

And most of the time, if it’s done right, nobody will ever know it’s there.