Drumagog 6 vs Slate Trigger 2
You have a drum take with ghost notes in the verse and kick bleeding into the snare mic. What you want to know is which drum replacer gets that session right with less work. This page takes Drumagog 6 and Slate’s Trigger 2 through the questions buyers ask.
The short answer
Both plug-ins put samples on your drum tracks as the song plays. The difference shows up once the first pass leaves a few hits wrong. In Drumagog 6, you fix those hits inside the plug-in, right on the waveform. With Trigger 2, Slate’s own support pages send you back to your DAW to edit the audio. Drumagog 6 was rebuilt from the ground up to make drum replacement easy. It covers the cymbals too. With Platinum, one copy takes the whole kit from a drum bus.
Drumagog 6 is the one to choose if you want to
- fix any hit without leaving the plug-in
- replace hi-hats and cymbals as well as the kick, snare and toms
- get the whole kit from one drum bus with Platinum
- use your own samples by dropping them in
- skip the iLok
Where each one has the edge
Here are the things buyers ask about most. Each row says what you get with either plug-in.
Fixing a missed or false hit
Drumagog 6Move, add or remove any hit right on the waveform.
Trigger 2Change the detection settings, or edit the audio in your DAW.
Edge Drumagog 6
Setting what counts as a hit
Drumagog 6THRESHOLD, DETAIL and RETRIGGER.
Trigger 2Sensitivity, Detail and ReTrigger.
Edge Even
Bleed setting off false hits
Drumagog 6REMOVE SIMILAR clears every hit that sounds like the one you pick.
Trigger 2Leakage Suppression, with the bleed tracks routed to a stereo aux.
Edge Drumagog 6
Lining the sample up with your drum
Drumagog 6Align to Phase or Align to Transient.
Trigger 2Slate calls its engine phase-accurate.
Edge Even
Keeping some of the original drum
Drumagog 6BLEND.
Trigger 2The Mix control.
Edge Even
Hi-hats and cymbals
Drumagog 6GOGs for the hi-hat, ride and crash.
Trigger 2Its library holds kicks, snares and toms.
Edge Drumagog 6
Finding a sound that fits
Drumagog 6Every GOG ranked by how close it sounds to your drum.
Trigger 2A browser that lists the library by folder.
Edge Drumagog 6
Using your own samples
Drumagog 6Drop a file or a folder onto the plug-in.
Trigger 2Copy WAV files into its library folder.
Edge Drumagog 6
The whole kit from one drum bus
Drumagog 6Kit mode replaces all six drums from one copy, with Platinum.
Trigger 2It goes on the track of the drum you want to replace.
Edge Drumagog 6
Getting the take as MIDI
Drumagog 6Every hit is already a note on a piano roll.
Trigger 2MIDI Capture records while the song plays through.
Edge Drumagog 6
Living without an iLok
Drumagog 6Your license lives in your drumagog.com account.
Trigger 2It needs an iLok ID.
Edge Drumagog 6
Drumagog 6 details are from this site. Trigger 2 details are from Slate’s product page, manual and support articles.
Will it get every hit right?
No drum replacer gets every hit on a real take. Somewhere, a ghost note slips under the threshold, or a flam fires once. In Trigger 2, the answer is its detection controls. Slate’s manual suggests raising Sensitivity to catch ghost notes. For a hit that still won’t trigger, Slate’s support pages suggest duplicating the track and clip-gaining that hit up in your DAW. A false hit is handled the same way, by cutting the audio out.
Drumagog 6 shows every hit it finds as a marker on the waveform. Drag the THRESHOLD line down, and the ghost notes appear while you drag. Any hit can be moved, or made harder or softer, with a drag. A missed one goes in with a double-click. You can even choose the exact sample a single hit plays, like a rimshot in the middle of a fill.
Verdict Drumagog 6 has the edge. You fix the hit itself, inside the plug-in.
What about bleed?
Trigger 2 answers bleed with Leakage Suppression. In Slate’s manual, it is set up on a stereo aux track. The drum you are replacing goes to the left channel, and all the tracks that bleed into it go to the right. From there, you adjust Suppression on a passage with plenty of leakage, until only the right hits trigger.
In Drumagog 6, you select one of the false hits and press REMOVE SIMILAR. Every hit on the track that sounds like it goes in one step, loud or soft. On a tom track full of bleed, KEEP SIMILAR does the reverse and keeps only the real tom hits. Between copies of Drumagog, bleed reduction keeps the kick from triggering the snare mic’s copy, without any complicated routing. Platinum adds a gate in front of the detector.
Verdict Drumagog 6 has the edge. Clearing bleed takes one click.
Will the sample line up with my drum?
Slate’s store calls Trigger 2’s engine phase-accurate. On each of its eight sample slots, you get a phase switch. For blending with the original drum, there is the Mix control.
Drumagog 6 lines up every sample for you. Align to Phase is the default, and it matches the body of each sample to the original drum. When your drum and the sample are tuned differently, Align to Transient puts the start of each sample on the start of the hit. Turn on SHOW ALIGNMENT, and each replacement is drawn over your waveform, exactly where it plays. BLEND then mixes in as much of the original as you like.
Verdict Call this one even. Drumagog 6 also shows you where every sample lands.
One kick hit with SHOW ALIGNMENT on. The replacement sits in white over the original.
What sounds do I get?
Trigger 2 Platinum comes with sounds from 46 snare drums, 33 kick drums and eight sets of toms. To use your own samples, Slate’s support pages have you copy WAV files into its library folder and press Refresh. An instrument with velocity layers is built in a separate app, the Trigger Instrument Editor.
A paid Drumagog 6 license includes the factory library of 536 GOGs. Play the song once, and the library ranks every GOG by how close it sounds to your drum, with a percentage on each row. Your own samples go straight in. Drop an audio file onto a drum, and it plays right away. Drop a folder, and Drumagog builds a GOG from it, sorted from soft to loud.
Verdict Drumagog 6 has the edge. It finds the sound for you and takes your samples in one drop.
Can it handle hi-hats, cymbals and the whole kit?
Slate describes Trigger 2 as a way to replace or enhance kicks, snares and toms. Its support pages add that the cymbals in its expansion packs are for SSD5.5, and not for Trigger 2. As for the plug-in itself, it goes on the track of the drum you want to replace.
Drumagog 6 has GOGs for the hi-hat, ride and crash. With Platinum, it hears how open each hi-hat hit was and plays the matching articulation. And when all you have is a drum bus, an overhead pair or a room mic, Kit mode finds the hits on all six drums from one copy. Each drum gets a lane on the TRIGGER page and a channel strip on the MIX page.
Verdict Drumagog 6 has the edge. It covers the cymbals and the whole kit.
Can I get MIDI out of it?
Both plug-ins take MIDI in and send MIDI out. For a MIDI clip of the take, Trigger 2 has MIDI Capture. According to Slate’s manual, it works only in real time. You clear the buffer and put the cursor at the start, and then the whole track has to play through before the MIDI can be dragged out.
In Drumagog 6, every hit is already a note on a piano roll. Editing those notes works the way it does in your DAW, with one undo history shared with the TRIGGER page. When the part is right, drag the take onto a track as a MIDI clip. Ready-made note maps cover General MIDI and Toontrack’s Superior Drummer and EZdrummer.
Verdict Drumagog 6 has the edge. The MIDI is there as soon as the hits are.
How long does it take?
Slate’s manual gives Trigger 2 a set order. First, you raise the input until most hits peak near the top of the display. Next, Detail goes to the edge of the bleed, and ReTrigger and Sensitivity come after that.
In REAPER, Studio One, Cubase and Nuendo, Drumagog 6 reads the whole track at once through ARA 2. The waveform and every hit appear shortly after you add it, before you press play.
Verdict Drumagog 6 has the edge. With ARA 2, the hits are waiting before you press play.
What about price and the iLok?
Trigger 2 Platinum lists at $119.99 on Slate’s store. Its license needs an iLok ID, activated by Machine ID or on an iLok dongle. For a free look, Slate offers an edition with 6 kicks and 6 snares.
Drumagog 6 Pro is $99 and Platinum is $199, each as a one-time purchase. Your license lives in your drumagog.com account, with no iLok or dongle. Before you buy, the free trial gives you the complete Platinum edition for seven days. It all runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, and on Windows, as VST3, AU, AAX and a standalone app.
Verdict Drumagog 6 has the edge. You try the full product first, and you never need an iLok.
What reviewers and Slate’s own pages say
You don’t have to take our word for any of this. Each line below links to where it was published.
“users can clip gain up a low level snare hit”
“The MIDI Capture process works only in real-time mode.”
“No drag and drop of samples.”
“The license cannot be activated using iLok Cloud.”
Side by side
| Drumagog 6 | Trigger 2 Platinum | |
|---|---|---|
| Finding the hits | ||
| A whole kit from one drum bus | ✓ Kit mode, Platinum | One drum per copy |
| Live mode for tracking | About 2 ms | As low as 4 ms |
| Bleed from other drums | Bleed reduction between copies, plus REMOVE SIMILAR and KEEP SIMILAR | Leakage Suppression, with the bleed tracks routed in |
| Editing the hits | ||
| Seeing the hits | Every hit as a marker on the waveform, with its velocity | The input waveform, with a ReTrigger zone after each hit |
| Fixing a missed ghost note | Double-click the waveform where it belongs | Raise Sensitivity, or clip-gain the hit up in your DAW |
| Removing one false hit | Select it and press REMOVE | Cut that audio out in your DAW |
| Clearing a run of false hits | REMOVE SIMILAR, with one undo | Detail, the filters or Leakage Suppression |
| Sounds and library | ||
| Sounds included | 536 GOGs with a paid license | Sounds from 46 snares, 33 kicks and eight sets of toms |
| Hi-hats and cymbals | ✓ | — |
| Library ranked by how close each sound is | ✓ | — |
| Your own samples | Drop a file or a folder onto Drumagog | WAV files copied into its library folder |
| Layers on one drum | Up to 64 GOGs with STACK, Platinum | Eight sample slots |
| Hi-hat openness | ✓ Automatic, Platinum | — |
| Mixing | ||
| Keeping the original drum | BLEND and STEALTH MODE | The Mix control |
| EQ on each drum | EQ and a synth layer on each drum, plus gate, transient shaper and reverb in Platinum | Volume, pan, tune and phase for each slot |
| MIDI | ||
| MIDI | MIDI in and out, a piano roll, a MIDI clip and a virtual MIDI port | MIDI in and out, plus MIDI Capture |
| Getting a MIDI clip | Drag the take out of the MIDI page | Play the track through with MIDI Capture, then drag |
| Price and license | ||
| Price | $99 Pro, $199 Platinum | $119.99 |
| Works without an iLok | Your drumagog.com account, no iLok | An iLok ID, by machine or dongle |
| Standalone app | ✓ | — |
| macOS and Windows | ✓ | ✓ |
Trigger 2 details were checked in October 2026 on the maker’s store and product page, in its support articles and in the Trigger 2 manual. Prices and versions change over time. Trigger is a trademark of its owner, mentioned here for comparison only. We are not affiliated with its maker.
Questions buyers ask
Can Drumagog 6 replace Trigger 2?
Yes. Drumagog 6 replaces the kick, snare and toms on close mics in Live or Drum mode. It covers the hi-hat, ride and crash as well. With Platinum, Kit mode replaces the whole kit from one drum bus.
Does Drumagog 6 run in Pro Tools?
Yes. The AAX version runs in Pro Tools on macOS and Windows. Drumagog itself runs without an iLok.
Can Drumagog 6 replace hi-hats and cymbals?
Yes. There are GOGs for every kind of drum, the hi-hat, ride and crash included. In Kit mode, all six drums come from one copy on the drum bus.
Can I use my own samples?
Yes. Drop an audio file onto a drum to play it right away, or drop a folder to build a GOG from it.
Can I see and edit the hits Drumagog finds?
Yes. In Drum and Kit mode, every hit is a marker on the waveform. You can move any hit, or change how hard it plays. A double-click adds a hit that was missed.
What does the free trial include?
The complete Platinum edition for seven days, with five demo GOGs and any samples of your own. The full factory library comes with a paid license.
Does the trial add beeps or noise to my audio?
No. The trial sounds exactly like the full version.
Which features need Platinum?
Kit mode, automatic hi-hat and tom tracking, STACK, the gate, the transient shaper, the convolution reverb, Morph|Engine and plugin hosting. The free trial includes all of them.
What sounds come with Drumagog?
A paid Pro or Platinum license includes the factory library of 536 GOGs. The store inside Drumagog adds collections from us and from other publishers, each with demos you can audition before you buy.
Do I need an internet connection?
Only to sign in the first time on each computer, to download the included library and to use the store. After that Drumagog works offline for as long as you like.
Which DAWs support ARA 2?
REAPER, Studio One (as an Event FX), Cubase and Nuendo. In every other DAW Drumagog works as a regular insert.
Hear Drumagog 6 on your own snare track.
The free trial is the complete Platinum edition for seven days, Kit mode included.
More comparisons
See how Drumagog 6 compares with the other ways to replace recorded drums.