Metro Boomin Plugins: Which VSTs Do You Need to Sound Like Him?
Metro Boomin’s sound is defined by a few recurring elements: haunting bell melodies, minor-key synth lines, filtered choirs, wide stereo pads, and 808s that feel both sub-heavy and controlled. His beats often start with a simple loop that feels almost cinematic — then the drums enter with precision. The hi-hats are tight and deliberate, the snares cut cleanly, and the low end carries emotional weight without overwhelming the mix. There’s movement in the details: subtle pitch bends, halftime drops, filtered transitions, and occasional distortion to add grit. The plugins in this guide are chosen because they help recreate those textures and techniques. Some are tools Metro and producers in his circle have used directly. Others excel at the specific sonic traits you hear across projects like Without Warning, Savage Mode II, and his work with artists like 21 Savage and Future — dark tonal presets, flexible layering, expressive modulation, and modern 808 design. We’ll organize everything into synths, drums and bass tools, effects, and sound sources so you can approach the sound methodically rather than randomly browsing presets.
SYNTHS
Omnisphere – Spectrasonics
If you study Metro Boomin’s melodic palette across projects like Savage Mode II or his work with Future and 21 Savage, you consistently hear layered bell tones, synthetic choirs, evolving pads, and textured plucks that feel polished but slightly ominous. Omnisphere’s massive sound library (14,000+ sounds) and hybrid engine make it one of the strongest tools for building those kinds of atmospheres. Its combination of sample-based sound sources and a full-featured synthesis engine allows you to start from a preset and shape it into something darker, wider, or more minimal without losing clarity.
What makes Omnisphere especially useful in this context is its control over space and movement. The built-in granular synthesis, extensive modulation routing, and high-quality effects section (including filters, saturation, reverb, and delays) make it easy to create evolving loops that carry a beat before the drums even drop. Metro’s melodic ideas often feel simple on paper, but the tone design gives them weight. Omnisphere excels at delivering that cinematic depth while still sitting cleanly above heavy 808s.
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Analog Lab Pro – Arturia
Metro’s melodies often rely on strong preset foundations: dark keys, vintage polysynth textures, detuned leads, and bell-like plucks that feel instantly usable. Analog Lab Pro gives you access to thousands of presets pulled from Arturia’s modeled classics, including Jupiter, Prophet, CS-80, Mini, and DX-style instruments — all in one streamlined interface. That makes it ideal when you want to audition tones quickly and build a loop without diving deep into synthesis.
The strength of Analog Lab Pro in this context is workflow. You can layer sounds, adjust filter cutoff, envelope shaping, macro controls, and built-in effects without opening full instrument panels. For producers building trap melodies, speed matters. You can scroll through cinematic pads, icy digital bells, or warm analog keys, find a tone that fits the mood, and tweak it just enough to personalize it. It’s a modern preset engine with enough depth to avoid sounding generic — especially when you start stacking and processing.
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Kontakt – Native Instruments
Kontakt isn’t a single sound — it’s a full-featured sampler platform that hosts deep, expressive instruments across orchestral libraries, cinematic textures, pianos, choirs, and more. Its ability to load and manipulate sampled content makes it especially useful for beats where a single melodic idea — a string phrase, a piano motif, a pad — needs to carry emotional weight while leaving space for drums and 808s. Because Metro’s melodic work often feels minimal but rich in texture, Kontakt’s ecosystem lets you pull in tones that are both organic and nuanced.
A perfect example of how Kontakt can be tailored to a specific vibe is 40’s Very Own Keys, a Play Series instrument created with Drake producer Noah “40” Shebib. It delivers lush electric piano, grand piano, and vintage synth presets with an emphasis on warm, immersive tone and includes a dedicated “40” macro control to dial in that signature down-sampled, underwater feel. Using tools like this inside Kontakt shows how a sampler can go beyond generic sounds and become a sonic character in your beat — one with personality and emotional depth that sits beautifully over sparse drums and heavy low end.
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Arcade – Output
A lot of Metro Boomin’s beats begin with a loop that immediately sets the mood — often textural, slightly processed, and emotionally charged before the drums even enter. Output Arcade is built exactly for that kind of workflow. It’s a cloud-based instrument that streams categorized kits covering cinematic textures, processed keys, vocal chops, analog synth loops, and ambient layers. The strength here is speed. You can load a line, flip through variations, and reshape it instantly using built-in macro controls, effects, and pitch/time manipulation.
Arcade also encourages transformation rather than static playback. Each line can be re-pitched, reversed, filtered, stretched, or re-harmonized without leaving the interface. That flexibility mirrors the way modern trap producers manipulate source material into darker, more minimal loops. Instead of stacking five layers, you can find one compelling melodic phrase, reshape it slightly, and build the entire beat around it. For producers who want fast access to atmospheric starting points without digging through folders for hours, Arcade can be a very efficient creative engine.
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DRUMS + LOW END
SubLab XL – Future Audio Workshop
Metro Boomin’s low end is deliberate. His 808s feel deep and controlled rather than overly distorted or chaotic. They carry the emotional weight of the track while leaving space for the melody. SubLab XL is designed specifically for modern 808 design, combining a dedicated 808 sample engine, a synth layer, distortion modules, and a full effects section in one interface. That layered architecture makes it easy to blend a clean sub foundation with subtle harmonic saturation or movement.
The XL version adds expanded modulation and sequencing options, letting you shape glide behavior, tone, and envelope response precisely. Metro-style 808s often rely on careful pitch slides and restrained saturation rather than extreme processing. With built-in distortion, compression, and EQ controls, SubLab XL allows you to dial in weight and presence without losing clarity in the mix. It’s a focused tool built around the modern trap low-end formula — and it keeps you from overcomplicating the process.
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Beatmaker GLORY – UJAM
Metro’s drum programming is often deceptively simple. The power comes from placement and tone choice rather than hyper-complex patterns. UJAM Beatmaker GLORY is built specifically around modern trap and hip-hop production, offering pre-designed kits and MIDI patterns that can be triggered with single keys. It includes 808s, crisp snares, tight hi-hats, percussion, and layered claps, all processed to sit immediately in a contemporary mix.
The value here isn’t replacing programming skill — it’s accelerating workflow. You can trigger a groove, adjust swing and complexity, and quickly audition different drum textures without building everything from scratch. Metro’s beats often rely on clean drum foundations that support the melody rather than compete with it. With GLORY’s built-in mix presets, transient shaping, and performance controls, you can sketch a strong rhythmic base quickly and refine it manually afterward if needed.
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Nepheton 2 – D16 Group
While Metro Boomin’s drums are rooted in modern trap, the foundation of that sound still traces back to the Roland TR-808. D16 Nepheton 2 is a detailed emulation of the original 808 drum machine, offering fully synthesized kick, snare, clap, hi-hat, toms, and percussion rather than just samples. That matters because it gives you control over tone shaping at the source — tuning, decay, and transient character — instead of relying on pre-rendered sounds.
For producers chasing that Metro-style drum feel, Nepheton 2 allows you to design tight hats, snappy claps, and punchy kicks that can then be layered or processed further. The plugin includes advanced mixer controls, multi-output routing, and built-in processing, making it easy to sculpt individual drum elements before they hit your main chain. Even if you ultimately layer modern samples on top, having a fully tweakable 808 engine gives you a clean, controllable base that sits naturally with heavy sub-bass and sparse melodies.
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EFFECTS + TEXTURES
ShaperBox 3 – Cableguys
Metro’s beats often feel dynamic even when the arrangement is minimal. Drops slow down, melodies dip in pitch, filters sweep in subtly, and transitions feel controlled rather than chaotic. ShaperBox 3 is one of the most flexible tools for achieving that kind of motion. It combines multiple modules — including TimeShaper, VolumeShaper, FilterShaper, DriveShaper, PanShaper, and more — all controlled through customizable LFO curves that loop in sync with your project tempo.
The TimeShaper module alone can recreate many of the pitched slowdown and halftime effects associated with modern trap production. Beyond that, ShaperBox gives you precise control over pumping sidechain-style movement, filter automation, stereo width changes, and saturation curves — all without drawing automation lanes in your DAW. If you want a single plugin that can handle transitions, rhythmic modulation, filtering, and subtle distortion in one ecosystem, ShaperBox is arguably the most versatile option here. For a more streamlined alternative focused purely on tempo manipulation, HalfTime by Cableguys covers the core slowdown effect in a simpler format.
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Decapitator – Soundtoys
Metro Boomin’s productions often rely on subtle saturation to give melodies and drums presence without making them feel harsh. Decapitator is one of the most respected saturation plugins in modern production because it models multiple analog distortion circuits and lets you blend them in a controlled way. With five different analog-style modes and a simple Drive control, you can add harmonic richness to bells, choirs, or 808s without flattening the dynamics.
The strength of Decapitator in this context is restraint. Instead of pushing distortion aggressively, you can use it to enhance upper harmonics on a sub, thicken a snare, or give a melodic loop more bite so it cuts through heavy low-end. The built-in Tone control and Mix knob make it easy to shape the saturation and keep it balanced. In darker trap production, that added harmonic layer helps sounds feel fuller and more emotional while still leaving space in the arrangement.
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Guitar Rig Pro – Native Instruments
Guitar processing isn’t the first thing people associate with trap production, but amp and pedal modeling can add character in subtle ways. Guitar Rig Pro is a modular multi-effects environment that includes amp simulations, distortion units, modulation effects, filters, delays, reverbs, and studio processors — all patchable in a flexible signal chain. That makes it useful far beyond guitars. You can run synths, 808s, or even full melodic loops through it to introduce controlled grit, warmth, or space.
In darker trap production, small tonal shifts matter. A lightly driven amp module can add edge to a bell sound. A tape-style delay or filtered reverb can push a melody slightly back in the mix. Guitar Rig Pro allows you to experiment with those textures without committing to extreme processing. Because the routing is modular, you can build subtle chains — for example, saturation into filtering into room reverb — that enhance mood without overwhelming the beat. Used with intention, it becomes a tone-shaping tool rather than a special effect.
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RC-20 Retro Color – XLN Audio
Metro’s melodic layers often carry a slightly worn, filtered, or textured quality. Even when the sound source is clean, there’s usually some subtle character shaping happening. RC-20 Retro Color is built for exactly that. It combines six modules — Noise, Wobble, Distort, Digital, Space, and Magnetic — allowing you to introduce movement, saturation, stereo width, and lo-fi coloration in controlled amounts.
What makes RC-20 effective in darker trap production is restraint. A touch of Magnetic can warm up a sterile synth. A small amount of Wobble can introduce gentle instability to a pad. Light distortion on a bell melody can help it sit more aggressively above an 808 without sounding harsh. Instead of drastically redesigning a sound, RC-20 helps you nudge it into a more atmospheric and emotional place. In minimal arrangements where every element is exposed, that subtle character work makes a noticeable difference.
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Effectrix – Sugar Bytes
Modern trap production often relies on small rhythmic disruptions — quick repeats, gated slices, reversed fragments — to keep a sparse beat engaging. Effectrix is built around that idea. It’s a step-sequenced multi-effect processor that lets you program patterns using modules like Loop, Reverse, Vinyl, Stutter, Filter, and Delay, all locked to your project tempo. Instead of drawing automation manually, you can trigger rhythmic changes in a grid-based interface.
In a Metro-style context, Effectrix works best in short, intentional moments. A half-bar repeat before a drop. A filtered slice on the last beat of a phrase. A reversed tail leading into the hook. Because the plugin operates rhythmically, it encourages subtle variation rather than chaotic processing. Used sparingly, it can add movement to melodic loops or drum fills without disturbing the overall minimalism that defines darker trap production.
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SAMPLES
You’ll find all sorts of kits floating around the Internet, and Metro Boomin uses some pretty run-of-the-mill drum samples, not to say they’re not efficient! Like a lot of trap, we’re talking about saturated 808-style drums.
Lately, I’ve loved working with some of the free kits from ProducerGrind. If you’re looking for something a little more experimental, you can take a look at the samples on Splice, or you can even design your own using a TR-808 plugin. Sky’s the limit.
Drums make the beatmaker, so I suggest you experiment a lot and keep what works for you!
If Young Metro Don’t Trust You…
In the end, it might be an interesting exercise to learn to reproduce a great producer’s sound, but it’s probably even cooler to let yourself be inspired by what made the artist unique. In Metro Boomin’s case, it’s all about keeping it simple and focusing on creativity.
Metro arrived at his particular sound palette by following his muse and using the tools he had on hand at the time. If he had waited for the perfect vintage gear, the most professional studio, and all the expensive plugins he desired, we might not know him today. And hip hop would be missing out...
By using different tools than the big producers of the time, he managed to invent a style of his own that’s both so unique and exciting. No wonder so many people became fans of him as much as of the artists he produced.
This brings me to another point… I think it’s important for beatmakers to find like-minded vocalists - whether we’re talking about rappers or singers - and make actual tracks, not just beats. It’s OK if you want to be an instrumental artist, but if a beat is meant for an artist to get on it, it will never feel complete before you find the right collaborator.
And it never hurts to get out of the studio once in a while. Just sayin’.
Disclaimer: All these opinions are my own, but - full disclosure - some of those links are affiliates. If you decide to purchase a product through the link I make a little scratch. No big deal. It’s cool.