Adam Monroe Music Beats Drum v.2.3

Adam Monroe Music Beats Drum v.2.3 [Kontakt]

The Sampling Process

Adam Monroe's Beats Drum VST, Au, and Kontakt sample library was created by sampling 3 drum kits and 14 different snares using different combinations of drum heads and tunings in an acoustically dead environment. The end result is a large drum sample library with interchangeable parts that sounds great no matter the combination. The various kits and drums were sampled utilyzing the Glyn Johns method. Drum overheads were a pair of Shure SM81's, bass drums were recorded through an Audix D6, and snare drums were captured with a Shure SM 57, with various spot mics used to beef up the sound of the toms when needed.

A wide selection of snare drums were sampled: A Ludwig Acrolite, Black Beauty, and Supraphonic. Vintage drums like a Rogers Powertone (wood), Rogers Dynasonic (brass), and Slingerland Radio King. Modern snares include a Mapex Black Panther, Pork Pie Little Squealer, Pearl Sensitone Classic II, Pearl Chad Smith Signature, Yamaha Tour Custom, Ludwig Accent, as well as some cheaper snares like a Yamaha YD and PDP Double Drive

The drum kits were a Yamaha Tour Custom, Ludwig Accent, and CB drum kit. The various toms where tuned and sampled with different heads as well as different levels of muffling. Cymbals where Zildian A customs (Crashes, Ride, Hi-Hats, Splash, China), New Beat Hi-Hats and a Paiste Ride Cymbal.

All samples where eq'd and processed to bring out the natural character of the drums and to be mix-ready, but were not OVER PROCESSED or OVER COMPRESSED. Further EQ and processing can be easily be achieved (in the VST and AU versions) as each part of the kit can be set to route to individual channels in your DAW. Brushes were used to create a brush kit. Ride was sampled at the bell and outside, everything in this library was captured at 10 velocity levels with at least 3 notes of round-robin.

Engineering

The Kontakt version of Adam Monroe's Beats is cross-platform, and is maintained by Native Instruments, all the programming and effects being done through them. Some simple scripting is done by us. The VST and AU versions are another beast altogether, as the programming falls entirely on Adam Monroe Music. The goal in any sample library that is also a VSTi (virtual instrument) and AU (Audio Unit) is to attempt to match the performance of the Kontakt Player. With this library, we feel like we have done just that.

The VST and AU versions includes the ability to mix and match kits, save user kits, adjust note assignments, adjust what part of the cymbals get triggered, and the ability to toggle automatic left/right hits. Effects include reverb, lofi, chorus, stereo-flip, delay, and eq switches. Individual parts of the drum kit can be panned and volume adjusted within the plugin, or can be routed to individual outputs in your DAW. There is an extensive Midi Library browser where drum loops can be previewed and drag-dropped into your DAW.

Hi-Hat voices will naturally cut-off if another Hi-Hat voice is triggered. Hi-Hat voices were recorded at 6-levels of intensity (between fully closed and opened) and pre-recorded 'pea soups' are at your disposal. Voices are held and iterated over in a pure, C-Style array. Memory use is comparable to the Kontakt version, and varies with each kit. Notes can be loaded at 44.1 or 48kHz sample rates, and at 16 or 24-bit sample depths. Because of the solid VST code base - and compilation of the code to not need external .dll's/objects/libs - you can feel confident that the VST and AU versions will work just as well as the Kontakt version.

Why develop VST and AU versions at all, when the Kontakt sample player has become so ubiquitous? In the case of a drum sample library, there is simply more going on than Kontakt can handle, thus many features of the VST and AU versions are absent in the Kontakt version: the ability to mix and match kits, routing support, preset saving, and note assignments are exclusive to the VST and AU versions. However, the Kontakt version still contains all the kit presets, the ability to adjust panning and volume, and all the effects.

The VST version is based on VST 2.4, and should work in nearly any modern version of 32 or 64-bit version of Windows. The AU version requries OS X 10.9 or later. The download size of the library is 3.82 GB, and unzipped the library takes up about 5 GB. We use Amazon for file serving, so you can rest assured your download will be fast and smooth!