Deep down near the dank, dark root of groove and just beside thefickle heart of feel lies the sound of the kick, snare, and hi-hat.Because drum sounds occupy such a broad frequency range, they tendto define and shape the overall mix disproportionately comparedwith other instruments. The Drums Series 1 sample CD(Akai/E-mu, GigaSampler, Kurzweil, SoundFont, $199.95) by SonicImplants tries to illuminate that space by giving producers thefull spectrum of well-recorded raw drum sounds, which they can thenpersonalize (or elegantly destroy) through compression, filters,and sonic effects.
In Sonic Implants' own words, this CD attempts to capture“the cleanest, punchiest, and best recordingspossible.” A lofty goal, to be sure, but the Drums Series1 collection of both Ambient Drums (sweet Blue Jay Studionatural reverb) and Session Drums (a dry-sounding, dampened room)contains a multiplicity of healthy options.
Although this collection contains no loops or MIDI files, thesingle-shot samples are quite musical on their own. Engineer MarkTanzer (NRBQ, Carly Simon, Jerry Marotta, Lyle Mays) has exploitedBlue Jay's wood, stone, and glass recording rooms nicely, capturingthe ambience with a variety of microphones, mic angles, sticksizes, brushes, and both hard and soft bass-drum beaters. TheSession Drums, recorded at Wellspring Studios in Boston, includes amore controlled batch of varied drum hits.
Sonic Implants constructed Drums Series 1 by samplingseveral different drum makes, sizes, woods, metals, and pitches.This collection represents recording engineers' best-lovedworkhorse studio kits, including Drum Workshop, Yamaha RecordingCustom, Ludwig, Pearl, and Slingerland. A mix of Ufip, Zildjian,Sabian, and Paiste cymbals, with their natural-sounding decays,adds to the aural excitement.
The entire Drums Series 1 collection fits on a singledisc. Users can download demos in MP3 format from Sonic Implants'Web site or buy samples in smaller, less expensive sections ($24.99per kit). Breaking up large collections is a nice trend in thesample-for-sale arena, and Sonic Implants deserves applause fordoing so. The option of buying smaller sample sections is valuablefor those who are looking for a few professional sounds but don'tneed the intense depth or detail of a full CD (more than 250 drumsets).
If you require WAV or AIFF files, FMJ-Software's(www.fmjsoft.com) Awave Studio application can extractthem from the SoundFont version. Regardless of how many of SonicImplants' samples you acquire, you can easily add them to yourmusic through ready-made hi-fi kits, or you can creatively tweakthe full-range samples into something with a little morecharacter.
Overall Rating (out of 5): 4
Sonic Implants; tel. (888) 769-3788; e-mail studio@sonicimplants.com;
Web www.sonicimplants.com