Drum Reviews

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1)

Interactive Drum Kits and Snares

This is my new favorite drum sample collection. Don’t misunderstand: I’m not saying it’s the absolute best (although that point is arguable as well), just that it’s my new favorite. Sonic Reality gathered together a group of fabulous-sounding DW, Pearl, vintage Ludwig, Gretsch and Yamaha kits. Then, I imagine, they ran up a huge bill in the recording studio. The result is a drum collection that, with a little effort by the user, can be used to create extremely convincing drum tracks. This is defiantly not a groove collection; whether your drum tracks turn out slamming or weak, you take the credit.

I used the disc to demo a song written by a friend who happens to be a fine drummer and an aficionado of great drum tone. His initial shock turned to delight as we refined the drum track together. “Wa-how!” my usually articulate friend laughed. I had to agree. These kits’ tone ranges from low-rent grime to million-dollar sheen.

The samples lay out on a non-standard note map that at first seems alien. Once you get used to it (you’ll be helped by a diagram in the amply detailed booklet), it makes perfect sense. For those who have become first-call GM finger-drummers, there are sets for you in partition 1. You can add a ridiculous amount of realism to the hi-hat and snare, the two instruments that usually betray a programmed drum track. Left-and right-hand roll strokes make realistic drum rolls possible, and the multitude of other inflections is equally helpful in the deception. Snare response (the sympathetic buzzing of the snare wires when other drums are struck) can even be faded in to taste with the mod wheel in some of the kits.

If I were to level any criticisms at this package, I’d say that crash and ride cymbals, while expertly sampled, are not quite on equal footing with the drums. Also, the closed hi-hat doesn’t choke the open one on the Akai version. Sonic Reality says they chose not to set it up that way due to a limitation of the S3000 that I don’t have the space to detail here. E-mu and Kurzweil versions feature conventional hi-hat choking.

Greg Rule chimed in with a reality check, saying, “This CD-ROM falls into one of the most mature segments of the soundware industry, but it’s always nice to have a strong new contender.”

To break it all the way down, Greg and I would agree that if you’re interested in a drum library with which to create frighteningly realistic drum tracks, you owe it to yourself to audition Interactive Drum Kits & Snares.
- Ken Hughes

Sound Quality      8/10   
Value for Money  8/10 
Total Score        8/10