What do you like in a sample pack?

Loren Littlejohn

Loren Littlejohn

Lover of all boobage.
Aug 20, 2006
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Auburn NY- we grow em you listen
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I'm trying to put one together and would like some input because I think I'm going to sell it (kind of need to if I'm going to spend the money to do it).

Unique drums?
Different tunings?
Different room mics?
Sample layers?
Raw or processed?


My current idea behind this is one set of toms (tama artstar II birdseye maple) and kick and the fallowing snares:

Tama metalworks (4.5x13)
Shifty gentleman cherry segmented (5x14)
Shifty gentleman maple (8x14)
Shifty gentleman popcorn (6x10)
Pearl brass (5x14)
Pearl piccolo (4x13)
Pearl masters (5x14)
Tama artstar birdseye maple (6x14)
Ludwig Supraphonic (5x14)


And I'm trying to get a hold of a few other cool ones if I can, if not that is the list.
 
For me:
Unique drums? Yes
Different tunings? Nah...can use tuning in sampler
Different room mics? Nah...not really.
Sample layers? Yes.
Raw or processed? Somewhere between BFD2 stock and SSD4 CLA, if that helps? Easy to mix with, but also scope to mix to your sound.

It would be ideal if these could be packaged in the SSD4 sampler.
EDIT: Just read this: http://www.slatedigital.com/support/kb_article.php?ref=8478-SDVM-9761
EDIT2: Just read that it only accept 1 sample per MIDI note, not multi-velocity samples.
 
I sometimes think people put out sample packs that have lots of stuff but lack quality. You've got a lot of snares there, I'd record them all and pick out the best 3 or 4. If it's your first forray into selling samples, you don't want to have 3 or 4 good snares and 5 average ones. Concentrate on what you think/know your strong points are. ie, if you've got a good live room and good room mics, include a couple of different room mic options, if you don't have one of them.. don't offer it.

If you're offering different tunings (like Room Sound do) then have them in tunings you think works well in song contexts.

Good luck :)
 
First and foremost, high quality!

After that:

Unique drums? Not a must for me. I'm more interested in a kit that fits well together so I can use it as a whole. Some additional unique elements are plus though.

Different tunings? Not necessary.

Different room mics? Nice touch, but I'd much rather have one set of really good ones that a number of ok ones.

Sample layers? Yes, absolutely a must. I have so many good free one-shot samples that I'd be hard pressed to pay for more. I'd definitely consider buying a quality multi-layered pack, though.

Raw or processed? I prefer raw for most things. I'd be much more likely to bite on a pack of quality raw samples than processed ones at an equal price. Slight processing is ok sometimes, but if it get's too extreme it's very hard/impossible to undo if it doesn't suit a particular song.
 
I was going to go raw as that's how I like my samples, but I am tracking these at a place with some really nice outboard so I might do it as an option or something (maybe both?)

Unless someone has a better choice I was going to go:

KM184 overheads
sm57 top
441 bottom
TC30 pair room
Not sure on the kick as of now, most likely D6 but there are other options.
Toms will all be 421

When I did my home sampling of my snare I did something like 9 layers. It performs well when I play it on an ekit. 9 layers just sucked to bounce out. :lol:
 
FWIW here is an audio example of the tama metalworks 13" raw. The rest is superior.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/453334/Drum stuff/Tama metalworks.mp3

And here are poor examples of the shifty gentleman stuff (they were rushed and not tuned). The rest of the drums are superior.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/453334/Drum stuff/Shifty Gentleman 6X10 popcorn.mp3 (popcorn, pitch issues are due to this being the last thing we tried and we didn't secure to a snare stand very well)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/453334/Drum stuff/Shifty Gentleman 14X5 woodblock.mp3 (segmented cherry)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/453334/Drum stuff/Shifty Gentleman 14X8 maple.mp3 (maple)


But all of those are .tci and are were not played in real time. Samples triggered through trigger. I think those only had 5 layers as well.
 
Oh and I'm dragging him along to make sure these sound decent.

101711-Stained-Sal.jpg
 
samples you posted of the snares sound great, but nothing I don't already have in my massive drum sample collection... maybe include RAW's and PROCESSED.... defo capture rooms as well; i end up using room samples of snare more than snare samples!

Off to a good start though; best of luck babe!
 
Well, that is the reason for including the custom snares (they are one of a kind, no others exist). So you could have some snares you don't have in your collection.

I mean shit how many Supraphonic samples does one need? I think I literally have around 8 or so if you include superior and ez drummer as well as various others I have collected over time. I was actually thinking about not including that one.

Maybe I need to go through my list and try to narrow this shit down to ones that I know are way less common.


I only posted the samples to kind of show how they sound, but in reality if I do this they will be tuned and done correctly in a larger studio. We were in the smaller room when we did those.
 
For a little extra distinction from every other sample pack,

how about some mix effects, obviously this requirs processing and post production on them, but people would want them just to plonk into their mix and go,

I'm in the process of making a bunch of reverse snares-reverbs, reverse cymbals and some extra drum effects you can find in commercial mixes (you can find or think of your own :D), made from own samples and good free ones with various dynamic processing, eqing, reverbs and automation.

I've had a bunch of people tell me they want a particular well known effect they either can't make or don't want to spend time doing, so its useful to make a lot for every mix scenario.

my idea on this is make things easier for people to work with right away with minimal processing on their end, with this and actual drum samples.

Absolutely sick of falling for packs where its some average snare in an average room with run of the mill mics that needs everything doing to it just so its usable.

Do something distinctive and mix ready.
 
StateOfSerenity said:
For a little extra distinction from every other sample pack,

how about some mix effects, obviously this requirs processing and post production on them, but people would want them just to plonk into their mix and go,

I'm in the process of making a bunch of reverse snares-reverbs, reverse cymbals and some extra drum effects you can find in commercial mixes (you can find or think of your own :D), made from own samples and good free ones with various dynamic processing, eqing, reverbs and automation.

I've had a bunch of people tell me they want a particular well known effect they either can't make or don't want to spend time doing, so its useful to make a lot for every mix scenario.

my idea on this is make things easier for people to work with right away with minimal processing on their end, with this and actual drum samples.

Absolutely sick of falling for packs where its some average snare in an average room with run of the mill mics that needs everything doing to it just so its usable.

Do something distinctive and mix ready.
Click to expand...

Although it's pretty easy to do this sort of thing yourself, people are lazy and looking for convenience. I think this is a pretty cool idea.
 
TBH, I could care less about drum samples at this point. There's plenty of them out there to get a great sound, and so many that sound extremely similar. What I want to hear is some realistic cymbal packs.
 
MatrixClaw said:
TBH, I could care less about drum samples at this point. There's plenty of them out there to get a great sound, and so many that sound extremely similar. What I want to hear is some realistic cymbal packs.
Click to expand...
+1 man!

also @topic starter: we need raw samples...i don't want room etc..and some clips with mixed kit would be great!also a low price.. good luck!
 
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