Most Detailed FREE Sample Drumkit Ever !

[Burzukh_Studios]

After much blood, sweat and tears its finally ready :

SM MegaReaper Drumkit !

This is a VERY deeply sampled classic / vintage Ludwig 65 / 69 drum kit that has exclusively been developed for Reaper (no add-ons required). It may well be one of the deepest sampled kits in the world. And it is completely dry for you to sculpt as you like using Reaper’s superior processing.

And if you don't have Reaper , you can use the included 1.9 GB of open 24 bit wav samples in whatever sampler you choose. The samples are precisely named so mapping should be a breeze. But you should at least try the included Reaper kit even if you are not a Reaperite. Hey, the trial is un-restricted / un-crippled !

A demo running the Lite Version (with zero processing barring eq for high passing) :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxI5SR ... sp=sharing

What makes it so special ?

Glad you asked. The instrument has :

Kick : 127 velocity layers x 2 round robins
Snare No Ring : 127 velocity layers x 4 round robins
Snare Studio Ring : 127 velocity layers x 4 round robins
Snare Rimshots : 51 velocity layers x 2 round robins
Tom 1 : 49 velocity layers x 2 round robins
Tom 2 : 49 velocity layers x 2 round robins
Tom 3 : 49 velocity layers x 2 round robins
Hihat - Closed : 127 velocity layers x 2 round robins
Hihat - Foot Closed : 46 velocity layers x 2 round robins
Hihat - Foot Open : 46 velocity layers x 2 round robins
Hihat - Loose : 127 velocity layers x 4 round robins
Hihat - Open : 26 velocity layers x 2 round robins
Ride 17 - 49 velocity layers x 2 round robins
Ride 17 Bell - 49 velocity layers x 2 round robins
Ride 20 : 49 velocity layers x 2 round robins
Ride 20 Bell : 45 velocity layers x 2 round robins
Crash 15 : 45 velocity layers x 2 round robins
Crash 17 : 45 velocity layers x 2 round robins

Yes, you read that correct. The main snare (a classic 1965 Ludwig 5"x14" Jazz Festival Snare drum) has 127 velocity layers and 4 round robins !! The kicks and hats also have 127 velocity layers and 2 round robins !! And I can confirm, it is a pleasure to play and program.

Pick up your jaw off the floor and let’s move on.

The mic channel layout is as follows :-

The Snare: four separate mics (Top, Bottom, Stereo combining Left & Right overheads mic).

The Kick Drum: one close mic as well as Stereo combining Left & Right overhead mics.

The Toms: one close mic as well as Stereo combining Left & Right overhead mics.

The Hats : One Stereo combining Left and Right mics.

The Cymbals : One Stereo combining Left and Right mics

Yes, that is correct. Each of those 127 x 4 snare samples have 4 mic channels (it’s a 4 channel / track wav file). So effectively its 127 x 4 x 4 = 2032 samples just for just one snare articulation !!

ALL of the samples are multi-channel with the minimum being hats and cymbals (2 channel true stereo) and the main drums being 4 channels. ALL of the samples are unprocessed and un-normalized to preserve their natural dynamics. You can tweak them in a myriad of ways to your liking.

The Reaper instrument provides control over EACH mic channel. Example : for the snare you can mix in some more top mic channel , apply compression to the bottom mic channel and reverb to the overhead channels. Then you can further process these 4 channels combined in the snare bus.

The general flow is :

MIDI In / Drum Sequencer
|
V
Samples (multi channel wav files having upto 127 velocity layers and 4 round robins)
|
V
Samplers (RS5K instances where the basic sample playback behavior /ADSR / MIDIMap can be tweaked)
|
V
Drum Mic Channels (where you can set the mix amount and processing for each mic depending on what’s available)
|
V
Drum Buses (where you can process the combined bus for each kit piece)

There is a very clear and helpful manual to get you started :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxI5SR ... sp=sharing

You should read it cover to cover (it’s a short 21 pages only) to understand the instrument (which has a lot of levels).

There are 2 versions available for you to choose from based on your requirement and system specs :



SM MegaReaper Drumkit
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxI5SR ... sp=sharing
It requires a minimum of 6 GB RAM and 2 GB HDD space
This is the full kit with all the details as mentioned above.

SM MegaReaper Drumkit Lite
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxI5SR ... sp=sharing
It requires a minimum of 4 GB RAM and 1 GB HDD space
This is the kit with no round robins (yet ALL of the velocity layers) and only 1 Crash, 1 Ride and no HH Loose articulation. It still sounds fantastic.

Note : Make sure that the mixer (Ctrl + M) and the screensets (Ctrl + E) windows are visible and docked in Reaper at the bottom to maximize your experience. And please do read the manual.

Please use this thread for any queries and clarifications or email me (mentioned in the manual).

CREDITS

All sampling done by the extremely generous forum member SMM (details in the manual)
All sample editing by Suleiman
All instrument development by Suleiman
Technical Advise by Tod and SMM

There are plans for an even better sampled kit with more articulations, but that may take a while.

Legal note:
These samples were recorded and created by Scott McLean.
Scott McLean is offering these drum and cymbal samples to the
public royalty free (free of charge) to use in any audio/video production
for both commercial and private use. This is a "free use" license.
No payment is required to use these samples in any production.


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If you do not have enough RAM

OR

do want multi-mic control

OR

do not want 127 velocity layers (yes I admit it’s a slight overkill)

THEN

please use Tod’s excellent stereo samples based kit for Reaper, made from the same set of raw files by SMM, but completely differently edited / normalized and with much less velocity layers.

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If you have the full Kontakt , he has shared a multi-mic version for Kontakt, but again these are completely differently edited samples from mine and with much less velocity layers.

Links to both are here :

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=150868

[GaryG]

127 velocity levels?

Wow, hats off to the drummer for being able to play with that finesse.

Thanks, will check it out later.

[Burzukh_Studios]

127 velocity levels?

Wow, hats off to the drummer for being able to play with that finesse.

Thanks, will check it out later.

It was a dream of mine and an amazing (and very generous drummer) helped me do it. Details are in the manual.

Basically, if a good drummer does enough runs of the softest to the hardest hits ,you can easily end up with over a hundred layers. The drummer in this case did multiple 600 hit runs with amazing dynamic control.

Play it on a reasonable drum pad / MIDI controller or with well programmed MIDI loops to feel the difference.

[filter303]

This is very generous of you, thank you!

[Burzukh_Studios]

This is very generous of you, thank you!

You are most of welcome. Its really the drummer who deserves the accolades as he was kind enought to sample his amazing colelctor's kit with such detail and send me the raw files.

In other news, editing and mapping this turned my hair white

[pljones]

Basically, if a good drummer does enough runs of the softest to the hardest hits ,you can easily end up with over a hundred layers. The drummer in this case did multiple 600 hit runs with amazing dynamic control.

I've never understood why people think this is "unbelievable". Damn hard work and all credit to the drummer! (And, of course, to everyone involved - it must have needed a lot of dedication, and I respect that.)

Of course, you know I think it has shortcomings . More hi-hat positions!! And what about stuff like cymbal chokes? I'd actually far prefer to have seen time spent filling out a better cross-section of what's needed for playability - more articulations are needed more than pure velocity depth -- deadened hits, open hits, center hits, half-way hits, tip vs edge hits etc, etc.

[Burzukh_Studios]

Basically, if a good drummer does enough runs of the softest to the hardest hits ,you can easily end up with over a hundred layers. The drummer in this case did multiple 600 hit runs with amazing dynamic control.

I've never understood why people think this is "unbelievable". Damn hard work and all credit to the drummer! (And, of course, to everyone involved - it must have needed a lot of dedication, and I respect that.)

Of course, you know I think it has shortcomings . More hi-hat positions!! And what about stuff like cymbal chokes? I'd actually far prefer to have seen time spent filling out a better cross-section of what's needed for playability - more articulations are needed more than pure velocity depth -- deadened hits, open hits, center hits, half-way hits, tip vs edge hits etc, etc.

Thanks !

The increased hat articulations (and maybe cymbal chokes) are in the plans for the next version. Give it six month

[DSmolken]

Wow, epic effort.

[Tricky-Loops]

Thanks! I hope, the drummer is still alive!

Now if you could make a big drum kit with Arabian or Persian drum & percussion instruments, I'd be dancing around the globe (because I miss some other drums/percussion here at KVR, it's pretty americanized, and I already have thousands of kicks, snares, toms and hi-hats)!

[JDK88]

Thankyou, I await for someone to make a kontakt patch.

[Turello]

... Or someone so kindly to make a small VST multi-out Maize Sampler Instrument...

[Burzukh_Studios]

Thankyou, I await for someone to make a kontakt patch.

As I mentioned in the OP, the Kontakt instrument is available ( and quite fantastic really )...its by Tod Stillwell who used the same raw files to make his own samples. Unlike mine , his open wav files are all stereo samples. And he has a Kontakt instrument. He has less velocity layers ( still more than most commercial kits ) and more round robins.