4D Sounds Sphere Studios Drum Library MULTiFORMAT

4D Sounds have teamed up with Sphere Studios to record the first in a series of dynamic drum sample libraries. Sphere Studios is one of London's finest with a long-standing reputation amongst industry professionals.The session was engineered by studio owner Francesco Cameli who has worked with an extensive client list that includes the likes of Queen, Phil Collins, West Life, Gary Moore, Bullet For My Valentine, New Model Army and TesseracT. Martin Oldham (clients including Maroon 5, Keane, Elton John, Killing Joke and Razorlight) was also on hand as drum tech for the session.

Together they ensured that the drums were set up to be enriched by the outstanding acoustics of Sphere's live room. This combination of precision and expertise added enlivening levels of depth and detail to the samples in a strive to create a clear and unique overall sound.

Behind the drum hits were Jamie Postones (TesseracT) and Mike Malyan (Monuments). Both drummers are highly skilled and well respected for bringing a new force to modern drumming. Edited and co-engineered by Tesseract founder Acle Kahney, these samples are a delivery of his personal ideal in drum sound production.

The Drums:

DW VLT 20×20 Kick
DW 8″, 10″, 12″, 14″ Toms
Vibe 24×18
Vibe 10″, 13″, 16″, 18″ Toms
Ludwig Black Beauty 5.5″ Snare

The kits were recorded at 88.2khz/24bit (44.1khz also provided), pre-phase aligned kick drum mics and are available for Kontakt, Slate Trigger and WAVs. Please note these samples are Kick, Toms & Snare only. On average there are 10 hits per velocity and 10 velocity layers. We also added 3 left kick pedal hits for the three highest levels and 3 rimshots layers which we advise using for hardest hits. There are 5-6 velocity layers for the toms.

We advise using the samples within Kontakt to have maximum control over them. A custom script has been developed to ensure the correct hits are triggered, hits are randomized and the bleed of each drum into the room mics are controllable.Avaliable for*

Gear:

A mix of the Neve 88RS, Neve 1093 and Neve 1081 preamps were used. We like Neve :) We kept the tight/clean/punchy desk preamps for the DW kit and used the warmer/smoother 1093/1081 preamps to compliment the lower tuned vibe kit. As for the mics…

Kick In Audio Technia AT25
Kick In2 Audix D6
Kick Out Neumann U47
Snare Top SM57
Snare Bottom SM57
Toms AT 251/LE
Overheads AKG C12 (Stereo)
Close Rooms Royer SF12 (Stereo)
Far Rooms Telefunken ELAM 251 (Stereo)

*Kontakt 5.10.6066 (or higher) or Kontakt Free Player required.
We have setup the Kontakt instruments to be used in a multi-track fashion, so each microphone has its own output/channel.