Where to find a great snare drum sample?

[stmikkel]

Hi.

I\'ve been looking for a great snare drum sample for a long time. I\'ve tried a lot of well-known drum sample cds, but I still haven\'t gotten anywhere near the sound I want. Why is it so hard to make a decent snare drum sample?

I compose fusion-rock, prog/symfo-rock, pop (toto-like) etc...
I like the kind of snare drum you hear on records with Dave Weckl, ToTo. etc..
Lots of punch, a relatively tight drumhead that has a clear and tight sound - with good ghosting-ability.

I find it very strange, that there are so few good snare drum sample available. The snare drum is after all a very important part of the sound.
Is there anything out there, that might be recommended?
Thanks.

[donnie]

what a couple of months! http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

Donnie

[Nick Phoenix]

I have wondered the same thing. I was hoping that a good engineer would get together with a good sample developer to nail down some decent snare samples. The Yellow Tools snares are decent.

[donnie]

Shouldn\'t/Couldn\'t they be one in the same? http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

Donnie

[stmikkel]

Hi Donnie.

I\'m very excited about you doing snare drums.
I listened to your demos, and they sounded more like classical snare drums for orchestral music. Will they work for pop/fusion-rock music?

I just bought *another* well-discussed drum libary, and was very disappointed by the snare drums.
The general problem seems to be that the person sampling the snare drums, tunes them down so low, that they sound really dull and boring. I need tight sounding snares, with lots of punch and ghosting velocities.
Donnies snare drums sounded more tighty tuned, so that\'s very promising. I am however worried, that these are made for orchestral use, and not for pop/rock.
Am I wrong? I hope I am... :-)

[Simon Ravn]

stmikkel, I think Donnie is referring to his upcoming drum library, not his existing orchestral snare drums.

And Donnie: Are you going to fix your site soon so it\'s possible to order the libraries from you? Also, will you have the same discounts as Nemesys have there?? http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

[stmikkel]

Wow! Sounds cool.
Unfortunately, another sample libary I just have to get.. :-)

Donnie, if you read this. Please get the snare drums right, and tune at least some of the snaredrums\' drumheads tight, so you get a decent snare drum sound for pop, rock, fusion rock etc. + lots of dynamics.
The Dave Weckl-sound should be something to aspire for... :-)
The same goes for the toms I guess.
The most respected drums libaries like purrrfect drums, bob clearmountain etc. uses all very slack tuned snare drums. I don\'t understand the point of that. They end up sounding pretty dull, and IMO not very useful.

I\'m crossing my fingers for that Donnie finally will get it right!

[Haydn]

I\'m looking for high-tuned snares also. I do progressive rock besides doing orchestral music and like the sound of Bill Bruford and Phil Collins snares from the 70\'s. Need those nice ringing rim shots they like to use!

[stmikkel]

Hi Haydn.

Nice to see a fellow progrocker here. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif
Yeah, I love the old Bruford sound myself.
Speaking of excellent progressive rock drummers, have you heard Jamie Salazar from Flower Kings? He has an incredible amount of feel and musicality to his playing.

[donnie]

Hey guys we will definately do the best we can. Both Sean and I are both big Dave W. fans so we will definately get \"that\" sound.

Donnie

[stmikkel]

Hi Munsie.

For bass I would recommend Scarbee J-Slap.
It\'s without doubt the best bass cd I\'ve heard yet. Scarbee is releasing a fingerbass cd very soon. I\'ve heard the demos, and played them for a friend who played the bass for several years. The first thing he said was \"Wow, how is this?\" The realism is incredible.
When it comes to guitar samples I don\'t know though. Distortion guitar samples sounds generally horrible in my ears. Fortunately I play the guitar myself, so I don\'t need them.
When it comes to clean and acoustic guitar sounds Hanz Zimmer Guitars and Steve Stevens are examples of good guitarsample libaries.
I\'m sure there are more out there.
...anyone?

[Munsie]

Hi,

I\'ve got a complete virtual rock band thing going on with GigaStudio and a few sound modules. No live instruments except for my vocals. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif Anyway I\'m doing some rock/pop Journey type stuff, and I was curious if you guys are using GigaStudio for any Guitar (lead or rythm) or Bass Guitar lines? If so could you please let me know which sample cd\'s you are using? Thanks!

[Munsie]

Hello Stmikkel,

Thank you for your reply. I have the Hans Zimmer library and I\'m layering those with some samples from a few other libraries. The end result is sounding better and better. Especially as my sound mixing skills increase. Getting a decent \"playable\" guitar sound has been the most difficult thing to do for my home virtual studio. It\'s pretty wild to sit back and hear a tune that emulates a 4 piece rock band pretty good. It will never fool \"real musicians\" but I\'ve already played some demos for music fans and they can\'t tell it\'s all virtual. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

[SCARBEE]

Hi Munsie,

Nick Phoenix will release a Strat/Telecaster CD this summer and together with Revalver NFX (autumn)it could solve your guitar situation - it will certainly be a good quality as usual from the Quantum Leap series.

Thomas

[Haydn]

Hi Stmikkel,

The Flower Kings are my favorite group. I have all of their albums. Roine amazes me in the amount of quality music he composes. Jaime is an excellent drummer - his playing is perfect for their music. Unfortunately, he has left the group as he never felt comfortable playing prog rock (you could have fooled me). Jaime will be on the new album coming out in a few months though.

[stmikkel]

Hi again, Haydn.

This is kind of funny.
Flower Kings is my favourite too. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif I\'ve have all their records incl. rare stuff and japanese releases. I personally think that \"Back in the world of adventures\", \"Retropolis\" and \"Stardust We Are\" are among the best records ever released.

Btw. another thing you should check out is the dvd-audio version of ELP - Brain Salad Surgery. It has a (among others) DD 5.1 mix, which makes the original sound sooooo boring. You just can\'t keep yourself from smiling, when hearing all those strange analoge synth effects panning all around you.

Ok, this is getting way of topic! http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif