Many drum fills are started on this drum, and many drum sets have more than one tom. Sometimes called the high tom, this drum typically produces a note higher than both the floor tom and bass drum. Toms are notated on the first space from the top of the staff and the line below that space. It is often referred to as a floor tom because it may rest on the floor by using legs. The floor tom (or low tom) is typically the next lowest note on the drum set. Notation for the floor tom sits in the third space from the top of the staff.
It is used with a foot pedal and is often referred to as the “kick drum.” The bass drum is typically the biggest drum on the drum set, and usually produces the lowest note. Notation for the bass drum sits in the bottom space of the staff. There are several symbols musicians should know when starting to read drum notation, especially if they’re just starting off with a four- or five-piece drum set.
Notice below that the bass drum is in a different position on the staff than the snare or ride cymbal.ĭrums are notated by dots, while cymbals are notated with an “x.” These symbols typically have “stems” attached to them, which help explain how to count the beat that is shown. Notes are placed in the staff based on which part of the drum set should be played at any given time. The staff is made up of five lines and four spaces, but notes can be positioned above or below the staff as well. Like the English language, drum notation is read from left to right. By learning to read and write this part of the musical language, you’ll develop a strong sense of timing and rhythm control. The space between the bar lines is referred to as a “measure.” You will typically count beats while playing different notes on the drum set within each measure.ĭrum notation does contain similarities to sheet music in that measures are counted and read the same way. On the right-hand side, you can listen to demo tracks to hear the impressive results.In drum notation, the notes are written on the staff and are separated by vertical bar lines. This is especially clear with our hi-hat samples, for instance. Then, we cut most of the necessary sounds out of the grooves, in various velocities, and processed them to deliver samples as realistic as possible. Although doing so is almost impossible, we broke with tradition in sample recording, which calls for capturing every sound individually Instead, our studio drummer played entire grooves. In particular, the innovative functions for creating fills generate very smooth and realistic drum tracks ( see video).īecause we used high-quality cymbals and microphones for the recordings, the crash, ride and hi-hat cymbals sound especially refined and pleasant at various velocities.Īs early as during microphoning of the set and recording of individual samples, we took great care to replicate realistic circumstances. You can choose from thousands of assorted rhythms in the comprehensive Groove Library and compose your own drum accompaniment. The compressors built into the channels give you even more control over the level of compression. Its kick and snare drums come through clearly in any mixing situation – and still sound natural and not overly compressed. But this is exactly where the MT Power Drum Kit is strongest. Either the kick drum suddenly sounds much too slack or fuzzy in the mix, or the snare drum, which initially sounds natural and dynamic in solo mode, suddenly gets lost in the background in the overall mix, drowned out by the guitars and other instruments. Some of the expensive plugins available on the market deliver a highly natural and dynamic drum kit sound as a solo instrument, but many fail as soon as they are supposed to be used for a complete mix in a powerful pop or rock production.
This is precisely where many drum sample programs fail. The MT Power Drum Kit Sampler differs from other, expensive drum samplers in that we have already pre-processed the sounds with compressors and EQs to make them a perfect fit for any mix. Samples have been specially recorded and processed to make them ideally suited for use in pop, rock and metal productions.
The MT Power Drum Kit is a free drum sampler offering the powerful, high-quality sounds of an acoustic, realistic drum kit.
Multi Layer Drum Sampler AU / VST Instrument