Technical information:
The Real Snare Drum is a multisampled instrument available in sfz and Battery formats (Kontakt format available soon). For those unfamiliar with it, the sfz format is an open sample format that is supported by a large and growing number of sample players. It is the native format of the free sample player 'sfz', and of Cakewalk's 'Dimension' family of instruments. Battery format is the proprietary format of Native Instruments popular 'Battery' drum sampler.
The Real Snare Drum is a vintage 1972 Slingerland Sound King snare drum sampled using two Beyer M201 dynamic microphones (top and bottom close mics) and two Oktava MK 012 small diaphragm condenser microphones (stereo overheads in an XY pattern); and mapped in an innovative and playable configuration. Each microphone has its own virtual channel, controlled by its own assigned midi CC#. The drum is sampled in 4 zones: center, 3 inch radius, 6 inch radius, and rim shot. Each zone has separate left and right hand samples mapped in an obvious and intuitive way, and there is round robin and velocity switching within each zone. The instrument also has decay, sustain and release controls each assigned to their own CC#.
The CC# assignments are as follows:
CC# 20: left overhead gain
CC# 21: right overhead gain
CC# 22: top close mike gain
CC# 23: bottom close mike gain
CC# 24: amp eg decay time attenuation (default mode is no decay, i.e. the note plays to the end unaltered)
CC# 25: amp eg sustain level attenuation (default mode is sustain=100%)
CC# 26: amp eg release time attenuation (default mode is release=1.5+ seconds, i.e. the note plays to the end unaltered )
It should be noted that sfz follows the GM spec in assigning CC# 7 to channel volume. This makes for a total of 8 CC# assignments, which matches the standard 8 knob setup common on midi keyboard and drum pad controllers.
The sample set itself consists of 440 24 bit 48 khz wave files. Because the sfz format is open and non-monolithic, these samples are freely accessible as individual wave files.
Free Kick drum Supplement for the Real Snare Drum
This is a small sample set of a 22 inch Slingerland Kick Drum of the same vintage as the Real Snare Drum. It features velocity layers and round-robin switching. It is available only in the sfz format at present. It is mapped to the black keys (midi note numbers 61, 63, 66, 68, 70) between the keys used in the Real Snare Drum mapping. This combined mapping allows for the creation of extremely realistic-sounding beats with a minimum of effort.This kick drum also has controls with CC# assignments.
These CC# assignments are as follows:
CC# 27: amp eg decay time attenuation (default mode is no decay, i.e. the note plays to the end unaltered)
CC# 28: amp eg sustain level attenuation (default mode is sustain=100%)
CC# 29: amp eg release time attenuation (default mode is release=1.5+ seconds, i.e. the note plays to the end unaltered )
CC# 30: gain control for kick drum
To use this kick drum by itself: Unzip the file and load the sfz file called 'Kick' into a the sfz player (available free here).
To use this kick drum with the Real Snare Drum: Unzip the file and place the contents in the Real Snare Drum folder. Load the file called 'SnareandKick' into the sfz player. This will load both the Real Snare Drum and the Kick drum.