Total Stereo Session Drums

Sweetwater Sounds
Format : K2000 CDRom
Review by: Harold Nobles
MARS Media
Friday, September 10, 1999

At last I got around to purchasing the Total Stereo Session Drums from Sweetwater Sound ($329). I am very pleased with the sample set. Thus far, I've only spent about 2-3 hours with it, but I would like to post the following information for two reasons.

1) If you are looking for *natural* drum sounds (i.e. not techno, etc.) for virtually any style of popular music (see list below), you should probably consider this set.

2) I'd like to give credit to whom I feel it is due, namely to Jim Miller, Daniel Fisher, Gary Phillips, and Chuck Surack (Executive Producer).

I'll start with Chuck. I assume that "Executive Producer" means he's the guy who put up the substantial bucks to get the job done, and to get it done correctly. (In fact, I imagine that he also provided input with regard to the nature of at least some of the drum kits.)

During the "Great K-list Piracy Debate" a few months ago, I was struck by the impression that some people have no clue about the expense required to produce a realistic set of samples of a complex acoustic instrument.

A brief description would go something like this: a quality recording studio with very a very low noise floor and great acoustics, pro-quality mics, mic preamps, and D/A converters, an engineer who is accomplished at micing and recording that particular instrument, and an accomplished and patient musician to play the instrument. Translation: very expensive.

These sessions drag on for hours and days, especially in the case of complex instruments, i.e. those with multiple characteristic articulations. In my experience, the greatest challenge involves achieving consistency of articulation across the multi-samples that comprise the keymap for a given articulation. This is a part of why it is generally necessary to have a pro-quality player, and a very patient and cooperative one at that. These are general observations. To date, my sampling experience pertains to various regular instruments, not drums.

Once the editing process begins, inevitably, some problems and insights will emerge, umm, more studio time... and this is to say nothing of the time and level of expertise required for the sample editing and synth programming. Again, in addition to expertise, this requires a great deal of time and patience. I think it would be fair to say that 99% of the people would fail on the patience criterion alone. This is not fun work. It's gratifying to achieve the final goal of producing a great set of samples, but the work itself is tedious and agonizing, if done properly.

Getting back to the drum disc, basically Jim Miller did the recording of the drums, and Daniel Fisher and Gary Phillips did the sample editing and programming. Eight drummers are credited in the liner notes.

From his post yesterday, we find that Daniel Fisher got to where he is today because he loves his work and because he has worked hard constantly and for many years. Yes, you need to have the ability and the inspiration, but you must also work long hours at it for many years. Like any other achivement such as earning a PhD or being a tennis champion. It's not all glamour. In fact, most of it is plain hard work.

During the "great piracy debate," at least one person pointed out that it's tough to give up $300 for a set of samples, only to realize that it's not what you wanted. Also, for most of us being hobbyists or semi-professionals, $300 is too high. Please note that I AGREE STRONGLY with both of these points. I see both sides of it because I am at once a sample set buyer and a sample set creator. (In fact, I'm in the midst of a major sampling project involving an array of exotic instruments for which no sample sets are currently available. Unfortunately, I've got rent to pay, so the project is currently on hold. I'll announce it whenever I manage to get back to work on it and get it near enough to completition that I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel.)

Please, I beg you, do not start the piracy debate again. Some of the piracy advocates were clearly irrational people. To them, I have nothing to say, just as I would not choose to engage in "conversation" with a raving lunatic. At the other extreme, some of the strongest anti-piracy advocates were too hard-core for me. I'm not exacly a card-carrying Republican.

To me, the philosophical discussion (both right-wing and left-wing) was both unconvincing and unnecessary. The facts suffice. It takes bucks to create a great sample set, and if the users don't share in the cost, then the excellent sample sets will not be created. If you disagree with this, please do not talk. More than enough of this sort of talk has already been posted to the list. Prove your words by creating an excellent multiple articulation sample set of just *one* instrument and send it to me for free. Your point will then be proven.

Words alone are pointless. If you must write more words, please send them to me directly, rather than cluttering up the list. But before you spend that time, please note that I agree that $300 is too much for most of us to pay. I think that Boulder Sounds has got it right with the $129 price for the piano sets. For those of us who require a wide range of instruments, $300 per instrument is too much to pay unless the instrument is essential for the individual, and unless the sample set actually provides the sounds wanted. (In my case, drums are essential, this is effectively more than one instrument, see 20 kits below, and yes, the drum sample set actually provided the sounds I wanted, and more.)

But for some people between the two extremes, perhaps the above brief discussion of the costs associated with the creation of sample sets will at least make them feel a little better about the prices.

Whew, I had no intention of writing all that stuff. Hopefully, at least some of it made sense to somebody. If not, sorry about that!

Originally, I simply wanted to compliment Jim, Daniel, and Gary for doing such a fine job. They didn't create these samples just to make a buck. They created them because they wanted drum sample sets that *sound like real drums.* Not "sorta like real drums," which is the case of the other sets I've heard. Fortunately for me, they succeeded.

Here's an example. Yesterday I jammed with a few musicians. Basically, a guy moved in next door, asked if I wanted to jam with him and his buddies, and I said yes. It turned out that the music they were playing (basically speed metal) needed drums a whole lot more than it needed keys. So, I simply played drums the whole time. (I use a Fater weighted-action keyboard and a K2500RS.)

Oh well, what can I say? It sounded like real drums. I'm pretty sure that anyone standing outside would have assumed that someone inside was playing real drums. I'm certainly no great fan of speed metal, but I must say that this music was smokin' and so were the drums!

Okay, enough preamble. I will now attempt to provide some discussion of the sample sets. Basically, there are 20 kits, which are named by style of music. Explicitly, the designers encourage experimentation, and in fact, there are additional volumes of raw samples provided. But the "style of music" sample set names provide an excellent point of departure. Also, they make it exceptionally easy to audition the disc and get the general idea. Anyway, here are the names of the sets. They range in size from 10.6 MB to 18.0 MB. All samples are in stereo, which is important. More on this later.

Each kit comes in a Kurzweil keymapped version and a general midi version.

Okay, now it becomes clear why the phrase "multiple articulations" appeared so frequently in my preamble!

Oh yeah, in addition to the kits and additional raw samples, there are also four percussion kits:

Bongos
Congas
Mega Percussion
Roto Toms

For most of us, there would be perhaps 2-3 kits that we "like the best," and I am no exception in this regard. But man, the ability to dial up a virtually dead-ringer drum set for virtually any style of popular music...umm, well, IMHO that's worth $329.00.

In fact, I deeply regret that I did not purchase this set when it first came out about two years ago. Usually, I don't buy a sample set until I've heard it. Why? Well, let's see, here's a stack of sample CDs collecting dust. I don't use them because I don't like them. But I cannot afford to play that game just now. Fortunately, I do Kurzweil programming (and hand-holding) for several Kurzweil owners, so I get to hear much of what is available. I waited and waited for somebody to buy the Session Drums so I could see if it lived up to the impression I obtained from the description. It never happened, I guess they all already had drum samples with which they were reasonably satisfied.

I was attracted to the set from its description when it first came out. Also, several people spoke in favor of it during the K-list drum thread, about six months ago, I'd say. Ironically, the only real negative for me was the sound of the demo recordings I downloaded. Maybe it's due to the mpeg format, I dunno, but I do know that to me the sets sound much better in reality than they sound on the demos. (I say "ironically" because generally I think that providing such demos is an excellent idea.)

Anyway, getting back to the drums. A few major points:

Each kit has two different kicks and two different snares. This provides instant variation within a given set.

For each set, the major drums (e.g. the snare) are *eight*-layer velocity-switched. This is extremely important. It doesn't work simply to play a given sample louder or softer. Let's face it, a particular drum, and also virtually any acoustic instument, sounds different when played hard, soft, etc. Thus, for example the velocity layers for a given snare drum would range from barely tapping the drum to a full-on rim shot, and six points in between.

Stereo. This also is key. I have played these drums thru both speakers and headphones. Either way, I became immersed in the sound of a real drum set. By comparison, the other (mono) drum sample sets from other CDs sound predictable, one-dimensional, umm, they sound like sh*t. (Of course this is just my opinion. I'll try to explain my point of view below, but first I'd like to try to finish this list of key points.)

The cymbals are great because the samples are long enough for the cymbals to decay naturally and in true stereo. Each set has a fine variety of both ride and crash cymbals, all multi-layered (velocity switched). Man, this is making me want to stop typing and start playing, but I'm determined to provide an overview of this disc...

Okay, for a given sample set, the array of ride cymbals is impressive. For example, there are typically two very different samples (again, multi-layered) of striking the bell of the ride cymbal. And typically two conventional strokes of the ride cymbal. The high hat articulations are diverse (again, per sample set), including an open hat that closes when you release the key. The crash cymbal samples are also good.

Dry *and* true ambient kits. Basically, the dry samples are close-mic'd and the ambient samples are "room-mic'd." Generally, this depends upon which kit you're playing. But I think in some cases it also pertains to the dual snare and kick samples within a set. Anyway, the point is that IMHO properly recorded ambient (natural) reverb beats the pants off of processed reverb any day. As a point of reference, perhaps I should add that I do happen to own both KDFX and a Lexicon PCM 90. I'm very picky about reverb. But where possible, I always at least try to record with natural reverb. Of course, this requires the use of a great sounding room and generally the use of omni-directional mics.

Whatever, from my perspective the point here is that the ambient drum samples are far superior to "ambient" samples in which the ambience was added by processor. Why? Because a true ambient recording delivers the proper (and very complex) "imaging" which the processor can only attempt to emulate. In cases where hard core ambience is needed (80s rock, anyone...), it is still superior to add (tons of) reverb to a recording that is already essentially ambient. It gives the processor more to work with.

Oh well, what else did I want to say? Oh yeah, I want to attempt to describe my point of view with regard to drum samples. The main purpose of this post is to inform interested parties of what a great disc this is. I'm glad I bought it. From my perspective, it was $329 well spent. Again, I am outraged with myself that I waited this long.

To me, virtually all pop music begins with the drums. If the drums aren't right, you might as well forget about it. No, I am not a drummer, but I found this to be true over the sixteen years (beginning in 1966) during which I played with a wide variety of working bands in various types of music. (I played mostly guitar and keys.)

In the MIDI work I've done over the past few years, for each song I typically labored for days and even weeks trying to get the drums to sound right. I used various sample sets, I tried various programming and processing tricks, you name it. In the end, at best the results were "passable" but not really what I wanted. In recent months, I literally have procrastinated on some relatively important MIDI projects simply because I dreaded putting so much effort into the drums, only to achieve marginally satisfactory results. With this new set, I can't wait to get to work. Seriously.

However, I would hate for someone to read this message, shell out the cash only to find that they wasted their money. Personally, I feel that sample set discussion is one of the most important roles of this list, mainly because most of us are simply unable to give up $300 for every disc that comes along. So I appreciate it very much when these posts are made. But, I would like to emphasize the importance of also providing your point of view, so I'll give an example. It doesn't help much if you write for example that is a "great" piano disc. An excellent rock piano sample set would have nothing in common with an excellent classical piano sound. Please take at least one sentence to describe the type of music for which you find the sample set to excel.

Needless to say, coming from me, this is going to require more one sentence. Here goes...

My Point of View

Fortunately, I've already covered much of this. First, to summarize, these are *natural* drum samples. They would be useless for Techo, or whatever. "Natural" means that they sound like real drums. But it does not mean that the samples have no balls. Some of the sets have no balls (note in the list above that there are four complete Jazz kits), whereas some of the sets have tons of balls, e.g. Hard Kit, Heavy Kit, Led [Zepplin] Kit, etc. As I said earlier, yesterday I basically used one of the heavier kits and had no problem holding my own with a bunch of young guys who were die-hard speed metal players. Again, the point is that "natural" does not necessarily mean "lame." It depends upon the kit you use.

But from my own personal perspective, I found the other drum sample CDs to be particularly lacking the sound as presented in the Fusion Kit. What a relief to find a set of drum samples that sounds "right" to me.

I once played for three years in an all-original fusion group. I cannot begin to describe the talent of the drummer. Some other time. For now, the point is to describe the drum sounds he achieved. This was a full-time group, and we spent virtually all of our waking hours together. I observed that he spent countless hours and days practicing, but that he also spent countless hours and days modifying and tuning his drums in order to achieve specific sounds. He wanted to have a very tight, precise drum sound but with great impact.

Now that I look back on it, the common denominator was that his drums were tuned tightly. His drums parts were characteristically complex and quite heavy duty. But no matter how fast, hard, and complex he played, you could always hear each individual stroke.

For example, at one point he used Roto Toms rather than shell and floor toms. Not only that, but the roto toms were tuned so tightly that one of the (I guess) cast iron assemblies literally snapped! (I have many such amusing tall tales about this group in general, but I'll save them for some other time.) The point is that when he played those drums, every stroke came across with precision, in tune, and with maximum impact. This was no "elevator music" fusion group by any stretch of the imagination. Some of our songs were about mighty alien spaceships landing on earth, huge battles among spaceships while in space, etc.

However, it was his snare drum sound that set a standard for me and that has resulted in my great frustration in auditioning various drum sample CDs. Until the Sweetwater disc, I've never heard any snare sound that even came close to the tone and impact of his snare. None of this Phil Collins "gated reverb" snare horse sh*t. Dave's snare was like a laser-guided missle whereas the gated reverb sound is like scattered cluster bombs. (Sorry about all the military references. I'm a keyboard player, not a top gun. But hey, we're talking about drums here, right?)

In fact, I cannot say that the two snares in the Fusion Kit are exactly what I wanted, but at least they are in the right time zone. Similarly, the other drum sounds (toms, etc.) are tight and precise. In case you are wondering, yes, I remain in contact with Dave, but I never bothered to sample his snare because it would not sound right when inserted into the other sampled drum sets I've heard. (Basically, I've heard several other discs, but not all of them. So, I'm not saying that the Sweetwater disc is the best. But it is definitely the best I've heard. Please note, I'm not trying to argue a point. If you know of a better sample set, please let me know about it.)

Intentionally, this post has been relatively personal. I'm not a very cynical person. Yes, from time to time I've been kicked around in life as much as the next person. Don't worry, I won't go into it. Not now, and not later. Whatever, we all have plenty of reasons to be cynical. Just turn on the "news" for five minutes or so... But when it comes to music, I think it would be fair to say that I'm not cynical at all. For years I have looked for (in my opinion) a decent set of drum samples. At last I've found it. I'm happy now. Isn't it a good idea to spend at least a little time talking about what's good in life, rather than constantly focusing on what's wrong?

Also, I imagine that there are some people who are frustrated in their attempts to find a decent set of drum samples, like I was. I'm not trying to tell anyone to buy anything. On the contrary, I've tried hard to convey the characteristics of the samples. They would not be the right choice for some (many?) people, but I'm sure that at least some people (perhaps many) would share in my reaction, basically joy and relief from frustration.

I am very pleased that the K-list has been less confrontational lately. If something works for you, then say so. If something doesn't work for you, then say so. This is all useful information. Ever notice that the people who contribute the most to the list also have the least to gain? As noted earlier, they have the most to contribute because they have worked so hard for so long. As such, they are also the busiest people, and yet they find the time to share their observations and knowledge with us. Granted, few of us possess the programming expertise of _FIZBIN_ or Cowzar. But for example, if you find a sample set, patch, or programming technique that works for you, why not tell us about it? Again, it would be helpful if you would describe the musical context (style of music, associated instrumentation, whatever) in which you found the sounds or patches to work well.

Good, now to further explore the drum samples!

Harold Nobles