# Musical Sampling Medusa: Ensemble Drums + Sound Design



## Aaron Sapp (Jan 2, 2020)

*Medusa* is now released! Wear your blindfolds. 👀

Available now for *$179. 









Boutique Drums Medusa - Professionally Recorded Drum Samples & Libraries | Musical Sampling


Medusa is a modern ensemble drum library, professionally recorded & created for trailer producers as well as film, game and television composers.




www.musicalsampling.com




*


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## ysnyvz (Jan 3, 2020)

Concussion? Did you hit drummer's head and record that sound?


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## zimm83 (Jan 3, 2020)

Oh my....epiiiiic !!!


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## SBK (Jan 3, 2020)

I was just like holy @[email protected]$#!!!


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## zimm83 (Jan 6, 2020)

Hy, can you give us infos ?
Are there patterns, are there playable guitar lines, playable pulses....
Is it an ensemble drum library?
The sound is very very punchy.
In the teaser , you write "chants " ? Are these shouts ?
Thanks .
Is it an hybrid perc library ? 
I hope .


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## Aaron Sapp (Jan 6, 2020)

Hey, Zimm - we'll be sure to keep everyone apprised with the details when the time comes (soon). It is a drum ensemble library with a lot of complimentary sound design material that really work great together.


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## Mike Fox (Jan 6, 2020)

Sounds awesome!


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## zimm83 (Jan 7, 2020)

Aaron Sapp said:


> Hey, Zimm - we'll be sure to keep everyone apprised with the details when the time comes (soon). It is a drum ensemble library with a lot of complimentary sound design material that really work great together.


Thanks!


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## GingerMaestro (Jan 13, 2020)

Excited as I hope this is still happening today ? P.S. as well as all the fellas here, there are a lot of brilliant female composers on this forum and in the business, indeed the amazing Hildur Guðnadóttir just won the golden Globe for Joker..Congratulations to her..


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## ysnyvz (Jan 13, 2020)

GingerMaestro said:


> Excited as I hope this is still happening today ?











Boutique Drums Medusa - Professionally Recorded Drum Samples & Libraries | Musical Sampling


Medusa is a modern ensemble drum library, professionally recorded & created for trailer producers as well as film, game and television composers.




www.musicalsampling.com


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## charlieclouser (Jan 13, 2020)

FIRST!

Bought and downloading now.


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## chillbot (Jan 13, 2020)

charlieclouser said:


> FIRST!


Second...?


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## zimm83 (Jan 13, 2020)

Sounds really really good. Very punchy. That's what i need.
Will there be a walkthrough of the other patches ?
Thanks.


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## Aaron Sapp (Jan 13, 2020)

Hey Zimm - we'll be including a walkthrough soon. Just need a short respite.  And maybe a beer.


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## zimm83 (Jan 13, 2020)

Aaron Sapp said:


> Hey Zimm - we'll be including a walkthrough soon. Just need a short respite.  And maybe a beer.


Thanks. 
It really sounds like i want it to sound. FANTASTIC.


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## Montisquirrel (Jan 13, 2020)

Sounds really nice. I like the concept of adding other tool-kits next to the drums. Hope to see the walkthrough before the end of the intro price. The demo tracks are great. The "Find my way (naked)" demo is beautiful and also very impressive for a naked demo of a drum library.


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## Max Bonsi (Jan 13, 2020)

Any chances to get special prices also on all the other libs?
Thanks!


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## Manuel Stumpf (Jan 13, 2020)

👀


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## Manuel Stumpf (Jan 13, 2020)

Hm sounds interesting. Seems like a trailer composer toolkit, with a little bit of everything.
But one question remains:
Adventure Woodwinds ?


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## axb312 (Jan 13, 2020)

How many dynamic layers and round robins?


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## charlieclouser (Jan 13, 2020)

Bought it, installed it, played with it for a few hours. Impressions:

- It's basically a "drum kit ensemble" library - no taikos, dun duns, surdos, etc. - with some extras like concert bass drums, stomps, claps, shouts, a grab bag of stacked hits, some dark and aggressive synth patches, and a bunch of tempo-locked loops of hi-hat, cello chugs, distorted guitars, and a variety of "cine-pulse" type loops. There's a nice clean electro-acoustic guitar chug loop tucked in there too.

- The sound is very large but tight. The start points are very precisely trimmed, so it's not a total flam-fest like 8Dio's "v8 private collection" drum kit ensemble library, but it still feels like it's four (?) arms hitting the drums. The sound is big but not messy.

- The drums are well-tuned, beefy, and satisfying. Low toms have great tone and no weird rings or overtones.

- There are no individual mic samples - all the drums except for the stacked slams ("concussion") are presented as four pre-mixed stereo pairs that sound to me like close, overhead, room, and "fat mix". They're all good choices and provide a decent variety of sounds, but it's a slightly different approach than other big-dollar libraries. For me this is a good thing - I hate dealing with a zillion lame-sounding dry mic positions. This way it's lighter on CPU and disc too.

- Even the closest stereo pair still has a good bit of room; it is much more focused than the others, however it is not completely dry.

- There is a "humanize" control on the GUI that seems to fiddle with start points, or swap over to some "more flammy" samples in some layers to give a looser sound. It works very well. There are four levels of humanize: off, tight, natural, and loose.

- There are plenty of dynamic layers - most drums seem to have between 9 and 12, hats have 8 or so, and cymbals have 5-6. One thing I like is that the ride cymbals turn into crash cymbals at the highest velocities, just like in real life - so you can do a convincing Dave Grohl impression.

- There are many round-robins, usually between 12 and 16, some drums have as many as 20 or more, except for some cymbals which seem to have 6 to 8 or so (I didn't count). The round-robins and dynamic layers are very well matched, with no sudden dynamic split points or detectable patterns to the round-robins.

- The .nki is unlocked so you can get under the hood and mess around if you want, but the mapping doesn't look completely transparent - some scripting trickery seems to be in effect so if you're trying to remap sample ranges you might break something. I think the extra zones visible in the map have to do with the humanize feature - they might be those "more flammy" samples that are swapped in when you choose different levels of humanize.

- As near as I can make out, the list of drums is concert bass drum, kick drum, snare center/rim shot/sidestick, hi-hat tight/mid/open/foot and loops, crash 1/2, ride edge/bell, tom lo/mid/high/rim, tambourine hits/shakes with release triggers, cymbal rolls with release triggers, stomps, claps, and then all the stacked hits.

- There's not an absolute ton of bonus content, but it is all quite useful and tastefully done. Evil synths, dark drones, power guitars (in both playable maps and loop banks of chugs in a variety of chords and single notes with different amounts of muting), cine-pulses, and a really good "trap 808" kick/sinewave patch that tracks the keyboard. It's all good stuff. No faff.

All in all, a fat, tight, powerful sounding selection of drums that will get you an aggro sound, can be used as a "normal" drum kit, has just the right amount of bonus content and loops, and won't have you wandering four folders deep in the surdos wondering if there might be buried gold that you forgot about. At list price of $179 it's a good deal, and at intro price of $119 it's a steal. So grab it!


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## Waywyn (Jan 14, 2020)

Yo everyone,

my live stream from yesterday night is online. I hope to give you guys a good impression on that absolute epic no brainer "not only" drum library.


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## AndyP (Jan 14, 2020)

I have must!!!!!!!


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## zimm83 (Jan 14, 2020)

This is a must have. Thanks for this superb walkthrough.


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## Aaron Sapp (Jan 14, 2020)

Thank you for the kind words, fellas! Means a lot after developing this bad boy (or girl?).

We recorded this library early last year, then re-recorded it because we weren’t completely satisfied. It was also a real challenge achieving super-tight performances. Plenty of expletives were exchanged.


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## Mike Fox (Jan 14, 2020)

Aaron Sapp said:


> Plenty of expletives were exchanged.



Hence the Battlecry patch?


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## guydoingmusic (Jan 14, 2020)

Mike Fox said:


> Hence the Battlecry patch?


That pretty much sums it all up!!


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## Blakus (Jan 14, 2020)

This one is a lot of fun. Charlie summed it up perfectly - definitely going in my template


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## Craig Sharmat (Jan 14, 2020)

Great sounding library. I was surprised when Aaron started doing drums (though i'd seen him preform mid drums well many yrs ago). The first 2 libraries Jolene and Ruby are excellent libs but this appears to be a considerably deeper and useful addition.


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## AndyP (Jan 15, 2020)

I love it! The sound is brilliant and the additional patches are useful. Clear purchase recommendation!
Except for Jolene, I have all the MS libraries and have not been disappointed once.


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## 10Dman (Jan 16, 2020)

Sounds great! Huge sounding drums with mixes that are ready to go


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## Dirk Ehlert (Jan 16, 2020)

Absolute recommendation from my end as well... took it for a spin and had some fun writing a track with it -  That thing is a beast.


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## videohelper (Jan 17, 2020)

Love this library! Doesn't try to do everything but totally nails what it does. Drums feel really musical, especially in a mix context. For those of you worried about the roominess, you can blend the tightest settings successfully with some of the other big drum/perc libraries like HZ, Audio Imperia, etc. 

Aside from the biiiig drums, the tambourine is my new workhorse and will def be coming back for the claps. If you trill them, it actually sounds like applause - never heard another library pull off that trick.

+1 on getting this.


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## Aaron Sapp (Jan 17, 2020)

Hey gents,

As requested, here's a quick playthrough video of the tonal sound design patches:


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## paulmatthew (Jan 17, 2020)

Is the site down right now? I want buy Medusa but can't get through to the website on my desktop or phone.


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## Aaron Sapp (Jan 17, 2020)

Sure is! Looking into it right now. Will keep the thread apprised. Believe it's a hosting issue. Lovely timing. 

*EDIT:* Site is back to normal!


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## paulmatthew (Jan 17, 2020)

Aaron Sapp said:


> Sure is! Looking into it right now. Will keep the thread apprised. Believe it's a hosting issue. Lovely timing.
> 
> In the meantime, here is the link to Medusa's order form: https://sites.fastspring.com/musicalsampling/instant/boutiquedrumsmedusa


Great! Just purchased and thank you for the link.


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## Aaron Sapp (Jan 20, 2020)

Had to share this wicked review by Fox Audio. It showcases various aspects of the library with real concision and attitudinal flair. Also just straight-up spanked my own Playthroughs. 

Great job, @Mike Fox !


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## Mike Fox (Jan 20, 2020)

Thanks for the plug, Aaron! 

You guys TOTALLY nailed it with this one!


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## Craig Sharmat (Jan 20, 2020)

Love the review, no nonsense and the effort to make demos for so many things in the library. I usually don't like reviews, too much talking, people looking for an audience, etc etc...this is the way I want to check a review....nicely done and thanks. This was already a purchase but it's great to see a review done so well.


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## ProfoundSilence (Jan 21, 2020)

Waywyn said:


> Yo everyone,
> 
> my live stream from yesterday night is online. I hope to give you guys a good impression on that absolute epic no brainer "not only" drum library.





one thing I noticed was when you were playing with mics on sine - you were switching on the mics on one by one - that's what the mic remote is for at the bottom of the mixer, save you a few clicks


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## Consona (Jan 21, 2020)

Gotta love we've reached the epicness point where entire ensembles are used in rock/metal pieces as a drum kit.


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## Ian Dorsch (Jan 21, 2020)

Consona said:


> Gotta love we've reached the epicness point where entire ensembles are used in rock/metal pieces as a drum kit.



I mean...it sounds killer, so... 🤘🤘


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## Peter Satera (Jan 27, 2020)

Yay - Picked this up - the sound design definitely inspired my purchase. Is there any chance we could have the Midi passed on from the demos in the Medusa Percussion Playthrough just to study it?


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## Consona (Jan 27, 2020)

Ok, got literally broke buying this. Now I feel like a real musician.  I love the sound of this right out of the box, saves me a lot of time mixing it.

One question, can I disable some ensembles somehow so I have only kicks loaded for example? I want to treat it like a normal kit, with the kick on one track, snare on another, etc. Or can this be done only by sending difference ensembles to different channels in Kontakt? I also miss this in Trailer Strings when I don't want all the articulations loaded.
Cheers!


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## Aaron Sapp (Jan 27, 2020)

Consona said:


> One question, can I disable some ensembles somehow so I have only kicks loaded for example? I want to treat it like a normal kit, with the kick on one track, snare on another, etc. Or can this be done only by sending difference ensembles to different channels in Kontakt? I also miss this in Trailer Strings when I don't want all the articulations loaded.
> Cheers!



There is no purging of different drum groups. Yes, you can route the individual drum groups to different Kontakt outputs for further mixing. You can select the output right under the volume faders.


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## Consona (May 31, 2020)

Aaron Sapp said:


> Yes, you can route the individual drum groups to different Kontakt outputs for further mixing. You can select the output right under the volume faders.


Just in case you have some free time to make an update...  ...would be really helpful if there was a possibility to send every tom group out individually rather than having them all under one output.


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## sourcefor (Jun 17, 2020)

How does this Fare against RENEGADE?


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## guydoingmusic (Jun 18, 2020)

sourcefor said:


> How does this Fare against RENEGADE?


Both stand on their own but also compliment each other very well. Medusa having the ensemble drums, and Renegade having the solo drums. Both are completely versatile and cover a lot of ground. The sound design was designed to not be repetitive as well. Very cohesive. Where one leaves off - the other picks up.


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## Mike Fox (Jun 18, 2020)

guydoingmusic said:


> Both stand on their own but also compliment each other very well. Medusa having the ensemble drums, and Renegade having the solo drums. Both are completely versatile and cover a lot of ground. The sound design was designed to not be repetitive as well. Very cohesive. Where one leaves off - the other picks up.


This!


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