# What Epic Drums Are You Using?



## RichiCarter (Oct 8, 2018)

Hey guys,

I've been playing around with a number of Percussion VSTs (ranging in price) for the past few months, and I'm still not entirely happy with the sound that I'm getting. This is the kind of thing that I'm aiming for... (around 1:44)



I know that a lot of it is probably down to EQ (and Atom mixes are always pretty damn good), but I'm curious to know what you guys are using, or if anyone knows how I could get close to that sound.

Cheers!


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## SimonCharlesHanna (Oct 8, 2018)

F**k me that is obscene and headache inducing - I cant wait for this fad to be over.

Have you tried Damage by Heavyocity?


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## SimonCharlesHanna (Oct 8, 2018)

RichiCarter said:


> I know that a lot of it is probably down to EQ


And compression


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## gsilbers (Oct 8, 2018)

the actual percussion seems ot be something kinda simple like damage or even the tonehammer epic toms. i think whats making it sound huge are those impacts doubling the accents.


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## RichiCarter (Oct 8, 2018)

SimonCharlesHanna said:


> F**k me that is obscene and headache inducing - I cant wait for this fad to be over.
> 
> Have you tried Damage by Heavyocity?



Haha I appreciate the fact that not everyone is a fan!

I got Damage the other day. So far it looks pretty good.



gsilbers said:


> the actual percussion seems ot be something kinda simple like damage or even the tonehammer epic toms. i think whats making it sound huge are those impacts doubling the accents.



Yeah I think you're right. I don't really know how widely Damage is used in the industry. I thought maybe there was a few more expensive ones. But having said that, as mentioned previously, with professional mixing I suppose you can make anything sound good.


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## Robo Rivard (Oct 8, 2018)

You could have a peak at Auddict's "Drums of the Deep" vol 1 and 2. They sound big and natural.


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## SimonCharlesHanna (Oct 8, 2018)

Make certain you fully understand compression also.


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## dariusofwest (Oct 8, 2018)

APE and Damage currently (layered)


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## X-Bassist (Oct 8, 2018)

Damage will work. If you have a decent compressor set it's ratio to 3 to 1, then while playing your loudest note, adjust the threshold until the plug is compressing -6 to -9db. Then adjust your attack to get some transient back, probably 30 to 50ms. But this must be done by ear, really depends on the amount of sustain on the sound and how much you want, but adjust the release if the tail sounds weird or jumps in level. If you like it a little more compressed adjust the ratio up, on some drums 5 to 1 or 8 to 1 can sound better.

A transient designer plugin can also help some times. It can add more transient (attack, click sound) to a dull sample or excentuate the sustain (the tail) if it's lacking. But with damage both should be good, add some good compression and you should be golden. 

Some other sample libraries to check out are:
Strike Force (I'm hoping for a Black Friday sale)
https://laboratoryaudio.com/
Spitfire Audio HZ Perc (Good for heavy ethnic drums)
https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/hans-zimmer-percussion/
Heavyocity Session Series (Ensemble hits with Drums, Ethnic Drums, Woods, or Metals, good follow up to Damage)
https://heavyocity.com/product-category/master-sessions/
Audiobro LADD - large collections of Drums and Perc, some heavy drums.
https://audiobro.com/ladd/
A good followup thread:
https://vi-control.net/community/threads/spitfire-hz-perc-vs-strikeforce-perc.65221/


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## StevenMcDonald (Oct 9, 2018)

I tend to layer 3 or so drums to fill the spectrum up, then bus them all together and treat them with EQ, saturation of some sort, compression with a slower attack time for some attack/transient emphasis. Also a good plate reverb can add some bright presence. Whatever you have to do to get them nice and bright without neglecting the punch down low.

Most of the time I use a mixture of Heavyocity Master Sessions Ensemble Drums and Audio Imperia Cerberus. Cerberus is very capable on its own though.

In this particular example, there are lots of little reverse tails leading into the main hits as well. I usually do this layering in one of the various "trailer hits" samples I have from several different trailer SFX librares. Or you can just reverse your own drum hit and use it as a lead-in.


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## Sanlky (Oct 9, 2018)

Hum.. i always hear the same hit. If you want a quick fix, i would export the Hit you are using to a Wav File, import it a battery instance, you can change it begging with tuning, just little tuning can make it sound different, i guess old synths used an LFO with a bit resonant low pass filter, you can sample it, and tune it, like -0.25, +0.25, -0.5, +0.5 tuning, also, to make it sound little louder i would use a SOFT distortion to generate more harmonics, or a low pass filter to make one a bit weaker, so you can alternate them or make a round robin for this with small changes.

Be careful with compression, you might end up making the hit softer instead of louder, also make sure you arent hitting your compressor mixbus (if you are using it) too loud, that would kill hits.
Adding more reverb or being creative with reverb might help you a lot, if you want "dry" hits, you might want to try 0.3, 0.5 secs rooms, or other algos, AKG BX 20 from UAD does this job pretty well.


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