# Out Now - Hammers by Charlie Clouser



## Spitfire Team (Jul 22, 2021)

*OUT NOW - HAMMERS 
*



Make an impact with this comprehensive collection of drums and percussion instruments. Created in collaboration with composer Charlie Clouser (Saw, Wayward Pines, Nine Inch Nails), Hammers features more than 1,000 sounds across 58 drums, including detailed hits, ensembles, over 800 performance loops, and genre-bending warps. ⁠ ⁠ With this selection of explosive drums recorded in a Brutalist space made of concrete, glass, and steel—allowing for a uniquely sharp attack and controlled reverb—composers will have a powerful tool for creating hard-hitting rhythms, elevating your craft and supercharging your compositions. ⁠ 

Learn more here.​


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## Soundbed (Jul 22, 2021)

Holy cow! #Want


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## Soundbed (Jul 22, 2021)

... looks like it makes sense to buy ORIGINALS: CINEMATIC PERCUSSION first, then get the 30% discount.


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## JyTy (Jul 22, 2021)

Watched the trailer, listened to 1min of walkthrough, pulled my credit card... downloading :D


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## Soundbed (Jul 22, 2021)

JyTy said:


> Watched the trailer, listened to 1min of walkthrough, pulled my credit card... downloading :D


You went through 1 more minute of exploration than me!


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## charlieclouser (Jul 22, 2021)

... a note on that trailer music: It was done 100% *only* with Hammers, and with *no processing of any kind* on any of the individual tracks. No EQ, no compression, no additional reverb other than what's inside the plugin itself. 

The only processing done outside of Hammers was a limiter on the stereo mix. That's what it sounds like right out of the box!


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## Flyo (Jul 22, 2021)

Soundbed said:


> ... looks like it makes sense to buy ORIGINALS: CINEMATIC PERCUSSION first, then get the 30% discount.


This could be applied? And the 30off on top of the intro price ?


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## José Herring (Jul 22, 2021)

It's pretty incredible. Just when I took my credit card off my paypal account to stop the impulse buy....looks like it's going back on.


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## onnomusic (Jul 22, 2021)

this sounds insane! Congrats on a great library Charlie! 

Bummer its not in EXS format, that would be have something haha! of course I understand from a business point of view it doesn't make sense, but would have been fun! is there any info available with regards to Dynamic layers, round robins etc in case I'd want to resample them?


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## benmrx (Jul 22, 2021)

Oh damn. This sounds sooooo good!! Me want. Me buy... lol.


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## Technostica (Jul 22, 2021)

JyTy said:


> Watched the trailer, listened to 1min of walkthrough, pulled my credit card... downloading :D


Premature eGASulation!


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## Braveheart (Jul 22, 2021)

Flyo said:


> This could be applied? And the 30off on top of the intro price ?


20% off intro, 30% off means 10% more


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## Uiroo (Jul 22, 2021)

It is transcendent.


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## charlieclouser (Jul 22, 2021)

onnomusic said:


> this sounds insane! Congrats on a great library Charlie!
> 
> Bummer its not in EXS format, that would be have something haha! of course I understand from a business point of view it doesn't make sense, but would have been fun! is there any info available with regards to Dynamic layers, round robins etc in case I'd want to resample them?



As much as I love and rely on EXS, Hammers just has too much going on to be dealt with inside such a simple engine. Tempo-sync'ed reverse hits and loops with adjustable, grid-locked start points, multiple mic positions, the "normalize" knob which raises the level of quieter zones but keeps the MIDI velocity split points intact, etc. It's just too much for lil' ol' EXS I'm afraid.

But most drums are 9x round-robin but in a randomized order with weighting rules.

Most drums are at least 5x velocity ranges (some darbukas, frame drums, and scrap metals are 3 or 4 though) but they each switch or crossfade by different amounts. It was a pain to get that all handled even in a custom engine.

But it came out great and is so playable. I got an Akai MPD-218 just to test finger-drumming on Hammers and it's so good I'm keeping it mounted right above my keyboard permanently. I also got a Roland SPD-SX and it's a blast to play Hammers from pads, either the SPD or my 2box mesh-head kit. Loving it!


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## sostenuto (Jul 22, 2021)

Braveheart said:


> 20% off intro, 30% off means 10% more


From Site:​
ARE THERE ANY CROSSGRADES FOR OWNERS OF CINEMATIC PERCUSSION?​Yes, Cinematic Percussion owners are entitled to a 30% discount on Hammers RRP during the promotional period. This ends on the 12th of August.


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## onnomusic (Jul 22, 2021)

charlieclouser said:


> As much as I love and rely on EXS, Hammers just has too much going on to be dealt with inside such a simple engine. Tempo-sync'ed reverse hits and loops with adjustable, grid-locked start points, multiple mic positions, the "normalize" knob which raises the level of quieter zones but keeps the MIDI velocity split points intact, etc. It's just too much for lil' ol' EXS I'm afraid.
> 
> But most drums are 9x round-robin but in a randomized order with weighting rules.
> 
> ...


Yeah was afraid of that. Since I resampled all my percs into EXS24 I don't want to go back, but will all the mic positions etc, yeah it wouldn't make sense. It's just too bad that one cannot go under the hood to find out the start and endings of the different layers etc... Ah well, Spitfire player it is then


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## Flyo (Jul 22, 2021)

So how much will cost Cinematic + Hammers cost in total?


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## onnomusic (Jul 22, 2021)

the discount gets the price from the normal intro price of 230 to 210 more or less, and cinematic is 30 bucks. so for 240 you have both (basically you pay 10 bucks for cinematic perc)


Flyo said:


> So how much will cost Cinematic + Hammers cost in total?


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## charlieclouser (Jul 22, 2021)

Some features / points maybe not apparent in the videos and specs on the Spitfire site:

• Every drum is mapped exactly the same way in the six-key bricks, so you can finger drum realistic performances without fishing for which key is the hits and which is the flam / ruff / roll. Mapping is like this:

C = Hit
C# = Ruff
D = Hit
D# = Flam 
E = Hit
F = Roll

• This mapping repeats on F# through B, so if you have a tweaked MIDI part you can just transpose up 6 or 12 semitones to hear it on a different drum, and it will sound exact with NO further tweaking.

• The only exception to the "six-key brick" mapping scheme is the Scrap - Misc category which was just a bonus grab-bag of trashy metal hits with no rolls, flams, ruffs, etc. But still velocity and round-robins though, even on those!

• All mapping is identical across every drum type, so copy+paste your MIDI all over the place for ungodly stacks.

• Two-handed mode duplicates all single hits maps to the top half of the keyboard, similar to earlier Spitfire perc libraries.

• All Flams, Ruffs, and Rolls have round-robin and velocity zones, not just the single hits.

• Rolls and loops have toggle-able "End Hit on Note-Off". Default is off.

• Rolls have mod-wheel crossfade between dynamic layers, AND velocity sensitivity for loudness, AND when and instrument is first loaded the mod wheel dynamic layer is set to about 50% so you never load an instrument and only hear the roll at pppp dynamics until you move the mod wheel for the first time. Once you move the mod wheel it takes over from that initial value.

• Loops and Warps were all played as 8-bar loops with clean end hits with 2-bar ring-out.

• Each six-key brick in Loops and Warps has identical mapping:

C = Entire 8-bar loop, minus end hit, looped cleanly.
C# = First two bars looped cleanly.
D = Second two bars looped cleanly.
D# = Third two bars looped cleanly.
E = Fourth two bars looped cleanly.
F = End hit with full ring-out.

That whole map repeats six keys up, starting on F#, and so on up the keyboard.

• Loop and Warps patches all have clean, 2-bar ring-out ending hits for everything, and all of those end hits are laid out in the bottom octave of the keyboard but reversed.... and tempo-synced!

• Normalize knob raises the volume of quieter samples so that at 100% the quietest layers are basically as loud as the loudest ones. This sounds totally different to audio compression or scaling the incoming MIDI velocities. Ya gotta have all three methods at your disposal (or at least, I do...).

• Reverse knob on FX page reverses samples with anywhere from 1/16th to whole note lead-in time, and always tempo-synced. All reversed single hits are then chopped to the exact same length so quantized MIDI + Reverse knob = quantized backwards single hit performances. It's awesome.

• Reverse knob works while samples are playing, so you can toggle to reverse in the middle of a loop while holding down the key. It all stays in sync to the host too.

• Simple one-knob audio compressor in the FX page, modeled on my personal default settings in Logic's compressor (Platinum Digital mode, 2:1 ratio, zero attack, auto release, auto makeup gain, UI knob adjusts threshold). Great to have right in the plugin.

• Built-in convolution reverb with a dozen different impulse responses, including the one I use most often on all my scores ("Dark Chamber"). Of course we all have a zillion reverbs, but it's nice to have a freebie right in the plugin.

• LPF on FX page is not a synth filter, rather it's a way to just add an additional layer of subtle dynamics to loops or hits by automating it or assigning it to MIDI CC. 

So, so, so much more going on under the hood. But it was all done with the idea of making it as playable and performable as possible in real time. I'm not a guy who draws in notes in the piano roll to build a performance. Too many libraries work that way, and I just can't deal. I need to be able to whack in a performance, complete with ruffs, rolls, flams, etc. in real time.... so Hammers was my solution.


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## Drumdude2112 (Jul 22, 2021)

sounds INSANE....instabuy for me
(dunno if that afterpay option spitfire has is a blessing or a curse , but it Sure makes it easier to hit 'add to cart' lol 😂)


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## sostenuto (Jul 22, 2021)

charlieclouser said:


> Some features / points maybe not apparent in the videos and specs on the Spitfire site:
> 
> • Every drum is mapped exactly the same way in the six-key bricks, so you can finger drum realistic performances without fishing for which key is the hits and which is the flam / ruff / roll. Mapping is like this:
> 
> ...


Mentioned 'non-percussionist usability' earlier ..... This is marvelous stuff even in first few hours !
Little doubt now of getting max from Hammers vs options. 👌🏻

Not sure if _Originals Cinematic Perc_ adds 'anything', but for net $10. maybe worth getting first ?


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## Soundbed (Jul 22, 2021)

Flyo said:


> This could be applied? And the 30off on top of the intro price ?


Not "on top of" the intro price ... the intro price is 20% off. If you buy the Originals product first you've spent $30 and the intro price for Hammers will become 30% off the full price.


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## Easy Pickens (Jul 22, 2021)

sostenuto said:


> Not sure if _Originals Cinematic Perc_ adds 'anything', but for net $10. maybe worth getting first ?


I'm wondering as well–any OCP owners here?


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## Jack All (Jul 22, 2021)

Instant buy for me too! Downloaded it and played a little with it. Sounds F... amazing and it is so well thought of. Thank you so much to Spitfire Audio and Charlie Clouser for creating this product and sharing it with us. It will for sure teach me a lot about percussions production, programming and composing. Respect.


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## kgdrum (Jul 22, 2021)

charlieclouser said:


> Some features / points maybe not apparent in the videos and specs on the Spitfire site:
> 
> • Every drum is mapped exactly the same way in the six-key bricks, so you can finger drum realistic performances without fishing for which key is the hits and which is the flam / ruff / roll. Mapping is like this:
> 
> ...


Wow this is wonderfully organized in ways most developers never implement or even think about,we’ll done. I can see this being easy for people to use in many different ways, as an eDrum player Hammers is intriguing me more than I’m comfortable with at this current moment in time with my financial empire.


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## Jack Weaver (Jul 22, 2021)

Wow Charlie, it sounds magnificent. 

Now, all we need is an expansion that features some 6/8 loops. 

.


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## LamaRose (Jul 22, 2021)

charlieclouser said:


> No EQ, no compression, no additional reverb other than what's inside the plugin itself.


Where have you been all my life? Really, this sounds _Fresh... _I love the whole creative aesthetic and vibe... even the logo gets you in the mood for a beatdown. Well done CC and SF.


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## charlieclouser (Jul 22, 2021)

Jack Weaver said:


> Wow Charlie, it sounds magnificent.
> 
> Now, all we need is an expansion that features some 6/8 loops.
> 
> .


Check out the trailer, with the military guys, motorcycles, and parkour dudes. The first half is all in 6/8, and uses a ton of the loops. I'm just re-triggering pieces of the loops to build the rhythm part I want, and then playing some of the single hits on top. I've never had issues working with 4/4 loops in other time signatures, but the inverse is usually not the case - a 5/8 or 6/8 or 7/8 loop is much harder to use at other time signatures, for me anyway. So that's why I opted to just stay in 4/4. Selfish reasoning for sure, but otherwise the download size would have been 150gb instead of "only" 100 gigs!


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## Jack Weaver (Jul 22, 2021)

charlieclouser said:


> Check out the trailer, with the military guys, motorcycles, and parkour dudes. The first half is all in 6/8, and uses a ton of the loops. I'm just re-triggering pieces of the loops to build the rhythm part I want, and then playing some of the single hits on top. I've never had issues working with 4/4 loops in other time signatures, but the inverse is usually not the case - a 5/8 or 6/8 or 7/8 loop is much harder to use at other time signatures, for me anyway. So that's why I opted to just stay in 4/4. Selfish reasoning for sure, but otherwise the download size would have been 150gb instead of "only" 100 gigs!


Yeah, I understand your reasoning - if you begin with 6/8 and 3/4, then where does it all end? 
My viewpoint is that I would have liked the more organic Charlie Clouser take on rhythms based on 3. It would have been very creative. 

Nonetheless, I'm sure it's been an epic undertaking, and thanks for replying. 

.


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## Sunny Schramm (Jul 22, 2021)

Homay´s Demotrack is amazing 

Would love to see a making of.


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## Sunny Schramm (Jul 22, 2021)

Instead of loops midi-files with export2daw would have been nice for inspiration, workflow and saving space - sonokinetic-style.


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## wst3 (Jul 22, 2021)

First off, a tip of the hat to Charlie - the library sounds great and the demos are impressive.

And I mean no disrespect, but honestly, as much as I like your music, I just could not believe I need another percussion library. I mean really.

Now I'm not so sure. It would give me an entirely new paint brush with which to work.

Well done Charlie and Spitfire!!


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## NoamL (Jul 22, 2021)

Most drum libraries sound all alike, this one definitely caught my ear.

This is "composer curated samples" reaching their potential


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## Monkberry (Jul 22, 2021)

Have to agree with all the positive reviews, it does sound excellent!


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## Blakus (Jul 22, 2021)

The quality and depth of this library is just freakin' *incredible*. The 3 levels of processing are so cleverly done. Mix 1 is fantastic for more organic film score applications, mix 3 is just amazing out of the box for hard-hitting intensity! This is not a simple one-knob processing difference. There's a lot of magic going on here - the difference between the 3 mixes at times sounds like entirely different instruments! My mind is still blown at the quality of the production, it sounds like someone with golden ears has obsessed over each instrument mix for months, haha!

The unfortunate reality is that many of my other perc libraries may have just become redundant 
This will easily be the first thing I reach for. THANK YOU!


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## charlieclouser (Jul 22, 2021)

Blakus said:


> The quality and depth of this library is just freakin' *incredible*. The 3 levels of processing are so cleverly done. Mix 1 is fantastic for more organic film score applications, mix 3 is just amazing out of the box for hard-hitting intensity! This is not a simple one-knob processing difference. There's a lot of magic going on here - the difference between the 3 mixes at times sounds like entirely different instruments! My mind is still blown at the quality of the production, it sounds like someone with golden ears has obsessed over each instrument mix for months, haha!


Hahahaha thank you! And, yes, it was months of obsessing. I mean, not all-day every single day, but... almost. Good thing Covid put the world (and Hollywood) on lockdown or else I'd still be tweaking it! 

Wait until you dig deep into the Warps! There is some bonkers stuff in there for sure. Super happy with how it all came together. Glad you like it!


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## chimuelo (Jul 22, 2021)

The Reverse is brilliant. 
Makes it easy to use in a live improv venue.


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## ALittleNightMusic (Jul 22, 2021)

Sounds incredible - and such thoughtfulness has gone into the workflow and playability. Some very unique features. Great stuff!


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## william81723 (Jul 22, 2021)

I thought I didn’t need any more percussion library before I heard this....
OMG it’s really a unique and potential library.
Charlie you got my wallet.


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## CT (Jul 22, 2021)

Easy Pickens said:


> I'm wondering as well–any OCP owners here?


Yeah I have it. I don't do "big drums" much and on the few occasions I've needed them, it's more than delivered. The low booms especially are just... _the_ low booms. Not hugely dynamic or high on RRs I think, but for $29, or whatever it ends up being in conjunction with this very cool Charlie C percussion, it's totally worth it as a grab bag for such sounds.


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## charlieclouser (Jul 22, 2021)

Although a lot of the marketing hype for Hammers focuses on "massive, brutal" sounds (and it has that for sure) you'll find surprisingly woody and warm surdo drums, massively deep and not too wet bass drums, super-detailed frame drums and darbukas played with brushes that let you create amazingly lifelike middle-eastern-ish parts... and of course the monster collection of Warp Loops which is a massive synth-pulse toolbox... and none of the big massive stuff is at the expense of the soft and detailed articulations. 

I often want to create parts using just the quietest three out of six dynamic layers, so I made sure that these were sampled, processed, mixed, and edited to work in isolation, and with the Normalize knob in the FX page you can program a part using only velocities from 1-64 and have it play as though it were a full-range part - almost like you went in and remapped the velocity ranges. But better. 

So while Hammers brings four pounds of beef for the main course, it's still got a side salad and a light appetizer plate as well.


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## muziksculp (Jul 22, 2021)

charlieclouser said:


> Although a lot of the marketing hype for Hammers focuses on "massive, brutal" sounds (and it has that for sure) you'll find surprisingly woody and warm surdo drums, massively deep and not too wet bass drums, super-detailed frame drums and darbukas played with brushes that let you create amazingly lifelike middle-eastern-ish parts... and of course the monster collection of Warp Loops which is a massive synth-pulse toolbox... and none of the big massive stuff is at the expense of the soft and detailed articulations.
> 
> I often want to create parts using just the quietest three out of six dynamic layers, so I made sure that these were sampled, processed, mixed, and edited to work in isolation, and with the Normalize knob in the FX page you can program a part using only velocities from 1-64 and have it play as though it were a full-range part - almost like you went in and remapped the velocity ranges. But better.
> 
> So while Hammers brings four pounds of beef for the main course, it's still got a side salad and a light appetizer plate as well.


Now that's very interesting. 

Maybe a video focusing more on the Side Salad, and Light Appetizer (the less boombastic sounds), would be super cool.

Thanks


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## kgdrum (Jul 22, 2021)

muziksculp said:


> Now that's very interesting.
> 
> Maybe a video focusing more on the Side Salad, and Light Appetizer (the less boombastic sounds), would be super cool.
> 
> Thanks


Yes please 👍


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## muziksculp (Jul 22, 2021)

charlieclouser said:


> I often want to create parts using just the quietest three out of six dynamic layers, so I made sure that these were sampled, processed, mixed, and edited to work in isolation, and with the Normalize knob in the FX page you can program a part using only velocities from 1-64 and have it play as though it were a full-range part - almost like you went in and remapped the velocity ranges. But better.


Also, the normalize knob feature must come in very handy. 

Is this feature shown in the videos ?


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## charlieclouser (Jul 22, 2021)

muziksculp said:


> Now that's very interesting.
> 
> Maybe a video focusing more on the Side Salad, and Light Appetizer (the less boombastic sounds), would be super cool.
> 
> Thanks


Check out Homay's demo tracks on the product page. There's a naked version with just the percussion, as well as a full in-context mix, and it makes great use of a lot of the smaller sounds and more intimate articulations.


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## muziksculp (Jul 22, 2021)

charlieclouser said:


> Check out Homay's demo tracks on the product page. There's a naked version with just the percussion, as well as a full in-context mix, and it makes great use of a lot of the smaller sounds and more intimate articulations.


Thank You Very Much. I will check it out, and Congratulations on the library's release.


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## mussnig (Jul 22, 2021)

Easy Pickens said:


> I'm wondering as well–any OCP owners here?


With the current deal you more or less get OCP nearly for free if you don't have it already. As you probably know, it contains some best-of from the old Albion 1 but in my opinion it still sounds amazing (being recorded at Air Lyndhurst obviously helps). Although I have a couple of more expensive as well as comprehensive epic/cinematic percussion libs, I still regularly use Originals Cinematic Percussion.

That being said, I don't think there would be much overlap with Hammers (which I will get sooner or later - sounds really great and it's clear that a lot of clever thoughts went into delivering a user friendly workflow) and I would think of OCP as a nice but capable bonus lib that you can get for little money right now.


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## charlieclouser (Jul 22, 2021)

muziksculp said:


> Also, the normalize knob feature must come in very handy.
> 
> Is this feature shown in the videos ?


I haven't watched Christian's full walkthrough yet (Hammers release day fatigue) but I certainly hope he gets into the Normalize knob.

A brief description: There are two schools of though in how to deal with samples of varying dynamic layers:

• The "keep it natural" method is not to do *any* normalizing of samples, so the quiet samples are teeny-tiny little waveforms compared to the big honking loud samples. In order to recreate a realistic relationship between them in a sampler, you'd have *velocity > volume = zero*. That way, various incoming MIDI note velocities only switch between the layers, but don't affect their relative volumes, preserving the natural order of things. One drawback to this approach is that if a given dynamic layer spans, say, velocities 106 - 120, then there won't be any variation in loudness within that range, and this can lead to an apparent "stepping" of loudness as you progress through the layers. Another drawback to this approach is that if you want to make the quiet samples sound louder, you need to either apply audio compression on the output (which can change the transients and other aspects of the sound in a way you might not want), or apply an *inverse* relationship of velocity > volume, so that lower MIDI velocities actually *raise* the level of samples more than their original level. Or you could go under the hood and start messing with level offsets in the sample / group maps, but that makes it easy to just ruin everything, and besides... ain't nobody got time for that!

• The "normalize everything" approach would be to normalize each dynamic layer, and then you can apply a "normal" amount of velocity > loudness, as you would if you just had a single dynamic layer. Then the quiet samples sound quieter because the incoming MIDI velocities tell the sampler to play them more quietly, even though they've been normalized. This lets you adjust the scaling of velocity > loudness to make the quiet samples have the desired loudness relationship to the loud ones, without going under the hood of the sampler or doing much else, really. One big drawback to this is that if you mess up that scaling (or allow the user to mess it up) then things can sound really unnatural and it can be a big hassle to get things back to sounding real.

So. What we've done in Hammers is kind of both. Spitfire's engine can analyze the samples, and calculate how much headroom each one has before it will clip. These values are stored. Then, with the Normalize knob, you can offset that headroom setting up to, but not beyond, the clip point (actually it's like a -3db or -6db point or something, but for simplicity let's call it zero).

This lets you simulate the effect of having all the samples normalized, without us needing to simulate their un-normalized behavior by careful adjustment of the velocity > loudness scaling within the plugin. So, from the user's point of view, they can have all the benefits of the "keep it natural" approach, with *no stepping* of loudness as you play varying velocities to progress through the dynamic layers, and within a single dynamic layer you will get velocity > volume effects, so loudness increases with velocity even with that single layer.... so you *also* get the effect of the "normalize everything" approach, without the possibility of an unrealistic velocity > loudness scale.

With the Normalize knob all the way down, it's as though you're in "keep it natural" mode. The quiet samples are really quiet, just like they were in real life. *Exactly* as they were, in fact.

Turning the Normalize knob up pushes the behavior towards the "normalize everything" approach, where even the quietest samples sound louder than they were in real life, until, at maximum, the quietest samples are basically as loud as the loudest ones.

And you didn't have to mess with any velocity scaling curves or anything else. *But you still can do that if you want.* There are various velocity response curves with the UI (under the "three dots" icon at the upper right in the UI), and of course you can mess with the velocity curves on your controller, or by processing the recorded MIDI in your DAW. Any of those three methods will change the relationship between playing force on your controller and apparent loudness of the results, but will not change the velocity switch / crossfade points and ranges once the MIDI data hits the sample maps inside the engine.

To me this is a genius approach and I can't believe the Spitfire dev team pulled it off... but they did. So for me it's better than the best of both worlds - all the advantages of both approaches with none of the drawbacks of either.

I went through those dynamic layers, their velocity split points, their crossfade ranges and curves, and all that stuff with a fine-toothed microscope, and drove the team half crazy with minute adjustments - all for the sake of playability. Maybe nobody will notice or care.

But I do.


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## muziksculp (Jul 22, 2021)

charlieclouser said:


> I haven't watched Christian's full walkthrough yet (Hammers release day fatigue) but I certainly hope he gets into the Normalize knob.
> 
> A brief description: There are two schools of though in how to deal with samples of varying dynamic layers:
> 
> ...


Thanks. 

This is very interesting, and quite a unique approach to how this library deals with dynamics when using the normalize everything approach, by having the FX knob dial up all the way. I didn't realize this was offered in this library, makes playing the softer sounds much more interesting to get new timbres that would not be easily heard, in a more traditional approach, (naturally sampled sounds).

Having various velocity response curves to choose form in the Spitfire Player for this library was also very smart, and very handy to have. I'm quite impressed how much has gone into making this library both the content, and the functionality of the player. 

Now, I'm getting more excited about buying the library, even though I initially thought I don't need another Drum/Perc. library


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## tebling (Jul 22, 2021)

Apparently this may be the last percussion library I'll ever buy.  (until that 8TB SSD comes along)


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## Theladur (Jul 22, 2021)

charlieclouser said:


> I haven't watched Christian's full walkthrough yet (Hammers release day fatigue) but I certainly hope he gets into the Normalize knob.


Minute 19:39


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## Markus Kohlprath (Jul 23, 2021)

Getting another percussion library was the last thing I anticipated but with this one it will be...
And a big plus not mentioned yet: It is truly vegan as it appears!


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## Geoff Grace (Jul 23, 2021)

I just finished watching the First Look video; and I’ve got to say that while the samples sound great, the workflow looks like a master stroke! i like the quick overview of sounds mapped from low to high on the keyboard and the ease of accessing variations of treated, processed, tuned, and reversed hits and loops. With this library, I can imagine quickly following where the creative muse leads with unparalleled ease.

Well done, *Charlie* and Spitfire!

Best,

Geoff


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## colony nofi (Jul 23, 2021)

Oh man. Congrats @charlieclouser ! Grabbed it straight away and initially I'm incredibly happy I did. It seems to have some tricks up its sleave that D2 doesn't have, and quite a different sound to me. The warps are special. The normalize knob seems to be really really cool. And I'm having fun playing sounds right down the bottom of some dyamics with creamy sounding results. Do I need D2 and this? Maybe not... but even after just an hour or so with this, I'm VERY happy to have it and might not load D2 in a while.


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## holywilly (Jul 23, 2021)

Oh God, the tonality of those drums in Hammers are so one of the kind. I have zillions of percussion libraries, do I really need Hammers, of course I do.


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## axb312 (Jul 23, 2021)

Sounds good. Do the loops have Midi export?


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## GtrString (Jul 23, 2021)

Oh yeah, some tasty, sweet top end on those drums. Sounds great!


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## charlieclouser (Jul 23, 2021)

Geoff Grace said:


> ... the workflow looks like a master stroke!


Thanks man! Although I almost HAD a frikkin' stroke getting this thing tweaked the way I wanted it... as did some of the team members I'm sure!


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## charlieclouser (Jul 23, 2021)

axb312 said:


> Sounds good. Do the loops have Midi export?


Ahhhh.... no. Since there was no MIDI used in the creation of the Loops, and they are 100% audio performances, there is no MIDI data anywhere *to* export. Any such feature would mean creating a MIDI performance that simulates / emulates what was being played in the Loops, and then providing that for export / import. Maybe someday... 

... or maybe some enterprising user will just make a set of MIDI files by re-performing the content of the Loops as best they can using the Hits patches and stick that on some forum somewhere....


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## Nimrod7 (Jul 23, 2021)

Holy Cow. This became an instant favourite of mine. Congrats Charlie, and thanks for giving us an opportunity to enjoy such a great product!

This library has amazing low end, and I can feel everything in the studio with the sub!
But that's kind of a nice clean low end, not mushy like other libraries.

For lower velocity compositions, it's probably the cleanest, most amazing sounding library I have, and what I love about it is that is not roomy, just clean!
I have many epic libraries, but probably this last par above, is what I appreciate the most.


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## william81723 (Jul 23, 2021)

@charlieclouser How can I pan my each instrument into different positions in one patch in one track?
I just bought it and downloaded it.I really love the sound but I usually pan my all toms and high perc to increase the image of sound.
Damage 2 can do it easily.I hope Hammers can do that too.


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## lucky909091 (Jul 23, 2021)

I still have 3 hours until the download will be complete after my purchase. 
So meanwhile I'm reading here in the forum.

My thoughts now are kind of "bittersweet"...
When I watched the video from C. Henson I was instantly sure to purchase the library.

But at the same time I regretted my recent purchase of the "Tom Holkinson Percussion", which does not have the loops option and many other features of this library.
Maybe I should consider "Tom Holkenberg Percussion" an additional purchase, but I am a little bit disappointed when I watch the capabilties of this one.


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## PeterN (Jul 23, 2021)

Stunning sounding demos. This sound is *addictive* - how did anybody succeed with addictive sound. They have crossed the threshold between *here* and _there_.


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## charlieclouser (Jul 23, 2021)

william81723 said:


> @charlieclouser How can I pan my each instrument into different positions in one patch in one track?
> I just bought it and downloaded it.I really love the sound but I usually pan my all toms and high perc to increase the image of sound.
> Damage 2 can do it easily.I hope Hammers can do that too.


Unless I'm missing something, there is currently no way to pan individual elements within a single Technique, or even the individual techniques, within a single instance of Hammers. As it exists now, the panning and width controls affect everything in a given plugin instance - all the Techniques and all the Signals. You'd need to load up the same patch on multiple tracks and adjust them separately that way. Not very elegant, I know.

I rarely do that kind of per-drum panning with samples that are recorded in stereo and capture a natural room ambience, since it can result in weird, lopsided, "half-room-reverb" elements - which is why it never really came up in the development cycle. But I understand why you'd want that option. Maybe someday.... I'll speak to the team about that one.


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## muziksculp (Jul 23, 2021)

I found this video of C.H. showing the additional features of Hammers very helpful. 

I have the video play at the time he shows these features.


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## geronimo (Jul 23, 2021)

Collateral Damage with Hammers !


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## sopwith (Jul 23, 2021)

lucky909091 said:


> I still have 3 hours until the download will be complete after my purchase.
> So meanwhile I'm reading here in the forum.
> 
> My thoughts now are kind of "bittersweet"...
> ...



Agreed, I regret spending the same $ on Tom's Toms when I could have bought this with lots more features a few weeks later. Plus the Sine player crashes a number of important Max for Live devices, so I can't even use it right now. Kind of a shitshow tbh.


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## william81723 (Jul 23, 2021)

charlieclouser said:


> Unless I'm missing something, there is currently no way to pan individual elements within a single Technique, or even the individual techniques, within a single instance of Hammers. As it exists now, the panning and width controls affect everything in a given plugin instance - all the Techniques and all the Signals. You'd need to load up the same patch on multiple tracks and adjust them separately that way. Not very elegant, I know.
> 
> I rarely do that kind of per-drum panning with samples that are recorded in stereo and capture a natural room ambience, since it can result in weird, lopsided, "half-room-reverb" elements - which is why it never really came up in the development cycle. But I understand why you'd want that option. Maybe someday.... I'll speak to the team about that one.



Thanks for the reply.
I look forward to the update to come true.


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## Zedcars (Jul 24, 2021)

onnomusic said:


> the discount gets the price from the normal intro price of 230 to 210 more or less, and cinematic is 30 bucks. so for 240 you have both (basically you pay 10 bucks for cinematic perc)


This doesn't seem quite right to me.

Normal price is £249.

Intro price is £199 which is a discount (sans Cinematic Percussion) of 20.09%.

Discount if you own Cinematic Percussion is 30%. 30% off £249 = £174.30

So add the cost of CP (£29) to that and you get £203.30. Therefore you're essentially paying £4.30 for CP. Peanuts, but less peanuts.


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## sostenuto (Jul 24, 2021)

Best I can come up with _ *in usd* _ is $10. net for Originals after purchasing Hammers during Intro.


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## Zedcars (Jul 24, 2021)

sostenuto said:


> Best I can come up with _ *in usd* _ is $10. net for Originals after purchasing Hammers during Intro.


Ah, USD explains the difference.


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## mussnig (Jul 24, 2021)

Zedcars said:


> This doesn't seem quite right to me.
> 
> Normal price is £249.
> 
> ...


This has been discussed a couple of times (here on VI-C). Spitfire's pricing in GBP vs EUR or USD is not always consistent. Therefore, the additional cost of OCP might be only 4,30 pounds for some but still 10 dollars or euros for others.


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## Sunny Schramm (Jul 24, 2021)

Zedcars said:


> This doesn't seem quite right to me.
> 
> Normal price is £249.
> 
> ...


but dont forget all owners of "albion I legacy" got CP for free.


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## szczaw (Jul 24, 2021)

I'm ready to get Hammered


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## TheFleetingGlory (Jul 25, 2021)

I just downloaded the library and it sounds superb.

I just want to make sure I haven’t missed something, and the loops don’t timestretch to the project you are working on?

I was sold 7 mins into the walkthrough and didn’t make it through the whole overview, so sorry if I am missing something simple here?


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## catibi79 (Jul 25, 2021)

I have Hans Zimmer Professional Percussion. I really need this new library?I am very hesitant. I love the sound and possibilities. Hm. Frustrating .


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## richmwhitfield (Jul 25, 2021)

TheFleetingGlory said:


> I just downloaded the library and it sounds superb.
> 
> I just want to make sure I haven’t missed something, and the loops don’t timestretch to the project you are working on?
> 
> I was sold 7 mins into the walkthrough and didn’t make it through the whole overview, so sorry if I am missing something simple here?


Yes the loops do timestretch, but the default is to change the loop 'set' based on tempo, rather than just timestretching the current one. If you play a loop and keep the key held down while changing tempo you will hear the timestretching


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## davidson (Jul 25, 2021)

Does the spitfire player contain a purge feature?


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## Dirk Ehlert (Jul 25, 2021)

davidson said:


> Does the spitfire player contain a purge feature?


Technically yes, as the player unloads the samples when you either deactivate all mic positions or bring the corresponding mic fader down to zero, which also results in unloading


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## Zedcars (Jul 25, 2021)

Dirk Ehlert said:


> Technically yes, as the player unloads the samples when you either deactivate all mic positions or bring the corresponding mic fader down to zero, which also results in unloading


Does it unload the samples 100%? I'm still downloading so cannot test this yet. However, in their BBCSO player (which is a cousin of this plugin sharing much of the code) if you switch all the mics off it only partially unloads RAM. There is still a chunk left. However, you can disable articulations which saves more RAM.


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## Tice (Jul 25, 2021)

It's the distorted ones that really got me interested in this! By far most percussion I have is traditional. The stuff you can do with these distortions, however, fills that gap very nicely! And it's crafted so well!


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## muziksculp (Jul 25, 2021)

Looking forward to some in-depth video reviews of Hammers. Hopefully one will be posted soon.


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## Sunny Schramm (Jul 25, 2021)

Tice said:


> It's the distorted ones that really got me interested in this! By far most percussion I have is traditional. The stuff you can do with these distortions, however, fills that gap very nicely! And it's crafted so well!


use a distortion-plugin on the perc-libs you own and safe some money


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## Geoff Grace (Jul 25, 2021)

Sunny Schramm said:


> use a distortion-plugin on the perc-libs you own and safe some money


Or conversely, you could save yourself some time and buy the library. There‘s a wide variety of processing and mangling going on in Hammers that would take a lot of hours and plugins to try to replicate.

It’s the time vs money dilemma all over again. 

There’s also the question of whether you’d rather spend your time designing sounds or composing music. Both can be a lot of fun, but which is more appealing to you?

Best,

Geoff


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## Tice (Jul 25, 2021)

Sunny Schramm said:


> use a distortion-plugin on the perc-libs you own and safe some money


If I do that, I'll get the kind of sound I would make when distorting drums, not the sound Charlie would make when distorting drums. You don't just get 'distorted drums', you get sounds the way you yourself would not have made them. That's why I'm still interested in this library.


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## geronimo (Jul 25, 2021)

william81723 said:


> @charlieclouser How can I pan my each instrument into different positions in one patch in one track?
> I just bought it and downloaded it.I really love the sound but I usually pan my all toms and high perc to increase the image of sound.
> Damage 2 can do it easily.I hope Hammers can do that too.


With the option of separate outputs, you can then rework the panning from your favorite DAW in a much more precise way than inside the stereo output of the Hammers instrument (if this Pan control was present) .


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## Simon Ravn (Jul 26, 2021)

This sounds like a truly amazing library, Charlie. Congrats on this. I really don't work on many projects where I need stuff like this but I have to get it anyway, just based on the quality of the material I hear in the videos.


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## charlieclouser (Jul 26, 2021)

Simon Ravn said:


> This sounds like a truly amazing library, Charlie. Congrats on this. I really don't work on many projects where I need stuff like this but I have to get it anyway, just based on the quality of the material I hear in the videos.


Thank you Simon - Even if you don't do "big + brutal" type cues, you might find some useful stuff in Hammers. Some of my favorite scores lately come from the team of Saunder Jurriaans and Danny Bensi, who do very minimalist scores to projects like Ozark and The Outsider. Their scores have almost no drums at all, usually just softly hitting a floor tom or something on whole notes, but I specifically wanted Hammers to work for that type of sound. In order to do that, it needed to have the ability to be played softly and still have good tone and lots of round-robins etc. By turning down the pitch a bit, turning up the Normalize knob in the UI and playing softly on the surdo, toms, or bass drums this type of thing is achievable with Hammers. And of course the Warps have material that's good for minimalist scores as well.

So you might be surprised at what's lurking in there!


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## charlieclouser (Jul 26, 2021)

geronimo said:


> With the option of separate outputs, you can then rework the panning from your favorite DAW in a much more precise way than inside the stereo output of the Hammers instrument (if this Pan control was present) .


Yes that is a very good point I forgot to mention. Although using separate outputs still won't allow you to pan one drum within a patch separately from other drums in the same patch (not without loading multiple instances for each drum you wish to pan), it will add a lot of flexibility to mixing in general for sure.


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## holywilly (Jul 26, 2021)

Finally bought Hammers, already used in my current cues. Hammers is one of the best and easiest to use percussion libraries ever! Thanks @charlieclouser and @Spitfire Team for this wonderful library.


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## VSriHarsha (Jul 26, 2021)

holywilly said:


> Finally bought Hammers, already used in my current cues. Hammers is one of the best and easiest to use percussion libraries ever! Thanks @charlieclouser and @Spitfire Team for this wonderful library.


That’s something. How’s it on Ram?


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## VSriHarsha (Jul 26, 2021)

Congrats on the library @charlieclouser !


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## holywilly (Jul 26, 2021)

VSriHarsha said:


> That’s something. How’s it on Ram?


Easy on RAM. Warp and reverse are my favorite features of this library, I can quickly spice my cues and do some creative processing with warp and reverse.


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## IFM (Jul 27, 2021)

Small tip for anyone that wants to use this with drum triggers (I'm new to triggers myself).

For most of them, the note on/off message is too quick to trigger the samples so you need to use a MIDI utility to route the MIDI out of your triggers to "lengthen" the note. 

For macOS, you can use MidiPipe (works on ARM too). I'm sure there is a Windows equivalent.

Once I did that I was able to play Hammers on triggers. Much fun!


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## PeterMaze (Jul 27, 2021)

I've been checking out the videos available to get a grasp of what this library is capable of. So far whatever I've seen and heard sound great! So it's very tempting to pull the trigger...
but....
Would you still buy this library if you already have Spitfire's HansZimmer Percussions and AudioBro's LADD?
If so, what would you get that the others can't deliver? (other than the uniquely processed warped sounds)


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## VSriHarsha (Jul 27, 2021)

holywilly said:


> Easy on RAM. Warp and reverse are my favorite features of this library, I can quickly spice my cues and do some creative processing with warp and reverse.


Thanks @holywilly ! That’s really helpful for people with low Ram.


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## ProfoundSilence (Jul 27, 2021)

Grats Charlie, this has to be some sort of career milestone - I always wondered if it's more of an honor than simply getting recognition for work from regular people... 

It's one thing to please regular people, but it takes more to inspire other musicians - I hope you feel that it's an honor to want to be emulated


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## charlieclouser (Jul 28, 2021)

ProfoundSilence said:


> Grats Charlie, this has to be some sort of career milestone - I always wondered if it's more of an honor than simply getting recognition for work from regular people...
> 
> It's one thing to please regular people, but it takes more to inspire other musicians - I hope you feel that it's an honor to want to be emulated


It is great to see that people seem to like Hammers. Like you said, pleasing civilians is one thing, but it is different to have other musicians like what I'm doing.

But my motivation behind doing Hammers was mostly selfish - I just didn't feel like chopping and mapping all of those samples! And I absolutely did not want to deal with keeping multiple mic positions and mixes in order in some Kontakt instrument either, so it was great to have the Spitfire team use their expertise to roll my recordings into a nice, tidy package. At first we didn't know if the Spitfire player engine would do what I wanted, but they definitely pulled it off. Having the reverse and normalize functionality integrated is something I never could have done, and I think it all came out great.

Glad people are liking it!


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Jul 28, 2021)

Charlie raises the bar, on all levels!


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## Baronvonheadless (Aug 5, 2021)

So just got Hammers and am blown away. Pretty amazing all around. Quick question that I don’t think I’ve seen addressed. When I was on the ensemble and chose close mics, the bass drums were giving me no sound but everything else was.
Also when trying to switch between mics and blend mics as soon as I turned one on whichever mic was previously on shuts off. Can u not blend them? When I was on warped, I could blend all 12 warped mics if I wanted to. So I wonder if something weird happened with my download?


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## mussnig (Aug 5, 2021)

Baronvonheadless said:


> Also when trying to switch between mics and blend mics as soon as I turned one on whichever mic was previously on shuts off. Can u not blend them? When I was on warped, I could blend all 12 warped mics if I wanted to. So I wonder if something weird happened with my download?


I don't know about your first issue but regarding your second one: by default this is deactivated in the settings because - afaik - these signals are not really designed to be blended together (you might encounter phasing etc). So by default the library prevents you from accidentally getting problematic sounds.

PS: obviously you can change the settings so that the plugin allows you to blend all the signals you want.


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## charlieclouser (Aug 6, 2021)

Baronvonheadless said:


> So just got Hammers and am blown away. Pretty amazing all around. Quick question that I don’t think I’ve seen addressed. When I was on the ensemble and chose close mics, the bass drums were giving me no sound but everything else was.
> Also when trying to switch between mics and blend mics as soon as I turned one on whichever mic was previously on shuts off. Can u not blend them? When I was on warped, I could blend all 12 warped mics if I wanted to. So I wonder if something weird happened with my download?


Glad you're liking the sound of Hammers! Not sure what's up with the Ensembles having no close mics on Bass Drums. The Ensemble patch uses the same samples as the individual drum instruments, so maybe check to see if the close mics play in the actual Bass Drums patches?

Once in a while, if I get too fast and loose with the various mute switches and level sliders in the Signals page, I can temporarily force the Spitfire Player into a condition where what I'm hearing doesn't match what I'm seeing. What seems to be happening in that situation is that the UI doesn't re-draw the slider as greyed-out until the samples have finished purging, but the samples become inaudible as soon as purging *starts*. The converse is also true since operating a level slider or mute switch causes that signal to be purged / reloaded. The behavior is that moving a slider up from the zero position un-mutes the mute switch and begins loading that signal, while moving a slider down until it touches zero will mute the mute switch and begin purging that signal. So it's possible for your fingers to move quicker than the computer can purge or load the signal in question.

This means that it's possible to create a short window of time where some samples don't play but the visuals indicate that they should still be audible - because you've told them to be purged / loaded and the process has begun but isn't finished yet. The length of that window of time is dependent on how big the sample pool is that is being purged or loaded.

Also, be aware that in some of the Bass Drum sample sets, I believe the rear mic position is empty. This is not the fourth signal slider (Close), it's the one all the way at the end (I think) that only has the resonant, or rear, head of the drum. If I remember correctly, the two Concert Bass Drums are the only ones that have this signal, and not the 26" kicks or the multi-player sets. So it's possible when just mucking about to have only the rear head signal audible and wonder why some bass drums seem to be missing.

If you still suspect a fractured download, go to the Spitfire app and try the "Repair" function, which checks for any missing or moved sample content by comparing your directory structure to what the plugin expects, and then re-downloads any missing components and repairs all the pointers to the correct directories.

As to the exclusivity of the various signals in the individual drum and loop patches, this is correct and expected behavior - but it can be disabled. This is done because the three Mix signals contain a mix of the individual mic positions (along with some other processing that's not part of those signals), and it is possible that certain combinations of Mix and individual signals would create audible phasing / flanging effects and other undesirable weirdness. In practice this happens infrequently, but we thought it best to disallow that behavior by default, in order to prevent users from not reading any documentation, enabling ever single one of the signals at once (for maximum sound!) and then starting a thread titled "Hammers is a phase-cancelling mess!".

But you can disable this mutually-exclusive behavior. That setting is either under the "cog" icon or the "three dots" icon in the upper right of the plugin UI. (I forget which at the moment and my rig is turned off). Just be aware that when you stack a Mix with other individual signals you might create some phase cancelling with some combinations of signals on some drums. But, hey, if it sounds good, it IS good... right?


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## José Herring (Aug 6, 2021)

Really well done library @charlieclouser . Enjoying it immensely. It's exactly what I've been looking for. Hope some day you give us more.


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## doctoremmet (Aug 6, 2021)

charlieclouser said:


> Glad you're liking the sound of Hammers! Not sure what's up with the Ensembles having no close mics on Bass Drums. The Ensemble patch uses the same samples as the individual drum instruments, so maybe check to see if the close mics play in the actual Bass Drums patches?
> 
> Once in a while, if I get too fast and loose with the various mute switches and level sliders in the Signals page, I can temporarily force the Spitfire Player into a condition where what I'm hearing doesn't match what I'm seeing. What seems to be happening in that situation is that the UI doesn't re-draw the slider as greyed-out until the samples have finished purging, but the samples become inaudible as soon as purging *starts*. The converse is also true since operating a level slider or mute switch causes that signal to be purged / reloaded. The behavior is that moving a slider up from the zero position un-mutes the mute switch and begins loading that signal, while moving a slider down until it touches zero will mute the mute switch and begin purging that signal. So it's possible for your fingers to move quicker than the computer can purge or load the signal in question.
> 
> ...


The sheer knowledge and especially helpfulness on display here, is awe inspiring. This alone makes me lust after Hammers.


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## Baronvonheadless (Aug 6, 2021)

charlieclouser said:


> Glad you're liking the sound of Hammers! Not sure what's up with the Ensembles having no close mics on Bass Drums. The Ensemble patch uses the same samples as the individual drum instruments, so maybe check to see if the close mics play in the actual Bass Drums patches?
> 
> Once in a while, if I get too fast and loose with the various mute switches and level sliders in the Signals page, I can temporarily force the Spitfire Player into a condition where what I'm hearing doesn't match what I'm seeing. What seems to be happening in that situation is that the UI doesn't re-draw the slider as greyed-out until the samples have finished purging, but the samples become inaudible as soon as purging *starts*. The converse is also true since operating a level slider or mute switch causes that signal to be purged / reloaded. The behavior is that moving a slider up from the zero position un-mutes the mute switch and begins loading that signal, while moving a slider down until it touches zero will mute the mute switch and begin purging that signal. So it's possible for your fingers to move quicker than the computer can purge or load the signal in question.
> 
> ...


Dude Jesus Christ! Thank you SO much for taking the time to respond personally. Amazing to hear from the man himself! This was extremely helpful and makes a ton of sense. I’ll double check as far as the missing sounds go & try repair.
I remember awhile back in abbey road one that a few certain mic signals in the percussion and a few other patches were missing sounds (mix 2 and maybe a vintage) and they said it was something on their end and would be addressed. So I’ll check the close mic on the bass drum itself, then try repair or just wait it out if it still persists.

Thank you again for your time, and for this rad library. It’s truly inspiring - well, for a phase cancelling mess  Have a great weekend!


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## Bereckis (Aug 6, 2021)

Hello Charlie,

I'm a passionate free musician who mainly produces film music without film or touring live.

I've been hesitant to buy HAMMERS for a long time because I'm rather at war with virtual drums and percussion, but with HAMMERS I'm inspired to get serious about it for the first time. 

With „Tanz im Weltraum" and now "Clouser" I have made my first attempts with HAMMERS and I am totally enthusiastic. 

I hope it's ok that my new composition is called "Clouser" and that I used your portrait.
If you want to look and listen:


www.bereckis.de

Thank you very much!


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## kgdrum (Aug 6, 2021)

@Bereckis 

🎶❤️🎶

Kudos that’s a beautiful piece if music.


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## Evans (Aug 6, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> The sheer knowledge and especially helpfulness on display here, is awe inspiring. This alone makes me lust after Hammers.


I had no strong need for Hammers. That is, I wasn't in a bad situation for _not _having it.

I picked it up because of Charlie's support here, and now it's possibly my favorite Spitfire library. I'm only not committing to that yet because I've only tinkered with it for a couple of hours so far, but I felt this way from the first five seconds with the first patch.

Even if Charlie disappeared from this forum today, I'd still recommend this library to anyone who would listen to me.


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## José Herring (Aug 6, 2021)

Evans said:


> I had no strong need for Hammers. That is, I wasn't in a bad situation for _not _having it.
> 
> I picked it up because of Charlie's support here, and now it's possibly my favorite Spitfire library. I'm only not committing to that yet because I've only tinkered with it for a couple of hours so far, but I felt this way from the first five seconds with the first patch.
> 
> Even if Charlie disappeared from this forum today, I'd still recommend this library to anyone who would listen to me.


What's amazing about it is how well it's programmed. There are libraries with a more variety of drums but this one just feels right and you can get very musical with it right away. And the drums that are included are killer. That open bass drum is unbelievable. 

Also, the included mixes sound incredible to me. The room is perfect for drums as well. Lots of space and slap back but it's not overwhelming. Not dry but not too wet either. Has a sound but you can also craft your own sound because its signature sound isn't overwhelming. And, perhaps some of the best recording quality of any library I own. 

It's a rare gem for sure. I can tell lots of passion went into this library. Fantastic.


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## Jack Weaver (Aug 6, 2021)

Hey Charlie,

Lazy Sample Guy here... In your walthru with Christian, I noticed that whenever you brought up an instrument for demonstration purposes, all the mic faders were at 100% full position and that only the switches below them were in the off position. This allowed you to quickly turn on that particular mic with* one click*.

Currently, when I load up an instrument the faders are all in their down or off position. This takes two clicks to audition that signal - one to turn on the switch and one more (actually you need to click and grab it with the mouse and then move it to the desired level - which is even worse - _horrors)_ to elevate the fader and hear the mic output. It's only a slight frustration, but it is a bit of an imposition when you're trying to move fast. And since you were able to get around this I'm figuring there might be some way for me to do this, too. I haven't found anything yet in the Cog or under the Three Little Dots that seems to allow me to do this.

Ideas?

Hammers is becoming a go-to arrow in my quiver. And very reasonably priced for both the amount of instruments and the satisfaction derived from a solid product.

Thanks

.


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## charlieclouser (Aug 6, 2021)

Jack Weaver said:


> Hey Charlie,
> 
> Lazy Sample Guy here... In your walthru with Christian, I noticed that whenever you brought up an instrument for demonstration purposes, all the mic faders were at 100% full position and that only the switches below them were in the off position. This allowed you to quickly turn on that particular mic with* one click*.
> 
> ...


I had exactly the same frustration that you did - and what I had done in the videos was to prepare ahead of time, which was mildly tedious. What I did was:

1 - Turn up each slider to 100%. This loads the samples for that Signal.
2 - Switch the mute to off for all Signals that I didn't want to hear. This purges the samples for those Signals.

Then, while working, I only had to hit the mute switch to hear a signal. Although I probably wouldn't bother to do this all the time while actually working, I did this for the video so that if I needed to quickly demonstrate different Signals, I would not have any weird on-screen behavior if I grabbed a slider and had to wait for that Signal to load, or had to do the "double grab" on a slider to get it to load *and* go to 100%. The double-grab thing is being looked at by the Spitfire team so it may improve. Basically what's happening is that the first grab-and-move of a slider initiates the loading of that Signal, and this also interrupts the UI and resets all mouse-down conditions. So it's as though you've let go of the mouse button when you actually haven't. The fact that the beginning of a load / purge operation resets the UI and simulates a mouse-up action is being looked into, but that's above my pay grade and I can make no promises when or if this little annoyance will change.

The weird thing is it doesn't seem to be 100% consistent across all Signals, Patches, or even computers. Some smaller sample sets, like Darbukas or Scrap, seem to load / purge so quickly that the double-grab thing doesn't occur as it does with larger sample sets like Bass Drums. And, to further confuse the issue, some of the Spitfire team on fast iMac Pros and with the samples stored on a fast internal SSD had a difficult time reproducing the behavior that I was experiencing on a 2013 Mac Pro cylinder with the sample stored on a slower SATA SSD. So it appears to be highly dependent on a number of factors. It is being chased however.

One simple way around this is to set all the sliders to 100% and then save a plugin preset or channel strip setting using your DAW's built in preset saving mechanism. Then when that preset is recalled by the DAW, the entire state of Hammers will be recalled. Not as simple as grab-n-go, but it does work just fine - and of course then you can save a preferred state with your favorite signals pre-mixed, and with all other settings like Reverse Enable, FX amounts, etc. coming along for the ride. So this method is actually much faster in the long run than manually setting those controls each time you load a blank instance of Hammers. There is the ability within the plugin to push the current setting to all open instances in the current session, but I'm not sure if this pushes FX amounts etc. - it may only push settings under "three dots" and / or "cog" so it may not be a full solution. Can't remember at the moment.

The exclusivity behavior operates as the user specifies, on both sliders and mute switches, so that's not the issue. The issue is our mouse fingers being quicker on the Signals controls than our computers can load / purge!


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## Baronvonheadless (Aug 6, 2021)

So here is my first composition using Hammers, just did this in about two hours for fun/practice and I really am loving the versatility of this library. I went for the all out vibe but it can definitely be used much more subtly as well. Cheers! & Thank you.


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## Nimrod7 (Aug 8, 2021)

I am a couple of days off before traveling to the homeland for a month, and I am wondering if anyone has the microphone naming conventions for Hammers. 
I am intending to create a Laptop friendly version with just the Mix 1. 
I know Spitfire has an articles for BBC and a few others, but failing to find one for Hammers. 

and yes, I am getting my libraries with me on holidays. Who cares about the sunny beaches and the fish taverns next to the sea...


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## Sample Fuel (Aug 9, 2021)

I hope I am doing something wrong. The library sounds very good but is very RAM intensive as are a lot of libraries. Is there no way to "purge" all the samples like you can in Kontakt? This is pretty important in my giant template to save on resources....again I hope I am just missing where it is.


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## Theladur (Aug 9, 2021)

Sample Fuel said:


> I hope I am doing something wrong. The library sounds very good but is very RAM intensive as are a lot of libraries. Is there no way to "purge" all the samples like you can in Kontakt? This is pretty important in my giant template to save on resources....again I hope I am just missing where it is.


As far as I know, there currently is no purge function in the spitfire player (see e.g. answer from spitfire team on their helpdesk/community).


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## sostenuto (Aug 9, 2021)

Sample Fuel said:


> I hope I am doing something wrong. The library sounds very good but is very RAM intensive as are a lot of libraries. Is there no way to "purge" all the samples like you can in Kontakt? This is pretty important in my giant template to save on resources....again I hope I am just missing where it is.


Interested in this perspective, and follow-on posts. Currently _ (3) aging Win11 Pro Desktop PC(s) _ seemingly requiring notable upgrades come Oct. DRAM is major concern and cost to add top MB(s), CPU, >64GB is eye-opening !


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## Sample Fuel (Aug 9, 2021)

Theladur said:


> As far as I know, there currently is no purge function in the spitfire player (see e.g. answer from spitfire team on their helpdesk/community).


Quite a bummer to see this does not exist yet. This will honestly make me think twice depending on how big the library is in the future if it utilizes their player. Seems like a fairly easy thing to add and necessary. Reducing the streaming settings helps a bit but no where near what purging achieves. Hopefully they will add this soon.


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## dnblankedelman (Aug 9, 2021)

Baronvonheadless said:


> So here is my first composition using Hammers, just did this in about two hours for fun/practice and I really am loving the versatility of this library. I went for the all out vibe but it can definitely be used much more subtly as well. Cheers! &


Excellent piece, thanks for sharing. I especially appreciate how it showcased the sound of the toms. 

My one question for you: the panning of those drums was very clear, as if someone had played across a larger rack. Was that something you explicitly did and if so, would you be willing to share how?


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## Baronvonheadless (Aug 9, 2021)

dnblankedelman said:


> Excellent piece, thanks for sharing. I especially appreciate how it showcased the sound of the toms.
> 
> My one question for you: the panning of those drums was very clear, as if someone had played across a larger rack. Was that something you explicitly did and if so, would you be willing to share how?


Thanks man! And no that’s all hammers. I think that’s why certain mixes can’t be blended. They did the blending/panning in the recording process!


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## Ruffian Price (Aug 9, 2021)

Nimrod7 said:


> I am a couple of days off before traveling to the homeland for a month, and I am wondering if anyone has the microphone naming conventions for Hammers.
> I am intending to create a Laptop friendly version with just the Mix 1.
> I know Spitfire has an articles for BBC and a few others, but failing to find one for Hammers.
> 
> and yes, I am getting my libraries with me on holidays. Who cares about the sunny beaches and the fish taverns next to the sea...


You can remove each perspective from the folder and see what gets grayed out. I was also making a cutdown version, so:
Mix 1 - MI01
Mix 2 - MI03
Mix 3 - MI04
Close - CX01 (BX01 for bass drums)
Overheads - OX01
Room - RX01
Close Pitched - CP01
Close Rear - RZ01
Overheads Pitched - OP01
Room Pitched - RP01
Sub - SB01 (SU01 for bass drums)
Crush - CA01
Crush Pitched - CB01

Pretty obvious for the most part. A great prank is labeling your mixes 1, 3 and 4 - they'll spend forever looking for the missing one!


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## pranic (Aug 10, 2021)

I was watching Charlie's walk through today, and was curious if the template for Logic is available anywhere for folks to download and use?


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## charlieclouser (Aug 12, 2021)

Ruffian Price said:


> Pretty obvious for the most part. A great prank is labeling your mixes 1, 3 and 4 - they'll spend forever looking for the missing one!


Well, there WERE four mixes at one point in production, but it was just a version of the four-player ensembles with only two player's worth of close mics included, in an attempt to make a smaller-sounding version. It worked okay I guess, but obv the overheads and room mics were the same as before, and it only existed for those few four-player articulations. But I had established the naming at the beginning of mixing and so I just rolled with it, but when we got to the end of mixing and saw that Mix was only a tiny handful of bits, we decided to scrap it. No great loss I assure you.


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## charlieclouser (Aug 12, 2021)

pranic said:


> I was watching Charlie's walk through today, and was curious if the template for Logic is available anywhere for folks to download and use?



That Logic project isn't really a template - I made it by just starting from a completely empty "New Project" in Logic and creating sixteen tracks (or however many it is) with Hammers instantiated. There's no Auxes, Busses, or anything except those tracks and a single stereo output, so it's pretty useless as a working project - and you could make it in about two minutes.

I have mentioned to Spitfire HQ that it might be cool to make available the Logic projects for the demo and trailer tracks, with all the MIDI in place so people could see how they were put together, and we shall see if they want to do that. The trailer track was a little more elaborate, with about 50 instances of Hammers, but like the other demo tracks it had nothing in it except for those tracks and a single stereo output, with no plugins or fancy routing, so it's also pretty useless for anything other than playing the trailer. But it does show the actual MIDI performances, so it might be interesting to some folks. We'll see if they want to do that...


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## givemenoughrope (Aug 12, 2021)

Anyone using this (the Spitfire player) in VE Pro with any success? 

..decisions, decisions..


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## Evans (Aug 12, 2021)

givemenoughrope said:


> Anyone using this (the Spitfire player) in VE Pro with any success?
> 
> ..decisions, decisions..


What sort of information are you looking for? I run a few Spitfire Audio player libraries (including Hammers, but I've only tinkered with it) on a VEPro server with no particular problems unique to VEPro, though I don't do anything advanced with it like, I dunno, mic automation. Just simple load in VEPro, connect to the server in Cubase, and play.


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## givemenoughrope (Aug 12, 2021)

Evans said:


> What sort of information are you looking for? I run a few Spitfire Audio player libraries (including Hammers, but I've only tinkered with it) on a VEPro server with no particular problems unique to VEPro, though I don't do anything advanced with it like, I dunno, mic automation. Just simple load in VEPro, connect to the server in Cubase, and play.


Nothing fancy. Just making sure it works as a host and the regular CCs (1, 11, etc)
What about purging memory as it unloads/switches to another patch? As long as there are no huge issues..


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## Evans (Aug 12, 2021)

givemenoughrope said:


> Nothing fancy. Just making sure it works as a host and the regular CCs (1, 11, etc)
> What about purging memory as it unloads/switches to another patch? As long as there are no huge issues..


Cool. No, no problems that I've personally experienced. I probably use some sort of Spitfire player library in VEPro every week-ish, so somewhat regularly but I'm not a daily power user by any means. In fact, a lot of my libraries (especially, early days of SINE) somehow run better (as in, freeze less often) in VEPro than as straight Cubase tracks.

I haven't kept a close eye on memory purge, but then again I haven't experienced any particular pain that would have caused me to keep an eye on it in the first place.

The only library-specific frustrations I've had in VEPro are actually with Orchestral Tools CAPSULE products, like Berlin Strings. Mic automation is often unresponsive.


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## givemenoughrope (Aug 12, 2021)

I find most things run better outside of Cubase. As long as it loads and functions sounds good. Thanks!


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## Kevperry777 (Aug 12, 2021)

+1 for releasing midi of the demos. Spitfire if you are listening, this would be a huge educational tool for people for any/all of your libs ….that would in turn fire them up to buy the product and use it. 

Grats on the lib. Sounds amazing.


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## pranic (Aug 14, 2021)

charlieclouser said:


> That Logic project isn't really a template - I made it by just starting from a completely empty "New Project" in Logic and creating sixteen tracks (or however many it is) with Hammers instantiated. There's no Auxes, Busses, or anything except those tracks and a single stereo output, so it's pretty useless as a working project - and you could make it in about two minutes.
> 
> I have mentioned to Spitfire HQ that it might be cool to make available the Logic projects for the demo and trailer tracks, with all the MIDI in place so people could see how they were put together, and we shall see if they want to do that. The trailer track was a little more elaborate, with about 50 instances of Hammers, but like the other demo tracks it had nothing in it except for those tracks and a single stereo output, with no plugins or fancy routing, so it's also pretty useless for anything other than playing the trailer. But it does show the actual MIDI performances, so it might be interesting to some folks. We'll see if they want to do that...


Thanks for taking the time to write back... I had wondered if each instance of the library had been configured to purge the patches that weren't in use (as is commonly done with libraries like BBCSO) to avoid additional patches loading and using system memory. Totally understand the workflow in making 16 tracks and hopping in and setting the correct patches in the Spitfire player!

I agree that it would be a great learning exercise for folks to be able to download the project and see how it was put together. I was a very happy camper to use Hammers in my Stargirl score (and by the sounds of it, there were plenty of other folks who also had the library for the competition). Excellent timing on the release! I just spent a bit of time setting up the sliders on my Arturia Keylab keyboard to control CC38 and higher for more control of the warp loops. 

The only issue I've noticed in the library, is that you have to set the warp slider to "on" before you trigger a note, because if you're just holding down a key for the duration of the loop, the other warps won't trigger if you don't have them set to the "on" position before modulating them. It would be more helpful that if you're at 0 and in the "off" position, then push the slider up while a loop is playing, that the new warp that's being modulated is played in the same place in the same position. _Really not sure I explained that one correctly. That's only when playing it in live and using the sliders while you're playing. I believe if you play it in, and then record the CC data separately, it acts correctly.


UPDATE: I probably should just have RTFM . Looks like the fix for me was to disable the "Automatic unload with mixer fader" setting.



_


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## gzapper (Nov 14, 2021)

Now that we're nearing the big fall sales and Hammers has been out for a few months, how do people feel about this library?

I'm on the fence between Damage 2 and Hammers and would love a bit of insight.


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## Baronvonheadless (Nov 14, 2021)

gzapper said:


> Now that we're nearing the big fall sales and Hammers has been out for a few months, how do people feel about this library?
> 
> I'm on the fence between Damage 2 and Hammers and would love a bit of insight.


I love it and use it so much in multiple instances. It's so good even for soft stuff let a lone big moments. In my scoring competition entry I use the bass drum loops with the low pass as more of a heart beat type intensity and I thought it was perfect. See here


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## pranic (Nov 14, 2021)

gzapper said:


> Now that we're nearing the big fall sales and Hammers has been out for a few months, how do people feel about this library?
> 
> I'm on the fence between Damage 2 and Hammers and would love a bit of insight.


I'm fairly confident that I'm using Hammers on almost every composition that I've been working on since it came out. It's not just big and booming full-presence hits that it excels at -- but some of the metals and high frequency instruments (irons + other metals) that I love about it. Been combining it with Box Factory and BBCSO Timpani too. I had been considering adding Damage 2 before Hammers was released, but then I fell in love, and I'm 1000% satisfied with Hammers as a core percussion library! (So take this with a grain of salt, since I don't own Damage 2)


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## catibi79 (Nov 14, 2021)

Baronvonheadless said:


> I love it and use it so much in multiple instances. It's so good even for soft stuff let a lone big moments. In my scoring competition entry I use the bass drum loops with the low pass as more of a heart beat type intensity and I thought it was perfect. See here



I love it


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## baptiste_palacin (Aug 15, 2022)

Hi everyone, I've just starded to mess around with Hammers, I find the sounds really fantastic. I was wondering... Is there a way to have the warps for the standard kits (I mean not the loops). I didn't see the feature.


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## wing (Sep 12, 2022)

charlieclouser said:


> I also got a Roland SPD-SX and it's a blast to play Hammers from pads


Hi Charlie,
First of all I want to say amazing library! As a fellow drummer I've been really excited to play around with it. It plays just fine from my midi keyboard controller (NI Kontrol S49II), but I recently thought it would much more fun to play it from my Roland SPD-SX. However, I've run into the strangest issue which appears to be across *all* Spitfire libraries and _only_ them – which is that single hits will only fire less than half the time from the SPD, and it's therefore impossible to play anything fast. But the plot thickens, as I noticed when I switch to any of the rolls/loops which are gate-based, they will fire perfectly from the SPD, although sounding like "hits" even though they aren't (since I can't send gates from the SPD anyway which makes sense).

But weirdly with all other third-party percussion libraries I own, single hits fire perfectly from the SPD, so I don't think it's an issue with the pads or midi settings. I'm only noticing this with my Spitfire libraries – Hammers, Resonate, Joey Burgess Percussion, etc.

I've reached out to Spitfire Audio's support and I realize you aren't a tech support guy, but I wanted to ask since you mention having used your SPD-SX to play Hammers, have you experienced this?! Thanks if you take the time to read this!


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## charlieclouser (Sep 13, 2022)

wing said:


> Hi Charlie,
> First of all I want to say amazing library! As a fellow drummer I've been really excited to play around with it. It plays just fine from my midi keyboard controller (NI Kontrol S49II), but I recently thought it would much more fun to play it from my Roland SPD-SX. However, I've run into the strangest issue which appears to be across *all* Spitfire libraries and _only_ them – which is that single hits will only fire less than half the time from the SPD, and it's therefore impossible to play anything fast. But the plot thickens, as I noticed when I switch to any of the rolls/loops which are gate-based, they will fire perfectly from the SPD, although sounding like "hits" even though they aren't (since I can't send gates from the SPD anyway which makes sense).
> 
> But weirdly with all other third-party percussion libraries I own, single hits fire perfectly from the SPD, so I don't think it's an issue with the pads or midi settings. I'm only noticing this with my Spitfire libraries – Hammers, Resonate, Joey Burgess Percussion, etc.
> ...


Some samplers (I guess the Spitfire Player is one of them) can behave as you describe if the incoming MIDI note events are very short, with the note-off event following too closely behind the note-on event.

A “perfectly designed” sampler will have a one-shot mode that can be enabled on a per-zone basis, where the entire sample will play to the end in response to a note-on event, with the note-off event being disregarded entirely. EXS-24 / Logic Sampler has this, but apparently Spitfire Player does not, or if it does, that toggle has not been set correctly within the per-zone maps. Ideally, this toggle would be ON for single hits and OFF for rolls and loops, so that those WOULD respond correctly to incoming notes of various lengths.

The simple solution is to adjust the GATE TIME parameter in the SPD’s MIDI SETTINGS page to a fixed value, increasing it until the desired behavior is achieved.

- The default setting is OFF, which causes the SPD to transmit a note-off immediately after the note-on.

- The setting ALT will cause a note-on to be sent by a hit, with the corresponding note-off sent by the following hit, allowing you to toggle loops / rolls on and off with subsequent hits.

- What you’re looking for is setting that parameter to a numerical value that’s greater than the minimum. Adjust that value until the desired behavior is achieved.

See page 68 in the SPD-SX manual for more info:



https://cdn.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/SPD-SX_OM.pdf


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## wing (Sep 14, 2022)

charlieclouser said:


> Some samplers (I guess the Spitfire Player is one of them) can behave as you describe if the incoming MIDI note events are very short, with the note-off event following too closely behind the note-on event.
> 
> A “perfectly designed” sampler will have a one-shot mode that can be enabled on a per-zone basis, where the entire sample will play to the end in response to a note-on event, with the note-off event being disregarded entirely. EXS-24 / Logic Sampler has this, but apparently Spitfire Player does not, or if it does, that toggle has not been set correctly within the per-zone maps. Ideally, this toggle would be ON for single hits and OFF for rolls and loops, so that those WOULD respond correctly to incoming notes of various lengths.
> 
> ...


Hot damn Charlie, that fixed it! I also had to set it for EXT CTRL - ON (it was set to off). That combined with adjusting the appropriate gate time gives me perfect hits now.

I was able to confirm this by recording before and after and viewing the resulting midi notes in Logic's event list. You're right, before changing this setting every note had a length of '1' - basically extremely short and apparently too short for how Spitfire has programmed the zone maps. After changing the setting, each event is coming in at various lengths similar to my keyboard, '80-130' on average.

Whatever that means in technical terms, for me at least it means it works. Thank you so much! Can't wait to add Hammers all over my productions. The rotos sound incredible


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## charlieclouser (Sep 14, 2022)




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## Sunny Schramm (Nov 23, 2022)

UPDATE Version 1.1.12 is live via Spitfire Launcher 👍


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## pranic (Nov 23, 2022)

Seems like at least a couple products with updates today!





_Reading the release notes for Hammers.... it's M1 compatibility._


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## TeamLeader (Nov 23, 2022)

pranic said:


> _Reading the release notes for Hammers.... it's M1 compatibility._


Any other changes?


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## axb312 (Nov 23, 2022)

*Hammers*​*[1.1.12]*​*Fixed*​
M1 compatibility


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