Results for Empirical Labs

ToneBuilder has announced a limited time sale for Driven Machine Drums, an electronic drums sample library, created from an unique blend of 14 drum machines/synthesizers and 9 analog coloration devices.

DRIVEN MACHINE DRUMS highlights the natural sounding punch, depth, and warmth added by a collection of tubes, transformers, and hardware tape emulation.

Driven Machine Drums features

• 1,820 sounds in 24bit resolution, captured directly from the source using professional-quality cables and A/D converters.
• Each individual sound has been carefully edited by hand for tight attacks and natural decays.
• Synthesis sources: Elektron Machine Drum, Symbolic Sound Kyma Capybara, Eventide H8000FW, Korg ER-1, E-mu SP-1200, Oberheim DMX, Emu Mo Phatt, Yamaha DX200, Roland TR909, TR808, TR707, TR606, Vermona DRM-1 MKIII, and Jomox MBase 11.
• Analog processing: Thermionic Culture Vulture, Anamod ATS-1, Neve 1073 Preamp, Atlas Pro Juggernaut Twin, A-Design EM-Gold, Source + Plus Tube Amp, Empirical Labs Distressor, Moog MF101, and Mutronics Mutator.

Driven Machine Drums is available in two packages:

• Driven Machine Drums (26 Guru Kits, 24bit Wav + 24bit Aif) $37 USD (regular $77 USD).
• Driven Machine Drums Deluxe (NN-XT, Structure, Kontakt, EXS-24, 24bit Wav/Aif) $47 USD (regular $87 USD.

More information: Driven Machine Drums

Wave Alchemy has recently released another drum sample library, Drum Tools 01.

Drum Tools 01 by Wave Alchemy offers over 1950 exquisitely produced electronic drum samples. All sounds in the collection have been built from the ground up using a jawdropping array of analogue circuitry and exclusive highend outboard gear.

Great care has been taken to capture the tone / vibe and warmth of the equipment used and all sample editing and file naming has been done by hand for maximum precision.

The drum samples in Drum Tools 01 have been created by the creative layering and processing of drum machines, exotic synthesizers / modulars, field recordings and the recording of live drum and percussive instruments.

Ah… just what I need: More creatively layered and processed drum machine, exotic sound sources and field recordings.

Of course I don’t really need another drum sample library… ToneBuilder’s Driven Machine Drums, various Goldbaby Productions titles, and Wave Alchemy’s own Drum Machines 01 already provide me with thousands of high quality samples.

So why Drum Tools 01? The beauty of sample libraries like the ones I just mentioned is that they feature sampled material from a unique combination of analog sound sources processed with high end outboard gear, so Drum Tools still sounds “different” from everything else I already have.

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Wave Alchemy has announced the release of Drum Tools 01 – Minimal Techno & Tech House, a collection of electronic drum samples.

Drum Tools 01 offers over 1950 exquisitely produced electronic drum samples. All sounds in the collection have been built from the ground up using a jaw-dropping array of analogue circuitry and exclusive high-end outboard gear. Great care has been taken to capture the tone / vibe and warmth of the equipment used and all sample editing and file naming has been done by hand for maximum precision.

The drum samples in Drum Tools 01 have been created by the creative layering and processing of drum machines, exotic synthesizers / modulars, field recordings and the recording of live drum and percussive instruments.

Drum Tools 01 is an essential purchase for anyone looking for high quality, 100% original drum samples. Although designed with Minimal techno & Tech House music in mind, Drum Tools 01 would also make an essential toolkit for producers of House, Trance, Electro or even down-tempo / hip-hop styles.

Drum Tools 01 – Minimal Techno & Tech House features

• 1950 24-bit 100% royalty free electronic drum hits!
• A professionally dithered 16-bit version of the full library for hardware sampler enthusiasts
• 472 premium kick drum samples arranged by tone (deep, punchy, solid, processed, 808 & fx)
• 251 snare drum samples arranged by type (classic, layered, punchy, processed & noise)
• 594 exotic percussion samples created with a wealth of highly sought-after studio gear and divided into such folders as ‘blips & pops’ ‘toms & tones’ ‘world’ ‘analogue synth’ ‘driven digital’ & ‘miscellaneous’
• 125 luxurious claps and snaps
• 141 hi hat & creative noise samples
• 75 glitch shots devised from exclusive analogue circuitry
• 62 minimal stabs and chord hits
• 88 sound effects samples
• 26 uniquely layered crash cymbal sounds
• 58 drum creation tools including snaps & sub enhancers
• Ableton Live 8 pack (requires latest version of live)
• 13 drum kits including sampler patches for Battery, Kontakt, Reason NNXT, Halion, EXS24 and SFZ
• 42 bonus tb-303 licks + much more

Drum Tools 01 – Minimal Techno & Tech House is available to purchase for £39.95 GBP. A generous selection of free sounds from Drum Tools 01 is available to download from the product page (free registration required).

More information: Wave Alchemy / Drum Tools 01 – Minimal Techno & Tech House

ToneBuilder has included support for Reason NN-XT and Pro Tools Structure for Driven Machine Drums, its electronic drums sample library, created from an unique blend of 14 drum machines/synthesizers and 9 analog coloration devices.

DRIVEN MACHINE DRUMS highlights the natural sounding punch, depth, and warmth added by a collection of tubes, transformers, and hardware tape emulation.

Driven Machine Drums features

• 1,820 sounds in 24bit resolution, captured directly from the source using professional-quality cables and A/D converters.
• Each individual sound has been carefully edited by hand for tight attacks and natural decays.
• Synthesis sources: Elektron Machine Drum, Symbolic Sound Kyma Capybara, Eventide H8000FW, Korg ER-1, E-mu SP-1200, Oberheim DMX, Emu Mo Phatt, Yamaha DX200, Roland TR909, TR808, TR707, TR606, Vermona DRM-1 MKIII, and Jomox MBase 11.
• Analog processing: Thermionic Culture Vulture, Anamod ATS-1, Neve 1073 Preamp, Atlas Pro Juggernaut Twin, A-Design EM-Gold, Source + Plus Tube Amp, Empirical Labs Distressor, Moog MF101, and Mutronics Mutator.

Driven Machine Drums is available to purchase for $77 USD (includes 26 Guru Kits, 24bit Wav + 24bit Aif), and a Deluxe version is available for $87 USD (NN-XT, Structure, Kontakt, EXS-24, 24bit Wav/Aif).

A free demo pack featuring 100+ sounds is available to download from the ToneBuilder website.

More information: Driven Machine Drums

When I first visited the Driven Machine Drums website I thought I had found another one of those silly marketing schemes. You know those sites that promise loads of “fresh” content for cheap, meaning to say they’ll send you a disc with stuff that is old and readily available to download from the internet, free of cost…

Just reading the first few paragraphs on the website immediately triggered my scam alert.

Have you purchased hundreds; even thousands of drum sounds… only finding a handful of gems among the clutter? Are you often irritated when sifting through countless sounds, devastating your creative flow? Do you fight with samples to make them tight, slamming, and club ready… only later to be disappointed in the results? Have you fantasized about the multi-million dollar deal or winning the lottery so you can stack your studio with all the esoteric highend gear? Does your music command you have the latest kit, to gain the advantage and stand apart from the masses?

If you answered “YES!” to any of these questions, then you are in the right place and the right time.

The website even mentions a 30-day no questions asked refund, and then there’s the odd “only 997 copies will ever be available” thing.

The whole thing looked pretty dodgy to me, but my gut feeling was wrong.

The guy behind ToneBuilder and Driven Machine Drums is Nathaniel Shreve, an electronic musician who is passionate about his work. He wanted to make sure to share some interesting things about how the library came to be, and why he feels Driven Machine Drums is different from other drum sample libraries.

Now whether or not you enjoy Nathaniel’s style of writing, the bottom line is: this product is legit and well worth checking out.

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Didn’t I just say in another review that there are plenty of drum machine sample libraries already? So what does Wave Alchemy’s Drum Machines 01 have to offer that you haven’t seen before?

Looking at the drum machines they sampled you might think the answer is “not that much”. The library includes samples from three previously released sample packs featuring the following machines: Vermona DRM mkII, Jomox AiRBase99, Jomox MBase 11 and Jomox XBase 999.

There is a good chance you already have some samples of a few of those machines, but that doesn’t mean Drum Machines 01 doesn’t bring anything new. Since the samples were taken from analog drum machines you will still get some “fresh” content every time someone comes around with a new pack of the same old drum machines.

Wave Alchemy used some outboard gear for this sample library:

All samples have been beautifully recorded through an API 512c preamp with a small selection of the sounds being sonically enhanced through the use of an Empirical Labs Distressor and highend SSL equalizers.

The kit list in the manual mentions the use of the API 512c preamp, Empirical Labs Distressor EL8, SSL E Series EQ and Compressor, and SPL Transient Designer.

The Vermona DRM mkII and Jomox XBase 999, two of the drum machines sampled.

Drum Machines 01 features

• 1,400 24-bit 100% royalty free analogue drum hits
• 466 XBase 999 drum samples
• 453 Vermona DRM mkII drum samples
• 237 AiRBase99 drum samples
• 245 MBase 11 kick drums

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