Review: Goldbaby Productions Tape Drum Machines Vol 3

The third volume in Goldbaby’s Tape Drum Machines series of sample libraries features the sounds of another dozen drum machines.

For those new to the concept, the Tape Drum Machines series combines vintage and modern drum machines with tape machines and analog tape effects.

This third volume in the series features nearly 3,500 samples (24bit) from a total of 12 drum machines, recorded with Otari and Rola reel-to-reel tape decks and a Hitachi cassette deck. Add a touch of tape simulation from Kush Audio’s UBK-Fatso and you get Tape Drum Machines Volume 3.

Tape Drum Machines Vol 3 drum machines

• Casio RZ-1 (238 samples), one of the first drum machines which featured sampling (0.8 sec at 20 kHz).
• Kawai R-100 (132 samples), 24 12-bit sounds in 3 kits.
• Kawai XD-5 (905 samples), features 256 waveforms, with up to 4 waveforms per drum sound. Has advanced options like envelopes, filters, delay, ringmod and more.
• Korg DDM-110 Super Drums (83 samples), a total of nine (9!) 8-bit 15.6kHz samples in this lo-fi machine.
• Korg DDM-220 Super Percussion (71 samples), lo-fi crunchy sounds like the DDM-110, but this time with Latin American percussion sounds.
• MFB-522 (453 samples), analog drum sounds from Germany. Features step sequencer and lots of controls for editing the sounds.
• M.P.C. Electronics DSM-1 (515 samples), single channel analog drum synth intended to be used with drum pads.
• Roland Rhythm 55/TR-55 (276 samples), analog rhythm box with 10 sounds generated by tuned resonance type circuits and white noise.
• Roland Rhythm Plus PB-300 (314 samples), analog rhythm machine with 8 sounds (apparently a bit of a mix of TR and CR machines).
• Sakata DPM-48 (122 samples), digital drum machine with old school sounds (also manufactured under Jugg Box and Hammond brand names).
• Yamaha ED10 (284 samples), electronic drum pad with an analog synthesizer which can produce a wide range of sounds (includes filter+mod, subsonic, click, noise, etc).
• Yamaha RX21L (80 samples), features 16 latin drum/percussion samples, in full 12-bit glory.

The sample pack also comes with some patches for Battery and Guru, which is great if you use these instruments. However, samples are categorized in separate drum machine folders so it’s easy to browse the sounds.

The samples themselves have descriptive names indicating the type of sample and what gear was used. For example, RZ1_BDvinyl_7_x_Tape2.wav is vinyl basedrum sound #7 from the RZ1, recorded on the Otari MX5050 1/4 inch 2 track machine with the gain set for more saturation. The “x” denotes additional processing like the use of a filter or equalizer.

The analog machines – DSM-1, ED10, MFB-522, PB-300, and TR-55, have many sounds that were sampled multiple times for use of round robin (also indicated in the filenames). These variations will help you get more realistic results.

Alright, so what do these drum machine samples actually sound like? I made a few demo loops so you can get an idea. The first track is a combination of the loops, the individual ones follow (drum machines indicated in the track title).

All drum/percussion sounds in these loops were done with TDM Vol 3 only. I didn’t use much processing, just some compression and a tiny bit of reverb on some of the samples. For melodic content I used u-he ACE, Sonic Charge Synplant, and Daichi’s Synth1.

So what do I think?

The third volume in the Tape Drum Machines series includes a huge variety of digital and analog drum machine samples. Not all of them are equally interesting to me though. I am not a fan of digital latin percussion drum machines so the DDM-220, and the particularly nasty sounding RX21L I could do without. Goldbaby’s tape treatment does add value but they’re just not the type of sounds I’m usually looking for. Luckily those only account for 150 out of 3,500 samples.

In general TDM Vol. 3 is a well balanced pack of electronic drum sounds; from the raw digital 12-bit orchestral hits of the R-100 to the warm synthetic analog sounds of the ED10 and MFB-522. My favorites are the RZ-1 – great for lo-fi hip hop beats, and the XD5 which has a surprising large amount of diverse sounds. I love the rough, saturated “tape2” samples of this one.

TDM Vol. 3 meets the high quality I have come to expect from Goldbaby. If you are into drum machine sounds this one is a no-brainer if you ask me.

More information: Goldbaby / Tape Drum Machines Vol 3

Hey there, I'm Ronnie and I run Rekkerd.org. I'm a bedroom music producer and guitar player, and I love chicken vindaloo & all things glitch.