Drumdrops has announced it will be releasing the Gretsch 1960s Round Badge Soul Kit Kontakt 5 Pack on wednesday 3rd December at 4pm GMT with a special offer.
The first 10 packs will be free, the next 50 will be £ 30.00, the next 50 £ 40.00 and then it will go back to the retail price of £ 45.00. Customers will need to have a Drumdrops account to purchase the kit. Login and at 4pm head to the Buy Kit page. The free kits go in a second so you have to be quick !
The Gretsch 1960s Round Badge Kits are legendary kits. Currently they are one of the most sought after kits from that era. Drumdrops recorded this kit to capture a certain sound, the sound of the late 60s and early 70s that came out of Royal Studios in Memphis. Home to legendary producer and founder of Hi Records, Willie Mitchell. This studio was responsible for recording hit after hit from famous Soul Artists such as Al Green and Ann Peebles. Drumdrops under the guidance of producer / drummer Timmy Rickard studied and recreated the drum sound.
Unlike the one microphone, large open room drum sounds coming out of Motown and Stax in the 60’s/early 70’s, Willie Mitchell preferred a small dry room, often using three or four microphones on the drum kit. To capture the same sound Drumdrops used the suited dry live room at Miloco’s The Square in London. The concept behind the mic positioning is unique to this release. They used five mic’s, each placed in carefully selected positions around the kit, so each mic captures the drum kit as a whole, meaning you can use any one mic as your drum sound, or you can blend any or all of the mic’s to create your ideal sound (in the Kontakt pack).
The drum kit was produced, mixed and recorded by South London drummer Timmy Rickard who has studied the grooves and sound of this great era. The kit is a classic sounding late 60s kit with wallets placed on the tuned down snares, a tea towel was used on the floor tom and they have recorded the ride with and without a chain.
The kit comprises a 20″ x 14″ Kick drum, 13″ x 9″ Rack Tom and a 16″ x 16″ Floor Tom. The snares used were a combination of a Gretsch Renown Maple 14″ x 6″ snare with a Red Sparkle finish (c.2010) a Gretsch Renown maple 14″ x 5″ snare with a Black Oyster Swirl finish, a Ludwig Acrolite 14″ x 5″ (c.1970) and a Ludwig 400″ 14″ x 5″ snare (c.1960). Cymbals were dark sounding Bosphorous New Orleans Hi Hats (2 x 16″ Crashes), a 20″ Ride and an 18″ Crash. Drumdrops have also included shakers, tambourines and congas.
The recording took place in Miloco’s The Square Studios in London. As only five microphones were used Drumdrops utilized the vintage external mic pre’s (Telefunken V76’s, Neve 1066, Calrec PQ1061) recording straight to Pro Tools. All of the kit microphones used were ribbon microphones. They used 3 x Coles 4038 ribbons around the kit and for the overhead an STC 4021 ball & biscuit. Drumdrops also setup a room microphone which was a U47 FET running through a Calrec PQ1061 Mic Pre. In the Kontakt 5 pack all five microphones can be accessed on every drum using the mic blend feature.The “Kontakt Pack” has been designed exclusively for the latest full version of Native Instruments Kontakt 5. The pack includes up to sixteen velocities of each articulation and up to 5 round robins. In total it contains 17275 samples. Included in the Kontakt pack is the latest version of the Drumdrops Kontakt 5 instrument.
The pack will cost £45 GBP. Requires Kontakt 5.2.0 full version or higher.
More information: Drumdrops / Gretsch 1960s Round Badge Soul
