Drum Empire 2020
Drum Empire 2020 is a huge pack recorded and processed in 2020 in one of the best studios designed for drums in central Europe, the Svarov studios. We sampled a huge array of high end drums and cymbals, mostly with sticks, but brushes, floopy, mallets and hands got some love too.
Media & Reviews
Studio
Beautiful controlled hall with very high ceilings, that's Svarov studios nearby Prague, potentially the best studio for recording drums in central Europe. And as it turns out, it's owned by total drum junkies. They live for drums, eat with drums, and sleep next to drums! And they certainly know how to tune and record drums.
Equipment
Recording equipment is especially essential when it comes to sampling. And there's no shortage here - the best preamps money can buy, a whole set of analog equalizers and compressors to give it a bit of the mojo even when dry, and of course the best mikes, such as Neuman U87 and AKG C12.
CYMBALS
We started with cymbals. The best ones and a lot of them. Zildajians, Sabians, Meinl... So many, that it was quite impossible to show all of them at once... At the end we counted 42 crashes, 17 rides, 8 hihats, 11 chinese and 10 splashes...
...Stacking
...and then we started stacking them up, which turns out to be just really cool, but let's face it, not many drummers can afford stacking multiple K Zildjians on top of each other. And we sampled 18 of these combinations.ho wouldn't know the classic Ludwig Vistalite used by the one and only (but not only) Led Zeppelin!
Yamaha Recording Custom is yet another classic which survived decades. Designed by the master chef Steve Gadd, the name clearly implies what this drumset is for!
How about the classic Phil Collins sound? Well that would be the same Yamahas, but without the bottom heads.
And while we are in the classics, this vintage Ludwig rock set is so big, that only the big guys could even play it! 26" kick with toms 15", 18" and 20"...
The set just wouldn't be complete without some of the american DW Collectors!
Check out these beauties - some of the best stuff Gretsch has ever made!
...and with fiberskin heads we got some really cool vintage sounds too!
And we couldn't resist to get some of the classics from Gretsch!
Sometimes companies such as Pearl make a limited collection and we certainly needed to sample that. This one is Pearl Masters 50th Anniversary.
Vintage Pearl MLX look quite different though... and sound too...
We play drums with sticks, right? Wrong! Sometimes you just need brushes... or floppy... or mallets... or if you break all these, you have to play with hands. And that hurts, seriously... :)
Cool fact. We started sampling just 2 days before the corona quarantine started. While initially we used face masks to prevent us from recording breathing, we need some strong artillery too.
And another cool fact. It turns out that recording engineers sometimes have pretty obscure tricks in their sleeves... and this one worked interestingly well :)