Real Music Media is proud to present the Real Snare Drum: a vintage 1972 Slingerland Sound King snare drum
sampled using two Beyer M201 dynamic microphones (top and bottom close mics) and two Oktava MK 012 small diaphragm
condenser microphones (stereo overheads in an XY pattern); and mapped in an innovative and playable configuration in the sfz format.
Each microphone has its own virtual channel, controlled by its own assigned midi CC#. The drum is sampled in 4 zones:
center, 3 inch radius, 6 inch radius, and rim shot. Each zone has separate left and right hand samples mapped in an
obvious and intuitive way, and there is round robin and velocity switching within each zone. The instrument also has
decay, sustain and release controls each assigned to their own CC#.
Click here to hear the Real Snare Drum in action.
Click here for more information.
The Real Snare Drum is the first in a series of answers to a paradox of modern drum sampling: that libraries are getting ever larger and more detailed (and expensive, both in terms of the money it costs to buy them, and in terms of the RAM and CPU resources they consume) and yet, they seem no closer than ever to putting a transparent interface between the user and the sampled instrument. Realism can be achieved, but only by extremely artificial means. Not by playing, but by programming.
We at Real Music Media now offer an alternative to this state of affairs. Our new line of multisampled drums offer intuitive and playable mappings that match the profile of the instrument, realistic microphone combinations with intuitive controls, and a consistent 'dead room' recording methodology. This methodology allows for total compatibility between instruments, so that they can be sold individually, giving the user the ability to create their own kits from scratch, and freeing the user from the tyranny of gigantic, monolithic sample sets.