# Drum Samples/Loops



## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Anyone know where I can find some decent sounding drum samples or loops? I'm looking for Rock or Pop type stuff, and somewhat downtempo. It's hard to find stuff <120 bpm, and even the stuff I find at 70 or 80 bpm are still fairly aggressive samples. Any samples out there with brushes??? Oh, and I'm looking for *free* stuff, ideally, though I wouldn't mind shelling out a few bucks for a resource I would use often.


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

I know you mentioned you wanted something free but in any case, I was looking for Jazz Drum tracks that I wanted to use for working with chord progressions I have in mind and found this site and bought their Jazz Essentials II CD. It's all acoustic drum recordings and the CD contains the full take with intros, bridges and outros and stuff. I think it's excellent for creating backing tracks. You should try it out. It's a bit pricey but it gives you a whole lot to play with.

http://www.betamonkeymusic.com/

I've made some recordings with it but unfortunately my desktop crashed and I'm still trying to get the DAW back in place.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Chito said:


> I know you mentioned you wanted something free but in any case, I was looking for Jazz Drum tracks that I wanted to use for working with chord progressions I have in mind and found this site and bought their Jazz Essentials II CD. It's all acoustic drum recordings and the CD contains the full take with intros, bridges and outros and stuff. I think it's excellent for creating backing tracks. You should try it out. It's a bit pricey but it gives you a whole lot to play with.
> 
> http://www.betamonkeymusic.com/
> 
> I've made some recordings with it but unfortunately my desktop crashed and I'm still trying to get the DAW back in place.


Actually, someone else recommended that one too, I'll have to check it out. I also was told to check LA Drum Sessions. It also has intros, fills, etc., but again, it's geared towards more uptempo stuff, but the tracks I heard sounded great!

I'll get on that betamonkey stuff ASAP!


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

I did some searching a while back, and didn't have much luck finding any good "free" stuff on the Internets. Almost every site trys to sucker you into paying for their package as their free stuff is pretty useless. I gave up and bought a Roland programmable drum machine instead.

I did find one useful site, with free samples, I think I still have the link to it at home. I'll post it tonight if I still have it.


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## Guest (Feb 10, 2009)

I've bought Beta Monkey sample packs in the past and they're fantastic. With the REX2 format you can use them in Reason's Dr. Rex module and they scale very, very well. With WAV I'd say you can scale decently +/- 10% the original tempo before things start to sound funny, but with REX2 files you can scale +/- 50% no problem. More if the hits are sparse.

Free is pretty much impossible if what you're after is quality and decent file formats. Why would someone sit down and make a library of drum loops and then give it away? That's kind of an odd thing to do.

I was actually perusing their site last night looking for a nice jazz pack for the RPM Challenge this year. Thought I'd change it up from my regular EZ Drummer stuff.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

iaresee said:


> I've bought Beta Monkey sample packs in the past and they're fantastic. With the REX2 format you can use them in Reason's Dr. Rex module and they scale very, very well. With WAV I'd say you can scale decently +/- 10% the original tempo before things start to sound funny, but with REX2 files you can scale +/- 50% no problem. More if the hits are sparse.
> 
> Free is pretty much impossible if what you're after is quality and decent file formats. Why would someone sit down and make a library of drum loops and then give it away? That's kind of an odd thing to do.
> 
> I was actually perusing their site last night looking for a nice jazz pack for the RPM Challenge this year. Thought I'd change it up from my regular EZ Drummer stuff.


I'll have to look into this Dr. Rex business. I'm currently using them in Wav format and just dropping them into Sonar 7. If they could scale without loss of quality, then I could pretty much use any sample and adjust it to taste. Right now I'm trying to find samples that are in the bpm area I need and adjusting them as little as possible to suit a song, which doesn't always work, because the last song I recorded ended up being around 70bpm when I wanted it to be about 60 and, as a result, sounded a little more upbeat than I had hoped.

Is Dr. Rex a standalone VST or do I have to use Propellerhead in order to use it?


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## Kenmac (Jan 24, 2007)

*Riffworks*

Hollowbody, I mentioned this in the past. There's a free program available which is what I'd call a "musical sketchpad" and I mentioned it in this thread: http://www.guitarscanada.com/Board/showthread.php?t=17484&highlight=Riffworks It allows you to record 4 stereo tracks and there's a drum track as well which you can export in bar lengths of 8, 16, or longer. The drum track is separate so I guess you could call it the 5th track plus you can set up the drums in different time signatures as well as adjusting the dynamics of the drums, the fills, etc. One of the drum recordings used was played by ex-Guns N"Roses drummer Matt Sorum. It's actually a pretty flexible little program and the new version allows you to export the wav or aiff files (depending on if you're using PC or Mac) in either 16 bit or 32 bit format. Personally I find 32 bit is a little much. I prefer 24 bit myself. Here's the link to the website if you want to check it out: http://www.sonomawireworks.com


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Kenmac said:


> Hollowbody, I mentioned this in the past. There's a free program available which is what I'd call a "musical sketchpad" and I mentioned it in this thread: http://www.guitarscanada.com/Board/showthread.php?t=17484&highlight=Riffworks It allows you to record 4 stereo tracks and there's a drum track as well which you can export in bar lengths of 8, 16, or longer. The drum track is separate so I guess you could call it the 5th track plus you can set up the drums in different time signatures as well as adjusting the dynamics of the drums, the fills, etc. One of the drum recordings used was played by ex-Guns N"Roses drummer Matt Sorum. It's actually a pretty flexible little program and the new version allows you to export the wav or aiff files (depending on if you're using PC or Mac) in either 16 bit or 32 bit format. Personally I find 32 bit is a little much. I prefer 24 bit myself. Here's the link to the website if you want to check it out: http://www.sonomawireworks.com


I'll be sure to check it out! Thanks!


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## Guest (Feb 10, 2009)

hollowbody said:


> I'll have to look into this Dr. Rex business. I'm currently using them in Wav format and just dropping them into Sonar 7. If they could scale without loss of quality, then I could pretty much use any sample and adjust it to taste. Right now I'm trying to find samples that are in the bpm area I need and adjusting them as little as possible to suit a song, which doesn't always work, because the last song I recorded ended up being around 70bpm when I wanted it to be about 60 and, as a result, sounded a little more upbeat than I had hoped.
> 
> Is Dr. Rex a standalone VST or do I have to use Propellerhead in order to use it?


You definitely want to look into buying "sampler" friendly samples. REX2 is a file format that includes the audio and hit-point markers that help software scale the audio intelligently. REX2 files are compatible with a bunch of different software. I use them in Reason and in Logic (although I'll probably buy Apple Loops going forward because I'm using Reason less and less now that I'm on a Mac -- I used Reason + Cubase 3 previously because my computer sucked and Reason was good when it came to CPU). I know they also work in ACID. Check your Sonar docs, I'll bet they work their too. It's a pretty popular sample format.

REX2 files can be made from any audio file. The only way I know how is to buy Propellerhead's ReCycle software. It's specifically made to generate REX2 loop files. You import audio, set hit points, edge fades, BPM, etc. and then save it all as a REX2 file. I've never done it myself. There might be other ways to generate REX2 files.

I've used loops infrequently in the past year since I bought EZ Drummer -- I was mainly using loops for drums and EZ Drummer has assumed the majority work of my drum-line generating needs. Where it doesn't work well is glitchy, techno-esque, modern stuff. For that loops or ReDrum in Reason is where I go.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

iaresee said:


> You definitely want to look into buying "sampler" friendly samples. REX2 is a file format that includes the audio and hit-point markers that help software scale the audio intelligently. REX2 files are compatible with a bunch of different software. I use them in Reason and in Logic (although I'll probably buy Apple Loops going forward because I'm using Reason less and less now that I'm on a Mac -- I used Reason + Cubase 3 previously because my computer sucked and Reason was good when it came to CPU). I know they also work in ACID. Check your Sonar docs, I'll bet they work their too. It's a pretty popular sample format.


You're right Ian, REX2 is Sonar compatible. K, that'll make things a _lot_ easier going forward.


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

drums on demand is pretty good- gives you a bunch of styles and grooves, played by a drummer on a real kit, its all orginized in a logical way- you just browse the samples and insert them in whatever order you want. easy to use, but ive had it for months and cant be satisfied with it, but im ferked. ive been kicking on a wooden box instead:smile:
ive tried all kinds, machines, loops, midi keys, you name it ive tried it and end up scrapping it. couldve learned to play a real kit with all the time i wasted. thats coming next. more talented folks will have better results im sure lol


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

K, so I acquired some of the Beta Monkey loops in REX2 format. They're great and super versatile! Thanks Chito for the head's up on that stuff.

Here's my problem. Although Rex is supposed to be compatible with Sonar, I can't import the files into Sonar. I might just be doing something wrong, but so far I've had to use Reason's software to open the .rex file, set the tempo and then export it to .wav in order to import it into Sonar. This isn't a huge pain, but it's an extra step that I don't want to have to take every time. Also, converting .rex to .wav is counter-productive, since you lose all the things that make .rex so useful.

Long story short, is there something I'm doing wrong? Anyone have experience with Sonar and .rex files? Or maybe it's time to switch over to Pro Tools?


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## Guest (Mar 13, 2009)

My Google search turned up this thread: http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.asp?m=1548700&mpage=1&key=&#1548700 -- a cursory read seems to imply that you need to load your REX2 files in Beatscape (I don't know what that is). That it doesn't support them native, only through the VSTi.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

iaresee said:


> My Google search turned up this thread: http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.asp?m=1548700&mpage=1&key=� -- a cursory read seems to imply that you need to load your REX2 files in Beatscape (I don't know what that is). That it doesn't support them native, only through the VSTi.


I tried using a couple of the vsts in Sonar to load the files into (not sure if beatscape was one, but I googled it a while ago and found a couple different vsts include with Sonar to specifically deal with rex) and I was unable to do so. I'd browse to the file, hit open or whatever and then nothing would happen. I don't know if it's a software problem, but everything else seems to be working just fine. I dunno.


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## Guest (Mar 13, 2009)

I'm really sorry man. I haven't ever touched Sonar. Maybe try the CakeWalk/Sonar forums? Or give CakeWalk's tech support line a call? Here's another interesting article that mentions using Sonar + REX2 files. The interesting bit is:



> Before I could access the REX2 loops in Stylus RMX, I used Spectrasonics’ Sage Converter 1.1 program to make them RMX sound files. The converter requires you to convert the loops one folder at a time, so it takes about 30 minutes to select files, name the RMX folder, and have SAGE do its thing. PC users will encounter a bug in the converter that crashes it when you attempt to convert loops that are labeled “endings.” Rick Paul, in a sidebar for his Stylus RMX review, identified this issue—the irregular nature of these parts seem to confuse SAGE. Once I excluded these files the converter performed flawlessly. Spectrasonics will be releasing a new version of the converter soon which will fix this problem and possibly streamline the conversion process.
> 
> I booted up Sonar, loaded Stylus RMX, and auditioned the loop sets at tempos below and above the listed BPM. When REX2 files are well-edited they will stretch further, with fewer undesirable artifacts, than acidized WAV files. In particular, you can slow down a well-made REX file and still have it sound good. I am happy to report that Volume 5 files are well-recorded and edited, giving the user greater flexibility in using these loops. The loops give you plenty options for sticks and snares and as well as numerous variations for verses, choruses, and fills. Some loop sets are pretty dry while others mix in the room sound for more powerful snare and cymbal hits. The sets generally opt for simple and straightforward grooves that won’t get in the way of the singer, yet there are enough variations that give you dramatic tension when moving from a verse to a chorus. These are not loops for dance or urban music producers—country, pop, and rock producers should find these most useful. In addition, there are single shots of the drum kit in WAV format, which allows the user to paste in cymbal hits or create a drum kit in a sampler.


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## keeperofthegood (Apr 30, 2008)

Hmm

I will have to give all these links a look. I like this site for sound events:

http://www.freesound.org/index.php

It is more than just drums, and there is only 1 file format there I cannot seem to use (NO idea why, not even converters have worked for me) but thankfully most is in either wav or mp3 format


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