by Native Instruments

4 free Kontakt drum libraries you need for your production toolkit

If you’ve been keeping an eye on the Native Instruments blog, you’ve probably spotted our regular round-ups of REAKTOR freebies from our User Library. If not, here are some generative sequencerssci-fi sounds, and techno tools to get you started. Today, we’re switching things up with the first in a new series of similarly cost-effective recommendations for KONTAKT.

To kick things off, we’ve trawled the web to bring you a series of highly-specific percussion libraries, from sonic studies of household objects to multi-mic’d snares and a bonus instrument that features a dedicated knob for “annoyingness”—if you do find a use for that last one, of course, we want to hear it.

Read on for our take on each library, audio clips, and download links. Just bear in mind that you’ll need the full version of KONTAKT to use these.

 
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1. Candlestick Percussion

Ever come across an everyday sound that caught your ear? This is that, taken to its logical conclusion – 21 dedicated KONTAKT instruments based on the sounds of a single candlestick holder. This Atom Hub freebie features tuned and untuned sounds of fingers and nails on a vintage bit of homeware, with its usefulness greatly extended by a 5x round-robin setup.

Download Candlestick Percussion here

2. Snare Designer

Puremagnetik, better known for its series of out-there, experimental sound generators and effects, here delivers a pack of snare sounds that’s as practical as it is detailed. Take your pick of three classic snares, then adjust tuning, envelopes, and microphone mixes to add a healthy dose of snap and sizzle to your jazz, rock, and hip hop productions.

Download Snare Designer here

3. DRM Drums

This Wave Alchemy remake of a classic rhythm machine packs 380 expertly-recorded samples into pre-mapped kits for both KONTAKT and BATTERY, each with multiple velocity layers and round-robin playback to better capture the ever-changing sound of the analog original. To our ears, this one shines brightest when given just a little bit of added overdrive.

Download DRM Drums here

4. The Hipster’s Bongos

Rattly and Raw has carefully recorded a pair of fine-sounding bongos, then effectively ruined them with a scattering of hipster-skewering ad-libs and interjections. Don’t worry, though – if you tire of chatter about sour-dough bread and musings about vinyl, you can roll back the handy Annoyingness control. You still have a dedicated Mistake knob for “missed-hits, duff notes, scrapes and accidents,” plus a third control that blends in authentic coffee-shop ambience.

Download The Hipster’s Bongos here

Sound design: Konstantin Grismann

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