Drumdrops releases "Mapex Heavy Rock Kit" - Kontakt 5 pack, Multi-Velocity Pack, Single Hits Pack, Drum Replacement Pack & All Samples Pack

Drumdrops has released the Mapex Heavy Rock Kit. Available to buy as five separate packs, this kit is based on the Mapex Saturn Kit which is a favourite for many rock drummers. This is a great sounding rock kit and is available as a Kontakt instrument, multiple sampler software, drum replacement software or just the WAV samples.

The kit belongs to UK rock drummer Jason Bowld which he has used on all his recordings for the last five years for producers such as Andy Sneap, Romesh Dodangoda, Machine, Ulrich Wilde and Colin Richardson. This kit was also used to record the drum tracks album Heavy Rock Drops. What makes this kit special is it comes with three different Mapex snares and four different crash cymbals all carefully sampled in a bright sounding live room.

The kit was recorded and mixed by UK producer, musician and engineer Martyn 'Ginge' Ford (Bullet For My Valentine). The drummer was rock specialist Jason Bowld. Jason has drummed for Bullet For My Valentine, Pop Will Eat Itself, Killing Joke, Axewound and Pitchshifter.

The recording took place in the now closed Garden Studios in London. The studio had a legendary reputation being owned by John Foxx from Ultravox and Matt Johnson from The The. The live room was capable of providing a huge live sound and it is evident on these samples. At the centre of the Control Room was a Neve 8026 vintage console owned by Producer Craig Silvey and the microphones used ranged from vintage AKG C12's to B&K 4011's alongside the more traditional Sennheiser MD421's, AKG D12 and Shure SM57. The kit was then mixed in one of London's leading mix studios, The Engine Room on an SSL-G Series console.

This kit is available to buy in five separate packs.

The "Kontakt 5 pack" has been designed exclusively for the latest version of Native Instruments Kontakt 5. The pack includes up to sixteen velocities of each articulation and in total it utilises 7119 samples. Included in the Kontakt pack is the latest version of the Drumdrops Kontakt 5 interface.

A number of key new features have been added including:

• Groove Player - There are 458 Heavy Rock loops in total that are included in the MIDI Groove Player played by Jason Bowld and covering a range of time signatures and tempos.
• Step Sequencer - The sequencer has eight channels allowing any eight of the articulations of the Mapex Kit to be selected and played. The sequencer contains 32 steps for each channel.
• Groove Slicer – The Groove Slicer cuts each MIDI groove into thirty-two sections. These sections can then be played back in a different order to the original depending on which of the three modes are selected.
• Mic Blend - Here you can control the mix on the microphones used for each channel. You can vary the balance of the close microphone with the overheads and room microphones and on the kick control the close mic and sub.

Other key features included are:

• A 9 channel mixer. Each channel comes with a Mute, Solo, Phase Reverse and 2 Aux sends.
• Three snares to switch between. A Mapex Black Panther, Mapex Machete and a Mapex Black Panther in hammered phosphor Bronze.
• Three Paiste Crash cymbals and a Metal China.
• Multiple Convolution Reverbs included, 4 studios Impulse responses.
• The ability to change the velocity curve and tuning of each drum (great for V-kits).
• Randomise the tuning, velocity, EQ and timing for added realism.
• Multiple Round Robins included for extra authenticity.
• 4 band EQ and Transient Master included on each channel.
• A buss compressor and Tape saturator on the mix buss.
• Ability to route each channel to your DAW.
• Multiple mix presets included mixed by a variety of engineers and producers.
• A full version and lite version for use on laptops.
• Multiple MIDI maps included adding full compatibility with the Roland TD-12, TD-20 and TD-30 V-drums and the Yamaha DTX-900.

The Kontakt Pack is available exclusively from the Drumdrops store costing $ 82.00.

The "Multi-Velocity pack" is suited for customers who want multiple velocity levels and ready made software templates. The pack includes up to sixteen velocities of each articulation. In total it contains 481 drum samples. All of the samples are mixed from a combination of the overhead, room and close mics recorded as 24-bit 44.1 kHz WAV files, meaning they can be loaded into almost any sampler or drum machine. To make things easier though templates are included for some of the most commonly used software packages including:

• Kontakt v5.2.0.
• Battery v3.2.3.
• EXS24 vLogic 9.
• Ableton Drum Rack v9.0.5.
• Reason v7.0.1 Combinator Refill containing NN-XT sampler & FX.
• Maschine v1.8.0.
• Geist v1.0.0.7.
• Studio One's Impact v2.5.1 Soundset.
• iDrum v1.73.625.
• Reason v7.0.1 Redrum Refill.

The Multi-Velocity Pack of the Mapex Heavy Rock Kit costs $ 24.60.

The "Single Hits pack" is suited for customers who only need a few velocities of each articulation. The pack is identical to the Multi-velocity pack except it includes up to three velocities of each articulation rather than sixteen. In total it contains 117 drum samples.

The Single Hits Pack of the Mapex Heavy Rock Kit costs $ 14.85.

The "Drum Replacement Pack" includes templates for Slate Trigger V2, Drumagog V5 and DrumXchanger.

• The Slate Trigger template has been created using the close mic, overhead and room mic samples from the kit. There are samples for the kick drum, snare and toms. You can choose to trigger the close mic, overhead or room samples. The samples in this template have up to 16 velocity levels and six round robins.
• The Drumagog template uses the same samples and you can choose the balance between the close mic, overheads and room mics. This template uses up to 8 velocity levels with four round robins. We have included samples for the Kick, Snare, toms and hi-hat. If your version of Drumagog contains the Auto hi-hat tracking feature then the samples will follow the opening and closing of the hi-hat.
• The DrumXchanger template contains stereo mixed samples (a combination of the overhead, room and close mics samples). This template contains eight velocity levels with no round robins. The snare also contains a rimshot sample that has its own adjustable trigger threshold.

The Drum Replacement Pack of the Mapex Heavy Rock Kit costs $ 24.60.

The "All Samples Pack" is suited for customers that want to build their own sampler templates and want access to the WAV samples. No software templates are included in this pack. These samples can be loaded into any DAW, sampler or drum machine that loads 24-bit WAVs.

Included in this pack are the samples from both the Kontakt 5 pack (separate close, overhead and room mic samples) and the stereo mixed samples from the Multiple Velocity pack. The stereo samples are a mix of the close, overhead and room mics. Up to 16 velocities of each articulation and 3 round robins of the Kontakt 5 samples are included.

The All Samples Pack of the Mapex Heavy Rock Kit costs $ 49.12.

This completes the 5 packs available for the Mapex Heavy Rock Kit from Drumdrops. All the packs can be purchased exclusively from the online Drumdrops store.

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