SM Drums for Ableton Live – Free Sampled Vintage Drum Kit
This is one of the best sampled drum kits out there…and it’s free! When I came across the SM Drums site, I was flabbergasted by how much detail and care went into sampling this amazing drum kit…it was already available there for a few other sampling platforms, but not yet for Live. So of course, I went into action.
This 1960s vintage Ludwig drum kit (in Oyster Blue Pearl!) is owned by drummer/producer Scott McLean, and he played and recorded all the samples. Engineer/musician Tod Stillwell, sampler maestro D. Smolken, and Suleiman Ali all helped put together all the original sampler kits. With Suleiman’s kind permission, I struck out on putting all 3600+ samples into a drum rack.
In total, this Live Pack adds up to 3.7GB across 3614 samples recorded in 24 bits, and each piece has up to an unbelievable 64 velocity layers and up to 8 round robins. There are plenty of high hat articulations, several great cymbals, and multiple snares. You’ll be able to get some truly realistic drum “performances” with this rack, even if you’re just drawing on the piano roll. Although it was programmed with Sampler, it’s been converted to Simpler, so “lesser” versions of Live can still play the rack.
If you’re looking for other sampler formats, or would like to read more about the SM Drums team, or see more photos of the gorgeous kit (the closeups of the finish make me drool!), then head over to the main SM Drums site.
Demo video:
Tags: drums, free downloads
Comments (13)
Tod Stillwell
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Hi Jeff,
That was a nice little video, I enjoyed it.
I’m the Tod that was part of the SMD team and it’s great to see them getting used like this.
Just so you know, we have another drum library coming up in a few months. At least I think it will be a few months, barring any other developments.
Again, thank you and good luck with your projects.
Tod Stillwell
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Critical Vibrations
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Hi Tod,
Thanks very much! If your new library is like this one, I’m sure it will be awesome. Thanks again, have a great one!
-Jeff
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Peter
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I have just come across this and am looking forward to using it. Thanks for all the hard and dedicated work.
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Big Dave
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Wow! Thanks so much for making this available as a Live Pack. These drums sound amazing.
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Critical Vibrations
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You are very welcome! Thanks for downloading the pack, hope you make something cool with it!
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Nick
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F***ng AWESOME !!!!!! Been searching for a Blue Oyster Kit for Years. Thank you so much !!!!!!!!!
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Critical Vibrations
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You are very welcome, glad you like it!!
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Charly Domecq
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That ’65 Ludwing snare its a masterpiece! Thanks so much to you and SMD!
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Critical Vibrations
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Yep, it is and the rest of the kit is great, as well. If you make anything with this kit that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear it!
-Jeff
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Joseph Nicotra
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i’m new at this. how do i install the drum kit into ableton. i’ve tried most things. thanks
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Critical Vibrations
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Hi Joseph, sorry for the delay! If you still need help installing the Live Pack, check out the how-to video at http://criticalvibrations.com/faq/
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Colton Sidell
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Hi Jeff, this is amazing–thank you! I’ve been trying to save with the “simpler” version that ableton reverts to from the “sampler” version you uploaded–would it be possible to request an .adg version of the kit? i can’t seem to get the .als file to save, export, or anything. thanks!
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Critical Vibrations
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hi Colton, glad you like it! And I’m sorry you’re having trouble saving. I can’t really do another version easily (I’ll probably be updating it to Live 11 in the next month or two). But I’m happy to help you troubleshoot…can you be more specific about what the problem is? There shouldn’t be anything about the file that would lock anyone out from saving…are you getting any kind of specific error message? The Live Set was created with Live 9.7.2…so as long as you can open it, you should be able to save the .adg in your Library by dragging it the the Browser on the left (there’s a video in the FAQ that shows this)…and if it asks to copy the samples for you, you probably want to say yes. By doing that, you no longer need the .als file, and you’ll be able to load the kit into any of your own projects. Let me know how that works!
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