The story
RJS Drums is a drum kit with 5 alternative snares and 2 kicks. The kit has both regular and towel covered snares. The package also includes sound presets and an additional percussion instrument. The switchable kit pieces together with a mixer makes it possible to get a wide variety of sounds, however, the instrument can’t produce clean and powerful modern pro drum sounds.
The drums were recorded using a Zoom Q3HD portable recorder that has an X/Y stereo microphone. One of the microphones was pointed at the drums while the other one was facing away from the drums. This setup created “close” and “room” mics.
The instrument has circa 1000 unique hits. RJS Sampling Suite script collection for Reaper was an indispensable help while creating the samples. You can find more information about these automation tools on my YouTube channel.
Sound Presets Demo
Reviews for RJS Drums
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
A quality all-in-one package!
I have a feeling that this is going to be a very popular Pianobook instrument - because it deserves it! It about two patches, a drum kit and one with various percussion. Everything sounds great, dynamic and responsive, and the mapping is also as it should be, for those who are familiar with the generic midi drum map on a regular keybed. The hi-hat is also well scripted, so it doesn't continue to ring if you hit a closed position after the open one. That means, great programming!
The crazy part is that there are so many settings, to the point that you can shape the sound in many different ways. In case you don't have the time to do that, you can use the presets included. They come with some handy names as well!
My only complaint is that some samples have a little bit of noise, that can be enhanced depending on the settings. These are most on the percussion patch, but the most important one is the Kick on the drum patch, which has a white noise tailing after the sound. This is more audible on some presets like the Rock 2. It would be awesome if we'd get an update with a noise reduced Kick, because it's one of the most important sounds on the drums. With that said, it is likely that this kind of noise won't be audible on a master track, mixed with other instruments.
It's a great instrument overall and it comes in a relatively small size too!
So many options
With this instrument you have a crazy amount of options for tweaking the sounds. At first glance the knobs can seem a little confusing but very quickly become more understandable.
The sound quality is pretty good and this instument is full of variety.Disco Crush!
Another great RJS instrument. This one is a little more involved than the others but never feels overwhelming albeit a little fiddly on the Kontakt 6 platform because of the packed gui.
The main kit patch features a choice of two kicks and 5 snares for greater versatility and there are options for adding effect and compression.
If you are looking for resonant studio drums this is not the drum pack for you.
This instrument really specialises in tight disco sounds, flat 70's sounds and crushed garage-rock sounding drums with a lo-fi quality to the recording and within these sonic landscapes some great results can be achieved with this set.
