Ruby is the first release of our Boutique Drums series. It began when we asked a bunch of our producer/mixer buddies what they were looking for in a drum library and it always came down to two things: Keep it dirt-simple to use and have the sound banging right out the gate.
We consulted with our drummer Brian Scoggin (Casting Crowns) who curated a rock kit comprised of truly boutique drum pieces for Ruby. We also chose to record at Hey Hey Studios in Griffin, Georgia for it's outstanding acoustics and engineering; a remarkable space providing a tasteful balance of both room and character.
To address the calling for simplicity, we created a single-page interface that offers a fast and intuitive way to develop customized drum mixes. We've included eight different "baked-in" mix presets that were designed to not only work on their own, but are completely interchangeable between the different drum groups.
Each of the eight mixes were created from scratch using an arsenal of processing tools, both hardware and software. We chose to develop the presets outside of Kontakt to deliver what we felt were precision mixes with the right amount of punch, balance and vibe while providing just enough headroom to treat well to additional processing.
Under the hood, Ruby also alternates between two different sets of hi-hat/ride multisamples; depending on how quickly you hit successive notes for the given articulation. The initial hit triggers the isolated sample while subsequent hits trigger repetition samples.
We've included five different hi-hat states of multisamples and live eighth-note grooves that automatically lock to your DAW's tempo: tight, normal, slight-open, mid-open and all-open; grooves recorded at 90/120/140 BPM.
We've also developed what we consider to be a first -- crossfadeable hi-hat grooves with release triggers. With the modwheel down, it'll play the loop at it's tightest hi-hat state. As you push the modwheel up, the hi-hat opens up. It's pretty dang cool.
Happy composing!
FEATURES
- Recorded at Hey Hey Studios in Griffin, Georgia.
- Drums played by Brian Scoggin (Casting Crowns).
- Simple and intuitive interface.
- Eight "baked-in" mix presets that are interchangeable between different drum groups.
- Kit includes kick, snare, cross sticks, rimshots, five hi-hat state multisamples/grooves, crossfade-able hi-hat grooves, hi-hat chicks, three toms, ride cymbal (with crash), ride bell and two crash cymbals.
- Repetition sampling for all rides/hi-hat multisamples.
- Live eighth-note hi-hat grooves recorded at 90/120/140 BPM that sync to your DAW's tempo.
- Crossfade-able hi-hat grooves (fades between five different hi-hat states; from tight to all-open).
- Groove Speed control (Half/Normal/Double).
- Adjustable humanization feature (Off/Tight/Natural/Loose).
- Volume control for each drum group.
- Assignable Kontakt outputs for each drum group.
- Recorded in 48khz/24bit.
- 8.6 GB compressed NCW format.
- Compatible with Kontakt 5.8.1 or higher (requires full retail version of Kontakt).
- Receive watermarked product by Continuata Connect downloader.
QUICK GUIDE
Auditioning: You can also audition the drum/preset by clicking the drum icon (except for the double-eighth note groove icon).
Mix Preset Selection: You can switch between mix presets in three different ways: Click one of the global mix presets (this assigns the selected preset mix to all six drum groups), the provided left/right arrows or by selecting the preset via the dropdown menu (which is activated when you click the preset name under the drum icon).
Humanization: For those who like to quantize, this is a useful feature to help randomize the playback of your MIDI. There are three settings to cycle through: Tight (randomizes MIDI up to 15 milliseconds), Natural (up to 30 milliseconds) and Loose (up to 45 milliseconds). The live hi-hat grooves are deliberately unaffected by any of these settings.
Live Hi-Hat Grooves: We recorded eighth-note hi-hat patterns for five different hi-hat states at three different tempos. Each tempo group is mapped to a specific octave: First octave contains the grooves recorded at 90 BPM, the second octave at 120 BPM and third octave at 140 BPM.
Crossfade-able Hi-Hat Grooves: The 'C' of each of the three mapped octaves plays back the crossfade-able grooves.
Groove Speed: This is to broadly control the tempo of the live hi-hat groove samples. The settings provided are: Half, Normal (default) and Double.
Assignable Outputs: Right under the vertical volume faders are assignable Kontakt outputs for further mixing.
TRIGGER PRESETS
The Trigger files (.tci) are for use with Slate Digital’s Trigger 2. Included are all eight presets (Closer, Workhorse, Roomy, Jock, Reaper, Fig 8, Driven, Bottomed) with multiple velocity layers and variations of the one shot samples for Kick, Snare, and Toms. All samples are in 48hz/24bit format.