Just be aware that these libraries aren’t always as tight as they could be.
In other words, don’t freak out about the phase relationships inside of samplers like this. Whether or not it sounds better with a tighter phase relationship is going to depend on the song itself, so the rule of thumb applies that “if it sounds good, it is good”. They sounded good already, and technically were in phase with one another, but clearly the phase relationship can often be tighter.
I’ve typically been able to get tighter phase relationships on sampled drums using MAutoAlign after routing the drums to individual channels. These libraries also claim to retain phase coherency, but it’s important to understand that this isn’t always the case. These samplers give you a quick and easy way to find the drum sound you’re looking for by incorporating intuitive user interfaces, and some include on board effects for tweaking the sounds inside of the sampler itself. This way people can do only the processing necessary to help the drum sample fit the song’s needs. More recently, this type of all inclusive sampler package has also been packaged with unprocessed samples as well. EQ, compression, and other processing has already taken place to get what is commonly referred to as “mix ready” samples.
The samples included in their libraries are often pre-processed. These types of sample libraries also have another common trait. These samplers may also include the option of adding your own single velocity “One Shot” samples to the sampler so that you can trigger other sounds that didn’t come with the library. This means you could have a fader for each of the drums inside of your session, and enjoy mixing and tweaking them with all of your available tools. Some of these libraries offer unique routing options, allowing you to send the tracks to separate faders in your DAW. Sample libraries that come with their own dedicated sampler include Steven Slate Drums 4, as well as Addictive Drums 2. Other libraries allow you to use your own sampler interface. Some have their own sampler interfaces that allow you to have control over the parameters inside of a GUI that is dedicated to the use of those samples. There are multiple libraries available these days. But if you aren’t sure where to begin, this is for you. This is going to be an overview, not meant to be an all inclusive article. We’ll discuss some of the common types of libraries on the market, and what the advantages and disadvantages of those types are. If you’re exploring drum samples, and aren’t sure where to start, then I hope this article is of some use to you.
While some shy away from using them, there’s no denying that drum samples have become an essential piece of the toolkit for many engineers. Joey Sturgis is famous for using Kick 10 from Steven Slate Drums in many of his productions (although now Joey Sturgis has his own sample library on the market called Drumforge), and Randy Staub used the same kick sample on most of his career defining records (according to Rick Beato). From bedroom producers, to the top brass mixing engineers with multiple grammies, there are a lot of people who use drum samples in their mixes.