Autodafe has introduced a new NI Kontakt version of the old G&S Custom Work Drum Kits drum sample pack Salvador Peláez. The library is now compatible with Native Instruments Kontakt 5 and above (full version required).
Talk about a blast from the past. The original G&S Custom Work Drum Kit (it was actually a collection of two different drum kits) was my go-to free acoustic drum sample pack back in the day. It sounded pretty good at the time (I still wasn’t spoiled by modern multi-gigabyte sound libraries like the ones by DrumDrops), and it was easy to load thanks to a set of custom SFZ patches provided by Peter L Jones.
See also: Best FREE Acoustic Drum Samples!The new version of the kit, created by Autodafe, is a significant update in terms of functionality. The library now comes with a fully customized user interface for NI Kontakt 5 and above with on-screen controls for volume, pan, tune, solo/mute, and envelope for each drum element. Also included is a drum sequencer with 32 pre-made patterns and a handy multi-out settings panel which is useful if you want to process each drum element individually in your DAW. The only real drawback here is that the full version of Kontakt is required to avoid the 15-minute time limit.
In conclusion, if you own Kontakt and you’re looking for a decent sounding, lightweight free acoustic drum kit to add to your arsenal, this one is more than worth the download. Now that it comes with a built-in mixer and multiple outputs, the G&S Custom Work Drum Kit for Kontakt is a rather versatile and cost effective alternative to commercial drum sample libraries. It is also more suitable for use on lower-end computers than huge libraries like the SM Drums collection (which, in return, sounds a lot more realistic).
Please note that you’ll need to register for a free Autodafe user account in order to download the samples. On a related note, Autodafe is currently offering a 30% discount on the DRM32 Analog Drum Machine sample collection for Kontakt.
G&S Custom Work Drum Kit for NI Kontakt is available for free download via Autodafe (201.17 MB download size, ZIP archive, contains 361 audio samples in WAV format, 2 instrument patches in NKI format for NI Kontakt 5 and above).
