Kaptive Audio has released Jules Tools, a freely downloadable (pay what you want) acoustic drum sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt.
There are approximately 17 gajillion new audio software companies popping up each year (a gajillion being 107 zillions). Still, it’s very rare, if not unprecedented, when one comes out with a mission statement.
Kaptive Audio is founded by Robbie DelPrete (who as an artist goes by Dark City Agent / Doomcatcher) and Eric Mitchell, an award-winning and Billboard top 20 charting producer who’s worked with Zildjian, Steve Vai, The History Channel, and – most awe-inspiring to me – modern post-hardcore pioneers Glassjaw.
“Kaptive Audio was formed out of necessity rather than a desire to start something; in trying to push musical boundaries and efficiency, we needed certain tools and (we learned) those tools would require a tremendous amount of effort to create. In the end, we considered these needs were probably not just our own and thought we should share our creations with others. We don’t know what this will become; we just know we are starting here. Welcome!”
Jules Tools, their very first instrument, is a sample library and Kontakt instrument featuring the stylings of one Jules Jenssen, best know for his multimedia project MAD MIDI, wherein he drums to and with found sounds, usually including video.
Two things immediately spring to mind when looking at this:
- Kaptive Audio must’ve gone to the same high school where Mortal Kombat, Korn, and Rice Krispies went.
- Jules Tools is genuinely a wholly unique offering.
Jules Tools offers 2,000 hand-edited samples, an 11-piece kit with 3-4 round-robins per piece at 5-6 velocity stages, and seven phase-aligned mics. The GUI allows for individual overhead balance per drum, as well as solo/mute functionality and shell tuning for the kicks, snare, and toms.
The kit sounds very clean and punchy and provides a lot of unique percussive sounds as well. I’ll need to test blast beats on it, but I can easily see this slotting into a wide variety of genres. It’s that versatile.
On top of this, Kaptive Audio is offering this in a way that I could only describe as “bold.” You can pay what to get Jules Tools, and yes, that includes writing “0” at checkout and getting it for free. Kaptive Audio is okay with this. However, while this is Bedroom Producers Blog and not Mr. Moneybags M.D. Blog, we still think it would only be fair to throw a few bucks their way to support not only future developments but also their commendable approach. The suggested MSRP is $49.99.
Considering all this and the fact that drum VSTs are probably the most prominent blind spot in the free-to-cheap market, Kaptive Audio is more than welcome as a part of the scene.
Jules Tools requires the full version of Native Instruments Kontakt. It will only work in demo mode in the free Kontakt Player plugin. Read our article about the Kontakt Player demo mode to learn more.
More info: Kaptive Audio Jules Tools (Pay-what-you-want, requires the full version of NI Kontakt)
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Last Updated on October 2, 2020 by Tomislav Zlatic.
