The latest addition to the Crow Hill Vaults selection is the Studio Drums, an alt-rock-style drum kit plugin. The library will be released for free on March 15th.
There is no shortage of drum samples to be found on the internet. When it comes to free multi-sampled drum plugins, the pickings are a little slimmer as a whole.
The Crow Hill Vault instruments have been a wonderful addition to the landscape of enticing freebies. Studio Drums is looking to change things up a bit by adding a robust alt-rock style kit fresh from the 90s.
Now, I’m not one of the DeLeo brothers nor Jerry Cantrell, but I had to give things an earnest shot. This might not be a 1:1 replacement of something like BFD3, Superior Drummer, or whatever your poison of choice is when it comes to sampled drum kits.
However, there’s enough here to make a fairly decent showing of things, especially if you’re just after a rollicking good time.
Like the rest of the Crow Hill Vault instruments, you’ll be launching it using the same plugin. It functions similarly to LABS by Spitfire, providing its own little ecosystem where users can pick and choose what they want.
This release marks the sixth release in the product line and the first rhythm-focused instrument to be found. All that’s missing is a bass for you to put together your own compositions with a single plugin.
The sounds are great to my ears. I haven’t been behind a kit in years, but it sounds like you’d expect. There are minimal controls for sound design purposes.
Tragically, I couldn’t figure out how to coax it into a multi-out configuration either. However, if you’re just looking to make some quick and dirty demos or don’t mind treating the whole kit at once, then it’s certainly worth a look.
Crow Hill Vault instruments seem like an intriguing alternative to LABS and other free sound libraries.
I will say I prefer the sound of Studio Drums and the sheen over the samples as a whole when compared to the rather basic drum kit you’ll find in something like LABS. While you’re grabbing this, you might as well download the other five instruments to keep it company.
Download: Studio Drums (FREE, powered by Vaults plugin, to be released on March 15th)
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27 Comments
Ian / Nihil Quest
onSo where is the demo?
Brenny C
onI’m not exactly sure what you mean by demo – plugin demo, video demo, sound demos? – but since it’s set “to be released for free on March 15th” you won’t have to wait long til you can watch and listen to the demo vid on Crow Hill Company’s YouTube page, or just download the plugin and try it out yourself.
It’ll be out tomorrow, can ya wait that long? Lol
AuL
onAnother perfect consumer. Zero demands, total acceptance of the “hype”.
I agree with Ian, “where’s the demo?”. Just show what it is when announcing the thing and be done with it. Companies these days have to make a big event of everything.
“or just download the plugin and try it out yourself” and be a beta tester and contribute for the market research for the company for free. (there, I fixed it for you.)
Bani
on‘Zero demands’ – Yeah, that usually how it goes when something is free… You don’t get to have ‘demands’.
That’s also usually how it goes when they’re a private company that you don’t own and they aren’t harming or hurting anybody either… They can release whenever they feel like it and not care about what AUL feels.
“I think the world revolves around me” – (there, I fixed it for you)
The entitlement of some people, smh.
AuL
onIt’s not free. You pay with your beta testing and with your data for market research. Market research through “freebies” is what new audio companies usually do, and those freebies usually end up in abandonware bloating our computers. New companies have to prove they are trustworthy, hence the “demands”. If only you were a just a little “entitled” you might have noticed that…maybe you should change your view of the “world and see it more revolving around you” :)
You only don’t get to have demands with Open-source or with trustworthy dev’s like Full Bucket or Airwindows (even if you contribute to them).
People have the right to be aware and comment on every aspect of today’s “freebies” in order to keep their computers ready to make music, not just for troubleshooting for the profit of millionaire companies.
Brenny C
onIn the time it took you to type out your little rant, you could have simply gone over to Crow Hill’s YouTube page and watched the video.
But nah, if you did that then you’d have to find something else to be angry about, right? Lol
Khalil
onClearly you haven’t even researched who the devs are AUL.
They’ve also told us what it’s for, and have marketed the paid stuff frequently and transparently. Get over yourself, telling them when and why you should be able to demand things of them.
I’m just chiming in here because they don’t deserve negativity/entitlement like yours [on this topic] in their comments. Other people whose worlds don’t revolve around you are happy to support them in different ways.
“It’s not free” smh
Brenny C
onThanks for adding some rational thought to this thread, KHALIL.
Seems some folks just wanna be mad at something (anything) and then scream to the world about how very angry they are.
Bani
onIt’s free. If you think your usage data is worth the hundred bucks it would cost to buy a library like this you’re delusional. You’re absolutely not that important. Facebook, whose data has an incredibly higher density and relevance can sell a user’s data at $2. In this context, your data is not even worth a cent. Add to that the fact that they need to pay a professional to get and sort through that data they end up loosing money.
‘It’s an investment’, you might say. ‘They get it back in the form of sales’ you might say. No. There is zero evidence they are collecting any useful data at all. The plugins don’t require internet connection or firewall exception, so they don’t send reports (for which they would need explicit permission). They only get your email, which is fair enough and not sneaky at all. And if you don’t think it is you just don’t give them your email and that’s it. No deceit or harm done. Simple as that.
‘They learn about what people like, that’s how they earn money!’, you might say. No. First of all, there are easier ways… they can pretty much get the same data with a couple of cookies in their website. Second, you can buy that data anywhere. And if you do your homework you don’t even need to buy it, it’s readily available everywhere in the internet. In conclusion, they’d be morons to make so much free stuff which is so expensive to make just to get the cheapest data possible.
‘It’s the debugging’, you might say. As a software developer I can assure you debugging is not worth this at all. After automated testing, virtual systems and external consultants you just send to production and iron out a few problems (if any) out there. One instrument is more than enough for that, though. If a couple dozen people successfully install and use the software you’re done debugging because the software works in most systems and if there is any specific problems in the future you sort it out with the paying customer in a moment.
‘They get the reputation and brand recognition, that’s how they make money!’, you might say. And you’d be absolutely right. I had never tried Crow Hills so far and now I have. And I’m happy about it, because the instruments worked amazingly well and they were perfect gentlemen when giving it away (no bloat, no surveys, amazing). They EARNED a possible paying customer by working for free a bit. That’s the business, or at least the hope: to get you hooked. Nothing wrong with that.
I didn’t say you didn’t have the right to complain. I said you were entitled for misusing that right.
I agree with Brenny and Khalil. Get over yourself, your negativity is not welcome, and the world doesn’t revolve around you.
PS: The only reason I typed all this out is I’m using this text for something else. Feel free to not answer. I promise I won’t get offended. And I definitely won’t be answering again if you do.
Brenny C
onYep, “entitlement” is the perfect word for it. Plus some people just thrive on being angry about something.
Now I admit that I’ve made negative comments about free software before and I personally don’t believe that something being free makes it beyond criticism, but to go off on a tangent and complain about things that aren’t even true is just silly.
AuL
onYou, Khalil and Bani are the ones angry and behaving like aggressive bullies by calling me all sort of names. Read what you’ve wrote – you are acting like shills for Crown Hill…acting, I’m not saying you are, because if you were, you would be doing a very poor job at it…you’re making the company look terrible.
As you only attacked me personally and haven’t refuted any of my points, that means that I am right. Therefore I shall remain “entitled” and “unable to get over myself”…such task is surely insurmountable :)
Brenny C
onMe? Nah. Not angry at all, my friend, you’re projecting. I hope someone hugs you today, I’m guessing you need it!
Bani
onI haven’t called you a single name. On the other hand, you just called us shills.
I refuted all of your points but these guys seem to have deleted my second comment for some reason. I’m not writing all that again.
Not cool, mods.
Brenny C
on🥱
Ian / Nihil Quest
onI mean audio demo, with video or not, doesn’t matter. I’m guessing the writer based this article on something. If it’s on YT there should be a link here.
M
onHaven’t tried “The Masker” yet but it looks like a good free Trackspacer alternative created by students at The University of Milan. All their free plugins are on this page, scroll down for TheMasker: https://www.lim.di.unimi.it/demo_vst_eng.php
YouTube demo: https://youtu.be/3A8UAjHryV0?si=o2R5gASS_mZN2Ixd
(phase issues due to uploader error, having two tracks running at once)
alex
onThx! I was thinking about getting Trackspacer a couple of days ago :)
alex
onTried it, like it . Very useful. Deserves an article here, especially there’s no Trackspacer or Soothe 2 free alternatives AFAIK.
Docent Novak
onVery useful plugin. Thanks!
Brenny C
onThanks, M. Looks like there are some great plugins there. Can’t wait to dowload the whole lot and give ’em all a spin.
Numanoid
onSynthesis, MiniMOOD and Granolizer looks viable synths. Will check them out, thanks for the info about this :-)
Numanoid
onAudio Plugin Deals have a 10% St Patrick Day rebate
Brenny C
onThanks, NOID. 👍
Numanoid
onCmajor dev has ported Native Instruments Pro-53 to use in your browser. It is called Pro54
Angie
onThey also offer a plugin to use it in your DAW
cmajor.dev/docs/GettingStarted#loading-patches-in-your-daw-with-the-cmajor-vstau-plugin
Easy
onTalking about this studio drum. If you like basic realistic live drums like it was in the 70s this is for you. The hihat is just the way i like it. Not so sharp and tight but a very soft like a shaker. Usually I have a long chain of plugins after the midi drums, but with this I had only an eq. There is a compressor inclued that is absolutely magic, and the reverb is so natural, but you wont even need a reverb because there are some the room mic adjustement also. I recommend this. Only down side was it downloaded the whole Vault library 1.9 GB. You can change the other instruments from the same page like some presets. There are some quite ok sounds in there so it’s ok to me.
Easy
onRight now everything at audioassault 5 $€