CORONA, CALIFORNIA, USA: American audio production and online course specialist Spectre Digital is proud to announce availability of Extinction Level Event - Master Kit — created to sound so big and explosive it could conceivably be categorised as an ELE (extinction level event) insofar as blowing the competition away as a new drum library standard that was over two years in the making, meticulously recorded with a world-class signal chain at Round Table Recording Company, a brand-new multi-studio complex located in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, to prove to the world how programmed drums should sound, with every single detail placed under the musical microscope to ensure the best-sounding drums on the market as a robust KONTAKT PLAYER instrument — as of July 25...
It is a proven production fact that recording great-sounding studio drums is difficult, tedious, and, most of all, an expensive undertaking. Ultimately, it comes down to this: the involvement of a great drummer, a fantastic-sounding live room, and the right equipment — not forgetting, of course, the years of experience and know-how needed to get the best possible sound out of the drums themselves. That same combination clearly also applies to creating world-class drum libraries. Obviously, other drum libraries are already on the market in abundance, but often suffer from one (or more) of the following issues: the shells sound fake, due to a lack of dynamic layers; the drums are overly processed, making for a one-dimensional sound; articulations are nonsensical in a musical context, due to not being correctly sampled; the user interface is confusing, created by someone without any experience of using drum libraries; and poorly implemented important features such as room and overhead microphones, due to a lack of space or improper microphone selection.
Spectre Digital’s Extinction Level Event - Master Kit is here, however, to prove to the world how programmed drums should sound. Indeed, it is created to sound so big and explosive it could conceivably be categorised as an ELE insofar as blowing the competition away as a new drum library standard that was over two years in the making, meticulously recorded with a world-class signal chain at Round Table Recording Company, a brand-new multi-studio complex located in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, featuring finest audio and recording equipment, encompassing an extensive microphone selection spanning tube mics to ribbons and outboard gear galore, as well as an Audient Heritage Edition ASP8024 large-format console (with Slate Media Technology RAVEN MTi2 state-of-the-art 27” multi-touch production console combining to provide the best of analogue and digital audio) and massive — Ocean Way Audio HR 3.5 — main monitors. An adjacent live room and three isolation booths with full sight lines makes recording almost anything imaginable. Indeed, it is easy to see (and hear) why Spectre Digital spent so much time there in pursuit of creating a new drum library standard.
So why, exactly, does Extinction Level Event - Master Kit sound so powerful, then? To put it simply: ultimately, users are in complete control of their drum sound. Seeking full control of how the bleed interacts between the shells and the cymbals? Then there is a dedicated BLEED CONTROL page available, allowing users to tweak every aspect of drum bleed, whether opting for the All Bleed setting or balancing Bleed Level for each drum kit part. Processing? Put it this way: while, to a degree, other drum libraries usually ship preprocessed, preventing the user from making any creative decisions, Extinction Level Event - Master Kit allows anyone to turn off every aspect of processing and shape their perfect drum sound from scratch. MIDI mapping to create a specific drum map for playing live on a MIDI controller is also a speedily straightforward process, thanks to the dedicated MIDI MAP page. It is also possible to reroute the multiple outputs of Extinction Level Event - Master Kit beyond stereo so users can control where they want all audio signals to go in their DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).
What also sets Extinction Level Event - Master Kit apart from the sound of the drum library crowd is its unparalleled realism, courtesy of a strikingly high number of dynamic layers — ghost notes and rimshots will actually bring dynamic qualities to the user’s music as a direct result; tons of samples — no more easily detectible round-robins that are annoying during double-bass drum or blast beats; and tons of really useful articulations — allowing users to create realistic hi-hat patterns, snare rudiments, and more. Indeed, its realism effectively enables any style of music — from the softest dynamics favoured in jazz circles through to the absolute shotgun rimshots required for heavy metal breakdowns.
Beyond that, Extinction Level Event - Master Kit is also compatible with electronic drum kits, providing the touch of an acoustic drum skin like never before, but also comes complete with TCI (INMOS Transputer Development System Occam Configuration Info) files of all the drum shells used, so owners of Steven Slate Drums Trigger 2 — enabling replacing a drum recording stem with drum samples whilst retaining dynamics and detail — can easily sample and replace recorded drums with Extinction Level Event - Master Kit.
Clearly, not all drum libraries are created equal; Extinction Level Event - Master Kit certainly sets a new drum library standard, showing that the two years Spectre Digital invested in making it was time well spent since it not only comes complete with a sizeable number of ready-to-go mix-ready presets to get users started with a bang but every one of its pages has been duly designed with making everything needed no more than one click of a button away — no more menu diving, no more hunting for settings, less time looking for great-sounding drums, and more time playing with great-sounding drums!
Pricing and Availability:
Extinction Level Event - Master Kit can be purchased and digitally downloaded for a time-limited introductory promo price of $84.00 USD until the end of August 2022 — rising thereafter to an MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) of $99.00 USD — from here: https://spectredigital.com/product/extinction-level-event-master-kit/
Supporting Native Instruments’ NKS (NATIVE KONTROL STANDARD®) — bringing software instruments, effects, loops, and samples into one intuitive workflow while connecting them to KOMPLETE KONTROL keyboards, MASCHINE, and third-party controllers, Extinction Level Event - Master Kit needs KONTAKT 6 PLAYER (latest version) — a free sample player based on KONTAKT 6 — included in its purchase to run as a 64-bit-only AAX-, AU-, and VST-compatible plug-in or standalone instrument for macOS (10.14 and above) with Native Apple Silicon support or 32- and 64-bit AAX- and VST-compatible plug-in or standalone instrument for Windows (10 and above).
