Virtual Drumline Manual
Ezekiel Tulagan
Virtual Drumline is not just about marching drums. Its huge collection of orchestral, world, effect, drumset, rhythm section, and drumline instruments are programmed with virtually any articulations and playing techniques imaginable. Enhanced multi-sampled velocity layers, attack/release and EQ control, multiple mallet selections, rolls, glissandi, solos and ensembles, and automatic RH/LH alternations are but a few of the powerful features programmed into the VDL instrument collection.
Finale (2009 or newer) ships included with a small sub-set of "VDLite" instruments from VDL, so you may have already tapped into what it sounds like. There's a whole lot more to be found in the full version of VDL 2.5, though. Click here to see how the full version of VDL compares to what comes with Finale.
NOTE: Virtual Drumline is not a notation program.
If you wish to write percussion notation using Virtual Drumline sounds, you should use either Finale or Sibelius notation programs. For more info on this and other pre-sale questions, please visit our VDL Beginner Topics FAQ page.
The Drum Bundle is a collection of all of our premier solo and ensemble drum and auxiliary percussion instrument libraries, encompassing a broad range of acoustic sounds and integrated performance features, including our premier Apocalypse Percussion Ensemble. This package includes 12 volumes, with a total of over 50,000+ samples and 50+ GB of content.
The Drum Bundle is a collection of all of our premier solo and ensemble drum and auxiliary percussion instrument libraries, encompassing a broad range of acoustic sounds and integrated performance features, including our premier Apocalypse Percussion Ensemble. This package includes 12 volumes, with a total of over 50,000+ samples and 50+ GB of content. You'll find hundreds of intuitively playable, fully customizable Kontakt instrument presets and brilliant sound quality. Click on the tabs to learn more about each library, including the downloadable pdf user manual and full product specs. And check out screenshots of some of the custom Kontakt interfaces, providing a variety of automation-ready sound shaping controls. This bundle brings it all to you in a single package, all at a deep discount of hundreds of dollars off the list price! Owners of any of the individual libraries in this collection can also Contact Us for a personalized quote on an discounted upgrade to the full bundle.
Apocalypse Percussion Ensemble is the culmination of all of our years of experience, distilled into the most comprehensive and earth-shaking hall percussion package available anywhere on the market. We set out to build a monster that punched harder, rumbled deeper, cut through the mix cleaner and got the job done like no other could. We wanted a massive sound and responsive playability, without compromising user flexibility and choice. This beast gets it done.
Breaker is all about the breakbeat, DIY-style. This hi-fi/lo-fi old/new school bastard was born to be broken, bruised, smashed, pumped, slammed, smeared, blown-out and beat to hell. We set out to find the essence of classic versus iconoclastic. We set out to build a big, fat and extremely diverse drum palette that evoked an equal blend of warm, smooth 70's funk and cold, hard 80s electro and pop. Our aim was to make a drum library that is truly electro-organic: authentic and yet electronic in sound but organically playable, providing the best of both worlds.
The sound is ripe to be chopped, diced, sliced, flipped, trashed, drilled, derezzed, degraded and granulated. It's geared toward hip hop, electro, soul, funk, pop, breakcore, drum n' bass, garage, dub, techno, glitch, 2-step, trip hop, illbient, dub-step, house, and whatever the hell have you. We designed the sound to take digital, tape and tube distortion and FX of all kinds and soak it all right up. The sound is fat, dirty and raw right out of the boombox, but a twist of a knob or two and you've got a searing, brutally crisp sharp jungle kit ready to go.
The theme and purpose of Clack! is pretty simple. We wanted to capture as much sharp, bright, warm, tonal wooden impact percussion as your heart desires. We captured several bamboo poles, bamboo logs, a whole pile of claves, woodblocks, clappers, box drum, and other assorted wooden implements that epitomize the word "thwack." These elements are specifically ideal auxiliary elements for orchestral composition and epic film/tv/game soundtrack scoring. They also are vital elements in Latin music and hip hop, as well as very useful percussion building-blocks and raw source material for experimental music and IDM.
We recorded all of these sets up-close in our studio with just a hint of room reflection to provide just the right balance of presence and liveliness. All presets include a Release knob to allow you to dial in just the right amount of room you need. All instruments were captured with 10 round-robins per velocity layer, with an average of 6 velocity layers per note. The modwheel controls the tightness of room decay in all patches that don't use the modwheel for other purposes, such as cross-fading or swapping between layers. Any patch that has "mw" appended to the nki filename also uses the modwheel for a special function.
Cymbology is a massive percussion effects library built around bowed cymbals and gongs. We captured 20 unique cymbals, in all shapes, sizes, alloys and varieties, from crashes and splashes to gongs, bells, trashes and even a stack of spent WWII Howitzer artillery shells. We explore the classic bowed cymbal effect in exquisite detail, with dozens of variations for each cymbal, from short stabs to long tortured wails and everything in between. These often sought-after dramatic scoring and sound design fundamentals are perfect for setting dark moods, striking bold transitions, building stingers, weaving soundscapes and manipulating in any number of ways to evoke sonic images both dark and light.
Not content to leave it there, we experiment with dry ice on the cymbal surfaces. The results are just as wildly varied as the bowed articulations, but these squeals, hisses, screeches, drones, screams, rumbles and wails are an entirely different flavor. We recorded both sets of sustaining and short cymbal effects in two wide microphone positions, up close for full detail, presence and clarity without room coloration and out in a large hall, for a rich, lush and naturally spacious reverb ideal for epic and orchestral scoring. Next, we created a collection of extraordinary melodic tuned percussion instruments from the most tonally pure and musical raw material within the library. Each tuned percussion preset has a unique and complex sound, with flowing overtones, broad warmth, clear highs and massive low end, with flavors ranging from darkly harmonic to pure and crystalline. Lastly, you'll find a spectacular array of pads, drones, synths, swirling dreamscapes and complex evolving textures individually sound-designed from the raw source recordings.
ittle Epic Percussion is a great collection of small orchestral and ethnic hand percussion instruments was designed to compliment our existing collection of "epic" hall scoring drums and percussion, yet it also stands alone as a unique toolbox of punchy, powerful and often needed instruments, like the tambourine and Turkish finger cymbals. We not only went out of our way to capture these instruments as deeply as we could muster, but tried as much as possible to discover new ways of thinking about and playing them. You may notice some unorthodox articulations included with some of the instruments, as well as a few strange combinations and mutations that take the sound in whole new creative directions.
Little Epic Percussion includes instruments such as tambourine, finger cymbals, concert triangle, ship's bell, wooden frogs, monkey drum, native american rabbit drum, and a slew of mixed ensemble percussion featuring claves, kalimba, rattles, shakers, vibraslap, bells, etc. All of these were recorded in our signature epic hall to bring out the full tone of all the instruments.
This library is meant to deeply explore an under-represented niche of percussion and finally allow composers and electronic musicians instant access to truly life-like sound and playability. It's the perfect addition to any serious composer's core instrument arsenal. We also made sure to include a variety of metal percussion, which is the perfect high-pitch compliment to epic percussion scoring.
Our Tablas library contains both looped phrases as well as deeply multi-sampled tablas. The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in the classical, popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent and in Hindustani classical music. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres. To call tabla a mere percussion instrument would be a vast understatement of its musical depth, as one of the most revered of all classical Indian musical instruments. We worked with tabla master and jazz percussionist Sameer Gupta to capture a range of tabla rhythm, melody and soul. Sameer has been a student and practitioner in the art of percussion for nearly 25 years, traveling the world to study and perform in some of the world's most prestigious institutions and venues.
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