Review: Get Devilish With Drum Kit From Hell EZX
(mtebaldi | Posted 2010-07-21)
In the beginning, Drum Kit From Hell (DFH) was only a drum library created to address Toontrack’s own needs for better and heavier drums in music production. Achieving enormous success after its release (being awarded 5 out of 5 in Sound on Sound and an EQ Magazine Exceptional Quality), the DFH was responsible for making Toontrack a known brand in the sample business. After developing EZdrummer and Superior Drummer, Toontrack decided to bring back the DFH as an EZX expansion pack to celebrate its importance in the company’s success. And thank God they did. Or should I be thanking the Devil?
The Drum Kit from Hell was actually how I personally found out about Toontrack. I’ve been a huge fan of the Swedish metal band Meshuggah and its drummer Thomas Haake for some time now and Haake is one of the Scandinavian drummers who contributed in the creation the DFH. It was used in the production of Meshuggah’s 2005 studio album, Catch Thirtythree.
Stories aside, let’s get down to business.
Once you load the DFH on your EZdrummer you will see an 8-piece Sonor drum kit with a flame shell finish and a 12-piece cymbal set that includes hats, splashes, crashes, rides and the cymbal that couldn’t be missed -- trashes! (Note: A detailed list of the sampled drums and cymbals that comes with this EZX can be found at the end of this article.) As far as drum kit presets go, the DFH comes with 5 (Default, Metal, Death, Thrash and Basic) helping you select the best samples combinations for each metal genre you are going to work on and, as you may have guessed, EZdrummer lets you save your own drum kit presets and also build your own library of drum samples, so originality is not a issue here.
What really thrilled me on this EZX pack, besides its perfectly metal-oriented drum recording, is its awesome MIDI Groove library content. You are going to see not just one, but TWO huge libraries with a enormous amount of beats and fills. The second library features exclusive grooves of each drummer involved in the drum sample recordings (Tomas Haake from Meshuggah, Owe Lingvall from Nocturnal Rites, Mattias Grahn from Naglfar and Efraim Juntunen from Persuader) giving you the power to use their own drum signature beats on your production. I don’t have to say that Haake’s one is my favorite do I? Each library comes featuring straight, odd signature, double kick, grind, blast and triplets beats along with drum fills and even choked cymbal hits. This vast amount of grooves will make you think twice when you are in need of a metal drummer for your music production (and you know how hard it can be to find a good one). Rearranging, mixing and matching grooves from the libraries to your main production application is easy and makes the job intuitive, inspirational and especially creative.
The Drum Kit From Hell EXZ pack is a perfect tool for all the metalhead producers and musicians out there in search of a perfect sounding kit with the skillfulness and drum quality of a few of the best metal drummers in the world.
If you are not familiar with the Toontrack’s EZdrummer, please check my review of it here:
http://www.musicgearreview.com/article-display/3423.html
For more information about Toontracks products and expansion packs, please visit www.toontrack.com
Sampled instruments
Kickdrums:
• Sonor Designer Series 18x22" - damped and undamped neutral eq, extreme eq,
• Ludwig Wood Fiber Glass 24"
Snaredrums:
• Ayotte 4x14" Maple Shell
• Ludwig 8x14"
• Pearl Sensitone 6,5x14" Bronze Shell
• Sonor Designer Series 6,5x14 Maple Light Shell
• Sonor Designer Series 5x14" Maple Light Shell
• Sonor Hilite 5x12" Maple Shell
• Tomas Haake Engineering 7x14" Pockenholz Shell
Toms:
• Sonor Designer Series 10x10", 12x12", 13x13", 16x16" and 18x18"
Hats:
• 14" Sabian HH Rock HiHat
Cymbal 1:
• 19" Sabian AAXtreme Chinese
• 21" Sabian AAXtreme Chinese
• 21" Sabian AAXtreme Chinese
Cymbal 2:
• 16" Sabian HH Medium Crash
• 17" Sabian HH Medium Thin Crash
• 19" Sabian HH Crash Ride
Cymbal 3:
• 10" Sabian HH Splash
Cymbal 4:
• 20" Sabian HH Crash Ride
• 21" Sabian HH Crash Ride
Cymbal 5:
• 18" Sabian HH Chinese/15" Sabian HH Medium Crash
• 15" Sabian AAXtreme Chinese/12" Sabian HH Splash
• 15" Sabian AAXtreme Chinese
Cymbal 6:
• 8" Sabian HH Splash
Cymbal 7:
• 22" Sabian HH Power Bell Ride
• 22" Sabian HH Crash Ride
Cymbal 8:
• 12" Sabian HH Splash
Cymbal 9:
• 20" Sabian HH Dark Chinese (Brilliant)
• 20" Sabian HH Dark Chinese
Cymbal 10:
• 21" Sabian HH Medium Crash
• 22" Sabian HH Crash Ride
Cymbal 11:
• 22" Sabian Ed Thigpen Crystal Bell Ride
• 23" Sabian HH Crash Ride
