For downloading the libraries click here.
Here are some Kontakt Libraries that I’ve made for the nostalgia of 80’s-90’s… That era was the time of the drum machines that were the first to instruments transformed from analog to digital. Those machines were first to use digital samples inside them.
Today’s popular software sampler Kontakt is a suitable platform to re-issue these iconic, good old, inspirational drum machines..
Part I – Idea for digital
My first step was finding previous similar libraries that attempt to simulate old drum machines. I am not going to mention their names but they all have their pros and cons. I have examined them deeply and found out that all they do were simply playbacking the sample with volume and pan madulations. Some of them also having Kontakt‘s filtering and equalizing, compressing and effecting capabilities.
The second step for me was finding the limits of Kontakt Software for recreating the futures of the real hardware. Kontakt has a somehow limited script language (KSP) for giving far new dimensions to sample playing. It’s GUI is highly limited, suitable only for simple user interactions.
The third step was balancing in between the original machine, kontakt script with GUI and user experience. This was a tough step. I immediately felt that there will be lots of need for making sacrifices from the original and taking desicions of using GUI within the Kontakt.
These decisions were DAW oriented. Kontakt can be used both standalone and within the DAW. Mostly DAW is prefered so all the functions of the drum machine can be controlled not in Kontakt but in DAW software. For example the sequencing. I’ve omitted all the sequencing functions of the drum machines because of this situation. It was a common thing to have trigger-pads on drum machines. So there won’t be any need for pad-sample-triggering. The pads were also omitted.
For GUI making I’ve used photoshop and some internet sites for making knobs and buttons suitable for Kontakt GUI.
The main purpose is keeping the look 100% as original (as possible as it can be).
So I decided to use my good old Yamaha RX-17 as a guinea pig.
The user interface will be limited with mouse clicks, maybe MIDI controller CC Values or SYSEXs would answer to some needs but no use for computer keyboard keys. Also, the practicality was another aspect. Drum machines mostly have sequencers inside them but sequencing functions will not be needed due to the DAW making the sequences itself. I’ve managed to make library from a Yamaha RX-17 drum machine that I’ve own. Quickly it came out that the less I use Kontakt futures the more it will become accurate. Simplicity was the first key. There was no need to re-issue every specification of a drum machine.
Eventually, what Kontakt will do is playing corresponding sample to the midi-trigger value. Volume & pan settings are highly simple.
It was obvious to re-arrange the pad-trigger map to GM drum map for the keyboard.
Part II – Idea for analog
The second attempt was another story. I’ve owned a fantastic machine called Drumcomputer MFB-522. It was a full analog drum machine with functions like sequencing and midi.
When the time came for selling it, I remembered this “Making Kontakt library” idea and made a plan to re-issue this analog machine on Kontakt.
It was an interesting approach. I’ve sampled every sound, in 5 and 4 steps of potentiometers for every instrument. For example the bass drum has controls of Volume, Decay, Tune and Tone. Volume can be made with Kontakt, so only the other three parts were necessary. 5 steps for Decay, 5 steps for Tune and 5 steps for Tone. 5x5x5 = 125 steps which mean 125 total samples for bass sound. I’ve edited all these sample waveforms to the same length and combined them in one big sample wave. So any move of the pos on the GUI will only determine the indexing starting position on the sample. It was a hard work bur it was a success 🙂
Part III – mixer GUI
One of my friend gave me his Roland TR-707 for repairing. It was a sample playing drum machine with a useable interface. All volumes were separate and a screen was giving the necessery indications. Its interface was simple to recreate on Kontakt so I decided to make the GUI with Photoshop.
At the begining is was good enough but by the time passes, I felt something missing. The GUI must be real looking. So I make compositions on different photographs of the unit.
I’ve found some roland related fonts, some good looking pictures. So this mixer like volume & pan for sounds and main control type GUI was born. Let’s call it mixer GUI. For Roland TR machines this mixer GUI was OK. I was fascinated with this mixer GUI and started to use aggresively on every machine I can.
I have added the leds for indication of triggering.
I think it was when I was working on Alesis library. I started to feel that I was getting away from my main purpose.. It became forcing every machine into fitting this mixer GUI and there was no room for real experience of the units. I’ve abandoned all the project for a while.
Part IV – Restart time
My friend again gave his one drum machine to me for repairing. It was LinnDrum. Interestingly perfect machine for mixer GUI that I’ve abandoned 😀
It motivated me to restart this project again. I had everyhing for remaking LinnDrum on Kontakt. the script, the GUI, the engine.. everything.
I was remembered that I was searching for “modding” options on Kontakt. Drum machine owners were at one time fascinated with tweaking their instruments in order to have “different” sounds from them. It was something I’v never liked, cause it was against the originality of the machine. So I just took the idea of “obtaining new sounds”. I’ve added the dithering for KHz degradation and bit reduction.
This was the first time I’ve used “menu” idea. You first select the sound than change the pitch or pan with data entry sliders. I’ve left volume sliders because it was usefull for fast access.
This was a breaking point. I’ve decided to remake everything back with this menu GUI idea. The KHz and Bit options were likely. I’ve left global pan control.
Part V – menu GUI
I’ve re-made Yamaha RX-11 with this menu GUI again. ,
I’ve also added an “about screen”. It was a place for simple ideas of having the bottom part of the machine for modding, battery replacement or Rom replacement but for the time, It eventually became just an “about” tab.
Linn drum has an interesting future. It’s hihat sample is always on playing. When it triggers, only the envelope gets action. the sample does not re-start. So every time you trigger the sound you get different starting point. I’ve learned this from an entry on a blog. I am not sure if it is true but it became a challenge for me to recreate this on Kontakt.
With RX-11, I’ve menaged to use menu GUI properly. The pan and pitch functions were menu driven. 7 segment red leds were indicating and LCD panel was showing the instruments. This machine was having more than one bassdrum and snaredrum and some other percussion sounds. So the black sound buttons were used to select the samples. On original machine they were sound triggering pads.