You don’t need a live drummer to get a great drum sound in your mix. There are some excellent sounding drum samples available that are studio quality.
Here are three great libraries of drums and percussion that might be worth looking into if you want to add drums to your music.
Steven Slate Drums
Now in its 4th version, the Steven Slate Drums library features dozens of world class drum kits with 100 preset kits, all recorded meticulously well. No matter what genre you’re producing, there an acoustic kit that sounds perfect for it. There’s even a kit with jazz brushes, something that’s not common to find.
The $150 “platinum” library comes with its own drum programming software engine, the SSD4. SSD4 allows users to easily tweak the sound of each sample and intuitively create a custom kit, making the possibilities for Steven Slate Drums virtually unlimited. It even allows users to import their own samples to create a hybrid kit.
For acoustic drum sounds, Steven Slate Drums are a great choice.
Thomas Penton Complete Essential Series
The Thomas Penton Complete Essential Series by Loopmasters features a large mix of ethnic drum sounds and essential samples for EDM production. Built as a one-stop-shop for house and dance music producers, it offers a library of kicks, basslines, synths, hats, crash-rides, toms, sound effects and more–all curated and used by the eponymous well-known DJ himself for over 15 years.
If you’re into dance music, the Thomas Penton Complete Essential Series feels, as one reviewer put it, “like walking in to a candy shop.”
Wave Alchemy Drum Machine Collection
The Drum Machine Collection by Wave Alchemy features high-quality samples from 15 of the world’s most popular analog drum machines, including the Roland TR-808, 909, Korg KPR-77 and a Drumfire DF-2000.
While samples of some of the drum machines included can be found for free elsewhere, the quality of the 4,000+ samples makes the $46 price tag more than worth it. For any producers getting into hip hop, EDM, trance, and R&B, many of these samples are simply a must-have for their popularity and familiarity in those genres.
So, Why A Membership?
Let’s face it — trying to create professional mixes without the correct knowledge, tools, services, and network is like playing a concert with a broken instrument to an audience of no one.
That’s where the Sage Audio membership comes in — the membership gives you everything you need to create professional mixes consistently.
The membership is the secret to your success — it’s the difference between the 1,929,999,999 of poor-sounding mixes and the .00000002% of mixes that make people say 'WOW!"
There are 7 unique value-points included in your Sage Audio membership.
Let’s go over each one so you can decide if the membership is right for you.
1. Sage Audio University
- SAU Flagship Mixing Course: 23-video in-depth mixing course that reveals the little-known secrets of mixing and matches the needs of the new music industry.
- SAU Flagship Mastering Course: 19-video in-depth modern mastering course that dives into every nuance of making professional-sounding masters.
- SAU Pre-Mastering Course: Concise pre-mastering course that details the latest industry standards for preparing your mixes for mastering.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from budding mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout each course.
- Each SAU course includes Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website and social channels.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
2. Private 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio private 1-on-1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us for advanced mixing feedback, in-depth discussions, and customized guidance that's tailored to your specific needs.
- Unlimited private access to us for advanced mixing feedback, where we provide detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Unlimited private access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve every aspect of your mixes and masters.
- Customized guidance that’s tailored specifically to your needs.
- Fast communication so you can improve your skills quickly.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited professional mixing feedback directly from us so you can consistently improve your skills and create professional mixes.
- Mixing feedback is invaluable, and the Sage Audio membership gives you continual direct access to us for real-world feedback so you can improve every aspect of each of your mixes while you're in the process of mixing.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
4. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
5. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with additional real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 71 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
7. 800+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into categories so you can easily take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your skills at your own pace.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
