The resulting staff is, in his words, "a mini-United Nations," with several nationalities and ethnic backgrounds represented. If you're after class without gloss, this one is for you.Specialty: Premier custom cabinetry, furniture and millwork for some of "the most discerning and demanding customers" in the tri-state New York metropolitan area.Įquipment: SCM Sanya wide belt sander two Altendorf sliding table saws Ott Kantomat edgebander Kremlin finishing equipment Hastings air makeup unit Conquest 13-spindle mini-drill line boring machine Blum mini-press hinge boring machine and Microvellum software.įelix Hendrickson on customer service: "Profit is the applause your client gives you for a job well done." Toontrack describe the sounds as raw, unrefined and without frills, which they are, but to my ears they also sound musically 'right', which is what really matters. All the expansions I've tried so far have been meticulously sampled, and this one is no exception. Having the option of a little sympathetic snare buzz just adds to the realism. They sound exactly like what they are, which is well-tuned kits recorded in a complementary studio space. The two kits give a choice of fairly mellow or 'brighter and tighter' characters, both of which come over as sounding extremely natural and unprocessed. There are also Plugs Percussion Sizzle Strip samples, with the brushes played on both the narrow and broad sides. Extra samples come from a six-inch Factory Metal Percussion Cross Crasher and 10-inch celtic bell. The toms are, again, 12- and 14-inch Ludwigs with the two 16-inch crash cymbals and the 20-inch ride by Zildjian.
The hi-hats for this kit are 14-inch UFIP Class series with 15- and 16-inch Zildjian crash cymbals, plus a 19-inch Zildjian Armand 'Beautiful Baby' ride cymbal with three rivets.Ī third kit is sampled with brushes, again based on a Ludwig 1965 kit, but this time with a 14- by five-inch Ludwig chromed brass edition reissue snare drum. The toms for this kit are 12-inch and 14-inch, sampled both with and without the sympathetic snare vibrations, and the heads are Remo-coated Ambassador X. Kit Two comprises a 1965 Ludwig Burgundy Sparkle kit with a 22-inch kick and a Tama limited-edition Wood Hoop Snare plus 'snare off' samples. These are teamed with 14-inch Zildjian New Beat hi-hats, a 16-inch Zildjian K dark crash medium thin, an 18-inch Bosphorus Ferit series crash and a 20-inch UFIP Natural-series ride. Kit number one has a choice of 22-inch or 16-inch Fibes kick drums, a Ludwig Black Beauty snare fitted with a Remo Vintage A-coated batter head and a pair of 12- and 16-inch Fibes toms. There are also drag-and-drop MIDI files of various rhythms suited to the Americana genre. The format remains the same as for other EZ Drummer expansions, with each drum including a tab that shows the alternative sounds available so you can mix and match the various kit items. In the main, these recordings make use of Fibes Maple and mid-1960s Ludwig kits with a few special additional samples, such as snare drums without the snare and some less common cymbals and 'crashers'. The drums were played by Stephen Belans and Mark Hallman and the MIDI parts were performed by Thomas Hedlund. The samples for these kits were recorded in the Congress House Studio in Austin, Texas, supervised by engineer Mark Hallman. Americana is an addition to the Toontrack expansion library portfolio for EZ Drummer and is best described as an American-sounding range of drum kits recorded 'honestly', so that they still retain the character of a real kit played in a real room, rather than being subjected to extensive processing and production tricks.