Discrete Drums

The Original Multitrack Drum Library


Discrete Drums Guide

News

Discrete Drums Discontinued

Formats and Compatibility

F.A.Q

Frequently Asked Questions

Discrete Drums DVDs Are Discontinued

Discrete Drums DVDs are no longer available. Discrete Drums' stereo loops are available in the DrumCore 4 AAX/AU/VST3 plug-in library. Loops from Discrete Drums' EarthBeat, Heavy Mental 2, and Kickin' Country have been added to the DC4 library! Many Discrete Drums sets have also been added to RiffWorks guitar recording software as InstantDrummers. Stay tuned by subscribing to Sonoma's newsletter.

File Formats and Compatibility

Discrete Drums content comes in a variety of formats:

Discrete Drums Pro Sets
- Discrete Drums Pro Sets contain drum recordings in these formats:

  • Multitrack 24bit 44.1 WAV
  • Stereo Mixed 16 bit 44.1 WAV
  • Stereo Mixed REX or Apple Loops
  • Multi-velocity, one shot individual drum samples
  • Organized and labeled ProTools Sessions

Discrete Drums Stereo Sets
- Discrete Drums Stereo Sets contain drum recordings in these formats:

  • Stereo Mixed 16 bit 44.1 WAV
  • Stereo Mixed REX or Apple Loops

RiffWorks InstantDrummer Sessions
- Portions of Discrete Drums content are available as RiffWorks InstantDrummer sessions, which are compatible with RiffWorks Standard and RiffWorks T4 recording software. The content of these RiffWorks InstantDrummer sessions cannot be accessed outside of RiffWorks and RiffWorks T4, and are not compatible with other DAWS.

Frequently Asked Questions

Discrete Drums' Multitrack 24 Bit WAV Pro Sets offer the most flexible mixing possibilities, as all tracks are delivered separately. Mix, process, tune, distort, and mangle these drum and percussion tracks to suit your needs. For use in Pro Tools, Logic Audio, Digital Performer, Cubase, Nuendo, Cakewalk, Sonar, and other digital audio sequencers that import WAV files.

The REX and Apple Loops files are sliced and easily tempo stretchable as long as your host program support the REX and Apple Loop file format. WAV files are harder to tempo stretch, although If the host program lets you do time stretching (which most do), you can also change the tempo of the tracks. Just be sure to select all tracks for stretching/compressing. Different host applications will yield different results, but in most cases, you can achieve a decent range in tempo change before audible artifacts begin to appear. Consult your host application docs for instructions.

4/4 time signature is what you generally get with Discrete Drums products. Some collections in the series contain a few 3/4 and 6/8 time signature tracks, but most of the content is 4/4. Please consult each product description for specifics.

The ProTools sessions included in most Discrete Drums Pro Sets (see product descriptions for specifics) are conveniently laid out like full songs, with markers at song segments labeled things like CHORUS, BRIDGE, BREAKDOWN, etc. All of the tracks (i.e. Snare, Kick, Overheads, etc) are clearly labeled and panned correctly. While a part may be labeled BRIDGE for instance, that segment may be used for any part in your song, these are merely suggestions. Multiple fills, intros, and outros are also included in most ProTools sessions.

While there are several short (2 beat to 2 bar) sections such as intros and fills in each song, most sections are 8 or 16 bars.

The Kickin' Country, Rock Series 1, Rock Series 2, and Earthbeat sessions all contain brushed drum selections. Discrete Drums does not currently have any mallet sounds. Sonoma's DrumCore 4, an AAV/AU/VST3 plug-in for most 64-bit recording software, offers mallet and brushed sounds.

Discrete Drums' Drum Loop products are no longer tested or supported for use with BOSS BR-1180 CD & BR-1600CD, Roland CDX-1, VS-2480, VS-1824, Yamaha AW4416 and Akai DPS 16 as we do not have access to these units for testing. This link may help some of you with a BOSS BR-1180 who have a Discrete Drums product that worked on that unit: Using Rhythms from the Discrete Drums CD with your Boss BR-1180CD (PDF)

Sonoma now offers Discrete Drums loops in DrumCore 4, an AAV/AU/VST3 plug-in for most 64-bit DAWS (recording software).

End User License Agreement and Terms of Use for Discrete Drums Drum Recording Libraries & Products: All rights reserved. The sounds and performances on these discs are licensed to the original purchaser of these discs for use in music production only, and are non-transferable. Copying, duplicating, selling, electronically transmitting, renting or other uses of these sounds and performances not specifically for the purpose of music production is prohibited by law. When you purchase this product, the contents for this library is licensed, not sold to you by Sonoma Wire Works (owner of the Discrete Drums brand), for commercial use, and music production. The original purchaser may use these samples and performances in a commercial or non-commercial recording without any additional licensing fees. However, we ask that you adhere to the following: Any commercially released product that utilizes any performances from this library should include credit to the appropriate artist(s) in a form similar to the following examples: "Drums by Tony Morra from the Discrete Drums Library." When you purchase a drum library CD, DVD or download from the Discrete Drums libraries, you are not obtaining ownership of the sound samples - you are purchasing a license to use the sound samples within your musical compositions, whether or not your compositions are released commercially. Sonoma Wire Works retains ownership of the sound samples.

End User License Agreement and Terms of Use for the discontinued "Free Discrete Drums Drum Loops" All rights reserved. If you choose to use or publish sounds that use any part or all of the Free Discrete Drums Drum Loops Collection, you are declaring yourself to be in agreement with the following Licensing conditions. The sounds and performances in this package are licensed to the original downloader for use in non-commercial music production only. Copying, duplicating, selling, electronically transmitting, renting or other uses of these sounds and performances not specifically for the purpose of non-commercial music production is prohibited by law. When you download this product, the contents for this library is licensed, not sold to you by Sonoma Wire Works (owner of the Discrete Drums brand), for non-commercial music production. The original downloader may use these samples and performances in a non-commercial recording without any additional licensing fees. However, we ask that you adhere to the following: Any commercially released product that utilizes any performances from this library should include credit to the appropriate artist(s) in a form similar to the following examples: "Drums by Tony Morra from the Discrete Drums Library." If you wish to use this drum content in a commercial recording, you must purchase the current Discrete Drums product from which the content was derived. When you purchase a drum library CD, DVD or download from the Discrete Drums library, you are not obtaining ownership of the sound samples - you are purchasing a license to use the sound samples within your musical compositions, whether or not your compositions are released commercially. Sonoma Wire Works retains ownership of the sound samples.

While we are not currently seeking new drummers to record, this could change at any moment. If you are interested in licensing content to us, please contact us at marketing@sonomawireworks.com.

It really depends on your use. If tempo stretching and ease of use are most important to you, Stereo Sets are the way to go. Stereo mixed files are easy to stretch, sound great because they are pre-mixed, and don't take up much hard drive space. If you want complete control over your mix and are interested in processing each layer of drums differently, you need a Pro Set. The multitrack WAV files in Pro Sets give you complete control over every drum sounds because every drum element is separated on its own discrete track. It also should be noted that only Pro Sets contain one shot samples if you are interested in creating your own beats from scratch with a sampler.

DrumCore Discrete Drums products are discontinued and may not work in the current version of Pro Tools. We are not updating Discrete Drums content in that format any longer. Instead, much of Discrete Drums content is now available in DrumCore 4! DrumCore is a plug-in which requires a plug-in host program/DAW. Discrete Drums content was simply audio in various formats for use in DAWs, samplers, and sequencers. DrumCore contains celebrity drum content that is stereo mixed and entirely tempo-stretchable. DrumCore also boasts a very wide range of genres, meters, and styles including rock, jazz, latin, electronic and more. Discrete Drums content is primarily rock, pop, country, metal, and world focused and contains no electronic percussion. Discrete Drums content came in multitrack format which might have been appealing to users who want specific control over their mix. While the original Discrete Drums format is no longer available, Discrete Drums content for DrumCore 4 is now available!

"DrumCore is so handy and so very easy to use! It's very close to having a live drummer with you."

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Anthony Gonzalez of M83

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Trey Anastasio of Phish

"Just tried out Sonoma Wire Works GuitarJack plus the new upgraded FourTrack app. Beautiful crystal clear sparkling audio in iOS!"

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Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater

"RiffWorks is an incredible tool to get songs done stupid fast!"

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Johnny "Juice" Rosado of Public Enemy