Free DRUM VST – Sennheiser DrumMic’a

With the new, free sample library called DrumMic’a!, Sennheiser will allow a direct comparison of different microphone-positions on a complete drum kit.

DrumMic’a! is a virtual instrument for Kontakt 5 Player from Native Instruments, and contains more than 9 GB of data, nearly 13,000 24-bit samples. The software can be run standalone or as a plug-in.

For the production of the library, an acrylic drum set  by Wahan – a drum-manufacturer located in Mainz, Germany –  was selected. Signals were recorded on a SSL 4064 E mixing console. Recordings were  intentionally realized without the use of external effects devices. But there’s an integrated mixer available in DrumMic’a! for post-processing purposes.

DrumMic’a should provide a more natural feeling as close as possible to a human player, depending on velocity and position with up to 25 velocity layers. I have spent a couple of hours installing and testing the Drummica plugin. The download is about 4GB…the NI Kontakt 5 player is included in the package. (The plugin needs to be registrated at Sennheiser to get the activation code – everything is in german…so your school german will be needed or use of the translation functions in your browser) Kontakt 5 has also a service center where you need to be registered with Native Instruments.

After all registrations and downloads…the Kontakt Player can be used standalone and will work as the interface between your sound card, midi device and DrumMica plugin. There are even midi mappings for most known drum devices like td-20, GM Midi etc…and if you have a  sound card with multiple outputs…it is also supported. For my own tests I used VSTHosts to load DrumMic’a as a VST. (Kontakt 5 is a middle layer) and I was through this able to load Addictive DRUMs simultaneously. (You are actually able to mix VST’s)

I played around with the DrumMic’a plugin for while…and i can just say it sounds damn good…the advanced mic selections, mixer, eq, compressor and the included sound presets really sounds great!!! I must say that I am really impressed and knowing that the software is for free, left me with even a bigger smile. Damn good Sennheiser!!

For a free VST library, I don’t think you can find a much better plugin!  Sounds are really good.  The mixer has mic’s for snare, each of the 3 toms, HH and an overhead for cymbals (2 crashes and a china).  Good presets…I like the Metal preset but there are more that sounds very good!

I have for fun used the DrumMica sounds in the 2Box module using the SDSE tool to render the DrumMica VST in 24 bits/25 layers. The sounds with all its layers is very convincing and sounds very good with the 2Box module.

DrumMic’a can be downloaded here: http://de-de.sennheiser.com/service-support/drummica (It is a bit complex registration process in german…but when you get through this…the world of nice drum sounds opens. Seems like Sennheiser knows what they are doing – good samples!