Another one from sonicspecialists….these guys know how to do drums.

After I reviewed their new Urban Electro kit, they sent over the Urban Fire 5, the latest of a long series of genre dominating drum libraries.

I’ve been wanting to review this for you for a while, but I’ve just been busy with so many different things…

let’s get it!

What is Urban Fire 5?

Quite possibly the LAST urban/pop drum library you’ll ever need…until they drop UF6!

No seriously, this is a drum library that screams professional, industry, radio ready and any other adjectives you’d use to define something that is ready to make your tracks stand up and stand out!

To me, this is more than a drum library, with all the tools and the finely tuned tones and sounds in this collection, this feels like a drum toolkit!  Everything works together perfectly and is built to be mixed and matched.

It’s like a big bucket of legos…in drum format!

Not only is there the staples like kicks, snares, hats, etc…but you get stuff like dirty tones, kick and snare enchancers, and even some dope percussion sounds.  Enhancers made to layer your sounds, and percussion that is sweet and sexy, everything feels so crisp and clean.

Quick Specs

• Content: Over 850 samples
• Format: 16 and 24 bit wave
• Price: $174.95

How does it sound?

Like fried catfish at a July 4th bbq!

Ha! These sounds are HOT, straight up.

What really amazes me is the clarity and detail of every single aspect of the sounds.  The kicks thump but are still crisp, the snare smack yet still have meat, the hi hats cut through like a razor, the claps and percussion…..man, I can’t even explain them.

These folks know how to engineer a good sound, more importantly, they know how to engineer drums so that they sit well in a variety of urban/pop music applications.

You really don’t have to do any type of eq or tweaking with these, they magically seem to carve their own space out in any track you put them in.  Even at low volumes they are still well defined.

No clipping, yet they are processed to BANG…you can tell these dudes are real engineers and not just drum sample producers.

It’s one thing to have a bangin drum, it’s another thing when that drum is majorly FAT but yet not clipping or overloading in the mix.

They just “fit in” wherever you put them.

I really don’t know what they do over there, but I now understand why they are regarded as the best when it comes to drum samples.

What’s the final verdict?

Isn’t it obvious? This is THE professional drum toolkit that ANY serious beat maker, producer, musician, engineer, boy scout, dj, doctor, wast management technician, professional tap dancer….well you get the point. Everyone should have a set of Urban Fire drums in their possession.

Straight up, without a doubt, no questions asked, if you have to ask then you already missed the boat…..

5 out of 5 subs….the bar has been raised and permanently set in 17ft thick marble.

This is what a drum library should sound like. I tried to really find one part of the library I didn’t like, but I couldn’t.

I’m not huge on 808 sounds, so I thought ” prolly some more wack 808″ but they weren’t. How you make an 808 both knock AND boom is beyond me. The roundness of the bass PLUS the thump of a solid kick = crazy drum aerobics.

Just go download the demo man, honestly, the demo kit will be an upgrade over the majority of drum samples available on the market.

Do yourself a favor and check them out: sonicspecialists urban fire drums

Then let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Mo drums man, today I’m checkin out the drums from SoundsInHD.com

I found out about them maybe a few weeks ago, and their site impressed me.

I listened to the demo kit and liked what I heard so I hit them up to see if I could review their sounds.

They have 3 different collections, but I am reviewing their “Sounds In HD TheCollection” which includes shd vol 1, shd vol 2, and acoustic blends.

let’s get into it!

Who are Sounds In HD?

Is it a higher bit rate? What makes them HD?

The HD, from what I gather, is in reference to the quality and perfection they take when producing their drum sounds.

It all started with Sounds In HD Vol 1:

“processed using only quality hardware and software such as the Avalon 737 and Izotope plugins. Sample design is based off of various synthesizers combined with live sound and layered samples. This superb drum pack, can be used in just about any genre of music; including Hip-Hop, R&B, and Pop”

After the huge success of shd vol 1, they dropped …you guessed it, shd vol 2:

“We’ve decided to make this kit more usuable for the producers and engineers, by adding more elements other than the generic samples, including Synthesized Drums, Lo-Fi Textures, Acoustic Samples and more all originaly recorded and processed by us. SHD2 is a huge step up from the preceeding package, we consider this particular sample library to have more Balance than the other sample packages on the market”

Well, I guess that was another smash hit, so they came with a third pack called Acoustic Blends, which is probably my favorite!

“Acoustic Blends competes with the drum sample design in the current market while staying true to its name, acoustic. Producers love a great acoustic kit and this is a chance to upgrade to HD in your acoustic production arsenal! We consider this to actually be the most versatile edition to date!”

Quick Specs

• Contents: shd1, shd 2, acoustic blends, and bonus drums. over 1000 drum sounds
• Format: 16bit wave files
• Price: $79.99

Okay, whopdie doo, 3 sound collections, but what do they sound like?

In one word… BANGIN!

Seriously, these are some of the most banginest drums I’ve laid ears on.

Now I must be clear, these aren’t your typical rugged, boom-bap style drums, these are commercial, radio ready, high quality drum samples.

It’s true, and you can check my twitter statues from a week or so ago…after going through these drums, I started deleting and getting rid of a bunch of drum samples, they were simply no longer needed.

SHD set the bar high, and their acoustic blends pretty much became the standard by which all other drums will be judged by me.

The mix on them is nice, they have a thickness to them that is undeniable. And they slice through the mix like a hot knife through ice cream cake.

The loudness is there, but not a simple “normalize and make it bang” loudness…I don’t even know how to explain it other than these drums are hard without taking over the whole mix, they are huge but still leave space for your other sounds.

The eq, processing, and whatever other deep dark magic they put on these drums results in the most usable collection I’ve come across to date, and the most versatile.

The Value is unmatched…

One thing I very first noticed about them is their prices.  I’ve been shopping for and checking out drum libraries for years, and for the most part, they’ve always been pretty pricey.

It’s not uncommon to pay $100+ for a collection of dope drums, and I’ve happily done so in the past. Especially when getting kits in native mpc format, etc.

The fact that this is only 80 bucks for the whole collection is insane. But also, if you don’t want the whole thing, each collection is broken down into parts so it’s easier on the budget.

What’s the final rating man?

If I could give a double rating I would, this is without question a 5 sub kit!

Dope sounds, quality mixing and processing, and GREAT value.

I love it man, simply put, download the demo and you’ll see what I mean.

This aint no bull man, you know how I do…these drums are sick.