The Black Album Drums for Kontakt by Chocolate Audio

Unlock the iconic drum sound of Metallica's "Black Album" with The Black Album Drums Kontakt instrument from Chocolate Audio. This meticulously crafted drum library for the full retail version of Kontakt 5.5.2 or higher puts the exact drum kit played on the legendary 1991 record at your fingertips.

Experience the vibe and sound of a historical recording with this powerful and flexible instrument. We approached the production with immense respect, tracking down extensive information regarding the original sessions.

Key Features:

• Authentic Sound: Inspired by and featuring the drum sound of Metallica's "Black Album".
• The Exact Kit: This library includes the actual 1980 Gretsch drum kit with Zildjian cymbals and the Tama Bell Brass snare used on the "Black Album". It's not just the same model, it's that exact kit.
• Expanded Sonic Palette: In addition to the original setup, you get a vintage 1970 Ludwig Black Beauty snare and an extra ride cymbal.
• Comprehensive Drum Selection: Features 2 snares, dual kicks (Left & Right), 5 toms, 4 crashes, 1 china, and 1 additional ride cymbal.
• Recorded at the Legendary One On One Studio (Now 17 Hertz): Captured in the same North Hollywood studio where the "Black Album" was recorded, with the room sound perfectly preserved.
• Engineered by Mike Tacci: The sampling sessions were engineered by Mike Tacci, the original assistant engineer on the "Black Album", bringing invaluable first-hand knowledge to the process.
• Vintage Analog Warmth: The drums were processed through an analog tape machine (Studer A800) for a warm and deep sound.
• Detailed Sampling: Features 25000 samples, with up to 286 samples per articulation and up to 11 round robins in Kontakt for incredibly realistic performance. Cymbals feature 5 round robins and more than 16 dynamics each.
• Multiple Microphone Positions: Captured with a meticulous microphone setup including:
  • Kicks: EV RE20, Sennheiser MD421, and a Neumann Fet-47
  • Snares: Neumann KM-86 and a Shure SM-57 on top, with an AKG C451 on the bottom
  • Hi-Hat: Shure SM-7 and an AKG C451
  • Cymbals: Closed-miked with AKG C451s
  • Toms: Top and bottom miked with Sennheiser MD409s and MD421s
  • Overheads: High hanging Neumann U87s
  • Rooms: Mono rear (AKG C414), stereo front XY (2 + 2 AKG C414), front close (2 AKG C12), and far (2 Telefunken ELAM 251E). Up to 3 close mics on each drum piece and 4 sets of room mics are available.
• Custom Kontakt Engine: Developed specifically for drums, offering an easy and quick to learn and use interface with powerful tools. Features include:
  • Custom 3D graphics with snare drum change animation.
  • Ability to build your own kit.
  • Efficient RAM management with purge.
  • Full-fledged mixer with mute, solo, and 4 insert effects (EQ, comp, transient, tape).
  • Built-in global and channel-specific preset management.
  • MIDI mapping agnostic design with support for numerous articulations.
  • Color-coding for easy drum recognition on the Kontakt keyboard.
  • Up to 4 Room mic channels.
  • Up to 4 mixable Close mics on Kicks and Snare, 2 for hi-hats, rides, and toms.
  • Drum-specific control over tuning, velocity curve, attack, hold, and release times.
  • Exclusive ADH envelope on Room channels for creative effects.
  • Intelligent pan-pot and width controls.
  • Channel-specific controls like hi-hat control and snare bleed.
  • 36 unique proprietary impulse responses from vintage plates, hardware, and real rooms in the IR Reverb module.
  • 10 global mix-ready factory presets and presets for each channel, including reverb.
• Innovative MIDI File Player (Style Player): Features 10 MIDI Styles and 800 Patterns recorded by a real drummer using the same samples, offering billions of possibilities. Interact in multiple ways: play from the Kontakt interface, drag and drop to your DAW, or assign to MIDI keys. Modify patterns in real-time for intensity, tempo, delay, grid, quantize, swing, and instrument group activation.
• Free Drum Particles - Black Album Edition: A no-frills instrument for streamlined workflow, drum triggering, stacking, creating hybrid kits, and endless sound design possibilities. Easily load kits or single pieces, balance microphones, adjust tuning and envelopes, and change MIDI keys.
• High-Quality Audio: Digitally recorded at 24 bit / 88.2 KHz and released at 24 bit / 44.1 KHz.
• Presets by Mike Tacci: Includes presets mixed by the original "Black Album" assistant engineer.

Chocolate Audio has been creating high-quality drum sample libraries since 2003 and is known for their coherent and playable sampled instruments. Their drum samples have been used on countless tracks over the past 13 years, working with industry leaders like Native Instruments and Ableton.

Please Note: This instrument requires the full retail version of Kontakt 5.5.2 or higher. The free Kontakt Player will run this instrument in demo mode only for a few minutes. The download size is approximately 12.5 Gigabytes.

Recreate the magic of a historical record with The Black Album Drums for Kontakt!