The cinematic music landscape has grown exponentially, with an increasing demand for high-quality, versatile sound libraries. In this crowded market, AVA Music Group’s latest release, Decadence – Trailer Toms, seeks to stand out as a specialized percussive tool tailored for trailer music composers. This product is specifically designed to deliver powerful, punchy toms that can seamlessly integrate into cinematic scores, trailers, and even hybrid pop music. With the growing trend of incorporating aggressive, hard-hitting percussion into various genres, Decadence arrives as a promising solution. In this review, we’ll dive deep into the library’s features, user interface, sound quality, and overall playability to determine whether it lives up to its ambitious claims.
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Decadence – Trailer Toms is a carefully curated percussion library featuring a wide array of tom samples designed for cinematic and trailer music production. The library was created in collaboration with sound designer Karél Psota whose amazing Sound Design online course we reviewed a while ago. It is organized into single patches and master patches, offering users the flexibility to choose between individual sounds and pre-mapped multi-sound kits. This 2 GB sample library is designed for use with Native Instruments’ Kontakt and is compatible with the software sampler’s free and paid version.
One of the standout features of this library is its extensive sampling depth. Each drum sample is recorded with 10 velocity layers and 9 round robins, ensuring a rich, organic sound that avoids the repetitive, robotic feel sometimes associated with programmed percussion. This extensive sampling allows the user to create dynamic, nuanced performances with a natural human feel.
Additionally, the library includes a set of sound design tools, such as a built-in sequencer, compression slider, filter dynamics, and various effects. These tools allow users to shape the sounds to fit their specific needs, whether they are looking for a tight, punchy tom sound for a modern pop track or a wide, reverberant drum for an epic cinematic score.
The library’s content is particularly well-suited for trailer music, where aggressive and impactful sounds are essential. However, its versatility potentially makes it a valuable addition to the toolkit of composers working in various genres, including film scoring, video game soundtracks, and even contemporary pop, rock, and electronic music.
AVA Music Group – Decadence Main Interface
USER INTERFACE
One of the key aspects of any virtual instrument is the user interface, and Decadence excels in this area with a clean, intuitive design. The interface is divided into several main sections, allowing users to easily access and tweak various parameters.
The main window of the interface provides immediate access to essential controls such as volume envelope, filter settings, MIDI compression, and the “big knob”, which combines a mix of compression, EQ, and saturation into one control.
A particularly useful feature is the built-in sequencer, which allows users to create rhythmic patterns directly within the interface. This sequencer is simple to use, offering a straightforward grid where users can place hits at different velocities, creating complex and evolving rhythms with ease. The sequencer can also be used to trigger different round robins and velocity layers, adding an additional layer of realism to the performance. Decadence – Trailer Toms offers 150 pre-designed cinematic grooves you can access and modify through the sequencer tab.
AVA Music Group – Decadence MIDI Grooves
Another cool feature is the compression slider, which operates differently from traditional compression tools. Instead of simply compressing the dynamic range of the audio signal, this slider adjusts the balance between the lower and higher velocity layers on a MIDI level, allowing softer hits to be heard more clearly without losing the impact of the louder hits. This feature is particularly useful for achieving the kind of large, cinematic drum sound that is popular in modern trailer music.
The interface also includes a variety of effects, including reverb, delay, compression, EQ, and a stereo widener, which can be used to further shape the sound. These effects are well-integrated into the interface, with easy-to-use controls that make it simple to experiment with different settings. Users can also save their effect presets, allowing for quick recall of favorite settings.
Overall, the interface of Decadence – Trailer Toms is well-designed and user-friendly, making it easy to get professional-sounding results quickly. Whether you’re a seasoned composer or a beginner just getting into trailer music, the intuitive layout and powerful features of this library will help you achieve your creative goals with minimal hassle.
AVA Music Group – Decadence Effects
DECADENCE – INSTRUMENTS & SOUND
Decadence – Trailer Toms offers a thoughtfully curated selection of drum and percussion patches, each designed with a distinct sonic identity. This makes it a versatile tool for a range of cinematic and trailer music applications.
Many of the patches are built from one or two core multi-sampled sounds, which are then pitched up and down across a single octave using the Kontakt engine. This method allows for sound variation and enables you to create pitched tom fills that add a dynamic and melodic element to your tracks. Instead of tuning the drums up and down during the recording process, the samples are adjusted after the fact within Kontakt.
While tuning the drums up and down during the actual recording sessions might have resulted in a more realistic and naturally varied sound, the artificial tuning employed by the Kontakt engine stays within reasonable limits and still works effectively. The pitch-shifted samples blend well, especially when integrated into a dense mix, where the subtle nuances of tuning are less critical. The result is a set of drum patches that sound convincing and powerful within the context of trailer and cinematic music, maintaining the overall impact of the percussion.
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Here is an overview of the available patches and their sound:
Toms – 3way
Drawing inspiration from the intense, gritty sounds of Mad Max: Fury Road and the production style of 2WEI, the Toms – 3way patch delivers a substantial, weighty sound. This patch is engineered to cut through dense mixes, making it particularly effective for impactful fills. It combines heft and cohesion, ensuring that these toms stand out in any composition, providing a bold and unified sound.
Toms – Vintage
The Toms – Vintage patch offers a more focused and round sound, perfect for moments when contrast is key. These toms are smaller and more controlled, making them ideal for creating tension before a big hit. Their round, almost subdued tone adds a subtle sense of size, setting up larger, more expansive sounds to follow, and enhancing the overall dynamic range of your music.
Toms – Magnum
The Toms – Magnum patch blends deep, resonant foot stomps with tom ensembles, creating a rich, textured sound. Unlike more aggressive options, these toms are intentionally less punchy, allowing other elements in the mix to shine through. This makes them an excellent choice for layering, adding depth without overshadowing other components, and providing a full, balanced auditory experience.
War Drum – Defeat
Inspired by the epic, resonant percussion often associated with Hans Zimmer, the War Drum – Defeat patch offers a deep, textural sound with outstanding transient clarity. These war drums are perfect for adding weight and intensity to a composition, especially when layered with more exotic elements like a Darbuka. The Defeat patch brings a powerful, cinematic quality that suits scenes requiring a sense of grandeur and impact.
War Drum – Aversion
The War Drum – Aversion patch provides a softer, more diffused sound, characterized by its broad, noise-like texture. This patch is designed for situations where a subtler, more atmospheric drum presence with less defined transients is needed, making it particularly useful in trailer music. Its ability to fill space without dominating the mix makes it an excellent tool for creating tension or layering background rhythms.
Darbuka – Le Pilat
For an exotic touch, the Darbuka – Le Pilat patch delivers a unique blend of traditional and modern sounds. This patch merges the organic timbre of the Darbuka with contemporary production techniques, resulting in a distinctive sound that stands out in any composition. It’s ideal for adding a world music element to your scores, while still fitting comfortably within the cinematic genre.
Booms
The Booms patch offers two distinct varieties: one designed to enhance breaks with rich upper harmonics and another that provides a clean, unobtrusive low-end for layering. These options give you the flexibility to either emphasize low-frequency impact or add depth without overwhelming other elements in the mix. They are essential for creating dramatic, earth-shaking moments in trailer music.
Taps & Tops
The Taps & Tops patches features smaller, more intricate frame drums that excel in delivering texture and detail. These drums have a lighter sound, making them perfect for adding subtle rhythmic layers or crafting detailed rolls and inner rhythms. They are a great way to introduce complexity and nuance to your percussive arrangements without overshadowing the main elements.
Kicks
The Kicks patches offer a selection of aggressive, textured kick drums designed with cinematic impact in mind. These kicks provide a solid foundation for any track, with enough power and presence to drive a composition forward. Their textured quality ensures they remain prominent in the mix, making them a key component in high-intensity scores.
Snare
The Snare patch provides a warm, organic snare sound with a unique feature: as you play with more intensity, the snare transitions into a flam, adding a dynamic, realistic element to your performance. This patch lies somewhere between a rock snare and an orchestral snare sound, offering everything from subtle, supportive rhythms to driving, attention-grabbing beats.
Claps & Sticks
The Claps & Sticks patch includes expansive claps perfect for filling the sonic space around mid-range drums, as well as sticks recorded with a sharp transient These elements can add a crisp, professional layer to your mixes, enhancing the overall impact and polish of your compositions.
Cymbals
Finally, the Cymbals patch offers a slightly more open, roomier sound. These hi-hats, crash cymbals, and rides are designed to integrate seamlessly into your compositions, providing the high-end shimmer and impact needed to complement the other percussive elements without overpowering them.
Master Patches
Decadence includes three master patches that consolidate all the available drum sounds into a single, versatile patch that functions like a complete drum kit. These master patches are designed to give users quick and comprehensive access to the entire range of percussion sounds within the library, with each one tailored to different sonic needs:
Master Patch Organic: This patch maintains the original, unaltered sound of the individual instruments, offering a powerful and wide drum kit experience. It’s perfect for users who want to work with the processed sounds straight out of the box.
Master Patch Punchy: This version takes the same instruments but applies an even punchier, more aggressive mix. The enhanced attack and presence make it ideal for situations where the drums need to cut through a dense mix, such as in high-energy trailer music or action-packed film scores.
Master Patch Drowned: This patch offers a low-pass-filtered version of the instruments, creating a darker, more subdued sound. It’s well-suited for adding atmospheric depth or for use in more ambient or moody compositions where the percussion needs to sit back in the mix.
These master patches provide a convenient way to access and experiment with the wide array of drum sounds in Decadence – Trailer Toms, allowing you to quickly find the right tone and texture for your project.
PLAYABILITY
Regarding playability, Decadence – Trailer Toms is highly responsive, with minimal latency and a smooth, natural – yet processed feel. The samples are logically mapped across the keyboard, making it easy to find the sounds you need and play them in a musically intuitive manner.
Overall, the sound quality and playability of “Decadence – Trailer Toms” are top-notch. The library provides a wide range of dynamic, expressive sounds that are perfect for trailer music, as well as a number of useful tools for shaping those sounds to fit your specific needs.
CONCLUSION
In the competitive world of cinematic and trailer music production, finding a percussion library that stands out can be challenging. However, AVA Music Group’s Decadence – Trailer Toms manages to do just that, offering a unique combination of high-quality samples, intuitive design, and useful sound-shaping tools.
The library’s extensive sampling depth, with its 10 velocity layers and 9 round robins, ensures a rich, organic sound that can adapt to a wide range of musical contexts. The user interface is clean and easy to navigate, with several innovative features like the compression slider and filter dynamics that make it easy to get the sound you’re looking for.
Additionally, Decadence includes 150 pre-designed cinematic rhythms, which are a significant asset for composers working under tight deadlines or looking for instant inspiration. These rhythms provide a quick and easy way to integrate professional-sounding, complex percussive patterns into your projects. They are designed to fit seamlessly within the context of cinematic and trailer music, offering a great starting point or a complement to custom percussion arrangements.
Sound quality is where this library truly shines. The samples are crisp, dynamic, and full of character, with a natural decay that adds to their realism. The built-in effects further enhance the library’s versatility, allowing users to tailor the sound to fit their specific needs.
In terms of playability, Decadence is highly responsive and easy to use, with minimal latency and a logical mapping that makes it simple to create dynamic, expressive performances. Whether you’re a seasoned composer or just getting started with trailer music, this library offers a powerful, specialized set of tools that will help you achieve professional results quickly and easily.
While the artificial pitch-shifting used to create variation in the toms is effective, the addition of a variety of real drum tunings per instrument would have elevated the realism even further. However, this is a small drop of bitterness in an otherwise excellent collection of drum and percussion sounds. The diverse range of patches, combined with the thoughtful design of the master patches, makes Decadence – Trailer Toms a highly recommended addition to any composer’s toolkit. Whether you’re scoring a blockbuster trailer, composing for a video game, or just looking for some great new percussion sounds, this library is well worth checking out.
The cinematic music landscape has grown exponentially, with an increasing demand for high-quality, versatile sound libraries. In this crowded market, AVA Music Group’s latest release, Decadence – Trailer Toms, seeks to stand out as a specialized percussive tool tailored for trailer music composers. This product is specifically designed to deliver powerful, punchy toms that can seamlessly integrate into cinematic scores, trailers, and even hybrid pop music. With the growing trend of incorporating aggressive, hard-hitting percussion into various genres, Decadence arrives as a promising solution. In this review, we’ll dive deep into the library’s features, user interface, sound quality, and overall playability to determine whether it lives up to its ambitious claims.
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Learn more
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OVERVIEW
Decadence – Trailer Toms is a carefully curated percussion library featuring a wide array of tom samples designed for cinematic and trailer music production. The library was created in collaboration with sound designer Karél Psota whose amazing Sound Design online course we reviewed a while ago. It is organized into single patches and master patches, offering users the flexibility to choose between individual sounds and pre-mapped multi-sound kits. This 2 GB sample library is designed for use with Native Instruments’ Kontakt and is compatible with the software sampler’s free and paid version.
One of the standout features of this library is its extensive sampling depth. Each drum sample is recorded with 10 velocity layers and 9 round robins, ensuring a rich, organic sound that avoids the repetitive, robotic feel sometimes associated with programmed percussion. This extensive sampling allows the user to create dynamic, nuanced performances with a natural human feel.
Additionally, the library includes a set of sound design tools, such as a built-in sequencer, compression slider, filter dynamics, and various effects. These tools allow users to shape the sounds to fit their specific needs, whether they are looking for a tight, punchy tom sound for a modern pop track or a wide, reverberant drum for an epic cinematic score.
The library’s content is particularly well-suited for trailer music, where aggressive and impactful sounds are essential. However, its versatility potentially makes it a valuable addition to the toolkit of composers working in various genres, including film scoring, video game soundtracks, and even contemporary pop, rock, and electronic music.
USER INTERFACE
One of the key aspects of any virtual instrument is the user interface, and Decadence excels in this area with a clean, intuitive design. The interface is divided into several main sections, allowing users to easily access and tweak various parameters.
The main window of the interface provides immediate access to essential controls such as volume envelope, filter settings, MIDI compression, and the “big knob”, which combines a mix of compression, EQ, and saturation into one control.
A particularly useful feature is the built-in sequencer, which allows users to create rhythmic patterns directly within the interface. This sequencer is simple to use, offering a straightforward grid where users can place hits at different velocities, creating complex and evolving rhythms with ease. The sequencer can also be used to trigger different round robins and velocity layers, adding an additional layer of realism to the performance. Decadence – Trailer Toms offers 150 pre-designed cinematic grooves you can access and modify through the sequencer tab.
Another cool feature is the compression slider, which operates differently from traditional compression tools. Instead of simply compressing the dynamic range of the audio signal, this slider adjusts the balance between the lower and higher velocity layers on a MIDI level, allowing softer hits to be heard more clearly without losing the impact of the louder hits. This feature is particularly useful for achieving the kind of large, cinematic drum sound that is popular in modern trailer music.
The interface also includes a variety of effects, including reverb, delay, compression, EQ, and a stereo widener, which can be used to further shape the sound. These effects are well-integrated into the interface, with easy-to-use controls that make it simple to experiment with different settings. Users can also save their effect presets, allowing for quick recall of favorite settings.
Overall, the interface of Decadence – Trailer Toms is well-designed and user-friendly, making it easy to get professional-sounding results quickly. Whether you’re a seasoned composer or a beginner just getting into trailer music, the intuitive layout and powerful features of this library will help you achieve your creative goals with minimal hassle.
DECADENCE – INSTRUMENTS & SOUND
Decadence – Trailer Toms offers a thoughtfully curated selection of drum and percussion patches, each designed with a distinct sonic identity. This makes it a versatile tool for a range of cinematic and trailer music applications.
Many of the patches are built from one or two core multi-sampled sounds, which are then pitched up and down across a single octave using the Kontakt engine. This method allows for sound variation and enables you to create pitched tom fills that add a dynamic and melodic element to your tracks. Instead of tuning the drums up and down during the recording process, the samples are adjusted after the fact within Kontakt.
While tuning the drums up and down during the actual recording sessions might have resulted in a more realistic and naturally varied sound, the artificial tuning employed by the Kontakt engine stays within reasonable limits and still works effectively. The pitch-shifted samples blend well, especially when integrated into a dense mix, where the subtle nuances of tuning are less critical. The result is a set of drum patches that sound convincing and powerful within the context of trailer and cinematic music, maintaining the overall impact of the percussion.
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Load content
Here is an overview of the available patches and their sound:
Toms – 3way
Drawing inspiration from the intense, gritty sounds of Mad Max: Fury Road and the production style of 2WEI, the Toms – 3way patch delivers a substantial, weighty sound. This patch is engineered to cut through dense mixes, making it particularly effective for impactful fills. It combines heft and cohesion, ensuring that these toms stand out in any composition, providing a bold and unified sound.
Toms – Vintage
The Toms – Vintage patch offers a more focused and round sound, perfect for moments when contrast is key. These toms are smaller and more controlled, making them ideal for creating tension before a big hit. Their round, almost subdued tone adds a subtle sense of size, setting up larger, more expansive sounds to follow, and enhancing the overall dynamic range of your music.
Toms – Magnum
The Toms – Magnum patch blends deep, resonant foot stomps with tom ensembles, creating a rich, textured sound. Unlike more aggressive options, these toms are intentionally less punchy, allowing other elements in the mix to shine through. This makes them an excellent choice for layering, adding depth without overshadowing other components, and providing a full, balanced auditory experience.
War Drum – Defeat
Inspired by the epic, resonant percussion often associated with Hans Zimmer, the War Drum – Defeat patch offers a deep, textural sound with outstanding transient clarity. These war drums are perfect for adding weight and intensity to a composition, especially when layered with more exotic elements like a Darbuka. The Defeat patch brings a powerful, cinematic quality that suits scenes requiring a sense of grandeur and impact.
War Drum – Aversion
The War Drum – Aversion patch provides a softer, more diffused sound, characterized by its broad, noise-like texture. This patch is designed for situations where a subtler, more atmospheric drum presence with less defined transients is needed, making it particularly useful in trailer music. Its ability to fill space without dominating the mix makes it an excellent tool for creating tension or layering background rhythms.
Darbuka – Le Pilat
For an exotic touch, the Darbuka – Le Pilat patch delivers a unique blend of traditional and modern sounds. This patch merges the organic timbre of the Darbuka with contemporary production techniques, resulting in a distinctive sound that stands out in any composition. It’s ideal for adding a world music element to your scores, while still fitting comfortably within the cinematic genre.
Booms
The Booms patch offers two distinct varieties: one designed to enhance breaks with rich upper harmonics and another that provides a clean, unobtrusive low-end for layering. These options give you the flexibility to either emphasize low-frequency impact or add depth without overwhelming other elements in the mix. They are essential for creating dramatic, earth-shaking moments in trailer music.
Taps & Tops
The Taps & Tops patches features smaller, more intricate frame drums that excel in delivering texture and detail. These drums have a lighter sound, making them perfect for adding subtle rhythmic layers or crafting detailed rolls and inner rhythms. They are a great way to introduce complexity and nuance to your percussive arrangements without overshadowing the main elements.
Kicks
The Kicks patches offer a selection of aggressive, textured kick drums designed with cinematic impact in mind. These kicks provide a solid foundation for any track, with enough power and presence to drive a composition forward. Their textured quality ensures they remain prominent in the mix, making them a key component in high-intensity scores.
Snare
The Snare patch provides a warm, organic snare sound with a unique feature: as you play with more intensity, the snare transitions into a flam, adding a dynamic, realistic element to your performance. This patch lies somewhere between a rock snare and an orchestral snare sound, offering everything from subtle, supportive rhythms to driving, attention-grabbing beats.
Claps & Sticks
The Claps & Sticks patch includes expansive claps perfect for filling the sonic space around mid-range drums, as well as sticks recorded with a sharp transient These elements can add a crisp, professional layer to your mixes, enhancing the overall impact and polish of your compositions.
Cymbals
Finally, the Cymbals patch offers a slightly more open, roomier sound. These hi-hats, crash cymbals, and rides are designed to integrate seamlessly into your compositions, providing the high-end shimmer and impact needed to complement the other percussive elements without overpowering them.
Master Patches
Decadence includes three master patches that consolidate all the available drum sounds into a single, versatile patch that functions like a complete drum kit. These master patches are designed to give users quick and comprehensive access to the entire range of percussion sounds within the library, with each one tailored to different sonic needs:
These master patches provide a convenient way to access and experiment with the wide array of drum sounds in Decadence – Trailer Toms, allowing you to quickly find the right tone and texture for your project.
PLAYABILITY
Regarding playability, Decadence – Trailer Toms is highly responsive, with minimal latency and a smooth, natural – yet processed feel. The samples are logically mapped across the keyboard, making it easy to find the sounds you need and play them in a musically intuitive manner.
Overall, the sound quality and playability of “Decadence – Trailer Toms” are top-notch. The library provides a wide range of dynamic, expressive sounds that are perfect for trailer music, as well as a number of useful tools for shaping those sounds to fit your specific needs.
CONCLUSION
In the competitive world of cinematic and trailer music production, finding a percussion library that stands out can be challenging. However, AVA Music Group’s Decadence – Trailer Toms manages to do just that, offering a unique combination of high-quality samples, intuitive design, and useful sound-shaping tools.
The library’s extensive sampling depth, with its 10 velocity layers and 9 round robins, ensures a rich, organic sound that can adapt to a wide range of musical contexts. The user interface is clean and easy to navigate, with several innovative features like the compression slider and filter dynamics that make it easy to get the sound you’re looking for.
Additionally, Decadence includes 150 pre-designed cinematic rhythms, which are a significant asset for composers working under tight deadlines or looking for instant inspiration. These rhythms provide a quick and easy way to integrate professional-sounding, complex percussive patterns into your projects. They are designed to fit seamlessly within the context of cinematic and trailer music, offering a great starting point or a complement to custom percussion arrangements.
Sound quality is where this library truly shines. The samples are crisp, dynamic, and full of character, with a natural decay that adds to their realism. The built-in effects further enhance the library’s versatility, allowing users to tailor the sound to fit their specific needs.
In terms of playability, Decadence is highly responsive and easy to use, with minimal latency and a logical mapping that makes it simple to create dynamic, expressive performances. Whether you’re a seasoned composer or just getting started with trailer music, this library offers a powerful, specialized set of tools that will help you achieve professional results quickly and easily.
While the artificial pitch-shifting used to create variation in the toms is effective, the addition of a variety of real drum tunings per instrument would have elevated the realism even further. However, this is a small drop of bitterness in an otherwise excellent collection of drum and percussion sounds. The diverse range of patches, combined with the thoughtful design of the master patches, makes Decadence – Trailer Toms a highly recommended addition to any composer’s toolkit. Whether you’re scoring a blockbuster trailer, composing for a video game, or just looking for some great new percussion sounds, this library is well worth checking out.
Pros
Cons
Decadence – Trailer Toms is priced at €138.84, including taxes, and is available directly from the AVA Music Group’s official website.
RECOMMENDED: 9/10
DECADENCE TRAILER TOMS – VIDEO WALKTHROUGH
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