From powerful percussion libraries to synths and hybrid orchestras, Heavyocity has been successfully producing quality libraries geared toward modern media music for years. The company just released Analog Hybrid Drums, a brand-new chapter in their Damage product line. Following in the footsteps of the highly acclaimed Damage 1 and 2, this new library features a fresh set of hybrid, thunderous percussion sounds, designed to add aggression and impact to any modern media music track!
Let’s take a closer look at its contents and evaluate its usefulness and quality for typical media composing applications.
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Analog Hybrid Drums aims to be an aggressive and modern percussion library perfectly suited for movie, game, and trailer music. Its content spreads around 25,000 samples, which are divided into two main categories: analog synth recordings and hybrid organic percussion. All these sounds have been sampled from well-known synths, various orchestral drums as well as acoustic drumkits, and were then post-processed for maximum intensity. The library also ships with more than 570 drum loops to kickstart inspiration.
As for previous releases, the setup of this library takes place via the Heavyocity Portal application. After registering our serial number, the download could begin. Once that was done, the final step was to register the library within Native Access. Analog Hybrid Drums runs in Kontakt version 6 and above and is fully NKS-ready. The sample library can also be run in the free Kontakt player, making it widely and easily accessible to all media composers. At 7.9 GB (16GB of uncompressed audio), this library aims to be a compact, quality-focused, and affordable library.
USER INTERFACE
Analog Hybrid Drums’ content is spread across three distinct instrument patches (or NKIs), each focused on a specific workflow and containing specific presets/snapshots.
Heavyocity – Analog Hybrid Drums Instrument Patches
The sample library is powered by the same engine that is used for Damage 2 and the Damage Drum Kit. The industrial look and graphics are great, the layout and distribution of controls are sensible, and all the text is easily readable.
In terms of function and features, the Ensemble Designer is the most comprehensive of the three instruments. It allows users to create their own percussive ensembles, and shape the stereo image and mic placement according to their needs. The interface is intuitive, and similarly to Damage 2, is divided into three parts: the main user interface (a stage overview, by default), the keyboard-mapped sound banks, and a navigation banner at the bottom.
One important thing to mention before we move along is that Analog Hybrid Drums features 5 distinct microphone perspectives for its organic percussion side of sounds: Close, Overhead, Room, Hall, and LFE. This is in line with the other products of the Damage series making it very easy to mix and layer the different libraries with one another.
ENSEMBLE DESIGNER
The Ensemble Designer patch loads with the Stage Overview tab open by default. This tab allows us to place the various drums in a virtual room, with seamless left-right and close-far placement options. Individual microphone controls are also included to fine-tune the sonic character of the selected samples.
Heavyocity – Analog Hybrid Drums Ensemble Designer
Users have the choice between selecting one of the 13 ready-to-use snapshots or creating their own custom ensemble. In order to do this, we need to head right to the Source tab, allowing us to choose from seven categories of drums and cymbals. From there we can browse through several categories of sounds, and either assign full banks of sounds to three octaves of our keyboard or pick and mix different samples. All of this is done visually, using drag and drop. It is also possible to favorite our preferred samples.
Heavyocity – Analog Hybrid Drums Source Tab
The third tab, Settings, allows us to fine-tune the performance of our newly selected sounds. Beyond the common controls concerning MIDI input, velocity response and round robins, a unique performance section also lies in there. This allows users to predefine parameters for playing patterns, flourishes, flams, and rolls at the touch of a single key. These parameters include rate, swells, velocities, and accents – neat!
Finally, the Master FX tab features a range of global mastering processors. Here, Heavyocity has used the now typical “central knob” layout, with a very prominent – and popular – Punish effect knob right in the middle. Effects such as compression, saturation, delay, and EQ are adjustable individually and their order can be set up as an FX chain. These tabs are present in all three designer patches, although with minor differences.
Heavyocity – Analog Hybrid Drums Master FX
KIT DESIGNER
The Kit Designer allows for crafting a bespoke hybrid drumkit, with samples assignable to drum pads, reminiscent of Akai MPC-type controllers. It allows for the selection of up to 16 drum samples, mapped to pads corresponding to the C1-D#2 range of keys. Individual effects, mixing, and panning per pad are possible and easy to do via the user interface.
Heavyocity – Analog Hybrid Drums Kit Designer
LOOP DESIGNER
The Loop Designer offers 500+ ready-to-use loops. Users can easily create a unique groove filling up the entire sonic spectrum using a bank each of low, mid, and high stems. The interface also makes adding stutters and tempo-synced reverse transitions very easy, using octave ranges at both ends of the keyboard. Changing the starting and looping points is also super simple and is accomplished by moving graphical flags inside the waveform display.
Heavyocity – Analog Hybrid Drums Loop Designer
THE SOUND OF ANALOG HYBRID DRUMS
Here is a demo track written in a short amount of time showcasing a variety of percussion and synth effects of the library, along with a couple of the pre-designed loops. The track does not feature any post-processing (except for a limiter) to showcase the library out of the box. I mixed the drum elements to the forefront of the mix on purpose.
Click on the button to load the content from soundcloud.com.
The intro of the track starts with a couple of simple and subtle loops covering the low/mid frequencies, which I initially used for inspiration to drive the track along. The library has a great collection of these loops, and they are extremely well-suited for underscores and suspenseful tracks.
According to Heavyocity, the loops were programmed and recorded from iconic analog synths and drum machines, such as the Moog Minitaur and Soma Pulsar 23, and passed through a custom signal chain which gives them a nice and gritty texture. Heavyocity recorded a wide selection of these loops, covering the low, mid, and high frequencies for added flexibility which is a real plus.
The track then evolves and opens up, as I introduce a custom drumkit and more sound effects. As I was creating the track, I felt that Analog Hybrid Drums could be summed up in two words: punchy and powerful.
Some of the synths used for Analog Hybrid Drums (source: Heavyocity)
In full Heavyocity fashion, the samples are perfectly suited for modern media compositions such as movie trailers, TV promos, or video game soundtracks. With up to six round robins and multiple dynamic layers, the drums are very playable and are a joy to improvise with. They also sound great just out of the box. The varied sonic nature between the hybrid hits and the raw organic ones adds to the excitement when playing with the library. The 80+ presets included in the library are nicely curated and make a diverse and varied impression.
In addition to the ensembles, kits, and loops, Analog Hybrid Drums contains a great selection of transition sound effects, which I used quite a few times throughout the demo track. Luckily, the lengths of the transitions are marked in their text descriptions, which is a great time-saver and saved me from shuffling MIDI clips around. Out of these transitions, I have used a variety of reverse cymbals and hits as risers, as can be heard at various points of the track. They can also be tuned and tweaked to taste. As a side note, those transitional effects were so useful that I wished Heavyocity included even more. At key moments in my composition, I added some stutter effects on part of the loops to drive up the intensity of the transitions.
CONCLUSION
With their latest Damage chapter, Heavyocity focuses on the powerful combination of acoustic drums and analog synths and aims to make them sound as impactful as possible, thanks to the company’s trademark style of sound design and post-processing.
Analog Hybrid Drums offer a diverse collection of sounds in a compact size, with very few overlaps. While the library is designed for trailer music and hard-hitting hybrid action tracks, some of the sounds and loops are also very suitable for more subtle and suspenseful underscores. Moreover, the snapshots included make for great cue starters and represent a well-thought-out selection all in all. The easy-to-operate interface makes users feel at home, particularly if they already own one of the other libraries of the Damage series.
Priced at $149, Analog Hybrid Drums is a very affordable library given the wealth of sonic possibilities on offer. I would confidently recommend this library to any modern media composer without any hesitation.
Pros
Impactful sounds
Clear and intuitive interface
Several mic perspectives available
Generous number of presets/snapshots
Cons
A second set of transition FX would have been a great addition
From powerful percussion libraries to synths and hybrid orchestras, Heavyocity has been successfully producing quality libraries geared toward modern media music for years. The company just released Analog Hybrid Drums, a brand-new chapter in their Damage product line. Following in the footsteps of the highly acclaimed Damage 1 and 2, this new library features a fresh set of hybrid, thunderous percussion sounds, designed to add aggression and impact to any modern media music track!
Let’s take a closer look at its contents and evaluate its usefulness and quality for typical media composing applications.
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OVERVIEW
Analog Hybrid Drums aims to be an aggressive and modern percussion library perfectly suited for movie, game, and trailer music. Its content spreads around 25,000 samples, which are divided into two main categories: analog synth recordings and hybrid organic percussion. All these sounds have been sampled from well-known synths, various orchestral drums as well as acoustic drumkits, and were then post-processed for maximum intensity. The library also ships with more than 570 drum loops to kickstart inspiration.
As for previous releases, the setup of this library takes place via the Heavyocity Portal application. After registering our serial number, the download could begin. Once that was done, the final step was to register the library within Native Access. Analog Hybrid Drums runs in Kontakt version 6 and above and is fully NKS-ready. The sample library can also be run in the free Kontakt player, making it widely and easily accessible to all media composers. At 7.9 GB (16GB of uncompressed audio), this library aims to be a compact, quality-focused, and affordable library.
USER INTERFACE
Analog Hybrid Drums’ content is spread across three distinct instrument patches (or NKIs), each focused on a specific workflow and containing specific presets/snapshots.
The sample library is powered by the same engine that is used for Damage 2 and the Damage Drum Kit. The industrial look and graphics are great, the layout and distribution of controls are sensible, and all the text is easily readable.
In terms of function and features, the Ensemble Designer is the most comprehensive of the three instruments. It allows users to create their own percussive ensembles, and shape the stereo image and mic placement according to their needs. The interface is intuitive, and similarly to Damage 2, is divided into three parts: the main user interface (a stage overview, by default), the keyboard-mapped sound banks, and a navigation banner at the bottom.
One important thing to mention before we move along is that Analog Hybrid Drums features 5 distinct microphone perspectives for its organic percussion side of sounds: Close, Overhead, Room, Hall, and LFE. This is in line with the other products of the Damage series making it very easy to mix and layer the different libraries with one another.
ENSEMBLE DESIGNER
The Ensemble Designer patch loads with the Stage Overview tab open by default. This tab allows us to place the various drums in a virtual room, with seamless left-right and close-far placement options. Individual microphone controls are also included to fine-tune the sonic character of the selected samples.
Users have the choice between selecting one of the 13 ready-to-use snapshots or creating their own custom ensemble. In order to do this, we need to head right to the Source tab, allowing us to choose from seven categories of drums and cymbals. From there we can browse through several categories of sounds, and either assign full banks of sounds to three octaves of our keyboard or pick and mix different samples. All of this is done visually, using drag and drop. It is also possible to favorite our preferred samples.
The third tab, Settings, allows us to fine-tune the performance of our newly selected sounds. Beyond the common controls concerning MIDI input, velocity response and round robins, a unique performance section also lies in there. This allows users to predefine parameters for playing patterns, flourishes, flams, and rolls at the touch of a single key. These parameters include rate, swells, velocities, and accents – neat!
Finally, the Master FX tab features a range of global mastering processors. Here, Heavyocity has used the now typical “central knob” layout, with a very prominent – and popular – Punish effect knob right in the middle. Effects such as compression, saturation, delay, and EQ are adjustable individually and their order can be set up as an FX chain. These tabs are present in all three designer patches, although with minor differences.
KIT DESIGNER
The Kit Designer allows for crafting a bespoke hybrid drumkit, with samples assignable to drum pads, reminiscent of Akai MPC-type controllers. It allows for the selection of up to 16 drum samples, mapped to pads corresponding to the C1-D#2 range of keys. Individual effects, mixing, and panning per pad are possible and easy to do via the user interface.
LOOP DESIGNER
The Loop Designer offers 500+ ready-to-use loops. Users can easily create a unique groove filling up the entire sonic spectrum using a bank each of low, mid, and high stems. The interface also makes adding stutters and tempo-synced reverse transitions very easy, using octave ranges at both ends of the keyboard. Changing the starting and looping points is also super simple and is accomplished by moving graphical flags inside the waveform display.
THE SOUND OF ANALOG HYBRID DRUMS
Here is a demo track written in a short amount of time showcasing a variety of percussion and synth effects of the library, along with a couple of the pre-designed loops. The track does not feature any post-processing (except for a limiter) to showcase the library out of the box. I mixed the drum elements to the forefront of the mix on purpose.
Click on the button to load the content from soundcloud.com.
Load content
The intro of the track starts with a couple of simple and subtle loops covering the low/mid frequencies, which I initially used for inspiration to drive the track along. The library has a great collection of these loops, and they are extremely well-suited for underscores and suspenseful tracks.
According to Heavyocity, the loops were programmed and recorded from iconic analog synths and drum machines, such as the Moog Minitaur and Soma Pulsar 23, and passed through a custom signal chain which gives them a nice and gritty texture. Heavyocity recorded a wide selection of these loops, covering the low, mid, and high frequencies for added flexibility which is a real plus.
The track then evolves and opens up, as I introduce a custom drumkit and more sound effects. As I was creating the track, I felt that Analog Hybrid Drums could be summed up in two words: punchy and powerful.
Some of the synths used for Analog Hybrid Drums (source: Heavyocity)
In full Heavyocity fashion, the samples are perfectly suited for modern media compositions such as movie trailers, TV promos, or video game soundtracks. With up to six round robins and multiple dynamic layers, the drums are very playable and are a joy to improvise with. They also sound great just out of the box. The varied sonic nature between the hybrid hits and the raw organic ones adds to the excitement when playing with the library. The 80+ presets included in the library are nicely curated and make a diverse and varied impression.
In addition to the ensembles, kits, and loops, Analog Hybrid Drums contains a great selection of transition sound effects, which I used quite a few times throughout the demo track. Luckily, the lengths of the transitions are marked in their text descriptions, which is a great time-saver and saved me from shuffling MIDI clips around. Out of these transitions, I have used a variety of reverse cymbals and hits as risers, as can be heard at various points of the track. They can also be tuned and tweaked to taste. As a side note, those transitional effects were so useful that I wished Heavyocity included even more. At key moments in my composition, I added some stutter effects on part of the loops to drive up the intensity of the transitions.
CONCLUSION
With their latest Damage chapter, Heavyocity focuses on the powerful combination of acoustic drums and analog synths and aims to make them sound as impactful as possible, thanks to the company’s trademark style of sound design and post-processing.
Analog Hybrid Drums offer a diverse collection of sounds in a compact size, with very few overlaps. While the library is designed for trailer music and hard-hitting hybrid action tracks, some of the sounds and loops are also very suitable for more subtle and suspenseful underscores. Moreover, the snapshots included make for great cue starters and represent a well-thought-out selection all in all. The easy-to-operate interface makes users feel at home, particularly if they already own one of the other libraries of the Damage series.
Priced at $149, Analog Hybrid Drums is a very affordable library given the wealth of sonic possibilities on offer. I would confidently recommend this library to any modern media composer without any hesitation.
Pros
Cons
Analog Hybrid Drums is available for $149 via the Heavyocity online shop.
RECOMMENDED: 9/10
ANALOG HYBRID DRUMS – VIDEO WALKTHROUGH
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