Originals Drumline

Name: Originals Drumline
Price: 29 USD
Author: Spitfire Audio

by Spitfire Audio · Drum Instrument · Marching percussion library

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Originals Drumline is a marching percussion library from Spitfire Audio, recorded with a championship drum corps.

It covers snares, tenors, bass drums and cymbals in ensemble hits, rolls and swells. It costs $29.

Best for: Drums, Sound Design. Genres: Ambient & Cinematic, Hip-Hop & Trap.

Keywords: acoustic drums, cinematic, ensemble, film & game audio, tight, sample-based, sequencer, sound design, subscription.

What it does

Originals Drumline is a low-cost marching percussion library in Spitfire's Originals series of "instant writing tools". Spitfire's tagline is "The spirit of the stadium."

Players: recorded with the Blue Devils drum corps, made in partnership with Bleeding Fingers.
Kit: snares, tenor drums, bass drums and cymbals, deep-sampled as playable instruments rather than loops.
Room: recorded on the Newman Stage at 20th Century Fox, a controlled space that gives a tight, focused sound.
Presets: nine presets: Ensemble, Snare Hits, Tenor Drum Hits, Bass Drum Hits, Cymbals, Rolls, Swells, Hairpins and Drumkit Mapping.
Mic signals: Close (spots and overheads), Room (Tree, Outriggers and room mics) and Hyped, a version with compression, saturation and EQ for extra weight.
Controls: five, covering expression, dynamics, reverb, tightness and variation, with a customisable digital mod wheel.
Drumkit mapping: lays the parts out to play like a kit, sequence, or trigger from electronic drums.

It runs in the free INSTRUMENT plugin. It has a 40% student discount, and is also included in the Splice INSTRUMENT subscription.

Source: Spitfire Audio product page

When to use it

Originals Drumline is the pick when you need drum-corps snares, tenors and bass drums for cadences, rolls and big ensemble hits quickly and cheaply. Compared with Superior Drummer 3, EZdrummer 3 or Battery 4, it has no grooves, kit-building or deep mixing, and it covers only marching percussion. It does offer a drumkit mapping, so unlike a loop library you can play it from a keyboard or e-kit. Against dedicated marching libraries such as Virtual Drumline it is smaller and simpler, with nine presets instead of full sticking and technique detail.

Best for: trailer and sports-style cues, marching cadences, and drumline rolls, hits and fills in cinematic, electronic or hip-hop tracks.
Genres: cinematic, trailer, electronic, hip-hop.
Look elsewhere if: you need a full drum kit with grooves (Superior Drummer 3 or EZdrummer 3) or detailed marching articulations (Virtual Drumline).
Tip: even if marching percussion isn't your style, the hits and rolls work well for building fills (We Rave You).

What producers say

Welcomed as strong value for a niche that few libraries cover.

We Rave You said it "delivers far more than you would expect" at its price and called the samples "exquisite", pointing to ODESZA-style marching drums.
VI-Control thread users were positive about the price and the Blue Devils collaboration; drummers liked the drumkit mapping for playing it from V-Drums, and one saw it as a cheap complement to Virtual Drumline.

Where to buy

Spitfire Audio: $29
PluginFox: $29

Tutorials and reviews

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