The latest delivery from SampleRadar is a rim-arkable collection of percussive sounds that's comprised of 444 rimshots and 76 miscellaneous hits.
The pedants amongst you may wish to know that the sounds in this collection are in fact sidestick hits, not rimshots. The term rimshot is often applied to the practice of hitting the snare drum rim with the stick whilst one end is pressed against the batter head, but technically, this is called 'sidestick'.
Rimshot is when the rim is hit simultaneously with the batter head. So - in truth, these are sidestick samples, not rimshot samples. However, we're using the technically incorrect term, as that remains a common name for this type of sound in music production. Please direct any complaints to the trash can.
What you need to know
These rimshot samples are divided into two folders, which are subdivided with reference to the equipment used in their creation.
All the samples are supplied as WAV files so can be imported directly into your DAW or sampler of choice. Because they're royalty-free, you're welcome to use the samples in your music in any way you like - all we ask is that you don't re-distribute them.
The samples are supplied in a zip file, so you'll need to extract them before you can see them. Enjoy!
How they were recorded
These rimshot samples were made with three snare drums: a 14” x 5.5” stainless steel shell Ludwig Black Magic, a 14” x 5.5” plywood shell Tama Rockstar and a 12” x 3” Pearl Maple Shell piccolo snare. There are two or three tunings for each snare and with that tuning a set of 'positions' are given with three hits each (light, medium and hard velocities). For most the latter positions (4, 5 & 6) are made with the snare spring dropped.
The drum kit we've used happened to be fully mic'ed at the time work started on this set so we just dampened off the other drums and cymbals and recorded the overhead mics (STC/Coles 4038s), the snare mics (Beyerdynamic M201 on top, Shure SM57 below and an AKG D190E on the floor pointing at the kick drum batter head), and the room mics (Telefunken AR51 in front of the kit, a 1948 RCA MI-6204 ribbon mic behind the drum stool and a Maplin Super- Stereo Ear kids' toy mic by the AR51).
At mixdown we combined the overheads and three snare mics (Close Mics folders) to one group and the three room mics to another (Room Mics folders). The former was processed lightly with a touch of EQ and limiting, whilst the latter was given a load more crunch and smash. There are more samples here than anyone could need from these three drums, but no two are the same!
The remaining samples in the Percussion Hits folder take a set of basic sources samples from our percussion collection and give them some reamping pedal chain attention. The percussion instruments were selected from those that sit in the same ballpark as sidestick snares, i.e. they are hard, and hit with a stick.
Example sounds
Rimshot samples: click to download
These samples originally appeared in Future Music Magazine. Check out the latest issue for many more.
Head over to the SampleRadar hub to download over 80,000 more free samples.
