Simmons Signature Sound Library

Simmons SD1250 electronic drum kit close up

Simmons Sounds

Creating the Simmons Sound Library

To develop a high quality sound library for drums you need several important ingredients:

A great sounding room
A knowledgeable recording engineer
Professional quality recording equipment
Classic drums and cymbals
A patient drummer

The Process

We sought out recommendations from professional drummers on the best kits from which to record. Not an easy task, especially with vintage kits.

Each kit was recorded with multiple microphone types through Audient studio consoles directly to a computer at high resolution.

Recording Techniques

Each of the drums and cymbals were recorded with multiple microphones to capture the drum and ambience. During recording, we used recording techniques to get the most authentic sounds possible. For example for the vintage jazz kit we used ribbon mics, with the classic studio techniques needed to capture record-accurate sound.

Every drum and cymbal were recorded with up to 12 microphones.

We also recorded the room, front and rear, to have to have the natural ambience of the great drum rooms we used.

Each kit was first setup in the typical recording positions, and then we pulled out the other drums and cymbals when recording for complete separation, but with natural microphone placements.

The Console

All the channels went to an Audient mixing console with great microphone pre’s along with outboard compressors.
Every mic also had its own channel into ProTools and were recorded at 24Bit/192kHz for posterity.

In the Studio

Shown below are some of the drums that we recorded in the studio.

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