Frequently asked questions.

What is a sample?

A sample is a digital file that contains audio data. It is usually in the filer format of .wav or .aiff and could be anything, from random noise to a percussion/drum, a melody, a sound effect, or a recorded vocal. You may import audio samples onto audio tracks in all DAWs (digital audio workstations).


What do I get when I purchase one of your samples?

For each drum in our Raw Samples, you’ll actually get 90 royalty-free sample files. The files are organized in 6 folders and clearly named. Each sample is recorded in 24-bit audio with a sample rate of 48 kHz. We use 13 different microphones to capture the samples and organize them across 11 tracks (two of them being stereo tracks for the Pair of Overhead Mics and the Pair of Room Mics). We record 6 different strokes (articulations) on each drum:

  1. Center Strike (_default sample in root folder)

  2. Rimshot (Stems folder)

  3. Rim Click (Stems folder)

  4. Ghost Note (Stems folder)

  5. Big Fat Snare Drum on head (Stems folder)

  6. Tone Control Ring on head (Stems folder)

Also, within the Stems folder, there are folders to organize stems into Close Mics (we use 3 of them) as well as the Room Mics (we use 10 of them).

Additionally, you’ll get a Multi-Tracks folder that contains individual samples of each mic, which can be mixed to create unique sounds. As well as a Roland SPD-SX folder, which contains compatible 16-bit stems with a sample rate of 44.1 kHz for importing into a Roland SPD-SX sampling pad, or similar sampling device.

For each drum in our Mastered Samples, you’ll actually get over 50 royalty-free files. The files are organized and clearly labeled. Each Mastered Sample Pack includes 10 24-bit Sample Files with a sample rate of 48kHz, professionally recorded with 11 mics, including Coles 4038’s and AKG C414’s and mixed on an SSL 4000 console.   The 10 samples include:

    1. Mastered Best Sample (_drumName.wav)

    2. Sample with Close Mics

    3. Sample with Room Mics

    4. Sample with Tone Control Ring

    5. Sample with BigFatSnare Sound

    6. Sample with No Dampening

    7. Sample with RimClick

    8. Sample with Rimshot

    9. Sample with Snares Off

    10. Roland SPD-SX Compatible Best Sample

Additionally, a Steven Slate Audio Trigger 2 preset Instrument File (.tci) is included for easy drag-n-drop into Slate Trigger to layer or replace existing snares in your mix.  The Instrument File includes 5 Articulations:

    1. Open (no dampening)

    2. ToneControl

    3. BigFat

    4. RimShot

    5. RimClick

Each Articulation has multiple Velocity and Round Robin samples to provide a very dynamic and responsive Trigger replacement, replacing everything from ghost strokes to the loudest rimshots.  Over 40 Individual Velocity samples are also included if you create your own MIDI or use another Trigger application.

Do you use high quality recording gear for your samples?

Yes. Without giving away our secret sauce, we use microphones from Shure, AKG, Coles, Lauten Audio, Warm Audio, and Lewitt and analog pre-amps from Neve, SSL and Universal Audio. Our recoding studio is tuned with acoustic treatment specifically designed for drums.

How do I import a drum sample into my DAW?

In Logic Pro, you can simply drag & drop the sample from a folder on your computer onto an audio track. This is the fastest way of importing single audio samples while working on a track. you can also drag & drop from the Logic file browser panel. This also has the added convenience of quickly clicking on each sample (samples we provide typically have 90 files) and hearing what it sounds like. Then, simply drag & drop the samples you want onto an audio track. Taking one additional step and converting the audio to a MIDI instrument allows you to layer or replace snare drums from existing tracks. Instructions are listed below.

Our New Mastered Samples allow simple drag ‘n drop into Slate Trigger - making it incredibly easy, and powerful, to change the snare sound in your audio track. We love loading Slate Trigger 2 with 8 of our different drums and blending them into a unique, yet authentic acoustic sound. If you don’t use slate Trigger, we include all of the individual velocity files so you can create your own MIDI files or use in another Trigger plug-in.

What is LUFS?

LUFS stands for Loudness Units relative to Full Scale. It's a standardized measurement of audio loudness that factors human perception and electrical signal intensity together. LUFS are used to set targets for audio normalization in broadcast systems for cinema, TV, radio and music streaming. Most streaming services, like Spotify and Youtube stream audio at -14 LUFS. For example, if a track has a loudness level of -9.5 LUFS (like AC DC Back In Black) both streaming platforms will decrease the volume of that track to -14 LUFS. Music that is quieter than -14 LUFS will have their volume increased to -14 LUFS, which can cause distortion during playback. For this reason, all of the audio samples from Drum Sound Studios are slightly louder than -14 LUFS. We typically target 11-13 LUFS levels.

Do your samples compete with software like Superior Drummer?

No. In fact, our samples make Superior Drummer that much better. Using the awesome built-in tools and configuration options in products like Superior Drummer make organizing, mixing, and layering our samples incredibly powerful.

How do I replace a drum sound already recorded in my song?

Modern DAWs make this incredibly easy. In Logic Pro, for example, not only can you replace your snare drum with one of our samples, you can also adjust and randomize the velocity of each drum stroke, so it sounds more human. Logic has a built-in Drum Replacement Tool. Here is an excellent video of how to do this. There are also detailed steps below:


Hoe do I create MIDI instruments for my favorite Drum Sound Studios samples in Logic Pro?

  1. Create New Project in Logic with an Audio track.

  2. Hit F key to open the File Browser.  Choose All Files and locate your Drum Sound Studios folder(s).  We recommend bookmarking it by right-clicking the folder and choosing “bookmark”.

  3. Drag your favorite snare sample onto the Audio Track.  (You might be prompted to change the project sample rate - either option will work.  You also might be prompted to import tempo information or audio markers - you can choose Don’t Import.)

  4. Click the audio section and drag it to the gray area below the audio track.  (The gray area has text displayed that says “Drag audio files here to create instrument tracks”).  You will be prompted with a menu - Select Quick Sampler Optimized.  This creates a MIDI version of the sample and opens the Quick Sampler window. 

  5. Click One Shot button.

  6. Click Factory Default and choose Save As… and save your new MIDI snare sample for future use. We recommend changing the Quick Sampler folder to Sampler (by choosing the columns view and clicking on the Sampler folder). This will make it much faster to find the samples when replacing MIDI snare sounds because they will display in the Sampler drop-down menu.

How do I replace a drum sound in Logic Pro?

  1. Select the track with the snare top mic and press CTRL-D (Drum Replacement Tool)

  2. Select Snare as the instrument.

  3. Select Replacement or Doubling (Replacement mutes the original snare, which you can always do later)

  4. Adjust the Relative Threshold - you can watch the MIDI notes in the newly created track appear and disappear based on the threshold of the transient detection.  (Logic is creating MIDI notes for each snare transient it detects in your original track).  For example, you want to pull the threshold down to trigger the ghost notes of your snare track.  You can also click Preview to play the newly created MIDI notes.  This is very handy, if for example you have kick drum bleed into your snare mic and you don’t want to trigger the kick drum with a snare replacement.

  5. Click OK

  6. You can now Solo your new MIDI track and you can select different samples in the Library, which is opened on the left side by default.  Choose from one of Logic Pro’s built-in 33 acoustic snare sounds and various Layer and Electronic sounds.  However, the results sound the same as all other Logic users doing this same thing. To use your Drum Sound Studios samples, click on the Sampler channel strip button, click in Factory Default and you will see your previously saved snare MIDI instruments listed in the menu.  Select a snare and close.

  7. You have now replaced your electronic in-the-box snare with an authentic snare drum from Drum Sound Studios. 

  • If you playback the snare replacer track and it sounds funny, it is likely assigned to the wrong MIDI key - you can double-click the track, select all of the MIDI notes in the editor, and drag them up to the Root Key (usually C3).  Alternatively, you can easily do this in the Sampler window by clicking the Mapping tab and selecting the key (and pitch) you want to associate with your snare drum.

  • You can also adjust the velocity of each midi note by double-clicking on the track and editing individual velocities (color-coded) or you can randomize the velocity by selecting Functions > MIDI Transform > Random Velocity.

  • You can customize each individual snare sound by clicking Sampler and editing modulators, pitch, velocity, etc.  Alternatively, you can open Drum Kit Designer by selecting the up/down arrows on the edge of the Sampler button and selecting Drum Kit Designer.


Can I use Logic Pro’s built-in Drummer Tracks and then replace the snare drums sounds with samples from Drum Sound Studios?

  1. Create a New Project and choose Drummer.  Alter the genre and complexity of the beat as needed (or play your own beat on a MIDI keyboard or drum pad).

  2. Open Library on the left and choose Drum Kit > Producer Kits (these are multi-track kits).  When you select one, notice that the single Audio track turns into a Track-Stack with multiple tracks beneath it.  Click the drop-down arrow in the top audio track to see the additional tracks.  They are currently “empty”.  But we can fill them with the appropriate output so we can edit the snare track.

  3. To “fill” the empty tracks, Click the yellow Cycle button to turn on cycle range and enclose the drum track you want to export.

  4. Select all of the tracks underneath the Track Stack and then choose File > Export > 21 Tracks as Audio Files (depending on which Producer Kit you selected, there may be more or less than 21 tracks).  Select “Export Cycle Range Only” in the Range drop-down.  Choose a location to export the 21 (may vary) tracks.

  5. Now create a new empty project with an audio track.  Open Finder and browse to the location where you exported the files.  Select them all and drag-n-drop onto the Logic audio track.  When prompted, select Create New Tracks.  21 (may vary) new audio tracks will be created.

  6. Select the Snare track and hit Control-D.  This will create a replacer snare track in MIDI format that you can then replace or layer with Drum Sound Studios authentic snares.  When prompted, Select Snare as the instrument.  Select Replacement or Doubling (Replacement mutes the original snare, which you can always do later) - we recommend Doubling.  Adjust the Relative Threshold - you can watch the MIDI notes in the newly created track appear and disappear based on the threshold of the transient detection.  (Logic is creating MIDI notes for each snare transient it detects in your original track).  For example, you want to pull the threshold down to trigger the ghost notes of your snare track.  You can also click Preview to play the newly created MIDI notes.  This is very handy, if for example you have kick drum bleed into your snare mic and you don’t want to trigger the kick drum with a snare replacement.

  7. Click OK

  8. You can now Solo your new MIDI track and you can select different samples in the Library, which is opened on the left side by default.  Choose from one of Logic Pro’s built-in 33 acoustic snare sounds and various Layer and Electronic sounds.  However, the results sound the same as all other Logic users doing this same thing. To use your Drum Sound Studios samples, click on the Sampler channel strip button, click in Factory Default and you will see your previously saved snare MIDI instruments listed in the menu.  Select a snare and close.

  9. You have now replaced your electronic in-the-box snare with an authentic snare drum from Drum Sound Studios. 

  • If you playback the snare replacer track and it sounds funny, it is likely assigned to the wrong MIDI key - you can double-click the track, select all of the MIDI notes in the editor, and drag them up to the Root Key (usually C3).  Alternatively, you can easily do this in the Sampler window by clicking the Mapping tab and selecting the key (and pitch) you want to associate with your snare drum.

  • You can also adjust the velocity of each midi note by double-clicking on the track and editing individual velocities (color-coded) or you can randomize the velocity by selecting Functions > MIDI Transform > Random Velocity.

  • You can customize each individual snare sound by clicking Sampler and editing modulators, pitch, velocity, etc.  Alternatively, you can open Drum Kit Designer by selecting the up/down arrows on the edge of the Sampler button and selecting Drum Kit Designer.

How do I import snare sounds into Superior Drummer 3?

There are several ways to do this. The easiest is to Click the Add Instrument drop-down in the upper left corner and select Import Audio File… Then browse to your Drum sound Studios library location and select the snare drum you want. The “_default- …” snare drum in the root folder of each snare is the mastered snare drum. There are 3 options presented for the Import Audio File dialogue box:

  1. Add Stack - This gives you the flexibility of combining and mixing multiple snares together to create a unique sound.

  2. Replace - This replaces the current snare selected in the Superior Drummer drum kit.

  3. Add Instrument - This has the added benefit of creating a User Instrument which can easily be selected later from the drop-down menu. We recommend this option. Assign it to a new Snare from the drop-down instrument choices.

User Instruments - If you chose Option 3 Add Instrument, then your new snare icon will appear in the upper left corner. Right-Click on it and select More > User Instruments > Save As… and give your snare a name. This will now be added to your Superior Drummer Library under “User Instruments” and can easily be recalled and used with any kit.

You’ll see when you click Add Instrument, the User Instruments are listed at the bottom of the Menu. Easy and Powerful.

How do Stacks work in Superior Drummer 3?

Stacks can be very powerful and are a great way to work with existing drum samples. To create a Stack:

  1. Click the More drop-down box in the top center of the screen next to the Instrument name and select Import Audio File… Browse your Drum Sounds Studio library and select the snare sample you would like to stack on top of the existing snare in the Superior Drummer drum kit. When prompted, select the default choice of Add Stack and select Snare and the articulation of Center. Then click Import.

  2. The imported snare sound will display as an icon on the right side of the screen under the existing snare in the kit. You can play either one by simply clicking the icon. You can also click the Center Stack button at the top of the icons to select all of them to play simultaneously.

  3. This is where it gets powerful … you can right-click on the imported snare icon and select Route Instrument Microphones… by default, Superior Drummer will route your imported snare to the Snare Top microphone. However, you can click in the drop-down list and route it to any of the mics or create a new channel at the bottom of the list. You can see how this can become powerful. By importing the multi-tracks from your Drum Sound Studios libraries, you can assign each type of microphone from each sample to a new channel in Superior Drummer 3 and then use its awesome mixer to mix the mics to your liking. You can add ambience, mic bleed, and even change the velocity curve of the stroke to really dial-in that authentic, unique sound you are looking for.

  4. Note that the channels in the mixer grow as you import audio samples so you can “stack” the drum sounds and mix them in infinite ways. You are effectively combining recording live rooms across samples - Galaxy Studios combined with Drum Sound Studios.

  5. Wanna try it out for $1? The best way to learn this is to play with it. Download our $1 Sampler Pack and stack it with the 60’s Acrolite found in the Superior Drummer library. You can then stack as many multi-track samples as you like and assign them to a new Channel in the mixer by right-clicking the snare icon and choosing Route Instrument Microphones…. We recommend renaming each of the new channels for easy recall. Then mix and blend for a totally unique snare drum sound.