Tool Shed Percussion | Sound On Sound

As I'm sure I've said before, you can never have enough drum sounds, but sometimes getting new or original samples to play with can be tough. The nice people at Big Fish Audio have decided to help by putting together this library, which mixes some standard (and not so standard!) drum kits, standard percussion, and 'found' percussion into loops and hits. In total there are 49 construction kits, as well as an additional group of over 500 single hits. Each construction kit follows the standard format of a blast of the full drum loop, followed by the individual parts. The kits are a great mixture of drums, odd/exotic percussion, and bits of junk or tools. For example, the Roller kit contains a Gretsch bass drum, a metal pipe, a parade snare, sandpaper blocks, maracas, a selection of toms, a wooden block, and a slap on someone's 'large round belly'! Other sounds that sit on the stranger end of the scale include saw blades, buckets (both full and empty), tape measures, and a metal leaf rake.

With such a mismatch of sounds, there is a danger that the end results could be a complete din, but the full mixes are actually really good - with a little editing these would work well as percussion beds for most musical genres, especially for soundtrack work. Tempos cover 50-170bpm, and there's also a nice mixture of time signatures, but for me it's the component hits, shakes, and crashes that make Tool Shed Percussion really interesting. These individual hits and loops can be chopped up and slotted into just about any type of rhythm track. Containing both vintage 'normal' kit, some interesting percussion, and other 'found' instruments like crisp packets, suitcases, and paint rollers, these samples can be taken as is or processed to give some some really original-sounding percussive sounds.

I must also mention the excellent included booklet, which is clear, uncluttered, and full of information. Along with the track and bpm listings, it includes detailed information on all the drums and strange percussion used. Size, construction, type of beater, and age of kit are all listed. This is a real plus point that helps to underline the thought and care that the producers, Kent Carter and Pat Campbell, have put into this collection. Other sample CD companies please take note!

On the downside, a few of the samples are quite noisy, with some unpleasant audio side effects thrown in, although that's hardly unexpected when thumping merry hell out of a huge oil tank outdoors! Also, perhaps there are slightly too many standard drum kit sounds for a sample CD with this title, but these really are only very minor niggles that fail to put a dampener on what is a high-quality and well-thought-out collection of truly original percussion sounds that can't fail to inspire and add some much-needed interest to the dullest of rhythm tracks. Oli Bell

5 STARS