estecDRUMS Free Sampled Drum Kit by Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn intros estecDRUMS, a free collection of sampled drums recorded in a spacecraft test facility, provided in Ableton, NI Maschine formats.

Armed with his LOM label microphones, Peter Kirn went to the Netherlands discover and to record new sounds. Location: the European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands. This is the place from where most of ESA’s spacecraft and satellites are prepared and tested for space travel. Begins to sound interesting?

Peter and his microphones get into action. He recorded the sound made by gravel crunching under the wheels of a prototype Mars rover and turn them into shakers. Then he transform the sound produced by the pop of a nitrogen valve into bass drums and more. Certainly his experience was amazing, more amazing it is that he offer the entire collection of sounds recorded and processed completely free!

Sound sources include:

1. Prototypes of ESA’s upcoming ExoMars rover, recorded in the in the Planetary Robotics Lab. This includes sounds as we would actually hear them (albeit in Earth atmosphere), as the rover prototype tests its wheels and disembarks from the lander mock-up and traverses some simulated Martian gravel.

2. It also includes recordings from the Planetary Robotics Lab of electro-magnetic radiation made with a special microphones called Elektrosluch, converted to audible sound.

3. Finally, there are recordings of the tests that test spacecraft for shaking and acoustic vibrations, including the massive LEAF (Large European Acoustic Facility).

4. There are also sounds of the popping of nitrogen valves from the Materials & Electrical Components Laboratory, involved in a materials test.

The microphones used for this recording are specially made by Slovakia’s Jonáš Gruska (LOM Label). Audible spectrum recordings are made with Uši; EMF recordings with Elektrosluch.

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Download Links:

• Download uncompressed 16-bit/44.1kHz audio files for use anywhere
• Download an Ableton Live set and Drum Rack for Live 9.5 or later
• Download a Group for Native Instruments Maschine

Installation instructions:

• Users of Ableton Live 9.5 or later can double-click the included alp file to install a Drum Rack and project files, including pre-mapped macros and effects.
• Users of Native Instruments Maschine can install a Maschine group by double-clicking the mxgrp file.
• Users of any other software can use the same 16 audio sources with any tools they choose.

[box type=”info” align=”” class=”” width=””]Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Credit: Peter Kirn/CDM/ESA CC BY-SA.[/box]