Review: "Motor Rhythms" Kontakt Drum Library by Soundiron

This time, I want to have a look at a very unusual drum set! Soundiron is back with a new and incredibly unique Native Instruments Kontakt Drum Library called Motor RhythMs.

This was made with the help of half music-man, half auto mechanic Jordan Hill. The sample pack is created entirely out of sounds from a massive variety of cars and their parts.

He carefully conceived, selected, assembled, and welded together parts from a huge collection of auto makes and models. Soundiron came to his workshop to record each piece in precise detail, with both close and far microphone positions.

About This Library

This Kontakt library features deep round-robin variation & velocity layering, modular kit mapping, intelligent step-sequencing arpeggiator, intuitive controls, endless FX routing possibilities, and a huge variety of dynamic sounds to choose from.

And what’s even better. You can see this Kit in action. The guys of Soundiron have a video on their website. Go check it out, I’ll wait here for you.

So, what this Kontakt library includes? Here is a quick overview:

16 belt pulley bells
2 gas tank kick drums
fly-wheel hi-hats “fly-hats”
coolant tank snare drum
4 brake drums
3 air cleaner cover gongs
oil can gong
3 washer fluid/coolant tank toms
metal air tube cowbell
washer fluid bottle foot drum
plastic air tube woodblock
12 receiver drier hanging chimes (open and muted)
clutch spring disc
large hanging transmission bell
4 plastic oil trap temple blocks
34 distinct instruments with a total of 85 individually playable articulations
Independent Close and Far microphone positions
50 sound-designed ambient pads, grooves, leads, and atmospheres divided into 3 categories

This is already a very cool “sound playground”, and if you are into sound design, which I am then you are probably already excited. But it gets better, as a fan of the Soundiron libraries, it came as no surprise that they pack a bunch more in this product.

Soundiron added an expansive collection of sound-designed atmospheres, grooves, pads, and synth tones created from the raw acoustic source recordings to provide perfect stylized sonic accompaniment. They also provide you with a full rack of Kontakt’s on-board multi-effects and a wide selection of our most popular convolution reverb impulses to add more space to the sound in a variety of real and sound-designed spaces.

Over a hundred impulse settings come from life-like spaces, such as cathedrals, churches, halls, bunkers, garages, tunnels, chambers, rooms, and creative FX convolution impulse responses.

The flexible user interface offers a broad range of essential controls with independent layer settings or global linking. You can shape attack, release, start offset, pitch, volume, and key placement for each kit piece. You can freely map each articulation or select presets for most major drum library midi mapping standards.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a unique rhythm section in your next track look no further!

For this very budget-friendly price (currently on sale for $ 49.00 – regular price $ 79.00), this library offers a very high quality of sound and flexibility. It is definitely very specific, but its range of usability is far wider than I thought at first.

“Motor Rhythms” does not only provide great sound design material, it also works great as a layering tool for beats and percussion in less cinematic tracks. Given that, it’s made by Soundiron and at such a good sales price it’s almost a no-brainer for me, to pick it up right away.

The extra Atmospheres sounds are extremely well crafted and highly inspiring, and the value of having something so unique sounding in your tool belt, without having to do a recording session, is something that should push everyone over the fence.