XLN Audio AD2: Boutique Mallets

Hand-crafted drums played with mallets. 

A kit like this, hewn from the forest, needs some space around it, so we put it in the biggest one we could find. Soundtrade is Stockholm's oldest and largest surviving studio, and over the years everyone from ABBA to Childish Gambino have come here to take advantage of its massive 100 square metre studio 1 live room's world-class acoustics. Basically anything you put into this room sounds great, and this Wacco kit is no exception.

The Kit - a boutique Wacco

Take one look at this kit and you know it's going to sound different. Drums don't come a lot more organic than these Finnish beauties. Since 1998 Wacco have turned out beautiful wooden kicks, toms and snares (some literally carved out from single slices of tree), heat treated, beautifully finished with natural satin oil, and tuned to perfection with traditional rope-tensioned lugs to give a natural sound like no other. To finish it off, we paired the kit with dry cymbals from the Meinl Byzance series, trashy and low with a sandblasted smoothness. It's the kind attention to detail that shines through in the sound. Warm and natural, and as organic as the stuff it's made of. All the drums in this ADpak were played with both sticks and mallets, with atmospheric cymbal swells to swish you into a whole new direction. Soft and folky, deep and different. Whether you're writing a simple love song or a cinematic film score, this kit has the sounds to suit.

Note: ADpaks are expansion products for owners of Addictive Drums 2.