I'm trying to figure out what sample library or virtual instrument was used for the drums in
Halo 3: Another Walk (2007)
Halo Reach: From The Vault (2010)
Halo 3 ODST: More Than His Share (2009)

All 3 tracks have heavily processed acoustic drums, the same china cymbal sample (it's played very lightly, might be hard to hear on youtube- should be easiest to hear in the first track), and some electronic elements, all mashed together. I think they were all from the same instrument or library because they seem to always appear together in Halo tracks, and a lot of the percussion in Halo's OSTs is loops.

To narrow down the search, the earliest these sounds were used in the Halo games' soundtracks was 2007 (I think). Halo was huge back then so there's a chance the composers could have been given some plugins to try before they were released. The closest things I've been able to find are 2 loop libraries Tekniks Blue Shock and SONiVOX Loop Line Dirty Drums. Blue Shock doesn't sound like it's the right one based on the demo on their website, and unfortunately there's nothing on Dirty Drums at all, anywhere, and has been discontinued.

Here's a list of some gear I was able to verify was used by Marty O'Donnell (who worked on Halo):
Kurzweil K2500X, Roland XV-5080, E-mu 4XT Ultra, Proteus 2000, Roland JD-990, some plugins and Digital Performer. I'm 99% sure he used Big Fish Audio LA Drum Sessions 2 and Big Fish Audio Rhythms of Arabia for some hand drum loops.

Any ideas?

 

Oof. I am a drum library addict and I feel like I've heard them all but picking one out of all of them by ear- that's a tall order. Unless there's something very very unique about it. I'll listen but I don't have a lot of confidence.

(Ah- the age does narrow it down.)

 

Yeah sorry, I'm useless here, hope someone knows!

 

Could it be a mix of EastWest drum libraries like RA, Stormdrum, and even Colossus/Goliath?

 

Stormdrum 1 release date was 2004, and the second version was created in 2007 but not available for most users until Feb 2008. So if they had early access as suggested, maybe it was v2 also. Others to check might be Heavyocity Damage, Cinesamples Drums of War, SoundIron Apocalypse Percussion Ensemble 1/2. To see if possibly used, you'd have to compare all the release dates. ID'ing the individual samples would be a good sign of OCD. But those would definitely get you started. For Kontakt libs, most should be v4 or v5 as min requirements.

 

How much time did you spend searching for it? I am just asking because I wonder if it is really worth spending hours and hours searching rather than recreating it.

 

I'm new to audio engineering and kind of just wanted to mess around with some of the tools used in the Halo soundtracks.

 

Maybe Spectrasonics Stylus RMX

 

That occurred to me too actually... if not I think you will definitely find sounds in there that will work for it.

 

Some of those sounds are likely from NI Kompakt Sony Acid Pro edition on the sister site. Kompakt, not Kontakt. Loop libraries were used a ton back in the mid 00s, stuff like Zero-G, Sony Acid, Rarefaction… there are hundreds if not thousands of libraries that could have been used.

It’s a longshot but you could always try messaging the composers and just asking.

 

Hmmm. It sounds like one of the industrial kits from Drumaxx (Image Line) to me

 

I would suggest to just take the tools that you have and the drum libraries and try to get as close to the halo sound as possible. They will have used effects on the sounds too so the used sounds most likely will have been starting points only. Especially with drum sounds it is relatively easy to manipulate them and get them to sound the way you want. Synth sounds are much harder to adapt or recreate in my opinion, so it will be a good starting point for you as well to start off with the drum sounds. A few tools that you might want to use would be EQ, compression, saturation, distortion, transient designers. You can also layer different sounds as well to create your sounds, e.g. taking the attack of one sound and the sustain of another. With that you should be able to get really close to the halo sound even if you are not using the original samples.

 

Don't dismiss a Kurzweil patch, I used to have a 2500XS and there were some great presets, and as well they might have sampled that percussion and had it go through the AD/DA of the instrument and processed it in the synth.

https://www.google.com/search?q=kur...dse_attribution=1#vhid=IMVQNgbLvKbLnM&vssid=l

 

E-mu E4XT Ultra.Maybe this one.

 

Why not just contact the composer and ask? He is a friendly guy.