Straight Ahead Samples -

Straight Ahead! Brushes & Mallets

v1.1

User Guide

Copyright ©2014 - Straight Ahead Samples

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Straight Ahead Samples - Straight Ahead! Brushes & Mallets is supplied under a formal
license agreement that you enter into when you install Straight Ahead! Jazz Drums.
Please refer to the Straight Ahead! Brushes & Mallets - END USER LICENSE
AGREEMENT.txt

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What’s New in V1.1?

• Bug fix - Save States - patches now recall Feel and Double-Time states properly
when re-opening projects.

• New Streamlined GUI - in the style of “SA! Bass”

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The Concept

(From Straight Ahead! Jazz Drums User Manual)

With the plethora of amazing drum libraries out on the market, there was still a gaping
hole in the world of drum sampling. JAZZ!

Firstly, the sound of the drums was the first reason for creating a new sample library.
The natural sound of a real jazz drumset is something that simply hadn’t been sampled.
For instance, the functions of rock kick drum vs. jazz kick drums is totally different. A
super beefy and tight rock kick drum has no place in jazz. A jazz drummer’s kick is for
accents and should be open-sounding, with a fair amount of pitch. In basically all other
genres of music, the snare and kick drums are the motor force driving the music
forward. In jazz music, it’s mainly the ride cymbal that pushes the band. Therefore,
using actual jazz drums and cymbals and recording them in a different but appropriate
way, is essential to creating a useful jazz drum library.

The second half is: the SWING! The feel of jazz swing is something that cannot be
faked or imitated. Attempting to imitate the ride cymbal (ting-ting-tah-ting) will leave a
track seeming just plain silly. We sampled a great young jazz drummer, Billy Williams
(Larry Willis’ Trio, Cyrus Chestnut, Warren Wolf, Tim Green) and captured as much of
his hard-swingin’ self as we could.

Adapting and expanding on the concept behind Straight Ahead! Jazz Drums, we
present the final missing piece in jazz drums sample libraries: Straight Ahead! Brushes
& Mallets.

Straight Ahead! Brushes & Mallets

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Key Features

• Authentic classic jazz drum sound

• Playable brush/swirl patterns
• Authentic swingin’ loops played by young jazz drummer phenom Billy Williams Jr. •
4/4, 3/4, 6/8, and latin/straight eighths (in all tempos - synced to your DAW)
• Fills
• Double-Time Keyswitch
• Everything with Snares On & Off
• Full Kit Mixer for maximum mixing flexibility

The Interface

Take a moment and familiarize yourself with the main interface. Note: the Mallets patch
contains no loops and therefore is a very simplified version of the Brushes interface.
Note: only the “Snares On/Off” button and the Mixer page are relevant to the Mallets
patch.

• TEMPO PATCHES - Each patch is for a specified tempo range (i.e. Fast
{205-285bpm}) and should only be used for sequences whose tempo is within
this range.

• FEEL SELECTOR KNOB - All feels are included in each patch (4/4 Swing, 3/4
Swing, Straight/Latin) and are selectable by the Feel knob.

Straight Ahead! Brushes & Mallets

 • PURGE/LOAD BUTTONS - The green buttons next to each “Feel” and above the
“Drums” button purge and load the Feels and Drums, respectively. This is a
RAM-saving feature.

• LOOP QUANTIZE - Use the Loops Quantize button to turn off & on a feature
which automatically quantizes the loops to the next downbeat.

• SNARES ON/OFF - turns the snares on and off

• MAIN/MIXER - toggle the Main and Mixer screens with the tabs on the bottom-
left

• OUTPUT SELECT - In the Mixer window, clicking on the kitpiece name will call a
dropdown menu to select an output other than the Default Out.

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The Key Layout

Brushes

There are 3 main playing areas. The kit samples at the lowest part of the keyboard (in
blue). The tempo-sync brush pattern/loops (in yellow). And the tempo-synced fills (in
green). Also note the keyswitches (in red) at the top of the keyboard. B6 for double-time,
and C7 back to normal speed.

Straight Ahead! Brushes & Mallets

Mallets

Since there are no loops or fills in the Mallets patch, there are only the Samples (hits) at
the bottom of the keyboard. They are meant to match up in mapping (as close as
possible) with the Brushes library (as well as Straight Ahead! Jazz Drums) to allow for
easier switching pre- recorded material between libraries.

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Using the “Mid” Loops

Oftentimes, you’ll find that following fills or other hits necessary to the musical
arrangement, it sounds awkward to start one of the Brush Patterns directly after on the
downbeat. This is because often there will be an accent on or an anticipation to the
downbeat. We have solved this issue by creating “Mid” samples. Which is just our word
for a patterns that starts on beat 2 or 3. The sample starts in the middle of the loop,
usually on beat 2. They are triggered by the HARDEST VELOCITIES on the brush
pattern keys.

Here’s an example of what your sequencer may look like (“Loop Quantize” must be on):

Fill - to anticipation

Ride Loop “Mid” sample - note

hardest velocity

Straight Ahead! Brushes & Mallets

Ride crash - anticipation

Notice that the fill used is one that leads to the &-of-4. To help with the accent, the ride
(crash), snare and kick samples are also played on the &-of-4. The hardest velocity is
hit on the one of the ride loop keys, which will begin playing on beat 2 of the following
bar. If you didn’t use the “mid” sample, you would hear a fill and the and accent hit on
the &-of-4, followed instantly by the ride pattern starting on beat 1, which not only
obscures the big accent we just heard, but sounds very unnatural and choppy. The
“Loop Quantize” button must be activated.

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Double-Time Keyswitch

There is a key at the top of the keyboard (B6) that switches all the loops/fills to double-
time feel. Keyswitch directly above it (C7) reverts back to normal. When Double-Time is
active, a label will appear in the interface.

Straight Ahead! Brushes & Mallets

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Drum Specs

• Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute Noveau Drums

• 14x6 Sonor Delite Snare Drum (Remo Coated Ambassador Batter, Hazy Snare
Resonant) • 18x14 Kick Drum (Remo Coated Emperor Batter, Yamaha Logo Resonant)
• 12x8 Rack Tom (Remo Coated Ambassador Batter and Resonant)
• 14x14 Floor Tom (Remo Coated Ambassador Batter and Resonant)
• 14” Zildjian K Custom Session Hi-Hats
• 22” Zildjian K Constantinople Prototype Over-hammered Thin Ride Cymbal (Main
Ride)
• 20” Zildjian K Constantinople Prototype Light Ride (Left-Side Crash Ride)

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Sampling Specs

• 4,167 Samples, 24 bit/48k

• Compatible with Full Kontakt 4.2 or higher
• As much as 7 velocity layers and 8 round robins

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Troubleshooting/FAQ

• Do I need the full version of Kontakt?

Yes. At this time our libraries are libraries are programmed for the full version of Kontakt
5.

• How are the samples processed?

This library was recorded very cleanly through SSL mic pres and Apogee converters.
They have been very minimally compressed and are ready for processing in your DAW.

• When I load SA!B&M into Kontakt, it says “Demo.” Why?

Straight Ahead! Brushes & Mallets is a Kontakt 4 library, that works with the full version
of Kontakt 4 Sampler only. The Kontakt Player will not work. Go to http://www.native-
instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/kontakt-5/ to learn more about Native
Instruments Kontakt 4.

• My loops have stutters or dropouts?

The tempo ranges are very strict. If the tempo selector is set to “Medium 120-205bpm”,
you can’t go ANY lower than 120bpm. The top of the tempo range is a suggestion, you
can go above it if you’d like, although some of the performances my sound strange at
faster tempos.

Straight Ahead! Brushes & Mallets

Straight Ahead! Brushes & Mallets