Recording January 2022 - 48

-Review by Paul Vnuk Jr.
Spitfire Audio
Hammers
An exciting rhythmic toolset
for the cinematic job site
In September 2021 we interviewed Charlie Clouser, best
known for his work on the popular Saw/Spiral film series
and his tenure in Nine Inch Nails. Beyond his twisted
soundscapes and sonic seductions, Charlie walked us
through crafting percussion tracks and drum samples in
his 23'-high stone-walled living room. In collaboration with
Spitfire Audio, Hammers by Charlie Clouser grants access
to his unique percussive world and workflow.
Get Hammered!
Hammers includes over 1000 samples, 400 loops and 400
'Warps', featuring eight instruments: bass drums, surdos, toms,
roto-toms, darabukas, frame drums, scrap metals and snare.
Spitfire distilled all this material down behind an easy-to-use
GUI with a well-chosen collection of curated controls that offer
just enough customization to place your own stamp on the proceedings
without getting lost in the weeds.
Sounds
Unlike many film scoring percussion packs, Hammers is neither
overtly orchestral nor world-flavored. The collection centers
on the plastic-headed kick drums and toms from a pair
of vintage Ludwig drum sets: a classic amber Vistalite, and a
stainless steel set, both made famous by John Henry Bonham.
While I mention that Hammers is not overtly word-flavored,
you may be thinking, " ...but surdo, darabuka, frame drum? " In
Hammers, the drums are more a sample source struck for tone
than a collection of conventional sounding and played drum
kits, and the world-flavored drums are never played in any
traditional style.
The focus of Hammers is the sound of each drum played
Charlie's way in Charlie's room. Each drum is available solo,
or paired up (a 14 " tom from each kit, for example) and struck
by two players or in a four-strike ensemble. Each drum offers a
choice of single hit, flam, ruff or roll. Nicely, you can vary the
speed and intensity of the roll with the mod wheel, and each
roll, ruff and flam can be cut short by striking a single hit. Note,
this playing option, along with many others, is user-configurable.
48 RECORDING January 2022
Most drums also offer additional strike positions such as
edge or center on the Darabukas, or strike materials including
wire brushes and fuzzy paint-rollers.
Mic positions and added mayhem
Each drum was recorded with mics selected and positioned by
Charlie in his unique stone-walled space. A selection of sliders
lets you choose between close mic, overhead and distant room
options. You can also add in compressed and pitch-shifted mics
placed on the catwalk above the room and inside his chimney.
There is also a dedicated sub-tone slider. Three additional sliders
give you options for an all-faders-up blend of the close, overhead
and room mics, as well as what Charlie calls turbo-charged and
over-the-top variations with added compression, grit, effects and
pitch shifting. Note that the various mic positions and sub-slider
can be routed for multi-channel and spatial audio work.
For effect
The effects section offers a selection of single-knob controls
that add thirteen impulse reverb options with choices such as
dark chamber, stone room, drum chamber, dark hall, spring,
etc. There's a lowpass filter, a compressor, a normalize control
(like a MIDI compressor that evens out the intensity and strength
of the hits) and a realtime reverse function; this popular cinematic
lead-in reverse effect is not implemented as a simple
backward sample flip-instead, it is fully variable for length
and dramatic effect.
Brickwork
The Hammers playing experience is also different from many
percussion libraries. While Hammers can be assigned to your
favorite drum pads or MPC-style controller (it was pretty responsive
on the pads of a Novation Launchkey Mini, Arturia Keylab
49MKII and a KMI Bop Pad), Hammers is purpose-designed for
keyboard finger drummers.
Recording January 2022

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