Drum samples

After searching the internet for free drum samples and not finding any I decided to create my own using my own drum kit. All the samples below were made using Pro-Mark drumsticks, my Yamaha Stage Custom Advantage Nouveau, Paiste cymbals, a Behringer C-1 condenser microphone, a Behringer Eurorack UB502 mixer, some leads, a Hewlett-Packard PC and Audacity.



You can do whatever you like with the samples (WAV).

Bass drum
Snare drum
Snare drum without snare
Snare drum cross stick
Snare shell
Closed hi-hat
Half open hi-hat
Open hi-hat
Ride cymbal (short)
Ride cymbal (long)
Ride cymbal bell
Crash cymbal
Deadened crash cymbal
Tom
Floor tom

Drum samples for FamiTracker

If by any chance you use the NES tracker FamiTracker, I have found these modified samples of my bass and snare drum work quite well in the DPCM channel.

Bass drum
Bass drum 2 (more bass)
Snare drum
Snare drum 2 (more bass)

My guide to NSFs

Here's a very short guide to NSFs, or at least my interpretation, as there were some aspects of NSFs which I didn't quite undertstand when first getting involved.

NSF stands for NES Sound Format and an NSF file holds instructions for the sound hardware of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). While NSFs can be played on the NES by transferring the NSF to a NES cart (see Nullsleep's tutorial), emulators exist so that NSF files can be played back on your PC, which is a much easier method of listening.

I personally use NSFplug, a Winamp plugin allowing NSFs to be played through Winamp. Once the binary for NSFplug has been downloaded the two DLL files and the INI file should be moved into the Winamp 'Plugins' folder. This will allow NSFs to be played using Winamp.

Part of the charm of listening to a pure NSF is that the file plays rather like a real video game soundtrack - looping constantly. Settings can be altered in your NSF player though so that an NSF may only loop twice or for the duration of 3 minutes, for example. Also, NSF files are pretty small.

If you are creating your own NSFs with programs such as FamiTracker or Nerdtracker Winamp can be used again to create a more listenable file from an NSF. Under the 'Output' section of the 'Plug-ins' section of Winamp Preferences choose 'Nullsoft Disk Writer'. Now instead of playing the NSF Winamp will convert it into a WAV . The WAV can then be turned into an MP3 using iTunes or Audacity.

NSF Wikipedia article