8-Bit Drum Kits 3

The DPCM channel of the NES sound chip was the only channel capable of playing back sampled audio. While many people associate its sound with "8-bit" audio, the actual playback fidelity was only 1-bit, greatly reducing the detail and quality of the samples. This channel was mostly intended for sound effects, but composers quickly realized its potential for drums and percussion, as short percussive samples required less memory and could be efficiently sequenced within the constraints of game soundtracks. As game audio design evolved, DPCM drum samples became more common in later NES games, expanding beyond synthesized drum sounds. Many of these 8-bit drum samples originated from recordings of classic drum machines of the time, such as the Roland TR-808 and TR-909, while others were sampled from acoustic drums or even everyday objects transformed into percussion sounds.

However, due to memory limitations in NES cartridges, sound designers still had to find ways to store and use samples efficiently. One common trick was to take a normal-length drum sample, pitch-shift it upward before loading it into memory—making it much shorter in duration—and then play it back at a lower pitch to restore its original length. This technique significantly reduced the memory footprint of each sample while still allowing for longer, more natural-sounding drum hits. Another widely used approach was to layer a short, low-frequency DPCM sample with synthesized noise to create a fuller drum sound. Since DPCM playback had limited fidelity and often sounded thin on its own, adding a noise-based transient or sustain gave the drum a wider frequency range while keeping the DPCM sample itself as short as possible. This method was especially useful for snare drums, where the DPCM sample provided the body of the sound, while synthesized noise extended the sustain and attack—allowing for more expressive and realistic drum textures without exceeding the system’s memory constraints.

8-Bit Drum Kits 3 captures all of these techniques, offering a diverse range of DPCM sample drum kits. Each kit includes both pure DPCM drum samples and layered versions that combine DPCM sounds with synthesized noise, creating fuller, more dynamic drum hits. Additionally, each kit includes closed and open hi-hats, as well as crash cymbals, all created using only synthesized noise.

All drum kits in this pack follow a consistent drum mapping for seamless playability. Each kit contains at least three kick drums, three snare drums, four toms or percussion sounds, closed and open hi-hats, a crash cymbal, and additional 8-bit drum sounds, forming a complete 16-sample drum kit. The mappings in most formats are optimized for 16-pad controllers, while the Ableton Live kits adhere to General MIDI drum mapping for compatibility with Ableton’s built-in drum instruments.

Drum kit formatting provided by Uppercussion.

Instrument Patches:

• 109 8-Bit Drum Kit Patches

Sample List:

• 342 Kick Drums
• 435 Snare Drums
• 253 Closed Hi-hats
• 169 Open Hi-hats
• 396 Toms
• 109 Crash Cymbals
• 40 Percussion

Instrument Formats & Required Software:

• Maschine Expansion Pack (.mxsnd), Maschine 2+
• Ableton Live Pack (.adv), Live 9+
• FL Studio FPC Patches (.fst), FL Studio 20+
• MPC Expansion Pack (.xpn), MPC Software or MPC Beats
• Battery Kit Patches (.kt3 & .nbkt), Battery 3+
• Kontakt Library (Kontakt Instruments, .nki), Kontakt 4+
• EXS24/Sampler Instrument Patches (.exs), Logic Pro 9+
• TAL Instrument Patches (.talsmpl), TAL Sampler 3+
• Single WAV files (.wav), usable in any DAW or audio software