Afro Drops: Stems Mix Files MULTiFORMAT
DECiBEL | 15 Apr 2021 | 16.70 GB
Afro Drops is the first sample pack to be released anywhere from the legendary Tony Allen. Tony is renowned for providing the drum parts to the Afrobeat genre created by Fela Kuti. With this sample album we bring you twenty three drum tracks of Afrobeat magic. The rhythms are complex but sound effortless. All of the tracks are about five minutes long and contain plenty of intricate fills and grooves played expertly by Tony. Most of the tracks come with percussion. Ranging in tempo from 82 bpm to 164 there are Afrobeat grooves spanning Tony’s 50 year career including a few grooves inspired by tracks he produced with Damon Albarn.
Tony Allen revolutionised the musical landscape of an entire continent influencing the course of Western pop music. Born in Lagos in 1940 Tony never took up traditional African percussion. Listening to the recordings of the great American bebop drummers Art Blakey and Max Roach, he invented a technique that he gradually refined by honing his command of the cymbals, in particular the hi-hat, little used by African drummers – and the tom-toms. When he met up with Fela Kuti in the 1960s they collaborated first in the renowned highlife-jazz band, Koola Lobitos before setting the world on fire with Kuti’s Afrobeat.
Recorded on Tony’s trusty Pearl Masters Premium Studio kit with a Pearl Masters snare and a Tony Allen custom snare and close mic’d, the kit is the sound of Tony Allen. All the drum tracks change through different musical sections offering a range of dynamics and fills…all ready for you to use as is, or to easily edit into your own arrangement.
Tony Allen’s Afrodrops was recorded at Studio 13 in London. A studio where Tony has frequently recorded. It is a Neve VR studio with a good sized live room that provides a great tight drum sound. The drum tracks were recorded and mixed by engineer Stephen Sedgwick who has worked with Tony many times on projects including The Good The Bad The Queen, Rocket Juice and the Moon and Dr Dee.
The Stems and mix packs which have all the separate drum mics, percussion and reverb as separate stems come as full length 24 bit WAVs and these also come with a tempo map. The Stem and Mix packs also include the song construction loops (but mixed versions).