There are many iconic events of the 80s that have gone down in history and many that we’re happy to forget about, but if there’s one thing that stands out the most, it’s the music. Whether you liked it or not, this synth-fuelled, gloriously glam decade played host to a multitude of new music styles, with developments in pop, dance and new wave, having emerged from the Punk era of the late 70s.

The 80s was the era of the superstar. Thanks to the launch of MTV in 1981 and the rise of music video culture, bands and artists were able to reach new heights of fame and stardom than ever before. This decade saw superstars such as Madonna and Whitney Houston’s careers begin, whilst Prince continued to have huge influence in the USA and UK. Meanwhile in the UK, The New Romantics genre erupted on the scene with bands like Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Culture Club and Adam & The Ants at the forefront.

So as a homage to this iconic era, Drumdrops has collated the ultimate in 80s style to bring you ‘Now That's What I call 80's Drums’. Featuring twenty classic 80s Pop drum tracks from the decade, ranging from 71BPM to 179BPM, this is the essential collection. Taking influences from some of the most memorable acts of the 80s, the album nods towards drum grooves synonymous with the styles of George Michael, De La Soul, Soul to Soul, Happy Mondays, Michael Jackson and Depeche Mode, to name a few.

The incredible drumming skills of Steve Sidelnyk (Madonna, Annie Lennox, Massive Attack), who began his career in the 80s, were used to record this album, taking advantage of his huge wealth of experience in this field, and engineering / producing the album was the hugely experienced Brit award winning Chris Potter (The Verve, U2). Recording took place at Miloco’s Sofa Sound studios in West London, owned by the legendary engineer and producer Hugh Padgham (The Police, Genesis, Phil Collins).

Based around an SSL E-Series console and complemented with a rack of vintage Neve 1081s and 1064s, they were able to record a truly authentic 80s Pop Drum sound in the studio. All of the drum tracks were recorded to 2" 24 track tape on a Studer A800 tape machine, while the live room added a perfectly controlled drum sound.

Now for the main event you’ve all been waiting for – drum roll please…the kit! A DW Collector Series was used for this recording; a classic kit, perfect for the job. On the snare drum front, a Ludwig Black Beauty, Ludwig Coliseum and a DW Craviotto were used. The kit was setup and delivered by the London Based Drumhire. The kit was fitted with Evans drum heads, and nineteen microphones were used to record the kit, ensuring the best sound possible – just have a listen for yourself! Recently we had also dropped in some classic 80s electronic drum samples into some of the tracks. Now you will find 808 samples, D-Drum Samples, Simmons and Linn Drums.

Heard all you need to hear? Then there’s only one thing left to do; get this album in your sample collection!

The Multi-tracks (which contain up to 19 mic positions and the electronic drums) come as full length live multi-tracks and multi-track song construction loops. The Live multi-tracks include a tempo map and OMF file to export into other DAW. We also provide patches for Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, Reason, Reaper, Studio One and Ableton Live and the audio comes as 24 Bit WAVs. The Multi-track Song Loops are locked to the beat and cut into song structures such as Intro, verse, chorus, middle 8, bridge and Outro.

Now That's What I call 80's Drums – the essential addition to your drum library.

Check out Steve Sidelnyk discussing the recording process here.

Please note, this is the Multi Track version. Check out the Loop version HERE and Stems version HERE

Kontakt and BFD Versions are available at Plugin Boutique HERE