Simple Drum Samples for Your Drum Pad Setup

Are you a live drummer? Finding a good drum kit for your drum pads to sync with live instrumental parts can sometimes be hard and time consuming. Today we interview Corey Lofthus of Simple Drum Samples. We asked him about some of his drum kits and why he created them.

Peace Corey where’s home?

Thank you for having me! Home is where I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon.

Are you an artist?

I am not an artist in the “normal” sense but I have been drumming for over 20 years and engineering/producing for the last 10… both of which I consider forms of art. So, yeah I guess I like to consider myself an “artist”.

How long have you been sampling?

I started sampling and creating my own sounds/loops back in 2012 at a church I was working for at the time. We would be playing songs that, like most of “modern” production, had a bunch of extra percussion tracks that I couldn’t play live by myself so I created and triggered tambourine/shaker/electronic drum loops to sound like the original recordings.

Who is Simple Drum Samples for?

Simple Drum Samples are designed for worship drummers to play alongside acoustic drums… but really anyone that plays drums live and uses an electronic drumpad like the SPD-SX or the new Alesis Strike Multipad would benefit from our sounds. All of our samples are 16 bit/ 44.1 kHz which saves the hassle and time of converting files because most of the drumpads out there won’t read anything else.

Did you come up with the idea?

Yeah, on a 4 hour car drive with my friend Kurtis out to Washington Family Ranch where I was playing percussion/keys for a men’s retreat. I had spent hours that week creating and searching through 1000’s of samples just to find usable sounds that worked with the dozen songs we were playing for the weekend. The idea behind Simple Drum Samples is to help others save time and inspire them with sounds that were created for songs they play every week.

How do you come up with ideas for the sounds?

The sounds are inspired by praise and worship music but I create them all from scratch. Just the right amount of eq/compression/and effects to make them work alongside acoustic drums and fit into the current worship sound.

Name some of the kits you offer?

I just launched the site a few weeks ago so I can name them all! Started off with The Christmas Pack as a free download and now we have the Red, Blue, and Yellow pack available for purchase with more “color” packs coming in early 2019.

Can other drummers/producers submit to you kits to sale off your site?

Right now we are not accepting submissions but are open to the idea of collaborations. Anyone can reach out to me.. corey@simpledrumsamples.com

In your opinion what makes your kits unique?

Simple Drum Samples are unique for two reasons. One, they are designed to be played live and two they come in what I like to call a “micro pack” of 18 samples, this helps keep them affordable and saves times when searching for sounds. Church drummers are generally volunteering their time and resources so I think these “micro packs” are the perfect solution for them.

Any deals you have going on?

The Christmas Pack is absolutely free right now with an email sign up! You can find that here.

Any shout outs or last words?

For sure: my wife for supporting this venture, Kurtis Lamberton from Lambertones for being a great sounding board, BentBeat productions, and Willamette Christian Church. Thank you guys for the interview! It means a lot to me and I appreciate what you are doing to help people in the
music industry.