Power and majesty
Monolith puts an otherwise unattainable collection of rare and antique drums at your fingertips—a choir of 53 big drums, carefully tuned and voiced, playable as ensembles and as single instruments. From thundering bass blasts to intricate polyrhythms, Monolith offers a vast range of sonic options. Captured in great detail at AIR Studios' Lyndhurst Hall, this is a new take on cinematic percussion—a powerful contemporary sound with a detailed and organic edge.
"Monolith towers over many existing drum sample libraries due to its impeccable production and the obvious care and attention that went to its construction. Richard Harvey and Orchestral Tools have delivered again—a must-have, instant classic!"
— Harry Gregson-Williams
Highlights
Sculpted sonic thunder
Explore 53 drums from Richard Harvey's instrument collection. All but one of the drums have animal skin heads, and some are over 100 years old—these antiques not only sound amazing, they also emanate a majestic aura of musical history. The drums were curated to provide a carefully sculpted sound with maximum range—from the enormous bass of the Lanna drum to the perfectly tuned dun duns and the high accents of the West African log drums. The drums were then placed in the hall to capture the optimal soundfield, tuned to each other, and voiced to sync decay times.
We recorded specific ensembles for specific use-cases and recorded the standout instruments individually. And we recorded single hits, flams, upbeats, and rimshots and clacks—often with a choice of beaters or hands.
This gives you a wealth of inspiring tones to work with, and offers wonderful opportunities for layering with other percussion.
The most spectacular drum ensemble ever
Join Richard Harvey on a personal tour of this unique array of rare and specialized drums.
Maximum versatility
You get a choice of playing styles. Option one: Drums mapped dynamically across the keyboard from quiet to loud. This offers an expressive way to play and makes detailed pattern editing much easier. Option two: Monolith also offers alternative mappings for playing with multiple dynamic layers on one key.
You get a range of mic positions to work with—AIR has truly incredible mics. And to round things off, you also get a collection of processed instruments.
Monolith gives you more than just a powerful and detailed sound—it provides a diverse range of powerful and detailed sound options.
Recorded at AIR Lyndhurst
AIR Studios is perhaps the primary location for recording international movie scores. Its Lyndhurst Hall offers a magnificent acoustic character, which in turn brings out the absolute best in anyone performing there. And importantly, the character of the room matches beautifully with the sound of the Teldex Scoring Stage—Monolith will blend perfectly with your other OT collections.
Created with Richard Harvey
Through conducting, composing, orchestrating, and playing on numerous film and television soundtracks, Richard Harvey has made an indelible mark on the industry. Not only has he worked on or composed celebrated soundtracks such as The Little Prince, The Da Vinci Code, The Lion King, Interstellar, Luther, Disney's live action Mulan, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, he has worked with some of the biggest names in the business: Hans Zimmer, guitarist John Williams, and Paul McCartney to name a few.
In addition to his compositional and performing work, Richard is an avid collector of musical instruments, with over 700 from all around the world. He's made it his mission to share them with the composing community. Monolith offers the chance to experience these exquisite rare drums from Richard's collection.
