David Oliver's Drum Kit Black Friday Deal 2026: $49.50, 50% off

David Oliver's Drum Kit Black Friday deal is 50% off, taking this Soundiron Kontakt drum library to $49.50 until Dec 6, 2026.

It is a deeply sampled red 1980s Pearl DLX drumset, picked out and played by British instrumentalist and media composer David Oliver. Soundiron recorded it at The Whitehouse Studios in the UK.

The Pearl DLX was originally played and endorsed by jazz drummer Art Blakey. Soundiron says it has a versatile sound that suits several genres.

What is in David Oliver's Drum Kit?

The setup centers on a small 18-inch bass drum, supported by two toms: a 12-inch one mounted above and a 14-inch one standing on legs. Soundiron sampled it with several stick types, covering playing from ultra-soft to ultra-loud.

The library is built from 8 crash cymbals, 4 hi-hats, 2 rides and 7 splashes, plus 1 kick, 2 snares and 2 toms, all captured from five microphone positions. It comes as 10 instrument presets for Kontakt Player (.nki), drawing on 81,163 stereo recordings stored as locked.ncw files at 24-bit and 48 kHz. Installed, it takes up 26.7 GB, against 50 GB uncompressed. Most of the cymbals are Zildjians, with a handful from Sabian, Paiste and Wuhan. There are also some effects cymbals, a few customised with a grinder and rivets.

One of them is a Sabian custom 20in crash ride. Bristol cymbal maker Dave Collingwood reworked it from a mini bell dry ride to David Oliver's specifications, specifically for this project.

How was the kit recorded?

The overheads are a stereo pair of Blue Dragonfly mics. Close-up duty goes to stereo Neumann TLM 103s, and there is an M-S front pair using Microtech-Gefell UM70s in figure 8 with a cardioid TLM103.

The toms are double-headed, with Evans Level 360 batter heads. The 18-inch kick uses a Remo Powerstroke batter head and an Evans Level 360 resonant front head.

The snares are a Mapex Peace and a vintage Pearl Super Gripper Brass Shell. A custom 22-inch concert bass drum, hand-built by a UK drum maker to David's specifications, rounds out the shells.

With multiple mic positions, you can dial in your own balance of close and room sound. Soundiron says the kit is ready for jazz, rock, pop or any genre that needs realistic drums.

What can you shape inside Kontakt?

The interface has automation-ready controls for swell, attack, release, offset, vibrato, filter, pitch (coarse and fine), articulation switching, cross-fading and layering.

There is an LFO system with selectable shape, modulation target, speed, intensity, tempo-sync and fade-in time. You can also pick from 12 low-pass, high-pass and FX filters, with targets such as velocity, modwheel, expression, after-touch and key position.

A customisable arpeggiator and a key and scale lock are included. The modular FX rack offers 27 DSP modules across 8 slots, in any order you like. Its modules include phaser, flanger, delay, distortion, amp and cab simulators, compressors and EQ.

The reverb section carries 99 convolution impulse responses of rooms, halls, chambers and outdoor spaces, plus 40 custom FX impulses. Factory FX rack chain presets are included to get you started.

The library runs in the free Kontakt Player (version 6.2.2 or later) as VST, AU or AAX. It also works with Komplete Kontrol, S-Series keyboards, NKS hardware and software, the Kontakt Libraries browser and Native Access.

It installs as a digital download, so you need a broadband connection. Soundiron lists Windows 7 or higher, Mac OS X 10.10 or higher, a dual-core CPU and 3+ GB of RAM, with a SATA or SSD drive recommended.