Hi, Steve Sechi here, producer of EPIC: Cinematic Drums & Sound Design, which was just released this week. As those of you who’ve been to the BFA site before might have guessed, EPIC is related to the best-selling Epic Drums sample CD series. I think it’s safe to say that if you liked the Epic Drums series, you’re *really* going to like EPIC.

The difference is that EPIC: Cinematic Drums & Sound Design is not a sample CD – it’s a Kontakt virtual instrument. Like the Epic Drums series, EPIC features hundreds of killer performance loops, organized into 24 different Kontakt construction kits. But EPIC also includes multi-sampled versions of all of the drums we used in the performance loops, so you can easily create your own customized fills, rhythms, and sounds, or mix and match pre-generated loops with your own custom material.

EPIC features a huge variety of ethnic drums and percussion, including Chinese drums, taikos, African drums, frame drums, small and large gongs, cymbals, quints, a complete set of five Roto-Toms, and a massive, studio-shaking 39″ nagada drum from India. We also included hundreds of high-quality cinematic sound design elements, like thundering Hits, Impacts, Metals, Risers and Whooshes.

Every construction kit features a selection of loops, one-shots, and cinematic elements, making it fast and easy to compose Action, Suspense, or Horror cues when you’re on a tight deadline. Another time-saving feature: we mapped all loops according to their pitch, from low to high on the keyboard.

EPIC’s Graphic User Interface is also a time-saver. It’s pretty much plug-and-play – easy to use right out of the box, with the most important controls located on the front panel of the GUI. And of course, those who like to tweak their sounds and loops can find the full compliment of Kontakt effects under the hood just by clicking on the “tool” icon.

We had a great time playing and recording EPIC. Hope you check out the demos on the BFA website and let us know what you think of it.