From Small Shakers to the HUGE “Dragon Ensemble”

Stormdrum 3 instrument categories include small and medium drums, tuned percussion, metals, shakers, scrapers, slapstick, huge taikos, and even bigger monstrous ethnic drums, like their 10-feet-wide rectangular Remo frame drum.

Big Drums: These are the larger drums that do not fall in the Taiko family. Many of them include large, deep and booming sounds, but others are more complex in nature. There are some real gems in here from Mickey’s magical warehouse of one of a kind hand drums. Highlights in the epic genre here are The Beast, Double Headed Tree Drum, Lord Of Toms Ensemble and Dragon Ensemble.

Gongs Clocks Waterphones: These instruments provide the iconic sounds of several gongs and waterphones, some played underwater! The “Clockworks” patches are the result of Nicks field recordings in 6 antique clock shops.

Metals: This group includes bells, deep bowls, chimes, and cymbals collected by Mickey on his world travels. Some are well known like the Brazilian berimbau (which is played on a metal wire), others are unusual, such as hammered copper pots and handmade doorstop drums.

Shakers: The instruments in this group include several made from naturally occurring objects, such as snake rattles, seed pods, and deer hoofs, in addition to the more common ganza, modern shakers and Mickeys mighty rainsticks. Playability here is key.

Small Drums: Here you’ll find a very large collection of smaller drums. Some have names you’re probably familiar with, such as bongos, frame drums, and tambourines. But there are so many others that will surprise and delight you. Many of the Indian drums in this category are particularly special, such as the tuned tablas and madal. Performance techniques are stellar.

Taiko Family: This collection includes taiko drums ranging from huge to small. Many of the sampled instruments come from the collections of Mickey Hart and Remo to create a wide variety of sounds. Others come from the top taiko builders in Japan. They are played both individually and in ensembles. This is the Holy Grail of taiko samples. Finally.

Woods: In this group you’ll hear unpitched sounds from wooden resonators; tuned chromatic instruments, such as a gourd marimba and a balaphone; the mighty gourd drum, a playable 12 ft. long redwood tree branch and wonderful scraped sounds, such as the Thailand frogs.

The full list of instruments included can be found in the manual HERE.