Inside Echelon: The Trailer Drums I Wanted in My Own Template

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Hello Friends,

Over the years, I’ve collected a ridiculous amount of drums.

I’ve been composing music for film trailers for over a decade, and drums are obviously a massive part of that sound. I have libraries I love, sounds my team and I have made from scratch, random percussion I’ve processed beyond recognition, and hundreds of custom hits that have ended up in my tracks and trailer campaigns over the years.

But even with all of that, I kept wanting one instrument I could pull up and immediately start playing.

That eventually became Echelon: Drum Hits, one of our new Kontakt instruments from The Foundry by Rareform Audio.

The idea was pretty simple: take the kinds of drums and impacts I actually want when I’m writing trailer music, make them playable, and put everything into an instrument that can live right inside my template.

So I wanted to show you guys some of my favorite parts of it.

Starting With the Drums

A big thing for me was making sure these weren't traditional cinematic drums.

There are already plenty of great libraries for that.

With Echelon, we wanted the drums to feel like they were ready for trailers from the second you played them. The Organic Drum Hits are probably the clearest example of that.

We went pretty crazy with the layering and processing. They’re big, beefy, and intentionally over the top.

Along with the individual hits, we included round robins and whoosh-hit variations. I love having those whoosh versions available because you can quickly build movement into a fill without having to grab another sound and line everything up manually.

A More Metallic Option

The Alloy Drum Hits approach things a little differently.

These lean much more into metallic textures and away from the organic impact material in the first set.

What I like about them is how clean they stay.

Trailer mixes can get insanely dense, especially once you have percussion, sound design, synths, orchestra, and everything else fighting for space. The metallic character helps these cut through without turning into a giant wall of noise.

Darby Phillips from our team made these, and they’ve become a really useful alternative when the organic hits aren't quite right for a track.

My Favorite Part: Trailer Toms

If I had to pick a favorite section of Echelon, it would probably be the Trailer Toms.

I’ve wanted toms like these for a long time.

A lot of huge trailer percussion can get extremely distorted once you start pushing it. Sometimes that’s exactly what you want, but I also wanted toms that could hit really hard while still sounding organic and punchy.

The fun part is when you start stacking them.

You can play a couple together for a larger hit, or start layering a bunch of them and create these massive, almost tribal, crowd-like drum parts.

That’s where these really come alive for me.

Stomps, Claps, and Rhythmic Layers

Another thing I’ve always wanted sitting inside my template is a really solid collection of playable Stomps & Claps.

I use these types of sounds pretty often, but I never loved having to dig around for individual samples every time I wanted to build something.

So we put a bunch of different styles into Echelon.

Some have more of a Western, cowboy feel, while others lean toward a larger marching sound. You can play them individually or start combining them into bigger rhythmic layers.

It’s a simple category, but having them immediately available makes a big difference when I’m writing.

Hits Made for Trailer Structure

Some of the sounds in Echelon are also designed around the actual structure of trailers.

The Stop Down Hits are a good example.

If you’ve worked in trailers, you’ve probably had those moments where the entire track needs to suddenly stop for dialogue, a joke, a title card, or another important beat.

I’ll often build a fill that drives straight into that moment and finish it with one final hit.

Instead of trying to force a regular impact into that role, we made specific hits for it.

There are two different sets inside Echelon, and I’m not going to spoil all of them here.

Getting Into the Impacts

Then, of course, we have impacts.

A lot of them.

The Aggressive Impacts are probably the most immediately massive of the bunch. They have a ton of low end and are designed for those moments where you really want to feel the hit. There are straight versions as well as whoosh hits, so you can choose how much movement you want going into the impact.

The Metallic Impacts give you something sharper that can cut through a busy arrangement.

Then there are the Hybrid Impacts, which get a little weirder. We built different artifacts and textures into the whooshes, so there’s more happening before the actual impact lands.

Those are especially fun when a normal cinematic whoosh-hit feels a little too predictable.

Going Really Deep

One category I wanted to approach differently was the Submerged Impacts.

The idea in my head was basically an underwater depth charge.

Instead of simply making another giant sub-heavy impact, we played with the feeling of pressure and depth around the sound. They have this darker, submerged quality that separates them from the more traditional impacts in the instrument.

And then sometimes you don’t need anything weird.

You just need a gigantic low-end hit.

That’s where the Deep Impacts come in.

These are the classic deep cinematic impacts I’m constantly using in trailer music, with both straight hits and whoosh-hit versions ready to go.

Building Something I Actually Wanted to Use

For me, that was really the goal with Echelon.

I didn’t want to make a giant collection of sounds just for the sake of having a giant collection of sounds. I wanted something focused that I could actually keep loaded in my own template and reach for while I’m writing.

Echelon: Drum Hits is basically our take on the drums, toms, stomps, and impacts we find ourselves needing all the time when working on trailer music.

If you want to check it out, Echelon: Drum Hits is available through The Foundry by Rareform Audio.

Hope you guys have fun with it, and if you use Echelon in something you’re working on, definitely send it our way. I always enjoy hearing what people make with these sounds.

-Nathan.

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