They are out there if you go looking for them, but honestly, free acoustic drum sample packs and loops are in short supply.
That’s why we gathered everything in one place for you – so you don’t have to go scouring the internet trying to find the ideal acoustic drum sounds for your next musical project.
Here we look at the best free acoustic drum sample packs and loops.
SampleRadar: 1,000 free drum samples by MusicRadar
MusicRadar takes its free sample packs seriously. Digging through their archives, you can find dozens of packs in a variety of categories (tape loops, synth samples, acoustic guitar samples, and more), and usually, they’re generous in providing a ton of usable material.
Right off the bat, you can tell that SampleRadar: 1,000 free drum samples is an expansive kit featuring all the essentials – snares, kicks, hi-hats, crashes, and much more. They’ve organized everything into three folders – Assorted Hits, Drum Kits, and Rex Loops.
Hits and kits are in a convenient WAV format so you can drag and drop them into your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) without delay. All you need to use the REX files is an application that supports them (not required).
MusicRadar doesn’t want you to redistribute the ZIP pack, but you can use the sounds however you want, even for commercial projects or official releases.
Yes, there are plenty of acoustic drum sounds in this package, but user beware – there are some electronic kit sounds too. It can’t hurt to have both (and you can even mix the two), but it’s worth mentioning in case you were hoping that all 1,000 samples would be acoustic.
The included sounds are quite decent and with some post-processing, they should prove quite useful as well.
Download: MusicRadar
SampleRadar: 252 free heavy metal drum samples by MusicRadar
Metal and its many derivations (power metal, speed metal, death metal, black metal, doom metal, etc.) probably represent the most popular genre for modern guitarists.
Unless you’re already working with a skilled drummer, heavy, hard-hitting drum samples are required to give your tracks the oomph they need. Metal guitars with 808s could maybe work in the right context, but let’s not make headbangers laugh if we can help it.
Making heavy metal drum sounds from scratch doesn’t represent much of a prospect for most producers either because they inevitably require significant post-processing.
MusicRadar was smart to create SampleRadar: 252 free heavy metal drum samples, because these should get you off to a running start for those planning to make more hell-inspired music.
These sounds were created to tackle the brutalist of heavy genres, and as with other SampleRadar packs mentioned here, it does contain both acoustic and electronic sounds at different tempos. We know you’re after acoustic sounds, but you never know when those electronic sounds might come in handy too.
The zipped files have been simply organized into two folders – acoustic and electronic, and the sub-folders have been sorted by tempo.
You can use the samples as you see fit. As always, though, MusicRadar asks you not to redistribute them!
Listen to the samples for yourself and you’ll see just how ugly (in the right way) these sounds can get. If you’re not making heavy metal, you may not need these, but otherwise, this kit is sure to put a smile on your face.
Download: MusicRadar
400+ FREE Acoustic Drum Samples by wavbvkery
wavbvkery is a cool little repository of drum kits, loops, and samples. We’re not sure how often their website gets updated anymore, but besides the entry referenced here, you can also find things like finger snaps, hand claps, bongo, a hip-hop kit, and a boom bap kit on their site.
They also have a free Foley library, which could prove useful to filmmakers. So far, they only have lighter flicks and dice-rolling sound effects, mind you.
Either way, if this free stuff is of interest to you, be sure to bookmark wavbvkery and check in on them on occasion to see what else they’ve come out with.
So far as 400+ FREE Acoustic Drum Samples is concerned, it covers the gamut – kicks, snares, sticks, toms (high, mid, low), cymbals (hi-hats, crashes, rides), and even cowbells.
This package came together when wavbvkery was visiting Jon Sine’s Studio B. They were busy recording other material when the thought came to them to record the Ludwig kit that had been sitting in Sine’s office.
Sine was onboard, and so wavbvkery went to work hauling every piece into a vocal booth to record the components one at a time with just one microphone.
The Ludwig kit sampled is probably a vintage 70s kit. It should work nicely with rock, blues, jazz, indie, and more, but we’ll let you be the judge.
The drums were well-maintained and properly tuned, so in that sense, they sound quite good but wavbvkery found that the snare sounded better than other components.
Given that a single mono mic was used to record the samples, you’ll certainly need to doctor them up for optimal results. Not too hard if you know what you’re doing, but otherwise you may need to refer to some drum mixing guides.
For various creative applications, the 400+ FREE Acoustic Drum Samples collection is sure to prove a fun pack to keep at your disposal.
Download: wavbvkery
Free Organic Drums & Percussions by HelloSamples
HelloSamples is home to an array of paid and free samples you can leverage for all styles of music – hip-hop, R&B, jazz, electronica, lo-fi, and more.
And here’s something you ought to know – you can subscribe to HelloSamples’ newsletter to receive 1 GB of free samples. If you’re a sample fiend, you might want to give that a look-see.
As for Free Organic Drums & Percussions, it’s an interesting collection indeed. That said, it isn’t all experimental, so you could breathe a sigh of relief if you thought it was exclusively banging a hacksaw against a tree stub or something completely obscure (but fire) like that.
The pack includes both custom vintage drumkits as well as foley kits, which were captured in the woods and forests around the studio.
So, not surprisingly, you can expect footstep textures, broken tree branches, bay leaf sounds, hunter gunfire, and other fun but obscure stuff like that. It could be good material for music, movies, and maybe even ASMR(?).
The unexpected doesn’t end there though. The Free Organic Drums & Percussions pack also comes with water drum sounds, broken glass, pen and paper writing sounds, and beatboxing.
One thing is for sure – if you’re looking for something different, or inspiration for something different, you’ve found it.
Download: HelloSamples
Free Acoustic Drum Kit by Rhino Star Music
Rhino Star Music primarily offers EDM-oriented music production tools like loops, sample packs, kits, Serum presets, and more. Rhino Star is also accepting unsolicited submissions of demos, so if you’re a dance music producer or creator of sample packs, you might want to send them your stuff.
The Free Acoustic Drum Kit is certainly a good place to start if you want to take their material for a spin and see if it’s your style.
Just as the name would suggest, this kit comes with natural-sounding acoustic drum sounds that will make your productions come alive (could be a novel idea for electronic music producers especially). Try them in pop, rock, hip-hop, and other genres.
In total, there are 72 included samples in 24-bit / 48 kHz fidelity, in a small footprint 28 MB zipped folder. You’re free to use these in commercial projects as well.
Download: Rhino Star Music
Free Jazz Funk Drum Sample Library by Orange Tree Samples
Orange Tree Samples creates quality sample libraries for bass, guitar, banjo, mandolin, harp, marimba, various keyboards, and more.
Anyway, ever notice how hard it is to find jazz- and funk-oriented drum samples? Well, maybe not. But Orange Tree Samples certainly took notice, which is why they decided to create this sample library.
They captured a small kit for this occasion – snare, kick, two toms, and two cymbals. Jazz drummers will be familiar with this type of stripped-down setup no doubt. They often use their hard-earned skills to draw an array of sounds out of a streamlined setup, and that’s basically what’s on offer here.
If you feel like jazz and funk drum samples are missing in your sample library, Free Jazz Funk Drum Sample Library can help bring your toolbox up to date.
Download: Orange Tree Samples
Studio Acoustic Drum Sample Pack by Black Lotus Audio
Black Lotus Audio is a provider of sample packs and presets, much like Cymatics.fm or Bvker. Their sample packs include trap, dubstep, DnB, and more, and in terms of presets, they specialize in Vital.
They’re not the type of developer to be carrying acoustic drum samples in abundant supply, which is why Studio Acoustic Drum Sample Pack might be a small, but welcome, anomaly.
The collection is small, but it is free. You get 30 samples and loops, including kicks, snares, toms, hi-hats (open and closed), crash, ride, splash, and full drum loops too.
These samples and loops offer a great starting point for a variety of projects, even for sound designing and creating your electronic samples (just one of many possibilities).
It may not be a huge collection, but it certainly covers the essentials.
Download: Black Lotus Audio
Live Disco Drums & Percussion Freebie by Samplephonics
Samplephonics is an excellent source of sample packs, plugin presets, and virtual instruments. You can search their database by format, mood, genre, and instrument, and they have a lot of interesting stuff – granular textures, tape breaks, harps, disco guitars, world guitars, and much more.
The Live Disco Drums & Percussion Freebie is very much in keeping with their overall aesthetic. This kit is relatively self-explanatory. It’s a taster of the full version, which includes additional samples, loops in a variety of file types, and more.
Either way, the included samples are 100% royalty-free, and they are, of course, well-suited to disco music. The collection is small, consisting of claps, clicks, conga, shakers, and drum loops.
Download: Samplephonics
Free Acoustic Drum Samples by Drum Werks
Those searching for acoustic drum samples of an array of flavors should certainly bookmark Drum Werks, which specializes in this type of product, whether it’s snares, percussion, kicks, or otherwise.
And their Free Acoustic Drum Samples library, spanning over 500 MB and 700 files is generous, to say the least. This is more than just a teaser or a taster.
Included in this package are drum kits, snares, and kicks you can use as you see fit. The samples are all 24 / 44 fidelity stereo samples, stemming from their various premium collections.
To download these samples, you will need to enter your email address at the Drum Werks website. That’s a small sacrifice for a lot of goodies.
Download: Drum Werks
Drum Samples by Judd Madden
Judd Madden is a designer and musician. He’s got a couple of podcasts and some other fun projects too. It’s no surprise that someone with his skills and varied interests might want to explore creating drum samples.
The Drum Samples pack contains 118 32-bit WAV files recorded using a Dolphin drumkit. The selection includes kick, snare, hats, toms, crashes, ride, China, and splash. The sounds have been captured in various inflections and velocities as well, for added character.
The drums were recorded with a bit of room verb and have quite a bit of punch too. You should be able to draw some excellent sounds out of this kit with a bit of post-processing. Again, drum mixing guides are your friend.
Download: Judd Madden
Free Acoustic Drums Sample Pack by FREE WRLD
FREE WRLD is a relatively small-scale website. They promote the occasional event and have a couple of free sample packs and other sounds at their disposal. But they’re certainly nothing as fancy as an eCommerce store.
Their Free Acoustic Drums Sample Pack is quite straightforward. The package includes 50 files, with 26 one-shots, 19 drum breaks, and five drum fills.
The samples sound deep, rich, and punchy to me. Check them out for yourself and see what you think.
Download: FREE WRLD
Slingerland Drum Samples by Indie Drums
If you’re looking for drum sample libraries, then Indie Drums is a good site to keep on your radar. They’ve got Yamaha and DW kits, rock kits, snares, kicks, and much more.
This package is nothing too elaborate. It features 23 24-bit / 48 kHz WAV files, a Slingerland kit, Sabian cymbals, and a Black Beauty snare. All the sounds are one-shots. There are no loops here.
The sounds are quite nice out of the box, though, and if you’re interested in learning more about Indie Drums and what they offer, this is as good a place to start as any.
Download: Indie Drums
Top Free Acoustic Drum Sample Packs, Final Thoughts
Can you ever have enough drum samples and loops? I’m not the one to ask, but I think there are plenty of producers who would say, “No way!” You just never know when a certain sound might come in handy. That’s music for you – some songs beg for sounds you might not otherwise ever use.
Now that you’re all stocked up, go and make some killer tracks. Let us know how it goes!