XLN Audio ADpak: Vintage Dead

A Beat-Making Powerhouse for Any Style

Equally perfect for beats and breaks, psychedelic indie pop in the vein of Tame Impala, Khruangbin, and Glass Beams, or hard-hitting rock like Queens of the Stone Age, and Death from Above 1979, Vintage Dead packs the punch you need.

Make your tracks slap with mix-ready, tweakable presets created by the scene's best, and beats performed by amazing drummers and beatmakers.

The Kit

This one-of-a-kind 1968 vintage Ludwig kit tells an unlikely tale of happenstance - and resurrection.

It was found peeking out of a countryside dumpster by renowned Swedish drummer Miikal Häggström while on tour. He could not believe his luck.

He carefully refurbished it, and quite literally brought this ultra-dead kit back to life.

Converted into concert toms (without resonant heads), this kit is now a custom-built, meticulously treated thump machine, packing a serious punch and a boatload of mojo.

The Studio

We built a custom "dead box" in Stockholm's legendary Ingrid Studios.

To get the perfect punchy sound, you need to control the drum's ringing and resonance and the room’s reflections.

Usually, you would encapsulate the kit with dampening gobo walls, and treat the drum heads with dampening material.

But this is no usual kit - it's the deadest of the dead.

Every kit piece was dampened to perfection using classic methods - tea cloths, towels, blankets, tape, moon gel - you name it.

This gives you complete separation and uniquely dead close and overhead mics, while still having the option to blend in the outside room mics to taste, with unmatched separation.

The result is a beatmaker's dream, where every aspect of the mix can be controlled and pushed to the limit.

Crank the processing on individual kit pieces and make your drums SLAP!