Difference between different kit types?

Peter Harris

I know this is a basic one but I've always been curious what the "official" distinction is between the different kit types in expansions, i.e. digital vs. analog vs. hip-hop etc. Every time I think I understand it, I open a kit that doesn't seem to follow that rule I'm imagining. Maybe there isn't a hard and fast rule and it's just up to the expansion producers to categorize?

Some are more obvious (melodic vs. special for example) but digital seems to be the main one I can't figure.

D-One

The categorization is just what the sound designers intended the kit to sound like, most of those are highly subjective, especially the genre ones.

• "Digital" supposedly should be the opposite of acoustic sounding stuff, anything electronic really.
• "Analog" tends to have stuff like 808, 909, 303, and a bunch of other classic drum-machine / synths.
• "Hip-Hop" can literally be anything...
• "Vinyl" tends to have stuff that sounds old, lo-fi, or just have a ton of vinyl noise added in the samples. (lol)

This is just my interpretation tho, any other way of looking at it is as valid as mine.

D-One

The categorization is just what the sound designers intended the kit to sound like, most of those are highly subjective, especially the genre ones.

• "Digital" supposedly should be the opposite of acoustic sounding stuff, anything electronic really.
• "Analog" tends to have stuff like 808, 909, 303, and a bunch of other classic drum-machine / synths.
• "Hip-Hop" can literally be anything...
• "Vinyl" tends to have stuff that sounds old, lo-fi, or just have a ton of vinyl noise added in the samples. (lol)

This is just my interpretation tho, any other way of looking at it is as valid as mine.