OBLIVION DRUMS BY HEAVYOCITY
KK-ACCESS REVIEW
Heavyocity reprise the devastating power of their award winning Oblivion library in their latest release, Oblivion Drums, Once more in collaboration with David levy, it’s a perfect partnership that delivers a creatively pumped up, steroid fuelled solution for any composer looking for a blatantly edgy and distinctly aggressive instrumental solution for cinematic, trailer, game, or related music genre compositions.
TECH SPECS
Oblivion Drums runs in Kontakt 7.10.9 or higher, either the full or free Kontakt player versions.
It is compatible with all hardware and Komplete Kontrol software running the above specified Kontakt editions.
Requiring 12.6GB for installation, it uses lossless compression for the sample file format.
There are 3 included Kontakt master NKI preset files, covering the Oblivion Drums Ensemble Designer, Oblivion Drums Kit Designer, & Oblivion Drums Loop Designer.
In addition there are a further 99 Kontakt NKSN snapshots which are divided between the above categories.
DOWNLOAD & INSTALLATION
Download comes via the Heavyocity manager, which despite a few unlabelled buttons is accessible once familiar with the layout.
The same provided serial number is also used to register the library within Native Access, and from here it’s a matter of locating and adding the library, before Komplete Kontrol finally scans it into the factory side of your browser.
FULL KOMPLETE KONTROL NKS PARAMETER MAPPINGS ARE AVAILABLE AFTER THE MEDIA SECTION AT THE END OF THIS REVIEW
ACCESSIBILITY
Oblivion Drums ostensibly uses the same NKS mapping template as their excellent Damage Drums library, and whilst the same access issues still remain such as the ability to select and load our own choice of sounds from the sample pool, there is still the same reliable NKS access to things like EQ, Punish & Filter, Compressor, Saturation, Delay & Reverb.
The Kit Designer provides individual volume controls for the 16 channels of sounds, however the Pan controls are strangely omitted from the standard NKS mapping despite being available for host automation.
Curiously, despite the library apparently being NKS2 compatible, I seemed unable to bring up the pan controls through the extended NKS2 mapping usually available on the Kontrol MK3 keyboards.
Although perhaps a little inconvenient, as a workaround they should still be accessible via most DAW parameter lists, they certainly showed up and were usable at least here in Windows & Reaperland.
OBLIVIATE & CREATE
Both of the Oblivion libraries have been made in close collaboration with composer David Levy, best known for his score on Doom eternal and Gen:Lock. David cut his music production teeth working his way up through to chief engineer at Powerstation studios in the US, before becoming a full time composer.
With Oblivion Drums David has again bestowed his distinctive signature sound across the content of the library, working in tandem with Heavyocity to ensure complete synergy with their existing portfolio.
Using an impressive array of outboard equipment, his engineering background has clearly benefited his ability to push these sound designs to the limit in Oblivion Drums, giving all composers a head start and mix ready jumping off point for their own work.
OBLIVION PRESETS
The Ensemble presets feature a collection of sounds arranged in a way that is convenient for building cues, for example there are Kicks, Snares, Cymbals & Hats, Glitchy Effects, & Toms among them, some of which are configured to play beats in sync with your project tempo.
Alongside them in the same presets are also static versions which can be used to play in additional beats if desired.
These presets appear in both straight and triplet form in their own separate versions.
There is also a useful set of reverse presets, which come in self contained 1 to 4 beat variants.
The Kit preset collection brings together a nice variety of 34 Oblivion pre-made drum kits, these are assigned to just over an octave on your keyboard, and conform to a conventional GM midi kit layout.
Here it would certainly be desirable if the NKS accessibility could stretch to swapping out kit samples, as on occasion you come across a cracking kit, only to find that you perhaps dislike the pre-assigned hi-hats, and in these cases the only real workaround here is to find another kit with the complimentary hats you really want, and load another Komplete Kontrol instance on an adjacent track. Not ideal of course if resources happen to be stretched, but this is probably something we are all by now familiar with when using sample libraries in general.
The Oblivion Loops is definitely the section to head for if you want to achieve some instant rhythmic gratification, whilst that statement may sound just a little bit smutty, in earnest here you will find a collection of 36 inspiring loop presets divided between straight and triplet iterations.
Each loop preset is sectioned into five parts, the first being a loop mix of all instruments, with the subsequent octaves containing low end, mid range, and high range instruments, which translates to kick, snare, & hats, along with anything that may inhabit each of those frequency ranges.
The eagle-eyed among you, (can I say that without causing offence to like myself, blind readers?), may have spotted that I said five sections, well the last octave is assigned to some useful static sounds such as Cymbals, low end booms etc, that can be manually played alongside to enhance the loops and offer a little variety if necessary.
Speaking of variety, it’s great to also find those handy keyswitches located between the F1 & B1 keys, which when pressed will trigger beat stutters that double per key press, ramping right up to a devastating 64 beat machine gun attack that may well find your audience ducking their heads for cover!!!
SOUND OBLIVIATION
The overall sound and presentation of Oblivion Drums is one of being meticulously crafted and polished, despite the promise and delivery of dirt, aggressive beats, knockout booms, and whip cracking snares, it is all done to perfection, and very well recorded which is quite a feat given the complex effects chains involved.
The outcome is that Oblivion Drums is instantly DAW ready to inspire users who require a truly punishing auditory assault in their compositions.
As with all Heavyocity products, do make a point of checking out those walkthrough videos which always so well exemplify the possibilities of what their libraries can achieve.
CONCLUSION
Oblivion Drums to some degree takes the concept of Damage, arguably Heavyocity’s most famous library, and adds another layer of aggression to the mix whilst still managing to forge it’s own identity.
Naturally Oblivion Drums compliments the separate Oblivion instruments library very well as you would expect, but is still equally at home in it’s own right alongside other libraries where you need to obtain an edgy, energy driven, high octane sound.
Accessibility could of course always be improved, however I feel that there is still enough here to redeem Oblivion Drums viability for blind & vI users, as it does remain equally consistent with other Heavyocity releases.
Oblivion Drums by Heavyocity is available directly from their website, For a limited time, Heavyocity is offering Oblivion Drums for $129 (reg. $149). In addition, owners of Oblivion will get an additional $20 off with registered serial. Offers end June 3.
Oblivion Drums – Product Page:
Oblivion Drums – Product Overview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHrX6nmJ5V8
Oblivion Drums – Preset Playthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXt52ev2xzs
Oblivion Drums – Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Oiu-TXN8U
Track Example – Phat Bass plus Oblivion Drums:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-IiPslIoRo
Oblivion Drums – User Manual:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0256/7634/9489/files/OblivionDrums_UserManual.pdf?v=1779124380
KOMPLETE KONTROL PLUG-IN EDIT NKS CONTROL MAPPINGS
Oblivion Drum Ensemble Designer
Page One – Mixer
Knob 1 – Close Volume
Knob 2 – Room
Knob 3 – Hall
Knob 4 – Overhead
Knob 5 – LFE
Knob 6 to 8 – Unallocated
Page Two – Punish & Filter
Knob 1 – Punish On/Off
Knob 2 – Punish Amount
Knob 3 – Response
Knob 4 – Tone
Knob 5 – Filter On/Off
Knob 6 – Cut-Off
Knob 7 – Resonance
Knob 8 – Unallocated
Page Three – EQ
Knob 1 – EQ On/Off
Knob 2 – Low Gain
Knob 3 – Low Freq
Knob 4 – Mid Gain
Knob 5 – Mid Freq
Knob 6 – High Gain
Knob 7 – High Freq
Knob 8 – Amount
Page Four – Compressor
Knob 1 – Compressor On/Off
Knob 2 – Threshold
Knob 3 – Ratio
Knob 4 – Attack
Knob 5 – Release
Knob 6 – Make-Up
Knob 7 – Mix
Knob 8 – Unallocated
Page Five – Saturator
Knob 1 – Saturator On/Off
Knob 2 – Drive
Knob 3 – Warmth
Knob 4 – Roll Off
Knob 5 – Output
Knob 6 to 8 – Unallocated
Page Six – Delay
Knob 1 – delay On/Off
Knob 2 – Time (in beats)
Knob 3 – Feedback
Knob 4 – Tone
Knob 5 – Quality
Knob 6 – Level
Knob 7 & 8 – Unallocated
Page Seven – Reverb
Knob 1 – Reverb On/Off
Knob 2 – Pre-Delay
Knob 3 – Size
Knob 4 – Low Freq
Knob 5 – High Freq
Knob 6 – Mix
Knob 7 & 8 – Unallocated
Oblivion Drum Kits
Page One – Mixer Page 1
Knob 1 to 8 – Channel 1 to 8 Volume
Page Two – Mixer Page 2
Knob 1 to 8 – Channel 9 to 16 Volume
Page Three – Punish & Filter
Knob 1 – Punish On/Off
Knob 2 – Punish Amount
Knob 3 – Response
Knob 4 – Tone
Knob 5 – Filter On/Off
Knob 6 – Filter Cut-Off
Knob 7 – Resonance
Knob 8 – Unallocated
Page Four – EQ
Knob 1 – EQ On/Off
Knob 2 – Low Gain
Knob 3 – Low Freq
Knob 4 – Mid Gain
Knob 5 – Mid Freq
Knob 6 – High Gain
Knob 7 – High Freq
Knob 8 – Amount
Page Five – Compressor
Knob 1 – Compressor On/Off
Knob 2 – Threshold
Knob 3 – Ratio
Knob 4 – Attack
Knob 5 – Release
Knob 6 – Make-Up
Knob 7 – Mix
Knob 8 – Unallocated
Page Six – Saturator
Knob 1 – Saturator On/Off
Knob 2 – Drive
Knob 3 – Warmth
Knob 4 – Roll Off
Knob 5 – Output
Knob 6 to 8 – Unallocated
Page Seven – Delay
Knob 1 – delay On/Off
Knob 2 – Time (in beats)
Knob 3 – Feedback
Knob 4 – Tone
Knob 5 – Quality
Knob 6 – Level
Knob 7 & 8 – Unallocated
Page Eight – Reverb
Knob 1 – Reverb On/Off
Knob 2 – Pre-Delay
Knob 3 – Size
Knob 4 – Low Freq
Knob 5 – High Freq
Knob 6 – Mix
Knob 7 & 8 – Unallocated
Oblivion Drum Loops
Page One – Send Effects & Send Modulation
Knob 1 – Send FX On/Off
Knob 2 – Level
Knob 3 & 4 – Unallocated
Knob 5 – send Modulation On/Off
Knob 6 – Amount
Knob 7 – Smooth
Knob 8 – Unallocated
Page Two – Punish & Filter
Knob 1 – Punish On/Off
Knob 2 – Punish Amount
Knob 3 – Response
Knob 4 – Tone
Knob 5 – Filter On/Off
Knob 6 – Filter Cut-Off
Knob 7 – Resonance
Knob 8 – Unallocated
Page Three – EQ
Knob 1 – EQ On/Off
Knob 2 – Low Gain
Knob 3 – Low Freq
Knob 4 – Mid Gain
Knob 5 – Mid Freq
Knob 6 – High Gain
Knob 7 – High Freq
Knob 8 – Amount
Page Four – Compressor
Knob 1 – Compressor On/Off
Knob 2 – Threshold
Knob 3 – Ratio
Knob 4 – Attack
Knob 5 – Release
Knob 6 – Make-Up
Knob 7 – Mix
Knob 8 – Unallocated
Page Five – Saturator
Knob 1 – Saturator On/Off
Knob 2 – Drive
Knob 3 – Warmth
Knob 4 – Roll Off
Knob 5 – Output
Knob 6 to 8 – Unallocated
Page Six – Delay
Knob 1 – delay On/Off
Knob 2 – Time (in beats)
Knob 3 – Feedback
Knob 4 – Tone
Knob 5 – Quality
Knob 6 – Level
Knob 7 & 8 – Unallocated
Page Seven – Reverb
Knob 1 – Reverb On/Off
Knob 2 – Pre-Delay
Knob 3 – Size
Knob 4 – Low Freq
Knob 5 – High Freq
Knob 6 – Mix
Knob 7 & 8 – Unallocated
(c) Chris Ankin
KK-Access.com
27th May 2026
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Disclaimer
The author can not accept any responsibility for subsequent purchase decisions made as a result of this review,or Any inaccuracies found therein. All opinions and product functions stated are based solely on information perceived as a blind user whilst using the product and/or gathered from official factual sources such as the developer, web or supplied product manual.
About the Author
Based in Buckinghamshire, England, Chris Ankin has worked as a freelance review writer and contributor with articles published in Sound On Sound, Home & Studio Recording and ST Format Magazines.
He has also successfully worked extensively in and around the music, recording, film Soundtrack scoring, Game & media composition, the creative arts, Charitable trusts,publishing, music streaming and property investments since 1982 whilst continuously and deliberately managing to evade any mainstream recognition under his own name by the use of various pseudonyms.
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