Traditional electronic kicks, claps, and snares layered alongside organic hand drums, darbukas, and dhols.
: Over 600 drum sounds, including "stadium kicks," orchestral snares, cinematic toms, and world percussion like the sitar, tabla, and dhol. World Instruments
The most distinctive feature of Vol. 2 is not its kicks or its leads, but its obsessive focus on the transition. KSHMR famously constructs his drops with a "cinematic" ear, and this pack is the Rosetta Stone for that methodology. While other sample packs offer risers and downlifters as afterthoughts, Vol. 2 offers a sprawling taxonomy of tension. The "Builders" and "Impacts" folders are where the pack reveals its soul.
When (Niles Hollowell-Dhar) released the first volume of his sample pack series on Splice , it changed the game for electronic dance music (EDM) producers. However, Sounds of KSHMR Vol. 2 (released in 2016) arrived with even greater anticipation, expanding on the original's promise to provide a comprehensive, industry-standard sound library.
In the landscape of modern electronic music, few sample packs achieve the status of cultural artifacts. Most are utilitarian: collections of kicks, claps, and synth stabs designed for rapid, forgettable consumption. However, when Niles Hollowell-Dhar, performing as KSHMR, released Sound of Kshmr Vol. 2 in 2016 via the venerable sample house Splice, he did not simply release a product. He released a manifesto. To listen to this pack is not to browse a tool folder; it is to attend a masterclass in narrative architecture, cinematic tension, and the delicate science of controlled chaos. This essay argues that Sound of Kshmr Vol. 2 transcends the functional role of a sample library to become a foundational text for Big Room and Festival Progressive genres—a blueprint for bombast that teaches producers how to feel a drop before they build it. sound of kshmr vol 2
From earth-shaking kicks to ethnic leads, orchestral hits, and those vocal chops that defined an era of festival anthems. If you produce any style of mainstage or emotional electronic music, this pack is a masterclass in sound design.
Pitching vocal chants up or down an octave, or reversing orchestral sweeps, can yield entirely new textures that don't sound recognizable out of the box.
While Volume 1 established his signature orchestral and ethnic fusion, Volume 2 perfected it. The pack arrived at a time when the industry was transitioning away from aggressive Big Room house toward more melodic, diverse, and streaming-friendly electronic styles. KSHMR provided the exact tools producers needed to make this pivot, offering clean, pre-processed sounds that fit perfectly into commercial mixes with minimal effort. Core Architecture of the Pack
A wide array of percussion loops is highly valued for enhancing main drum grooves. 2. Beyond Drums: Orchestral & World Sounds 2 is not its kicks or its leads,
KSHMR’s branding relies heavily on his Indian-Kashmiri heritage, and Vol. 2 leans into this with a palette of sounds that were, in 2016, radical for mainstream EDM. The pack is saturated with Dhol drums, Tumbi plucks, and harmonium swells. On one hand, this was a commercial masterstroke, offering Western producers a shortcut to "world music" flair without hiring session musicians.
A hallmark of the KSHMR sound, this pack includes 232 live sounds, featuring sitars (31), flutes (8), duduks (5), and even tabla and harmonium elements .
At the heart of lies a meticulously curated sound library that leaves no stone unturned. While many sample packs simply throw content together, KSHMR treated this as a personal toolkit, including only sounds he would use himself .
Beyond the standard fare of risers and impacts, KSHMR pushed the boundaries of what a "music" sample pack could include in 2016. The most eccentric folder in the pack is simply titled containing 38 animal sounds , processed and tuned to key. While this might seem like a novelty, KSHMR explicitly encourages users to "have fun with this" because the results might surprise you. 2 offers a sprawling taxonomy of tension
Provides drag-and-drop chord progressions and top melodies categorized by key and tempo.
, allowing producers to study his arrangement and mixing techniques firsthand. in the series or see a comparison of KSHMR's production techniques Sounds of KSHMR Vol. 2: Edm Sample Pack by Splice
High-quality kicks (127), snares (111), claps (99), and hats (81), along with Indian and orchestral percussion.
Features Indian-style chants, choir beds, and unique vocal one-shots designed to add "humanity" to digital tracks.