Strategies for building small kits for kicks, hats, etc

The Lounge Other Gear
1

I want to put together some packs of 24 kicks, 24 hats, 24 snares, and probably 25 percussion hits. I’m looking for sensible strategies for picking hits that have variety, but that work well together.

The reason is that I use my OP-Z to sequence Ableton, and it really works for me. The OP-Z puts kicks, snare, hats, and Percussion on their own tracks. I have thrown together some basic drum racks so I can just load them as a template into Ableton, plug in the OP-Z and go.

Once I’ve settled on a semi permanent set (or sets) of drum samples, I’ll also duplicate it on the OP-Z itself so I can make beats away from the computer with the same sounds.

I have a whole bunch of drum samples I never use, thanks to buying a Samples from Mars pack for cheap a few years ago, but I don’t know where to start. I like acoustic drums, but also LinnDrum, and the Digitakt’s default-in kit.

2

To add: I’m looking for tips on picking sounds, but also on laying them out in a standard manner so I can switch kits.

Ideas: put main sounds on white keys, and alternatives on the black keys. Group types of sound by octave.