Superior Drummer: opinions please

I don't really know shit about the program, I'll tell you that. I just have the 18GB of stuff that was on the 6 (!!!) DVDs that it came with.
Yeah man, it's a pretty big program...Try installing about 4-5 times that much...Some of the libraries/expansions aren't that big, but some of them are 5 discs...

I have the "EZ Drummer" pre-set turned on and go from there.
I have a Pro Tools preset where I load four different instances of SD. The 1st one is the cymbals, the 2nd the snare, the 3rd the kick and the 4th the toms.
I don't really understand why you have 4 different instances of SD loaded up dude, when you can do the same thing with just one...Even if you don't like the kick, snare, whatever, you can replace them with the little arrow on each kit piece, or use stuff from other packs with the X-Drum thing...

I usually use the "Slingerland 70's" snare, since it's the only one with any punch if you ask me and the 14x24" GMS kick since it's the only one with punch as well.
Yeah, I usually just omit the kick & snare, but I have been trying to get 'em to sound better inside SD's mixer myself...


I send the snare, toms and cymbals to a reverb with an EQ on it that filters out some low end and try to get a room sound from that.
FWIW, I always send the individual tracks out to their own track in my daw, so I can process them however I want, send them to different reverbs, etc...



As you can see, I try to avoid actually using the program's internal mixers since they are ugly and dumb and just use the samples and handle all the MIDI (velocity, quantization) in Pro Tools.
Well, I have to disagree with you on that....Sure, they might be ugly, but you can mix the different close mics in SD's mixer, then send it to one track in your daw, giving you total control over the whole shebang man...If you add a little compression & transient desinger to some of 'em, you can change the sound pretty drastically....That's what I've been doing the past few days, trying to get the snares/kicks in SD to sound a little better, without using another drum sampler...
 
I didn't know that about the mics.

I use separate instances so that I can control the volume in Pro Tools and load separate plug-ins and use different sends on each part. I avoid dealing with the internal SD stuff. It's such an eyesore.
 
You can also send each channel in SD to it's own track in Pro Tools, so you can add compression, eq, whatever dude...That's how I use SD btw...
 
Yeah man, it takes a little while to get it set up, but once you do, you can save it as a track template (I'm assuming Pro Tools does this, I know Reaper does...;)), & you can just load it up with a mouse click or two....
 
I have SD2. If I were you I would wait until SD3 comes out (should be this summer I hope).

The reason is, it should have a lot of new stuff that EZ2 has.

I own SD2, and NI Maschine 2, and Battery 4, and Storm Drum 2. SD2 is the best sounding for sure.
 
I have SD2. If I were you I would wait until SD3 comes out (should be this summer I hope).

The reason is, it should have a lot of new stuff that EZ2 has.

You know this for a fact...or you're just assuming there will be an SD3....and it will have all the stuff EZD2 has...???
Actually, they put stuff from SD2 into EZD2....and SD2 can play any EZD2 expansion pack right now.

I can't for the life of my see why they would come out with an SD3 that has what EZD2 has.
I think they have more to sell by NOT making them similar then by including the same stuff in both.

If anything...I wold think any SD3 that comes out will separate itself even further away from EZD2 and go for the pure pro mixing engineer features rather than include songwriter preset stuff in it....but I could be wrong.
Who knows what goes on in the minds of Toontrack.
They use to have a great trigger/replacement app a couple of year back...and then one day they just discontinued it...instead of developibng it furthe. Seems to me they lost a lot of customers over to Slate Trigger when they did that. *shrug* :D
 
I've heard all kinds of talk about SD3 on the internet, but that's about all, talk....If Toontrack does come out with something "bigger" than SD2, it'd have to have some pretty cool features IMO...

The program you're talking about is Drumtracker, Miro....I have it (not installed though, haven't used it in a couple years, no need now, IIRC I bought it for like $20-30, wasn't much), & used it on an EP I did for a band a few years ago...While it does work pretty good on kick, snare, etc., the hi-hats are a nightmare to replace completely...The EP I did, the drums weren't recorded bad, the band just didn't have the gear to do any better, so the tracks suffered...I ended up replacing all the shells, then blending Toontrack cymbals in with the original hi-hats/oh's....It turned out ok, not great, but ok....Like I mentioned, the shells are pretty easy to do, but the hi-hats are very, very hard to get right, & I wasn't making a whole lot of $$$ on the EP, so we agreed to just use the original oh's/hh's, & replace the shells....
 
Yeah...that was it, Drumtracker. They could have developed it more, instead the killed it.
From what I found out, they had only one guy who worked on it and they parted ways with him, and that was the end of Drumtracker. I think there were also some legal agreements between Toontrack and the develolper....or something like that.
It was kind of a weird situaiton...one day they were selling it, next they it was abruptly a discontinued item.

I asked them if they were going to replace it with something esle...and I got the "we're always working on new stuff" kind of answer.

What I'm surprised is that they haven't put out something like a cymbals-only pack...something that would solve our panning issues, and also give you tons of cymbal choices all in one place.
Maybe I should give them a call and float it. :)
 
The Drumtracker thing actually works pretty good for spitting out midi from audio, but like I mentioned, the hi-hats can be tedious, & a lot of work to get right....

I'm not sure either why Toontrack hasn't came out with an all cymbal pack, give 'em a call dude....:D
 
Definitely upgrade to Superior Drummer. It's samples are 24 bit as opposed to 16 bit in EZ Drummer. The Superior samples are as close to a real miked drum set as a sampler can offer. Don't really need the mixing capabilities though, as I usually mix and process each kit piece separately in my DAW (Sonar Platinum and Cubase 8 Pro).
 
I'm not sure either why Toontrack hasn't came out with an all cymbal pack, give 'em a call dude....:D

Already on it. :)

They don't provide a phone # that I could find....but I used the usual support ticket option.
I asked about a cymbal pack, and suggested that they offer more than hard L/R cymbal placement, or a way to manipulate that easily...
...and I also asked about any SD3 rumors...which they may tell me something...or nothing if they are close to a new release.

They have usually been good with email responses in the past....I'll keep you posted.
 
I want an orchestral percussion pack! Not necessarily tuned percusion (got plenty xylophones), but throw in some marching band stuff and it would be like a wet dream.
 
Is it like the new Guitar Rig?
"Soon" :D
I dunno man, I've just read speculation on the internet about it...You believe everything you hear on the internet don't you???:)


Already on it. :)

They don't provide a phone # that I could find....but I used the usual support ticket option.
I asked about a cymbal pack, and suggested that they offer more than hard L/R cymbal placement, or a way to manipulate that easily...
...and I also asked about any SD3 rumors...which they may tell me something...or nothing if they are close to a new release.

They have usually been good with email responses in the past....I'll keep you posted.
Lol...That's cool man....I know BFD (or some other company) has a couple Zildjian cymbal only packs....I am curious to see what they tell you though dude...:)
 
From Toontrack on my question about SD3:

Superior 3.0 is not coming out this summer. We do not have any information if it is even coming at all.

AFA the cymbal packs and all that...they just said I should post that on their forum. :D
 
Lol....Like I said man, I'd just heard guys talking about it in different forums, & didn't really believe much (if any) of it....just gossip dude...

While it would be cool to have a cymbals only pack, sounds to me like they're not interested in it very much...Something that I'd love to see is a hi-hat in these vsti's that sound more realistic...
 
Again...just like the cymbals, I've gone through several packs to pick out my favorite couple of Hats....and I just bring them in as X-Drums.

Get The Rock Warehouse! :D ;)

No really...go to the Toontrack website and check out the vids and audition the samples....and look at the long list of drums/cymbals they include in that pack.
Its got a lot of good stuff...and it leans on the harder Rock side.
 
Can't afford it right now Miro, the cab I was contemplating on would pay for itself if I could flip the speakers, but it's not a sure thing, so I don't know that I'll try it...I know nothing is a sure thing, but the odds of me getting rid of those speakers aren't really good considering where I live...



Oh yeah dude, I agree on the X-drum thing, like I mentioned before, I haven't really saved many presets in SD itself, but I've got a bunch of templates made in Reaper...With what I have, I like Evil Drums pretty damn good man, they sound really raw & unprocessed to me, which is how a real recorded kit would be (which is what these are, they're just recorded with great gear by really experienced people)....Music City is pretty good too, but they sound more processed to me than Evil Drums....

BTW, I've listened to about every drum sampler's demo tracks out there dude, honestly...

Well you've went & did it man.....gonna go fire up the daw.......:).
 
:D

I'm just shutting down my DAW for the night....I get up early tomorrow. :(

Oh...not sure what speakers you're selling, but why not toss 'em on eBay instead of trying for a local sale?
Yeah...you have to box & ship them, but if they are decent speakers, you should be able to unload them on eBay.

I have like at least a half dozen spare speakers in boxes from trying out stuff.
I need to unload them one of these days as most of them or ones I'm not going to use any time soon.
 
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