Computer Music
SDX: The Lost New York Studios – Toontrack
Users of Toontrack’s flagship Superior Drummer 2.0 drum ROMpler have always been able to buy further virtual percussion via EZX expansions, which are primarily intended for the simpler EZdrummer. At last, though, Toontrack have released the first expansion specifically for SD2.0, providing more drums, mixer channels, articulations and dynamics layers than any EZX, at least as far as conventional drum kits go.
The stock SD2.0 kit was recorded at Avatar Studios in New York, and New York Studios Vol.2 gives you two further bites of the Big Apple with kits recorded at Allaire Studios and The Hit Factory (both of which are now closed).
The hit Factory kit gives you 22” and 24” GMS kicks; 10”, 12”, 14” and 16” GMS toms (clear and coated heads); and seven snare drums, including four GMS ones, two Ludwigs (including a Black Beauty) and a Trick. All are 6.5x14”, barring a 5.5x14” GMS. All cymbals are Sabian, and you get two hi-hats, two rides, and ten different crash/effects cymbals.
The Allaire kit has fewer cymbals (all Sabian again) and sonically is warmer, with more of an old-school tone. The hi-hat is a 16” beast made up of a pair of crash cymbals – it actually sounds very sweet and clear. You get six wildly different drum kicks, including a thunderous 26” Slingerland, a resonant 20” Gretsch, and some more modern-sounding affairs. The toms and snares are Ludwig, except for a 14” Rogers Dynasonic. Four of the snares have a cutting, clangorous timbre, while the other two deliver in-your-face punch. There are plenty of possible articulations and the choice of felt or plastic kick drum beaters.
The Hit Factory kit has all the usual close-miked channels, as well as far and mid-distance ambient channels, compressed snare and ambience, and a couple of rooms tracks, seemingly recorded with Sony and Shure mics. The Allaire kit offers ‘bonus’ channels in the form of near/mid/far/mono ambience, mono overheads, snare rim, and those running through both a SansAmp premap and a Shure ‘Green Bullet’ harmonica mic. The room sound of The Hit Factory is tighter and more controlled than that of the livelier Allaire, but obviously, with all those mixer channels and the SD2.0 effects to play around with, either kit can be mixed to work with any genre of music. There are also MIDI files and mixer presets.
If you’ve already got SD2.0, then you’ll be well aware of the outstanding sound quality of its Avatar kit, and the contents of this SDX are in the same league, making this a mandatory purchase for all addicts of superior virtual drums.
Rating: 10/10
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