EzzieSo first, I want to thank Toontrack for steadily developing the amazing instrument we know today. I dont want to take too much time patting you guys on the back but really, you’ve done something that brings allot of joy to allot of peoples lives. So thanks. Ill get on with it. Over the last year I have purchased almost all of the SDXs. I really dug into Roots and The Superior 3 Library. However I have everything else but Metal Machinery and Rock Warehouse. Up until a few months ago, I was mostly satisfied with the Libraries. Though not fully satisfied because of the lack of lower velocity layers for subtle playing on a Roland Kit. But honestly, what you guys accomplished, who could complain? Recently, everything has changed (and for the better). I watched very closely, waiting for Decades SDX to come out. I dont know how you guys did it, but that SDX really set the bar as far as playability, nuance and quality. Im Not just talking about the library or individual drums. What I mean is that its plain to hear that Toontrack put allot more effort into certain aspects.
For example, something I noticed right away with older Libraries was the lack of low velocity snare hits for each articulation. Like dragging and rolling into or out of a hard snare hit. We get a machine gunning effect from the lack of lower velocity samples. But with Decades, my ears hear more velocity as well as I believe more round robins (though I could be wrong about that last part). But definitely, every light note, 8th, 16th, 32nd is much more clear and believable.
The thing is, after Decades, none of the older libraries can live up to the quality and playability standard that you guys set for yourself. You kinda put yourself in a tight spot because they just sound significantly better than the old libraries.
This is now double true with your release of Death & Darkness. Sincerely Toontrack, most people would never be able to tell the difference between Decades/D&D and a real kit, in a recording.
I can hardly hear the difference when Im playing on my Roland TD50. You did so well 😉
Which leads me to my request, which is probably more in line with what you’ll set out to do with Superior Drummer 4 but I wanted to bring it up.
I would really love to see you guys set out to recreate the libraries you’ve already released, just in the exceptional detail you provided with Decades and Death & Darkness. All of those amazing drums and cymbals. Especially the Snares. The Snare is where all the detail is, at least in my playing)
On top of the newfound realism, nuanced lower velocity, you also added more ride articulations. A bell 1 and bell 2. Which, again, seriously amazing. I use positional sensing on the ride and set both articulations. I have 7 total articulations on my ride all at once and I make great use of them. Bell Tip, Bow shank, Bow Tip 1, Bow Tip 2, Edge, Muted Bow and Muted Bell. CRAZY!
So, us drummers would love to have that on the Crashes as well and keep doing it on all rides moving forward because you struck realism gold with that move!! I know its not exactly the same for programming Metal Drums but for people who play a physical kit, it makes all the difference.
I can imagine its tough, trying to agree as a software developer/recording engineers, how much is too much in regards to hard drive space/download size. Adding all those extra lower and middle velocities, and round robins to the drums takes up allot of space. I understand that by adding more realism, it taxes resources on the hard drive. But sincerelyand this is an idea…What if you offered an additional download for each new SDX with the extra velocities/layers/robins. like from 1-127, For the guys and girls who play physical kits or who just want those ultra sensitive velocities for rolls, flams, and so forth. You just charge extra for us to get deeper realism. Very much in the same way the surround mics would come in a different download. This way, those of us who want the depth and realism have the option. There are plenty of us who dont care about harddrive space, as harddrives are getting cheaper and cheaper. The extra 5-20gb really wont matter. We can just buy more hard drives lol.
A guy like me, who loves playing Jazz, funk, soul, R&B, indie, folk, we could really use more detail on our light Jazzy snare work. Which is something that cant be done with an SDX like The Rock Foundry or Progressive. It just gets too machine gunny. And yes, I am pretty good at editing the velocity curve and lowering the ‘soft hit’ volume meter or maxing out the soft, med, hard samples. But it just doesnt do the trick as well as having the real samples there.
So, I say, you guys already have the Gold in your Archive. Revisiting those drums and cymbals, with 2020 in mind I think is a wonderful Idea. And in general, we need more Jazz, more Funk, Dry Sounds, Beatles, more White/battered tom heads, more folk. A step away from the Metal and Hard Rock stuff. Like what you did with Decades!! Just once Again!! lol
A raw drum sound is a raw drum sound. A snare is a snare, for any style of music, no matter what the label on the SDX says. Im not a preset guy, I love starting raw and molding my sounds.
Anyways, Toontrack, youre kicking butt! I love what youre doing. Progress always, pushing the standard with each release.
Thanks!
Anyways, Im rambling.
Toontrack, youre doing great. The end of 2019 you gave us the best yet and I would love to see a continuance of that.
Oh and the ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ tom mics! Genius!! Keep doing that too!
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