bpjacobsenI have been struggling to decide what my next wishlist SDX pack item should be.
Currently, I have Fields of Rock, Legacy of Rock, and Death & Darkness.
I’m hoping for something a little less processed with more crisp/dry/natural sounding Snares etc. I’m for the most part a classic and alt rock person with some Jazz (Dave Weckyl)I like a bit more of a tight, clean but robust sound. Was leaning towards Hansa since it has the rotos and octobans, though not sure if they are much different from the ones I already have from Fields of Rock? Seems like a good library with a lot of variety but again, open to suggestions. I feel like Legacy is a bit too processed for my tasted but I do like some of the presets. I like the U2 Joshua Tree snare sound. (think bullet the blue sky) D&D more than satisfies the harder side of my taste. Fields of Rock is good but again, a bit over processed on some regards. Just looking for some great snares and some nice presets that are processed but more natural sounding I guess.
BradHi there,
One SDX that I have really been digging into lately, and for the reasons you just mentioned, is State of the Art.
Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)
drumjack52Have you tried running without using SD3’s presets? I never do and use what’s in my daw. My lone expansion library is D&D and been able to use it for just about everything except for jazzy stuff ala Dave Brubeck or Vince Guaraldi (the Charlie Brown trio).
BP: while I have your eyes how’s the percussion in Fields of Rock? Looking for small hand percussion for use in SD3 and it seems like a good library (that and the drum kits sound interesting).
Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.0
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram
Bear-Faced CowThe percussion in FoR is quite good, but half of it is more found sounds as opposed to standard percussion. It’s good for coming up with more unique grooves and accompaniments. For standard percussion, my go to is the Latin Cuban Percussion EZX.
I also agree with Brad regarding State of the Art SDX. It has become one of my go to’s. Another one is Stories.
jord
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Thanked by: drumjack52
Tom ConnerWas going to say State of the Art as well for crisp/dry/natural.
Six piece DWe, Roland BT-1s/eDRUMin, SD3 (State of the Art, Stockholm, Hitmaker, Legacy of Rock, Decades, Death & Darkness, Fields of Rock, Stories), RME Fireface, JH Audio IEMs w/Fiio Amplifier, Porter & Davies, Razer 16 laptop
MuellercraftI have Hansa and I use it a lot. There is a nice variety of rooms and kits. I tend to use the ‘marble room’ and sometimes ‘vocal booth’ for a really dry sound. I like the China type cymbal in the marble room. I tend not to use the ‘live room’ and ‘Meistersaal’ simply because they aren’t right for the type of music I record.
Indiependent has some nice dry sounds for small kits.
Muellercraft
Composer, performer, producer
Black & Whyte Studio
Muellercraft.com
SD3, Rooms of Hansa, Indiependent, Roland TD-17 KVX, Mac Studio M1 Ultra, UA Apollo Twin X, HEDD Type 20 monitors
bpjacobsenHave you tried running without using SD3’s presets? I never do and use what’s in my daw. My lone expansion library is D&D and been able to use it for just about everything except for jazzy stuff ala Dave Brubeck or Vince Guaraldi (the Charlie Brown trio).
BP: while I have your eyes how’s the percussion in Fields of Rock? Looking for small hand percussion for use in SD3 and it seems like a good library (that and the drum kits sound interesting).
Interesting. So how do you load the drums without any presets? Drawing a blank. I’m kinda lazy though. Don’t really want to have to fiddle much with mixers if I don’t have to. Why I was asking about libraries that have presets that already sound really good without having to scale back on all the processing to make them sound a bit more natural.
drumjack52Have you tried running without using SD3’s presets? I never do and use what’s in my daw. My lone expansion library is D&D and been able to use it for just about everything except for jazzy stuff ala Dave Brubeck or Vince Guaraldi (the Charlie Brown trio).
BP: while I have your eyes how’s the percussion in Fields of Rock? Looking for small hand percussion for use in SD3 and it seems like a good library (that and the drum kits sound interesting).
Interesting. So how do you load the drums without any presets? Drawing a blank. I’m kinda lazy though. Don’t really want to have to fiddle much with mixers if I don’t have to. Why I was asking about libraries that have presets that already sound really good without having to scale back on all the processing to make them sound a bit more natural.
For D&D I load the default which gives me a DW kit and customize it from there. I don’t use any of the producer or other presets, No fx, nothing from SD3 other than the drums themselves.
Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.0
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram
Mark KingI just about always load the dry kits. That is how you get a clean drum sound without processing.
SD3 with older sdx,s plus Rooms of Hansa and Death & Darkness. Cubase and wavelab current versions. Roland TD50x using all trigger inputs for triggering SD3 only. Windows 11 computer. Various keyboards and outboard gear as well as VST instruments. Acoustic drums: Yamaha 9000 natural wood and Pearl masters. Various snare drums. RME BabyFace Pro FS and Adam A7X monitors
1
Thanked by: drumjack52
Shen GPlus one for the State of the Art recommendations for the most natural sounding. Knowing how may toms you have/like, the extra floor tom you might appreciate. I have enjoyed the excuse to muck around with having a floor tom on the left like it has by default on a couple of the bigger kits. Bucket of Fish’s never sounded so good! 😀
I like the U2 Joshua Tree snare sound. (think bullet the blue sky)
There is a bit of ring to that snare sound though, and leads me to probably my biggest gripe with SotA, there are too many dry/short/doofy sounding snares, and I have a fondness for ring/overtones (90 grunge kid). Otherwise the tom sounds are perhaps my favourite of any SDX. So I’d kind of lean toward Stories for that snare sound.
how’s the percussion in Fields of Rock?
I agree with Jord, it’s good. But a bunch of it is taken up with foley like samples, which are fun, but the Stories set has more musical options. So depending if there is something specific you want, I think thats better for percussion. And if you want to do the cowbell intro part from Killing in the Name, the LP Rock and Salsa Cha Cha Low Cowbell’s are perfect!
Having said that, I much prefer the drum and especially cymbal sounds of FoR. Probably my favourite SDX for cymbals.
My 2c
drumjack52Been looking through the product pages and playing the examples of the libraries mentioned here (keep in mind I have D&D already). I seem to find maybe one kit out of each of the libraries that appeals to me and I can’t afford monetarily-wise and space-wise to buy all 3 (SOTA/FoR/Stories). I tend to do stuff that uses 3 and 4 rack toms and would like to not have to add an Xdrum and repitch it to fit. I know I asked about percussion pieces and completely forgot about the percussion library I have for UVI Falcon. Choices choices choices….
I don’t like having my hard drives cluttered with stuff I’ll never use.
Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.0
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram
Bear-Faced CowEveryone has their reasons for getting an SDX. For me it is more than just the kit itself. It is about who recorded it, how they recorded it and where they recorded it that makes a difference in the music for me. I might have umpteen Ludwig black beauties, but only one of them will fit a song perfectly. Even if it is just one kit on The SDX, if it makes a difference in the song, then it is well worth it rather than wasting my time trying to wedge something else in like a square peg and a round hole. Drive space is relatively inexpensive these days.
jord
drumjack52Everyone has their reasons for getting an SDX. For me it is more than just the kit itself. It is about who recorded it, how they recorded it and where they recorded it that makes a difference in the music for me. I might have umpteen Ludwig black beauties, but only one of them will fit a song perfectly. Even if it is just one kit on The SDX, if it makes a difference in the song, then it is well worth it rather than wasting my time trying to wedge something else in like a square peg and a round hole. Drive space is relatively inexpensive these days.
jord
That’s where we differ. I don’t care who recorded it and where it was recorded. Eddie Kramer, Elliot Scheiner – whomever. Avatar Studios, Ocean Way – whatever. The names don’t matter to me. I go with what I know from real life drum kits that I’ve heard and played. The kits are where my heart lies – DW being my favorite with Gretsch and Yamaha etc. further down the line.
Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.0
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram
Bear-Faced CowConsidering you mention two very different producers and studios, that will greatly affect how you hear the same kit. Just because it has a DW or Gretsch label on it, that doesn’t mean that it’s going to sound the same across libraries. Otherwise, what would be the use for them?
jord
drumjack52Considering you mention two very different producers and studios, that will greatly affect how you hear the same kit. Just because it has a DW or Gretsch label on it, that doesn’t mean that it’s going to sound the same across libraries. Otherwise, what would be the use for them?
jord
I mentioned what I did to show that I don’t care what ‘big name’ producer or studio means (to me). Just because they may have done great ‘work’ or the studios had ‘great work’ done in them doesn’t make me want to buy them – I just pulled names out of the hat. I don’t expect a kit to sound the same across the differences. Never said that and don’t know where you picked that up. DW has a certain sound as does Gretsch as does Yamaha no matter where each is recorded or by whom.
Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.0
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram
bpjacobsenObviously, everyone hears things in their own way. Some may enjoy the way stuff was recorded and by whom. Others are more about the signature sound of the instrument and prefer to tweak from there. I can see both sides of it and I myself don’t really have much of a budget to load up on many SDX. For me, I have more than enough drums and presets to work with. this is just a hobby for me and I don’t even really use my DAW much lately. It’s more just me jamming and practicing techniques. Also experimenting with sound. If I had money to burn, sure I would load up on all libraries. Why not? but with the countless presets I already have, I can’t justify spending another near $200 on another library pack that has much of the same drums but recorded differently. Maybe next sale I will consider it but for now, I’m really enjoying putting together some dry kits from D&D defaults per Jack’s suggestion. Will try defaults from Fields of Rock etc too at some point. Thanks all for the fun discussion and suggestions.
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