There are two available configurations of Superior Drummer 3.
For all customers that do not already own EZdrummer 1, 2, or 3.
For owners of EZdrummer.
Pricing information can be found here.
Yes, Superior Drummer 3 is a download product. Downloads can be completed with the Toontrack Product Manager, which has a dedicated download manager. This makes downloading large files easy. The download is also configured into six parts, allowing the user to choose whether to to install the full library or only a part of it. The full core sound library download is approximately 230 gigabytes.
At an additional cost, there is also the option of purchasing the full core sound library pre-installed on a 256 GB solid-state drive (SSD). The drive contains no software, only sounds. This means that you will still need to download the Superior Drummer 3 software in order to use this library. A separately purchased Superior Drummer 3 license is also required for use.
Yes! All SDX libraries will function as usual in Superior Drummer 3. Additionally, they have all been updated with new graphics for the Superior Drummer 3 format. After Superior Drummer 3 has been launched, you will find relevant updates in the Toontrack Product Manager.
The only exception is the original DFH Superior 1 library. This library is incompatible with Superior Drummer 3.
All producer presets can be loaded in the new Superior Drummer 3 software.
Yes, all MIDI from any purchased and installed Toontrack MIDI pack, EZX, or SDX library will work in Superior Drummer 3.
Upon the release of Superior Drummer 3, Superior Drummer 2 will no longer be for sale. However, installing Superior Drummer 3 will NOT erase Superior Drummer 2 from your system. You are free to use both programs on your computer at the same time. This means that all old projects that you have created with Superior Drummer 2 will not be affected in any way.
No, the sound library download is divided into 5 parts. The minimum install size is approximately 41 GB. Below are the specific downloads for the sound library. Sound library installations should be installed in order with one exception, the Additional Bleed Download. The Additional Bleed Download can be installed at any time after the Basic Sound Library (Download 1). This allows users to install the Basic Sound Library with all bleed in the minimum possible footprint.
Download 1: “Basic Sound Library” (All instruments, all tools and all articulations in close mics, OH Dyn and Amb Ribbon. Bleed in Snare Bottom (Kick and toms) , Approx. estimate 40gb)
Download 2: “Room Mics 1” (The rest of the Room mics: OH Cond, Amb Near, Amb Mid).
Download 3: “Room Mics 2 – Surround (5 ch)” (extra mics to achieve 5.0 surround, Front L/R, Center and Surround L/R)
Download 4: “Room Mics 3 – Height Surround (6 ch)” (extra mics to achieve 11.0 surround, Front Height, Rear Height and Rear Height Wide )
Bleed Download: “Extra Bleed” (The rest of the bleed in the close mics). This installation can be installed at anytime after the initial Basic Sound Library (Download 1).
These are surround sound output configurations. The Superior Drummer 3 sound library was recorded in a way that makes it compatible for output with these formats. Specifically, this means that engineer George Massenburg positioned multiple extra ambience microphones in such a way that they can be seamlessly output to 2, 5, 7, 9, and 11 channel systems. Toontrack realizes that most users do not have multi-channel systems in their studio, so for the traditional stereo user, the surround ambience channels found in the mixer can simply be used just like any other ambience channel that is output through your two speakers. Therefore, if your setup has two speakers every single channel in the mixer will still work for you (they will all be output through your stereo set of speakers)! If you have a surround setup, all channels in the mixer will also work for you, and you will be able to output the surround channels in the mixer to your dedicated surround speakers.
It is common industry terminology in reference to a LFE (Low Frequency Effects) channel. An LFE channel is a channel that is dedicated to bass only audio information, and it is rolled off at 120HZ. To use the .1 LFE channel the engineer creates sends (on channels with low frequency information below 120Hz) and sends the desired amount of these audio channels to the LFE channel.
An analogy to how a .1 LFE channel is used would be a reverb buss. It is common practice to insert a reverb plugin on a buss (aux) channel, and then send a percentage of user chosen audio channels to this reverb buss, rather than outputting 100% of the signal to the reverb buss. This is exactly how a .1 LFE channel works when mixing in surround. The engineer chooses the amount of an audio channel that they would like to send to the .1 LFE channel. The output of this channel is most commonly reproduced by a subwoofer.
For these reasons no samples were specifically captured as a .1 LFE channel. If you are mixing in surround it is your decision to choose the channels that you would like to send to the .1 LFE channel, just as you would choose which channels to send to a reverb buss.
No. previously released SDX libraries will only ever contain the amount of channels that they were released with.
The integrated offline audio to MIDI converter known as the Tracker tab in Superior Drummer 3 works with drum audio files in the WAV, AIFF, FLAC, OGG, and MP3 format. Tracker is designed to be used with multi-track drum audio files, meaning that multiple close microphones were used to capture all instruments in the drum kit. Using Tracker with multi-microphone drum audio files will yield the best results. However, due to the intelligent instrument recognition system Tracker can also extract multiple different individual instruments from a single audio file (such as a mono overhead or a stereo mix of a drum kit). Using Tracker in this way will most likely require more effort from the user in refining trigger points. Tracker can recognize six classifications of instruments: kick, snare, hi-hat, ride, toms and cymbals.
Tracker can recognize 6 classifications of instruments: Kick, Snare, Hi-Hat, Ride, Toms, and Cymbals.
Please click on the picture to see an expanded comparison of SD2 and Superior Drummer 3.
64-bit Windows 7 or newer, 4 GB RAM (8 GB RAM or more recommended). Mac OS X 10.6 or higher, 64-bit Intel-based Mac with 4 GB RAM (8 GB RAM or more recommended).
64-bit host (with support for VST, AU or AAX). Standalone is included.
SOFTWARE: Approx. 320 MB download + installation space.
SOUND LIBRARY: Basic install: Approx. 41 GB download and an additional 41 GB for the installation process. Complete install: Approx. 236 GB download and an additional 55 GB for the installation process.
SSD install (optional): Approx. 236 GB pre-installed.
