I know Toontrack’s policy of not discussing products that are in-development so I don’t expect a reply from a TT rep.
The tools you develop are some of the best I have ever used in terms of stability, sound quality and ease. They allow me, a non-drummer and non-engineer to generate drum tracks that sound real and amazing to accompany my bass, guitar and vocals and then mix and master them with a few clicks of the mouse yielding great and convincing results.
EZdrummer 2 has some amazing features for non-drummers. Tap 2 Find, Song creator & Edit Play style. As Toontrack advertises, it is amazing for songwriting and song construction. However, when it comes to the final mix, I need Superior Drummer to get a sound that has the depth, the intricacies and the realism I need.
You can use EZdrummer 2 to mold your midi and then use the midi out feature to hear the sounds through Superior, but there are a few inconveniences. It complicates the work-flow, the kits don’t have the same amount of pieces so the editing won’t be perfect using edit play-style. It would make a lot of sense to be able to do all of this within Superior, the flagship product.
It’s time for Superior 3 with a fresh GUI, Tap 2 Find, song creator, edit play style, the ability to use pieces from different kits or expand a kit without creating X-drums all while retaining backwards compatibility for DFHS and SD2 kits. It would make sense for the core library to be the one recorded for EZdrummer 2 at British grove studios in SDX format. Why not have the new SDX packs be 48k instead of 44.1k? It’s time for the flagship product to have it all. Charge what you want for it. There should be no need for your customers to have to compromise when Toontrack has the tech and the programmers to make the ULTIMATE drum vst.
I realize it’s important for you to have the distinction between the EZ line and the Superior line from a marketing point of view. You may feel that adding the best of EZ to Superior will result in less EZD sales, which may be true but those who want it all will be wiling to pay more for SD3 and EZdrummer will continue to serve the demographic who wants a tool offering mix ready drums using less hard drive space and resources at a lower cost.
