Superior Drummer 3 sale
- Thread starter EOengineer
- Start date
TheTrueZoltan!
Shredder
- Messages
- 2,347
Superior Drummer 3 can do everything EZdrummer 3 does, and much more. The only thing where EZdrummer 3 is actually better than Superior Drummer is the Grid Editor. EZdrummer has a really nice automatic humanization feature which Superior Drummer has not.
Both are great, but I'd say go for Superior Drummer if the extra cost is acceptable for you.
Last edited:
EOengineer
Rock Star
- Messages
- 2,571
Both have free trials. Download them and spend some time with them. I have both, but if I could only have one it would be SD3.
MirrorProfiles
Rock Star
- Messages
- 4,217
Found someone selling licences for Stockholm and Legacy of Rock for $30 each which I couldn’t pass up.
That room at Air studios sounds incredible and the low end just sounds enormous.
Stockholm is rad for drier/tighter sounds, a bit like the old Custom & Vintage SDX. Awesome stuff.
That room at Air studios sounds incredible and the low end just sounds enormous.
Stockholm is rad for drier/tighter sounds, a bit like the old Custom & Vintage SDX. Awesome stuff.
- Messages
- 10,874
Go with EZDrummer if ya just want some decent sounding drums right away without a ton of tweakability. The kits are already EQ’d and you don’t really have much for options to change how they sound.
Go with Superior if you want to/enjoy tweaking drum sounds from raw drum sounds. There’s plenty of EQ’d kits to use, but the major selling point for me, the actual reason I got it, was because I got pissed off one day over a snare sound in EZD I couldn’t change. The onboard mixer is pretty damn great and the only time I multi-out the drums into Logic is when I need to automate stuff that would be a pain in the ass to do in the plugin.
You can use both the same way, but one allows you to dig far deeper if you want to.
Go with Superior if you want to/enjoy tweaking drum sounds from raw drum sounds. There’s plenty of EQ’d kits to use, but the major selling point for me, the actual reason I got it, was because I got pissed off one day over a snare sound in EZD I couldn’t change. The onboard mixer is pretty damn great and the only time I multi-out the drums into Logic is when I need to automate stuff that would be a pain in the ass to do in the plugin.
You can use both the same way, but one allows you to dig far deeper if you want to.
EOengineer
Rock Star
- Messages
- 2,571
I’m jealous, that’s a STEAL for those expansions.
MirrorProfiles
Rock Star
- Messages
- 4,217
Yeah, unfortunately someone else got in before me and grabbed a few others that I didn't have. Can't complain though.
Unfortunately titled URL, but https://knobcloud.com/ has lots of great deals on plugins and instruments, especially for stuff that doesn't go on sale very often.
MatrixClaw
Roadie
- Messages
- 162
Wish they still had an upgrade from SD2. I wasn't around when SD3 came out, but I've owned 2 since right after it was released. I don't even qualify for the cross grade pricing, which is crazy. I own like 8 expansions, too 
MirrorProfiles
Rock Star
- Messages
- 4,217
I think the sale price at the moment for Superior might be one of the better priced for new customers? Still pricey but it’s also still the benchmark.
I grabbed a few libraries this weekend. Figured I’d pick up the Putney and Wilbur EZX’s as well as Area 33 (been jamming some nostalgic old Bergstrand productions). The Putney one is surprisingly plain (in a good way) for someone whose productions I associate as quite stylised. I think they’d work well on a bunch of things, well tuned and mic’d, good choices of drums. It’s kind of how I’d approach it. Similar for the Wilbur one although there’s a lot less options with mixer channels. Presumably that room isn’t the most interesting so it wasn’t worth doing more room mics.
Area 33 is still downloading, I’m not expecting to particularly like the tones but I love how Bergstrand captures interesting sounds and hopefully they’ll be cool for some more left field character stuff. So many drum libraries end up covering the same ground, especially when it’s drum doctors rented and tuned kits in LA studios.
Stereo micing the drums seems completely pointless to me, and if I could have the option to delete the stereo mic channels without ever hearing them, I would.
I grabbed a few libraries this weekend. Figured I’d pick up the Putney and Wilbur EZX’s as well as Area 33 (been jamming some nostalgic old Bergstrand productions). The Putney one is surprisingly plain (in a good way) for someone whose productions I associate as quite stylised. I think they’d work well on a bunch of things, well tuned and mic’d, good choices of drums. It’s kind of how I’d approach it. Similar for the Wilbur one although there’s a lot less options with mixer channels. Presumably that room isn’t the most interesting so it wasn’t worth doing more room mics.
Area 33 is still downloading, I’m not expecting to particularly like the tones but I love how Bergstrand captures interesting sounds and hopefully they’ll be cool for some more left field character stuff. So many drum libraries end up covering the same ground, especially when it’s drum doctors rented and tuned kits in LA studios.
Stereo micing the drums seems completely pointless to me, and if I could have the option to delete the stereo mic channels without ever hearing them, I would.
MirrorProfiles
Rock Star
- Messages
- 4,217
Oh and the EZ drummer libraries really do sound comparatively worse than SDX’s, maybe in a way that isn’t reflected in the price differences between each. I only pick up the occasional EZX when there’s no SDX equivalent, which tbf, these days they usually keep entirely seperate (they used to make 2 products from the same recording sessions before). I think it really shows in the cymbals, they really suffer in order to get the file sizes down to 2GB or so.
- Messages
- 8,298
Worst library out there!
MirrorProfiles
Rock Star
- Messages
- 4,217
That was my initial thought, but figured I'd try it. I have a ton of more conventional libraries already so a wildcard might be fun. And out of respect of Bergstrand being a nutter.
These sorts of drum sounds are pretty different (even if they're polarising!) to what people conventionally shoot for with drum sounds.
Last edited:
TheTrueZoltan!
Shredder
- Messages
- 2,347
Yeah, there was a time around the beginning of the 2000s when Bergstrand's drum sound was quite popular. I never really liked it. I always thought it sounded "woody" in a weird way.
The Area 33 SDX however... not only do I not like it... I honestly think it's the worst sounding drum library ever recorded. It's hilariously bad, really.
I couldn't get rid of it fast enough:
The Area 33 SDX however... not only do I not like it... I honestly think it's the worst sounding drum library ever recorded. It's hilariously bad, really.
I couldn't get rid of it fast enough:
Last edited:
- Messages
- 10,874
Hahahaha I love those drum sounds, but I’ll be interested in hearing what you think of Area 33. I was looking forward to it, the mic and room options are pretty crazy, but I’ve turned that thing on maybe 3x and never considered it again. If I were looking to challenge myself with mixing a really dense song I’d maybe use it, but it was just over the top room sound.
MirrorProfiles
Rock Star
- Messages
- 4,217
I finally installed, here's my first thoughts on Area 33:
- Presets are atrocious but I never use them anyway
- Lots of weird drum sounds, but as I expected/wanted
- tons of channels. I like having a good amount of options, but this almost feels like they set the mics up before putting any drums in the room. Loads of times channels are out of phase, or you'll have some drums out of phase when others are in. I usually prefer libraries to have a clear goal of what they're trying to achieve and then everything is targeted for that. This is more like a sandbox.
- stereo micing is kind of stupid when there are so many room mics etc already. From a sound design POV I guess you can make some interesting sounds and samples though.
- OH and Rooms are recorded REALLY dark, again, not a problem but I think typically I'd be cranking the shit out of the top end to get them where I like. You can crank 10-15dB nicely on them without them going horrible.
- I think the whole library is sort of made like that in mind. Part of the issue is its way too easy to make bad sounds with it.
- That said, I don't think it's too bad at all AS LONG AS you know going into it what to expect. You'd really want to settle on a kit fairly early, and then work out what channels you can totally discard, and then start working through sorting out phase and getting heavy handed with moulding things where you want. There's a ton of other SDX's that'll do normal mic'd common sounds. This aint it. Lean into the weird and get your hands dirty.
For the most part, I wouldn't recommend this library unless you know what you're in for. It's exactly the reason I bought it, but it's not a quick satisfaction library at all. Even without all the bloat, it would be an excessive and deep library and it would probably have been better if they approached it with a little more focus. I still think its pretty cool, and if you have Metal Foundry (which has a lot of similar "issues") I think its a good alternative as they don't seem to overlap at all sonically.
EDIT:
Just seen @DrewJD82 's post so a few more points with his questions in mind.
Its not. my favourite room sound at all. You can get interesting stuff from it but basically any other library has a much more interesting and good sounding drum room. You can mangle this one any which way you like and get cool sounds, but they won't really be conventional. I'd only really go for this if you're going for something left field and unique. Which tbh, I wish more people did with heavy music these days as everything sounds so samey. Bergstrand has always been about making stuff unique and interesting and I admire his bravery with just going for it (even if it doesn't always pay off).
- Presets are atrocious but I never use them anyway
- Lots of weird drum sounds, but as I expected/wanted
- tons of channels. I like having a good amount of options, but this almost feels like they set the mics up before putting any drums in the room. Loads of times channels are out of phase, or you'll have some drums out of phase when others are in. I usually prefer libraries to have a clear goal of what they're trying to achieve and then everything is targeted for that. This is more like a sandbox.
- stereo micing is kind of stupid when there are so many room mics etc already. From a sound design POV I guess you can make some interesting sounds and samples though.
- OH and Rooms are recorded REALLY dark, again, not a problem but I think typically I'd be cranking the shit out of the top end to get them where I like. You can crank 10-15dB nicely on them without them going horrible.
- I think the whole library is sort of made like that in mind. Part of the issue is its way too easy to make bad sounds with it.
- That said, I don't think it's too bad at all AS LONG AS you know going into it what to expect. You'd really want to settle on a kit fairly early, and then work out what channels you can totally discard, and then start working through sorting out phase and getting heavy handed with moulding things where you want. There's a ton of other SDX's that'll do normal mic'd common sounds. This aint it. Lean into the weird and get your hands dirty.
For the most part, I wouldn't recommend this library unless you know what you're in for. It's exactly the reason I bought it, but it's not a quick satisfaction library at all. Even without all the bloat, it would be an excessive and deep library and it would probably have been better if they approached it with a little more focus. I still think its pretty cool, and if you have Metal Foundry (which has a lot of similar "issues") I think its a good alternative as they don't seem to overlap at all sonically.
EDIT:
Just seen @DrewJD82 's post so a few more points with his questions in mind.
Its not. my favourite room sound at all. You can get interesting stuff from it but basically any other library has a much more interesting and good sounding drum room. You can mangle this one any which way you like and get cool sounds, but they won't really be conventional. I'd only really go for this if you're going for something left field and unique. Which tbh, I wish more people did with heavy music these days as everything sounds so samey. Bergstrand has always been about making stuff unique and interesting and I admire his bravery with just going for it (even if it doesn't always pay off).
Last edited:
TheTrueZoltan!
Shredder
- Messages
- 2,347
I just bought the Progressive Foundry SDX. That's a great sounding library! So far my favourite one was Death & Darkness, but the Progressive Foundry might take its place.
Last edited:
EOengineer
Rock Star
- Messages
- 2,571
D&D is my favorite SDX, I just wish it had more snare options. I find each of the kits effortlessly sound amazing but the snares are kind of meh.
I grabbed the kicks and snares EZX and am hoping to be able to supplement with that.
I grabbed the kicks and snares EZX and am hoping to be able to supplement with that.
MirrorProfiles
Rock Star
- Messages
- 4,217
That's where I'm at. Still pretty curious about Hansa, Decades, State of the Art and Michael Ilberts EZX's from Sunset Sound.
Big +1 for D&D, especially Mark Lewis's library. Tue Madsens makes a nice counter balance for some more quirky tones too. Progressive Foundry has a lot of great stuff, but the room is a little on the small side for my taste (easily augmented though). Honestly, I love all the SDX's, even the weird ones like Metal Foundry, Area 33, Rock Warehouse.
Big +1 for D&D, especially Mark Lewis's library. Tue Madsens makes a nice counter balance for some more quirky tones too. Progressive Foundry has a lot of great stuff, but the room is a little on the small side for my taste (easily augmented though). Honestly, I love all the SDX's, even the weird ones like Metal Foundry, Area 33, Rock Warehouse.
TheTrueZoltan!
Shredder
- Messages
- 2,347
Ah, you have the mysterious Evil Drums SDX. How do you like it?
Similar threads
