I’m trying to decide between Joe Barressi Evil Drums and Metal Foundry. I write rock, blues, hard rock and metal…even a little prog stuff. What do you guys think?
They are both pretty awesome, but I think it might depend a little on personal preference, and what you want/need from your drums. Have you listened to all the demos? Also try to listen to some of Joe Baressi’s work such as Bad Religion, Rancid, Tool etc to get an idea of his vision.
Here’s how I’d break it down:
Metal Foundry – Pros: Great selection of drums to choose from. The cymbals sound particularly awesome. The room sounds great IMO though I’ve heard a few people say they don’t like it. The ambience certainly sounds very ‘real’ like the kit is in the room with you. The options you have in the mixer are insane, for instance from memory you have 5 snare mics to choose from! As far as the detail of the way they sampled the kits I’d say Toontrack took it to another level when they made this library.
Cons: I just don’t like the way the kits are tuned. The kicks are fine but for me the snares are tuned way too high. The snares are all attack and no sustain or body. Arguably you could go into the envelope section of Superior and fiddle with the sound there, but for me there is simply not a single snare in the bunch that I like. For a really dense mix they may be perfect though, but I write more kinda ‘metal ballads’ and they just don’t sound right to me. The toms on the other hand are tuned pretty low, which once again doesn’t do it for me.
Evil Drums – Pros: I think this is the most ‘real’ sounding of all the libraries, which to me makes it probably the best library. It really sounds like drums in the room with you. You get 6 kits to choose from plus 6 extra snares and 6 extra kicks, so a HUGE selection of drums in this package. The mixer presets from Rail are AWESOME, very useable with only minor tweaking to fit your particular mix.
Cons: Seems to be the most demanding in terms of ram usage of all the libraries so make sure your computer is up to the task…
I was hugely disappointed with the Metal Foundry library, and I only play metal. I don’t like the sound of the cymbals at all, but I totally agree on what was written above about the snares. The Metal Foundry snares is a snapshot in time, and that kind of snare tuning and sound is on its way out already. The only thing from that library I use is the hihat, as it can be more open than on all the other expansion packs.
The best expansion pack for snares is the Evil Drums library, and the best chrashes by far is in the Allaire library. Finally some sustain and depth, which is sorely lacking in the Metal Foundry cymbals. Otherwise Avatar has the best kicks and toms for metal IMO.
One final point to get the rant out of my system is that there is only one good ride in all the libraries, the dry ride in the Avatar library (can’t remember its exact name). Strange that this one is the only one that sounds great out of all those rides available in all the libraries. All the rest are either too washy, or sound flat and like they are hit with a drumstick with a broken wooden tip. More “vinyl tip” sounds, please. Some attack and clarity is sorely needed.
Hey, thanks for the great review. I went with Metal Foundry for now for several reasons. First, I already have the disks and had already installed it before I realized I needed an additional license. Second, I kinda like the snares and it’s pretty easy to change the pitch of each drum. Third, it’s a little bit cheaper.
One final point to get the rant out of my system is that there is only one good ride in all the libraries, the dry ride in the Avatar library (can’t remember its exact name). Strange that this one is the only one that sounds great out of all those rides available in all the libraries. All the rest are either too washy, or sound flat and like they are hit with a drumstick with a broken wooden tip. More “vinyl tip” sounds, please. Some attack and clarity is sorely needed.
Rant over.
That pretty much sums up my feelings. I like everything about S2 and the various expansions I own, except for the selection of ride cymbals. I’ve gone back to one of the rides from the Nashville EZDrummer expansion, which has much more definition and I always used before I got S2. I’m just not sure that I’ve been successful at getting the ambience to match when using it as an Xdrum with the Allaire kit.
Noted… but the only drummer I ever saw in the studio who used nylon tips was Jeff Porcaro… and that was over 9 years at Oceanway, 2 at Record One and 2 at The Complex with George Massenburg and Greg Ladanyi.
Cheers,
Rail
Professionally Recorded Multitrack Drum Samples
http://tinyurl.com/26k2xjo
www.platinumsamples.com
ORIGINAL: Platinum Samples
Noted… but the only drummer I ever saw in the studio who used nylon tips was Jeff Porcaro… and that was over 9 years at Oceanway, 2 at Record One and 2 at The Complex with George Massenburg and Greg Ladanyi.
Cheers,
Rail
I believe vinyl tip sticks are often used by metal drummers, to ensure an aggressive and consistent attack on the ride. I’ve used them exclusively for over ten years now, as I got tired of the ride sound getting dull when the tips started to disintegrate. The ride will look like shit after a while, though.
I’ve never heard of those drummers you mentioned, which tells me we may be talking about totally different drumming worlds altogether.
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