Rock icon Drum MIDI

[mikmock]

Hello Toontrack,
When I first saw the release of “Arena Rock” I thought of names like Rush, Dream Theater, Queensryche to name a few.
Although so far Arena Rock is a really good pack, the names of Springsteen & Bon Jovi just don’t come to my mind.
It would be awesome to publish some drum midi from the great power/technical drummers like Neil Peart, Mike Mangini and others that are true Legends of Rock Drumming.
I imagine its not condusive to the standard songwriting grooves that many people want but personally, that is the style and groove which I write and play. I have searched the Internet for those types of midi loops and there is nothing close to that style available.

Thank you so much for the awesome products you have created. They fuel my creativity and desire to play music every single day.

Topic

[Steve McNamara]

@Michael Mockley said:
Hello Toontrack,
When I first saw the release of “Arena Rock” I thought of names like Rush, Dream Theater, Queensryche to name a few.
Although so far Arena Rock is a really good pack, the names of Springsteen & Bon Jovi just don’t come to my mind.
It would be awesome to publish some drum midi from the great power/technical drummers like Neil Peart, Mike Mangini and others that are true Legends of Rock Drumming.
I imagine its not condusive to the standard songwriting grooves that many people want but personally, that is the style and groove which I write and play. I have searched the Internet for those types of midi loops and there is nothing close to that style available.

Thank you so much for the awesome products you have created. They fuel my creativity and desire to play music every single day.  

Michael:

I had the same thought when I saw “Arena” in the title — Springsteen is not what came to mind. Neal P., Mangini, Portnoy (!) would all be great, but I think you hit a nail on the head about that type of MIDI track not being in the mainstream that a for-profit company like TT has to keep in mind. Having said that, I’ve found it useful to locate progressive rock MIDI tracks and pull out the drum parts, and then work with them to create prog rock and hard rock tracks. YMMV . Good luck.

Steve

[Mike Newingham]

Even if you don’t release an expansion of EZD with a signature drummer playing (like Mr. Peart and the others mentioned)… The only thing I see as a glaring omission from your kits are drum sounds that are like roto-toms or whatever Neal uses on the fills that seemingly start in California and roll to New York. I own a lot of your EZD catalogue and it suits me, but, I’d add that type of kit for sure. Keep on inventing and innovating great stuff! EZM, EZKeys, EZD… all great!!!

[NathanShane]

I know my 2022 reply is for a 2018 request, but I have to agree that Toontrack needs to expand their MIDI Grooves to include grooves in “the style of” Neil Peart. Being a RUSH fan for over 40+ years, as well as a guitarist for that time as well, I’ve purchased many MIDI Packs from Toontrack hoping they would have some grooves that sound similar to Neil Peart…but they really don’t.

With the newly released “Hitmaker” SDX, we finally have some drum kits with enough toms and cymbals which places “Hitmaker” as being the closest drum kit that looks and sounds similar to Neil’s iconic kits. But we need MIDI Grooves that make use of the highest pitched to the lowest pitched toms. And we need kick, snare, hi-hat, ride grooves in Neil’s style.

Toontrack has countless METAL, HARD ROCK, etc…MIDI grooves, but none of those drummers play in a style that even comes close to sounding in the style of Neil Peart. Just like there are fundamental drum patterns every drummer learns, Neil uses a lot of patterns in “his own style” that are immediately recognizable as sounding like Neil Peart. Something like this is what’s missing from Toontrack’s MIDI Grooves Packs.

[NathanShane]

Like the previous poster, this is my 2023-2024 reply. I absolutely agree that TT has produced zero MIDI tracks which represent the fundamental and advanced grooves of Neil Peart. I too am a lifetime guitarist/musician of 40+ years and grew up listening to RUSH. I truly like the grooves which Neil performs, his style is identifiable and he should be represented by at least one of the MIDI drum loop manufacturers. TT is the best at what they do and to their credit their products are the defacto standard most musicians choose.

I’ve been purchasing/supporting and using TT products for nearly 20 years. I completely rely on using MIDI Grooves and Drum Samples for my song writing and music productions. I have literally been waiting for years for TT to release some MIDI Grooves in the style of Neil Peart. But with each new TT release, it has been nothing but strong disappointment. The style of Neil Peart is still not represented. It’s somewhat similar to the frustration fans felt when RUSH kept being ignored for induction into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Toontrack has given song writers some awesome tools to work with. However, from their first “Drumkit From Hell” to this present day 2023/24, TT has a reputation for focusing more on Metal, Heavy Metal, Speed Metal and Aggressive drumming styles. In this day and age, there is a legitimate need for Neil Peart Style MIDI Drum Grooves. They are long overdue and Toontrack is “the” company who has the talent and skills to do it right. Please TT, expand our song writing horizons as only you can do.

Nathan Shane

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