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[wagzisnotadrummer]

yes. Classic is on sale, but I don’t think I will buy it. I’ve been buying lots of Nebula programs lately, so they are kinda eating my funds. I wanna get some new filters a possibly the BXQ Baxandall Equalizer program, so I can’t justify getting The Classic, when I don’t think I will use it much. It sounds very good, though.

I spent the last hour or two watchin videos and listening to clips of Music City and The Classic. I almost bought both, but wanted a smaller room than Music City had and I liked The Classic, but I wanted rods or brushes. Both libraries were impressive.

[wagzisnotadrummer]

juicy, I admit I may have been a little harsh, considering that I am judging the Roots SDX on the quality of the demos on the product page. I think what I don’t like about it are the snares. Roots seems to be filled up with thin, ringy, snares. Whatever’s going on in the demos…I don’t want that sound. The only tracks I liked were “Avant Drums” (reminded me of the drums from Beck’s “Paper Tiger” and “Pagentry”, but I think Pagentry may have more than one snare beefing up the sound. Maybe most of the snares here a high-pitched popcorn snares.

I remember when Roots came out. I had money to spend and I just knew I was gonna buy it!
The concept sounded so nice. Then, I heard it…

I’m seriously starting to think maybe Toontrack should just do a low-tuned and damped snare drum expansion, or something.

I don’t know if I’ve heard the Pearl Reference Snare you mentioned. Can you point it out to me? It sounds like something I’d wanna use.

EDIT: I see it now. It’s in “Roots Brushes…”. If it’s not on the product demo pages, I probably haven’t heard it.

[wagzisnotadrummer]

ORIGINAL: Whitten

EZX: The Classic has a lot more lower tuned snares.

Chris, I am so tempted to buy “The Classic”. It think it sounds very good and I’d love to have a 4 mic setup in my colorbox and I really want more low-tuned snares. However, there are things that I feel are necessary for me right now that it doesn’t have. I absolutely need brushes and hot rods. As much as I’d hate to admit it, most of these tunes that I make just don’t rock. I’m talking laid-back finger-picking acoustic guitars and upright basses. I’m really shooting for quiet and intimate. “The Classic” is a sticks-only library. So, I don’t think that I’ll get what I’m after if it sounds like the drums are rockin in a big room while the rest of the “band” is in a small living room. The sticks are the main problem, though. If “The Classic” had all of the options that a SDX has(like rods and brushes) I would have already bought it. It sounds that good. Too bad it’s only an EZX when Roots is an SDX. I do not like Roots. Yeah, it’s got sticks, but it sounds like poo, in my opinion.

I keep asking for more drums in C&V because it’s really the style I feel fits what I do. And yes, it has great sounds, but once you start using brushes and rods you have very few options.

[wagzisnotadrummer]

Well, the only thing I’m interested in, with regards to Superior Drummer, is getting more options (another SDX) similar to C&V. That’s why I started this thread. I could care less about putting reverb and other effects into Superior Drummer. Personally, I think that is part of the problem. People are always asking for more, more, more, when it comes to effects. Do you guys honestly think that Toontrack will invest the time and money to flatline SD 2 by bloating it with unnecessary effects like reverb and saturation? That will end up making SD more expensive and difficult to use. Toontrack, don’t do it! Don’t listen to these guys!

Listen to me!LOL. The SDX libraries are what you should focus on. Superior Drummer is your flagship, right? Well, continue to make it better by offering well recorded and engineered SDX’s. For instance, C&V …it is awesome! Please update it with more low-tuned snares. I want to continue on as a customer of Toontrack, so please, make more SDX libraries. I need punchy, fat, low-tuned, dry snare sounds. So, far I’ve only found what I want in C&V.

Roots sounded like a great idea, but all of the snares that I heard sound like the snare is tuned too high. I don’t want that. I don’t want built-in reverb. I don’t want more weak death metal drums and I don’t want 16 bit samples(EZ Drummer…I don’t even record in 16 bit. And yes, there is a difference between it and 24 bit).

This product is great, but it can go so much further than it has. Toontrack, simplify the process for working with X-drums and fix the bounce issues. The bigger issue, though, is tone. Just focus on getting the best tones you can from the actual drums, mics, and rooms you have available. Please don’t dumb-down the quality(16bit) and don’t muddy the waters with junk like reverb. Those are the only things you really need to work on, regarding the SD plugin. Speaking of tone, talk to Chris Whitten and the guys that recorded C&V, they have good ears.

[wagzisnotadrummer]

Well, I contacted Toontrack to ask them. This was their reply:

” we’re sorry, but we don’t have that information available. The demo was created over three years ago and we’re afraid we haven’t saved the session file. Sorry!

Have a nice weekend!

Best regards,
Toontrack Music “

oh well. I’ll just have to make up my own kits and presets. No biggie, but I would really like to know because they did a really good job on that demo.

[wagzisnotadrummer]

Today, I’ve been going through the presets(as suggested)to see what some of these guys are doing. I can get pretty close to what I want ,now(which is intimate. dry. punchy. natural). I’ll keep at it, but things are sounding pretty sweet now! Thanks for the advice, juicy and planetnine. Well, I am by no means an amazing…or even good mixer . And, I realize that I have still have lots to learn, but I would still like more lower tuned snares for this library. The transient smears when i change things just a little.

Regarding mixing and presets, the “Sidestick Ballad” demo on the C&V page sounds pretty grand, in my opinion. It sounds punchy, yet dry and very intimate. A bit of distortion was used to get this particular sound, but it sounds good in this song. Is there a producer pack preset for this? I’d like to know which kit(s) were used for this and how they were processed.

[wagzisnotadrummer]

ORIGINAL: juicy

With all the excellent gear we have ITB we could do the tape saturation,vinyl emulation vintage EQ, vintage compression, vintage plate reverb to the existing libraries and get very close to this stuff.I guess people want it all done for them.

juicy, I don’t “want it all done for me” but I am after a certain sound and vibe that I don’t quite have yet. That’s why I have requested the further expansion of this library. In my experience, software plugins don’t typically best their analog hardware equivalents. So, even though I have nice tape plugins I would prefer that the next library of this type that I buy be tracked to quality tape, as I believe it would be more in line with the sound I want.

Heck, I could get by without Toontrack tracking to tape but I would still like them to expand this library with more damped drums and lower tunings, at least. I really do like what was done with C&V. All I’m really asking for is to have some more colors to choose from.

Btw, I found out why I like that drummer in the Bill Withers vid. That’s the legendary James Gadson! He played on Beck’s “Sea Change”(using some of his own vintage drums from the 70’s) … as well as those albums by McCartney and Withers that sound awesome. It’s no wonder I liked his playing in the vid! I am not a drummer…so, I didn’t know who he was. Now, I do!

Maybe Toontrack could just sample him or at least try to get him to do a James Gadson Signature Series expansion (with grooves). I don’t understand why there aren’t Signature Series expansions of legends like James Gadson. There is a reason why he has been sampled so often. I believe I would buy a James Gadson SDX in a heartbeat! Now, if it was recorded in the same production style as C&V and made to the same quality I would definitely buy it. I’d pay up front before it was even released.

[Author]

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