Black Friday was yesterday and we’re now in the grips of Cyber Weekend. Every year, top of my own deals wishlist sits Toontrack’s Superior Drummer 3 software and its SDX sound expansion packs. Why? Because my name is Stu and I've had a Superior Drummer addiction for the last 15 years or so. This year, you can start your own obsession with Toontrack’s amazing drum software thanks to the enabler that is Thomann, who’s discounted Superior Drummer 3 to £249 in its Cyberweek Sale as well as offering great saving on SDX sound expansion packs.
That’s about £100 off the going rate (Thomann usually sells it for around £333, and it’s more expensive from other retailers). So, while it’s still an investment, you’re getting entry into a truly remarkable product with a significant saving.
What’s more, you’ll receive it as fast as your internet connection can download it and be enjoying stellar drum sounds from the comfort of your electronic drum set today. Here are just a few of the highlights:
- Over 230 gigabytes of expertly-captured drum samples
- Playable direct from your electronic kit
- Mix-ready presets straight out of the box
- Comprehensive mixer section including effects processing for crafting your sound
- Compatibility with Toontrack’s SDX and EZX sound expansion packs
- Intelligent drum sound replacement built in - perfect for enhancing your existing acoustic drum recordings
But if you’ve never tried it and don’t understand what the fuss is about, let me explain. Recording acoustic drums is difficult. First you need a great-sounding drum kit and cymbals, and a room that you can play them in without receiving noise complaints - spoiler alert, this room also needs to sound good or even the best acoustic kit will record badly.
Next, you’ll need enough microphones to capture each drum, plus overheads, and if you want to add any sense of size and dimension to your drums, room mics. This can get expensive (don’t forget to budget for cables and stands!), but even then, you’ll also want an audio interface with enough inputs to keep all of these mics on their own track.
With all that sorted, the next challenge is to figure out the microphone placement to not only achieve a great sound, but minimise phase problems too. Sounds like a hassle, doesn’t it?
Instead, Superior Drummer allows you to hook-up your electronic drums to a computer, where you can play its ridiculously good sound library from the comfort of your drum pads.
To everyone else, it’ll sound like you’re hitting your electronic kit, but inside your headphones, you’re rewarded with drum sounds that are captured in the exact same way (and very often, location) as the drums on our favourite albums of all time have been.
Realistic dynamics, comprehensive multi-microphone placement and meticulous attention to detail are all on the menu. To say it’s been a game-changer for me as someone who spends most of their spare time playing and recording drums from an electronic drum kit would be an understatement. I guarantee you’ll be impressed from the first hit of a snare pad.
It’s easy to use too, just load up a mix-ready kit preset and start playing. But that’s just the start, because if you want to get your hands dirty, Superior Drummer 3 is a complete drum workstation.
You can swap any part of the kit from Superior’s vast menu of classic and contemporary drums and cymbals. There’s a comprehensive mixer section for blending the virtual kit’s close, overhead and room mics, applying processing such as EQ, compression, reverb and loads more. I’m really just scratching the surface with the sound-shaping options that are included.
By purchasing Superior Drummer 3, you're also opening up a world of expansion possibilities. If you can think of a style, Toontrack has likely created a definitive, quintessential SDX or EZX sound expansion pack to fill your needs. Thomann has knocked money off a range of these too, so even if you already own Superior Drummer 3, you can build-out your drum sound collection for less.
• Toontrack SDX The Rock Warehouse - was £90, now £41.00
• Toontrack SDX Metal Machinery - was £90, now £41.00
• Toontrack SDX Custom & Vintage - was £90, now £41.00
• Toontrack EZX Duality I - was £75, now £24.50
• Toontrack EZX Duality II - was £75, now £24.50
• Toontrack EZX Seventies Rock - was £44, now £24.50
