Drums

The Rock Warehouse Superior Drummer Expansion Pack

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Superior Drummer is one of my favorite drum samplers on the market. This new expansion pack was recorded at The Warehouse Studio by Randy Staub (Metallica’s “Black Album”, Nickelback’s “Silver Side Up”, Avril Lavigne’s “Under My Skin”), so you know it’s going to sound good.

Trigger 2 drum replacement

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I use Trigger in my songs all the time, but I have tried Trigger 2 yet. The description looks pretty amazing.

BFD3

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This is an impressive looking upgrade for one of the best drum samplers on the market.

Platinum Samples

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They released a new Zildjian Artist MIDI Groove Library today, but the best product they have is the Andy Johns Classic Drums. He is the master.

Converting audio to MIDI

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It’s been years since I’ve used Ableton’s Live, but this looks like a really great feature to have at your disposal.

Toontrack Blues drumkit

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The Blues EZX comes with two complete kits; a 1970s Gretsch and a calfskinned Swedish Levin set from the 1940s. On top of that, it features contemporary Paiste and Sabian crashes, vintage Zildjan A and K series cymbals as well as extras such as a suitcase and a set of calfskinned tambourines.

I love Toontrack’s drums.

Zildjian Vault for BFD

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Zildjian Digital Vault features 34 classic crashes, splashes, rides, chinas and hihats hand-selected by Zildjian’s master cymbal tester Paul Francis. Recorded in intricate detail by sampling guru John Emrich, the sounds are captured with crisp direct mics and lush stereo overhead and room mic sets. Each cymbal is recorded at multiple velocities while being struck by sticks, brushes and mallets.

Great stuff.

Massey’s Drum Replacement Tool

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DRT is a Pro Tools AudioSuite plugin which effortlessly replaces drum hits with fresh audio samples, MIDI notes or audio “clicks” all with near flawless accuracy.

I have a lot of respect for Steven Massey, a former Digidesign software engineer. He makes some really nice plug-ins.

BFD Eco 1.5

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An update to FXpansion’s drum sampler. The new version adds native 64-bit support for Windows 7 and Mac OSX, as well as a new kit and bonus kit-pieces from the BFD2 library recorded at London’s Air Studios (2 full kick/tom/snare sets, 2 crashes, 2 rides and a hihat).

Review: BFD Eco drum software instrument

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I’ve been using BFD Eco for the last few weeks as my main drum software instrument. Eco is FXpansion’s scaled down version of BFD 2, the company’s flagship product and one that I have used for many years.

Typically when someone says scaled down, people automatically think crippled. In a lot of cases, you would be right, but not so with BFD Eco. I was very impressed with the features, interface and the way the software worked for me in Pro Tools 10 […]

Steven Slate Drums 4.0

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Steven Slate:

Imagine having 100 of the world’s best sounding drumkits at your disposal. From punchy tight rock kits, to fat and sizzly vintage kits, and just about everything in between, Steven Slate Drums 4.0 Platinum is the most complete drum instrument on the planet.At the heart of Steven Slate Drums 4.0 is the SSD Player, a state of the art Mac/PC (VST, RTAS, AU) Drum Sampler built from the ground up by the award winning development team behind our TRIGGER drum replacement processor. The SSD Player is extremely easy and intuitive to use. Loading kits, customizing kits, mixing kits, loading and auditioning MIDI grooves, customizing MIDI maps, and routing discretely to your workstation are all a breeze with the SSD Player. It even lets you load your own drum samples to mix in with the Slate drumkits.

I have used Steven Slate Drums since they were first released and love them. One of the best drum samplers on the market. I’ll definitely be upgrading.

∞ Slam Tracks hard rock MIDI grooves

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The Slam Tracks Hard Rock Grooves Pack 1 features 527 MIDI files divided between 10 different groove genres. All grooves come with multiple variations, allowing users of all popular virtual drum instruments like BFD2, EZdrummer, Superior Drummer, Addictive Drums, Cakewalk Session Drummer to create quickly and easily complete hard rock and rock drumtracks. This library also includes multiple drum fills as part of the groove phrases — a dedicated collection of Hard Rock MIDI drum fills can be found in our Slam Tracks Hard Rock MIDI Drum Fills Pack 1.

Nice sounding grooves at the bottom of the page.

∞ Metal Essentials EZmix Pack from Toontrack

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The in-your-face-factor is essential in metal. Ask Jason Suecof – one of the essential producers on this side of the millennium and creative mind behind the sound of Trivium, All That Remains and The Black Dahlia Murder. He’ll tell you that, yes, it is essential indeed. So, we simply asked him to bag his most essential tricks for an EZmix Pack, one we’d like to call: Metal Essentials EZmix Pack.The Metal Essentials EZmix Pack comes with exactly what its title implies: instant and essential presets for your metal productions! One click and you get Jason’s take on how to beef up your guitars, drums, bass, vocals and overall master. Essentially easy.

Metal Month continues at Toontrack. You’ve got to love a company that celebrates Metal releases for an entire month.

∞ Metal Month at Toontrack

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Testament, Megadeth, Arch Enemy, Exodus, Killswitch Engage and Devildriver all call the same man to lay the final hand on their albums: Britain’s Andy Sneap. This highly in-demand producer/engineer has worked on numerous Grammy Award-nominated albums, is known worldwide for having produced some of the heaviest releases this last decade and has had an instrumental role in shaping the sound of metal music as we know it in the new millennium. Now Toontrack is proud to present the first ever drum sample library to bear his unmistakable seal; Metal Machine EZX.

This is what I love about Toontrack. They go out and get the best engineers and drummers and work with them for their drum packages. As users, we end up getting the best sounding drums that Toontrack can provide. That’s commitment to its customers.

∞ Just bought from Toontrack

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Songwriters Drumpack 3: The original Songwriters Drumpack drummer Ricard “Huxflux” Nettermalm is back with another stunning MIDI pack: Songwriters Drumpack 3! Intentionally picking up where the other two packs left off, the new one focuses more on the up- and … Continued

∞ Review: Yamaha DTX-950 Digital Drums

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It may be difficult to get over being skeptical about digital drum kits — and it was — until a friend, and well-known performer, recommended (and, in fact, insisted) investigating the Yamaha DTX-950. His point was simply that they are … Continued