Superior drummer 3

92
| OCTOBER 2017 WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM
GEAR REVIEW
E
arlier this year, Rhythm was
invited by our pals at Toontrack to
attend a top secret product launch
at Belgium’s Galaxy Studios. With
our bags packed,
In Bruge on our iPad and
gobs fi rmly shut under the most terrifying
NDA we’ve ever encountered, we were met
by what we’d all hoped for: Superior
Drummer 3.
It’s a vast monster of an update to
Toontrack’s industry standard drum sample
package; engineered and captured at Galaxy
by golden-eared producer and gear tinkerer
George Massenburg in glorious 11 channel
surround. We have a lot to talk about, so let’s
get started.
Build
As detailed in these pages previously, we’ve
come to expect brilliance every time Toontrack
releases a new product (see the criminally
accessible Steve Albini-produced Alt Rock pack
for the proof), and there are a vast number of
additions here that make SD3 exciting, ranging
from the small (scalable windows and an
improved usability) to simply huge upgrades
like the new Stack (for creating layered sounds)
and Tracker (for complete drum sound
replacement) tools.
We’ll start with the sounds – you get six
kits, all recorded by George and confi gured
into 14 different options. There are vintage
options (’60s Gretsch Round Badge, ’70s
Ludwig Classic) and modern classics from
Ayotte, Premier, Pearl and Yamaha. Then
consider the snares: want a Tama Bell
Brass? It’s in there. How about a 1920s
Black Beauty? Yep! In fact, Toontrack has
covered off everything from aluminium to
pear staves, with sizes ranging from a
10"x2½" Sonor Jungle snare to a 14"x10"
Rogers ‘York Town’. There are 26 snares in
total, including some effects (splash on the
From £149* The daddy of drum sample
plugins just got a facelift. Can the best
be even better?
TOONTRACK
SUPERIOR
DRUMMER 3
WORDS: STUART WILLIAMS
IT SHOULD GO WITHOUT SAYING THAT
ALL OF THE SOUNDS INCLUDED ARE
TOP-NOTCH. THEY’VE BEEN CAPTURED
BY MORE THAN AN INDUSTRY LEGEND
– A PIONEER IN FACT – IN A STATE-OF-
THE-ART RECORDING FACILITY
1
BFD3
We say: “Packed
with over 150GB
(compressed for
installation) of acoustic
drum samples, BFD has
always been the main
contender alongside
Superior. ”
2
XLN AUDIO
ADDICTIVE
DRUMS 2
We say: “ As with
Superior 3, Addictive
Drums comes with a
huge library of samples,
and the mixer features
an impressive effects
suite. ”
batter head, additional muting, etc). Finally,
there’s the cymbals – 27 different crashes,
rides, chinas, splashes and effects including
some stack sounds, plus four pairs of hi-hats.
That’s before we mention the 350 brand new
electronic sounds or percussion. Like we said,
it’s vast!
Hands On
Superior Drummer 3 has added a lot of new
features, some of which will be a godsend to
previous users, such as the newly-designed
interface, introduction of macro controls for
assigning multiple parameters to one easy
control; but for the more casually interested,
we’re going to focus on the bigger elements
of the package.
It should go without saying that all of the
sounds included are top-notch. They’ve been
captured by more than an industry legend – a
pioneer in fact – in a state-of-the-art recording
facility. We were treated to a dose of acoustic
drums played in the actual room, and it really
has been captured in detail for SD3. Our
pre-release version of the software didn’t
include many presets (the full list will be ready
by launch), which gave us more of an
incentive to get our hands dirty by ourselves.
The kits range from big and open with the
Gretsch, to modern and punchy with the Pearl
Masterworks. Scrolling through the list of
snares is like having access to a dream snare
UPDATED USER INTERFACE
It’s the most intuitive the software
has ever been with the addition of
macro controls, a new window
layout and easily-searchable library
drum locker, and there’s a raft of options for
different stick/mallet/rod or snares on/off
confi gurations.
It’s saying something when having such a
huge, pro-quality sound library at your
disposal is only one of the main talking points
though. Toontrack has introduced a new
feature for SD3 called Stacks. In a nutshell, it
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RHY273.gear_superior.indd 92 9/8/17 2:11 PM