TOONTRACK SUPERIOR DRUMMER 2.0 REVIEW

TOONTRACK SUPERIOR DRUMMER 2.0 - INTRODUCTION

If, like me, you grew up programming drum machines, then the advent of sampling technology was a complete breakthrough, because for the first time you could take the sound of an acoustic instrument, sample it and then replay it at will, and nowhere was this more successful than with drums. For the first time, you could actually get the sound of a drum kit, without the use of a drum kit, if you see what I mean. But is it really that simple? Well, no it wasn’t! Sure enough, equipped with a good set of sounds, you could play a basic groove, but it was at this point that us keyboard players discovered what an art there is to programming drums to sound realistic and so lo and behold, loads of drummers stepped into the frame and became drum programmers... and many of them were rather good at it! Why? Well, mainly because when they programmed the drum machines, they thought like a drummer, giving rise to jokes such as ‘What’s the difference between a drummer and a drum machine? You only have to punch the information into a drum machine once!’

Now don’t get me wrong here - I love drummers! Nothing gets me going more than a fine groove and that’s why I find myself using Superior Drummer 2.0 as much as I do, so let’s take a look at what it has to offer.

TOONTRACK SUPERIOR DRUMMER 2.0 - COMPLETE CONTROL

Firstly, once installed, Superior Drummer 2.0 gives you get a fantastic selection of acoustic drum sounds, all multi-sampled and layered, but you also get complete control over each sound in a number of intuitive ways. For starters, via the construct page you can change the envelope of each drum, so if the tail of the sound is a little too short or long, you can tweak it... very useful if your Toms are ringing on a little too far, for example. You can also change aspects of the articulation for each drum and Superior Drummer 2.0 even allows you to choose exactly where the drum is being struck.

However, possibly most impressive of all is the mixer within Superior Drummer 2.0. Imagine having the whole kit set up in the studio and you want to change the balance of the overhead mic’s against the rest of the kit - you can! In fact, there is a fader for every single drum and cymbal in your kit and in the case of some drums, there is more than one mic. The Kick has 3 faders, for front and back skins and what Toontrack describe as ‘Sub’, which relates to how much of the very low frequencies you might like in your sound. Predictably, the snare has both top and bottom mic's and you can even change the phase, which Toontrack do by default with the lower mic, to avoid phase cancellation.

I often find myself tweaking the Overhead mic’s, as I like my sounds quite dry as a general rule, but there is also a bleed control, allowing you to limit the spill from one drum mic to the next. To say this is a clever piece of computer and audio programming is a clear understatement.

TOONTRACK SUPERIOR DRUMMER 2.0 - YOUR PERSONAL DRUMMER

Sonically, there’s a lot on offer here and you could set about programming your own grooves at this point, but you would be missing out on yet another forte to this plug-in, which is the stunning set of included grooves, played by real drummers.

As I’ve already mentioned, I do like a nice drum groove and I’m quite adept at programming them myself, but the subtle nuance that a drummer can offer by dropping the stick gently onto the snare, in between playing beats 2 and 4, is very difficult to program convincingly and that’s where having a live drummer playing, as a live drummer would, pays off. This subtlety translates perfectly onto the plug-in, so you really do get a drummer, in a room, playing a kit which you can endlessly tweak.

Amongst the current crop of drum samples and plug-ins, I often yearn to hear the drummer playing a really nice basic groove, building simply as a song progresses and that is exactly what you get here. You can have hi-hats playing 1/4 notes, 1/8 notes or 16ths, while the rest of the kit elements build around it and there are plenty of basic and stunning fills in Superior Drummer 2.0.

If I was going to be hyper critical, I do wish that there was a little more breadth of groove, but then I can see that Toontrack have purposely chosen to keep the grooves simple to set it apart from other similar plug-ins on the market, which are far too busy and layered with hundreds of FX, often making them unusable for many day to day applications.

Superior Drummer 2.0 is great if you are a songwriter and want to play along with a live drummer while you work on a song, or perfect if you are working in high end production and don’t have time to get a live drummer in.

TOONTRACK SUPERIOR DRUMMER 2.0 - EXPAND YOUR SOUNDS

In many respects, I think I have saved the best attribute until last. Toontrack Superior Drummer 2.0 is highly expandable, both in terms of sounds/samples and grooves. It is compatible with all Superior Drummer and EZ Drummer expansion packs (also available from us at Absolute Music!) so if you find that you suddenly need some Jazz and Latin drums or percussion, you can just go and purchase the expansion packs and you get all of the elements we have described thus far, but with your new sounds and grooves!

There are too many packs to mention here, but needless to say, every sound and style is catered for by an expander - Heavy Kits, Nashville and even Electronic, and you can hear them all on the Toontrack site before you purchase. The Funk Masters kit is just sublime, featuring Clyde Stubblefield, reputed to be THE most sampled drummer on the planet - he used to play with James Brown - no more introduction required!

TOONTRACK SUPERIOR DRUMMER 2.0 - SUMMARY

Superior Drummer 2.0 is a heavy duty plug-in, which has the good sense to do one thing, but do it really well. If you need some nice drums sounds and grooves with a staggering amount of flexibility built right in, then this is a heavy weight contender.

Purchase Superior Drummer 2.0

Purchase the Toontrack New York Studios Vol.2 Expansion Pack for Superior Drummer 2.0

Purchase the Toontrack Custom & Vintage Expansion Pack for Superior Drummer 2.0

Purchase the Toontrack Music City USA Expansion Pack for Superior Drummer 2.0