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James... « Raw, vintage drums »
Published on 08/04/11 at 09:22It's an expansion pack so install shouldn't be and isn't very hard. Just place it where it's supposed to go and load up superior. If you can use Superious you can use this expansion. The first thing that surprised me about Vintage and custom was that sheer amount of kit on tap here. There's about 5 vintage kits in total...so you have a lot of choices. The Slingerland studio king and the gretsch are the ones that instantly stood out to me. The sound and integration of the expansion is flawless and about as trouble free as you could ask.
SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE
My studio does a lot of indie music and if you know the genre, a lot of bands seem to want old style drums on their recordings. The stock superior sounds are just too modern sometimes. A vintage sound is needed. Our clients overwhelming seem to favor the noble and cooley star kit for some reason. It has a cutting yet deep tone to it that sounds really nice on recordings. All the kits and cymbals are great though, and unlike some other packs I've used, there really aren't any throwaways. Everything generally sounds good and usable. You get a lot of kit for your money here.
Be warned though, there is no "vintage production" here. Toontrack has recorded these drums are dry as possible and it shows. Just slapping these on a track won't get you the old school sounds you want. It will sound like what it is...a raw miced vintage kit. Unfortunately the sounds people think of when they think of these drums were made mostly by using vintage processing. In other words, you have to use some analog VST's on these kits to get them sounding old on a recording. The upside to this of course, is you can use these kits in a modern context assuming you use the proper vsts's for that too.
OVERALL OPINION
It does what it says and is a great value. That's what I like about it. Toontrack packed a lot of drums into this expansion and I'm impressed with the variety. Like any superior product they sound great...when used with the right context.
SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE
My studio does a lot of indie music and if you know the genre, a lot of bands seem to want old style drums on their recordings. The stock superior sounds are just too modern sometimes. A vintage sound is needed. Our clients overwhelming seem to favor the noble and cooley star kit for some reason. It has a cutting yet deep tone to it that sounds really nice on recordings. All the kits and cymbals are great though, and unlike some other packs I've used, there really aren't any throwaways. Everything generally sounds good and usable. You get a lot of kit for your money here.
Be warned though, there is no "vintage production" here. Toontrack has recorded these drums are dry as possible and it shows. Just slapping these on a track won't get you the old school sounds you want. It will sound like what it is...a raw miced vintage kit. Unfortunately the sounds people think of when they think of these drums were made mostly by using vintage processing. In other words, you have to use some analog VST's on these kits to get them sounding old on a recording. The upside to this of course, is you can use these kits in a modern context assuming you use the proper vsts's for that too.
OVERALL OPINION
It does what it says and is a great value. That's what I like about it. Toontrack packed a lot of drums into this expansion and I'm impressed with the variety. Like any superior product they sound great...when used with the right context.