All user reviews for the Toontrack New York Studios Vol.2 SDX

This sample library contains multi-sampled drums and cymbals. There are many velocity layers and round-robins available to avoid the 'machine-gun' sampled drum problem. There are also tons of different articulations like rim-shot, center hit, cymbal edge, cymbal bell, etc. This can make for a very realistic sounding drum performance and also helps make playing on eDrums feel more real.
The installation of the library takes a long time, and is installed off a set of DVDs. This is because the library takes up a lot of space on a computer hard drive because there are some many samples (velocity layers x articulations x # of instruments, etc). If your machine cannot handle the whole library, you can install a small portion of the library to save space. For instance, you don't have to load all the bleed samples (kick drum bleeding into the tom mics) if you don't want to.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

The drum sounds in NY Vol. 2 are best for pop/acoustic kind of music. The samples are very 'raw' and need a lot of processing to sit well in a mix. Some people will like this flexibility, but other people may prefer a library that comes preprocessed and ready for a mix. I typically find that these drums don't really 'hit' hard enough for rock styles of music. I really like the Metal Foundary pack for rock music. The NY Vol. 2 does have some really good drum sounds, and most people will find it adequate for their style of music.
The X-drum feature takes a little bit of getting used to. It is not very simple at first if you want to mix and match kit pieces from different Allaire and Hit Factory. Compared to other software libraries (BFD2, Steven Slate Drums 4, Additive Drums), SD2 has the most complicated steps to mix and match kit pieces from different libraries. I guess it is better than Studio Drummer from NI that doesn't allow you to mix and match kit pieces at all without loading up both libraries.

OVERALL OPINION

New York Studio Vol. 2 SDX is an expansion library for Superior Drummer 2 from Toontrack. It cannot be used without first owning the main SD2 software. The drum samples come from two recording sessions: Allaire Studio and Hit Factory. Each recording session used different drums and cymbals. And there are many choices available with this pack. To my ears, the biggest difference I hear among the recording sessions is the difference in 'Room' or 'Ambient' sounds. These two studios sound very different and unique. They are also significantly different than the stock Avatar library that comes with SD2. I think they all complement each other well. I actually prefer that SD2 has samples recorded in a bunch of different studios. Many times when I am mixing I find myself thinking that I want to change of the drum sounds just based on the room or ambient sounds. This is a great option compared to other libraries like BFD2 where all the drums were recorded in the same studio. The downside of the SD2 option is that it can sound weird if you mix and match drums from different studios.