Toontrack Superior Drummer 2.0

The Toontrack Superior Drummer 2.0 installed on my computer running Windows XP without any problems. It ran very well and never crashed or gave me any sorts of glitches or issues. I have also used it on a Windows 7 and Windows Vista computer and it ran just as fine on those. It can also be used on a Mac too! All of the drum samples are recorded at high quality studios by Pat Thrall and Neil Dorfsman who are well known in this field.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I have used Superior Drummer 2.0 in Logic, FL Studio, Ableton Live and Cubase. It runs pretty much the same in all applications and does not use too much CPU. I can even combine all of my sound libraries from Superior and EZDrummer together no matter which version I have.

OVERALL OPINION

The sounds are pretty good; the quality of them is amazing I just wish it would have come with some more versatile kits. I also feel like the price of Superior Drummer 2.0 is a little too expensive. Paying this amount of money I expected a lot more from ToonTrack. I have a U control MIDI controller that I use to play the drum samples with through my DAW and it works great. I do love using this program for drum patterns as well because there are some really good ones and I also love the fills that it has with it. I have used other plug ins that are virtually the same as this one. Superior Drummer 2.0 doesn’t stick out to me nor do I think it is better than other drum sample based programs. If it was a little cheaper I would think a lot more highly of it. But all in all, it does have some good sounds and kits that have been very useful for me. I have been using it for months now and so far I am satisfied.

There weren't any kind of compatibility issues , the program works on any platform either Windows XP, Windows Seven or MAC OS.

The book provided with the program was quite good, well detailed , all the information that was relevant to the product itself was well explained there.

General configuration and setup is straight forward , pretty amateur and easy to follow along.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

The software works very good and its stability is breath taking and quality of the sounds is pro.
The functions and the performances are very nice , I think its great having a great drum set in your own daw , which is very helpful to set a certain groove without wasting much time.
I've been using this product for about 4 months , but I've used in a lot of pop rock songs.

OVERALL OPINION

What I like most about it is how good and powerful are actually the kicks and snares , these two components of the drums make a huge difference in creating a certain groove with a certain effect , either one that's related to the velocity or panning.
I also like how you can easily disable a certain part of the drums , a tom , a hihat , a snare , clap or kick , which is easy and great because you can use that in real time to arrange your groove in a certain distinct way.

Without a doubt this is one of the top drums out there , the only downside for me , its the size , it weights way to much for me to afford , beside that everything is perfect, the quality , the features , the sounds , the effects , everything is on a high level.

My opinion about the value of price is also very good , this product isn't very expensive , it's mainly for all kind of pockets .

Knowing what I know , I would get this product if hdd size wouldn't be a problem.

I have been using Superior Drummer for a long time and when 2 came out I was not sure if I wanted to upgrade or not because I thought it would be a waste of money. The options that Superior Drummer 2 gives you are almost the same as Superior Drummer 1 except it is much easier and user friendly. I love all of the built in effects that are new like the Gate, compressor, and highpass/lowpass filters. These where missing out of the first version and when they added them to version 2 it was a huge bonus. There is also a 5 band EQ! You can also easily layer your sounds to create a much “bigger” sound than ever before.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

All of the drum samples where professionally recorded and play by a professional drummer live. Installing this program will take some time because it has to install a bunch of samples. You will need to have 25 GB of disc space and be running at least Windows Vista, even though it will work on XP I just don’t think XP is powerful enough to handle it properly unless your processor is very fast.

OVERALL OPINION

You can use just about any MIDI controller with this program like you would with your main DAW like Reason or Cubase. Using this as a plug in with Reason and Cubase is very easy, I have even used it with FL Studio and it worked fine. It has never crashed or frozen on any one of my sessions.
My options and effects have gotten much better since I upgraded to Superior Drummer 2, I have used many other drumming programs like EZ Drummer and Addictive Drums before, and none of them are as good as this is. I highly recommend getting this if you want realistic sounding drums and full control over how they will sound. You will not find any better sounding drums, and amazing patterns and fills.

Superior Drummer 2.0 is the flagship drum sample playback engine from Toontrack. It takes a little while to install the full software from all the DVDs, although you can choose to install fewer samples (fewer velocity layers, skip mic bleed samples) if desired or if your computer can't handle the playback. I chose the full install, but found that in practice and the mic bleed options are overkill and I hardly ever use them.

SD2 can be triggered from e-drums, a midi keyboard, or the internal midi library. The initial midi mapping is pretty intuitive. Layering multiple kit pieces with 'x-drum' is much less intuitive. Toontrack provides some videos worth watching to get up to speed on 'x-drum' and midi mapping.

The internal mixer works like a mixer in a DAW, so it is will be familiar to most users. The internal effects are decent compared to the the internal effects in other drum samplers (BFD2, Addictive drums. even the effects in Kontakt as a host for Studio Drummer). However, I suggest skipping the internal effects and use the multi-out option to send the unprocessed drums to your DAW. Using the effects processing plug-ins in your DAW will produce the best results.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

Superior Drummer excels above the other drum software programs at producing the most natural sounding drums. Other software are more versatile (BFD2), while other other software sounds processed/radio-ready (SSD4). SD2 sounds the most like you are standing in the control room during a recording session. All the bleed options can make for a very realistic drum performance.

My favorite aspect of the software are the tom samples. I think the toms in SD2 are much better than the toms in other software. I don't think the crash and ride cymbals in SD2 are as good as the cymbals in other software (BFD2/Zildjian Digital Vault). The hi-hats work very well with v-drums, which has been a problem in other software.

There are few expansion packs available for SD2 if you want metal/country/jazz/vintage sounding drums. In my opinion, you can pretty much achieve any kind of musical style with the standard samples in SD2. The samples are recorded completely dry/unprocessed. The different musical styles of drum sounds are based more on post-processing than which brand of drum is recorded.

OVERALL OPINION

Superior Drummer 2.0 has many features that are top-of-the-line for sampled drum software. The interface is well laid out, and the samples were recorded perfectly natural. The SDX expansion packs also were recorded the same level of detail (if not more). If you are a tweakhead, you will never get board with all the internal routing and mic bleed in the software. If you want ultra-realistic, natural sounding drums, your best bet is SD2.