Superior Drummer 3 ups the ante for drum production once again
Toontrack’s ultimate drumming tool gets updated
Toontrack has announced that it will be dropping version three of Superior Drummer on the general populous on 12 September 2017.
SD3 has been developed from the ground up and will ship with over 230Gb of content, with an additional option of content delivery via a solid-state hard drive.
The project was engineered by Mr Parametric EQ himself, George Massenburg and recorded in 11.1 immersive sound at Galaxy Studios in Belgium.
Superior Drummer 3 highlights include the integrated tracker software, which promises to deliver the most accurate audio to MIDI conversion on the market and a mixer boasting 35 new ‘low-footprint’ insert effects.
Version three is equipped with six drum kits from Ayotte, Yamaha, Gretsch, Ludwig, Pearl, Premier, with additional snares and cymbal samples joined by a whole host of electronic drum samples.
The combination of acoustic and electronic content lends itself to a much deeper sound design tool for drums, something that Toontrack had aimed for from the start.
Toontrack’s Head of Sound Design, Mattias Eklund had this to say of SD3: “Superior Drummer 3 is more than just a drum sampler – it’s a bottomless well of creativity. It bridges the gap between acoustic and electronic and lets you venture off into completely new sonic landscapes. To me, this is the definitive tool for percussive sound design.”
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Although not available for another month, Superior Drummer 3 can be pre-ordered now from Time+Space and authorised dealers for around £287/€329. Existing Superior Drummer 2 users can upgrade for £147/€169 and existing EZdrummer 2 users can crossgrade for £217/€249 Euro. More information can be found on the Time+Space website
Superior Drummer 3 features
- Over 230GB of raw, unprocessed sounds in 44.1 kHz/24 bit
- Recorded in 11.1 immersive sound at Galaxy Studios
- Engineered by George Massenburg (Producer, Mixer and Recording Engineer of over 400 records and inventor of the parametric EQ)
- 6 kits (Ayotte, Gretsch, Pearl, Premier, Ludwig, Yamaha)
- Additional snares, kicks and cymbals
- Optional tool and drum head selection on select kits
- Tracker – the most efficient and accurate audio to midi conversion on the market
- Additional electronic drum sound samples
- 35 mixer effects
- New and improved scalable interface with detachable windows
- Edit Play Style, Tap2Find, Song Creator and Song Track features as well as improved workflow and search functionality added
- Built-in MIDI grid editor
- DAW automation for built-in macro controls
- Drag & drop and import for individual and third party samples
- Support for keyboard shortcuts
- Save your own projects (including custom samples)
I take care of the reviews on MusicRadar and Future Music magazine, though can sometimes be spotted in front of a camera talking little sense in the presence of real musicians. For the past 30 years, I have been unable to decide on which instrument to master, so haven't bothered. Currently, a lover of all things high-gain in the guitar stakes and never one to resist churning out sub-standard funky breaks, the likes of which you'll never hear.
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