NEW SDX BY HUGH PADGHAM.
On September 20, industry legend Hugh Padgham (Phil Collins, Genesis, The Police, Sting) delivers a massive new SDX. Listen to some quick previews below. More info to come!

• Six (6) acoustic drum kits and more than 400 classic drum machine sounds
• Extra selections of acoustic kicks, snares and cymbals
• Recorded by four-time Grammy Award-winning producer/mixer/engineer Hugh Padgham (Phil Collins, Genesis, Sting, The Police)
• Inspired by some of the most defining works in Hugh’s discography
• Captured at British Grove Studios in London, England
• A generous selection of mix-ready presets by Hugh Padgham
• Includes a bespoke library of MIDI drum grooves and fills inspired by Padgham’s discography

Will it live up to the hype? Will it rival The Rooms of Hansa? Wiil it be worth the full list price?

Discuss...

 

Just listened to the demo tracks on the Toontrack landing page. Hope the actul SDX does not sound
like the mixed demos. Especially the snares.

The tone of all the pieces don't seem to ring out ion a natural way. The cymbal sounds don't have the usual phasing/washy sound that plague most drum libraries.

I personally tend to stick with the stock SD3 library and was holding off on buying The Rooms of Hansa (discounted) expecting a version 4 of SD. We get Hitmaker instead this year.

 

Hmmm. Sounds ok but not unlike what can be done with existing SDXs imo. The classic "Phil" sound is WAY too polite imho. Go listen to that 3rd Peter Gabriel album, or ABACAB by Genesis. That's a rude sound.

 

I'm not sure who these specific drum sounds are aimed at. I mean surely the whole point of any musician is to "have their own sound" so to speak. If you use this library everyone will instantly recognise Phil Collins drum sound. Still, what do I know, maybe it's just what some people want to have.

 

First review done outside of Toontrack. Sounds like most processing was done through Hugh's signal chain. especially the snares & toms.
The Reggae kit sounds most unique overall (imho).

 

don't forget that there are a lot more cover bands out there than bands that only play original songs. most of the cover bands that i have seen are trying to recreate the sound of the original record. just a thought.

 

It's also great for people who just want a brand new cohesive kit, in the same room and mics, etc. When a lot of producers are done using this kind of thing, the last two words you might expect to hear about the drums would be "Phil Collins". Be that what it may. It's ironic to think that way about it, to me. You are both selling yourself short, by not thinking about what you can make something already good sound like; and being way overconfident in your playing if you think that installing this thing on your computer, is all of a sudden going to make anyone think that Phil is back at it on the drums.

Have we found the guitarist that calls that 17th one just the right number of them?

 

Last edited: Sep 20, 2022

Absolutely true!
I always asked myself why so many (even the hyped and expensive) libraries often have that comb-like sound on their cymbals.
I started to think maybe it's my ears, until i found the Hansa-Library with their perfect cymbal sound.

 

You forgot the important one... Will it be on the sister site ?


Actually? it doesn't sound too dissimilar to most other kits I've heard, and it makes me wonder if VST Drums have gone as far as they can go?

 

Last edited: Sep 21, 2022

Not my taste personally, a bit generic.

Fields Of Rock, now there's an SDX you can hang your hat on. Really unique/fresh sounds on that thing

 

Holy shit....7 toms in the "Fields of Rock" !!
Unfortunately only one kick and minimal cymbals.

And Hansa only has 3 toms? What the fuck?

It seems crazy to me that these kits do not allow additions.
It's great to have the kit pieces one can add to a complete setup, but there is no one kit that has the capability to include 2 kicks, left side ride and even 5 toms, let alone that 7 tom setup.
I was using as my main kit Avatar as i didn't need kick drum flams ... but I'd like to have 7 toms.
I guess one can load up two instances of Superior to augment , but I don't know why Toontrack didn't go the route of one massive setup as a template / foundation.
It SUCKS ASS to load up a small kit and like the sound, but need one other tom as the kit only has ONE FUCKING TOM.

You want the sound of the Beach Boys....



But don't DARE think of going past 1965...

 

Rude is what you make it, mixing style and all, the idea is to give you a "clean" sound that be turned into anything at least with the right imagination.

 

I listened to it (the demos) on social networks. It reminded me of a Sting song "If I ever lose my faith in you".
But as already mentioned here, several Superior Drummer or Ez Drummer libraries can achieve this sound, of course, you might have to put it together yourself. But maybe this is a "prepared" sound to sound identical to these artists.

 

Why would anybody want to sound like somebody else?
I rather have these libraries sound like 'nobody' in particular so they could be more 'original' whatever I do with them afterward.
But since the 80-ties are hot at the moment Toontrack wants to cash in on that off course and who can blame them.
Hansa Rooms sound more like 'nobody' i.m.o. and will remain my go-to library.

 

I don't think we have seen/heard the best that can done with virtual instruments yet. Efficient & powerful future compute systems along with plugins that are system/OS agnostic will allow for true creativity & performance.

 

The Big Stage EXZ sounds fantastic. More like Hugh Padgham than Hugh Padgham.

(The one doesn't derive from the other, does it? I didn't think it did...)

Edit-. No. To me Big Stage is killing that sound, and sounds great with room mics out as well.)

 

Last edited: Sep 24, 2022

Wasn't aware of this one, thanks for the heads up

I notice it has a clear blue acrylic Ludwig kit...... that's what Jon Theodore from Mars Volta used to use. I wonder if i can get that 2003-2006 Volta drum sound with it...

This is the exciting part to me

 

Last edited: Sep 27, 2022