So lately I've been producing a lot of jazz/folk, I already have a good guitar/bass setup, but I'm struggling a bit to find the drum sound I'm after. I've linked a few examples in this post so you can get a good idea of what I'm looking for.

I'm currently using ADD2 with all the adpacks, it's a great plugin, but I haven't been able to find a combination that I like in this way. So I'd appreciate any tips on how to achieve this kind of sound with ADD2 or any other plugin!

Cheers

 

Whelp, when I want the Harvest type sound I grab the Toontrack Fields of Rock SDX for S3. I just used it for a Joni Mitchell pastiche not too far back...

 

Harvest Drums by Past to Future:

and they’ve got plenty of other vintage drums like that (Fleetwood Mac, Beatles, Motown…)

some of them are on the Sister Site

 

Oh! There you go! I straight up forgot about those... much smaller.

 

How important are round robins to you? Reason's KONG is a great physical modeling machine for these sounds, better than MODO DRUM. But here's what I've found out: a lot of famous engineers will say 'Oh I didn't use anything on the drums, I just tracked them properly'. Well sure enough, if you have a great drumkit, a great room, great mics, technicians and drummer, then yes, you don't need anything else for tonal shaping. However, in order to achieve such a sound with Add2, for example, you have to use the internal envelope settings (the equivalent of tapes and blankets in the physical world), tame it with a good compressor, add saturation to emulate a little of the variation etc. Also, don't confuse a dead dry sound with a reverbless sound. All those 1970s dead drums had some sort of natural or added reverberation to them, only it was transparent, unlike in the 1980s. ACTUAL reverbless drums sound weird.

Having said all that, run a search for Jake Reed's packs.

 

Cool, I'm yet to try Superior Drummer, I might give it a shot.

Wow, this was on point! Haha. Gotta check this one, sounds actually decent. Might be just what I'm looking for.

 

Will check Jake Reed. I've tried all sorts of combinations with ADD2 but haven't got anywhere close, if you have anything in mind I might take a shot. I might need more time with it, so far I've been using Samples from Mars DMX sample pack (it works, believe me). I'm aware that those drums aren't exactly "reverbless" but they sure sound dry and snappy and that's why I love them.

 

Last edited: Aug 25, 2024

the mac de marco ones sound like something i would do with the most basic acoustic drum pack from any of the devs, alongside with either a reverb remover or something, after drying them up in the settings of the plugin