Any of you guys wanted Steve Albini to sample drums for you? He did, folks!

Is there any style of music left for which Toontrack haven't released an EZX yet? Chime in!

Steve Albini’s imprint on the sound of rock is undeniable. Having worked on seminal albums by the Pixies, PJ Harvey and, perhaps most notably, Nirvana’s milestone record “In Utero,” his sonic DNA is in the fabric of productions that have helped create a new branch in rock history. This collection of drums captures the incomparable sonic fingerprint of not only Steve Albini but also the ambience of his very own studio, which he personally built and designed. Welcome to Electrical Audio in Chicago, IL, and a truly unique collection of drums.

The Alt-Rock EZX presents a crude, genuine and raw palette of drum sounds with an incredible range, perfect for the soft-loud-soft approach that is synonymous with the distinct dynamics of the classic alt-rock sound. Capturing Steve’s unique method of mic placement, attention to detail and drum tuning scrutiny, this EZX gives you two full kits and cymbal setups as well as several additional instruments and percussion pieces, all crafted to perfection.

Even though this EZX takes off in the tremors of the nineties alt-rock scene, it presents a tonal palette with enough color to aid you in painting whatever sonic landscape you wish.

FEATURE SPOTLIGHT

• Recorded by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio
  
• Two (2) full kits and cymbal setups (Ludwig Club Date & DW Collector’s Series)
• Five (5) additional snares, two (2) kicks and five (5) cymbals
• Five (5) percussion instruments, including 26” and 29” Ludwig timpani drums
• Comes with a selection of MIDI drum grooves inspired by alt-rock music

And the price, ladies and gents, is 69€

http://www.toontrack.com/product/alt-rock-ezx/

 

Last edited: Feb 22, 2017

surprised he did this!

 

Fuck Steve Albini...

 

generally how I think.... smart guy, plays contrarian to pretty much everything I believe, pompous, but in person, actually very amiable fellow... i think he plays a bit of a "character" sometimes for shock jock effect... but yes... I concur for the most part...

 

this is Steve in 1993.

in 2017 he's in Toontrack commercial, in which mind tricks like "Punchy,” “Warm,” “Groove,” “Vibe,” “Feel" are exploited to the maximum possible extent.

I wonder, how much compression was applied to this Toontrack EZX? Must be plenty, as usual

 

Last edited: Feb 21, 2017

Albini did the Deluxe Collection from BFD, but I don't think he was very hands on with it. Hell I might be wrong and it could have just been recorded there.

Since this was recorded at Electrical Audio I really want to get to the room mics. Maybe I missed it, but does it say how many sets of room mics there are?

I wasn't very impressed with the demos, but I'm pretty interested in this release. Although its probably just a nostalgia thing.

 

microphones & signal chains info and instrument list at the bottom of this page http://www.toontrack.com/product/alt-rock-ezx/ d

 

Last edited: Feb 22, 2017

Thanks for the reply, I didn't scroll down far enough.

 

I'll be grabbing it, I'm sure I'll find it useful, I'm not a fanboy of his but I do like his music and quite a number of records he has engineered.
He has good taste in microphones and the space he has sounds good, If this gives me a little bit of that then I'll be able to use it.
I would of expected this to be like the Metal Machinery and more recent Progressive Foundry in whatever the session(s) captured honestly, It wouldn't be a surprise if they do have an SDX expansion lined up for release sometime later this year or next.
I've never been able to get into BFD, It isn't that I didn't or do not like the sounds achievable from it, A lot of people I know use it and to me it sounds pretty damned good in their stuff, However when I did try the original version and the second version, The kick drum in particular is very machine gun-like/Made it not work my needs/wants. I've not tried the most recent version but I'm not in any hurry to either, So never tried the library that Albini did or let the FXPansion and/or the Platinum Samples utilize his space and gear.

All the best to all as always and nice one for the heads up on the release

Dean

 

Well there are many drummer's that I admire a lot whom I wish Toontrack would do at least a MIDI groove pack of and an EZX too would be cool even though the type of genre has been covered, Each has their own unique thing. I'd be happy to list some of those that I would be throwing my shekels at Toontrack we're they to do it. It's a good question and if anyone else wishes to do it then it'd be cool to hear what (or rather who) other people want

Cheers

 

Do they really have famous drummers record their EZXes? I remember Tempesta did Metal Machine, but haven't heard of others.

Well, they should just record Danny Carey's kit and call it Alt Metal, Post Metal or Tool Rock EZX for all I care.

 

Meh, doesn't sound much different from the stock EZDrummer 2 sounds. He says that he likes to process drums before recording, but they sound very unprocessed here. Might try to see if I can get something different from it, but Steve Albini's sound in general is pretty overrated, imo, so I won't be holding my breath.

 

No fanboy here either. About recording wet, as far as I can recall from reading something about some session he recorded sometime with a band I don't remember which, for perhaps that particular session or maybe in general, he either records dry, or if he does print with process it is generally a tiny bit of compression or just a bit of eq on the snare, if at all. In general, if a drummer is spot on, you won't need to compress, and if the room is a good one (his is) the sound is the sound of the room without reverb. He has his signature sound because of his placement and choices of mics and preamps which he has nailed down after a goodly time doing what he does. About all those Josephson mics that he is using on those toms, Albini had everything to say regarding the process of tuning them up in the manufacturing process when they were originally fabricated. They were pretty much custom made for him and Josephson continued making the e22S for the general public. It is a great mic, side addressed so less likely that the drummer doesn't smash it and takes a sonic beating with no pad needed. Albini bought outright every one, and though he talks about and always uses them never took a penny from the company. Also, I noticed that one of those great old Beyer kick mics, the M380 that he uses on the outside/resonate side of the beater is up for sale on Reverb. A pretty good chunk of change https://reverb.com/item/228579-beyerdynamic-m380-n-c-vintage-brass-model-rare, but it is the brass version!

 

I Like Big Black... as for timpanis and may be interested in this Lib

 

a couple of reviews

 

Toontrack puts out Alt-Rock Grooves MIDI along with the EZX

http://www.toontrack.com/product/alt-rock-grooves-midi/

 

I have to give Albini props for his musical accomplishments, his bold philosophical position on the purity of art vs. the commercialism of the music biz, and his innovation in audio recording – as well as his being a really smart guy, and, contrary to legend, a down-to-earth nice guy.

However, the appearance of this "alt-rock" drum library signals the fact that the genre has been "over" for a while; now another color in the Classic Rock box of crayons for coloring in between the lines of a coloring book. That's not so "alternative," is it?

 

Gene Hoglan, Thomas Haake, Morgen Agren, Dirk Verbeuren, Nick Barker, Mario Duplantier and Steve Judd to name a few are not at all insignificant. I only wish that they would have sampled Mario Duplantier's, Nick Barker's, Dirk Verbeuren's setups!!! Not just MIDI grooves from them. They really ought to have at former The Ocean (collective) drummer Luc Hess, Dave Haley of Psychroptic, John Merryman of Cephalic Carnage, Richard Hoak of Total Fucking Destruction and Brutal Truth, Adam Jarvis, Derik Roddy, Kevin Talley, George Kollias, David Gray aka BlastVader ;) , Trey Williams, Dave Culcross Brann Dailor (ex-Today Is The Day, Mastodon), Justin Foley, Alexandre Erian, Alexandre Pelletier, Blake Richardson Ben Koller, Chris, Pennie, Danny Herrera, Paweł Jaroszewicz, Dariusz Brzozowski, Paul Bostoph, WITHOUT A DOUBT MARCO MINNEMANN, DAVE LOMBARDO, PETE SANDOVAL, MIKE SMITH, FLO MOUNIER, Brad Fickeisen (Coz I Fucking Love The Red Chord/His Recordings And Live Shows with them/An extremely biased personal favourite) and fuck I could keep on going for an essay length amount of people, I've barely scratched the surface, Missed out so many and not even touched a lot of metal's sub-genres especially some of the Black Metal maniacs like ‎Proscriptor McGovern, Jan Axel Blomberg, Fenriz (Even though he'd tell them to fuck off), Frost, Horgh of the the kiss of bm even if they're classed as bm by purist's aka Immortal but he's played with many other's, Hypocrisy/Pete Tagtren especially, Zbigniew Robert Prominski, (Not solely heavy/extreme metal drummers also, I realize that the balance must be kept). Checkout their stuff if you've never heard of some of them, If you dislike metal then you will easily find them without the "noise" of the other members.

All the best to all and peace as always

Dean

 

I wasn't talking MIDI packs, I said EZXes. I'm aware of the MIDI grooves and some of the known drummers who made the recordings, but as for the EZXes, the only one I remembered was Tempesta and Metal Machine.

The question was at least one music style left, for which Toontrack hasn't put out an EZX yet, which was asked with a bit of sarcasm, of course, as they seem to have an EZX for every possible life scenario and then some. It's getting a bit redundant, so it was more of a joke. It wasn't about the list of favorite drummers and their setups.

It must mean one of two things. Either Steve dropped "analog" snobbery from 1993 and adopted working ITB in 2017 or he just runs short of money these days and sold out. I'm buying the "money talks" version.

 

Last edited: Feb 25, 2017

Well it is a little difficult to read sarcasm from text on a screen despite how much I appreciate it, You know without visual and audio cues it is really not so simple to pick up I find, I certainly was not attempting an attack or hostile reply if it seemed that way. I personally think Toontrack along with XLN Audio, Slate Drums, Third-Party KONTAKT and what not should go as deep as possible, Yes I admit that some add-ons could for some be just full of so much bleeding through that they'd not appreciate the distinctions, I'm simply a more the merrier especially with disk space dirt cheap, RAM not a problem and the market will dictate the rest, Like said not simply metal and all of it's sub-genre's should be focused on but instead more of everything. It'd be good to see them release some more percussion focused stuff from orchestral stuff to military/marching stuff, Far better conga, bongo, Taiko/Wadaiko and you name it, Why not? African tribal stuff with not even a concept of 4/4 involved...blah blah..blah.

Crossed wires, I posted some of my personal legends/heroes behind the kit just for sharing, Like I mentioned, It'd be great to hear/read other people's wish list player's.