Hello everyone
What did you do to make those sampled cymbals sound more realistic?
I've tried SSD4, AD2, EZ2, SD2, BFD3, even multiple Kontakt drum libraries but I never satisfied with the sound of the sampled cymbals. They just sound a little bit off to me.

 

thats because samplez is someone elses work.
listen.
when you use samples you cut off the 50% of the creative process, which is the most magickal.
its the moment you capture the sound, the one that you find the sweet spot to record the cymbal or anything else.


samples sound nice when alone, but when you try mixing them they lack reality.
that is, when you try to put a guitar from a sample library on the background, the nuances of the clean and close-up recording(finger sounds etc, which, normally whouldnt be audible if the recording were to have some space between the mic and the player)still exist!
so it sounds off, and its natural of you noticing it.

i strongly suggest recording your own sht, n make music with it...your own samples will inspire you just by hearing them, cuz the frequenciez themselves will be captured by you...

 

And nothing's good enough among these?

 

Studio Drummer has the most realistic cymbals of all the libraries/vst instrument drums i have tested.

 

Sounds interesting, will check it out soon.

I think it's just for orchestra? CMIIW.

Nah, I use sampled drums because I don't have drums and a nice room to record it. Studios in my town are mostly suck because they have dry small room and not enough ambience.
I never use sampled guitar or bass because they don't sound right. Amplitube 4 sounds amazing and I'm satisfied to record them myself without a need for real amps.

Don't know why but my friends always know that it was not a real drum. They spot the cymbals. Always.

I will try to look at the demo page. Thanks.

 

Realistic? All multi-sampled drum libraries are realistic, as they are real recordings of real cymbals. Not synthesized.
Try Analogue Drums (company). Try That Sound (company). Try parallel compress (or NY compress) the drum bus.
//drummer since I was a kid

 

Last edited: Dec 28, 2016

When the track I'm working on isn't coming out as I'd like it, I often look for something to blame. Maybe if I used a different synth, or different processing, then it would sound better. But the more I learn and practice, the more I realize that the problem most often is me. Either my technique is lacking, or the idea wasn't interesting to begin with. In the end, looking for something to blame is just a form of procrastination.

So instead of blaming the samples, perhaps you should work on improving your technique. Watch how real drummers perform their cymbal patterns and don't write parts that would be impossible to play. Remember we only have 2 arms and two legs. If you're writing your drum parts with a keyboard, or even worse, just a mouse, you're going to lose points for realism. In fact, if your drum parts are coming from anywhere other than a live drum recording, you're going to lose points for realism. So maybe instead of focusing on making music with realistic sounding cymbals, you should just focus on writing good music. After listening to one of your songs, what would you rather hear someone say. "Wow, that was a good song!" or "Wow, those were some realistic cymbals!"

 

Last edited: Dec 28, 2016

BFD 3 has the best sounding samples you can find. Compared to all other drum vstis. In my opinion. Just listen to the raw unprocessed samples. you cant get better cymbals than that.

Best samples - worst buged gui you can get

Maybe it is your mixing cause all your metioned vstis use really well recorded drums. I mean theese are with highend equpiment real recroded cymbals.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 28, 2016

Its infinitely impossible to quantify the OP's question. Most if not all drum sample libraries are real cymbals. Now, if you said I want Al Jackson Jr.'s hat sound. Then you would have to find a cymbal library recorded with minimal (1 - 3) mics, in a semi dead room, played with the same kind of hats, same stick & feel as Al. Then you would have to run all of that through an Audiotronics desk into a Scully 1" 8trk... You're best to invest in your own cymbals, mics, & record them yourself. You'll not only learn, but have an advantage over the next guy coming up.

 

I know what are you talking about. There are many libraries out there with nice cymbals, but they sound unnatural when you play them.
8dio's drum kits main selling point is that they sound natural, but I've never used them - 200 -250 USD for a single kit...
BTW, most people don't care or don't know how your cymbals should sound, so you can use any piece of software - kontakt, ez drummer, whatever.

 

turn them down? It could be the way you are processing them.

Also who cares if your friends focus on cymbal samples and try to criticize your track? It's all about the song.

 

Check this one out. My current fav for cymbals
https://www.wavesfactory.com/suspendedcymbals/
You can do cymbal rolls with the mod wheel too.

Theres a try before buy version out there in the wwwild if you look hard enough.

 

Last edited: Dec 28, 2016

I quite fancy the look (and sound) of Swell by Echo Collective.

http://echocollectivefx.com/product/swell

 

Might be the best but that's a minimum investment of $5-600 for hats, a few cymbals and two mics? And learning how to hit cymbals with proper technique, consistently........ prolly not gonna happen.

 

I second all the Kontakt libraries mentioned. BFD is awesome with the right library.
Also, try anything from Chocolate Audio. Fit for Kontakt and BFD.

This one is an oldie but still holds up. AND IT'S FREE: https://smmdrums.wordpress.com/

 

Make them more unrealistic? Avoid the problem :D

 

Surprisingly the stock EZDrummer 2 sounds are pretty realistic, check the different presets.

 

I take back my words. I mean BFD3 is amazing but it tends to eat up a lot of RAM.