I've been pretty proficient with EZ Drummer but I was thinking of getting SD. Even simple controls like volume envelopes are missing. Some samples are much better in EZX libraries and it just annoys me I can't tweak it like I do in AD. So far Fields Of Rock sounds promising (The Godfather Kit), but I'm not sure if it has tea towel variations in them? I need some dry and damped kits for that 70s Tame Impala sound.

References:

If anyone has recommendations for SDX I should need for this type of sound it would be much appreciated.

 

Decades has one beatles pop kit with towels

 

I also wanted to ask if SD has presets? People always mention it's raw and requires a lot of tweaking. I'm looking for a workflow similar to AD - presets available but options to tweak. I don't want to go down the rabbit hole of adjusting everything from scratch.

 

Thanks! How dry are the samples? Is there any room sound baked in? Looking for dry as possible.

 

Dude cmon' you could have searched on youtube & found the answer. Don't rely on others to do everything for you. Anyway, here's the demo:

 

nevermind, you didn't understand what I was getting at...

 

He's right though. You're asking about if it has presets. A visit to the Toontrack site gives you a completely thorough overview of each SDX as well as audio samples.

Of course you can tweak the presets/remove the room mics to give a dry sound.

 

Thanks, it seems Decades and Fields cover what I'm looking for the best, though I was looking for a deader kit.

 

Then just use the close mics! SDX gives you that flexibility.

Edit - Don't use any bleed to get cleanest & even more dry sound if you want.

 

Last edited: Jun 14, 2024

You might want to take a look at the Stockholm SDX.

 

Easy to turn off room mics in mixer and bleeds too.
No envelopes? Sure there are...

 

Past to Future Drums literally have like 10 Tame Impala drum kits for Kontakt at a really affordable price. Worth taking a look in my opinion:

https://pasttofuturesamples.gumroad.com/

Most are on the Sister Site if you want to try them.

 

^ Was gonna suggest PastToFuture. Definitely the most Tame Impala sounds out there. The only thing is they're not as "playable" as SD3. The round robins aren't very consistent, so MIDI beats don't sound as natural as SD3. And the hits they record don't have the pro "touch".
Great processing chain baked in though.

As for Superior Drummer, the old Custom & Vintage SDX has some pretty Tame Implarey sounds. Use the ludwig drums, that's what Kevin Parker used - Blue Sparkle Ludwig.
The trick is... Have the midi velocity of the drum hits in your beat quite low/quiet (maybe around 50-70??), and crush the fuck out of it with compression and saturation. The EL Arousor compressor is pretty good for this. And/or the Soundtoys Devil-Loc for saturation, or anything emulating the Shure Level Loc (which is what Kevin used apparently) like the Tone Empire Loc-Ness plugin maybe.

Part of the sound/vibe is that the drums are played in quite a chill/soft way but it sounds louder because of the heavy compression/saturation

 

The arousor must do a nice job. But if you're trying to get as closes as possible, kevin uses the dbx 165A in his drums

 

Fields of Rock literally has a Tame Impala preset!

Load up the dry room, select the Tom Dalgety preset "Tame Impaler"

It's pretty dry already, but as others have said - SD literally gives you full control of the mixer, so you can tweak to your hearts content.

If you need to damp kit pieces, SD also has envelope controls for individual kit pieces.

You might wanna look at the Vocal Booth Kit in Hansa, as well as the Deep Dry preset in Hansa Live.

Stockholm would be good for Imapala-type sounds

Other SDX/EZX that could fit:

In The Pocket
Singer-Songwriter
Signature Part 2 Booth
There's some good dry kits in Legacy of Rock
There's a tea towel kit in Decades, but tbh I find I can get drier sounds with the other libraries I've mentioned already.


With all of these though, don't be expecting to just select a preset and it just magically fits perfectly in your track - they're great starting points, but if you have a sound in your head, then mess around with stuff until you get there! Change the mic mixes, play with envelopes, adjust hit velocity (playing gently, then compressing/saturation works well for this kinda thing).


Also, you don't have to rely entirely on acoustic drums to get you there - layering in hits from drum machines can get you there much easier and cleaner a lot of the time!
Sometimes I use just the initial attack of a 505 snr, or just the tail of an 808 or whatever - when you blend them right, it doesn't even have to sound like a hybrid kit, more just like a 'hyper-real kit' where the drums have envelopes and attacks that would be tricky to get irl.

 

Last edited: Jun 14, 2024