KVR Audio

noiseboyuk · Post by **noiseboyuk** » Mon Oct 16, 2017 1:27 pm

I also own Battery 4 and to invoke a cliche, it's apples and oranges. Battery 4 has some acoustic kit sounds, but it's not really designed for realistic kit playing - it's a tool for electronic drums primarily. To get realistic kits you need huge amounts of variation on each kit part, spill between mics, room mics etc, none of which is Battery's thing. As far as it goes for electronic stuff, B4 is very good indeed, but I've always felt it's only half a product, with a groove engine missing.

As you'll see from multiple threads here, the competitors to both EZD2 and SD3 are the likes of Addictive Drums and BFD, those are much more apples and apples comparisons (not identical by any means, but the same core purpose).

punkfest2000 · Post by **punkfest2000** » Mon Oct 16, 2017 4:23 pm

noiseboyuk wrote:
punkfest2000 wrote:I just want to say that the midi mapping system is absolutely horrible. Got a huge kit with 8 cymbals, 2 rides, 5 toms, and mapping it with Addictive Drums 2 is a breeze. Superior 3 is garbage for mapping. I do not recommend it for e-drumming, it's best used as a midi pattern player.
Just checking you are using the edumming map settings page? I don't use edrums so might be totally off, but it looks pretty easy to start with the most relevant preset and tweak from there...

Oh yes, I've been spending more time than I should have to in there. Using the suggested presets for "Roland" is not very accurate, whereas Addictive gives you presets for the individual Roland kits which map out of the box so much better. Having to manually do it is also much easier and reliable in Addictive. I'm pissed off with my purchase thus far.

noiseboyuk · Post by **noiseboyuk** » Mon Oct 16, 2017 4:59 pm

Fair dos punkfest - surely it's a one time job though, save as a preset and never worry about it again?

punkfest2000 · Post by **punkfest2000** » Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:47 pm

Sure but the mapping system is painful to use, and often won't "learn" things it's supposed to. Bloody mess.

WalfrandX · Post by **WalfrandX** » Wed Oct 18, 2017 3:02 pm

punkfest2000 wrote:Sure but the mapping system is painful to use, and often won't "learn" things it's supposed to. Bloody mess.

Regarding "learn things it's not supposed to": This bug is known and reported over at the toontrack forum. Should be fixed asap.

punkfest2000 · Post by **punkfest2000** » Wed Oct 18, 2017 8:57 pm

Good to hear. Otherwise it truly is an amazing program. It sounds absolutely incredible.

moonchunk · Post by **moonchunk** » Wed Jan 31, 2018 4:28 am

But there is no groove fx capability, like the one included in BFD2/BFD3. With BFD3 you can do relative swing, (in your selected division, like 8th or 16th) and you can apply compression to the velocities in creative ways. I searched in the manual, and you can't apply swing to the selected events. A good MIDI pattern creator/player? I'm beginning to wonder. Can someone point me towards how to do this in Superior Drummer 3?

noiseboyuk · Post by **noiseboyuk** » Wed Jan 31, 2018 7:29 am

moonchunk wrote:But there is no groove fx capability, like the one included in BFD2/BFD3. With BFD3 you can do relative swing, (in your selected division, like 8th or 16th) and you can apply compression to the velocities in creative ways. I searched in the manual, and you can't apply swing to the selected events. A good MIDI pattern creator/player? I'm beginning to wonder. Can someone point me towards how to do this in Superior Drummer 3?

You're right, the lack of swing control is still a failing with EZD2/SD3. You can search for swing as a tag of the preset grooves, but can't adjust the amount of swing. This is needed in Tap 2 Find too.

Clavus · Post by **Clavus** » Mon Aug 07, 2023 10:56 am

How is SD3 in live playing with edrums?

LunarKitten · Post by **LunarKitten** » Sat Feb 10, 2024 8:57 pm

I am contemplating getting Superior Drummer 3, but wasn't it cheaper at some point? Unfortunatly the regular retail price is a bit much for me. Are they doing sales from time to time? What kind of deals can I expect and where do I find them?

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Sat Feb 10, 2024 9:06 pm

Never seen any sales. Sometimes you get an expansion thrown in, but the plug-in will still be full price.

noiseboyuk · Post by **noiseboyuk** » Sat Feb 10, 2024 9:17 pm

Mr Arkadin wrote: ↑Sat Feb 10, 2024 9:06 pm Never seen any sales. Sometimes you get an expansion thrown in, but the plug-in will still be full price.

Yes, this. You may get a modest retailer discount here and there, but waiting for some kind of bundle deal is the best bet. All the newer SDXs are phenomenally expensive, so getting a free one is a pretty good deal.

It's a superb product imo, it's totally held its value for me. In fact it's almost too good - I've got 7 or 8 SDXs and some 30 EZXs and at this point there's nothing else I want or need for acoustic drums. So all their lovely sounding newer SDXs just have no real attraction for me, I'm too happy with what I have.

LunarKitten · Post by **LunarKitten** » Sat Feb 10, 2024 11:06 pm

Thank you for your response!

noiseboyuk wrote: ↑Sat Feb 10, 2024 9:17 pm All the newer SDXs are phenomenally expensive, so getting a free one is a pretty good deal.

I have read an article that states Superior Drummer 3 was selling with a free SDX of your choice on black friday 2020. How rare are these deals and how can I make sure I don't miss them?

If I can get a deal like this, I may go with the Al Schmitt SDX for rock productions. Are there other SDX that I should look into beforehand?

noiseboyuk · Post by **noiseboyuk** » Sat Feb 10, 2024 11:26 pm

LunarKitten wrote: ↑Sat Feb 10, 2024 11:06 pm I have read an article that states Superior Drummer 3 was selling with a free SDX of your choice on black friday 2020. How rare are these deals and how can I make sure I don't miss them?

If I can get a deal like this, I may go with the Al Schmitt SDX for rock productions. Are there other SDX that I should look into beforehand?

They are pretty rare. Don't quote me on it, but there might be one other opportunity in the year.

Decades is a great SDX. But funnily enough, I was going through the core library today for the first time in a while and holy moly. The diversity and quality is phenomenal. I decided the Core Library's biggest problem is that the default kit every time you load it up is aneamic rubbish, so maybe people (including me) reach too quickly for expansions without really exploring what's there.

Decades is actually the most recent SDX I have (a few more EZXs though). Today has convinced me I honestly don't need any more (hollow laugh).

LunarKitten · Post by **LunarKitten** » Sat Feb 10, 2024 11:35 pm

noiseboyuk wrote: ↑Sat Feb 10, 2024 11:26 pm They are pretty rare. Don't quote me on it, but there might be one other opportunity in the year.

Fingers crossed.

noiseboyuk wrote: ↑Sat Feb 10, 2024 11:26 pmDecades is a great SDX. But funnily enough, I was going through the core library today for the first time in a while and holy moly. The diversity and quality is phenomenal. I decided the Core Library's biggest problem is that the default kit every time you load it up is aneamic rubbish, so maybe people (including me) reach too quickly for expansions without really exploring what's there.

I agree, that Superior Drummer 3 in general is quite amazing and the core libary is just fine for me I am sure. I'd really like to have it, but the price for me personally is making it a tough decision. A SDX may get me over the hump. I'm going to wait for that. Going to put the Toontrack startpage in my bookmarks, a deal should hopefully be visible there.

noiseboyuk wrote: ↑Sat Feb 10, 2024 11:26 pmDecades is actually the most recent SDX I have (a few more EZXs though). Today has convinced me I honestly don't need any more (hollow laugh).

Well Al Schmitt was a great engineer and I don't know how it can get much better than this.

I'd like to ask another question if you don't mind. Since KVRaudio is a store, do you think it would be welcomed to open a thread asking for ways to get the best plugin deals and where to look for them? I have seen some deals recently, that suprised me. I have enough plugins, but some deals are absolute nobrainers to me and I'd like to make sure I don't miss out on them in future, since I have never looked for deals before.