recommendations for Acoustic Drum expansion set

[phoenix224]

Hello,

I'm in the market for additional acoustic drum samples for Sampletank. I like the kits that come with ST2XL and SS2, but I need a little more variety. I'm looking for very realistic multi-sampled acoustic drum sounds geared toward the rock genre.

I've been scoping BFD drums, but that's a serious investment and would require an extra HD and RAM. Besides, the demos on the fxpansion site don't do it for me (I think the hi-hats - esp. the open hi hats sound terrible). They do have nice snares and kicks though.

Anyway, I see that three products are available:

- Expansion Tank Acoustic Drums
- Sonic Reality Acoustic Drums for Sampletank
- IK multimedia Sonik Capsule Studio drums

I can't find any reviews on the web for these. Can someone help me out with a recommendation and some details of how many acoustic kits I would get with each of these?

Much appreciated!

Mike

[Kim Lajoie]

I think you're a bit confused about the available drum libraries for ST2. There are two libraries:

Expansion Tank: Acoustic Drums
Sonik Capsule: Studio Drums

Both are developed by Sonic Reality. Which one you choose really depends on how you plan to use the kits.

The Expansion Tank is more basic in it's approach - each kit is one ST2 instrument, and each kit also has quite a few child (variation) presets. This is great if you don't want to do a lot of tweaking, just select a kit and jam.

The Capsule has this option, but also allows you to install the kits as separated elements - this means the kicks, snares, hats, toms, and cymbals for each kit have their own ST2 instrument. That way you can mix and match different kit elements really easily, and you can also apply different processing (typically eq and compression) to each section of the kit. You can even send each kit element to a separate stereo output from ST2, and mix the kit in your host's mixer like you'd mix a recorded drumkit performance.

These kits have a similar sound "flavour" to the I-Map kits in SS2, but of course there is more variation, more different recorded kits.

Hope that helps.

Forever,




Kim.

[harmony gardens]

Jeez has given a great compairision for you. I can add that the Sonik Capsules disk has 42 kits in I-map and GM layouts. You also get the ability to load the samples into other formats, so they are much more flexable that way. They have 2 dynamics. Have plenty of hard drive space available, my folder for Studio drums is 4.05 GB! This is because of all the different layouts it's broken into. The soundz take up around a GIG each. There are 4 main folders in the set. 2Dyn GM Kits (803 MB), 2 Dyn Imap KIts(1.08 GB), MultiD GM SepDrms 4ST(958 MB) and MultiD IMAP SepDrms 4ST (1.23 GB).

I don't have the Acoustic Drums Expansion Tank yet, but the Studio Drum Capsule has been a great addition to my drum options. HTH

[phoenix224]

Thanks for the info!

Mike

[phoenix224]

Question - if you install the kits as separated elements, can you still play the sounds as a kit on the keyboard, or do you have to play each instrument (kick, snare, hats etc.) separately on a separate MIDI track. What I'm getting at is I like using Imap to play the whole drum part live to capture a bit of feel.

Mike

[phoenix224]

One more thing, if you elect to install the kits as separated elements, does this mean that you won't have the Imap kits installed? It would be great to have both options.

Mike

[Kim Lajoie]

Question - if you install the kits as separated elements, can you still play the sounds as a kit on the keyboard, or do you have to play each instrument (kick, snare, hats etc.) separately on a separate MIDI track. What I'm getting at is I like using Imap to play the whole drum part live to capture a bit of feel.

If you assign each part to the same MIDI channel, then you can play the kit just like a regular I-Map or GM kit.

One more thing, if you elect to install the kits as separated elements, does this mean that you won't have the Imap kits installed? It would be great to have both options.

You can install as many different versions as you like. HG has all four installed at once -

GM kits (one kit = one instrument)
I-Map kits (one kit = one instrument)
GM separated elements (one kit = five instruments)
I-Map separated elements (one kit = five instruments)

You don't have to install all 4 gigs though. Personally, I've only got the I-Map separated elements installed, because anytime I want a quick single-instrument kit I just use one from SS2, and I prefer I-Map over GM for realistic acoustic kits.

Hope that helps.

Forever,




Kim.

[Kim Lajoie]

I'd just like to add - if you've already got SS2, then the Expansion Tank will give you more of what you've already got - single-instrument I-Map kits. You've already got 700MB of those with SS2! I think The Studio Drums Capsule is a better choice if you've already got SS2. The Expansion Tank is better if you've only got ST2L/XL and want some Sonic Reality acoustic kits.

Forever,




Kim.

[phoenix224]

Kim,

I'll be ordering the Studio Drums capsule tomorrow from esoundz. Hearing about the added flexibility sold me. Thanks for the explanation! I'd be happy to grant you the epointz (or whatever they're called) if you give me the necessary info.

Mike

[Squids]

Studio Drums is a good choice given the questions. Acoustic Drums is also a very popular title and sounds different if you are looking for more. Then, after all of that we will eventually have Studiophonik to look forward to for more BFD-like drums (except less roomy).

[phoenix224]

Hey everyone,

I bought the Studio Drums capsule and am happy with it. Constructing a kit using the separate kit elements offers a great deal of flexibility. I just programmed a rock kit using the kit elements and it sounds pretty good.

I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for using effects and/or parameter changes on the individual kit elements. For my kit, I've eq'd the kick, added some reverb to the snare, maxed out the sustain and decay on the rides, crashes, and hats, and added low end and limiting to the toms.

For those of you that have constructed kits in this way, do you have any programming tips? What works well for your kits?

Thanks,
Mike

[Squids]

It all depends on your song really. I tweak to the song in the end. But, to have some fun you can try putting the compressor and then the limiter on the kick and snare. SLAM fest. Put the parametric EQ boosting some lows on the kick for a little extra boom. Run the whole thing through a global reverb in your sequencer instead and send subtle amounts. That's a nice big sound.

I was just playing some drums from this library and there are some real good kit on there. I like it. They promote playing with FEEL (especially if you make use of the snare ghost notes and rolls).

[DrApostropheX]

I got the SonicReality Studio Drums Capsule last August and it's been my only choice for (acoustik)drum sounds ever since. I can always find something that works, no matter what the context is (and I do a wide variety of music). Combine it with some midi drum loops from GrooveMonkee and you'll have an instant rhythm track that's produced to fit into just about any song.

Anyway, I can't recommend it highly enough. Pick it up. For the price, it's a steal.

[phoenix224]

Squids,

Thanks for the tips. I tweaked my rock kit into a monster wall of drums - it sounds so good now that I can't stop playing it!

Mike