Ambient drum kit
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- KVRist
- 207 posts since 25 Apr, 2004
Maybe you should take a look and listen to EZ-Drummer:
http://www.ezdrummer.com
It may be what you are looking for and it has a ready to go type of sound.
HTH
http://www.ezdrummer.com
It may be what you are looking for and it has a ready to go type of sound.
HTH
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The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. ~Mahatma Gandhi
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. ~Mahatma Gandhi
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- KVRAF
- 3864 posts since 29 Feb, 2004
http://www.jrrshop.com/product_info.php ... 79b9ab88bf
Scarbee Imperial Drums for Kontakt/Halion
exactly what you described, note the great price !
If you can forget about Kontakt for a moment, give Jamstix a very close look.
http://www.rayzoon.com/
This one will not only give you mighty fine sounds, it will change the way you go about drum programming forever.
Check their forums and see for yourself.
Demo available, too.
Cheers, susiwong
Scarbee Imperial Drums for Kontakt/Halion
exactly what you described, note the great price !
If you can forget about Kontakt for a moment, give Jamstix a very close look.
http://www.rayzoon.com/
This one will not only give you mighty fine sounds, it will change the way you go about drum programming forever.
Check their forums and see for yourself.
Demo available, too.
Cheers, susiwong
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- KVRAF
- 3864 posts since 29 Feb, 2004
I don't have Scarbee Drums myself, but know them quite well.
Personally I use all the Toontrack stuff and Jamstix.
Couldn't live without JS anymore, but of course ymmv.
Perhaps this thread makes for some interesting reading :
http://rayzoon.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/vi ... php?t=1448
Cheers, susiwong
Personally I use all the Toontrack stuff and Jamstix.
Couldn't live without JS anymore, but of course ymmv.
Perhaps this thread makes for some interesting reading :
http://rayzoon.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/vi ... php?t=1448
Cheers, susiwong
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- KVRAF
- 3864 posts since 29 Feb, 2004
You asked for it ... 
So here's my personal subjective opinion about the drum libraries I'm using :
- Kontakt 2 : interface not suited to drums at all, so I don't use it for that purpose.
- Battery 2 : rarely used, good plugin, best UI but mediocre sounds. A friend uses it with the old DFH, that works ok, but not for softer music
- DFHS and C&V : The best I've heard yet by far. Period.
Steep learning curve soundwise, but so much worth it !
- EzDrummer : A one trick pony atm, but a good trick. Sounds perfect out of the box for hard rock, not metal, not really suited for much else. This will hopefully change with the upcoming expansion packs, but then it's slowly getting expensive. The plugin is good but with limited control, the MIDIs that come with it are usable, but no comparison to what Jamstix produces even on a bad day.
- Jamstix : Good variety of drumkits, very authentic sounding, easy to fit in a mix, good control over the sounds with few, but effective parameters, real brushed rhythms (not only hits). All in all I tend to use JS more and more for its sounds, too. They seem to grow on me and are easy to handle, a NY group, a bit of compression and reverb on the snare, a small drumroom, I don't need more most of the time.
- The ones I don't own but know :
- BFD : the alternative to DFHS, like Mercedes and BMW, you can't really go wrong with either, but I'm a Toontrack guy. Ymmv.
- Groove Agent 1 : totally unimpressed
- Scarbee : very detailed, good sound, not much variety
- Artist Drums : spectacular sounding at first glance, but virtually impossible to fit in a mix unless you're doing a Phil Collins cover. Not for me.
These impressions are mostly based on sound.
Rhythmically JS is in a different league. OK, it takes some time to get used to, but then ...
Hope that helps a bit,
susiwong
So here's my personal subjective opinion about the drum libraries I'm using :
- Kontakt 2 : interface not suited to drums at all, so I don't use it for that purpose.
- Battery 2 : rarely used, good plugin, best UI but mediocre sounds. A friend uses it with the old DFH, that works ok, but not for softer music
- DFHS and C&V : The best I've heard yet by far. Period.
Steep learning curve soundwise, but so much worth it !
- EzDrummer : A one trick pony atm, but a good trick. Sounds perfect out of the box for hard rock, not metal, not really suited for much else. This will hopefully change with the upcoming expansion packs, but then it's slowly getting expensive. The plugin is good but with limited control, the MIDIs that come with it are usable, but no comparison to what Jamstix produces even on a bad day.
- Jamstix : Good variety of drumkits, very authentic sounding, easy to fit in a mix, good control over the sounds with few, but effective parameters, real brushed rhythms (not only hits). All in all I tend to use JS more and more for its sounds, too. They seem to grow on me and are easy to handle, a NY group, a bit of compression and reverb on the snare, a small drumroom, I don't need more most of the time.
- The ones I don't own but know :
- BFD : the alternative to DFHS, like Mercedes and BMW, you can't really go wrong with either, but I'm a Toontrack guy. Ymmv.
- Groove Agent 1 : totally unimpressed
- Scarbee : very detailed, good sound, not much variety
- Artist Drums : spectacular sounding at first glance, but virtually impossible to fit in a mix unless you're doing a Phil Collins cover. Not for me.
These impressions are mostly based on sound.
Rhythmically JS is in a different league. OK, it takes some time to get used to, but then ...
Hope that helps a bit,
susiwong
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- KVRAF
- 19156 posts since 13 Feb, 2003 from Vancouver, Canada
Jamstix is a great, versatile instrument, and remember: you can use it with any VSTi. 
Just like to throw in that Artist Drums stinks up the room. What a crap-ass collection. Too bad, because the talent was stellar!
Just like to throw in that Artist Drums stinks up the room. What a crap-ass collection. Too bad, because the talent was stellar!
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- KVRAF
- 19156 posts since 13 Feb, 2003 from Vancouver, Canada
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- KVRist
- 58 posts since 15 Nov, 2004
Hi guys
interesting comments in this thread - I've tried quite a lot of these products out and my favourite of the bunch has to be the sonic couture library (the variable ambience thing). JustJazz, i know how you feel, you just wanna make music and not mess around for 10 hours making your drums sound decent - and also i use kontakt in my tracks. susi, not sure why you'd say kontakt isn't suited to drums... it's a sampler, and you're buying a library here, not making your own kits... also, have you tried using kontakt since 2.1 (2.1.1 came out yesterday i think)? the va stuff looks great, custom skins, and obviously the best part is the way you can vary the ambience (heh) for individual parts. my fave is the brush kit - check the demo.
i don't know, it's a load of wicked drum kits mapped to the keys, with customisable ambience levels that don't tax your cpu, what more do you really want? for me, working in kontakt isn't an issue, and cos of the KSP scripts (dope drum roll script stuff), it's definitely a bonus. anyway, the VA library works in battery too.
the scarbee stuff just wasn't cutting it for me, was disappointed after hearing their EP stuff, and EZDrummer isn't versatile enough for me as suzi said - maybe that was the interface clouding my judgement though. again, jamstix looks like a toy, and isn't really what i wanted - i just wanted the best acoustic drum sounds i could find. i thought i'd find it with BFD or similar but the va stuff is what i use when i need real drum sounds. for 50 odd quid you can't really go wrong eh
all of that is IMHO of course
interesting comments in this thread - I've tried quite a lot of these products out and my favourite of the bunch has to be the sonic couture library (the variable ambience thing). JustJazz, i know how you feel, you just wanna make music and not mess around for 10 hours making your drums sound decent - and also i use kontakt in my tracks. susi, not sure why you'd say kontakt isn't suited to drums... it's a sampler, and you're buying a library here, not making your own kits... also, have you tried using kontakt since 2.1 (2.1.1 came out yesterday i think)? the va stuff looks great, custom skins, and obviously the best part is the way you can vary the ambience (heh) for individual parts. my fave is the brush kit - check the demo.
i don't know, it's a load of wicked drum kits mapped to the keys, with customisable ambience levels that don't tax your cpu, what more do you really want? for me, working in kontakt isn't an issue, and cos of the KSP scripts (dope drum roll script stuff), it's definitely a bonus. anyway, the VA library works in battery too.
the scarbee stuff just wasn't cutting it for me, was disappointed after hearing their EP stuff, and EZDrummer isn't versatile enough for me as suzi said - maybe that was the interface clouding my judgement though. again, jamstix looks like a toy, and isn't really what i wanted - i just wanted the best acoustic drum sounds i could find. i thought i'd find it with BFD or similar but the va stuff is what i use when i need real drum sounds. for 50 odd quid you can't really go wrong eh
all of that is IMHO of course
Last edited by The Beatsmith on Tue Jun 13, 2006 12:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- KVRist
- 58 posts since 15 Nov, 2004
actually there's some demos on the site for VA http://www.soniccouture.com/pages/drums.htm see what u think
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- KVRAF
- 3864 posts since 29 Feb, 2004
Beatsmith,
in fact I like Kontakt quite well for non-drum stuff, and, yes, NI did quite well with the updates lately. It's my only sampler for all non-synth and non-drum stuff.
If it suits your working style, great !
What I'm missing though is a pad-style view like in Battery, which is almost ideal imho.
I do a lot of changing drum pieces for different songs, so Kontakt just doesn't cut it for me.
Superior is almost as user friendly as Battery and the quality of the samples is so much better than anything else I heard, only BFD is really in the same league for me.
Looks like I'll have to check out the Sonic Couture drums if you all like them so well.
Maybe they will finally make Battery useable for me ?
Seems I'm becoming a drumsound junkie more and more ...
Cheers, susiwong
in fact I like Kontakt quite well for non-drum stuff, and, yes, NI did quite well with the updates lately. It's my only sampler for all non-synth and non-drum stuff.
If it suits your working style, great !
What I'm missing though is a pad-style view like in Battery, which is almost ideal imho.
I do a lot of changing drum pieces for different songs, so Kontakt just doesn't cut it for me.
Superior is almost as user friendly as Battery and the quality of the samples is so much better than anything else I heard, only BFD is really in the same league for me.
Looks like I'll have to check out the Sonic Couture drums if you all like them so well.
Maybe they will finally make Battery useable for me ?
Seems I'm becoming a drumsound junkie more and more ...
Cheers, susiwong