Addictive Drums 2

[Scotty]

I've usually waited for the 3 ad-pak bundle on sale or on KVR as a transfer. I've done well that way but this is the only library of theirs that I don't own so I'll be waiting a while.

Yes, they have sales, usually 50% off I think.
I’m waiting for this kit to be on sale as well, but I can wait until next year if they don’t add it in the next sales, some companies don’t discount the newer products when sales come up soon after release, not sure about XLN.
Encouraging to see progress on AD2 for sure, I like the update/new GUI.

[Ou_Tis]

if you play a 'cello' patch on a Korg M1 vs a string patch on a spitfire library I mean.. dated..
old technology...which sounded good at the time, but technology has moved on in leaps and bounds so you can tell it is a lower, much lower quality..
same thing.
rsp

So not as realistic, especially when naked?

Guess you probably mean the same thing as this person on Gearspace: "I’d describe it as a little flat and sterile — closer to a good drum machine than a real drummer. I finally pulled the trigger on Sd3 and I’m absolutely blown away! It’s a massive step up in sound quality and realism over AD2. I think it’s a combination of uncompressed vs compressed audio, more articulations, more layers and hit variations per articulation, more control over room ambience due to more mic locations, comprehensive mic bleed options and generally better engineers with more dialed in recording chains. Sd3 simply captures more of everything, both in terms of sonic detail and the drummer’s performance."

https://gearspace.com/board/showthread.php?p=16068228

OTOH the poster right they were responding to wrote: "I own quite a few of the SDX’s and EZX’s but have never been completely satisfied with Sd3. I have always been curious to try AD2 and some of the newer AdPaks and recently I had the chance to pick up the Fairfax kit ... So far I think I prefer the sound of many of the samples in AD2. They just feel a little more realistic to what I’m used to hearing with a real kit acoustically and in the control room through studio monitors."

https://gearspace.com/board/showthread.php?p=15848468

At any rate, Addictive Drums was good enough to be used in songs by Kendrick Lamar (Money Trees), twenty one pilots (Smithereens and a bunch of other songs), Underworld (Barking), etc.

Anyone know which ADPak is being used for Money Trees? Granted, it's being layered with other drums---looks like Battery and Kontakt West African Drums. You can see/hear Addictive Drums at 4:14:

[dickiefunk]

I really like the new Vintage Dead AdPak a lot. I will find a lot of use for this in some funk tracks similar to Scary Pockets and Vulfpeck etc!

[DMG68]

I've usually waited for the 3 ad-pak bundle on sale or on KVR as a transfer. I've done well that way but this is the only library of theirs that I don't own so I'll be waiting a while.

Yes, they have sales, usually 50% off I think.
I’m waiting for this kit to be on sale as well, but I can wait until next year if they don’t add it in the next sales, some companies don’t discount the newer products when sales come up soon after release, not sure about XLN.
Encouraging to see progress on AD2 for sure, I like the update/new GUI.

Good point, I may do that, there are a couple other packs that I want. Maybe they’ll drop some more packs and you won’t have to wait too long.

[zvenx]

,,,,

Don't know what to say.
I have played some of my productions using SD3 (only the core library and of course the newer sdx's, the old sdx's sound just as 'dated' as they did in SD2, and actually I had both SD2 and AD2 and at that time AD2 was by far my preferred drums) to real drummers who asked me who did I get to play drums and where were they recorded... that has never happened ever for me with the AD2 adpaks.

but indeed everyone has different tastes.
rsp

[donkey tugger]

that has never happened ever for me with the AD2 adpaks.

I've actually had that comment quite a few times. Never used SD so can't comment on it, but wouldn't agree that AD2 can't sound realistic.

[zvenx]

By actual drummers?
Interesting.
rsp

[fedexnman]

Cough bull sheet cough . All this Toontrack vs XLN audio is a joke . Both products can produce convincing drum tracks . If not it's user error . Dated lol whatever .

[donkey tugger]

By actual drummers?
Interesting.
rsp

To be fair they probably were thinking I'd played it - having not even sat behind a kit for over 10 years, it would be much, much worse..

[Ou_Tis]

I'd agree that AD2 can sound unrealistic, but if you use it carefully and play to its strengths it can sound realistic enough to be indistinguishable from recorded drums. Especially after adding effects. Of course, even when acoustic drums are still used in popular music without being layered with synthetic drums or obvious samples, they're frequently heavily processed (in a very obvious and "unrealistic" way...).

[jens]

At any rate, Addictive Drums was good enough to be used in songs by Kendrick Lamar (Money Trees), twenty one pilots (Smithereens and a bunch of other songs), Underworld (Barking), etc.

Sure, but none of those are neccessarily famous for their natural drums, right?


Of course AD is "good enough" for serious productions... it's just a matter of taste and what you want.

[jens]

It has to be said, that AD2's libraries are tiny as compared to SD3 - that's all relative, of course, and I'll be the first to admit that SD has a tendency to move towards overkill and of course the AD2 libraries are still huge compared to a lot of others stuff (my preferred drumset I used for quite a while in DK+ was 18mb and seemed perfectly fine to me back then), but then again the SDX simply contain vastly more data the plugin can work with.

[rod_zero]

Considering who owns XLN he probably wanted a product that is good and fast delivering drums for pop, and didn't care much about "realism", I am sure there are AD drums all over taylor swift, katy perry and britney spears tracks.

[jens]

Considering who owns XLN he probably wanted a product that is good and fast delivering drums for pop, and didn't care much about "realism", I am sure there are AD drums all over taylor swift, katy perry and britney spears tracks.

Yes, makes sense - and there's of course nothing wrong about this - but if one is looking for a less polished / pompous / distanced sound which is perhaps rawer and/or more intimate / natural, I think SD3 can be the more apporpriate choice.

But we had this dicussion before and the AD2-afficionados will keep disagreeing with me - and that's of course perfectly fine too.

[Fannon]

Got to admit: What I like about AD2 is that it's already very polished and that the presets are very diverse and have a big range from "natural" to strongly processed, up to a point where it doesn't sound like acoustic drums at all.

As natural as possible is not the design-goal of Addictive Drums 2, I assume.