Toontrack Music updates Superior Drummer to v3.3.7 and releases The Jazz Sessions SDX by James Farber

Toontrack Music has updated Superior Drummer to v3.3.7 and released The Jazz Sessions SDX by James Farber.

The Jazz Sessions SDX by James Farber
Expansion For Superior Drummer 3 - €179

With well over 1,000 albums to his name, more than 40 years of back-to-back work producing records of the highest echelon and a discography that reads like a who's who of jazz, Farber is widely considered one of the best jazz recording and mixing engineers ever. His footprint in the genre is indelible.

Recording and mixing jazz is an art in itself, especially when it comes to drums. It calls for balancing a dynamic range that spans the nuanced and feathery light to the vivid and utterly explosive. Someone who has an uncanny ability to capture exactly that and at the same time bring out the true acoustic voice in any instrument he puts a mic to is James Farber. With well over 1,000 albums to his name, more than 40 years of back-to-back work producing records of the highest echelon and a discography that reads like a who's who of jazz, he is nothing short of an industry icon. The seminal albums by the likes of Michael Brecker, John Scofield and Joshua Redman as well as, not least, his work with jazz drumming greats like Elvin Jones, Jack DeJohnette, Paul Motian, Bill Stewart, Brian Blade and Antonio Sanchez are – to say the least – a testament to that.

This SDX for Superior Drummer 3 sets out to pinpoint the milestone sounds and eras of jazz drums from its early days until now. Where better to capture that than in the jazz capital of the world and at one of the most storied studios ever built: New York City's iconic Power Station. Aside from having housed arguably more legendary artists than any other studio on the planet, it is also the very spot where James spent his formative years, recorded some of his seminal work and still considers the be-all-end-all place to capture jazz drums.

In total, seven kits were handpicked for the session, each selected to represent a distinct jazz era, sound or milestone record in James' career. Aside from every kit being sampled with drumsticks, selected kits and instruments were also captured with brushes, rods, mallets and even hands.

In addition to the drums, an extensive collection of mix-ready presets for each kit and configuration are provided, allowing you instant access to fully fledged and balanced drum mixes by James himself. These mixes can be used as is or as starting points to venture off from in order to create sounds for virtually anything your imagination allows.

Feature Spotlight:

• Recorded at Power Station in New York City by legendary engineer/mixer James Farber.
• Seven complete kits, each representing its own jazz era, style or sound.
• Features kits sampled with sticks, brushes, rods, mallets and hands.
• Four different ambiences (Studio A and C main rooms with respective adjacent booths).
• Selected kits recorded with a 5.0 surround mic setup.
• Drum and tuning technician: Artie Smith.
• Comes with an extensive library of MIDI featuring material tailored for different jazz styles, the different tools recorded and more.
• Includes a broad collection of mix-ready presets for each kit and configuration.

Changes & Bug Fixes in Superior Drummer v3.3.7:

• E-Drums:
  • A DWe preset has been added.
  • Improved compatibility with Roots SDX.
• Drums Tab: In the layer limit text fields, it did not work to change to unlimited by entering a "-" character.
• Mixer Tab: Loading certain SD2 (Superior Drummer 2) mixer presets, some channels were invisible in SD3 even though they were visible in SD2.
• Grid Editor: When a user-added instrument was removed but it was not the most recently added one, mute and solo buttons in the Grid Editor could show incorrect states for some instruments and percussion preview in Grid Editor could be incorrect.
• Settings:
  • "MIDI Learn" for e-drums often did not work at all.
  • Opening Settings while getting incoming MIDI could cause a crash.
  • Quitting the host or removing the plug-in with the Settings dialog open could cause a crash.