So for the past year I’ve been recording an album with a good friend of mine and we’ve avoided purchasing drum software for quite some time. It’s just the two of us and a drummer is out of the question…mainly because we’ve been recording out of a small closet in my apartment using a primitive pro tools rig and a few amps…gotta work with what you have I guess!

So we’ve hit a wall in trying to decide on the best drum software for the project. I’ve done some preliminary research and kind of narrowed it down to the EZDrummer/DFH combo, Superior 2.0, and BFD. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to fully utilize the intricacies of Superior but I’ve heard some great things about how customizable it is. Obviously I’m drawn to EZD/DFH because of Ziltoid, but I’ve also heard that you get more bang for your buck with BFD…most forums comparing Sup. 2.0 and BFD go both ways…

Dev, has your drum software preference changed since Ziltoid? Software is constantly evolving and I want make sure I purchase the best quality program money can buy. I’d appreciate any input, thanks a lot!

Can’t wait for Addicted by the way, I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of my uber pre-order! Love your work!

-Kyle

I'm thinking of buying supperior drummer from toontrack along with the Metal Foundry SDX. It actually has Dev presets!

The Metal Foundry SDX

The originators of multi sampled drums and Drumkit From Hell, Toontrack®, Music presents an all-new SDX expansion pack for Superior Drummer® 2.0 - The Metal Foundry SDX™.

The Metal Foundry SDX™ is an all-new recording with Meshuggah drummer Tomas Haake, featuring seven massive drum kits, spanning 300,000 sound files of raw, single hit drum recordings in the vein of Drumkit From Hell and dfh Superior, covering Hard Rock to Metal, from the early Blues tinged sound of the late 60s to the fragmentation of today’s music, from Power through Thrash, Death and Progressive Metal.

The Metal Foundry SDX™ celebrates the Toontrack® Music Hard Rock and Heavy Metal legacy of the first Drumkit From Hell, on which the company has built its following. This in turn has spawned such groundbreaking products as dfh Superior, EZdrummer® and Superior Drummer® 2.0.

The Metal Foundry SDX™ was recorded and produced at Atlantis Studios in December 2008 by the original Drumkit From Hell recording team, Mattias Eklund (Toontrack® Music), Fredrik Thordendal (Meshuggah), Daniel Bergstrand (Dug Out Studios) and Tomas Haake (Meshuggah).

The Metal Foundry SDX™ features presets by:
Devin Townsend (Devin Townsend, Strapping Young Lad, Steve Vai)
Daniel Bergstrand from Dug Out Studio (Meshuggah, In Flames, Dark Funeral, Behemoth)
Pelle Gunnerfeldt from Gröndahl Studio (The Hives, Moneybrother, Fireside, The International Noise Conspiracy)
Pelle Henricsson, Eskil Lövstrand and Magnus Lindberg from Tonteknik Studio (Refused, Meshuggah, Cult Of Luna, Khoma, Hell Is For Heroes)
Mattias Eklund from Toontrack (Nocturnal Rites, Naglfar, Guillotine, Galneryus, Lambretta)
Jocke Skog (Clawfinger)
Fredrik Thordendal (Meshuggah)

http://www.toontrack.com/products.asp?item=51

You'll probably get the overall best sound from Superior 2.0. But if you're looking for something easy to use with a lower price tag, look into Addictive Drums. You can hear some samples on my soundclick(link in my sig).

The drums to Addicted sounds like they were recorded with DFH to me . Especially the intro to 'Universe in a Ball'

Thanks for the help everyone...yeah I think it'll be worth it to put the time into learning Superior...I'm definitely going to have to give that Metal Foundry package a closer look too.

Despite the difference in quality and flexibility being marked between DFH-EZD and S2-Metal Foundry, having a better choice of quality compressors/EQ/verb plugins will do you far better than the raw sound. Even the original DFH (which I still have in A3000 format) can sound better (when well produced) than S2 "out of the box".

FWIW - I did this in Sonar, EZD-DFH with bass and guitar recorded via a Line6 X3 Pro. All the virtual drum mic channels are brought out into multiple tracks, so I can work with them individually, bus them up, etc. The kick is a bit dry and "poppy" but hey - this was 30mins work, and YouTube's compression sucks balls because in fact it sucks balls (open it in YouTube and put "&fmt=18 " at the end of the URL). No apologies for groove clipping phrases. Don't care if I played anything wrong either.
[youtube]rn5K73tI6QY[/youtube]

Wow awsome job Hekaton.

Just thought you all might want to know that Superior 2.0 is now on sale for $149! THATS $200 OFF! I ordered mine already. Also at guitar center.
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/pr ... sku=720000

Wow awsome job Hekaton.

Just thought you all might want to know that Superior 2.0 is now on sale for $149! THATS $200 OFF! I ordered mine already. Also at guitar center.
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/pr ... sku=720000

Why do they always do that after I've forked out a load of cash for it lol

Probably just bad timing on my part.

Regardless, I have nothing but good things to say about Superior (particularly Metal Foundry - The Sepultura preset is amazing). And while there is a Dev preset on there, I have yet to use it in a mix.

I haven't used the others yet, but Superior was my first drum program and I've gotten on fine with it.

Native Instruments - Battery 3 has some really good drums sounds...you can also tune and reverse the samples...put effect on them...nice software

Guitar Center has alot of the toontrax software for 40 bucks right now.

I am personally biased against DFH's general sound, but for what it's worth I love the sound of BFD. 100x more natural and big sounding, not nearly as cold and mechanical as most uses of DFH (in whatever form) I've heard. Just my little opinion.

~Josiah

I am personally biased against DFH's general sound, but for what it's worth I love the sound of BFD. 100x more natural and big sounding, not nearly as cold and mechanical as most uses of DFH (in whatever form) I've heard. Just my little opinion.

~Josiah

Even Superior Drummer?

Toontrack's started commissioning cross platform sample libraries - namely Joe Baressi's Evil Drums for BFD (https://www.platinumsamples.com/JoeBarresi.html).

I know that it says there that it's BFD native, but Toontrack is planning on using it too (http://www.toontrack.com/news.asp?id=151).

Regardless, I still really like the interface for Toontrack's software, so if we can get the best of both worlds - thats awesome

I am personally biased against DFH's general sound, but for what it's worth I love the sound of BFD. 100x more natural and big sounding, not nearly as cold and mechanical as most uses of DFH (in whatever form) I've heard. Just my little opinion.

~Josiah

Even Superior Drummer?

I don't know much about the different versions or whatnot; all I know is that whenever I've heard DFH I've been able to recognize it and have never really liked the sound all that much. It's not like I can't stand it (hell, I enjoy Ziltoid), but I don't like clicky metal drums to begin with so add the fact that DFH is like 10x as clicky and snappy as any other drum machines out there and that it's an ultra-recognizable sound no matter the context, and I just don't care for it really

~Josiah

I love the Toontrack software. The DFH is awesome! I also like the Monster Midi packs!

If I bought Superior 2.0, would I need to buy anything else? I have Sonar 7 and have used DFH in there. Does Superior work in the same fashion?