Superior Drummer 3 Cymbals suck!

Kapo_Polenton

Well-known member
There, I said it. The recent thread here about great sounding snares only highlights the perfect sample problem in today's music. So SD3, I have one of the expansions. The drums we know sound incredible...probably too incredible given that none of the drums we love on the albums we love, were recorded in the same cream of the crop studios Toontrack has used for their drums. But forget all of that for a minute.. what is with the cymbals? Most notably, the crashes?? I am scrolling through all the crashes available to me and there are maybe 2-3 that sound like my crashes sound like before processing. I've got to think you can take the FX off the drums, but the cymbals are always treated/processed. They all sound wispy and flat to me. So far, I have to layer a sample to get what I want out of it. Been playing with Ugritone drums lately and I like the lack of bells and whistles as well as the more realistic raw samples. Even when using their presets, they sound like what I would expect from a kit recorded in a more normal environment vs. a state of the art facility. They've got ring, some overtones etc.. While the technology and the program is great, I would love to see an SD4 allow round robin 3rd party samples to be added / mixed or replace the instruments in the program and more variety cymbals wise.

What would you guys have them do with SD4 if they ever decided to update it?
 
I don't have ideas for SD4 'cause I don't own SD3.

Just chiming in to say that I've heard quite a few complaints about the cymbals, so you're not alone there.

Apparently SSD5's (and previous versions') cymbals sound more-natural.
 
I left them a note on their FB page and they said they will pass it up the chain. Seems strange to me they have all these kick ass sounding drums and amazing studios and THAT is the best they can do with the brass. How about a few less room and ambience mics and a few more hats and crashes recorded raw. I told them to release a raw to polished cymbal pack. Just cymbals..no drums, no themes.
 
I might be alone with this, but imo SD3 stock library cymbals are the best i've heard for what i'm going for as they're not brickwall limited to hell and sound natural. I'm going for the authentic 80's and early 90's mix.
 
The ONE SDX you want and where this is NOT a problem is Bob Rock's Rock Foundry. Give it a spin, you'll love the cymbals.
 
Supposedly the best cymbals for SD are in Metal Foundry

Not really.. caught it on special one day for 59$ ( I was wondering if that was a mistake!? ) and it gave me a total of 4 crashes that I think are usable. Yeah , toontrack needs to step it up G! Metal foundry has some great sounding kits though, but i prefer them dry so I can practice processing.

Honestly, the Ugritone stuff is great. Very limited options but the crashes sound like crashes. Good rides and hats and they sound natural. A 25$ VST competing with SD3. The weak spot is still cymbals for most but Ugritone's actually sound like crashes and chinas in the room. I hope they build it up a little more so you can have more than just snare options.
 
Also forgot to mention. If i wanna make the cymbals go harder or be more aggressive. I just nuke the room & overhead mics with a limiter.
 
Also forgot to mention. If i wanna make the cymbals go harder or be more aggressive. I just nuke the room & overhead mics with a limiter.

I've been playing with adding in a sampled crash to give the core sound I want and then the different hits are handled by the crash in SD3. Thankfully, crashes are usually less noticeable than hats or ride or the rest of the kit where samples and velocity are concerned. Unless you are doing some crazy swells.
 
I've used metal foundry and a few others

The cymbals I end up using most of the time are from the freeware MT power drummer 😬
 
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