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Superior Drummer 3 - On the fence...

Only a couple more weeks before the deadline to upgrade from SD2 to SD3. I've tended to use the NI Abbey Road drums over SD2. Seems like SD3 has more articulations...maybe more velocity levels? More mics for sure, but not sure how useful those are...

Anyone have any more comments?
 
I'm on the fence too. I currently have SD2 and only use a couple of expansions so I would only be getting SD3 for the new UI/features and the possibility of using future SD3 expansions.
 
I bought the upgrade just so I didn’t end up with a load of drum stuff that didn’t work in the future but haven’t even looked at it yet a month later! As I’m not using it in my current project
 
pipedr said:
Anyone have any more comments?
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I once again tried S3 just to make sure I wasn't losing my mind. I absolutely do not like it and reverted back to S2 Avatar in the track. S3 toms and hats were ok, kick and snare had no bite. I just bought NI Studio drummer and Abbey Road 70s for Black Friday and I'm eager to try those out.
 
Only thing worth having (if you don't have EZD2) is SD3 for the songwriting and groove editing features. Apart from that, the sound a good. But personally, prefer the sound of XLN and GGD kits. Even AB Road drums are awesome sounding. GGD being a good one to watch for the future, great sounding drums for cheap.
 
I really want the songwriting and related features in SD3, but am on the fence about whether I need the factory sounds given all the SDX and EZX libraries I have. As a result, the cost to upgrade from SD2 has felt a little high to me. I've been planning to postpone until (literally) New Year's Eve just in case there is a last-minute flash sale on the upgrades and crossgrades.
 
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rrichard63 said:
I really want the songwriting and related features in SD3, but am on the fence about whether I need the factory sounds given all the SDX and EZX libraries I have. As a result, the cost to upgrade from SD2 has felt a little high to me. I've been planning to postpone until (literally) New Year's Eve just in case there a last-minute flash sale on the upgrades and crossgrades.
Click to expand...

If you have a lot of SDX and EZX libs and still feel like you're not happy with the samples I don't think it's worth going for. I'd probably look elsewhere, especially if you already have EZD2 for handling midi stuff.

Just map all your drum libs out the same, then you can create / edit beats in EZD2 and then drag the MIDI data over to kits you like the sound of, that are not by Toontrack.
 
rrichard63 said:
I really want the songwriting and related features in SD3, but am on the fence about whether I need the factory sounds given all the SDX and EZX libraries I have. As a result, the cost to upgrade from SD2 has felt a little high to me. I've been planning to postpone until (literally) New Year's Eve just in case there is a last-minute flash sale on the upgrades and crossgrades.
Click to expand...

If only we had the option of buying just the plugin without the factory sound library.
 
MarcusD said:
If you have a lot of SDX and EZX libs and still feel like you're not happy with the samples I don't think it's worth going for. I'd probably look elsewhere, especially if you already have EZD2 for handling midi stuff.
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Thank you for your comments. To clarify, I'm not at all unhappy with my existing EZX and SDX samples. I'm on the fence about whether the new samples (all 200-plus GB of them) add that much to what I have.

I do have EZDrummer 2 for the sequencing and MIDI features, but I've been assuming that SD3 goes even further in this regard. For example, the drum replacement mechanism, which I gather works really well and could replace Trigger for me. Nothing like that in EZD2.
 
How are the MIDI files in SD3?

In my experience, taking a MIDI file designed for one drum library doesn't translate very well to another library. One thing that's great about the Abbey Road series are all the MIDI files made specifically for the kits that you can audition and drag in and then edit.

How about the mix presets in SD3? Do they cover vintage as well as modern sounds?

Again, Abbey Road is great for these which dial in era-specific sounds.
 
If you do uprade i don't think you will look back...the new mixer is worlds better...i am very happy indeed with SD3....been using drum vi's about 18 years :)
 
Another SD2 user on the fence here. I would like to see the surround stuff stripped out for a cheaper price.
 
rrichard63 said:
Thank you for your comments. To clarify, I'm not at all unhappy with my existing EZX and SDX samples. I'm on the fence about whether the new samples (all 200-plus GB of them) add that much to what I have.

I do have EZDrummer 2 for the sequencing and MIDI features, but I've been assuming that SD3 goes even further in this regard. For example, the drum replacement mechanism, which I gather works really well and could replace Trigger for me. Nothing like that in EZD2.
Click to expand...

Got'cha. Hmm it's a tricky one, the question really is £££ really worth the upgrade when you already have Trigger & EZD2? It'd be handy to have it in one package, but will it make a huge difference to your workflow?

As for the samples. If you have a lot of SDX expansions already, I don't think the new samples will offer a great deal more diversity.
 
madfloyd said:
What is GGD? And is the Abbey Road the one that NI put out years ago?
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Get Good Drums, it's a Kontakt library. Really well recorded kits, tuned perfectly, phase coherent and sound awesome straight out of the box.

https://www.getgooddrums.com/

Best part is they're cheap. Unfortunately no fancey TT songwriting features BUT the kits sound so good. Can't wait for them to release more.
 
I'm certainly on the fence with this one - I'm sticking to my SD2 library.

My decision was particularly reinforced with the following from Toontrack (their actual words):

"The Superior Drummer 3 Upgrade will be discontinued since Superior Drummer 2 no longer is supported, updated or available for purchase (which in effect means it will become obsolete and cease to work on numerous platforms at some point in time)."

You can make up your own mind on that one? ....... "Obsolete, no support and ceasing to work on numerous platforms" are slightly surprising phrases to use when selling any product in my experience?

Incidentally, on a more positive note, I'm getting good punchy results with my SSD4 library (will probably go for SSD5 in New Year when I get round to it)
 
I too was a little taken back by this strong arm technique by toontrack to upgrade now or never. Still use SD2 quite a bit with several expansions , but also have all of the NI kits as well Realidrums. Nice to see some some retailers are lowering the the upgrade price to $160 which helps . Even though I have Drumagog 5 and Slate trigger to use for my live drum replacement from time to time, I am curious to see how well this new feature works and translates in SD3. Anyone use this replacement feature yet?
 
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