SD2 utilizes thousands of drum and cymbal hits corresponding to different MIDI velocities to create a detailed yet user-friendly system for engineers and producers to create and supplement acoustic drums. Superior Drummer 2.0 (or SD2) is a full production multitrack drum-sampling platform. A great deal of available hard drive space is recommended as full installers can run upwards of 25GB. Superior Drummer 2.0 comes bundled with the NYC Vol.1 Avatar recording studio pack and is available for $349. Superior Drummer 2.0 is available in RTAS, VST and Audio Units formats at 32-bit and 64-bit for both PC and MAC. Employing multi-hit and multitrack capabilities, Superior Drummer is by far the most detailed and comprehensive platform I’ve come across for creating, replacing or augmenting acoustic drums and percussion. At the head of the class is Toontrack who has revolutionized drum sampling with the Superior Drummer software engine.

Today, there are a great deal of high quality drum sampling software platforms and audio packs available to engineers and producers. So while the idea of drum sampling was heresy in the early 90’s, today many drummers assume that their drum sounds can and will be augmented with high quality samples to enhance the overall sound. Today, the quality and detail of drum samples available has changed all that, allowing for seamless blending of the original drums with variable, natural sounding multi-track samples. We showed it to Matt who had no idea and he wasn’t too pleased at all.”īecause each hit was essentially the same exact sample repeated endlessly, drum sampling technology during its infancy in the 1990’s significantly altered the sound of the instruments recorded on tape – creating a robotic, clunky sound. Slash recalls that he had discovered a notebook where Clearmountain “had notated all of the drum samples he planned to mix in over Matt’s drum tracks…he’d brought in samples that would change Matt’s sound drastically. In his eponymous autobiography, Slash recollects a story about legendary mix engineer Bob Clearmountain who’d been originally hired to mix the Guns N’ Roses recordings that became the Illusions albums.

Superior drummer 2.0 midi grooves