Toontrack Hitmaker SDX with Hugh Padgham

[Guy Rowland]

Coming later in September is a Hugh Padgham SDX. There's a few pre-release details and a couple of demos on their webpage here:

https://www.toontrack.com/superior-september

Can't link the audio unfortunately, you'll just have to click. Quite fun to hear him ripping off his own artists, the first demo is clearly Sting's "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You". The second is a mish-mash, starting with the notorious In The Air Tonight Phil Collins tom break. They even sampled a CR-78 an all. So overall it sounds like slick 80s to me.

There's also a standard issue 40% off SDXs this month too, and a few other releases coming up, all on the same page.

[Guy Rowland]

It’s September 20th. It’s out.



On the website you can hear kit demos. I’ll confess a certain amount of audio lust for Stewart Copeland’s (called the reggae kit here).
https://www.toontrack.com/product/hitmaker-sdx/

[wst3]

I never thought it possible that I would hear those drums sounds again, or rather that I would have access to them. This is an astonishing product. The cymbals are uniformly excellent, not harsh, but plenty bright. I also like the toms a lot. The snares and kicks are, at least to my ears, just a little too stylized. And the addition of the drum machines is really cool.

Do I need any of these sounds? No, not really. Might be fun to have as a novelty, but for now I will pass.

As a rule I prefer minimalist microphone configurations for drum kits. Maybe it's may age, maybe I'm just lazy, maybe I'm lazy because of my age??? More likely it has to do with the way I learned to record drums, which is much more in line with Al Schmidt than Hugh. Not questioning Hugh's place in modern music production, the man is a genius, and I LOVED those drum sounds, back in the 80s.

Have to agree with Guy, that Copeland kit is the highlight for me, just not sure where I'd use it. Of course one could argue that using the kit might take me down avenues I might have otherwise passed... please don't<G>.

[wst3]

Which of course sent me to their web site, where I listened to several of the SDX demos for stuff I do not own.

Two thoughts...

Many of the expansions include things I am pretty sure I would not use. The example that comes to mind is the Indiependents SDX. There are a couple of kits there that I'd love to have, but the rest just don't fit, if that makes sense. The same thing goes for the Warehouse expansions.

I wonder how they'd do selling individual kits. I imagine the cost for the individual kits would be prohibitive, but it is an intriguing idea.

The other thought - I really miss the drums from Superior 1 - I've kept Superior 2 installed because it imported the Superior 1 sounds, I also like some of the Superior 2 kits, but they are available as an SDX. I wish they'd release the Superior 1 library as an SDX.

OK, gotta stop obsessing...

[Guy Rowland]

I wonder how they'd do selling individual kits. I imagine the cost for the individual kits would be prohibitive, but it is an intriguing idea.

I’d be up for the Copeland kit for sure if it were $40 on its own or something. I’d take that snare on its own for $20. Doubt anything like that would ever happen though.

This whole pack is 94gb. I think they’ve done bigger expansions, but its big enough.

As ever, it’s all a lot of nice-to-have. I like all things 80s (except AOR and heavy rock / metal). I lose count of how many expansions I have now, especially including the EZXs - some of those are real favourites, especially Alt Rock and the old Nashville is still a useful classic. I can see myself crumbling if Hansa appears super-cheap at Black Friday, it’s about time that one got the crazy-sale treatment. Given my existing stash, I can’t see myself ever paying $169 for another expansion, no matter how good it is.

[wst3]

I keep thinking that the demos for some of the EZXs sound good, really good, but if I can't get the drum sounds that I want with the libraries I already own then I need to work harder - at least that's my thinking at the moment<G>.

(I spent some time trying to copy that Phil Collins sound - mostly because it is just so obvious - and I am getting there.

[Guy Rowland]

I keep thinking that the demos for some of the EZXs sound good, really good, but if I can't get the drum sounds that I want with the libraries I already own then I need to work harder - at least that's my thinking at the moment<G>.

(I spent some time trying to copy that Phil Collins sound - mostly because it is just so obvious - and I am getting there.

Fun, isn't it? A good virtual drum program like SD I think is a rare instance where the virtual version of an instrument actually offers some advantages over real. The Phil Collins gated sound I think is a good example of this. Because an SD owner has control over the bleeds everywhere, it's really quite trivial to set up gates on ambient mics from any given particular drum - so you're using the actual sound of the drums in the room, but heavily processing with total control. In the 80s when everyone was trying to copy that sound it was an awful lot of effort (unless people turned to static samples and an AMS RMX 16). I often think how engineers then must feel when they play around with something like SD3, the hours and days they had to put into creating these sorts of effects that you can do in a few clicks now. It's very common to this day to get the drummer to record multiple passes so spill from cymbals etc is under control. Not a problem in the virtual realm.

It's actually another reason why I'm not in a rush to buy new expansions, certainly not at full price. It's so easy to manipulate the scores of options I already have. I just checked - I just checked and I have 390 acoustic snares. That's ridiculous. If I can't get something close out of that lot, with control over top and bottom mics, pitch, transients, eq etc, then the problem is definitely me.

EDIT PS - one of the things I was thinking about those famous In The Air Tonight drums is actually the way Phil plays the snare. I think it must be the sound of pressed rolls through that gated reverb, alternating with the full hits. I've never tried to emulate that.

[Geoff Grace]

For $39.99, this will help you get there:

Korneff Audio Talkback Limiter

Best,

Geoff

[wst3]

There is likely more than just the limiter, but it did play a part. I've found I can get a very similar sound using SoundToys Devil-Loc. It isn't a sound for which I reach often, but it was fun playing around. For $40 I may well try that Korneff plug-in, well, after I am finished trimming the fat in my current plugin library!

[Guy Rowland]

TBH I find the in built effects in SD3 put, in this case, on the room mics, works rather well. The Comp 76 can be nice and crunchy with everything turned up to 11.

[Guy Rowland]

Production Expert review hitmaker, and three people give their verdict, all exceptionally positive - https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/produc ... ert-review. This one stood out in terms of some of our discussion here:

Luke Goddard On Toontrack Hitmaker SDX
For a long time, drum virtual instruments (in the eyes of drummers and engineers at least) presented more of a curiosity whose strength lay in quick placeholder parts, or for intervention in an emergency. Certainly sounds that could stand up to scrutiny in any mix were still the preserve of those from acoustic kits, or overtly programmed machine sounds.

Things have changed. As computers and instruments have advanced, engineers, composers, producers, and drummers themselves have access to sounds can easily portray the nuances and qualities of real acoustic drum recordings. Moreover, this gradual rebirth of virtual instruments has produced tools that frequently surpass the quality of the spaces and instruments that many musicians find themselves working in.

Hitmaker SDX distils the trinity of ingredients needed for any exemplary drum sound, those being, great playing (when using its MIDI), great drums, great room. Take those and fire them into some of the most sought after signal paths in the industry, and the user is left with a truly formidable tool. Coupled with Toontrack’s SD3 platform, Hitmaker SDX would be hard to beat even if all the gear in the same place were right there to use in its absence, thanks to the minds of those at the helm. That’s how good it is. HIT.

For decades we've been talking about the merits or otherwise of recording at the Sony soundstage or what have you with sample libraries. But in the case of something like Cinebrass, it's obvious that whatever the boost the stage and kit gives, it's fighting all the usual problems that sample libraries have - dead lifeless Frankenstein performances.

I strongly agree with the context here. Very few of us will every have the opportunity to record drums in such top-flight environments, and that combined with the specific tools and advantages that such an outstanding VI as SD3 makes this such a formidable tool. I can see how it would make sense for bands on a budget - 99% of them - to beg or borrow an electric kit and use SD3 rather than record their acoustic kit in less than ideal circumstances.