The Sound Board

$299, introductory price $199 - full details here
http://realitone.com/realidrums

I received an early release for comment and eventually an NFR, so I think I'm not going to comment specifically except to say that I liked the drum sounds enough to immediately start writing a "classic rock" track with the product, and in the course of finishing the track, I only had to go to the manual once.

Looks like a very well conceived and executed product. I'm Toontracked up to the nines and very happy there, so not one for me, but a good new option - looks and sounds great. I like the idea behind the grooves (Toontrack does something similar in a slightly different way), but I was wondering how intelligent it is. For example Larry, can you go up from clean 1/4ths, 1/8ths, 1/16ths on the hi hat for example, and then have in-between pattern options?

Hardly touched the groove options, Guy, as it was earlier on without the grooves done , and I haven't yet gotten to dl and open the final product.

I'd like to know how it compares with Groove Agent 4

Don't have it but have heard very good reviews- you have it , Ray?

Yes Larry, I have Groove Agent 4 but I've done little with in a while through pressure of work elsewhere in the bill paying job. It's such a drag but "that's life"

I only have the SE version of Groove Agent that comes with Cubase and it does my head in. Can't get my head round it at all. Superior Drummer 2 is similarly a UI nightmare, while EZ Drummer is a dream. Hear good things about BFD, and NI's Session Drummer is another solid option. RealiDrums looks like it's very much in the easy-to-use category, without compromising the sound.

Sounds great and I have a lot of Mikes products. Like many others I have pitched in with the EZ Drummer crew which since V2, and I have been more than happy with it. Difficult market to break into , I wish him the best.

Guy, Groove Agent SE hardly scratches the surface of the full version. I have many drum libraries including BFD3, NI Abbey Road drummer, Drumasonic, and others so this is indeed already a saturated market. I also wish Mike well with this but I'm not in the market for another library atm.

It's a pity I'm not customer for Mike's products, at least not yet, but just wanted to say that I feel the although I don't know Mike personally, the more I know about him the better impressions I get. Love his plainly friendly approach, love the products he does, his honesty and absolutely love his business ethics.
Do any of you know him personally? am I right with my impressions?

Carles

I've had a few chats with him - he's the toppest of top blokes. And clever, damn him.

Yep, spent some time getting to know him at NAMM back in January. He's indeed, as Guy put it, the "toppest of top blokes."

Met him once many years ago at NAMM when the only product Realitone had at his booth was a set of drums for Stylus RMX! He was s great guy then and is a great guy now. Always smiling, always nice but honest and direct. One of life's good guys.

I will just ad that I too met him at a Scorecast NAMM function dinner, he was a great guy to talk to. There was a Raffle drawing and he was one of the developers to donate to it, on top of that, he gave Realibanjo to everybody who attended(about a 100 people) for free.

I have never met him but he is still a top bloke. If you don't have any of his other libraries check them out, they are superb.

Great guy, does great stuff, too big to f#@k with

I better join in here.............................have a nice day y'all. What a bunch of great guys y'all are.
Now?...........................hows about the quality and usability of this library?

Very useable, very quick to figure out, I like the drum sounds, very clean and full. I find the limited EQ surprisingly helpful as it can change the character of any drum quite a bit with small adjustments. It's not the most deeply sampled drum program I've ever tried. I like it so far for funk, pop rock, alt rock..it's about acoustic kits, no electronics, not for 808 dance stuff'. The included effects are minimal. Haven't tried it on jazz yet, but I could see it working. The looper, as you can see from the video, dead simple, some nice patterns, the ability to change complexity and drag that loop into your DAW as a MIDI file- very nice.

Drawbacks for me- doesn't have separate Kontakt outs, no choked cymbals, no rumphhs or rolls.

Again, I received an NFR for a bit of consultancy, so you might want to keep that in mind, though I've done my best to be objective.

I think Mike is working on adding individual outputs, isn't he? Have to say that's an essential in my book. I'm pretty much always sidechaining at least something with the kick, for one thing.

I'm not sure if that will be forthcoming. I was candid with Mike about the need- he was rushing to make his release, but he indicated he saw my point, so my guess is yes, first update.

Guy Rowland wrote:I think Mike is working on adding individual outputs, isn't he? Have to say that's an essential in my book. I'm pretty much always sidechaining at least something with the kick, for one thing.

He posted Screenshots on Facebook showing individual output routing, which I agree is essential for a drum library.

They posted to VIC that separate outs were planned for an upcoming update. Seems likes some great sounds and grooves- love the toms! All the best to him, great job with this.