Toontrack Superior Drummer 3 Reviews

SD3 Is Everything It's Advertised To Be And More!

Unfortunately online reviews can be very subjective or ultimately false, but SD3 is so feature rich and really goes beyond any 5 Star review! The Ultimate Studio Tool!

Amazing plugin

Best plugin for drum production

Doesn't get better

I've constantly been on the search for a drum program that can meet my needs. This is the only program that I've used that gives me the realistic feel and sound I'm looking for.

fantastic addition to Roland triggering

using with Roland td27-kv2. the new mid range Roland is great but the sounds aren't as good as SD3. also using for recording in logic as well as a practice tool in its own right.

the library of sounds is absolutely comprehensive, tho a bit of a rabbit hole. extraordinary: you close your eyes and you're in the room on this or that kit! fabulous!

30 day guarantee my ass

Under here it says 30 day money back guarantee, but they are not keeping their promise. Absolutely ridiculous. Will be contacting the bank first thing in the morning.

The best drum software, period

Superior drummer needs no introduction. Amazing sound and versatility. The drum tracker feature is amazing and makes drum augmentation or replacement very easy. There are numerous other software drum packs put there, but SD3 is the pinnacle. It's a bit pricey, but worth the investment.

The most fully featured, flexible, and comprehensive virtual drum software available anywhere at any price

I've used a few of the most noteworthy drum VSTis out there, including Modern Drummer from NI, Addictive Drums 1 and 2, and Steven Slate Drums 5 and 5.5. All have their strengths and weaknesses, but at some point I decided to go whole hog and step up to what everyone seems to agree is the Big Daddy of drum software, Superior Drummer 3.

It's hard to think of anything to say that hasn't already been said. SD3's sounds are huge, detailed, and exceptionally captured. Its mixing capabilities are virtually limitless and endlessly customizable, and its included effects are excellent. It's very intuitive in many respects, but the enormity of everything it can do does mean there is a bit of a learning curve at the start. This passes quickly as you come to understand the thinking behind some of the design decisions and become familiar with the routing (at least that was the trickiest part for me).

What you get out of the software really depends on what you put into it. As I said the samples sound amazing, but they're largely unprocessed so if you don't know how to mix a drum set to make it compete within the context of other instruments in either a live or recorded situation, it's really only going to sound good on its own. Toontrack does have many very informative and helpful videos on their website that demonstrate how to get a raw drum sound more up to snuff using the onboard effects and mixing and routing capabilities, so there is a treasure trove of great information to be found there.

I could go on and on about SD3 but there are plenty of other reviews that do that, and tutorials and whatnot all over the internet. And here I'm so lazy I haven't even talked about the MIDI and songwriting capabilities, but cut me some slack, I have no use for that part of the software. I'm a drummer, I record the MIDI from my performances on my e-drums then use that MIDI to drive SD3. My songwriting is still all out in the meatspace. But I'm sure the MIDI and songwriting stuff is great and all that. :)

So even though there are significant parts I don't use, SD3 is still the current leader in virtual drum software, and its capabilities and flexibility provide so many options there's very little you'd want to do with virtual drums that it can't handle in one way or another. And its expansion libraries are amazing, and the fact that you can run all the EZ Drummer libraries in it as well, all of that opens so many doors that it deserves its own review. Suffice to say that the expansion libraries are just as good or better than the core library the software comes with, and they just keep getting better and better (and bigger, you might want to invest in a separate SSD just for your drum sample libraries, that's what I did and I only have one expansion and the Core library!).

In conclusion, SD3 is the big daddy on the block and has been for a few years now. If somebody was going to knock it off its throne they would have to have some seriously amazing drum software, which I think is why it has remained unchallenged for some time now. It does everything really well and has no glaring weaknesses, and it's enjoyable to work with even though it is a seriously powerful tool.

Very nice!!!

As good as expected. Great Drumkits and sounds

Great drum VI

Just bought this and I'm impressed even without reading the ^&*( manual. I'm sure a deep dive there will be even more beneficial. Love the sounds and the GUI is pretty user friendly.

Love it!

Great sounding, understandable UI, and easy mixable in your DAW. Works for most genres, even without any expansions!

The best virtual drum kit

The best virtual drum kit!

With great sound and versatile settings!

Record starter

Great to use with bands that are new to recording, as a recording engineer working remotely with amateur bands, superior drummer allows us to quickly put down ideas with its large range of grooves.

Also the tracking feature to convert live drums to midi and layer with samples is nothing short of epic. Wouldn't be without it!!

Amazing sound, amazingly simple in use

Great piece of software. Good value for money.

Good Lib

I like the typical sound from this lib

Useful Tool

Im not a drummer and neither is this plugin really but its a useful tool if you dont have a drummer to build rythmic ideas.

There is a huge amount of sounds and stock rythms available and obviously there are addtional SDX addons you can buy if you feel the need to add a few different styles and kits etc.

Having some kind of midi keyboard or pad is probably the best option as it enables you to quickly input your ideas without the need to use a mouse to plot ideas. I use a standard yamaha midi keyboard, its far from perfect but the app works great and allows you to customize your midi settings and get your ideas down.

These programs will never replicate or impersonate a drummer but for those living in an apartment without the room for drums these are a good compromise, the more you know about drumming and time signatures will allow you to get the most out of this plugin.

The download is initially small but if you want all the add-ons such as room mics and added ambience and other Toontrack features it can be close to 350Gb but it allows you to just use the basic stock pack and add the rest if you have space / bandwith.

Meet my drummer

This software changed my demos drastically, now they sound like they should, I couldn't find any better drum software and I don't need to.

Can't be without it

I bought this about a year ago now, and it has been invaluable. Not just for mapping drums, but for drum replacement, using the kit pieces for other things, its just great. The automatic drum detection is witchcraft. well worth buying

The best drum software

I've been trying almost all known acoustic drums simulators and Superior Drummer 3 make me happy with it's sounds, features and super helpful "Tracker" for converting audio drum performance to midi. This is very helpfull in mixing drums which are badly played and recorded in poorly treated room.

Wow!

Can use in almost any genre.

Best Drum VSTi I've ever had!

Best Drum Vst

I own a home studio and record drums using my Roland drum kit. I upgraded from Superior Drummer 2 and there are tons of upgrades on this one!! I am really impressed by how many drum samples and kits are available and the sound quality is perfect. Another thing I'm really impressed with is the really good effects on the mixer. With Superior Drummer 2 I always used to use external effects (reverb,compression...) but the quality of effects on this one is superb and i no longer use external plug ins. This has freed a great amount of Ram on my PC. The drum replacement is probably the one that impressed me the most. It is done dead easy and the results are very accurate. I have done many drum recordings in studios where the sound was not very good and have spent hours trying to replace them (editing hit points, finding good samples...). I have tried drum replacement with this a few times now and could not be any happier with the convenience and the results I had. I would not recommend this for a musician who just wants to put some drums down for a demo recording or write down ideas due to the price. I would highly recommend this to anyone who owns a home studio or any professional studio engineer, just for the drum replacement feature and the really good drum samples.