I’ve been using BFD Eco for the last few weeks as my main drum software instrument. Eco is FXpansion’s scaled down version of BFD 2, the company’s flagship product and one that I have used for many years.
Typically when someone says scaled down, people automatically think crippled. In a lot of cases, you would be right, but not so with BFD Eco. I was very impressed with the features, interface and the way the software worked for me in Pro Tools 10 [...]
Steven Slate:
Imagine having 100 of the world’s best sounding drumkits at your disposal. From punchy tight rock kits, to fat and sizzly vintage kits, and just about everything in between, Steven Slate Drums 4.0 Platinum is the most complete drum instrument on the planet.
At the heart of Steven Slate Drums 4.0 is the SSD Player, a state of the art Mac/PC (VST, RTAS, AU) Drum Sampler built from the ground up by the award winning development team behind our TRIGGER drum replacement processor. The SSD Player is extremely easy and intuitive to use. Loading kits, customizing kits, mixing kits, loading and auditioning MIDI grooves, customizing MIDI maps, and routing discretely to your workstation are all a breeze with the SSD Player. It even lets you load your own drum samples to mix in with the Slate drumkits.
I have used Steven Slate Drums since they were first released and love them. One of the best drum samplers on the market. I’ll definitely be upgrading.
The Slam Tracks Hard Rock Grooves Pack 1 features 527 MIDI files divided between 10 different groove genres. All grooves come with multiple variations, allowing users of all popular virtual drum instruments like BFD2, EZdrummer, Superior Drummer, Addictive Drums, Cakewalk Session Drummer to create quickly and easily complete hard rock and rock drumtracks. This library also includes multiple drum fills as part of the groove phrases — a dedicated collection of Hard Rock MIDI drum fills can be found in our Slam Tracks Hard Rock MIDI Drum Fills Pack 1.
Nice sounding grooves at the bottom of the page.
The in-your-face-factor is essential in metal. Ask Jason Suecof – one of the essential producers on this side of the millennium and creative mind behind the sound of Trivium, All That Remains and The Black Dahlia Murder. He’ll tell you that, yes, it is essential indeed. So, we simply asked him to bag his most essential tricks for an EZmix Pack, one we’d like to call: Metal Essentials EZmix Pack.
The Metal Essentials EZmix Pack comes with exactly what its title implies: instant and essential presets for your metal productions! One click and you get Jason’s take on how to beef up your guitars, drums, bass, vocals and overall master. Essentially easy.
Metal Month continues at Toontrack. You’ve got to love a company that celebrates Metal releases for an entire month.
Testament, Megadeth, Arch Enemy, Exodus, Killswitch Engage and Devildriver all call the same man to lay the final hand on their albums: Britain’s Andy Sneap. This highly in-demand producer/engineer has worked on numerous Grammy Award-nominated albums, is known worldwide for having produced some of the heaviest releases this last decade and has had an instrumental role in shaping the sound of metal music as we know it in the new millennium. Now Toontrack is proud to present the first ever drum sample library to bear his unmistakable seal; Metal Machine EZX.
This is what I love about Toontrack. They go out and get the best engineers and drummers and work with them for their drum packages. As users, we end up getting the best sounding drums that Toontrack can provide. That’s commitment to its customers.
Songwriters Drumpack 3: The original Songwriters Drumpack drummer Ricard “Huxflux” Nettermalm is back with another stunning MIDI pack: Songwriters Drumpack 3! Intentionally picking up where the other two packs left off, the new one focuses more on the up- and … Continued
If you’re looking for a Digital Audio Workstation, this might be a good time to look at Pro Tools 9.
It may be difficult to get over being skeptical about digital drum kits — and it was — until a friend, and well-known performer, recommended (and, in fact, insisted) investigating the Yamaha DTX-950. His point was simply that they are … Continued
There are a lot of great drum samplers out there these days, but making the drum hits sound good with your song is not the easiest thing in the world to do. If you are having trouble with this, you … Continued
Toontrack on Tuesday released Songwriters Drumpack 3, a new collection of MIDI drum grooves for musicians.
These MIDI grooves aren’t like the old hand programmed grooves of years ago. These are played by a real drummer in the studio and captured for use with ToonTrack’s Superior Drummer and other drum samplers.
Okay Metalheads, if you’re looking for some drums, MIDI grooves, and engineer presets, November is Metal month at Toontrack.
FXpansion on Monday introduced BFD Jazz Maple, the newest expansion kit for BFD2 and BFD Eco drum sampler applications.
Musicians and songwriters are always looking for great drum grooves to put in their songs. Beta Monkey just released a new set of grooves in its popular Drum Werks series.
Beta Monkey on Monday released the third installment in its L.A. Rock Essentials Sessions. The newest bundle of drum loops focuses on some of the greatest classic rock bands.
My favorite drum loop company, Beta Monkey, released two new drum libraries for Rock musicians and engineers.
There are a lot of things to consider when setting up a studio, home theater, stage or auditorium, not the least of which is the actual space you will be using.
I had the chance to speak with Godsmack’s Sully Erna after he finished his demo of the Yamaha drum kit this morning. Truly a great moment for me.
I attended a Yamaha event this morning where the company unveiled a new drum kit. As with most companies, Yamaha had a demo of the kit and brought out Godsmack’s Sully Erna to do the honors. Really, nothing else has … Continued
One of the best drum companies on the market is FXpansion with its BFD series. The company introduced BFD Nano at NAMM, which is a new version of the sampler targeted to the beginner user. We stopped by and got … Continued
One of the first people I ran into at NAMM on Wednesday was legendary recording engineer, Ken Scott. I had a chance to speak with him about his new project with Sonic Reality, EpiK DrumS.
Christmas lists are a dime a dozen these days. You can go anywhere and find a list of products that people recommend you buy for friends and family.
Toontrack on Thursday released an update for its drum sampler utility, EZplayer. Among the changes are fixes for the IMAP presets used in Ocean Way Drums.
Toontrack on Sunday released an update for its flagship drum sampler, Superior Drummer.
Toontrack Music on Wednesday released EZdrummer 1.2, a major update to the company’s consumer focused drum sampler.
Toontrack Music on Friday said it is shipping the newest expansion pack in its arsenal, Custom and Vintage SDX for Superior Drummer 2.
Drum sampler-maker FXpansion recently released a new expansion kit for users of its BFD2 drum sampler.
For some musicians, there is no better sound than that of a real acoustic drum set. If that’s you, I have a real treat for you in this review.
Hot on the heals of Double Bass Mania III, Beta Monkey Music on Wednesday released Double Bass Mania IV: Groove Metal.
After my article appeared last month about writing songs with EZdrummer, I received quite a few questions about how hard it was to upgrade from EZdrummer to Superior Drummer 2. Good news — it’s really easy.
Toontrack music on Thursday released a major update to its flagship drum sampler, Superior Drummer 2.