Best new drum VST for metal?

mm66554 · 03-26-2010, 03:41 PM

I been using ezDrummer with DFH for a while now, but its sh1t. It sounds like a punk drum kit. I would have to add tonnes of effects to make it sound metally, and then it would be too unnatural.

So what do you guys (who are serious about drum sound) use?

was thinking about getting addictive drums.

Luuk · 03-26-2010, 03:52 PM

Superior 2.0

/thread

TomAwesome · 03-26-2010, 03:53 PM

The DFH expansion of EZ Drummer is definitely not a shitty punk kit. Learn to use it better before you bash it. If you're looking for the best out there, I'd recommend Superior 2.0 or Steven Slate Drums. Addictive Drums is a good program, but it's going to be more difficult to get metal drums out of than DFH.

mm66554 · 03-26-2010, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomAwesome

The DFH expansion of EZ Drummer is definitely not a shitty punk kit. Learn to use it better before you bash it.

Well the best I could get it without effects is this:

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EtherealEntity · 03-26-2010, 05:50 PM

I will agree that it's not a shitty punk kit...BUT I think it can safely be said that it's IMPOSSIBLE to get a sound out of it that isn't instantly recognizable as EZDrummer DFH.

I recommend Superior 2.0

Variant · 03-27-2010, 05:34 AM

Sigh...

Raw drums = punk.

DKFH & Superior = raw drum multisamples so you can tailor them to your needs.

Learn to friggen' compress, EQ, and effect your Toontrack kits to sound the way you want them to.

It's not a program-and-go utility as most lazy assholes apply it. Knowledge is power, kiddies.

EtherealEntity · 03-27-2010, 06:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Variant

Sigh...

Raw drums = punk.

DKFH & Superior = raw drum multisamples so you can tailor them to your needs.

Learn to friggen' compress, EQ, and effect your Toontrack kits to sound the way you want them to.

It's not a program-and-go utility as most lazy assholes apply it. Knowledge is power, kiddies.

This is true. And I LIKE it this way. I love to do everything myself, but I would say that the original samples on EZDrummer DKFH simply do not sound good as a starting point.

leftyguitarjoe · 03-27-2010, 08:58 AM

My band used DKFH for all these tracks.

Tell me its not metal. I dare you.

Andromalia · 03-27-2010, 09:23 AM

A bit on the machinegun side though. Screams of "I used a machine or triggers". ^^

t3sser4ct · 03-27-2010, 09:39 AM

With any respectable drum sample pack, you should have a very raw sound to start with. This gives you all the room you need to bring the drums to life however you want, without some software engineer or technician making the decisions for you. EZ Drummer DfH sounds pretty metal out of the box IMO, but you can definitely get better results with a little tweaking. Here are a few ideas.

First, enable multiple outputs, so each microphone is going to a different channel in your software. This will let you add individual effects to individual mics (compression on the snare, EQ on the kick, etc).

In EZ Drummer's built-in mixer, there is a slider for the room mic. This is basically natural room reverb. The louder the room mic (relative to the rest of the mix), the more "open" the drums will sound. This is usually better than a reverb effect, because it is real reverb, recorded from the room itself. (The only downside to this is each sample has its own reverb, so when they mix, you're not necessarily getting the same interference that you would get with live drums. You probably wouldn't notice the difference, though.) You can't change the parameters of the reverb, but if you add some compression or a noise gate, you could theoretically make it seem longer or shorter.

The compressed mix is just a redundant mix of all of the other mics (minus the room mic, and post-fader I believe) with some compression to tighten it up. You can mix this in as needed, or mute it entirely and create your own mix bus to use your favorite compression plugin instead.

So try adding some EQ and compression to individual mics (overheads, snare, and kick, particularly), then maybe add some light reverb, EQ, and/or multiband compression to the whole mix. (Be careful with the final compression, though, or you might have drums that die every time the snare is hit.) You might even want to add a nice "spatializer" effect to spread the drums out in the stereo domain, or maybe bring them closer together.

You can also change some of the drums/cymbals, if you didn't already know that. In the graphical view of the drums, each area has a little arrow you can click to bring up the options. I think the kick even lets you change the beater type, but I might be thinking of Superior.

EDIT: As for the "machinegun" effect, you're going to want to have variations in the velocity when you program your drums. The only possible exception is the kick, but you'll probably still want a little. Sometimes, after I program a pattern by hand, I'll just drag my mouse across the velocity levels of different hits, moving up and down, semi-randomly increasing or decreasing each level by a little bit. That should give you some fairly natural-sounding variation. After that, you can go back and fine-tune the velocity levels to emphasize the proper notes. Also, don't be afraid to make some of your hits slightly "off"; that is, not perfectly quantized. No human plays perfect 16th notes, or even 8th notes (or any other notes, for that matter). You don't want it to sound too inconsistent, but if you can vary things a bit, it will sound less machine-like and more human. Some software can do all of this automatically.

leftyguitarjoe · 03-27-2010, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andromalia

A bit on the machinegun side though. Screams of "I used a machine or triggers". ^^

We are very open about our drum machine usage.

Even though its a machine, it still takes skill to make it sound good.

Daggorath · 03-27-2010, 10:23 AM

Superior drummer 2 or steven slate samples for ezdrummer. Really though, i've heard great drums sounds off of standard DFH. It's all about how you tweak them.

Saying this, I hate all the snares off DFH. Sounds like a slapped arse.

Andromalia · 03-27-2010, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by leftyguitarjoe

We are very open about our drum machine usage.

Even though its a machine, it still takes skill to make it sound good.

Didn't ever say the contrary. Was only offering an opinion on the result.

btnation · 03-30-2010, 02:58 PM

superior 2.0+metal foundry+free dev kit preset= face crush!

El Caco · 03-30-2010, 07:34 PM

Steven Slate Drums are already awesome but they claim the new samples coming shortly will blow them away so if you can wait a bit I'd wait for them otherwise just grab SSD Platinum and I doubt you will be disappointed.

Alexdeliverance · 03-31-2010, 11:56 AM

Listen to quick mastering test, SoundClick artist: The Deliverance - page with MP3 music downloads i made it with only ez drummer drumkit from hell, and its pretty metal if you ask me,

Faceripper · 06-28-2011, 09:32 AM

It's all in how you use it and mix it. As with any entry-level gear or software it can be made to sound professional, but you just have to work harder at it.

DFH, imho, sounds like garbage. Believe it or not I actually use the "Pop/Rock" kit and am perfectly happy with the 13" piccolo. Crashes could be better. I use a plastic beater on the kick and the biggest toms they have on that thing.

Then again I write pretty guitar-driven death metal, so I don't have much need for 35 cymbals and 300 toms.

Try turning your mix down as quiet as possible and getting the kicks, the snare, the guitars and all the cymbals to be equal volume. If you can't hear 'em they aint loud enough.

I guarantee that will sound "metal" assuming your guitars and bass are tight.

Listen to Amon Amarth. That's pretty much what they've got going on mix-wise.

Taylor · 06-28-2011, 10:21 AM

Steven Slate.
FAR superior to.....Superior.

Not quite as raw, but if you know what you're doing, then it makes it far easier to coax a good sound out of it.

If it works for Joey Sturgis, it works for me.

The problem I have with Superior 2.0 is that the sounds are IMMEDIATELY recognizable. And not exactly in a good way. (subjective)
Even with tons of post processing.
The only thing SD2.0 has over SSD is decent cymbals.

But then I made real cymbal samples and rarely use either.

With tons of processing, yes you can get both to work.
But I find it's far easier with SSD as the drums sound far more real, even if they are more processed.

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03-26-2010, 03:41 PM	#1
mm66554 ss.org Regular Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: UK Posts: 111 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Feedback Score: 0 reviews	Best new drum VST for metal? I been using ezDrummer with DFH for a while now, but its sh1t. It sounds like a punk drum kit. I would have to add tonnes of effects to make it sound metally, and then it would be too unnatural. So what do you guys (who are serious about drum sound) use? was thinking about getting addictive drums. "Socialism sucks 'cos I'm better than you!" - Yngwie Malmsteen

03-26-2010, 03:52 PM	#2
Luuk ss.org Regular Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 510 Thanked: 18 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	Superior 2.0 /thread nojyeloot and Bigfan like this.

03-26-2010, 03:53 PM	#3
TomAwesome I LIKE JUICE!!! Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 8,297 Thanked: 43 Feedback Score: 5 reviews	The DFH expansion of EZ Drummer is definitely not a shitty punk kit. Learn to use it better before you bash it. If you're looking for the best out there, I'd recommend Superior 2.0 or Steven Slate Drums. Addictive Drums is a good program, but it's going to be more difficult to get metal drums out of than DFH. petereanima likes this. "Tom, you're like 1 part a serious dork, and 2 parts the most awesome ....ing guy ever." -

03-27-2010, 05:34 AM	#6
Variant Banned Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: All-white-tukee, Arizona Posts: 5,657 Thanked: 82 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	*Sigh...* Raw drums = punk. DKFH & Superior = raw drum multisamples so you can tailor them to your needs. Learn to friggen' compress, EQ, and effect your Toontrack kits to sound the way you want them to. It's not a program-and-go utility as most lazy assholes apply it. Knowledge is power, kiddies. petereanima and Bigfan like this.

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03-26-2010, 05:50 PM	#5
EtherealEntity T=UWx(2xLxF)^2/386.4 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Southend-on-Sea, Essex, U.K Posts: 8,285 Thanked: 75 Feedback Score: 1 reviews	I will agree that it's not a shitty punk kit...BUT I think it can safely be said that it's IMPOSSIBLE to get a sound out of it that isn't instantly recognizable as EZDrummer DFH. I recommend Superior 2.0

03-27-2010, 08:58 AM	#8
leftyguitarjoe Correct-handed Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Newark, DE Posts: 2,228 Thanked: 183 Feedback Score: 1 reviews	My band used DKFH for all these tracks. Tell me its not metal. I dare you. "Yeah, sometimes when you're cool, you spontaneously combust into a fireball of awesomeness" - RenegadeDave

03-27-2010, 09:23 AM	#9
Andromalia Pardon my french Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Paris, France Posts: 4,105 Thanked: 42 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	A bit on the machinegun side though. Screams of "I used a machine or triggers". ^^

03-27-2010, 09:39 AM	#10
t3sser4ct Weird Shape Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Here. Posts: 305 Thanked: 4 Feedback Score: 3 reviews	With any respectable drum sample pack, you should have a very raw sound to start with. This gives you all the room you need to bring the drums to life however you want, without some software engineer or technician making the decisions for you. EZ Drummer DfH sounds pretty metal out of the box IMO, but you can definitely get better results with a little tweaking. Here are a few ideas. First, enable multiple outputs, so each microphone is going to a different channel in your software. This will let you add individual effects to individual mics (compression on the snare, EQ on the kick, etc). In EZ Drummer's built-in mixer, there is a slider for the room mic. This is basically natural room reverb. The louder the room mic (relative to the rest of the mix), the more "open" the drums will sound. This is usually better than a reverb effect, because it is real reverb, recorded from the room itself. (The only downside to this is each sample has its own reverb, so when they mix, you're not necessarily getting the same interference that you would get with live drums. You probably wouldn't notice the difference, though.) You can't change the parameters of the reverb, but if you add some compression or a noise gate, you could theoretically make it seem longer or shorter. The compressed mix is just a redundant mix of all of the other mics (minus the room mic, and post-fader I believe) with some compression to tighten it up. You can mix this in as needed, or mute it entirely and create your own mix bus to use your favorite compression plugin instead. So try adding some EQ and compression to individual mics (overheads, snare, and kick, particularly), then maybe add some light reverb, EQ, and/or multiband compression to the whole mix. (Be careful with the final compression, though, or you might have drums that die every time the snare is hit.) You might even want to add a nice "spatializer" effect to spread the drums out in the stereo domain, or maybe bring them closer together. You can also change some of the drums/cymbals, if you didn't already know that. In the graphical view of the drums, each area has a little arrow you can click to bring up the options. I think the kick even lets you change the beater type, but I might be thinking of Superior. EDIT: As for the "machinegun" effect, you're going to want to have variations in the velocity when you program your drums. The only possible exception is the kick, but you'll probably still want a little. Sometimes, after I program a pattern by hand, I'll just drag my mouse across the velocity levels of different hits, moving up and down, semi-randomly increasing or decreasing each level by a little bit. That should give you some fairly natural-sounding variation. After that, you can go back and fine-tune the velocity levels to emphasize the proper notes. Also, don't be afraid to make some of your hits slightly "off"; that is, not perfectly quantized. No human plays perfect 16th notes, or even 8th notes (or any other notes, for that matter). You don't want it to sound too inconsistent, but if you can vary things a bit, it will sound less machine-like and more human. Some software can do all of this automatically.

03-27-2010, 10:23 AM	#12
Daggorath -.- Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 1,223 Thanked: 5 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	Superior drummer 2 or steven slate samples for ezdrummer. Really though, i've heard great drums sounds off of standard DFH. It's all about how you tweak them. Saying this, I hate all the snares off DFH. Sounds like a slapped arse. "Imagine your eyes dancing on the notes you wanna play and forget about whether your hands can do it or not" - Allan Holdsworth For Sale: Laney VH100R - £400 [UK] PM for details.

03-30-2010, 02:58 PM	#14
btnation ss.org Regular Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: chicago Posts: 117 Thanked: 6 Feedback Score: 2 reviews	superior 2.0+metal foundry+free dev kit preset= face crush!

03-30-2010, 07:34 PM	#15
El Caco Djavli te ponesli Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: AU Posts: 6,665 Thanked: 76 Feedback Score: 5 reviews	Steven Slate Drums are already awesome but they claim the new samples coming shortly will blow them away so if you can wait a bit I'd wait for them otherwise just grab SSD Platinum and I doubt you will be disappointed.

03-31-2010, 11:56 AM	#16
Alexdeliverance ss.org Regular Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Montréal, Qc, Canada Posts: 113 Thanked: 3 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	Listen to quick mastering test, SoundClick artist: The Deliverance - page with MP3 music downloads i made it with only ez drummer drumkit from hell, and its pretty metal if you ask me, Faceripper likes this.

06-28-2011, 09:32 AM	#17
Faceripper Infernal Riffage Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Oklahoma Posts: 2 Thanked: 0 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	It's all in how you use it and mix it. As with any entry-level gear or software it can be made to sound professional, but you just have to work harder at it. DFH, imho, sounds like garbage. Believe it or not I actually use the "Pop/Rock" kit and am perfectly happy with the 13" piccolo. Crashes could be better. I use a plastic beater on the kick and the biggest toms they have on that thing. Then again I write pretty guitar-driven death metal, so I don't have much need for 35 cymbals and 300 toms. Try turning your mix down as quiet as possible and getting the kicks, the snare, the guitars and all the cymbals to be equal volume. If you can't hear 'em they aint loud enough. I guarantee that will sound "metal" assuming your guitars and bass are tight. Listen to Amon Amarth. That's pretty much what they've got going on mix-wise.

06-28-2011, 10:21 AM	#18
Taylor Teh Groove Metuhl Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Calgary Posts: 1,099 Thanked: 49 Feedback Score: 1 reviews	Steven Slate. FAR superior to.....Superior. Not quite as raw, but if you know what you're doing, then it makes it far easier to coax a good sound out of it. If it works for Joey Sturgis, it works for me. The problem I have with Superior 2.0 is that the sounds are IMMEDIATELY recognizable. And not exactly in a good way. (subjective) Even with tons of post processing. The only thing SD2.0 has over SSD is decent cymbals. But then I made real cymbal samples and rarely use either. With tons of processing, yes you can get both to work. But I find it's far easier with SSD as the drums sound far more real, even if they are more processed. TG Audio Good rates, good returns.

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