Addictive Drums vs Superior Drummer

[Kreation]

Hi all.
I've been playing and stuffing around on my TD20's for awhile and now I'm looking to start recording.

I've done a bit of guitar and piano recording and editing in the past, so I know a little about all the nitty grity (but still very much learning) and I'm pretty well setup for hardware and DAW's already, but I just need some advice on VST's for drums.

From what I've read here, there seem to be 2 or 3 great drum VST's about. My question is, what's the best? (subjective much?)

Before doing any research, I demo'd EzDrummer and ran it through Ableton Live. It was ok, but it didn't seem... great, and I doubt think that Ableton is the best DAW for recording (I usually use protools or wavestudio). So further on the question, I guess I'm asking what's the best VST and what's the best DAW to use for recording it?

Price isn't really an issue and my hardware is quite capable.

Thanks in advance guys,
Steve.

[eDrummist]

Which one someone prefers depends on a lot factors, including what style(s) they do, their level of mixing expertise, the level of depth they desire, their personal preferences in drums/drum sounds, etc.. Which one is best is highly subjective. Use your ears and your personal preferences. I think both products are excellent.

If price isn't an issue and both are attractive for you, get them both. There are deals going on right now that make them both very affordable (under $250 USD each). I know Guitar Center has Addictive Drums going for $149 USD for July and I think Superior Drummer 2.0 is around $249 USD discounted.

Check out the demos and specs for Superior Drummer, the various expansions and Addictive Drums (I own the former, but have a friend that owns the latter). I think they're both excellent and both cater to V-Drum users. Only you can determine which sound and controls you prefer. If you like to tweak, I think Superior Drummer might be the winner. To me, it sounds the most like real (physical, made of wood!) drums. I haven't spent time on any other DAWs other than Sonar, but a lot of pros use ProTools, so I think you are fine there. For me, 64 bit is an important factor, and Superior Drummer has a 64 bit version now in beta, Addictive Drums does not, otherwise, I would purchase it too.

- eDrummist

[Kreation]

Hey mate, that is brilliant info. Thanks so much.
Superior does sound... Superior (from what you've said).
64bit would be fantastic. Any idea on an ETA for official release?

[eDrummist]

Hey mate, that is brilliant info. Thanks so much.
Superior does sound... Superior (from what you've said).
64bit would be fantastic. Any idea on an ETA for official release?

I don't have any idea about an ETA for an official release of Superior Drummer's 64 bit version. They've had the 64 bit public beta of Superior Drummer 2.0 out for quite a while and a number of people on different systems, OSes and hosts have posted that its been stable for them. I'm not sure, but I think you can access or at least read ToonTrack's forum before your make a purchase. I would suggest you look to see what results people have using the same OS and host as you. You can also post that info in this thread, and I would expect someone will chime in and share his or her experiences. I know that Win 7 64 bit users with Sonar have had good results. I'm moving to a Win 7 64 bit based DAW with Sonar 8 as my host in a couple of months, so that is extremely important to me; I haven't followed the other OSes and hosts, but I know there are plenty of people who use Superior Drummer and Addictive Drums in this community who use Macs and many different hosts. That said, neither Addictive Drums or BFD (the other big player in the acoustic drum VST market) have a 64 bit beta or are even stating any kind of timeline for moving to 64 bit versions, so I think ToonTrack is leading the pack in this respect. Another option that might interest you is Steven Slate Drums (FTR, I've advised Steven in the past). It's a different animal than these other choices, but for what it is, it's really good at what it does (ready to go, pre-mixed drum kits that work with V-Drums, sound great and are modeled after famous drum kit sounds).

Just keep asking questions. I've found the VDrums.com community to be very helpful and friendly. Good luck!

- eDrummist

[Rider]

Superior its superior to AD in every way

[grandaddy]

Hey mate, that is brilliant info. Thanks so much.
Superior does sound... Superior (from what you've said).
64bit would be fantastic. Any idea on an ETA for official release?

Would today be a good answer?

[edtxer]

Would today be a good answer?

Today is really today in Oz. I mean Friday

I know Guitar Center has Addictive Drums going for $149 USD for July

I just checked and it's now 199.99

[eDrummist]

I just checked and it's now 199.99

Well, it's in Guitar Center's July flyer for $129 USD actually, but clearly, that's not the price on their website. If you wrote that information in a web form to Music123.com or in an email to MusiciansFriend.com and asked them to do a price match, I'll bet they will do it (Music123 may even give you a better price). All those three retailers are owned by the same, publicly traded company. And I'm pretty certain that Music123 and MusiciansFriend will ship anywhere in the world. Use the link that opens up a small web form on the right hand side of the web page: http://www.music123.com/XLN-Audio-Ad...74588.Music123

- eDrummist

[Drumrgal]

Never mind - just posted my question instead on the Toontrack Forum

Kim

[csnow]

Superior its superior to AD in every way

Agreed....

[X14Halo]

I have both AD and Superior, and while I agree that overall Superior sounds better...AD is alot easier to use and you can get more variety in my opinion. The day I got AD, I found over 50 free presets that other people made and put up online. So when I want to quickly jam to different styles of music, I go for AD...but if I want to get serious and lay down a recording with my guitarist, I go to Superior everytime.

[Relayer]

AD sounds good on its own, but it's hard to get the kits to sit well in a mix. AD is after all, compressed samples. I don't like the sound of many of the kits I've heard in Superior, but it's obvious that the samples are of a much higher quality.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Steve

[ToDaMax]

I can put my 2 cents in for Superior Drums, it is my first VST and I am just now getting into it a bit more that I got my FireStudio. Just downloaded the 2.2.3 update and am running the 64 bit version on Win 7 without trouble.

Cheers

[bcmusic]

Addictive is cool..... but Superior is perfect.