Addictive Drums vs Superior 2.0

[hcantu]

Hi everyone.
Just here posting my little comparison of these two VST's.

I have Addictive Drums for a few months now. And, this past weekend I had the chance to try Superior 2.0.

In case you are deciding which one to buy, well it is a close call. Both sound absolutely great.

I think Superior 2.0 sounds a little bit more natural than Addictive Drums, but only by a little bit. Also, Superior 2.0 has 3 or 4 more room mics than Addictive Drums. So, with S2.0 you have these 3 room mics that you can control, while with AD is only one ambience mic in which you can control, although you can add reverb to make it sound bigger, but it is not an actual drum mic.

On the other hand, I think Addictive Drums is easier to use. At least for me, AD was easier for me to use the first time I opened the program; plus the user interface to control the compression, etcc...of each instrument is more intuitive. At least, this is my opinion.
Also, Addictive Drums have a lot presets kits, and they all are great and different (like 70's kits, pop kits, rock kits, dry kits, big open kits, compressed kits, etc...) While S2.0 doesn't have many presets (it does have like 10 or so), so you have to create your own.

Both are greast programs, and both have amazing drum sounds. You cannot go wrong with any of these.

[jgermanich]

Thanks for the brief synopsis of these two programs. I down loaded the demo

for AD and as a demo it works quite well with my limited Mac. Since Superior

2.0 has no demo, I'll go with AD at this time.

[g00nerz]

Go AD Retro

I like both personally, and was teetering on the edge of Superior 2 being my kit of choice, then I got had a chance to play with the Addictive Drums Retro ADpak. Oh my ******* god. That sounds absolutely brilliant! Old ludwig kits kick some arse, oh yes. And the Supraphonic is finally digitized properly, it sounds incredible compared to the lifeless Supraphonic sampled in the EZdrummer vintage pack. Plus 2 lovely new hi-hats (with tamborine if needed!).

Bonham fans will be in heaven, because some of the patches have recreated his sound perfectly.

[Rewind]

Oh my ******* god. That sounds absolutely brilliant! Old ludwig kits kick some arse, oh yes.

Interesting!

[Rewind]

Thanks for the brief synopsis of these two programs. I down loaded the demo

for AD and as a demo it works quite well with my limited Mac. Since Superior

2.0 has no demo, I'll go with AD at this time.

Don't! You'll be disappointed!

[hcantu]

I didn't check the AD retro, but it sounds interesting nonetheless.

[Gastric]

I have both. One of the HUGE differences the OP left out is that Addictive Drums has no native e-drum support while Superior 2 includes very good e-drum support right in the VSTi. I have personally always loved AD for all of the reasons the OP said. It's out-of-the-box results are great. In contrast Superior 2 is vastly more complicated to use. Though S2 beats AD in if you're comparing pure realistic acoustic drum samples.

[g00nerz]

I have both. One of the HUGE differences the OP left out is that Addictive Drums has no native e-drum support while Superior 2 includes very good e-drum support right in the VSTi. I have personally always loved AD for all of the reasons the OP said. It's out-of-the-box results are great. In contrast Superior 2 is vastly more complicated to use. Though S2 beats AD in if you're comparing pure realistic acoustic drum samples.

Agreed. AD is a pain to set up, but if you invest a bit of time it's a killer.

I use a mix of both S2 and AD running simultaneously in Cubase with excellent results too. I tend to use the hi-hat, bass kick and snare of AD, and the Toms, and Ride of S2. The Toms and Ride (especially the Ride Bell) sound much better in S2 (Toms are meatier), whereas the Snares, Hats, and Bass Kick are a lot better in AD (the kicks in S2 are disappointing to say the least).

Although the Cymbal sounds are probably slightly better in S2, one definite advantage that AD has over S2 is cymbal chokes - they sound much more realistic on AD due to there being dynamic velocity driven samples. There are no samples for chokes in S2, just a few tweaks you can make on the ADSR to stop the cymbal sample when choked. So there is no after ring-out on the cymbal. AD rules in this respect, chokes sound brilliant.

If you've got the cash get the best of both worlds!

[moja music]

Also, AD has only "stick" articulation, S2.0 has stick, mallet, rods and yes... BRUSHES!
Also the are snare on as well as off. So in all S2.0 is a much larger library to start with.

[jgermanich]

I've been trying to work out the bugs with AD and Cubase Le. I found a General Midi 2 AD virtual mapper that works for the Mac but still having some trouble with the HH. Namely, When I start to partially open the foot pedal, crash 1 rim is triggered slightly, beyond that small point the HH works fine. Have not been able to track down where the triggering problem occurs.

Cross stick is sort of hit or miss also. Have not been able to increase its volume independent of the snare head. Chokes aren't working either. I tried a preset 'Choke' someone made for v-drums, but still can't get it to work. I guess I don't understand all the Input Transformer lingo in Cubase. I may migrate to S2.0 if I can't get things sorted out.

[hcantu]

Dude....just change the midi numbers on one of your module's kits.
On AD help, there is a pdf of the midi notes, and just put the numbers you need on the instruments of your module. That's it. You'll spend 15 minutes doing this, but you'll never have to worry about it anymore.

[hcantu]

I think you'll probably spend more time downloading and installing the mapper than just switching the midi numbers on the module.....plus you'll get better response.

[jgermanich]

Beleive me I tried that approach first. It didn't work out all that well, especially the HH. Right now the GMMapper works the best so far. I can get all articulations on the HH, except for the odd triggering of crash1.

[hcantu]

I don't know...It works perfect with me......remember to change also all the hihat midi note numbers when you go to midi and then the hi hat tab.

[jgermanich]

Forgive my ignorance, but what do you mean by hihat tab. Do I need to change the midi numbers in two places in the td12 module?