Toontrack Eddie Kramer's Legacy of Rock SDX Expansion for Superior Drummer 3 Reviews

Legacy of Rock is nice for me because I was around when all the drummers mentioned in the video were playing these drums that were sampled in this expansion. I love how Toontrack has taken drum software to the next level! Every SD3 & EZ expansion I own blows me away, especially the SD3 expansions. I have been playing electronic drums for years and wish I had discovered Toontrack when I first started. By now I would have the software knowledge down pretty good. I love how Toontrack teams up with actual world renowned recording engineers and famous recording studios. The way they sample real brand name drums, cymbals and percussion instruments with real brand name industry standard and high end mics is incredible to me. All the different mic positions to create different ambient sound, I mean who does that for drum software, TOONTRACK DOES! It is a learning curve with so many ways to edit your drums and sound with what seems like endless ways to change rooms, mics and mixing different drums from different kits. It's mind blowing but well worth spending the time to learn. You have everything you need including an on board mixer, effects processors, grooves, and much more to fine tune your drums and playing style with the software. I will never go back to drum modules that just model sounds with minimal editing.

Thanks Tunetrack!

Having used Superior Drummer for a couple years now, I've been highly impressed with the incredibly deep array of sound possibilities that it offers. The base library alone contains a wealth of samples and professional quality ambiences, but the moment I saw Eddie Kramer's Legacy of Rock SDK, I threw my money down without even thinking twice. After all, I grew up on Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix, so how could I not get this?

The Legacy of Rock library is simply stunning. The five included kits all sound amazing and uniquely different, giving you a wide range of mix and match sonic choices, and with the incredible sounding room sounds and presets that Eddie Kramer has made, there's almost no need to do any further processing. You get professional sounding, production-ready drums that can be brought right into you mix, and that will easily fit with a multitude of musical styles. Of course, the software comes with a complete set of built-in signal processors that are based on the best classic and vintage gear ever made, so you can tweak the sounds to your heart's content right inside the Superior Drummer interface, which also reduces the CUP load on your DAW.

For anyone who loves killer drum sounds, Eddie Kramer's Legacy of Rock SDK is simply magic to the ears. I cannot recommend this highly enough. Just watching the "Making of" video and seeing how they made this package is an incredibly cool experience on its own.

I own a bunch of EZX and SDX kits including Independent, The Rock Warehouse, 70's Rock, Nashville--around 20 in total; but this Legacy of Rock SDX represents the next level up in realism and mojo with virtual drums. In terms of sonics, the crash cymbals and the kick drum are where others fall short. There's absolutely no harshness or smear in the cymbals, unless you want to add some with the excellent included mixer and plugins. The kicks are not bloated and farty like others. They are tight, exceptionally detailed, and they are easy to mix with an electric bass. The presets are well judged and realistic, and touches like a chained sizzle ride, gongs, and tympanies are just icing on an extraordinary cake. The attention to detail in the recording of these kits (watch the videos!) was extreme, and it shows up in a big way when you fire up Legacy in SD3. My favorite kits for just about any kind of modern alt rock or classic rock are Charlie Watts' Jet Black Kit run fairly dry, and Mitch Mitchell's Silver Sparkle Kit with sticks, although the brushes would be killer in the right context. This is the first SDX where I don't feel compelled to create separate aux tracks for each drum sound and use something like an SSL Channel Strip. Eddie Kramer has given all of us an amazing gift by taking such special care in creating this SDX. I feel like it's gonna challenge me to do my best work.

Shout out to Mike Arango, Sales Engineer Extraordinaire. Sweetwater has the best support in the business thanks to the great women and men like Mike!

For the different types of music that I do, having the best studio recording of live drummer on my music for less money than what it use to cost back in the 90's my fans are loving my productions.

Starting out from sampling John Bonham drum breaks on my samplers this library is everything that I dreamed about. The amber kit brings out the late 70s Zepplin sound, it's very punchy and in your face. You can tone things down by using the dry version of the kit too. I tend to use dry versions of all the kits when I am playing to other people's music especially electronic loops. The sparkle kit is also good for the late 60s Zepplin sound too. When I want to write a funk or drum and bass groove the sparkle is my kit of choice. I think I've appreciated the Led Zepplin II album more because of it.

The Jet black kit is great for a rock sound with a jazz influence. If you use light sticks in your e-drumming setup you will definitely enjoy this kit too. For anyone wanting the Mitch Mitchell sound the silver kit also sounds great. I need to spend more time with the silver maybe this upcoming weekend. I have had this expansion for less than a week and I already have put 15 hours in my e-drumming playing various presets. Mind you I work a lot during the week and whatever time I get to practice I reach for this expansion.

The thing I like the most is the room ambience. The mic placement picks up the vibe of the room well and the Neve preamps pick up the hits so well. If I were to mix my material with other music against these kits I think I wouldn't need to EQ or compress, I would just adjust levels because these sounds grab the right amount of attention without being too big. Especially if you are using dry kits. They sound vintage but you can mold it on a more modern track. Hearing what I've heard now Inthink I will prefer recording these drums and throwing them into my sampler versus vinyl records.

Lots of really great recorded drums with grooves and more in this pack.

Some my biggest hero drummers kits are in this package
The four star rating is mostly because of the heavy CPU load with some of the drum kits