Cheers guys.

I'll take that advice Strikinglyhandsome1 and get Steven Slate's presets as my analysis of how the sounds can be tweaked. I always wondered what his drums sounded like. At £8 GBP it's a no brainer.

Gmon72. I was already eyeing up the EZ Keys Rock & Pop midi on Audio Deluxe. Seems they are the cheapest for most stuff just now. Cooool...

late to the party, but here's a true story.

Working on a song with the golden ears of one Mr. Danny Danzi.

I use a Superior Preset. Upon first preview Danny says "Those toms at the end are distorted".

I sez no (in my head). After much experimenting I could only hear the distortion when I turned off the (not Toonrack) reverb (UAD EMT 140 IIRC).

After much more research I find that the culprit was the Superior compressor (i.e. turn it off distortion goes away). Problem solved.

Now, here's the bigger problem.  I can't tell Toontrack which preset it is because:

a) once you choose the preset you lose all knowledge of which one you chose (and I had experimented with so many I just don't recall which it was)

b) I owned all the Producer Presets at the time* and I was not about to go experiment and find the culprit and I was too lazy to try and manually recreate the whole chain because I delete the entire (Superior) preset and did it "the right way**"

* I no longer buy Producer Presets
** I do it the prescribed Cakewalk Forum way now

That would be preset 'distorted toms'

I'm not a big fan of presets for drums really although there is some educational aspect to seeing how people use the programme. The Slate one isn't bad as I don't see it as presets as such. It's just him getting Superior to sound like his own stuff. Gotta love Transient Designers.

It is somewhat educational to look at the presets, just to see what can be done and to get some ideas. 

But whoever created them - probably an employee of Toontrack despite the well-known producer-endorsee's name on them - seemed more intent on showing off every effect than really getting a good drum sound that fits in a mix. The presets I've seen are over the top (e.g. EQ on every virtual mic, compression galore) and designed to sound good on a drum solo.

bitflipper


The presets I've seen are over the top (e.g. EQ on every virtual mic, compression galore) and designed to sound good on a drum solo.

Especially the "distorted toms" solo.

Mod Bod

 Some settings are a bit shocking because they don't conform to the Cakewalk Forum standard of ways to do things.   

The forum has a standard??  

Steve

We set the bar the low. No one has failed so far.

I once passed the Alaska Bar, and it was surprisingly easy to do. It's a small seedy joint on the main drag in Anchorage.

bitflipper

 It's a small seedy joint on the main drag in Anchorage.

It is best to remove the seeds before hitting that "seedy" joint.  Sorry, I just had to say that.

Thanks again guys for pitching in.

Good info and advice.

Cheers

Stewart