No idea mate! I never touch the presets, preferring to roll my own from scratch, every time.

This is one reason why my projects take so long

I quite like to test them out and pull them apart but I've yet to actually use one. 


I certainly know what you mean about the time required.

Do you have the 8 bit kit? I love it and some of the included presets are mind boggling.
I absolutely love it but so far I've only started composing one tune with it and I've had it for about a year.
The tune sounds very like something off Tom Waits Bone Machine or something of that period.
Who knows, I may even post it up on the songs forum but it's nowhere near finished yet. 
It even has a flexatone in it which surely beats a cowbell 

Steve

twaddle

bobguitkillerleft


I have BFD2 on my desktop,but being winter ATM,I have been using my laptop,and I must say I much prefer the sounds and immediate simplicity of Steven Slate 4 Platinum,and due to it only being released since Xmas 2011,I think Slate has packed a lot more sounds[snares etc] that are way more likeable to my ears into a 9GB package than BFD2 has in 50GB.

Now I know BFD2,has an incredible mic/mixer/routing system which in some ways actually seems more high end than X1's console,but,and this is the biggest thing for me,I just don't like any of the actual drum sounds that are included very much-especially the snares[some of the kicks are good],and for 50GB,there actually seems to be less to choose from than SSD's 9GB.

I do realise that the mic'ing/routing tweaking options are incredible with BFD2,but it is 5 years old now,and I'm wondering if,had it been newer,would they have had more snares/kicks to choose from,with a much smaller payload than 50GB?

I have to admit that I've always loved the John Bonham drum sound,and Slate provides some very good,and differring approximations of that sound,so perhaps,as I find THAT so easy to accomplish with SSD,I'll possibly never be fully excited with BFD,that's just been my experience,as I recently re-installed BFD2 on my laptop,but took it off again,as I just coudn't justify 50GB,for something that didn't provide the sound I want.

We'll see what happens,when I start working on my desktop again in a little while,I could eventually get to see the whole program,for what it truly is meant to be,I hope! 
Bob

The last part of your post about seeing it for what it's meant to be is the most telling Bob

I have to agree after listening to the solo demo's of the kits they are really great sounding kits but I really wouldn't compare either steven slate or addictive drums with BFD2 or Superior because they have a completely different ethos. BFD2 and Superior aren't about pre-processed sounds, they are about creating your own sounds from scratch.  The Steven Slate kits are all very processed but I have to say they are processed in a very good way and have a nice natural feel to them.


The thing with me is, having been in bands and played drums in big rooms and small rooms for over 30 years I really love the sound of natural un-processed drums. 
Naturally people will always have their preference but to my ears nothing comes as close to my experience of that sound as BFD2. It really is like I'm there.
Apart from being a great singer song writer & a great guitarist I absolutely love the drum sound of the white stripes because it is so raw and stripped down which I really like. 


Obviously I have no idea who on this forum has, and who hasn't been in and around real drum kits and real drummers for any period of time. But I am quite certain that what a number of people claim "sounds like real drums" is what they've heard on the records that they like and they have never been, or spent very little time with a real drum kit. 
Nothing wrong with that at all and that's going to have a lot to do with age. 

I've been a youth worker for the last 13 years and I know hundreds of people who have no idea what a real drum kit sounds like or how a ludwig vistalite sounds compared to a yamaha oak kit. 
Lots of them are young musicians who have yet to play in a band or with other musicians so how could they know.

Anyway, to drag this waffle back to the OP's question, he wanted comparisons between BFD2 and Superior so I'm guessing he is aware of the ethos behind each product and he wants raw drum samples that he can mix and produce 
him self from scratch.

Steve

Yeah Steve I totally get the unprocessed sound thing,having played with Im not totally sure but maybe 20 different drummers in my live/recording pre existence in the 80s 90s,and only ONE of those guys got what I would say was my all time favourite sound,but especially his style

It was an odd experience too,as the band I was in at the time was pretty shaky experience,due to the singers whims and wants,but I ended up getting woken up on a Monday morning,with the then Bass player saying "Oh man quick","get around here ##$$[singer] has us booked to play live on the radio,at 2pm"[with NO prior knowledge AT ALL!],and "we need to go through the set"with this drummer who I'd never met,but knew of,as he was the producer of one of the later "Church" albums,after their[Aussie Band-"Under the Milkyway" hit single]so we rehearsed at the bassists lounge room acoustically[NO amps or Drumkit!],and then went into the radio station,and did the set live to air.

Well to say this guy resembled JB was a total understatement,and totally blew me away,as this is the first time I'm actually hearing his amazing sounding kit/playing,while we are going for it,live to air!!

So yeah I do have some experience of REAL drums in differring situations,but this guy was the ONLY one to really kick the proverbial a%$^,and that's exactly what I'm still looking for all these years later,and I'm finding it[to some degree] with SSD4 Platinum,but not with BFD2,but I'm hoping,as I said,to discover obviously all that may be hiding within the software.

Off hand how many actual Raw snares are there in BFD2?,cause I can only find what is offered on the kit page which totals only about 10 or so,you know "Blue/Black[?]Oyster","Brady" etc,and I just immediately don't feel compelled to tweak,like Iv'e already said.

I don't know if you have attempted to listen to my possibly long winded instrumental "DEBASSED 69" on my soundcloud page? but that was done with the EX lite version of SSD4,and is just the "Old Zep" kit with the room fader pulled right down,and almost no EQ or processing,with just a couple of modified/written from scratch patterns[I can't exactly remember which lol]with a couple of EZ drummer's MIDI fills [the best part about EZ IMO,is the MIDI"Fills"]modded,or cut etc.

Cheers
Bob



P.S. Jack White's latest tune/video [with the Lime Green 2 door muscle car in it] sounds great,and I too admire his style/sound,also as he often has NO Bass guitar in his music,which happens to be a reason my tune is called "DEBASSED 69" ha ha.

Bob, it's not just the snares themselves you need to be playing with, there's all the other options.

I think all of the stock snares have 3 microphone positions - 2 top, 1 bottom, you'll get a LOT of mileage by blending those properly, then follow that up with a bit of EQ & Compression

Then there are the huge number of settings you can work on - damping amount, damping frequency, sends to room, o/h & amb3, tuning, dynamics, bleed, and this is before you start playing around with the articulation controls & settings.

Bristol_Jonesey


Bob, it's not just the snares themselves you need to be playing with, there's all the other options.

I think all of the stock snares have 3 microphone positions - 2 top, 1 bottom, you'll get a LOT of mileage by blending those properly, then follow that up with a bit of EQ & Compression

Then there are the huge number of settings you can work on - damping amount, damping frequency, sends to room, o/h & amb3, tuning, dynamics, bleed, and this is before you start playing around with the articulation controls & settings.

Believe me,I fully understand that,but if the drum itself has a raw tone/timbre,that I don't know how else to put it?....that I just do not like the sound of,all the routing mic,placement within the realms,that I found within the program so far don't entice me to work on it,it just turns me off a tad...sorry.


I am re-installing it again on my laptop NOW,so here goes,3rd time this time,to take a much longer,more open minded approach,and I guess  I'll see!


Cherry Red
Bob

Go figure...    Audiomidi has SS4 Essential on sale for $20 until 8/31.   I'm currently waiting on my BFD Eco to arrive, but now I'm wondering if I need yet another drum synth to add to my collection...  
 

stevec


Go figure...    Audiomidi has SS4 Essential on sale for $20 until 8/31.   I'm currently waiting on my BFD Eco to arrive, but now I'm wondering if I need yet another drum synth to add to my collection...  
 

That's a weird deal,because there was NO essential pack before,theres always only been EX or platinum,but after reading the add at AudioMidi,it sounds like you get the SSD4 iinterface GUI which is no different between EX or Platinum,just you get kits called "Essential",which I do not remember being listed in either EX or Platinum[I had 3.5 EX-upgraded to 4.0 EX for $47,then upgraded to Platinum for $90]


$20 is a super deal if you get the same interface,and some of the good sounding kits AND the grooves then its a mega deal,as it doesn't even have a manual,as it is so easy to operate,even with the mixer/routing/mapping options.

I mean I paid $165 for EZ[first week of Daw exposure] and ONLY use it for it's MIDI patterns+fills now,but $20 for even a trimmed SSD4 sounds amazing!

Cheeryo
Bob

Hi Bob
I spent quite a bit of time listening to the SSD4 solo kits on their web site this morning and if someone was looking for the best out of the box sounds for mostly rock orientated music I would definitely recommend them. 
He does claim in his video that SSD4 covers hundreds of genres (do that many even exist) including dance music. 
Well if the 87 demo's that I listened to are anything to go by that's a pretty wild exaggeration.

That's a lot of drummers to have played with. I don't think I've played with more than 10 but that's plenty :)
Well speaking of John Bonham BFD2 does actually include the original vistalite kit that he played but it's obviously more than the kit and I'm sure he had many others but I think the vistalites were among his favourites.
I counted 16 snares on the Kit Piece Page

I listened to the long winded (but might be less long winded with vocals) instrumental on soundcloud and yeah, the drums sound just about right for this kind of thing. 
Good guitar work going on too but I'd like to hear a little more from the toms. I'm a big tom fan.
I like to hear just the drums to see if I could replicate something close using the Vistalite kit. I could send it to you as a preset if you sent me just the drums as an MP3 ?

I don't claim to be a great or even a good engineer and I still have plenty to learn about mixing drums (and the rest) or getting a particular sound but regardless of that I still feel I compelled to do it from scratch if only so that I can say it's
all my own work. 

This is something I'm really liking that uses the 8 Bit expansion kit for BFD2 which I think is crazy but brilliant. When I said I was a big Tom fan I also meant Tom Waits and this kit was put together by the guy who produced his, "Bone Machine" album.  It's a work in process and I will get some words down but every time I try to sing a vocal I just start doing Tom waits impressions 
Appropriately it's called 8 Bit Blues


Steve

SSD4 has about 4 kits with about 100 presets created by layering the drums from those 4 kits

Similar to the 25 presets we include for our Rock Legends kit 

BFD has far more samples in the pool than SSD4 

Here's a Bonham sounding kit from our Andy Johns Classic Drums for BFD...

https://www.platinumsampl...ompressed-more-hat.mp3

Andy recorded most of the Led Zeppelin albums.

Rail

Hey Steve,firstly Thank You for listening,and great constructive advice,it's been nearly 20 years since I have done any recording,so it's very good to get some good feedback.

Yes 20,maybe stretching it but it's definitely around 12 or so not counting hobby/jam guys,a couple whom should have been pro,and wow I'am such a newb with the net/computers,I didn't even think of going to the FXspansion site[!]instead of the PDF, so thanks for the link,it looks like I certainly missed at least 3 on that list,so again digital in- experience is showing-again.

About sending the raw drum track of that tune,to start with I have no idea how you do that[actually sending it][much embarrassment]but also I'm a little shy about picking it out amongst the mess that went with creating that tune,and I guess I'm a little surprised anyone would want to go to the trouble of recreating it,but I'm also kind flattered/scared[it does have few wrong bits in it ha ha]and I'll have to think about it for a bit,if thats cool?

Wow,you got a lot of material on soundcloud,and yes 8 bit blues has a Tom Waits kind of feel,in fact I saw his new song on our national ABC[our version of the BBC here sort of]Video show called "Rage" tonight,very full on imagery of war/houses and Tom of course.

I liked the "Postman",and "Strange Fruit" out of the few I v'e been able to listen to[so far],your'e getting some eclectic sounds from someone I would have guessed was primarily a guitar player from your Cakeforum avatar!

It's just gone 5.43 am here on Friday/Sat morning,but yeah after my usual weekend Saturday-day write off/sleep session I'll certainly give this all some more thought,as well as re-installing BFD,and obviously listening to more of Your Music!

Cheers
Bob

bobguitkillerleft


Hey Steve,firstly Thank You for listening,and great constructive advice,it's been nearly 20 years since I have done any recording,so it's very good to get some good feedback.

Yes 20,maybe stretching it but it's definitely around 12 or so not counting hobby/jam guys,a couple whom should have been pro,and wow I'am such a newb with the net/computers,I didn't even think of going to the FXspansion site[!]instead of the PDF, so thanks for the link,it looks like I certainly missed at least 3 on that list,so again digital in- experience is showing-again.

About sending the raw drum track of that tune,to start with I have no idea how you do that[actually sending it][much embarrassment]but also I'm a little shy about picking it out amongst the mess that went with creating that tune,and I guess I'm a little surprised anyone would want to go to the trouble of recreating it,but I'm also kind flattered/scared[it does have few wrong bits in it ha ha]and I'll have to think about it for a bit,if thats cool?

Wow,you got a lot of material on soundcloud,and yes 8 bit blues has a Tom Waits kind of feel,in fact I saw his new song on our national ABC[our version of the BBC here sort of]Video show called "Rage" tonight,very full on imagery of war/houses and Tom of course.

I liked the "Postman",and "Strange Fruit" out of the few I v'e been able to listen to[so far],your'e getting some eclectic sounds from someone I would have guessed was primarily a guitar player from your Cakeforum avatar!

It's just gone 5.43 am here on Friday/Sat morning,but yeah after my usual weekend Saturday-day write off/sleep session I'll certainly give this all some more thought,as well as re-installing BFD,and obviously listening to more of Your Music!

Cheers
Bob

Thanks Bob
Well I just went and bought Steven Slate Essential for $20. Seemed silly not to at that price. Lets hope I get to use it though I'm not liking the look of the mixer or the thought of only having kontakt as the only alternative.
They're both a bit grim.


As for creating a preset don't get your hopes up for it being too great but I'll give it a shot. If you can load the song in to sonar and solo the slate drums, bounce them down and export the bounced drums to MP3 that would be good.
If you could even bounce them separately that would be better.


There is quite a lot of stuff on soundcloud. I prefer the instrumentals as I hate hearing my voice but the postman is ok. Like the lyrics at least.
That Tom waits song you mentioned is off his new album "Bad As me" and I think the song is called Hell Broke Luce. Great video too.

I am primarily a guitar playing singer/song writer but I grew up listening to all sorts being the youngest of 6 and I think that shows. he film, "Fiddler On The Roof2 and TV theme tunes were as much an influence as anything else 

Sounds like you need some sleep.

Steve