Toontrack Superior Drummer 3 Upgrade (Download)

Key Features

The Drums – Immense and immersive, captured with layers of technology

The Superior Drummer 3 core sound library was recorded by award-winning engineer George Massenburg at probably the world’s most quiet and ideal location for sampling, the Galaxy Studios in Belgium. The library boasts in excess of 230 GB of raw sound material captured in extreme detail.

In additional to close microphones and several ambience positions, the Superior Drummer 3 setup also includes an additional eleven room microphones set up in a surround configuration, for use in anything from stereo to 5.1, 9.1 and all the way up to 11.1 systems. In combination with the large selection of extra instruments added for stacking and sound design purposes, the sounds of Superior Drummer 3 give you an incomparable palette of options to craft drum tones beyond your wildest imagination.

“Superior Drummer 3 takes music creation to a level of quality, flexibility and authenticity beyond the imagination.” - George Massenburg, Recording Engineer

Drum Features

The Studio – Audio perfection in utter silence

The Superior Drummer 3 core sound library was recorded at Galaxy Studios in Belgium. With its 330-square meter room and eight meter ceiling height, it was the ideal location for capturing immersive audio of the utmost quality. In addition, the entire studio complex is built on springs to ensure that the outside interference is literally non-existent. In fact, with only 14 dBA of environmental noise, the main hall at Galaxy Studio is the most quiet recording space of this size in the world.

Perfect acoustics, balanced reverberation and second-to-none recording technology. Superior Drummer 3 called for a superior studio. We’d dare to say that this is the most nuanced and candidly captured sample library on the market.

George Massenburg – Superior engineer, audio pioneer, professor and inventor

George Massenburg’s contribution to the world of audio technology is hard to emphasize in words. Aside from having produced, mixed or engineered in excess of four hundred records, received almost any industry award thinkable, been inducted into the Technology Hall of Fame and received an honorary Doctorate of Music at the esteemed Berklee College, he is the inventor of an industry staple: the parametric equalizer. His attention to detail, accuracy and quality is second to none.

Superior Drummer 3 called for a superior engineer. These are his drum sounds – captured with layers of technology and a lifetime of experience to back it up.

Grooves – The heartbeat of your song

New and improved features for finding, customizing and working with MIDI. From quickly getting a custom beat going to diving deep into fine-tuning timing and velocity detail, Superior Drummer 3 has got you covered.

Groove Features

The MIDI Library

The Superior Drummer 3 MIDI library was designed to provide a wealth of fundamental groove and fill variations for mainstream pop, rock and singer-songwriter material. It also has a few dedicated sections for metal as well as an ‘Extras’ category with count-ins, snare rolls and MIDI files specifically designed for use with brushed samples. In total, the library encompasses in excess of 1,600 individually played fills, all categorized in common song structure parts.

MIDI Features

Mixer – Control and power, beyond the thinkable

The mixer introduces 35 low-footprint insert effects, making each channel strip a virtual sound processing powerhouse. Route, bus, send, saturate, blend and mix – the creative options are endless. With Superior Drummer 3, you are in control.

Mixer Features

The Presets

To help you get started or to let you peek “under the hood” of how other engineers tweak their drums, we’ve included a comprehensive collection of mix-ready presets for a wide range of genres that you can use either as quick one-click solutions to get a great mix up or as a starting point from where you can venture off into your own sonic landscape.

We have worked with a wide range of our favourite producers – from local talent to some of the industry’s top names, like Bob Rock, Andy Sneap, George Massenburg and Richard Devine. Each engineer was given a blank slate and could create from the ground up, involving anything from their own custom samples to brand new field recordings of foley, one shots and percussion.

Preset Features

Tracker – A new breed of audio to midi conversion

The Tracker introduces the arguably most efficient and accurate drum audio to MIDI conversion software on the market. Built on a highly advanced instrument recognition neural network, the Tracker detects hits with an unequalled accuracy and speed. With the seamless integration with Superior Drummer 3, replacing or augmenting drums has never been more powerful than now.

Tracker Features

Superior Drummer 3 & SDX Expansions

All Toontrack SDX expansions will display new custom graphics for all kits and instruments. Below are a few examples of how SDXs will be displayed after having been updated. Updates will be available after Superior Drummer 3 has been launched.

Available Configurations

The Superior Drummer 3 software and the full core sound library are delivered as downloads, available directly from the Toontrack Product Manager upon registration. At an additional cost, there is also an option of getting the full sound library pre-installed on a 256 GB solid-state drive (SSD). Note that this is a supplement intended for those that purchase a license and want the sound library conveniently pre-installed on a quality drive. This box comes with no software license – only sounds.

Download Configuration

Due to the size of the library and to ensure that each customer freely can decide in what capacity he or she wants to utilize the source material, the product is configured in six (6) convenient download packages. Start by installing the software and then add each package in sequence as you go.