Toontrack Legacy of Rock SDX

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Rock Royalty.
Drums recorded by one of the most iconic recording engineers/mixers/producers in rock history: Eddie Kramer.

Not many can say that they were there when it happened. Eddie Kramer has been right smack center of it as it happened, making it happen and shaping its very essence with his bare hands for five decades and counting. We’re talking about rock – the sound of rock and the deafening impact the craft of engineering, producing and mixing it right has on how it ends up echoing through history. Meet audio visionary Eddie Kramer, the uncrowned king who shaped the sound of the legends that became immortal icons of rock and who in the process became a royalty of rock himself. This is his collection of drums and a true homage to classic rock as we know it.

The Legacy of Rock SDX zones in on Eddie’s formative years in the buzzing sixties London scene and continues on through the seventies. It includes five drum kits, each sourced and tailored to mirror a significant era or sound in Kramer’s remarkable career. All drums were recorded in Kramer’s studio of choice, Studio 1 at AIR in London, and captured through signal chains of vintage microphones as well as handpicked, rare and custom equipment scouted specifically for these sessions.

These drums rock. Take it from the man who only in the first two decades of his career managed to work with The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, record the entire Jimi Hendrix catalog, capture several of Led Zeppelin’s most pioneering albums and man the board as the original Woodstock festival was caught on tape. Welcome to a bona fide treasure chest of drum sounds – ready for you to hone, mold and shape to make your own dent in rock history with.

FEATURES

• Recorded by legendary engineer/mixer/producer Eddie Kramer in Studio 1 at AIR in London, UK
• Five full kits, all tailored after a significant era or sound in Eddie Kramer’s career
• Three extra kicks, six snares and a wide variety of cymbals
• Includes two timpani and 36″ and 60″ gongs
• Select kits include brushes, mallets and hand/finger samples
• Recorded with an additional five room microphones for playback in stereo or up to 5.1 systems
• Custom presets engineered by Eddie Kramer
• Includes a selection of drum MIDI inspired by classic songs from Eddie’s discography

About Eddie Kramer.
The brushstrokes of Eddie Kramers’s ability to paint with sound has made rock history a glaring palette of color. Not only did he help shape the iconic sound of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Kiss and many more in the sixties and seventies – his ear, touch and craftsmanship has had an immense impact throughout his entire career and to this day. We dare to say that arguably no one in his field has left a more distinct footprint on their path through rock history than he has.

Reading his list of credits from top to bottom sums his collaborations up to more than 750 albums covering all genres, all facets of rock and a myriad of the names anyone would file under ‘icons’ without thinking twice.

In addition to his deep-rooted passion for audio production, Eddie is also a published author and photographer. Eddie’s candid portraits of the rock luminaries he’s worked with over the years have been exhibited in some of the world’s most prestigious galleries and museums and have become of interest for collectors internationally.

Being a frequent lecturer at workshops and seminars, he also likes to educate by sharing his lifelong well of experience from his side of the studio glass with the next generation of audio craftsmen.

Welcome To Air Studios. A London Landmark.
One couldn’t possibly confuse the colossal 26,000 square feet Victorian-style building towering up like a beacon on Lyndhurst Road in the midst the busy Hampstead suburb of north London for anything but a church. Only if arriving at night, while the floodlighting shoots up along all sides of the red-brick facade and glares in the massive stained glass windows, it may suggest otherwise. But a studio? Probably not anyone’s guess. It indeed is – and likely one of the most impressive ones in the world at that.

AIR Studios, founded by Sir George Martin back in 1970, was originally located on Oxford Street in Central London but had to move in 1991 when its 22-year lease ran out. It was then that the Lyndhurst location was found and a cumbersome conversion from church to state-of-the-art studio was undertaken. It finally opened its doors in December 1992. In between the two London locations, Martin also opened a branch on the remote Caribbean island of Montserrat.

Today, AIR Lyndhurst accommodates the entire scope of the demands of the recording industry and handles anything from capturing full orchestras for scores to serving top artists of all genres with album productions.

Uncompromising Instrument Detail.
To us, sampling sounds for an SDX is more than merely recording instruments. It is the craft of capturing the essence and every unique voice of each instrument to give you, the user, the ability to produce limitless and stunningly real performances.

Hi-Hat.
Due to the complex nature and immense variation in voicing this instrument offers, the hi-hats were recorded with up to 27 unique multi-sampled articulations.

Ride.
The ride cymbals were sampled with up to 8 articulations. Unique to the Legacy of Rock SDX are the ‘Bow Tip 2’ articulations for impressive realism when playing the ride cymbals on e-kits with positional sensoring technology.

Snare.
The snares sampled with ‘wires on’ and sticks include nine unique articulations while the subtle and many striking options needed in order to produce ultra-realistic brushed performances, this tool required 15 articulations.

Crash.
The crashes were sampled in up to seven articulations, allowing you to produce anything from subtle crescendos to using any crash cymbal essentially as a leading instrument.

Hands.
Snares as well as all toms, crashes, ride and hi-hats offer a fundamental selection of articulations recorded using hands as a striking tool.

Timpani.
Inspired by Bonham’s playing style on the timpani, these were sampled using regular drumsticks and captured with three articulations each.

THE PRESETS.

To inspire and enable you to make music immediately, the Legacy of Rock SDX includes a broad range of mix-ready presets for all kits, tools and configurations.

Eddie Kramer's Presets.
Eddie’s selection of presets were engineered in Studio 1 at AIR and feature his very own take on mixes for each different kit as well as several of the included configurations.

Toontrack In-House Presets.
These presets were created by Toontrack’s sound design team as serve as our very own homage to classic rock and Eddie’s illustrious discography.

Kit Presets.
In addition to the mix presets, there are kit presets available that enable you to quickly access and audition an unmixed state of all the different kits and configurations included.

The MIDI.
Just like the drum sounds, the main portion of the MIDI circles in on the era of Eddie’s career that stretches from the full-on rock years of the sixties through the seventies. Inspired by the like of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Kiss, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, this MIDI will take you through thunderous onslaught of classic rock, the jazz-inspired psychedelic grooves to the straight-on pounding and in-your-face rock beats. The MIDI library also features a collection of grooves and patterns specifically designed for use with the brushes, mallets, timpani and gong as well as the hand and finger sounds included. In addition, all of the MIDI was recorded exclusively using the SDX sounds and all of its articulations, giving you a vivid display of all its rich detail in the context of different fitting performances.

System Requirements.
For the full Installation of this product you will need approximately 180 GB of free hard drive space, plus an additional 180 GB is required for the installation process.

8 GB RAM (16 GB RAM or more recommended).

A working Superior Drummer 3.2.0 (or above) installation.

For more information, click here to visit the manufacturers website.