Opinions on Session Drums?

[andrew_]

It's the only part of Ableton Suite I don't own, and now the Able10 discount is tempting me. I've been able to do all right without it but it definitely seems like it would make my fake live drum programming easier and more expressive. Worth $99?

[Pasha]

I got Session Drums with L7 Boxed Suite last year.
The only pitfall was that I had to reprogram all my impulse made
beats with Session Drums because I loved them too much
In my opinion the multi-mic kits offer various variations even if
they tax CPU too much.
Conversely the standard kits are very good and if you are afraid
of that godzilla space (35GB) you can use the lite versions that also have a good sound.
One glitch: If you use a Lite Version of a Kit, i.e. Copeland Lite
and you bring your project to a Library that does not have
lite version installed but only standard versions Live does not
substitute the kit automatically and reports missing samples.
The opposite is also true.

If I were you I'd make it, especially if your music is based
on acoustic drums sounds.
I have complemented them with MIDI Loops from Smartloops and
no regrets.

- Best
- Pasha

[yearlongyeti]

I find them really bad for work flow, and not the best sounding on the market. Its hard to preview sounds and I found it took alot of tweaking to get what I want. I reccomend Addictive drums, take the time to set it up in abletons drum racks and it is gold!!!!!

[trikster_b]

Has anyone tried Battery 3 and can compare the two? I've been playing with Session Drums in demo mode (making my own kits) and my workflow with it is so much better than Battery 3.

Also, I've noticed that every cell has it's own Simpler for each hit; does this tax the CPU much more than before, or is there some secret to it?

[Jekblad]

i have session drums and enjoy them quite a bit after reprogramming them to work with padkontrol the way i want.

for 99 bucks they are a good buy. Other vsts might be easier and "sound better", but it's also fun to use the rack system in live to glitch em out etc.

[crumhorn]

I like them a lot, especially when combined with the Latin Percussion sounds. I've not got a lot to compare them with but they seem really well recorded to me, with good velocity layering.

The standard mapping and consistent categorisation for sounds and playing styles make it really easy to find what you are looking for.

The way the library is organised makes it very easy to load one kit and substitute just the snares, or the toms or whatever from another kit.

Also I like that the mapping is consistent with the Drum Machines kits so it's easy to create mixed acoustic and electronic kits.

Certainly beats trawling through nested folders full of files with names like perc_091, snare54, etc - which is all I had previously.

[gurumonkey]

I have complemented them with MIDI Loops from Smartloops and
no regrets.

hey, how do you like those? does it take a lot of work to get them to line up right with the session drums? these seem like exactly the kind of thing i needed.

[Pasha]

I have complemented them with MIDI Loops from Smartloops and
no regrets.

hey, how do you like those? does it take a lot of work to get them to line up right with the session drums? these seem like exactly the kind of thing i needed.

Gurumonkey, they are the basic drumming heart of every song I make.
Session Drums have a GM Mapping and Smartloops too so a part some missing drum equipment
here enad there in the kit they work fine. Session Drums often lacks 1 out of 4 MIDI toms but you can overcome this by adding a tom in a drag & drog operation followed by tom tuning via rack macros and save your new rack. Easier that doing a coffee.
I also have bought the Audio Drum files from Samartloops (Dry Session) and being played
by humans they have a groovy feeling. I suggest download the freebies and give it a try.
However, I find MIDI Loops having more tweaking possibility.

- Best
- Pasha

[UKRuss]

ya, ya, ya. for $99, buy them. simples.

[necho]

me leik Addictive Drums....

[gurumonkey]

purchased the 4 pack of the midi drum loops for $49. woot. i was in need of some drums that fit better into rock music, and this seems to be the exact thing! thanks for the post.

[UKRuss]

GuruM, are they all one bar midi loops?

[gurumonkey]

nope. many are, though in each pack they have a thing called session drummer where they have combined some of the loops. or recorded a longer take. it's something that's intended to be chopped up. in the first pack i think most of the loops are 1 bar, but in the other packs there are different lengths. i just started checking them though. i know in pack 2 many of the 6/8 grooves are 4-8bars.

only bummer so far is that the clips don't keep their names when dragged in.

[fragmentated]

I like the session drums. They sound good but are a bit of a pain to use IMO. While the Live integration is nice, the routing and multi mic setups just took too much work to figure out and fiddle with. For realistic drums I prefer Toontrack's Superior Drummer 2.

Look around if you're interested. I know Sweetwater and MusiciansFriend are selling it for 50% off ($150) this month which is a great deal.

[UKRuss]

nope. many are, though in each pack they have a thing called session drummer where they have combined some of the loops. or recorded a longer take. it's something that's intended to be chopped up. in the first pack i think most of the loops are 1 bar, but in the other packs there are different lengths. i just started checking them though. i know in pack 2 many of the 6/8 grooves are 4-8bars.

only bummer so far is that the clips don't keep their names when dragged in.

Nice, thanks.