On 02/11/2006, at 10:44 PM, Joe Lonsdale wrote: > Message posted by Joe Lonsdale <joe@joepublicstudios.com>: > > I am still hunting for a REALLY GOOD drum-sample-set or virtual- > instrument. > I currently use BFD and have both the original kit and the Steve > Albini > extension kit, but find the snare samples 'thin' and 'scratchy', the > under-snare mic very harsh with no pleasant 'highs' to bring out > and the > cymbals seem to sound a little 'out-of-phase' or something - they > just don't > 'ring' right. Hmm. I have the same libraries and none of my clients or my world class mastering guy can even tell weather the drums are recorded live or BFD. This for mainstream rock and pop mostly. In the original kits I felt the kicks were not great but the Albini (Deluxe) collection fixed that. It definitely took some time with this plugin to get my sounds really honking though. In particular the hi hat options are daunting but extremely useful once you get your head around them. Making sure you get the right velocity layer of each sound for the setting can be tricky also. Also since ver 1.5 the output assignments are really improved. Now I take close mic outs for each drum, a stereo blend of all the room mics, and a stereo blend of just the dry cymbals + their room mics only. This seems to work best for me and allows mixing in a similar way to how I would mix a live drum recording - but more controlled and without mic spill. > I know this is all a matter of personal taste, but to put it > into perspective I recently heard the best drum samples I've ever > heard - > home made by some guy with a drum kit and a a prject studio - warm, > rich, > full and fabulous - he was very proud of them and wouldn't share > them - > can't blame him really. Why do all the sample sets sound so 'thin'? Yes there is personal taste involved but you can kind of be on the same page just using words. Words like thin & scratchy definitely do not come close to describing the overall character of the BFD libraries you mention IMO. > I have > also used DFH and as well as a couple of ProSessions sample sets > and always > find the a similar problem. IS IT ME???? It might be you. There is no question that there is a large psychological influence involved in the perception of sound. Other than that, did you hear your friends' samples in his studio or yours? It may be your monitoring environment. Reminds me of a joke - A guy goes to his doctor and say "Doc, it hurts when I touch myself here, (on arm) here, (on leg) here, (on head) etc... Doctor says "ah! I think I have the answer - you have a broken finger... > > PS: I know the ideal solution is to get a real drummer - but that > is not > possible or desirable for my situation... I don't agree with this entirely either. When money is no object this may be right, but for the other 99% of the time - assuming you can really handle the percussion arranging duties and how that translates into midi data and how in turn that sets off BFD in just the right way - you will get a better result for a fraction of the cost IMO. I'm sure you can tell by the tone of my post that I love my BFD. It's allowed me to have within my own personal control a level of acoustic drum programming that was previously almost impossible to achieve - but it's also true that it's not for everybody. That's why audio based drum and percussion libraries are so popular. Personally I dislike to a large degree working with audio based drum phrases - but then as you say it is personal. Kind regards ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Paul Najar Jaminajar Music Production www.jaminajar.com