Toontrack keep it real with reel‑to‑reels at Real World Studios.
Superior Drummer ships with an excellent default drum sample library and, over the lifespan of the product, Toontrack have provided a huge selection of expansion packs to tempt those wanting additional sonic options. The 27 SDXs currently within that catalogue already provide an impressive set of options. All of which means the bar has been set pretty high for any new SDX libraries.
Cue Toontrack requesting us to hold their beer, as the latest offering puts together three different rooms of Peter Gabriel’s iconic Real World Studios; gold, platinum and Grammy status producer/engineer/mixer Kevin Killen; a combination of recording to both digital and analogue tape formats; and eight top‑notch acoustic drum kits to create the Real To Reel SDX. The full install runs to 160GB but there are two more compact options if you forgo some of the additional bleed, ambience, room or surround microphones. As usual with an SDX, the library also includes a dedicated collection of excellent MIDI grooves.
Real Talk
Unsurprisingly, the results are fantastic. The contents of the SDX are divided based upon the three rooms used — the Big Room, the Wood Room and the Wood Booth — with each bringing a distinct sound to the collection based upon their different ambiences. With the recordings going both directly to Pro Tools and to analogue tape, you get both options here. The tape‑based versions do have an obvious character, particularly with the snare and kick sounds (some presets offer a macro control to blend between the digital and tape versions). The drum kits used span vintage to modern options with various extras also included. The latter provide additional snares and kicks, for example, but also include Rototoms and Octobans with selected kits.
The supplied presets built from the recording process provide a very diverse set of sounds. As well as a selection of both ‘tape’ and ‘clean kit’ presets, there are also plenty of options where Kevin Killen has gone for a more specific character. When you consider some of the classic recordings that he has been involved with, and the equally impressive list of world‑class albums recorded at Real World Studios since the late 1980s, it’s perhaps not surprising that there are some very obvious nods to the drum sounds those well‑known recordings might have used.
Wherever you go in this SDX, there are some very high‑quality acoustic drum sounds to find and an almost limitless set of options for dialling in the required level of room ambience. Taking the Wood Room based Bumblebee kit as an example, a personal favourite is the ‘Big Bee’ preset. The mix console here has a huge number of room and ambience options, including mics in a stairwell, letting you easily move from intimate to epic.
Real To Reel provides top‑of‑the‑line acoustic drum sounds from the first hi‑hat to the last floor tom.
The Real Deal
The Real To Reel SDX will most obviously appeal to those who know and love both Kevin Killen’s and Real World Studios’ album credits. However, these drum sounds could easily find a home in almost any musical context. Even with the factory library, SD3 owners are blessed with some acoustic drum sounds that most of us could never hope to match in our own studio spaces. As such, an SDX such as Real To Reel is likely to be a case of ‘want’ rather than ‘need’. That said, with its sonic breadth and flexibility, and the option to dial in your personal preference for analogue tape, this SDX is an enticing proposition. Real To Reel provides top‑of‑the‑line acoustic drum sounds from the first hi‑hat to the last floor tom. Excellent stuff.
Summary
With flavours of the sounds from Real World’s A‑list album CV and recording to analogue tape bringing unique sonic options, the Real To Reel SDX is impressively versatile and both classy and characterful throughout.