It’s that time of year again, folks – Toontrack’s METAL MONTH! All November, the manic Swedes drop their heaviest products for you to up your production game.
Their latest release is an expansion library of raw drum samples for Superior Drummer from legen(wait for it)DARY producer Bob Rock called The Rock Foundry. This marks the first SDX specifically designed for Toontrack’s Superior Drummer 3, which has received an overwhelming amount of praise and awards in industry press, from artists and end-users since its launch just shy of two months ago.
Other Metal Month releases so far include the Death Metal MIDI Pack by Cattle Decapitation drummer Dave McGraw, the Thrash Metal MIDI Pack drum library and a MIDI pack by Code Orange drummer Jami Morgan.
Here’s everything you need to know about The Rock Foundry SDX by Bob Rock:
The Rock Foundry SDX features a staggering 65 GB of raw, unprocessed drum sounds recorded by arguably the most notable, influential and sought-after engineer/producer of our time: Bob Rock.
While Metallica’s groundbreaking “Black Album” may be one of the more commonly known works in his discography, Bob Rock’s engineering and producing credits stretch all the way back to the late ’70s and include some of the best-selling acts in rock history: Survivor, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe, Bryan Adams and many, many more. In all of his productions, a common denominator is phenomenally engineered and mixed drums. In fact, his work with Metallica and Mötley Crüe may very well have set a new standard as to how we mix drums to sit in a mix. Needless to say, his influence on the sound of hard rock and metal as we know it is monumental. We’re happy to present the first-ever sample library to bear his sonic seal.
The Rock Foundry SDX was recorded at Bob Rock’s choice studio The Warehouse in Vancouver, BC, and designed to give you the most flexible selection of drums, ambiences and options possible. It’s configured as two individual SDXs, one ‘Main’ and one ‘Mono.’ The ‘Main’ features six kits captured with a traditional multiple microphone technology whereas as the ‘Mono’ configuration was recorded using a minimal setup. In addition to the seven individual kits, a large selection of extra snares, kicks and cymbals are provided, making The Rock Foundry SDX an incredibly broad palette of raw material to use to craft drum mixes within the powerful framework of Superior Drummer 3.
If writing and performing a song is magic, the art of engineering and shaping sound is the alchemy that makes music transcend and become legendary. It’s how you position microphones right from the start, how you place drums in a room and how you ultimately process each individual piece to fit in a mix. The latter part is left up to you. Should you rather go for Bob Rock’s drum mixes as a starting point, we’ve included a selection of presets engineered by the man himself.
FEATURE SPOTLIGHT
• Seven (7) individual kits plus alternative configurations
• Recorded by Bob Rock at The Warehouse in Vancouver, BC
• Ludwig, Ayotte, Gretsch, Dunnett, Yamaha among the brands covered
• Six (6) hi-hats, six (6) ride cymbals, 15 crash cymbals
• Mix presets by Bob Rock included
• A basic selection of custom MIDI drum grooves included
