In fact, with 32 stereo outputs, you could output each of the 22 microphones to its own track inside of your DAW. However, if I am working on a project with a bigger budget and I want to use my own choice of compressors, reverbs and gates, I have the option to integrate it inside of Pro Tools as much as possible. It also includes its own compressor, 5 band eq, filters, transient designer and gate which sound great. Superior drummer gives plenty of busses and routing flexibility to mix inside of the sampler. When I need to add drums to a clients project right in front of them, I love the fact that I can load up a preset quickly and be ready to record great sounding drums within about 20 seconds. I am definitely a fan of having the option to choose. With the options to route out multiple outputs from Superior Drummer, you can either mix the drums completely inside of Superior Drummer and deal with just a stereo track in your DAW, or you can mix the drums within your DAW.

But even still, BFD doesn’t have a Sub Kick, has one less ambient pair of room mics, and is missing a bullet microphone track. In fact, the next highest that I am aware of is BFD2 by fxpansion which has about 18 microphones depending on how many instruments you bring in. Most “advanced” drum samplers that I am familiar with don’t have this many options. I’m talking about 22 microphones on the drum kit! 3 microphones for the kick drum, 3 microphones for the snare drum, 1 hi hat, 1 microphones for each of the 5 toms, 2 for stereo overheads, 2 for ambient close room mics, 2 for stereo ambient mid room mics, 2 for stereo far room mics, 1 ambient mono room mic, and my favorite – 1 ambient bullet mic (think overcompressed and distorted). These sounds are fantastic! But beyond that, you get complete control of the sound by having access to every single microphone you would ever need in a high end recording. For anyone who has had the opportunity to track a studio drummer in a nice facility, they will know what I mean.

The thing that impresses me most about this sampler, is that it really gives me the vibe that I am working with professional drum tracks right out of a million dollar facility. This sampler is quite complex, and although loading it up and choosing a preset will work for users looking for simplicity, it has enough depth to keep “tweakers” busy for hours on end. Superior Drummer 2.1 has done exactly that. As a drummer myself, it takes quite a bit from a drum sampler to impress me.

Toontrack superior drummer 3 review