Toontrack releases Area 33 – a new SDX for Superior Drummer 3

This marks the sixth and final release in Toontrack’s ongoing Metal Month campaign. It also adds another milestone release in the company’s collection of SDXs for Superior Drummer 3. Earlier collaborations include the likes of Al Schmitt, Bob Rock, Eddie Kramer, Michael Ilbert, Tom Dalgety, Randy Staub and more.

About the Area 33 SDX
The Area 33 SDX brings together parts of the original Drumkit From Hell team: Meshuggah guitarist Fredrik Thordendal and producer/engineer/mixer Daniel Bergstrand (Behemoth, In Flames, Dimmu Borgir). In this joint venture of sourcing, engineering and ultimately externalizing their very figment of what the most all-encompassing metal-related SDX for Superior Drummer 3 could be, they ended up with an absolute monster weighing in at a staggering 180+ GB. It was recorded at Fredrik Thordendal’s personal studio 33 in Stockholm, Sweden. This studio, which Thordendal and Bergstrand built from the ground up, was designed with the goal of creating the epitome of a drum room: spacious and reverberant but at the same time profoundly precise, direct and controlled.

With its seven contrasting and complementing kits, extensive pool of additional drums and virtual forest of cymbals, the Area 33 SDX presents a massively broad palette of raw and unadulterated drums that you can hone, shape and mold using the limitless framework of Superior Drummer 3. To add, these are not your average, everyday kits – several of them boast up to eight toms, double bass drums and 15 cymbal slots. On top of that, this SDX was captured using what is beyond traditional in terms of microphones. Each kit was recorded using the classic close-mic technique but, in addition, with an extra set of microphones on each position. This means that each drum and cymbal is represented by both a mono as well as a stereo pair of microphones, allowing you to sculpt tones beyond what you thought possible. Finally, to capture the essence of the room and to give you even more options, 11 ambience microphones (of which seven are in stereo) were recorded.

With this one, you’ll have endless possibilities of shaping drum mixes beyond what you thought possible. Let’s head into the infinite universe of the Area 33 SDX.

FEATURE SPOTLIGHT

• Engineered and produced by Fredrik Thordendal and Daniel Bergstrand
• Recorded at 33, Fredrik Thordendal’s personal studio in Stockholm, Sweden
• Featuring seven (7) unique drum kits
• A total of 13 snares, 14 bass drums (x2), 42 toms, three hi-hats and upwards of 40 cymbals
• Recorded using 11 ambience microphone positions (of which seven are in stereo)
• More than of 180 GB of sampled drums and cymbals
• Sampled by drummer Leo Margarit (Pain of Salvation)
• Includes presets for each kit engineered by Bergstrand as well as the Toontrack sound design team

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