News
Addictive Drums 2 vs EZdrummer 3 vs Superior Drummer 3: Which drum plugin is best?
If you’re looking for more out of your MIDI drum kits, there are a handful of excellent plugins that offer more realistic expression, sounds and grooves. XLN Audio and Toontrack’s software, for example, go far beyond a drum machine’s capabilities, and are trusted by professional producers and mix engineers for their authentic sounds. But they’re not exactly cheap.
XLN’s Addictive Drums 2 and Toontrack’s EZdrummer 3 and Superior Drummer 3 are all immensely capable drum plugins. The cheapest also starts at around £145 and, with all the drum sounds you can purchase, can get expensive very quickly.
All three drum plugins are regularly maintained, and are arguably the best three out there. But which one should you invest in? I’ve tested all three of them against each other — there’s not a clear winner, but one software has the edge.
Which should you buy — EZdrummer 3, Addictive Drums 2, or Superior Drummer 3?
After trying all three, my personal choice is XLN’s Addictive Drums 2 because of the immediacy of its sound-shaping workflow. While Superior Drummer offers unique professional features, especially in terms of electronic drum kit MIDI mapping and achieving the most realistic drum sound possible, these features aren’t required by the average producer.
When you’re creating music predominantly within a DAW, having a plugin that is fun to use makes the process more inspiring, and this is where Addictive Drums has a slight edge over Superior Drummer due to the immediacy of its workflow.
Arguably, the redundant choice of the three is EZdrummer, because AD2 offers so much more for the same price.
Below, you can read the breakdown of how I reached that verdict.
Which Drum plugin is the most versatile — Addictive Drums, EZdrummer, or Superior Drummer?
Drum plugins are used in different ways. While some producers want to create the most authentic replication of acoustic drums possible, others are looking to design unique sounds.
Addictive Drums (AD) and Superior Drummer (SD) have the most similarities in this area, with high-detail velocity-sensitive multisampling and a wide range of kits that can be assembled piece-by-piece to build your own customised sound. The primary difference between the two is that, while they perform many of the same basic functions, Superior Drummer is almost like a DAW in itself, whereas Addictive Drums is more of an extension of your DAW.
Superior Drummer offers a far deeper level of articulation control, with multiple articulation layers per drum and even positional sensing, which can be accessed from programmed or real-time triggered MIDI data. Instead of being limited to stereo overhead pairs, SD has specific sample libraries for room mics, additional bleed, and surround that provide over 11 room mics and per-channel bleed controls for recreating each aspect of a studio drum performance.
Meanwhile, the scaled-down EZdrummer doesn’t have the per-channel sound shaping as its more elaborate sibling, SD. However, it does still offer impressive arrangement tools, with its integrated grid editor, Song Creator, and Bandmate Engine, which allow you to generate arrangements from imported audio or MIDI files. In addition, EZdrummer has many of SD’s advanced e-drum mapping features, such as manufacturer presets, positional sensing and hi-hat control, which is exciting if you plan on using it with e-drums.
Addictive Drums offers a huge selection of MIDI grooves with the ADpaks, plus tools to customise each MIDI loop within the Beats page — but Superior Drummer has a far more comprehensive sequencer. This gives you precise control over editing the timing and velocity of individual notes, as well as block-based multitrack arrangement with quantise and humanise functions. What’s more, there are convenient arrangement tools for creating tempo changes and a Song Creator feature that suggests compatible MIDI loops and structures to build cohesive drum parts.
When it comes to trigger integration, both AD and SD offer a range of preset mappings for popular e-drum brands. However, SD has local and global mapping settings. Not only is there a range of factory mappings, there are also specialist features like positional sensing for harnessing Roland’s multizonal trigger pads, as well as cymbal choking support for e-drum kits that send aftertouch MIDI data. What’s more, SD also offers more advanced mapping customization, with velocity curves to match the response to your playing style, and hi-hat calibration to ensure realistic open and closed transitions.
Winner
When it comes to versatility, Superior Drummer is the clear winner, with its detailed customization features in almost every area. While its baby brother, EZdrummer, offers a simple platform for accessing acoustic drum sounds, and Addictive Drums provides some excellent sound shaping tools, Superior Drummer is the most advanced drumming platform overall.
Which drum plugin is the easiest to use?
Naturally, as EZdrummer is the scaled-down version of Superior Drummer, you’d expect it to be the best option for beginners or those seeking a fluid workflow. However, it’s the Addictive Drums interface that is far more inviting, and it allows even an uninitiated user to dive straight into sculpting each piece of the kit. For starters, the AD interface doesn’t follow a traditional drum kit layout the way that the Toontrack drum plugins do, and the preset and kit piece browsers are intelligent workflow appendages that let you find sounds quickly and easily.
When you swap out a kick drum in EZdrummer for a larger size, for instance, nothing changes visually, whereas the AD interface gives each kit a visual identity that you develop a relationship with, as we all have with iconic kits like the green Ludwig Vistalite kit from the 1970s. While this may have little appeal to engineers who’ve been replacing drums since the nu-metal era, it certainly endears the AD plugin to new users in a way that makes it fun and inspiring to use. In contrast, Superior Drummer and even EZdrummer feel cold and clinical in comparison. While there’s no questioning how good they sound, making music is also about ideas and using tools that allow fluidity.
Another key workflow aspect is the implementation of the mixer and effects. Both EZdrummer and SD have dedicated mixer tabs, but EZ is extremely limited with only mic bleed and tape saturation, which are global effects that affect the entire kit. Although SD excels in this area with access to plenty of effects per-channel from the mixer, there isn’t a definitive drum shaping workflow.
This is where AD leaves the Toontrack plugins dead in the water. For starters, the mixer is ever-present, situated below the Kit, Edit, and FX tabs, so you always have an overview of your levels and routing. The AD Edit tab lets you shape each individual kit piece with pitch and volume envelopes, and a tight selection of insert effects designed specifically for drum shaping.
Winner
While there’s no denying the great sound and level of expression you get from EZ and Superior Drummer, they just aren’t as fun or intuitive to use as Addictive Drums. SD has more advanced features in many areas, but many producers may never have recorded drums or connected a set of e-drums. The realism debate aside, AD provides a more cohesive interface for creating drum sounds, regardless of your prior experience level.
Which drum plugin has the best sound quality?
When I focus on the sound of a drum plugin, I look at two approaches to DAW-based drum production: Either aiming to program and engineer the most realistic-sounding acoustic drums ever, or simply use a creative tool to build unique and exciting drum sounds for your next production.
As far as realism goes, there is no question that the Toontrack plugins, especially Superior Drummer, offer a deeper set of features for using articulations, MIDI editing, and even following the groove of an existing audio or MIDI file, which is useful for locking your drums and bass guitar. Also, SD uses uncompressed audio samples, with a massive 230GB library that offers specially recorded bleed and surround sample packs. This delivers unparalleled realism when combined with the over 25 velocity layers per articulation.
AD is far more streamlined in comparison, making use of XLN Audio’s proprietary audio compression format, which keeps the file size to under 3 GB per kit for the most part, and uses far less system resources as a result. While AD’s philosophy leans toward round robin sampling for variation, SD combines this with additional velocity layers for an uncompromising level of detail. In simple terms, AD is a more straightforward creative tool that quickly delivers mix-ready results, whereas SD takes the more purist approach, delving into every subtle aspect of drum recording to provide the most customisable and realistic drum production tool.
Winner
Addictive Drums is an incredibly realistic drum plugin, but it just doesn’t simulate almost every aspect of drum performance and recording the way that Superior Drummer does. SD simply offers more depth, but requires more knowledge and input from the user.
Which drum plugin has the best preset library?
Presets are absolutely essential in drum plugins. You want to be able to load up something quickly that suits the genre of music you’re working in, customise the kit sounds tonally, and adjust the ambience to fit your mix.
EZdrummer, Superior Drummer and Addictive Drums can all do this, and all three can also load a range of MIDI expansion packs with beats and drum riffs across a wide range of music styles.
When it comes to kits, EZdrummer has a selection of over 70 EZX Sound Expansion packs you can buy, which are all compatible with Superior Drummer. SD also has its own line of around 30 SDX Sound Expansions, ranging from electronic drum sample kits to kit packs designed by top producers like Tony Visconti and Sylvia Massy. The initial SD core library consists of seven kits recorded at Galaxy Studios by George Massenburg, while the EZdrummer one is the same size and was created by Michael Ilbert at Hansa Studios.
XLN Audio takes a slightly different approach to expanding the library, allowing you to choose each kit pack included with your initial purchase, which is usually three different kits. Although there are only 24 ADpaks to choose from, these cover a wide range of modern and classic music styles. For the most part, ADpaks are more affordable than the SDX Sound Expansions, and you can add individual kit pieces to take your library in a particular direction and expand when you need to.
While both XLN Audio and Toontrack use their own proprietary audio compression algorithms, the Addictive Drums ADpaks take up far less storage space, averaging around 600-700 MB each. On the other hand, the EZdrummer expansion packs are usually between 3 and 6 GB in size, while Superior Drummer’s are often over 65 GB, which is staggering.
Winner
As all the respective preset libraries contain brilliantly crafted sounds, there is no clear winner. While the Superior Drummer library is far more extensive, it also has the highest storage requirements. This means if your disk space is limited, the Addictive Drums route might be preferable, as you can tailor the library kit by kit to match your workflow, and the content is far more economical in terms of storage.
Which Drum Plugin is the best value?
For $179 / €179, you can choose one of the basic offerings from either XLN Audio or Toontrack. With the AD2 Custom Collection, you get to pick any three AD packs, three MIDI packs, and three Kitpieces from the entire range, while EZdrummer 3’s core library gives you seven multi-sampled kits across 3 rooms for the same price.
However, AD2 is a more complete drum kit design platform with more detailed shaping tools. While Superior Drummer has all these features, EZdrummer does not, which funnels users to purchase the scaled-down version of the Toontrack software with the intention of upgrading to SD at a later stage, which can work out quite costly once you start buying add-ons.
Winner
AD2 gives you the full functionality of the plugin from the get-go, and you can choose the exact kit sounds you want, making it a clear winner in the value department.
The post Addictive Drums 2 vs EZdrummer 3 vs Superior Drummer 3: Which drum plugin is best? appeared first on MusicTech.