Hi guys,
For the past year or at least close to it, I’ve been wanting to purchase Addictive Drums 2 as I’m not crazy about Groove Agent in Cubase…not a fan. I see that Addictive Drums is on a holiday sale right now at $95.40. I’m not sure how much it usually goes for but the price seems great to me. This sales is going on until January 5th I think. Buy Addictive Drums 2 - XLN Audio…_gsMQ…&gclid=Cj0KCQiA9667BhDoARIsANnamQbmVl2Fn39loJQfrX8tqEtv8d58XulZ9FlVUOUR1_ramsYFxIYmDLsaAk-qEALw_wcB
I wanted to asked before I pull the trigger on this, is there anything I need to know before buying? I know that Robert really likes AD2 but I want to make sure that is isn’t anything that I need in addition to AD2? Like is the any add-ons that you guys are using when it comes to the kits that Robert is using in his training classes or anything like that.
I can also recommend the Vintage Dead Kit. It comes with more pieces than the older kits and has also more (versatile) presets. It is the most recent kit and I think it shows that they put experience and effort into it.
You can also start by just picking one kit and making decisions on other kits later. Within AD2, you can preview the other kits presets via audio-demos.
Thank you both for your input. I was looking on Sweetwater for the software. They have it but this time, because of holiday sale it was cheaper on the XLN Audio website.
I’m going to buy this today. I’ll look into each of the add-ons for the base package as I’m not sure what’s included with it.
I’m also happy to say that I’m finally falling into a “groove” when it comes to finger drumming. I can now see and hear the difference between using the pad controller with so so drum samples and good samples with the pad controller.
I have a few more things to add to this but I think I’ll create a new topic because it will dilute this post/subject and get too far off topic.
Thanks very much Robert and Fannon. Very helpful.
Chris
The only time I’ve seen it cheaper than the current price was Black Friday. The current 40% off is pretty good.
The 3 ADpaks with the custom collection allows for some great variety to be selected and you can always get more down the track if you really need them.
The version 2.5 upgrade they did a few months ago makes it look a lot nicer and probably a little easier to use.
Duncan,
Thank you for your input. I was on their site last night to purchase it. The site is rather confusing when it comes to the packages. It shows several rows of products for this custom collection package but when I click on one item in each row I don’t see anything that confirms that this add-on is in my cart. Because of this I haven’t purchased it yet. I’ll look again today.
Thank you
Chris
The one I think most people start with is the Custom as it’s usually the best value. When you first go to the following page, it might look like it’s called Custom Collection but it’s the same thing. It contains
3 drum kit expansions (ADpaks)
3 beat & groove expansions (MIDIpaks)
3 kit piece expansions (Kitpiece Paks)
Addictive Drums 2
Note, you can’t just buy Addictive Drums 2, you have to get some sort of collection because at bare minimum you need one ADpak to make the product work. EZdrummer 3 does something similar in that they give you multiple kits, you just can’t choose like you can with Addictive Drums 2.
Thanks Duncan,
I’ve been to that page several times. i don’t see how to add what ADpaks that you want included in the purchase of the Custom Collection. If I just add the custom collection to the cart at $101.40 it doesn’t show what I’m actually getting. There is no breakdown in the cart to show what I’m actually getting.
I want the Black Oyster, Fairfax1 and I think the Vintage Dead…maybe.
Oh crap. I see that there is some fine print during the purchase that reads “Follow the step-by-step instructions shown directly after you’ve made your purchase to choose your content.”
I just noticed this now! Ok thanks guys. As usual…it was my oversite.
Chris
Once you registered the custom collection in your account, you can go there and pick your choices. You don’t have choose everything right away, it will show you how much choices you have left.
Ok Thanks Duncan,
I usually buy all of my pro gear from Sweetwater because they give tech support on anything and everything you buy from them but they don’t seem to have the custom kit at this price point…so I’ll buy it from XLN site.
Thank you
C
Thanks guys.
I just purchased AD2 and Modo Bass2 from Sweetwater…but there’s a problem with the order. A server error!! of course right?! I bet if I order it from XLN’s site I wouldn’t have had this issue. Or well. Looking forward to getting this up and running and ditching Groove Agent.
Today I’m going to bring my PC into the shop and tear it apart to rebuild it with a 32Gb RAM 12 core CPU monster. But last night I was relearning a bass line that I need to get down for a song I wrote in 1999 but when I took a break from that I went back to my pad controller because of two reasons. Nektar got back to me on a question I asked them. How did I program one of the pedal switches to trigger cymbal chokes and the other was operating hi hat up/down. They told me I must have did this programming in the VST plugin and not the Aruba because they tell me you can’t do that sort of thing in the Aruba. I set this up over a year ago so I can’t recall but I don’t recall doing any programming or configuration changes in Groove Agent because I really don’t like the program which is why I just bought AD2.
Rob do you still have the Aura/Aruba by any chance? I am almost 100 percent positive that all of the programming was done on the Aruba. If I hit pedal 1 and it triggers the cymbal choke. The screen shows that I used CC14 for this and that when the pedal is pressed the CC value goes to 50. When the pedal is up it’s at 127. I tried to figured out how I did this and so far, after about a week of going through the Nektar manual and the device itself I can’t seem to find how I did this. I also wanted to try the other pedal on the hi hat but can’t seem to recall how I did this.
I would think Rob that you didn’t mess with any of that…only tweaking the pads for the required sensitivity?
Oh one more thing. Rob if you recall, I had asked you about the ghost notes in Rosanna…that I could quite get them to sound correct? Yeah well I’m pretty decent at controller my dynamics on the pad but I still couldn’t get it. It turned out that the snare I was using wasn’t a normal snare but a patch called Rim…I assume the rim of the snare on E1. This patch simply did not have the correct tamber for the job. After experimenting a bit I found if I used a normal snare D1 NOW the ghost notes with my left finger or thumb is actually quite easier and sounds like it should.
Once I get AD2 installed I’ll look over Rob documentation to see what patches are used for most of the kits that are being used.
Hi guys,
Thanks for all of your recommendations when it comes to AD2. I just got it up and running and it sounds freaking amazing. So playable! I’m still working out all of the configuration issues with the new PC but I’m getting there. Ok now to the meat and potatos of the post…
I purchased AD2 with Black Oyster, Vintage Dead and FairFax 1. Freaking great sounding stuff! Now I have to program my Aruba pad controller to trigger the correct drums. You know there is very few times I spend money on a new software plugin or hardware upgrades and feel this good that this is the right choice but I’m feeling that now. So thank you all for your input on this.
I purchased it from Sweetwater because there is a big value in purchasing stuff from them and that is endless tech support if needed. Regless of how long you’ve had the product they are there and they are usually right on par with pricing…not always but most of the time. I also purchase Modo Bass and will be working with that first to get the piano and bass line synced up then I’ll play/record the drums to that. I think what makes this so great is not only do I have a MUCH better sounding souce of drums but I also have a MUCH better way to perform drums. It really does make all the difference in the quality of the music.
Ok so now I have to program my Aruba for the correct kit and make sure each pad is what it should be. I’m going to dig into this now. Before I go there I wanted to ask you AD2 users a few questions.
Can I program AD2 so a single kit can be modified in a minor way with a click or is this best done on the pad controller itself? What I mean is if I set up a kit with all of the drums I wanted within that kit and if I need to swap out maybe a snare rimshot with a China or splash cymbal or if I didn’t need a second ride and wanted to add in it’s place a woodbock or cowbell can you do this from AD2 interface?
I noticed on Rob’s Mashine that he uses a few buttons to add things or swap things within the kit. This seem great but I’m not sure if the Aruba has this capability. Do you guys have any opinion on this?
Is AD2 capable programming a switch in drums using a CC for foot switch toggling between the two sounds? Like if I wanted my cymbals chokes to be trigger by a foot switch on the Aruba can AD2 accomidate this? If so how is this typically done?
Rob I remember you having the drum kits that you used for your demo videos. I’ll look on your site to see if I can find it or if you have a link to it please let me know.
Can you mix and match drums from different kits to be your custom kit and if so can you save your custom kit as a preset?
I’m going to dig into AD2 but I just wanted to ask this before or as I got started.
Thanks again guys!
Chris
I’m not aware that on AD2 you can easily switch sounds. The slots are also limited to the “kind”, so you cannot add a China in a snare position. This would also go against the “principle” of an acoustic drum VST I think, where the MIDI note defines what part of the drumkit you play and there’s special mixing / processing based on which part of the drum kit. This flexibility you look for I’ve only seen with Sample player VST, which lack the realism of AD2 and the like.
So you cannot change the sound behind the MIDI Note, but your pad controller may be able to change which MIDI note it sends per pad.
On my Machine Mk3, I have setup a few AD2 variations where I for example exchange snare with Rim or Sidesticks or focus on Flexi slots. With the Maschine it’s easy to switch between the layouts (A-H). That’s probably what you mean with 2)? See screenshot.
Since I don’t have an Aruba, no idea if you can do something similar there. On the Yamaha FGDP-50, you can also create and store several layout, but they are not as convenient to switch (via menu instead of dedicated buttons).
Yes, 5), you can mix and match and save it as your custom kit.
Hey thanks Fannon! You have addressed every question I had thanks!
I’m guessing that I might be the only one that has the Aruba/Aura in this community. There are three reasons for this. 1) When I saw Rob’s review of it I was sold on it because unlike many pad controllers made for beat composing the Aruba seems to be in the top tier for controllers that also do finger drumming well due to the quality pads and FULLY adjustable tweaks that can be done to them. 2) I was able to puchase an “open box” Aruba for super cheap. I can’t recall what I paid (although I’m sure I posted my purchase of the Aruba on this forum and can check) but it was dirt cheap. If I recall, I didn’t even pay half of what they sell for new. 3) I really don’t like Native Instruments way of doing things. My experiance with them isn’t great. I think this opinion started within Cubase and their Kontact player and instruments that they make to work in it. They remind me of the way Apple does things. HOWEVER, had I known at the time that it was possible to use the Maschine in MIDI mode and not have to run any of their software I would have likely looked into the Maschine MKIII or whatever the model is that you guys have.
Oh and yes the Aruba is super simple to change the notes that the pads are assigned to, so that will be a simple tweak. Althought right now I have no idea what I’d want whe it comes to a whole kit or programming each pad with a custom “C.F.Christopher Kit”.
It’s soooo freaking rare that I purchase something with an idea that it’s going to improve on what I currently have but between the pad controller and AD2 I’m freaking blown away at how much better and more playable it is!
On one of my other posts, I think it was about the Rosanna Chuffle. I asked about the snare ghoast notes and how I couldn’t quite play it. Rob had mentioned about playing it softly with my left hand’s index finger. I messed around with it for a few days. Then when I was looking into Groove Agent’s configuration (terrible UI by the way) I noticed that my snare drum sound wasn’t even a standard snare but a rimshot and it was set to both of my snare pads #6 and #7. I switched this over the actual snare and that was it! The dynamics of the snare was completly different from the rimshot that was previously program in this slot and doing the ghost notes on the snare now was so natural and organic I almost lost my balance! Now I haven’t even programmed AD2 (I’ll get to that in a few hours) but the default pad assignments do place the kick and snare in the “right place” meaning they are on pads #2,and 3 for the kick and #6 and 7 for the snare and I played a sort of shuffle with the ghosted notes on the snare…holy crap. It sounded amazing! THIS is what I was hoping for when switching to playing drums on a keyboard vs on a pad controller. I mean you can actually PLAY the durms for real. For the first time I’m not trying to emulate something real on something other than acoutstic drums and it sounds and feel real and correct but mostly importantly it feel natural! Wow, I’m hyperventalating! lol
Thanks Fannon for the information. Nektar has been great in regard to getting back to me when I have a question. I’m going to ask them about if some of these buttons can be programmed for different kits. If not I’ll learn how to do something similar in AD2.
Thank you guys!
Chris
