I have a suggestion for the next VDL release - some higher BD sounds. I have been using the VDL sountfont version for a while now, and am very pleased with everything except the lowest bass drum. I write for several high school lines that use smaller sized drums (16, 18, 20, 22, 24) and the low thud of the bottom bass in VDL sounds nothing like these smaller drums. For the next release, it would be nice to have one or two higher bass sounds so that arrangers can choose to have 5 drums that all sound tonal, rather than 4 very nice ones and the bottom thud. I do appriciate the thud sound on the unison bass drums, but for runs it doesn't work for me.

Thanks to the VDL creators for a great product that has me arranging stuff just to hear what it would sound like if I only had students with amazing hands.

yeah thats thing that bugs me about VD, bass 5 sticks out so much, as is the nature of a real bass 5

That's the cool thing about Virtual Drumline. It's all about simulating the REAL sound. Which is also why the LH bass drum notes sound a little less loud than the RH hits. That's the way it actually sounds. :)

AB

I agree with Adam. In a way, what you are asking is for SCV to change their bass tuning... I think you are going to have to take that up with Jim. :) One thing I really enjoy about the virtual drum line is the realistic aspects, whether they are imperfections or not, because it is derived from humans.

Robbie

i have noticed the LH bass thing, but the VD bass 5 (i think) sticks out way more than a real one does

BassPlate,

You should check out my post as well as Adam and Jim's answers regarding [b]Key Velocities-Accents (Drum Regions?)[/b]. This might help you get drum five to sound more to your liking. I agree that it sound a bit different than the others. The pitch and texture are not going to change, but you can adjust the volume. Check out the post... Talk to you later,

Robbie[/b]

I wasn't suggesting that SCV change anything, or that the bass 5 doesn't sound real, it's just not useful to those that teach with smaller drums. I'd guess there are a lot more high school arrangers using smaller drums with this product than those using very large ones.

So just duplicate the Bass 4 sample and drop the pitch.

Done.

Although my method removes the "authenticity" of the sample library, I just put the bass 4 sample into the bass 5 slot and took the pitch down. It now has the tonal characteristics of drum 4 (attack, decay, etc.). There are lots of things that are different from the 2002 SCV line when compared to most lines (2002 is the line sampled, right?), but you get what you buy. In this case you bought that line's tuning scheme.

I'm really suprised by the hand-to-hand differences in the snare line though. Didn't you guys use tilted drums?

- David