Rayzoon Technologies LLC

[rich_h]

I think the standard kit is pretty good, I like the snare sound. I have the NS7 full kit, which I am using subsets of inside Cakewalk's SessionDrummer2 (because the SFZ format allows kits to be set up easily) for when I want different sounds, in particular I like NS7's piccolo snare which sits in well with the default kit.

[J van E]

To tell you the truth, I don't really know which kit I use: I simply load the presets that come with JS2: usually the first or last entry from the rock category (first one is BIG and the last is standard) and the brush preset from the jazz section (which I presume is the complete Brush pak). Those rock presets may use stuff from older paks (which I also own).

[ZombyWoof]

I use the JS kits about half the time, and I subhost Battery, Kontakt, and WusikStation at other times. The JS kits are surprisingly good for the price. I just ordered NS7kit full, available again for a limited run.

[Sherz]

I've had a fair bit of criticism in the past regarding the sound of my drums, which in recent times which have mostly been the standard JS drumpak1 & 2.
Some people seem to be really particular (dare I say 'anal' ? )about drum sounds. To my ears DP1 & 2 sure sound like drums to me... (they sound like drums to my wife too! ) So what's the big deal? I think as someone alluded to previously a good performance on a "bad" sounding kit is still going to be preferable to a bad performance on an amazing sounding kit. So, as a non-drummer it's far more important to me to be spending the time getting JS sounding, performance-wise, as authentic and realistic as possible then it is to be wasting $ on expensive sample libraries. While a selection of sounds is handy, particularly snares, there are also many things that you can do to shape a sound; compression, EQ, FX such as reverbs, delays, distortion etc. Having a limited sample collection and limited $ can sometimes offer a useful opportunity to get a little more creative if you allow your imagination the freedom to experiment! And it sure is cheaper than shelling out loads of ca$h on DKFH, BFD, Addicted etc etc.

Sometimes it comes down to who we are trying to 'please'. Most "ordinary" listeners I know don't even think about or consider what drumkit is used or whether the snare sound is optimal, or the kick is punchy enough...they just listen to the song. In fact most wouldn't even know it's a software drummer they are listening too. It seems to me that it's mostly our peer group that indirectly, or otherwise, puts the pressure on to aspire to some arbitrarily high standard of sonic perfection and the impression I get is that many feel the JS kits don't meet that "standard". But in the right hands, I'm sure JS kits can be made to sound very convincing, if the performance is very good I suspect people won't get so easily distracted and nit-picky over the sound of the kit.

[J van E]

Yesterday there was someone at my office who has, over the years, build his own professional music studio, mainly used for music for commercials, company movies and that kind of stuff. He has (amongst others) a drumkit with about six condensator mics he specially bought for it. Someone else said I made music too (yeah, right, on my attic, with a X-Fi, right beside the central heater...!) so I let him listen to my latest things, made with JS2 (and RealStrat, amongst others). First thing he asked was what drums I used. When I told him it was a plugin, he couldn't stop talking about how good they sounded and how REAL the playing was. You should have seen his eyes when I told him JS2 costs $ 100,- and I even got it for $ 40,- as an upgrade. That's a lot cheaper than one of his mics...

[lucky]

[rich_h]

[Vaylos]

I like the JS1 and 2 kit sounds (even though I just have default kits) IMO they are very usable. Although, since I've (finally) gotten ahold of yellowtools independence free, i've been using the acoustic kits included with it. Course, I still use the JS kits as well since they're a little more varied, guess it depends on what i'm working on really.

I'm no professional by any means, and I tend to be a little picky about my instrumentation, but the JS kits pretty much suit my "bread'n'butter" needs quite nicely.

[dancerchris]

I agree that the JS sounds are very nice but just A/B the same jam using DFHS and it is night and day. But, generally I don't bother until I am deeper into the project. I have and use both.

[tombuur]

I only use the default sounds for small tests and playing on my laptop. On my DAW computer I use DHFS or C&V, I also have BFD but never use it.

[Compyfox]

Well personally I'd like to have more kicks. Not to mention "split" kicks. It's hard with an EQ to get out the pedal sound and the sub seperately if you need a certain clean and slapping sound. For this, all kicks in JS are a bit boomy IMO.

And what I also don't like is the fact, that the ambience "mics" are spread far out and if I add all other samples "raw" (without ambience), it still sounds akward if turned down the ambience mics. Then again, I still have tons of free stuff on my HDD for layering, Kontakt 2, Halion 2/3, NS7 Free, Maestro Drums, etc. Even speculating with Addictive Drums.

Then agian... if I'd know how to trigger a kick with MIDI only but use the internal sounds for hats (and the like) from JS, rather than load a DLL into it and therefore layer my own drums via external ways rather than internal, that'd be a bit more conventient. All samples are good in their own way, and the JS stuff is nice. You can get away with decent to awesome results in a mix. Though sometimes with just too much roomsound on the samples.

[politcat]

[Ralph [RZ]]

[Compyfox]

[Ralph [RZ]]

Just PM'd you...
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Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com