Custom & Vintage SDX
The Custom and Vintage SDX is an expansion pack for the award winning Toontrack Music drumsampler Superior Drummer 2.0. It features extensive stick and brush recordings of a unique collection of drums and cymbals.
The SDX gives everyone from top producers down, access to the cream of custom and vintage drums, built by craftsmen from the 1920s right up to the exceptional instrument makers of today, like Johnny Craviotto.
Most of these highly prized instruments (like a 1920s Ludwig Black Beauty, or Craviotto Timeless Timber) can only be found in the collections of top studio drummers or hired from rental facilities in the major music centres of the world
Recorded at 2Khz studio in London using an EMI TG Desk used for many legendary recordings of the early seventies including The Beatles Abbey Road and Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon. It is considered one of the best sounding desks ever made.
The Custom and Vintage SDX was played by Chris Whitten. The drummer on classic hits like What I Am by Edie Brickelland The New Bohemians and The Whole Of The Moon by The Waterboys.
Whitten was hailed as a world class drummer playing on Paul McCartneys Flowers In The Dirt album and subsequent record breaking World tour, and Dire Straits 18 month On Every Street tour. Chris has also recorded with such varied artists as Johnny Cash, Julian Cope, World Party and The Pretenders.
The Custom and Vintage SDX was produced by Peter Henderson who started his career at Air Studios where he trained and worked with Beatles recording engineer Geoff Emerick (Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road etc). as well as with the legendary George Martin.
Henderson produced Supertramp´s 20 million selling Breakfast In America, for which he won a Grammy. He has also worked with Paul McCartney, Rush, Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, Tina Turner and Ringo Starr.
The Kits
Noble & Cooley Star Series
”This is an exact copy of the set I took on the road with Paul McCartney in 1989.
At that time I was one of only two drummers touring with these radically designed drums.
The toms and snare are single-ply, steam-bent shells (in the style of vintage Slingerland Radio King snare drums). Designed for N&C by Bob Gatzen, the shells proved time consuming and expensive to produce. Sadly, only the Star Series snare drums are still in production.”
Camco Oaklawn
”Thought by many to be one of the best sounding drum kits ever made.
Camco went through several incarnations and factory sites (Oaklawn, Chanute, Los Angeles), with the mid to late-1960s Oaklawn era drums being regarded as arguably their finest.
The Camco name finally faded at the end of the 1970s, but their drums live on in the hands of those who love classic drums. Current prices reflect that desirability. Lucky for me the rock sizes are slightly less hard to find than the 18, 12 & 14 bop kit, so desired by jazz drummers.
Camco drums have a big, warm tone that instantly says vintage. However in my opinion they easily match - and surpass in most cases - the drums being designed for recording today.”
Slingerland Studio King
”Having been acquired by Gibson guitars in the 1990s, the Slingerland name briefly re-emerged with the manufacture of Radio King snare drums and Studio King drum kits under the watchful eye of Pat Foley in Nashville, Tennessee. During the making of Custom & Vintage, Mike Udell at Drumhire repeatedly
told us the Studio King set in his inventory was one of the best kits hed ever owned. Having already achieved great results with a Radio King Select snare drum from the same period, we decided to rent the Slingerland kit and record it using the standard 1970s method. We removed the bottom heads of the toms and resonant head of the bass drum. Sennheiser 421 microphones were positioned inside the toms instead of the usual method above the batter head. This gives you a fatter sound, with a lot of separation. More to the point, its the archetypal sound of the 1970s studio drummer.”
Ludwig Keystone Drum Set
”The Ludwig Drum Company had little idea what was about to hit them in the months following February 9th 1964, The Beatles debut U.S. television appearance on The Ed
Sullivan Show. The band were a sensation and almost overnight everyone wanted to own a set of Ludwig drums just like Ringos. In fact, Ludwig were still struggling to keep up with demand when along came another drumming icon John Bonham.
As well as his use of the Supraphonic snare drum, Bonham popularised larger sizes, including the 24" bass drum similar to the one sampled for the Superior Vintage Add On. This 60s era Ludwig set belongs to 2khz Studio owner Nick Yeatman and we were very happy he lent it to us so we could capture that phat and funky Ludwig sound.”
Gretsch Round Badge Drum Set
”At the same time Ringo Starr was playing Ludwig drums, Charlie Watts - his opposite number in The Rolling Stones - was playing Gretsch, another classic American
brand. The Round Badge era of Gretsch drums (manufactured until 1971) has been the choice of many of the most important jazz drummers in history and still is among
contemporary players. In the 1950s and 60s, Gretsch focused its marketing effort on the jazz fraternity, pioneering the now standard jazz sizes of 18" bass drum, 12" and 14" toms. The smaller drums were more convenient for fitting into the small performance spaces in crowded jazz clubs and into the trunks of small cars or NY taxi cabs. During this period Gretsch first used the slogan "that Great Gretsch Sound". Even today, many jazz musicians regard the great Gretsch Sound synonymous with jazz drumming. The Round Badge set we recorded has more of a rock bias, with the inclusion of larger sized drums; 22”, bass drum, 13" and 16" toms, as well as the jazz standard 8" x 12" mounted tom and 14" x 14" floor tom. It still has that very distinctive Gretsch sound though.
Incidentally, Charlie Watts still uses his vintage Round Badge Gretsch kit on the road and in the studio with The Stones.”
About the studio
The Custom & Vintage SDX was recorded at 2KHz Studios, London using an EMI TG Desk. 2KHz’s TG is an ex-Abbey Road Mobile console (1964 design) with a 28 channel /16 track configuration, with Germanium Transistor Mic Pres.
The TG console was EMIs very first transistor design and was used for many legendary recordings of the early seventies including The Beatles Abbey Road and Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon. It is considered one of the best sounding desks ever made.
The drums were recorded with a selection of vintage microphones by Neumann (including valve U67’s on overheads and KM 56’s on toms), AKG and Sennheiser.
As an added feature one of the room microphones (a Neumann U87) was processed with a Helios F760 compressor, the type found in early Helios 1970s consoles as used by Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Rolling Stones and Apple Corps (The Beatles own studio).