What was the idea going in?Ī: It just kind of happened, we didn’t really had an idea to be honest. Q: Honestly, this is a monster of a product. Let’s head into the infinite universe of the Area 33 SDX. With this one, you’ll have endless possibilities of shaping drum mixes beyond what you thought possible. Finally, to capture the essence of the room and to give you even more options, 11 ambience microphones (of which seven in stereo) were recorded. This means that each drum and cymbal is represented by both a mono as well as a stereo pair of microphones, allowing you to sculpt tones beyond what you thought possible. Each kit was recorded using the classic close-mic technique but, in addition, with an extra set of microphones on each position. On top of that, this SDX was captured using what is beyond traditional in terms of microphones. To add, these are not your average, everyday kits – several of them boast up to eight toms, double bass drums and 15 cymbal slots. With its seven contrasting and complementing kits, extensive pool of additional drums and virtual forest of cymbals, the Area 33 SDX presents a massively broad palette of raw and unadulterated drums that you can hone, shape and mold using the limitless framework of Superior Drummer 3.

This studio, which Thordendal and Bergstrand built from the ground up, was designed with the goal of creating the epitome of a drum room: spacious and reverberant but at the same time profoundly precise, direct and controlled. It was recorded at Fredrik Thordendal’s personal studio 33 in Stockholm, Sweden.

In this joint venture of sourcing, engineering and ultimately externalizing their very figment of what the most all-encompassing metal-related SDX for Superior Drummer 3 could be, they ended up with an absolute monster weighing in at a staggering 180+ GB. The Area 33 SDX brings together parts of the original Drumkit From Hell team: Meshuggah guitarist Fredrik Thordendal and producer/engineer/mixer Daniel Bergstrand (Behemoth, In Flames, Dimmu Borgir).

Superior drummer expansion