Toontrack Decades SDX - In-depth Review 

As a metal/punk/hard rock guy, I absolutely prefer more natural drum sounds like this to the overprocessed/overcompressed modern drum sound

Listening to Decades was honestly a special experience to me. It really has this hard to define little extra that makes it so special. Well done Toontrack, and thank you Mike for going in depth with this one!

Thank you for this awesome and very interesting review Mike, what concerns me I think you also deserved your star ⭐️ on the Walk of Fame. The drums are sounding extremely well. Have a great week my friend 😎👍👊⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks Mike for the great review. I'll be adding Decades to my collection.

Sold! Yet again. Mike, subscribing to your channel might have been one of the most expensive “clicks” I’ve ever made. Best decision though; I love it!

This sounds absolutely awesome and realistic! Thanks for the review!!

Hey Mike, this is the first comment I've left you but I've been watching your vids for a few months now and I think you're doing a fantastic job man - nice one! I got Superior drummer 3 a while back and it can be a bit daunting at first but I have to say your videos have helped me a lot - I have a preset called Mikeluke, which is based on the vid you did about getting a good starting point by applying some eq and stuff - awesome. I also bought the sdx independent expansion on your recommendation and its a great sounding package. Just got the Decades before you did the review cause like you say Al Schmitt is a legend and it's just fantastic! We live in great times as far as producing your own music goes, the sky really is the limit now even if you're on a budget you can make some great sounding music with the tech that's available. Anyways all the best Mike, and the best of luck with your music, thanks again : )

tremendous review! Sold! Thank you!

Mike, I’m going to pick this up as soon as I can. I can really hear a lot of this being used for modern worship music as well. Thanks for the in-depth review! Great job!

The "valve to tape" preset is almost enough to make me buy it right now. Man that sounds so good! Great review video (as always)... I'm not sure I need this at the moment. I still have AD2 and SSD5 kits to explore. I have barely done anything with the Custom Shop EZX for that matter! I need to get busy! Thanks for making this video!!

Nice review Mike sure sounds like a great package and a must for me :)

Great job, Mike! Thank you!

Got impression from Jeff Porcaro's snare!..this was amazing!!..Cool review!!👍👍+1

This indeed does sound sweet!

Good to see you again

Between this and Death & Darkness I pretty much have all my drum needs covered. Both are so well done.

Great review, thanks!

Mike awesome man as always

Nice demo

Thank you Mike for a detailed description! Can you please shed light on a few articulations when it comes to the brushes please? For eg In/Out Accent swirls vs In/Out accent trigger. How is it useful? Thank you very much :)

Im about to download Decades this weekend. Seems to work really well for alternative / singer Songwriter as well ... looking forward to it now ;)

very interesting Video Mike. Now I am close to buy this Expansion... But I use SD3 not very often since I have the mimic.

That 70’s muffled kit would also sound great on tunes from the early 80’s and late 70’s transition into drum sequencers and drum machines. I like this especially for Queen hits like Another one bites the dust, Under Pressure etc...

I hope this SDX works for Latin music (like Vallenato pop for example). Because I tried to do this kind of music genre with the core SD3 and Ezdrummer 2 libraries also tried with some expansion packs like the Custom Shop and I’m not getting good results. Thank you for the video!

I used to use the music city and some of the core library (Yamaha) over all but this one is way superior to it ! It has it all .. great sounding whatever you shown .. Thanks a lot ..

Mike I just stumbled upon your channel as I was looking for some reviews on Superior 3 and some SDXs to compare to what I have been using for years (BFD). Your channel is the perfect combination of useful technical information, tips, and reverence for the engineers and the software. Much respect and appreciation to you for taking your time to do this. It's apparent that you have a deep love for music, it's history, and the people who make it. Well done sir.

Tremendous drums

Brush kit is absolutely stunning! Are you playing this with a roland kit?

Hello and congratulations for your videos. I recently discovered you and I also have SD3 and really love it but I own just Core sounds right now. I'm thinking to buy some packs cause the raw sounds are a little hard to manage for me at my mixing knowledge level. I have a big doubt. Comparing SD3 to SSD5, what do you think gives a truer and similar sound to a real drum? On SSD5 I like some snares, but sometimes they seem very compressed. Instead I don't like cymbals at all. Obviously I know that they are both extraordinary programs, but choosing one, what do you pick? And staying with SD3 what pack do you recommend for rock/country sound (Kip Moore, Keith Urban, Chris Stapleton, John Mayer)? Thank you

👍Now, you have to learn the rosanna groove... no excuses ! 😁👍

How would you rate the midi files that come along with decades? The non Drummers are sometimes depend on the midi, guess it has been discussed a few times before ... Need them particular for alternative / Indy singer Songwriter Music Cheers

@mike this is the best drum libary so far....and it looks like they release a metal sdx tomorrow...if yes then you already have it right? :P am very corious bout it:) i dont have soo much sdx/rzx "just" bob rock sdx, decades sdx, sd2 core, sd3 core libary & custom shop & ukpop ezx...BUT this covers so much .....really great... a very modern metal sdx in the same quallity range like decades would be perfect :)

Wonderful pack, As of now I have SD3 with Hansa plus Custom Shop, Americana, Indie Folk, UK Pop, Claustrophobic, Dream Pop, and Twizted Kits from EZ drummer. I hope I don't have to buy anything else. It's cool to have the actual Jeff Porcaro snare, but I don't see me buying the pack just for that snare, I wish they make another Kick Snare pack and include it

BTW: how much RAM are you running this with? Toontrack recommends 16GB. I have a Mac that’s nine years old and it has 8GB of RAM.

18:25 ”Rectums were recorded directly. Ha! ” No but seriously, nice review!

still the best you heard in 2023 mike? if not which?

Does it work in Ezdrummer or only in Superior?

skip to 03:14 for the review

Hol-y s***

I’ll have to be the negative guy as this has been my least favourite expansion I’ve purchased. Not a good selection of snares, it’s recorded good but none of the drums work for me. But you can never really know until you use it personally