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sequence of low-volume tip strokes on the final cymbal we would have time to sample, an angry seagull apparently landed on the roof just above the studio. It started to squawk loudly. Oh, what this vegetarian, animal-loving drummer would have given for a gun! Luckily, it flew off after a few minutes, but it felt like someone had it in for us, especially as we’d had none of these problems on previous evenings. After completing that final cymbal, our time was up, except for a couple of hours packing everything up, that is. Did I say the drum sampling game is glamorous? Gonna Write a Classic These days, Toontrack has developed custom tools to edit and format all the samples into its software products like EZdrummer and Superior. You still need skilled people like Mattias to make them sound their best, and there are also artistic and commercial decisions to make. Peter and I always hope to record more than we need, and offer more choices than can be catered for. So, everyone - Peter, myself, the Toontrack team and the beta testers have a say in how the final product ends up. One hot topic was a name for the product. This time, I wanted to keep my lip buttoned. I’d come up with ‘Custom & Vintage’, a name based on the drums and cymbals recorded and recording equipment used. However, potential buyers seemed to focus on the word ‘vintage’ and ignore the word ‘custom’, presuming the samples were aimed at the retro music scene, which they are not. Anyway, a couple of the Toontrack guys suggested ‘Classic’ and this morphed over a few days into ‘The Classic’. Everyone seemed to like it, so it was duly named.
One final duty befell me, to record and edit a ‘Best Of…’ MIDI library to include with the sampled drums. For this, I’m indebted to Roland Corp Australia. I’m not a regular e-drummer. In fact, I find it a hard discipline to master. Roland’s Simon Ayton had offered to help out if I ever needed to create a MIDI library for Toontrack and so I decided to take him up on it. Amazingly, he offered to let me work at their offices for as many days as I needed, and to use one of their TD-20s, already set up and ready to play. The next task was to go through my career CDs and decide what to reproduce in MIDI form. Which songs would people want to hear me play, which grooves would be most useful to our customers? I knew everyone would expect ‘What I Am’, the Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians hit. I decided to choose at least one song from the main bands I’ve been associated with. I never recorded with Dire Straits, but everyone loves ‘Money For Nothing’. I played it over 300 times on tour, not counting months of rehearsals, so that went on my list. So did the biggest hit from the ‘Flowers In The Dirt’ album I recorded with Paul McCartney: ‘My Brave Face’. Plus songs from Julian Cope’s ‘St Julian’ album, the World Party album ‘Goodbye Jumbo’, and the hit ‘Where In The World’ by Swing Out Sister. With all that recorded and edited, the next part was waiting for ‘The Classic’ to hit the shelves. I only hope Toontrack’s customers enjoy using the sounds as much as I already am. Maybe someone will record a hit record with them and tell me on the Toontrack forum, “That’s your snare!”