SDX expansions for Superior Drummer 3 are the top tier of Toontrack’s catalog, and this one has a heavyweight argument: it was recorded by Niko Bolas, a producer and engineer behind countless records, in Studio D at The Village in Los Angeles. The point isn’t to pile up sounds but to capture a signature — a certain school of American session drumming, instruments and rooms included.
Eight kits, and names that carry weight
LA Sessions gathers eight complete drum kits plus a percussion kit, several of them personally owned by the drummers who played them: Kenny Aronoff, Steve Jordan, Denny Fongheiser, Charley Drayton, Anthony LoGerfo, Russ Kunkel and Stella Mozgawa. These aren’t generic kits but the real instruments of players who shaped records you know. The tally sets the scale: 14 kicks, 14 snares, 27 toms, 21 cymbals and four hi-hat sets. The percussion kit adds djembes, klong yaw, doumbeks, tablas and djun-djun, played with hands and mallets.
The room makes the sound
Recording took place across four spots in two rooms of Studio D — the piano area, the studio floor, the riser and a sealed-off vocal booth — with an extensive microphone setup. One telling detail of that obsession with place: the resonance of the studio’s grand piano strings was itself captured for extra ambience. That’s exactly what separates a sample library from a true studio capture: the acoustic fingerprint of the room, its reflections, its grain.
Ready to use, but not locked down
On the production side, Niko Bolas built 45 mix-ready presets, to which Toontrack adds its own selection, and the whole thing ships with 340 MIDI grooves and fills tailored to these kits. Enough to lay down a convincing drum part in a few clicks, then lift the hood and remix everything from the raw mics. It clearly targets jazz, acoustic pop, singer-songwriter and rock — the music where drums need to breathe. For the rest of the chain, our piece on the Sonnox Oxford Drum Gate 2 is a good companion, and if the mic techniques interest you, see our guide to microphone placement. Budget around €175; the library requires Superior Drummer 3. Details are on the Toontrack site.
My take
What makes an SDX worth it isn’t the sample count, it’s the intent behind the capture. Handing the recording to Niko Bolas and going after the real kits of session drummers means buying a color, not one more library. The 45 in-house presets settle the time-saving question, and the raw mics leave all the room you need to sculpt. The catch to keep in mind: you need Superior Drummer 3 to use it, so the real entry ticket climbs if you’re starting from scratch. But for an acoustic production where the drums carry the song, it’s hard to get more direct than this.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need Superior Drummer 3?
Yes. LA Sessions is an SDX expansion: it loads into Superior Drummer 3 and isn’t a standalone instrument. Without the engine, the sounds won’t open.
What styles is it aimed at?
Jazz, acoustic pop, singer-songwriter and rock. The open, natural recording approach suits songs where the drums breathe rather than heavily compressed productions.
What’s inside, exactly?
Eight drum kits and a percussion kit — 14 kicks, 14 snares, 27 toms, 21 cymbals and four hi-hats — plus 45 presets from Niko Bolas, further Toontrack presets, and 340 MIDI grooves and fills.
Are the kits really famous drummers’ own instruments?
Yes, several are personally owned by the musicians who recorded them, from Kenny Aronoff to Steve Jordan. That’s the whole appeal: capturing instruments with a history, not anonymous studio kits.
