syrinx
Senior Member
Haha, it could also be a selling point I guess! When I first bought it I was so happy to hear all those sounds that I recalled so well (as I'm definitely a WoW music nerd myself).
Anyhow, below are some examples from the top of my head.
Warsong Gulch / PVP music:
Pretty much all the drums with some "grit" are part of SD2, the ones that mainly mark the beats. Also all the taiko sticks are part of SD2, and the sound is quite distinct. Most of those are actually from Storm Drum 1 though, but they are included in SD2 as well. It's mainly from the patch Thunder Ensamble (which is a great go-to patch!).
For WotLK it's mostly in the music that's not part of the released soundtrack that it's overused in. It's scattered around a lot of the more ambient parts. But one example that's part of the soundtrack is The Kaluak:
All the markers are basically from SD2. The low bass hits in the background, the kinda weird drum rolls that float through the stereo space. The hang drum that's used through the whole track is also from SD2, but I'm not sure it's just SD2. It could be a combination of several ones. But the SD2 one is definitely in there.
The drums rolls are in particularly quite distinct, so I cannot really use those now as they are too associated with WotLK for me. And for the most part, it's the "Sound Design Percussion" category in SD2 that they have used a lot. So it's for those type of markers and lots of background hits.
Another example is Rise of the Vrykul:
The drums from 0:45. Not all of them are from SD2, but for example the more distant drums on the right side in the stereo space is Trailer Toms from SD2. They are also heard earlier in the background of the track, but I think it's most prominent from 0:45. Parts of the others are from SD2 as well.
Lots of the sound design markers in the background of Borean Thundra is also from SD2, but not all of it:
I can be heard over large parts of the soundtrack, mostly as "sound design" percussion. But they also use some of the "real" drums from SD2 quite a bit, like the Trailer Toms patch mentioned before, the Persian Battle Drums, the Lion Drum Ensamble and also the Thunder Ensamble (originally from SD1). Many times it's blended with other libraries as well though.
With that said, I still think it's a nice library. It's not my go-to anymore as I have other more flexible ones, but I do still reach for it quite often.
Amazing, thanks for your insights!
SD2 is on sale now for $119.60, I might just have to pick them up...
Also, there's now another meaning to their sales pitch on their site:
Stormdrum 2 - "It's an instant wow factor"
