JayI’m hoping to use SD3 stand alone for live drumming. My laptop is a 6 year old Macbook pro Quad Core i7 Catalina with 8GB.
The audio interface is an RME Babyface
The Samples are on a Samsung T5 drive over USB.
When I first launch the software, the samples don’t fully load… it seems like I need to hit every pad at every velocity to get them to load. After doing that it’s mostly good. But at least once every few minutes of playing, the sounds get cut off, or crackle. Sometimes there will be a sudden burst of several sounds.
I assume that many people use this live. What do I need to do to make it perfect?
Thanks,
~Jay
Mark KingThere is a setting which changes this configuration so all samples load. It’s the default setting so you must have changed this at some point to use less memory. 8gig is not a lot to work with but if you keep the kits to just what you need and disable articulations you don’t use it should be fine. I’m not at home to check but if you can’t find the setting it will be in the manual.
When playing live from an ekit there could be a huge number of samples that could take a long time before all are loaded as it may be a while before you hit all velocities if you even manage to. Clicks and pops can be other computer related issues though and backing up and then all midi then playing means the computer or midi has frozen while something else takes place and then all hit at once. I’m not a Mac person so I don’t know how to troubleshoot this.
SD3 with older sdx,s plus Rooms of Hansa and Death & Darkness. Cubase and wavelab current versions. Roland TD50x using all trigger inputs for triggering SD3 only. Windows 11 computer. Various keyboards and outboard gear as well as VST instruments. Acoustic drums: Yamaha 9000 natural wood and Pearl masters. Various snare drums. RME BabyFace Pro FS and Adam A7X monitors
José SanguinoI’m not a Mac person either, but I agree with Mark King that 8Gb is not a lot of memory. Under Windows we use ASIO drivers which can be set to a bigger amount to reduce clicks & pops when playing a virtual instrument, but then again, this results in greater latency (i.e. longer time before you hear the sound when the pad/key of your MIDI instrument is played). Anyway, I’ve always read that as long as your latency is under 42 milliseconds is about OK (the less, the better, of course – as long as you don’t get to hear clicks, pops, etc). But I do not know if Macs use ASIO drivers… or something similar which can be adjusted.
Anyway, my Windows 10 laptop has 8Gb Ram and can handle a complete drum kit in SD3 loaded up in RAM (Depending on the kit, it may take up to about 20% of that RAM size), and I can play from my keyboard or drumpad at a latency of about 16 ms without any clicks or pops. So… I don’t know what’s wrong with your Mac’s audio drivers / latency. Sorry. (Of course, the other tracks must be frozen up into audio and no other Virtual Instruments or FXs can be “playing” at the same time (unless frozen into digital audio – other instruments or FXs playing at the same time can take up a lot of your CPU power. – But frozen tracks don’t need to take up as much).
JayThanks for the quick detailed replies.
Most audio software is better on a Mac. Is that not true of SD3, is it better on Windows? I’m happy on either platform. My work computer is a PC because it’s better for Cubase, plus there are a handful of programs that are windows only that I really like. I do like to use a Mac laptop because I don’t have to think about drivers – if I want to record from a sound console via USB it will just work. Also Macs are sort of the industry standard in my circles, even though every new OS breaks half of my stuff.
I am open to buying a new PC laptop. I really like the LG gram. It’s not cheap, but looks like a real powerhouse – plus all my samples will fit on the internal SSD.
I did have the setting checked to load the samples, but it didn’t seem to be doing that. I assume they haven’t loaded because I see the ram indicator filling up as I play.
I set the latency to 256 and it was no better than 64. Latency at 64 samples feels really good wen it works! I think the default was 128.
In 2010 when I tried to use BFD for live drumming, it was really hard to make it reliable. The latency was so high that I could not feel time, I had to listen for time – that was kind of a healthy exercise.
In 2021, with SD3, should I expect system performance to be as reliable as a Roland module?
Thanks,
~Jay
JohnHi Jay,
there is no better platform for SD3 per se but as you may be more accustomed to one, it will feel better for you.
The setting Mark was referring to is ‘Force Cache Mode’ and it is found in the Performance Settings. This force SD3 to only load samples as they are called upon and will cause crackles and pops when playing as they load.
Your computer should work fine with slimmed down kits if you do not use any other software at the same time but 8GB will be tight if you are using large kits with a lot of microphones and bleeds.
The RME interface should be able to give you very low latency performance if it’s the Pro FS. If it’s the original Babyface, I’m not so sure.
BR,
John
John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor
JayThanks for the reply. My Macbook Pro is a 2 ghz Quad i7. The interface is the original Babyface.
I closed everything I didn’t need and it did get better. The activity monitor showed about 6.5 GB of ram used. Superior Drummer was using about 1.5 GB according to the activity monitor. Within Superior drummer, it shows just over 1000 MB of samples loaded.
The CPU was around 40% most of the time, but occasionally hit 110%. in the advanced settings I can choose the number of CPU cores. Is it safe to choose all 8?
I intend to use this for live playing. Therefore I don’t really need room mics – or at least not all of the room mics. If I mute them in the mixer will that disable them?
My goal is a dry and natural sounding kit that will sound real when I play with other musicians. Anything that sounds epic and processed won’t work for what I am doing.
~Jay
Johnin the advanced settings I can choose the number of CPU cores. Is it safe to choose all 8?
I wouldn’t. Experiment if you experience any difference going higher than 1 but I don’t think you should use all.
I intend to use this for live playing. Therefore I don’t really need room mics – or at least not all of the room mics. If I mute them in the mixer will that disable them?
If you want to Disable bleed, i.e. unload, you can select a mixer channel and then disable instrument bleeds selectively in the Properties for that channel or click the menu and DISABLE ALL. Alternatively, you can click the small down arrow right over the Bleed Level knob in a channel to Enable/Disable All Bleed.
BR,
John
John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor
JayThanks,
I’ll give that a try.
Considering that my Macbook is nearly 7 years old, maybe it’s time for a new Laptop. There is a Lenovo 6-core 2.6ghx-4.5ghz i7 9th gen with 32 GB and a 2 TB SSD. Nvidea GTX 1660 TI. I like it because it has 3 usb ports, so I won’t need a hub.
Is that powerful enough for Superior Drummer to run flawlessly?
~Jay
JayI’m also looking at AMD laptops. Does a fast AMD cpu work as well as Intel for Superior Drummer?
thanks,
~Jay
JaySo I went ahead and bought a new laptop. It’s a Lenovo Legion 5 Pro with an 11th generation i7 and 16GB. It’ll have a dedicated MVME drive for samples. It also has 4 USB ports – no more hubs! 🙂
Hopefully it’ll work without any issues.
~Jay
JohnI doubt you’ll notice CPU differences between modern ones. NVME drive loading times are great for huge libraries, so that’s good.
Congratulations on your new computer, it should work splendid with SD3.
BR,
John
John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor
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