Surround question & SD3 – add more cymbals?

[LeanderL]

Hey!

1) I’ve downloaded the whole library now. Are the channels Amb Ribbon and Amb Mid the surround channels or what are they in the mixer so I can see the difference between surround and without? If I delete the surround files again, will I still see the mixer sliders and can I use them for something else?

I don’t know how surround works. I have normal stereo monitors…if I change surround sliders…and it sounds good on my monitors, might it sound bad on someone’s system with surround monitors?

2) Is bleed from instruments automatically disabled and you have to adjust it yourself or can you load the preset creator’s own setting, for example Andy Sneap’s idea how to use bleeding?

3) I don’t have that much space on my SDD. Can I only use the core library from there and have surround and bleeding on my normal HDD like now?

4) The SD3 interface only shows 7 cymbals whereas you have many more in Metal Foundry’s. I know you can import new kit pieces but they are only shown on the left. In SD2 you could add x-drums and move them accordingly.

Can you place more cymbals in SD3? It’s cosmetic only but it just looks better if drum pieces are part of the kit, beautifully place than rather have them on the left side of the screen.

Oh, and having two bass drums next to each other would be nice too (just like in Metal Foundry).

A kit with a ton of cymbals like you can in MF just looks awesome! 🙂

SeelenPuls ~ Poetic metal from Austria: SeelenPuls.at
Grummelgnom ~ Sociocritical metal from the forest: Grummelgnom.at

Topic

[John]

@LeanderL said:
Hey!

Hi!

1) I’ve downloaded the whole library now. Are the channels Amb Ribbon and Amb Mid the surround channels or what are they in the mixer so I can see the difference between surround and without? If I delete the surround files again, will I still see the mixer sliders and can I use them for something else?
I don’t know how surround works. I have normal stereo monitors…if I change surround sliders…and it sounds good on my monitors, might it sound bad on someone’s system with surround monitors?

No, the Amb mics are regular Ambience microphones you would find in any “normal” setup.
The Surround microphones are named Front L/R, Center, Surround L/R, Front Height, Rear Height and Rear Ht Wide.
If you do not see them in the mixer you are currently working with, please click the ‘Edit Visibility’ button over the Mixer to deselect ‘Hide’ for those faders.
To hear how any of those microphones sounds in your Stereo setup, just select them and enable the Bleed – from all instruments or a few select.
And no, what you hear in your Stereo setup will be heard in the same way on another person’s setup, even if they have more monitors, 5.1 or 11.1.
For the Surround channels to actually be Surround channels, you need to output them accordingly, i.e. Stereo is a 2-channel file/mix and 5.1 Surround is a 5+1 channel file/mix.
So, no worries.

2) Is bleed from instruments automatically disabled and you have to adjust it yourself or can you load the preset creator’s own setting, for example Andy Sneap’s idea how to use bleeding?

Well, no. The Presets all use Bleed a bit sparingly, IIRC but I guess that’s also part of the fact that additional bleeds are an option.
Andy Sneap most likely only uses bleed on the Snare channels in his presets. And of course the AMB mics where all instruments are ‘Bleed’.
You are free to add or remove bleeds as you wish, though.

3) I don’t have that much space on my SDD. Can I only use the core library from there and have surround and bleeding on my normal HDD like now?

While you can install the SD3 Library to any location, it is not possible to install different portions of the library to different locations on your computer,

4) The SD3 interface only shows 7 cymbals whereas you have many more in Metal Foundry’s. I know you can import new kit pieces but they are only shown on the left. In SD2 you could add x-drums and move them accordingly.

Sorry, you can’t manually move drums around in the interface on the Drums page.

Can you place more cymbals in SD3? It’s cosmetic only but it just looks better if drum pieces are part of the kit, beautifully place than rather have them on the left side of the screen.
Oh, and having two bass drums next to each other would be nice too (just like in Metal Foundry).
A kit with a ton of cymbals like you can in MF just looks awesome! 🙂  

Well, I guess you could start with the MF Library and replace the drums with SD3 Core Library drums but as I wrote above, manually moving instruments around is not possible.

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[LeanderL]

Thanks for your reply! 🙂

One last question: what files do I have to delete if I only want to keep the basic library (downloads 1 and 2) but not surround sound? or not bleed mics? All sounds have numbers. Which is which?

SeelenPuls ~ Poetic metal from Austria: SeelenPuls.at
Grummelgnom ~ Sociocritical metal from the forest: Grummelgnom.at

[John]

I think the *correct* way to do it is to download Part 1 again and run the uninstaller.

But if you are asking which soundbunches you can manually delete, Part1 would be ‘soundb1.obw’ to ‘soundb23.obw’, Part2 ‘soundb24.obw’ to ‘soundb52.obw’.
The rest is Surround and Additional Bleed.
Just tried it and it seems to work as expected.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[LeanderL]

Thank you!

Another question: is it normal that the volume of SD 3’s cymbals is really low compared to Metal Foundry’s or is something wrong with my installation? (preview section of drum kits)

SeelenPuls ~ Poetic metal from Austria: SeelenPuls.at
Grummelgnom ~ Sociocritical metal from the forest: Grummelgnom.at

[John]

Hi,

in general, the SD3 core library is cleaner and has more dynamics and is therefore not as “hot” as other libraries, where part of the sound is harder hitting, more aggressive use of EQ and Compressors, etc.
So, if you are talking about a few dB’s when comparing the Default preset with one of the Metal Foundry Presets, I’d say it’s just as it should be.

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[LeanderL]

Thanks!

SeelenPuls ~ Poetic metal from Austria: SeelenPuls.at
Grummelgnom ~ Sociocritical metal from the forest: Grummelgnom.at

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