Clear All MIDI Mapping Keys

[SimonORorke]

How can I clear all midi mapping keys for all instruments?

Or maybe I can somehow bypass the question.  Here’s what I want to achieve.

1. With Orchestral Percussion I loaded, but the same would apply to any library, I’d like an empty kit so that I can add just the instruments I want.  In this case that’s many gongs, most of which are not included in the library’s default kit.  I know how to do that:  Drums and Mixer Presets menu -> Drum Kits -> Empty Kit or Clear All Instruments.  (I don’t know the difference between the two.)
2. I want to map as many articulations of as many of the added instruments as possible to keys.  And I want to be able to chose the key for each articulation, rather than having each articulation mapped to a default key allocated by Superior Drummer.

To achieve step 2, it would be convenient if all the default MIDI mapping keys were first cleared.  However, step 1 leaves the MIDI mappings intact.  I can understand the rationale for that:  if a removed instrument is added back into the kit, its MIDI key mappings are still there for it to use.  But it does not help me with what I’m trying to do.

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.2.4
Operating system: Windows 10

• The post has been modified 2 times, last modified 3 years, 10 months ago by SimonORorke.

Topic

[José Sanguino]

Well. I have no easy answer for your question. I’ve just opened my SD3 standalone and started toying with it. Since I do not own Orchestral Percussion SDX, I’ve loaded Legacy of Rock SDX (the default kit, which is inspired by the kit used by John Bonham in the live recording of the Led Zep album “The Song Remains the Same”, has two timpani and a gong, apart from a more-or less standard drum kit. These are the steps I recommend you to follow:

A) Save your preset kit with a new name – (Click on the preset name and choose “save as…” from the drop-down menu. Type a new name. (After that, your newly-created preset will then appear within the “User presets” folder).

B) Go to the “Default Box View” drop-down menu above the right panel. Choose “MIDI” in the drop-down menu. Select one kit piece in the Drum Kit View. Go back to the right panel and expand the “MIDI Mapping” section by clicking on the down-pointing arrow on the right side. You’ll see all the articulations available for the selected kit piece, and the assigned MIDI note number (in blue) for each of those articulations. If you click on the three parallel lines on the right end of the articulation, you get a drop-down menu. Choose there the option “clear”. The number will disappear. Do the same with every articulation for that kit piece.

C) Select another kit piece in the Drum Kit View and repeat the procedure above with all of the articulations available for that kit piece, until you’re finished.

D) Save your preset again. Now go to the “show MIDI mapping” button there (remember, you must have selected “MIDI” in the drop-down menu of the “Default Box View”). A small window will appear (with an “X” on the top right corner to close it when you’re finished). Check the MIDI note numbers. Now there shouldn’t be any MIDI note numbers assigned to any kit piece articulations.

E) Now go back to the Drum Kit View and choose your kit pieces. Right click on any of them, choose “More…” in the drop-down menu and choose “remove instrument” until your whole Drum Kit View is empty.

F) Finally, you have to add your new instruments and then assign MIDI note numbers again to the articulations for each kit piece. Again, make sure you’re in the “MIDI” view of the right panel and right-click on one of the empty instruments in your Drum Kit View – a drop-down menu will appear and you’ll be able to choose from a selection of pieces which fit in that space. The moment you choose one, it will show in the Drum Kit View, and in the “MIDI Mapping” section of the right panel, you’ll see all of the articulations for the kit piece you have selected. Now you have to assign MIDI notes for each articulation: go to the right end of the articulation name slot and click on the three parallel lines. You’ll have some options: “Add note…” will allow you to TYPE the MIDI note number you wish to use for the articulation. “Learn note…” will allow you to PLAY a drum pad of a key in your MIDI controller keyboard to assign that articulation to the MIDI note it sends. The third option provides you with a suggested MIDI note. If you change your mind and you do not want to assign any MIDI note to that articulation, choose “Clear”.  You needn’t assign MIDI notes to all of the articulations (just to the ones you need to use). Some cannot be assigned to MIDI note numbers, as “choke tail” for the cymbals, since you can only choose if those must be activated either by channel aftertouch or by MIDI note length (you do so in the “choke-mute trigger” section, by highlighting the desired option. If none is highlited, the cymbal will never be choked). When you have finished assigning MIDI notes to all of your kit piece articulations, save your preset again. If you need to check the MIDI note list, click on “Show MIDI Mapping keys” and the list will appear. You can close the list by clicking on the “X” at the top-right corner.

I forgot to mention, but I guess that it is obvious: you CANNOT BY ANY MEANS choose ANY kit piece type to ANY blank space in your drum kit view: That is, you can only choose from the list that opens when you right-click on an empty kit piece. You can ADD new kit pieces on the top-left drop-down menu above your Drum Kit View, but you’re limited to some options (e.g. a shaker, a tambourine, an additional rack tom). Those will appear within a square at the corner of your Drum Kit View. You select MIDI notes for those in the same manner described above.

Have fun drumming. Keep healthy and stay safe.

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.2.4
Operating system: Windows 10

2

Thanked by: solemndave and SimonORorke

[SimonORorke]

Thanks for the very thorough tutorial, José!  After my previous post, I’d figured out that there’s sadly no way of clearing all MIDI mappings from all instruments in one go.  So I’d already worked out some of what you explain myself.  But your whole set of instructions works.

I’ll just mention one handy variation I discovered.  You write

You CANNOT BY ANY MEANS choose ANY kit piece type to ANY blank space in your drum kit view: That is, you can only choose from the list that opens when you right-click on an empty kit piece.

Actually, there is a way.

1. From the Add Instrument drop-down, select Search for Instrument.  Any instrument from any library may then be selected.
2. In the instrument selection dialog, click Add New Instrument Without MIDI Assignment from the More drop-down, bottom right.  The instrument is added to the list shown on the left side of the kit.
3. From the added instrument’s context menu, select More -> User Instruments -> Save As to save a user instrument.
4. Remove the added instrument.  We don’t need it any more, as we have saved it as a user instrument
5. From the context menu of a kit instrument, More -> User Instruments -> User Instruments to select from the list of user instruments.  The kit instrument is replaced with the user instrument.  You will see either the user instrument’s picture or, if that picture will not fit the space in the kit, a picture of an e-drum or e-cymbal.

Here’s the custom kit I created using this method.

The eight Indo Gongs have the same image but each has a unique combination of pitch and beater type. Note the three black e-cymbal images where three of the five Chinese Gong images, representing instruments of different pitches, could not be shown.

A disadvantage of this approach is that the instrument names shown in the MIDI Mapping Keys list remain the original instrument position names, such as ‘Cymbal 3’, which may not be at all descriptive of the user instrument, such as ‘Low Medium Gong’, occupying the position in the kit.

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.2.4
Operating system: Windows 10

• The post has been modified 3 times, last modified 3 years, 9 months ago by SimonORorke.

[SimonORorke]

Thanks for the comprehensive tutorial, José.  That all works.  I just submitted a long post describing a handy variation I discovered on the method you describe.  But it vanished after I edited the submitted post a few times, the result of what looks like a forum bug.  If the post does not reappear in the next day or so, I’ll retype what’s missing.

UPDATE;  Great, my previous post has returned! I’ve seen that happen on other fora. I should not have bothered writing this one.🙂

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.2.4
Operating system: Windows 10

• This post was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by SimonORorke.

[John]

José Sanguino wrote:

B) Go to the “Default Box View” drop-down menu above the right panel. Choose “MIDI” in the drop-down menu. Select one kit piece in the Drum Kit View. Go back to the right panel and expand the “MIDI Mapping” section by clicking on the down-pointing arrow on the right side. You’ll see all the articulations available for the selected kit piece, and the assigned MIDI note number (in blue) for each of those articulations. If you click on the three parallel lines on the right end of the articulation, you get a drop-down menu. Choose there the option “clear”. The number will disappear. Do the same with every articulation for that kit piece.

Hi,
I just want to add that you do not need to Clear all articulations individually in a scenario like this, there is a ‘Clear All’ entry in the MIDI Mapping Property Box Menu.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

1

Thanked by: SimonORorke

[SimonORorke]

Thanks John, I missed that one too.  A feature to clear the entire MIDI map of all instruments would still be nice.  But clearing all the MIDI keys for an instrument should speed up the process quite a bit.

• This post was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by SimonORorke.

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