Gradually increase velocity of all drums with one control?

[John Patrick]

I’m using Superior Drummer 3 as a plug-in and I’m dragging grooves to my Acid Pro 11 timeline. I’d like to use an envelope to control the overall velocity of the drums to mimic a drummer fading in. Is this possible?  If not in Acid, how about the SD3 stand alone app?

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.3.7
Operating system: Windows 11

Topic

[Mark King]

You should be able to write automation for controller 7 in your DAW to control the overall volume of sd3. I don’t know Acid but it should be a pretty basic for any DAW. Do you have a fader for sd3? If so can you record automation for that fader?

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

[John]

If you have the MIDI on the SD3 Song Track, you can select a range of/all notes/regions and Ramp Up/Down velocity with the Fade Tools in the Grid Editor’s Velocity Lane.
This would gradually increase/decrease the notes with relative relationships intact.

The other option is what Mark suggested; control the output Volume of SD3.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

1

Thanked by: Scott Eshleman

[John Patrick]

I’ll try both ideas.  Thanks.

[drumjack52]

The thing to keep in mind is that when a drummer does volume swells – not only does the volume of the sound change but so does the timbre. You have to emulate both. So it sounds like (ouch) you’ll have to use both approaches.

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram

[John Patrick]

That’s what I was thinking.  Just fading the volume in isn’t going to cut it.  The intensity has to increase, just like a real drummer.

I would have thought that everyone would want to do something like this at some point.

1

Thanked by: drumjack52

[drumjack52]

John Patrick wrote:

That’s what I was thinking.  Just fading the volume in isn’t going to cut it.  The intensity has to increase, just like a real drummer.

I would have thought that everyone would want to do something like this at some point.

Exactly. Been there/tried that and had to use the 2 outlined methods except that I do my MIDI tweaking in my daw (Pro Tools). What I would like to know how many velocity levels are in the SD3 samples? The thing I’ve found with SD3 is to treat it as you would real drums with regards to playing and mixing (provided your ekit – if you use one – allows it).

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram

[Mark King]

Ah so not a fade out of drums. Then you need to change the velocity of hits. There are methods in different DAWs that could do 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

[John Patrick]

I solved this (at least in a way that works for me).  I open the stand alone version of SD3 and lay out my drum track.  Then I apply the velocity fade as suggested above.  When I’m satisfied with the result I drag the faded track from the stand-alone SD3 into Acid Pro 11.  The velocity fade-in works great.  The only caveat is that I have to go back to the SD3 stand-alone if I need to make any changes to the velocity fade-in.  I was hoping I could do all this from right within Acid Pro 11, but apparently it’s not sophisticated enough.

Thanks for everyone’s help.

jp

• This post was modified 7 months ago by John Patrick.

[drumjack52]

John Patrick wrote:

I solved this (at least in a way that works for me).  I open the stand alone version of SD3 and lay out my drum track.  Then I apply the velocity fade as suggested above.  When I’m satisfied with the result I drag the faded track from the stand-alone SD3 into Acid Pro 11.  The velocity fade-in works great.  The only caveat is that I have to go back to the SD3 stand-alone if I need to make any changes to the velocity fade-in.  I was hoping I could do all this from right within Acid Pro 11, but apparently it’s not sophisticated enough.

Thanks for everyone’s help.

jp

• This post was modified 7 months ago by John Patrick.

Not to be snarky but as I said before – you need a real daw – that simple. Acid was never meant to be a real daw program. It’s essentially abandonware and I’d suggest hitching your pony to something else whether it be Pro Tools, Cubase, Digital Performer or whatever. Yeah it’d be a paradigm change but well worth the time taken if you’re at all serious about what you do.

As I mentioned elsewheres Acid was ok as a loop machine but as to recording – not so much. It’s like racing in the Tour de France on a 3 speed Huffy versus the machines they run nowadays. Imagine climbing Mont Ventoux in a Huffy. Yeah you could do it but you’d be beat to death way before then top of the hill. The closest thing Sony came to a daw was Vegas.

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram

[John Patrick]

Vegas is what I use.  I only use Acid when I need drums.  It’s more than adequate for my needs.

[drumjack52]

John Patrick wrote:

Vegas is what I use.  I only use Acid when I need drums.  It’s more than adequate for my needs.

I could never go back to using either of those programs. Good for their time decades ago but now – not so much at least for anything I do. You’re a better man than I am for using them.

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram

[John Patrick]

BEST ANSWER

I figured this out. In Acid Pro 11 go EDIT > MIDI Processes and Filters. From there you can select the drum track, start velocity, end velocity, and length of time.

1

Thanked by: Scott Eshleman

[Author]

Replies