Importing samples – how to create articulations for empty drum kits?

[Filippo Vicarelli]

Hi there,

I’m about to make a custom drum kit with some samples I already own, I just load a default drum kit and then hit the Clear All Instruments button.

Once the drum kit is empty, when I drag and drop samples to my Snare drum, I have no options to assign them to other articulations such as Center, Rimshot or Sidestick… or at least I don’t know how to do that yet.

I have to load a Snare sound from the library and then import my samples in each articulation and deactivate the original samples in the stack, not very convenient way to work.

The same applies to Hi-hats (Closed, Open, etc.).

Any suggestion?

Topic

[Henrik Ekblom]

The current implementation is designed for stacking sounds rather than replacing sounds/building custom drums. You can do it, but it’s not optimized for it (as you say). We have this on our feature request list, but haven’t had the time yet to add it.

However, you can also do it in another way rather than using an existing instrument; you can create a custom instrument with only your own sounds, for example the snare. However, custom instruments can only have 1 articulation, so it works if you have an instrument sampled with audio files for different velocities:

• Drag an audio file to the snare in the kit
• In the import popup, select Replace so the original snare is replaced with a new instrument that only has one articulation; the dragged audio file
• Drag the next articulation and stack it to the hit articulation.
  • Repeat for each articulation you want to stack
• You can now set the Velocity Gate for each articulation, if you want them to react to different velocities

This has the drawback of not being able to have more articulations, so if you want to add a rimshot sample to the snare you have to add it as a new instrument and set the MIDI mapping to the rimshot note.

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

[Filippo Vicarelli]

Hi Henrik,

thanks for your reply. That’s a nice suggestion, even if that means that I will have to work on mappings later, just like a regular sampler. What I liked about SD3 is that by replacing a drum element it’s already mapped and ready to be played using the MIDI library.

Thanks anyway, I managed to build my kit (very simple and no velocity layers), for some reason the only thing that is not working correctly despite having carefully replaced the samples to the right places is the Hi-hat Closed / Open. Triggering is not working even though I can hear the right samples playing when clicking on CC/Triggers (hatsTrig, hatsTipTrig). I need to figure out the reason.

Many thanks

[Henrik Ekblom]

Filippo Vicarelli wrote:

Triggering is not working even though I can hear the right samples playing when clicking on CC/Triggers (hatsTrig, hatsTipTrig). I need to figure out the reason.

The triggering using CC should play the stacks, but the stacked sounds won’t mute when you open/close your hi-hat (like an open hi-hat will be muted when a closed is played for example).

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

• This post was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by Henrik Ekblom.

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Thanked by: Filippo Vicarelli

[Gio Locatelli]

This is good info,

I have an awesome collection of Paiste Cymbals (and a killer DW kit) in my studio that I’d love to integrate with SD3’s sounds, but wasn’t sure I could add the different velocity samples to the kit. Is there a way for me to create an expansion pack for myself? I see a bunch of packs for sale on the site, but if I’d like to make my own, is it possible?

Thank you for your time.

Gio

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.1.4
Operating system: macOS Mojave (10.14)

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Thanked by: Aleksander Ilievski

[nicholas.guttmann]

I wonder if there is some way to allow drag and drop (or right click) onto the midi map. I obviously don’t know the architecture of SD3, but it seems useful if possible.

[TK_Toontrack]

Old thread but it doesn’t look like this feature request has been implemented. Best workaround I could come up with:

1. Open a kit with all the pieces and articulations you might want.
2. Drag and drop the sample file onto the desired drum.
3. Select Add Stack, select the articulation you want and click Import.
4. Go to the settings for that articulation (top right corner) and turn down the level of the stock drum. Don’t mute it, as it will show up in the grid editor as muted even though only one sample is muted.
5. Add additional hits for additional velocities and set the velocity gate (if desired).

 

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.3.3
Operating system: Windows 10

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Thanked by: aveenhof

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