Large differences in instruments between SDX expansions

[etheory]

Hi all!

I recently purchased the Custom & Vintage, Darkness & Death, Fields of Rock, Indiependent and Progressive Foundry SDX expansions and was surprised at the magnitude of difference in volume when switching between instruments.

Take the default SD3 kit for instance with the 5×14″ Slingerland Radio King 50’s snare. If I right click on it, go to “Seach for Instrument” and replace it with the Custom & Vintage 5.5×14″ Craviotto Timeless Timber Birch (or literally any snare from that SDX), the difference in volume sounds like it’s about 2-3x louder, which is surprising. In the mixer the default Slingerland snare peaks at -8.9dB, and the Craviotto one at -0.5dB, that’s quite a difference.

How do people deal with this?

Do you just set up custom kits and instruments for everything?

Do you just not ever mix and match instruments?

Do you spend time setting up a series of custom versions of kits with different volumes?

Obviously if I was loading a kit with a lot of effects on a channel, that might be different due to the differences in the snare samples, but the default kit has no FX on the channels and the perceived volume is still very different.

Genuinely curious on other people’s workflows here, or whether I just have the wrong expectation about what to expect.

Thanks.

Topic

[bpjacobsen]

Each library was recorded in a different location using different equipment. As for why there’s such a substantial difference in volume I wonder the same thing because it does make it a little bit challenging at times. No I have managed to get used to just adjusting as needed. Usually you can adjust volume in the drum screen and the mixer screen. In some cases I have had to for instance adjust the volume on the mixer for the hi-hat. Because even in the drum screen with it turned all the way up it wasn’t loud enough.

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Thanked by: etheory

[drumjack52]

I adjust in the drum screen first to make the level fit the music. I never really look at what the level is that shows in the mixer. To be honest I never use SD3’s mixer for mixing or effects as I output each kit piece or group of pieces (say rack toms)  to individual outputs to go to my daw. And any effects are in ProTools – I treat SD3 drums like I do real drums. The only adjustments I make in the SD3 mixer are for individual mics for a kit piece and bleed.

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

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Thanked by: etheory

[Bear-Faced Cow]

All of the packs you purchased are from different producers from different genres recorded in a different studios using different recording chains and recording techniques. So yes, the differences are expected.

You would handle it just like any other audio recording: gain staging and a certain amount of audio “trickery“ to make your mix a sound cohesive. This is where some of the features, such as stacking and mic routing, as well as FX within Superior Drummer come into play. And where Superior Drummer leaves off, your DAW takes over (which is at your discretion).  Everyone has different ways of handling this as noted on this thread. As for me, I handle it within the context of the song at hand. There is no one a size fits all.

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

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Thanked by: drumjack52 and etheory

[Mark King]

BEST ANSWER

I mix and match and adjust each level on the main page so the sliders in the mix tab are all still in the same place. I then save as a preset with a new name. I mostly create my own kits and rarely use a preset. If I do use a preset I will change it to suit what I’m doing then save under an appropriate name.

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

• The post has been modified 2 times, last modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by Mark King.

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Thanked by: log0ut

[etheory]

Thanks all, I really appreciate the advice.

I was hoping that Toontrack would have provided some kind of guidelines for the SDX makers to follow, in order to ensure the product feels like a cohesive whole, and things all work together. They could have had some kind of post-normalization process for volume, but I guess they didn’t.

Thanks again, much appreciated. I think I’ll go through and make my own custom presets with normalized volumes to make switching easier.

[Author]

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