Loading An Instrument Category – Not At the Top Left – But Into Kit Graphics

[zenwarlord]

I’m hoping at some point this will be possible.  I realize its a bit much but maybe the thought process could be to position the kit pieces in some set of templates (I think BFD 2 used to do this (loading a 32 piece kit which was a template, and then you could load whatever you want into one of the placeholders.

 

For example, I just purchased Fields of Rock, and I was hoping I was getting rototoms as part of one of the typical kits.  I think it ended up going into the percussion kit, meaning I’ll probably end up using 2 instances of Superior Drummer 3.   But it would be nice for the program to “understand” the current mixer channel configuration and current kit configuration more to a level where mixing and matching would be more possible.  In EZ Drummer 3 (AFAIK) its not possible at all.  One can only load pieces from within that EZX.  IN SDX if there is a kit piece as part of the kit you are in, you get to load anything unto that.  If you stay within the instrument type with what you load in, you get a nice graphic of what you load.  Otherwise you get a sort of generic looking thing that serves to hold the loaded piece (for e.g. if you load a snare into a ride cymbal slot, you get a sort of grayish cymbal, but it contains the tom.

So I’m hoping this continues, but allows for things like increasing the number of pieces of your kit.  For example, to take the kt you already have but load it into a template with more available pieces.  (Otherwise you need to own an SDX with the layout you want, and load that kit in some unwanted preset/mixer config, and then change everything out one by one – EVEN if you were just trying to add a 2nd kick to your existing kit

Or if you  were just trying to REPLACE one or a pair of cymbals with some octobans

I do film scoring projects.  In BFD 2 I would just default to using the 32 piece kit (because it fit my BFD percussion library so well).  I know this is tricky territory so don’t take it the wrong way.  But maybe we could take our current kit, and “adjust” the configuration by placing that into a new template with additional pieces.  Just a thought.

Topic

[John]

Hi,

first I want to point out that you indeed can load kit pieces from other EZX:s in EZdrummer 3; select an instrument, click the drop-down menu for the Instrument and switch library.

When it comes to adding Instruments in SD3, I would save the Rototoms as User Instruments and add them to the kit I am currently working on. See attached pic where I add Rototoms to a kit in the Kicks & Snares EZX.

Or did I misunderstand?

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[drumjack52]

John wrote:

Hi,

first I want to point out that you indeed can load kit pieces from other EZX:s in EZdrummer 3; select an instrument, click the drop-down menu for the Instrument and switch library.

When it comes to adding Instruments in SD3, I would save the Rototoms as User Instruments and add them to the kit I am currently working on. See attached pic where I add Rototoms to a kit in the Kicks & Snares EZX.

Or did I misunderstand?

BR,
John

But will that work across SDX’s? If I read the OP’s post right it seems he wants to pull kit pieces from one SDX into another. This is one area where SD3 falls down against BFD 2/3. I’m coming from that vi so I know what he’s talking about. In BFD 3 you can have a generic template kit and pull kit pieces from any library without going through what one has to do in SD3. Just select the kit piece, load it, done. No messing with mic routing.

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.3.1
Operating system: macOS High Sierra (10.13)

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.0
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

[Bear-Faced Cow]

You can load a kit piece from any SDX into another library. Right click the kit piece and select “Search for Instrument…”

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

[zenwarlord]

Hi, I appreciate everyone answering me.  Sorry for the confusion.  I can add them to the top left.  What I am referring to is adding them into the area where the 3D graphical display of kit pieces is.  I realize that it isn’t that big a deal – how things look.  I’m really just thinking aloud here, but what I was really speaking of is the function of larger kit piece templates.  There are “parts” in Superior Drummer 3, for kits and mixers.  But you sort of don’t get the option like you had in BFD2 (not in BFD3) where you could keep your work, in terms of how the kit pieces flow into the mixer channels in your current preset, but ‘move up’ to a template with more pieces, or go from 1-kick set to a 2-kick set, or to a set with full percussion. I think of these as sort of ‘slot templates’, because they come in on top of your existing MIDI Mapping.   In BFD2 you could do this, but it wasn’t a system of pre-existing midi mapping logic the way SD3 and EZ3 are.  It had MIDI Mapping templates and the 10, 16, 32 3D slot configurations.  You had to set up the MIDI mapping and save it, and set up the kit piece locations, and save them, but you could switch between those slot configs at the touch of a button. Then you improved that template to work from.  EZ3 & SD3 have come a long way because it has created a set of SDX and EZX in many genres where MIDI can often be used interchangeably. I can use Action EZX or Dance EZX and count on the devs at Toontrack helping to make the transition somehow work.  Toontrack has “substitute articulates” figured out as well.  What I’m sort of suggesting is that ‘slot configs’, kits, and mixers could all 3 be separately loaded without breaking something too badly. I don’t know exactly how I would do it.

In regards to what BFD2 already did, see on the left of the image I attached.  Choices for 10-piece kit, 16 piece, or 32.

If I were to set up a template myself that contains both the kit and a large range of percussion, I would probably use an SDX like Metal Foundry, and add percussion to some of the extra cymbals until I ran out, and then use the “top left, add instrument” method to add some more pieces.  The squares fill up space in the interface, and 3D pieces look better and can be crowded in better.  And Toontrack would be great at figuring out which MIDI Mapping to use for such a slot config!

I realize adding a 2nd kick to a one-kick kit is accomplished by adding a user instrument, but I was more thinking of the general case of wanting 3D slot configs that match a variety of general cases (like the SDX’s and EZX’s already sort of contain.)  With the ability to swap between them using some generic method.

• This post was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by zenwarlord.

[John]

drumjack52 wrote:

But will that work across SDX’s?

Yes. User Instruments aren’t tied to a specific SDX or EZX.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Author]

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