Mapping Superior Drummer 3 to Pro Tools 2021

[Ron Robson]

Seeking advice on setting up SD3 to Pro Tools

Ultimately, what I would like to do is create a template on Pro Tools recording from my Alesis Strike Pro SE drum kit via SD3, so I can bounce the tracks to create a new session. Any advice, direction, video links, etc, would be greatly appreciated.

 

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.1.3
Operating system: Windows 10

Topic

[drumjack52]

Ron Robson wrote:

Seeking advice on setting up SD3 to Pro Tools

Ultimately, what I would like to do is create a template on Pro Tools recording from my Alesis Strike Pro SE drum kit via SD3, so I can bounce the tracks to create a new session. Any advice, direction, video links, etc, would be greatly appreciated.

 

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.1.3
Operating system: Windows 10

Are you using the Alesis to trigger sounds in SD3 which is in PT? If so you need to connect a MIDI cable from the Alesis to your computer and then setup things on the computer side so it sees the Alesis. You probably have this done already but I’m making n o assumptions on what you’ve done (or not done) already. Another obvious step is to insert SD3 on a PT instrument track – that way it’ll receive the MIDI from the Alesis as well as host SD3. Don’t forget to select the MIDI preset for your Alesis in SD3.

I’ll outline what I do with SD3 and that is to treat it as I would a regular acoustic kit. In the SD3 mixer select ‘apply multichannel outputs’ and a number of audio outputs will be constructed in SD3 with the outputs of each kit piece routed to an appropriate mixer output channel. Then in PT create the same number of aux channels that exist in SD3. In each input field select the audio output from SD3 you want routed to that track. Note that the audio output 1/2 from SD3 gets auto-routed to the instrument track hosting SD3. The reason I create aux tracks to receive the audio from SD3 is so I don’t have to mess with record enable to hear the audio if I use audio tracks instead. In the creation of all this I also route the output of each aux track receiving SD3 audio to an audio track. Until I’m ready to render all the tracks I route every aux track and every audio track to a sub-bus aux track I name Drum Bus 1. I have a send off that track to a track that holds the reverb for the drums. The outputs of both Drum Bus 1 and the Drum ‘verb track’ get routed to another aux bus I name Drum Bus 2. I then save all this as a track preset in PT ( I suggest reading up on that in the PT manual or ask over on the DUC – Avid PT forum). That way when I need drums I just create a new track using PT’s ‘new track’ menu item, drill down to the preset I want and hit Return. Voila and if it’s all set up right you’ll have a whole bunch of tracks ready to do drum duty.

Attached are 2 screenshots to help out

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.3.0
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

[John]

Hi, Jack’s advice is good I just want to add another way of doing it, namely using Instrument Tracks instead of Aux Tracks.
This way you can, if you wish to, separate the MIDI for different instruments onto different Tracks as well, all pointing to the SD3 plug-in.

I had made a quick Template for this earlier, just checked it and it seems set up correct. It’s attached to this post.

I had routed the 2 buses to separate outputs in the Pro tools mixer as well, this practice is good if you wish to route Sends/Busses from the SD3 mixer to the PT mixer. Scenarios can be if you wish to Send to a Reverb in your PT mixer for the Snare but you do not want the reverb applied to your entire Snare channel (e.g. Snare Top+SnareBottom both routed to 3/4) but only the Snare Top. Or simply that you wish to have the Bus return separately treated in the PT mixer.

I do recommend following Jack’s advice to read up on creating Track Templates, they can be a real time-saver.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

2

Thanked by: Michael Bagge and drumjack52

[drumjack52]

John wrote:

Hi, Jack’s advice is good I just want to add another way of doing it, namely using Instrument Tracks instead of Aux Tracks.
This way you can, if you wish to, separate the MIDI for different instruments onto different Tracks as well, all pointing to the SD3 plug-in.

I had made a quick Template for this earlier, just checked it and it seems set up correct. It’s attached to this post.

I had routed the 2 buses to separate outputs in the Pro tools mixer as well, this practice is good if you wish to route Sends/Busses from the SD3 mixer to the PT mixer. Scenarios can be if you wish to Send to a Reverb in your PT mixer for the Snare but you do not want the reverb applied to your entire Snare channel (e.g. Snare Top+SnareBottom both routed to 3/4) but only the Snare Top. Or simply that you wish to have the Bus return separately treated in the PT mixer.

I do recommend following Jack’s advice to read up on creating Track Templates, they can be a real time-saver.

BR,
John

The reason I do what I do is that PT sometimes has the nasty habit of forgetting it’s MIDI assignments. Spreading that over possibly a dozen or more MIDI tracks can be a nightmare trying to sort out. It’s not a bad idea to do what John says – you just have to be aware of possible issues. What he doesn’t talk about is using the split notes feature to split the notes to different tracks. It’s actually split by pitch to separate tracks. It can be real helpful when dealing with a drum deal that has four rack toms. Most SDX’s don’t have 4 rack toms as part of their usual setup. Combine that with SD3’s GM mapping (if that’s what you use) has the rack toms mapped wrong – the high rack tom is supposed to be mapped to D2 which by default is mapped to something else in SD3.

BTW – the proper term in PT is track preset and not template for what I’m talking about. Full disclosure – been using PT since PT 10. My screen name over on the DUC is musicman691. It’s a very helpful community as long as you give them enough to work with. Like I say there’s no such thing as TMI (too much info) that you can give there when asking for help. Or any forum for that matter.

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.3.0
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

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