Pro Tools – No Plugin for Superior Drummer 3.1.7 Multitrack

[Rick Kilbashian]

I’m running Pro Tools 2020.3 on a Mac (macOS Mojave) and Superior Drummer 3.1.7 and can’t create a Multitrack session.

I start by creating a Stereo Instrument Track in Pro Tools and add Superior Drummer (Stereo) to it but I thought there used to be a second option for Superior Drummer (Multi-Track).  I then add a dozen Audio Tracks and go to the SD3 Mixer and route my drum kits tracks to the Outputs I want; Kick Output 1-2, Snare Output 3-4, Hat Output 5-6, etc then in Pro Tools for each of the audio Tracks I configure the appropriate Inputs for each drum.  No matter what I do when I trigger a drum they only come out of the Instrument Track which I don’t record.  All of the Audio Tracks are also Record Enabled.

Now my Mac did have a hard crash recently and I’m not sure if I need to reinstall SD3 or not.  All, this is time-sensitive for me to complete a promised project so anything you can help with I’d appreciate.

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.1.7
Operating system: macOS Mojave (10.14)

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[bbiworld]

 

Hello!

I’m on Windows 10 – but, from your description, I think you may have missed one setting —

From within the main Mixer section of SD3, click on the “Mixer” tab up near the top-left. Choose “Apply Multi-channel Outputs” from that drop-down menu.  That should get all your outputs working properly – assuming you’ve already changed the individual track outputs in SD3 and set up your tracks in Pro Tools (as you mentioned you had).

Regarding that “Superior Drummer (Multitrack)” plugin option you mentioned — I still see that option in Pro Tools — although opening it just opens my old SD2.

Hope this helps.

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.1.7
Operating system: Windows 10

[Rick Kilbashian]

Hi and thanks for the quick reply!

The last part first – my bad, yea I figured out that was for SD2.  I still have that as well as 3 Installed.  I circled back to this session and realized I was trying to route the Pro Tools Inputs incorrectly.  For each of the Audio tracks I used the Bus rather than plug-in > Superior Drummer 3  – SD3 – insert but the odd thing is the Kick drum would have to start at 3-4 instead of 1-2 which.  I must be having a b rain-cramp because I thought in the past I was able to start the Multitrack “Audio” tracks on 1-2.

If you don’t mind, could you further explain why using “Apply Multi-channel Outputs” is necessary?

Again, thanks!

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.1.7
Operating system: macOS Mojave (10.14)

[bbiworld]

Hi — you’re welcome —

The way I’ve set up Superior has usually been to open a first stereo instrument track in Pro Tools — and place SD3 as an insert there. SD3 will automatically playback all drums in stereo on that stereo instrument track.

Next, once I’ve settled on a particular kit, if I’m looking to route all the drum channels to a different track — I’ll open the Mixer tab in SD3 — and click the grey “mixer” button near the top-left of the SD3 window. The mixer button is just to the left of the “channel effects” button.

Next, from the “mixer” drop-down menu, I’ll select “apply multi-channel outputs”. If you happen to be playing back an SD3 drum pattern or track when changing to multi-channel, you’ll hear that only the kick drum is now coming through the original instrument track (where you inserted SD3).

Now, I’ll look at the SD3 mixer set-up to see how many mono and stereo channels (all drums and room mics) there are for the SD3 drum set-up you’re using — and add those as INSTRUMENT tracks to the session.

Finally, will set the input for each track in PT — clicking the input button for each instrument track — selecting “plug-in” / “Superior Drummer 3 – insert” / and the appropriate ch. number (for ex. S3/4.L for a mono channel / or S5/6 for a stereo channel).

In this way, I’m getting the kick drum through the channel with Superior as an insert — and all the other drums/mics through the other instrument channels I’ve set up.

Depending on the kit or producer preset you might be using — sometimes the SD3 mixer outputs might be labeled as just “Kick”, “Snare”, “OH”, and so on (and then routed to another buss within the SD3 mixer) — but, if that’s the case, when you click on the “snare” output button (in the SD3 Mixer), for example, you can change to a more Pro Tools friendly “Out 3/4” – and then match that to the input on your corresponding Pro Tools input settings, as usual.

That probably sounds a lot more confusing that it is! – but, it’s usually a quick set up. There may be a more efficient way to set things up (as every time a kit is changed using this set-up, we’d usually need to re-route everything and/or add/remove instrument tracks) – but, it works for me!

Steve

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.1.7
Operating system: Windows 10

[bbiworld]

Here’s a screenshot – that might show the set-up —

On the Pro Tools window – you’ll see SD3 as an insert on that first instrument channel. This session initially just had SD3 in stereo – but, as a demo, I added one mono inst. channel – and one stereo inst. channel just to the right of it – to show how its working on my system.

On SD3, I have the Mixer panel open — and the red arrows on the screen-shot are pointing to the “mixer” button — that’s where you’ll click to select “apply multi-channel outputs”.

In this screenshot, I had already selected “multi-channel outputs” — and set up another two of those SD3 channels to output to tracks 2 and 3 of my PT session.

So, in this case, as I’m playing back the session audio — PT Track 1 is the kick drum — and tracks 2 and 3 are showing signals on the meter coming from two other SD3 drums or drum mics.

This instance of SD3 happens to be using a preset with lots of effects (and effect buss routing) from within SD3 – so, choosing S7/8 and S13/14 is routing the hi-hat effect buss and a room ambience mic to PT tracks 2 and 3 — but, by clicking the outputs on the individual drum channels (the blue highlighted channels), the outputs on those could be changed for easier routing into the Pro Tools instrument channels you have set up for SD3.

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.1.7
Operating system: Windows 10

[Rick Kilbashian]

Ahhh,

I think I’m following you now.  See, I always follow this procedure.

1. Create a Stereo Instrument track and put SD3 on it
2. Choose my kit and from there I have been counting out how many “Input” tracks the SD Mixer has for the kit
3. Create the same amount of “Audio” Tracks in Pro Tools directly after the SD3 Instrument track
4. Route the SD Mixer but I route OUT from the Input / Channels (I think what you are saying is the Apply Multichannel) immediately routes what looks like the Output or Sub-Group tracks? This part I’m missing and please look at the graphic I attached.
5. The AUDIO tracks in Pr Tools have their input assignments setup to match the same outputs from the SD mixer.

So let me ask you…

1. Is it incorrect to use Audio tracks in PT for each of the SD Multi-outputs?
2. I don’t always use Grooves from SD but rather I trigger manually from a keyboard controller (Akai)
3. I use Audio tracks and overdub rack and floor fills manually.  If I started to use Instrument tracks for the entire kit could I still overdub parts of the kit after the basics?
4. Lastly, it is still unclear to me what the 2nd half of the SD mixer does.  Since I’ve been able to route Out from the input tracks I’ve never given the 2nd half a thought!

I hope this is clear – and I really do appreciate your input…(no pun intended 😉

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.1.7
Operating system: macOS Mojave (10.14)

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