Routing SD3 in PT12

[Gary Edelburg]

New to the plugin . . . any help in Pro Tolls 12 setup would be much appreciated!

Topic

[John]

Hi,

did you watch the Superior 2 MultiOut for Pro Tools video over @ the Toontrack YouTube channel?
Even though it’s old and made with Superior 2, it’s the same principle.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Gary Edelburg]

I have. Just overwhelmed with options! Where to start?

[John]

Hi,

do you mean that the total amount of videos is overwhelming? That I can understand. This is the video I was referring to:
https://youtu.be/_TV5Mybc0zY

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Gary Edelburg]

That also . . .
Trying to get my head around using the plugin. Do I mix in SD3 or PT12? I have been able to route some SD3 drums and I know it’s my choice on how to use it. Just a bit overwhelming that’s all.

[John]

Well,

for that question, there is no correct answer. You mix in SD3 or you mix in PT 12. Or a combination of both.
Personally, it depends on the nature of the project I’m working on. I tend to Bounce out separate tracks per microphone from SD3 and mix in Pro Tools if it’s a project with natural sounding drums. If it’s more processed and synthetic, I tend to mix in SD3 and route to separate tracks in PT12, where I then only apply Bus EQ/Comp.
Sometimes I use the internal Reverbs, sometimes I route a Bus to a separate output and put a Reverb on that Input in PT, so I can have Bus Sends in SD3 to a Reverb in the PT mixer.
But that’s me, you find your own way.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Stephen Banville]

Hi All,

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I too am interested in multi out to Pro Tools 12. I’ve routed all 16 microphones to PT using 16 audio tracks, some mono and some stereo such as Ambience and OH. I use input monitoring in PT to hear the drums and then when I’m finished I hit record on the audio tracks to commit the drum parts. I then have a kick, snare, hats, toms, ambience , and OH buses to add EQ, Comp, etc. I tend to track at low input levels -18 – 12db (Outboard gear and plugins seem to respond best at those levels) . If I set the SD3 levels for all 16 microphones at 0db, then the levels are way to hot for my liking and will not leave much for headroom for the final mix. So in the SD3 mixer for each channel i set the levels to keep my drums between -18 to -12. The output bus levels 1 – 32 are set to 0db.

Any ideas why the microphone levels are so hot? I suppose it may depend on the SDX I’m using. This example is for the Bob Rock SDX which IMO sounds incredible.
Also I’ve heard mixed comments about routing from SD3 to PT aux buses versus PT audio tracks. To my ears I can’t hear any audible difference. The only downfall is that I need to keep the tracks to input monitoring until I’m done with the drums, but that’s usually how I work anyway.

Steve

[John]

Hi,

if there are FX inserts on the Microphone fader, it can increase the level. Inside the SD3 mixer, you can’t clip anything, so if a mic in a preset is hot, it can be OK, because it is routed to a Bus where the level is brought down, either by more inserts or by a lowered fader.
If you OTOH route a “hot” fader/output into Pro Tools, you may have to bring it down, depending on your signal chain.
Regarding the question of whether to use Audio Tracks or Aux Tracks in the Pro Tools mixer, it doesn’t matter but I find it to be easier using Aux Tracks or Instrument Tracks for the separate outputs, since I don’t have to bother about the Input Monitoring.
With the Commit and Bounce features in PT 12, it’s very easy to render those outputs to Audio anyway.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Author]

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