SD3 – Dream pop – Midi mapping – Articulations missing & issue with non-immediate articulations

[Mattias_tt]

Hi
I’m trying to configure the mapping of the instruments from the Dream Pop kit to my midi-keyboard. Using Superior Drummer 3, with the latest updates, V 3.1.2.

I’m mapping them in a way that all the drums and their articulations follow each other in some kind of logical order.

However, for some instruments I can’t find all of the articulations under Settings -> MIDI in.

So, for example, using the default preset -> overview -> show -> Shaker 1, there is only one articulation in the list and that is “Shaker 1 Shake Hit Immediate”. If I close the Settings tab and click on the ‘Shaker 1’, moving to articulations I can see that there are actually 6 (7) articulations. “Shake hit”, “shake back” and so on.

Velocity doesn’t seem to be the trigger for the different articulations. Or, actually the different velocities just seem to make some “weird or random sounds”. Under ‘mapping and response’, I can’t find that there are different articulations triggered by velocity, which I guess ‘Secondary notes’ displays. There are no secondary notes for ‘Shaker 1’. I have also checked this with the analyzer, and of what I can see, velocity doesn’t change the articulations, or rather, the articulations seem to be changed random while triggered by a keyboard note. To be clear, a velocity of 20, 28, 29, 34 all makes a different sound, but so does it between 34, 80, 100. So, really small and really big differences in values. Am I just missing the thresholds? As I said, I can’t find the thresholds since the secondary notes can’t be found. The different articulations just seem to be triggered random, and not in a linear way. Also, it seems Illogical that such small gaps as a value of ‘1’ changes the articulations. There clearly can’t be multiple thresholds just between velocity levels of 34-20, that just seems wrong. I have also tried this by disabling ‘Hit variations’, and the same “problem” still occurs.

This is not only for ‘Shaker 1’. Same problem with ‘Tambourine 1’ for example.

However, while viewing the ‘Ride’ and ‘FX Chromatic’, they show all the articulations under preset -> overview -> show -> FX Chromatic/Ride. So clearly the articulations should be found here.

1. How do I find these missing articulations so I can map them to my midi-keyboard?

2. If the articulations are triggered by the velocity, how am I supposed to know which levels that are used for thresholds when no ‘Secondary notes’ are shown?

3. Another relevant issue I found while playing around with this is: When I play the notes and record them (using ‘Shaker 1’), and even after I quantized the notes for every fourth some of the notes are audio-vise out of beat, clearly hearable while using a metronome. Okey, so this is probably meant to be that way for the ‘non-immediate articulations’ for some “added realism” but what if I want to lower the velocity without having my notes out of sync? Do I have to make another channel for every singel time I want to change the velocity and drag the specific fader?

Regards
Mattias

Topic

[Scott]

See this thread:

https://www.toontrack.com/forum/superior-drummer-3-pre-sales/bug-or-problem-adding-shakersmaracas/

The future hit instruments are different than the regular instruments.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Mattias_tt]

Aha, so I misunderstood what the ‘Secondary notes’ represented. The numbers are the corresponding keys on a keyboard where the sounds repeat.

But, why are they repeated? I mean they don’t have any different articulations or so. I don’t get why for example between the notes (the default) 7-26 the hi-hats are repeated (yeah sure, they change between closed and open, but that doesn’t matter).

I’m curious about this because I don’t want to miss if it is any essential purpose why they are ordered that way, when I’m fixing my own mapping. So, as I see it now, there are no purpose of this, and I will simply not map the repeating sounds. Or have I missed something? Would be convenient to be able to have all the sounds on my 88-keys, so I don’t have to change octaves.

[Scott]

Some articulations are repeated (aliases) yes. This is for convenience for playing on an 88 key keyboard as well having the useful articulations in different octaves.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Mattias_tt]

(The text over the ‘edit’ is now more of background information. My problems now concern the text under the ‘edit’)

Perfect… so now when I fixed my mapping like I wanted. I removed the duplicates and saved my preset. Everything looked and worked as it should. Switched between some other presets and back again to my custom one (to make sure that everything worked as it should). And it worked as it was supposed to. Saved and closed the project in Cubase (I saved both the preset and the project itself). Reloaded it, and now, some of my mappings are gone from my keys. Or actually two of them, one completely gone and one is on the wrong note. And what is worse is that the Shaker 1, the Tambourine 1 and the Instrument 1 (claps) are completely gone, including the icons. They are removed from ALL PRESETS and not just my custom one!

I have tried to restore the instrument database as well as restored the MIDI database. And the settings, the sounds and the icons still won’t come back.

I can’t even find the missing sounds under Overview -> show -> all notes.

I have restarted the DAW, doesn’t help. I have created new tracks and that doesn’t help either. Pressing reset doesn’t work.

***EDIT***

So, I found the future hit instruments and they placed themselves on the correct notes. The icons work.

But now… each and every time I make a new project within Cubase they disappear again! So, I have to reload, reload and reload.

And what is the worst, the ‘Instrument 1’ (claps, cowbell) can’t be found at all. Add instrument -> Search for Instrument -> Instrument 1 can’t be found. And neither if I browse through all the claps.

Clarifying the problems:
1. I want to be able to use the ‘future hit’ instruments without having to reload them every time.
2. I want my ‘Instrument 1’ back. And same with this one, I don’t want to reload it every time.

[Author]

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