SD3 > Logic X Routing Questions (Newb Alert!)

[Fraser Stewart]

Hi everyone.

Apologies in advance if what I’m asking here is doing nothing other than drawing attention to my lack of experience/knowledge in digital recording, but I’m hoping you folks can assist in answering some questions I have regarding SD3 and routing it into Logic X. While I’ve seen some insightful information elsewhere, I’m still struggling to understand some of the principles and thought it best to just swallow my pride and ask here:

The last few months I’ve been saving up and purchasing various pieces of software/hardware in order to establish a home recording setup. My first purchase was SD3 as I was particularly taken by the fact it’s a standalone program and allows the user to create their own drum track within the program itself, meaning I could start work on the ‘foundations’ of the songs I’d like to record while I save to purchase all the other necessary bits of hardware/software. I’ve written all my drum arrangements using the grid editor and pretty much used the ‘Slow Heavy Pearl’ preset more or less exclusively as it’s the kind of sound I’m after. I recently purchased Logic X and I’m now at the stage where I’d like to import these arrangements into the DAW in order to start adding the additional instrumentation to my songs. However, this is where I’m starting to run into problems…

As far as I understand it, there are two ways I can do this: the first is creating a single stereo audio file using SD3’s bounce function. The upside of this is all the effects used in the ‘Slow Heavy Pearl’ preset are all present and correct, but with the drums appearing as a single stereo track my options within Logic are drastically reduced should I wish to tweak things further once I start mixing the project. The other solution is bouncing all the individual elements of the kit separately and have each appearing as it’s own individual audio file within Logic, but the problem here is all I end up with is the raw samples without any of the preset’s effects. Essentially, I would like to have all the elements of the kit appear as their own individual audio files in Logic but with all the preset effects I hear during playback in SD3 present.

I understand I can just keep SD3 active as a plugin in Logic right up until I’m completely finished with my project before utilising the first method and bouncing it down as a stereo file, meaning I can still tweak things if necessary up to that point using SD3’s mixer. However, I’d much prefer to ‘future proof’ my Logic projects and have all the individual kit elements available should I wish to return and remix things at a later date. Furthermore, I’m concerned about keeping SD3 open as a plugin will potentially cause CPU issues on my MacBook Pro once I’ve recorded the additional instrumentation/start using more plugins elsewhere in the project.

Can anyone tell me if what I’m looking to do is possible, and if so, how I would go about achieving this? The bouncing section in the SD3 manual isn’t really offering much insight in this regard and I can’t find any solutions elsewhere online. Again, apologies for asking about stuff that is no doubt very basic and straight forward to those who are familiar with such things, but I’m finding all of this extremely confusing and frustrating so any assistance would be MASSIVELY appreciated!!

Thanks!

Topic

[Fraser Stewart]

I should probably add that I’m aware the ‘Slow Heavy Preset’ in SD3’s mixer window shows the 12 mics on the kit plus the two additional user mics (‘x-kick in’ and ‘x-snare top’) are all routed into 8 separate busses (‘Kick’, ‘Snare’, ‘Hi-Hat’, ‘Toms’, ‘OH’, ‘Ambience’, ‘Comp’ and finally ‘Reverb’). I understand it’s these busses with all their individual instances of effects that give the preset it’s ‘colour’ and that’s essentially the thing I’d like to transfer across to Logic. Therefore, am I correct in thinking if I open up a software track in Logic with SD3 enabled and create additional Aux channels, I can route the effect ladened busses in the SD3 mixer to these newly created Aux channels? I’m assuming that will allow me to achieve what I’m looking to do. However, I noticed the main out on the SD3 mixer has it’s own 3 separate instances of EQ along with a classic compressor and tape machine, all of which obviously have a significant impact on the overall sound, but SD3 doesn’t give me the option to route that particular channel anywhere. Does that mean I would have to create a bus within Logic, send the aforementioned Aux channels to that and then try to emulate the EQ setups along with utilising Logic’s own compression and tape machine effects to match what’s on the SD3 mixer main out?

Hope what I’m saying makes sense, but I’m very much lost here and in need of some guidance. Thanks in advance!

[Fraser Stewart]

Can anyone help me out?

I’ve been trying my best to understand and implement what’s being advised to others with similar issues on this forum, but I’m having no success and getting increasingly frustrated trying to accomplish something that’s relatively simplistic in principle. I can appreciate it’s perhaps tedious explaining such things in laymen’s terms, but the upside is once the solution to this particular problem has been illustrated anyone in the future experiencing the same issues will have a definitive point of reference available to them. As always, I offer up my sincerest gratitude to anyone who is willing to assist!

[Mark King]

The bounce function will give you the raw tracks as you have already found out. As far as I am aware the effects in SD3 are part of the program so you would have to keep SD3 open to use them. I use cubase and if I need to free up resource I can freeze the track. This basically saves the the audio files and you can still process the output. You can also access the audio if the plugin is not present. I have no idea if this is possible in Logic.

SD3 with older sdx,s plus Rooms of Hansa and Death & Darkness. Cubase and wavelab current versions. Roland TD50x using all trigger inputs for triggering SD3 only. Windows 11 computer. Various keyboards and outboard gear as well as VST instruments. Acoustic drums: Yamaha 9000 natural wood and Pearl masters. Various snare drums. RME BabyFace Pro FS and Adam A7X monitors

[Fraser Stewart]

Thanks Mark!

I’ve subsequently discovered that Logic does indeed have it’s own freeze function, which will no doubt come in handy during the mixing process and will negate my concerns regarding my computer’s CPU.

I was hoping by having each individual element of the kit represented as it’s own audio file in Logic the effects present during playback in SD3 would also be included in the bounce, but perhaps that’s not possible and I’ll have no choice but to just settle for keeping SD3 open as a plugin and bounce it as a single stereo file once I’ve finished mixing the entire Logic project. Have to say it’s a bit disappointing if that happens to be the case as I would have hoped SD3 was more versatile than that, but I like to think I can still make it work to my advantage.

Many thanks again for offering some insight!

[Scott]

The presets in S3 make use of busses and outputs. The presets are stereo presets and make use of processing on the 2 bus (the Stereo output). If you then want to blow the outputs out to your DAW, you will bypass the effects on the 2 bus. Sometimes that 2 bus processing is a major part of the sound. How all of the drum elements hit the compressor a certain way, how the eq interacts with all the drum kit pieces…that is all important.

As people are finding out, when you multi out a preset that was made using this 2 bus processing, logically, it will not sound the same. Sometimes, drastically different. It’s the nature of mixing and routing. Even if you were to copy the 2 bus processing and put it on every multi output, it will still sound different. The interaction between the kit pieces won’t be there.

It’s not about S3 not being versatile. It’s about having an expectation of routing and processing that isn’t possible.

You can bounce through the S3 mixer per each multi output.

https://www.toontrack.com/manual/superior-drummer-3/7/7-1-the-track-menu/#7-1-1-bounce

However, if you load a preset that makes heavy use of 2 bus processing, then mulit out and bounce, be aware that it will not sound the same as the preset that used the 2 bus processing.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Fraser Stewart]

Thanks a lot, Scott!

Although it’s unfortunate I can’t use that particular preset in the way I had hoped, I’m still thoroughly impressed with what I’ve experienced so far with SD3 and didn’t mean to sound too dismissive. I’ll just have to adopt a different approach and learn more on how to mix drums in general in order to get the sounds I’m after. Many thanks again!

[Author]

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