SD3 Music City

[TonyByte]

I have several mixer settings I like and also a few expansions. I have my eye on purchasing Music City for SD3 but I am unclear if I will be able to use my mixer presets with it as I see it doesn’t include any.

I can use a mixer preset from Indiependant for use with Music City? Or maybe save the preset first and load for Music City. Its unclear to me if I can use mixer presets between kits. This is a tech question but if u can tell me I can, I’ll buy Music City now and figure out how when I purchase.
Thanks!

Topic

[Adrian Dawson]

The only way I can think of to do it is copy your Infiependent presets (using the finder, not in your DAW) to your SD3 presets folder. Then save a Music City preset to the same place.

In your DAW load the MC preset but in the SD3 core using the copied preset, not via the MC menu. They’ll load as black drums but they should be the right drums.

Then go as if to load the IP preset, but instead use the small arrow on the right and choose to load parts – load the mixer only, not the drums or the Macros.

You should then have the MC drums with the IP mixer preset. Might need a little tweaking.

I THINK this would work.

[Olof Westman]

As Adrian made clear, it is possible to load a mixer preset for one library in another library by doing some file copying. However, the result is rarely useful.

Btw, Music City includes a bunch of presets just as the other SDXs.

Olof Westman - Toontrack
Coder

[TonyByte]

Thank you both. This is good to know.

Sorry for the book of questions but I’m suddenly interested in 4 expansions at 179 a piece and clearly dont know what I’m talking about. ?

Man, I didn’t know Music City would come with presets for SD3. I have been using the included library, Indiependant, NY V3, Rock Foundry, and one of the metal ones that I dont even use but it mentioned the presets as well. I got the ones that mentioned the presets in the bullet points and figured they specialized in taking advantage of the newer SD3. I did a complete tutorial on Mastering tracks with Ozone 8 and in a few hours was blown away with what I did at home with SD3 presets, guitar, keys, But from scratch with SD3 Mixer? No way, not yet. haha.

1. so these other expansions have, “presets for instant mix-ready sounds”? Some expansions specifically mention that.
2. load individual drums from these expansions into other currently loaded expansion kits and mixer. Like if I’m in Indiependent and want a snare from Music City, that will now be in my pool of drums in all loaded kits when I search drums, right? That wont be a black electronic drum this way? I can stack em with my current kits, etc. as well, correct? (you would think i would know this from what I have already. Sorry, i just tweak preset kits so far!
3. I bought a few EZX expansions. Huge difference in the presets in my opinion. night and day. Like the folk kit is cool and very nice. However, indiependent is mind blowing like a a real pro handed me the mixes. Will Music City and Vintage be like this in SD3? I know this might be subjective but am I making sense?
4. Well this changes everything. Does NY V1 and V2 have these presets as well? Some of these were recorded before SD3 was even created. I guess they dont take advantage of all the extra mics or something? Will they sound better in SD3 than in 2? Because when I bought Indiependant, I didnt realize Folk EZX was actually the same recording session and drums so I purchased that as well. However, loading them both in SD3, they sound completely diffferent (both in SD3. Never had SD2 or EZ Drummer). Something sounds waaaaay better in indiependant than Folk EZX, both in SD3.
5. One of the expansions… maybe Indiependent or NY V3, had far fewer presets than the others. Could you tell me more about Music City, Vintage, and V1, V2 New York mixer presets? How many? Do they take advantage of newer SD3 features (obviously the grid editor and those types of features but I mean in presets / sound?
6. I have been working with some fun Motown beats. They sound great with many kits but would you suggest I use to be more authentic? I believe i enjoyed the singerland 1960s kit the most so far for these. Would the Vintage SDX be good for this or is that mainly rock?
7. A friend heard my SD3. He has SD2 and said, “wow, it sounds like they finally did the cymbals right” I asked him what he meant and he said his cymbals didnt sound as real as SD3. I find that odd, being that you surely used pro mics then as well. Any truth to his claims? I had only planned on buying future releases. Very paranoid about expansions created pre-SD3.

In Rock Foundry, the Bob Rock presets are amazing to me even compared to the toontrack presets in this same expansion. This is opinion of course and the above questions may not be easy to answer but i wont hold anyone to it if I’m not thrilled with future purchases. I know it can all be subjective. Either way, I trust the Toontrack quality. But clearly, the SD3 expansions are steps farther than the EZX and so are the “legend producer” presets like Bob Rock. I bought some other companies drum kits I wont mention but man… I’m tired of making expensive mistakes! I also have Komplete Ultimate and all of their kits. Using those and the presets with those kits doesnt even compare to SD3 in my experience. Maybe if i was tech, I dont know.

And now that I think about it, if there are presets in your other expansions, maybe someone runs through them on YouTube. I just didnt know to look. I appreciate this support. SD3 is the best thing I have purchased in at least 10 years… but I will complain about my grid editor wishes in the proper place. :p

[TonyByte]

Wait…Beatstation. Haha, sorry about this. I dont even know what that is, I’m in the wrong place. You are so nice, you guys didnt even mention it. Although, I do see it uses SDX expansions.

[Scott]

The first thing I would do is spend some time watching all the S3 videos here:

https://www.toontrack.com/product/superior-drummer-3/#section-videos

1. Yes, We’ve spent a lot of time making presets for the SDXs. Even the pre-S3 SDXs. Since S2 used effects plugins from a different company, a lot effort was made to match the S3 presets to the S2 preset of the same SDX.

2. Yes, all of your SDX and EZX kit pieces with be listed in your kit piece menu. They can be stacked or replaced. See the videos above.

3. Sound is subjective so IDK if you’ll hear them as BETTER or just DIFFERENT.

4. All SDXs have a varying number of presets. They will still just have the Mic channels.that they were recorded with. The Avatar SDX won’t have more channels just because it is loaded in S3.

5. I’m not at my computer so I don’t know exactly how many presets each SDX has but there are some. All presets use the same effects that are included with S3.

6. I would use the stock S3 library and go through the tons of included presets there. Something with the Ludwig kit should work well.

7. I thought the cymbals sounded fine in all the S2 libraries. Certainly never stopped me and other producers from using them in hundreds of tracks. But of course, sound is subjective.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Author]

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