Snare brush swirls far too quiet

[cropotkin]

I’m just trying to program a jazzy snare brush swirl pattern with Jazz Sessions SDX. But I think I must be doing something wrong, The swirl samples are unbelievably quiet. I have to add a compressor with 15dB make-up gain just to be able to hear them. But that makes all the snare drum hits incredibly loud. Why is this so difficult? Is there some technique I am missing?

Operating system: Windows 11

• The post has been modified 2 times, last modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by cropotkin.

Topic

[Scott]

You can adjust the volume of each articulation individually if you want. Select the swirls articulations in the Articulation Menu and then the Property Box (Volume) will just adjust those articulations.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

1

Thanked by: drumjack52

[drumjack52]

Scott wrote:

You can adjust the volume of each articulation individually if you want. Select the swirls articulations in the Articulation Menu and then the Property Box (Volume) will just adjust those articulations.

Didn’t know that – thought the level slider was only for the kit piece as a whole and not individual articulations.

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.0
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram

[Scott]

Yes. It’s in the manual but it’s often overlooked.

I use it often when I want to, say, turn up the ride Bell articulation and not the whole ride.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

1

Thanked by: drumjack52

[Mark King]

Yes used it myself quite a few times.

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

[cropotkin]

Scott, that certainly helps, although it only provides 12dB of gain and these samples are pathologically quiet. But it probably will be ok. Thank you so much.

[drumjack52]

cropotkin wrote:

Scott, that certainly helps, although it only provides 12dB of gain and these samples are pathologically quiet. But it probably will be ok. Thank you so much.

Might I suggest not just raising the level of the swirl but at the same time lowering the levels of the other articulations? That will give you an extra bit of level difference between the articulations. And to make up the lost overall level boost the total snare drum level. Historically snare swirls are never all that loud to begin with.

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.0
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram

1

Thanked by: John

[John]

But tha

drumjack52 wrote:

And to make up the lost overall level boost the total snare drum level.

But that would have to be done then via the Mixer. If you have boosted one articulation max and lowered another and then select the entire Snare and raise the volume, the individually maxed articulation will not go beyond +12dB.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Mark King]

And if you still can’t get enough output turning the snare tracks up in the mixer send the snare tracks to a group track and turn that up (may be a group track already). Loads of options to get more volume.

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

1

Thanked by: drumjack52

[drumjack52]

John wrote:

But tha

drumjack52 wrote:

And to make up the lost overall level boost the total snare drum level.

But that would have to be done then via the Mixer. If you have boosted one articulation max and lowered another and then select the entire Snare and raise the volume, the individually maxed articulation will not go beyond +12dB.

BR,
John

You’re missing the point of the OP’s issue and that was that the swirl articulation was way too soft compared to the rest of the articulations. What I outlined would solve that. So he would have to go to the mixer to raise the overall snare drum level – I don’t see the problem there. And if he’s mixing in his daw with multichannel output from SD3 he can raise the snare drum there as well.

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.0
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram

[cropotkin]

Good point. Thanks again

 

Graham

[John]

drumjack52 wrote:

You’re missing the point of the OP’s issue and that was that the swirl articulation was way too soft compared to the rest of the articulations. What I outlined would solve that. So he would have to go to the mixer to raise the overall snare drum level – I don’t see the problem there. And if he’s mixing in his daw with multichannel output from SD3 he can raise the snare drum there as well.

No, I just wanted to point out to anyone else reading this that if you e.g. lower the center articulation -6dB, raise another articulation +6dB, a third +9dB, etc.
– selecting the entire Instrument (All Articulations) and raising the level will keep the relative levels between the articulations but none of them will still go above +12dB via the Level Property Box on the DRUMS page.

Only for clarification,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[drumjack52]

John wrote:

drumjack52 wrote:

You’re missing the point of the OP’s issue and that was that the swirl articulation was way too soft compared to the rest of the articulations. What I outlined would solve that. So he would have to go to the mixer to raise the overall snare drum level – I don’t see the problem there. And if he’s mixing in his daw with multichannel output from SD3 he can raise the snare drum there as well.

No, I just wanted to point out to anyone else reading this that if you e.g. lower the center articulation -6dB, raise another articulation +6dB, a third +9dB, etc.
– selecting the entire Instrument (All Articulations) and raising the level will keep the relative levels between the articulations but none of them will still go above +12dB via the Level Property Box on the DRUMS page.

Only for clarification,
John

Again – agreed the relative levels will stay the same and you won’t go past the +12dB level for the swirls in this case no matter what you do with the snare slider in the drums page. But the overall snare level can be adjusted by using the controls in the mixer to make up for the loss from messing with the various articulations’s levels.

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.0
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram

[Author]

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