Superior Drummer 4 wish list

[Five18Studios]

Tracker: Macro access to Mix knobs Next/Prev buttons for Drumkit...

Tracker: Macro access to Mix knobs

Next/Prev buttons for Drumkit Part and mixer presets (similar to the Kit piece menus at the top of the instrument tab)

Grid Editor: Show only tracks with data in the lane

Grid Editor: Make lanes wider

Grid Editor: Better defined grid subdivisions (variations in thickness or color for weak/strong beats)

Grid Editor: Set grid to swing

Grid Editor Select Menu: Select all notes in a certain velocity range (to even out the dynamics of higher velocity notes but leave lower ghost notes alone)

Grid Editor: Fill loop with 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 notes (Maybe in the right click menu in Grid Editor on specified track)

VST3 support (in the mixer) for 3rd party plugins

Improved detection with OH and multiple cymbals (Tracker)

Grid Editor: Volume control for click level on the interface

Ability to do custom user velocity layered drums (easier)

Swap Spacebar transport behavior or turn on/off return to start (so we don’t have to hold the option key for this behavior)

We need “SOLO” and “Instrumental” or “Interlude” as song parts. Or, How about custom song part names in the Preferences?

Grid Editor: More comprehensive controls for Dynamics (Range for compression E.G. min/max values)

• The post has been modified 4 times, last modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Five18Studios.

Tracker: Macro access to Mix knobs

Next/Prev buttons for Drumkit Part and mixer presets (similar to the Kit piece menus at the top of the instrument tab)

Grid Editor: Show only tracks with data in the lane

Grid Editor: Make lanes wider

Grid Editor: Better defined grid subdivisions (variations in thickness or color for weak/strong beats)

Grid Editor: Set grid to swing

Grid Editor Select Menu: Select all notes in a certain velocity range (to even out the dynamics of higher velocity notes but leave lower ghost notes alone)

Grid Editor: Fill loop with 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 notes (Maybe in the right click menu in Grid Editor on specified track)

VST3 support (in the mixer) for 3rd party plugins

Improved detection with OH and multiple cymbals (Tracker)

Grid Editor: Volume control for click level on the interface

Ability to do custom user velocity layered drums (easier)

Swap Spacebar transport behavior or turn on/off return to start (so we don’t have to hold the option key for this behavior)

We need “SOLO” and “Instrumental” or “Interlude” as song parts. Or, How about custom song part names in the Preferences?

Grid Editor: More comprehensive controls for Dynamics (Range for compression E.G. min/max values)

• The post has been modified 4 times, last modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Five18Studios.

Topic

[Owen Alexander]

Would like SD to show me if I program something in the Grid Editor that is unplayable.
As I’m not a trained drummer, I don’t know the technical limitations.

Fir example, if I’ve got a hi-hat part programmed, and then I go to put in a tom fill, could the hi-hat hits which are then unplayable turn RED so I know to fix something.  Or could it SUGGEST a fix..

I feel this would improve realism by ensuring I’m programming only that which a real person could play.
thanx

[Zachb36]

The ability to load presets by MIDI send.

[midilance]

I am a former user of BFD drums.  All the way back to it’s beginning.  InMusic appears to be doing nothing to benefit it’s future.  I’ve moved over to SD3 and am becoming  pleased with the plugin.  Here is my idea that is probably undoable.  Wouldn’t it be great if there could be a way for SD3 to import BFD3.5  libraries and convert them for used in SD3?  BFD has some great samples.

[Slick Will]

Was thinking the other day and came up with these. Not sure how easy these would be or if they’d even be possible, but might be worth consideration

• individual kit piece presets
  • E.g. Kick drum – loads all kicks used (if stacked) and copies all mics and their processing as well as any busses any kick mic is sent to and their processing. If there’s a mic channel not there, such as if the kick gets sent to a mono OH mic but there’s no mono OH mic currently, you could set it to do a few things: create that mic so it can be sent there, choose which mic to send it to (if you want to just send it to the stereo OH), or don’t do anything with it (send it nowhere)
  • If you also load a snare drum, for example, if it’s sent to a bus with the same name that the kick was routed to, then it gets sent to that bus too
• 3rd party plugins or at the very least be able to use EZMix inside of sd4
  • I’d settle for better processors within the plugin, though, such as a multiband saturator with selectable crossover frequencies and different saturation types a la FF Saturn, dynamic bands on the EQ module (which would probably negate the need for the next suggestion), or a better transient designer that at the very least has an output slider but maybe also works like Eventide’s SplitEQ
• Process individual kit pieces inside of ambient mics
  • E.g. Say you have a tom that has a bad resonance in the OH mic. You don’t want to cut that resonance as it affects everything else, but if you could process the tom samples that are being sent to the OH individually then that would solve the problem.
  • I’ve run into a tom with a resonance that i treated in the close mic but the problem was the same or worse in the OH mic, so it’d be nice to be able to treat it there too without removing that frequency from everything else too. I imagine this could be done by pulling up a mixer within the channel of all the pieces being sent to that channel and add processing that way
  • This could also work with multi-articulation pieces like the ride if you want to process the bell and the edge differently, for example, so that you can remove mud from the edge but keep some weight to the bell so it’s not so thin
• “Character” mods
  • Say you like a snare, but would like it to be ringy. Maybe have a way to add artificial ring to it and edit the frequency. Could do the same with the kick to add or change the low end fundamental, maybe on toms too
  • I guess this is similar in idea to the kicks and snares expansion, but have those things sort of more built into the plugin itself
• “Sound check” function
  • this should be easy – give us a way to make a kit piece play repetitively without having to set it up in the player with a way to change the speed of it (whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth note, etc)

• This post was modified 1 month, 4 weeks ago by Slick Will.

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Thanked by: log0ut

[Pierre Germain]

I would love a built-in Drum Teacher that analyzes your playing, scores you on your timing accuracy, determines when you’re playing a triplet and and factors it in your evaluation, makes suggestions such as “I see you attempted a six-stroke roll – here are some lessons on how to improve that”, “work on your left hand using these lessons” and provides a link to a lesson or switches to that specific lesson with SD4, etc.

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Thanked by: log0ut

[kemccarthy1]

Adding granularity to the time row in Grid Editor so that we can set time as a value rather than having to manually move a note on the grid would be exceptionally helpful. The ability to move a note is pretty good as is the Nudge feature but a window to input discrete values would be nice.

[clawelch]

• Allow filtering by more specific genres/sub-genres, esp with pop/rock/country & have a column option for genre/subgenre would be helpful.
• More on the fly controllability of parameters, like velocity slider, but for individual drum pieces, or add swing to specific drum pieces but not others
  • Would be cool if it had its own menu page that I could detach from the GUI and put on another monitor to further tweak on the fly while auditioning grooves or comping/swapping drum elements in a production session
• An option to change the genre/style of a groove would be awesome, like if I could “country-ify” a metal groove, that would be sick & allow for some unique results
• Way to filter grooves by date added, so I can see all my new MIDI packs without clicking individual folders
• EZ mode within SD
• Updated MIDI editor

I had more ideas, just can’t remember them right now…

[Jussi Suhonen]

Hi.

Wishlist:

– ability to change whole kit dynamics (velocity range) with a single knob/setting, helps e-drums recording and reduces editing needs later as kit can be recorded in reduced velocity range, this is many times a real problem because velocity range is just too big when making records, compressors can’t handle the dynamic range it in the mixing stage and too much processing lowers the final result quality too much

– importing own wav files (triggering/layering with custom samples) made easier with ability to automatically adjust custom sample velocity to midi note velocity (=when importing custom sample, software makes automatically several velocity levels of the same sample so triggering/layering is more realistic). Triggering is needed usually because SD3 sounds are too ”good” for the production which makes them a bit too unnatural sounding.

– ability to automatically route additional kit parts to relevant mics (when I add additional snare, tom, ride etc. to kit, it automatically routes signals/bleeds to relevant other mics too, as bleed makes kit sound more natural, you could so this by drum type automatically, eg. added snare bleeds automatically to overheads, toms, hh mic etc. You could route things automatically to relevant mics by added instrument type.

– ability to adjust mic distance from source

– better handling of window size so that you don’t have to scroll up/down to see eg all the faders or track names

– midimapping is really hard and buggy, there should be better way to map drum module to sd3, there should be way to save and load custom midi maps with ease and midi maps should be saved to each kit by default so they auto-load on kit change. The need to customization of drum kits is rising now as e-drum technology keeps improving, that is big thing now as drummers want to find and custom their own voice and technology has ability to do this. SD3 is the right product to make these things available.

[Andrew Payne]

Great suggestions and +1 from as well

cheers Andrew

Dell Precision 7730, i7 6 Core 2.6 GHz, 128GB RAM, 1TB SSD and 3 x 2TB SSD, Windows 11, Cubase Pro 14, SD3 plus a variety of SDX's and EZX's, Orchestral Percussion, EZBASS, RME BabyFace Pro FS and KRK V4 monitors. Modified Yamaha DTX900, DTXPRESS4 and Edrumin10 triggering SD3. Yamaha pads/cymbals and Roland VH-10 HiHat. PDP Maple acoustic kit for live playing.

[thedrumdoctor]

Linux support! Ok, now for the most likely request…

I use SD3 for home recording on a converted acoustic kit. I don’t use proprietary modules to send MIDI information, I use the eDRUMin controller system.

The only thing which still doesn’t quite make the mark for me, is the hi-hat transition sounds. I now use an optical hi-hat controller on a real hi-hat stand, with 2 cymbals, which delivers CC info from 0-127. My physical playing experience is very, very realistic and SD3 is receiving the full gamut of CC information.

Modules, if I remember correctly from my own Roland TD plus VH hi-hat experiences, seemed to deliberately limit the amount of CC information generated in order to suit their own hi-hat controller and hi-hat sound libraries. I also remember watching the CC information sent to the computer from modules and it was very limited and inconsistent.

It seems to me, VST sound libraries have been created to work with the limited CC information sent by third party modules. However, once you break out of those limitations, the realism possibilities change to a new level. It’s almost like the CC info I send from the eDRUMin outmatches the available articulations/transitions in SD3. Believe me, I’ve been through the hi-hat transition page to try different permutations and tried all of the possibilities in the eDRUMin hi-hat controller to find a compromise of sorts. In fact, in my opinion, the eDRUMin controller is a work of genius and offers way more MIDI note manipulation than any proprietary module on the market. I know you R&D with the most popular e-drum brands, but please spare a thought for those of us who are prepared to invest in your software who go beyond the confines of standard drum modules.

Also (though I’m sure you are already aware), hi-hat cymbals have a slight delay to them when playing closed-to-loose-to-open and vice-versa. The sound travels with the air coming out of the cymbals, creating a slight delay in how the brain processes the sound. When I play a hi-hat ‘bark’ from fully open to fully closed in SD3, it sounds like the notes cut off abruptly. In real life, the air moves and throws the sound. I have attempted to ‘fix’ this by adding a far room mic to the hi-hat mix with only a hi-hat room sound. It’s only milliseconds but it’s an integral part of the human hi-hat playing experience. I would like to see your next release confront directly this unresolved frontier of VST hi-hat realism.

Now, it is worth me saying for the record, I am only using the stock SD3 sounds, which are incredible if you are prepared to spend the time on tuning them. Perhaps I am missing out from a better hi-hat experience because I don’t have any other SDX packs? I don’t know. Perhaps there are more advanced sample articulations which would reflect better the CC information sent by more realistic electronic hi-hat setups?

Thank you for listening.

thedrumdoctor

[Andrew Payne]

Fantastic request and a plus one from me. As an edrummer who also plays an acoustic kit, the hi hat is the single most noticeable difference and the biggest challenge for drum VST’s. We all know it is very difficult to fully mimic acoustic hi hat sounds and transitions but things like edrumin are a significant move forward. An ideal opportunity for Toontrack to increase the already fantastic performance of SD3 and EZD3 and lead the world for VST hi hat realism. Cheers Andrew

Dell Precision 7730, i7 6 Core 2.6 GHz, 128GB RAM, 1TB SSD and 3 x 2TB SSD, Windows 11, Cubase Pro 14, SD3 plus a variety of SDX's and EZX's, Orchestral Percussion, EZBASS, RME BabyFace Pro FS and KRK V4 monitors. Modified Yamaha DTX900, DTXPRESS4 and Edrumin10 triggering SD3. Yamaha pads/cymbals and Roland VH-10 HiHat. PDP Maple acoustic kit for live playing.

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Thanked by: thedrumdoctor

[thedrumdoctor]

I wonder how much of the Toontrack customer base are e-drummers seeking more realism? I imagine they will put their R&D into the higher number users which I will hazard a guess are not us.

I will also guess the majority of e-drummers will be triggering via proprietary modules – which focuses the module preset settings to the industry standards and are of zero use to me. SD + a range of standard module settings is the obvious safety shot for a stable release candiate. The problem with the eDRUMin controller is, it will always expose the limitations of a sample library – very quickly. On the other hand, it will always extract the ultimate capabilities from a sample library. I can remember how mind blowing it was to move from the limited MIDI info sent from a TD-20 and hearing SD’s samples reborn under the influence of the eDRUMin and my custom trigger settings.

Perhaps the big spenders are the sound engineer/producer people? I imagine from a sound engineer’s point of view, they are more interested in drum replacement or layering on top of acoustic drums. These guys like lots of different toys to play with, whereas we spend our time trying to get one kit sounding as real as possible! It is a high quality studio tool at the end of the day. Then there’s the songwriter market looking for fast out-of-the box realism for demos. Both SD and EZ will tick their boxes giving them a range of studio drum sounds for any genre. Perhaps we are a smaller part of the SD market…

thedrumdoctor

• This post was modified 2 weeks, 1 day ago by thedrumdoctor.

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Thanked by: Shen G

[Author]

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