rcantone80Hello,
I have Superior Drummer 3 and this is the first time I created a song within SD3. I opened it up within Pro Tools and it “follows host” perfectly aka follows my song timing and appropriate sections as I created it to. However, after the song is created, what is the proper move from there? Am I supposed to export every track within SD3 to its own Pro Tools track or should I simply work with it within the SD3 plugin itself (in the SD3 mix or dedicated drum track or bus)? I am not a drummer, so if I export these into their own tracks, do I just group them so their track volume doesn’t get bumped out of context with the rest of the drum mix, mainly on accident?
Do I leave it as is within the plugin and perhaps only export the tracks I may want to manipulate such as the kick and snare? Say I want that to stand out in the mix?
I know these are probably really amateur questions but I am not sure what the next step is with my SD3 Song.
Thanks,
~Ray
BradHi Ray, no it’s a good question with unfortunately a not so specific answer, that being “it depends”. It depends whether you can do what you need to do with the effects within the SD3 mixer. If yes then you are probably fine leaving things within the SD3 plug-in, or using SD3s bounce function to create a stereo wav file that you can import into a PT track. If you want treat just one drum or a group of drums, you can route them out specific channels within the SD3 mixer to aux tracks in PT. Some people like to bounce all mics to wav files and import the whole works into PT for total control within the DAW. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way. Whatever gets you the sound you’re after without making you completely mad, is probably the right way. ?
BTW I am running both Mojave and High Sierra and have experienced some issues with Mojave, in my opinion I would stay with High Sierra a while longer.
Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)
1
Thanked by: rcantone80rcantone80Hi Brad,
Thank you very much for your response. I think I do like the idea of bouncing all mics to wave files and bring that into my session. Although in SD3 I have the drum kit selected and say I really like the sound i.e. reverb / ambience / compression / etc within my file. When I export to wave files it sounds different, like I lost all those settings.
If I am exporting the mics, then perhaps I am not losing the kit but I am losing the reverb / ambience / compression / etc?
How could I export and maintain the integrity of the song I created or is that not possible (without making me completely mad lol)? Honestly, I don’t want to over complicate it, so if its best to only export certain elements such as the kick and snare to sit on top of my SD3 song then thats okay too. I am also not a drummer so it would be nice to export verbatim from SD3 if possible.
Also, thank you very much about the Mojave warning, I was going to upgrade after this project. However, I will wait it out.
Thanks again!
~Ray
BradWhen you bounce from SD3 to Audio/wav files are you going into to Bounce Microphone Channels?
Perhaps that may give you what you are looking for rather than just the output channels.
Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)
Bear-Faced CowHonestly, if you have the sound and mix you are after within SD3, when why do you want to export the individual mic channels, since exporting the mic channels are pre-effects and you would have to rebuild the mix from scratch. If you have what you want, don’t complicate it, and if you need to ride a channel/bus within SD3, you can assign a macro and automate it.
Other drum programs before SD3 required me to export the audio because their effects were either lacking or just plain sucked. I haven’t had this with SD3. For the, the only real time I will route audio out of SD3 into my DAW is when I want to enhance it with something else, such as a UAD Studer A800 plug-in (or one of the other compressors that match the song I’m working on). Other than that, I have found that SD3 allows me to keep things as simple as possible within a mix, thus speeding up the time it takes to get to a final mix.
jord
rcantone80Hi Brad,
When I did bounce the SD3 mix I bounced the microphone channels. When I compared it against the SD3 song itself, even after setting the levels, it was clear that it didn’t sound the same. I did the “Bounce Microphone Channels” but I don’t think anything else was “checked”. Should there have been?
Thanks,
~Ray
BradSorry I misunderstood. If you want the effects from SD3 plus some instruments on separate channels. you will want to bounce output channels (microphones are pre-effects as Bear-Faced Cow… that in my opinion is one of the best online handles, said), however I imagine whatever preset you are using is designed to eventually route everything through outputs 1-2 in SD3. So whatever you want to isolate you need to route through a separate output (essentially creating a modified user-preset). And then Bounce Output channels, which will be post effects. I hope that makes sense.
Sorry I added this bit later as I remembered this option….
In the upper left hand side of the mixer there is a there is a “Mixer” button, this will give you the option for multichannel output. Those will be output channels that are post-effects and should do what you want.
Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)
rcantone80Hi Jord,
I completely agree with you, that makes sense. However, I did create this while I wrote the song and now that I am in the mixing phase, I initially asked the question because I didn’t know what was the correct method with this to move onto mixing. This is my first time using SD3. Essentially if I decide that I want to have more flexibility with this as I work on my mix, bouncing may be the way to go. I merely picked the kit & samples I liked best to fit with my song, but now that I am mixing I may want to modify. Then again, I may not. Unless I want to assign a plugin to perhaps only the snare, bouncing the whole mix may be unnecessary.
This is really the first time I am mixing a project, never mind just creating a SD3 drum track, so I just want to know my options as well.
Thanks!
~Ray
BradI want to add, sometimes the multi-channel output approach won’t give you 100% of what you are hearing through a preset as designed. For example if there are plugins on Output 1/2. By have separate outputs, those effects won’t trigger as they normal would. Actually most likely it will only be the kick that is processed though those effects. Even copying the effects on 1/2 to the other output channels won’t sound 100% like the preset only going through 1/2 (I am thinking of a compressor) as only the audio going through that channel will trigger the compressor and not the sum of all audio…. I hope I am making sense.
Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)
Bear-Faced CowHi Jord,
I completely agree with you, that makes sense. However, I did create this while I wrote the song and now that I am in the mixing phase, I initially asked the question because I didn’t know what was the correct method with this to move onto mixing. This is my first time using SD3. Essentially if I decide that I want to have more flexibility with this as I work on my mix, bouncing may be the way to go. I merely picked the kit & samples I liked best to fit with my song, but now that I am mixing I may want to modify. Then again, I may not. Unless I want to assign a plugin to perhaps only the snare, bouncing the whole mix may be unnecessary.
This is really the first time I am mixing a project, never mind just creating a SD3 drum track, so I just want to know my options as well.
Thanks!
~Ray
Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.1.2
Operating system: macOS High Sierra (10.13)
The options are limitless, and you can go in which every direction you want to go with the mix. As for the correct method as far as what to do with SD3 when mixing, there is none. Use whatever works in the context of serving the song. If you feel you need to modify the drums, determine what doesn’t sound right and go from there. That will determine your next steps. Bouncing your tracks doesn’t necessarily mean more flexibility inasmuch as it is another mixing route. Yes, if you want to experiment with your tracks to see where you can take them, that’s something else. Otherwise, if all you need is a crushed ambient channel, or an EQ’d snare to bring out the crack, bouncing may be overkill. Not to mention if this is your very first mix, you probably want to start simple and start establishing a workflow before adding any complexities. The option to do other things will always be there, but trying to take them all in at the beginning may very well slow down the mixing process.
jord
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