Volume of SD3

[Ejis]

Hi. Desperate here. Currently, couldn’t be more disappointed with the ‘Live’ E-drum experience using SD3. It’s too quiet. Not nearly loud enough. I’ve read all other posts on here relating to ‘volume’ our ‘quiet’ etc. Nearly all the responses are bordering on being patronising without actually providing a solution. Having said that, why would a solution be needed for a problem which, frankly shouldn’t exist.

I sit to play my TD20 E-kit, triggering SD3.0 through a new MacBook Pro via headphones. SD3.0 libraries are installed on an external drive but are imported as required without caching or 16 bit mode being used. As I play, two things occur. The first is the sounds have an intermittent ‘click’ either preceding or following the drum/cymbal strike. Secondly and most irritatingly is the sounds, all the sounds, are far too quiet. Previewing sounds in the ‘Drums’ tab to get a ‘level’, everything sounds as I would hope. Strike the e-pad, Absolutely miserable experience. Please, please, please provide me with a solution to a problem that should never exist.

You have my signal chain, try for yourself.

If my issue cannot be solved I would appreciate it if you provide me with information as to how I seek to obtain a full refund for my licence.

I was so looking forward to this being everything it claimed to be…….right now, it isn’t. My TD20’s original module sounds are, currently, Superior.

Miserable.

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.2.6
Operating system: macOS Monterey (12)

Topic

[Mark King]

I wouldn’t say getting triggers set up correctly on the module correctly first is patronising. That is the first thing I do and make sure sd3 triggers how I want it to. Is it actually that quiet you can’t turn it up? Have you turned up the main volume in sd3 at the bottom right? I use sd3 with a td30 and a td20 on a 2nd pc with no volume problems.

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

[jmuslow]

Not an expert, but found this TD 30 option significantly improved output levels. TD 30 manual page 124, USB audio I/O gain. Hope this works for you.

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.3.1
Operating system: macOS Monterey (12)

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Thanked by: Ejis

[Cesar Valdez]

Hey, I completely agree with you and would also like a complete refund for the software plus expansions. I’ve had the software for a while now and since day 1 it was a frustrating and miserable experience. It’s was overwhelming the amount of problems I was dealing with. I pretty much abandoned the software and went back to my modules. I just plugged in my two TD-30s and Octopad into my mixer, turned it on, took a minute to dial in my sounds and I was off and running. If I can’t easily get a refund I will just have to take it as a lost and a learning experience of what NOT to do. If a software company can’t offer you a free trial of their software, don’t get it. Won’t make that mistake again. Even Logic gives you 3 months to try out the software. That’s a company I stand behind. Anyways as far raising the volume, at the bottom right, next to Macro Controls and Song Creator, there’s a slider that increases the kit volume. For individual instrument and articulation volume, the Level slider at the top will fix that. Good luck.

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Thanked by: Ejis

[Mark King]

Obviously have no idea on how to use it as the sounds in sd3 are a million miles ahead of a td30 and it’s not that difficult to get set up.

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

[Cesar Valdez]

Well, you obviously have more experience and a completely different experience with sd3 than me. For some of us that are new to VSTs like SD3, we’re having a hard time calibrating are e-kits to work well with the software. We’re running into real problems and issues that we don’t know how to fix. The bottom line is that the software is too advanced for some of us to invest the time needed to learn it. Also, good sounds are subjective. As of right now I’m getting more functionality, playability and good sound from the TD30 than SD3. But I’ll give it a second chance.

[Ejis]

Well, that’s a stinking reply to someone who is frustrated and annoyed with their experience so far. How about you try to lend a hand and help me out as you’re such a genius on the subject rather than come across like a douchebag.

I won’t hold my breath.

[Cesar Valdez]

Hi Ejis, I hope I wasn’t the one you called  a douchebag. I’ve never been called that before LOL. I know the software can be tough. I’m having a difficult time getting it to cooperate the way it should myself . At this point the only thing you can do is read the manual over and over again and start pushing buttons. I also bought some video tutorials. I forget the name. They helped a little. We’re just going to have to put in a little extra time and work into. If I figure out any little things, I’ll make sure to send it your way. Good luck.

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Thanked by: Ejis

[Mark King]

If you mean me then I already put pointers in my first message. You started off by insulting previous posters in your initial post. Why not just ask the question respectfully then you stand a much better chance of getting answers. Instead you throw insults at people who answered and and at sd3. There are a huge amount of instruction videos out there on YouTube that would explain a lot more than trying to explain not only how to setup sd3 but also your module which you should already be proficient with. So no I won’t be answering any more when you show contempt for users on the forum in your first post and then resort to name calling. In life you have more chance of getting something if you’re civil.

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

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Thanked by: Ejis

[Andrew Payne]

There is no simple answer and there are a number of ways to control (and maximise) volume. thought I’d share a few of my experiences to see if this helps. First issue is to dial in your triggers and/or drum module (including velocity curves, sensitivity etc) and Luke Oswald gives a good insight into how to do this. Check following link LIVE STREAM: Superior Drummer 3 w/ E-Drums – Session 1 – YouTube

Other areas you can affect volume are as follows and I have screen shots for some of these to show as well – circled in red. Note that I run to buses and then to individual outputs but all depends on your preferred routing.

1. Your Audio interface volume level
2. I use a mixer with preamp for audio output so this is another volume level control. I also have a headphone preamp for headphone channel out of mixer – another volume control for headphones.
3. I run an external Yamaha DBR15 amp with volume control (from the mixer)
4. Individual instrument mic channels in Drums tab and “level” and “velocity curve” 
5. Individual instrument mic channel levels in mixer tab
6. Levels in any ambient or OH mic channels (and you can alter which instruments bleed to these) and also the close mic instrument level in these channels
7. Level of instrment in “bleed form instruments for and ambient/OH channels as in 6. above

   I cant load any more screenshots so see next post for rest. Cheers Andrew

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.3.1
Operating system: Windows 10

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: Jason Gonzalez

[Andrew Payne]

1. I run buses so you can control these levels. I also run parallel compression so can alter amount of send to this and also the channel level. Compression best for drums – not cymbals.
2. I route these buses to individual outputs so these level controls also affect overall volume
3. I forgot to mention Overall SD3 level at bottom right on the SD3 tabs

This is most of volume control I have found and I am sure there are some other clever ways to adjust on top of these. Learning new ways to manipuluate sounds is half the fun of using SD3

With all of this I end up with heaps of headroom on individual outputs and run mixer at approx 50% volume, audio interface at approx 50% volume and have heaps to go through the yamaha DBR15 amp (for playing live). Also I run headphone preamp at approx 50% volume and it is as loud as.

I do notice that some SDX’s are not as intrinsically loud as others but by adjusting all of the above for each library, I am never wanting for more volume.

Hope this helps, cheers Andrew

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.3.1
Operating system: Windows 10

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: STP_4

[lewis909]

To the OP @Andrew has given you some really useful tips for the software itself however I think this might be a hardware setup issue.

Firstly a lot of of computer audio performance is dictated by your audio interface and its drivers (you didn’t mention you are using one so I’m assuming your using the stock MACos audio).

Secondly Are you caching the drum samples in memory or streaming them from the external drives? SD3 is a beast and for the best performance Its best to use at least 32GB of Ram and have a decent interface which offers low latency like an RME. Ideally you also want the fastest SSD either connected via SATA3 or M.2. Streaming large amounts of samples over Thunderbolt is going to add performance issues.

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.3.1
Operating system: Windows 11

[Brad]

lewis909 wrote:

To the OP @Andrew has given you some really useful tips for the software itself however I think this might be a hardware setup issue.

Firstly a lot of of computer audio performance is dictated by your audio interface and its drivers (you didn’t mention you are using one so I’m assuming your using the stock MACos audio).

Secondly Are you caching the drum samples in memory or streaming them from the external drives? SD3 is a beast and for the best performance Its best to use at least 32GB of Ram and have a decent interface which offers low latency like an RME. Ideally you also want the fastest SSD either connected via SATA3 or M.2. Streaming large amounts of samples over Thunderbolt is going to add performance issues.

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.3.1
Operating system: Windows 11

Although generally good advice, I just want clarity one point. SD3 doesn’t stream from storage. When you load an SDX and in some cases, different presets, samples are loaded into RAM. The Memory Details menu found in the upper right corner of the Superior Drummer 3 interface, provides information about the memory usage of Superior Drummer 3.

Cached mode is again something different.

When Cached mode is activated it will automatically unload any instruments that have been loaded into RAM, samples will then not be loaded until they are requested by the MIDI sequence. If necessary you can unload all cached samples, bringing the total RAM usage back to 0MB by clicking the “Unload Drum Samples” button. This button will only become active when Cached Mode is used.

 

Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.3.1
Operating system: macOS Monterey (12)

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)

[kevin Roche]

I couldn’t read all. theres a guy on utube.  search  live stream  sd3 with edrums session . there is a couple few episodes and he plays edrums live with sd3 maybe he can help

[Lobstafari]

Guys you’re fruistrated because you havent figured it out but let me assure you, it can be figured out.

First you have to dial in your triggers on your vdrums first.  When you click on an instrument in the drum area of SD3, that sound it makes is the loudest sound that that instrument can trigger.  If your drum pad at your hardest hit isnt coming close to the volume of that clicked sound, then your trigger sensitivity is too low.  You need to ensure that your brain is reading your hit on the pad at a relevant intensity.  If you’re hitting it hard and its interpreting it as a soft hit, you need to dial that in or SD3 will interprete it as a soft hit.  Do this for every trigger.  There are lots of great youtube video explaingin how to do this as you should do this regardless if you are using SD3 or your drum module.

SD3 isnt maximized like most audio (especially audio on youtube) so it can be quiet in comparison.  I resolved this by buying a small cheap mixer.  I have the headphone jack from my computer go to one channel on the mixer and I make sure all computer audio is being sent to the headphone jack.  Then I have an interface and I make SD3 go through that, and the interface  goes to a different channel on my mixer. Then on my mixer I can easily adjust the volume of balance between computer audio and SD3.  Then you want to make sure your output volume on SD3 is good (I try not to be +/- on the main volume slider at the bottom right of the drum window), the output volume on the interface isnt clipping, and then you can play with the volume fader on your mixer.  You’ll get better at adjusting the mixer levels, the interface level and then the mixer level.  I do not recommend adjusting the instrument volume in the drum window, you should keep that at 0 and  do your volume adjustment in the mixer window.

Some of the older expansion packs are much quieter than the new ones, not all samples in all the expansions are recorded at the same volume level. Fields of rock is an incredible expansion, but if you load a snare from the superior drummer core library into fields of rock expansion, you’ll be amazed how much quieter the core library snare it is.  I don’t really use any older expansions anymore because the newer ones give you such a juicy signal. Fields of rock is amazing, go buy it.

My last piece of advice is have faith and keep going.  This shit is complicated because you can do so much with it.  It can get frustrating but you have to push on.  You’ll get there and it will be well worth the effort, and there will be effort.  They have given you so much it can feel overwheleming but the light at the end of the tunnel is worth all of the trial and error.  SD3 is way better than any module ever.

TD50 > Midi cable > Motu Mk4 > M1max Macbook Pro 64GB ram > Mac OS Monterey > SD3
SPD-SX, PD14-DS, VH14, CY-18DR, KD-80, Roland Pads/Cymbals

[Ejis]

Hi all. Can I start by offering an unqualified apology for my appalling tone and attitude in some of my previous messages. I regret to have allowed my state of mind to turn me into a ‘d**k’.

I still have the volume issue, I am still in your debt for offering your help and advice, I am going to go through your responses once again to see if I can improve my situation.

Again, sorry.

[Author]

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