[alligatorlizard]

All sold now.

[alligatorlizard]

MJWoeb1962 wrote:

Sorry, £45 for your NY S Vol 1. Thanks, Michael

E-mail sent!

[alligatorlizard]

Legacy of Rock sold.

NY Studios Vol 1 still available for £50

[alligatorlizard]

myron wrote:

Ok. email me at myrondavismd@gmail.com

Thanks, e-mail sent!

[alligatorlizard]

myron wrote:

I’ll buy LOR. Can you DM me?

Hi, I actually can’t find the option to DM on this forum… do you know where the DM option is? Or if it’s not possible to DM on this forum, I’ll reply with my e-mail address. LOR still available btw.

[alligatorlizard]

OK, reducing prices:

Legacy of Rock – £85

NY Studios Vol 1 – £50

I’ll pay the license transfer fee (you’ll need a toontrack account, and SD3 to use the expansions)

[alligatorlizard]

“That chugging double bass that has the rhythm of a steam train?”

I’d say you’re talking about 12/8 here – although you could also describe it as 4/4 with a triplet feel. Try searching for midi either of those in Toontrack’s midi grooves (you can browse and audition them all for free via SD3 (or EX drummer presumably) if you’re online.

[alligatorlizard]

Yes, this would be very useful! Of course we could then fine tune to our hearts content, but to have the ability to instantly tune a kit so it’s “compatible” with a particular key (e.g. avoiding objectively mix-damaging clashes such as bass drum fundamental a semitone away from root note of key) would speed up workflow no end – and as the OP points out, is something that should be easy to implement in a modern sample library.

(btw, I’m presuming we’re talking about SD3 here?)

1

Thanked by: ohnow

[alligatorlizard]

Thanks for all the replies and advice/suggestions.

Found a few more threads on this, also, interestingly, this recent feature request, where the response seems to indicate it might be possible to add a feature whereby a kit could be instantly tuned to fit the key of a song: https://www.toontrack.com/forums/topic/tuning-drums-to-key-of-song/

Now just to clarify, I’m not under the impression this means tuning the kick to the exact root note etc (as this could obviously involve significantly altering the tuning which will likely make the drums sound un-naturally tinny or boomy) but just moving a semitone or two either way to avoid really unpleasant clashes, e.g. as previously mentioned flat 5th, flat 2nd, or possibly a major 3rd or 7th in a minor key (or vice versa).

I’ve also read numerous discussions about whether or not drums are/can be tuned to a definite pitch – and while I understand this is a complex topic due to overtones, and pitch altering over time (e.g. I’ve noticed a signal analyzer will often show a tom initially peaking at certain freq, then this peak moving to the left as it dies down) – I nonetheless find that many of the drums sampled have definite fundamental pitches which is always going to make them clash with certain keys. Therefore I’m not entirely backing down on the suggestion that some documentation on what these fundamentals are would save a lot of time. Yes, I know in the studio hours are spent tweaking drum tunings, but one of the benefits of software like this should be providing shortcuts to procedures like this?

Of course it’s not that our ears shouldn’t be the ultimate judge of how we tweak the tunings, but – as discussed – it really is difficult/time consuming to judge exactly where the fundamental (or dominant) tone is for a drum – tuners are no help here, and while a frequency analyzer will give some idea, it’s hard to tell precisely even voxengo span fully zoomed in on max resolution.

Ultimately, and I think as most people have suggested, I find the only way is to loop the drums around with the bassline and shift the drum tunings around a few semitones either way (and then cents if necessary) until the mix clears up. But this can take a while too (especially if using a lot of toms) – and the thing is, whatever adjustments I make, I do find transfers over to other songs in similar (or similarly non-clashing) keys.

So, OK, this being the case, it means that I can make notes as I go along, and speed up the process in future (e.g. for songs in D, tune a certain kick up a semitone) but this also suggests some notes could also be provided by Toontrack on which keys the factory tuning of the drums are “compatible” or not with.

Anyway, this is nitpicking I know, but would still be curious to hear a Toontrack employees response, as I feel more info about the tunings is something which could significantly speed up workflow with SD3.

• This post was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by alligatorlizard.

1

Thanked by: ohnow

[alligatorlizard]

…or if a comprehensive list of tunings is not available, could anyone confirm that the kicks and toms are all tuned to exact pitches of the western scale (e.g. F#, D etc, as opposed to “in-between” pitches, e.g. not F#+41 cents or similar)?

[alligatorlizard]

Yes, was definitely exact same instrument. Every single instrument had a duplicate.

I found the “advanced options” tab and reset the database, which cleared up the problem – however now some (but not all) duplicates seem to be re-appearing again –  very odd! Will check software updated to latest version, and post a screenshot later if this doesn’t fix things…

1

Thanked by: Henrik Ekblom

[alligatorlizard]

I just logged in to ask the same question! I’ve just been re-tuning a kit to better fit the key of the song, and though it is of course possible to do by ear, just moving semitone or two each way until it sounds right (plus an eq-analyser will help figure out roughly where the fundamental is), it would speed up the process to have a list of exactly what each drum was tuned to – and that list must exist, as surely notes were made during the recording process?

Anyway, would be very useful to have this info available, so +1 to the above request!

 

 

[alligatorlizard]

John wrote:

If you go to

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

scroll down to ‘DRUMS’ then expand the Drums info by clicking on ‘Learn more about the drums’ you can see stuff like which drums, tools and drumheads were used for each kit.

 

BR,

John

Thanks, hadn’t found this before!

[alligatorlizard]

Was just wondering the same thing – the loading time makes if hard to quickly A/B two different kit presets. But yes, I guess I can just load two instances of SD3.

For those of us with loads of RAM though, it would be nice to be able to load two kits at once and instantly A/B within the same instance of SD3.

One other tip btw for anyone getting familiar with SD3 – early on I bounced down audio from the same midi file but played on each of the 7 basic kits – helps to get an idea of the difference in sound e.g. between Ludwig/Yamaha etc.

2

Thanked by: Eirik Hjortdahl and Henrik Ekblom

[alligatorlizard]

Thanks, though it’d still be great to a pdf with a list and some info about each drum for reference – especially for non-drummers wanting to learn a bit more about the gear! I guess I’m just used to orchestral sample libraries which always have this. But yes, I know you can search within the software, and ultimately the ear will decides what sounds best where.

One other technical question that I can’t find any info on: how many velocity layers does each articulation have, and how many round-robins?

I mean, it’s clearly enough – SD3 sounds amazing (1st drum virtual instrument where I’ve genuinely thought “OK – that sounds real”!) – but just curious what it takes to achieve that in terms of layers/round-robins?

[Author]

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