6

[drumjack52]

It’s not as simple as you think. Ever written code? I have and if you change one thing you could screwup something else. Not doing your homework before purchasing is on you. You can’t assume anything.

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
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

• This post was modified 5 months ago by drumjack52.

[drumjack52]

Brian wrote:

Three separate tracks so that I can have control over processing each element separately, just like miking a real drum kit.

As said before you don’t need 3 separate instances of SD3. One instance and use multiout instead of stereo (2 channel) output to Pro Tools. I do that for a full kit and have a dozen stereo outs from SD3 to the same amount of tracks in PT. That way I can treat everything just like a real physical kit like you say you want to do. If you’re only recording one kit piece at a time (say kick) record that MIDI to the instrument track SD3 is on. When you go to do the MIDI for the other kit pieces you can record them on separate MIDI tracks and route the output of those MIDI tracks to the instance of SD3 you previously used for the kick. There’s probably a way to record multiple passes of MIDI on a PT track but it’s not something I’ve ever done. Maybe playlists but again that’s not something I’ve ever used. I’m more comfortable the way I do it as I don’t have to worry about recording over the previous MIDI.

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
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: Scott Eshleman

[drumjack52]

Babuness wrote:

Ok, progress has been made! All trigger settings are fine, but after picking the basic kits with no effects or processing, it’s working correctly. So, I picked a large preset and started disabling some effects and ambient channels and got the RAM requirement down and at a point the live play and the playback of the midi sounds the same. This laptop has 8GB of RAM but it’s a pretty low tier. I’m thinking this thing probably can’t handle SD3 to it’s full potential.

If this is the case, would getting an audio interface help? Or would a more powerful laptop be needed?

A more powerful computer will definitely help as will as an audio interface. 8 gig of ram will only allow you to have SD3 in streaming mode which is bad enough but if your SD3 samples are on the system drive that adds to your problems. SD3 minimum specs are just that – a bare minimum to get you functional but that’s it. You’re going to want at least 16 gig of ram, samples on a separate drive and a separate audio interface. You don’t need a full-on studio setup. Keep in mind that commercial off-the-shelf computers have a bunch of crud running on them (especially Winboxes) that sucks the life out of doing anything much other than email or surfing the net.

You haven’t given us your system specs but it’s safe to say your machine is struggling.

 

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
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: Babuness

[drumjack52]

Babuness wrote:

Sorry for not being clear, the issue isn’t latency. The issue is the sound “quality?”

It’s like everything is somewhat muffled, like there’s no attack, when playing live. Lots of ambience, not really clear and punchy. And overall quieter as compared to replaying the midi I just recorded. Perhaps like it’s compressed with 0 attack, or more maybe more accurately like a couple initial milliseconds are gone from the samples.

I just watched a recent video from Toontrack’s youtube saying that for live playing the sample rate should be set to 44100Hz, and I’ve pretty sure mine’s at 48000Hz. Perhaps changing that will help.

There’s precious little difference between the 2 rates you mention. What will make a difference is 16 bit versus 24 bit bit depth. SD3 can operate with either with 24 bit taking more ram space. What you have to pay attention to is whether your drum brain supports 16 or 24 bit audio. Really if you want decent audio you need to have a separate audio interface connected to your computer and listen through that. Also decent headphones and/or powered monitor speakers and not some little computer speakers driven off a computer’s audio output.

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
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

[drumjack52]

Actually I like the gui as it is. Not a huge fan of light gui’s – they give me a literal headache and eye strain.

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
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

[drumjack52]

Mark King wrote:

Do you use the same keyboard to record the midi for bass, snare and hi hats? If you do then that can’t be it. Do you hear the delay when you monitor while recording the midi? If not then again it’s something else. I don’t use pro tools but are you sure you haven’t got anything different on the kick track?

Mark: Read my reply. That the op was able to manually enter notes and the problem went away kind of puts a nail in the coffin if you will.

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
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

[drumjack52]

Brian wrote:

Hammer action, yes (M-Audio Keystation88 Mk3).

There’s your problem. Hammer action will NEVER give you perfect timing for drum work. I’ve played both types of keyboards so it’s a been there/done that deal. And don’t get me started on the quality (or lack thereof) of the Keystation keyboards. If you’re at all serious about using a keyboard for drums get a synth action one.

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
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

[drumjack52]

Brian wrote:

So….as you suggested, I recorded the kick track in Midi Editor rather than on midi keyboard, and all seems good. But when I try to record with the keyboard, the issue continues, so I guess there is a sink issue with my keyboard…more research needed.

Many thanks for your very helpful suggestion…Now I just have to “humanize” the midi kick track as it’s aligned to the grid!

cheers,

BB

We all know there is audio latency depending on the amount of buffers, etc. What is less known is MIDI latency and there’s no real way to fix that. That latter might be part of the issue. Glad to hear that the method I outlined is working for you. Like I said I’m just trying to remove any possible variables and get back to basics. If you had still had the problem using my method then yeah – gremlins do abound. Your MIDI keyboard – synth action or hammer action (like a piano would have)?

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
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

[drumjack52]

When you save the session are the tracks still MIDI or have you rendered them to audio? Do you record the snare and hats using the click track like you do the kick? What’s your audio buffer setting? I have never seen what you’re describing even on a relatively low-powered system like in my sig file. Try this: manually enter using PT’s MIDI editor a string of notes for the kick – something like 4 notes per measure at whatever tempo you like. Then do a second line for snare and a third line for the hats. Then hit play and see what happens. Do this first with everything MIDI and if that’s okay then render the MIDI to audio and try again. If this passes then the problem is not specifically with SD3. What I’m trying to do here is take the human (you) out of the loop and give SD3 the best possible input.

Are you using any effects in SD3? Multi-out or 2 channel stereo? What SDX? Do you have the problem with every kick drum in the library?

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
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

[drumjack52]

Why 3 instrument tracks? There’s no need to do that. I use multi-out in SD3 (which is on an instrument tracks) to separate aux tracks in PT 2021.6. This allows me to hear the kit pieces without having to record enable the tracks if they were audio tracks. When I’m satisfied with the sound I then send them to separate audio tracks. All this business is taken care of with a track preset in PT that sets up everything I need to do drums with SD3 so with one click I get the entire 20 some tracks in PT. What’s your routing in both SD3 and PT? Do you have any routings to unused sends or tracks? Do you have SD3 load everything into ram or are you streaming from your samples drive? Please tell me you don’t have the samples on your system drive.

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
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

[drumjack52]

Go to this folder path: MacHD/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-ins and you should see Superior Drummer 3.aaxplugin This is the folder where all your PT (aax format) plugins are installed. When you did the install did you allow the installer to put the plugin where it wanted to and did you allow it to install the aax version? Depending on how you have your inserts showing (type, developer – I use organize by developer) I see on an instrument track when clicking on an insert: multichannel plug-in/Toontrack/Superior Drummer 3 (stereo).

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
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

[drumjack52]

Have you looked at the Ludwig Classic kit? 3 rack toms but not all have the assortment of implements.

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
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

[drumjack52]

Peesu wrote:

I’d be most interested in one of those ”legendary producer/engineer” SDX’s they’ve been doing with Eddie Kramer, Frank Filipetti, Al Schmitt and others. Personal favourite would be Daniel Lanois, of course, but there are others, too.

Also, I’d like more SDX’s with the same kits played with both sticks and brushes (and even mallets) like they did with State of the Art SDX (with Elliot Scheiner). Some of us want to combine different tools in a single song, and like to hit more than two toms with the brushes, too! 😎

Peesu

The stock library has sticks/rods/brushes.

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
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

[drumjack52]

Is SD3 plugin in the MacHD/Library/Audio/Plug-ins/Components folder? Does SD3 open in standalone? Can you force Logic to rescan the plugins?

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
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

[drumjack52]

There is a DW kit in Death and Darkness with a metal snare. As a DW fanatic I’d love to see a full SDX devoted to DW drums. Maybe a full Neil Peart setup?

Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.1
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: yorickdevries

[Author]

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