José Sanguino
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José SanguinoOh, another thing: if you keep saving your SD3 tracker projects within SD3 Virtual instruments, you may have to load them up again… I never save my projects that way. I always create MIDI items in my SD3 reaper track just by dragging & dropping MIDI items from the Groove libraries, modify them within reaper’s track, or create new empty MIDI items and draw my drum notes into it. – If I make any changes to the loaded SD3 kit (whatever: tuning of a drum, swap one cymbal for another, set the mixer fxs differently…), I save MY KIT as an USER kit. (NOT as an SD3 project).
José SanguinoMmmm… I use Reaper, too. From what you say in your post, I think you’re a bit confused and must have done something wrong. First of all, if you SAVE a project from inside the SD3 Virtual Instrument Window in a Reaper project, you’re saving your tracker data as an SD3 project, so that it can be opened up again, both from the Standalone version, or the Virtual Instrument version. – And if you save your Reaper project and save it within Reaper’s menu “File>save as…” and give it a name (personally, I save my projects within a “Reaper Projects” folder, and I have my default project settings so that every time I create a new project, a new folder is created using the name of my project, inside that folder, a Reaper project file (RPP) with the name of my project is kept within that same folder and every audio item recorded is kept within a folder called “Audio”. In case some of my tracks use audio loops or one-shot audios from any of my libraries, those are COPIED into the project folder as well (it takes up more space, but if you set up your default project that way, you can be sure that everything you need is within the folder with the name of your project – and if you make a backup copy of your project for safety or just to store it, you can safely trust that everything you need is right there in the project name’s folder: the Audio folder with the recorded audio tracks, the loops, and Reaper’s RPP (project) file.
And that’s where I think you’ve made a mistake. You say when you open Reaper, you read “Untitled” on the top of the window. You have probably saved your REAPER project not as a new customized project with its own name, but as a DEFAULT TEMPLATE PROJECT. That is to say, whenever you open up Reaper, the software creates a new (Untitled) project, BUT WITH SD3 LOADED UP, WITH NO PRESET OR DATA LOADED!!! – And every time you open up Reaper, you’ll get the same result. Either that, or you have saved the project with the name “untitled”
To fix this up, first you should create a new default template project. – You may wonder how to do this. I’d open up a new project. You’ll probably find one SD3 track with the instrument loaded already (because it seems you saved that as Default). Delete the SD3 track and make sure everything is empty. Go to Reaper’s “File” menu, choose “Project templates” and then “save as a new template”. Save it as the DEFAULT TEMPLATE.
Then, go to Reaper’s “File” menu, and choose “Project settings…”. You’ll get a window with several tabs (Project settings, media, video, etc…). On the “Media” tab, I’d set a path for my audio files (just type “Audio” in the first blank space (this way, anything you record or import into reaper will be placed there). Then click the button to “save the settings as default for the default project”.
And finally, whenever you are going to save a new project, make sure that you’re in your “Reaper Projects” folder, that you have checked the box to create a folder with the project name, that the box to copy (and convert) audio is also checked (that way, if you have used one-shot samples or looped samples they’ll be copied into your project’s audio folder with the audio format you choose). Make sure you type a NAME for your project and save.
José SanguinoWeird. I think you should write to Toontrack Support. Have your serial number ready and all of your computer’s features (OS, version, etc). – I’m using windows 10 and I have SD3 in two different computers. I tried updating the one I use less often first. No problem. I do not use Ableton, but I found no problems either with the Standalone version or the VST version. If you’re using Windows, are you sure you installed the right update for your version? – I viewed the install update options and there were two: one for windows 7 or newer and one (?) for windows 7 and 8. The latter was greyed out, since I’m using windows 10. I clicked on the windows 10 update, for sure. Everything works fine.
José SanguinoCheck out this Groove 3 tutorial. It might be useful for you:
https://www.groove3.com/tutorials/Superior-Drummer-3-Recreating-the-Legends-of-Drums
José SanguinoSeveral YouTube videos mention Tama; and the brand sells one “Stewart Copeland Signature Kit” – so, I guess that’s it.
José SanguinoHi. I do not use Protools myself – Never have, either. But I guess I can give you some advice regarding your workflow.
First of all, remember that SD3 is much more powerful than EZDrummer. The internal SD3 mixer allows you to do a lot of work that with EZX or any other Drums Virtual Instrument you would have to do inside your DAW, rendering your drum channels first. SD3’s mixer allows you to create Busses, Add EQs, Compressors, Saturators, Delays, etc… to any of the channels and/or busses. SD3’s FXs are great quality. That way you can shape your drum sound in a style suitable for the rest of your instruments before rendering the drum tracks for the mix. If you’d rather use your own third-party EQs and FXs, it’s no problem. You can also remove any EQs or FX from SD3 mixer and render your drum tracks clean; and then set up your own EQs and FXs in your DAW. Both workflows are feasible (you might even combine them somehow, by shaping your sound first with SD3’s internal EQ’s and FXs, and when you’re pleased with the results, if you’d rather use your favourite third-party EQs and/or FX, make a note of what settings you have used for any EQs and FXs within SD3, deactivate them and render the drum tracks. Then, in your DAW, add your favourite EQs and FXs with similar settings to the ones you used in SD3 internal EQs and FXs.
Remember that the quality of the samples included in SD3 surpass EZDrummer’s (in bit resolution and sampling rate), so you’ll be able to get better results anyway. Each of the presets in your SD3 library (and expansions) will provide you with a sculpted sound which already uses SD3’s EQs and FXs in the mixer.
Oh, and regarding dragging the MIDI into ProTools… it’s basically the same. Within SD3 you can use the beats provided by the library & any SDX expansions you might get, Select them in the “Grooves” tab and drag it to the “Track” below build up your song’s drums. Then, you can drag & drop the MIDI track into Protools (I guess – I can do it in Reaper) and edit your groove there if you require it.
Have fun drummin’
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Thanked by: Blix SixJosé SanguinoWell. I have no easy answer for your question. I’ve just opened my SD3 standalone and started toying with it. Since I do not own Orchestral Percussion SDX, I’ve loaded Legacy of Rock SDX (the default kit, which is inspired by the kit used by John Bonham in the live recording of the Led Zep album “The Song Remains the Same”, has two timpani and a gong, apart from a more-or less standard drum kit. These are the steps I recommend you to follow:
A) Save your preset kit with a new name – (Click on the preset name and choose “save as…” from the drop-down menu. Type a new name. (After that, your newly-created preset will then appear within the “User presets” folder).
B) Go to the “Default Box View” drop-down menu above the right panel. Choose “MIDI” in the drop-down menu. Select one kit piece in the Drum Kit View. Go back to the right panel and expand the “MIDI Mapping” section by clicking on the down-pointing arrow on the right side. You’ll see all the articulations available for the selected kit piece, and the assigned MIDI note number (in blue) for each of those articulations. If you click on the three parallel lines on the right end of the articulation, you get a drop-down menu. Choose there the option “clear”. The number will disappear. Do the same with every articulation for that kit piece.
C) Select another kit piece in the Drum Kit View and repeat the procedure above with all of the articulations available for that kit piece, until you’re finished.
D) Save your preset again. Now go to the “show MIDI mapping” button there (remember, you must have selected “MIDI” in the drop-down menu of the “Default Box View”). A small window will appear (with an “X” on the top right corner to close it when you’re finished). Check the MIDI note numbers. Now there shouldn’t be any MIDI note numbers assigned to any kit piece articulations.
E) Now go back to the Drum Kit View and choose your kit pieces. Right click on any of them, choose “More…” in the drop-down menu and choose “remove instrument” until your whole Drum Kit View is empty.
F) Finally, you have to add your new instruments and then assign MIDI note numbers again to the articulations for each kit piece. Again, make sure you’re in the “MIDI” view of the right panel and right-click on one of the empty instruments in your Drum Kit View – a drop-down menu will appear and you’ll be able to choose from a selection of pieces which fit in that space. The moment you choose one, it will show in the Drum Kit View, and in the “MIDI Mapping” section of the right panel, you’ll see all of the articulations for the kit piece you have selected. Now you have to assign MIDI notes for each articulation: go to the right end of the articulation name slot and click on the three parallel lines. You’ll have some options: “Add note…” will allow you to TYPE the MIDI note number you wish to use for the articulation. “Learn note…” will allow you to PLAY a drum pad of a key in your MIDI controller keyboard to assign that articulation to the MIDI note it sends. The third option provides you with a suggested MIDI note. If you change your mind and you do not want to assign any MIDI note to that articulation, choose “Clear”. You needn’t assign MIDI notes to all of the articulations (just to the ones you need to use). Some cannot be assigned to MIDI note numbers, as “choke tail” for the cymbals, since you can only choose if those must be activated either by channel aftertouch or by MIDI note length (you do so in the “choke-mute trigger” section, by highlighting the desired option. If none is highlited, the cymbal will never be choked). When you have finished assigning MIDI notes to all of your kit piece articulations, save your preset again. If you need to check the MIDI note list, click on “Show MIDI Mapping keys” and the list will appear. You can close the list by clicking on the “X” at the top-right corner.
I forgot to mention, but I guess that it is obvious: you CANNOT BY ANY MEANS choose ANY kit piece type to ANY blank space in your drum kit view: That is, you can only choose from the list that opens when you right-click on an empty kit piece. You can ADD new kit pieces on the top-left drop-down menu above your Drum Kit View, but you’re limited to some options (e.g. a shaker, a tambourine, an additional rack tom). Those will appear within a square at the corner of your Drum Kit View. You select MIDI notes for those in the same manner described above.
Have fun drumming. Keep healthy and stay safe.
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Thanked by: solemndave and SimonORorkeJosé SanguinoI wouldn’t call this matter “routing” but “assigning”. Your problem is that your drum set hasn’t got enough drum pads to assign the astounding number of kit pieces Legacy of Rock SDX includes in its Amber Kit. I don’t think there’s one drum kit in the market with so many pads as to control every kit piece there. I’m not into MIDI Drum Kits (I program my drum beats, bass & guitars, since I’m a keyboard player myself). But there’s a workaround for you (a good friend of mine used to do this to add additional pads to his MIDI drum kit) if your Roland Drum Kit uses standard MIDI in/out cables, and, of course, you use that to plug it to your computer’s audio device, you could try getting a cheap, second-hand MIDI Drum Pad (these usually have 4 pads) with assignable MIDI notes for each pad (you need to be able to assign these to the required MIDI notes) – that would give you 4 additional pads to play (granted, they may not have the same sensitivity as your Roland Drum Kit Pads). Then, plug the MIDI OUT of this additional MIDI Drum Pad to the MIDI IN of your Roland Drum Kit through a standard MIDI cable. And then, the MIDI OUT of your Roland Drum Kit to your Audio Device’s MIDI in.
If your Roland Drum Kit is plugged into your computer via USB, you could use an additional MIDI Drum Pad anyway. Just plug it into your computer (either via USB or standard MIDI in/out) and within your DAW, set your Superior Drummer 3 track to receive data from ALL MIDI INPUTS. (At least, Cockos Reaper can do that – and you can even set Reaper to send all received MIDI notes to the same MIDI channel, even if they come as, say, channel 1 notes from one device and channel 10 notes from the other).
I hope this might have been of help for you.
Kind regards from Spain. Stay healthy and keep safe.
José SanguinoWell. I’ve just turned on my computer and checked it myself: I was right. That was the problem. The cymbals in The Metal Foundry SDX DO NOT HAVE the aftertouch choke activated by default. You have to follow the procedure I have just described in my reply above, for each of the cymbals in your kit preset: select one, go to the “Default box view” button on the right and in the drop-down menu, select “MIDI”. Search on the right for the last option “Choke/Mute Trigger” and highlight the “Aftertouch” button. If you need to set other cymbals, just click one after another on the Drum Kit View and, again, on the “Choke/Mute Trigger” on the right, highlight the “Aftertouch” button. Take into account that if you leave any cymbals without the highlighted box, that particular cymbal will not be affected by Channel aftertouch messages, therefore, it will play until the end of its sample length. Save your preset kit now as an user preset (just click on the preset name, choose “Save as…” and type the name you wish to use (I just kept the same name and added “(w. Cymbal Chokes)” at the end. You’ll find it on your User Preset list when choosing The Metal Foundry SDX presets.
Have a good drumming!
José SanguinoI own Metal Foundry. If on the “Drums” tab (Drum kit view), click and select one of the cymbals. Then, find the “All articulations” button and open it. You’ll see that for any splash or crash cymbal selected. there is a “Crash” articulation and a “Mute hit” articulation. You can click on both of them and check that the second one is a choked hit. There is also a third articulation, “Mute Tail”, which is “Not MIDI-Mapped”, but if you click on it right after clicking on the “Crash” articulation, it chokes the cymbal. I suppose it should work with the aftertouch. My advice is for you to contact Toontrack Tech Support on this issue. They’ll tell you what’s wrong with the choking of cymbals in The Metal Foundry SDX. If channel aftertouch works for you both in the main library and other SDX expansions, there has to be a reason as to why it doesn’t work in The Metal Foundry. Anyway, I think you should try this first: Go to the right panel view in SD3. Click the “Default Box View” button and choose “MIDI” from the drop-down list. You’ll see then among the choices displayed a “Choke/Mute Trigger” button with a down-pointing arrow on the right side of it. Click there. You’ll see two choices there for the tail mute: “Note Off”, and “Aftertouch”. Make sure you highlight “Aftertouch”. Then save your kit preset (with the same or a different name) and try playing again using the MIDI aftertouch triggers to choke the cymbals. Maybe that’s what’s wrong. Probably they forgot to activate the “Aftertouch” setting for “Choke/Mute Trigger” in The Metal Foundry library default presets.
José SanguinoJust got in touch with Tech Support. I explained the problem and told them to check the Overhead, AMB near and AMB mid channels for the kick in that particular kit carefully. I guess they’ll find the wrong samples easily and they will have to release an update for the Legacy of Rock SDX library. Let’s hope so.
Kind regards and thanks for the info.
José SanguinoOK. Tried a few times more and finally was able to hear it: as you mentioned, the voice is heard, but only through the OH channel, the AMB Near channel and the AMB mid channel. Probably the recording engineer gave some instructions to the drummer through an intercom and its sound was captured by the ambience mics and the overhead mics, but not through the direct kick mics, since these are unidirectional and are pointed at different positions near the kick drum itself. This is something to report to the Toontrack guys themselves. I guess the only way to fix this is to completely remove that sample from the instrument, since I doubt they’ll record that sample again.
José SanguinoI own Legacy of Rock SDX. I have loaded the kit you mention (Modern Radio) and tried playing a series of loooong kick notes on MIDI note 35 (I think that’s the one you’re using) so that it reaches the end of the sample. I have even randomized the velocities and played it back a few times. I can’t hear the voice shown in your video. I thought I might be using the wrong kic k hit (there are three different kick hits), but I moved my MIDI notes from one to another and tried again. No trace of the engineer’s voice you show in your video. Weird.
The fact that you only hear it every few notes is the round-robin feature. For each velocity level, several different samples are recorded and they alternate, so that if your beat repeats the same hit too often and too quickly, you don’t hear the “machine-gun effect” so dreaded in synth drums. Did you changed anything in the kit? I mean, did you turned up in the mixer any of the room mics or activated a mic which was not present in the original kit? Maybe that’s where the sound comes from. Try making a beat track using the same mixer settings
Anyway, I’d save that preset with its mixer settings under a different name and send it to Toontrack Support instead of to the forum. Send them the link to your YouTube video, too. I guess they forgot to cut that sample short. I do not think it will affect people’s beats, because from what I’ve seen you do, you are clicking AND holding your mouse for a few seconds, and that way the samples are played in full until the end. When you make a beat, your notes are normally quite short in length, and they aren’t played in full length (except for cymbal hits, I guess). I haven’t been able to reproduce the “voice” myself.
José SanguinoNo idea. Sorry. I remember that once I had a MIDI Controller Keyboard which started sending one particular note because the keypad had started malfunctioning and it activated of its own accord. It was an M-Audio Axiom 61 1st generation. Check that the SD3 track, once you have finished recording it, has no MIDI input assigned and listen again. Anyway, I don’t think that’s your case.
José SanguinoThe MIDI notes for the whole song can, of course, be together in one single track (SD3 VSTi instrument track, for instance). When loading your instrument, you can create all of the output audio tracks at first (as I told you before) but YOU DO NOT HAVE TO use all of them, just ONE (the ones unused will not receive any sound – you can mute them if you like for the time being, or even “hide” them from sight if your DAW allows it (You can do that in Reaper in the Track Manager Window – a track can be muted and hidden from view both in the track window and in the mixer window – In reaper, a muted track uses no system resources (no CPU power or RAM). So, if you want to start with just one output, inside SD3’s mixer leave the “output” buttons for each mixer channel strip in the mixer assigned to outputs 1/2. That way, you don’t have to create the buses until you feel your drum track is complete. Then, you can start creating your buses you feel you need (e.g. set all the Kicks mics strips to “Bus 1”, all the snare mic strips to “Bus 2″… – The moment you choose a Bus number in the mixer as output for one strip, the bus strip is automatically created at the right end of the mixer. You don’t have to create, for instance, one bus for all toms, but you can if you feel like it. You don’t need a bus for the Hi-Hat, because it will take up just one output anyway, since there’s only a mic on it. Then, unmute the rest of the output tracks in your DAW and inside SD3’s mixer window, set the Output of the buses to SD3’s outputs (1/2, 3/4, 5/6…) and the single channel strips (e.g. Hi-hat to 7/8). When everything’s ready, now you can bounce the output, unload your SD3 VST when finished to save up system resources and there you have it: Now you can start adding EQ, FXs, etc to each bounced track and create automation in your DAW audio tracks.
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