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Superior Drummer Q&A

Lesson 26 from: Superior Drummer Master Class

Rikk Currence

Superior Drummer Q&A

Lesson 26 from: Superior Drummer Master Class

Rikk Currence

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Lesson Info

26. Superior Drummer Q&A

Lesson Info

Superior Drummer Q&A

Q and a cute. Do this. Let's dive in. Um, so we're going to start with this one? Is bleed really necessary when you want the ambience from a convolution reverb or any reverb as the recorded space instead of the bleed from the studio where the kid was recorded in? And why would you want one over the other? Thanks for a great class, Milton Milton. Great question. First of all, let me just really be honest. None of this is necessary. So as you're recording these drums, you're working with these drums. There is not one single component that you should feel like. Oh, I have to do this. What we've showed you is what you can do and a lot of what you can do and why we showed it is based on what people have explained or talk to or how we use it. But when you're working in Superior Drummer, the idea is that you go after the sound you want. Now, in regards to your question about convolution reverb just to reiterate, we're not using any effects in Superior Drummer two point. Oh, so when we pull up...

the mixer and we look at an ambient channel that's literally the result of putting microphones in a configuration in the room to capture the ambiance of the room. It's riel. There's no effect added after the fact. So do you need that ambient channel? You don't You could take the audio, for instance, and again, this is a suggestion. If you wanted to take one of the room channels or the overhead channel with no bleed into your mixture and apply your own reverb to kind of create your own space room, you could totally do that. As a matter of fact, that's one of the reasons we have all the routing and bleed options, so that you can have all the bleed on every channel or none of the bleed on any channel. So you can route out and use just dry signals. Or you could write you can literally, as you've seen, do whatever you want to. So don't. Musical morality is always one of those things. Were people like Well, is it right? Tours. There is no right or wrong. There's only Zul. That's all that's left. Milton is you and Zul. So whatever the two of you come to grips on with your musical destiny. I'm good with it. It's fine. And if you don't get my Sewell reference, you need to look it up online because it's awesome. And I just took your name Milton, and I associate it with Jewel, which basically makes you a ghostbuster in a lot of ways. So you're welcome because you really just signed up for drums, But now you're famous. So again, I love you, Milton, I want you to enjoy what you're gonna dio use your convolution reverb Don't use your convolution reverb Turn all the bleed off. Turn half the bleed on Just do it and do a well, man. Thank you very much for tuning in. Next next question. Next shredding dragon. I guess we need to ask this one question is shredding dragon? Yes, we're gonna ask it. Okay. Can you please go over how to understand? Midi notes in member options And I want to let you know we had a whole section if you missed it, you missed a whole section on many nodes that we went really in depth. But let's review a little bit, so I'll give you just the cliff notes. There's a midi note. And Amidi node and a Midi node would be a collection of those various Midi notes being sort of triggered or procured by the strike of one key or one articulation. Now that sounds like a very convoluted sort of almost too simple answer. But to Drew's point, we spent a considerable amount of time on this earlier, and I don't want to go all the way back. But let me just put it to you this way. In a very simple example, if I had a snare drum right here and I selected my snare drum and this particular snare drum had 45 different snare drums layered on top of it. But every time I hit the drum, it only took one hit to trigger all of those different sounds That would be a midi node. It be the collection of all those sounds is one thing, and you can build those and superior actually have ah convenient way to do them. I would recommend you check the class out. Drew, Please correct me if I'm wrong, but you guys do rerun this class right after we're done here. So you have one more shot to see it for free and right, probably in about the second or third. I believe the second sort of after we come back from break, we talk really like, Drew said in depth about many notes. So if you didn't see it, make sure you check it out or by the class, and you'll have at your disposal all the time. Exactly. Yep. So the rebroadcast happens immediately following today's broadcast. We're going to rebroadcast what we covered today, but you can also purchase both days for $ while we're live in. That price goes up after the rebroadcast. So if you want to get it, now is the time, because you'll save yourself some money. How pronounce of in effect is there on CPU usage when using easy mix to process a drum signal versus using plug ins within the dog? I assume this answer would also apply to regular audio channels. Sure, and that's a great question. So easy mixes are plug in its designed and ultimately, behind the scenes. It's a number of plug ins running in a certain order that create a channel strip. It's incredibly low CPU now how it stacks up versus other plug ins really depends on those plug ins. There are plenty of plug and manufacturers that make all kinds of plug ins that run very efficiently and very effectively, and when you link them together, you may see no difference. The best thing to do is in your doll. Try it out. You need to go in and find again. And most dogs have this. No, obviously we showed in pro tools, but your CPU meter, or where you can see the kind of system usage and apply the varying plug ins and go no that easy mixed to is ultimately designed to work with our stuff and other stuff as well. There are signal chains and easy mixed, too, not just for drums but for vocals. There's Guitar, AMP models. There's Base and models. There's basically an effects, a signal if exchange for any type of channel you might find in a modern recording. So there's lots of really cool stuff to try out. And if you go to tune track dot com, you can download a demo of easy mixed to and work with it in certain capacities for a few days before expires and actually tested out yourself before you buy it. Very, very good stuff, but thank you for asking, but he's mixed. Two. Very cool. Awesome. So Okay, I'm guessing the answer to this question is, yes, but maybe you can speak to Yes, Yeah. Yes. Speak to how it would affect what's going on. Can you run the master stereo superior drummer to bus through some light outboard compression hardware and back into pro tools that Yeah, approaches. I was gonna say that spends on your dog, but absolutely so any routing once you've routed out of Superior Drummer? Yep. So to your question, you've got a bus, you're out your bus into pro tools. That is now in the pro tools domain and susceptible to anything you can do in pro tools. And obviously, one of pro tools strengths is rounding to analog hardware and then routing back in. So, yes, once you're out of superior drummer with your signal in whatever configuration it is, bus, stereo, channel, whatever you want, it is susceptible to anything and everything you can do with a normal audio channel. So yeah, absolutely very, very cool stuff to you can again do lots of amazing things with analog hardware. And these sounds as well. Yep, in a real mixture. Normally, channels like Kick Snare will be one, since panning is not needed. How can I bounce from a kick to superior drummer to as a mono file to reflect that? Does it make sense? I think Drew just had a stroke on camera. Did you understand what he just said? Because I know just getting so no, I think I get it. So let me make sure I understand. So I want I want to be certain to that I think this has to do with routing, and I think they're still maybe just a little confusion about the fact that when we route, we're routing and stereo pairs, right? So that makes everyone think that everything we're routing a stereo and it's not necessarily so. I routed in stereo pairs out into pro tools, in my example, because that's how I wanted to route out and then bounce down. So the bounce, because of the options I selected that bounce reflected my routing decisions Had I not bounced through the mixer, which again is an option. So if you don't bounce through the mixer, for instance, not bouncing through the mixture is going to give you an audio file for every single one of these channels, the way they are, so model minutes. So you have the three months I bounced through the mixer, and the mixture reflected my routing. That's why everything was that way. I just want to differentiate and again if you turn on in settings. Um, where is the keep intermediate balance? And then when you bounce, you select bounce through mixer. You're going to get that bounce that I had, where it's going to reflect your routing. In addition to an additional set of files that mimic the mixer channels as they are in whatever session urine. And again, it should be noted that your mixer changes with every expansion pack you open. So, for instance, I just I give you again an idea. This is an expansion pack called Claustrophobic. It's easy drummer, but as you load things and easy drummer, So, for instance, there's a number of combined presets. This is a great kit for all kinds of like E. D. M. And all kinds of really sort of Elektronik stuff. But if you go to the mixer, you'll notice. Let me just turn off the outputs and the buses alone. There's that many channels alone and just the mixer for this one, and we have all kinds of different studio setups and mixer set up. So be very aware of when you're routing again, as we discussed is you change libraries or you go to different studios that we've recorded in your mixer is going to reflect that and have all kinds of different channel options for you. That makes sense. I hope so. Yep. Okay, if I create a personal superior drummer tweaked, set up, Is there a way I can share my set up and created drum sounds with other superior users and vice versa. Others two ways. If you know a bunch of superiors, there's bio means email, a tomb or a lot of people share things in our forum, so we have a form a two track dot com or users get in and talk to one another. You can go check the forum out, and if you have presets that you want to share, you could actually probably start a threat in our form for just that. I don't go to the form enough to tell you if there is one or not. But ultimately, that's where a lot of our power users and regular users go and hang out and talk shop and ask questions. And we've got guys from our company that are active in the form. So by all means if you want to save some superior to projects and sharing with other people, whether it's to get feedback or just because you're nice, I think that's awesome. Go for it. Uh huh, Awesome. Within a Daw when you save a project, is it safe? What ISS saved about Superior Drummer are several instances within the DOS saved separately? That's then endless mere question. Several instances in the DOS saved separately, a tongue twister. So here's what I'll tell you, because I don't have a direct answer, and I don't want to pretend that I do for what goes on in that particular department of pro tools. When you hit, save right, so what I always do to ensure that my project will be available to me as it is, I'll give you a perfect example. That session I opened that you watched where I had all my channel routing in place and my extra ums. Clearly, I just saved that as a pro tool session, and when I reopened the session, all my routing wasn't placed. My extremes with everything was fine. I took a chance because I don't necessarily know if it's picking up every minute detail, and that's a function of pro tools. I know when I save it in so low, I can go through that macro level in safe presets, save combined presets, save projects. So I generally do all my building outside of pro tools so that by the time I'm in my doll, all I'm worried about is routing and now external effects again, my thought processes. I love solo for the fact that I'm not distracted. I don't have any other bells or Witten's whistles or buttons to worry about. I can focus on drum sounds. I'll pull up a mini groove continually play that groove and tweak the drums till they're perfect. Save every single little component from the extra ums to the envelope to all of the voice and layer limits everything as presets so that in the event that I opened my project or open in a dawn, find that something's not the same. I always have that preset available that I can load, and I don't have to worry about it. So my my recommendation to all the serious users again with no disrespect any of the Dawes is to me, it's always easier to build in solo. Save it so that it's a tune track saved project. And then you could just reopen that in your Daw. And if anything ever does, sort of not save the way you think it would you have. It is a preset, and you could just reload it instantly. Awesome Spirit Drummer Sounds awesome than multi out to my dog always causes phasing or sounds weak. Whatever effects that make spirit drummer sound good or not sending, please explain how to reduce phasing and ensure spirit. Drummer effects get to the multi out. No, there are no other effects being used in the Dosso. It sent it straight to whatever's dies with no plug ins. Sounds like I'm gonna go out on a limb, and obviously I don't know what door you're using, but I don't think it's phasing that you're hearing. What I think you're hearing is late and see and there is a difference late and seek and sound like phasing. So one of the things that you want to do, and we'll use this as an example. A lot of people take this stuff for granted. So you go in your Leighton T settings when you're not recording something, meaning when signal isn't coming in and being captured and you don't need that split level accuracy of from the voice to the recorder, you should have your late INSEE settings as high or your buffer size said as high as possible. So it's going to buffer 10 24. It's gonna buffer that many samples milliseconds before it's going right. So it's giving the processor in the CPU time to actually process the sounds. A lot of people go in, and they think that a buffer size when they're playing back is better if it's smaller. That's only true if the results you're looking for is immediate. So I just raised that. So I go back to 24. So, for instance, you would probably want a smaller buffer size if you were playing your e kit live so that from the minute you hit to the minute it comes out, there's really no late into your delay. Ah, lot of times what can happen in the routing if the latent see is set to low, is that the signal is going through this routing. And since the late and she's already a little behind by the time it goes to the dogs routing, it sounds like you're in like a tin pan room or like you have phasing issues nine times out of 10. Those were latent. See issues, not phasing. So check the late and see on your Daw. And if you're not doing anything, open a session and try one session with just appeared German. Your routing with the highest buffer size you can have. And then if you've got a session that's got a bunch of other things going on where you've recorded directly in and you're sort of forced to have a lower buffer size, see if that's not the problem, I'm pretty sure more than likely that's going to be because there would be no, there would be no reason, or there would be no explanation for phasing to occur between superior drummer and the routing of your dog internally, that just There is no introduction of Magnetics Magnetics microphones capturing time alignment, all that other stuff. And again, it depends on what dog you're using. So again, check your sound card. Check your DOS settings work with the highest buffer size available when just playing back Spirit Drummer tried in solo. Make sure everything is good to go, and I think you probably will end up finding out what the culprit really is. It should hopefully be an easy fix for you. Awesome. Is it possible to set up a snare so below a certain velocity? It is a side stick click and an above a certain velocity is a rim shot. Yeah, absolutely free. So I would say there's two ways on number one is You could go in and let's say that you were actually, this was about again Many nodes s. Oh, there's a whole section on this you're gonna want to check out, but we have a preset for that, quite honestly. So if you go into the preset, there's a mini note preset that's practical. It's a drums, actually. Drop side stick, rim shot, split. So what's gonna happen is there's gonna be a velocity layer level that says anything below is gonna be a rim shot or whatever. You said it, too, because you can adjust that in the screen. So whatever you said, it too, will be just the decide stick and anything above this will be the rim shot. And then it's on you to make certain when you're playing that you kind of have mitigated in your mind how much force you can apply before one becomes the other. But it's the same thing to it will be the same thing, too. If you're using MIDI, it's a little bit easier to mitigate because obviously you can specifically determine in a mini track what the velocity is going to be. Pinpoint accuracy so you could take a mini track that's just a basic to four beat and the 1st 2 measures. You could change that so that if the velocity is below a certain level, it's just the cross stick and then you know it's the center shot or whatever shot you want it very simple to do. Watch the rebroadcast of the many nodes, will it takes you right through it. You can layer 127 different things so, yeah, I think that's good, Rick. Any final thoughts as we wrap wrap up two things. It takes a village. So there's a couple people that I need to think that's really important. First of all, very special, thanks to Mike Sand Philip, who's our technical marketing coordinator? Olaf West men who is the lead programmer and sort of mastermind behind everything you see here. What's appeared. Number two, Metis Ackland and Hank A. Schelberg who, back when nobody cared about the way digital drum sound of these guys cared, right? So they went. They started this company and again seven years later. It's been a blessing to not only, you know, hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, but to myself in my family included very special thanks to the folks of Creative Live again. I know from sitting here and listening to us. It's like you guys are just trying to sell video stuff, and you know what part of that's true? But the reason we're trying to do it is because if you think anything that's happened here today is without great sacrifice, cost or effort, you are desperately Laura. If you think that a Google hang out with me and doing this creative life class or even remotely the same thing, so not even accurate. And there's a reason we come here and do this. It's the same reason we don't give our software away. If I gave you Superior drummer, it would still be amazing. But if you hadn't put any skin in the game or invested in it, it wouldn't benefit your life in any way whatsoever. So think about the fact that if you're watching this in your superior drummer user, you've already spent $300 on the program, more than likely, if not more so, for them to say, Hey, here's basically the entire manual, including all the stuff that's not in the manual because there's been eight years worth of updates and here's the one guy on the planet that's going to get it right. And if he doesn't get it right or doesn't know how, at least tell you and then call someone to get it right. Oh, and you can watch this any time, so that as you're using this software you've invested in, it becomes the most incredible and maximize tool in your arsenal that takes a lot of effort and no, it it sounds like Wow, it's just a video camera subdued in a white room. It's so not just dudes in a white room in a video camera, so very special, thanks to creativelive and again for what it's worth, making the class not only accessible but incredibly affordable to based on the content. Because if you had to pay me to come to your house and explain this to you would be paying a lot more and you have to feed me. You have to call my beard like a my little pony kind of situation and probably propose in it. And I'm not necessarily saying that I dig that sort of thing, But I'm also not saying that I don't. So then you have to deal with all the weird, awkward feelings that that statement alone is just caused in your mind with me in the room next to you, As I say. So, hey, you're gonna brush my beard some more, and then I just seductively I drink my coffee. So look at all the things Creativelive has saved you from and exposed you to all in the same breath, so you owe them a debt of gratitude. So very, very special thanks to all these guys for the guys and gals a creative live or are second to none. So dig on this and dig what they do support. This isn't the only class they're gonna do. Their entire audio workshop is amazing. And we're just a very small component of that whole universe. There are tons of things that we discussed today about Dawes and routing and miking all kinds of things that they cover and other classes that it wouldn't hurt you to check out either. So that's my plug for everyone involved. We're grateful to track from the bottom of our hearts to be a part of this organization. What they do so again, Massive thanks and kudos to everyone. Creativelive thanks so much. But there's really one hero that we haven't discussed yet. Drew. That's right. His name is Kyle. He's sitting right here in our class today. Let me tell you something about Kyle. You might not know it from looking at him, but this guy, he's the big shot caller. Kyle's making it happen. So just get used to Kyle right now. and how he is going to basically be affecting your universe in the big scheme of things. This guy's going places and I'll be riding his coattails because that's clearly what I dio.

Ratings and Reviews

Shayne Sheldon
 

I am very pleased with this course. It was originally presented as a free live stream and is the first CreativeLive course that I have taken in. I am so impressed, that I have purchased it. If you are a current Toontrack Superior Drummer 2 user (or are thinking of buying SD 2) and are looking for a guided way to learning this software, this course is one of the best learning methods I have ever come across. I doesn't matter what your experience level is with Superior Drummer-- there is something here for beginners, intermediate, and advanced. Though I would recommend having a working knowledge of MIDI, audio and computers. Absolute beginners to using software instruments and creating music in their computer might find the information in this course a bit overwhelming. Instructor Rikk Currence takes you thoroughly through basic to advanced concepts showing the true depth of this virtual instrument program. Rikk takes you through the program settings and options; creating custom virtual drum kits; settings for MIDI controllers and E-Drum kits; using the SD 2.0 as a stand alone virtual instrument, as well runninf it as a plug-in in a Digital Audio Workstation (D.A.W.) like Avid's Pro Tools. So much more is covered in this course, that I can't fully begin to share it all in this review. The knowledge I gained from this CreativeLive two day course has given me extra insight, increasing my functionality with Superior Drummer 2. Two thumbs up for this Master Class-- I can't recommend it enough to all Superior Drummer 2 users Thanks to Rikk Currence and CreativeLive for a superior course on Toontrack's Superior Drummer 2.

Ian Stephenson
 

Great course, the tutor kept it entertaining and held our interest whilst still getting over a huge wealth of detail for all levels of user. recommended :-)

Marcus
 

Killer class! Well worth purchasing. Each lesson is effectively thorough, as well as comfortably paced. And Rikk’s sense of humor makes the learning process all the more enjoyable.

Student Work

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