Superior Drummer Q&A

[EtherealEntity]

Originally Posted by iRaiseTheDead

So in the piano roll I should write out both keys that each snare is assigned to?

And to Jame's response... Your saying if I had a... lets say a 'better' sounding china cymbal for example, I could use an X-Pad to trigger it?

Or is the X-Pad/Drum only good for using different drums from different ToonTrack kits?

You don't need to write out both keys. That would be a solution, but the MIDI Node Xdrum feature will allow you to trigger both with the same key and balance them / blend between them at various velocities and more.

You can't load samples. Just parts from different kits / other parts from the same kit. E.g Avatar cymbal slot 1 contains 2 cymbals you want to use. Load one of them as an X drum.

Originally Posted by James R

Thanks. This just about solved my issue now to actually purchase the two packs and getting to work.

I dont have to remove the sd crashes, but id do so just out of memory management issues. I like to use only the cymbals I actually use to save more memory, which are 2 crashes, a china and a ride. I think the initial view has more drum pieces than I actually have on my fully expanded roland td-12 with aux 1 and 2 taken up by floor 2 and china. So by doing that it would free all sort of map assignments to add more drum pieces I have to add later, like a small splash, extra tom and an additional "stacked cymbal" sound, which I believe is already included in sd 2.0 already.

Next question id like to ask is this. Once Ive added the xdrum/s, do I have to add a room mic to it, so it can blend with the rest of the kit? or does it come with pre-configured mics?

Thanks,

JK

Totally Yeah there's some stack cymbals in there.

The mics depend what the kit piece is. When you add an Xdrum, you will be given all the mics that are included with that kit piece from it's original procuct. You can then assign their signal to any of the current channels in Superior.
When I use splashes from Drumkit from Hell EZX for example, I just assign it's OH's to the OH channel. However, the ambient mic box is greyed out as EZDrummer didn't include ambient mics.
I believe the pack you want was an SDX? So it should have the ambient mics I'd guess.

This, however, as well as wanting more control, is the reason I use an external reverb plugin rather than any room mics.

[iRaiseTheDead]

How do I do this? Sorry if I'm annoying here xD

[EtherealEntity]

Not at all

[rock90]

Originally Posted by Fiction

I think the set velocity from Guitar Pro Midi is around 97 I think, before exporting change all the drum parts to fff instead of f and they'll export with a velocity of 127, or you can just press Select + A, and drag all up to 127 or Quantize them and then start editing your fills and what not.

When u said select + A or quantize were u suggesting that we do thin in guitar pro or in cubase and could u be a little more detailed to how exactly we do this. Cause i tried fff and its better but still not quite there yet.
Tnx

[Fiction]

In your Piano Roll in Cubase for the drum Midi, Hold down CTRL + A Which will highlight all the midi notes, then down on the velocity bar (I use pro tools, so not sure about location, but with Pro Tools its just underneath the midi notes) Grab one of the little prongs and drag it right up to the top setting it to maximum velocity (127).

[Johnmar]

Anyone do me a favor and make a midi file(or guitar pro) sound good with superior?
Thanks

[LORDCHOPS]

Originally Posted by aawshred

I've been using SD2.0 for a while with logic. works great and everything, but i want to have each drum on its own track in logic. how do i make that work? i can't seem to make it happen by any means. be as detailed as you can, thanks!

Go to where you select logic and select multichannel output. Also in Superior click on any microphone out and select multichannel, then a little plus sign will show up on your channel strip in logic, then just hit that plus 16 times, or until you've got all the channels you need.

[Compton]

I was looking at presets on Toontracks website and I was curious if I had to update my version in order to use the ones I purchased?
I saw a couple of posts saying you did however it says nothing about having a specific version in order to use a preset you purchase.

[Dunloper]

Ok guys quick question. The GM on guitar pro 5 seems to potentially have a wider variety of options for the cymbals when you import it into superior drummer I.E. (several splashes, crashes, chinas and rides). In guitar pro 6 the drum kit seems extremely limited as far as the cymbals go. I have several drum tracks written in gp5 and gp6. So my question is: Is there any way I will be able to somehow have the same variety of cymbals after importing the midi files from gp6 into SD as I would with gp5?

[trickae]

i just did the full install for superior drummer and metal foundry, but there's not desktop shortcut. Do i have to launch the program through Cubase's VST menu?

[Fiction]

Yep, launch the program as a VST in Cubase.

[trickae]

cheers man,

thanks for that

[Heyitstahtoneguy]

Here is a good Question. How do i make the guitar pro midi tracks sound really good? I.E velocity, volumes of snare, kick, etc, what should be adjusted. I know the numbers for the snare. Is there a difference in the acoustic kick to the electronic kick? Any good guide for guitar pro tips and tricks for SD2.0 would be mad appreciated. I know there are plenty of us wanting to know some quite helpful info.

[EtherealEntity]

Originally Posted by Heyitstahtoneguy

Here is a good Question. How do i make the guitar pro midi tracks sound really good? I.E velocity, volumes of snare, kick, etc, what should be adjusted. I know the numbers for the snare. Is there a difference in the acoustic kick to the electronic kick? Any good guide for guitar pro tips and tricks for SD2.0 would be mad appreciated. I know there are plenty of us wanting to know some quite helpful info.

Check out my thread on velocity etc
Bring your programmed drums to life!

The numbers you use e.g 38 or 40 for snare or 35 or 36 for the kick don't mean anything important outside of how they sound in Guitar Pro. It's just what numbers are used to trigger Superior Drummer. You can change all that in Superior anyway. Check out the manual - there's a list of all the notes. I THINK I remember 38 being a rimshot, so you want to use 40 in Guitar Pro for the correct snare trigger. 35 and 36 both trigger the kick fine if I remember rightly. You can always change the settings, say you have a tab with 38 for snare - you don't have to edit it. You can just assign the snare to 38 in Superior instead. Or transpose those notes to 40 with one click in your recording software

[Heyitstahtoneguy]

Thanks man, you've answered my snare question before =) . Definitely checking out the velocity guide.

[hellraizer84]

ok this one has got me and my drummer stumped...

for some shit reason superior drummer has all the cymbals on overhead channels and bleed channels,and you may be thinking yes i know this but my problem is this...

if i wanna pan lets say a china far right i use the pan control on the overheads and suprise suprise all the cymbals pan right

i cant find anyway to seperate those individual cymbals.they are on there when you hit the matrix but as soon as it goes to the mixer there all on the same channel which is stupid and ....ing enraging!!haha you can tell iv spent to much time on this!

iv tried making x drums and bringing in the samples seperatly but no joy at all...anyone else had this problem or have an answer?

cheers guys praying for help!

[EtherealEntity]

The cymbals are placed as they are in the picture and you can't change that. Unless there is a china available in one of the cymbal selections on the right, you can't do that.

However X drums is indeed your answer. What's your problem with them?
Say your china is in cymbal slot 2. You want to create X drum 'cymbal 2' and then load the china into it. You can then pan that whereever you want and set your bleeds

[hellraizer84]

Originally Posted by EtherealEntity

The cymbals are placed as they are in the picture and you can't change that. Unless there is a china available in one of the cymbal selections on the right, you can't do that.

However X drums is indeed your answer. What's your problem with them?
Say your china is in cymbal slot 2. You want to create X drum 'cymbal 2' and then load the china into it. You can then pan that whereever you want and set your bleeds

well my knowledge is limited with superior at best but ill pass that info to our drummer for sure

im sure we tried something like that though,so you mean bring in like a regular cymbal in the x drum and it will show up on the mixer in its own channel not an over head?than i can pan it yes?im sure we tried that maybe i ....ed it up

[EtherealEntity]

Ah! I remember now. Forward him to this post and he should be able to set it up.

What you just said is what I was thinking happens, because I haven't tried it in a long time and know it's possible. You actually have to do a bit of a workaround though.
Automatically, if you click on microphone assignments for the Xdrum, you see it contains data on the Overhead mic only (as that one is dark green). That will be automatically assigned to the overhead channel, thus ending up panned in its original place. Not what we want.
You have to drag that overhead mic down to 'New' - which creates a new overhead bus for that cymbal. Of course, the pan will be the same, but on that bus you can then invert the panning with the sliders in the mixer Then what you want to do is set it to the same Superior output as the Overheads, so they will be blended to the Overhead channel in your DAW

[hellraizer84]

Originally Posted by EtherealEntity

Ah! I remember now. Forward him to this post and he should be able to set it up.

What you just said is what I was thinking happens, because I haven't tried it in a long time and know it's possible. You actually have to do a bit of a workaround though.
Automatically, if you click on microphone assignments for the Xdrum, you see it contains data on the Overhead mic only (as that one is dark green). That will be automatically assigned to the overhead channel, thus ending up panned in its original place. Not what we want.
You have to drag that overhead mic down to 'New' - which creates a new overhead bus for that cymbal. Of course, the pan will be the same, but on that bus you can then invert the panning with the sliders in the mixer Then what you want to do is set it to the same Superior output as the Overheads, so they will be blended to the Overhead channel in your DAW

ok been talking to him and he thinks your filling me with false hope haha acording to him he says you only get 1 cymbal mic or somthing???ill try step by step doing what your saying and yes your right about the mic auto assigning to the OH channel...ill harras you 2 mora when it doesnt work hahah

[EtherealEntity]

I tried it and it definitely works I set up two copies of 'cymbal 2' loaded with the stack cymbal. One coming out the left OH and one coming out the right.

Yes you only get 1 cymbal mic. The mic assignment page details which mics contain information for that X drum (dark green mics). You can then drag these to whichever channel in the S20 mixer you want. So drag the OH mic for your Xdrum cymbal to a new channel. Then you'll have it alone in the mixer to invert the pan and output to the same output as your overheads.

[hellraizer84]

Originally Posted by EtherealEntity

I tried it and it definitely works I set up two copies of 'cymbal 2' loaded with the stack cymbal. One coming out the left OH and one coming out the right.

Yes you only get 1 cymbal mic. The mic assignment page details which mics contain information for that X drum (dark green mics). You can then drag these to whichever channel in the S20 mixer you want. So drag the OH mic for your Xdrum cymbal to a new channel. Then you'll have it alone in the mixer to invert the pan and output to the same output as your overheads.

trying it now!

[hellraizer84]

ok it worked...kind of..thing is yo only get one mic so after that we were pretty clueless but after messing around the drummer managed to manipulate the mics somehow so were in business haha cheers bro!

[EtherealEntity]

Not sure what you mean? Yeah you only get one mic..the cymbals are only picked up by the overhead mic? It's the same case with all cymbals in Superior But as long as it's working!

[isaacbean]

I recently got The Metal Foundry, an expansion pack for Superior Drummer 2.0. I honestly have no clue how to start using it. I kinda figured that once I installed the disks, it would automatically apply itself to superior drummer, but that's not the case. Any tips? Thanks!