# Superior 2.0 Eqing Tips?



## alex103188 (Apr 18, 2010)

Sup guise! I just recently picked up superior 2 and I've been having an effin blasty blast with it. But my only gripe is that I'm having a bit of trouble trying to get a solid crack out of the snare that's suitable for the musical fusion of the metal variety.

Any of you dudes (and possible dudettes) have any eqing/compression tips or possibly even presets that I could work off of to get that sound I'm looking for?

Thanks in advance for any helps!


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## S-O (Apr 18, 2010)

Well, are you used to using your own EQs or the built in EQ?


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## skeletor88 (Apr 18, 2010)

Also dont forget about dynamic processing.

I use the multi-output option instead of the standard stereo output. This means I can output each drums microphone to an individual output in my DAW's mixer. I find you can do a lot more fine tuning and use other compressors, limiters, etc etc that you can do with superiors built in plugins.


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## alex103188 (Apr 19, 2010)

I prefer the multi output option and using Logic's stuff as opposed to SD 2.0's because I don't have to open up the plugin for it all the time, haha. Plus everything can be adjusted.. Should I be using the plugins on the individual tracks in Superior instead?


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## DanielKRego (Apr 19, 2010)

Seconded the multiple output option, route your snare outputs to separate tracks in your DAW, and then EQ away with your plugin of choice.

I've noticed that the snares in DFH-related products need substantial boosts in the lower-mid regions to acquire the sort of heft and power that extreme metal needs.


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## alex103188 (Apr 19, 2010)

Hm chyes you're right I could have the top and bottom of the snare going to seperate channels in Logic, good idea!


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## S-O (Apr 19, 2010)

Multi out is the way to go, I sometimes use the built in EQs, but I am more comfortable with my DAW.


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## drmosh (Apr 20, 2010)

S-O said:


> Multi out is the way to go, I sometimes use the built in EQs, but I am more comfortable with my DAW.



I never bother with the multi out because when I do a final mix for a song I always bounce the tracks to separate audio files for maximum quality.


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## Mattayus (Apr 20, 2010)

alex103188 said:


> Sup guise! I just recently picked up superior 2 and I've been having an effin blasty blast with it. But my only gripe is that I'm having a bit of trouble trying to get a solid crack out of the snare that's suitable for the musical fusion of the metal variety.
> 
> Any of you dudes (and possible dudettes) have any eqing/compression tips or possibly even presets that I could work off of to get that sound I'm looking for?
> 
> Thanks in advance for any helps!



Generally speaking, getting that *crack* out of a snare is more to do with compression than EQ. Get the snare you use and solo each mic, process them (EQ, comp etc), un-solo them, get them sounding good together, then on the bottom of each mic's channel send them to one of the buses, then smash the shit out of it. 

You want a fairly fast attack, fast release, take the ratio up so it's nearly limited (i.e. the ratio line turns horizontal) and bring your threshold down until you really hear it popping out, then play with the ratio until you get it cracking, but it still has body. Over-squashing can lead to nothing but "blip"ing snares that have nothing to them, so play around with soloing/un-soloing the drums, as it may sound good on its own but the second it's in a mix all you get is the over the top *pop* of the snare coming through and not much else.

Also, you might want to play with parallel compression, where you make a copy of the snare-out, and leave one fairly raw/unprocessed, whilst another channel is simultaneously coming through with lots of compression and crack. You can then experiment with high-passing one, low-passing another until you get an awesome blend of crack/sheen/attack and body/warmth/size.

A lot of work but, just some ideas.


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## alex103188 (Apr 20, 2010)

Mattayus said:


> A lot of work but, just some ideas.




And good ones at that! I'm putting them to work right now and getting some solid results. There's a decent amount of compression on the snare, I turned the release up and such, it cracks in the mix without overdoing it. Thanks dude!


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## Mattayus (Apr 20, 2010)

No problem dude


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## newamerikangospel (Apr 20, 2010)

I found that Superior 2.0's "standard" snare sound library is really iffy. I like the tone of one drum, but the tuning of another. Im a dark piccolo, or a deep snare tuned tight kind of guy. I also like drum "ring" but I dont like it to sustain. I noticed when I was going through extreme drum analysis, that the signature sound seems to be squashed top heads, and ringing bottom heads.

For extreme metal, I use something akin to this (the first drum crack is almost perfect, just tuned a little lower/flatter than I would go for)


The (Haspch?) Maple snare (second from the last) is as close as I could get to that drum tone above. My suggestion would be to SLAM! the top head (ratio set at "over") and pull the threshold down until the drum starts to "fill out" but the initial attack transient is there. Find the stick head attack and then eq the octave above; I think its around 500-600, so boost a little at 1-1.2khz, not alot but maybe 1-2db. Then I would start pulling the low end down via highpass until it doesn't muddy on blasts. The bottom snare, put the compression around 7-1, and pull the threshold down until the tone of the drum starts to "mold" around the snares. Boost a little in the 2khz area, and high pass upto the "ring". I generally dont use the rim mic for anything but additional ring, so I wouldn't recomment this for this application. Put them together, buss them to one of the 2.0 busses. For heavier drums, I will run the transient designer, EQ, then a gate. Pull the attack up a little on the snare, but keep it at/under 1db. The EQ will be to add specifics (for more wires, boost around 4khz; for more attack, boost around 1-1.5k). The gate will catch the ring and pull it down so it doesn't "mush" the fast blasts.


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## DanielKRego (Apr 23, 2010)

Mattayus said:


> Generally speaking, getting that *crack* out of a snare is more to do with compression than EQ. Get the snare you use and solo each mic, process them (EQ, comp etc), un-solo them, get them sounding good together, then on the bottom of each mic's channel send them to one of the buses, then smash the shit out of it.
> 
> You want a fairly fast attack, fast release, take the ratio up so it's nearly limited (i.e. the ratio line turns horizontal) and bring your threshold down until you really hear it popping out, then play with the ratio until you get it cracking, but it still has body. Over-squashing can lead to nothing but "blip"ing snares that have nothing to them, so play around with soloing/un-soloing the drums, as it may sound good on its own but the second it's in a mix all you get is the over the top *pop* of the snare coming through and not much else.
> 
> ...



That's some great advice that I never would've thought of. I'm going to try that out right now! On ezDrummer, that is. Eh.


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## alex103188 (Apr 30, 2010)

Update! Got the kit sounding freaking fantastical. However I have a couple more questions regarding the mixing process with guitars. There's a part of a song I'm working on where the drums are blasting (tastefully, mind you  ), and they sit with the guitars quite nicely because the velocity is turned down. But in the next part of the song there's a groove where the snare is at a bit of a higher velocity, and it's a little overpowering. Obviously the quick solution would be to turn it down, but then the blasting parts would be a little too quiet with the guitars.. Anyone have some mixing tips to help the snare -regardless of velocity- sit alongside the guitars instead of overpowering them?


EDIT: Interestingly enough I only noticed the snare sounding a lot louder in that higher velocity groove when I bounced the track down to mp3. In my DAW things sound pretty damn even... I'm going like this atm


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## newamerikangospel (May 9, 2010)

On the instrument edit section, there is a "vel-to-vol" (velocity to volume) setting that actually has it adjusts volume with velocity. You can also turn your compressor threshold down a little bit farther to catch the increased attack, if changing the setting doesn't help.


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## _detox (May 10, 2010)

I hate to jack this thread, but it's at least slightly on topic:

Does anyone have any tips for toms? I like the big thundering low toms that still have a little high end attack. But all of my work has yielded toms that have that low thunder, but they ring a LOT. I've tried gating them, but it's always too much, so I don't think that's the way to go. Any help?
 
Btw, the snare tips in this thread are fantastic!


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## alex103188 (May 10, 2010)

newamerikangospel said:


> On the instrument edit section, there is a "vel-to-vol" (velocity to volume) setting that actually has it adjusts volume with velocity. You can also turn your compressor threshold down a little bit farther to catch the increased attack, if changing the setting doesn't help.



Jeeebus superior still continues to amaze me with all of its crazy features.

Thanks man I'll give that a shot!

and @ detox I'd hardly say it's hijacking. This forum is long overdue for a compiled list of superior drummer eqing tips in general!


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## newamerikangospel (May 12, 2010)

_detox said:


> I hate to jack this thread, but it's at least slightly on topic:
> 
> Does anyone have any tips for toms? I like the big thundering low toms that still have a little high end attack. But all of my work has yielded toms that have that low thunder, but they ring a LOT. I've tried gating them, but it's always too much, so I don't think that's the way to go. Any help?
> 
> Btw, the snare tips in this thread are fantastic!



Transient designer, and EQ. Find where the frequencies ring, do a small rip, then put the Transient designer behind it and pull the sustain down a bit (1-1.5 db generally does the trick). 

As a side note, I used to gate the living hell out of my toms, but always wondered why they didn't sound in the mix like most record's drum tones I liked. It was because the ringing is kind of annoying when the drums are solo'ed, but they give the toms "life" in the mix (as long as it isn't too overbearing). I would suggest finding the ring "fundamental" with the tom by itself, but doing the ripping and transient designer while in a mix. That is what worked for me


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## newamerikangospel (May 12, 2010)

alex103188 said:


> Jeeebus superior still continues to amaze me with all of its crazy features.
> 
> Thanks man I'll give that a shot!
> 
> and @ detox I'd hardly say it's hijacking. This forum is long overdue for a compiled list of superior drummer eqing tips in general!



As a way out of the way sidenote, there is a setting in superior drummer called "semi seq", which will pull hits out of adjacent velocity layers (this will cause cymbal chokes to be sporadic/uncontrollable). So if you are hitting something with 100 velocity, it may pull a hit from the 128 "pool", or the 75 "pool".It wasn't too bad on the snare or high hat, but it made the toms, kick, and cymbals (chokes especially) pretty bad. It was like someone who could play perfectly on beat, but couldn't control their velocity. I turned this off on every drum/cymbal, as I like to manually edit velocity; however, I would leave this on if you are a "put everything at 128" person.


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## ShreddingDragon (May 15, 2010)

newamerikangospel said:


> As a way out of the way sidenote, there is a setting in superior drummer called "semi seq", which will pull hits out of adjacent velocity layers (this will cause cymbal chokes to be sporadic/uncontrollable). So if you are hitting something with 100 velocity, it may pull a hit from the 128 "pool", or the 75 "pool".It wasn't too bad on the snare or high hat, but it made the toms, kick, and cymbals (chokes especially) pretty bad. It was like someone who could play perfectly on beat, but couldn't control their velocity. I turned this off on every drum/cymbal, as I like to manually edit velocity; however, I would leave this on if you are a "put everything at 128" person.



STILL continuing a bit on the side, but: yeah, I just noticed the semi seq switch last night. I knew SD was doing the effect, but didn't know where to control it from  I switched it off on the kick and snare for a slightly more processed metal sound because some of the "75" snare hits sounded like weak hit mistakes  But it's great for material that allows a more natural sound. "Alternate" seems to alternate between left and right hand/foot hits, but what does "random" do?

Edit: Alex, you could check out these guides too. Very to-the-point and good tips. FaderWear Guides - Aggressive Drums: The Recording Guide and FaderWear Guides - Need a Fat Drum Sound? Parallel Compression Guide


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## newamerikangospel (May 16, 2010)

ShreddingDragon said:


> STILL continuing a bit on the side, but: yeah, I just noticed the semi seq switch last night. I knew SD was doing the effect, but didn't know where to control it from  I switched it off on the kick and snare for a slightly more processed metal sound because some of the "75" snare hits sounded like weak hit mistakes  But it's great for material that allows a more natural sound. "Alternate" seems to alternate between left and right hand/foot hits, but what does "random" do?
> 
> Edit: Alex, you could check out these guides too. Very to-the-point and good tips. FaderWear Guides - Aggressive Drums: The Recording Guide and FaderWear Guides - Need a Fat Drum Sound? Parallel Compression Guide





Random pulls from different hits in the pool. You want this on, as this is what keeps the "machine gun" away.


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## _detox (May 16, 2010)

newamerikangospel said:


> Transient designer, and EQ. Find where the frequencies ring, do a small rip, then put the Transient designer behind it and pull the sustain down a bit (1-1.5 db generally does the trick).
> 
> As a side note, I used to gate the living hell out of my toms, but always wondered why they didn't sound in the mix like most record's drum tones I liked. It was because the ringing is kind of annoying when the drums are solo'ed, but they give the toms "life" in the mix (as long as it isn't too overbearing). I would suggest finding the ring "fundamental" with the tom by itself, but doing the ripping and transient designer while in a mix. That is what worked for me





newamerikangospel said:


> As a way out of the way sidenote, there is a setting in superior drummer called "semi seq", which will pull hits out of adjacent velocity layers (this will cause cymbal chokes to be sporadic/uncontrollable). So if you are hitting something with 100 velocity, it may pull a hit from the 128 "pool", or the 75 "pool".It wasn't too bad on the snare or high hat, but it made the toms, kick, and cymbals (chokes especially) pretty bad. It was like someone who could play perfectly on beat, but couldn't control their velocity. I turned this off on every drum/cymbal, as I like to manually edit velocity; however, I would leave this on if you are a "put everything at 128" person.




Both of these replies were extremely helpful. I'll definitely be trying the transient and EQ stuff later this afternoon. It's mostly one of the lower rack toms that seems to have this extreme ringing problem. The floor toms ring, but it's not noticeable in the mix so I think I'm ok there. 

I've been wondering for a while what the hell is going on with cymbal chokes.  I'll definitely be turning that option off, thanks for that! 

Rep your way.


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## alex103188 (Jul 19, 2010)

Bumpage.

Who has any tips on getting a reallllly beefy kick?


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## Antenna (Jul 19, 2010)

I get a good sounding beefy kick by routing my kick to my mixer and not using the sd2 fx. I use my own comp and the bbe sonic maximizer plug-in. My settings are....

SD2 mixer set to Multichannel

Kick Channel
Comp: Hard
Threshold: -10.5
Ratio: 10:1
Attack: 25ms
Release: 100ms

and BBE Settings are
Lo Contour: just above 7 o'clock
Process: just below 11 o'clock
and output is at 11 o'clock
if anyone you like this and want my whole setup pm me and I'll post my settings in a thread! 

Hope this helps!


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## itscurbe (Jul 28, 2010)

How do I set it to "multi-channel"???


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## itscurbe (Jul 28, 2010)

nevermind, figured it out


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## Antenna (Jul 29, 2010)

Hope those settings work out for ya!


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## alex103188 (Jul 30, 2010)

Word ill have to try em when I get my laptop fixed. Graphics card fail  also lackimg the bbe plugin...


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