A guide for Superior Drummer 2.0

[Kurkkuviipale]

in avatar kick, i belive the 35 is the map to another mic and not the regular kick outs. If you need help writing a guide for MF, you can always pm me. Ill be happy to help anyone out. Look in my sig and tell me if my skills are worthy haha.

Don't know about the kick thing, but if you want to offer help, post your tip/anything in this thread and I'll add it to the guide and will add you to credits.

Hey everybody,

This goes very interesting. I have a couple of questions and I need to get answers before this thread grow infinitely. Here we go.

1) Im using Pro Tools recently. I like the Daw but write and edit drums patterns in the piano roll is some difficult but I thought it was for my inexperience. What you mean when you say "Apparently Pro Tools has no Drum Map capabilities"? I used Cubase but never programmed a drum in it because I was using Ezdrummer/DKFH with Guitar Pro. What is the diference about the midi editing in Cubase vs Pro Tools?

2) How and where (in GP?, in the Daw?, in the Superior plugin?) you can tick Alternate to get an alternatively sound between the 35 and 36 during playback as Deadnightshade mentioned?

3) The snare selection note depends of the guitar afination/song key in any way?. I noted that in Superior you can get various snare notes. Is a matter of taste or you need to have your snare tuned considering the pitch of the instruments tuning, the pitch of the song or something?

Thank you in advance

1) Pro Tools lacks (AFAIK) the "Drum Editor" -feature that for example Cubase has, so that you have to edit everything by the piano roll, which for me would be a pain in the ass.

2) The 'alternate' button was actually new to me also! http://kuvaton.com/k/rSl.png here's a picture where it is located.

3) The snare pitch can be changed (like any other drums' pitch can) via the SD interface. This doesn't mean that you should and yes, it's only to your taste. Of course you can try to experiment with it and it's a perfect tool to get it a little more out from the guitar frequencies the snare sometimes competes with.

Anyway if you mean the "Key" -spot in the "Instrument" section (found on the lower right corner of the plugin screen) you're in a wrong track. With the "Key" -parameter you can change the key your instrument (for ex. snare) obeys in your midi mapping. If you don't know where you should use it, leave it be. It doesn't have anything to do with the pitch.

And thanks for the belief to my guide!

interesting guide man

unfortunately, you stop right before the step where i'm currently stuck: how to treat the different mic's coming from the snare, BD, toms and room, and how to use mic bleeding properly

that shit is straight overwhelming and confusing for me being used to addictive drums

Mic treatment is all made from the mixer screen. Bleeding is done from that screen too. I use factory settings on bleed and levels, I just compress the shit out of the drums I need to. Anyway, I could do a good section on bleed usage to the guide!

But anyway, if you want your drums to sound realistic, then bleeding shouldn't be eliminated, just tweaked to liking.

 

[Tritono]

Bump for this great thread.

Im cosidering to start editing my drums in Guitar Pro again. Guitar Pro seems the most easy and effective way to get the most of the work done. What do you think about?

Please keep posting information. Kurkkuviipale dont forget to keep this thread alive! is a very good idea, plus I know that in this forum there are a huge number of Superior users that know alot. If you all share some tips with us, this thread will be epic and a gift for the new generations come on!

 

[Kurkkuviipale]

Hey, dude thanks for the belief! I'm not bumping this just because... well bumping your own thread too much is not cool.

Anyway, personally I like dealing with Guitar Pro. Mostly because I'm damn fast due to a years of practicing. However, I only do the body for the track in guitar pro and continue my job in Cubase. It's the most time saving deal for me!

Tritono or anyone: Give me some specific information about what you'd like to know. I know a lot of stuff about these things (goddamn, I'm a drummer why wouldn't i?) and would really like to share my info for you ss.org! It's just that if you don't need the information, why would I share it?

BTW, anyone here has tried dealing with SD2.0 drums using this guide? I'd love to hear results and give some criticism about them!

I uploaded a new mix from an old track a minute ago to soundcloud. It has really tweaked up drums, so I'll share it with you too (not self-promoting or anything, ehmmm...): Kurkkuviipale - TMB NEW - SoundCloud

 

[budule]

quick tip :in the midi editor, copy the snare and paste on the other value

F.E : if your snare is on 38, copy and paste on 40 ; you'll have more "plah"

so>>> 40+38 for rythm and slow fills and 38 only for fast fills

 

[Kurkkuviipale]

I rephrased it and added it to the guide. Thanks!

 

[Splees]

I could probably work on a Logic and possibly Pro Tools specific guide later this week.

 

[leandroab]

Regarding toms, just compress and EQ it. It sounded like wet ass before, sounds way better now...

 

[Kurkkuviipale]

So do I put it like this:
"Don't use straight reverbing on toms. It makes them sound wet and lose the attack they usually lack. Only use slight reverb on FX-channel if needed."

 

[Triple7]

Gonna bump this back up to the front, as I am programming drums right now and could use the tips!

Once you get the drums to sound the way you want it, is there anyway to save the settings so if you are working on a group of songs the drums sound the same?

 

[Kurkkuviipale]

Well if there is, I haven't found the perfect solution for it.

In Superior Drummer 2 you can save your preset, but the multi-out bus tracks' FX are not saved. What I do is that I have one good flexible preset in SD2.0 and when mixing a new song I either copy the drums from an old song or create perfectly new ones. That's a good way to improve your drum sound.

If anyone here has the knowledge to save ALL the multi-out bus tracks' FX's please share the info!

 

[Kurkkuviipale]

Edit: accidentally pressed quote instead of edit... (in the op)

Anyway, BUMP.

Edit 2: why am i not able to edit my own post? (original one)

I did this anyway:

Envelope Shaper
Envelope shaper is a good plug-in for fast, easy and yet impactive drum programming. You can basically change anything in your drum (snare, kick, toms, etc) from attack, to release.

Superior Drummer 2 has it's own envelope shaper, but I found it pretty un-effective for metal drum programming so I used Cubase's own plug-in.

Just remember to use it with care so your sound doesn't get too unrealistic, because that's basically what you do not want (Unless you're dealing with extreme speed death metal. In that case you shouldn't be using sd2.0 anyway, but a tincan and a shure sm57.)

 

[Metalus]

Any chance you could talk about how to best use X-drums and midi nodes? I would love to mix and match parts from both NY Avatar and Metal Foundry. I also heard that with midi-nodes you can trigger multiple drums from a single key. You can set a velocity-dependent crossover between two snares so that you get the ghost notes from one and the harder hits from another all from a single key. Nolly told me of this awesome tidbit

Any chance you could explain these 2 things in more detail?

 

[Kurkkuviipale]

Well, I don't use the Avatar kit at all. If someone more experienced here could tell it, it'd be appreciated, tho I can assure you that the Metal Foundry kit is more than enough to get the sound wanted!

 

[BobSmoke]

Really useful post dude! Thanks!

 

[Dea7h]

Well if there is, I haven't found the perfect solution for it.

In Superior Drummer 2 you can save your preset, but the multi-out bus tracks' FX are not saved. What I do is that I have one good flexible preset in SD2.0 and when mixing a new song I either copy the drums from an old song or create perfectly new ones. That's a good way to improve your drum sound.

If anyone here has the knowledge to save ALL the multi-out bus tracks' FX's please share the info!

Try creating a new blank project with your SD2.0 settings then save it as Template.cpr for exemple.
It should do the job.

 

[Prydogga]

Any chance you could talk about how to best use X-drums and midi nodes? I would love to mix and match parts from both NY Avatar and Metal Foundry. I also heard that with midi-nodes you can trigger multiple drums from a single key. You can set a velocity-dependent crossover between two snares so that you get the ghost notes from one and the harder hits from another all from a single key. Nolly told me of this awesome tidbit

Any chance you could explain these 2 things in more detail?

There's a couple of videos on Toontrack.com that show how to use the X drum stuff, it's pretty cool, and it explains it well, adding the ambient mic of one snare to be triggered with the main snare to get more depth and stuff like that. Definitely check it out.

 

[bleed2510]

Hey, I was trying to program drums for a metal song of mine using this guide. And I just wanted some feedback on what the track is lacking.

Also, I wanted to know how to get that punch from the china. And i'm not using Metal Foundry.

http://soundcloud.com/ramaswamyanish/drums-sample-1

 

[Metalus]

There's a couple of videos on Toontrack.com that show how to use the X drum stuff, it's pretty cool, and it explains it well, adding the ambient mic of one snare to be triggered with the main snare to get more depth and stuff like that. Definitely check it out.

Anyway you could link me to the video?

 

[bleed2510]

Edit : Sorry about that link. It's this one:

God Particle - Drums Sample - SoundCloud

 

[Kairos]

Edit : Sorry about that link. It's this one:

God Particle - Drums Sample - SoundCloud

Hey, man. The kick sounds kind of flabby. I don't really know much about eq, but I usually boost some bass frequencies, and add a few db in the 8-10k range for a nice click. I also take out some mids, depending on the mix. Try recording some guitar parts, and even a bass part if you can, and you'll have a really good template to practice mixing.

One you do that, then set the eq to flat and boost one frequency at a time, and set it back to flat. Once you know what each frequency does to the sound, change two bands and see how it sounds. Continue this with more bands until you like the way it sounds