Lessons
DAY 1
1Superior Drummer 2.0 Intro
09:37 2Toontrack Solo Mode
15:01 3Memory and Status
19:35 4Layer Limits
14:40 5Voice Limits
11:22 6Cached Mode
06:01 7Expansion Libraries and Kits
07:38SDX Libraries Explained
14:18 9Producer Presets
13:29 10Envelope and Pitch Settings
28:27 11Humanize Settings
32:28 12Instrument Settings
39:08 13Easy Mixer and Mixer Tab
26:55 14Mixing Presets
08:05 15Bleed Control
29:14 16Using MIDI
21:58DAY 2
17Mapping MIDI Notes
38:31 18Mapping Velocity Control
16:32 19Mapping MIDI in a DAW
23:20 20Mapping MIDI Nodes
12:46 21Adding X-Drums
43:00 22Microphone Assignment
28:07 23Routing Superior Drummer in Pro Tools
32:25 24Bouncing in Superior Drummer
27:04 25EZ Drummer 2 and Superior Drummer Workflows
15:44 26Superior Drummer Q&A
20:38Lesson Info
Mixing Presets
if you're following along at home, just to make sure we're in the same place were in the Avatar Sound library, and we are in the default kit so that what you're looking at is the same thing I am. Fair enough in the mixer, you'll notice again. We have some buttons here for the outputs and the buses, and those basically just hide those channels so you don't have to scroll through all that stuff to see everything you have in front of you. So in the last section we talked about how every single recording that tune track does is its own recording session in its own studio, and how the mixture is going to be unique between all of our expansion products. There's a couple of things we need to talk about in the mixture that are so mind blowingly cool that I think we've waited long enough, So let's talk about them. They're everybody's favorite feature generally, and we're gonna talk a little bit more in detail about how we get it and what it is. But that's the bleed to function, and the bleed fu...
nction, quite simply, is a computer emulation, right to some extent But the reality of that is that it's also a really live sound capture. So you're saying, Rick, that can't be the same thing They are, and I'm gonna show you where one begins in one ends now in a second. So let me preface this all of our recording sessions, regardless of how they end up STX or Easy X, all start the same way. Top notch producer, top notch studio, top notch engineer, great gear, the whole nine yards. And we all know that one of the things that makes a drum recording very viable and very I don't want to say lifelike. But to come alive that breathes life into it is the fact that as the drums are played by a real drummer, what happens becomes one sound. One instrument. But there's a lot of things happening to, For instance, azure playing the hi hats, the snare in the kick drum. Let's say you're just playing those things. There's a microphone on the high hat microphone in the kick drum microphone on the snare drum. All of the other instruments are interacting in each microphone, and that's called Bleed right. There is no magic vacuum. You can record in where you put a microphone on the snare drum and then one on the high hat and the to completely cancel one another out. Now you can do some things with baffling and phasing, but ultimately you can't just evaporate sound waves in a studio or stop where they go based on the type of performance you have. So that's actually been a secret to a great drum sound for many, many, many years is controlling and capturing the right amount of bleed. And a lot of times, if you're in the studio where you've had the privilege to be in a studio, you'll notice that the engineer works a lot on mic placement to maximize and minimize bleed. Well, the superior Drummer mixer takes all of this into account and lets you be the engineer and you be the guy moving the microphones around to determine the bleed. Really, really cool stuff. So let me do this. At first. Let's get ah groove going here. So we've been listening Teoh the same groove. I see no reason to change it now because it's mind numbingly normal. So we're gonna go here. We're gonna play this group simple enough. Okay, now we go to the mixer. You'll notice we have a number of our channels here. Recorded it. Avatar we have. Our overheads are Ambien are ambient, far am Yamano. And as we play the groove for this particular kit, Theo Weight was recorded. You see the channels that are active right way. See, Obviously there's no Tom going on in this field, so there's no Tom's coming through the mixture way. See the overheads we see a me in clothes. We see nothing else coming through these channels at the end. Now that doesn't mean that it wasn't recorded with those channels or that it's not available. What that means is, right now this particular midi pattern, this particular default kit isn't utilizing those sound sources. Or is it? Let's talk about bleed, and the easiest way to talk about Bleed is a show it to you. So let's let's go to the beginning of the mixer here again. We've got the outputs and the bus is turned off, so we're just dealing with instruments. And let's look at the mixer Channel mixer channel from the top down. First of all, we have this me doing this on a regular basis to make you think you're going a little crazy like Oh, look, it's just a glitch in the system. Um, you have these options thes presets at the top on these presets are predicated on the preinstalled effects that come with Superior Drummer 2.0, so rule number one you can only use in spirit number two point of the effects that are included in it at this point in time. Now, those effects are manufactured by a company called Sin Oxus. It's a company from the UK, which automatically makes it great, and they're very basic tools that you would use any sort of sound shaping or sculpting. Very basic tools that may be an engineer would apply that really don't color or affect the sound to away. That's very drastic. So you have a basic five many que some low pass high pass filters, a gate, a compressor in a transient shaper. Okay, now, if you don't know what all those things are again, that is a different creativelive class will try and talk a little bit about it. But there are a 1,000, places to go to get information on how to better use these tools in your mix. Just know that those air available individually. So, for instance, you could have none. Or you could put any Q there. And, of course, the week you will come up and you can adjust it accordingly for the instrument. And again, if you decided afterwards, didn't want it. Just click none now, above that, though, at the top of every channel, you see a preset selection. If you click on that, there are presets of signal chains designed for very specific instruments, so high hats, kick drums, overheads, room. So all types of different. We kind of done some work for you. You can just kind of plug and play. We know that right now we're on a kick drum. So let's say we wanted to see what I kicked The Dumpster preset would look like. We would click on that and you'll notice it gives us a transient designer any Q and a compressor in the order. Obviously, that there used This is a preset created by someone at tune track with relation to Hey, we find that in a lot of recordings or in a lot of people's processing of recordings. They use these effects to achieve a certain sound. We're going to call it the Dumpster, because why wouldn't you? You can call it whatever you want to use. Something people are going to remember now again, If you don't want that, you can clear it and you can start with your own. You can also save your own presets as you see here, safe so you could create a whole list of inserts on each channel. Save your own preset configuration and then apply that any time you wanted to. Because again, remember, what you do in this mixer won't always translate to the next mixture as a result that it will be a different studio, which is kind of cool. So as we continue top down, we've got your presets. You can add your inserts here. Here you have some bus routing. Now, if you're just joining us and you're not familiar with bussing, As I said prior, there are classes that will teach you how to use it. The simplest most, I guess, for lack of a better term, juvenile or childlike. What remembered as a bus takes people somewhere everybody has to get on the bus to go in place so you can route a number of channels toe one channel, and it will take them all as a group to a place. Does that make sense? I think that's pretty basic. Bus bus. Great, Great. The bus on the bus go round and I just said the bus on the bus go round and round, but it doesn't. It's the wheels on the bus go round and round. In any instance, those are a little darker grey. So you've got right here. You've got your effects. So you've got 12345 slots for effects and then you've got five different bus routing capabilities. That's pretty huge, because what that means is, for instance, on this kick drum in right right here it's labelled Kick Drum in. I can take this kick drum in signal to five different buses in my mixer and affect them five different ways and blend that signal in one way that goes to my output and then into my doll before it even gets processed by my dog. That's a lot of flexibility within this routed mixer here. It's kind of cool then, as you come down we have the master bleed control. What we're gonna talk about in a second, we have the mute button. I don't know if you guys know what this does, but it turns blue. No, No laughs, no chuckles. Everyone's chuckled out there like, Dude, we've been listening to memory and sample bits all day. Just give us something good.
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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