Lessons

Lesson Info

Toontrack Solo Mode

Okay, So what we're gonna do now is we're going to open Superior Drummer 2.0, in stand alone mode. Now, this is I don't want to say odd, but it is a little unique because, for instance, with easy drummer to you would simply again I'm using a Mac. You can come into your applications or launchpad and you can see that I have an easy drummer to icon that I could just click on an easy drummer to will open. That's not the case with Superior Drummer. We actually have a shell that's appear Drummer 2.0 Opens and it's called Solo Now have moved that icon on my desktop. I suggest you do the same thing once you've installed solo. You can solo, obviously, because it's the solo mode for the software you can open Superior Drummer two or even easy drummer to in the Shell. And I'm going to explain to you why that's kind of cool in a few seconds. So I've moved solo down to my desktop. I'm gonna click on it, and it's gonna open now. When it opens, I can open a project which will talk about a minute. I ca...

n open easy drummer to or superior drummer to. Actually, these are the two programs I have installed on my new laptop just because I haven't installed beat station or easy keys yet. But you could ultimately open any of the tune track instruments in solo. So I'm gonna select superior drummer to hit OK, and then bang, boom being superior. Germer 2.0, is open and ready for business. We check to make sure we have some audio because we've already predetermined how the audio chain is gonna work. But I'm going to show you how to do that now. So the first part of this this morning is making sure you understand what Solo is Solo is a shell that hosts our program Superior Drummer, 2.0, in stand alone mode and one of the reasons you would use superior 2.0, in stand alone mode might be practice preproduction. Maybe you just sort of want to experiment with the software to learn things, a couple of the other really cool functions. Or maybe you're a keyboard player or an e drummer, someone that's playing electronic drums, and we have this environment called Solo that has some unique features tailored for those people that allow the software not only open in stand alone mode, but give you some other features as well. So we're always gonna move across the top in my demonstrations from left to right, The way that we would read here and you see to track solo was open. And a lot of times, mind you, by the way, I do this all the time. So when you're following as we go through this, you'll notice you have a bunch of blank space here in solo. It doesn't feel a screen. And if you accidentally click in the in the blank space, you're gonna go back to the Apple menu because you're on the desktop and you're gonna be looking through things. You're like, Wait a minute. I don't understand how come there's emojis and symbols in solo and there aren't. It's You are in the wrong menu, so always make sure you're clicking on one of the actual components of Solo, and you'll see that it says to track solo and you'll be good to go. Don't feel bad. I do it still to this day on a regular basis, like an idiot. Okay, so the first thing you notice is typical file menu. You can create a new file or open an existing file save, save as and then new drummer. So here's what's interesting about Solo is you can host a number of different instances off the same program. So, for instance, you see, I have this mixer here and it's showing me that I have superior to That's what's open. You see that we're getting some level in this mixer. And if I wanted to add another drummer, I could actually come into file and add new drummer or in sort of the quick menu. I could just click on the Drum icon, and I could open another instance of superior drummer to or easy drummer to whatever I wanted to. If I wanted to start to work with different sounds, work with maybe a different library, see how things add up. There's a number of reasons you might want to do this from a sort of a a musical situation, so that's kind of a cool feature. We're not going to do that now because I think if I have more than one instance open, I'll get confused, and then you'll get confused. Drew will be the only stalwart rock we have to end the confusion, and I don't want to put that kind of pressure on him. So we're just gonna keep one instance open. Okay, So if you go to the added menu again, you can start dictation or have emojis. You can't do any of those things, but this is a carry over from the way that Apple does its menus. So please don't hit start dictations. Start talking. Disappeared from a 2.0, although humorous forever one around you, nothing will come of it. And no, you can't change the drums to emojis or symbols. That's not gonna happen either. Ah, view easy player, which we're gonna talk about in a moment and then the mixer. So if you click on the mixer, it's gonna take you down to the mixer cause it's already open. Very uneventful, since the mixer opens when you open solo options. Now, this is where if you're working in stand alone mode, you're gonna want to go in and make sure that you can select your audio device, your output channels, Layton, see settings. All of these things that are going to affect the way superior works on your machine, and it's gonna be different. There's no standard setting you can choose. It really depends on the operating system and the hardware you're using, so make sure you go in, and I generally like to encourage people. The thing to really think about is most folks are working with a dog in addition to Superior drummer. So whatever the settings are in your Daw that are working for you, just mimic those settings here in Solo, and you should be fine. It will let you select your many devices controller, which is a very, very cool menu features. So this is set to default, and right now it's just me playing with the software, as you can see. But if you go back to controller, you'll see that you can actually select E drums as the controller. So if you're in solo and you are on a drummer and you want this running on your laptop and you want to optimize toe work with your E kit in solo, you can simply select e drums. Mod wheel exists so that you can assign certain attack decay, release and sustained features to the mod wheels. If you're not a keyboard player and you don't know how to work with the mod wheels, it's fun to experiment with. But make sure you are familiar with the consequences and how to reset things and will make sure that that's good for you. Before done, you have the CC offset, which is the command control. And again, we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves because I haven't described what a lot of these things do yet and we will. But ultimately, command control is many information. How many people know Midi is? Yes, everybody out there raising your hand. I hope it's not M one D one. It's actually Midi. So many is this beautiful, beautiful machine language that allows all of these things to communicate and send different types of information from the way that the instruments are supposed to actually play or sound to performance information. So it's this beautiful thing that we've been blessed with since the eighties, and a lot of what we're gonna be working within Superior drummer is Midi based, so it's kind of it's a beautiful thing if you have a good understanding of at least some basics on how many works and what it can and can't do. So we're gonna come back. Teoh some of the control of the flip side of some of these things. When we talk a little bit more about Sapir, drummer will make a little more sense. There is a metro gnome in solo so you can actually cook on Metrodome. And there are some Metrodome settings. If you want to use a click track to make sure that the grooves air solid or even if you want to have a quick track on, for instance, let's say, or any germ when you want a click track feeding in your headphones or or with you while you play for rehearsal. You can do that. You have a couple of options here. You can change the time signature. You can change how loud it is and your headphones so on and so forth. So there's a lot of things and again, Ah, lot of these features are mimicked in the mixer, so you'll notice here in the mixer we have a naughty oh volume channel for superior, and then you've got You can delete this channel, the midi device, right? The Midi Channel that you're on and then right underneath it, you can set the tempo. You can tap the tempo. There's a number of things that are convenient. And in the quick menu to mixer, this is what an old school the Metrodome looks like. Very steampunk. So steampunk Metrodome is there. You turn that on, right? Sounds just like a metronome. Um, and then set paths. This gets a little more advanced as well, but with set paths, this is ultimately going to show you how to set the path to the V s T plug ins folder for using this is a V S t. We're not going to get to that right yet because I don't want you to get ahead of us. But you can ensure and make certain that things air set to the right V S T path. If you have multiple V s T folders in your Windows operating system or if there's some sort of special VSD preferences you have set up in your Mac, I will warn you. A lot of people like to go in and sort of change the V s T path, which is great. And a lot of people know how to do it very, very proficiently. And well, if you're not familiar with how the V s T path assignments work for any of your other men's instruments, I would just sort of leave it set to the default because it's almost a guaranteed emailed of the support team. Once you've relocated your BST folder and your program no longer exists or you can't find in your system self just a word to the wise. But if you're a pro when you do it all the time, clearly this is old hat to you. So have at its Onda help menu. There's an operation manual for solo. Okay, so again, we're still in solo. You can open that up notice. It says to track solo, you can read through glorious 21 pages. Of all the information I've just given you, you can type things in kind of search preview, help pretty standard stuff and then ultimately in preview again because it is there, help search for about 32 64 bit mode. So this is important. I'm actually gonna move back. I'm gonna move forward to readjust everyone with me. That was the break. Is everybody good? That's that's about all these breaks. We're gonna be talking about software. We have to keep it exciting even for me. I'm listening to myself talk about, like, menus and stuff like I want to shoot myself in the face already. Is everybody with me? OK, good. So 32 64 bit mode really important When you install on a Macintosh computer, the operating system that's currently running on your computer is going to determine what version of the software is installed. Now, you can change that through some various Mac options later in life. We're not gonna go over that just because this isn't a class on how to change your Mac OS settings, we are going to say, is that, for instance, when you install Superior drummer if you're still running a 32 bit operating system, it's going to install the 32 bit version of superior German. That's how it's going to run if you're running a 64 bit operating system, same thing. It's going to install the most current and convenient version for the operating system you're working with on a Windows machine that options gonna be left to you. So as you're installing, you can install both or one or the other. Some people have Windows seven or 32 bit versus I mean so there's a number of different options that exist in the PC room, but ultimately you will have. That option is which version to install. I would just encourage you to make sure you understand the difference, and the biggest difference you're going to see is that the 32 bit version of any software program excluding Sapir Drummer but also including secured everything right anything 32 bit is only going to be able to use the amount of RAM that a 32 bit operating system is tethered to. Does that make sense? So there is a limit for PC and Mac as to how much actual RAM the 32 bit operating system can use. That's not determined by us. That's determined by the O s manufacturer, as opposed to a 64 bit system that will be able to use again. Inherently more am based on what you have in your system makes sense. So the more ram you have in your system when working with larger libraries that are sort of ram dependent or use a lot of memory, the better. Yeah. Okay. I think we're good. That pretty much covers everything you need to know about solo. And I only tell you these things, because as we move through some of the menus and superior, there are some things that are similar, and we want to make sure that we've delineated. This is a group of functions that work for the solo, the actual host application. And now we're talking about menu features, items and things that work for superior. Yes, we're good. Drew. Do we have anyone confused? Any questions? Concerns, comments? No, we're good. I think we'll cover. We do have a few questions, but I'm gonna hold him cause he's gonna were gonna I'm going to take a sip of coffee. I'll take two. Oh, so good. All right. Are we ready? No. Maybe. How about now? Good. All right. So superior is open. We've opened superior number two point. Oh, and when you open, Superior Drummer two point. Oh, And again, we're gonna work on the presumption that this is all you have currently loaded on your system. you've loaded the software, you've loaded the library. And the first thing you're gonna see is is I'm gonna kind of work right here before I come over here. So right here, you're going to see N Y Avatar. What does that mean? Great question. Many times when people load their software and its appeared number 2.0, they expect the default library that would come up to say, What can anyone guess? Superior to point. All right, makes sense. That isn't how we've named this library. So the default library in Superior 2.0 is the Avatar library. And it's named after the studio that it was recorded in which is Avatar Studios in New York, which, prior to being Avatar Studios was Power Station studios in New York. Very, very famous place. Many, many, many amazing records artists, producers, engineers have worked there many hit songs and phenomenal albums recorded there. That's where the core library was recorded for Superior drummer 2.0, now, when this kit comes up, so we opened up. This is what we call the default configuration of this drum set. So this is a lot of information on this first page. We're gonna be on this first page for a while because I think there's more information here than most people realize. So again, bear with me. And I should probably interject at this point time that every component of Superior Drummer 2.0, even though it's adjustable and and managed for lack of a better term in one area or one place on this construct page, it has effects, and it has sort of consequences for lack of a better term on other pages and in other parts of the software. So we want to make sure that before we start jumping from page to page to page, we realized that my new changes made here can affect all sorts of other things in your superior armour to experience. And that's important to know, because the program is designed to function at a level that truly is superior. I think you're going to see that as we move through here, but I just want a sort of position everyone's mind in the same place. So it should be noted that the first thing you want to do with any software, not we've talked about this with these German to be with any software's. Make sure you have the most current version of the software running. So when you buy Superior Drummer 2.0, on your register in your tune track account, you get it installed. More than likely, there will be some software updates waiting for you in your account. Their free. Simply update your software. As you can see here, the most current version of the software is version 2.4 point three and in parentheses. Like a secret, it's telling you that we're in 64 bit. Okay, so we're running a 64 bit version of this program, and this is the latest update. So if you're not on update 2.4 point three, you may not see or have all of the features and functions that I'm going to demo over the next day and 1/2 here. So make sure that your updated always The other thing that changed is very drastic change, and this takes us back to easy player when we were in solo. So now we're into direct toll. I showed you there is an easy player. Common. Did I just say comment? That's weird because there wasn't an easy player. Comment. There is an easy player drop down menu. You guys put in this coffee, Drew. No. Now, just kidding. That's tomorrow.