Currently downloading Superior Drummer 3 and a few expansion packs (Rooms of Hansa, Twisted Kit..). I guess it's time to figure how to use MIDI. Send me your thoughts and prayers.
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Superior Drummer, MIDI, jumping into the Unknown
- Thread starter WG Plum
- Start date
I use (and love) EZDrummer 3 and thinking of going with the SD3 cross grade. Think it's worth the upgrade?
Well... it's telling me there isn't enough space to install the Hansa pack. This surprises me since my Macbook Pro is brand new and there is hardly anything on it, a couple of big Logic projects, but no video files or anything that would take up a lot of space. Am I missing a setting or is my brand new computer really out of memory?
Anyone have suggestions? I guess I'll call Sweetwater tech support tomorrow.
Anyone have suggestions? I guess I'll call Sweetwater tech support tomorrow.
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Save all your Logic work to an external SSD. Keep your software, VST installs on your hard drive. I use a 4TB SSD with my Mac Studio. Works great.
Been using EZD for years. Usually use the built in beats for sketching out songs rather than programming MIDI or tapping things out on MPC. I had an electronic kit I rented for a while connected to and triggering EZD. That was cool but I’m not a good enough drummer to justify buying a kit.
Been using EZD for years. Usually use the built in beats for sketching out songs rather than programming MIDI or tapping things out on MPC. I had an electronic kit I rented for a while connected to and triggering EZD. That was cool but I’m not a good enough drummer to justify buying a kit.
SD is great. Programming MIDI is a skill just like playing bass or any other performance. Your initial compositions will likely sound stiff until you can work out the nuances of velocities that make things sound natural, or intentionally unnatural if that’s your goal. For instance, a hihat playing quarters against a backbeat will typically be played louder when it aligns with the kick as opposed to on its own, and will be even louder still when it aligns with a snare hit on the backbeat. Little things like that can go a long way.
It's figuring out routing/set-up that's always been the barrier. It's never made sense to me. I'd like to integrate my MPC, but have no clue how to do so.
These days it’s usually just a USB connection and you’re all set.
Heh, it's not so bad, though Superior Drummer is jumping into the deep end in some ways. I've made a few sampled drum kits myself, they're out there for free.
If your MPC has MIDI out on a USB cable, you should be able to connect it, get Logic to recognize that as a MIDI device, and use that for a controller. It'd probably take a lot of practice to play a whole rock or funk drum pattern live on an MPC at once, but doing something like kick in one pass, snare in the next, hi-hat in the third etc. is a common way to do it easily. Then clean up the MIDI and quantize it if you want. That and a basic grasp of typical patterns for different styles will get you pretty far.
If your MPC has MIDI out on a USB cable, you should be able to connect it, get Logic to recognize that as a MIDI device, and use that for a controller. It'd probably take a lot of practice to play a whole rock or funk drum pattern live on an MPC at once, but doing something like kick in one pass, snare in the next, hi-hat in the third etc. is a common way to do it easily. Then clean up the MIDI and quantize it if you want. That and a basic grasp of typical patterns for different styles will get you pretty far.
These messages can be related to the disk where the downloads are stored. Not sure how MacBooks are set up, but in my case I have a OS drive and multiple sample library drives. Be sure to hit clean up downloads after each install to make room for the new one (assuming you use the Toontrack Installation Manager)
SD3 is brilliant, but indeed it can be overwhelming. But it has a lot of presets that sound great (ie: you don't have to think about routing mic bleed channels) ánd the midi patterns are played by a real drummer so you can easily copy and paste a convincing part. It's even better when you hook up an electronic kit. Combined with a real drummer most listeners won't even detect it's not a real kit. But even then you need to work on the velocities sometimes. In short: I've been very successfully fooling listeners for years now.
Even when you do very simple boom-bap programming without a real drummer: do it manually on a computer keyboard and don't quantize it 100. Edit your mistakes afterwards and don't forget the velocities!
I’m a lifelong drummer and still find EZ drummer is better than Superior drummer - at least for me. SD drums are pretty raw and require some work to sound production ready. If I’m going that route I might was we’ll just record my drumset.
EZ drummer is just that - EZ. I can go through a pack and get instantly good sounding drums. When a tune calls for something other than real drums I’d rather have the quick workflow and processed sounds through EZ drummer.
The built in MIDI samples are a great place to start. I also found a pack of like 300,000 MIDI tracks on eBay years ago for cheap but I admit I rarely use it. My MIDI keyboard has pads and I can tap out something simple if I just need an idea. To craft a good track takes time and lots of editing so like others have said, it’s just a skill that takes time.
These are both EZ drummer tracks. The first one was crafted in my DAW doing a lot of editing. The second one I used my electronic drum set and edited what I needed to. I have since sold the electronic drumset - the latency just never made it good enough to match a real kit.
EZ drummer is just that - EZ. I can go through a pack and get instantly good sounding drums. When a tune calls for something other than real drums I’d rather have the quick workflow and processed sounds through EZ drummer.
The built in MIDI samples are a great place to start. I also found a pack of like 300,000 MIDI tracks on eBay years ago for cheap but I admit I rarely use it. My MIDI keyboard has pads and I can tap out something simple if I just need an idea. To craft a good track takes time and lots of editing so like others have said, it’s just a skill that takes time.
These are both EZ drummer tracks. The first one was crafted in my DAW doing a lot of editing. The second one I used my electronic drum set and edited what I needed to. I have since sold the electronic drumset - the latency just never made it good enough to match a real kit.
It is interesting. Many drum software now have pre made beats now.
" Back when I was a kid" lol. We had to program the drums.
We could cheat for making it easy. Sync a keyboard and record the midi from the built in drum patterns.
Or when the internets came around download Midi files or songs and steal and edit the already made drum tracks.
Applied to modern times there should be plenty of sources for premade midi drum patterns and just edit them for song structure.
Or learn the hard way which is a recommended skill, and program beats.
Sounds like a good library of sounds. Probably layered multi velocity samples.
So indeed try to program and learn all the velocity tricks.
" Back when I was a kid" lol. We had to program the drums.
We could cheat for making it easy. Sync a keyboard and record the midi from the built in drum patterns.
Or when the internets came around download Midi files or songs and steal and edit the already made drum tracks.
Applied to modern times there should be plenty of sources for premade midi drum patterns and just edit them for song structure.
Or learn the hard way which is a recommended skill, and program beats.
Sounds like a good library of sounds. Probably layered multi velocity samples.
So indeed try to program and learn all the velocity tricks.
Hmmph. After moving some things, I still don't have enough space for the Hansa pack. This is disappointing. My old Lenovo PC laptop had ridiculous storage capacity and was less than half the price of the Apple. This doesn't seem right.
