Routing MIDI Drums in the DAW

[JD01]

OK, I've got various project templates set up with Superior Drummer.
As some of you likely know, you have loads of different virtual mics in Superior, so for example you mix the different kick mics how you like and then set "kick in", "kick out" and "kick sub" to "Out 1/2" You then send "out1/2" to Reaper and can mix it properly in Reaper.

However, when I initially set up Superior Drummer I didn't know as much about how to use it and how I want my drums to sound as I do now.
Some of my mics in Superior don't have an "out" set up. Some which I mics which I wasn't using before and were muted have their "out" set to the same place as something else. You get the picture. I set it up for what I needed/wanted at the time which was pretty basic as I was new to Superior and its pretty complex. Now I want to modify my drum sound.

However, I don't want to start from scratch, build up a new drum template and then laboriously transfer existing projects to it. I want to alter routing that's already been setup in an existing project.

At the moment in Reaper I have Kick (which Kick In/Out/Sub are routed to), Snare (snare tom and snare bottom), Hi hat, Toms, OH Condensers and something called "Ambient Ribbon". I wanted to keep it pretty basic. So, Reaper looks like this:

Capture.JPG

Now I want to add some of the various room mics that are available in Superior and route them to new tracks. Is there a way of doing this within an existing project - I figure there must be but I've never really manually played with routing within either EZ drummer, Superior Drummer or within Reaper.

Does anyone have any idea how I do this? @Tadpui Fuck, I wish Minerman was here.

[vomitHatSteve]

EZD makes routing the various "mics" pretty straightforward. One of the panels is the routing panel; you set what channel(s) you want it to go to, and then Reaper sees that "mic" in the corresponding channel(s)

But there's no logic for swapping out room mics.

[Tadpui]

This is what I would try if it were me. There's probably a faster, easier way that I'm not thinking of (there always seems to be with Reaper):

- Pick a project and build the new VSTi, VSTs, tracks, folders, and routing you want from scratch.
- Select all of the tracks involved, right click on one of them and select "save tracks as track template"
- In any project where you want to replace the old routing, you can right-click in blank space in the track area and select "add tracks from template" and pick that one you just saved
- Drag or copy/paste the MIDI from the old instance of Superior into the new instance
- Mute or delete the original tracks/folders

[JD01]

This is what I would try if it were me. There's probably a faster, easier way that I'm not thinking of (there always seems to be with Reaper):

- Pick a project and build the new VSTi, VSTs, tracks, folders, and routing you want from scratch.
- Select all of the tracks involved, right click on one of them and select "save tracks as track template"
- In any project where you want to replace the old routing, you can right-click in blank space in the track area and select "add tracks from template" and pick that one you just saved
- Drag or copy/paste the MIDI from the old instance of Superior into the new instance
- Mute or delete the original tracks/folders

You're an excellent human being.

[Greg_L]

Whatever happened with that attic drum room you were building? Surely that's an easier project than all of this drum programming routing matrix stuff.

[JD01]

Whatever happened with that attic drum room you were building? Surely that's an easier project than all of this drum programming routing matrix stuff.

Well... I got it all boarded out and it immediately got filled with shite.

That being said, I just haven't had the time for any major DIY lately, most of my recording/arranging tends to done later in the evening and then I just record the guitars in short stints during the day when I get spare minutes. Also, were looking at getting a 3rd floor conversion in our house in the next couple of years so I'll likely have a bigger, better recording space when that's done. At least an extra metre width and probably 2m more in length. Haven't got the architects drawing yet.

[Tadpui]

Whatever happened with that attic drum room you were building? Surely that's an easier project than all of this drum programming routing matrix stuff.

Well... I got it all boarded out and it immediately got filled with shite.

That being said, I just haven't had the time for any major DIY lately, most of my recording/arranging tends to done later in the evening and then I just record the guitars in short stints during the day when I get spare minutes. Also, were looking at getting a 3rd floor conversion in our house in the next couple of years so I'll likely have a bigger, better recording space when that's done. At least an extra metre width and probably 2m more in length. Haven't got the architects drawing yet.

Ain't that the way it goes? It's so easy to "grow" into extra space when it becomes available. I spent a few weeks this winter finally getting a grip on our basement, which is 3/4 unfinished bare concrete and 1/4 my studio (and ample housing for spiders). It had become the "end of the road" for stuff we didn't want to discard or donate. A couple hundred dollars' worth of plastic shelving units tidied it right up.

But dang, an extra 1x2 meters is a huge amount of expansion for that space! That'll make a great studio room

[JD01]

Well... I got it all boarded out and it immediately got filled with shite.

That being said, I just haven't had the time for any major DIY lately, most of my recording/arranging tends to done later in the evening and then I just record the guitars in short stints during the day when I get spare minutes. Also, were looking at getting a 3rd floor conversion in our house in the next couple of years so I'll likely have a bigger, better recording space when that's done. At least an extra metre width and probably 2m more in length. Haven't got the architects drawing yet.

Ain't that the way it goes? It's so easy to "grow" into extra space when it becomes available. I spent a few weeks this winter finally getting a grip on our basement, which is 3/4 unfinished bare concrete and 1/4 my studio (and ample housing for spiders). It had become the "end of the road" for stuff we didn't want to discard or donate. A couple hundred dollars' worth of plastic shelving units tidied it right up.

But dang, an extra 1x2 meters is a huge amount of expansion for that space! That'll make a great studio room

Tad - really got this sorted now. New drum template can be imported into new projects - even the routing to the reverb copies with it.
My superior drummer template is getting pretty memory hungry now though - take a good 20s to load when I open a project.

[liv_rong]

Damn, this stuff seems so complicated! When I read things like this it just reminds me how little I actually know.

[Tadpui]

Tad - really got this sorted now. New drum template can be imported into new projects - even the routing to the reverb copies with it.
My superior drummer template is getting pretty memory hungry now though - take a good 20s to load when I open a project.

That's great to hear! It seems that every time I remember to create a template for my drums, I end up changing things around enough that the template becomes useless. I need to just sit down one day and make a few to cover the mic setups that I generally use. That'll save so much time. One thing with virtual drums is that different expansion packs tend to have different mics available, so you might need to create a different template if you load up a different SDX someday.

As far as memory, yeah it starts to get pretty demanding once you enable all of the bleed on all of the ambient mics. I vaguely remember that there's some option somewhere in Superior that'll unload any unused samples to conserve memory, but I don't know enough about that to offer any advice on it, other than it exists (or used to in SD2).

[JD01]

Tad - really got this sorted now. New drum template can be imported into new projects - even the routing to the reverb copies with it.
My superior drummer template is getting pretty memory hungry now though - take a good 20s to load when I open a project.

That's great to hear! It seems that every time I remember to create a template for my drums, I end up changing things around enough that the template becomes useless. I need to just sit down one day and make a few to cover the mic setups that I generally use. That'll save so much time. One thing with virtual drums is that different expansion packs tend to have different mics available, so you might need to create a different template if you load up a different SDX someday.

As far as memory, yeah it starts to get pretty demanding once you enable all of the bleed on all of the ambient mics. I vaguely remember that there's some option somewhere in Superior that'll unload any unused samples to conserve memory, but I don't know enough about that to offer any advice on it, other than it exists (or used to in SD2).

Ah, I don't have any expansion packs. I find the handy thing with templates, while you change them up, it gets you a common starting point thst you can work out from.

I'm not using all of the ambient mics, a couple of stereo ones though. They're not even high in the mix, but it makes the whole thing sound so much more lively.

[Armistice]

I feel like I'm missing out... I only have direct mics and room and overheads, which you can configure to your heart's content. Didn't think there were other mics in there, but perhaps I haven't looked hard enough.

[JD01]

I feel like I'm missing out... I only have direct mics and room and overheads, which you can configure to your heart's content. Didn't think there were other mics in there, but perhaps I haven't looked hard enough.

You're using Slate though aren't you? Not Superior?

[Armistice]

I feel like I'm missing out... I only have direct mics and room and overheads, which you can configure to your heart's content. Didn't think there were other mics in there, but perhaps I haven't looked hard enough.

You're using Slate though aren't you? Not Superior?

Yup - but I've never really dug into it... there must be stuff in there I'm missing out on... VST drum FOMO...

[JD01]

You're using Slate though aren't you? Not Superior?

Yup - but I've never really dug into it... there must be stuff in there I'm missing out on... VST drum FOMO...

Superior is pretty clever - buy it!
You basically have a mic for each drum as you'd expect (including top and bottom snare, in out and sub on the kick), two types of standard overheads.
Then you have near, mid and far stereo pairs of room mics plus a few other mono room mics. Aside from adjusting the level of each individual mic you can adjust how much of each drum (bleed) is picked up in each room/ambient mic. When I first got it, I just used the individual drums and one pair of overheads. Its just so complex. Then in the last few weeks I've been experimenting by adding all of the room elements to it. Initially I was going for a heavier sound and then I found I could make a much more convincing rock n roll sound too.

[WhiskeyJack]

Yup - but I've never really dug into it... there must be stuff in there I'm missing out on... VST drum FOMO...

Superior is pretty clever - buy it!

Or wait a bit @Armistice

Ezdrummer 3 is about to roll out on May 3rd 2022. And if they hit a home run like they did with EZD2 in terms of improving on the existing product and make it suck way less, this new version should be a doozy. I am really excited.

I have read it is a complete from the ground up rebuild with loads of new features and i am am betting we are going to see a lot more of the "everyday" features from SD3 find their way into EZD3 for a fraction of the price and half the CPU/ RAM load. They did that for #2 so i can't see them not doing it for 3. We won't get all the detail oriented stuff like EQ'ing individual drums within the software and all that shit. Clearly not mic selection. But anyone with a keen enough ear should be able to do most of that with the EZ drummer's routing into reaper and using the ReaQ plug.

Again tho, EZD2 was a whole new EZdrummer and i am betting were going to see much the same in EZD3!!! I already preordered my crossover upgrade for 79 bucks. I am pretty excited to see what it can do. Probably going to see a new kit or two and a beefed up library! That was another perk of EZD2 was a vast improvement on kit sounds. Far less cringe and novice sounding.



EDIT: Looks like they have added on a feeder feature i am pretty excited to see!!! Feed it a guitar riff or keyboards or anything and it'll shit out a foundation for you on it's own. I bet it will suck pretty bad but could potentially be a fun little time saver!!!!!!

[JD01]

Yeah, EZ Drummer 2 was great. I reckon Armi can afford SD3 and computer to run it... he's also retired so he has time on his hands to learn to use it!

[vomitHatSteve]

Hmmm... I dragged my feet on EZD2 because the upgrade price seemed too high.

But if they'll let me jump from 1 to 3 for $80, it might be worth it.

[WhiskeyJack]

Hmmm... I dragged my feet on EZD2 because the upgrade price seemed too high.

But if they'll let me jump from 1 to 3 for $80, it might be worth it.

Not sure how they will have it structured for upgrades. The pre order included EZD2 and it's midi libraries as a perk or bonus or whatever so it's probably possible to go from one to two.

I spent more time sinking my teeth into looking at number three and it looks quite cool. I think they said there are seven kits now included on top of all the ones they added in two. At least that was my understanding of how it was worded. Three new rooms, they've doubled the amount of midi you get and if you are going from one to three on preorder as well you are going to get all of Two's midi as a bonus and they really upped their game with the canned beats provided beats in number two. They even had a punk and metal inclusion in number two so can't wait to see what they add in there this time.

They have improved the tap to find, added an in-plug midi editor (hasn't had that for one or two and people have been crying for it for years now). It says there is a talk to drummer feature in it and i am still trying to wrap my head around that one. I think that one might just be a gimmicky marketing thing to shed light on a feature people didn't already know about. the power hand feature! or they've added some sensitivities and new features to it? I don't know?

Seems they have even added in some hip hop loops samples and beats to the stock software this time. I can finally go back to my olden days of zoning out making trip hop beats for an audience of no one.

I think I am most interested to see this new feature where you play it something and it shits out the drums for you. that could be a big leap forward. I suspect it is much like @rayc BiaB software but potentially a little more intuitive. Or potentially more dreadful. I'm skeptical on that stuff. I think as a song writing tool for someone like me with such limited time, when i do want to capture an idea or a riff i really don't want to fuck around combing my loop catacombs for just the right beat or hammering out my own while losing steam and inspiration. Would be cool to think of it as a real drummer you'd bounce an idea off of and have it come up with something... anything at all so i don't have to. I don't have any issues tweaking after the fact. I just don't want to sit there doing drums while the whole reason i sat down and set aside time was to capture an idea i had on guitar or bass and see what comes of it.

[vomitHatSteve]

I went ahead and pre-ordered my upgrade. It did not come with EZD2, but 7 new kits alone should be worth the price. (plus the ability to keep buying cool $20 kits for their black friday deal)