drum programming

[aMUSEd]

@silhouette

The difficult thing about all of this is that everyone talks a lot of sense. My problem is that getting a good drum sound in Cubase with separate outs is not easy. I use BFD3 as and rely upon the ambient mix within BFD3. Given that I don’t have a drum room at my disposal and creating a convincing room sound for a kit is heavily dependent upon static reverbs. BFD has a large number of ambient mics in a variety of adjustable positions made possible by the real life recording in a studio. You can also combine the overheads and up to 5 ambient sources with the direct sound - alter the amount of send to each of these different sources. Perhaps I am a lazy bastard, but it suits me to be able to spend more time upon the music.

If you print all the kit to audio files, doing it with the ambience means that you cannot alter it later. Do you print the ambience channels separately? Well that can be a hell of a lot of tracks.

My advice to the op is to develop his own approach. That does not mean ignoring advice, but realising that advice from experts, who are keen on doing things the “right” way can overcomplicate an otherwise simple job. Having gone down the separate drum tracks in Cubase route and finding that BFD does it better than me has given me one less thing to worry about. Believe me, my music gives me plenty enough to worry about.

I’ve heard similar complaints about the overwhelming variables/options within BFD that it can impede workflow (not bashing BFD - I may own it eventually ).

A much simpler approach would be to send the stereo out from AD2 into Cubase and use a compressor (with a mix knob) on the stereo channel to gently handle peaks (or squash it to death if the mix calls for it) and send that stereo track to any reverb fx you like (then hi pass and low pass the reverb to tame it).

[silhouette]

@aMUSEd

I’ve heard similar complaints about the overwhelming variables/options within BFD that it can impede workflow (not bashing BFD - I may own it eventually ).

A much simpler approach would be to send the stereo out from AD2 into Cubase and use a compressor (with a mix knob) on the stereo channel to gently handle peaks (or squash it to death if the mix calls for it) and send that stereo track to any reverb fx you like (then hi pass and low pass the reverb to tame it).

Well to be honest I never like compressing a stereo drum track with room ambience it does weird things. I was just saying that I was happy working with BFD and using what they have got. Perhaps I will try the mixing in Cubase and see if I’ve gotten any better at it. However there is not a better alternative to using the drums actual room sounds as far as I have found. I prefer it to using reverbs.

[TKM]

@silhouette

My advice to the op is to develop his own approach. That does not mean ignoring advice, but realising that advice from experts, who are keen on doing things the “right” way can overcomplicate an otherwise simple job. Having gone down the separate drum tracks in Cubase route and finding that BFD does it better than me has given me one less thing to worry about. Believe me, my music gives me plenty enough to worry about.

I like how it sounds within Addictive Drums 2. I’m naieve and a total newbie so in time I may realize the benefits of mixing in Cubase; I can get the channels separated in Cubase easily enough but when I get to 6:50 in the video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw4Z5EVXtIc] of the setup (assigning inputs to right bus so the audio tracks record the right channel) ‘outputs’ does not come up when I click up on 'left stereo in, just ‘No Bus’ and ‘Stereo In’ options come up.

I wouldn’t mind mixing in Addictive Drums but people are telling me I should record the tracks in audio before I continue and , of course, doing that in multichannel would be most appropriate for obvious reasons.

[TKM]

@aMUSEd

Just saw this discussion. Sticking my neck out here I used AD2 on this track and am very pleased with the results:

Making Me Your Man - Steinberg Lounge - Steinberg Forums

This sounds great and the performance and song strength are fantastic, too!

[TKM]

@silhouette

The difficult thing about all of this is that everyone talks a lot of sense. My problem is that getting a good drum sound in Cubase with separate outs is not easy. I use BFD3 as and rely upon the ambient mix within BFD3.

Do you send the signal through to Cubase as a two channel stereo signal and adjust levels and effects in the drum mixer as needed when you start adding additional tracks?

[silhouette]

@TKM

@silhouette

The difficult thing about all of this is that everyone talks a lot of sense. My problem is that getting a good drum sound in Cubase with separate outs is not easy. I use BFD3 as and rely upon the ambient mix within BFD3.

Do you send the signal through to Cubase as a two channel stereo signal and adjust levels and effects in the drum mixer as needed when you start adding additional tracks?

To a large degree I do. Although with some tracks I have experimented with multi outputs. My main problem has been that I like the ambient sounds from within Cubase. Perhaps I need to spend some time using some of the ambient resources available to me like Aether and B2.
Perhaps others could share their approach to using this kind of software and the advantages of doing so?
To be honest all my efforts with sequencing the midi drum parts are done in Cubase as I much prefer the convenience - especially when using the Arranger Track.

I must say that I hope Steinberg pulls it’s finger out and sorts out the vst menu issue that badly affects BFD3.

[silhouette]

@aMUSEd

Just saw this discussion. Sticking my neck out here I used AD2 on this track and am very pleased with the results:

Making Me Your Man - Steinberg Lounge - Steinberg Forums

And while answering the OP I am curious how those of you using C8 might do this differently with the VCA option:

In 7.5, my workflow with AD2 is to find a preset I like overall and tweak some of the instruments within AD2 (change kit pieces, tweak velocities and pitches, panning, etc) then mute both fx channels in AD2 and route each channel into Cubase. Next I will send all tracks to a “Clean Drum” group/bus and compress it as needed. Then depending on my needs may create a toms group, kick group, snare group if/when I need more eq/compression. A toms group is good for automating volume rides for fills, etc. All of this is sent to a DRUMS STEM group where I may have Slate VCC and VTM (UAD Studer 800 when I have the DSP available).

The biggest advantage to this workflow is I can send varying amounts of all tracks to a dedicated room reverb which blended with AD2’s room sound (or replace AD2’s room sound) gives me infinitely more control over the vibe of the kit in the mix.

I like the track. There is a Jonathan Herrington vibe to it. Very catchy. I am liking the drum sound.

I have not tried the VCA faders yet as I have been having issues with the drop down menu bug and have temporarily (I hope) rolled back to 8.0. I will try out you approach. Tell me, does AD2 have a good room set-up with avariable mic distances etc? Because one problem I have with using a 3rd party reverb is that the whole kit is coming from the same place. At least with the stereo ambient mics there is a sense of position and the mono mics cover the whole kit.

[Qbass-007]

I personally can’t be bothered to use multiple channels outside of my drum VSTi software, and do everything I can within it before treating it within the DAW. In the end it get’s listened to in stereo anyway.

[TKM]

@Qbass-007

I personally can’t be bothered to use multiple channels outside of my drum VSTi software, and do everything I can within it before treating it within the DAW. In the end it get’s listened to in stereo anyway.

If the tracks aren’t isolated in the DAW, what do you do to the drum stereo signal for treatment?

[Qbass-007]

The only thing I ever do to a stereo drum track outside of it’s VSTi is add a little reverb and/or compression…if I do anything at all, which most often not. I also do very little within the VSTi… adjusting minor levels of the snare & kick, which seems to bring out the the components more…but most of the time just adjusting room ambiance.

Keep in mind I’m either…
a) too lazy
b) too stupid
c) an amateur
d) all of the above

I take a minimalistic approach to most everything I do in the DAW.

[aMUSEd]

@TKM

@aMUSEd

Just saw this discussion. Sticking my neck out here I used AD2 on this track and am very pleased with the results:

Making Me Your Man - Steinberg Lounge - Steinberg Forums

This sounds great and the performance and song strength are fantastic, too!

Thanks TKM! (I just saw your comment).