Tips Working with Superior Drummer 2.0

schizo

I recently got Superior drummer 2.0 and expansions Metal machine and Metal foundry.

I was wondering if anyone has some experience with this program and working with it in Cubase 5. I get a ok sound, but it takes forever to get everything set up and usually i eq and mix for so long i tend to make the drums sound worse and then i'll start from scratch again.

This is my process, any advice and comments would be awesome.

Open up superior 2.0 and route the outputs of different mics to busses, then activate all outputs at the vst instruments menu to receive the signal from the busses in superior 2.0 - I then open metal foundry and xDrum a kick and snare from Metal machine expansion (find that the cymbals and hats sound better in Metal foundry)

Then I go to the mixer in Superior and reset all the outs to 0 db - then go to the kit and decrease the hats by 2db. Where would it be better to do the mixing, in Cubase like i am doing or in Superior?

I program a groove and in the mixer in cubase decrease all the channels to between -12db and -8db to leave headroom for eq and compression. I use Cubase plugins for that (any better ones???)

My general eq for all the channels in Cubase is Q step filter, cutting low @ 40Hz and -8db at 300hz with width set to smallest value (narrow cut)

Any advice on compression would be great and also reverb including plugins - and would you place the reverb on the specific drum channel or route a separate bus dedicated for reverb to save headroom?

thanx

Malkav

Quinlan Kok wrote: Any advice on compression would be great and also reverb including plugins - and would you place the reverb on the specific drum channel or route a separate bus dedicated for reverb to save headroom?

Dedicated bus to reverb, then run the drums of your choice such as snare through that bus, in the total mix you'll end up putting your vocals and guitar through that bus as well. The reverb in this case is meant to act like a glue making everything sound like it's in the same room, unless being used as an effect, as such you'll send all required instruments through it and mix the amount of it they each have individually.

Running cymbals and Toms and Snare works great through it, though you may want to have a low pass on cymbals to knock off any excessive harshness in the top end, with kick I'm in two minds cause it sounds good if you run a slight amount of it through said reverb but can also lose some impact so it depends if you're going for a modern airy vibe or a more impacting in your face vibe as without the reverb you can compress the kick a bit more and it tends to have quite a lot of weight to it that way.

I am by no means an expert, I have done a lot of scouring through the internet in search of tips and advice though. Here are some of the threads I found most beneficial to learning about this stuff:

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/recording-studio/144150-superior-drummer-q.html

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/recording-studio/222-know-lots-about-recording-vocals.html

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/recording-studio/221-know-lots-about-compression.html

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/recording-studio/79670-impulse-faq-tutorial-thread.html

If you can find a freeware impulse loader then I guarantee using impulse reverbs will sound better than literally anything else you could use, it also works well for cabinet modelling if you want to go through the effort of learning how, you can get some incredible results without ever using a microphone ?

Here is the youtube channel of a dude who's put up an entire guide on the various steps of what goes into a recording project for modern metal:

https://www.youtube.com/user/MojoJojo378

Some really useful insights there.

Anyhoo, hope that helps! ?

schizo

Sweet man, thanx for the reply.

Yeah the cymbals is a tricky topic for me as well, especially the top end harshness you mentioned. Cool i'll go for the separate bus for reverb and route different combos you mentioned.

I'll get to work and maybe post a few clips for some feedback.

schizo

Made a fast clip with drums and basic riff and drums on their own, best my ears are able to edit the drums.

(with guitar in mix)\