Link to Drum Map and Project/Track Templates for Steven Slate Drums 5

[Robert Bone]

Howdy - I posted this in a post earlier, but thought it would be good to add it here, in case anybody wanted to save themselves some work.

I created a custom Drum Map, for all the note mapping data for the Cutya Kit, from SSD5-5.  Along with it, I created a Project and Track Template.  The templates have a track folder, an instance of SSD5 with the Cutya drum kit loaded, and that instance of SSD5 has each Mixer kit piece channel routed to use a separate audio output channel.  Additionally, in the template track folder (both project and track templates), there are 2 midi tracks (one main midi track, and a 2nd for click track midi data, if desired).  There are also audio tracks for every audio output channel coming from the SSD5 synth rack instance, and a number of buses (Drums Master, Parallel Compression, Kick, Snare, Hi-Hat, Toms, Ride, Cymbals, Percussion, OH, and Room), and I set up gain staging for all kit piece audio tracks, and the buses, to be set to approximately -18 dBFS.  The buses for Kick, Snare, Toms, and Percussion have sends that go to the Parallel Compression bus, which has some parallel compression dialed up - which can be seasoned to taste, or removed, as desired.

I did assign track icons, and track colors, which will persist if you open a new project, using the project temlate.  For some reason, bus colors do not persist when inserting the track template into a project.  I did choose a different color for the 2 midi tracks, to make it easier to see them in the track folder, because of all the audio tracks.  In the Project Template, I also have the Master bus set to a different color than the other buses, for the same reason - to make it stand out better as the Master bus.

I hope folks with SSD5 find the components I created useful.  Even if you don't like the other choices I made in what I set up, at least the drum map will have saved you a bunch of typing. 

In the Dropbox folder I uploaded (link will be below), I also put a 2 text files.  One contains the mapped drum note numbers and names, which you might find easier to read than if you tried to read them in either the Drum Map Manager, or if you open Step Sequencer and you see the note names there.  (the text boxes containing the note names are pretty narrow, and cannot, to the best of my awareness, by widened, so if you open that text file, you will see them all listed vertically, at full width.

The 2nd text file, contains the list of components in the folder, and instructions for where to place each of the components (templates, and drum map).  I also included a shortcut that uses a standard variable that will automatically resolve to your user's AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core\Drum Maps\ folder, which is the location Cakewalk stores Drum Maps in.  Just double-click on the shortcut in the Dropbox folder, after first copying the drum map file, and then you can simply paste it into the Drum Maps folder the shortcut takes you to.

I did not create shortcuts for the templates, as lots of folks these days, move those to different hard drives than C:. but the instructions in the text file tell you where to place each of the 2 templates.

One last note about the gain staging.  Some of the mapped kit piece note numbers, are different  variations of 'hits' for a given kit piece, such as Tambourine Tip, Tembourine Up, and Tambourine Down, or Ride Bell  Tip, Ride Bow Tip, and Ride Bow Shank,  etc.  For at least those kit pieces, those variations can vary by as much as 8-10 dB, so addressing that with gain staging alone, is not possible.  For such variations in volume, you wil have to control it with either velocity editing, and/or by volume automation.  Just be aware of that.  I tried to strike a reasonable balance with what I set up.

HOPEFULLY, the above will be similar, for other kits to be mapped, so I hope I can save folks some typing, and some time.

I think that should cover it, except the link:

Drobox folder with custom components I created for SSD5 Cutya Kit with split audio output channels

Bob Bone

[Robert Bone]

Update - I adjusted the instrument articulations, for the Ride cymbal, and the Tambourine, to fix the way out of balance volumes, for some of the articulations (Ride Edge, Ride Bell, Ride Edge Tip, Ride Edge Bow Shank, Tambourine Tip, Tambourine Up, Tambourine Down), and I did that within the SSD Mixer page, for the kit.  If you click on the channel strip, for Ride, you will see volume knobs at the top/center of the SSD UI mixer window, for each of the articulations, so that allowed me to get better gain staging for it all, with the different articulations producing relatively level volumes.

The other update, is to say that I tried playing around with a 2nd instance of SSD, for my project template, in an attempt to find a way to split out the cymbals, to their own separate audio output channels, but I struck out.  The ONLY way the cymbals are handled, in SSD, is through the OH and Room mics.  So, that is a no go.

I hope anyone that downloaded the components I built for the SSD Cutya Kit, found them helpful.  That kit sounds FABULOUS.

Bob Bone