Synth rack options for Toontrack Superior Drummer multiout

[Leander]

Hi!

In order to use multiout for Superior Drummer, you need to access a setting in the synth rack. These options are displayed when adding Superior Drummer as a NEW synth...but it is already in my project with a edited midi in it. Is there a way to access the synth rack options of the already loaded Superior Drummer instead of greating a new synth with it?

[57Gregy]

Open the Synth Rack, click the gear icon.

[Chaps]

26 minutes ago, Leander said:

Hi!

In order to use multiout for Superior Drummer, you need to access a setting in the synth rack. These options are displayed when adding Superior Drummer as a NEW synth...but it is already in my project with a edited midi in it. Is there a way to access the synth rack options of the already loaded Superior Drummer instead of greating a new synth with it?

Another option in addition to what @57Gregy posted is to insert necessary audio tracks and change the track input to the synth instrument you want playing on it. Like if you wanted all the drums on on stereo track but wanted separate tracks for the snare and kick drums, for example.

[Bass Guitar]

I’ll have to try this tomorrow morning but I always thought that you could  only choose multiple outputs when you first inserted the synth. 
 

But then I have never tried inserting a few audio tracks and seeing if you could set them up as the optional outputs from a synth. 

Im thinking you’d have to first assign them in the synth mixer first before Sonar would see them. 

[Chaps]

Yes. In Superior Drummer 2 if you insert the synth with the First Synth Audio Output, if you look at the mixer all the instruments are routed to S1/2. which is the master stereo output, and the buses are routed to 'None'. You can right-click the instrument Output and keep it Stereo, select Multichannel which puts the instruments on sequential stereo outputs, or manually select an output channel for the instrument (or bus) you want to assign to an audio track. Then on the audio track you use those channels as the input.

[Bass Guitar]

OK this works 

Opened an old project with the SSD5 as a stereo out only set up. 

From the synth rack open the Synth Properties and change to multi output. 

Open the SSD 5 Mixer and assign kick to output 1, snare 2 , toms 3 hats 4 and so on. 

Now on playback only the kick is heard. Outputs 2 to 6 are going nowhere. 

Insert new audio tracks,  open the Input menu and choose the appropriate input from the dropdown which looks just like your audio interfaces list with left right or stereo as options. I chose stereo. 

Now just name the tracks and your done. 

EDIT: I forgot to change the output of the new audio tracks to my drum bus C. The best way to do this is use the Add tracks / advanced  and choose it there as well as inserting the 5 new tracks. 

Even though the mixer in the GUI can do a lot this gives you the option of not just mixing but using 3rd party effects. Totally a game changer for working with canned drums.  

 

Edited Friday at 04:01 PM by Bass Guitar

[Chaps]

27 minutes ago, Bass Guitar said:

OK this works 

Opened an old project with the SSD5 as a stereo out only set up. 

From the synth rack open the Synth Properties and change to multi output. 

Open the SSD 5 Mixer and assign kick to output 1, snare 2 , toms 3 hats 4 and so on. 

Now on playback only the kick is heard. Outputs 2 to 6 are going nowhere. 

Insert new audio tracks,  open the Input menu and choose the appropriate input from the dropdown which looks just like your audio interfaces list with left right or stereo as options. I chose stereo. 

Now just name the tracks and your done. 

 

 

 

I inserted SSD5 free with the First Synth Audio Output option then clicked the insert soft synth option button in the synth rack and as far as I can tell this changed nothing in the SSD5 internal routing or available audio tracks for the instrument. All instruments were still output to the first stereo pair out 1 st. While you can click the output at the bottom of the volume slider to choose a different audio output for the instrument another option is to use the Routing Presets in the Mix section which offers three default options for instrument outputs, as shown in the image below. Then when you create the audio tracks for them you can easily tell which output to use. What I sometime do is to insert a drum synth with All Synth Audio Outputs: Stereo (or mono) which creates a LOT of audio tracks, and then I just delete the ones I am not going to use leaving the audio tracks remaining already receiving output from the correct kit piece.

[Bass Guitar]

Here's a few more tips: 

Reading what @Chaps posted a light bulb went off. I saved the 6 output set up as a Pre Set in SSD5. 

Opened a different project. 

I didn't bother opening the Synth Properties this time. It's not necessary. 

Loaded the Pre set. This saved a lot of work. 

and then using Add tracks set the output to my C bus and added 5 new tracks. 

Now just assign the inputs and name, done. 

The SSD5  routing options like in the case of choosing the multi output option on first inserting,  creates way to many tracks to my liking. For me 6 or 8 stereo tracks is plenty. In many cases I really only want to process the snare and kick separately from the rest of the kit.  Any fine tuning can be done in the drum GUI mixer. 

What I will do is create a few different track templates for this and see if that works even faster.  

Edited Friday at 05:13 PM by Bass Guitar

[Chaps]

2 minutes ago, Bass Guitar said:

What I will do is create a few different track templates for this. 

That sounds like a most elegant solution.

[Bass Guitar]

Follow up. 
Yes the track template works great. 

 

[Leander]

Thanks for your help! Tested it...clicking the configure icon does not do anything...you need to create a new synth track with the multis set, then all channels will be created automatically. Clicking the setup icon after having added the synth track as a normal non-multi does not work.

Edited yesterday at 03:54 AM by Leander

[Leander]

PS Something's wrong. In my working template, I followed steps described somewhere I don't remember...and it works and looks ok.

As I don't want to use this template, but load Superior Drummer with multiout in a project with already recorded files (and the default SD3), following the steps described here (https://www.toontrack.com/faq/how-do-i-route-multichannel-outputs-from-my-toontrack-plug-in-to-my-daw/)  does not work. It looks and behaves different.

Please help! 

PS I did not save instructions how to set it up when I got it to work...but I found my thread in the Toontrack forum where I said I found an online YouTube tutorial...so I followed that successfully...and following the official Toontrack tutorial via the link listed above has different results now as seen in the screenshot.

 

Edited yesterday at 04:55 AM by Leander

[Bass Guitar]

Im not sure what you mean by “ Configure” button? 
 

As I said all I needed to do was go into the mixer for the drum vst and re- assign each channel to a different output. I choose to use only 6 of the 32 available. 

Then you add the new tracks and choose the channel you want as track inputs. It’s very simple. 

This works perfectly for me using SSD 5, Mondo drums and Addictive drums. As well as it is the same in 2 other Daw’s that I use. 

Edited 9 hours ago by Bass Guitar
Removed unnecessary items

[Leander]

Thanks! Yes, but it doesn't work for me. It worked some months ago when following a YouTube tutorial. Unfortunately, I did not save the link to the video. 
Now following the official Toontrack tutorial does not work...it looks different as shown in the screenshot of my previous post "working template" vs. "new attempt".

[Leander]

I found it now!

It wasn't "Insert Superior Drummer, stereo outputs, multiouts", BUT you need to create a drum bus first, then add multiple tracks, e.g. 6 with the target "drum bus"...this will automatically create the tracks AND look exactly like in my screenshot above.

Or is the result the same, but looks different?
 

 

Edited 11 hours ago by Leander

[Chaps]

I think the key element you are overlooking is that the drum channels in Superior Drummer 3 have to be assigned to different output channels if you want to use them on separate tracks in Sonar, or any other DAW. I can't find anything Superior Drummer 3 that is Sonar specific on YouTube but here is a related video on setting up Superior Drummer 3 output channels in a different DAW. I have it set so the video starts where he's assigning the drum channels to different OUTPUT channels, and that is the most important thing to understand before you can go any further.

https://youtu.be/Yv7J6o4fY_w?si=-DMjJb20g1NV7EA4&t=412

Edited 11 hours ago by Chaps

[Leander]

I do have them...but it seems I can get the same result by two approaches. 

[Chaps]

1 hour ago, Leander said:

I do have them...but it seems I can get the same result by two approaches. 

I have nothing to add except good luck.

[Leander]

But is there a difference? Which one is correct or are both ok?

1) Insert Superior Drummer as a synth...check the box "stereo outputs". This will create new tracks. My SD preset already has multiout in the SD3 mixer.
or
2) Create a new bus. Then create multiple tracks and tick the box to assign them to the drum bus. This will also create new tracks for SD.

The only difference is that it looks like this:

The left solution is 2) .... the right solution is 1)

I tested both...solution 1) works, too...but it lists SD 1, SD2, SD3, SD4 etc. till SD16 while the other solution has S1/2 L, S1/2 R, S1/2 S...so every multiout in mono and stereo. Which one is better?

Edited 5 hours ago by Leander

[Bristol_Jonesey]

There is no better. It's all down to personal preference.

Would you prefer to mix your drums inside SD5 or in Sonar?

Bear in mind you can add any 3rd party vst for your Fx in Sonar - can you do the same in SD5?

I'm not familiar with SD5 so these considerations might well be irrelevant, but can you:

• Adjust the pan of each kit piece?
• Adjust the level of each?
• Tweak the midi velocities of each?
• Add Fx to each piece?
• Make use of sub-busses to group pieces together, e.g. all toms, cymbals etc?

If the answer to any of these is no, then surely you're best off with doing it all inside Sonar.

But I would modify the way you insert it. Choose the insert Synth option as in option 1, but instead of a single Stereo Output, select all Mono outputs.

(If SD5 exposes a stereo pair for Room or Overheads etc you'll need to change the mono tracks for these back to Stereo)

This is exactly how I do it for BFD3 and it works perfectly