Superior Drummer

VeryBadMan

VeryBadMan

Experienced
So I got this Superior Drummer thingie so I could add drums to my songs.
I am finding it excessivly difficult to create a beat that fits . I notice alot of people use this and create awsome demos and songs with it . How in the heck do you do that, have you any tips / tricks ? Are there any tutorials for a beginner to get started .

Thinking of buying the Metal foundry add on ( on sale this month whoo hoo ) will this help to have ?
 
Best way is to get grooves and then tailor the grooves to meet your needs. Once I started doing this rather than creating beats from scratch my drum tracks went to the next level. SD should have come with some grooves and then you can buy more. I have EZDrummer not SD but I Metal Foundry comes with the drum kit and a number of grooves. That would definitely be the logical next step. Additionally, look on the Toontrack website for more midi-grooves for SD. Like everything in home recording, you can spend as much as you want on it. The cost can add up to get a decent library of them. I spend a couple hundred bucks to get metal add-on packs and extra grooves. Extra grooves from third parties that I have bought or have been recommended are: GrooveMonkey, Oddgrooves, Bobby Jarzombek ; Platinum Samples - Bobby Jarzombek Metal MIDI Groove Library and Brooks Wackerman ; Platinum Samples - Brooks Wackerman MIDI Groove Library. You can google them and will find them quickly. They will all be $30-$40 for the extra grooves. Hope that helps.
 
+1 on buying some grooves and making slight adjustments to them to fit.

If you want to create grooves from scratch you really need to know at least the basics of drumming. Spend a lot of time listening to drummers. Pay attention to everything that they do. This not only includes what drums they're hitting on a particular beat but also how hard they're hitting. Even with using grooves you'll still need a fair amount of drum knowledge in order to know which patterns to choose that will fit.
 
Thanks , I know the request is too broad.
I guess I'm wanting to know how one builds a drum track , do you use the "Grooves " midi samples and manipulate them in the DAW , cut , paste stitch samples together etc? or build a drum track from scratch drawing in individual drum hits on the grid ,combo of these methoods ? I guess I have to play around with this a whole lot more. Ive putzed about with SD and made some auful noises, scares the Cat, has no rythmic relation to my song .
 
The included groves are a good place to start. You can click-drag them right into your DAW's midi grid. Some clips would be helpful since you mention rhythmic issues.
 
Hey cool thanks alot guys those are great sugestions. I think I'll start with getting more midi files , samples , " grooves " and keep plugging away at this . I always jammed with drummers growing up so I have some familiarity with the instrument . I wish I could find some of those guys now .
Bonus question: name all the bands you can where the guitarist and Drummer were brothers ? Van Halen , Pantera , Gojera , Decapitated , ... I know there must be more ?
 
VeryBadMan said:
Thanks , I know the request is too broad.
I guess I'm wanting to know how one builds a drum track , do you use the "Grooves " midi samples and manipulate them in the DAW , cut , paste stitch samples together etc? or build a drum track from scratch drawing in individual drum hits on the grid ,combo of these methoods ? I guess I have to play around with this a whole lot more. Ive putzed about with SD and made some auful noises, scares the Cat, has no rythmic relation to my song .
Click to expand...

Go into SD, select a drum kit, go into grooves, audition them till you find one that is close to your song, drag it into your DAW, get the main verse rythym right, copy (usually 8 bar sample) then drag in fills, intros, outros, chorus, bridge etc as you need and do the same to build your song.

It's overwhelming at first - I got back into all this a year ago. I can't believe how much I have learned/re-learned in a year. Its awesome. You will get it - just work this stuff one thing at a time.
 
Metal trivia - love it! I can only think of VH and Pantera but....if you grew up in the 80s like me - Raven - drummer and bass player/singer were brothers.
 
ToneLabRat said:
Go into SD, select a drum kit, go into grooves, audition them till you find one that is close to your song, drag it into your DAW, get the main verse rythym right, copy (usually 8 bar sample) then drag in fills, intros, outros, chorus, bridge etc as you need and do the same to build your song.

It's overwhelming at first - I got back into all this a year ago. I can't believe how much I have learned/re-learned in a year. Its awesome. You will get it - just work this stuff one thing at a time.
Click to expand...

thanks I tried that none of the grooves came anwhere close lol - I have this triplet triplet triplet boomba boomba thump idea in my head to go with my song but I cant make SD do it . where's Tomas Haake when you need him !
 
If you dont play drums, the midi grooves are the best place to start. You can then cut/paste and alter the grooves as you like. If I am in a hurry, I'll use the supplied midi grooves as a starting place, but I usually record midi drum tracks via my Roland V-Drums and then use that midi track to trigger SD.
 
Last edited:
VeryBadMan said:
thanks I tried that none of the grooves came anwhere close lol - I have this triplet triplet triplet boomba boomba thump idea in my head to go with my song but I cant make SD do it . where's Tomas Haake when you need him !
Click to expand...

You gotta make it. Get the closest one, then go into the midi editor for the track in your DAW and work it.
 
VeryBadMan said:
thanks I tried that none of the grooves came anwhere close lol - I have this triplet triplet triplet boomba boomba thump idea in my head to go with my song but I cant make SD do it . where's Tomas Haake when you need him !
Click to expand...

For Haakeish kind of groove, you're probably better off building your own grooves from scratch. It's time consuming, but the effort is worth it.
 
The Metal Foundry is totally worth it, the drum sets and producer presets are awesome and very versatile. I make pop tunes with it too. But making "real" sounding beats with just a mouse will suck. I have never succeeded with that. If you can get someone to play your song into a midi with electric drums you'll have 1000% better end result. If that's not possible, use the available midi grooves.
 
just got Metal Foundry and Tomas Haake Metalheads Midi pack -
Got some stuff to work with . Maybe I can make somthing decent . I'll post what I come up with if I think its 1/2 decent. Boom chich ba boom boom chick thump thumpa thumpa crash!

Thanks for the suggestions :)
 
VeryBadMan said:
just got Metal Foundry and Tomas Haake Metalheads Midi pack -
Got some stuff to work with . Maybe I can make somthing decent . I'll post what I come up with if I think its 1/2 decent. Boom chich ba boom boom chick thump thumpa thumpa crash!

Thanks for the suggestions :)
Click to expand...

The DW kit in Metal Foundry is insane.
 
VeryBadMan said:
So I got this Superior Drummer thingie so I could add drums to my songs.
I am finding it excessivly difficult to create a beat that fits . I notice alot of people use this and create awsome demos and songs with it . How in the heck do you do that, have you any tips / tricks ? Are there any tutorials for a beginner to get started .

Thinking of buying the Metal foundry add on ( on sale this month whoo hoo ) will this help to have ?
Click to expand...

Right there with you on this request.
 
What I typically do is this (Cubase, but many other DAWs are similar- might have to use the "piano roll" if there's no "drum editor"):

I'll import, drag, etc. the midi pattern (groove) that I want to use onto my drum midi track in my DAW and select it. Then I'll open up the drum editor in Cubase which basically is just a grid that has the different drums on the left and the beats of the measure on the right. Basically, you just program a hit on the beat that you want it or erase hits where you don't want them. Kick on 1, snare on 2, hi-hat on all 8th notes, for example. For a lot of grooves, I'll just simply add in a few hits in certain places or take away hits where needed.

To make it sound realistic, you have to pay attention to velocity and quantization. Don't have all hits play at the same velocity. Think like a drummer. Envision yourself physically playing the kit. Some hits are naturally going to be louder than others. Also, perfect quantization often sounds "fake". A lot of drum programs have a "humanization" feature that is sometimes useful. DAWs also usually have a feature that will throw the quantization off randomly by a specified amount. Most of the grooves I use (from Toontrack) are not perfectly quantized and have varying velocities so they sound fairly realistic right out of the box. I still end up making a few changes here and there. If I create my own grooves, I adjust the velocity and quantization myself.
 
VeryBadMan said:
Thinking of buying the Metal foundry add on ( on sale this month whoo hoo ) will this help to have ?
Click to expand...

Looks like you've already bought it but for those that are interested:

You can almost always find Toontrack products cheaper OFF of the Toontrack website. Sweetwater is my go-to place. Perfect example: Metal Foundry on sale for $107 on the TT website. Sweetwater's selling it right now for $99.99.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom