Spent best part of 15 years trying to make MIDI drums sound like real ones for a living (economies of scale) right back to EXS, Battery and BFD. Hats off to you and your chops! Your viewers can count themselves lucky - this is the best content I've come across on this subject. Keep up the excellent work!
@@spinlightstudios I would’ve liked to see how you made your midi groove I’ve been recording music with real instruments for a decade and my house was robbed while I was in the hospital getting diagnosed with something terminal so now I have to do everything digitally and luckily someone that knew about my struggle got me a M4 Mac mini and I got the guitar portion taken care of And actually managed to scoop up two ndsp plug-ins for guitar since I don’t have any more guitar amps But I’ve never had to do anything digitally like this so I don’t know the first thing about drums digitally. I mean, I’ve seen some drum packs that I like and I will be using logic Pro, but I also need to do the same thing with bass guitar which I’m assuming will be somewhat of the same process aside from doing what I need to do to get the right sound out of what I want. But I mean, what’s the magic trick? Do I just need a midi controller or do I have to literally build every single little drum beat. I want on the keyboard!? Sorry if this sounds ridiculous, but I came out of the womb with drumsticks so all this to me is very new If you can push me in the right direction or maybe a video that would help, etc.. I would appreciate it. Sorry for the newbie question
One thing though, it is actually punchier if you route your mono tracks to mono channels. Beginners may not know this. Slate even has a preset for this. I just find if everything is in stereo, especially kick and snare, it's shooting out more to the stereo field and making the ride and cymbals struggle to cut. I route the mono to mono and when i use a sub mono plugin to 90hz it really tightens that kick in a mix and lets the cymbals breathe. Just an added piece of advice i learned myself the hard way struggling with ride and crashes not cutting.. i'm still no pro but, getting better and used the asdr technique on the kick, snare and toms, you showed...big difference!
Man... Studio guy from Germany here... I discovered your channel shortly and have to say a big thank you! You are so much on point to the topic, no bullshit talking half the video, great topics over all... learned a lot of detailed nerdy stuff. I just do not need Prod Like A Pro, marc daniel nelson, kohlekeller, ... and so on and on ANYMORE :) This means a lot! This one here was real great as I produce quite often stuff with programmed drums (XLN Addictive Drums) and i got some nice little ideas here to build it up very nicely. To keep it short: New fan here. Bye
Hey legend, great video! Lots of bedroom artists diving more into midi drums which is super cool. I know this is purely for mixing, but a good tip/reminder for musicians programming drums is that quantization is the enemy of realism. You can have a really great mix, but if you're mixing 100% velocity on a 100% perfect alignment, it'll just sound like a drum machine and not a real person. Glad you touched on this in the programming part of the video. If you can't get an e-kit, at the very least invest in some sort of midi pad trigger so you can play it with your hands/fingers and practice to get it close but not perfect. All of the subtleties that get pulled out in the mix really need that humanity to make it actually sound good and not like machine gun hits. Thanks again for your videos mate, keep it up!
@@Dave-Rough-Diamond-Dunn exactly, many ways to achieve the same results. The ADSR is basically a transient designer + gate for midi drums. Dependent on whether the library/vst has this feature - if not, yeah you need to use a gate/expander plugin!
@@spinlightstudiosFinished watching now, and it's reassuring to know that I was on the right track, even down to the room drum eq. I made my own room tracks the other day by playing the drums through the monitors and recording them. It turned out surprisingly well. I went with the two condensers spread apart rather than on top of each other, and a condenser almost at the back of the room over one in the "sweet spot" where I sit to mix. It works much better than some techniques I've tried using eq and reverb.
I just found your channel today, and I've already watched a handful of videos and learned a lot! You have a fantastic presentation style and a real ear for this stuff. I've subscribed and I'm looking forward to learning more! Thanks for the hard work on the content!
I have Addictive Drums but can do the same stuff with that software, some great ideas here and yes I've been processing way too much. Thank you again for another great video!
@@spinlightstudios As predicted this was incredibly helpful. I use ProTools, but I am pretty sure I can figure out how to translate the same kinds of actions from Logic (hopefully there's a similar function like the "strength" option. I know PT has a "swing" function). I recently learned how to convert MIDI drums into a multi-track, but your explanation was so much more clean. The only tweak I would make (and hope for in the future) would be to see you do this for a less-involved alt-country/Americana/Heartland Rock song to see how your approach to the processing of the drums (and them EQ/compression/dynamics strip) would change. I get a LOT out of seeing how you choose and use plugins to get the sound that fits the musical style. Thanks again, ya Legend!
This is great man. Saved for sure. Maybe do a quick vid for us guitarist on your process for writing in the drum midi and your thought process for drum parts/performance.
Hey mate, cheers from North Carolina in the USA. Just discovered your channel (and subscribed!!) this week. Really love this vid and will be checking out your other content as well. Great job.
Dude this is the best video on mixing midi drums! I especially love it cause your on Logic like me so makes it even valuable, cheers my man keep up the great content.
Hey man, been using both Slate drums and Slate plugs for a few years and love seeing a new way to mix them. You’ve got some different approaches compared to what’s out there and really simplified it. I wish you had this out 5 years ago. Thanks. I applied some of your ideas (some, not all) to a mix I’ve been working on using SSD and it was like an adrenaline shot to my drums. Thanks man!
Thanks man! Honestly - you can make it as complex or as simple as you like… I find the more complicated you make it - usually worse it starts to sound 😂 glad you enjoyed it!
I just picked up your one shot sample pack. supplementing your room shells with the slate kits has things sounding great without even doing any processing on the individual channels
Man! definitely one of the best tutorials I've watched! I love your videos! I learn so much from them! I would like to see a video on how do you program your midi drums and also if you could do a video on MLDrums it'll be awesome! Thank you so much for sharing!
@@spinlightstudios Hey man! It'll be awesome! Also, have you ever had the chance to try Melda Production plugins? They have a bundle of like 30 something plugins for free, I believe it'll also be cool if you could try them out.
Hey man this is absolutely amazing! I've been struggling with mixing programmed drums and this is such a huge help. I hope you keep making these in-depth tutorials!
thats more than usefull thats awesome , loved it , thx u very much i wish i saw this before dropping my latest release (3 hours before ur vid ) XD unlucky , thx u tho
one tip to add some feel to midi drums, is to select all the snare hits and simply move them back behind the beat a little bit. not so good for metal styles like this, but for almost everything else, it's like magic. i've spent days programming midi drum parts in the past and this simple little trick makes such a huge difference. try it - program 4 bars of a simple, perfectly quantised beat and then grab all the snares and budge them back behind the beat a few ticks.
@@spinlightstudios i normally use the "humanise" function in logic to add some gentle randomness to everything - for velocity and position only - but this snare trick adds "groove" in a way that randomness doesn't. it works especially well on songs that have a very slow tempo. it emulates the way drummers actually play.
Great video Rhys. One additional thing that is worth mentioning is to record each separate input into the DAW as an audio file. That way you have it for future use, remixing etc incase you end up not having the same Virtual Drum plugin down the road sometime. I do this for any virtual instrument. I learnt this after losing access to plugins that upgraded over the years and my old sessions no longer load the virtual instruments I used.
Awesome man , thank you for this tutorial, this is my favorite preset from my favorite drum vst, I'm kinda lazy and just process them as a whole kit a lil bit , but I will definitely mix them along with your video for more "serious" projects
Awesome video dude! I WISH the VMR bus didn't require an iLok USB. I just bought it and was so excited to give it a try when it prompted me saying I needed the USB to activate.
Thank you so much for this. Unfortunately right now I'm constrained to mostly using virtual instruments, and there's so little info out there on how to mix them. Would love a video on virtual rythm guitars as well as I always seem to struggle with those.
@@spinlightstudios Hi, I have just a question. Except for the direct microphone channels, you reduced the sustain and release time I wonder why you except the direct channels lol
As someone who is total a noob and only records MIDI drums, I hear very little difference because I only use the 3pk of crayons versus what guys like you can do…you guys are able to use the extra large box of crayons to color with…crazy!!
This was a great video to catch on my algorithm! For my mixing journey! Definitely subscribing. I don’t know if you have made a video about this or not, but I’m aware of when mixing bass guitar people tend to do a di then a low bass and and hi end bass layered, and is that even necessary? I got the guitars mixing down, practicing drums now, but I’m at lost for the bass, specially when I never knew people did 3 bass layered tracks until recently, if possible can you point me to a video that describes that !? Or hoping your next video is a full bass guitar mix breakdown! Cheers!
Thanks Man! There’s no one way to do it with bass. Usually I blend two a di and a more processed signal together - or a clean and a dirty signal to taste. I’ve got a video on some bass mixing - not sure how to link you to it. Maybe just search “Spinlight studio bass” and see what turns up haha
I record demos for my bands and my friends' bands, and my thing is I use my nice acoustic/electric conversion e-kit to trigger Superior Drummer 3. Real drum feel, real drummer, easy edits. Between that, the Suhr Reactive Loads I use on guitars, and the DI's/Darkglass for bass, I can record a balls out hardcore band you can't hear a thing in the next room.
Great vid! Didn't you have the cymbals going into the parallel when you left the rack on the mix bus though? I always thought parallel is for shells only.
Thanks! Yeah I had the whole kit in parallel and sounded good! There’s no one rule for that stuff. Sure I usually have a parallel send which is just shells, but sometimes like in this example it works to just keep it simple. Also the midi drums allow us to control the amount of cymbals to shells ratio very easily, so my blend was already more shells heavy, meaning the cymbals didn’t jump out in a bad way after the parallel comp :)
Great video, helps a lot. You mentioned that with high pass filters you can get weird phase shifts on individual channels. Does this only apply to drums or other tracks like guitars too? I am pretty new, just trying to understand this idea.
Awesome! I am a big fan of toontrack SD3, I confess I hate SSD5 for the cymbals, they just aren't in the spot as SD3, but man!!.... these drums sound killer!!! you're a genius!!!
Thanks Mario. Cymbals are always the weakness of midi drums! I’ve found Superior drummer cymbals pretty good, but the hihats sounds a little funny to me!
This was straight fire. Your channel has been absolutely invaluable to me as a drummer who’s learning how to mix. I noticed that you are sending your drum bus and riff channel to bus 32, which I assume is a mix bus but didn’t see that on your mixer window. Do you have any processing done on that at all? If so, what was on that?
It just depends how you want the compressor to react. 150hz is going to let a lot more low end pass through the detector before it starts compressing - if you want to have more low end in your drums then that will help. The harder you compress the more you will notice the difference too. It’s all just a matter of taste
Awesome tutorial! One quick question: originally I thought all those plugins were part of SSD5 but now I see that Slate is a different company altogether. Is there a way to just buy that plug in suite, without having it as a subscription?
Haha but no… if you have ever just programmed midi drums and used them in a mix without doing any further processing most of the time they don’t cut it. The processing I use for midi drums is pretty simple compared to if they were live drums because you don’t have issues like bad performance, cymbal bleed and phase to worry about and they have already had some pre-processing applied. But it all still helps!
My process is to use Logic's AI drummer and find a beat that's close to what I want. Then I convert that to Midi, tweak the part where I need to, and copy and paste it into Steven Slate drums. It works pretty well. I'm currently working on a song that's pretty tom-heavy though. And I've been struggling to find a tom sound that works in the mix. The toms are generally way too boomy and have too much of a defined note. You might have just solved the problem for me by showing me how to adjust the sustain and room sound.
Something I tend to struggle with is I guess where things should be panned within SSD. Is there any advice or settings as far as where things should sit in a mix as far as the crashes and toms?
I’m not sure if you’re supposed to pan drums as if you’re sitting at the kit or if you’re looking at the kit as an audience member. I usually pan them as if I’m the drummer. So I’ll have my hi hat panned 70% left. Rack Tom I’ll have around 35% left, left crash I’ll do the same. Right crash I’ll do 35% right. China I’ll do 70% right, floor Tom ill do the same. Just imagine you’re sitting at a kit and then pan them that way. That’s what I do. But i could be totally wrong. If im wrong, then just do the opposite as if youre looking at the kit vs sitting at it
Depends if you want to play it in, I’ve never been much of a keyboard drummer haha I just manually do it. But if you’re playing keys parts and lots of different sounds, it’s absolutely worth getting a midi keyboard.
like your moves sounds great - I use superior drums for my stuff I like to convert the midi to audio tracks then start the process - it's more like you recorded real drums I think the results are better -
I use Luna and they STILL don’t have multi out. No wonder I “hated” the slate drums. Without a total pain in the ass process of separating the tracks, it’s so difficult to make them sound real and fit into a mix.
That’s interesting. There’s so many factors to making midi drums work imo. I usually just record drums tbh 😂 but I can still make them work when I need to. Is that Steven slates problem or Lunas problem? Seems more like a daw issue? But pretty much any midi drum library requires separating them out into individual channels - from my experience anyway 🤷♂️
@@spinlightstudios that’s what I mean. It’s not SSD5’s problem. You just can’t process it the way it needs to be. There’s no way they can make stock drums sound perfect in every mix. UA just needs to get its shit together with Luna.
My tip for programming midi is to learn to air drum or tap it out on your legs or something. Gives you a way better idea on how hard everything would be hit, also if it's even possible to play
Thanks man! they are tonehub sounds - loaded a patch and played! Don’t even think I mixed them 😅 some good sounds in tonehub haha and that’s just my fender telecaster 😝
This was awesome, Rhys. I'm going to go back and watch it again - and again. Lol !! Love the 'top-down from the bus' move. WAY more economical. I was already using a Distressor plugin on my drum bus - but wasn't following it up with another compressor to glue it. Love that. Question for any Superior Drummer 3 users : I'm not finding an ADSR section in SD3. Is it in there - and I'm missing it - *or* - is there but called something else? Hate the long ring of the toms. I can cut a lot of it with a gate and compressor - but it would be so much easier if the UI was more like Slate. Out of a long history of great videos, Rhys, this is absolutely my favorite one you've ever done. Thank you for doing this.
Thanks mate! I recall on SD2 they had an “enveloper” maybe 🤔 but I could do the same thing - surely SD3 has something like this. If not - an expander/gate would do the trick. Glad you enjoyed this video!
Spent best part of 15 years trying to make MIDI drums sound like real ones for a living (economies of scale) right back to EXS, Battery and BFD. Hats off to you and your chops! Your viewers can count themselves lucky - this is the best content I've come across on this subject. Keep up the excellent work!
Thanks so much mate! That’s a big compliment!
Best midi drums mixing vid I have seen in 10 years. Great job mate!
Thanks Craig!
@@spinlightstudios I would’ve liked to see how you made your midi groove
I’ve been recording music with real instruments for a decade and my house was robbed while I was in the hospital getting diagnosed with something terminal so now I have to do everything digitally and luckily someone that knew about my struggle got me a M4 Mac mini and I got the guitar portion taken care of And actually managed to scoop up two ndsp plug-ins for guitar since I don’t have any more guitar amps
But I’ve never had to do anything digitally like this so I don’t know the first thing about drums digitally.
I mean, I’ve seen some drum packs that I like and I will be using logic Pro, but I also need to do the same thing with bass guitar which I’m assuming will be somewhat of the same process aside from doing what I need to do to get the right sound out of what I want.
But I mean, what’s the magic trick? Do I just need a midi controller or do I have to literally build every single little drum beat. I want on the keyboard!?
Sorry if this sounds ridiculous, but I came out of the womb with drumsticks so all this to me is very new
If you can push me in the right direction or maybe a video that would help, etc.. I would appreciate it.
Sorry for the newbie question
Great vid. Taking this as a reminder to not over process programmed drums to achieve the sound in the mix.
Cheers mate! Yep midi drums usually don’t need much processing - unless they are very raw samples.
Best midi drum video
No contest
I love how you don't just do stuff but actually explain what you're doing
Cheers mate!
One thing though, it is actually punchier if you route your mono tracks to mono channels. Beginners may not know this. Slate even has a preset for this. I just find if everything is in stereo, especially kick and snare, it's shooting out more to the stereo field and making the ride and cymbals struggle to cut. I route the mono to mono and when i use a sub mono plugin to 90hz it really tightens that kick in a mix and lets the cymbals breathe. Just an added piece of advice i learned myself the hard way struggling with ride and crashes not cutting.. i'm still no pro but, getting better and used the asdr technique on the kick, snare and toms, you showed...big difference!
Holy crap when you added the compressor on the drum bus, they just sounded so much more realistic. Wild
Compression and drums are like peas in a pod 🫛
Man... Studio guy from Germany here... I discovered your channel shortly and have to say a big thank you! You are so much on point to the topic, no bullshit talking half the video, great topics over all... learned a lot of detailed nerdy stuff. I just do not need Prod Like A Pro, marc daniel nelson, kohlekeller, ... and so on and on ANYMORE :) This means a lot! This one here was real great as I produce quite often stuff with programmed drums (XLN Addictive Drums) and i got some nice little ideas here to build it up very nicely. To keep it short: New fan here. Bye
Cheers mate! Very appreciative! So glad I can be of help :)
Holy shit! This is what I tried to request a while back. You're sick!
Haha hopefully you get something helpful out of it!
Thanks bro, very helpful. That double kick thing was interesting.
Thanks mate!
Hey legend, great video! Lots of bedroom artists diving more into midi drums which is super cool. I know this is purely for mixing, but a good tip/reminder for musicians programming drums is that quantization is the enemy of realism. You can have a really great mix, but if you're mixing 100% velocity on a 100% perfect alignment, it'll just sound like a drum machine and not a real person. Glad you touched on this in the programming part of the video.
If you can't get an e-kit, at the very least invest in some sort of midi pad trigger so you can play it with your hands/fingers and practice to get it close but not perfect. All of the subtleties that get pulled out in the mix really need that humanity to make it actually sound good and not like machine gun hits.
Thanks again for your videos mate, keep it up!
Some great suggestions! Thanks for your input mate!
Great content for getting VST drums to a higher level. Thanks
you are a life saver and this is free wooow been trying to be good with midi drums mixing been really struggling thank you so much
Hopefully it helps!
Very much needed!
Hope it’s helpful!
Yeah, I use MT Power Drums, so what I'm watching you do in the SSD I do with gates and transient designers, but the theory is the same.
@@Dave-Rough-Diamond-Dunn exactly, many ways to achieve the same results. The ADSR is basically a transient designer + gate for midi drums. Dependent on whether the library/vst has this feature - if not, yeah you need to use a gate/expander plugin!
@@spinlightstudiosFinished watching now, and it's reassuring to know that I was on the right track, even down to the room drum eq. I made my own room tracks the other day by playing the drums through the monitors and recording them. It turned out surprisingly well. I went with the two condensers spread apart rather than on top of each other, and a condenser almost at the back of the room over one in the "sweet spot" where I sit to mix. It works much better than some techniques I've tried using eq and reverb.
@@Dave-Rough-Diamond-Dunn ooo reamping rooms. That’s cool. Something I have thought about but haven’t tried myself!
I just found your channel today, and I've already watched a handful of videos and learned a lot! You have a fantastic presentation style and a real ear for this stuff. I've subscribed and I'm looking forward to learning more! Thanks for the hard work on the content!
Thanks so much mate! Glad you’re enjoying my vids!
Dude, adjusting the sustain is game changing! Thank you for that tip!
Absolutely! Glad you found it helpful!
You......, yeaaa You were born to be my sound engineer
Haha thanks
Amazing video as always man! Your insight,detail and depth is next level!
Thanks so much mate!
Great video! I just finished a punk rock track and used EZD3. I’ll use your approach on my next track. So helpful!!
Thanks mate!
Was looking for a good video on this! Thank you!!
Thanks!
I have Addictive Drums but can do the same stuff with that software, some great ideas here and yes I've been processing way too much. Thank you again for another great video!
Thanks for an awesome tutorial! Haha BTW, I was mixing midi drums based on your live drums tutorials and liked the result a lot!
It’s all pretty much the same in the end! Just might not need as much processing for midi drums if the library already sounds pretty decent!
great stuff
keep up the good work
Thanks legend!
Excellent. I have an email in my drafts folder to you requesting this video. Great minds!! I can’t wait to dig into this after work. Thanks Rhys!
Haha love it!
@@spinlightstudios As predicted this was incredibly helpful. I use ProTools, but I am pretty sure I can figure out how to translate the same kinds of actions from Logic (hopefully there's a similar function like the "strength" option. I know PT has a "swing" function). I recently learned how to convert MIDI drums into a multi-track, but your explanation was so much more clean. The only tweak I would make (and hope for in the future) would be to see you do this for a less-involved alt-country/Americana/Heartland Rock song to see how your approach to the processing of the drums (and them EQ/compression/dynamics strip) would change. I get a LOT out of seeing how you choose and use plugins to get the sound that fits the musical style.
Thanks again, ya Legend!
This is great man. Saved for sure. Maybe do a quick vid for us guitarist on your process for writing in the drum midi and your thought process for drum parts/performance.
That’s not a bad idea!
Thanks for this jam-packed tutorial. Learned a lot! You outdid yourself in this video mate!
Thanks Edward! Stoked you got something out of it!
@@spinlightstudios Definitely! That thing you showed about setting the Drum ADSR before mixing is a gold nugget.
Hey mate, cheers from North Carolina in the USA. Just discovered your channel (and subscribed!!) this week. Really love this vid and will be checking out your other content as well. Great job.
Thanks so much mate! Appreciate it!
Dude this is the best video on mixing midi drums! I especially love it cause your on Logic like me so makes it even valuable, cheers my man keep up the great content.
Thanks so much mate! Glad you enjoyed it!
Hey man, been using both Slate drums and Slate plugs for a few years and love seeing a new way to mix them. You’ve got some different approaches compared to what’s out there and really simplified it. I wish you had this out 5 years ago. Thanks. I applied some of your ideas (some, not all) to a mix I’ve been working on using SSD and it was like an adrenaline shot to my drums. Thanks man!
Thanks man! Honestly - you can make it as complex or as simple as you like… I find the more complicated you make it - usually worse it starts to sound 😂 glad you enjoyed it!
I just picked up your one shot sample pack. supplementing your room shells with the slate kits has things sounding great without even doing any processing on the individual channels
Cheers Brandon! Love hearing that!
Love your videos, you have a great way of teaching and presenting information. Cheers from Canada!
Thanks Eric 🙏🏼
Great video. This will help a ton of people.
Cheers Kevin!
Man! definitely one of the best tutorials I've watched! I love your videos! I learn so much from them! I would like to see a video on how do you program your midi drums and also if you could do a video on MLDrums it'll be awesome! Thank you so much for sharing!
Thanks legend! I’ve been meaning to check out MLDrums! Seems like a video on programming is of interest for a few people!
@@spinlightstudios Hey man! It'll be awesome! Also, have you ever had the chance to try Melda Production plugins? They have a bundle of like 30 something plugins for free, I believe it'll also be cool if you could try them out.
Hey man this is absolutely amazing! I've been struggling with mixing programmed drums and this is such a huge help. I hope you keep making these in-depth tutorials!
Thanks Stephen! Absolutely! It’s always about time with these longer vids, I had a window of opportunity to get this one done!
Awesome video just what I needed! Keep up the good work.
Thanks mate!
thats more than usefull thats awesome , loved it , thx u very much i wish i saw this before dropping my latest release (3 hours before ur vid ) XD unlucky , thx u tho
Thanks mate! There is always the next release!
Cheers for this video Rhys, so many awesome tips and done in an easy to follow format. I can't wait to dive into SSD and apply some of this
Thanks mate!
one tip to add some feel to midi drums, is to select all the snare hits and simply move them back behind the beat a little bit. not so good for metal styles like this, but for almost everything else, it's like magic. i've spent days programming midi drum parts in the past and this simple little trick makes such a huge difference. try it - program 4 bars of a simple, perfectly quantised beat and then grab all the snares and budge them back behind the beat a few ticks.
Having things not hit 100% in time - like the kick and hihats / snare and hihats would definitely give some realism. Good tip
@@spinlightstudios i normally use the "humanise" function in logic to add some gentle randomness to everything - for velocity and position only - but this snare trick adds "groove" in a way that randomness doesn't. it works especially well on songs that have a very slow tempo. it emulates the way drummers actually play.
@@Simeon_Harristhanks bro. I’m gonna try it.
Great video Rhys. One additional thing that is worth mentioning is to record each separate input into the DAW as an audio file. That way you have it for future use, remixing etc incase you end up not having the same Virtual Drum plugin down the road sometime.
I do this for any virtual instrument. I learnt this after losing access to plugins that upgraded over the years and my old sessions no longer load the virtual instruments I used.
Absolutely! Rendering them down to audio files future-proofs your project - even if it’s something you do once it’s all mixed and completed.
Awesome man , thank you for this tutorial, this is my favorite preset from my favorite drum vst, I'm kinda lazy and just process them as a whole kit a lil bit , but I will definitely mix them along with your video for more "serious" projects
Haha I hear ya, whatever sounds good and gets the job done!
Awesome video dude! I WISH the VMR bus didn't require an iLok USB. I just bought it and was so excited to give it a try when it prompted me saying I needed the USB to activate.
Thanks mate! I’ve been using ilok for years.. I guess I’m just used to it! Definitely worth getting one because loads of great plugins require it.
The best tutorial 👍
Thanks!
This is an excellent video with a lot of great information. Thanks so much!
No problem! Thanks Joe!
Thank you so much for this. Unfortunately right now I'm constrained to mostly using virtual instruments, and there's so little info out there on how to mix them.
Would love a video on virtual rythm guitars as well as I always seem to struggle with those.
Great vid, thanks - I'm working on this very thing right now!
Hopefully it helps a little!
Sweet. Gracias, amigo.
You’re welcome!
YESSS
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
Oh yeaah !thank you for this lesson
No problem! Thanks for checking it out!
@@spinlightstudios I am having issue with my connection, is there any possibilities you kindly share the preset of SSD5 instead?
Love this video!
Can you make a video going over guitars for a heavier rock song similar to this?
Thanks for nice video!! It's so helpful
No problem!
@@spinlightstudios Hi, I have just a question.
Except for the direct microphone channels, you reduced the sustain and release time
I wonder why you except the direct channels lol
As someone who is total a noob and only records MIDI drums, I hear very little difference because I only use the 3pk of crayons versus what guys like you can do…you guys are able to use the extra large box of crayons to color with…crazy!!
Very good mate cheers
Thanks legend!
Really outstanding tutorial.
Thanks Ryan!
Thank you 🙏🏻. You're the best ♥️
No problem! Thanks for watching :)
This was a great video to catch on my algorithm! For my mixing journey! Definitely subscribing. I don’t know if you have made a video about this or not, but I’m aware of when mixing bass guitar people tend to do a di then a low bass and and hi end bass layered, and is that even necessary? I got the guitars mixing down, practicing drums now, but I’m at lost for the bass, specially when I never knew people did 3 bass layered tracks until recently, if possible can you point me to a video that describes that !? Or hoping your next video is a full bass guitar mix breakdown! Cheers!
Thanks Man! There’s no one way to do it with bass. Usually I blend two a di and a more processed signal together - or a clean and a dirty signal to taste. I’ve got a video on some bass mixing - not sure how to link you to it. Maybe just search “Spinlight studio bass” and see what turns up haha
I record demos for my bands and my friends' bands, and my thing is I use my nice acoustic/electric conversion e-kit to trigger Superior Drummer 3. Real drum feel, real drummer, easy edits. Between that, the Suhr Reactive Loads I use on guitars, and the DI's/Darkglass for bass, I can record a balls out hardcore band you can't hear a thing in the next room.
Silent hardcore 😝 it’s pretty funny how you can create LOUD music without being loud 😂
Great vid! Didn't you have the cymbals going into the parallel when you left the rack on the mix bus though? I always thought parallel is for shells only.
Thanks! Yeah I had the whole kit in parallel and sounded good! There’s no one rule for that stuff. Sure I usually have a parallel send which is just shells, but sometimes like in this example it works to just keep it simple. Also the midi drums allow us to control the amount of cymbals to shells ratio very easily, so my blend was already more shells heavy, meaning the cymbals didn’t jump out in a bad way after the parallel comp :)
Thanks for this! ❤
No problem!
Great video, helps a lot. You mentioned that with high pass filters you can get weird phase shifts on individual channels. Does this only apply to drums or other tracks like guitars too? I am pretty new, just trying to understand this idea.
Thanks! The issue is when it’s a multi mic source - sometimes the hipass puts the channel out of phase - using a linear EQ stops that from happening.
Awesome! I am a big fan of toontrack SD3, I confess I hate SSD5 for the cymbals, they just aren't in the spot as SD3, but man!!.... these drums sound killer!!! you're a genius!!!
Thanks Mario. Cymbals are always the weakness of midi drums! I’ve found Superior drummer cymbals pretty good, but the hihats sounds a little funny to me!
This was straight fire. Your channel has been absolutely invaluable to me as a drummer who’s learning how to mix. I noticed that you are sending your drum bus and riff channel to bus 32, which I assume is a mix bus but didn’t see that on your mixer window. Do you have any processing done on that at all? If so, what was on that?
Thanks Dom, probably just bus compression - usually ssl comp, minor EQ adjustments, possibly a clipper and limiter !
@ Copy that! Thanks for the reply, man! Be well!
Thank you for this awesome tutorial. Is there any reason not to use a higher sidechain hp filter like 150hz?
24:34
It just depends how you want the compressor to react. 150hz is going to let a lot more low end pass through the detector before it starts compressing - if you want to have more low end in your drums then that will help. The harder you compress the more you will notice the difference too. It’s all just a matter of taste
Great video thank you!!
Thanks mate!
More mixing start to finish video like indie rock song mixing . plz , sir.
It is posible that you can teach us how to create midi drums like that? Now i know how to mis them but creating them its so hard for me.
Programming drums?
@@spinlightstudios That´s right it has always been hard for me
Thank you
No problem!
Awesome tutorial! One quick question: originally I thought all those plugins were part of SSD5 but now I see that Slate is a different company altogether. Is there a way to just buy that plug in suite, without having it as a subscription?
Thanks, you used to be able to buy them, you would have to look on their site and see!
Thanks, you used to be able to buy them, you would have to look on their site and see!
How to mix already awesome mixed drums 😂
Haha but no… if you have ever just programmed midi drums and used them in a mix without doing any further processing most of the time they don’t cut it.
The processing I use for midi drums is pretty simple compared to if they were live drums because you don’t have issues like bad performance, cymbal bleed and phase to worry about and they have already had some pre-processing applied. But it all still helps!
My process is to use Logic's AI drummer and find a beat that's close to what I want. Then I convert that to Midi, tweak the part where I need to, and copy and paste it into Steven Slate drums. It works pretty well.
I'm currently working on a song that's pretty tom-heavy though. And I've been struggling to find a tom sound that works in the mix. The toms are generally way too boomy and have too much of a defined note. You might have just solved the problem for me by showing me how to adjust the sustain and room sound.
Sounds like a good way to get some drum patterns down! Toms can be a challenge in midi, but hopefully that helps tighten it up!
Something I tend to struggle with is I guess where things should be panned within SSD. Is there any advice or settings as far as where things should sit in a mix as far as the crashes and toms?
I’m not sure if you’re supposed to pan drums as if you’re sitting at the kit or if you’re looking at the kit as an audience member. I usually pan them as if I’m the drummer. So I’ll have my hi hat panned 70% left. Rack Tom I’ll have around 35% left, left crash I’ll do the same. Right crash I’ll do 35% right. China I’ll do 70% right, floor Tom ill do the same. Just imagine you’re sitting at a kit and then pan them that way. That’s what I do. But i could be totally wrong. If im wrong, then just do the opposite as if youre looking at the kit vs sitting at it
I just bought a course on learning how to program MIDI drums. I'm wondering if it's worth getting a dedicated MIDI controller, either keyboard or pads
Depends if you want to play it in, I’ve never been much of a keyboard drummer haha I just manually do it. But if you’re playing keys parts and lots of different sounds, it’s absolutely worth getting a midi keyboard.
Excelent
like your moves sounds great - I use superior drums for my stuff I like to convert the midi to audio tracks then start the process - it's more like you recorded real drums I think the results are better -
thx man, you are a legend! what would be a good alternative for Revival? Thanks!
Cheers man! If you use logic they have a stock exciter plugin - just focus it in the air frequencies around 10k up.
Which DAW is considered the best and do you recommend for recording MIDI processing?
I don’t think any DAW is considered the best - you will only get biased opinions of the DAW people use 😂 logic is great with midi if that helps!
Is this a song on Spotify?
Please do this same video but with Modern and Massive 🫡
I would actually pay to see you re-creating Weezer drum-sound from Pinkerton with SSD!
LA2A on a kick is always my go to first
Opto on kick is pretty fun!
I use Luna and they STILL don’t have multi out. No wonder I “hated” the slate drums. Without a total pain in the ass process of separating the tracks, it’s so difficult to make them sound real and fit into a mix.
That’s interesting. There’s so many factors to making midi drums work imo. I usually just record drums tbh 😂 but I can still make them work when I need to. Is that Steven slates problem or Lunas problem? Seems more like a daw issue?
But pretty much any midi drum library requires separating them out into individual channels - from my experience anyway 🤷♂️
@@spinlightstudios that’s what I mean. It’s not SSD5’s problem. You just can’t process it the way it needs to be. There’s no way they can make stock drums sound perfect in every mix. UA just needs to get its shit together with Luna.
@@davidr1620 ah that’s frustrating man! UA need to sort that!
My guy you make it look easy 😢
U can add drum bleed
Yep
My tip for programming midi is to learn to air drum or tap it out on your legs or something. Gives you a way better idea on how hard everything would be hit, also if it's even possible to play
Haha exactly - I have done session drums on songs guitarists have written and I had to magically grow a third arm 😂
What did you use for these guitars? They are super sick
Thanks man! they are tonehub sounds - loaded a patch and played! Don’t even think I mixed them 😅 some good sounds in tonehub haha and that’s just my fender telecaster 😝
This was awesome, Rhys. I'm going to go back and watch it again - and again. Lol !!
Love the 'top-down from the bus' move. WAY more economical. I was already using a Distressor plugin on my drum bus - but wasn't following it up with another compressor to glue it. Love that.
Question for any Superior Drummer 3 users : I'm not finding an ADSR section in SD3. Is it in there - and I'm missing it - *or* - is there but called something else? Hate the long ring of the toms. I can cut a lot of it with a gate and compressor - but it would be so much easier if the UI was more like Slate. Out of a long history of great videos, Rhys, this is absolutely my favorite one you've ever done. Thank you for doing this.
Thanks mate! I recall on SD2 they had an “enveloper” maybe 🤔 but I could do the same thing - surely SD3 has something like this. If not - an expander/gate would do the trick. Glad you enjoyed this video!
Question what desk are you using?
Just a custom one I built with my father ☺️
which song is this?
Just a little riff I wrote
@spinlightstudios sounds amazing dude. Great video too!
@ thanks man!
😂😂😂❤❤❤ thank you for this video sir
No worries mate!
Still waiting for a hip hop with vocal tutorial please :)
I hear ya! I’ll see what I can dig up from my projects!
@@spinlightstudios ma man! 🤟
i wish cakewalk had that thing of humanization for midi
Bfd 3 is the most realistic midi drum
Heard great things about BF3
If I Can't Love Her, Beauty and the Beast