Skip to main content

Voice Limits

Lesson 5 from: Superior Drummer Master Class

Rikk Currence

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

5. Voice Limits

Next Lesson: Cached Mode

Lesson Info

Voice Limits

So, Rick, can we please move on from memory? Nope. So we've got more. So we've talked about the layer limits. Let's talk about the voice voice right here. Voice limit. This is kind of cool. This is politically basically, so this particular control is going to be applied to not only every instrument but ultimately every articulation in an instrument, too. So it's like looking into a mirror with a mirror behind you. It's like it just keeps going. So fathom that, And then let's never speak of it again. But let's really just talk about what's happening. So when you have a performance going, I want you to stop for just a second and try and pull together. How many things are going on from a sample standpoint, and I should clarify. I really generally tend to not use the word sample because of what it indicates. That it's a portion of something, the reality of every superior drummer session or STX that's a problem with something you should know disappeared from our expansion format. It's calle...

d STX, as I air right it because you couldn't do it in your mind. STX and Strands for a superior drummer expansion. Easy Drummer, Easy X, You follow the past. So I mean, ultimately, all of our superior drummer sessions are recorded in amazing studios with ridiculous producers in the best gear. And it's this amazing sort of component. And when you think about every piece of that performance has to be captured in a slice of audio, does that make sense? So every snare hit not only is just this a microphone over the snare, it's that snare hit in the room likes the overhead. Mike's the bleed coming through the floor, Tom, like it's so literally one snare hit articulation. Could have 400 different samples that require it to make one sound. All right, so this is where voice limits come in now. Right now, I've got it set to eight, and this is per instrument. This is an audio file kind of stuff. Mind you, this probably isn't anything you're gonna listen to discernibly me like Oh, and if anybody tells you they do, it's You should run away from them because they're lying. It's like when you hold your finger over the knob like the sound guys doing like, Hey, could I be louder? And they're like, how is that? I'm like, Oh, it's great yet and they're not even touching anything. It's the same concept, but there is some validity here. Um, the voice limit is going to basically set the path off. How long? Each sample right in your performance in this instance is going to sustain. So, for instance, were on the snare drum. A better example would be a ride Cymbal way. Know that this is a ride Cymbal, right? Everyone feels good about that being a symbol. Right? So when you hit a symbol, you hear that? I'm gonna turn it up a little bit. Audio guys, just a little bit in here. So here we go. Let's hit this symbol. What is the symbol? Do it decays, right? A simple doesn't just go on, go away. So now ultimately imagine if you will high hats and symbols, especially as you're playing in real life real recording, which is what we do as you're playing. Those things just don't know when to stop. They just ring out forever. They just keep going and they build a part of the sound in the group. And that's sort of the beauty of superior drummer is that the engine knows that. So what this is saying is Okay. Hey, listen, when I said a voice layer to 16 on a ride, that means now follow me on this because it could be a little daunting. So let's say I'm hitting the ride. It's going to go for 16 samples. And on the 17th sample, the very first sample is gonna go away and fade out. So that's how it manages the sustaining the reality off. What's going on with all of these things happen. So again, we haven't gone to the mixer and his It's a weird construct because we're going through the basics so that when we get to these other concepts like oh, totally makes sense, right? So it's not like an M. Night Shyamalan thing within Europe. Like I didn't see that coming. You're gonna understand what happens tomorrow. So But as you're playing this symbol again, it's not just a 10 that's just one sound. That symbol is being captured by the overhead mike's. The room likes bleed, so all of those samples air going on at the same time. And the way that our engine controls which ones ring out longer is for you to set this limit so you can literally change the prolific me right of every instrument and every part of the instruments. So it's kind of again that mirror in a mirror in a mere face so you can set this voice limit to so this symbol can ring up. They're going to 99 hits of this symbol. And when it hits 100 hits, you know, which isn't uncommon in a performance on the 100 hit that first hit will go away and so on and so forth. And does that make sense? Because the first time I tried to wrap my head around it, I'm like, Why would you tell me this information to attract Now? I can't think straight Drew. Anyone confused out there? No one's good. So you follow me. So this is also something to consider when you're setting limits for e drums or keyboard, all of these things again lend into this. This, on the other hand, your voice humid. This isn't gonna change your actual memory allocation. What this will change is your CPU load. What it's requiring the actual program to use in order to function. That makes sense because we know we've already loaded the ideal articulations that's been handled right. So by changing the voice limit to 99 we're just asking the computer to software spear toe. Wait longer before it starts to fade out. Those and that's kind of a natural thing. If you can think about any sort of repetitive pattern on the drums, how many times? If you know it's a guess, there's no red wrong inches. But you safe to say that a drummer probably hit his high hat more than 100 times in a song and a complete song. So what you're doing again is changing the way that the software is going to work with, you know, sort of the natural sound and decay of the way these things work. And again as you're decaying, you're not just decaying. It's not just one thing, like Okay, now the high hack and stop, it's the high hat in this mike in the high hat and all the there could be different samples now, all sort of needing to go that way. It's pretty cool. Very, very high tech stuff, not a feature that's ever gonna go away, either again in 2008. It's like, What? But now in 2015 While we have faster machines and better hardware, it's pretty cool to know that you can again. You haven't even started to work on your music yet, which is the exciting part. But your tailoring this program to really respond to what you're going to dio and you can change this and save this anyway. Want to. So before we talk more about memory, let's talk about saving what we've already done, because there's two ways that you can save a superior drummer project on def. You come up into the default kit, right? You can save, as so I can save this right now as a preset. And then if I was a coming, here's a menu we haven't looked at yet Exciting. What are we gonna find? Ah, more of the same. Um, I can save a project, so there's presets. There's combined presets and this project pretty cool. So let's work backwards. A superior 2. project. When you save in that format, the reason is very simple. Its compatibility with other superior 2.0 users. So when you save something as a project, all of the components of everything are saved so that if you want to share that file with someone else that's got superior 2.0, they can just simply open it and go Very cool. Now, within that again. So you have a project. Ah, preset Onley is going to apply to the area you're actually working in, right? So you see, what's his user presets? I haven't created any presets here, but if I wanted to create a voice layer limit preset for this kit, I could do that and then apply it when I opened the kit somewhere else. Or I could apply it to different kids to see how it was gonna work again. That mirror, it's like infinite saving. And then when you come here and then you've got a combined two preset, which we're gonna talk about in a moment that's an internal superior, preset saving. So basically it's going to save all of the components but let you select which ones you want to save, as opposed to just grabbing everything cool. That would make more sense when we looked at some or combined stuff so again were in memory and status. We have a couple more options. You'll notice. Right here is a 16 bit button. This is where we're gonna talk about bit, depth, everybody's favorite. More math. Okay, so watch what happened. One hit, 16 bit. Boom. It's gonna reload the samples and 16 bit. I think that's fairly self explanatory. Does everyone understand what just happened there? Yeah. No, Fantastic. I love it. So when we record all of our drum samples, all of our drum recordings, it's obviously done at the highest fidelity. It's done with the best converters, blah, blah, blah, everything we're supposed to do and where they were supposed to say. But that varies, obviously, from producer to producer. Some producers go 1 92 Some producers go 48. There's, Ah, whole slew of variances, but ultimately we present to the product in 24 bit. It's 24 bit playback engine. It's a beautiful thing, but that bit depth 24 bit, 20 bit, 80 any bit depth has a corresponding memory, and CPU usage makes sense right 16 bit, which is ultimately where most recorded audio is going to end up for consumption so CDs, MP threes, anything where someone's basically gonna buy music outside of high Fidelity Audio are super high. Five stuff for HD stuff. 16 bit, sort of the standard. So by putting this particular sample pool in 16 bit, what you've done is we've taken all the samples, affected him, re sampling, put them all back up in 16. But you're saving memory, so you can see now, if I take it off right, we go back up to 4 24 if I put it in 16 bit mode. Pretty cool. Now, a lot of people, a lot of producers, a lot of artists, a lot of people that work with their dogs music still working 16 bit because a lot of their mindset is Hey, it's gonna end up here anyway. I might as well start there, and I'm not here to say whether that's a good or a bad thing. I mean, the option is yours. But ultimately, again, with the thought process that this won't always just be in the studio, people want want to be playing alive. This is sort of a quick way again. If you're that a drummer, that keyboard player, you want to be triggering stuff. You can reduce your memory footprint quite substantially. I think again, I think we cut it in half. Yeah, it's nice. It's gonna reload. And anyone here difference anyone like, Oh, so disappointing. Now it's totally not. OK, so, um, very cool. Very simple. Yeah. Makes sense now. Okay, Anyone with that as we move on. So here's something cool. Cached mode. Okay, So cashed mode is really interesting. And again, we want to go between these two. Because when you're working in cash to mode, you have some options underneath. This menu requires the menu all the way over there. Why is the sky blue wise water wet? It just is. You're gonna have to work with me on this. It's just there Now, you know it's there. You were accountable for the information. Okay,

Ratings and Reviews

Shayne Sheldon
 

I am very pleased with this course. It was originally presented as a free live stream and is the first CreativeLive course that I have taken in. I am so impressed, that I have purchased it. If you are a current Toontrack Superior Drummer 2 user (or are thinking of buying SD 2) and are looking for a guided way to learning this software, this course is one of the best learning methods I have ever come across. I doesn't matter what your experience level is with Superior Drummer-- there is something here for beginners, intermediate, and advanced. Though I would recommend having a working knowledge of MIDI, audio and computers. Absolute beginners to using software instruments and creating music in their computer might find the information in this course a bit overwhelming. Instructor Rikk Currence takes you thoroughly through basic to advanced concepts showing the true depth of this virtual instrument program. Rikk takes you through the program settings and options; creating custom virtual drum kits; settings for MIDI controllers and E-Drum kits; using the SD 2.0 as a stand alone virtual instrument, as well runninf it as a plug-in in a Digital Audio Workstation (D.A.W.) like Avid's Pro Tools. So much more is covered in this course, that I can't fully begin to share it all in this review. The knowledge I gained from this CreativeLive two day course has given me extra insight, increasing my functionality with Superior Drummer 2. Two thumbs up for this Master Class-- I can't recommend it enough to all Superior Drummer 2 users Thanks to Rikk Currence and CreativeLive for a superior course on Toontrack's Superior Drummer 2.

Ian Stephenson
 

Great course, the tutor kept it entertaining and held our interest whilst still getting over a huge wealth of detail for all levels of user. recommended :-)

Marcus
 

Killer class! Well worth purchasing. Each lesson is effectively thorough, as well as comfortably paced. And Rikk’s sense of humor makes the learning process all the more enjoyable.

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES