hi hat control working perfectly, but transitioning samples distorting slightly

[midilifestyle]

Maybe someone has insight on this:

I’m sending hi hat trig and pedal control midi to superior drummer (running as vst in ableton) and I’m really satisfied with the overall sound and realism.

Problem:
I can hear artifacts; a certain crunchiness comes from the samples that are played when I transition from a closed to an open hi hat using the pedal control.
I would describe it as distortion, but it’s more like a bit-reduction kind of sound or the crackling that happens when system resources are being overworked by audio applications. I’m using a maxed out 2015 Macbook Pro and Superior Drummer doesn’t seem to be using any more ram or cpu than any of the other VSTs I use such as Kontakt.

My diagnosis:
I believe what’s happening is that all the multisamples that make up the gradient of hi-hat sounds are cutting each other off, so I’m hearing a string of samples stopping and starting super rapidly with all the little tiny clicks that come from samples changing at points other than zero-crossings in a given waveform. It’s subtle, but it’s definitely audible and it makes the difference between recording a real hi-hat vs using Toontrack.

Troubleshooting:
I don’t get the same effect when using Native Instruments’ Abbey Road stuff, and I don’t have any crackling with the pedal samples within my electronic kit when I use its native sounds. That leads me to think that it isn’t an issue with my midi controller sending jumpy data. I’ve played with the controller curve in the mapping section to no effect. I’ve also attempted to use a max for live device that smooths out the cc and that didn’t seem to have an effect either.

Is there any way to adjust SD to reduce these audio artifacts?

Topic

[Joe Free]

Same here. Any luck? I think you are right. When I hit the high hat in a closed position and then slowly open it, I can see the software triggers several levels of openness simultaneously to simulate the sound of becoming more open after getting hit. The same applies to hitting the while open and slowly closing. The only thing I can think of is to adjust the envelope to remove some of the attack, but I can imagine that would sound very good. I think this is a limitation of superior drummer. It seems to me that they could release an update that better blends the samples together while the foot control is in motion. Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

[Olof Westman]

This is an open forum for discussing e-drums in general, like making your
own pads and mesh heads. This is not where we offer support for people
using Superior Drummer with e-drum. That would be in

http://www.toontrack.com/forum/superior-help/

Olof Westman - Toontrack
Coder

[section2]

This is an old thread, but I’m posting a solution just in case anyone stumbles across it.

The problem arises when multiple notes are assigned to the hi-hat articulations. The note assignments end up competing with each other. When you’re using a pedal, only the following articulations should have notes assigned to them: HatsTrig, HatsTipTrig, Closed Pedal, Open Pedal, and HatsCtrl.

To solve the problem, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Instrument pane at the bottom right corner of the screen.
2. Select “Hi-hats”.
3. In the Articulation drop-down window, click on the first item and then click the Remove button. Keep clicking “Remove” as many times as necessary until the note assignment window is empty.
4. Repeat Step 3 for each item in the Articulation drop-down window. Keep doing this until they’re all empty.
5. In the Articulation drop-down window, click “Closed Pedal.” Click the Learn button, and then press down on your hi-hat pedal like you’re closing the hats.
6. In the Articulation drop-down window, click “Open Pedal.” Click Learn, and do a pedal splash.
7. In the Articulation drop-down window, click HatsTipTrig. Click Learn, and hit the bow of your hi-hat.
8. In the Articulation drop-down window, click HatsTrig. Click Learn, and hit the edge of your hi-hat. (Skip this step if your hi-hats don’t have a separate edge trigger.)
9. In the Articulation drop-down window, click HatsCtrl. In the Note window, type CC04.

That’s it! Make sure you save the project.

• This post was modified 6 months, 4 weeks ago by section2.

[John]

Hi,

this is still not a Support part of the Forum and the advice above from section2 is bad advice. Users that need help should post in the Help section.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Author]

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