Mixing drums inside SD rather than in host DAW

[basshole1979]

Hi. I’m an amateur for one thing, so nothing professionally at stake here.

Like for many folks (I think), for me drums are pain to mix/work with, in addition to wrangling all the other instruments in a song and trying to get a decent sounding mix.

I know SD has mixing tools and plugins of its own…wondering how many folks in the real world use the compressors, EQs etc built into SD rather than doing the multichannel thing and creating tracks for each drum/mic/channel in their host DAW (Logic in my case) and using the hosts plugins or external plugs they’ve bought.

I assume the EQs, comps etc in SD are up to par but I can see advantages of using the DAW to mix the drums as you could do all sorts of routing and grouping and sends etc. that you (probably? I’m not super familiar with SD) can’t do mixing drums strictly inside of SD.

 

Topic

[Bear-Faced Cow]

The old saying goes: if it hurts, then you are doing it wrong.

Mixing is indeed a balance of all instruments, as well as the arrangement of them. It’s a craft that requires a lot of time and practice to start, in order to get a decent sounding mix.

It doesn’t really matter if you are using the plug-ins within SD3 or in Logic, as long as what you are using works in the overall context of the song. Some songs I mix use SD3’s plug-ins, and some use various third-party plug-ins, while others use a combination of both. It’s the song that matters.

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

[basshole1979]

Thanks.  I just didn’t know if most folks actually used the stuff built into SD or not.

[John]

Personally I tend to use the internal processing with just a peak limiter on the outputs in my DAW while composing, when I’m ready, I may split up things more and separately route individual instruments to their own channels in my DAW.
Alternatively, I use the internal Bounce to get rendered audio files.
Don’t forget you actually can use e.g. a Reverb from your DAW via Sends in the SD3 mixer; just set up a Send that routes directly to a separate output to your DAW. On that track (in PT I use an Aux Track) you insert the Reverb and set it 100% wet.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[basshole1979]

Got it (sort of). The routing stuff can get real confusing real fast so the idea of routing into the SD mixer is a new concept for me but good to know…I was thinking of it as an isolated thing…a program within your DAW, if you will.

[John]

Sorry if I confuse you, I didn’t mean to imply that you can get sound from your DAW into the SD3 mixer but rather that a Send on a channel in the SD3 mixer can be used for sending to (e.g.) a Reverb in your DAW mixer. It isn’t possible to get the sound back into the SD3 mixer.
This can be used for other stuff than a Reverb; a Delay or parallell processing, etc.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[basshole1979]

My mistake. I probably misread. Either way, good to know.

[Author]

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