Using Superior Drummer 3 to create Phantom Ambient Mic from Close Mic recordings

[Ann Roche]

Hello. I was hoping someone can help.

I have recently built a small project studio around a small isolation booth that has a relatively dead acoustic, which i plan to use to do most of my basic recordings including for close mic recording drums (So as to capture the feel of a live drummer) for any tracks that require it (ideally having the drummer play at the same time as any guitarists / keyboards / bass guitar, so as to get some coherence / natural gel).

However i note that as my isolation booth’s acoustics are designed to be relatively dry in nature, i do not think recording O/H’s or rooms ambience, is suitable as the room is first dry but also very small (so there is no ambience to pick up, as although the room may be ok for low volume acoustic recordings using close mic recording techniques, if sound sources are of a high volume, any recordings will likely be plagued with nodal and standing wave distortions due to the rooms size and acoustics)….

So I was thinking of using Superior Drummer 3’s tracking feature to analyse, drum swap and argument the recordings that i make with a live drummer.

I was wondering however if it is possible to use Superior Drummer / Tracker features to not only swap out the drums but also add OH mic’s / ambient mic’s even though my original drummer recordings will not have OH’s or ambient mic’s but only close mic’s for each of the drums on the drum kit.

Is it possible to not only swap out the original drums with Superior Drums one for one, but also add/supplement/augument the close mic swapped out drums with superior drummer OH’s and ambient mic’s that are linked to the superior drums that have been used to swap with the original drums?

And if not, perhaps this is a feature that could be introduced in an update or Superior Drummer 4. Although, please do not be offended if you already have this feature or function, as your software does appear from first glance to be very well designed and thought out.

Thanks

• This topic was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by Ann Roche.
• This topic was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by Ann Roche.
• This topic was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by Ann Roche.

Topic

[Hasse FX]

If I understand the problem correctly…

If you replace the drum with the corresponding sampled SD3 drum you will also be able to use the sampled ambient and leakage included with that particular SD3-drum. The result would be the same as if  the drummer had played on e-drums into SD3.

[Henrik]

Ann Roche wrote:

Is it possible to not only swap out the original drums with Superior Drums one for one, but also add/supplement/augument the close mic swapped out drums with superior drummer OH’s and ambient mic’s that are linked to the superior drums that have been used to swap with the original drums?

You can track the original drum performance, so that SD3 plays the same thing as the drummer.

If you mute the close mics, then you’ll only hear the ambience, e.g. augment the original drums with the room/ambience from SD3.

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

[Ann Roche]

Hello Hasse FX and Henrik

Thanks for your replies and advice

sure i understand

sounds like just the thing for me, as i have my own project studio built around an isolation booth that is big enough to house a drummer

but which doesn’t have a particularly great natural reverb. however i can see how the close mic recording the drums and then using these multi track drums with superior drummer 3, should allow me to fairly realistically create half decent recordings

without the need of having to pay for a big pro recording studio, at least not at high quality demo level

yes, awesome

thanks

Justin

1

Thanked by: Henrik

[Henrik]

Ann Roche wrote:

owever i can see how the close mic recording the drums and then using these multi track drums with superior drummer 3, should allow me to fairly realistically create half decent recordings

I know of several professional producers who uses this technique. They have access to really good sounding drum rooms, but sometimes they just want another kind of room ambience 🙂

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

[Author]

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