Newly added to Superior Drummer 3 is the ability to make custom note selections in the Grid Editor. Making a custom selection based on note values is an extremely powerful tool, as it allows you preform drastic MIDI editing techniques in just a few simple moves. These types of MIDI editing techniques allow you to take full advantage of the detailed sound library and features that come with Superior Drummer 3.

To access the Grid Editor, either double-click on a groove on the Song Track or press the “P” key on your keyboard while a groove is located on the Song Track. In the attached project file, a groove that contains a very static sounding eighth note hi-hat pattern is playing on the Song Track. With just a few simple moves in the Grid Editor, we will take this static sounding hi-hat and turn it into a dynamic performance.

First we will use a custom selection to select only the quarter notes in the eighth note sequence. This will select every other note in the sequence which we can then drag to another articulation. To do this, click on the Articulation name to the left to select all notes.

Then click the select menu and choose 1/4 notes.

You will then see that every other note is selected starting with the first note. If you would like to change the selected notes to the opposite set of quarter notes simply choose the Invert Selection option from the Select menu. In this example, I will choose the Invert Selection option.

Next, drag the selected quarter notes from the Closed Tip articulation to the Tight Tip articulation and press play in the transport. You will notice that it already sounds more natural, but not quite perfect yet.

The next step will be to adjust the velocities of the Closed Tip notes. The Closed Tip notes occur on the down beat so it will sound more natural if they are hit slightly harder than the upbeat notes. Simply click the Closed Tip column on the left to select all notes in this row and then move their velocities up as a group. Velocities can be adjusted by clicking and dragging the velocity points or using the slider to the left.

We could then go even further by creating an accent on the “1” of every measure. To do this again Click the Closed tip articulation row, and then from the select menu choose 1/1 to select all whole notes. Finally drag these whole notes up to the Open Edge 3 articulation.

Now when you play the sequence you will notice a natural performance full of dynamics and variation. Getting to this point was also much faster and easier than selecting a single note at a time and adjusting its velocity / articulation.

Mike Sanfillipp