How to make drum MIDI grooves more human (Superior Drummer 3 tutorial)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 19 жов 2019
- Let's talk about programmed MIDI durms. Often blamed for not sounding human at all, but there are some tips and tricks to get you at least started to sound more realistic. The key is to 'think' as a drummer. In this episode, I share some tips how to achieve it quickly. Once you understand the approach, you can easily transfer that to you own songs and projects.
My full playlist of SD3 videos: • Superior Drummer 3
See the final result of "Black Velvet" as a cover, performed by Anna Lopez: • Alannah Myles-Black Ve...
Get 7% off your first year's membership at with DistroKid if you signup through my VIP link: distrokid.com/vip/MikeLuke
#SuperiorDrummer3 #MIDIdrums #MikeLuke
This is the best video of its type I have seen
Truly awesome vid. Thanks!
Great approach, loved it! thanks for all these tips.
Great job, Mike. Really helpful information.
Thank you, you nailed it!
Sounds great together Mike at the end!😎👍👊
Really helped me a lot a while ago when I watched this video. You came up in my suggestions again, and I wanted to offer one suggestion. Since we're both drummers, I'm sure you've heard of the nebulous concept of "pocket" where the drummer basically plays tight, but either a little in front or behind the groove. Just enough to make it almost not noticeable, but adds a lot of groove. After applying all your techniques, select all notes and use that "nudge" feature at the top of the screen. It makes magic! I have never nudged more than 2 steps, and usually just one, but it really adds a lot to the groove, since nothing will be perfect on the grid anymore, but starts to glue a lot more humanly with the groove of the band. I've started doing this basically with every midi instrument, not just drums, to simulate how bands are never perfectly tight, and it's a whole new world. But yeah, with the song in your video, nudging it "late" one or two steps will make the groove nice and dirty, which I think would work well. Give it a try, see if you like it :)
That‘s a nice suggestion, thanks for this!
Great tutorial , really help, thanks Mike.
Thanks! Helped me understand the power of SD. 👍
Great Video, very helpful and in-depth ! Thanks
thanks for you creative thinking process! Really generous info!
Thank you for explaining this! Ive been trying to make drums more human like and this helped alot!
Very informative video. Nice to see how a drummer thinks and the physical limitations of playing the instrument for real.
Great find. Really appreciate this video. Subscribed
Great job man thank you for your time
Cheers Christian, glad you like it.
Just got SD3 and starting to learn about both drumming and this fantastic software.. a TON of helpful drummer insights for us non-drummers, gold worth! Thank You!
Great video
Great video, we have a very similar editing approach. This is really an expert tutorial. It is like the in depth version of what toontrack released.
I really enjoy it! This is a good tutorial, I've learned too much man, thanks!!
Thanks so much
Just what I've been looking for, Mike. Thanks for this and subscribed now.
Thanks very much, Kevin. Glad you liked it. And welcome to my channel. ;)
This video is remarkable - I am a singer songwriter and have just purchased SD3 and feel after watching your attention to detail and also your experience as a pro drummer, that I stand a chance for the first time to create plausible drum tracks for my music - many thanks and keep up the good work .......
Excellent tutorial, lots of things I never thought about :)
Thanks Peter, glad I could help here
Probably the first drum programming video I could follow and thoroughly understand, as a non-drummer. Really nice job.... thank you.
Thanks so much, means a lot! 🙏
Very Good!!! Thank you my friend!!!
This was useful, thank you.
Thanks for watching
Your drum lesson reached and helped a kid from Mozambiquhe...Thank you millions times...Yeah
Congratulations with 5000+ subscribers Mike!🍺🍺🍺
Thank you, Rob. I am very proud and happy
Wieder mal der mega Knaller 🥁💪🏋️🥁seit gestern bin ich endlich auch im SD3 Club…Danke,Mike 👍🧨🥁
Hurra! Und herzlich willkommen ;)
I just got SD3 and this is a fantastic video. Answered almost everything I want to know about humanizing drums. I'm sure I will figure out the rest with some experimentation. Thanks so much for making this.
Thank you for watching Alan!
If you do, let us know ;) I am always looking to get even closer. I hardly get any flack on the "fake" drums anymore from my listeners, but my producer friends always still make a mention of it. I am sure by now it is more that they know I don't have a real kit, so they are just assuming because they talk about "programmed tightly to the grid" and I have turned snapping off a year ago and never turned it back on, as all midi instruments started behaving very naturally. So yeah, any more tips/questions I haven't thought off would be super appreciated!
This is my third time watching this video and I have gotten MASSIVE value out of it each time - even as a drummer. I find that playing on the recording and programming the recording are two completely different skills. A lot of the tips in this video are natural things that a drummer does that when programmed in using thought will help your songs sound great!! Thank you so much!!
Cheers Mike! Glad I could help and inspire a bit 🙏
Great tutorial! 👍🏾
Cheers! ;)
Fantastic video! Thank you :)
You're welcome, George - and thanks for watching this.
@@MikeLuke Hi Mike. Like you, I much prefer writing my own drum grooves instead of using presets. I'm a drummer, but not a great engineer. I just purchased SD3, as well as a host of Universal Audio gear, plug-ins and their new free DAW called Luna. Although SD3 shows up as an instrument when I create a new midi instrument track, I can't seem to get SD3 to actually record. I can record the drum software that came with Luna in midi, but I can't record SD3. Plus, I'd love to convert the individual midi tracks (after tweaking -- as you brilliantly demonstrate in this video) into individual audio tracks (like recording a real kit). I used to work with Pro Tools over a dozen years ago, and would mic and track my drums myself. Yet, after a long hiatus -- and a passion to return back to recording & songwriting -- I find myself stuck on this technical issue. Anything you may offer to help will be most appreciated. Even if you can just make a simple suggestion as to how I can record in midi, I would be most grateful! Cheers!
The brush kit in Decades is really stunning
top de mais parabéns!
Thanks, Mike, this is very helpful; stuff that we should all keep in mind to make our music sound like a human and not a computer.
❤️ the sound of the acoustic guitar !!!!
If it’s your record wanna know how you’ve done such a sound !! And what are the mic used to caught that warmth ! And the reverb applied to it by the way !
Wow, excellent tutorial much appreciated! Just what I needed, getting to the screen at 2:55 right click choose grid editor, hopefully your not seeing me being a jerk on that suggestion.
Since you in in reaper, the MIDI editing information is very good, you can do the adjustments with it, it's more visually and easier to modify a number.....then import it back to the internal SD3 sequencer if you want.....
Thank you for all the amazing stuff, Mike!
Can I make a topic suggestion?
I would love to see your advices on using superior drummer 3 with keys.
I couldn't find any material on this, and it would be pretty useful to learn how to fully use it.
Cheers!
For me this is an interesting video because I do a lot of Midi work in Reaper, with volume changes and sometimes another cymbal sound. Also I remove a lot of false trigger notes at the end of my final recording. The Midi software in SD 3 is more adjustable, I like this video. Maybe I will do a video in the future without playing the drums myself.😎👍👊🍺
Fabulous lesson Mike, nuggets of gold in here for the non drummer. I've watched hundreds of drumming videos and you'll find this into nowhere else.
Hey Sean, glad you liked it. I always try to put myself into non-drummer‘s shoes. Because I agree, a lot of videos just expect too much right from the start. Thanks for watching! 🙏
Thank you so much, Luke! I learn a lot from your videos. Is that a vst guitar and bass?
Thx homie
Cheers!
Hi Mike, thanks for great videos, been following you for a long time 👍Question: I have always used to program the drums in cubase with the gm drummap thing (where you get the red diamonds). Do I miss out on many of these humanize functions by doing it that way? It would be great if you could make a video on how you program drums in SD3 and how to get them to show up in Cubase (i mix the drums in cubase). All the best from Norway 👍😊👌
Aloha from Honolulu - wonderful! Mahalo!
Great video! I'm a drummer and I use Superior Drummer 3 for demos and to help my band rehearse our songs with drum tracks..
I was already doing everything you said in this video (besides I was directly writing the notes in my DAW - I should start directly programming inside SD3 since using the internal randomize is waaay easier than doing it manually on every note -), but the tip on writing inside SD3 is as good as "banal" (and I wasn't doing it at all, thinking it was just another way to program)!
Just a little personal tip: in a groove, after an open hi hat, I always write a "closed pedal" note since it's what I'm actually doing and helps it sound more coherent switching from a fully open hi hat to a close or tight one, it's like the missing link!
Subscribed by the way, great content!
Thanks for your comment. And yes, the "closed pedal" sound after an open hi hat is probably the most realistic and "correct" articulation to go here. ;)
Very interessant video, but I will watch it tomorrow. I have to work in an hour. 😎👍👊
Thanks Rob. I don’t think you need this as you are a drummer yourself. 😎
Hi Mike! Fantastic video! So the question is to go bar by bar and just "tune" all the beats one by one the whole song? Hard work but with a big results like I can see. Thanks for the tutorial very inspirational to keep going.
Amazing tutorial!!
It would be awesome if SD3 add a feature that can select every 2 or 3 note like Reaper' JS Script.
oh yeah
Great tip with the hi-hat/ride omission. As a guitarist I've always struggled with that when i try to play acoustic drums. May make my digital ones sound less shitty too? ;)
I've been playing for ever 🎸 guitar Professionally as now I'm older Taught myself to play keyboard have a kronos and a PA 1000 korg now I'm doing alot of recording. Unfortunately most drummers don't understand the whole Idea of simple. My worst instrument is the Drums at least I know my downfalls back in the day when I quit my band I bought an oberheim drum machine sounded great but Midi and samplers came in bought rx 5 drummer and a 16 track sequencer yamaha. Now I just bought a Superior drummer 3 your video is great I liked the part where you go I'm going to the hit the cymbal on this so its sounds more real. After playing thru Marshall's for so many years I dont think I'm going to know the difference. But I am going and I'm gonna to learn as many as your midi tricks as I can. You have super knowledge. I still have to buy some expansion packs . I'll be watching and learning. Thanks Rick Carlson
Thanks Rick! Appreciate your comment.
Good to see you back on my feed. Will do the same as Rob and digest this tomorrow as I have a week free from work.
I have a quick question though.
In the grid editor, can you remember the command for moving midi notes vertically between lanes without any horizontal change?
Cheers
Sure, just holding shift simultaneously 😉
@@MikeLuke vielen Dank!
Great vid man.
Can you please answer how to draw several notes one the grid? As if it will be a 16 notes on the kick. I tried to hold shift/alt/ctrl on pc - no results. I can draw only one note by clicking on the mouse button.
Sure. Just hold down the mouse click and then draw from left to right. ;)
Very pro stuff..with all the fine tuning of
Timing, velocities and articulations would you swing it a bit or not ?
And what about the possibility of suttlely going tempo changes like a real performance would do would that further enhance the human element?
In that case, I would probably make a "floating" tempo track in your DAW. Depending on the software you use, you should be able to extract that from any live recorded instruments, and SD3 will follow the tempo track.
Great Video. Is there a fast way in SD to dial the whole groove behind the beat... or pushing it a hair? Logic's Drummer has this feature and it comes in handy to quickly match the feel... lazy... rushed etc. Thanks!
Yes, you can „humanize“, which adds some random adjustments or you can quickly mark all hits and pull them slightly behind. There’s no feature called „dragging“ or „pushing“, though.
Hi Mike. May I know how or where can I access the randomize slider? I only have the velocity knob visible. Thank you in advance.
Hi Mike (anyone that can help), I wanted to ask about the voice/layers/ and hit variation settings. When I have these all on and even set the voice and layer limits quite high, I don’t seem to get any variation. If I render out the track, the wave forms are all identical! Shouldn’t there be some variation even jf all the notes are at the same velocity?
Hi Mike. Welcome back. Some time ago you showed me how to create and save kits that I specifically made for specific songs. I’m wondering if I can arrange these kits in a pre ordained order and then be triggered to play with a foot switch. I had this feature on my td20. I was playing White Room and it starts with tympani. I set to kit 10. Then when the verse started I could switch to kit 9 for that but back to kit 10 after the lead for tympani again. Awesome ability. Can this be done in SD3? Thanks Mike
Hi Greg, that’s a damn good question. But I don’t think so, to be honest with you. I wouldn’t say it’s the impossible, but if ... then you’d need some sort of turnaround trick.
You need to be aware that SD3 hasn’t been developed for live situations specifically but rather for recording and production in a studio.
Just thinking out loud: You could create a kit in SD3 that has timpani included. Via foot switch you could change the kit in your module again - only to send different MIDI notes from your module to SD3 to trigger different instruments in SD3. OR you could (just technically) open two instances of SD3 at the same time to switch between both then via foot switch - but I wouldn’t recommend this as it would need a lot of RAM power of your computer.
So I have a tom groove up and It only shows the notes of the kick snare and hi hat. Why isn't it showing the tom notes??
Mike, when I play using my Roland TD20 (VH-12), the midi track in reaper does not create an individual note for each hihat openness variation. Do you know how can I fix that so I can see all the variations like SD3 midi editor does? Its weird because when I press play to hear the song, I can figure all the variations. However, the midi note is the same no matter the way I play the hithat. Maybe its a nice content to cover in a future video. Editing midi drums Reaper x SD3
Hi Roger. That's correct. By default, Reaper does not distinguish between the different articulations unfortunately. You can only tweak them per articulation in SD3 itself. However, you should at least see different MIDI notes for open or closed articulations.
I'm finding that a lot of the grooves that come with SD and its expansion packs look like they have numerous human features added. Do you find these still to be too perfect, and needing some human elements added? For instance, randomizing things like snare and the hi-hat hits probably still need to occur. Agree?
Yes, I agree partly. The grooves have all been played by actual humans … and usually world class drummers.
@@MikeLuke So do you find grooves right out of the box needing much editing in terms of randomizing and change of velocity?
I wonder if SD3 offers more sensitivity for adjusting velocity than other drum libraries. I don’t think I’ve heard people making that claim. For example, it more precisely adjustable than the sound sets in EZ Drummer 2?
Hi Bob, well, velocities in MIDI are always between 1-127, so even SD3 cannot change this. However, the software has several options to further tweak the sounds besides just the velocity. For example, you can of course change the velocity curve, which will determine how fast or linear (or non-linear) the sampler reacts. Velocities are just a piece of the puzzle though to create realism. SD3 has the largest sample pool recorded, it offers the most different articulations per instrument, often the most recorded options (like sticks, mallets, brushes, hot rods) for the snare ... combining all this and you have a full arsenal of options to tweak which EZDrummer2 and most other sample libraries don‘t have.
Hm, warum verstehe ich dein Englisch so gut? :D
Currently I am working on a project where I programmed a grid based drum track and need to humanize it now. My workflow looks like this: cut the sequence into single (song) parts and then randomize the velocity and the timing a little bit...since the change is subtle and gradual I tend to not notice the point when it sounds human enough... :-/
I dont have the randomize option like you and i can't find it, please help :c
Make sure you are updated to the current version (3.2.1) as the earlier versions of SD3 had a different layout than it does now.
Great video, but a small detail that bothers me (even as a just-for-fun-drummer): consider the anatomy when writing fills, e.g. at 24:11 . It is very unlikely to play 8ths HiHat with the right hand, hit Snare with L and go on with R-Tom3, L-Tom4 (who does that!?) , R-C5 and turn back to the HiHat. Even the fill with the Rack Toms should go more like L-Sn, R-Sn, L-Tom1, R-C2 (right side), so you don't cross arms within the fill.
At this speed it’s totally reasonable to hit the snare with the left and play both tom notes with the right. In fact if I was playing that fill in real life that’s how I’d play it and I’d hit the down beat coming back in of crash with my left so I actually don’t agree with his explanation that you have to hit the cymbal on the right after the floor tom as I’d probably hit my cymbal in the left.
Plus in real life if you didn’t want to play 2 notes in a row on the same hand, you’d just start the fill with the snare on your right hand and come back in with left on the cymbal.
That computerized high-hat on the "start" track was so irritating! Nice vid!
👍🏻✌🏼
In modern music everything needs to be on same level. Random velocity changes isn't necessary at all. Listeners don't prefer songs that sounds uneven.
I do not agree.
I would say it really depends on the music style. Pop music with pre-programmed beats is a good example of what you describe. When it comes to music styles who typically employ a human drummer though, it's mostly the opposite: If there is no nuance and/or variance in the performance, it will sound unnatural. Mike's example here is a perfect example of the latter.
I would agree for rock and heavier music. For Jazz and blues nuances are appreciated, although I think Mike goes too far here but probably hopefully just to make a point. I think the approach should be of programming drums that enhance the music and not portraying a sub optimal drummer. "Humanising" is too often perceived as intentionally writing "mistakes" or less optimal performance. Instead it should just help the music breathe and find the push and pull that make you groove with the beat. There are amazing drummers in the world and the benefit of programming is that you can do it as if they were the ones playing your drums.
@@JLX5 Yeah, the shortcut way of doing it is to find a beat in the libraries (which are played by humans on midi kits) that somewhat matches your idea of instrumentation and timing and just reposition the notes where you want them, leaving timing intact. Then use the nudging trick to get into the pocket of the song. As for modern music, I think a lot of the great producers actually play in the beats or other midi live, and make minimal fixes where they really messed up, because groove is groove and that will always touch the listener more.