How To Use the Mimic Instrument Editor to Create User Instruments | Pearl Mimic Pro Module

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

The editor is available now from the Pearl support site and comes bundled with the download for the new software update. However, some regions of the Pearl support site still don't show it, so here are direct links to each individual part of the new updates! ► Manual for v1.4.18 - pearldrums.canto.com/direct/document/dgnao0qdf53mrc7b92iiuloi1q/MtrR8uqhmY5J-Ce0ozekW5NTS1Y/original?content-type=application%2Fpdf&name=PearlMimicPRO-User-Manual-v1.4.18.pdf ► Software Update v1.4.18 - pearldrums.canto.com/direct/other/nr60k4bhph29rf2hlqbgk86l5k/K90wXpSoshY-pHhngqqN3nzDH-k/original?content-type=application%2Fzip&name=Pearl+Mimic+Pro+Update+1.4.18.zip ► Library Update Installer (Windows) - slate-product-files.sfo2.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/pmp/updates/PMP_Library_Updater_Setup_2.0.0.exe ► Library Update Installer (Mac) - slate-product-files.sfo2.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/mimic/updater/PMP_Library_Updater_2.0.0.dmg ► Mimic Instrument Editor (PC only) - pearldrums.canto.com/direct/other/17de9hvb4t43ndgc3r64cqmu4s/GyhSH35thmhVSQAddOROXoVhXNc/original?content-type=application%2Fzip&name=Pearl+Mimic+Pro+Instrument+Editor+-+PC+Windows.zip

[@482jpsquared]

Fantastic tutorial, Luke! Thorough, well communicated, to the point(s). I particularly like that when you hit a bump in the road uploading samples to the editor, you talked us through it.

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

Thank you!

[@mikebassart]

Hey, Luke! Great video, as always. I'm wondering what you think about the Mimic's multilayer sample import as compared to the Strike's - obviously each module has it's own proprietary instrument editor, but do you find the process significantly easier on easier platform? And is there any difference in the end result? I mean, of course the Mimic has much more sophisticated and customizable trigger parameters, but say I import the same multilayer samples to each module - will they sound and perform essentially the same? I've owned both modules in the past, and recently decided to jump back in with a Mimic. I'm wondering if there's any point to owning a Strike as well at this point, other than the fact that I like messing around with gear, lol (I guess if you want to talk about how the 2Box DrumIt 5 MkII compares, I'd be interested in hearing about that as well).

[@davewilt]

Luke, thank you for this and all your vids! I bought your Famous Vol 1 last year, very useful. And followed your timbale snare-off directions (Jan 2020 vid) which got me so much closer to my destination of a Peart-like kit with very high toms (I have 7 toms and 7 cymbals in my setup, with help from my trusty 90's era TM-6 MIDI expansion still plugging away!) As a hobby drummer (well, a hobby for 30 years) with an exhausting day job I feel daunted by the learning curve and time required to create my own multi-layer sounds , esp as I really only have a smattering of wav files and none that I am in love with. Are you planning on having a go at natively recording analog instruments, and/or creating new ones from royalty-free wav files? I, for one, will happily pay to save myself the time and frustration of both sifting through poorly organized free wavs and learning how to use Mimic's new editor, and would not doubt get a far better result than what I'd cobble together on my own. If this is your intent, and you are open to requests, here is one middle-aged drummer's wish list: A cymbal+ collection (or a bundle of them) that gets close to - Gavin Harrison's on In Absentia, esp the subtle, high splashes, chinas, bells... . Of course his was/is custom and unique, but not finding anything in library or my editing skills to get me even close to a starting point for adjusting sustain, decay, eq, mics... - A crotale a la YYZ - rides with clear, clean pings without all the deeper, darker overtones / swells A tom collection (or bundle of them) - 7-8 descending in 4ths or 5ths (a la Peart on Permanent waves, great example in first 15 secs or so of Spirit of the Radio and another in final fill on Natural Science). I did notice there is now a new, higher tom available in 1.4 update - drw cllt 8 - but not high enough to get spread. Gave up hope Pearl will provide more tuning range in Mod (whatever range "+/-50" provides I think I would need equivalent of +/- 200 to be happy with their library.) - Actual timbales? (your workaround is pretty damn good, but alas, still constrained by highest snare tuned up "50") - More cowbell ;) Thanks again for everything!

[@charliemay5758]

Great stuff Luke thank you so much, didn't understand a word you said but I'm sure to get over it. Going off for a little lie down now....

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

😂🙏

[@StarrbrightTV]

This is awesome! Unfortunately I use a Mac and have to wait a little bit. I assume this can be used for percussion sounds and cymbal stacks? If so can you touch on that?

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

Yes, it can! I mention it towards the end - you build them the same way as any of the other samples I've shown off, you just need the percussion/cymbal stack samples!

[@Markasondrums]

Congrats on the 10K Subs

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

Thank you 🙏

[@BobSchoepenjr]

Hi Luke, recently I had a great time with 2 guys from Manchester/ Liverpool here in Antwerp. Not drummers but who cares😆. Nice tutorial.

[@ragenationapparel]

Appreciate your help so so much, my brother 🫶

[@marco_prolo]

Great video, m8. Will there be an editor version for MacOS?

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

Thanks! Yes, the Mac editor is now available. It's included in the download for the software update here - pearldrum.com/support/firmware/mimic-pro-downloads You might need to set your location to United States to see it (if it isn't already). For some reason it doesn't show properly on other regions.

[@marco_prolo]

@@TheeDrumWorkshop Man that's awesome! Setting the location to the US made it directly downloadable. Seems to work great on my M1 Mac 💪🏼

[@larrybrown1194]

Are your sample affected by the room and overhead mic channels in the Mimic's mixer? Do you have to record separate layers just for that?

[@AtTheSourceStudios]

Wow. Now that it looks like it has full slate sample library I might actually get this module again! How does it track through MIDI for VST? Latency/accuracy

[@Chrisloft]

I am not sure why you want to use VST with mimic since now you can imports all sample from VST to mimic using SDSE or even use all full SSD5 added into mimic, but you can, people on mimic group some are using it in the past with SD3, you just require proper sound card and setting properly in your daw for sample rate and such. kzbin.info/www/bejne/noPWhIuBnJJ5mbs

[@animalglx4469]

Nice video Luke, thanks! One question, where does the articulation tab 'Snare Rimshot Side' stands for?

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

Thank you! Rimshot Side is basically an alternative set of rimshot samples taken from towards the side of the head - somewhat of a "shallow rimshot" vibe. The center ones usually have more crack, the side ones usually have more tone/ring. If the Mimic supported PS on the rim like a Roland module it could have been used for that, but unfortunately not. Personally I often swap my rimshot sound to this when I want more tone out of the rimshot or if I'm layering snares I'll use the rimshot side of one layer and the regular rimshot of the other for a more interesting sound.

[@bowlingactually]

@@TheeDrumWorkshop While we're at it, snare side, snare rimclick, snare sidestick are also somewhat confusing. I've seen forum debates about these terms and many people use the terms for different things. Would be nice if Pearl gave definitions of exactly what these are in their software. And it's odd that they have all these but no "snare bottom" which there is an adjustment for in the Mimic module. And as of the latest release the Mimic DOES support positional sensing, so it becomes even more important to understand exactly what these terms do in the Mimic. Hopefully the instrument editor evolves to someday include bottom snare mic and hihat samples.

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

I can explain all of that! Snare side - samples taken from the edge of the head, near to the rim. Generally these have more tone, less body, a different feel of attack. Rim click - samples taken from hitting the rim of the snare on its own, directly with the stick Side-stick - standard cross-stick samples (hand on head, stick to rim) So these are all articulations that can be played on an acoustic drum that have been sampled and you can select between them. When you use the positional sensing (available with the ATV preset), you leave the head as the "center" articulation. Then when you move towards the edge of the head, it will blend with and then swap to the "side" samples. The reason that "snare bottom" is not in this menu is that it's a microphone, not an articulation. So when you hit the drum and a sound triggers, it will be triggering multiple samples at once - a sample for the top microphone, one for the bottom, one for that instrument in the overhead mics and one for that instrument in the room mic. (These samples are matched to each other so that you don't trigger the top sample for a different hit to the bottom, etc.) The mic controls just balance out the volumes of these microphones and there are top/bottom/OH/room samples for every articulation (center, side, rimshot etc). I hope that makes sense!

[@bowlingactually]

@@TheeDrumWorkshop Awesome, thanks for the great explanation Luke! Perfect!!

[@JoeyDeNoble-po1fi]

What kind of ride cymbal and crash cymbals are you using in this video?

[@garrycraig2095]

Finally bought one. Where do you get the software from? I can’t see it on the Pearl web site.

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

It comes bundled with the download for the new software version. Or there are direct links to everything in the description.

[@sammcdouall4849]

Hi Luke How were you able to arrange your samples into accending peaks in reaper. I wish there was a $wildcard for the peak (dB) and loudness (lufs, rms) when rendering.

[@Corbrwl]

Hello Luke, I just purchased a PMP a few weeks ago, and I'm slowly getting up to speed on it. I also have EZDrummer3, and there's a lot of instrument/kit sounds there that I'd like to bring in to the PMP. Is there an easy way to do this? I haven't seen a video that describes the process, if it's even possible. Thanks!

[@wuffb]

Looks like your using the Yamaha Hi Hat with the mimic pro . .. can you please share your settings for such? What pad type and did cables matter??

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

It's a Yamaha PCY-135 paired with a Goedrum controller, not a Yamaha hi-hat pad/controller. I was just using it with the VH-11 preset, if I remember rightly, dialled in for the sensitivity etc that I wanted.

[@wuffb]

@@TheeDrumWorkshop THANK YOU . .. SO I have DTX Pro Pads ... The Hi Hats I have are Roland VH 11 and also Yamaha RHH135 . . . it sounds like getting the controller is the solution . . . do you agree??

[@ArgonautDrums]

Good stuff man, I've just been winging it with questionable results lol. How many samples/velocities do you think are needed for a good feeling/sounding instrument? I've been maxing out SDSE and then dividing it equally (vel/rr) based on the total amount of samples ripped, with at least 6 rr layers; but it seems to be overkill with a lot of quiet samples.

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

To be honest, 5 or 6 layers with 5/6 RR on an articulation can work really well, but it can depend on the exact samples. Some will be less obvious than others with low sample numbers. I've been really happy with my own snare having 10 layers and 7RR on the head, with fewer on the other articulations (you should be able to see my exact sample count if you pause it when I have my notes up, I think). You definitely don't need them all though and kick and toms will suffice with fewer. Edit - I think the lower velocities have been the most important for natural sounding instruments so far. If you don't have many layers down at the bottom range, it can be really obvious when you transition up to harder hits, whereas the upper velocities can get away with a bit more leeway between the layers (with the samples I've used so far, at least).

[@ArgonautDrums]

@@TheeDrumWorkshop ah ok, that makes a lot of sense, thanks for sharing! I've noticed that GGD is lacking alot of the lower velocity samples, making it tough to get a natural sounding snare for instance. I ended up having to layer one of the mimic snares under it to get better dynamics, and ghost notes.

[@mariosoriano786]

Hi Luke, with this new Mimic Instrument Editor could you create sounds like a tambourine or cow-bell? If possible...do you plan to create some of these custom sounds to be able to buy them on your website? I would be happy to buy them to add to my mimic pro. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, it's amazing what you know!

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

Hi Mario! Yes, you can create percussion instruments with it. I am hoping to be able to record some, for sure!

[@mariosoriano786]

Great!! Thank you Luke

[@randalscandal1588]

I have this on Mac, I'm able to load the samples, save them in as a project, but when I try save instrument, nothing saves.... Any ideas?

[@mb7196]

Cool but the thing with the High Hats is pretty much a deal breaker for me. Having a way for Hi Hats from sample packs like BFD/Platinum Samples is pretty much the entire point for me as it's the biggest weakness of triggering off the computer via midi. Everything else plays almost perfectly anyway and the HH are still pretty damn good. Just not quite "module" level smooth. Ah well...the wait continues. Oh, quick question....what's the total possible storage on that for a kit? I get the "300" samples thing, but does it have the Gigabytes to hold a full Platinum Samples kit?

[@billbradleymusic]

You're not paying attention.

[@mb7196]

@@billbradleymusic yeah? how do you figure? You do understand that he said "all of the high hats in the mimic have been optimized specifically for use with their HH engine." Which means that if I want to load BFD/Platinum Samples hats into the mimic they would have to be treated like user HH's. And that feature isn't available. So what is it you think I'm not paying attention to?

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

Apologies, didn't spot your question at the end of the comment. There's a 120GB SSD in the Mimic and if I remember rightly, before you add any sounds there is somewhere in the region of 95GB free - could be a bit more or a bit less, not 100% sure without checking. But yes, there's plenty of room on the module for stereo-bounced VST exports!

[@mb7196]

@@TheeDrumWorkshop no worries! That's quite a lot of storage which is great. You'd still have to pick and choose your kits though as many of the Platinum Samples kits are huge memory hogs. For me though, as I said, it's all about the hats. I just want something that takes the samples from those brands and makes it play the way the crappy sounding hats play when I use my roland module. The smoothness of the transitions etc. I think at this point if I upgrade I'm just going to go with the eDRUMin even though it deals with hats like a traditional module triggering VSTs. Thanks for the response.

[@Colognedrummerboy]

It was hard for me to understand how much different samples I will need to import, to get a multilayer snare for example. Will there be a more in depth tutorial or is there any „how to“ coming with the Instrument Editor? I’m on mac, so can’t improve what’s coming ;-)

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

It's difficult to give any exact numbers because it's different depending on the samples. Some samples that happen to be spaced out well across the velocity range might sound great with only a few layers and round robins, others might sound bad/"fake" with the same sample count. So you kind of have to experiment with the ones you have and find out what works. That's why I showed off one version where I had very organised samples with a lot of layers (10 velocities, 7 round robins), then I built a tom out of a much smaller sample count from a pretty large pool of samples to show that a good selection from a large set can still give you playable results. I usually plan everything out and script heavily for my videos but I decided to make this one as I went, then heavily edited to trim out a lot of ums and ahhs. So maybe that means a couple of bits are lost in translation.

[@marcogiusfredi6552]

How can you know how many velocity layers (and all their relative round robbin file) are there for sure in a specific vst and how to export and recognise all of them? Thanks

[@garrycraig2095]

I may have already asked this but are you considering creating a pack of percussion instrument samples?

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

I am considering it and I'm hoping to be able to do it sometime next year, budget permitting!

[@randalscandal1588]

Is there a way to get samples from the IK Multimedia libraries?

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

Sorry for the wait on this one! I believe the only IK library currently fully compatible with SDSE is MODO DRUM. There might be a way to semi-automate it using SDSE (I feel like I've seen someone mention this for unsupported VSTs, but haven't looked into it) or if not it might have to be done manually by setting up a MIDI track, recording and chopping.

[@randalscandal1588]

@@TheeDrumWorkshop I bought the Neil Peart samples for sampletank 4 and it wasn't the easiest to use with my NFUZD stuff. I just picked up a Mimic Pro so I could load the multi layer samples in if I can get to them.

[@Onetindrum]

Does the software give you the ability to create a snare with the articulations of center, offset center, and edge……as well as rimshot and rim click. From watching and listening to the video, I can only hear 2 articulations being played on the snare when played from center to edge. Am I correct in my assessment?

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

Yes, you can create all articulations and in my playing example, I'm using head centre and head side (with the positional sensing), rimshot and cross-stick articulations. There isn't an "off centre" articulation in the Mimic because the Slate samples don't have them, but it blends between the two. I just skimmed over the section where I placed in the samples for all of them because it made the video very long (I mention that I "need to do this now for the other articulations" then fast forward because the process is the same for all articulations).

[@Onetindrum]

@@TheeDrumWorkshop So what you are saying is that, there will be 3 midi notes available from center to edge , ala Roland positional sensing when creating my own custom snare sample. Sorry for sounding so redundant, but being a Mac user, I’m not able give the editor a test drive until the Mac version is released.

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

No, there are two head articulations - snare center, snare side. So that's what is available with the editor (you can see the articulation list if you pause the video). The PS on the module will blend between the two sample sets when you transition from center to edge. The MIDI doesn't send distinct MIDI notes for position data, it uses CC16 and this is variable between the values of 0 and 127. Roland modules also operate like this for their PS data over MIDI. It's the software/hardware that decides which samples get triggered where on that scale (and on the Mimic, the new PS settings let you adjust the ranges).

[@garrycraig2095]

So can you import 2Box samples? What the Mimic needs is brush kits and Latin / percussion.

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

If you have a method to extract the wav samples from the 2Box .dsnd files (such as Lustark's DSound Manager) then yes, you could do.

[@garrycraig2095]

@@TheeDrumWorkshop I thought you could down load them from 2Box as they are open source?

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

You can download them for free, yes. But they come in .dsnd format which is a proprietary file format that the 2Box module reads the samples from. You can't just open these files on your computer and even with 2Box's own sound editor, you can't open .dsnd files that have already been created, you can only create them. So there is no way to take the individual .wav files out of these .dsnd files unless you use Lustark's DSound Manager tool which allows export of the .wav files contained.

[@garrycraig2095]

@@TheeDrumWorkshop awesome, as always thanks for your help. Any chance of a tutorial when you get a spare hour! : )

[@edrumsense]

No mic control? Its a shame :-( I hope they fix that in future

[@TheeDrumWorkshop]

"Fix" implies it's broken. I believe that it would just take up a huge amount of development time (and the benefits to the majority of people are pretty small). Creating multiple mic versions is pretty simple and should give a fair amount of flexibility