Simple but effective drum mixing tip for beginners using Superior Drummer 3

[@learnngwell]

Hey Mike, if it’s true that “mixing cannot be taught; it can only be learned,” then you need to stop being so great at teaching it. Seriously, you’re like Superior Teacher 3. Thank you, once again!

[@JourneysByJay]

Parallel processing is a huge part of my process. I always have a parallel track of the whole kit CRUSHED to HELL also. It's subtle in the mix, but it adds SOOOOO much. Thanks for sharing all this Mike. You are a gem in this community.

[@MikeLuke]

Beats By Jay Thanks bro. Yeah, parallel process the whole drum bus is a must have. However, I only do this on more heavy stuff and, more important, just the drums, no overheads and room mics. Because compressing cymbals too heavily can cause nasty sounds, I'm usually pretty conservative when it comes to compressing cymbals. By parallel processing only the drums (Kick, snare and toms) you can achieve an even bigger sound.

[@gregwilliams2764]

I learn more every time I watch this.

[@gregwilliams2764]

I’ve watched this more than any other tutorial. Very helpful to this beginner. I’m loving my SD3 .thanks Mike

[@billbradleymusic]

Drummer of 30+ here. I have to tell you that I dig what you do. Keep it up! 💪

[@kociol21]

Damn Mike. I do this for fun for years - YEARS I TELL YOU. And I always had this exact issue. "Ok, so snare - some eq, some transient, some compression, some mild distortion, more eq, more compression" etc. repeat for every track. And it ALWAYS sounded like total shit. So I wasted days upon days on this just to end up frustrated and switching to some preset after all. I watched several videos on mixing drums but it didn't help much. Theoretically I did everything right but the end effect was terrible. Always either far too raw sounding or overprocessed to hell. This video finally helped me understand what I was doing wrong. It is awesome. Now I have the sounds of well recorded drums but slightly enhanced and not this monstrosity I got earlier - exactly what I was trying to achieve the whole time. I know, old video but thank you so much!

[@MikeLuke]

Thanks for watching buddy. Glad it did help.

[@EmmanuelB]

I'm so happy to finally find great videos about how to get the best out of this VSTi. Thanks a LOT !

[@johnplainsong9769]

Still helpful after all these years!

[@g.e.holliday9375]

Thanks a lot,In Atlanta there are no Engineers that mix live acoustic urban Drums,(mainly trap Drums) its taken me 2 yrs or maybe 10,to finally learn to mix drums and you helped a lot . I gave up performing live to focus on My Album production

[@MikeLuke]

Hey, thanks for your comment. Hope your album turns out amazing.

[@jordyskateboardy]

I'm currently beginning recording with my band on our first repetoire! Such a great and insightful video! Really eye opening!

[@LittleDrummerChannel]

This is a great studio trick to add EQing, dimension, effects...and so on. Sometimes I have found that playing with the panning and phase on the parallel tracks can be fun and sometimes necessary. I use this approach often as well...great video Mike!!

[@MikeLuke]

Yeah, you definitely have to check the phase when process in parallel. But I didn't want to make it too complex in this video as I reached out for beginners, giving them a idea to start with.

[@LittleDrummerChannel]

You did a great job here my friend! Covered a lot of ground! ;)

[@TonyByte]

What's the phase and how do you check and play with it? I'm getting a phase effect like a phase pedal because it's doubled with parallel. Is that what you mean? How do you "check" it? How do you fix it?

[@HansMolenaar]

Nice tutorial again Mike, and some clear explaination about parallel processing too.

[@flyerman5357]

As somewhat of a beginner, I do find it all confusing mostly because of the amount of stuff to keep track off. So I usually don’t mess with SD3 mixer page. However, the more I watch your videos the more it is all making sense. Thank you.

[@MikeLuke]

Glad I can help a bit. If you have any specific questions, just let me know.

[@MartinvonBargen]

This has given me a new perspective into parallel processing. I'm gonna try this out on a drum mix tonight. Thanks so much Mike!

[@AndreiGrozea]

why do i keep running into you everywhere

[@drumhobby]

Thanks Mike, your tutorials have been a huge help to me trying to learn SD3.

[@MikeLuke]

Cheers Joe! Glad I could help.

[@rhythmantic]

Thanks for sharing this method of creating parallel drums. The final result sounds great. I've created parallel drums on some of my videos by including 1 or 2 channels of additional drum sample software. For example, I record the performance using SD then using the MIDI file create an audio file using Studio Drummer and/or Addictive Drums and mix them in with the original recorded performance. Thank you Mike, I appreciate the work and time you take to share your knowledge.

[@MikeLuke]

And I appreciate that you spend your precious time to watch my stuff, dear Sal.

[@tonyodoherty6241]

rhythmantic - Sal D'Amato )

[@cosmic_v]

Wow this made a big difference in my mix! Thank you for teaching us your knowledge!

[@MikeLuke]

Thanks for stopping by and watching!

[@rastix]

You deserve a lot more subscribers. It helps so much man, good job for these SD3 videos.

[@MikeLuke]

Ciao Daniele, thanks a lot, appreciate it. Cheers

[@Max333A]

Thanks Mike. Very helpful for beginners like me.

[@MrJohnHanslip]

Brilliant. Easy to understand, effective, top work sir.

[@MikeLuke]

Thanks a lot, John. Glad you like it.

[@joejordan4246]

Awesome video Mike!! You are a fantastic instructor. Thanks very much!!!

[@troydean2574]

I love you Mike. I've recently discovered your channel and I'm a massive fan. Thanks for what you do.

[@MikeLuke]

Cheers Troy! Appreciate your kind words

[@WhelanDrums]

This will definitely help a lot of fellow musicians. Nicely put together Mike. Nicely done buddy!

[@RTSFromHell]

Amazing knowledge! thanks for sharing your experience

[@gregwilliams2764]

Every time I watch I learn something new..

[@thomasnommensen-drummix9026]

Again, a great tutorial from you. Parallel processing is something that is now much used and really has a lot of potential for sound optimization. So i use it quite often. Especially for extreme compression, which would lose too many transients in the conventional way. In the pure sound optimization (EQ, Filter, Multiband Compression) you should be aware, however, that the same signal is now processed twice differently and then summed again. Especially with bass-heavy (stereo) signals there can sometimes be phase problems. So (as always) ears wide open :-) Oh, by the way, I believe mixing can be taught (like almost everything in life), because good teaching is just a methodology, lots of information in reasonable sizes and the correct order to learn. And one more thing is good teaching: motivation! Ultimately, dear Mike, you show with your videos so very clearly what good teaching is capable of :-)

[@MikeLuke]

Hi Thomas, yes, I‘m aware of the phase issues that can occur. But I didn’t want to make this too complicated for the beginning. ;-) The idea was more to show that labeling the parallel track can help beginners to know where to go instead of just parallel processing for the sake of it.

[@nickracine]

Awesome video! So glad I found your channel! Thank you for such great content!

[@MikeLuke]

Cheers Nick, appreciate it.

[@kirkbrandham]

Nice work and well explained. I look forward to trying this. Thank you : )

[@connect_music_yvr]

Awesome tutorial! Will be sharing your work on my channel down the road. Love how you demonstrate bringing in the changes slowly and then again highlight the difference by muting the track. Super helpful!

[@MikeLuke]

Thanks a lot! Glad you like it

[@boogybass]

Thank you, so much! This helps lots!

[@lucianoriva6979]

I love this channel, damn good explanations

[@MikeLuke]

Thanks a lot! A lot of other viewers complain that I talk too much ;)

[@ghastlyshimmer]

Wow. This is really helpful

[@arfoe]

Great video Mike. Very informative and thorough. Thank you so much for putting out this great content. Love your channel.

[@MikeLuke]

Thanks a lot for your support and kind words, Marcos. I really do appreciate it 🙏

[@rhythmantic]

Hey Mike thanks for the great tips. I’m forever still learning about SD3?especially since I used it five times a week in church services and am always looking for the optimum sound.

[@MikeLuke]

Hey Sal, how are you, my friend? Looking for the optimal sound is probably a life long process after all ;)

[@rhythmantic]

@@MikeLuke Yes it is my friend.

[@MarkuzP66]

another nice and interesting Video from you Mike! thank you for your good work!

[@MikeLuke]

Thanks a lot, Markus. I know this is not helpful for everybody, but I know I have quiet a lot of users following my channel who just started using Superior Drummer or any other drum software.

[@chrisogle001]

Fantastic tutorial! Thanks!

[@MikeLuke]

Cheers Chris! Thanks for watching.

[@catpeterson4577]

Appreciated. Very helpful!

[@quebecomega]

Thank you so much, very helpfull

[@MichaelJohnsonProductions]

Wow thank you very much Mike. Definitely going to help me. Im still in the learning process.

[@MikeLuke]

Hey Michael, glad I could help. It seems complex in the beginning, but once you know the basic tools, it's doable - because as a drummer you have certain sound in your head and know what sounds great.

[@MichaelJohnsonProductions]

Mike Luke that's the truth man. Again thank you.

[@TredDrums]

Hello Mike, can I ask which computer do you have please? I am considering buying the SD3 but it takes a lot of space, so I am considering buying an external drive too. In the description of your video you use the Lacie Thunderbolt 2TB, I have a Macbook Pro mid 2014 so I want to connect via Thunderbolt. The connection of this lacie drive is Thunderbolt 1, is this will be sufficient (considering speed) or do I have to buy a drive with Thunderbolt 2 connection? My computer supports Thunderbolt 2 connections. Thanks, man!

[@MikeLuke]

Well, I get this question quite often. At the end, the difference in speed is maybe just a few seconds. I mean, how often do you load up a new kit? Sometimes you just change the snare or the kick on a loaded kit, but this only takes a few seconds to load. It’s your decision to spend more money on faster external drives to save maybe 2 seconds in loading time. Prices for external drives decrease rapidly at the moment. Of course I could have gone for an external SSD, but they were quite pricey that time - and I didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars more just to save a few seconds here and there. I use a 2013 iMac 3.4Ghz i7 Quad-Core with 256 SSD drive and 16 GB of RAM.

[@TredDrums]

Mike Luke Thanks Mike, you gave me a clear vision now. I bought SSD3 and now I have to manage my disk space here. Im learning the software, it seems to be great! If needed I will buy a usb3 hd. Thanks man!

[@BobSchoepenjr]

So valuable !

[@StevenDiLeo]

Awesome video, thanks for sharing your ideas :D

[@MikeLuke]

Thanks for watching, Steven!

[@calvingudu9237]

Mike Say I have created a great drum mix and I only want to change the kick from another drum kit that has been treated. How can I bring the kick with its processing from another kit? Thanks.

[@earldrum]

Nice lesson ... I use this type effect on real drums occasionally. Good lesson!

[@danprestup7622]

Great video

[@pakipoli4895]

Excuse a question. today i tried to move a fader to raise the volume in the hi hat mixer but strangely the slider is automatically positioned at 0 .... and it doesn't move? what happened why i can't move the cursor? thank you

[@BruceDureaultJr]

Killer stuff. Im getting a masssive drum sound

[@petersvan7880]

Great video, thank you!

[@MikeLuke]

Thanks Peter!

[@Exoauraband]

Love it, thanks

[@MikeLuke]

Thanks for watching!

[@WarBeer]

Question...aren't your Crack/Crush channels still going through the 1/2 outs? ...thus whatever processing you do to them, they still get processed by the 1/2 out as well? BTW, I really enjoy your channel!

[@MikeLuke]

Yes, if you put processing on the 1/2 out, it will affect everything. Usually I don’t put that much stuff on the 1/2 out though, just some basic EQ and a touch of compression for the glue.

[@hansdegel4661]

Fantastic video! Do you always use the reverb of SD3. Or also external reverbs vst for drums of SD3?

[@MikeLuke]

Hi Hans, thanks for stopping by. Normally I route all drums from SD3 into my DAW and use reverbs there. It‘s just a different way of workflow.

[@me6980]

helo mike, can i get your save preset fot this video ?

[@OmegaStationMusic]

Great tutorial, thanks for sharing!

[@MikeLuke]

Cheers! 👍🏻

[@soekanta]

Very helpful. Thx!

[@MikeLuke]

Cheers!

[@NathansJourneyWithChrist]

Great stuff!

[@TheJohnblacky]

Hi Mike, super Video. Hast Du auch Erfahrung, mit mehreren Outputs live ins Interface zu gehen, damit der Mischer separat nachjustieren kann? Kann man den Stereooutputkanal trennen, weil immer nur 1/2; 3/4..... ausgegeben wird. Über den Pan das zu regeln, finde ich unschön.

[@MikeLuke]

Ich weiß nicht, ob ich Dich richtig verstanden habe. Aber das wäre eigentlich der Weg. Der Pan-Regler ist hier ja nur eine Krücke: Zwei Mono-Signale (Kick & Snare) über 1/2 rauszugeben, ist eigentlich üblig. Superior Drummer bietet, warum auch immer, keine Mono-Ausgänge an. Das Signal selbst ist jedoch Mono (bei Kick, Snare, den Toms usw.) Der Mischer benötigt ja normalerweise 6-8 Kanäle: Kick, Snare, HiHat, Toms (gruppiert), Overheads und Room. Wenn Du diese mit 1/2, 3/4 als Output setzt, kann der Mischer diese aufgreifen. Auch wenn die Kick z.B. ein Mono-Signal ist, kommt es als Mono auch beim Mischer an. Du brauchst natürlich ein Interface mit entsprechenden Ausgängen, aber das ist klar.

[@TheJohnblacky]

Danke Dir für Deine Antwort, Mike. rme Interface ist vorhanden und es ist leider so, dass die Kanäle nicht einzeln angesteuert werden können, was auch bei den Raummikros so ist. Daher sind die Toms und, aus Platzmangel an Kanälen, auch die Becken und die Raummikros auf 5/6, um wenigsten hier einen Stereoeffekt zu erzielen.

[@aaronkneile]

Great stuff! Thank you so much for sharing.

[@MikeLuke]

Thanks for watching, Aaron! Appreciate it

[@biekanez1]

Hello Mike, this was a very learn full video. I will certainly try it out. I still have a few questions. When you route out these tracks in Reaper, do you route out the bass buss + bass parallel buss to the same track, I do suppose. And I never route out the red track from SD3, although there are some effects on it. Is that right? Have a nice weekend my friend and thanks for this video!👍🤛

[@MikeLuke]

Hi Rob, you are right. The "red track" is the stereo output ... you use this when you process all the drums INSIDE of Superior Drummer. Then you just send the output 1/2 to your DAW and usually don't need to process it any further - when you already used processing inside of SD3.

[@gregwilliams2764]

Can I use this proces to design my kits that I create for live playing later. ?

[@MikeLuke]

Yes, for sure you can. You can build as many kits as you want

[@gregwilliams2764]

Great. I thought it might have only been for mixing a song but not for future live playing. Obviously I'm new. I have ezdrummer 2. Tomorrow I'm purchasing a 1 TB SSD from Amazon. My computer has a 1 TB HHD but it's worn out. I want Superior Drummer 3 software on this new SSD. Next month I'm buying 16 GB of new RAM. It only has 8 now. I think it would load too slowly. So, little by little, I'll have it all. Thanks Mike 👍 as usual very helpful. Greg

[@johnerodz7]

Great video thnx

[@TTB8311]

Awesome video! My only question is, once you have all the effects you want on the additional bus do you copy it over to the original and remove or just leave both as is?

[@MikeLuke]

Hi, you leave the additional bus as it is. At the end, all busses and tracks run through the main output, which is 1/2

[@bailey12444]

Hello mike, i created a drum set on sd3 that I really like, I have been replacing the drums from other libraries it seems to work fine for me because i don’t have to tweak the drums so much , my question is am I missing something sound wise by doing it this way? Or it will be better to stick to the drums in the library and tweak those? Thanks 🙏

[@MikeLuke]

There is no rule in achieving a certain sound. It's all about personal preferences. If it sounds good for you, then stick to it.

[@bailey12444]

Mike Luke thanks mike I got me progressive foundry sdx and omg is amazing the Ludwig steel metal drums are so good , thanks again

[@hannibalbarkas1350]

[@WaynePryce]

So I don't need to process outside of superior? In other words, my daw

[@MikeLuke]

Nope, you can … but you don‘t need to.

[@J1mbo888]

Every Day is a "School Day" Mike ....

[@MikeLuke]

So true! :)

[@lodougherty]

Why are the likes and dislikes disabled?

[@MikeLuke]

They aren’t disabled, you just can’t see them. If you hit like or dislike, I see it and it „counts“ they way it usually does. But the results are not public.

[@joshsmith7033]

It just sounds like you added a bunch of ambient and room noise.... You could have just turned those faders up and got the same result.

[@BruceDureaultJr]

Bruce Dureault [e-mail] riff