Reaper DAW 101 Part 7:- VSTi Drum Routing (Slate Drums 5, MT Power Kit etc)

[@Blue_3rd]

For newbies like me who may not know: - if you turn off your PC after a session which includes MT drums (unpaid), then you will need to open the FX and the drum plugin again when re starting your session. If you don’t, no sound will come out of the drum track and you will drive yourself mad wondering why :) ✌️

[@adamsteelproducer]

This is a great point! That wasn’t there when I first made the video, it’s been added in since

[@Blue_3rd]

@@adamsteelproducer Your videos are so helpful, my go-to Reaper guide 😃 I have commented elsewhere but just in case you haven’t seen it - THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

[@davidjgreer9477]

...and if you are using a midi trigger on different drum tracks, you must open the FX on each track too....or just pay £5:)

[@leemendez7876]

Been there 🙄

[@RM-jw4fc]

happened to me too

[@existentialrap521]

It’s rare to find someone who’s a talented sound engineer. It’s even rarer to find one that’s an amazing teacher. Good shit, brother. Once I make it, I’ll donate, cuz rn I’m poor af. xD

[@Alcatraz509]

8:03 when you asked and I was right I let out a little, “yay”. I love knowing if I’m learning.

[@Themis781]

You are brilliant Adam. I was lost with Reaper until I came across your videos. I now love using Reaper. Thanks mate!

[@multilegolover]

This guy deserves a Nobel Prize or something for posting these tutorials for free

[@jimhinkle7245]

Thank you!!! I have learned more from you in the last 2 days, than I have in the last 2 years with Reaper!!! NO JOKE!!!

[@dentalhams]

This series is so valuable to me. Adam explains everything with the perfect amount of detail for my needs. You can tell the lessons were fully prepared, not just improvised. You're an excellent teacher, Adam. Thank you for sharing your expertise!

[@KennCrawford]

Just installed Reaper and came to KZbin to find videos on it. I wasn't overly impressed until I found your videos, and was blown away. Your ability to explain things is top notch; a down to earth yet very professional style. Well done. I haven't actually gotten anything done in Reaper yet because I have been binge watching your video LOL Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I subscribed to your channel and will be checking out your course later. Thanks again.

[@nutella_drifter]

Thank you for clarifying this topic. I was about to download separate samples for each part of a drum kit and place them on individual tracks. This method is much-much easier in terms of writing drum lines and mixing them.

[@mathiashls]

The aesthetic of your video is amazing, such a good taste and a high quality image. The content follow the same level of quality, thank you for all your work!

[@hoffersmusic815]

I'm new to this and you explain things that even a novice like me can grasp. Nicely presented, clear and informative. Thank you

[@capoeragames2081]

finaly i can tweak my drum kits, compress, add eqs and reverbs separately! you did a phenomenal job explaining this, the video it's 23 min long, but it felt like 5!

[@Jadevibration]

Awesome tutorial and thorough explanation! I was following along while routing addictive drums 2 to Reaper. Only thing that was different was that AD2 has mono outs which I selected while sending and you helped me get everything routed! Thank you cheers

[@danielmccann9341]

Really enjoying this video series, i am guitarist/bassist who was put off home recording in the 90s by Cubase and tascam portastudios . I'm now ready to move into this century and embrace the technology 😄

[@adamsteelproducer]

Fantastic! We’re right here with you. I learnt on portastudios and early 2000s cubase, so here’s where we’re at now

[@dawsondavidable]

I have been trying to figure this out for months, thanks for putting it all together! Time to boot up... :)

[@urasam2]

I've been seaching for three days for someone who can explain this to me and you, sir, are the only one who has succeeded. I thank you most sincerely.

[@victorparra7780]

I've been the whole day looking for this, thank you!!

[@satevo462]

Why do I always end up watching these kinds of videos drunk at 5 in the morning? Oh yeah, I'm gonna remember this stuff tomorrow/today!!!

[@AeGeR97]

Thank you so much for showing "The long way"! I'm transitioning from Pro Tools & I love how Reaper just works. But, there is the part of me that needs to know the how & why of things. You have saved me a lot of time & frustration.

[@michaelanthony9068]

God bless you ! I am the WORST with computers so the understanding you’ve given me is nothing short of a MIRACLE !!!

[@faisalrahman3671]

You are amazing, the best tutorial I have ever seen, I was struggling with this for a long time and you made my day! Thank you!

[@neckcheese1356]

I noticed the first time I booted up MT Power in Reaper that it asked me if I wanted separate output channels. Wasn't familiar with this option since my old DAW (Soundbridge) couldn't do that. This is a really helpful tutorial. Now I can EQ and add effects to everything separately.

[@ChannelForty2]

I only recently found your tutorials and man, thank you! Great work!

[@paulh5295]

Nice one mate! Great tutorial and well explained. I happen to be using MT Power Drum Kit in recording my first EP. It’s taking a lot longer as I’m recording it myself and also because I’m learning the programs as I go and I’ve been hitting a lot of brick walls with my creative intentions vs knowledge. You and your explanations have just made this so much easier and brought my enthusiasm back up!

[@garyo7522]

I have watched several videos in the past few days on this subject and this is the clearest one. Thank you!

[@mickykeen6251]

Adam, I have recently come across your channel whilst searching for reaper info. I am currently building my own rehearsal studio in my garage and plan a small scale recording setup. As a drummer with no real knowledge or experience with recording and the use of DAW's I have found your channel and especially this series absolutely fantastic. I've learned so much about reaper even if it is just the basics. I just wanted to let you know how good the channel is, and you yourself. Great to watch, glad I found your channel. Cheers, Micky

[@t.ist666]

You resolved a confounding quandary of mine in one fell swoop! Thanks to you, I can now tinker with all my MIDI drums in a way that had eluded me. A proper a-ha moment was had here by me tonight. Aside from your knowledge of music production, you're clearly a fantastic teacher, respect. Cheers and keep up the good work!

[@DavidSmith-ne1zp]

I absolutely would not have figured this out on my own! Thanks for meticulously walking me through the process.

[@rikrayner9909]

There is also a 3rd way - when inserting a VST onto a new track, choose (in my case SSD (Sampler 5) and Reaper will prompt you if you want to build the multi-outputs at this point. This is same as the 2nd option in the video - Options > Build multichannel routing for output of selected FX...

[@joeking5211]

?????? Not on my copy of SSD5 ?????? - Open New Trk - Click FX, choose SSD5 and it opens on the Create/Instrument normal opening screen ?????

[@dustyscrypt]

Thank you so much. Your video taught me a lot, and saved me some headaches. The only problem I seem to have, is that not all my individual drums were routed to the tracks that I sent them to. Mainly my Crash & Toms. Other than that, everything works as it should. I can finally eq, and add effects to individual drums & percussion. Thanks again!

[@musakaOverlord]

U r the man! So easy listening to..!Greetings from Greece !

[@raytar84]

My God! Thank You! I was looking for this info for hours...

[@AMRCMusic]

This particular training video has been "SUPER-HELPFUL" and is perfect timing as I prepare to place each track in my Reaper DAW software program for the next upcoming release to my fans. Thank you ever so much Adam!!!

[@ultramusicman]

What a great tutorial. Thanks! The next step that I'd like to see is what kind of processing you'd apply to each channel, how to simulate room mics and overheads if the plugin doesn't supply them, how to pan the various parts of the drum kit, and how to set up NY Drums/Parallel Compression. Please point me to the video(s) if you've already covered this.

[@mattjenkins1937]

As someone coming from acoustic drum recording to e-drum recording this is massively helpful! Thank you.

[@jwuman]

Another Invaluable Video Series,,,,Thanks Adam,,,from a grateful Reaper newbe

[@michaelk4896]

Exactly the answer I was looking for. Explained it clearly, worked from the first try. Thanks so much!

[@RobertMurphy-wm3ge]

Well explained for new folks like myself. Good job dude. I am as new as it gets to drums.

[@MrTimMifsud]

This was fascinating and I followed along and copied each action of the long way with Steven Slate Drums 5.5, amd it gave me the kit as you show it. Great! However, as soon as I changed the kit to a different kit or changed say the snare to a different snare, it reverted to everything in SSD being routed to out stereo 1. Selecting the quick method, then mucks up where all the tracks go, as each kit has slightly different stereo full routing. So I am going back to just having a plain single drum midi stereo track and will use the quick option to fully route if I ever get it to a mixing stage.

[@Jonpriley]

Firstly thanks for another excellent guide, and thought I'd add my experience using MODO drums, which has a different routing system, and caused me some confusion on the way (in case anyone else is baffled by the differences). In the MODO master window, the routing options under each drum track are "Master, Bus, DAW". The DAW option gives stereo pairs starting with 3-4, so that's easily enough translated from the "Out 2" and so on in MT-Drums. However, what I found then was that all the drums continued to play (in contrast to 7:50 in your video), and still did so after adding all the channels (as at 10:40 in your video). Obviously (as a total newbie to MODO, and only slightly less to Reaper) I was missing something - I'm guessing this was because MODO was continuing to route the drums to the master 1-2 , as well as the DAW channels (?). Anyway, no matter - once I continued to follow your instructions on adding sends from the Drum track (choosing the previously assigned channel pairs, all worked out OK. So thanks again! :-)

[@jebbylawless]

I'm going to need to watch this like 12 times to get it but I HAVE to. I'm a drummer. Thanks for the incredible vids!

[@philjames1019]

This lesson was awesome!! Thanks for your time and effort .... so clear.

[@philjames1019]

No probs ... just subbed!!

[@ASJerrell]

Note for all MT users: the splash comes doesn’t have its own mic/channel. It’s on the ride channel, last I remember.

[@colinfrank9026]

Are you fxxxing kidding me??? Amazing! I've spent hours and hours trying to find a workaround and found the worst one by printing the soloed tracks from EZ-drummer to wav to treat the individual tracks as such. Thank you so much!!! Greetings from Germany

[@jimmyanastasopoulos9038]

this video just answered 10 questions at once... subscribed! very cool and helpful videos, with easy to understand explanations thank you!!

[@SoulBastard94]

thank you so much man. really! this is the best reaper tutorial in the entire youtube. i'll make sure to suggest it to many people!

[@dbmdrums1105]

Yes ..this is definitely useful for me! Finally

[@Shredhub101]

You are a saviour mate. Thanks for the video, and steps to process.🤘🏼

[@felipemedina3027]

Thank you so much! You literally just saved my music production final exam hahaha I thought I was going to fail the semester. Thank you once again for your detailed explanation.

[@adamsteelproducer]

Now that’s a good thing to help with! Hope you do ok man 😉

[@felipemedina3027]

@@adamsteelproducer Thanks! 😄🙌

[@rabrown22000]

Aaaaah, I'm so far behind on these new ones lol. Need to sit down and binge watch them soon.

[@nickburlton5821]

Thanks, not seen this before in such detail - very useful

[@TEXChris420]

Did I miss the episode where you showed us how to actually program the drums first?

[@adamsteelproducer]

“How to program drums” isn’t a reaper specific thing, there are a ton of tutorials out there for that. This is how to get the most out of it sound-wise

[@thereverendr9187]

Massively helpful. Thank you!

[@Smaug2190]

I'd love a pre-routed Reaper Track Template for SSD5.5! This video is great and I learned a lot, but SSD5.5 and routing in Reaper is a challenge!

[@blackiron666]

Great, finally made me understand it but now....if all my tracks are empty...how can i use this setup for recording? For example, how can i record now directly with the virtual midi keyboard? i tried to use it as input, but no sound at all....and monitoring on gives me just horrible feedback and no drum sounds!? so i want this multichannel setup and record on it with a midi device!?

[@1Used]

Same here using Reaper 6.19 and the MT-PowerDrumsKit

[@korpze206]

This is great, but I have hit a stumbling block. In my drum vst (GGD Metal), I can only assign each drum type (kicks/snare/oh etc) to ONE channel. Even though I have set up all the tracks, it wont let me send them to anything but st.1. Anybody know why? Edit: I literally just had to click the damn exclamation mark. Spent like an hour pulling out my hair WTF

[@agostinaguerrini8329]

Thanks from Italy

[@crystalseth69]

This was such a helpful tutorial. Thank you so much.

[@adrianwagner336]

hi Adam as a rather new...2? yrs or so user of Reaper i have found your many videos VERY helpful and enlightening which is part of why i am coming to you with this rather em-bare-assing problem and question for several weeks now ive been trying to find a fix almost anywhere i can think of but.... i CAN NOT!! get the timeline to show up at the top of my work, even in old files that im certain i saved before it disappeared i feel completely lost at this point and it only aggravates me more when i take time to once again search but wind up with no results im certain at this point that im doing something very simple and basic that i somehow overlook again and again im sorry to use your valuable time in such a way but ive just about given up all together on figuring it out on my own...i mean "how important is it anyway?' well as it turns out pretty frickin important!! thank you very very much in advance

[@adamsteelproducer]

Hi Adrian! Sounds like you’ve got a pickle there. I’m away from my desk but maybe the guys on the Unofficial Reaper Discord can find the right button for you! I’m sure it’s a single button fix…

[@walkingriver6104]

So so so useful. Thank you for your content, you are a lad.

[@johnny711]

this video is gold.

[@ReDiezX]

That was EXTREMELY helpful, thank you very much!

[@aaronramos6056]

Excellent thank you ! Is there a way to save the drum group as is, to save time when making new songs, keeping the routing etc ?

[@pierrebernasconi1010]

Very useful video, thanks!

[@joeking5211]

Super vid Adam. But what is procedure if you already have a midi track full of all the drums and you want to split them into their respective individual tracks. I guess you could copy/paste each drum pattern line from the midi editor, but that would/could take a lot of time and also be very prone to error. So is there a better way or maybe a plugin to do this separation of an existing midi drum track. Thks for tutorials, about a week into Reaper now, nearly gave up a few times but I am still here, coming from being a very occasional user of Cakewalk which is now no longer free as from now, and with the plethora of DAW's out there I somehow latched on to trying Reaper, so will be watching more of your vids if I do stick with the quirks it has. Kind Rgds. Keep up the good work.

[@marting6037]

I ran through steps to build multi-tracks with MT Powerdrums and yes, worked like a charm - thank you but i have a question. What's the process if VST drumkit does not have its own mixer defining 'Outs'? I also use Vintage Drums Elements which has a great electronic sound and does have option to build 16 outs but i cannot find a way of assigning instrument to 'Out' but i'm sure there must be a way to achieve this.

[@cainfoxfolkpunx]

This is absolutely genius

[@xblinketx]

Great tutorial! Thanks for that.

[@AntmanFelix]

Im having an issue where I have a vst that has 26 outs, but when I try to do the build multi channel routing for output of selected effects, I am only able to use 16 outs instead. Is there anyway around this so I can utilize all the outs? New to REAPER and loving it so far as opposed to AVID. Thanks

[@stepans2167]

Massively helpful, thanks

[@musicmaestrodj]

Hi Adam. Great video, thanks! I have a question for you. I used MT drummer to create my midi drum tracks but I would like those midi tracks to play using Steven Slate 5 free instead but can't seem to figure out how to make it work. Paid Reaper user here. Any tips?

[@billywaylls]

Ive been doing this for a couple months now. Ive only had a DAW for six months. So, Im a bit cluless, However, I like to learn. Everything works great. Except when I put the tracks into a folder. When I do, all the drums go quiet except for the kick. & now that I mention it. The kick comes out of the main track & track "output" 1. Meaning it comes out twice. The master gets shut off but it still has two signals. I really like having everything in its own track. I would love it even more if I uld work out these couple kimks. Its not holding back production. But things would be better.

[@fleshboundtobone]

Thank you so much, this was so useful.

[@GabzitoHD]

Using reverb on insert directly on the track instead of sending it. Does that really make an important difference in sound or is it just for convenience?

[@adamsteelproducer]

It’s all to do with convenience and workflow, once you get the to the part about routing it explains why you should work with sends

[@electricmeatpuppet]

Using send/return tracks also lets you use parallel processing, which does change how things sound. Take parallel distortion on drums for instance... you have both the original unaffected drums AND the distorted signal coming through blended together... return tracks are extremely useful and powerful.

[@veli-pekkakivimaki2633]

Thank you very much!! Ive been searching where i can separate those instruments to their own channels!

[@HeppuLeppa]

Hi Adam, can you give a hint why my SSD5 (free version) is sending drum data in audio -format to the tracks? Not as midi. (MT-Drum sents as midi). Cannot edit any hits... Good tutorials!

[@SoundMuzak]

Awesome series. Thank You.

[@narayanacooper8571]

Adam, Hi from Australia. Just wanting to know if you have a tutorial for how to use an e-kit to trigger EZD2 in Reaper? I have managed to get my Al.es.is Crimson II SE e-kit to work in EZD2 Standalone, but as soon as I try to get it to do the same with EZD2 opened as a Plugin FX in Reaper, I cannot get the VST Drums to Trigger using the e-kit triggers. ??? Please help! It is soooo frustrating!

[@michaelanthony9068]

Do you have a video explaining assigning midi channels and ports and multiple controllers?

[@arthurfarias7662]

Nice video! I've been using MT-Power for a while and now moved to SM Drums, but was really tempted by the free SSD 5 ( sounds a lot like Gavin Harrison's kit). Can someone give me a ideia about the RAM consumption of that plugin?

[@unleashthefury111]

Can you mix and match different plug-in kits together in the same song so you have that many more options for cymbals?

[@robertjones2787]

Will the long way/version only for midi or wave files too? And only with the plugin?

[@bigman-adv]

Excellent!

[@Markplaysmusic]

When i give stuff away for free that means it's FREE here it is it's yours now enjoy, I'm not asking for the size of the person's sofa, curtains or more intimate things, either it's free or it's not! FUCK!!! I just checked out those Steve Slater Drums - what nosey bunch of sods they are! It's free cause they're probably selling on your data. Not a good hint there Adam. But the video here is top notch - can't be faulted. Really in-depth and helpful and best of all - NO strings attached! Top bloke.

[@drutgat2]

Fantastic stuff. Many thanks for this.

[@MBBGun14]

It was very helpful, thanks!

[@88namiller]

I have a different way of doing this. I duplicate the track, with the midi information and the drum plugin, one time for each “mic”. On the kick tack I delete all the midi notes except the kick. On the snare track I delete everything that’s not a snare note, and so on with all the tracks. Then I render the midi items on each track as a new take and and turn off the drum plugin on all of the rendered tracks. Now I’m working with printed audio on each track as if I had recorded a real kit.

[@Linguae_Music]

I used to do that too xD

[@bigtimbo4236]

Love your tutorials, man! You do a GREAT job!! I noticed there are some older Reaper tutorials that are described as, "Older Version". Of course I'm not asking you to explain all the differences, from older versions to new ones, but can you tell me why there was a need to create newer ones?? Waa it a Major Reaper software upgrade or something?? Thanks in advance for your response!!

[@adamsteelproducer]

Thanks! So the reasons for the new series were many, but the main ones were that the first series was put together very quickly, with no user feedback. Over the years, people asked a lot of good questions so we put those into the new version with better cameras, better sound, proper scripting, and much more thought put into making sure that everything came across well to the viewer (and that there were no technical problems that put people off....)

[@pedrosilvaproductions]

Just wondering, can you render a stem from a MIDI channel of a specific part of the drum that has been routed to a new channel?

[@adamsteelproducer]

Yep! Anything you can hear on a separate channel can be exported as such

[@davidmackinnon9645]

Hello you are an amazing musician as well I am attempting to come up with music for drone footage I have a guitar player but am wondering how to çreate other sounds without me playing an Instrument any ideas ?

[@colebeveridge778]

When u created the "Drum Group" folder for FX, couldn't u just use the "Drums" folder for that same thing? Probably a stupid question but I am very new to this stuff so I am just trying to get it right.

[@adamsteelproducer]

Yeah they’re exactly the same thing, I’m just trying to spell it out clearly for people who work in the more traditional way

[@colebeveridge778]

@@adamsteelproducer ok thank u for getting back to me so quickly

[@ShouldaL]

Much useful, thanks

[@AliJauhiainen]

Thank you 👌

[@mushypea6862]

problem im having is, after using pro tools several years ago im now trying to get into reaper just to record my guitar tracks mainly. now got a MPK mini for backing tracks. ive got my reaper track I can hear fine in headphones, got the steve slate drums VST installed, I can see the kit. when I click any of the drums they light up, but no output sound into my headphones. im sure this is a basic sound in / out setup thing, but its driving me crazy. great tutorials BTW, Im mush from near Haworth/Bradford, not too far from you (currently in bangkok but home soon).

[@davidsutherland5614]

Very helpful thankyou!

[@mark-ze4en]

I downloaded the free SSD from their website for windows but I am get a "warning, SSD5 cannot find your instruments. They are not set correctly or empty" Please select base directory or install instrument library." I thought they were(the samples) supposed to load automatically

[@Bicyclekelly]

Hey Adam, this may be a dum question but I’m new to using Reaper. Ok so, I do not own a drum kit of any sort nor do I own a keyboard. I want to compose a drum track for my songs I create. Can I do this using only what Reaper offers? Or do I need to purchase a drum kit or keyboard to create drum tracks? Thanks for any input.

[@martinashton]

I use EZdrummer which you can program using your mouse if you don't have drum pads or a midi keyboard or you can use the professionally played drum loops. There are other drum romplers and plenty of drum machine emulators should you want electronic sounds. Music Radar is a good place to look for reviews. There are free ones too like the one Adam uses in the first part of the video.

[@KawiMusician]

updated Reaper and all the sudden the drums Ive been using everyday through MT Powerkit2 and Riot Drums, will not work. If you click the littler drum pictures in the VST pictures of the drum sets,like click the snare pic, kick, etc it will trigger, but the actual e drums are not triggering anything now and I cant figure out why.

[@thaddeustaraskiewicz2076]

I have a question about note velocities in the midi editor. Using SSD, I was dropping in drum beats, and I expanded an eight bar beat to nine bars. While editing the drum hits in the ninth bar, I found out any modification I tried was automatically tied to the corresponding hit in the first bar - if I increase the velocity on a kick hit on the first beat of the ninth bar, it will increase the velocity of the kick hit on the first beat of the first bar. How do I unlock this? I can find no reference in the user's guide to this at all. This also applies to any drum or cymbal hit I place in either the ninth bar, or the first; If I add or subtract a hit it will do the same in the corresponding other bar. What is this feature called, and how does it stop?

[@adamsteelproducer]

That’s because by default midi items in reaper loop, which is useful in some circumstances. Instead of expanding the item, split it with the S key and copy/paste the section you want, that way it’s a new item and can’t affect the other.

[@thaddeustaraskiewicz2076]

@@adamsteelproducer Thank you, sir!

[@metalbass211]

What's the purpose of having a "drum group" track? Does the original drum track that was used for routing send to all the the separate drum tracks if I add fx?