SSD5.5 Free Template for REAPER + How to import MIDI Grooves

[@carlschrader1847]

Thanks!

[@farrell72563]

Thank you for this, it's very educational, and the templates are fantastic. I was using M-T power drums, and was a little intimidated by SSD 5.5, but this encouraged me to make the switch. You Sir, are one of the most valuable assets in the Reaper community. Thank you for all you're hard work!

[@itzdm0r3]

Thank you for saving me hours of pain with importing my midi packs!

[@StevenSlateAudio]

Hey Jon! Great video! I would add that using ADSR on hi-hat may shorten open hi-hat articulation, or make it less powerful. I think i'd go with increasing the volume of hi-hat close mic and lowering hi-hat in OH for tighter hi-hat.

[@Rhythmic1]

Maybe you can help. I'm using the latest Reaper DAW. I have a Macbook Air and a Roland TD-50KVX. I've set up the TD-50 driver on the Mac, selected the SSD5.5 virtual instrument track and selected a drum kit. How do I get my TD-50 kit to trigger SSD5? When I hit my drums I get the Roland modules internal sounds. It's not triggering the Steven Slate sounds.

[@andypost4775]

Jon, you just saved me a whole bunch of time and struggle. Thank you so much.

[@Vagen_d]

You should deduct any cost of making this video from your taxes as a charitable donation because this is truly a gift to all humanity. Thank you.

[@lexluthier8290]

This is great, thanks so much Jon. Just downloaded SSD 5.5 yesterday & this saved me a lot of time and a major headache! Great timing! All the best & hope you're safe & well. Love from the UK. 🖖

[@leehumphries5706]

Thank you sir! I'm old and slow and was dreading the prospect of mapping this all out.

[@davidsutherland5614]

Haha, was gonna say that but I was even slower :)

[@Vanes-NL]

I used this template, but it does not send the midi track to all the other tracks. It only plays in the upper track (where you place the midifile) On all the other tracks the meters don't move. What's wrong here?

[@stevenmoser1902]

Hi Jon> Thanks for the terrific template and midi note map! 10 outa 10 !

[@MoveUpMedia]

Thanks man! Super helpful as I JUST picked up SSD 5.5. This is a huge timesaver.

[@randychiurazzi4604]

Thank you so much. I had this but now know what to do with the tools . Using your remote web for reaper app with everything... it really opens up the accessibility of actions. Thanks again Jon.

[@Pnkfloid49]

GREAT VIDEO! Just what I was looking for with how to get SSD to read my midi files

[@kingbassk83]

Yes! Thank you! I needed this information.

[@banigrisson]

I didn't even know this was free, so thank you very much!

[@bludwitzke]

Thank You Jon. You have demystified the midi file structure for me.

[@eranddroory9987]

Awesome.. thanks.. just updated my SSD 5. Great template..

[@ourfinesthour6994]

Thanks for the template. It saved me a lot headaches.

[@talonmullin4951]

When I load in the template file it reads " The following effects were in the project file and are not available. REAPER will keep their configurations, but things may not sound as desired. Track 2: VSTi: SSDSampler5 (Steven Slate) (48 out) " . Not sure what's causing this; I have SSD 5.5 installed and can get the program to load on its own without routing. Any help??

[@TheREAPERBlog]

my template is for VSTi version, if you only have VST3i installed that would explain the problem. You may be able to change this in the template file by opening in a text editor. I'm going to reinstall ssd5 today and see if I can fix this.

[@talonmullin4951]

@@TheREAPERBlog I looked it over and I do have the VSTi3 version, rookie mistake lol. I'll check back if you find any simpler fixes, but should be able to sort it out 👍 Much appreciated!

[@IanLogendra]

Hi Jon You seemed to have the same issue as me at the end. The routing goes back to the default when you audition kits. Would be better if the routing could be locked. So you can audition kits without having to unselect and reselecting the preferred routing. Also when you add another snare or sample to the kit you have to go back and do the routing again. Great video. Thanks

[@TonyBelleau]

Have you figured out a workaround for this? Having the same frustration - great template (THANK YOU, Jon!) that seemingly loses its programming when swapping instruments/kits. What's funky is it even seems to retain the routing assignment, but the whole kit redirects back to 1/2.

[@IanLogendra]

@@TonyBelleau Hi I asked their support and it's a bug. They said they'd fix it in an update. Not sure when that will be. Maybe worth asking them about it so it keeps it in the mix so to speak for getting a fix.

[@Smaug2190]

Oh man I'm here because of the same problem. I've got the routing done, picked a groove, then start to explore kit & instrument options and it all goes too heck. What the heck?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

Download links are in the description box ⬆⬆⬆

[@jcserrano1663]

Thanks so much, I am new to Reaper and your videos are very helpful, btw, can you make a video explaining step by step how to do the installation and setting SSD5.5 so I can use it correctly with reaper?

[@yoursongwriting]

Thank You very much, have a great day!

[@bobcabrera3080]

Hey Jon, I was so excited about this. I downloaded and installed SSD5.5 Free, created a new virtual instrument track, selected "Yes" to have separate tracks for each drum/cymbal, and 32 new tracks were created. Perfect so far. I'm doing this as I'm following along with your video, and the first thing I notice is that there are no "c" (mono) tracks. All 32 are labeled "Output (#)". Then I opened the SSD "mix" tab, and there are no tracks shown. So, I'm less than two minutes into your video and I'm lost. Any advice?

[@DeskLazer]

Nice video Jon, thanks for the template! Question, when you work with SSD 5.5 Free, how do you like to mix them if you were just using Reaper stock plugins? I know mixing drums is supposed to be just like mixing drums in real life, but I find a lot of my tweaks that I'd use on real drums are either too much or too subtle with the processed sounds of virtual drums (EZ Drummer, SSD, MT Power Drumkit, etc.) Thanks again!

[@colinsmart2508]

Thank You Very much Jon for the Drum template and Tutorial on SSD 5.5 Drums which I just got and Just starting Reaper. Been on Ableton Live for 15 year 4-8 Version. I've listening to your next Video on Buidling a Mix Template in Reaper on Reaper Blog. I'm not sure were the Template folder is but I'm sure you'll show in the Buidling a Mix temp. I do have one question. In Ableton Live is i need to cut a small bit of audio (ms) i use to expand the track to make cut it. I can't seem to find this in Reaper or see a setting to change to ms to cut parts as every guitar is never on an even second or 4 or 8 beat. I hope this make sense to what I mean. I liked and Sub. Thanks in Advance

[@lhu1961]

Thanks for sharing this, it is a great help.

[@mark-ze4en]

hey Jon,, is there a tempo setting function in SSD5.5. Got mine working ok but can't see any tempo setting function. How do you match tempo with Reaper? Got the template thanks for the effort! Thanks great vids Buddy!

[@alessandropaolucci9026]

Thanks man.Valuable content. subscribed...and thanks SSD5.

[@SchwartzerAdler]

So, I've been using SSd5.5 Free for a couple of weeks now, and I would like to build my own kit with my own samples. I've chosen the samples and loaded them in the "Samples" windows (Create > Samples), and then I clicked "Save" and saved the kit. But when I "create" said kit will onlx show my samples in the "Samples" windows, but it will not load the samples to the kit (no loading percentage shown on the respective parts of the kit, kit stays empty). Why is that, and what did I forget to do?

[@jongriffin2385]

This is brilliant! Thank you so much!

[@nyedan]

Well, thanks again. If I center all the Tracks in SSD5 wouldn't they be centered in the Overheads and RoomTracks as well?

[@npinero1]

Can you apply the "feel" of the MIDI tracks to other MIDI tracks? this is available in other DAWS like Reason. It is called the Groove Mixer.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

Extensions menu: Groove Tool. (SWS must be installed)

[@npinero1]

@@TheREAPERBlog but can I create my own grooves? Like grooves from my own rhythm guitar playing?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

sure, take a bar of the performance, split it on each note. select these new items and click 'get user groove'. Then apply the groove to selected MIDI items.

[@alessiobassguitar]

how did you manage to pur the drums in a ordered way and did you remove the empty spaces

[@millerhxc]

Hi. So following my other comment, I've been working through your videos and have found a few things out but am stuck on how to open the template and the Steven Slate. I can either open up the template (I first saved it as a project but I now have it as a track template too) or insert virtual instrument on new track, where I can have the Steven Slate window come up. It doesn't seem to come up automatically when loading the template and I can't find a way to bring it up besides opening a new track as "insert virtual instrument..", but then that doesn't help. I notice that when you do insert track from template, you have an Instruments sub folder where you then select the SSD template. For me, I don't have that Instruments sub folder, I just have "open template", "offset template items by edit cursor" and below Loading Template I have "SSD 5.5 Multi". So have I saved the template wrong? Thanks.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

replied to your website comment.

[@millerhxc]

@@TheREAPERBlog Great. Thank you.

[@mateusrodolfo98]

Hi. Well done on this tutorial. The template doesn't work for me, though. It doesn't detect the SSD5.5 vst, and when I add it manually in the SSDSampler5 track, it doesn't do the routing correctly (everything is being defaulted to the 1st channel). I realised the template searches for VSTi SSDSampler5, while mine is installed as VST3i SSDSampler5. Do you know any fix to have your template working? Thanks in advance.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

open the template in a plain text editor and change line 112. to "

[@lucacorcionev]

@@TheREAPERBlog Hi man, thank you so much for the template but I also have this problem, and that doesn't seem to fix it. I tried everyway I could think of but I couldn't make it work. Have you got any solution for this? Please help, and thanks in advance too

[@drinkinslim]

Great update. Thank you. Your lighting and detail (sharpness) look GREAT, though the camera is shaking a lot. Do you need a more stable camera stand perhaps?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

I have good tripods but its impossible to get one behind the desk and not have the camera too far away. It sits on a speaker and I think I need to strap it down or something.

[@Melissa05121992]

My tom 2 and floor Tom are connected to ride cymbal. How to seperate them? It works alright on cakewalk.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

using my template? Check your routing. put them on separate mono outputs or if using the same stereo output, pan each opposite in the ssd5 mixer.

[@Alvarohh]

Hi Jon, excellent template!! A really useful starting point. I've noticed a "Bleed" track on your template I can't figure out what it is and no SLR channel. Maybe you mention it in the video but can you explain why the no SLR and what the "Bleed" track is? Thanks!!

[@TheREAPERBlog]

SLR = Bleed track in the template The SLR channel is the bleed from the kick and toms into the snare bottom mic.

[@Alvarohh]

@@TheREAPERBlog thanks for the quick answer! Kenny Gioia and yours are the most useful videos out there for Reaper users!

[@davidsutherland5614]

Many thanks Jon, you do good vids.

[@marcorodriguez7694]

Does anyone know if ssd 5.5 FREE has cymbal choke articulation?? I downloaded it and can't find the cymbal chokes anywhere on the midi keyboard. Any help would be great.

[@millerhxc]

Hi. I just downloaded Reaper and SSD 5.5 Free but I'm having trouble doing some of the things you're showing. First off, my Reaper looks a bit different to yours. I already used to use Reaper on an old MacBook Pro but I'm now on a Lenovo Yoga using Windows 10. So apart from just the design being different probably due to updates or because it's a Windows version, I don't have all those icons at the top of the window that you do. I have some of the smaller ones like Auto-crossfade, gridlock, New Project etc.. But then I don't have anything above that, just a pretty big blank space until the header. The play/stop/reverse buttons are below the tracks instead of above like yours but there's no other editing buttons. Is there something I'm meant to select in View or Options to show that up? I also can't understand how you're selecting/inputting that MIDI track - all that it does when I click in that space is give me a time selection. I then also don't understand how you're selecting and playing the preset from SSD into the Reaper track. You just seem to click on it and it opens up but it's doing nothing for me, probably because I can't select that MIDI track within the Reaper Window/tracking space. I'm unsure how to explain without showing images and I don't know if maybe I need to check another video and have missed a step or two, but as it is I can't do much. I've been able to select the kit and assign the mics to the channels...but that's it. The version I have is v.6.38 and I'm only in the Evaluation stage. Have I maybe opened it up with the wrong icon or something? A few got produced but I've either just been clicking Reaper (x64) or Reaper (x64) (create new project). Did I maybe forget to select something on installation which then didn't get installed so I'm lacking a certain function or two? I'm really stuck and I just want to be able to try out making some beats before I buy a new soundcard/interface to properly start making music again. I've already been unable to make music for a while now and I just really want to get back to it. Thanks.

[@JoseSuarezGuitar1]

hello!! Cheers..... could you help me with something? Is there any way for reasper to save settings such as Track master in mixer on the right etc... that is to say that it saves the settings that I am making? Gracias...

[@TheREAPERBlog]

mixer settings are saved in project files, you can make a default template with it enabled, and also saved/recalled with the Screensets/layouts with the 'mixer flags' option.

[@mark-ze4en]

noobie here. Cant get the drums set up. It installed but the path for samples sounds is not installed. I thought it came with samples? The VST app show in Reaper but NO samples. What did I f up? how to set up base directory?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

did you install with 'steven slate audio center'? should be automatic.

[@mark-ze4en]

@@TheREAPERBlog yes I did but it displays a " Warning! SSD5 cant find your instruments. Your base directory is not set correctly or is empty. Please select base Directory or install instrument library. ??

[@TheREAPERBlog]

@@mark-ze4en on the 'details' step of install did you choose a folder for the content? The blue button before the red one?

[@mark-ze4en]

@@TheREAPERBlog Well, I got the install complete but I still must have 'not' done something correctly. ~ I 'think ' I designated the file folder for the SSD data (Kits, library data ,grooves, etc ) and they all show in the folder. I opened my DAW (REAPER) and the 'warning no sample" message etc did NOT appear so I thought it was a done deal. I managed to get one of the supplied midi files into a track and it was looping but no sound. all midi channels selected on the track. I opened the app kit but none of the drums sounded either even though five kits were listed in the window. I guess I'll have to internalize the manual before I solve this riddle.~ You pros make it look so easy!

[@PeterDeeMusic]

Hi Jon, tnx for this vid! I'm totally new to e-drums. Just a couple of weeks ago I purchased a Millenium 850 kit. Works great with ssd5.5free except for the choke function on the cymbals. How do i get that???

[@Evan8D]

im having the same issue. did you ever figure it out ? thanks :)

[@PeterDeeMusic]

@@Evan8D nope... :(

[@RobertMurphy-wm3ge]

Thank you very much for this. I have been recording my own stuff for about 2 years now and want to take the midi drum dive. This template will help a lot

[@AA-fi8bz]

I know this is off topic but does anybody else use the faderport 8 and are having major issues with the faders? Switching banks/faders works perfectly fine, when moving faders in reaper, the faderport8 is resposive, however, when i move the faders on the controller, they are glitchy and reaper doesnt respond (all the settings are correct and havent been changed)

[@abi.n3945]

How can add new kit in ssd5?

[@user-pm4xr8gc8s]

btw how do i get reaper to even identify my ssd5?

[@ToneyLoco]

How do you import your own drums?

[@OldOzRider]

Hey there. I'm an old man and not good with this tech!! I've downloaded the evaluation program of Reaper as well as the SSD5.5 program. When I right-click 'insert virtual instrument on new track' the option for the SSD does not appear!! Is it because I only have the evaluation program? Any help would be appreciated before I get out my hammer!!

[@TheREAPERBlog]

not a limitation of the demo. It is usually installed to C://program files/vstplugins (or something close to that), make sure reaper is set to look in that folder in preferences: VST

[@Yanthungbemo]

Hey man. I've been trying out drums (VSTi) parallel compression but I keep getting phase issues (especially in the cymbals). 1. I've tried duplicating the track and then adding compression+saturation; phase issues. 2. Create a send and compressor+saturation; phase issue. Please help! 😭

[@pattillo21]

Ssd5.5 isn't showing up in reaper for me. What could be the problem?

[@Jaybo196]

Have you placed the file in the correct VST folder?

[@CarlosBritow]

genial. muchas gracias por tus valiosas enseñanzas.

[@deanclark8393]

not showing up in my reaper plugins, i have just bought ssd 5.5. anybody else had this issue? can anyone help me out?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

find it on the hard drive, make sure reaper is set to look there for vst plugins.

[@deanclark8393]

@@TheREAPERBlog thank you for the reply, realised what I was doing wrong, all sorted. I'll be watching your content tomorrow to get it all routed properly 😊

[@marclewism]

link not working why haha?

[@HeppuLeppa]

Thanks for the great video . For some reason my SSD5 imports everything in audio (not midi) in to Reaper tracks..(e.g. MT-Power Drumkit imports as midi) I´d appreciate if you know how to change this: )

[@vejichan]

Can I use ez drummer 2 grooves with ssd?

[@TonyBelleau]

Yes, and it's great: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ql6zqaaXic-Ynbc You may need to re-arrange some of the instruments to the correct midi channels, but I've found most of my grooves are 90% in-line with SSD

[@normundszalamans9910]

Thanks, sound's good!

[@welshhammer1733]

Thank you sir for the template

[@jmerdsoy]

Thank you for this!

[@DVI--D77]

great thanks

[@jessebss]

Muito bom, entregou o ouro de verdade!

[@leightaft7763]

Thanks brother !

[@mr.youngpower277]

Thanck yoy/