Quick guide: program drums
Everything to set up to get going with Superior Drummer 3 right now: tempo, kit, groove, velocities and outputs.
The drums get programmed first, because they’re the foundation you play everything else on. And MIDI plays the role of the DI: as long as you have it, you can change the kit, the balance and the outputs without redoing anything.
1. Tempo and structure
Set the tempo and the parts of the song before programming. If the tempo changes later, the MIDI adapts, but guitars and vocals already recorded don’t.
2. Loading Superior Drummer 3
Create an instrument track and load SD3. Song format: 48 kHz and 24 bits. Programming doesn’t need low latency: if the system bogs down, raise the buffer.
3. The kit
Load a rock or modern metal preset with the riff playing, and give it 15 minutes at most. The kit changes later with one click; the groove doesn’t.
Mixed or raw presets: many already have EQ, compression and reverb inside. Choose one path so you don’t process twice. Either use a mixed one and touch it up a little, or start from an unprocessed one and mix in Studio One. For learning, the second teaches more.
If a piece clashes with the song, tune it from SD3. Don’t touch anything else yet.
4. The groove
- Start from a library groove and edit it: it usually sounds more natural than programming from scratch.
- Kick and snare first, with the kick landing on the riff’s accents.
- A fill before each part change, with a crash together with the kick on the way in.
The groove and how it locks with the riff are the only things in virtual drums no plugin can fix. Everything else stays open thanks to the MIDI.
5. Sounding like a drummer
If it sounds like a machine, it’s almost always the velocities and not the library.
- Hi-hat with accents: variations of ±15 to 25, so no hit is the same as the last.
- Ghost notes: 2 or 3 soft snare hits per section.
- Hi-hat articulations: alternate tip, edge and different degrees of opening.
- An even kick and snare accents on the strong beats.
6. Levels
No channel or SD3’s master should reach 0, with peaks around −10 to −6 dBFS. Leave the bleed as it comes: the leakage between mics is what makes it sound like a kit played in a room.
7. On the way to the mix
Program in stereo and open the outputs only when you mix: with the MIDI saved, switching modes costs nothing.
- Activate the instrument’s outputs in Studio One and, in SD3’s mixer, send each piece to its own.
- 6 channels are enough: kick, snare, toms, hi-hat, overheads and room.
- Convert each output to audio with Transform to Audio. SD3 uses a lot of RAM and CPU, and you’ll mix lighter.
- Keep the MIDI track deactivated. Never delete it.
The detail is in routing and output.
Checklist
Before recording the rest of the band
- Tempo and structure set.
- Preset chosen with the riff playing, in 15 minutes at most.
- Kick and snare on the riff's accents.
- Hi-hat with accents and ghost notes on the snare.
- A fill before each part change.
- SD3 not reaching 0, with peaks of −10 to −6 dBFS, and the bleed as it comes.
- Session saved with the MIDI safe.
Expected result
Expected result
Drums that already work to record over: the whole song, with the groove locked to the riff and not sounding like a machine. It doesn’t have to sound mixed. If you want the full journey, there’s the drum recipe.