Drumkit From Hell Superior Kick Drum Help

[rottencorpse]

Could somebody please help me find the toontrack DFHS Kick drum mic? Also please explain what the KD-X mic is. Let me explain, I have no control over the kick drum mic in DFHS it doesn't show up when I assign mics to my aux tracks, all the other mics do.

The only thing that could be the kick drum mic is a mic called KD-X but it has no audio reading at all not even when I open all the mic leakage function.

My kick drum pad when in solo mode only comes thru the ambient mics or any mic that has leakage; I can't isolate the kick drum.

Is there a way of having control over just the kick drum? Sorry if this post sounds confused but it's only because I am.

Dean

System:
Athlon 1.6GHZ
2GB ram
Windows XP
Mbox 2 Pro
Pro Tools 7
ToonTrack DFHS

[rottencorpse]

Right done some more research, it could have something to do with the mic setup and the output channels, if somebody could shed some light that would be cool.

Dean

System:
Athlon 1.6GHZ
2GB ram
Windows XP
Mbox 2 Pro
Pro Tools 7
ToonTrack DFHS

[brandondrury]

You mention the word "microphone" a lot, but I don't remember there being much control over mics. When I think of microphone control, I think of the "type" of microphone and the "placement".

My DFH Superior doesn't have any "microphone" control. However, it does have full control over the drummer and the tracks outputted from those samples.

I'm not sure what DAW you are using, but in Cubase SX3, all the output tracks get their own channel on the mixer. Assuming your software works in the same way, you should see signal going to the kick drum. (KD-X may be it...I don't remember things like that).

If you don't see any signal coming from the kick drum track's meter, look at the DFH plugin and see if you are getting a red light that says "Tracks not loaded" or something like that.

If you don't see that, go to the drop down menu at the top. You should be able to select any source (kick drum, room mic, etc). Click on kick drum and make sure the kick drum is turned all the way up. It may not be. This is where can control the bleed. I'd pull the kick drum completely out of the other tracks for now just for troubleshooting purposes.

Make sure you haven't muted the kick drum on the page where the pads are. It's easy to hit a solo or mute button and not realize it.

Lastly, go to the page where you "build" your drum kit. Click on the little audio button next to the kick drum line. If you don't hear anything, than something is wrong.

Try loading up a different kick drum and see what happens? In fact, I'd try loading up a different drum kit entirely just to see what happens.

Let me know if this helps or not.

Brandon

[brandondrury]

One other thing. I'm assuming you are giving DFH enough time to load all the samples.

Brandon

[rottencorpse]

You mention the word "microphone" a lot, but I don't remember there being much control over mics. When I think of microphone control, I think of the "type" of microphone and the "placement".

My DFH Superior doesn't have any "microphone" control. However, it does have full control over the drummer and the tracks outputted from those samples.

I'm not sure what DAW you are using, but in Cubase SX3, all the output tracks get their own channel on the mixer. Assuming your software works in the same way, you should see signal going to the kick drum. (KD-X may be it...I don't remember things like that).

If you don't see any signal coming from the kick drum track's meter, look at the DFH plugin and see if you are getting a red light that says "Tracks not loaded" or something like that.

If you don't see that, go to the drop down menu at the top. You should be able to select any source (kick drum, room mic, etc). Click on kick drum and make sure the kick drum is turned all the way up. It may not be. This is where can control the bleed. I'd pull the kick drum completely out of the other tracks for now just for troubleshooting purposes.

Make sure you haven't muted the kick drum on the page where the pads are. It's easy to hit a solo or mute button and not realize it.

Lastly, go to the page where you "build" your drum kit. Click on the little audio button next to the kick drum line. If you don't hear anything, than something is wrong.

Try loading up a different kick drum and see what happens? In fact, I'd try loading up a different drum kit entirely just to see what happens.

Let me know if this helps or not.

Brandon

Thanks for your reply Brandon.

Right tried loading a different kick drum, made sure it wasn't muted or in solo mode but no luck. I can hear the kick drum and I can even solo it but when I assign the output of the virtual mics AMB, SD-T, SD-B and so on to my aux channel in pro tools for some reason I can't assign the KD output, it doesn't show. The KD-X output is showing, it has no audio.

When at the mic control drop down menu I can control the following and hear all audio:

KD (Not Showing as an output when assign to channel in mixer)
ST-T
SD-B
RT1
RT2
RT3
FT1
FT2
HH
KD-X (not sure what the point of this is as it has no audio not even all mic leakage turned on)
OH
AMB

When assigning output to channels in pro tools mixer for some reason the KD doesn't show. I can only hear KD audio thru mic leakage, Kick drum volume is up high, all samples are loaded.


Thanks Dean

[brandondrury]

I can hear the kick drum and I can even solo it but when I assign the output of the virtual mics AMB, SD-T, SD-B and so on to my aux channel in pro tools for some reason I can't assign the KD output, it doesn't show.

Hmm. This seams to be an issue with Pro Tools and DFH. Are you sure the sample of the kick drum is loaded? I couldn't imagine why Pro Tools wouldn't allow you to manipulate the kick drum channel, but I'm a Cubase guy.

I got very interested in the KD-X channel. So I did about an hour of goofing around / research / whatever. KD-X is only for the Custom and Vintage sounds. So that takes care of that problem.

If I can't answer you question, check out the Toontrack forum. That's where I found out about the KD-X thing. http://www.toontrack.com/forum/

[rottencorpse]

Hmm. This seams to be an issue with Pro Tools and DFH. Are you sure the sample of the kick drum is loaded? I couldn't imagine why Pro Tools wouldn't allow you to manipulate the kick drum channel, but I'm a Cubase guy.

I got very interested in the KD-X channel. So I did about an hour of goofing around / research / whatever. KD-X is only for the Custom and Vintage sounds. So that takes care of that problem.

If I can't answer you question, check out the Toontrack forum. That's where I found out about the KD-X thing. http://www.toontrack.com/forum/

Thanks I will do some more research. Kick drum sample is loaded I will post my findings when I find them.

Dean

[rottencorpse]

Right I figured this out. You can't manipulate the KD if you want to record with your instrument track and master fader in mono.

The reason I wanted to record in mono is my PC is not up to scratch for the project I want to record so I was going to import my recorded audio into my Tascam 2488, The tascam can only import mono wav files. There is another way around this but it means loosing the AMB channel..

Dean

[brandondrury]

Does going to stereo save that much resources? I wouldn't think it would since most the channels are mono anyway...the only stereo track is the overheads, right? (Maybe the room mic, I can't remember).

At worst dude, you could send me the midi track and I could render down the wav files for you and send you the 10 tracks or whatever.

If you get into a bind and need a little help, let me know.

The tascam can only import mono wav files.

I missed this the first time I read your post.

This is an easy fix (although it's absurd that Tascam designed their rig this way...you may want to double check if you are not already 100% sure).

Render the stereo files like normal using DFH. Then, open that stereo track into something like Soundforge where you can copy just the left side to a new mono wav file and the right side to a new mono wav file.

At worst, you could import the rendered stereo wav files into whatever you are using with DFH now, pan hard left and render to a mono wav, and then pan hard right and render to a mono wav.

Brandon

[rottencorpse]

Does going to stereo save that much resources? I wouldn't think it would since most the channels are mono anyway...the only stereo track is the overheads, right? (Maybe the room mic, I can't remember).


At worst dude, you could send me the midi track and I could render down the wav files for you and send you the 10 tracks or whatever.

If you get into a bind and need a little help, let me know.


I missed this the first time I read your post.

This is an easy fix (although it's absurd that Tascam designed their rig this way...you may want to double check if you are not already 100% sure).

Render the stereo files like normal using DFH. Then, open that stereo track into something like Soundforge where you can copy just the left side to a new mono wav file and the right side to a new mono wav file.

At worst, you could import the rendered stereo wav files into whatever you are using with DFH now, pan hard left and render to a mono wav, and then pan hard right and render to a mono wav.

Brandon

Hi Brandon, Thanks for your help.

The only stereo is the "AMB" room channel and the master fader.

I'm 100% sure that the tascam 2488 can't import stereo wav files, I wish they would have said that in the brochure, before I spent my $$$

I've not got soundforge or nothing that could split a stereo track I'm willing to take you up on the help offer if that's cool with you. Could I PM you or mail you about this?

One more thing because I need mono wav files and I will be mixing all my tracks on the 2488 should I

A. pan all my drums in pro tools the way I want them before I render the midi or

B. leave those all panned centre in pro tools so I can pan them in the 2488

Thanks again for all your help

Dean

[brandondrury]

I'm not used to the limitations of these stand alone units.

Were you planning to render your DFH output to a single stereo file (or two mono files) and then just import that into your Tascam? This means you have no mixing options on drums, right?

Brandon

[rottencorpse]

I'm not used to the limitations of these stand alone units.

Were you planning to render your DFH output to a single stereo file (or two mono files) and then just import that into your Tascam? This means you have no mixing options on drums, right?

Brandon

Hi Brandon. I 'm going to render my DFH output to seperate audio files, The Tascam lets me import as many wav files as I want onto seperate tracks just as long as they are 24bit mono, that will give me full mixing options with my Drum audio.

Just not sure If I should pan my drum pattern in PT and then try and duplicate it on the tascam. Or if I leave all aux panned centre in PT will that give me full controll to pan where ever I want on the Tascam.

Thanks
Dean

[brandondrury]

Just not sure If I should pan my drum pattern in PT and then try and duplicate it on the tascam.

If you are importing mono files into your Tascam box, it won't matter how you pan them.

Brandon