Session Drummer 3

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GuitarLegend

GuitarLegend

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I am very likely just not good at using Session Drummer 3

It has countless drumkits and a huge array of drums that you can mix and match and yet, I am not happy with any of them. The individual wav files sound great in the browser but when you put them in the kit, I am not saying they sound different to the browser, they just dont sound "real" enough. I was shamed by a young kid the other day who created a backing track in Garage Band using the drums that come with that and I thought Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden) was in the room with us. I was floored by that.

Is it me or is there simply a better option for drums in Sonar X1?

If it IS me, I would appreciate suggestions on how to improve

This is my latest recording which is mostly real guitars with some synthed instruments here and there. The drums are Session Drummer 3 and the best I could do with it. I am not exactly happy with it

Its All Gone
 
I have trouble with session drummer. So I bought a drum set and am learning to play. Seems much easier :)
 
I have a drumkit too but drumming isn't my strong point, any more than playing violins or pianos but I use those in my mixes. At least I play guitar and bass and do my own singing :)
 
I like the real instruments better anyway. My pathetic drumming gets me by until I get a real drummer in the studio to re-track the track.
 
It's probably my fault for not explaining what I was asking... putting together a drum track isnt hard, I just wanted a better sounding drum vst than SessionDrummer

If SD is the best fine, its just me. But I have heard some awesome stuff that didnt come from SD and wondered what everyone was using?
 
I can't even put together a decent drum track with session drummer. Tried using a midi controller, and that didn't work to well either ;(
 
Easy enough to put a track together with the sequencer, I just dont like a lot of the kits
 
Yeah, I open the sequencer, start the track, press midi controller in rythem to track.....when I play back it sounds like I kept pressing buttons. No pauses.....Tried reading up on it...boring....more fun banging on real drums......
 
Guitar Legend -

I can't say much about your opinion of the kits with SD3 (personally, I like them), but I have put a few kits together using Sonar's Audio Snap and get pretty decent results when the default kits will not do. After listening to your song example and I think you need to work the velocities of the individual drum pieces. If you go to Cakwalk's Sonar University's Master Class for an example on mixing drums with SD3. Think more like a drummer and take full advantage of the tools that come with Sonar. You may be surprised of the results!

Keep at it!

Vice...
 
vicevursa said:
Guitar Legend -

I can't say much about your opinion of the kits with SD3 (personally, I like them), but I have put a few kits together using Sonar's Audio Snap and get pretty decent results when the default kits will not do. After listening to your song example and I think you need to work the velocities of the individual drum pieces. If you go to Cakwalk's Sonar University's Master Class for an example on mixing drums with SD3. Think more like a drummer and take full advantage of the tools that come with Sonar. You may be surprised of the results!

Keep at it!

Vice...
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input. I didnt have too much of a problem with the sound of the kits until I heard what someone pulled out of Garage Band. I love Sonar X1 (just upgraded to Expanded) and not inclined to change to anything else but when I do recordings with synth drum backing (sometimes I play the real thing but my expertise on tuning drums is not up there and my Yamaha Stage Custom albeit with Sabian cymbals doesnt sound as sweet as it might) I get compaints about the artificial sound. I KNOW its me, thats why I started this thread and need info like you gave to get around it.
 
SD3 is ok up to a point, but it doesn't have the in depth tweakable parameters that something like BFD has.
 
There are better virtual drum kits that sound better than SD3, but regardless of the sounds, the technique of generating good drum tracks takes a while to master using soft synths

A good drum pad helps big time, USB type works better than keyboard

The trick to get solid sounding drum beats is to get a count on your foundation track , bass or rhythm guitar, set the metronome to match that count, this sometimes takes trail and error.

In Sonar, turn on the snap grid, snap module found in your control bar, select the midi option found on the bottom corner, the amount of snap is determined by the measure, 1/4 1/8 notes.

Velocity of your drums are important, the pads should be adjusted or edit later.

Of course real drums are always the best, sometimes I use the real drummers time transients to trigger the soft synths, especially if the mikikig sucked as well as the kit sound
 
Session drummer 3 is meant to be versatile so out of the box it may not sound that great. It is recorded fairly dry so you can do with it what you will. Each instrument in the kit can be sent to a different track so you can process individual pieces with your own plugins instead of being limited to whats in the app. This gives you a lot of control over the sound but it's also a lot of work. Some programs have pre processed kits that sound good right away but, you don't want to sound like everyone else. Do you? If so, get one of those programs.
 
This thread is quite old now but since it got woken up again, I have long since changed to Addictive Drums 2 and never looked back. SD3 was fine as it came bundled with Sonar but AD2 is way superior in so many ways. Also, since this thread was started, I had upgraded to Sonar X3, then to Sonar Platinum. I still use it despite Gibson canning it after they bought it out. Still performs even without their updates. I also use Pro Tools 11 now. Thought I would get something to fall back on if Sonar went south. But Pro Tools is pretty decent too. Addictive Drums 2 works well with both of them.
 
My pathetic attempt at learning to play drums came to a screeching halt when I broke my leg 2 years ago. I have since gotten Toontrack Superior Drummer 2, which isn't too bad. And I also recently migrated to Presonus Studio One. The drum map in S1 is pretty cool, and there's also a bpm line so you can vary the feel of the song.
 
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