Native Instruments Studio Drummer User manual

Manual

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Document authored by: Paul Maurer
Document version: 1.0 (06/2011)
Special thanks to the Beta Test Team, who were invaluable not just in tracking down bugs,
but in making this a better product.
Disclaimer

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© Native Instruments GmbH, 2011. All rights reserved.
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Table of Contents
1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................6
2 Quickstart .................................................................................................................8
2.1 Basic Navigation ........................................................................................................................ 8
2.2 Editing the Drums ...................................................................................................................... 8
2.2.1 Fine-Controlling Individual Drums and Articulations ................................................. 8
2.2.2 Changing the Snare ................................................................................................... 9
2.2.3 Creating a Mix ........................................................................................................... 9
2.2.4 Adding and Removing Drums .................................................................................... 10
2.2.5 Preset Handling ......................................................................................................... 11
3 The Performance View ...............................................................................................13
3.1 Kit Page ...................................................................................................................................... 13
3.1.1 OH and ROOM MIX Knobs ........................................................................................... 15
3.1.2 TUNE Knob ................................................................................................................. 16
3.1.3 ATTACK, HOLD and DECAY Knobs ............................................................................... 16
3.2 Mixer Page .................................................................................................................................. 16
3.2.1 Common Mixer Controls ............................................................................................. 18
3.2.2 CLOSE MICS Area ....................................................................................................... 18
3.2.3 KIT MICS/BUSES Area ................................................................................................ 18
3.2.4 Effects ....................................................................................................................... 19
3.2.5 Channel Settings ....................................................................................................... 23
3.3 Grooves Page .............................................................................................................................. 24
3.4 Options Page .............................................................................................................................. 27
3.4.1 VELOCITY Settings ..................................................................................................... 28
3.4.2 MIDI Mapping ............................................................................................................ 29
3.4.3 RANDOMIZE Settings ................................................................................................. 30
4 Kit Selection .............................................................................................................31
Table of Contents
STUDIO DRUMMER - Manual - 4

5 Drum Articulations .....................................................................................................32
5.1 Session Kit .................................................................................................................................. 32
5.2 Stadium Kit ................................................................................................................................ 35
5.3 Garage Kit .................................................................................................................................. 37
6 Credits ......................................................................................................................41
Table of Contents
STUDIO DRUMMER - Manual - 5

1 Introduction
STUDIO DRUMMER is an acoustic drum library that gives you premium drum kits, a top of
the line studio sound, full mixing control with high quality effects, and a huge selection of
MIDI grooves covering a variety of popular music genres. It gives you everything you need
to create the perfect drum tracks for all kinds of productions.
Three top tier drum kits were recorded: a Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute kit, a Pearl Mas
ters Premium Maple kit, and a Sonor SQ2 Drum System kit. Just about every articulation
was played on the various drums and cymbals and recorded with up to 25 velocity layers
and up to six variations per same-velocity hit. Each kit has up to 18 microphones that can
be mixed separately, including many direct mics, a mono and stereo overhead set of mics,
and room mics to capture the ambient sound of the various recording spaces in the studio.
The drums were recorded at Teldex Studio in Berlin, Germany, world renown for legendary
classical recordings as well as many other styles for several decades. Their famous record
ing hall as well as state of the art equipment and highly skilled professional engineers pro
vided the perfect setting to record the STUDIO DRUMMER library.
From left to right: the mixing desk at Teldex Studio Berlin, Germany, with the Yamaha kit visible in the background; the
Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute kit set up in the live room; the Sonor SQ2 Drum System kit, set up for recording.
Introduction
STUDIO DRUMMER - Manual - 6

Document Conventions
This document uses particular formatting to point out special facts and to warn you of po
tential issues. The icons introducing the following notes let you see what kind of informa
tion can be expected:
Whenever this exclamation mark icon appears, you should read the corresponding note care
fully and follow the instructions and hints given there if applicable.
This light bulb icon indicates that a note contains useful extra information. This information
may often help you to solve a task more efficiently, but does not necessarily apply to the set
up or operating system you are using; however, it's always worth a look.
Furthermore, the following formatting is used:
▪Text appearing in (drop-down) menus (such as Open…, Save as… etc.) and paths to
locations on your hard drive or other storage devices is printed in italics.
▪Text appearing elsewhere on the screen (labels of buttons, controls, text next to
checkboxes etc.) is printed in light blue. Whenever you see this formatting applied, you
will find the same text appearing on the screen.
▪Important names and concepts are printed in bold.
▪References to keys on your computer's keyboard you'll find put in square brackets
(e.g., "Press [Shift] + [Return]").
► Single instructions are introduced by this play button type arrow.
→ Results of actions are introduced by this smaller arrow.
About KONTAKT / KONTAKT PLAYER
STUDIO DRUMMER is a KONTAKT Instrument; you will, therefore, have to have KON
TAKT or the free KONTAKT PLAYER installed on your computer in order to use this instru
ment. Refer to the KONTAKT / KONTAKT PLAYER documentation to learn how to load and
configure KONTAKT Instruments.
Introduction
STUDIO DRUMMER - Manual - 7

2 Quickstart
In this chapter, you will find a quick guide to navigating the controls of STUDIO DRUMM
ER, as well as step by step guides to certain functions.
2.1 Basic Navigation
The interface has four main pages of control. You can navigate among these pages by
clicking on the tabs at the bottom of the instrument's Performance View. The different pa
ges and their uses are as follows:
▪Grooves page: On this page is a browser of many genre-separated MIDI grooves and
fills with variations that can be dragged to your host for immediate song creation.
▪Options page: This page has options for technical kit settings such as kit mapping and
velocity options, as well as randomization parameters.
▪Kit page: You can select each drum on this page to adjust the overhead and room mix
es, tuning, and volume envelopes for those drums. You can also select which snare
you want to use, as well as load and unload the separate kit pieces.
▪Mixer page: This page has all of the standard controls for an audio mixer, including
levels, panning, solo, mute, send levels and channel routing. This is also where all ef
fect settings and effect routing options are edited.
The four navigation tabs at the bottom of the Performance View
2.2 Editing the Drums
2.2.1 Fine-Controlling Individual Drums and Articulations
To change the individual kit piece's sound settings and articulations:
1. Click on the Kit tab.
2. To edit the settings for a particular drum or cymbal, just click on its picture. Percus
sion is selected from a sub-menu of icons next to the drum kit image.
3. To change the overhead and room mix amounts for each piece, adjust the correspond
ing OH MIX and ROOM MIX knobs.
4. To alter the tuning, adjust the TUNE knob.
Quickstart
Basic Navigation
STUDIO DRUMMER - Manual - 8

5. To change the volume envelope of the selected piece, you can adjust the ATTACK, HOLD
and DECAY with the respective knobs.
A typical drum's control panel
2.2.2 Changing the Snare
Each kit has alternate snares to choose from. To change the snare:
1. Click on the Kit tab.
2. Click on the snare drum image.
3. Click on the A or B button located underneath the snare drum image to switch be
tween the snares.
4. The snare image will change to indicate the newly selected snare.
Switching between the snares
2.2.3 Creating a Mix
To create a mix of the kit, click on the Mixer tab. This will give you a virtual mixing console
with many of the same controls you would find on a real mixing desk. Here you can control
the volume, pan, mute, solo, and routing of the various tracks. You can also add many cus
tomizable effects to all channels.
Quickstart
Editing the Drums
STUDIO DRUMMER - Manual - 9

A typical channel on the Mixer page
You can also adjust the levels of the in, out, and sub mics on the kick, the top and bottom
mic on the snare, and the amount of snare mic bleed when the kick and toms play.
Additional controls for the Kick and Snare channels
2.2.4 Adding and Removing Drums
If you will not be using a particular drum, cymbal or percussion instrument, you can re
move it from the kit, thus freeing up more computer memory. To do this:
1. Click on the Kit tab.
Quickstart
Editing the Drums
STUDIO DRUMMER - Manual - 10