How do I put make a folder for Superior Drummer 3 without losing audio?

[boydwgrossii]

I have my Superior Drummer 3 track that busses out from the program in the DAW to individual tracks that I mix. If I put those tracks under the SD3 folder instead of letting them appear to be individual tracks, I lose all sound from the drums. The routing all looks fine, I can't hear anything. If I put it all back to normal, it all works just fine.

Also, how do I keep sound while in piano roll? I have no audio in there while editing drums. If I hit play, it plays at 1/2 speed with no audio.

[Lokasenna]

Tracks in a folder are routed to the folder parent, but then your SD track is sending that audio back to the children... etc. You're creating a feedback loop, which Reaper doesn't allow by default (File | Project Settings | Advanced | Allow feedback in routing... if you really want to change it).

I find it easiest to keep my drum sampler on a separate track in the drum folder:

Drum Bus
-- EZDrummer
-- Kick
-- Snare
-- -- Top
-- -- Bottom
-- Toms
-- -- 1
-- -- 2
-- -- 3
-- -- 4
-- Cymbals
-- -- Hi-Hat
-- -- Ride
-- -- Overhead
-- Room
-- -- Stereo
-- -- Mono

The EZDrummer track has all of the MIDI, has its Master/Parent send disabled (alt+click the ROUTE button, or uncheck it in the track's Routing window), and then provides multichannel output to the various instrument tracks.

As for your second question, if SD3 is anything like EZD2 you'll have a button somewhere in the SD window to sync to the host. With that turned off, it has its own tempo setting and transport controls. EZD's loop browser also has a "play at original tempo" option.

[boydwgrossii]

Originally Posted by Lokasenna

Tracks in a folder are routed to the folder parent, but then your SD track is sending that audio back to the children... etc. You're creating a feedback loop, which Reaper doesn't allow by default (File | Project Settings | Advanced | Allow feedback in routing... if you really want to change it).

I find it easiest to keep my drum sampler on a separate track in the drum folder:

Drum Bus
-- EZDrummer
-- Kick
-- Snare
-- -- Top
-- -- Bottom
-- Toms
-- -- 1
-- -- 2
-- -- 3
-- -- 4
-- Cymbals
-- -- Hi-Hat
-- -- Ride
-- -- Overhead
-- Room
-- -- Stereo
-- -- Mono

The EZDrummer tracks has all of the MIDI, has its Master/Parent send disabled (alt+click the ROUTE button, or uncheck it in the track's Routing window), and then provides multichannel output to the various instrument tracks.

As for your second question, if SD3 is anything like EZD2 you'll have a button somewhere in the SD window to sync to the host. With that turned off, it has its own tempo setting and transport controls. EZD's loop browser also has a "play at original tempo" option.

Your advice would be valuable...if it worked.

...

AND IT DID!!!!!

I don't know why I didn't think of making a "drums" folder and putting everything under it. That is genius. It makes track and such so much easier!

[Lokasenna]

For bonus points, you could use View | Track Manager to hide everything except the SD+MIDI track from the track view, since the rest of them don't have any content unless you print your audio to them.

For pointier bonus points, you could use a theme with a separator layout to add some visual space between each of the "groups" of kit pieces. Have a look at the Nitpicky theme in my signature if that sounds like a fun idea.