# Why Don't Cymbals Get Their Own Mixer Faders in Addictive Drums 2?



## Reid Rosefelt (Jun 26, 2019)

In Addictive Drums 2, I have faders for Kick, Snare, Hihat, Toms 1,2,3,4 and three "Flexi" output faders, where I can route a host of things from claps to woodblocks. All 10 faders, plus overhead, room, bus, and master faders can be routed to separate channels to my DAW.

I can trigger up to 6 different cymbals in my AD kits, but all of them are routed through the Overhead or Room Mics. They don't get their own channels. I can, of course, set the volume different for each one within the program, as I can for everything else. 

XLN Audio suggests the workaround of using the Overhead or Room faders by turning down the volume from the other drums and turning up the volume on the cymbals. This doesn't completely work, because even if all the other drums are set at zero, you still hear them. But mainly it doesn't work because that puts rides and crash drums on the same fader and I want to have the option to use the Overhead and Room mics in my mix.

If I work by tweaking the mix presets that come with Addictive Drums 2 and just send it out through the master stereo, I get good results. That's what I have done, and it seems to be how they want the program to be used. But I have my own compressors, reverbs and EQs, and I don't know why I have to be limited to what they provide.

Why do you think they would do this? Do any other drum programs work like this?

For the record, Groove Agent has 5 faders for cymbals.


----------



## halfwalk (Jun 27, 2019)

They're probably going for realism. Individually mic'd cymbals is a distinctly "fake" thing that only really happens in the sampling realm. In the context of a whole kit, cymbal mics aren't really a thing (excepting the hi-hat sometimes) because the result sounds unrealistic and awkward, and also isn't worth the potential phase headaches when you already have overheads and room mics capturing a much more natural sound of the cymbals anyway.

I dunno if you've ever had your ear right next to a crash cymbal when it's hit, but it's not exactly a pleasant sound.


----------



## Reid Rosefelt (Jun 27, 2019)

halfwalk said:


> They're probably going for realism. Individually mic'd cymbals is a distinctly "fake" thing that only really happens in the sampling realm. In the context of a whole kit, cymbal mics aren't really a thing (excepting the hi-hat sometimes) because the result sounds unrealistic and awkward, and also isn't worth the potential phase headaches when you already have overheads and room mics capturing a much more natural sound of the cymbals anyway.
> 
> I dunno if you've ever had your ear right next to a crash cymbal when it's hit, but it's not exactly a pleasant sound.


Thank you.


----------



## Dex (Jun 29, 2019)

TigerTheFrog said:


> In Addictive Drums 2, I have faders for Kick, Snare, Hihat, Toms 1,2,3,4 and three "Flexi" output faders, where I can route a host of things from claps to woodblocks. All 10 faders, plus overhead, room, bus, and master faders can be routed to separate channels to my DAW.
> 
> I can trigger up to 6 different cymbals in my AD kits, but all of them are routed through the Overhead or Room Mics. They don't get their own channels. I can, of course, set the volume different for each one within the program, as I can for everything else.
> 
> ...



Yes, this is how superior drummer and probably every other professional drum vst works. Some superior drummer libraries have additional cymbal mics but they’re really just more overhead/room mics. They're giving you the same setup as how live drums are recorded and mixed.


----------



## jonnybutter (Jun 30, 2019)

Maybe you know this, but you can also control the volume of each kit piece separately (to the right of the picture of the piece there's a slider) (And of course you can solo each and record them to their own tracks). I often adjust the volume of the individual pieces this way. Many times the crashes or rides are just consistently too loud in context. HTH


----------

