TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Foreword 1.2 Credits 1.3 What Is Perfect Drums?

2 INSTALLATION & AUTHORIZATION2.1 System Requirments2.2 Installing Perfect Drums on Macintosh2.3 Installing Perfect Drums on Windows2.4 Authorizing Perfect Drums

3 GETTING STARTED3.1 Understanding Perfect Drums Interface3.2 Top Menu Section

4 THE DRUMS4.1 Working With Perfect Drums Factory Library 4.2 Navigating Through Factory Presets4.3 Selecting & Changing Factory Instruments4.4 Saving & Loading Factory Instruments & Kits4.5 Quick Controls Section4.6 Articulations Section4.7 Global Mappings Menu

5 THE SAMPLER5.1 Working With Perfect Drums Sampler5.2 Quick Controls Section5.3 Articulations Section5.4 Global Mappings Menu5.5 Kit Designer Section5.6 Saving & Loading Your Instruments5.7 Exporting Portable Format

6 THE MIXER6.1 Working With Perfect Drums Mixer6.2 Channel Strip Overview6.3 Mixer Options6.4 Routings Page6.5 Using AUX Busses

7 ADDENDUM7.1 Perfect Drums Preset System7.2 Perfect Drums Factory Instrument List7.3 Perfect Drums Default MIDI Mapping7.4 Perfect Drums In Your Mix7.5 Sharing Your Instruments

8 TECHNICAL SUPPORT & CONTACTS

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION2

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Foreword

Dear user! Thank you for choosing Perfect Drums and welcome to the evergrowing PD community! We, at Naughty Seal Audio had a great time working on this product and truly believe, that you will fall in love enjoying it just the way we do!

Please take some time to walk throught this document. Not only you will find a detailed overview and description of all the Perfect Drums functions, but some useful tips that will make your mix better!

Time to Perfect your Drums! - the Naughty Seal Audio team

1.2 Credits

Idea & Concept :

Product CEO :GUI Desing :

GUI & Sound Engine Development :

Drummers :

Drum Techs :

Recorded At :Studio Tech :

Recording & Mixing Engineer :Audio Editing :

QA :

Special Thanks To :

User Manual Written By :User Manual Version :

Alex Haze Thomas Rehaag

Alex Haze Alex Haze Thomas Rehaag

Anton Skrynnik Erland Sivolapov Konstantin Zmievsky Max Vorfolomeev

Alexander Kasiarum Max Vorfolomeev

Qpro Recording Studio Den Savik Alex Haze Alex Haze Thomas Rehaag

Sergey Vorkhorov Yaroslav Tseluiko (JARO SOUND) Max Gerasyonov

sonordrumshop.com.ua, meinl.com.ua

Alex Haze1.0.0

The Drums

First of all Perfect Drums gives you some of the best drum samples on the market. Recorded in a professional studio by experienced engineers, they are made to sit perfectly in the mix, giving the instant punch, depth and fatness to your tracks. With a total of 67 instruments, including: 4 kick drums, 6 snare drums, 12 toms and 45 cymbals by some of the best drum manufacturers currently out there, Prefect Drums is able to compliment any music style and will quickly become your go to drum sample library for all times.

The Sampler

But Perfect Drums is not just another sample library. It is also your own ultimate fully-featured sampler. And here is where it comes in to it’s own. Imagine if you could create multi-sampled drum instruments incorporating: full control over different articulations, microphone groups, dynamic layers and every single audio sample in a quick and easy way? That is all possible in Perfect Drums... Furthermore, you can share or sell your instruments knowing everyone is able to load them using a free version of the Perfect Drums Player plugin.

The Mixer

The Mixer. Perfect Drums also features a mixer with incredible flexibility. It gives the user comprehensive metering, instrument level, pan & phase controls, parallel processing groups, fully configurable mix routings, including internal auxiliary busses and multiple outputs. Perfect Drums is able to carry out any mixing task, keeping your drums in a perfect balance.

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION3

1.3 What Is Perfect Drums?

Perfect Drums is the innovative virtual drum instrument, featuring an intelligent sampling engine, that enables anyone to create unique multi-sampled instruments and share them in an easy and convenient way.

2 INSTALLATION & AUTHORIZATION

2.1 System Requirments

INSTALLATION & AUTHORIZATION

INSTALLATION & AUTHORIZATION4

Macintosh• Mac OS 10.6 or higher (64 bit only)• Dual Core Intel processor or higher• 4 GB RAM (8 GB strongly recommended)• Minimum 5 GB free HDD space• Display capable of at least 1280x1024• Sound card with ASIO or Core Audio driver• 64 bit AU, VST or AAX host application

Windows• Windows XP or newer OS (64 bit only)• Dual Core processor or higher• 4 GB RAM (8 GB strongly recommended)• Minimum 5 GB free HDD space• Display capable of at least 1280x1024• Sound card with ASIO driver• 64 bit VST or AAX host application

2.2 Installing Perfect Drums On Macintosh

Run the Perfect Drums Installer included with the electronic download and follow the on-screen instructions. Please ensure you are logged in as an administrator before proceeding.

The plug-in will be installed in the default location for your operating system and should not be moved, to remain available to all users and programs retaining it’s functionality. After the installation is complete, you can find all the Perfect Drums related data, including factory sound library and midi mapping presets at the following destination: Macintosh HD:\Library\Audio\Presets\Naughty Seal Audio\Perfect Drums

2.3 Installing Perfect Drums On Windows

Run the Perfect Drums Installer included with the electronic download and follow the on-screen instructions. Please ensure that the Factory Library.dat file is located in the same folder as the installer application in order for the installation to complete successfully.

At the last stage of installation process the installer will attempt to copy the Perfect Drums factory sound library to the appropriate location. Please ensure that You have got enough free space on your hard disk and continue the installation. After the installation is complete, you can find all the Perfect Drums related data, including factory sound library, midi mapping presets and this user manual at the following destination: C:/Program Files/Naughty Seal Audio/Perfect Drums

To uninstall Perfect Drums simply run the Uninstaller provided or use your operating system’s removal facility.

2.4 Authorizing Perfect Drums

On first launching Perfect Drums from within your host application, you will be presented with an authorization screen and prompted to authorize your software copy. The authorization screen will display your unique System ID and ask you to input a serial number and an authorization code in order to use the software. To obtain the response codes, please visit www.theperfectdrums.com/register and follow the on-screen instructions:

INSTALLATION & AUTHORIZATION

INSTALLATION & AUTHORIZATION5

After entering your personal authorization data, press “Authorize” in the Perfect Drums registration dialog box. You will be greeted with a congratulation to confirm that Perfect Drums has been successfully authorized. Restart your host application and enjoy your product.

Should Authorization fail, please first make sure that System ID displayed in the Authorization Screen indeed matches the one you used to generate your code. If not, please repeat all the steps with the proper ID.

Should Authorization still fail, please include your system ID, obtained serial number and authorization code, and contact the support advisers at support@theperfectdrums.com so we can help you with your problem as efficiently as possible.

3 GETTING STARTED

3.1 Understanding Perfect Drums Interface

Opening up Perfect Drums you will see that the plugin working area consists of the 2 sections: Top Menu Section and a Main Section. The Top Menu section is always present regardless of where you are within the program. The Main Section changes depending upon which Page you are on.

GETTING STARTED

GETTING STARTED6

3.2 TOP MENU SECTION

GETTING STARTED

GETTING STARTED7

As you can see from the diagram above, the Top Menu Section is subdivided into five sections. Those are as follows:

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B.

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D.

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Page Selection ButtonsUse these buttons to navigate through the three different pages, available in Perfect Drums: • DRUMS: Shows the Drum Kit page, giving you

access to the Perfect Drums factory sound library. • SAMPLER: Reveals the Perfect Drums unique

Intelligent Sampling Engine in all it’s glory. • MIXER: Opens the Mixer page, where you can

adjust all the levels and controls for both Drums and Sampler instruments. The routing and output menus are also accessable from the Mixer as well as the AUX busses and other options.

Loading Progress Bar/Factory Preset BrowserThis section serves as the loading progress bar and the factory drum kit preset selector at the same time. Thus left clicking anywhere in this area will show up the drop-down menu, enabling you to choose from the six Perfect Drums factory preset kits.

Whilst loading an instrument or a kit will show it’s loading progress bar on this place.

Combined Preset Save/Load FunctionUse this feature to save or load the Perfect Drums combined preset, which contains both factory library and Sampler instruments and settings.

Master Out Level Meter/FaderThis section hosts the plugin master output level meter and control fader. Everything routed to the “OUT 1-2” in the Perfect Drums mixer will be going through this fader so you can easily attenuate the output level in case if any clipping has occurred on the DAW instrument track, the plugin is instantiated.

Product Information PageClicking on the stylish Perfect Drums logo takes you to a special Product Information Page. Here you will find program version information, credits and some useful Perfect Drums related media links and resources.

4 THE DRUMS

4.1 Working With Perfect Drums Factory Library

Perfect Drums comes with the extensive sound library, consisting of 67 meticulously sampled drum instruments. It can be accessed by selecting the “Drums” tab from the Top Menu Section.

THE DRUMS

THE DRUMS8

As you can see from the picture above, the Drums page consists of four sections. Drum Kit section can be considered as the main working area and serves for selecting and triggering different pieces of drum kit. It also gives you a visual feedback about what particular drum piece is currently being hit. Quick Controls section is something like a little snapshot of the Mixer, giving you a quick access to the selected instrument’s controls and levels. Articulations section shows the list of available articulations per selected instrument, their levels and midi notes assigned. Finally, the Kit Designer section let’s you choose between the available instruments for the selected drum piece, as well as letting you save, load and clear the instrument or the entire kit.

4.2 Navigating Through Factory Presets

First thing you may wanna do, while working with the Perfect Drums sound lobrary is trying out the factory preset kits, which can be accessed by clicking on the appropriate drop-down menu located at the centre of the Top Menu Section, that has already been reviewed in the chapter 3.2 of this document.

THE DRUMS

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As you can see there is a total of 6 factory preset kits in Perfect Drums, covering all the different variations and mix of instruments, available in the bundled sound library.

Walk through the presets to get yourself familiar with the sounds. You will instantly notice how fast the loading is and that you do not have to wait until the entire kit is loaded to actually hear it. So you can change the preset kits and individual instruments on the fly with no interruptions, clicks and pops that could have been caused by the loading process. This became possible thanks to the Smart Instrument Loading algorithm, developed for the Perfect Drums software. What it does internally is it loads all the instrument “hard hit” layer samples first so you can already play the instrument/kit while the rest of the samples are loading in background.

4.3 Selecting And Changing Factory Instruments

When in the Drum Kit section of the Drums page, you can select different drum pieces by Right Clicking on the drum kit image. Alternatively you can also use a Alt + Left Click combo for this purpose. The selected drum piece will be highlighted in green.

Another way to select a desired drum piece is to click on the three drop-down menus located above the Quick Controls, Articulations and Kit Designer sections. This will show up the list of all the available kit pieces.

In order to hear the drum piece Left Click it on the drum kit image in the main working area. You will see a tiny animation, indicating that it has been triggered.

After the drum piece you are interested in is selected, you can see the list of it’s available instrument variations in the Kit Designer section:

To switch between the available instruments for the selected drum piece, Left Click on the instrument icon in the Kit Designer section. The selected instrument will be highlighted in green.

The Audition button, located under the instrument icons enables you to hear a oneshot preview of this instrument. A good thing to notice here is that thanks to the Smart Instrument Preview feature, implemented in Perfect Drums, the Audition of any other instrument will include all the Mixer settings, levels and parameters of the currently used instrument.

THE DRUMS

THE DRUMS10

4.4 Saving & Loading Factory Instruments & Kits

Clicking on the little “gears” icon to the left of the Kit Designer section header you can find a drop-down menu, enabling you to perform saving & loading operations for the selected instrument or the entire kit. Disabling of the selected instrument or the entire drum kit is done by choosing the “Clear Drum Kit” & “Clear Instrument” options appropriately.

Please note that these operations will only affect the Perfect Drums factory library instruments & kits. In order to save/load the kit containing both factory library and Sampler content please use the Combined Peresets found at the Top Menu Section.

4.5 Quick Controls Section

As you can see from the diagram below, the Quick Controls Section consists of three sub-sections.

Instrument Master ControlsThis section contains master controls for the selected instrument:• Level Knob controls the overall volume of the entire instrument.

It also glows in green when the instrument is triggered• S/M Buttons serve for soloing and muting the entire instrumentInstrument Sample Group LevelsThese knobs control the levels of all the instrument’s sample groups:• Direct knob set’s the level of the close microphone sample group• Overhead knob set’s the level of the overhead sample group• Room knob set’s the level of the instrument’s room sample group• Reverb knob set’s the level of the instrument’s reverb sample group• FX set’s the level of the parallel processing sample group Instrument Direct Bus Controls In Perfect Drums, in addition to the common Overhead, Room & Reverb busses, every instrument has also got it’s own Direct Bus, where any of the instrument’s Sample Groups can be routed in order to obtain some extra controls. By default Direct and FX Sample Groups are routed to this bus, thus having the following bus controls: • Pan controls the position of the samples on stage • S/M Buttons serve for soloing and muting • Phase Button enables you to reverse phase • Fader for controlling the output level• VU Meter is there to help you keep an eye on your levels

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B.

C.

4.6 Articulations Section

Articulations Section contains the list of available articulations for the selected instrument, as well as the MIDI notes, assigned to them and the individual level controls. You can also tell Perfect Drums to pick up the note for any articulation by pressing it on your keyboard. This is done using the MIDI “Learn” buttons.

THE DRUMS

THE DRUMS11

4.7 Global Mappings Menu

The Global Mappings Menu contains the mapping matrix of all the instrument’s articulations for both factory library and Sampler instruments.

A.

B.

C.

Articulation NamesThe articulation names are listed in this field.

MIDI Note Assignment/MIDI Learn Buttons To assign a note to the current articulation just left click in the MIDI note field and move the mouse up or down to find the needed note. Notes, that are already used by other instrument’s articulations will be marked as “red”, thus indicating that they are busy. Perfect Drums will use the nearest available note in that case. To pick a note from your MIDI keyboard, press the “L” button so it is active. Then press the note on your keyboard, you will see the note changed in the MIDI note field. When you are done, press the “L” button again to deactivate the learn function.

Articulation Volume KnobsUse the individual articulation’s volume knobs to fine tune the levels.

All the notes operations are done the same way they are implemented in the Articulations menu.

Whilst we find the default Perfect Drums midi map very comfortable, we have also created a bunch of

In order to save or load the Global Midi Map preset use the little “gears” icon at the top of the Global Mappings window. You can also clear the entire map from there.

midi maps, based on some of the popular drum VI’s out there. So if you got used to any other product’s mapping, feel free to try it!

THE SAMPLER

THE SAMPLER12

5 THE SAMPLER

5.1 Working With Perfect Drums Sampler

The heart of Perfect Drums is it’s unique, never seen before Intelligent Sampling Engine, open for every user. It enables you to create your own fully featured multi-sampled drum instruments in just a few mouse clicks.

As you can see from the picture above, the Sampler page consists of four sections. Quick Controls and Articulations sections migrated here from the “Drums” page and perform exactly the same tasks. At the center of the working area you can find cute click sensitive Pads, which represent the16 instrument slots, available in the Sampler. The pads also give you a visual feedback about what particular instrument is currently being hit. You can select the instruments by Right Clicking on the appropriate instrument pad. Alternatively you can also use a Alt + Left Click combo for this purpose. Of course, you can also select the instruments using the drop-downs found above the Quick Controls, Articulations and Kit Designer menus. The selected instrument will be highlighted in green. And finaly, the Kit Designer section here is where all the fun begins.

5.2 Quick Controls Section

The Quick Controls Section found in the Sampler has got exactly the same controls and functionality, as the one found on the “Drums” page.

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Instrument Master ControlsThis section contains master controls for the selected instrument:• Level Knob controls the overall volume of the entire instrument.

It also glows in green when the instrument is triggered• S/M Buttons serve for soloing and muting the entire instrumentInstrument Sample Group LevelsThese knobs control the levels of all the instrument’s sample groups:• Direct knob set’s the level of the close microphone sample group• Overhead knob set’s the level of the overhead sample group• Room knob set’s the level of the instrument’s room sample group• Reverb knob set’s the level of the instrument’s reverb sample group• FX set’s the level of the parallel processing sample group Instrument Direct Bus Controls In Perfect Drums, in addition to the common Overhead, Room & Reverb busses, every instrument has also got it’s own Direct Bus, where any of the instrument’s Sample Groups can be routed in order to obtain some extra controls. By default Direct and FX Sample Groups are routed to this bus, thus having the following bus controls: • Pan controls the position of the samples on stage • S/M Buttons serve for soloing and muting • Phase Button enables you to reverse phase • Fader for controlling the output level• VU Meter is there to help you keep an eye on your levels

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B.

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5.3 Articulations Section

The Sampler’s Articulations Section has also migrated from the “Drums” page, giving you the same functions.

Articulation NamesPerfect Drums’ Sampler let’s you use up to six articulations per instrument. The articulation names are listed in this field. Renamable by double-clicking.MIDI Note Assignment/MIDI Learn Buttons To assign a note to the current articulation just left click in the MIDI note field and move the mouse up or down to find the needed note. Notes, that are already used by other instrument’s articulations will be marked as “red”, thus indicating that they are busy. Perfect Drums will use the nearest available note in that case. To pick a note from your MIDI keyboard, press the “L” button so it is active. Then press the note on your keyboard, you will see the note changed in the MIDI note field. When you are done, press the “L” button again to deactivate the learn function. Articulation Volume KnobsUse the individual articulation’s volume knobs to fine tune the levels.

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5.4 Global Mappings

The Global Mappings Menu in the Sampler is also similar to the one found on the “Drums” page and contains the mapping matrix of all the MIDI notes, assigned to the Sampler instrument’s articulations.

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THE SAMPLER14

All the notes operations are performed the same way they are implemented in the Articulations menu.

In order to save or load the Global Midi Map preset use the little “gears” icon at the top of the Global Mappings window. You can also clear the entire map from there.

5.5 Kit Designer Section

The Sampler’s Kit Designer Section is where you are about to spend most of the time while creating your instruments. As you can see it is subdivided into three different sections.

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A. OverviewThe Overview Section contains basic instrument settings and options. • Name is used for renaming the instrument. • Articulation serves for selecting the instrument’s articulation. There is

a total of six available articulations per instrument in Perfect Drums. • Choke Voicing. When set to “ON”, this feature stops the current

articulation’s samples when the other ones are triggered. This is needed when working with closed hihat or muted cymbal articulations. When set to “OFF” full samples are allowed to play out.

• Sample Group is there for selecting the instrument’s sample group (or microphone group). There is a total of five available sample groups per instrument’s articulation in Perfect Drums. Of course you are free to use any combination of them when creating your instruments.

• Direct Group may be used for the close microphone samples • Overhead Group may be used for the overhead mic samples• Room Group may be used for the room microphone samples• Reverb Group may be used for the Reverb samples• FX is an extra group, that may be used in any other case

• Dynamic Layer represents the three available dynamic layers for your instrument’s hard, medium and soft hits appropriately.

• Velocity Range fields set the MIDI velocity ranges, used for the three different dynamic layers. The first filed sets the value, where the soft hits end and the medium hits start. While the second filed sets the point, where the medium hits end and thus the hard ones start.

Sample List SectionThe list of samples, used in the selected Dynamic Layer is shown in this section. A total of eight samples may be used per dynamic layer in Perfect Drums. To add or remove a sample use the individual “+”/“-” buttons. To add or remove multiple files at once use the “Import All” and “Clear All” buttons. Select samples by left clicking. You can rearrange samples in the list by dragging them with the left click. Each sample has also got it’s own “Play”, “Phase”, “Solo” and “Mute” buttons as well as the level fader.

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THE SAMPLER

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Envelopes SectionThe first thing you may probably notice in the Envelopes section of the Kit Designer is a detailed waveform of the selected sample file. To zoom-in the vaweform view use the right mouse click and move to the right. To zoom-out use the right mouse click and move to the left. To scroll horizontally use left mouse click and move left or right.

But the main purpose of the Envelopes section is in giving you acess to a collection of useful controls and modifiers, appliable to every single sample, used in the instrument. They can be considered as is a kind of slightly modified AHDSR envelope filters, you can find in some other samplers out there. In Perfect Drums we have adapted them to better fulfill the drum sampling applications. So you got five controls, which are as follows: • S - Sample Start adjust’s the sample’s starting point • E - Sample End is there for adjusting the sample’s ending point• A - Attack Time set’s the attack time of the selected sample • D - Decay Time let’s you control the selected sample’s decay tail • DC - Decay Time Curve enables you to finetune the decay tension

By clicking on the little “gears” icon, found at the Envelopes Section header you can get the envelopes operation drop-down menu, which let’s you copying and pasting current settings to any sample, as well as to all the samples used in the currently selected Dynamic Layer. Of course, you can also clear current evelope settings from this menu.

5.6 Saving And Loading Your Instruments

5.7 Exporting Portable Format

As you may have already noticed there is an additional option in the Sampler’s saving/loading operations drop-down menu, named “Export Portable Instrument” (or kit). By saving your instrument as portable format, you get it packed in one solid file, that contains all the instrument’s samples and settings so you can easily transport it or share with anybody else. Whilst the ordinary instrument file includes only it’s settings and loads the samples from the location, they were imported when creating the instrument, so you need to keep an eye on this in order for the instrument to be loaded properly. You’ll get the list of missing “.wav” files and their locations if something goes wrong. Another thing to keep in mind is that you can not update, nor resave the portable instruments/kits. So make sure you got your instrument done before packing it as portable format.

When you are done creating your instrument, you can save it via the appropriate drop-down menu, accessable by clickng on the little “gears” icon, found at the Kit Designer header. You can also save the entire Sampler Kit from there. Loading of the already created instruments and kits is also done from within that menu. Note, that when you load an instrument, it will be loaded on the currently selected Sampler instrument slot. In order to clear an instrument or the entire kit, use the appropriate “Clear Sampler Kit” and “Clear Sampler Instrument” commands.

6 THE MIXER

6.1 Working With Perfect Drums Mixer

The mixer is a big part of Perfect Drums. It was built to keep your drums in a perfect balance, giving you the fullest control over your instruments with unbeatable flexibility and capabilities.

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As you can see, the mixer page can be contingently split into several sections. Each instrument has got it’s own channel strip, giving you access to all of it’s controls. At the top you can find the instrument’s master volume knob, mute & solo buttons and bleeding levels for all of the available sample groups. At the bottom you can see the instrument’s Direct Bus controls, as well as the common Overhead, Room and Reverb busses to the right. Each bus provides you with some extra useful controls, such as Pan, Solo & Mute, Phase Reversion, as well as the output level fader and a beatiful fully scaled VU meter. The output section let’s you route the instruments to an input track within your DAW. The unused controls or instruments are shown as “faded” for a better and more comfortable workflow. Thus an instrument with no FX samples will have the FX level knob “faded”, etc. Mixer Options Section enables you to switch the mixer view between the factory Drums and Sampler instruments. The global perspective can also be changed from there, which gives you the option to reverse all the instrument’s pannings with just a single mouse click. AUX busses can be accessed by clicking on the appropriate option tab. The routings page reveals the fully customizable instrument’s internal routings diagram. Any instrument’s sample group can be routed either to it’s Direct Bus, the 16 available AUX tracks, or to the global Overhead, Room & Reverb busses, and can be then routed to one of the 16 stereo outputs to your DAW, thus giving you endless routing possibilities.

6.2 Channel Strip Overview

The channel strip is giving you access to all the instrument’s controls.

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Instrument Master ControlsThis section contains the instrument’s master controls:• Level Knob controls the overall volume of the entire instrument. It also glows in green when the instrument is triggered.• S/M Buttons serve for soloing and muting the entire instrument

Instrument Sample Group LevelsThese knobs control the level of all the instrument’s sample groups:• Direct knob set’s the level of the close microphone sample group• Overhead knob set’s the level of the overhead sample group• Room knob set’s the level of the instrument’s room sample group• Reverb knob set’s the level of the instrument’s reverb sample group• FX set’s the level of the parallel processing sample group

Instrument Direct Bus Controls In Perfect Drums, in addition to the common Overhead, Room & Reverb busses, every instrument has also got it’s own Direct Bus, where any of the instrument’s Sample Groups can be routed in order to obtain some extra controls. By default Direct and FX Sample Groups are routed to this bus, thus having the following bus controls: • Output Field let’s you route the instrument to the track within your DAW • Pan controls the position of the samples on stage • S/M Buttons serve for soloing and muting • Phase Button enables you to reverse phase • Fader for controlling the output level• VU Meter is there to help you keep an eye on your levels

Please note, that by default in Perfect Drums, the instrument’s parallel processing samples (FX Sample Group) and close microphone samples (Direct Sample Group)(Overhead, Room & Reverb) are routed to the appropriate Overhead, Room and Reverb busses in the mixer. Of course you are able to change the default instrument routings on the Routings Page, which can be accessed by pressing the “Show Routings” tab in the Mixer Options Section.

are routed to the Direct Bus. Whilst all the other sample groups

6.3 Mixer Options

The Mixer options are taking their place at the top right part of the Mixer page.

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Mixer ViewThe Mixer View buttons let you switch between the Perfect Drums factory Drums and Sampler instruments.

Channel Bank SelectionChannel Bank Selection buttons enable you too show the two banks of instruments (8 channels each) thus covering all the available factory library and Sampler instruments.

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D. Additional OptionsRoutings Page and AUX Busses can be accessed by clicking on the appropriate buttons in the Additional Mixer Options Sections.

6.4 Routings Page

By clicking on the “Show Routings” option button you can get the Routings page, where all the instrument’s sample groups routings can be reviewed and modified.

PerspectiveGlobal perspective can be changed using these buttons, which gives you the option to reverse all the instrument’s pannings with just a single mouse click, independently for the factory library and Sampler instruments.

6.5 Using AUX Busses

In order to show the AUX busses, just click on the appropriate button in the Mixer Options Section. Navigate through the 16 available AUX tracks using the “1-8” and “9-16” Channel Bank selection buttons.

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AUX tracks are useful for putting some instruments or sample groups together for a more comfortable workflow. Let’s say you would like to keep all of your cymbal instruments on one common track. This can be done using the appropriate AUX bus, where all the cymbals are routed. Or for instance, you’d like to send the Crash cymbal to a separate bus, including all it’s overhead and room microphone samples, thus having a full control over it independently of all the other cymbals you’ve got in the kit. This could also be done using the AUX busses.

Another good thing about the AUX tracks is that they also have the additional controls, actual for the Direct bus and global Overhead, Room & Reverb busses. These are the Pan Knob, Solo & Mute buttons, Phase Reversion Knob, individual Level Fader and, of course, the gorgeous VU Meter.

Feel free to experiment with the Perfect Drums routings and you will see, that AUX busses can really become your good friends for a while!

7 ADDENDUM

7.1 Perfect Drums Preset System

Perfect Drums uses a variety of file extensions to cover all the different presets and file types, associated with the software. Let this section serve as a guide for you to become familiar with all of them.

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.pdi

.pdk

.pdpi

.pdpk

.pdfi

.pdfk

.pdx

.pddm

.pdsm

Perfect Drums InstrumentThis file type is used for the Perfect Drums Sampler regular instruments, which can be saved & loaded from within the Sampler’s Kit Designer Section.

Perfect Drums KitThis file type is used for the Perfect Drums Sampler regular kits, which can be saved & loaded from within the Sampler’s Kit Designer Section.

Perfect Drums Portable Instrument*This file type is used for the Perfect Drums Sampler portable instruments, which can be saved & loaded from within the Sampler’s Kit Designer Section.

Perfect Drums Portable Kit*This file type is used for the Perfect Drums Sampler portable kits, which can be saved & loaded from within the Sampler’s Kit Designer Section.

Perfect Drums Factory InstrumentThis file type is used for the Perfect Drums factory library instrument presets, which can be saved & loaded from within the Drums’ Kit Designer Section.

Perfect Drums Factory Kit This file type is used for the Perfect Drums factory library kit presets, which can be saved & loaded from within the Drums’ Kit Designer Section.

Perfect Drums Combined PresetThis file type is used for the Perfect Drums combined presets, which contain both Sampler and factory library data. These presets can be be saved & loaded from within the Top Menu Section.

Perfect Drums Drum MapThis file type is used for the Perfect Drums factory library MIDI map presets, which can be be saved & loaded from within the Global Mappings Menu.

Perfect Drums Sampler MapThis file type is used for the Perfect Drums Sampler MIDI map presets, which can be be saved & loaded from within the Global Mappings Menu.

* Detailed information about the differences between portable and regular Sampler Instruments/Kits can be found at the Section 5.7 (p.16) of this document.

7.2 Perfect Drums Factory Instrument List

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7.3 Perfect Drums Default MIDI Mapping

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7.4 Perfect Drums In Your Mix

While working on the Perfect Drums factory sound library, we were trying to make it sit perfectly in a busy mix, whilst still retaining the natural and organic feeling. That is why Perfect Drums sounds great just right out of the box, with absolutely no additional tweaks or any post processing needed.

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In order to achieve that, we have created the FX Sample Group, which can be considered as a parallel processing bus, you usually have when mixing drums. What we did there is we took all the Direct (close microphone) samples of all the instruments (but cymbals, of course) and processed them, using a variety of high end hardware and software tone shaping tools, including: EQ’s, compressors, transient shapers, saturators, etc. We have even blended some “one shot” samples into some of the snare and kick instruments’ FX group to make them cut through the mix of any complexity! So, adjusting the single FX knob, you are able to get a desired amount of processing on any instrument. Keeping it lower will result in an almost unprocessed natural drum sound, while cranking it up will bring you a more compressed and processed tone, suitable for a heavier musical material. Play with it to find your sweet spot!

Another useful tool, we would like to focus on here a little more is a REVERB Sample Group, available for every instrument (but cymbals, of course). When talking about Drums, we are also talking about the Ambience, which plays a very important role in any drum sound. That’s why we have created this sample group. And what we actually did there is we, again, took the instruments’ Direct (close microphone) samples and processed them with a top notch hardware reverb unit. Let us give you a little hint, calling it the “Brickas-T M77”, which some of you, producers, are most likely familiar with. We used one of the algorithms there, which suits the drum sound applications the most. So do not hesitate to use it and you will see how quickly it is about to become a good friend of you!

Now let us also give you a couple of advices about some mixing techniques, that will help you perfect your tone! If you are not using the FX sample group in Perfect Drums much, try sending your kick, snare and tom instruments to an AUX bus with a FET style compressor instantiated there. Set medium or fast attack time, fast release and a 4:1 or 8:1 ratio, and don’t be afraid to get some more gain reduction, since this bus is going to be blended with the original drum tracks just a tiny bit. Another cool trick is to send those kick, snare and tom tracks to a separate bus, hosting a 30-40ms delay, room type reverb and a very extreme

7.5 Sharing Your Instruments

In this section we would like to give you a little cue about sharing your custom instruments. And “sharing” could also be “selling” of course. You already know, that you can create your own fully featured drum instruments in Perfect Drums, thanks to the open Sampler, featuring an Intelligent Sampling Engine. And you probably also know, that everyone in the world can open your instruments, using the Perfect Drums Player plugin, which is absolutlely free and comes in all formats for all platforms. So if you are a drummer, musician, studio engineer, producer or just have a passion for drums, this can become a very interesting and profitable activity. Especially taking in mind, that we are soon to open the “PD CLOUD” community, that is called to help Perfect Drums users in sharing their instruments. So keep in touch for some cool news!

compression. And finally, try routing all of your drum tracks to a bus with a VCA style bus compressor inserted. 2:1 ratio, slow or medium attack, fast or auto release and 3-4dB of gain reduction can be a good starting point. Hope you found those advices useful!

8 Technical Support & Contacts

In case of any issues or troubles with Perfect Drums, please contact our technical support department at: support@theperfectdrums.com

For all the affiliation, endorsement and any promotional questions please use the following address:promo@theperfectdrums.com

In all other cases and in order to obtain any information about Perfect Drums, please contact the info center:info@theperfectdrums.com

A good idea would also be to add all the Perfect Drums related email addresses to your contact list, so that you won’t miss any important message. Those are:news@theperfectdrums.comsales@theperfectdrums.comregister@theperfectdrums.com

Sincerely yours, the Naughty Seal Audio team!

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