Superior Drummer Velocity Question

[Robert Landrum]

I've always randomized my velocities in Pro Tools for Superior Drummer. Up until recently I loaded up some of the Meshuggah midi tracks that came with Metalheads and I noticed that every single velocity is set to 127. I loaded up some of the midi tracks from Metal Machine and it's the same thing. Is it better to push your velocities to 127 and let the "humanize" in SD do all the work or should you still randomize them as well?

I do both but I started noticing that some of my snare hits sound dead and they are only around 122 when the rest is 126 or 127.

 

[hurdy]

I usually set all hits for snare at 127, except ghost notes etc. Cymbals around 110 and toms/kick 120.
Depends on the content in the mix though
Different samples & off-grid hits gives it enough humanization for most metal IMO
If your doing genres other than metal, then yea velocity can add organic vibe as the music is not as 'in your face' like metal

 

[Robert Landrum]

I usually set all hits for snare at 127, except ghost notes etc. Cymbals around 110 and toms/kick 120.
Depends on the content in the mix though
Different samples & off-grid hits gives it enough humanization for most metal IMO
If your doing genres other than metal, then yea velocity can add organic vibe as the music is not as 'in your face' like metal

So you keep your snare full except on ghost notes and obviously fills and stuff right? That's what I just started doing, and letting the humanizing do the rest. The rest of my velocities are the same as yours. Do you put any variance in your kicks at all? Or Cymbals. Im talking about metal for the most part.

 

[hurdy]

Yea it depends on the musical content. Emphasize the start of new riffs & sections by making cymbals/kick slightly louder
Sometimes, even make every 1st beat louder at the start of each bar. It depends on the content IMO
eg. a riff might be heavily accented on the 4th beat, because of the guitar riff or sumthing. so make the drums louder there etc.
you get what i mean??

 

[GTanguay]

Yea it depends on the musical content. Emphasize the start of new riffs & sections by making cymbals/kick slightly louder
Sometimes, even make every 1st beat louder at the start of each bar. It depends on the content IMO
eg. a riff might be heavily accented on the 4th beat, because of the guitar riff or sumthing. so make the drums louder there etc.
you get what i mean??

THIS^ and what I usualy do to save time.. I just open the midi operation event.. and select all the midi notes.. set all to 123 and check randomize +/- 3 so it gives you hits from 120 to 126 and it never sounded inhuman to me + I'm a drummer! of course I have some fine tuning in some place.. like said above.. to maybe punch harder on the first note of a certain pattern, edit ghost notes manualy and fills too! gives quite a good result in the end!

Edit: I forgot to mention that I use superior & addictive drums in multi out with aux tracks in PT so I mix in my pro-tools! velocity gives me the tone I want from the drums and I use my aux tracks faders to mix everything