why do a lot of superior drummer presets clip by default?

ballstix

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Jul 5, 2009
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Portland, OR
For instance I loaded up the LOG atlantis preset in Metal Foundry and click the kick drum, bam +4.8db peak. Are they designed to be used while lowering the master superior volume control or something? Just kind of bugs me.
 
Yeah just lower it.

I always lower the superior master volume A LOT anyway, as you want to mix with a lot of headroom.
 
A lot of SSD 3.5 kits do it also. I think it just goes to show that different DAW's meter differently. I bet it wasn't clipping on the designers computer.
 
I also have this problem. Everything else will have room but Superior will clip like a bitch so when i put a limiter on the master bus it just fucking hammers the snare. Anyone else have any advice on this?
 
I also have this problem. Everything else will have room but Superior will clip like a bitch so when i put a limiter on the master bus it just fucking hammers the snare. Anyone else have any advice on this?

Learn to mix :)

Seriously though... lower EVERYTHING a tad. Not just the drums. I try to get everything peaking at about -12db in Reapers meters, so that I get a pretty even mixing platform to start from, and I get plenty of headroom.

You can just slap a trim plugin on the master channel if at the end the mix is good, but isn't loud enough.
 
I get the same thing with Battery. Maybe it was intended to be run through outboard, and analouge distorts in a pleasing way so by default it peaks a little? The people that actually pay for these programs are more likely to own outboard eqs and comps than the downloaders, (I'm not accusing you of anything by the way ) than the larger group of cracked software users, so maybe the drum presets are aimed at people like that.

Or maybe the developers anticipate their potential customers will go to the music store and ask to hear all the different drum vsts, and because louder = more exciting sounding each company is trying to make their samples sound louder than the next?

I don't know

Also don't 32 and 64 bit floating daws not clip internally? So they aren't exactly clipping when used with modern daws? Once you put a different plugin on the channel you have to be carefull not to clip that plugin but the drum vst isn't exactly clipping, but you still can't clip the 2 buss without distorting. That's how it works I think...
..but I could be wrong