Interface overview - The Mixer section

Overview

AD2’s Mixer Section has 14 audio mixer channels.

1. Ten mono channels handling the close mics of Kick, Snare, Hihat, the four Toms and the three Flexi channels. (The Flexi channels can load various percussion type sounds)
2. Two stereo channels handling the Overhead (OH) and Room mics.
3. One stereo Bus, which can be used for special effects (the previously mentioned channels can send a submix to the Bus, which can for example be distorted and sent into the Master channel).
4. One Send FX section for the levels of the Delerb 1 & 2 units.
5. One stereo Master Channel.
6. The Audio Recorder captures any sound or beat you play and lets you drag and drop it as a WAV file.
7. The Snapshots feature lets you save and quickly compare your settings within the session.

Channel settings

All channels have:

• Pan (Including stereo width control for stereo channels by moving mouse up/down, stereo image can also be reversed)
• A Volume fader
• Solo and Mute buttons
• Phase/Polarity button
• Separate Out button (You can choose to route each channel to the Master or to a separate output or both)

Exception: The Master Channel has no Solo, Phase/Polarity or Separate Out buttons

Using separate outputs in Addictive Drums

The Addictive Drums 2 plugin is by default a multi-out instrument. There are no separate “Stereo” and “Multi-Out” versions, but some hosts like Logic offer to load a ‘stereo version’. If you plan on using the multi outs, always load the multi out version.

The standalone version does not support multi-out, so the following only applies to the plugin version.

Every channel in the AD2 mixer can be routed to a separate output, which appears in your host. Just click the downward pointing arrow button, and select from 

• Master (default)
• Separate Out (Pre-Fader)
• Separate Out (Pre-Fader) + Master 
• Separate Out (Post-Fader)
• Separate Out (Post-Fader) + Master 

+ Master? When sending to a separate out, the signal normally disappears from the Master channel. However, it is sometimes useful to send out some sounds without affecting the overall mix in the AD2 master channel. You could for example make a submix of some elements outside of AD, or send out the kick to use for sidechaining with a bass track and other things. 

Pre-Fader and Post-Fader? The difference here is that with Pre-Fader all signals are sent out at unity gain, and the setting of the AD2 channel volume does not affect the level in the separate output. This is nice if you want to mix the kit entirely outside of AD - you can choose any preset and the levels going into the external mix setup do not change.

Each channel is pre-assigned to a certain output:

Check out this article for instructions on how to continue the routing inside all officially supported DAWs: Addictive Drums 2 - Separate Outputs

Audio Recorder

Always recording

Whenever you play a sound or beat in Addictive Drums 2, the Audio Recorder captures it — and you can immediately drag it into another application. A great way to get some nice one shots or loops into your project!

The Audio Recorder is hooked to the Master channel. Recording begins when there is an audio signal present and stops when the signal has decayed (or after 15 seconds)

File handling

Recording is always active, but it only creates an actual file on disk when you perform a drag’n’drop operation.

Before you can use it for the first time you have to select an Export Folder (this is where your .WAV files will end up). Hover your mouse on the word “RECORDER” and follow the instructions on screen.

Musical context awareness

The audio recorder behaves slightly differently depending on if you play a single sound or if you play a MIDI beat within AD2.

Playing a single sound (via a midi controller or by simply clicking in the UI):

• Recording starts on MIDI note
• Recording stops at silence (or after 15 seconds)
• Saves a file with a name like “AD 2025-02-10_162605.wav”

Playing a MIDI beat within AD2 (with the Play button in the top bar):

• Recording starts on beat playback (even if there is no midi note at the start of the bar)
• Recording stops at beat playback stop
• The file will be trimmed to the closest 1/2 bar (very nice for exporting loops!)
• Saves a file with a name like “AD-Beat 2025-02-10_162618 80bpm.wav” (the word ‘Beat’ and tempo in bpm is added to the file name)

Snapshots

Snapshots are a great way to save and compare settings. A snapshot includes all 'sound/mix related' settings of Addictive Drums 2. 

There are five ‘slots’ available, and your current state is saved in the first slot by default.

Add a new snapshot by clicking the ‘+’ sign. Your current plugin state is now copied to this new slot. It will have the same color as the first one, indicating that they are the same. As soon as you do any edits, the color will change, indicating that their states are different.

Remove a snapshot you no longer need by selecting it and clicking the ‘X’ in the corner.

Snapshots are not saved with your song, so make sure you select the state you want to keep before saving & closing the song.