TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1
1 INTRODUCTION 2
1.1 Foreword 2
1.2 Credits 2
1.3 What Is Perfect Drums? 3

2 INSTALLATION & AUTHORIZATION 4

2.1 System Requirments 4
2.2 Installing Perfect Drums on Macintosh 4
2.3 Installing Perfect Drums on Windows 4
2.4 Authorizing Perfect Drums 5

3 GETTING STARTED 6
3.1 Understanding Perfect Drums Interface 6
3.2 Top Menu Section 7

4 THE DRUMS 8
4.1 Working With Perfect Drums Factory Library 8
4.2 Navigating Through Factory Presets 9
4.3 Selecting & Changing Factory Instruments 9
4.4 Saving & Loading Factory Instruments & Kits 10
4.5 Quick Controls Section 10
4.6 Articulations Section 11
4.7 Global Mappings Menu 11

5 THE SAMPLER 12
5.1 Working With Perfect Drums Sampler 12
5.2 Quick Controls Section 13
5.3 Articulations Section 13
5.4 Global Mappings Menu 14
5.5 Kit Designer Section 15
5.6 Saving & Loading Your Instruments 16
5.7 Exporting Portable Format 16

6 THE MIXER 17
6.1 Working With Perfect Drums Mixer 17
6.2 Channel Strip Overview 18
6.3 Mixer Options 19
6.4 Routings Page 19
6.5 Using AUX Busses 20

7 ADDENDUM 21
7.1 Perfect Drums Preset System 21
7.2 Perfect Drums Factory Instrument List 22
7.3 Perfect Drums Default Key Map 24
7.4 Perfect Drums In Your Mix 25
7.5 Sharing Your Instruments 25

8 TECHNICAL SUPPORT & CONTACTS 26

1 TABLE OF CONTENTS
 INTRODUCTION
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
Product CEO : Alex Haze
GUI Desing : Alex Haze
GUI & Sound Engine Development : Thomas Rehaag

Drummers : Anton Skrynnik

Alexander Kasiarum
Erland Sivolapov
Konstantin Zmievsky
Max Vorfolomeev

Drum Techs : Alexander Kasiarum

Max Vorfolomeev

Recorded At : Bambrafone Studio in Zvukocech

Q-Pro Recording Studio

Studio Tech : Denis Yambor
Den Savik

Recording & Mixing Engineer : Alex Haze

Audio Editing : Alex Haze

Thomas Rehaag

QA : Elvis Hodzic
Yaroslav Tseluiko
Max Gerasyonov

User Manual Written By : Alex Haze

User Manual Version : 1.2

2 INTRODUCTION
 INTRODUCTION
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.

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 131 instruments,
including: 13 kick drums, 12 snare drums, 29 toms, 9
hi-hats, 11 rides and 57 various 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.

3 INTRODUCTION
 INSTALLATION & AUTHORIZATION
2 INSTALLATION & AUTHORIZATION

2.1 System Requirments

Macintosh
• Mac OS 10.6 or higher (64 bit only)
• Dual Core Intel processor or higher
• 4 GB RAM (8 GB strongly recommended)
• Minimum 10 GB free HDD space
• Display capable of at least 1280x1024
• Sound card with ASIO or Core Audio
driver

Windows
• Windows XP or newer OS (64 bit only)
• Dual Core processor or higher
• 4 GB RAM (8 GB strongly recommended)
• Minimum 10 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.

After installation is complete, move the Factory_Library.pdlib file to any location on your HDD. You
will be asked to specify this path on product first launch.
You can find all the Perfect Drums related data, including midi mapping presets and this user manual 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 you are logged in as an administrator before proceeding.

After installation is complete, move the Factory_Library.pdlib file to any location on your HDD. You
will be asked to specify this path on product first launch.

You can find all the Perfect Drums related data, including 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.

4 INSTALLATION & AUTHORIZATION

 INSTALLATION & AUTHORIZATION
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:

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. In some rare cases you should also reboot your system for the codes to work.

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.

5 INSTALLATION & AUTHORIZATION

 GETTING STARTED
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.

6 GETTING STARTED
 GETTING STARTED
3.2 TOP MENU SECTION

As you can see from the diagram above, the Top Menu Section is subdivided into five sections. Those
are as follows:
A. Page Selection Buttons
Use 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, routing and output
menus are also accessable from the Mixer as
well as the AUX busses and other options.
B. Combined Preset Save/Load Function
Use this feature to save or load the Perfect Drums
combined preset, which contains both factory
library and Sampler instruments and settings.

C. Loading Progress Bar/Factory Preset Browser

This 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.

D. Master Out Level Meter/Fader

This 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.

E. Product Information Page

Clicking 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.

7 GETTING STARTED
 THE DRUMS
4 THE DRUMS

4.1 Working With Perfect Drums Factory Library

Perfect Drums comes with the extensive sound library, consisting of 131 meticulously sampled drum
instruments. It can be accessed by selecting the “Drums” tab from the Top Menu Section.

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.

8 THE DRUMS
 THE DRUMS
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.
As you can see there is a total of 12 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.

9 THE DRUMS
 THE DRUMS
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.

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.

A. Instrument Master Controls

This 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 instrument
B. Instrument Sample Group Levels
These 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
C. 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

10 THE DRUMS
 THE DRUMS
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.

A. Articulation Names
The articulation names are listed in this field.

B. 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, use the “L” button.
Double clicking in the MIDI note field will show up all the MIDI notes
matrix.
To set an alias note right click in the MIDI notes filed and select desired
note. The alias note will be shown in green and the articulations having
the alias notes will have a green frame over them.
C. Articulation Volume Knobs
Use the individual articulation’s volume knobs to fine tune the levels.

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

Whilst we find the

default Perfect
Drums midi map very
comfortable, we have
also created a bunch
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!

11 THE DRUMS
 THE SAMPLER
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.

12 THE SAMPLER
 THE SAMPLER
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.
A. Instrument Master Controls
This 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 instrument
B. Instrument Sample Group Levels
These 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
C. 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

5.3 Articulations Section

The Sampler’s Articulations Section has also migrated from the “Drums” page, giving you the same
functions.
A. Articulation Names
Perfect Drums’ Sampler let’s you use up to six articulations per instrument. The
articulation names are listed in this field. Renamable by double-clicking.
B. 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, use the “L” button.
Double clicking in the MIDI note field will show up all the MIDI notes matrix.
To set an alias note right click in the MIDI notes filed and select desired note. The
alias note will be shown in green and the articulations having the alias notes will
have a green frame over them.
C. Articulation Volume Knobs
Use the individual articulation’s volume knobs to fine tune the levels.

13 THE SAMPLER
 THE SAMPLER
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.

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.

14 THE SAMPLER
 THE SAMPLER
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.

A. Overview
The 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
• 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 and are actual for the entire instrument.

B. Sample List Section

The 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.

15 THE SAMPLER
 THE SAMPLER
C. Envelopes Section
The 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

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.
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.

16 THE SAMPLER
 THE MIXER
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.

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.

17 THE MIXER
 THE MIXER
6.2 Channel Strip Overview

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

A. Instrument Master Controls

This 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

B. Instrument Sample Group Levels

These 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

C. 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 are
Group)
routed to the Direct Bus. Whilst all the other sample groups
(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.

18 THE MIXER
 THE MIXER
6.3 Mixer Options

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

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

B. Channel Bank Selection

Channel 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.

C. Perspective
Global 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.

D. Additional Options
Routings 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 instru-
ment’s sample groups routings can be reviewed and modified.

19 THE MIXER
 THE MIXER
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

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!

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

.pdk Perfect Drums Kit

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

.pdpi 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.

.pdpk 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.

.pdfi Perfect Drums Factory Instrument

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

.pdfk 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.

.pdx Perfect Drums Combined Preset

This 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.

.pddm Perfect Drums Drum Map

This 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.

.pdsm Perfect Drums Sampler Map

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

.pdlib Perfect Drums Factory Sound Library File

This file type is used fro the Perfect Drums factory sound library content.
* 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.

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7.2 Perfect Drums Factory Instrument List

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7.3 Perfect Drums Default Key Map

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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.
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
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
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!

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!

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 TECHNICAL SUPPORT & CONTACTS
8 Technical Support & Contacts

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

Sincerely yours, Naughty Seal Audio team!

© 2017 Naughty Seal Audio Ltd. All rights reserved

Chlumova 307/3, Žižkov, 130 00 Praha 3, Prague

Czech Republic

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