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EZ Drummer \ Superior Drummer (or other Toontrack apps) Discussion Thread

#101
I've been doing remote recordings with a drummer who records a pad kit midi then send me the capture which I fly into EZ Drummer. I've really dug the basis of their Southern Soul EZX expansion, which is pretty much a selection of Muscle Shoals sounds. If you're an old-school RnR type it works great for just about everything. Also just got their Gospel EZX, which is also awesome. I wil mix and match drums from different sets, tho, and then mess them up with saturation and distortion. I go lo-fi. Check it:
 
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#102
Lowbrow said:
I've been doing remote recordings with a drummer who records a pad kit midi then send me the capture which I fly into EZ Drummer. I've really dug the basis of their Southern Soul EZX expansion, which is pretty much a selection of Muscle Shoals sounds. If you're an old-school RnR type it works great for just about everything. Also just got their Gospel EZX, which is also awesome. I wil mix and match drums from different sets, tho, and then mess them up with saturation and distortion. I go lo-fi. Check it:
Click to expand...

I have the Gospel EZX that I use in SD3, but I'll have to check out the Southern Soul EZX. It's just money, right? Thanks for the tip.
 
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#103
I really suck at trying to put drum tracks together. I've had a couple of Zoom Rythmtrak units, an RT123 and a RT223 and ended up basically copying the presets. When I got into using a DAW after those experiences I was very hesitant about another learning curve so I figured I'd get into it slowly. I picked this up a year or so ago and have used it a bit, it's a free try and only a donation for the full license (I think I sent $25).
But it was pretty easy to use and the drums sound great. It's seemed to work well for my analog mentality. The kit sounds are easily accessible by my level of Midi understanding either via drum machine or e-drums. Only adding this for folks that are intimidated by the normal drum apps.
 
#104
I'm perpetually frustrated with EZ Drummer, as I would be with anything that has a learning curve, but it's allowed me to finish a lot of songs I'd been sitting on, and I'm fairly satisfied with the results. My last mix, I got to throw a bunch of extra fills in to emulate a slightly disrespectful drummer, and it came out good. I use mostly the kits that came with it and the Alt Rock EZX that has a bunch of live-sounding kits recorded by Steve Albini. I also have the Big Rock Drums EZX, which has a bunch of oversize, unmuted kits, but I've not found the right song yet.
 
#105
J-Mags said:
I'm perpetually frustrated with EZ Drummer, as I would be with anything that has a learning curve, but it's allowed me to finish a lot of songs I'd been sitting on, and I'm fairly satisfied with the results. My last mix, I got to throw a bunch of extra fills in to emulate a slightly disrespectful drummer, and it came out good. I use mostly the kits that came with it and the Alt Rock EZX that has a bunch of live-sounding kits recorded by Steve Albini. I also have the Big Rock Drums EZX, which has a bunch of oversize, unmuted kits, but I've not found the right song yet.
Click to expand...
I found the interface pretty easy to use. Finding beats, clipping things together, etc.
Sometimes I have trouble finding the right kit. Drums by themselves and drums in a mix can be very different. I got the Big Rock drums but don't use it as much as I thought. Same with alt rock. Finding the right balance between super triggered, tight drums, and warm, roomy kits has been a challenge.
 
#106
socialleper said:
I found the interface pretty easy to use. Finding beats, clipping things together, etc.
Sometimes I have trouble finding the right kit. Drums by themselves and drums in a mix can be very different. I got the Big Rock drums but don't use it as much as I thought. Same with alt rock. Finding the right balance between super triggered, tight drums, and warm, roomy kits has been a challenge.
Click to expand...

I find that the alt rock sounds much better in the mix than when you're demoing it. The space around the bass drum feels really lifelike, and it makes your mix sound good. I get the sense that with the big rock drums you gotta just go with it in an unselfconscious way rather than fussing with them. I kinda wish I'd gotten a different pack, but I think I'll still end up using them.
 
#107
socialleper said:
I found the interface pretty easy to use. Finding beats, clipping things together, etc.
Sometimes I have trouble finding the right kit. Drums by themselves and drums in a mix can be very different. I got the Big Rock drums but don't use it as much as I thought. Same with alt rock. Finding the right balance between super triggered, tight drums, and warm, roomy kits has been a challenge.
Click to expand...
Something else to keep in mind is that the various kits are often mixed somewhat differently, either from one EZX to another EZX or even between different presets in the same EZX. It's often happened to me that when I switch kits to see which I like better, one or another area of the drum part can become more or less prominent--sometimes usefully so, other times not so much.

For example, in one song I had selected all my loops and gotten this nice little double-time ride cymbal action happening in the bridge, but when I switched to another kit from another EZX, that ride cymbal part became barely audible, because the new kit had been mixed differently from my original one. In another song, the snare became unbearably loud and annoying with the same sequence of loops when I switched kits--again, because EZD had mixed the kits differently.

It's worthwhile to remember that this doesn't always mean the new kit won't work. It might just be a matter of tweaking the mix in EZD (eg, raising the overheads or lowering the snare). Plus there are various manipulations you can do to individual drums in a kit without changing the rest--tuning, swapping in different individual drums, etc.
 
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#108
Has anyone compared the drum editor in SD3 and Reaper's drum editor + drum samples of your choice (since in Reaper you can change the piano roll to a drum grid like in Cubase A better way to program drums in Reaper 6 - YouTube). I'm really wondering if I could get away with Reaper's editor along with a sample, or if SD3's editor is far and away worth the extra price.

I use drum programming for linear, progressive music. Odd time signatures, polyrhythms, tempo changes, tuplets, etc
 
#109
socialleper said:
I found the interface pretty easy to use. Finding beats, clipping things together, etc.
Sometimes I have trouble finding the right kit. Drums by themselves and drums in a mix can be very different. I got the Big Rock drums but don't use it as much as I thought. Same with alt rock. Finding the right balance between super triggered, tight drums, and warm, roomy kits has been a challenge.
Click to expand...

I've used Big Rock a few times now. At first it was counterintuitive, and the mix sounded weird. Now I use them on songs that aren't even Big Rock. They're certainly not for everything. Alt-Rock is still my go to for pop-rock mixes unless I want a tighter sound. I've also gotten some cool sounds by compressing the crap out of the Funkmasters kit, although I haven't recorded any funk, and on first glance, those kits need a lot of room for the comparatively polite snares to cut through. There's nothing like having Clyde Stubblefield on Jabo Starks as your pretend drummer, and the ghost notes really stand out on those kits.
 

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