EZDrummer 2 thoughts after a while...tell me yours.

[Steinmetzify]

Thanks for all the input guys. I'm having a blast with this thing. The amount of workable drum tracks I've created (especially as a noob) over the last couple days is just insane.

 

[amiller]

I just finished the 10 day demo. It's really good in that you can drag a groove into the Song Creation section and it will identify other grooves that can be used for verses, choruses, etc. That's not really new as grooves are normally sorted in folders for verses, choruses etc. The GUI to actually create the song by dragging pieces in is nice but when you get down to it, you can do the same exact thing in your DAW. I like the "Tap" feature that will find grooves that match what you tap in. That's very helpful. The fact that the drum sounds are not dry when you are in EZD standalone is nice too since you immediately have a "polished" sounding kit out of the box. It is also faster when loading different kits and sounds that's a nice plus too. At $89 for the upgrade, I'll probably get it. But I'll wait a bit to see if SD3 comes out.

Dave

I already have SD2 and was on the fence about getting EZD2. Your comments above helped me make up my mine. I'm going to stay with SD2 and see what happens down the pike with SD3...THANKS!

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

The only thing that really attracts me to this, is the fact that i can program in relative silence compared to playing. I suspect how easy it is to write / edit fills will be the deal breaker for me. I'm running into noise complaints now that the GF has moved in so I am looking at all my alternatives be it silent heads by remo with a trigger etc..

 

[kasperjensen]

Oh, FYI, I used to have EZ Drummer, and then went to Superior Drummer 2.0 and I would really recommend it over EZ Drummer.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

What do you like about Superior over EZ?

 

[kasperjensen]

What do you like about Superior over EZ?

It's been a while since I used EZ Drummer, so I honestly don't remember the exact reasons why I loved the upgrade, but I know it was just a whole lot more awesome.

I also don't have any experience with EZ 2.

But I can tell you what I do like about SD 2 (I use Logic Pro 8 as my DAW).

- I have recently installed the Music City expansion pack, and between that and the NY Avatar library, there are a lot of possibilities. I only wish I could mix and match the samples from both libraries in one construction.

- The multichannel out allows me to output the individual channel inside SD 2 to separate channels in Logic, so I can treat them with the plug-ins I have there.

- I seem to remember the samples in SD2 are noticeably better.

- The different room and bullet mics, and more routing options.

That's what springs to mind right now...


What I will say is that, on the whole, the Toontrack products have a slight brittleness about them, and it's probably better to always have something in the chain to beef it up slightly. I use the PSP Vintage Warmer 2.
Be careful of using the mix presets, as they tend to sound good on their own, but useless in a mix (a bit like modellers, lol).

Another cool thing is that you can use SD2 with Drumagog as a trigger on real drum recordings.

 

[polaris20]

Question: with MIDI, do you work within the plugin first, and once you have what you want, drag that into the main DAW window, as you used to do in EZD1?

 

[crwnedblasphemy]

From my experience...yeah...you work the track within the EZdrummer 2, and can alter powerhand, expressiveness, and amount, but if you aren't happy with a particular accent, you have to pull it out into the daw, and edit the midi there. This I don't really care for.

 

[ejecta]

From my experience...yeah...you work the track within the EZdrummer 2, and can alter powerhand, expressiveness, and amount, but if you aren't happy with a particular accent, you have to pull it out into the daw, and edit the midi there. This I don't really care for.

Its a computer not a mind reader let alone a human drummer. At least it may get you in the ballpark and I find the new tools in this to be great to get you closer faster than before... even if not perfect. I'm not too lazy not to do a little work in the DAW.

 

[crwnedblasphemy]

From my experience...yeah...you work the track within the EZdrummer 2, and can alter powerhand, expressiveness, and amount, but if you aren't happy with a particular accent, you have to pull it out into the daw, and edit the midi there. This I don't really care for.

Its a computer not a mind reader let alone a human drummer. At least it may get you in the ballpark and I find the new tools in this to be great to get you closer faster than before... even if not perfect. I'm not too lazy not to do a little work in the DAW.

what I meant was it would be nice to work within the ezdrummer workspace....that would save time.

 

[ejecta]

From my experience...yeah...you work the track within the EZdrummer 2, and can alter powerhand, expressiveness, and amount, but if you aren't happy with a particular accent, you have to pull it out into the daw, and edit the midi there. This I don't really care for.

Its a computer not a mind reader let alone a human drummer. At least it may get you in the ballpark and I find the new tools in this to be great to get you closer faster than before... even if not perfect. I'm not too lazy not to do a little work in the DAW.

what I meant was it would be nice to work within the ezdrummer workspace....that would save time.

Ahh gotcha... and I need to apologize as when I just reread what I posted I sounded like an asshole.

 

[crwnedblasphemy]

All good. Love ya brotha.

 

[ejecta]

All good. Love ya brotha.

Back atcha bro! I just got EXD 2 a couple of days ago and so far I really like it but after leaning more about it last night I agree being able to do some deeper midi editing just in the stand alone would be cool.

 

[IsFact]

By the way, I'm using it in Garageband. Not the greatest.

Is there a guitar program like Peavey Revalver that you recommend? In general the guitar modelers in Garageband suck so my demo guitar tones are rough. Muddy, generic, you know.

Not a fan of the GarageBand guitar stuff either......Amplitube, Guitar Rig5 and Revalver are decent. I've had better luck with guitar plugins like the LePou stuff, and keep in mind 3rd party IRs are key.....got a really good one a buddy of mine did with his 5150 and an Avatar cab....immediately makes stuff sound better so if you go that route check out Redwirez for their IRs.

Also, since you're using a Mac, you should know that the iOS stuff that I use is being beta tested for a desktop application.....once that hits you're going to want that. I'll let you know when it jumps off if you want. Sometime in the next few months, probably. I love JamUp and BIAS so much more than any of the other programs. Infinitely tweakable and sounds awesome.

I know these aren't your style, but both of these were done in GarageBand with JamUp:

https://soundcloud.com/steinmetzify/gabdrumjammyraf

https://soundcloud.com/steinmetzify/gabsludge

Me either! Love it