Toontrack's EZ Drummer 2 looking friggin' awesome

  • Thread starter Thread starter IHateRap
  • Start date Start date
I need something for building temp drum tracks to get some songs arranged but have been dragging my feet on Superior drummer because of the cost. This might do the trick.
 
I like how you can tap in the groove you're looking for on a keyboard or some midi pads and it will find all similar grooves that you have in your library. I have 4 or 5 of the midi packs and finding what you want can be difficult sometimes. Not anymore. :rock:
 
Yeah, I'm totally picking this up. It's got some really great features.
 
Will buy today.
Exactly what I'm looking for.
Thanks for the heads up!
 
Seems to me this might be the no brainer tool I could use with my own kit. Use my mic'd kit to generate a midi track, have toontrack find the beat that is closest to mine and bingo, no issues with my timing or need to patch things up. I prefer to spend most time recording guitar, not dicking with my lazy right foot. The only limiting factor I have found with these drum programs is subtle nuances like pings on a ride or going between the ride wash and bell. Unless you sit there programming everything, I doubt you will find that eat in a library. Also one thing i didn't see, is there a feature to make the snare hits more inconsistent so they sound more like a real drummer?
 
Wait a minute. Is this the upgrade price?
Do I have to buy something else first?
 
You can buy the standard version of EZD and get a free upgrade to 2 before May 5 I believe.

It's really fun and easy to use, Toontrack put the beta version online accidentally, so a few people have downloaded it, myself included. No issues so far.
 
Damn, standard EZ drummer is $179??

I got it for $29 about 3 yrs ago
Since then my hard drive crashed and i have no more :cry:
 
Don't you have an account with Toontrack you can recover it from?

If you look on ebay, some sellers are letting it go for under $150. I got mine for $133 after offer.
 
So fappen, does it have a randomize feature for hits? So for example, i don't hit the snare in always the exact spot and it creates small differences every few hits or so. Does it have the ability to do this?

Also, say a snare role, is there a way to go from subtle all the way to loud? Or does this have to exist in the library. Just trying to figure out how it handles things like ghost notes. I'm going to assume that it has to have the "lick" in a library somewhere.

Trying to determine whether or not I go with this and a cheap midi interface I can tap my beats on to or if I just get drumagog5 and use it with my drums.
 
Kapo_Polenton":29g5sfi8 said:
So fappen, does it have a randomize feature for hits? So for example, i don't hit the snare in always the exact spot and it creates small differences every few hits or so. Does it have the ability to do this?

Also, say a snare role, is there a way to go from subtle all the way to loud? Or does this have to exist in the library. Just trying to figure out how it handles things like ghost notes. I'm going to assume that it has to have the "lick" in a library somewhere.

Trying to determine whether or not I go with this and a cheap midi interface I can tap my beats on to or if I just get drumagog5 and use it with my drums.
Click to expand...

Hey Kapo, there is the ability to set a threshold for the velocity of the midi notes in the plugin before you drag it out into your DAW, not entirely sure if they were striking different areas of the pad though. This can be randomised within patterns and not the entire song, so you may wish to limit the pattern in one section to just medium strikes, and or then soft to hard.

There's also the ability for the plugin to apply an algorithm that changes up the patterns of the base midi beats with extra hits of certain cymbals, drums etc. Otherwise, you can play around with the midi roll in your DAW and adjust the note velocities manually, but it sounds like you wish to avoid this by buying a midi pad. Tell you what though, as cool as that is, it's a major pain in the arse after a while. Sold my midi pad years ago because I lost patience. :lol: :LOL:

Hope this makes sense, but this video by Ola Englund shows off a few of the features for you too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEJH3WM6Oz8
 
I bought EZD a few years ago for $29 and just upgraded it to Superior recently for $49 or something. It's a great product. I actually only use the Toontrack sounds hosted through JamStix 3. JS3 is amazing. It will even jam with you as you play. You can just pick a drum set and a player style (based on real drummers). It will "read" your guitar track input on your DAW and play along. If you lighten up on your attack, so does JS. Unreal. I always thought the drum sounds were just OK but it will host any other sequencer so you can use those sounds instead. They've just released a Mac version in Beta as well. More importantly, I think it's way easier to write your own beats in JS as well. You don't have to use the Piano Roll in the DAW which I always thought sucked. And of course you can use an external midi controller to tap in your beats.
 
I use Superior with Metal Foundry addon with Rock solid midi packs.
I quite happy with it. If I didn't already have what I have now, I would definitely go for EZD 2.
 
Actually, I think I found my answer.. I have the old EZ drummer and a ton of samples from drum monkey so within Reaper, I am probably going to record my kit, create a midi track, assign samples to each of the drums, then edit within the reaper midi window to both humanize the drums and individually set the velocity where I know i might be building softer to harder rolls. I think this is a good way to control the perceived dynamics of any rudiments or dynamics used on the kit. Not perfect but most rock drumming is not terribly complicated from a dynamics perspective. I just may want to add a few ghost notes here or there. I can also combine samples with real signal like my snare bottom and overhead cymbals giving it a nice live feel. All this without spending a sent. Now, the only draw back, is that i would probably end up with like 5 or 6 individual midi tracks to make up one drum part. Because in that scenario, I am essentially triggering. That I need to think about.
 
Still won't beat superior drummer, skip the EZ lines and go for the good stuff.
 
timeroo":qkbvw88a said:
Still won't beat superior drummer, skip the EZ lines and go for the good stuff.
Click to expand...
I have superior drummer 2.0.....it doesn't do what EZ2 does.
 
IHateRap":2gr0h09u said:
timeroo":2gr0h09u said:
Still won't beat superior drummer, skip the EZ lines and go for the good stuff.
Click to expand...
I have superior drummer 2.0.....it doesn't do what EZ2 does.
Click to expand...
This was my question...I have Superior, is that a worthwhile purchase? Seems interesting.

KAPO: As for the Drum Monkey, the beats are good but the sounds are weak- can you use those beats and transfer into better tones? That would be awesome
 
Bought EZ drummer last night from Sweetwater.
It upgrades to 2 for free.

Really looking forward to it. That Ola Englund vid pushed me over the edge.
 
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