Ezdrummer Expansions and other questions.

ShanPeyton

ShanPeyton

Member
Anyone using any of the ezdrummer expansion kits for a rock and roll punky kind of sound? I listened to some of the metal ones and they are kind of cheesy and too much metal for my tastes. Sort of looking for something not so polished as the stock kit that comes with the software? The vintage kit sounded cool, as did the Americana??

All suggestions are welcome however. And, yes, i will also ask this over on the toontrack forum as well.

I guess while i am asking and have you here, say i do get an expansion kit, if i wanted to have that kit perform on my track is it just a matter of switching the kit, or do i have to go and reinsert all the midi notes back in again? I have spent a good deal of time tweaking and tapping out some custom stuff i wouldn't really want to have to start all the drums over again?
 
ShanPeyton said:
Anyone using any of the ezdrummer expansion kits for a rock and roll punky kind of sound? I listened to some of the metal ones and they are kind of cheesy and too much metal for my tastes. Sort of looking for something not so polished as the stock kit that comes with the software? The vintage kit sounded cool, as did the Americana??

All suggestions are welcome however. And, yes, i will also ask this over on the toontrack forum as well.

I guess while i am asking and have you here, say i do get an expansion kit, if i wanted to have that kit perform on my track is it just a matter of switching the kit, or do i have to go and reinsert all the midi notes back in again? I have spent a good deal of time tweaking and tapping out some custom stuff i wouldn't really want to have to start all the drums over again?
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I'm not crazy about the metal kit either. I don't do punk or anything close, so not sure what expansion kit would work, but I'm betting you could get the original kit to work pretty good.

If you switch kits and keep the same groove files, you might have to move some midi notes around. It's not as tedious as it might seem; most kits share the same basic midi notes. Splash and crash cymbals and such stuff might be different.
 
Check out Nashville. As far as the drums go they seem to be the least processed of any of the EZX to my ears.

I have not used Americana yet. Vintage doesn't have a very good kick IMO (all body no attack).
 
Chili said:
I'm not crazy about the metal kit either. I don't do punk or anything close, so not sure what expansion kit would work, but I'm betting you could get the original kit to work pretty good.
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I Get what the OP is saying. I have the original kit, and i can tweak the kit a little but it still really sounds too perfect. I have been thinking of getting the Drum kit from hell or some other expansion just to see. But in the last 6 months i have sat in my man cave for a total of 12 hours so it may just be me not trying hard enough.
 
I have a number of the EZX Expansion Packs. They're most affordable (for me) when audiomidi.com runs a special on them. You can purchase the downloadable version for $39.99 and just download it once you receive your order confirmation.
I'm a huge fan of the sounds of the Jazz and Nashville EZX's, as well as The Classic. I really dig the 4-mic approach on that one (It gives a choice between all drums mic'd OR four mics on the kit like you might do at home). Those three sound a bit less 'perfect' and a bit more organic to me.
 
I have the Vintage Rock and Latin Percussion expansions. I really love the Vintage Rock one, and I think it might be your best bet. I've found that it responds well to EQ as well, which has really made it versatile for me.
 
loveofjazz said:
Those three sound a bit less 'perfect' and a bit more organic to me.
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Organic! Perfect description. I like the responses. I should have made a poll. Is it too late?

@ Lovofjazz: can you toggle between kits with your midi loops set into your track? Or do you have to rebuild your drum tracks each time you switch a kit? ? ?
 
Atom Bomb said:
I Get what the OP is saying. I have the original kit, and i can tweak the kit a little but it still really sounds too perfect. I have been thinking of getting the Drum kit from hell or some other expansion just to see. But in the last 6 months i have sat in my man cave for a total of 12 hours so it may just be me not trying hard enough.
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Avoid DFH EZX like the plague if you want metal drums. The latest one that was done my Andy Sneap actually sounds really good.
 
famous beagle said:
I have the Vintage Rock and Latin Percussion expansions. I really love the Vintage Rock one, and I think it might be your best bet. I've found that it responds well to EQ as well, which has really made it versatile for me.
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Can't believe I forgot to mention Latin Percussion. That's an incredibly useful EZX. Just a little bit goes a long way in making your percussion sound more full.

ShanPeyton said:
Organic! Perfect description. I like the responses. I should have made a poll. Is it too late?
Click to expand...
Too late? Never!

ShanPeyton said:
@ Lovofjazz: can you toggle between kits with your midi loops set into your track? Or do you have to rebuild your drum tracks each time you switch a kit? ? ?
Click to expand...
If you're sending everything to one track in your DAW, then you should have no problem switching between kits. If you're sending each channel of the EZD mixer to a specific channel in the DAW, then you may have to reassign the EZD mixer outputs OR create a different template.
 
Ahh yes, I do send all the channels to their own tracks. hmmm. No big deal. I think if the sound is improved over the stock kit, the juice is definitely worth the squeeze! I will be making a decision this week for sure. I just wanna demo one or two more i think i got my mind kind of made up though! Thanks everyone for all the help!
 
I picked up the Classic EZX.

Huge difference. In so many ways. The way the midi responds to velocitys and stuff? Will take some getting used to. I am not sure if i am in love with the tom's though unfortunately?! But i will keep playing around with it. Worth the money though for the snares i think.

It really is kind of crappy you can't mix and match pieces of the kits together, like put the toms from the stock kit into the classic kit. Oh well. C'est la Vie.
 
ShanPeyton said:
I picked up the Classic EZX.

Huge difference. In so many ways. The way the midi responds to velocitys and stuff? Will take some getting used to. I am not sure if i am in love with the tom's though unfortunately?! But i will keep playing around with it. Worth the money though for the snares i think.

It really is kind of crappy you can't mix and match pieces of the kits together, like put the toms from the stock kit into the classic kit. Oh well. C'est la Vie.
Click to expand...

Well, there is a pretty easy work around to this. You could simply set up two tracks: one using the classic kit and one using the stock kit. You could record everything to the classic kit first. Then, simply select all the tom notes from the MIDI file, cut them, and paste them into the track with the stock kit. It'll use a bit more CPU obviously, but you can freeze/render if necessary to get around that.

Just one possible solution.
 
I could do that, but it is a bit more work then I am willing to put in. However that is an awesome idea. I would never have thought that. I think I may just keep playing with it bit more. Thanks guy.
 
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