EZ Drummer + Compression

ShanPeyton

Member
Happy New year all. Was a much busier holiday than i thought and i didn't do anything recording. Just now getting back into it. :(

I was playing around with some ezdrummer today and came upon putting some compression and a wee tad of reverb on the Plugins main track at a final mix down phase and it made a world of difference. Has anyone else done this?

I know and fully understand that the ezdrummer software has each individual piece of this kit as canned and processed as canned and processed can possibly be but did they polish the output to be "As is"

By that i mean was it their intent to have the final output be polished to the point that we as the end user do not have to do any final tinkering with the drums? I personally alter all the midi loops and their velocity to get a less canned sound and mix the kit as i would normal real drums.


So, does anyone else out there do any kind of compression or reverb on the master output track of the ezdrummer instrument???
 
When I get stuff like that in, I EQ and compress all of the individual channels AND send them to a buss for more compression. I treat it like a real drum set.
 
I've never added compression (or EQ) to EZD tracks. Maybe I should?!
I do go in and change the note volumes when needed - I noticed the Nashville EZX has some ridiculously loud snare hits.
 
I think it was one of their intentions that people could use ezd right out of the box and not have to do any processing. This is where it differentiates itself from Superior Drummer where you have to do some work (I have SD, but haven't used it yet!!)

Still, you can alter the sound of ezd how you need to fit your song. I used to add compression and gate to the kick and snare, turn off the room mic and add reverb to snare, hihats and OH's. That was for "clasic rock" style songs that I was doing. Now I don't use as much compression on snare and kick, I add reverb only to the room mic and turn it up just a little to get a nice ambience balance. Trying to get a more folk-ish feel out of them.

Can't wait to start working with SD to see what I can get there!!!
 
Interesting.

I kind of thought it was more of an "out of the box" thing. Thats why i picked it up essentially. I suppose there is not hard fast rule about weather to use it or not. What your ears hear i guess.

Thanks for the tips gang!
 
I use Addictive Drums, and depending on the sound I'm looking for, I generally use some compression. One thing I DO make sure that I do is to turn off all software contained compression, EQ, etc... within the Addictive Drums software. One thing I usually DON'T do is to EQ "canned" drums. Most of these things were recorded with the best mics and in some of the best rooms in the world, so I rarely find a need to EQ.

I definitely agree, no hard, fast rule though.
 
Parallel compression of just the drums, can really make a difference with the EZD samples. Squash the hell out of them, and pull up under the original tracks.

My favorite is the API 2500. Fast attack, 10:1, 3 sec release. Same can be done with other comps. I have had really good results with the free Density MKII compressor as well. Have not yet tried the new Density MKIII yet.
 
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