Ezdrummer 'vs Real Drummer

S

ste20man

New member
Hello :-)

I'm writing rock music mostly and am wondering what people think of Ezdrummer as compared to a well recorded and played real drum-kit. I've got together a really nice styled track on ezdrummer but am just wondering if it's my mixing in the fact that it doesn't really seem to have it at the moment. As before, it could well be my mixing. What do you guys think?

On the same topic, which do you prefer, a real bass or trilian?

Thanks for your ideas, Ste.
 
I think if you've got the equipment and the skills (or spare drummer :D) to record real drums you should! Although there are plenty of people here who get good results with EZ.

When you say it doesn't "have it at the moment," what do you mean? Like fills? The high emotional part of the song? Just looking for some clarification :)
 
Chili said:
If I could, i'd have a real drummer any day. But I can't, so it's EZD for me.
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Funny thing is Chili, you do. Bigger than this: ':D' smile. :)

I would love to play on one of your tunes man.

Just hit me up sometime.....
 
jimmys69 said:
Funny thing is Chili, you do. Bigger than this: ':D' smile. :)

I would love to play on one of your tunes man.

Just hit me up sometime.....
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Funny you say that, as I wrote that I remembered your offer and I've been tossing it around today. I'm working on a song that you might enjoy. Totally different from anything I've done recently. I still have a lot of work, but I'll send you an MP3 in the next few days and let you play around with it.
 
I don't know that I can see anyone saying "No, I don't want a (good sounding) drummer (in a good sounding room)."
 
guitaristic said:
When you say it doesn't "have it at the moment," what do you mean? Like fills? The high emotional part of the song? Just looking for some clarification :)
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I guess what I mean is that when I listen to 'In Bloom' by Nirvana, you can really hear the separation of the drums from the bass and guitars etc. and so the drums just sound massive.

I have a feeling that this is a combination of hundreds of things but I'm wondering with Ezdrummer in the hands of the right person who knows how to mix, can you get a really powerful drum sound in Ezdrummer that is comparable to 'In Bloom'.

I've managed to get some great sounding guitar parts and I like the vocal, as much as you can when it's your own lol. I think that I might need to re-mix a lot of time so I can get a good tight mix. I am really new to this. I like it but it's not easy by any means!

I'm guessing it could be just setting the levels better. It's all very subjective to talk about it here when you haven't heard my song.

I am gonna stick with Ez though, it is my by choice so far. :)
 
ste20man said:
Hello :-)On the same topic, which do you prefer, a real bass or trilian?
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I can't speak for Trilian, but it's forerunner, Trilogy, was hopeless as far as I was concerned. But being a bassist, my opinion is probably not worth the cyberspace it's typed in..........
It's interesting though, because some VSTis lend themselves better to emulation and sampling than others. For example, cellos and double basses tend to come over better than violins and violas. Organs, clavinets, mellotrons, electric pianos and synthesizers tend to come over better than pianos. And saxophones and trombones come over better than trumpets. Indeed, I think at the moment, trumpets, guitars and basses are really difficult instruments to get convincing versions of.
 
ste20man said:
I have a feeling that this is a combination of hundreds of things but I'm wondering with Ezdrummer in the hands of the right person who knows how to mix, can you get a really powerful drum sound in Ezdrummer that is comparable to 'In Bloom'.
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There are a few things going on with In Bloom to get the big drums. They are very upfront in the mix, there are not too many other instruments competing with sonic space and they a fairly dry, so not much reverb, maybe none and just room sound. You can get pretty close to this with ezdrummer. Check out my song Loser (soundclick link in my signature). I didn't purposely mix them to sound like Nirvanna, but they are an example of how it could be done to get close to what you're looking for.

hope it helps....
 
I take a listen to some demos created by EZ Drummer at their official website and got blown away by the results and I would think everything is possible with the right programming and in the right ears. I did some reading on this topic and find out it was used by Meshuggah drummer Thomas Haake in their album Catch Thirty Three. Now that was great, if this thing could be programmed by a great drummer, it does have that great results. Of course, it needs to be mixed very well to sit perfectly in the mix.
 
Emerson Maningo said:
I take a listen to some demos created by EZ Drummer at their official website and got blown away by the results and I would think everything is possible with the right programming and in the right ears. .
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I have sent stuff of mine to friends back east and they have asked if i am bringing my drummer home with me. or when i did start to play drums etc... Clueless to their horrendous fakeness.

They have no idea it is easy drummer. Since i first started playing with it i have tweaked some stuff to make it have a bit more human error. the odd velocity tweak here and there move some hits off fractionally etc. You have too.

The percentage of people who are going to analyze the shit out of your drums, is very very small.


Unfortunately that small percent lurk these forums haha.

Good luck.
 
Atom Bomb said:
The percentage of people who are going to analyze the shit out of your drums, is very very small.


Unfortunately that small percent lurk these forums
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This is actually a rather important thing to take into account. Because we are generally analysis junkies, opinions here can become skewed, as though they are representative of the majority of listeners out in the world.
They're not.
But at the same time, that's not a criticism. We analyse things by default rather than design. Because listening is so central to even the hobbyist musician/engineer/masterer, naturally we listen hard. Half the time, I'd happilly bet that we don't even realize it. So the loudness wars, autotune, EZdrummer, miked amps, clicks, copy and pasting, vocal booths and a thousand other things that we argue about are the natural consequence of what we're passionately involved in. Kind of like the way a driving instructor can't help but note the way people drive. Critically ! And the rest of the world doesn't care. They just want to get from A to B. They just want to groove to the beat.
 
If you bring in a real drummer and record the drums each drum on its own track, dry and unprocessed, you would have the same thing that EZD brings in.......except the people and facilities used to record the drummers in EZD are much better than anything you or I can do at home. EZD drums ARE a real drummer.

So it's up to you to figure out how to MIX the drums, including how to process the sounds before you set the pan and levels, to get it to sound like the drums on a store bought cd. The basic ingredient.......real drummer...... is already there.
 
soundchaser59 said:
If you bring in a real drummer and record the drums each drum on its own track, dry and unprocessed, you would have the same thing that EZD brings in.......except the people and facilities used to record the drummers in EZD are much better than anything you or I can do at home. EZD drums ARE a real drummer.

So it's up to you to figure out how to MIX the drums, including how to process the sounds before you set the pan and levels, to get it to sound like the drums on a store bought cd. The basic ingredient.......real drummer...... is already there.
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Yes.....and no.

IMO...the main problem with boxed drum sounds isn't so much how you mix them or process them...it's in the editing/programming.
Getting rid of the "sameness" of each hit after hit....losing that looped/sequenced feel and making it sound like it was a drummer PLAYING to YOUR SONG, rather than drums that were simply cut up to fit your song...is the key.
That can take quite a bit of time, plus the mixing and processing.
If you have a decent drum kit and a decent player...it's much more fun recording real drums than editing boxed drum sounds, IMO....but if you like to sit there and edit/program drums, with enough effort you can make them sound pretty believable.
 
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