Need EZDrummer Help

ido1957

9K Gold Member
Hope someone can help me I've been struggling for a while with getting EZDrummer to work. Firstly, I received EZDrummer LITE so it looks like I get one track of midi and that's it.
1) I selected the EZDrummer Soft Synth in Sonar 6 PE
2) It created several tracks - 2 Tracks labelled EZDrummer 1 (no track numbers), 8 audio tracks of EZDrummer (Primary out and EZ2-8 - tracks 1-8 ), and one MIDI Track - Track 9.
3) I dragged a MIDI track onto Track 9 and it plays from my soundcard - that cheezy MIDI drum sound.
4) I opened Toontrack and the EZDrummer is "active" and it plays the great samples I want.

Question - how do I get the MIDI track in SONAR to play back the samples from EZDrummer instead of the cheesy ones from my Microsoft Wavetable Synth?

I get no sound when I set the MIDI output to EZDRUMMER on the MIDI track (track 9).
The EZDRUMMER track 1 is the input to the Audio Track. If I change the MIDI output to wavetable synth then I get sound. Help! Here's a picture of the screen....

https://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee28/ido1957/EZDRUMMER.jpg

https://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee28/ido1957/EZDRUMMER2.jpg
 
HeyIdo,

I've got Sonar 8 and am still learning it, so I might not have your answer, but... I 'll try.

First, I'm pretty confident you only need one VSTi track for ezdrummer. I do most everything with just one track, so no major limitation with the Lite version.

I had this long explanation on what I thought your problem was and THEN I looked at your screenshots, so delete all that stuff i just wrote. :) Anyways, I think the problem is on your Audio channel 1, you do not have an output selected. EZDrummer defaults to a stereo mix and that mix will be sent out on audio channel 1 and in your screenshot, that channel has no output assigned. I noticed the very same thing on my computer, too. Except, I have ezdrummer configured for multi-track mode, so channel 1 is assigned to the kick and I wasn't getting any kick. So, assign an output there, like perhaps your new Lexicon.

To configure for multi-track mode, open the Mixer in ezdrummer, right click on any of the output assignments and at the bottom of the list is Multitrack.

Hope this helps.
 
Well I got it working but there's some issues with Sonar that I will need to address somehow...
1) I hooked up my Lexicon U42S interface and everything worked fine. The Lexicon is set up with ASIO drivers, so it looks like EZDrummer needs that configuration in OPTIONS/AUDIO to work in Sonar.
2) I originally wanted to work with my built in soundcard. It only works at MME setting (no ASIO or WDM). The drums take so long I wanted to write them on my laptop without requiring an interface connected.
3) I can't get the soundcard to work with Sonar at all anymore. The audio tracks are distorted and both audio and midi stutters and plays slow. Since I installed the ASIO drivers/Lexicon settings the soundcard doesn't work.
4) So although everything works when I use my U42S, I would like to get the ability to use my soundcard for mixing using my headphones (laptop so it would allow me to work anywhere, then finalize the mix on monitors...
5) My old Cakewalk 9.0 works fine with my soundcard (both midi and wave) so there's gotta be a setting in Sonar that's screwing up the soundcard's ability to work. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...
6) I'm working in Cakewalk 9.0 to write the drums (using EZDrummer patterns) after which I'll load it into Sonar to get the EZDrummer sounds. I'm more familiar with the Track map in Cakewalk anyway...
 
There's two things I can think of to help. The first is download ASIO4ALL and use it on your laptop. It will supply a generic asio driver for your soundcard and ezdrummer and Sonar should work that way.

Secondly, how much ram do you have on your laptop?? ezdrummer uses quite a bit and I'm sure Sonar does too. You might just be out of memory and your laptop is caching everything to the hard drive. It's painful to do anything if that's the case. I tried running Cubase with exdrummer on my laptop with only 512mb. No wayyy.

Maybe something else. Like I said, I'm still learning Sonar, so this may not help. Be sure you have completely unselected the Lexicon ASIO when trying to select the soundcard in Options/Audio. Both Inputs and Outputs. I made this mistake and it took me two days to figure it out.

One other thing, just an opinion, but you shouild try the canned grooves supplied with ezdrummer. They're quite good and add the human touch that's hard to duplicate when writing your own. I usually drag a groove into the DAW, then edit in the midi editor. I can appreciate you wanting to write your own drums patterns, too. It's half the fun!!!

Hope this helps,
 
i also have exdrummer problems. when i export a 'metalheads' kit track and i play it bank in my daw i sounds like the pop/rock kit. also, when it try to export a wav file and i bring it back into cubase (essential 5) i only hear the midi sounds and not the ezdrummer. any idea what might be causing this?
 
i also have exdrummer problems. when i export a 'metalheads' kit track and i play it bank in my daw i sounds like the pop/rock kit. also, when it try to export a wav file and i bring it back into cubase (essential 5) i only hear the midi sounds and not the ezdrummer. any idea what might be causing this?

You have to load the metalhead soundbank in EZ. The default set in EZ is the pop/rock kit.

If you're importing a WAV file you shouldn't hear any MIDI at all. If you are importing the MIDI track too mute that MIDI track.
 
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