My drums software drums

LazerBeakShiek

Find Polaris..and Return
Starting to play with the drums. EZ drummer to me sounds bad. The ambient echo ruins the beats, not sure what is happening there. I turn off the room, and reverb, and sometimes OH. I wanted flat drums. They sound pumped up with power. So that means a bass enhancer of some sort at 40-50 htz. I rendered drum0 as it comes no EQ or anything. Normalized to -14Lufs.

DRum0 is stock as it comes. In the DAW no FX, but I did turn it down some.

Then Drum1 I added a bit of EQ , and a Big bottom enhancer. They should be compressed already. So I left that out.

I used Zorrofox's addvice form his beat mixing thread. I have no Pultec so I substituted the specs to the Focusrite RED EQ.
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Is the Drum1 even any better? I spent some time messing with it. I heavily dislike the way the cymbals sound.

What treatment do the software drums need to sound nice? Ideas welcome.
 

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drum0 sounds better.

Seems you are looking past the final product.

I haven't used EZDrummer for years. Some get good things from it, but it takes time to know what you are looking for. I have found other drum programs to sound much better, but that was after time and experience to know why.

That being said, I am not sure you are making good decisions just yet. Knowing how the drums work in a mix is how you find that out. We all know what raw EZD sounds like. Not real.

Work your mixes with the drums. Anything solo'd may sound off.
 
No man I need to isolate and take care of the basics. The instruments need to sound better on their own before I start layering them. If just start layering it will be a total crap shoot.

Here this is a higher bit quality. And the ambience is gone.

Would you agree? These hits don't have that hollow echo.

I changed these areas to maximum.
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We all know what raw EZD sounds like. Not real.

What needs to be done to them to sound like the radio?

A recent video I watched says, re amping the drum track. I know it does not work how it is. I turned every knob, and still have not got them close or effect the part of sound I want to. Ill get it.
 
Could someone drag and drop a measure of drums into their DAW enviroment and render it as a mp3? No FX or EQ or Compression, as the drum software preset comes. Normalize or adjust to -14 Lufs for comparison.

My problem is centering on a db loss of -10 db after rendering. I cannot figure out what is causing it. That is the problem.
 
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Here you go LBS,

The first is ALMOST there, -15.9 integrated, -15.2 short term, and -12.5 momentary LUFS, max peak reading is -0.5 dBFS. BTW, I had to compress and limit the crap out of the first one to get it up to -15LUFS and not go into clipping.

The second had a lot ride on the crash, and is a busier track. It has NO compression or limiting, and it hit -13.4 on the LUFS scale, and only -.7 on the peak dBFS.

WHY the difference? Read my post in your other thread about Renders. I explain the difference between LUFS and DBFS.
Attached are the MP3 and the analysis in Reaper.
 

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And my drums , 1 measure dragged directly into the track area.

Reapers own 1175 compressor , 8:1 -11 thresh.

Analyzed at 15.4 Lufs.

Yours sound great by the way. What software is that? My waves look nothing like yours scoped.
 

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Those are beat patterns taken straight from MTPowerDrumkit. Free download, you can use it for free, but you have to click through a "nag" screen each time you load it, or you can donate to the developers (your choice of how much) and bypass the nag with a registration number.
 
The drums from the MTPower VST sound better to me. These are stock dragged directly into the DAW. How about you?

Clip of MTPower drums instead of EZ drummer in my DAW ? 2nd clip with accompanying Roland Cloud instrumentation.

Yes I had the same issue with clipping. I kept pumping the compression, but it would clip. So I had to make the drums pump with only a Gate. Gate set to -10 db only, it clamps down shutting on the tails. Pumps like compression, without compression. This one hit -16 Lufs without clipping.

How are you using the compressor?
 

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Man, the way one uses a drum VST is what makes it work.

A stock version of one may sound great to you. It might sound bad to another.

The ability to change what works for any given song is important. A canned drum beat may work for you. Manipulating it to work with any given song is a blessing.

The most important thing is that it works for you and your song. That is for you to decide.

I haven't even heard a song yet, so I can't give an opinion. Even if you did have a full version of the song, my opinion is just my opinion. Your creativity and what you like is what is important.

Create and stop asking for opinions. Just have fun creating already! You will work out the little shit later. :)
 
I tend to feel like if you're trying to make a stock mix of a VSTi drum work for you, you're probably trying to skip too many steps.
All of these programs allow you to do much more complex routing than just stereo. Send all the channels in EZD or MT to separate tracks and mix them in your DAW. That way, you're in total control of how each part sits in your mix. (and you can get fancy with side-chaining, etc. if you need)
 
I found MTPDK to be pretty good, within its limitations. The fact that it only has one set of voices is limiting. I started playing around with pulling patterns out of MT, and feeding them to my Alesis SR18, but the drum maps are different, so I need to rework all of that.

I'm not a drummer, and to be honest, my patience is tested when I have to sit and edit midi files. Given a choice, I would be setting up mics and hitting the record button while a real drummer was pounding away.

The only other comment I will make is that doing little submixes of drums and reading the LUFS scale is TOTALLY POINTLESS!!! LUFS is only relevant to the finished track and is not even a universal standard number. There is no reason to try to make a submix track fit into an arbitrary number. This obsession with LUFS is creating a problem that doesn't exist.
 
There were alternate sources claiming if you go past a center level services turn it down. This level was in LUFs. So I was checking the tracks in lufs. I was rendering single tracks at that point.

I was having numerous setup issues to boot.

In my newbie thread, you suggested -16 dbfs as a record level. I thought I was being slick automatically normalizing them. Perhaps not.

Then I had to convert that to lufs, in order to see if it will be turned down.

So just dont worry about this stuff? Is it shit?
 
The recommendation to limit to -16dB TOP PEAK FULL SCALE is to insure that you are not exceeding 0dB on any peaks, especially stuff like drums, but similarly on vocals or anything else with a good amount of dynamics. If you are using 24 bit recording, you have a potential of 144dB range, so you really aren't losing anything significant in terms of signal to noise.

Average loudness for a whole song is a totally different situation.

I highly recommend that you read this blog:

Production Advice – Mastering, Mixing, Recording, Music Production | Latest blog posts - Production Advice

They have a lot of good information there about LUFS, PLR, etc.
 
You don't have to worry too much about it. When messing around with tracks, the main game is focussing on the sound.

Somethings up. I admit I have no computer skills. But I can play the instruments. Press the power button and plug and play things.

I need a 1 HOUR private instruction over the phone or Skype. I will pay for your time.

Must know how to use REaper, midi cnnections, Melodyne, drum software that can repeat a measure of, Exactly. As a test.

Must know where the tabs are and what boxes to check.
 
Here is where I'm at. Playing some lazy chords on a midi controller. VSTs.

In VCprojx, the wooden spoon on a frying pan was a poor choice as a percussive device.

IsItWack, was a fantasy about R2-D2 partying in Dubai. Yup , that is a Kaoss pad.

I used the BEAK force and let the Lufs fall where they may. No clipping though.
 

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