DM60
Well-known member
Clicked on an advertisement from Sweetwater they have EZ and SD expansion packs for $39. Seems like a pretty good price from what I have gathered.
Guitargodgt
New member
Yup $40 is pretty standard for EZX sales.
mjbphotos
Moderator
Yeah, they have them on sale at least a couple of times a year. I haven't figured out what all EZD2 has and doesn't have yet to bother with anymore EZXs than I have already!
Chili
Site Moderator
I'd almost be tempted to browse through the sales, but honestly, I've got all I need.
DM60
Well-known member
I just have the standard pack, saw they have them for $40, so I bought the Nashville set based on what I've read and the type of music I do. I don't really do rock, so I thought this one would be a good addition.
Chili
Site Moderator
I really like the Nashville pack. Consider the Americana pack as well.
DM60
Well-known member
I'll check that one out, since I am getting two for one (funny how the mind can justify stuff).
Chili
Site Moderator
G.A.S. can do strange things to you.
DM60
Well-known member
Yes it can.
mjbphotos
Moderator
I got the Nashville, but seldom ever used it, the Rock Classic one is more useful for me.
DM60
Well-known member
For me, I use a pretty basic drum setup. There is one looks like a drum kit from hell. I am not quite Charlie Watts minimalist, but basic, Kick, three Toms, Snare, two cymbals. No cowbell.
But I did notice on the expansion kits, they give this finger hit which is really very useful for my style. Nice little subtle cymbal sound. The packs really helped get a better drum sound. Grooves are much better as well. I use the grooves and then add another MIDI track (send MIDI to the SD track) to add some flavor to keep them less robotic. Still working on that, but getting better.
Next purchase I will check out the classic rock kit. I have also noticed there is a difference between the EZD and the SD packs. Has anyone tried the full blown SD packs?
But I did notice on the expansion kits, they give this finger hit which is really very useful for my style. Nice little subtle cymbal sound. The packs really helped get a better drum sound. Grooves are much better as well. I use the grooves and then add another MIDI track (send MIDI to the SD track) to add some flavor to keep them less robotic. Still working on that, but getting better.
Next purchase I will check out the classic rock kit. I have also noticed there is a difference between the EZD and the SD packs. Has anyone tried the full blown SD packs?
Guitargodgt
New member
You have to have superior to run the SDX packs.
DM60
Well-known member
c7sus
Disenfranchised Member
SD is a different engine than EZ. You can run EZ samples on SD but not the other way around.
The sample packs are huge if you install the room mics and Decca tree samples and all the other bells and whistles. Like 30 gigs plus.
The mixer section is way more expanded compared to EZ, and has FX inserts and included FX, and has bleed control too on every instrument.
There is also a "construct" tab and under that setting you can modify the drum sounds with an envelope, and choose how each drum is struck. Looking at the "articulation" for high hats in Roots Sticks there are 25 options for how the hats are struck. Fewer options for other stuff like snares and toms, but there are a crazy amount of sounds available in the SD packs.
Under that same tab there is a MIDI learn option if you are using pads or a keyboard. All you do is select the drum and hit the pad or key and it will be assigned to that controller.
I have a bunch of the EZ packs and the NY Avatar and Roots Sticks SD packs. The Roots pack has been my default "kit" since I got it.
TT has another bit of software called EZ Player that is a MIDI editor. I'm not sure if it is included with SD2 or not. I picked it up separately when they were selling it for $49. It is way easier to edit MIDI loops than in a piano roll view IMHO. Drag and drop the loops into the player and you can shorten them, edit them to combine loops, save the new loops, all that jazz. It will map wrap loops from other programs too like Slate, Roland, Yamaha, etc.
The one thing I don't like is the small imaging of these apps. You can't push the image to full-screen size so in EZ Player only 10 bars are visible at a time.
I did have some problems installing Roots. One of the DVD's was corrupted and it would hang the install. I called Sweetwater and they sent me a box set with the entire SDX/EZX catalog. Just need to buy a license for any given set and it's good to go.
If you can get SD2 on a blowout sale and a couple of the sample packs on sale it's a pretty good deal and the samples are well done. When I bought SD2 it was cheaper to buy it outright than to buy the upgrade from EZ. The good thing is they put the engine and the SDX's on sale a few times throughout the year.
The sample packs are huge if you install the room mics and Decca tree samples and all the other bells and whistles. Like 30 gigs plus.
The mixer section is way more expanded compared to EZ, and has FX inserts and included FX, and has bleed control too on every instrument.
There is also a "construct" tab and under that setting you can modify the drum sounds with an envelope, and choose how each drum is struck. Looking at the "articulation" for high hats in Roots Sticks there are 25 options for how the hats are struck. Fewer options for other stuff like snares and toms, but there are a crazy amount of sounds available in the SD packs.
Under that same tab there is a MIDI learn option if you are using pads or a keyboard. All you do is select the drum and hit the pad or key and it will be assigned to that controller.
I have a bunch of the EZ packs and the NY Avatar and Roots Sticks SD packs. The Roots pack has been my default "kit" since I got it.
TT has another bit of software called EZ Player that is a MIDI editor. I'm not sure if it is included with SD2 or not. I picked it up separately when they were selling it for $49. It is way easier to edit MIDI loops than in a piano roll view IMHO. Drag and drop the loops into the player and you can shorten them, edit them to combine loops, save the new loops, all that jazz. It will map wrap loops from other programs too like Slate, Roland, Yamaha, etc.
The one thing I don't like is the small imaging of these apps. You can't push the image to full-screen size so in EZ Player only 10 bars are visible at a time.
I did have some problems installing Roots. One of the DVD's was corrupted and it would hang the install. I called Sweetwater and they sent me a box set with the entire SDX/EZX catalog. Just need to buy a license for any given set and it's good to go.
If you can get SD2 on a blowout sale and a couple of the sample packs on sale it's a pretty good deal and the samples are well done. When I bought SD2 it was cheaper to buy it outright than to buy the upgrade from EZ. The good thing is they put the engine and the SDX's on sale a few times throughout the year.
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Guitargodgt
New member
C7sus explained it pretty well. I would like to add a few things:
1. SDX (superior drummer expansion) are recorded at 24bit, are more detailed going up through the strength of the hits, and have way less processing (nobody has really mixed them yet) on them. EZX (Ez drummer expansion) are either recorded or at least played back at 16bit within ez drummer, there are not as many sample steps up through the hits and all ez drummer libraries are supposed to be pretty well mixed right out of the box.
2. Superior's mixer is considerably more expansive than EZ drummers mixer. There are more available outputs within the plugin to your daw, each channel has inserts, those inserts can run any of the 5 included effects "plugins" designed by Sonalksis. I put plugins in parenthesis because these plugins can't be used within your daw, only within the mixer on superior drummer.
3. I too had install problems, however my issues ran with installing the metal foundry SDX. To this day I don't think I have a totally perfect install. Toontrack it seemed put out sub par DVD discs with that library on it and I had issues with getting discs to work right. I even had to resort to using disc images to get the stupid thing installed finally.
Both EZ drummer 2 and Superior drummer 2 have built in midi players, however ez drummer 2 currently has the nicer midi setup by far. I expect once they put out superior drummer 3 it will have the same midi setup as ez drummer 2. Currently superior's midi player is a lot like ez drummer 1 was.
1. SDX (superior drummer expansion) are recorded at 24bit, are more detailed going up through the strength of the hits, and have way less processing (nobody has really mixed them yet) on them. EZX (Ez drummer expansion) are either recorded or at least played back at 16bit within ez drummer, there are not as many sample steps up through the hits and all ez drummer libraries are supposed to be pretty well mixed right out of the box.
2. Superior's mixer is considerably more expansive than EZ drummers mixer. There are more available outputs within the plugin to your daw, each channel has inserts, those inserts can run any of the 5 included effects "plugins" designed by Sonalksis. I put plugins in parenthesis because these plugins can't be used within your daw, only within the mixer on superior drummer.
3. I too had install problems, however my issues ran with installing the metal foundry SDX. To this day I don't think I have a totally perfect install. Toontrack it seemed put out sub par DVD discs with that library on it and I had issues with getting discs to work right. I even had to resort to using disc images to get the stupid thing installed finally.
Both EZ drummer 2 and Superior drummer 2 have built in midi players, however ez drummer 2 currently has the nicer midi setup by far. I expect once they put out superior drummer 3 it will have the same midi setup as ez drummer 2. Currently superior's midi player is a lot like ez drummer 1 was.
miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
I don't even bother with the EZ/SD MIDI players.....I just drop the grooves into my DAW MIDI Editor and go from there.
The DAW MIDI Editor is synchronized to my DAW audio tracks, etc....so it just makes more sense.
DM60
Well-known member
That is where I work with EZ/SD. Never even thought about using the stand alone.