Compare DFH superior to BFD

[zed32]

just wrote in a bunch of alternating left-right snare and tom hits in a row! plus years of listening to that type of stuff back in high school, i have a bunch of those kind of rolls in my head, but my hands are too slow to actually do em.

 

[DavidK]

NIce Zed.

So, is that EZ Drummer?? What version is that, i.e. tell me what to buy. I got some money and am ready to buy some stuff.

 

[travelin travis]

just wrote in a bunch of alternating left-right snare and tom hits in a row! plus years of listening to that type of stuff back in high school, i have a bunch of those kind of rolls in my head, but my hands are too slow to actually do em.

i don't play drums so i guess that would be a good reason for not being able to hear that stuff in my head. i suck badly at rolls especially when trying to write them out in the piano roll. maybe i should just cop some rolls from other songs.

 

[zed32]

NIce Zed.

So, is that EZ Drummer?? What version is that, i.e. tell me what to buy. I got some money and am ready to buy some stuff.

nope that's all done by me in DFHS. i don't have ez_drummer. i think ez_drummer might be pretty damn good for what you're looking to do though. plus you can buy expansions for it too.


oh and Travis, it's not really a bad idea to try and map out some rolls from songs that you like, if anything, it's good practice to get your creative juices flowing and to see how the rolls break down on paper.

 

[travelin travis]

zed, do you spend much time editing velocities?

 

[Greg_L]

i'll be happy to do drums for you for a song if you want! that way you can get an idea of how it sounds. i did some DFHS drums for one of nukeitout's songs, check it out here:

the drums i did for that song are pretty simple, and i really didn't have to spend a lot of time on it, but it sorta gives you an idea of how they sound.

also check this tune out:
http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=4962389&q=hi

it's a short punk rock tune i did in DFHS, way too loud.

Hey man thats pretty good for fake drums. The drums themselves sound pretty realistic. I'm not sold on the cymbals and hats though. But you did a great job programming those things. Very precise. Do you map it all out to a click track or grid or something?

P.S. - Speaking of 'punk', heres some real drums on a Ramones song I just finished.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=639137&songID=5140817

 

[zed32]

zed, do you spend much time editing velocities?

not really. say if there's a groove where i'm doing 8ths on the hi hat and i don't want it to be real heavy, i'll write out just a couple bars, and then tweak the velocity on each one. or i'll do like an odd number of hits, say 5 or 7 hits and do the velocities individually, then i'll cut and paste them over and over again so it seems like an irregular pattern of different velocity hits (not a huge variance or anything) and it gives it a more realistic feel.

then what i'll end up doing is copying the entire groove, and just pasting it over and over again for the whole song. then say if one section i wanna switch fron hi hat to ride cymbal 8ths, i'll just drag the hi hat part into the ride key. that way i won't have to go back and re-draw the whole pattern again.

then when the basics are done, i go back and write the fills. i probably spend the most time at this step, because i have to do more alteration in the velocity to make it sound realistic. i'll usually tap out how the fill goes with my fingers on my desk, and pay attention to how hard i'm pounding the desk, and then i get an idea of how to write out the fill.

 

[zed32]

Hey man thats pretty good for fake drums. The drums themselves sound pretty realistic. I'm not sold on the cymbals and hats though. But you did a great job programming those things. Very precise. Do you map it all out to a click track or grid or something?

P.S. - Speaking of 'punk', heres some real drums on a Ramones song I just finished.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=639137&songID=5140817

yeah the midi editor grid is lined up to the tempo of the song, so it's all dead on. perhaps a little TOO dead on, hehe. honestly the cymbals sound good by themselves, but riding the crash and stuff still doesn't sound all that great. but if you really take the time and mess with the velocity on the cymbals they can be much more realistic than what i got on those songs.

i'll check out your tune once i get home from work (in like 30 minutes). your cover tunes rule, i remember hearing your version of America, FUCK YEAH!

i'll upload this track i've been working on in DFHS in pursuit of the Deftones' "Digital Bath" drum sound that i love so much. it's only like 30 seconds of the song, and i kinda stopped working on it for a while, but it was like my way of practicing with velocity and stuff to try and match a real drum sound as perfectly as possible. i really should get back to work on that thing one day....

 

[Greg_L]

yeah the midi editor grid is lined up to the tempo of the song, so it's all dead on. perhaps a little TOO dead on, hehe. honestly the cymbals sound good by themselves, but riding the crash and stuff still doesn't sound all that great. but if you really take the time and mess with the velocity on the cymbals they can be much more realistic than what i got on those songs.

i'll check out your tune once i get home from work (in like 30 minutes). your cover tunes rule, i remember hearing your version of America, FUCK YEAH!

Haha. Thanks.

Yeah I've noticed that with a lot of fake drums that the rolls and fills and shit are almost machine-like accurate. I would imagine that tweaking the power (velocity?) of certain hits can help alleviate that. I think simple human inconsistencies are what makes real drums sound real. If you can mimick that by pushing buttons, all the better. I guess I'm just a purist at heart. I couldn't look myself in the mirror if I used fake drums.

 

[zed32]

there's another program that i have called Jamstix. it can work in conjunction with DFHS and it adds a little more realism to it. they have options that will introduce slight variances in the timing so that way the drum fills and stuff aren't so rapid-fire. Jamstix does a ton of other cool stuff too, but i think i'll leave it for another day hahaha...

but if you crank up the little meter that introduces the timing variance, you can really simulate having a bad drummer. sounds kinda funny.

and honestly i haven't messed with Jamstix that much since i got it.

 

[Greg_L]

Lol. That would be the 'Greg simulator'.

 

[travelin travis]

Lol. That would be the 'Greg simulator'.

no, that would definitely be the 'travis' simulator. you're about 10 million times better on drums than me.

 

[Dogman]

DavidK...I have EZ-Drummer, with the DFH add on pack...I can make some loopable stuff for you is you just want some stereo wav's to loop....I'ts pretty easy. I would just need a time signature, and a BPM clost to what you might want. That keep sthem sounding more realistic. If you have some rough ideas, I could easily put some things together that you should be able to use. Just let me know...or if you really want, I'd suggest buying the program. There's thousands of different rythms, and with an expansion pack, the possibilities are endless. I think it would be about $300 for EZdrummer, and DFH expansion pack, and it works great with Sonar.

 

[DavidK]

Thanks Ed I am gonna break down and buy it, I will get the EX drummer, DFH expansion and some more RAM, I only have 512 and I doubt that will work. New stuff kicks ASS!

 

[zed32]

I haven't used BFD, but anytime I've read of people comparing them it was clear that DFHS owns.

I agree. DFHS owns.

Dogman, did you get the 1.6 update to DFHS yet? It lets you put different cymbals in the extra ride slots. Seeing that I never used more than maybe 2 rides out of six I'm pretty stoked over that. I get to make an uber-metal drum kit with like 12 cymbals. Word.

i installed the 1.6 update, and now it won't work in Reaper or Samplitude! it only works on my Cubase LE, which is lame.

 

[DavidK]

I bought the RAM, ordered EZ drummer and the DFH expansion, should be shipped to me soon. And now we play the waiting game.....

I hate the waiting game, let's play hungry hungry hippos. ( Homer J Simpson)

 

[Polska_77]

Check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxh64J_h6Oo&mode=related&search=

 

[travelin travis]

Check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxh64J_h6Oo&mode=related&search=

ha! that's hilarious.

 

[Greg_L]

Oh my god. That's why I don't like triggers, loops, or samples.

 

[travelin travis]

Oh my god. That's why I don't like triggers, loops, or samples.

Because a Keebler elf could pull off good sounding drums on a kit like that?