Should I get EZdrummer or Addictive Drums?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Greythunder
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EZdrummer or Addictive Drums?

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You can also share an install of AD with a friend. It makes a great stocking stuffer!

:spank:

Lost all respect when I did that. Choose your friends wisely.

Cheers,

...

;)
 
kcearl said:
impulse purchase...I hate the internet :)
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Every single time I buy a drum library it's impulse. haha

Has gotten me into trouble. I currently own:

Addictive with the AD metal pack
Superior drummer 2 with the Music City, NY vol 2, Evil Drums, and Metal Foundry SDX libraries
EZ drummer with dfh, metal machine, metalheads, and nashville ezx add ons
Steven Slate Platinum 3.5
BFD eco

All of them on sale of course ;) (with the exception of slate).
 
jimmys69 said:
Yeah, I definitely agree. Turn off everything in the FX. The samples are good, the effects sound like you paid $100 for drum sounds, and $1.75 for all effects.
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I've been using the EQ a bit to shape the base sounds... and I find it hard to get the correct balance between crack sound and whack in the head feel on the snares without some fairly fine balancing of room, OH and main drum - never thought of actually using separate plug ins to do the work... will have to give it a try.

Agree on the 'verb though. Fairly useless, and haven't seen the need to compress or distort drums yet so haven't tried them..

I'm increasingly working with just a basic kit and taking it from there.
 
jimmys69 said:
I would totally recommend Transient Monster for help with the snare crack thing. I can't remember the last time I didn't use it on the snare bus.
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I agree I really dig that plugin, especially for the price. The other one I like to use is SPL attacker. They gave it away a few years ago, but the plugin is so good.
 
Hi. Many seem to like AD here. And a few of you owns a lot of libs. But may I ask, if you had to choose just ONE library for everything, what would you go with?

I own BFD and BFD XFL, as well as SSD Platinum. I haven't used the BFD lib for years though (because I eventually went and bought a drumkit and mics, but right now they are stashed away due to temperarely spaceissues, so I went ahead and bought SSD).

I kinda like SSD but I feel the routing to busses doesn't work optimal cuz the Crash and Ride (overheads) kinda has to be sent either to busses or room and not both/blend. And I guess the SSD cymbals isn't the best part of the SSD lib, soundwise.

So would my good old BFD XFL be sufficient or should I go with toontrack or anything else? Thing is.. I just got a birthdaycard on a norwegian store, and can afford toontrack or addictive drums, not both.
 
SSD 4 Platinum is awesome if you don't want to do much work to make it fit in to the mix. i just started using it and have been loving it with the SSD Player. But Superior Drummer is so amazing with the amount of samples you get, it's just a bit more work to make it fit. SSD cymbals are the down side for sure, but i found that the cymbals are the only thing i feel like i needed any eq or de essing on, but after that the cymbals sound pretty good. it's just that SSD has no variety you get 2 splash, 2 china's, 7 crash's.. kinda lame seeing as there are like 100 bass drums and snare drums. lol.. i'm really struggling with it i wish i could use SD cymbals in SSD..
 
Thanks a bunch for taking the time to answer! So compared to SSD the cymbals in superior drummer is a lot better in the end?

Have you tried BFD or AD?
 
I have both SSD and EZD/SD. I tried and tried to like SSD (got it for free from SS himself!!) but I couldn't wrap my head around all the work to get them to play nicely. I started out with EZD and it was so simple, kind of spoiled me for anything else. I recently cross-graded to Superior Drummer and I enjoy the added processing I can do with them. I'm still coming up to speed on it, but there's so much you can do... or not do and they still sounds great.

For my feeble mind, getting EZD/SD into a work flow is so much simpler. And I'd rather spend my time scratching my head over anew song than scratching my head on how to get software to work.
 
I've not tried the other brands....but I do have both EZ Drummer and Superior Drummer, and really think that Toontrack made a couple of great products.
I had EZ for awhile, but never really used it, and then when I finally decided to mess around with it, I almost immediately added SD, and never went back EZ, though I have a bunch of EZ drum packs that I use with the SD player/mixer.

EZ is just that easy. :)
SD is not that hard at all to figure out, but it does give you more pro options to mess with and much more control over the individual kit elements. EZ is great if you just want a quick drum track without a lot of work, but if you want the same control as if you miked up a kit with individual mics and had each recorded to it's own track, then SD is the better way to go. I also have some of the SD add-on drum packs, so I've got at least a dozen or more kits I can now assemble from the EZ/SD packs.
 
Chili said:
I have both SSD and EZD/SD. I tried and tried to like SSD (got it for free from SS himself!!) but I couldn't wrap my head around all the work to get them to play nicely. I started out with EZD and it was so simple, kind of spoiled me for anything else. I recently cross-graded to Superior Drummer and I enjoy the added processing I can do with them. I'm still coming up to speed on it, but there's so much you can do... or not do and they still sounds great.

For my feeble mind, getting EZD/SD into a work flow is so much simpler. And I'd rather spend my time scratching my head over anew song than scratching my head on how to get software to work.
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Thanks for input!

I dunno... I just bought SSD, perhaps there has been some updates since the realase? Atleast setting everything up was easy enough for my taste, but the cymbal sound wasn't that great. And a bleeding option for the cymbals should have been there. Anyway, the superiordrums was too expencive. Perhaps I'll go with the ezdrummer player thing, and just hope for the best. :D
 
miroslav said:
I've not tried the other brands....but I do have both EZ Drummer and Superior Drummer, and really think that Toontrack made a couple of great products.
I had EZ for awhile, but never really used it, and then when I finally decided to mess around with it, I almost immediately added SD, and never went back EZ, though I have a bunch of EZ drum packs that I use with the SD player/mixer.

EZ is just that easy. :)
SD is not that hard at all to figure out, but it does give you more pro options to mess with and much more control over the individual kit elements. EZ is great if you just want a quick drum track without a lot of work, but if you want the same control as if you miked up a kit with individual mics and had each recorded to it's own track, then SD is the better way to go. I also have some of the SD add-on drum packs, so I've got at least a dozen or more kits I can now assemble from the EZ/SD packs.
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Thank you for the great explanation! I'll have to think about this.. but I'm convinced that EZdrummer is worth every cent. I just don't know if I can spend the extra money right now! :)
 
I have Addictive and I'll admit I struggle constantly to get a decent enough snare sound out of it... otherwise I like it... but maybe it's user error if no-one else has similar issues...
 
Armistice said:
I have Addictive and I'll admit I struggle constantly to get a decent enough snare sound out of it... otherwise I like it... but maybe it's user error if no-one else has similar issues...
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I'm with you, Armistice.
I don't know if it's just extreme familiarity with the sounds or what, but I always feel like Addictive drums sounds the same, and not really that good.
I know there's a ridiculous range of possibilities, but they all still sound like Addictive Drums, if that makes sense.

I've been thinking about switching to another suite. Good thread!
 
EZ Drummer has good raw data, which I prefer because I can always ADD processing. On first listen Addictive drums sound great, but I think its a sort of already mastered/finished type sound.
 
My 2 cents;

I use Addictive Drums when programming drums for clients, previous to recording live drums or when using them for the actual recording. I find I can get close to the sound needed quickly. EZ Drummer was my first muse, but after moving to AD it just became closer to what worked for me.

I still use Steven Slate Trigger Platinum samples to replace the snare always. I have never found a snare on AD that I liked. EZD snares were never even close IMO.

Keep in mind, that the particular genre that a drum program is needed for, has much to do with what samples/platform will work. Not to mention which particular kit you are using.

To make a programmed drum track 'believable' takes a buttload of work. Still, I rather play live cymbals along with any drum program I have used to make it even close to sounding real.

I have only experience with SSD, AD, and EZDrummer.
 
jimmys69 said:
My 2 cents;

I use Addictive Drums when programming drums for clients, previous to recording live drums or when using them for the actual recording. I find I can get close to the sound needed quickly. EZ Drummer was my first muse, but after moving to AD it just became closer to what worked for me.

I still use Steven Slate Trigger Platinum samples to replace the snare always. I have never found a snare on AD that I liked. EZD snares were never even close IMO.

Keep in mind, that the particular genre that a drum program is needed for, has much to do with what samples/platform will work. Not to mention which particular kit you are using.

To make a programmed drum track 'believable' takes a buttload of work. Still, I rather play live cymbals along with any drum program I have used to make it even close to sounding real.

I have only experience with SSD, AD, and EZDrummer.
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Hey Jimmy... how do you do the snare replacement thang? I spend huge amounts of time tinkering, tinkering, tinkering with the frigging AD snare and am almost never happy with the final result and can almost never reproduce the same sound from song to song.... I've taken to opening a second instance of AD and routing just the snare and using a different sample to try to give it more "reality" but jeez this is getting complicated...!

So do you just have the Steven Slate thing and use the same MIDI file and use just the snare, or do you have some other means...?

You've heard my stuff, I get way into the drum programming and get all sorts of little grace notes and rattles and minor snare taps happening, still with a sucky sound... not sure the best way to achieve a better outcome.... :eek:
 
The Steven Slate Trigger program I use, is not actually MIDI. It replaces or enhances from audio signals. You can control a bunch of variables as to how it reacts to the audio input. I use it exactly the same for a EZDrummer or AD drum track as I do for a live track.

Sorry man, I have a session starting right now and need to break loose. I will be up early tomorrow to give more detail man.
 
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