The Everything "EZDrummer" and "Superior Drums" thread.

Looking at the EZXs again ... :rolleyes: Sweetwater still has them for $40 each. I bought the Nashville one because all the reviews said it was really good and useful, but it really doesn't do anythingm, even for the wide variety of music I make.
Thinking the 'Classics', but the 'Indie Folk' sounds interesting, too. Then there's the 'Rock Solid' and 'Vintage Rock' ...

Anyone here with any of these EZXs? If so, which ones do you find the most useful?
 
IMO, Rock Solid is the best EZX they've put out in a long time, but, it depends on what type of music you record/play too....It's pretty good for hard/heavy rock right out of the gate...The cymbals are so-so, but the shells/kick/snare/toms are really good IMHO....But, mix/match/X-drums in Superior takes care of about everything I don't like about Rock Solid....
 
Do you guys realize that 99.9% of people listening to music could not distinguish EZ Drums from real drums, let alone be able to tell if the cymbals were "so-so" or not? LOL!
 
XploZiveToyz said:
Do you guys realize that 99.9% of people listening to music could not distinguish EZ Drums from real drums, let alone be able to tell if the cymbals were "so-so" or not? LOL!
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Yeah, but the .1 percent like me find it almost repulsive. lol!

That being almost said, EZD does have descent sounds. Although the limited amount of samples used to vary the dynamics of the sounds, makes it sound quite robotic to me. I agree, most will never know. I just wont enjoy it so much. Great easy tool for adding drums when you don't have ability to record a live drummer. Depending on genre, it can be useable. Not for most of what I mess with though. Everyone has their own opinions tho. I could just be a dick. :)
 
jimmys69 said:
Yeah, but the .1 percent like me find it almost repulsive. lol!
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Guess I'm in the .1% too man, while I've came a long way programming drums, I've still got a long way to go.....

jimmys69 said:
That being almost said, EZD does have descent sounds. Although the limited amount of samples used to vary the dynamics of the sounds, makes it sound quite robotic to me. I agree, most will never know. I just wont enjoy it so much. Great easy tool for adding drums when you don't have ability to record a live drummer. Depending on genre, it can be useable. Not for most of what I mess with though. Everyone has their own opinions tho. I could just be a dick. :)
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Myself, I like building my own kits in Superior using different cymbals, kicks, etc., from different expansions, but that's just me....The few times I've mixed real drums, it was very different to say the least (the drums weren't recorded very well IMO), & I ended up replacing all the drums except the oh's & hi-hats....But again, that's just me....

Jimmy: You got anything I can listen to that you did the drum programming on man???? I remember you gonna do some Trigger replacement for a guy here a couple months ago, but never got to hear it....I'd like to hear something you programmed the midi dude, any luck???
 
There are quite a few times I have enhanced or given samples to members to use here. I have no problem sharing what works for me.

Most of what I do is enhancing live drums. I use AD drums mostly (sometimes EZD) for writing parts for compilations. Write a drum part and then use it as a click track. Not really a guy that uses them for the final tracks. Actually, I'm not sure I have anything that I didn't just play the tracks later live...

I have replaced programmed drums for others with SS Trigger to get more realistic drum sounds tho. Some seem to like what a good set of samples can do. I sure do. There is a difference in a drum program that has multiple recordings of the same drum, that trigger at different velocities. Not just a different volume of the same sample, but actual different samples of the same drum being played harder or softer, hitting in the center of the head or off to the side. The more expensive drum programs have more variation of samples. This is what brings it closer to sounding 'real'. Also programming drums as a drummer would play them helps immensely. Though I even find it tough to translate dynamics to touch sensitive pads. Fingers are different from fingers holding a piece of wood.

Anyway, nothing is ever going to compare to a real drummer playing/recorded well. That being said, it is also typical to use enhancement to support the live drums. Whether a sample of the actual recorded drums themselves, or using a similar sampled drum to support it. This is more so with the more modern heavy rock stuff tho.

I just make sure the drums are as good as I can get them. Whether mixing another guys tracks that I have no control over their environment or when recording myself, the one thing that cant suck even slightly is the drums. If the drums sound great, pretty much everything else falls into place. Great guitar tone and weak drum kit usually equals suck IMO. Again, this is most relevant to the genre I typically work with. Not necessarily the case with every style of music.

And again, just my opinion. I might just be a dick. :)
 
Tangent time! :facepalm:

I can't record drums myself, but have had a couple of drummers do tracks for me. Don't have SD, so EZD is my option. Most of my music is mellower/acoustic rock, only occasional hard rock, so Rock Solid is probably NOT the best option for me.
So, 'Classics', 'Indie Folk' and 'Vintage Rock' ... Anyone here with any of these EZXs? If so, which ones do you find the most useful?
 
mjbphotos said:
Tang
So, 'Classics', 'Indie Folk' and 'Vintage Rock' ... Anyone here with any of these EZXs? If so, which ones do you find the most useful?
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I'm using both EZ and SD expansion packs, and I have like 4-5 kits that I'm using....just can't recall which is from which pack.

I know on the EZ side I have Americana, Nashville, Latin. Pop & Classic...plus what comes with EZ.
I only got the Classic and Pop recently, so haven't spent as much time with them, but I did like them both...and better than what I got with the Americana and Nashville packs, but then, those two are kinda more specialized, IMO...like you have to really be into those styles of music to get the m ost out of the drum kits.
I think you will like the Classic pack...and it's one of the few (if only) that gives you two miking options....there's a multi-mic kit and a 4-mic kit version....and they both sound good.
Was considering the Vintage Rock myself, but I also have some of the SD packs, so right now I have more drum sounds than I need.
The Pop EX is also good....it has some interesting alternatives.

What's great about the SD player/editor, is that you can bring drums in from any packs and mix up with the existing kits, or basically build your own.
 
I have the Nashville and Vintage Rock expansions for EZD. I use the Nashville one the most at present as to me it's the best sounding that I have. I do like the Pop/Rock basic one that comes with it though, with some tweaks some good sounds can be made.

I think I'll probably get the Indie/Folk expansion soon. I like what I hear from that one
 
mjbphotos said:
I ended up ordering the Classic EZX, took a long time to unzip/install it! Now I've just to find the time to try it out.
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I think you'll be happy with it :) Nice bit of versatility with the 4-mic setup.

Haven't been around this forum in a bit but once again extending my offer in this thread to offer help choosing EZX or SDX packs. I have the majority of them so I think I can steer you in the right direction.
 
I can't believe this thing has been going this long and I haven't linked to this yet:

A lot of examples of software drums in mp.3 format

I'm hoping to update that thread even further somewhat soon with Custom and Vintage for Superior and the Black Velvet AD pack for AD in about a week (not buying it, just going to bounce that midi file through them as I know someone who owns them).

To clarify that thread though:

1. If it's a preset, then it's a mixed (eq, compression etc...) drumset. The superior ones use the internal Sonalksis plugins and are mixed by the person identified in the title.

2. If it's anything else I bounced it with all the internal eq, compression etc... turned off so you can hear how the raw kit sounds. This includes the NI stuff, BFD, Addictive drums, Slate, or any of the EZX libraries you see. The exception being the Nolly presets, those are examples of the Nolly processing on that ezx library.

3. The Slate library is every kit included in Platinum 3.5 (it was a kontakt instrument when this version was out, I never upgraded to 4).
 
Guitargodgt said:
I can't believe this thing has been going this long and I haven't linked to this yet:

A lot of examples of software drums in mp.3 format

I'm hoping to update that thread even further somewhat soon with Custom and Vintage for Superior and the Black Velvet AD pack for AD in about a week (not buying it, just going to bounce that midi file through them as I know someone who owns them).

To clarify that thread though:

1. If it's a preset, then it's a mixed (eq, compression etc...) drumset. The superior ones use the internal Sonalksis plugins and are mixed by the person identified in the title.

2. If it's anything else I bounced it with all the internal eq, compression etc... turned off so you can hear how the raw kit sounds. This includes the NI stuff, BFD, Addictive drums, Slate, or any of the EZX libraries you see. The exception being the Nolly presets, those are examples of the Nolly processing on that ezx library.

3. The Slate library is every kit included in Platinum 3.5 (it was a kontakt instrument when this version was out, I never upgraded to 4).
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Thanks for the link Loren, I've actually used your thread in the UMF in helping me decide on drum libraries I've bought in the past....
 
I just bought ez rock expansion, Good sounding kits, but one caveat, if you have songs done in the original, which I have many, chances are you are going to have to do alot of editing for it to play correctly in the expansion. For example, a crash cymbal in the original might be a tom tom in the expansion. and like a drum roll, which is nicely played and touched will sound like a machine gun firing. A flam in the original will sound like two seperate hits, im not sure why this is, maybe the compression and eq settings making it over senesitive, but it's work to fix everything.

I had a question for those in the know. in the mixer section in sonar, you can set the ez drums for stereo, and for seperate tracking, sperate tracking would seem ideal, but for me it silences everything else. Like I might just hear the kick, but not th eother channels. Im sure there is a magic place where this can be changed, but I havent spotted it yet. Any clues?
 
barry c said:
I had a question for those in the know. in the mixer section in sonar, you can set the ez drums for stereo, and for seperate tracking, sperate tracking would seem ideal, but for me it silences everything else. Like I might just hear the kick, but not th eother channels. Im sure there is a magic place where this can be changed, but I havent spotted it yet. Any clues?
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Be sure to set the mixer in EZD to Multichannel. Open the EZD VSTi>Click on Mixer> Right click on one of the channels and select Multi-Channel.
 
You've probably got to map your MIDI outputs Ch 1 > track 1, Ch 2 > track 2, etc. I used a premade EZD template before for the standard kit, but had to make my own to use the Classic EZX. I like the drum sounds in Classic, but the rhythm patterns are nowhere near as extensive as the standard library that comes with EZD. I've used it for one song so far, and as the song has a real retro late-60s feel, it sounds good, but I used mostly the standard rhythm patterns, and then rewrote the MIDI where needed to fit the Classic drum set.
 
mjbphotos said:
You've probably got to map your MIDI outputs Ch 1 > track 1, Ch 2 > track 2, etc. I used a premade EZD template before for the standard kit, but had to make my own to use the Classic EZX. I like the drum sounds in Classic, but the rhythm patterns are nowhere near as extensive as the standard library that comes with EZD. I've used it for one song so far, and as the song has a real retro late-60s feel, it sounds good, but I used mostly the standard rhythm patterns, and then rewrote the MIDI where needed to fit the Classic drum set.
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I agree the expansion fills and grooves are almost unusable, the original is best for that, but the kits do sound alot better, not that the original kit sounds bad at all, beats trying to buy a kit and micing it up trying to record it

im sure it is a misi rerouting issue, trying to figure out what it is thought
 
Not familiar with Sonar, but it seems you are able to activate the multiple outputs from a VSTi to separate tracks?

If so, then open the EZD mixer and select the track output for each. EZD allows 8.
 
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