Is EZ Drummer Good Enough?

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cosmicdolphin
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Re: Is EZ Drummer Good Enough?

Post by cosmicdolphin » Thu Sep 03, 2020 7:54 am

PS - Your song reminds me of Feeder...one of my fave 90s rock bands...they're still gigging..the dep keys player who tours with them lives opposite us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUN3xCgauEA

But it could be a good reference for a drum sound , import something like this into your DAW so you can A-B

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Re: Is EZ Drummer Good Enough?

Post by regardner » Thu Sep 03, 2020 8:23 am

Mark,

Thanks for taking the time.

I was not familiar with Feeder, but I love the song.

Your comments about the sound of the drums on my track brings me back full circle to my original question: Is EZ Drummer good enough? My takeaway from this conversation is that there is no reason to suspect Toontrack's samples are deficient, correct? The problem is that I've failed to utilize them well.

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Re: Is EZ Drummer Good Enough?

Post by cosmicdolphin » Thu Sep 03, 2020 8:55 am

regardner wrote:
Thu Sep 03, 2020 8:23 am
My takeaway from this conversation is that there is no reason to suspect Toontrack's samples are deficient, correct? The problem is that I've failed to utilize them well.
Correct ! Or it might just be that they want layering and producing well

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Re: Is EZ Drummer Good Enough?

Post by andygabrys » Thu Sep 03, 2020 12:34 pm

regardner wrote:
Thu Sep 03, 2020 8:23 am
Mark,

Thanks for taking the time.

I was not familiar with Feeder, but I love the song.

Your comments about the sound of the drums on my track brings me back full circle to my original question: Is EZ Drummer good enough? My takeaway from this conversation is that there is no reason to suspect Toontrack's samples are deficient, correct? The problem is that I've failed to utilize them well.
not deficient at all.

But like another one of your songs (or maybe it was the same one) for another listening:

The vocals are too loud and by comparison the the drums sound wimpy. Actually the drums and the guitars are likely in a decent balance, but again the vocals are stomping on everything.

This was the ref I posted on the other listing. It maybe subtleties that you need to key into but this is where you need to go. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BermIHe03zU

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Re: Is EZ Drummer Good Enough?

Post by regardner » Thu Sep 03, 2020 12:48 pm

Andy,

Yes, it was the same song for a different listing. I submitted for these listing months ago, and in this case, the return just came back.

I heard what you said back then loud and clear. I've spent a lot of time listening to the Royal Blood song. Between the things that you and Les posted, I believe I've got a much better handle on what the vocal tone needs to be. Getting the vocal at the right level is something I'll have to work on.

Your advice was and is spot on and much appreciated.

Bob

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Re: Is EZ Drummer Good Enough?

Post by Ted » Thu Sep 10, 2020 4:30 pm

Good thread and I hope you guys don't mind me piggybacking on it a little with a bit of a tangential issue... Mostly I use Apple's Drummer function in Logic X for all of my rock drumming needs. It's the quickest, most intuitive tool I have for cranking out quick backing drum tracks so I can focus on getting ideas down fast. And to be honest, the tones of the drumsets sound pretty decent to me. I was feeling a bit confined, but only recently learned that one can convert Drummer regions to MIDI regions in Piano Roll and make the drum track do whatever you want-- if you put the time into it.

This year I got a bunch of drum instruments in Komplete 12. I messed around with some of the Abbey Road drums but haven't spent a lot of time with them yet. I was also looking at other third party drum sample solutions like the ones mentioned in this thread. But my question is this: Is there anything out there that functions as easily and as quickly as Logic X Drummer? Are there any other products out there that do the same thing, but better?

I am not a drummer (well not a very good one) and I like to have something that takes care of fills and plays things that a real drummer would play. If I had to sit and program drum fills, I would just be too lazy.

I'm getting to the point where I love what Drummer does, but Apple is too slow in adding new "drummers" and the drummers they have are starting to get a bit stale. More variations of rock drummers would be great but they don't seem to be going in that direction. Is there something else out there that I should look into?

Thanks,

Ted

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Re: Is EZ Drummer Good Enough?

Post by cosmicdolphin » Thu Sep 10, 2020 4:44 pm

Ted wrote:
Thu Sep 10, 2020 4:30 pm
Are there any other products out there that do the same thing, but better?
I'm not an Apple guy so I'm not familiar with what you're using, I know Andy is a Mac guy though so maybe he would know.

I've never seen a drum VSTi ( or hardware drum machine ) that doesn't use midi to drive it ( unless it's CV / Gate of course ) so I imagine they are all relatively similar in that lots of patterns/grooves/performances will come bundled with them that can all be drag and dropped onto a midi track for fine tuning. Yes there are certainly lots of fills etc in Addictive Drums 2 which is the one I use. Each main pattern has a bunch of sub patterns which include side stick , ride , hi hat variation patterns etc. along with several fills. To be honest a lot f the time I just play stuff in with the keyboard ! it's more fun . But yeah the grooves are a great starting point.

This is the one I use https://www.xlnaudio.com/products/addic ... collection

EZdrummer is probably the most popular of this type of thing. I mainly use what do because they used to bundle it with my DAW back in the day but it's very good and pretty expansive.

Mark

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Re: Is EZ Drummer Good Enough?

Post by regardner » Thu Sep 10, 2020 5:20 pm

Hey Ted,

EZ Drummer 2 has at least one entire MIDI pack that is nothing but drum fills, and every MIDI pack comes with at least a handful.

The samples, themselves, come in products that Toontrack, the manufacturer, calls EZX, and there are many, many to choose from.

Bob

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Re: Is EZ Drummer Good Enough?

Post by lesmac » Thu Sep 10, 2020 6:14 pm

Auditioning drum fills and grooves does my head in. I don't think I've ever found a fill that suits the music. Personally I have found the midi packs a waste of money. It is probably due to my own particular work flow. My preference is to enter it all into pro tools midi editor.
I did use EZ Drummer's edit play style and the Logic drummers and they are ok. The Logic drummers come out in front for mine.

I think watching and learning from real drummers is a better use of one's time.

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Re: Is EZ Drummer Good Enough?

Post by Ted » Fri Sep 11, 2020 12:18 pm

Thanks guys for the input.

I guess I'm just really spoiled on the speed and intuition of Logic Drummer. Perhaps since it's an integral feature of the DAW it's able to do some things with AI that a third party application couldn't? I don't know. I've looked at some of those other drums but everything seems like a hassle comparatively. I HATE playing drums on a keyboard in a rock context. It's not bad for creating beats/electronic music, but even auditioning MIDI loops for rock feels like a chore. I've had friends who are non-Logic users come over to lay down tracks--and the looks on their faces and the comments when I use Drummer to put down a great drum track in lightning fast time-- they can't believe it.

It seems like Apple is putting all their effort into their Live Loops type of stuff and focusing on hip-hop/EDM rather than adding new Drummers to Logic. It's annoying. There are a few things that Apple could do with the Drummer function to make it the best thing ever but they seem to be interested in pushing Logic in other directions.

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