Noticed EZ drummers don't play in time?

[Kolstad]

Yeah the thing with software tools are that they are not as immediate when programming. With an e-drum kit it's a different ballgame, though.
Superior Drummer is a lot better sounding than EZ, imo, but the workflow is about the same with midi. SD3 integrates much better with e-drum kits, though. And SD3 also have a trigger replacement section which is incredible.

[ernstinen]

Ya know what I perfer? Get a Midi kick drum that is right on the beat. THEN, play all the other drums (snare, ride, crash) myself. With REAL drums. I used to do that at my last studio that was owned by a drummer. I would walk each piece into my studio with these various drums, and play them with real sticks while listening to the kick on my headphones. I could mic the drums to sound like 'i' wanted to them sound, and everything synced just fine. No midi lag, no moving time around. That sure was a better way of putting down a groove!

But now I'm back in my 2nd bedroom. I'm frustrated! Maybe I should just buy a couple cymbals and a snare.

Food for thought,

Ern

[mojobone]

I don't use EZ Drummer, but something smells fishy, here. What I mean, their MIDI loops, even if they're not played perfectly in time, have to meet up at the bar lines, or they won't loop, right? Could be your DAW is helpfully changing the loop's tempo to match its own or more likely your troubles have to do with your DAW's latency settings OR if you have teh Pro Tools, latency compensation for plugins isn't turned on which IIRC is rather stupidly the default. You may need to play around with buffer settings to get your latency to a minimum. If your internal clock is as good as you say, even as little as 20ms can screw you all up, but if you keep it consistent you can learn to deal, like when using a wireless rig and standing 20 ft from your amp. Switching to 24/96 can also help tighten up MIDI timing, at the cost of larger files. One last trick, which shouldn't make a difference but sometimes does when running tons o' MIDI, is to use channel one for drums instead of the default 10, because that's the one the MIDI spec polls first to see whether a note has been played.

[ernstinen]

I don't use EZ Drummer, but something smells fishy, here. What I mean, their MIDI loops, even if they're not played perfectly in time, have to meet up at the bar lines, or they won't loop, right? Could be your DAW is helpfully changing the loop's tempo to match its own or more likely your troubles have to do with your DAW's latency settings OR if you have teh Pro Tools, latency compensation for plugins isn't turned on which IIRC is rather stupidly the default. You may need to play around with buffer settings to get your latency to a minimum. If your internal clock is as good as you say, even as little as 20ms can screw you all up, but if you keep it consistent you can learn to deal, like when using a wireless rig and standing 20 ft from your amp. Switching to 24/96 can also help tighten up MIDI timing, at the cost of larger files. One last trick, which shouldn't make a difference but sometimes does when running tons o' MIDI, is to use channel one for drums instead of the default 10, because that's the one the MIDI spec polls first to see whether a note has been played.

Hmmm.... I think I have it figured out. EZDrummer SOUNDS good, but it's about 20 ms behind the beat. And my Vision DAW (EW Gold) is about 60-80 ms behind the beat. I just have to adjust the timing. But it's a pain in the ass! My Roland JV-90 is right on the beat. But the sounds aren't as good.

"Wouldn't it be nice" to have it all sync up without all this work? Maybe I should hire the group that Brian Wilson used.

Cheers,

Ern

[mojobone]

Right, Ern; different plugins can have different latencies, which is independent of the DAW's latency settings. I think turning on plugin delay compensation may be your answer, and depending on the DAW, it might need to be turned on for each plugin, individually.