Use of Samples, Loops

[mazz]

More flexible in the mixing aspect or putting together drum kits, or.........? I'm sure the sounds are great but what makes it faster and more flexible?Thanks

[ibanez468]

Quote:Quote:Matto,Are you using Addictive Drums right now? EZ Drummer is pretty awesome so Addictive must be, well addictive!Well not this very second...I'm typing right now .

[mazz]

I went to the Addictive Drums website and it does look and sound pretty amazing. It goes a step beyond EZ drummer in that it allows more tweaking of the individual drums and also seems to have more performance variety on the individual drums as well.It looks like it has a lot of MIDI loops too. And they're adding expansion packs, the retro one sounds pretty cool. I think EZ drummer has some great sounds in it and the expansion packs add some nice "vibey" stuff that no one else has. It looks like for straight up acoustic drums, Addictive has the edge. HMMMMMMMMM............. (chin scratching in progress)Mazz

[matto]

Quote:More flexible in the mixing aspect or putting together drum kits, or?Mostly those two aspects. Complete flexibility loading/replacing each kit piece, on the fly while the midi file is playing. Far faster loading times...on a modern computer you can load and entire new kit while the midi file is playing and it barely misses a beat. Lot's more sound shaping tools, including built in fx for each kit piece, which allows them to provide more kit presets sorted by style which in turn speeds up things when you're in a hurry (and is of course really helpful to the relative novice). And this also allows you to save your own favorite kit presets of course.IMHO it strikes the perfect balance between ease of use and flexibility. It offers a good deal more flexibility than EZD, but at the same time it's faster and arguably easier...particularly if you're talking about the time/effort required to achieve a fully produced drum track.HTHmatto

[matto]

Just to make it clear again, I think EZD is great. But for somebody who is looking into getting their first comprehensive drum plugin...and particularly if that person is a relative novice to drum production...I think it would be a mistake not to check out AD.And the Vintage add on is great, I have that too . It's very useable for non-vintage music too. I know they are working on more add on packs too...

[daniel481]

Hey All,Just my two cents. I use EZDrummer, and I love it, but do agree that Addictive Drums has more flexibility. Here's the deal, though: Toontrack (who makes EZ), will be releasing their new plugin, Superior Drummer, in the next few months, and, in my opinion, this will absolutely kill both EZ and Addictive. I saw drummer Nir Z and the Toontrack team demo it at the NAMM show, and it was amazing. The kits themselves were beautifully recorded in some of the top drum rooms in the world (including the now closed Hit Factory), the mic options are insane, there are some great built in effects, and the library of grooves is top notch. Also, you can still use all of the EZ Drummer libraries in it.Now, just as Matto pointed out for himself, I'm not an endorsee or anything, but I just think that Superior is going to be something special. If you already have EZ, you'll be able to upgrade for $250 (without it will be a bit more), so it is more expensive than Addictive, but I think the quality will make it worth it. Nir, who's one of the top studio drummers in the world, said he used a prototype of it with an electric kit on a major session a few weeks ago, and that the producer was blown away. If it can get someone like him to play use an electric kit on a major session where acoustic drum sounds were required, I think it might work for me...Man, maybe they should be paying me Dan

[hummingbird]

OTOH Sweetwater has EZ Drummer for a really good price right now....http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/EZdrummer/

[hummingbird]

Quote:Quote:I bought some Beta Monkey loops early last year in hopes that they would bring my film/tv music up to the next level. I was disappointed to learn that the obvious use of drum loops (even good quality like BM) is not acceptable in film/tv. Now, on the one hand, I don't think I had the skill to use the loops in such a way that they wouldn't sound so 'loopy'... Hey Vikki,I think that last sentence might be the key...as well as that word "obvious"... I have certainly used many a drum loop in songs that ended up in film or tv. But of course I tweaked the loops, put them together to create a realistic flow, added extra hits on top when needed etc etc to make it sound like a real drummer performed the whole song. It still takes work to make it sound real, and in fact more than that, it takes experience. No product can really replace that, no matter how amazing...I agree. Just buying the sounds isn't enough. There's a whole skill level of working with good quality sounds to make them sound like a human being is playing them... and I'm only just taking baby steps down that road.

[mazz]

Quote:Hey All,Just my two cents. I use EZDrummer, and I love it, but do agree that Addictive Drums has more flexibility. Here's the deal, though: Toontrack (who makes EZ), will be releasing their new plugin, Superior Drummer, in the next few months, and, in my opinion, this will absolutely kill both EZ and Addictive. I saw drummer Nir Z and the Toontrack team demo it at the NAMM show, and it was amazing. The kits themselves were beautifully recorded in some of the top drum rooms in the world (including the now closed Hit Factory), the mic options are insane, there are some great built in effects, and the library of grooves is top notch. Also, you can still use all of the EZ Drummer libraries in it.Now, just as Matto pointed out for himself, I'm not an endorsee or anything, but I just think that Superior is going to be something special. If you already have EZ, you'll be able to upgrade for $250 (without it will be a bit more), so it is more expensive than Addictive, but I think the quality will make it worth it. Nir, who's one of the top studio drummers in the world, said he used a prototype of it with an electric kit on a major session a few weeks ago, and that the producer was blown away. If it can get someone like him to play use an electric kit on a major session where acoustic drum sounds were required, I think it might work for me...Man, maybe they should be paying me DanGood points on this. For me it will probably be worth waiting to see what ToonTrack comes up with.Mazz

[matto]

Quote:Hey All,Just my two cents. I use EZDrummer, and I love it, but do agree that Addictive Drums has more flexibility. Here's the deal, though: Toontrack (who makes EZ), will be releasing their new plugin, Superior Drummer, in the next few months, and, in my opinion, this will absolutely kill both EZ and Addictive. I saw drummer Nir Z and the Toontrack team demo it at the NAMM show, and it was amazing. The kits themselves were beautifully recorded in some of the top drum rooms in the world (including the now closed Hit Factory), the mic options are insane, there are some great built in effects, and the library of grooves is top notch. Also, you can still use all of the EZ Drummer libraries in it.Now, just as Matto pointed out for himself, I'm not an endorsee or anything, but I just think that Superior is going to be something special. If you already have EZ, you'll be able to upgrade for $250 (without it will be a bit more), so it is more expensive than Addictive, but I think the quality will make it worth it. Nir, who's one of the top studio drummers in the world, said he used a prototype of it with an electric kit on a major session a few weeks ago, and that the producer was blown away. If it can get someone like him to play use an electric kit on a major session where acoustic drum sounds were required, I think it might work for me...Man, maybe they should be paying me DanWe'll see...it may well beat them ultimately for sound quality and flexibility, but will it beat AD for speed...that's the question. I've already got a 50Gig drum library sitting on my hard drive which I barely use despite it's fantastic sound, cause it is way too slow and cumbersome to use.I'm sure Superior Drummer will be better than that, but if it's bigger and even more realistic, chances are load times will be even slower than EZD.Regardless, there's always newer stuff coming out, and if you want the best of the best, there are other choices too (Ocean Way Drums comes to mind). Where AD scores for me is in the combination of quality, speed and flexibility.Features which IMHO might make it a good choice for the OP's needs as well...