EZDrummer 2 looks good so far...

[Mornats]

EZDrummer 2 is coming out in May (can't remember when in May). I was watching this video earlier and it does look good. Almost 40 mins but worth watching:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AArgiZAC3IM

I use EZDrummer on all the recordings in the Soundcloud links in my sig. The recorded versions of my band's songs (Beautiful Skin) are EZDrummer, even though we have a drummer. So, that Tap 2 Find feature looks amazing! If I remember roughly what our drummer plays live, I can tap out the rough performance and have it look up a relevant midi file (probably restricted to the EZX midi files rather than the GrooveMonkee ones that I've got a lot of - dunno, I guess time will tell).

Anyway, loads of groovy new stuff in there. Shut up and take my money!!

[RockfordStone]

I love easy drummer and superior drummer, great bits of kit, if you spend the time in the DAW you can get some fairly convincing sounding drums out of them

[absolutpepper]

yeah, love EZ Drummer - its a great lil bit of kit.

[Chris Horton]

ezdrummer 2 looks fantastic.
I felt sea sick buy the time i got to the end of the video

[Mornats]

Ok, so I've been playing around with it for a few hours now. I'll skip over any bugs or niggles as I'm sure they'll be ironed out in the next patch or two (it was released today so can't complain too much about them).

I took one of my band's tracks that I had used EZDrummer 1 for the drums. I wasn't happy with the original drums, they didn't feel or sound natural to me and trying to get some variance into the beat for the chorus just made it sound out of place. Also, the way I put it together was to find the midi files in EZDrummer, drag them into my DAW and edit from there. This meant that I lost the use of EZD's velocity control as I'd taken the midi out of the software. But in EZD 1 I had no choice but to do this. I'd used the EZD Jazz kit for this - the kit I use on all of my band's songs. (Incidentally, this was because our drummer first turned up to practice with a small jazz kit so I selected it to match.)

So now, with EZD2 I can do everything in the EZD window. So I took out the old midi file and tried to find some new beats for the song. I connected my Korg Nanopad and used the Tap2Find feature. After a few goes I managed to get the beat I wanted (a very very simple beat) and it found some matching midi files. Hurrah! But it only looks in the EZD midi file libraries and not my GrooveMonkee libraries. Real shame but I guess they have meta-data in their own midi files to help EZD look for it. I also swapped the drum kit my newly purchased Indie Folk kit.

First major thought - the drums sounded much better. They sat in the mix really well. I could tweak the mixer EZ/reverb stuff in the EZD interface (it's very simple, much like EZMix if you've ever used that) and the changes were subtle, but there and nicely done.

So now onto the cool stuff - and this is what prompted me to come on and mention all this - it's really cool IMO. I listened to the midi file that it had found. Hmm, kick and snare are too busy. So into the Edit Play Style window for that midi file and I selected the kick, turned down the number of hits (made it less busy) and did the same for the snare. Much better now. The chorus for this song is pretty much the same beat but with some crashes and a little more velocity on the kick and hi-hats (which in my original were too loud and sounded out of place). So I did the Edit Play Style thing and just turned up the velocity slightly on those bits, then told it to add in some crashes that weren't there in the midi file. These came in very nicely and smoothly. I played around with the "busyness" knob and added in an extra crash cymbal and a ride too. Ah, so much nicer! I found a nice fill too from rolling my fingers down the Nanopad with the Tap2Find feature on.

So now I have a selection of midi sat in EZD. I select a few regions, label them as chorus and verse, merge a few, copy sections over put the whole track together in EZD. Nice, as I can edit any aspect now. One of my main gripes with EZD 1 was not being able to adjust the velocity of a drum part in EZD as the midi was now in my DAW. But with EZD2 it's all in there still as I can build up the entire song structure in there. There's a box to tick to tell EZD to play along with the track which works well. What I really think it could do with though is much greater integration with your tracks timeline. I selected bar 33 in EZD and hit play but it only played the solo drum track in EZD. If I wanted to play the entire song from bar 33 (which is where the chorus started and was the bit I wanted to listen to) I had to find bar 33 in my DAW and play it from there. Maybe there's an option for this but I didn't see it.

Another gripe, and this was the same with EZD1 is that once I'd found a midi file and dragged it into my DAW I may want to find an alternate one later down the line. There was no way to click on the midi file and say "show me where this is in the EZD midi library". I'd have to read the filename and try and match that to the names in the midi file list. Not an easy task and meant it would take me an age to find an alternate drum beat. Mind you, with EZD2 I can simply edit the file using the Edit Play Style feature which is nice. And also (hang on whilst I check this...yep! Awesome!) I can simply drag that midi file (even the edited one like I just tried) into the midi file region of Tap2Play and the first match was the original file, followed by others in a similar feel. Ah, nice! Still not quite the "find me this exact file in the browser panel" thing that I wanted but hey, it may there and I haven't found it or I could suggest it to them as a feature request.

That's all I've done with EZD2 so far but it's gonna be so much more useful when songwriting and putting together a drum track for my band. Toontrack - I salute you!

[Mornats]

A couple of things that I noticed since writing the above...

1. I wanted to add a cymbal crash to the very end of the song but I couldn't find a way to say "put cymbal crash here". However, I did add some crash cymbal to end fill and it just happened to put it in the right place. Maybe I got lucky!

2. I used to use the drum midi track in my DAW as a way to visually find my way around a track. I could tell a chorus from a verse and could see the bars all laid out by looking at the individual midi files. I can't do that now so I'll have to mark up my track in the timeline instead. Which is what I probably should be doing aaaanyway...

Edit: after further playing around...

Aha, select a midi file in EZD, right click and select "show in browser" and bosh, it finds it for you. Great!

Not so great: one of the crash cymbals needs to be moved slightly in terms of timing but I can't edit individual mid notes. Not without pulling that bit out into my DAW and editing it in the midi editor there - but I would lose all the groovy EZD functionality then and you can't drag midi files back into EZD's midi window from your DAW.

Did I mention that I could select the entire set of midi files in EZD and reduce the velocity of the kick drum across them all at the same time?

Edited May 6, 2014 by Mornats

[Mornats]

Another update...

I've since found out that there's a record function in EZD that allows me to record any midi that's sat in my DAW and it'll record it into EZD. Apparently a lot of DAWs don't allow copying and pasting into plugins which is why I can't just drag it in there. I can also export the midi file and drag it into EZD from outside of the DAW. Weird way of doing it but hey-ho, I can do any midi roll tweaks and get the midi back into EZD. Best of all the Edit Playing Style feature will still work on imported midi.

[Davebassics]

Thanks for the review! I'm learning drums and I'm keeping a keen eye on the relevant developments in hardware and software. I'm probably going to build a DIY electronic kit within the next year or two and this would be perfect. Looking forward to hearing more sound samples.

Do you know how many kits are included in EZ2? Is it just analogue kits?

[mirszmarsz]

Anyone can suggest good drummer beside EZ?
I'm a beginner so far I use ProTools and their Boom or Reason DR Rex and need an easy thing to write simple drum patterns for my bass practice.
I found boom quite easy but very limited in terms of sound
EZ didn't try yet - what would you recommend - easy to use !

Thanks Miro

[TorturedSaints]

Thanks for the review Mornats. I think I'll be upgrading shortly. I did try EZKeys but wasn't a fan of the interface which seems to be like the new EZDrummer 2 interface, but you seem to have done all the stuff I do with the original EZdrummer.

Miro, I haven't tried all of the others, but EZDrummer is meant to be very . . .easy! I certainly have found it so.
cheers

Ralph

[Dad3353]

[quote name='mirszmarsz' timestamp='1399880764' post='2448474']
Anyone can suggest good drummer beside EZ?
I'm a beginner so far I use ProTools and their Boom or Reason DR Rex and need an easy thing to write simple drum patterns for my bass practice.
I found boom quite easy but very limited in terms of sound
EZ didn't try yet - what would you recommend - easy to use !

Thanks Miro
[/quote]

Good afternoon, Miro...

Least expensive..? Hydrogen, a free drum programming outfit, very good.
Ease of use (for creating drum patterns as you describe...)..? EZ Drummer, just 'drag and drop' into your DAW. EZ Drummer 2 has more features, but needs Win7 or higher. Drum sounds (samples...) are darned good.
Better sounding..? Superior Drums is also ToonTrack, using the same kits as EZ Drummer, but with more 'finesse'. Sounds more realistic in compositions.
Better still..? BFD2 is excellent, emulating DW drums very well, and splendid cymbals.
Most fun..? I very much like MDrummer, which gives me the most varied patterns and the most natural-sounding beats.

Which to choose..? For simple to ordinary needs, EZ Drummer is fine. Higher up requires a bit more investment; your needs would have to justify that.
Hope this helps...

Edited May 12, 2014 by Dad3353

[Mornats]

[quote name='Davebassics' timestamp='1399714446' post='2446864']
Do you know how many kits are included in EZ2? Is it just analogue kits?
[/quote]

You get two EZX packs with it, Modern and Vintage. Modern has a DW kit, a Gretsch USA Custom and a Yamaha 9000 and the Vintage has a Ludwig 60s and a Ludwig Vistalite kit. The vintage kits are recorded using a 4-mic setup for a more er, vintage feel.

If you buy EZD 1 and do the free upgrade then you get the pop/rock kit too. They're all recorded at 18 bit (a quality increase from 16 bit - they say the jump to 24 bit didn't add anything so they opted to keep the sample sizes down).

[quote name='RalphDWilson' timestamp='1399902591' post='2448772']
I did try EZKeys but wasn't a fan of the interface which seems to be like the new EZDrummer 2 interface
[/quote]

Same here, I found I was doing lots within a very small interface and it felt cramped. Despite sharing a very similar interface EZD2 doesn't have that cramped feel. Honestly, it just works. I'm a UX designer for the web and can appreciate the intuitiveness in the interface. It's a real shame they don't do a demo version to be honest.

[Mornats]

This is the track I was messing around with when I wrote the mini review above. I had a drum track in there already that I did using EZD 1 but never liked it. This took less than 20 mins to put together. This is the Indie Folk Gretsch kit.

https://soundcloud.com/beautiful-skin/red-pepper

[Perry]

BFS3 is very tempting for me.

[lowdown]

MDrummer do a cut down demo, very much worth a look.
As Dad said, It has a lot of variation and very natural sounding.
There is a lot of cool mixing and matching of grooves.
As well as the usual x32 and x64, it is also VST3 as well.

All these companies that do not do demo's in this day and age
should really pull their finger out.
As always it comes down to your ears/available funds and work flow, and as there are so many
Of these drum samplers around, everyone will have an opinion based on different needs.

However, Ez does seem to get a reasonable amount of thumbs up.

[TorturedSaints]

Bah humbug!

I should read the specifications first. I blithely assumed that EZDrummer2 would run on the same PC as EZDrummer1. It doesn't. The 32-bit installer tells me I require at least Windows 7 for EZDrummer2. I will have to wait to upgrade until I update my OS, with all that entails. Hope this doesn't catch anyone else out.

[lowdown]

So "EZDrumme2" is in fact "NotEzDrummer2" ?

[Dad3353]

[quote name='RalphDWilson' timestamp='1400248002' post='2452260']
Bah humbug!

I should read the specifications first. I blithely assumed that EZDrummer2 would run on the same PC as EZDrummer1. It doesn't. The 32-bit installer tells me I require at least Windows 7 for EZDrummer2. I will have to wait to upgrade until I update my OS, with all that entails. Hope this doesn't catch anyone else out.
[/quote]

Same here, I'm on XP, so no dice. I installed a copy on our eldest's 64-bit Vista, though, and it's fine on that. I wasn't planning on changing PC, and certainly not just for EZDrummer 2, but Elite Dangerous is due out shortly, so...

[Mornats]

To be honest, anyone still on XP should really think about upgrading. Microsoft have stopped support for it (other than patching that big big mess up in IE a few weeks ago) and Win 7 in my opinion is miles better.

Nice to see some love for other programs too. I think I've got a cut down version of Addictive Drums that I'll have a go of. Does BFD3 focus more on having control of the sound? EZD2 is (whilst still sounding good to my ears) more of a songwriting tool. More of the new features are about getting that groove in your head down into your DAW and quickly selecting some mix parameters to make it sit nicely in there. That's not to say you can't output the drum parts to multiple tracks and EQ/compress away but I like the quick results.

[TorturedSaints]

Slightly off topic, sorry.

That's why I said it was a non-internet connected PC! I know MS have stopped support for XP. I have a nice little stable studio system which does what I want and I don't really want to make the investment in time and hardware to run a more bloated OS like Windows 7 (because Win7 won't run on the studio PC I have). I do use Win7 on internet connected PCs such as this one. This one takes over 2 minutes to boot by the time it's loaded dropbox, downloaded the weather station data, done all the MS and Apple internet handshaking, Antivirus etc etc, whereas my XP studio machine takes 30 seconds max to be looking at Reaper ready to record. Just my informed personal preference to use XP as a simple tool for recording. If it's not broke, don't fix it.

cheers,
R

[Dad3353]

[quote name='RalphDWilson' timestamp='1400274416' post='2452627']...If it's not broke, don't fix it. ...[/quote]

Exactly. +1

[URL=http://www.smileyvault.com/][IMG]http://www.smileyvault.com/albums/CBSA/smileyvault-cute-big-smiley-animated-041.gif[/IMG][/URL]

[Mr Arkadin]

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1400272310' post='2452600']
Does BFD3 focus more on having control of the sound? EZD2 is (whilst still sounding good to my ears) more of a songwriting tool.
[/quote]

Yes BFD3 is very much about sound control. Most drums are fairly raw and you have to decide about compression, reverb, mic selection etc. The advantage is complete control of the sound to pro levels, the disadvantage is that it can get quite complex, especially if you just want some finished sounds. There are however many kit and mixer presets to get you started.

[Mornats]

[quote name='Mr Arkadin' timestamp='1400424878' post='2453671']
Yes BFD3 is very much about sound control. Most drums are fairly raw and you have to decide about compression, reverb, mic selection etc. The advantage is complete control of the sound to pro levels, the disadvantage is that it can get quite complex, especially if you just want some finished sounds. There are however many kit and mixer presets to get you started.
[/quote]

It sounds like EZD2 and BFD3 sit in slightly different camps. EZD2 is much more centred around songwriting so has more tools for finding the right beat and getting it to sit in your mix quickly. Once you need start really tweaking the sound EZD2 will likely struggle, especially against BFD3 from what you say. But that's what Superior Drummer is for from what I've heard (I've not used it myself).

EZD has a demo now by the way (finally): http://www.toontrack.com/product/ezdrummer-2/ and to be as fair as I can so does BFD3 of course: http://www.fxpansion.com/index.php?page=205

Might give BFD3 a try to see how they compare...

[TorturedSaints]

just wanted to say that Toontrack and Time+Space were very good, cancelled my authorisation code and refunded me the money for the EZD2 upgrade that wouldn't run on my WinXP computer.

[Dad3353]

[quote name='RalphDWilson' timestamp='1401918121' post='2468404']
just wanted to say that Toontrack and Time+Space were very good, cancelled my authorisation code and refunded me the money for the EZD2 upgrade that wouldn't run on my WinXP computer.
[/quote]

[URL=http://www.smileyvault.com/][IMG]http://www.smileyvault.com/albums/CBSA/smileyvault-cute-big-smiley-animated-041.gif[/IMG][/URL]

My upgrade came as a freeby, so I'll be keeping it until I change my PC for something able to run a suitable OS. Nice to hear of a company playing it fair, though.