EZ Drummer 2

[IanR]

Hi,

I know that there are real drummers out there who may be horrified by this but I have found this program to be really useful.  I have always been frustrated by setting up the drums in the MBR and now the BR800.  This program has lots of great drum sounds, its very interactive and you can set up and edit the sequence of drum patterns really easily.  It also helps you to find the right patterns.  You can do what I did and download a free trial to see if you like it. 

You can set up drum sequences really easily within the first few minutes.  You can set it up as a virtual instrument in your DAW, or work entirely in the EZ Drummer software and then import the drums into a DAW, or you can import them back into you BR as well as Wave files.  Its really flexible.

I also think that in terms of how much you are likely to use the software it is really cheap option and much better than a drum machine.

http://www.toontrack.com/product/ezdrummer-2/

There are some good overviews and tutorials which I recommend.

best regards,

Ian

[Hook]

It looks cool and sounded really great on your last post.
Rock On!

[T.C. Elliott]

I use ezdrummer (the first one) and love the look of 2. There are also some tricks to getting more pop out of loops and these types of tracks. If I had a set of drums I still wouldn't know how to play them so..... I need to buy more of those packs, too. *sadface*

[T.C. Elliott]

So I went and bought superior drummer 2.0 last fall (November.) And have yet to use it. Still using EZDrummer.

That being said. A little over 16 months ago I bought a used Electronic drum set, the cheap Alesis DM6. The sounds in it aren't very good, although good enough to practice on. But I can plug it into Reaper and use EZDrummer sounds to record with. Which is cool as all get out.

And.... then I went and bought a $65 used acoustic set off of craigslist. It is cheaper than cheap. The cymbals suck. But I love beating the hell out of it. And I'll never be a drummer, but I've recorded myself playing on both sets in a few songs. I think it's the funnest instrument I've ever played, although it's probably the least likely candidate for me becoming proficient on. I can't recommend it enough. Get yourself a kit to beat on.

[guitarron]

LOVE ezd2
works great
i have a  roland SPD 30 for triggers

[Mach]

I bought a used Electronic drum set...I can plug it into Reaper and use EZDrummer sounds to record with

That's what my plans were. I was going use an Electronic Kit to trigger the sounds in the software. Kontakt also has some really great sounding kits with mixer set-ups, drum interchange, and fx just like EZ and Superior. But now since I picked up this real kit that is going to have to wait. Another good thing about E-Drums is they don't take up too much space and easy to pack up or store away.

Superior and EZ Drummer are really great and that's my first call up kits while in session mode for quick ideas. I like the idea you can also import other MIDI drum tracks into your DAW and are not committed to the stock ones that come with it. E-Drums would be so much easier and more natural sounding articiulate-wise compared to hitting keyboard keys and trying to remember the trigger notes.

I have noodled around on E-Kits at music stores with headphones, but the stick to head/pad response to actual drum heads are much different. I guess it's just a matter of getting use to over time.

Mach

[T.C. Elliott]

Different for sure. A different beast. But doable. It's like a practice pad... but if you listen to the sounds (the crappy ones, or the better ones from your VSTi) it can be rewarding.

But nothing beats (literally) beating the crap out of a drum set. Especially a super cheap set.

[WarpCanada]

I use "GrooveAgent SE" which is very similar to EZDrummer, and has two things that I like:

1. lots of canned grooves.

2. pretty nice live "key drumming" via a synth action keyboard, or via a dedicated drum pad midi controller. 

I use an Arturia Beatstep Pro and map its pads to the kits that GrooveAgent has, and together with Quantization,   Bob's Yer Uncle.

What I would like is some kind of drum trigger pad (alesis) so I can pretend to be the drummer I never was.

[T.C. Elliott]

I bought that Alesis DM6 kit for cheap. I think it was almost $200 used at MusicGoRound before it went out of business. I recommend something like that if you want to learn to drum. Lots of smaller options with pads you can use, but I've never used any of them or priced any of them.

All that being said, it's been months and months since I've done anything other than spend five minutes beating the hell out of the acoustic set. Drumming is super fun... but also super hard.

[64Guitars]

I've always been intrigued by the Yamaha DD-75 portable electronic drums because space is an issue for me, as is price. It has MIDI in and out so you can trigger EZ Drummer or whatever. Unfortunately, there are no line out jacks, but there is a headphone jack which I suppose could be used if you want to record using the internal drum sounds.

Currently $219.99 at Sweetwater.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8bbV8Iu4fw