Anyone use EZ Drummer?

[Jumbo Fuzz]

I have a MacBook Pro.

 

I have Garageband and some form of Cubase.

 

Thinking about getting EZ Drummer. MF has a seemingly sweet deal/rebate on this and an expansion pack at moment.

 

I have NO MIDI experience.

 

I am a complete noob when it comes to programming drums on a computer. In the past, I liked using the step-sequencer on my drum machine...so I have no idea what I am getting myself into.

 

Absolutely clueless here.

 

Advice?

[jak83]

As far as programming your own loops with EZDrummer, I have no idea. Someone else may have to answer that, I'm green to MIDI programming. There are a ton of premade loops within, though, that you just drag and drop where you want them on a track. It's handy, and it sounds great.

[Jumbo Fuzz]

So if you are completely lazy (meaning you don't want to make the loops yourself), EZDrummer will let you piece together a song using loops?

 

I am really new to the whole idea of "loops," so forgive the stupid question.

[ChuckNorris1982]

Go with Addictive Drums over EZ Drummer, it just sounds better. Both really easy to use though, I had no experience with them before I tried them.

 

There are some handy youtube tutorials on both programmes for how to get up and running with them quickly.

 

Both can easily be had for free with a bit of internet thievery.

[Trick Fall]

It really is easy. You simply drag a loop from the browser and copy and paste it for as long as u want it to play and a fill from the browser then another loop and so on. I highly recommend tis program. I can post a track that it took me literally ten minutes to do the drums with ez drummer if u want to hear an example.

[FearTheVoices]

I see it on demonoid right now, the price is how fast your internet connection is

 

I should have it in about 3 minutes it looks like

[Parah Salin]

Ask the amp forum, TONS of people over there use it. Search for a user name exafro, I think he uses it on every recording he does.

[SharkMinusBear]

I'll second the vote for addictive drums, the main draw is that they have great grooves/midi patterns, release expansions for every style of music, and have great sounding compression, eq, and reverb already on the drums. It's basically the hassle-free version of superior drummer, and sounds awesome right out of the box.

[tantamo]

I've had both, for someone starting out ezdrummer is easier (imagine that!) and addictive drums will let you get a wider variety of sounds. Both are fine though. If you plan to ever get a drum kit or drum pad for realtime playing, be aware addictive drums will require additional midi tweaking/translation.

 

As far as beats, I would learn to do your own, I think all of the canned beats that come with them sound just silly. Even a simple kick snare with hi hat and an occasional crash will sound more authentic.

[TomCTC]

I used to use it when I was using PC. It works pretty decently, not the best sounds (if you're going with EZdrummer, I'd say get the Vintage Rock expansion so you can get some passable drum sounds) but hey, it works and if you're new with MIDI drums and just want to put some loops into your songs, its great.

 

If you want to get a little deeper into the tailoring good drum sounds that pop out a little better in mixes, I'd recommend Superior Drummer 2. I can't get enough of it, and adore it completely. But EZdrummer definitely is a good launch point, grab it up.

[tantamo]

You really don't even need anything, just get shortcircuit 2 and some drum samples. Or any one of a million free drum machine vsts.

[SharkMinusBear]

 

If you want to get a little deeper into the tailoring good drum sounds that pop out a little better in mixes, I'd recommend Superior Drummer 2. I can't get enough of it, and adore it completely.

 

 

Also this if you ever plan on getting a midi drumset that you want to hook up to your PC.

[TomCTC]

shortcircuit 2

My favourite movie.

[TravvyBear]

I'm getting it for Garageband, going to try to make some legit Junon demos over the summer. I need to pickup an interface instead of just using this mixer I've been using, and maybe some new mics and old keyboards. I really want a midi keyboard.

[Bill Cosby]

Tom get on adium.

[zygoat]

superior drummer 2.0 ftw

[SharkMinusBear]

 

superior drummer 2.0 ftw

 

 

at $300 I can only see it being worth it if you have a midi kit like a roland and you enjoy the extra tweakability.

[TomCTC]

 

at $300 I can only see it being worth it if you have a midi kit like a roland and you enjoy the extra tweakability.

 

 

Nah. It's way worth it with a MIDI keyboard. Programming drums sucks. It's tedious work, and if you actually want to have interesting drum parts, you're going to spend over an hour clicking little boxes perfecting fills until you're happy.

 

A MIDI kit is cool, I'd love one. But tapping out a song on a MIDI keyboard is not only ridiculously fun (after putting in the time to adapt to it and mapping out what you're comfortable with), but sounds way more realistic than clicking boxes and adjusting your velocities. {censored} that.

[zygoat]

Yup, I usually tap the stuff out. Except for cool fills and stuff, I'm pretty terrible at doing those with my fingers.

[ben_allison]

 

I used to use it when I was using PC. It works pretty decently, not the best sounds (if you're going with EZdrummer, I'd say get the Vintage Rock expansion so you can get some passable drum sounds) but hey, it works and if you're new with MIDI drums and just want to put some loops into your songs, its great. If you want to get a little deeper into the tailoring good drum sounds that pop out a little better in mixes, I'd recommend Superior Drummer 2. I can't get enough of it, and adore it completely. But EZdrummer definitely is a good launch point, grab it up.

 

 

Seconded.

 

Superior is just killer. The one thing Superior and EZ Drummer both do well, are room mics. I find they sound pretty good in either case. What's REALLY great is that you can kill the cymbals in the room mics, so you have JUST the drums, THEN you can smash them to hell and tuck under the close mics. You get all the FAT without any of the shrillness you'd usually get in room mics with all the brass flying around.

 

Couldn't be happier with Superior.

[TomCTC]

Ben knows.

[ben_allison]

 

Oh, and for those without MIDI keyboards, and who hate clicking boxes (I don't mind... I'm so used to it at this point), may I suggest one of these:

 

 

[Rizza]

^ Is the Nanopad touch dynamic?

[ispunk]

I remember someone posted a clip of their music on here a week or so ago. He said he used Superior Drummer 2 and I thought it sounded awesome. I watched some of their demos and I'm definitely getting SD2 when I get everything setup for my little home studio.

[ben_allison]

^ Is the Nanopad touch dynamic?

 

 

Yep! Standard 128 levels of velocity.