Ez-Drummer and Superior Drummer by Toontrack

[Narzugon]

I'm a novice Pro Tools user. I have M-Audio PT LE 7.5 (I think is the version). I'm looking for a way to get realistic drums quick and easy until I have the time to really edit and create.

I have an SR-16 that I use to trigger BFD lite as well as Redrum. While tinkering around with those apps have been fun, I stumbled across a vid of Ez Drummer which took me to Toontrack's site. I was really taken by the sounds, ease of use and even the editing via Ez-Player.

At this point in time, I see myself looking for the best drum sounds (that I can afford) and using pre-existing midi loops to trigger them. Probably some basic loop editing as well to start with.

With that said, whats the general opinion of the above software? Can you guys suggest other packages that I should consider?

Thanks!

[TheBaron]

I have Ezdrummer and love it. It sounds great and really is easy to use. Like most programs, you can spend a little time and get even more out of it. I'm a novice, too, and it took a while to figure out how to get each drum on it's own channel in protools, but you can mix in EZ and just have one channel in protools if you want. (youtube has a lot of videos you should check out). I eventually got the upgrade to Superior 2.0 and it sounds great. The flexibility and interface is great, too. However, I haven't had much time to learn the S2 program yet. I just inserted the basic set in my track and went with it with some minimal mixer tweaking. Superior comes with EZplayer pro which looks great in the video but I haven't figured out how to get any sounds out of it yet in protools lol. I usually record midi notes using Roland drums then play it back with Superior but dragging the premade midi files into protools works great for quick beats.

**You can start with EZ to see how you like it. Then, if you want more tweakability and 24 bit, upgrade to Superior. It's a reasonable upgrade imo. Also, the EZ drums and midi files can be used in Superior so you'll end up with some extra sounds and midi files if you go that route.

Ez sounds great. The main reason people upgrade to S2 (I think) is for the extra flexibility of creating drum sets, adjusting mics and types, more mixer channels plus some other great things in superior.

Things I didn't like about EZ:
Except for the Hi hat, the cymbals were restricted to the overhead and room mics. Therefore, I didn't have individual control over ride volume and crashes. However, that's a common and realistic way to record drums so it might not bother most. I just always used a ride mic, too, that I could adjust when recording real drums. (Superior has many more channels and mics on each drum and cymbal) You can even turn off bleed which isn't as natural/realistic but cool for isolating parts.
The premade midi parts in EZ were good but there were some simple common beats that I couldn't find. Most are covered and they might be there but, in my opinion, it was easier to find complicated stuff. I'm a mediocre drummer and I didn't really want to put in drum parts that I couldn't reproduce

Finally Vdrums.com is an electronic drumming site with tons of discussions in their forums. Do a search there and you'll have pages of praise and discussions of which drum program is better. (It's usually Superior 2 or BFD)

Sorry for being so wordy.

[Narzugon]

Sounds like we have some things in common. :)

Thanks for the "wordy" reply. The more info the better. I'll slide over to the Vdrums site next. Thanks for the input!

[tonepad]

A big negative against EZD (which I own) versus Strike and/or Addictive drums which I also own, is that EZD has to resample its' 44.1k content to 48k, which is the sample rate I prefer to work with... each time I need to use it in a session. Neither Strike or AD have this lag time, which means their content must be 48k, thoug I don't know this for sure. Toontrack admits this reality but I wish they would allow me to resample a copy permanently so I wouldn't have this issue everytime. If I could do this I'd like using it more since it is truly Easy esp. in that I can use some fave Midi groove files that I have hanging around.