New to Drum plug in's - need some advice

[Room335]

I am a guitar player, running 7.1 on Windows XP, with Digi002. I write a lot of songs and am now venturing into the drum plug in arena. I do have the 'lite' version of BFD as included in my Pro Tools software.

I am not a drummer at all and would like a versatile, realistic sounding drum plug-in for rock, pop, blues, etc. This is for my enjoyment only, non-professional, however want of course to create realistic tunes with drum plug-ins.

I am seeking opinions as to sound quality, ease of use as a non-drummer, cost effectiveness - BFD, vs Strike, vs others?

Can anyone provide some insight please? Many thanks, Rob

[JrummerJ]

EZdrummer. Great sounding drums without having to add a lot of processing. A couple of nice add-ons; Vintage and Nashville. Good midi files from what I have heard, though I trigger it from my e-drums.

J

[Vaporhead]

I agree. EZdrummer is great. Way more than only a tool for demos.

[LSW]

For me, Strike won out over EzDrummer because I liked that fact that you could create your whole song within the plugin itself and not have to drive the patterns with MIDI data - although you have the option. From what I understand about EzDrummer, although I could be wrong, the patterns are all driven off MIDI data from a MIDI track.

[albee1952]

Yes, ezdrummer is driven from midi patterns but, you audition patterns and simply drag and drop to build your drum performance. Watch the tutorial video on the toontrack site or on youtube. Also, you can feel free to edit the midi and add/subtract from the performance at will. This is nice when you get a groove that is close but not quite perfect. Sometimes adding or deleting hits here and there, or moving hits around to add a more human feel can net a great drum track. Also, thru midi, you could do stuff like take all the snare hits and lag them a little behind the beat to change the feel. I am also a guitar player with basic drum chops. I love ezdrummer and sometimes I will trigger/play it from a Roland V kit. Strike looks cool but I am happy with what I have. Not sure with Strike, but ezdrummer allows you to route to individual aux tracks so you can treat each drum (kick, snare, toms, etc) with plugins to send them over the top.

[LSW]

Maybe our resident Strike expert will chime in on this one, but I believe you do have the same control over the individual parts. But as I stated above, what tipped the scales for me was that the internal resolution of the patterns is a lot higher than what MIDI can deliver, which is supposed to be able to provide for an even more human feel experience. But EZD still is used and enjoyed by many. One thing about Strike that I don't like, is that it only works in PT. That's fine for now, but if I ever decided to move away, then I'd need something eles.

[Room335]

Thanks, guys for all the feedback, but I am afraid I am not too up to speed on Midi as it relates to editing, etc. I do use a midi keyboard, but primarily for keyboard parts, not for triggering something else. So, having said that...

Does ezdrummer have plain groves that you can 'play' or record while jamming to them? More or less than BFD or Strike?

Again, I have the BFD as part of the Pro Tools bundle and I can select a kit, a groove and just have it play, while adding drum fills. I can then jam along/record my guitar to the drum track....Is this the same as ezdrummer? It appears so, but some of the comments here have me unsure...

Are there any limitations or lack of functionality with ezdrummer that say Strike or BFD provides?

The ezdrummer interface looks a little cleaner than BFD, which took me a while to get my head around.

Thanks again for all the support and interest in helping me out. Cheers from Canada. Rob

[Room335]

Thanks, guys for all the feedback, but I am afraid I am not too up to speed on Midi as it relates to editing, etc. I do use a midi keyboard, but primarily for keyboard parts, not for triggering something else. So, having said that...

Does ezdrummer have plain groves that you can 'play' or record while jamming to them? More or less than BFD or Strike?

Again, I have the BFD as part of the Pro Tools bundle and I can select a kit, a groove and just have it play, while adding drum fills. I can then jam along/record my guitar to the drum track....Is this the same as ezdrummer? It appears so, but some of the comments here have me unsure...

Are there any limitations or lack of functionality with ezdrummer that say Strike or BFD provides?

The ezdrummer interface looks a little cleaner than BFD, which took me a while to get my head around.

Thanks again for all the support and interest in helping me out. Cheers from Canada. Rob

[Rail Jon Rogut]

EZDrummer is 16 bit, DFHS and BFD are 24 bit. BFD2 is set to be released in about a month and DFHS2 sometime in Q1 next year.

You can hear some demos done in BFD with no additional EQ or compression at:

https://www.platinumsamples.com/JoeBarresi.html

Rail

[craigdwlr]

I don't know about EZD but with STRIKE you certainly can do that, by just hitting 'latch' its real easy You can also see which key on your keyboard is triggering which beat (the black notes trigger fills) and to take it a step further you can just hit record and trigger which beat/fill you want played, when you want it played, and it will play it back for you exactly how you played it. Its super easy! Check out the Videos on Digi's website