Has anyone tested EZ Drummer 2 yet?

  • I've been a long time Toontrack user. I started way back when it was DFH and you had no choice but to render and mix in your DAW. I thought even way back then that their sound libraries were great. When SD2 came out I was blown away. I have a good majority if the expansions, and a handful of specific EZX expansions. I tend to record MIDI drums using a Yamaha DTX kit. The SDX expansions always felt very natural to play as long as the ASIO buffer was set low. I never thought that the EZX packs felt or sounded as natural, which always made perfectly good sense to me. I tended to use the EZX packs more for specific things rather than just "playing the kit" if that makes any sense.


    After watching the videos and whatnot I decided that I would definitely benefit from the new workflow for songwriting. The new version is very reasonably priced so I finally took the plunge tonight. EZ2 is definitely a huge leap forward from the original, just like SD2 was leaps ahead of the original Superior. I am very impressed. The new mix processing and effects are stellar. The kits feel and sound superb. The toolset makes quick writing of drum parts for songwriting a breeze. For kicks I fired up a couple of the old EZX libraries and I am very surprised. They sound and feel so much better with this new engine. Toontrack has outdone themselves yet again.



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  • 4 am in the morning. downloaded a third and last time the 3 gigabyte. this version was not corrupted. :D if it was not :cursing: :cursing: , i dont know what i would have done :cursing:
    downloading for 21 hours and support is saying "check your browser and bandwidth first", that is ridiculous.
    apart from that my first impression after one hour is: GREAT STUFF. the ability to combine my still favourite snare from EZ1 with the new cymbals alone boosted a
    particular mix. and i found a lot of interesting grooves i did not know i owned them in the blink of an eye. improvement? YUP!
    the holy grail? nope, but a major step! and what griff said seems to be right also. i am looking forward for a big session tomorrow with my new EZ2.
    glad i jumped.

    My occupation: showing teenagers the many hidden secrets of the A-minor chord on the guitar.

  • For a second there, I was worried that I've wasted three years trying to be a drummer haha


    They really should offer this tap to midi feature in the groove editor of SD2. $90 for an upgrade from EZ Drummer 1 is too steep for just one feature.


    There is the search feature, which if and when it does your third party MIDI would be worth a decent amount. But don't forget the songwriter which uses an algorithm to created intro, verse, pre chorus, chorus, outdo in variations from just choosing one MIDI file, Toontrack or others, or one of your own creation. That can be a very useful feature.


    A guy at Sweetwater said he used EZD before to create, drops the MIDI into an SD track.


    One thing he mentions I wasn't aware of, since I just got EZD, is the difference between their sound packages. Maybe many of you knew this, but since i didn't I'll mention it. The EZD sound packs are supposed to be finished products (compression, eq, etc) and the Superior Drummer sound packages are RAW, ready for YOU to finish. So they sound more natural and unprocessed.


    That might be why, when I had both running the same MIDI, and was mixing the two, I liked the mix better than either. EZD is a bit over-done with compression and SD has nothing on it until you add it.

  • Only real downside is you need lots of their midi packs!


    Still great product, sounds half decent but i didn't buy it for that. Amazing songwriting tool and super easy to replace samples when your done. Thank you toontrack.

  • I should stop visiting forums.... read the thread which resulted in GAS of course, bought from audiodeluxe (use the make offer!) and downloaded it yesterday (took 5mins btw :D).
    Wow, what a nice plugin. It really sounds great but the most awesome part for me is the "songmaker" - I made some drums in 10mins, jammed to the track and had a new song after 1 hour with drums, bass and guitars. Good times :)
    Think my SSD4 will collect virtual dust now (it might sound better/rawer but programming drums is a pain in the ass for a guitar player who has no idea what he is doing).

    MJT Strats / PRS Guitars / Many DIY Guitars -- Kemper Profiler Rack / Kemper Remote / InEar


  • Think my SSD4 will collect virtual dust now (it might sound better/rawer but programming drums is a pain in the ass for a guitar player who has no idea what he is doing).


    Think my SSD4 will collect virtual dust now (it might sound better/rawer but programming drums is a pain in the ass for a guitar player who has no idea what he is doing).



    Write in EzDrummer and then export the midi to SSD4 and make sure you change the mapping and then Slate plays your drums for you :)

  • That's actually a brilliant idea - haven't thought of that yet - will try that out :)

    MJT Strats / PRS Guitars / Many DIY Guitars -- Kemper Profiler Rack / Kemper Remote / InEar

  • Look at Audiodeluxe eBay auctions for Toontrack MIDI 6 pack - make an offer - you can get them for much less than that ;) Make an offer, and see what happens.

    Thanks for the tip. I saved a boatload making an offer. Got two midi six packs. So, 12 total.

  • Which MIDI packs are you guys liking?


    I got the 6 pack and bought 3 already. Rock, Songwriter, Monster (first ones) and have a Nashville already, plus NY 3 and Electronix, but those last 3 were for the sounds.


    Just curious. I'm about to enter some home made drum loops and see which commercial packs have similar loops. I have 3 licenses left to use...

  • hi there,


    i will write my verdict en detail some day, but right now i am too busy playing guitar, because my new drummer (he's called eezee) is so damn quick
    i can concentrate on songwriting. 2 new songs in four days, not bad, huh? i can seriously recommend the jump in any case. :thumbup:



    cheers

    My occupation: showing teenagers the many hidden secrets of the A-minor chord on the guitar.

  • raoul, all i can say is that the new "browse" or "search" function is so good, i am finding all the files i need (and did not know that i had them already) in the blink of an eye.
    plus you can throw the snare from EZ1 in, leave the new good cymbals and take the bass drum from the nashville kit. as i said: back to playing, cu

    My occupation: showing teenagers the many hidden secrets of the A-minor chord on the guitar.

  • I can't say that the slow process of building a drum track makes a difference in how fast I write songs. It's more like it retards the process of recording songs I've already written.


    But having a variety of MIDI drum patters CAN spur the creation of riffs or motifs etc that turn into songs, but that was true on Dr. Rhythms too.


    This software does take a 2-4 hour drum creating session and bring it down to less than a half hour to flesh out a song real easy. If you know what you want, quicker. If you are picky about variety on every 2nd bar, a little longer. But no where near the 4 hours of searching for correct loops.


    I DO wish it had a simple MIDI editor that allowed for individual note placement that wasn't "Play" based. But that is easily overcome, since each loop can be directed to Explore/Finder to get at the file. This way you can use your favorite editor. Or drop the whole song in your DAW and use it's editor.

  • raoul, all i can say is that the new "browse" or "search" function is so good, i am finding all the files i need (and did not know that i had them already) in the blink of an eye.
    plus you can throw the snare from EZ1 in, leave the new good cymbals and take the bass drum from the nashville kit. as i said: back to playing, cu


    I haven't tried this, but I wonder if we need "Fill" packs anymore?


    You can just take a fill, hit "song creation" and check it's fill variation. Then, grab, save, one of those, and use IT for another "song creation" and see it's fills. You can do that all day for Fill Variety, in theory.


    Anyone tried it?

  • no db, havent tried this, i even do not understand, because i am only on the surface of this still. what i forgot to say to raoul:


    well, i DID have a lot of expansion packs already. so, if you do not, i dunno, i do not want to talk you into buying. it is just that i am very pleased with EZD2

    My occupation: showing teenagers the many hidden secrets of the A-minor chord on the guitar.

  • http://www.groovemonkee.com/pages/free-midi-loops


    They're a bit of a pain to install as there are a few samples in a whole bunch of genres so you have to do lots of little installs. But the installer 'knows' you have EZ drummer 2 and puts the files in the right place which is good.... EZ2 sees them and, whilst you cannot 'tap to find' you can, of course, use any of these 700 free loops with the song creator.


    I haven't tried all of them yet but those I have aren't bad at all..... and let's face it, the price is right :)


    Raoul - Hard to say 'yes, go spend your money'. I can say I'm enjoying it though..... Bad bit is that 'tap 2 find' only works with official Toontrack stuff but let's face it - the program comes with lots of loops and this is something I've not had before so it's not a negative as such..... it's a positive that could be even better and they are 'looking at it'.


    So far the song creator is very nice in terms of it will 'make you up something that is pretty usable from a single loop'. So basically it's like providing you with an infinite supply of midi loops from the ones you have. No, it doesn't always do a great job but the results do seem to be pretty good more often than not.


    For me, the thing that makes it great is the ability to tweak loops so easily in a musical way without having to open a midi roll. By which I mean you quickly drag your song together for v1, chorus, v2, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus, chorus to fade..... Well, when you're using other products you'll then be tweaking those later loops to make things a bit busier / louder etc. With this thing, it takes SECONDS to add just a little tweak to each successive chorus to build the excitement..... And add a tambourine or whatever that just fits. For someone like me that just drags midi into Reaper and then rolls his eyes at the prospect of having to 'jazz it up in a few places' this thing really helps.

  • I have MIDI:


    1. Groove Monkey
    2. Oddgroove
    3. Slamtracks
    4. Easy Beats
    5. Steven Slate Drum
    6. Superior Drums packs
    7. Studio Drummer
    8. Session Drummer
    9. Mick Fleetwood - Total Drumming


    Ironically, making this list, I remembered I bought the Mick Fleetwood and forgot to check it out, oops.


    But I recently got the AudioDeluxe 6 midi pack and am picking up some of them. I used to do Drums on Demand, but moved to MIDI about a year ago.