Best drum software?

    Quote from Monkey_Man

    Generous offering, db. Thanks man.


    Nobody's mentioned this yet so I wonder if I'm mistaken, but I always thought EZD was only 16 bit. If this is the case, one would want to seriously reconsider rendering it in a serious mixing situation. After all, we want dynamic drums, right? ***

    Thanks!


    I don't use the sounds of EZ just because SD2's NYC sound better. I use EZ for MIDI song creation entirely. Great tool. As Ingolf said, Drummer of Logic Pro X is also great in a pinch (if you know how to fool/tweak it to stay true to your song, read up on it)


    If it's a quick-n-dirty demo, I would use EZ. Because I can just port the MIDI track to a better VI for more polish.


    And who can hear the difference on small speakers or ear buds? I would say no one. I once took 3 separate finished Acid wav drum sets (different reverb, different rooms) and put together a demo that had my former guitar teacher (who is a drummer in the Keith Moon tradition) asking me who played drums for me! If I can fool a pro drummer with a Frankenstein drum track...


    But I use MIDI exclusively now. Going back in time, I'm sorry I didn't start using MIDI longer ago, but I don't think the tools were polished enough for quick drum track creation. And I'm also sorry I didn't multitrack because Trigger is useless on those earlier demo's. For Drum parts, I'm always about speed. I don't want to spend more than 4 hours on a drum part. 2 hours preferred. 30 minutes is fantastic, haha. EZ gets me there quicker than any other program to lay down a MIDI part. Although I need the DAW editor for serious tweaking. Take your pick of editor at that point. Even Reaper has come of age for MIDI editing.

    Quote from db9091

    BTW, I recently got Neutron by iZotope ....

    Not to derail the topic, but isn't this one amazing piece of plugin?
    I've come to use it on every channel strip now and while I don't always agree about its suggestions I am certainly learning much more about mixing while using it.

    Quote from Ingolf

    Not to derail the topic, but isn't this one amazing piece of plugin?I've come to use it on every channel strip now and while I don't always agree about its suggestions I am certainly learning much more about mixing while using it.

    +1


    While it's best to use Reference Tracks, especially for drum tracks, Neutron in a pinch is an eye-opener.
    Sometimes I tweak around it with Eiosis AirEQ to tame an annoying hi-hat, or use Slate Revival to thicken a kick or open up a hi-hat.
    Sometimes I choose Neutron's Presets instead of analyzing, but 3 out of 4 times I use the Analyzer. Yup, it's all over the place, haha.

    Well, well,


    many will run with EZ Drums, me too. So there's no point in joining the choir.


    But, if rehearsal room or live situations on the fly or quick results with or without bass are what it's all about:


    BOSS DR880 Drumcomputer helped me more often than once and never let me down. It even sports quite usable simulations for guitar and bass (rather good). You will hear, that DR Rhythm is no tube amp. But, I always found that you may like the sounds nevertheless. 500 different rhythm patterns to choose from and to combine into 500 user patches plus easy drum programming in under a minute. That is something really helpful.


    The price is quite steep.


    Greetings Joachim.

    My first programmable drum programmer was a DR. RHYTHM.


    And that DR880 was fantastic. I think of it as the the last good hardware before going software.
    (comparable to the Akai DPS24 before going full-on DAW for me)


    I sold mine to a karaoke pro, jeez, gotta be 10 years ago for $300 and see it still commands a high price.


    The beauty of that unit was it inspired me to write a lot of cool songs. Not run-of-the-mill patterns.

    Superior 2 here. I used BFD a lot in the past but it often created problems with Windows. Can't say about BFD 3. Also Battery years ago. And loops from Drumcore, but they are too limited when you want to change the groove.

    Never too old for rock'n'roll

    Quote from Michael_dk

    I think I mistook your meaning - all I meant to say was that it's not stair-steps, but sample points (just because people (including myself in the past) think that the stair-stepped display is representative of what is actually happening). yeah, quantization errors, and dithering as the cure.
    I guess what you're saying is that for eg. ghost notes, they are low enough in volume that they get closer to the noise floor (which is the effect of quantization), so thar the SNR is low enough as to be audible?

    We're in agreement again, brother. It's simply quantisation error due to the much-larger amplitude-step size in the low-level areas of 16-bit word depths. Roey Izhaki illustrated this very-well in his "Mixing Audio" book and accompanying CD.


    Enough of this anyway. As the guys have said, in a pinch or for a mockup or writing, from what I've heard at least (not tried it), EZ seems totally the biz. Cheers Michael.


    Now, it's back to being a SlateSucka™ for me and waiting for SSD5 to see what he comes up with. IMHO, anyone who can afford to wait an unspecified length of time (the company is silent on this at the moment but did predict a soonish release 6 months ago), could be well-served by holding out. It's a crapshoot, but Slate seldom disappoints and he's surely gonna want to Trump™ or at least match the competition.

    Former Slate user here that got tired of waiting for SSD5 and ended up switching over to Addictive Drums 2. Chose it over EZDrummer for the 24-bit samples & sophisticated mixer/FX routing.


    "Fairfax Vol. 1" is the best of XLN Audio's add-on kits for beefy rock tracks IMHO.


    -djh

    (Starting) Unprocessed: XLN AD2 wit a few adpacks. The presets are great and give a good idea of what's possible. Standalone it makes a super comfortable metronom as you can adjust the beats on the fly, including dynamics. On a side note, along with my Jamtrackcentral library this is as good as it gets for practising. Remember books anyone?^^


    Processed: Slate. KPA plus Slate plus Izotope Neutron/Ozone... While I still like creating my own sounds, I don't really do this for guitars, drums and bass (Trillian) anymore. These sounds are real and mixready for all genres. A huge time safer. Time I use for fiddling with synth plugins now to make shure not to finish another song :D .

    Gear: Strats & KPA. Plug Ins: Cubase, NI, iZotope, Slate, XLN, Spectrasonics.
    Music: Song from my former band: vimeo.com/10419626[/media][/media][/media] Something new on the way...

    Fireloogie (side-note to thread)


    I sometimes use Trillian, sometimes my 4003. Not really a bass player, but some tracks require things that are hard or time consuming to do with Trillian (i.e. slides) Although sometimes Motiff XS has a decent upright if called for.


    Thread:
    I got a lot of MIDI from third party, but I find I go to Easy Beats more than most.


    Theres:
    -Easy Beats
    -Groove Monkey
    -Music Loft
    -Slam Track


    Any others folks here like?

    Quote from db9091

    I sometimes use Trillian, sometimes my 4003. Not really a bass player, but some tracks require things that are hard or time consuming to do with Trillian (i.e. slides) Although sometimes Motiff XS has a decent upright if called for.

    Hi, it's actually fairly easy when you create a midi track with the specific slide preset. I set up the bass with all playing styles within subtracks in cubase. Do you know how this works?

    Gear: Strats & KPA. Plug Ins: Cubase, NI, iZotope, Slate, XLN, Spectrasonics.
    Music: Song from my former band: vimeo.com/10419626[/media][/media][/media] Something new on the way...