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OP
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Morning folks, I bought EZDrummer2 back before Christmas and have been using it on a few songs, including my latest. For those songs where you need more control of what the drums are doing than realdrums provide it is a great tool to help kick thing up a notch.
For the last little while I've been getting emails from toontrack with a special crossgrade offer to upgrade from EZDrummer2 to Superior Drummer 3. But, it's not cheap! $319 for the crossgrade.
What does Superior Drummer 3 provide that EZDrummer2 does not? Website is not that clear on the differences as far as I can tell.
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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I've got it. I picked it up starting with SD2. The reason I chose it over EZD is it had much better control over each piece of the kit with the mixer. You can export each piece of the kit to a separate track in your DAW (big one for me). Overall, worth every penny to me. Sweetwater product details and video review: Toontrack Superior Drummer 3This song was done with them: The Paradox of You - VERSION X
 Steve BIAB/RB 2022, Pro Tools 2020, Korg N5, JBL LSR 4328 Powered Monitors, AKG/Shure Mics.
PC: Win11 PRO, 4 TB M2 SSD, 2 TB HD, 128 GB Memory
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Journeyman
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Yes I agree it is worth every penny. It is a fantastic product and all your EZDrummer kits are compatible. It takes all the great features of EZDrummer, simplicity of operation and so on but also much better drum sounds. You can also easily edit the MIDI within SD3. Toontrack have made a really sophisticated product which lets you control just about every area but also made it very user-friendly. It is a huge download but you don't necessarily have to install everything. There are features for surround sound etc which I didn't require. I just installed the basic sound library and the room mikes. I didn't bother with the surround set up, height surround or additional bleed. My install therefore was a mere 80 GB!
I have not used EZDrummer 2 since having Superior 3
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I did the same on the downloads. Skipped on the surround packs.
Steve BIAB/RB 2022, Pro Tools 2020, Korg N5, JBL LSR 4328 Powered Monitors, AKG/Shure Mics.
PC: Win11 PRO, 4 TB M2 SSD, 2 TB HD, 128 GB Memory
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Fuuny you should ask...I just used EZDrummer 2 for the first time today and I'm really impressed with the workflow as a songwriter. I am not to the point where I need to tweak each drum. Just to have it suggest some midi files after I tapped in a simple kick, tom and snare pattern, I was really impressed how it picked out similar MIDI from an actual drummer. Really, really happy I made this purchase. It will be a LOOOONNNNGGG time until I tap this thing to it's limits. Here's a link to the song I did today. https://soundcloud.com/rockstar_not/catching-up
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Thanks, guys 
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I keep trying to pull the trigger on that package but just can’t seem to get there. I’m not as put off by the price as the learning curve (old dog new tricks  ) and my lingering notion that RealDrums can always be tweaked to fit my needs. Not trying to highjack the thread - just a morning coffee ramble.... Bud
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Good morning, Bud! Feel free to hijack one of my threads any time you like!  Most of the time I would agree with you and our songs are always initially developed using realdrums. In the case of my latest song, which you have heard, I needed some big, aggressive drum fills to lead into the guitar solo. I initially tried to do it with realdrums but it wasn't cutting it so I switched over to EZDrummer2.
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And, man, did they ever work.
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What this boils down to is use the tool that works best for you. On occasion I use RDs but most of the time I use Steven Slates drums: http://stevenslatedrums.com/ssd4/This costs around $150 USD. Drums is one of the instruments that MIDI does extremely well and in most cases regardless of the MFG. I like that fact that MIDI is more tweak-able than RDs. YMMV
Me, it's not about how many times you fail, it's about how many times you get back up.
Cop, that's not how field sobriety tests work.
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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That is a nice groove you've got going there. I especially like your use of effects like panning. Regarding the drummer, sounds real to me!
Jim Fogle - 2024 BiaB (1111) RB (5) Ultra+ PAK DAWs: Cakewalk by BandLab (CbB) - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8 Laptop: i3 Win 10, 8GB ram 500GB HDD Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home
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Dang I'm loving EZ Drummer. This whole song came together in a matter of about 2 hours. Think of the Smiths with some funk bass. https://soundcloud.com/rockstar_not/heading-back
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Yeah, I'm loving it too. Maybe it doesn't have the same amount of individual drum control as SD3 has, but it has enough for me.
The song I'm working on now has a real heavy groove happening on the toms, it was just a couple of minutes work with EZDrummer to dial in what I needed.
I'll probably get SD3 at some point, but for now I think the $300+ dollars they want for the crossgrade will be better spent buying new midi packs for EZDrummer2, which I can use with SD3 anyway when/if the time comes.
P.S. BTW I had a listen to your song, sounds good!
Last edited by BlueAttitude; 02/26/18 06:41 AM. Reason: added P.S.
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So my entire use (ever) for midi has been to move generate and then move BiaB piano SuperMidiTracks to my DAW, apply a Logic Pro sound and mix away. To use EZ Drummer would I need to learn a significant amount of midi chops?
Thanks,
Bud
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So my entire use (ever) for midi has been to move generate and then move BiaB piano SuperMidiTracks to my DAW, apply a Logic Pro sound and mix away. To use EZ Drummer would I need to learn a significant amount of midi chops?
Thanks,
Bud
Only if you want to edit what they already provide which so far I have never found the need to do. I know diddly-squat about midi Download the demo and give it a try, it’s fully functional. You will pick it up in no time, it’s very easy to use.
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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So my entire use (ever) for midi has been to move generate and then move BiaB piano SuperMidiTracks to my DAW, apply a Logic Pro sound and mix away. To use EZ Drummer would I need to learn a significant amount of midi chops?
Thanks,
Bud
Not really. BiaB MIDI drum tracks are very good but if you want more groove monkee ( https://groovemonkee.com/ ) has some excellent ones as do some other MIDI loop companies. Adding notes, deleting notes, changing notes and changing volume via velocity is just about all that I do in MIDI with my drums.
Me, it's not about how many times you fail, it's about how many times you get back up.
Cop, that's not how field sobriety tests work.
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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SD3 +1 it can convert the RealDrums to midi then use any kit you like. Also check out UJAM Virtual Drummers https://www.ujam.com/instruments/ they are like RealDrums (actual playing) yet you can add any type of drum riff anywhere, adjust the individual levels and they work on GM midi as well.
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So my entire use (ever) for midi has been to move generate and then move BiaB piano SuperMidiTracks to my DAW, apply a Logic Pro sound and mix away. To use EZ Drummer would I need to learn a significant amount of midi chops?
Thanks,
Bud
Bud, did you listen to either of my song links that I did with EZ Drummer? Absolutely no midi was input into EZDrummer. I clicked two different simple patterns onto the on-screen kit, and EZ Drummer selected midi patterns similar to the stressed beats I had. Then I hit 'generate song' by dragging one of those MIDI clips into it's song generator and picked a form and boom, the 2nd drum track was complete. Zero midi input.
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Here's tonight's output from using EZ Drummer. I think I might have ripped off the lead guitar from some classic rock song - thought it was While My Guitar Gently Weeps at first, but I don't think that's it. Chord progression is roughly based on Radiohead's Exit Music. https://soundcloud.com/rockstar_not/while-my-guitar-exits-gentlyDid I mention I love EZ Drummer?
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Here's tonight's output from using EZ Drummer. I think I might have ripped off the lead guitar from some classic rock song - thought it was While My Guitar Gently Weeps at first, but I don't think that's it. Chord progression is roughly based on Radiohead's Exit Music. https://soundcloud.com/rockstar_not/while-my-guitar-exits-gentlyDid I mention I love EZ Drummer? The melody sort of reminds me of Angie by the Rolling Stones. The ride cymbal sure has a nice sustain to it.
Jim Fogle - 2024 BiaB (1111) RB (5) Ultra+ PAK DAWs: Cakewalk by BandLab (CbB) - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8 Laptop: i3 Win 10, 8GB ram 500GB HDD Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home
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