Previous Thread
Index
Next Thread
Print Thread
Go To
Page 1 of 2 1 2
Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 5,159
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 5,159
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.

Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 2,732
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 2,732
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 3

This 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
Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 311
Journeyman
Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 311
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

Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 2,732
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 2,732
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
Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,913
R
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
R
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,913
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

Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 5,159
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 5,159
Thanks, guys smile

Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 14,131
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 14,131
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 grin) 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

Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 5,159
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 5,159
Good morning, Bud! Feel free to hijack one of my threads any time you like! wink

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.



Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 14,131
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 14,131
And, man, did they ever work.

Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 20,923
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 20,923
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


I just posted a selfie and all of the responses were get well soon!

64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,135
Veteran
Online Happy
Veteran
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,135
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
Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,913
R
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
R
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,913
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

Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 5,159
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 5,159
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.
Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 14,131
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 14,131
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

Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 5,159
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 5,159
Originally Posted By: Janice & Bud
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 wink

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.

Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 20,923
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 20,923
Originally Posted By: Janice & Bud
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.


I just posted a selfie and all of the responses were get well soon!

64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 7,954
P
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
P
Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 7,954
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.

Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,913
R
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
R
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,913
Originally Posted By: Janice & Bud
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.

Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,913
R
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
R
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,913
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-gently

Did I mention I love EZ Drummer?

Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,135
Veteran
Online Happy
Veteran
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,135
Originally Posted By: rockstar_not
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-gently

Did 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
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Go To
Page 1 of 2 1 2

Link Copied to Clipboard
ChatPG

Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.

ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.

PG Music News
Henry Clarke: Revolutionize Your Band-in-Box® Tracks with Regenerating Function

One of the new features added with Band-in-Box® 2024 is the Tracks Window, which will look familiar if you've worked with other DAWs.

Henry Clarke explains why he loves the Re-generation function within the Tracks Window in their video Revolutionize Your Band-in-Box® Tracks with Regenerating Function.

Watch video.

Learn even more about what the Tracks Window can do with our video Band-in-a-Box® 2024: The Tracks Window.

User Video: Next-Level AI Music Editing with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box®

The Bob Doyle Media YouTube channel is known for demonstrating how you can creatively incorporate AI into your projects - from your song projects to avatar building to face swapping, and more!

His latest video, Next-Level AI Music Editing with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box, he explains in detail how you can use the Melodist feature in Band-in-a-Box with ACE Studio. Follow along as he goes from "nothing" to "something" with his Band-in-a-Box MIDI Melodist track, using ACE Studio to turn it into a vocal track (or tracks, you'll see) by adding lyrics for those notes that will trigger some amazing AI vocals!

Watch: Next-Level AI Music Editing with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box


Band-in-a-Box® 2024 German for Windows is Here!

Band-in-a-Box® 2024 für Windows Deutsch ist verfügbar!

Wir waren fleißig und haben über 50 neue Funktionen und eine erstaunliche Sammlung neuer Inhalte hinzugefügt, darunter 222 RealTracks, neue RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, "Songs with Vocals" Artist Performance Sets, abspielbare RealTracks Set 3, abspielbare RealDrums Set 2, zwei neue Sets von "RealDrums Stems", XPro Styles PAK 6, Xtra Styles PAK 17 und mehr!

Paket | Was ist Neu

Update Your PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 Today!

Add updated printing options, enhanced tracks settings, smoother use of MGU and SGU (BB files) within PowerTracks, and more with the latest PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 update!

Learn more about this free update for PowerTracks Pro Audio & download it at www.pgmusic.com/support_windows_pt.htm#2024_5

The Newest RealBand 2024 Update is Here!

The newest RealBand 2024 Build 5 update is now available!

Download and install this to your RealBand 2024 for updated print options, streamlined loading and saving of .SGU & MGU (BB) files, and to add a number of program adjustments that address user-reported bugs and concerns.

This free update is available to all RealBand 2024 users. To learn more about this update and download it, head to www.pgmusic.com/support.realband.htm#20245

The Band-in-a-Box® Flash Drive Backup Option

Today (April 5) is National Flash Drive Day!

Did you know... not only can you download your Band-in-a-Box® Pro, MegaPAK, or PlusPAK purchase - you can also choose to add a flash drive backup copy with the installation files for only $15? It even comes with a Band-in-a-Box® keychain!

For the larger Band-in-a-Box® packages (UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, Audiophile Edition), the hard drive backup copy is available for only $25. This will include a preinstalled and ready to use program, along with your installation files.

Backup copies are offered during the checkout process on our website.

Already purchased your e-delivery version, and now you wish you had a backup copy? It's not too late! If your purchase was for the current version of Band-in-a-Box®, you can still reach out to our team directly to place your backup copy order!

Note: the Band-in-a-Box® keychain is only included with flash drive backup copies, and cannot be purchased separately.

Handy flash drive tip: Always try plugging in a USB device the wrong way first? If your flash drive (or other USB plug) doesn't have a symbol to indicate which way is up, look for the side with a seam on the metal connector (it only has a line across one side) - that's the side that either faces down or to the left, depending on your port placement.

Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows® Today!

Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows for free with build 1111!

With this update, there's more control when saving images from the Print Preview window, we've added defaults to the MultiPicker for sorting and font size, updated printing options, updated RealTracks and other content, and addressed user-reported issues with the StylePicker, MIDI Soloists, key signature changes, and more!

Learn more about this free update for Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows at www.pgmusic.com/support_windowsupdates.htm#1111

Forum Statistics
Forums66
Topics81,748
Posts736,936
Members38,562
Most Online2,537
Jan 19th, 2020
Newest Members
taylor davis, spec96, Nethan Paul, LesNewzealand, CCCreator
38,562 Registered Users
Top Posters(30 Days)
MarioD 186
DC Ron 106
rsdean 105
dcuny 101
Noel96 87
Today's Birthdays
stevenlynnhall
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5