What are you guys using for drums?

G

Goport

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I have stuck with EZdrummer because I am so familiar with it. Is there anything out there thats comparible or better that has the same gentle learning curve?
 
I still use EZDrummer. If you haven't upgraded to EZD 3, I highly recommend it. The bandmate feature alone is worth it. I simply record a riff, drag it in, and bandmate comes up with a drum beat that works. No more searching for the right midi file. Much easier :)
 
Thanks guys, I'm in need of something that I can change time signatures mid-song with, Garageband is not very good with that. I'll look into this although I'm sure there will be a pretty big learning curve.
 
Battery 3 . It does what want . at heart its just a sample player , for fun I once recorded all 12 notes separately and put them into the boxes . and triggered them via midi ....not as straightforward as I thought .. every note has to be neat and setting.the triggers was complex
 
Like most things in music production I have an irresponsible amount of options. For acoustic drums I kind of went backyards, or downgraded in a way. I’ve had Superior Drummer for years but recently I got latest version of EZDrummer. The ability to drag and drop melodic audio files in for the AI to create corresponding drum tracks intrigued me along with the ability to adjust playing complexity of individual drums. The AI does create patterns that work but I’d say it isn’t anything you wouldn’t easily come up with on your own if you’ve been doing drum programming for a while. I was hoping for something a little more outside the stock box. Honestly Superior Drummer is more than I need plus the expansions are more expensive.
 
Chew Toy McCoy said:
Like most things in music production I have an irresponsible amount of options. For acoustic drums I kind of went backyards, or downgraded in a way. I’ve had Superior Drummer for years but recently I got latest version of EZDrummer. The ability to drag and drop melodic audio files in for the AI to create corresponding drum tracks intrigued me along with the ability to adjust playing complexity of individual drums. The AI does create patterns that work but I’d say it isn’t anything you wouldn’t easily come up with on your own if you’ve been doing drum programming for a while. I was hoping for something a little more outside the stock box. Honestly Superior Drummer is more than I need plus the expansions are more expensive.
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I use EZDrummer. I always used the piano roll in cubase to drop in the hits. My drums do sound programmed and I am okay with that but I do like the pretence that they at least sound like acoustic drums. I am happy to play with velocities and humanizing the hits a little bit. I did try using some if the midi tracks that come with the package and they seemed fine but often its not a true fit to what I am doing. I haven't played with the bandmate thing simply because I haven't had a project that I had the opportunity to try it on yet. I like EZdrummer because its not too cpu hungry whereas Superior Drummer seemed a bit more bulky. I maybe need to upgrade my Ryzen 3900X soon. Maybe then I will go back to SD and give it another try.
 
Goport said:
I use EZDrummer. I always used the piano roll in cubase to drop in the hits. My drums do sound programmed and I am okay with that but I do like the pretence that they at least sound like acoustic drums. I am happy to play with velocities and humanizing the hits a little bit. I did try using some if the midi tracks that come with the package and they seemed fine but often its not a true fit to what I am doing. I haven't played with the bandmate thing simply because I haven't had a project that I had the opportunity to try it on yet. I like EZdrummer because its not too cpu hungry whereas Superior Drummer seemed a bit more bulky. I maybe need to upgrade my Ryzen 3900X soon. Maybe then I will go back to SD and give it another try.
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If I'm using a pattern player in a drum plugin I usually drag and drop the MIDI pattern into the DAW for further editing. I have a bunch of UJAM plugins as well. The main thing I find them better for than I can play or program is fills and hat and cymbal patterns that sound interesting or natural. I don't really get too much into mics and tuning details. I'm sure this is all amazing for a seasoned studio engineer who has decades of experience with the trials and tribulations of recording live drummers, but most of that goes way over my head. I didn't bother downloading the surround files on Superior Drummer. It would be a wasted of valuable drive space for me.
 
One thing that annoys the crap out of me with Toontrack expansions is they never have an intro sale and it’s often at least a year before it ever goes on sale. I think they released their orchestral SDX expansion like 5 years ago, it’s their most expensive expansion, and it’s never been on sale.

Sort of OT, but I got their EZBass early on. I haven’t really been inspired by the expansions to pull the trigger on the price point. IK Multimedia released MODO BASS 2. I haven’t gotten it yet but it looks like it essentially does the same thing and with all the comparable expansions built-in at a fraction of the price.

Another comparison I would make is Maschine Expansions which are less expensive and generally you get more bang for your buck with variety and other NI product presets included, but you really aren’t going to be able to convince me that 100 Hip Hip expansions are unique or needed. They need to seriously trim some fat there.

And just to get even further OT, don’t get me started on Spitfire and their new high end full orchestra library of the month.
 
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