KVR Audio

jjmmuir · Post by **jjmmuir** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 11:08 am

Hi Everyone,
After using recorded loops for years I have just got ezdrummer to afford more flexibility in creating drum tracks.
The kits sounds surprising good and the midi playing is varied and useful....except for the fills! They are so bad I thought they were from a metal fill pack or something, far too busy and just unusable. Really off target given what a good product this obviously is.
So the question is has anyone found some midi packs that have some laid back, natural fills and intros?
I've really looked around, I think someone mentioned that the songwriters midi pack's fills were also over played? Really don't want to risk the toontrack fillpack as the ones in ezdummer are SO far from the mark!
These look the most promising from what I've seen..http://www.platinumsamples.com/ps/Steve ... rooves.php this guy is a tasteful drummer. Anyone tried them?
Any thoughts at all would be very welcome!
Thanks
Jeremy

standalone · Post by **standalone** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 1:38 pm

Platinum Samples' midi grooves are very well regarded. I have never tried them, though.

I use these, check them too:

http://www.oddgrooves.com/

Don't forget to download their free grooves.

Dr.Wu · Post by **Dr.Wu** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 4:42 pm

The best beats and fills come with the various EXZ packs.
Vintage Rock, Nashville, The Classic, Jazz, Funk are some that come to mind. And then there are the Songwriter MIDI packs at Toontrack. No Attention whores but lots of useful beats and fills that do the job without getting in the way.

Platinum samples have a great collection of Peter Erskine beats for more jazzy stuff or the Brooks Wackerman collection for uptempo in your face rockstuff.

Dr.Wu · Post by **Dr.Wu** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 4:46 pm

Actually the Ferrone pack was one that didnt excite me too much.
Very basic beats with too much human factor for my taste.

Platinum Samples · Post by **Platinum Samples** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 11:21 pm

Dr.Wu wrote:Actually the Ferrone pack was one that didnt excite me too much.
Very basic beats with too much human factor for my taste.

Most of our customers are very happy with the Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty & THe Heartbreakers) Library... it's exactly the style of grooves the OP is looking for... played to real songs and not over the top.

Our grooves are un-quantized - but simple to do yourself in your DAW or host app (if it supports it like BFD2) if that's your choice.

In EZDrummer: https://www.platinumsamples.com/Jing/BFD2/SFM_EZD.swf

Cheers,

Rail

filkertom · Post by **filkertom** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 11:30 pm

Rail? I just checked out the Steve Ferrone grooves. Very nice. Small problem, though... something's hosed with the web site.

To be specific, I can't seem to get to your store.

If I click on the "Store" menu item on any page, I get a 404. If I click on the link in the FAQ, going to shopplatinumsamples.com, I get a blank page except for the word "up" in the upper left corner.

Just thought you should know.

Platinum Samples · Post by **Platinum Samples** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 11:40 pm

Thanks Tom,

We've actually been moving the store between servers to make it more reliable - the link is still being forwarded from the old server & domain (shopplatinumsamples.com)... I'll change that right now so it's a direct link to our main server where we now host the store which is 99.9999% reliable.

Here's a direct link to the store on our main domain/server.

https://www.platinumsamples.com/Store/products.php

Thanks again for the heads up.

Best,

Rail

Spitfire31 · Post by **Spitfire31** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 12:01 am

Also check out Groove Monkee (http://www.groovemonkee.com/en/).

A lot of varied genres, unquantised and, in my view, very useful. Russ Cannizzo, the guy behing Groove Monkee, is a very nice person and receptive to ideas. I once complained that Rock Essentials #1 didn't contain enough rides for my taste - a day later he sent me a version with lots of RC!

There're plenty of demos to download as well.

/Joachim

jjmmuir · Post by **jjmmuir** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:42 am

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions!

Dr Wu - keen to know what you mean by too much human factor..the basic beats you mentioned (and fills presumably) sounded good to me. By human factor do you mean stylistically the playing didn't quite blend? Still think this one looks promising.

Just looking for simple fills that don't sound like the drummer is playing a double kick and jacked on speed

Has nobody used the toontrack midi packs at all?

Jeremy

Dr.Wu · Post by **Dr.Wu** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 7:02 am

guess its a matter of personal taste.
the ferrone stuff simply didnt click with me. YMMW.
Loved the Wackerman and Erskine packs.

jjmmuir · Post by **jjmmuir** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 1:42 am

Just as an update for others interested...i went ahead and got the toontrack "songwriters drumpack 1". it's supposed to make song creation easier by presenting loops in sections. and meant to have lots of fills etc.
My initial thought was how few loops are included...really seriously lacking. loops are are pretty much the same as with ezdrummer, I couldn't tell the difference. Disappointingly, all the fills are overplayed, which was what I was trying to avoid. I can see why toontrack never promotes these midipacks, at 35USD you'd be far, far better just a bit more and getting an expansion pack with sounds and midi.
Can't remember making a worse purchase than this...very much in the waste of money category.
Think I'll try the Nashville expansion next

LAGinz · Post by **LAGinz** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 7:58 am

Have you tried cutting back on the velocity setting on the EZ fills? It sometimes helps fit them within a mix.

jjmmuir · Post by **jjmmuir** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:50 am

That is something I haven't really tried...many thanks. I wonder how I could separate velocity from main beat to the fill, but I'll figure that out. Thanks again LAGinz

Usable fills for EZDrummer?? Thoughts??