EZ Drummer 3 announced.

[skipscada]

Top notch sounds, by the way, but one or maybe a couple of well chosen sound expansions go a long way. I picked up a few on sales, but generally come back to one or two. They offer about 40, which just seems irrational and makes it harder to choose.

[jamcat]

My experience is that EZD2 is very hit and miss when it comes to providing midi that works with my style (whatever that is, I'm a bit all over the place). Mainly the problem is that the playing is often _too good_, so it takes effort to make it gel with my less sophisticated skills and aesthetic. It feels wrong to always have to simplify patterns (although having said that, there are pretty good built-in tools for that, giving you the possibility to literally dial down the virtuosity). But on the other hand it's nice to have a pool of quality patterns in different genres to be able to churn out typical genre stuff like reggae, jazz, bossa nova or whatever without any effort at all. But for things in a more personal style, which for me tends to mean simple, but idiosyncratic and irregular drum patterns (think indie rock/pop, alternative, post punk), I end up having to play my own patterns then elaborate in a midi editor. It can be fun to run self made patterns through EZD's tap to find feature that finds similar patterns in the library, but it rarely produces worthwhile results. There's still a lot to be said for having a library of quality midi drum patterns, though. Great for manipulating, for instance sending hits to the "wrong" sounds.

As for making it work in the mix, always remember to turn down the reverb in the internal mixer. I can never make it sit unless I remove all the reverb, and to me it seems the reverb's only function is to make patterns sound good on their own.

I like using MIDI patterns played by an actual drummer on e-drums just as raw material to work with. It's quite difficult to program hi-hats or tom fills with a truly natural feel unless you're behind a kit yourself. So I'll use bits and pieces to get those parts to sound natural.

EZplayer can playback and export just the hi-hats, for example, so I'll do that a lot and fill in the rest in the MIDI editor.

[Ryan99]

I've been a EZD2 and SD2 user for many years, but I've found myself preferring EZD over SD, so much so that I've never even bothered to upgrade to SD3. I think EZD3 is going to be a no-brainer upgrade for me. Lots of nice additions there.

FWIW - I was the same with SD2, horrible. SD3 was another world, and there's no reason to use EZ2 any more. I'd guess SD4 will be about a year away.

SD3 was released many years after EZ2, so probably don’t expect anything quick before SD4

[iloveplugins2]

wow, this is super exciting. ez drummer is what convinced me to buy a real drum set in the first place.

[skipscada]

blablabla

I like using MIDI patterns played by an actual drummer on e-drums just as raw material to work with. It's quite difficult to program hi-hats or tom fills with a truly natural feel unless you're behind a kit yourself. So I'll use bits and pieces to get those parts to sound natural.

EZplayer can playback and export just the hi-hats, for example, so I'll do that a lot and fill in the rest in the MIDI editor.

Good tip, that. Their midi packs certainly have a human touch that's worth exploiting.

[noiseboyuk]

SD3 was released many years after EZ2, so probably don’t expect anything quick before SD4

You're quite right, my aging memory fails me. There was a 3 year gap there.

[Kevin63101]

On a related topic, I saw SDX expansion prices jumped up to $179 USD (regular price) per title at most distributors this week. Makes EZX prices ($89 USD reg) more accessible if you like premixed mic ambience.

I use both EZX and SDX. Some of the EZX are really great sounds and even offer some kits not available in SDX. (Note: only EZX expansions work on EZ drummer).

[Synth Master Jedi]

On a related topic, I saw SDX expansion prices jumped up to $179 USD (regular price) per title at most distributors this week. Makes EZX prices ($89 USD reg) more accessible if you like premixed mic ambience.

I use both EZX and SDX. Some of the EZX are really great sounds and even offer some kits not available in SDX. (Note: only EZX expansions work on EZ drummer).

Last time I bought an EZX, I paid $35. That was years ago. They can charge what they want, but I wont be buying any EZX for $89 anytime soon or ever.

I'll pay $79 to get EZD 3, that seems like a good value, since it's completely re written and it comes with a large new library and new features, 18 GB if I recall correctly.

[Kevin63101]

The newer EZX and SDX expansion libaries have vastly improved in recent years. Some old gems, but better to catch old ones on sale. The new ones (of acoustic drums) are on a higher level.

Toontrack is the current vst drum king IMO. Unless buying SD3, I'd recommend EZD3 over any of the current options for acoustic drum samples (speaking as a owner of SD3, EZD2, BFD3, SSD, all NI drum libraries, full Groove Agent, a ton of 3rd party kontakt libraries, and more). Its just intuitive and flexible to create a real drummer and to expand it with sounds and midi ... as well as easy midi input options and editing. If I were using another product, I'd still use toontrack for drum midi editing.

[sqigls]

I've upgraded, for the new features. but $89 for expansions... pfft
Even a half price sale now is gonna be a negetory. So rude.

[soulata]

The newer EZX and SDX expansion libaries have vastly improved in recent years. Some old gems, but better to catch old ones on sale. The new ones (of acoustic drums) are on a higher level.

Toontrack is the current vst drum king IMO. Unless buying SD3, I'd recommend EZD3 over any of the current options for acoustic drum samples (speaking as a owner of SD3, EZD2, BFD3, SSD, all NI drum libraries, full Groove Agent, a ton of 3rd party kontakt libraries, and more). Its just intuitive and flexible to create a real drummer and to expand it with sounds and midi ... as well as easy midi input options and editing. If I were using another product, I'd still use toontrack for drum midi editing.

True.

But let's mention Ujam"s drummers as well. Deep sounds great and grooves are great, usable.

k

[sqigls]

yeah for $89 could get a fair few UJAM drums, always on sale and free even.
The UJAM drums are great.

[noiseboyuk]

I've upgraded, for the new features. but $89 for expansions... pfft
Even a half price sale now is gonna be a negetory. So rude.

It is pretty crazy-steep. I can’t imagine they sell too well outside of sales. But as you suggest, that means even sale EZXs are $40. That’s ok, but I bought a lot of expansions back in the day when they were an impulse-buy $20 in sales. Now it’s almost only down to the Black Friday super-steep discounts.

And - of course - when you have accrued a ton of the things, it’s got to be pretty damn good to entice you to buy even more.

[hotmitts]

I'm interested in the part that says

'HUMANIZATION
Automatic adjustment of velocity and microtiming.'

Wonder how it will work

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I'm interested in the part that says

'HUMANIZATION
Automatic adjustment of velocity and microtiming.'

Wonder how it will work

My guess? It will make very small adjustments to velocity and timing to make it sound more natural. Same humanization functions that probably already exist in your DAW.