upgrading to Logic Express and EZDrummer

[idiotbear]

Just that. I'll let you guys know how it works out.

[echobaseone]

please do, i'm about to pull the trigger on logic express as well. though I understand the new one (v8) comes with Ultrabeat, which is a pretty spanky drum program itself.

[idiotbear]

Yeah, I figured between the two, I'd be pretty set for drums.

[idiotbear]

Well, it's pretty impressive so far, I've got to say. Obviously there's lots to work out, and right now I'm trying to program a convincing drum sequence in 11/8, which is challenging to say the least. LE8 controls are pretty intuitive really, if you've used a software DAW before, and I'm looking forward to doing some miking and recording (just midi so far). The only gripe is that when I imported one of my old Garageband projects, it sped the whole thing up, and I can't seem to fix it. What was once a sedate, country-ish song now sounds like the Communards. 

EZDrummer is VERY cool, although I wish they shipped it with some grooves for non-standard time signatures. Would make my life SO much easier! The samples are very good, though, and I'm sure once I start in on a tune that's in 4/4, the whole thing will flow really well. It's extremely easy (EZ?) to use. With an open kick, big toms and a Slingerland snare selected, the kit sounds huge - just what I wanted. Don't think I'll be needing any expansion packs.

I also just pulled the trigger on an SM57, a little mixer and a shockmount for my condenser, with a view to sorting out my recorded guitar sound. I'm going to have the SM57 close-miking the amp, my condenser a little further away picking up the room noise, and another budget SM57 clone I've had for a while picking up the rumble from the back of the cabinet. I reckon between the three, I should be able to get a good sound with some trial and error.

[Marc]

Hi I got EZ drummer myself about a month ago - it was on offer at the time and I got the vintage drum upgrade for free at the same time.

I have just made the transition from OS9.22 to OS 10.4  on my Mac finally and it was needing EZ drummer to force this change... I got Cubase SE3 brand new for £69 at the same time and I'm very pleased. Finally got auto delay compenation to work with my UAD plugin card.

I'm quite keen on using slightly older software/hardware because....

1. It's a great deal cheaper
2. You are not working as an unpaid Beta tester for the software company
3. The bugs are all ironed out
4. Many others....

Would love to hear more EZ drummer tips.... maybe we can have a EZ thread?

[mezcalhead]

What was once a sedate, country-ish song now sounds like the Communards.

Thanks, Rob, I really didn't need a mental image of Jimmy Sommerville line dancing ..   




I bought an SM57 a couple of weeks ago and wish I'd done it earlier. I can find a decent sound just plonking it down in front of the amp .. the cheap condenser mic I was using took a lot of fiddling with to get anything listenable. I've got two mic inputs to play with so I'll probably close-mic with the SM57 and mic the room with the condenser when I get around to fine-tuning guitar sounds.

Marc, there is a lot to be said for using kit that is behind the cutting edge, not only in music I guess.

Anyway, I'm still quite happy with Garageband at the moment and don't feel the need to spend money on anything else yet ... has anyone used EZDrummer with Garageband? I'm still struggling with the drum sounds and programming in Garageband itself.

[idiotbear]

has anyone used EZDrummer with Garageband? I'm still struggling with the drum sounds and programming in Garageband itself.

It works fine with Garageband - the only thing it won't do is distribute each part of the kit to individual tracks, as it does in Logic. I basically use the grooves that ship with EZD and spend time tweaking them. The only exception to that so far is the song in 11/8, which doesn't translate even slightly into an EZD groove. I was kind of hoping to use 6/8 or 3/4 grooves and edit them into fitting the time signature, but they just don't work that way. Shame.

[idiotbear]

I'll probably close-mic with the SM57 and mic the room with the condenser when I get around to fine-tuning guitar sounds.

Exactly my plan, with another mike behind - assuming I can make it work and don't get any obvious phasing issues. If I can get a good sound with just the SM57, then that's just fine.

[Pingu]

I'm quite keen on using slightly older software/hardware because....

1. It's a great deal cheaper
2. You are not working as an unpaid Beta tester for the software company
3. The bugs are all ironed out
4. Many others....

+1

I'm using Ableton 5 on a G4 iMac and have no plans to upgrade, and most of my home studio is made up of used Behringer stuff. Contrary to intuition it's much wiser to get cheap gear used, it kinda guarantees the absence of factory errors. I'm quite into the whole lo-fi thing, and when i do get something like a brand new plugin or effect i tend to make it sound like scratchy vinyl, mellotrons, casio keyboards, 80's drum machines, etc.

Though i did get the new iPod Nano earlier today. So far no problems except that there's no firewire(why invent a standard and then stop supporting it?), so it took many many ours to fill up the 4GB drive.

I'm starting to digress. Time for coffee.

Anyway, are everyone happy with EZ? I'm a bit bored with Ableton's built-in drum machine.

[jnewton]

i love ez drummer. after trying out pretty much every crappy drum program, finally one made sense and sounded like actual drums.

[Meshuggahnans]

You have an awesome voice -- you need to get a C1!

[idiotbear]

Thanks, but the JM has kinda cleaned me out

[northern_dirt]

Im looking at EZdrummer too..
How many outputs can you assign from it?

BFD 2 (which is more than twice the cost) lets you do 16..
But dor some reason I think EZ is only at 8.. which is still pretty dang good

[idiotbear]

Yeah, off the top of my head I think it's 8. I tend to just output as a stereo pair, but I can see the appeal of being able to pan and level each individual "mic".

[northern_dirt]

Yeah, off the top of my head I think it's 8. I tend to just output as a stereo pair, but I can see the appeal of being able to pan and level each individual "mic".

Id want to them recorded onto 8 seperate tracks.. so I could EQ, comp, or move each part seperatly in the timeline.. like real drum tracks..