Playing with EZdrummer 2

Here's bass riff I came up with while playing around with EZdrummer2.

Sounds a little less drum-machiny than I would have expected.  Did you have to program the fills and pattern changes separately?

The drum patterns are real recordings of real drums so the patterns have a natural feel.  I can tweak things in the patterns but can't program beat for beat like I can in Rhythm Rascal.

For this I went into EZdrummer and found some patterns I like.  I then arranged them into an order that flowed.  Once I got my arrangement, I started playing bass to them until I had a cohesive song.  So I created a bass part to the drums rather than finding drums for the bass part.

Finding drums for a song is next.  We'll see how it goes.

Don't you also use a program to "humanize" some of your drums like this so that it sounds even less machiney?  What is that called?

The program I've been using is called Rhythm Rascal.  It uses wav files so you can use recordings of real drums and program them beat by beat.  It has a humanizer built into it which helps but it's still very mechanical sounding in places.  It's a really good drum machine.

I have a song that I've been working on that I programmed the drums on Rhythm Rascal.  I've replaced the drums using EZdrummer.  I think it sounds pretty good.

It does sound substantially better than the old-school drum machines I've used....most certainly.

Way better than those old machines.  My first machine was a Korg DDM110 that I picked up from a pawn shop:

My friend had one of these old Boss drum machines that we did a number of poor demo recordings with in the mid-90s. (pretty certain it was one of the DR-550s).

That is my current machine, but it is doesn't program.  You find a pattern and kit you like and rock.  it comes with 4 fills per pattern, but that can be augmented depending on when you hit your pedal to start the fill.  So fills can seem like much more.  Also, each pattern has a way to hold down the pedal for a variation like from a verse to a chorus.  That secondary pattern will also have 4 fills.

It is quite versatile, but it is made more for live situations than for recording.

Man, that thing is huge!

Xid wrote:

Man, that thing is huge!

My original picture was!  


This is literally just a drum machine built into a foot pedal.

For something to jam along to live as a one man band, that looks like a very useful tool!

I just wish it weren't $179!!!  EZDrummer2 looks like a great tool for me!

Sweetwater has it for $149.

I took your recommendation and bought this program.  I am downloading it right now.  I hope it makes recording even better for me with a DAW.

I'm enjoying playing with it.  I wish I would have gotten it sooner to use on the Joshua's Creed stuff.

I love EZ drummer 2. It helps so much in my song construction. It was a bit difficult to figure out how to change tempo's for verses and chorus' but it can be done. Excellent drum program

I'm liking it so far.  I took a song I was working on, removed the programmed drums I had and redid them with EZdrummer.  Sounds pretty good!

gtr1963, welcome on Christian Hard Music.

I have programmed one song with EZ Drummer and seems like I got a good sound.  The leads need to be redone and the vocals.  I may work on the vox today and then upload a rough mix for everyone to hear.

I just came across Modo Drummer from IK Multimedia. It looks pretty cool with the way you can mod the drums. They have a free version. I couldn't install it on my Mac tho, it says I need to have newer processor.
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/mododrum/

Looks very similar to EZdrummer.

Is there a way with EZ Drummer to customize your drum tracks to fit your song better?  I like their samples, but I have a song that having a custom track would help me with setting the ending better.  I hope to program these for now but hope to get my brother to replace the tracks with live drums.  If he can't because of his setup, then I want something I can keep.

I haven't seen a way to program your own track.  If you have a drum machine program you should be able to export a custom program as midi and import that into EZ.  I tried it with Rhythm Rascal and it was quite the hot mess.  It may work better with a better program.  You can also do it from an electronic kit or keyboard if you have them.

What I've done thus far is find the part that has the closest match in it and then adjust it so just that part is in.  You can also add and remove beats from any piece of the kit for the part.

Is anyone going to upgrade to EZ Drummer 3?