EZDrummer--first few days

Based in part on comments in this forum, I bought EZDrummer and installed it last week. I have a few comments and a few questions:

1) Comments first: the thing sounds very good out of the box and is very easy to use, and the CPU load is light on my IBM T41 laptop, not a very advanced machine. Because EZDrummer uses MIDI files, it's also very easy to combine with other drum machines playing the same patterns to create a very wide range of drum sounds. (Example: DR-008 with the WizLive kit, compressed heavily, playing in tandem with EZDrummer; very nice big rock sound.) It's also very nice that the drums in the kit show up as separate outputs when EZDrummer is loaded via the Synth Rack--makes it much easier to process kicks, snares, etc. separately. Overall a very solid product that runs well under Sonar. I expect it to add a lot of juice to my drum tracks--the same MIDI file played through both DR-008 and EZD is a lot more interesting and expressive in EZD.

2) Question #1: I bought the SmartLoops Midi loops vol. 2 set, and put the MIDI type 1 (single track) files into the MIDI library for EZDrummer (after looking at how the directory is arranged for EZD). The loops are all showing up, and I can audition them in EZD, but they won't loop properly in EZD--there's a delay of 2-4 beats between every iteration of the SL loops. This is ONLY a problem for auditioning the loops in EZD--they play fine when triggering EZD via a MIDI track in Sonar. I've seen on this forum that people had similar problems with Groove Monkee loops--does updating to EZD v1.3 solve this, is Matt Heath's utility the solution, or what?

3) Question #2: any recommendations on great MIDI loops for EZD? I have the SmartLoops MIDI loops vols. 1 and 2, thinking about Groove Monkee. If I already have Sonar 5 PE, do I have some of the Groove Monkee stuff already (e.g. did Groove Monkee supply the loops for Session Drummer 1? I know Smart loops did Session Drummer 2)? I'm thinking about the Groove Monkee rock and funk sets--whaddaya think? I also have a set of Keyfax MIDI drum loops that are now several years old--it's going to take a lot of work to convert them to be usable by EZD, at least for auditioning within EZD, I think. Any other recommended MIDI drum loop sources?

Thanks and regards, lightninrick

2) Question #1: I bought the SmartLoops Midi loops vol. 2 set, and put the MIDI type 1 (single track) files into the MIDI library for EZDrummer (after looking at how the directory is arranged for EZD). The loops are all showing up, and I can audition them in EZD, but they won't loop properly in EZD--there's a delay of 2-4 beats between every iteration of the SL loops. This is ONLY a problem for auditioning the loops in EZD--they play fine when triggering EZD via a MIDI track in Sonar. I've seen on this forum that people had similar problems with Groove Monkee loops--does updating to EZD v1.3 solve this, is Matt Heath's utility the solution, or what?

Keep up with the EZD updates. It's very important. I believe this problem was fixed in 1.3. Keep in mind that you have to Ctrl-L grooves dragged from EZD in Sonar. Most time that will snap the clip to the end of the measure.

Very please with the Groove Monkee loops (Rock and Metal). What I like the most on the Groove Monkee loops are the 8 bar loops. They produce a nice feel.

AXE

2) Question #1: I bought the SmartLoops Midi loops vol. 2 set, and put the MIDI type 1 (single track) files into the MIDI library for EZDrummer (after looking at how the directory is arranged for EZD). The loops are all showing up, and I can audition them in EZD, but they won't loop properly in EZD--there's a delay of 2-4 beats between every iteration of the SL loops. This is ONLY a problem for auditioning the loops in EZD--they play fine when triggering EZD via a MIDI track in Sonar. I've seen on this forum that people had similar problems with Groove Monkee loops--does updating to EZD v1.3 solve this, is Matt Heath's utility the solution, or what?

My utility will fix up the Groove Monkee loops to loop properly in EZD 1.0.3, but Groove Monkee have now released updated versions of their files with this fix already applied, so you don't have to use my utility if you don't want to. To be honest, I think Toontrack need to revert to the old behaviour where it uses the time signature from the loop to calculate the number of measures.

Mark

ORIGINAL: axe

Very please with the Groove Monkee loops (Rock and Metal). What I like the most on the Groove Monkee loops are the 8 bar loops. They produce a nice feel.

AXE

I'll give a +1 on that. All you electronic drum loop suppliers out there. Four/eight/sixteen bar loops are an attractive commodity. One that this particular guy might find irresistable. <But don't get too fancy with them. Pretend you are playing with a control freak for a band leader. Just some good groovin' pocket playing.>

I don't think you're making sense here, Dave. I'm sure the sequencer most people are using to play ezdrummer here is SONAR. EZdrummer is a full fledged synth, not a midi synth, and it does not need to be routed through cyclone or TTS or anything else.

Unless I'm misunderstanding something ;)

EDIT: In fact, I'm really confused by your statement that "at times" ezdrummer won't play tthrough cyclone or TTS - does that mean sometimes it does?

Mick

ORIGINAL: davestoy

Which sequencer are you guys using to play ezdrummer? At times mine won't play through cyclone or TTS. What's up with that?

David

I installed the EZD 1.0.3 update, and looping for the SmartLoops MIDI loops is improved, but not quite fixed. There's now a pause of half a beat or so between repetitions of a loop, instead of 2-4 beats. This is certainly better, if not quite "groovy."

I have an inquiry in to Smart loops to see if they've got a fix.

Thanks, lightninrick

ORIGINAL: markheath
My utility will fix up the Groove Monkee loops to loop properly in EZD 1.0.3, but Groove Monkee have now released updated versions of their files with this fix already applied, so you don't have to use my utility if you don't want to. To be honest, I think Toontrack need to revert to the old behaviour where it uses the time signature from the loop to calculate the number of measures.

Do you know how recently GrooveMonkee updated them? I see this problem too and bought the GrooveMonkee loops on 11/2.

ORIGINAL: CJaysMusic
Im thinking on purchasing EZDrummer this weekend....And triggering it from my V-Drums. From what ive been reading, it will be a good addition and i think it will be way better from what im already using, which is SD2 or TTs...

I still haven't loaded up SD2 yet so I can't give any opinion but ezd sounds enormously better than the TTS.

ORIGINAL: John

(as a side note, I do not use midi or sequencers in my recordings. Just plain ole live instruments.)

If you use Sonar you are using a sequencer.
It has be very hard to stuff those live instruments into the cumputer when ever you play your song.

Best
John

Too Funny

OK, let's try from a different angle: I understand Sonar is a sequencer, what I can't get it to do with EZD is play like it's supposed to. I can manually start EZD from it's gui, but can't start it within Sonar. I have tried many times. I have inserted EZD from ths synth rack, let it load up, choose my sound, dragged it over to the track in Sonar, ctrl-L on the loop, expanded the loop out to where I want it, hit play within Sonar, and the darn thing won't play. It receives no signal from Sonar, like the manual says it should. (the midi light does not flash at the bottom of EZD) Tell me what I'm doing wrong.

David

The loading of the samples doesn't take that long, Billy, usually about as you mentioned-20 to 25 seconds. I just cannot get the thing to play like it should. I guess somebody's gonna have to draw me a step by step map of the procedure to use it!

David

I don't have a midi controller, Mick. As I said before, I rarely use any midi. I see now what I have done--I failed to check the insert midi track box when opening EZD. That has solved my problem. Thanks for your help!

(told you I was kinda dumb!)

David

ORIGINAL: steveng57

going back to the part about EZDrummer load time...on my system at least, right now it is taking an extra-ordinarily long time - like 3 to 5 minutes depending on the kit. My machine isn't brand new dual core, but it is 3.2GHz w/ hyperthreading on. So I take it from what others see, that this is definitly an anomaly and I should look into it further?

Yeah, this is definitely an anomaly. My IBM T41 laptop is nowhere near as powerful as your machine, and it takes something like 30 seconds to load the initial 267MB of samples. Possible reasons:

1) Your hard drive runs at a slow speed. But I dunno. I'm on the road right now, and I put all my EZD samples and MIDI files on a 10GB 1.8" hard drive that spins at 4200 RPM and connects to the computer via USB 2. No problems either loading or running.

2) You're short on system RAM. EZD loads about 267 MB of samples to start on my machine. No problem with 1GB system RAM. But Windows XP SP2 wants over 512MB of RAM for itself, even before you load an application. If I was running this machine on 512MB RAM, I'm sure that Windows would be paging frantically to keep up with everything, and paging takes a lot of time. So how much RAM do you have? RAM is pretty cheap now...

Regards, lightninrick

FYI, based in part on recommendations here, I bought the Groove Monkees rock and country MIDI loops (combined) set.

They loop very nicely in EZD, and they're good beats, even inspiring. I also like the way they're organized--they're named so that you see a particular groove with all its related variations and fills, right there. Makes it much easier to construct a track once you've selected the basic groove.

The whole package--EZD plus the MIDI files--gives you a lot of power and flexibility. Not to mention that auditioning the MIDI files right in the drum machine is a big improvement to workflow.

Regards, lightninrick