cclarry
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/09 11:52:47
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clintmartin
The "Tap to find" and "play style editor" are what makes this such a huge advancement IMO. While my little song isn't perfected yet, It sounds good, and I haven't once had to open the PRV (which I hate). The sound is a matter of taste I guess. There are a lot of ezx's to choose from and of course I can just move the midi to the drum sampler of my choice if need be. That is why I will also upgrade to AD2. I'm not a big fan of the AD presets (I hope the new ones are better), but the tools are there to create good sounds. I wish they had this stuff 20 years ago. It's a great time to be in this game.
THIS would be my major use...using the Song Editor to MIDI Constructino to create the MIDI and then move to the preferred Drum Sampler. I do the same with EZKeys...the Chord finder/MIDI Song construction is my major use of that, then I switch to my preferred Piano... IT IS A USEFUL TOOL....I just don't consider it "Ground Breaking". These things could be done already...howbeit a bit more time in the process...it's a "facilitator" ....sound wise...as Jim said, they're not bad, but not on par with AD, SD, or BFD IMO...L,M,N,O,P.... The Graphics and interface improvements are nice...but not a prerequisite...I'd rather have "sound" over aesthetics... But again, that's just me....YMMV, as I would expect.
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cclarry
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/09 12:13:44
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A couple of things I would have rather seen...
Re-sizable/Scalable interface - definitely NOT necessary, but would be nice.
Better Mixer/more slots - slots not "tied" to the kit...so I could
add other pieces as needed. Even a "Fixed" number beyond the
normal kits that could be "assigned" would have been better, as
AD does...I guess I could just pick the "Biggest" kit and then reassign kit pieces...
But, that kind of "defeats" picking a kit and then "adding" to it...
To me, these would have been helpful improvements as well, in addition
to the new features.
Well, I won't be "rushing" to buy this...but it will be on the list...when on sale...
Just my thoughts...
I've gotta go put some sauve on these Rock welts...
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Jim Roseberry
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/09 12:57:11
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mixmkr
but a little crescent of felt is a wonderful thing on snare drum. Felt...what's that? I thought it was your wallet and duct tape.
LOL! Yeah, I like a little crescent of felt placed around the lower edge of the snare. It's out of the way, and it doesn't kill as much resonance as using MoonGell. The perfect balance of a natural sound and controlled resonance
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Rain
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/09 15:23:29
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My 2 cents..
For my taste, when it comes to rock drums, I seem to be mostly stuck in a pre-1980 world. As I've mentioned, I was particularly anxious to hear the vintage drum kits. These days, my favorite kit is Platinum Samples' Rock Legend for BFD Eco. I'm also getting started with XLN's Indie Kit.
Well, those new kits really aren't that bad, but they still have that typical Toontrack "enhanced" type of sound which I always struggle with.
Using BFD and Rock Legend, it's almost like my song mixes itself - my choice of guitar tones and bass tone just seem to blend in naturally, there's an effortless cohesion. With EZ however, I can't seem to get things to work together as good - it's almost as if you were trying to get the instruments on Led Zeppelin II to work with a drum sound on the Black album by Metallica.
As a matter of fact, first thing I do with most Toontrack drums is to run a low pass filter on everything, to get rid of some of that energy in the higher frequencies. But the end results rarely work anyway - the drums sound strangely hollow and lifeless where I'd want them to be full and hyped where I'd want less of them.
I often feel like the fact that the Toontrack fellows are big on Heavy Metal shows even through their non-metal stuff.
But I know that they do work quite well for others, just not for me.
TCB - Tea, Cats, Books...
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twaddle
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/09 17:06:31
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Sorry to all for going off topic but I've just been checking out your tunes John Really good songs, So Much Older really reminds me of an old song from my youth called Hey Little Girl, originally recorded by the Syndicate of Sound but I preferred the version by The Banned - Hey Little Girl One of my favourite Beatles tunes too  So what are you using for your drums ? Steve
post edited by twaddle - 2014/05/10 03:55:51
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jmain
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/09 22:17:29
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Rain
jmain
Rain
Is that the upgraded Electronic EXZ? The old one was funky but had to decipher at times.
Yes it is. Much easier to figure out.
Nice!
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rontarrant
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/10 06:16:21
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yorolpal
Sorry to ask again but do I need to unzip the files in the install folder as well as the main download zip file...or will the installer take care of that? Which I'm assuming it does.
The general rule of thumb in situations like this: Run the installer; if you get an error, then start unzipping things.
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Jim Roseberry
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/10 12:16:46
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Rain
As a matter of fact, first thing I do with most Toontrack drums is to run a low pass filter on everything, to get rid of some of that energy in the higher frequencies. But the end results rarely work anyway - the drums sound strangely hollow and lifeless where I'd want them to be full and hyped where I'd want less of them.
I often feel like the fact that the Toontrack fellows are big on Heavy Metal shows even through their non-metal stuff.
But I know that they do work quite well for others, just not for me.
This is exactly what I was trying to convey. The kick drums in particular have that Metallica sound (thin with a lot of snap). It's an aesthetic thing (just not my taste)...
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clintmartin
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/10 14:05:56
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I'm still getting crashes. Re-scan doesn't work. I haven't tried a reset re-scan.
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mixmkr
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/10 14:48:21
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Clint... did you see about setting at 44.1...then back to your preferred sample rate...or leave at 44.1?
Seems a known issue and talking about it at Toontrack too.
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cclarry
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/10 15:39:01
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clintmartin
I'm still getting crashes. Re-scan doesn't work. I haven't tried a reset re-scan.
Clint..I posted in the other forum a workaround that I swiped from the Toontrack forum.. Set the sample rate to 44.1....then do your routing...when finished...set it back to your preferred rate...and all will be well...
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clintmartin
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/10 15:44:53
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Cool! I'll try it. Someone said a rescan would fix it, but it didn't help here.
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cclarry
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/10 15:46:36
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clintmartin
Cool! I'll try it. Someone said a rescan would fix it, but it didn't help here.
That was the first thing I tried...and CRASH...
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cclarry
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/13 14:18:12
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This is starting to grow on me...the more I use it...
While the sound is good...it's not at good as it could be,
But the other features are pretty useful....
While they all can be done without EZ 2...I'm finding it convenient
to have it "all in one place". It's definitely a facilitator....
And that was the goal...so that's a success for EZ 2....
This is the main benefit of EZKeys as well...write the song...
Change the key/chords...transfer the MIDI to a track and go...
Toontrack excels at being "EZ".....
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clintmartin
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/13 14:28:51
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Yeah, the mixer and the options in it are better than before too. I'm loving it! The Rock! kit is smoking.
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cclarry
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/13 14:35:02
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clintmartin
Yeah, the mixer and the options in it are better than before too. I'm loving it! The Rock! kit is smoking.
That's the first EZX I'm buying...I've been chomping at the bit over that....
post edited by cclarry - 2014/05/13 15:27:22
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Grem
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/13 15:28:40
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Yeah Larry, I've been getting into the UI alot. And though I could see that these things can be done elsewhere, TT did do this interface right. Last night I started messing with the Player editor (I think it's called that) and was really blown away by that UI. I mean, I am liking it so much that it's making me think of getting EZK. If it's that EZ, I wouldn't have to call my wife in and explain to her what I want. And Clint, I got the Rock! Kit recently. But haven't had a chance to try it out. I've been going over the new versions of the older EZX's I have. I also got the Nashville kit too and haven't tried it either. But I did try the new Vintage Sticks and Brushes EZX. I really like that. Will have to go over the Rock! Kit tonight.
post edited by Grem - 2014/05/13 15:32:03
Grem
Michael Music PC i7 2600K; 64gb Ram; 3 256gb SSD, System, Samples, Audio; 1TB & 2TB Project Storage; 2TB system BkUp; RME FireFace 400; Win 10 Pro 64; CWbBL 64, Home PCAMD FX 6300; 8gb Ram; 256 SSD sys; 2TB audio/samples; Realtek WASAPI; Win 10 Home 64; CWbBL 64 Surface Pro 3Win 10 i7 8gb RAM; CWbBL 64
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Mesh
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/13 15:36:04
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The Nashville Kit is my go to kit and it Rocks!!.......it's one of TT's better kits.
Platinum Gaming DAW: AsRock Z77 Overclock FormulaI7 3770k @ 4.5GHz : 16GB RAM G.Skill Ripjaws X 250GB OS SSD : 3TB HDD : 1TB Sample HDDWin 10 Pro x 64 : NH-D14 CPU Cooler HIS IceQ 2GB HD 7870Focusrite Scarlett 2i4The_Forum_Monkeys
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clintmartin
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/13 17:03:57
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Nashville is a good one. The new modern DW is pretty sweet too. I've had the Rock! kit a while but I like it better now. At the risk of TT saying they haven't changed a thing...I will say it seems a lot better to me. I was getting a noise from something before that isn't there now. All of my 9 ezx's seem to perform better than before. If you want a big lush 80's sound Rock Solid may fit the bill.
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Dave Modisette
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/13 21:02:14
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I've been using the Rock! lately, as well. The blended kit concept sounds really good. I like to run and gun so not having to sit and work out custom blended instruments using Superior and Xpads suits me well.
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Dave Modisette
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/13 21:13:29
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cclarry
This is starting to grow on me...the more I use it...
While the sound is good...it's not at good as it could be,
But the other features are pretty useful....
While they all can be done without EZ 2...I'm finding it convenient
to have it "all in one place". It's definitely a facilitator....
And that was the goal...so that's a success for EZ 2....
This is the main benefit of EZKeys as well...write the song...
Change the key/chords...transfer the MIDI to a track and go...
Toontrack excels at being "EZ".....
I feel like it really shows how everyone has different likes and dislikes about drum sound. Me, I installed Addictive Drums once again after demoing it and not liking in, getting it as a freebie with SONAR and never installing it and finally trying it again and not putting it on my new computer. I dunno, AD sounds sort of fake to me. I don't know what it is about it. Are they using modeling in the ambience or something? The EZdrummer kits sound more like I would expect a pre-recorded kit to sound like if I was sent a series of drum tracks. Granted, you are stuck with whatever the recording engineer sent you but I'm OK with that. I also had a look at the AD2 demo and one thing I did like was the bigger GUI window but that could change if I was working on a project.
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gmon72
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/13 21:37:45
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I also find the stock sounds awful on addictive drums. However Fairfax and Indie sound pretty good. This bring an ezdrummer 2 thread, I'll chime in that I like it a lot too. I have almost all the Ezx and it's fun being able to mix and match. My only tiny complaint, based on the response I got on the toontrack forum, is that toontrack won't expand the Yamaha mapping for other Yamaha kits. xlnaudio, slate and fxpansion figured it out. It would probably take an negligible amount of time to add a few more mappings. Not sure why considering all the polishing toontrack put into the product that that are happy to leave the Yamaha mapping half baked. Not a deal breaker, just a little odd to me.
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cclarry
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/13 21:59:44
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Mod Bod
cclarry
This is starting to grow on me...the more I use it...
While the sound is good...it's not at good as it could be,
But the other features are pretty useful....
While they all can be done without EZ 2...I'm finding it convenient
to have it "all in one place". It's definitely a facilitator....
And that was the goal...so that's a success for EZ 2....
This is the main benefit of EZKeys as well...write the song...
Change the key/chords...transfer the MIDI to a track and go...
Toontrack excels at being "EZ".....
I dunno, AD sounds sort of fake to me. I don't know what it is about it. Are they using modeling in the ambience or something? The EZdrummer kits sound more like I would expect a pre-recorded kit to sound like if I was sent a series of drum tracks. Granted, you are stuck with whatever the recording engineer sent you but I'm OK with that.
I also had a look at the AD2 demo and one thing I did like was the bigger GUI window but that could change if I was working on a project.
I find nothing even close to fake about the AD sounds...especially in AD2... To me...EZ 2 sounds more fake...more processed...the cymbals are very "Metalic" sounding....and you really can't change that... In AD...you go in, turn off the effects...and you have a stock kit again... and I think everyone fails to remember that. The "Presets" ARE just that... ALL effects and everything in PLACE to give "That sound" that is "represented" by the "Preset" ... I actually find it the complete exact opposite... I know you can "somewhat" do the same in EZ...but I just don't like what I hear after that... I think EZ 2 is better then EZ.... NONE of them hold a candle to BFD 3 IMO....not even close... But I think AD is far closer then EZ2 is....but that's just me... But, as I said, being able to build songs "in the box" is what sets this apart... Same with EZKeys...
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Glyn Barnes
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/13 23:43:57
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Mod Bod
I feel like it really shows how everyone has different likes and dislikes about drum sound. Me, I installed Addictive Drums once again after demoing it and not liking in, getting it as a freebie with SONAR and never installing it and finally trying it again and not putting it on my new computer.
I was underwhelmed when I tried Addictive Drums I got with X3. But in fairness it was shortly after getting BFD3. I am really still on the learning curve with BFD3 but I think it has some of the best kits out there and it will be using it a lot in future. My most used kits over the last year or so are. Toontrack Metal Foundary SDX - I don't do metal as such but these kits are great for all sorts of Rock. Toontrack Custom and Vintage SDX Toontrack Indi Folk EZX Any way back on topic, if I do get EZD2, and that is not certain yet, it will be for the groove tools, any extra kits will be a bonus.
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yorolpal
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/14 00:01:13
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Welp...what I've always said is let your music do the talking. I always try to listen very carefully to folks actual projects and see what their instrument and mix settings sound like. I still think it's more what you do with what you have than just what you have. I have one particular tune that has an AD kit on it that I cannot get the same sound with any of my other drums. I also have a tune that has BFD2 on it that I just can't seem to get a more "right" sound on using any other emulator. That said everything else I do is mostly EZD, SD and Slate. It's just personal preference. Use what you like. But don't fool yourself into thinking that it's ever anything more than that. Rationalization is, more often than not, just that.
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mixmkr
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/14 00:45:01
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yorolpal
Welp...what I've always said is let your music do the talking. I always try to listen very carefully to folks actual projects and see what their instrument and mix settings sound like. I still think it's more what you do with what you have than just what you have.
I agree. That said, some people's stuff in their links just blows me away and I end up studying what they've done and see if I can get similar results.
post edited by mixmkr - 2014/05/14 00:59:23
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montezuma
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/14 02:41:23
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Do they have any casual grooves...country crossed with light folk drum work crossed with understated rhythm loops complemented with casual fills that don't rip your head off?
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Grem
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/14 09:48:36
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A lot of those "tear you head off" beats are really workable if you slow them down and lower the velocity of the clips.
Now with EZD2 it is much easier to do this. Find the midi groove you want and drag/drop in EZD2 and it will find stuff for you. From that list you should find something that you can work with.
But to answer your question, TT does have a folk EZX, but I haven't listened to it yet. They have demos on their website of all their EZX's.
Grem
Michael Music PC i7 2600K; 64gb Ram; 3 256gb SSD, System, Samples, Audio; 1TB & 2TB Project Storage; 2TB system BkUp; RME FireFace 400; Win 10 Pro 64; CWbBL 64, Home PCAMD FX 6300; 8gb Ram; 256 SSD sys; 2TB audio/samples; Realtek WASAPI; Win 10 Home 64; CWbBL 64 Surface Pro 3Win 10 i7 8gb RAM; CWbBL 64
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jmasno5
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/14 10:43:11
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I sent this to Toontrack this morning: "Superior Drummer 2.0 is not finding my EZ Drummer 2 (Modern and Vintage) Kits or the Pop Rock kit automatically. I navigated to the sound libraries but now it asked me to authorize even though they are and play fine in my EZ Drummer 2 program. Something is not right." Any fellow Sonarians in the same boat? Also, is there a was to search only this thread? Toontrack responed: Toontrack Support (Toontrack) May 14 10:40 AM "The EZdrummer 2 sound libraries cannot yet be used in Superior 2.0. There will be a Superior software update released to address this issue, however we do not have the ETA for this update."
post edited by jmasno5 - 2014/05/14 12:49:05
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montezuma
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Re: Ez Drummer 2 - Impressions?
2014/05/15 03:17:55
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Just tried out the demo...song creator...tap out a slow beat...quite a slow and deliberate beat with kick and snare...simple...right on time to my song...drag and drop that midi to get ezdrummer suggestions...
WOW!!!
In true Ezdrummer style I've been bombarded with suggestions that sound like they were played by a drumming octopus on crack or PCP.
LOL
Outrageously fast and insanely complicated suggestions for my SLOW simple tapped beat.
WTF???
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