So I've upgraded EZ and AD...

And was hoping to take advantage of that new stuff in the song I'm working on - I'd even delayed things a bit just for that.
 
As it turns out, the first rough mix I finished last night had one kick from AD and a snare from EZ. Actually, that snare was beefed up using BFD Eco and the Rock Legend kit. 
 
In my quest for the right cymbals, I finally did something which is kind of a last resort - I loaded Kontakt and started browsing my NI drums libraries. Because Kontakt performs very poorly on my Mac, I always avoid it as much as possible.
 
I ended up playing w/ a teaser version of Abbey Road 60's Drummer, a crippled one kit version which I received with a product I bought from NI, IIRC. Then playing with 70s Drummer and then Studio Drummer, I started to realize that the drum sounds I've been after forever were right there, I'd simply discarded them because Kontakt isn't efficient and EZ is such a wonderful songwriting tool.
 
So today I went ahead and got the full 60s Drummer, and, most incredibly, the song I was working on seemed to practically mix itself. Mind you, it's no Dark Side of the Moon, but, for the first time in a long time, I felt like I did when I worked with nothing but a reel to reel machine - picking up the right sounds upfront, and then, come what may...
 
I've always been a fan of pre-80s drum sounds - to me that's how drums should sound. I've also realized that I prefer to restrain the space the drums occupy in the stereo image - even mono drums in some cases. That's what I've always fought with when working with EZ in particular - the drums sound so hyped and scooped and all over the stereo field. Even if I tried to compensate for it, my mixes always seemed to sound hollow, and the rest of the instruments just didn't mix with the drums.
 
The big bonus is that I finally got to work with Waves' Kramer TTT Bundle again. For what I'm working on at the moment, that stuff is absolutely spot on. I had hoped to maybe try to mix in MixBus but Logic is just too convenient and those plugs give me exactly the kind of sound I'm after.
 
Now I only need to upgrade my computer... :/