Toontracks EZMix

Thinking about getting EZMix.  Anyone have any experience with this VST?  Looks pretty cool!

Thanks!

Highly recommended! It's an excellent tool for getting good sounds for purposes of demoing a song for someone, AND also for making the final product if you don't want to spend time tweaking things manually. I was very surprised at the quality I got out of EZMix 2, with the Metal pack installed. It's just insane for metal drum tracks.

Remember though that you cannot edit the presets or create your own - there are only 2 parameters you can edit per preset, the rest is "hard-coded".

hi to all

is EZ drummer better then session drummer 3?

I am about to build my own drums  and would like to use the best program wich may be easier

thanks in advance for the reply

michel

I just installed and am trying out EZMix 2 and the mastering Pack add on.  I don't know about the mastering pack yet, but I already love EZMix 2.  I feared it would be too gimicky, but the Wide Vocals and Acoustic Guitar presets (esp Acoustic Guitar 2 on a finger picked Martin) I tried right off are excellent.  They add subtle polish, sparkle, presence, and size.  If my other tests go as well, I will give this product a very high recommendation.

OK, have tried a number of things so far: acoustic guitar, vocals, bass, and master buss.  I have been happy with all so far.  There are many effects and presets, including simple things like reverbs and basic amp sims, so I imagine I will be experimenting for a while.  You get quite a bit for the ~$150 USD it costs.

You can read my brief review of EZMIX2 in Bass Musician Magazine
 

I would suggest that you download the demo and try it out for yourself!

Hey Bapu,


yes, sure I know that. And I do all the production and choose my effects as I need. I have no problem with that.


It is the very final 10% of mixing I struggle with: largelly EQing. I'm good with compressions etc. 


I was just wondering how a "mixing software" with preset could EQ in an optimum way a track in relation to another.


for instance, it it doesn;t know what kind of Kick I use, how can it EQ the bass correctly? and the kick for that matter? It just seems impossible a software could do that. However, as suggested before I'll downlod the demo and check it out.

JMO, but EZMix is full of presets, not magic. You still have to "somewhat" know what you want out of a track or bus (i.e. why use a distortion preset on an acoustic guitar in a bluegrass tune?). After that you have parameters that you probably will tweak. Bottom line is, it can be easier to get closer to what you want with EZMix on a track or bus level but you still have to deal with producing your song/album and there is no "real" magic bullet for that.

bapu

vinny199


The question I'm asking myself about EZmix:

Can it "really do a full mix" (of course volumes and pannings need to be dealt with.

But how can it really get the EQ etc spot on without "hearing" the source material as an engineer does?

I'm saying that because I am in the process of mixing an album now.

I am not good enough to mix stuff on my own and I export all my stems to load into protools at my local studio and I work with the engineer there to do the mix.

At best, we do 1 song a day. Sometimes it takes longer. and it does cost me quite a few quid too..

Most my songs have around 35 to 40 tracks.

It would just be "magic" if I could get the same results as I am getting mixing with an engineer.

Can it really do the job that well?

I'd be curious to hear more (and hearing mixed songs too)..

JMO, but EZMix is full of presets, not magic. You still have to "somewhat" know what you want out of a track or bus (i.e. why use a distortion preset on an acoustic guitar in a bluegrass tune?). After that you have parameters that you probably will tweak.


Bottom line is, it can be easier to get closer to what you want with EZMix on a track or bus level but you still have to deal with producing your song/album and there is no "real" magic bullet for that.

Bapu,

thanks,

out of interest, Have you mixed a track of yours using mostly ezmix that I can listen to?

(I'm going to download the demo, make my own opinion about it. just curious as to what others achieve with it..)

Nice Review!

Vinny, You are correct that a plug cannot know what neds to be corrected.  EZMix and similar packages make some asusmptions.  For example, a common trick is to boost a kick drum at around 60-80 cycles, cut it around 200-400, and boost it around 3000.  So, one kick drum preset may have settings like that and be called "Std Kick" or something.  EZMix has a variety of kick presets for different styles of music.  They all assume that the kick you are processing is fairly normal but you will have to try the presets to see what you like.

The same goes for vocals, guitars, etc.  EZMix combines a number of effects into each preset, so a guitar preset may consist of EQ, compression, delay, and distoration, or some other combination.

For mastering, you will either have to know something about what you are doing, or go through the presets on a trial and error basis.  Mastering does not seem to be EZMix's main focus or biggest strength, at least in my opinion.  It seems to be better at processing individual tracks or submixes. That said, I bought an add-on Mastering pack for EZmix 2 and it has a couple of presets I like.

Thanks Konrad,

I get it now. makes sense. I'll try the demo on a simple song. see how i get on.

many thanks

I tried it but actually it didn't do much for me-I have been using alloy and alloy 2 for a while so I guessI am use to them. Very transparent and very powerful