No rocks needed, ol pal. An honest assessment is always welcome. And there's no shame in "swimming against the current". Thanks for an unvarnished, early review. Hope you come to like it better as time goes on.

cclarry
That's my 2 cents...

What about "Tap to Find" and the Play Style Editor? These are the features that would make me consider buying it.
 
I am not excited by the prospect of the Song Creator, in fact one of the things I don't care for in FXpansions proucts is the groove managment where this sort of thing complicates a otherwise simple process.
 
However I wonder if the Play Style Editor works on a "song" as well as pattern, then I could see some point in chaining patterns in EZD2, rather than the piano roll.
 
As mentioned in an earlier post I hope some of the third party groove producers are able to tg their files and make them searchable.
 
 

Glyn Barnes

cclarry
That's my 2 cents...

What about "Tap to Find" and the Play Style Editor? These are the features that would make me consider buying it.
 
I am not excited by the prospect of the Song Creator, in fact one of the things I don't care for in FXpansions proucts is the groove managment where this sort of thing complicates a otherwise simple process.
 
However I wonder if the Play Style Editor works on a "song" as well as pattern, then I could see some point in chaining patterns in EZD2, rather than the piano roll.
 
As mentioned in an earlier post I hope some of the third party groove producers are able to tg their files and make them searchable.
 
 

Glyn,
 
Yes, these are good points that I neglected to touch on...

While Tap to Find is a kewl thing... I guess if you know the Tempo you're
working with it's mute point, but it would make it easier to find suitable beats.
For the Novice it's a great feature to just tap in the Tempo and find the beats
that match.  

Not discounting these things...

I just did a comparison to BFD Eco, and Eco still sounds better to me...the Cymbals and the
Drums just "sound better".  Mind you, EZ has it's place...don't get me wrong. 
But I call 'em like I hear 'em...but, as I always say, "that's just me".  YMMV

I think switching drums between kits while hearing it looping is pretty nice.  Combining kits couldn't be easier.  If Superior comes up with that and ditches the X drum and allows layering in this fashion, with ALL expansions, then you'd have some pretty decent control. 
 
But if you like the sound of another maker's version over Toontrack, features become pretty moot at a high level of priority.

cclarry

While Tap to Find is a kewl thing... I guess if you know the Tempo you're
working with it's mute point, but it would make it easier to find suitable beats.
For the Novice it's a great feature to just tap in the Tempo and find the beats
that match.  

I have not tried it, so correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression it was not so much tempo as the groove, indeed EZD2 should find similar grooves regardless of tempo? 
 
Also in addition to tap you can find grooves that match a Midi pattern, so if you had composed a groove in, say, Sonar's step sequencer, or one you had played on pads, EZD2 would search all your TT grooves and find similar ones. Once you find them you can then use the play style editor to create further variations.
 
As I normally use in EZX in Superior rather than EZ drummer and I have BFD3, ECO, SSD4, Kitcore and Adictive Drums, plus some Kontakt drums, so the only features I am intrested in are Tap to Find and the play style editor. The resulting MIDI tracks would in most cases be used with a different program.
 
 
 

Glyn Barnes

cclarry

While Tap to Find is a kewl thing... I guess if you know the Tempo you're
working with it's mute point, but it would make it easier to find suitable beats.
For the Novice it's a great feature to just tap in the Tempo and find the beats
that match.  

I have not tried it, so correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression it was not so much tempo as the groove, indeed EZD2 should find similar grooves regardless of tempo? 
 
Also in addition to tap you can find grooves that match a Midi pattern, so if you had composed a groove in, say, Sonar's step sequencer, or one you had played on pads, EZD2 would search all your TT grooves and find similar ones. Once you find them you can then use the play style editor to create further variations.
 
As I normally use in EZX in Superior rather than EZ drummer and I have BFD3, ECO, SSD4, Kitcore and Adictive Drums, plus some Kontakt drums, so the only features I am intrested in are Tap to Find and the play style editor. The resulting MIDI tracks would in most cases be used with a different program.
 
 
 

That's right, it has nothing to do worth tempo. You tap in a groove and EZ finds grooves that match it, and lists each one with a percentage of how well it matches.

Perhaps if he'd actually tried the feature or read the manual, or watched any of the hyped videos..

Larry also left out the edit play style, amount knob etc., which are the really revolutionary part of EZ2.

My biggest criticism is the MIDI routing issue with projects that had EZdrummer1 in them. MAJOR issue for me, having to re-route hundreds of soft synths.

These will have less impact on me, as I tend to play my parts, but ,if you use the included loops, these features are revolutionary.

I like honest assessments too, especially informed ones.

Just my penny's worth.

jb101

Glyn Barnes

cclarry

While Tap to Find is a kewl thing... I guess if you know the Tempo you're
working with it's mute point, but it would make it easier to find suitable beats.
For the Novice it's a great feature to just tap in the Tempo and find the beats
that match.  

I have not tried it, so correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression it was not so much tempo as the groove, indeed EZD2 should find similar grooves regardless of tempo? 
 
Also in addition to tap you can find grooves that match a Midi pattern, so if you had composed a groove in, say, Sonar's step sequencer, or one you had played on pads, EZD2 would search all your TT grooves and find similar ones. Once you find them you can then use the play style editor to create further variations.
 
As I normally use in EZX in Superior rather than EZ drummer and I have BFD3, ECO, SSD4, Kitcore and Adictive Drums, plus some Kontakt drums, so the only features I am intrested in are Tap to Find and the play style editor. The resulting MIDI tracks would in most cases be used with a different program.
 
 
 

That's right, it has nothing to do worth tempo. You tap in a groove and EZ finds grooves that match it, and lists each one with a percentage of how well it matches.

Perhaps if he'd actually tried the feature or read the manual, or watched any of the hyped videos..

Larry also left out the edit play style, amount knob etc., which are the really revolutionary part of EZ2.

My biggest criticism is the MIDI routing issue with projects that had EZdrummer1 in them. MAJOR issue for me, having to re-route hundreds of soft synths.

These will have less impact on me, as I tend to play my parts, but ,if you use the included loops, these features are revolutionary.

I like honest assessments too, especially informed ones.

Just my penny's worth.

I totally get this...but a GROOVE has everything to do with Tempo...as that's where the "Groove" comes from...
Not that I'm disagreeing, as, here, you get to put in the "Drum Beat" you want.  And yes, I get that tapping in a "groove" would most certainly get you closer to what you wanted Drum-wise.

I didn't get to use the Play Edit thing, but I have watched the video and it's a nice feature...

My apologies for not giving a thoroughly "exhaustive" review...

My being underwhelmed by the sound is what lead me to the review...
 
From my perspective, as I said, I'm "underwhelmed".  It's a good leap forward for EZ...
that much is certain, and, as I said, yes, it's worth the money...just for those features alone...

I think the new features in EZ Drummer 2 are pretty cool
Especially for the Songwriter who needs a relatively quick/easy solution to provide solid drum tracks (who may not have the time/skills to break out drum pads).
 
I don't think the sound is bad.
I liked the toms on the DW kit.
I'm not crazy about the DW Edge snare samples.  I have one of those... and (IMO) it sounds much better tuned a little higher and damped just a tad (though not completely "dry").  
Not a fan of the Kick samples.  Too much click and not enough fundamental.  Felt this way about EZD1
The cymbals sound pretty good.  I like the cymbals in BFD3 a little better (but that's to be expected given the size/extent).
 
Having started musical life as a drummer (what seems like a century ago)... and having spent a lot of time recording acoustic drums, I'm very particular about what I want to hear.  The tendency of late (to enhance the sense of reality) is to record "wide open" (IMO) overly resonant kicks and snares.  Sort of the opposite of the 70s super dry "cardboard" sound.  Some folks love that natural open drum sound. 
I like drums just a little more controlled sounding (at the source).
As great as BFD3 is, I'm not crazy about any of the stock snare samples.
 
One thing I really like about BFD3 is the ability to "damp" the various drum samples.
The snares in BFD3 ring a lot.  I don't like a totally dry/dead snare sound, but a little crescent of felt is a wonderful thing on snare drum.  Lets the snare breath... but eliminates that nasty ring/ping that you'd otherwise have to tame at mix.
 
The above said, the purpose of EZD2 really isn't to provide the ultimate drum kit samples.
It's to provide a good sounding set of samples in a format that makes it easy to create decent drum tracks.
In that regard, EZD2 is certainly a success.

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.

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.