Help me pick out drum software?

[Scott Whigham]

So I'm usually an instrumental guitar guy but I've decided that, with the ease of use and quality of sound of drum software, that I want to get into making my own backing tracks. Can someone help out?

For the sake of simplicity, I've narrowed it down to three candidates:


EZ Drummer
Superior Drums 2
Addictive Drums

I haven't had ANY hands-on experience with either but am going over on Thursday to see them. I'd like to, if possible, have a bit more education about each than I do now (hence this post!).

Budget: Whatever it takes to meet my goals

Here’s how I break it down in terms of importance for me:


Sound quality: 40%
Easy to get started with for a non-drummer: 30%
Ease of use: 20%
Total cost to get software + a jazz and a funk expansion pack: 10%

I'm leaning towards Addictive Drums based off of reviews. Anyone?

[goodsal]

I just got EZDrummer a few weeks ago and am blown away by the both the sound quality and ease of use. I use it with Reaper and got up and running immediately. I started a thread a few weeks ago expressing my satisfaction and posting a clip.

http://thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=812561

[Nelson89]

Yeh, the other two are probably a step up from EZ Drummer with what they can do, my advice is to play around with EZ Drummer and decide whether you need the extra options. Personally i use BFD2.1, but i wouldn't recommend it for your needs...couldn't work without it now, but it had a bit of a learning curve...its very powerful, but not intuitive for a musician...more an engineers toy. I was actually looking at getting EZ drummer as well though for those times when i just wanna quickly set up a drum track with a little less of a ram/cpu hit for jamming.

If it helps at all, if you get EZ drummer and find you want more some time down the track, you can upgrade to superior drummer for a cheaper cost than buying the software outright.

[Scott Whigham]

I just got EZDrummer a few weeks ago and am blown away by the both the sound quality and ease of use. I use it with Reaper and got up and running immediately. I started a thread a few weeks ago expressing my satisfaction and posting a clip.

http://thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=812561Very nice - I like how they sound too! Thanks :)

Any Addictive Drums users out there?

[Dajbro]

Scott, I've got EZ Drummer, Steven Slate Drums and a free version of Drum Core if you ever want to come over and check stuff out.

[Devnor]

I went with SD 2.0 just so I could have the mic thru the boogie amp sound. EZ player is nice and some of the midi packs are good starting points. Heh I'm no drummer. The plugin plays nice with my Mac & Logic. Good luck!

[KCWM]

Scott, I have EZ Drummer with the Vintage Rock and Nashville expansions. Right now, Guitar Center is running EZ Drummer with a MIDI pad for $99 and I believe the expansions should be $40 each through the end of December, at least according to an email I got from Toontrack. You can buy a crossgrade from EZ Drummer to SD2 once you get used to it (which I intend to do by tax time next year).

I'll shoot you a PM with a few more thoughts.

[meterman]

I have EZ Drummer and Addictive Drums, I think AD blows EZ away in terms of sounds, flexibility, patterns and ease of use. Not sure about 2.0 but I think that gives you approximately the same amount of tweakability as AD. The one thing about EZ that I do like are the funk add ons, AD does have a funk pack which is OK but the EZ ones were done by James Brown's drummers, AD does not have anything that good. I do believe you can use the patterns from the EZ Funk Masters with the AD soundset, but I am not sure yet how to do that since AD uses a different MIDI mapping standard than the others...

try the free AD demo, it's very limited compared to the full version but enough to see how good the sounds and interface are...

[LSchefman]

They all have their uses. I find Addictive Drums to be very simple to use, and it sounds quite good - note that there is some algorithmic data compression on the AD sounds, but they still sound quite real to my ear.

Slate drums are often used for drum replacement in major label productions, they are pretty much ready to go out of the box without a lot of tweaking. Same with AD.

BFD is also worth checking out, the only drawback being that their drums need a bit more processing to sit right in a mix, but are also IMHO the most real sounding samples of the ones listed here.

Don't forget also that Stylus RMX can be used in several modes, not just slice, there are some very good kits that can be bought, the time warping and swing factors are wonderful, and it's very, very easy to use. It also reads REX files. You can do far more with it than meets the eye at first glance, and it's a very cool tool. But perhaps less general-purpose than the others.

[meterman]

They all have their uses. I find Addictive Drums to be very simple to use, and it sounds quite good - note that there is some algorithmic data compression on the AD sounds, but they still sound quite real to my ear.

Slate drums are often used for drum replacement in major label productions, they are pretty much ready to go out of the box without a lot of tweaking. Same with AD.

Yeah there must be some compression happening with the AD sounds b/c they have a very small footprint on disc and load incredibly fast. That's the other issue I had with EZ was really long kit load times on my PC, not so with AD. The AD samples sound great to me too though.

I tried the Slate demo/sample and damned if I could not figure out how to get that Kontact player to work for me, must not be quite bright enough :D

[KCWM]

Interesting, though not as well done as it could have been, demo of EZ Drummer vs AD. AD definitely sounds really good, though I REALLY like the expansion sets for EZD/SD2. Tough choice. From my little experience using it, EZ Drummer relies a lot on the premade grooves/fills, as they come preset with varied velocities. When programming my own patterns and not adjusting the velocities, EZ Drummer sounds like a machine. I've gotten to the point where I get a groove close to what I'm looking for and then modify it as needed.

fmUjkof8sGw

Yeah there must be some compression happening with the AD sounds b/c they have a very small footprint on disc and load incredibly fast. That's the other issue I had with EZ was really long kit load times on my PC, not so with AD. The AD samples sound great to me too though.

I tried the Slate demo/sample and damned if I could not figure out how to get that Kontact player to work for me, must not be quite bright enough :D

What is your definition of really long load times? The Nashville EZX takes the longest and might be 30 seconds to a minute, at worst, for me.

[meterman]

AD definitely sounds really good, though I REALLY like the expansion sets for EZD/SD2. Tough choice....

What is your definition of really long load times? The Nashville EZX takes the longest and might be 30 seconds to a minute, at worst, for me.

yeah that's what I was getting at, AD sounds great but EZD has the cooler expansion packs. AD is more geared to rock it seems, though they have released a couple of jazz packs (sticks & brushes) and the funk pack which the sounds are great but the patterns are slightly lacking. They have also just realeased what looks like a Latin percussion package, which is a great thing that I've been hoping for. I'm doing demos and am definitely not a drummer/programmer so having good, realistic and interesting patterns available is a huge plus and timesaver for me! I think I may pick up the Funkmasters EZD expansion pack for $40 and see if I can't get those badass beats into AD and use the AD sounds and interface...

For load times, I don't know why but I was getting load times of 3-5 minutes (!) with the standard out of the box EZD kits. New PC with Reaper, 6MB RAM, not sure what the issue is (actually was, don't remember the last time I used EZD). AD loads in about 10 seconds. Friend of mine had slow loading times on his laptop too but not as bad as mine. No problems with the install AFAIK so I'm kinda stumped....

[strattone75]

i really like EZ Drummer. yeah the grooves are premade but you can edit the grooves and combine fills with in the preset grooves to create custom grooves. ive got some tunes up that feature EZ drummer.

"Burned Out", "Back Again", Just The Beginning", and "Holding Back" are all done with EZ Drummer.

www.reverbnation.com/spencerahunamusic (http://www.reverbnation.com/spencerahunamusic)

[Scott Whigham]

Wow - this thread exploded over night with awesome info. Thanks to everyone - too many things to respond to all. I'm hopefully doing the demo of them this morning - I'll ask if he has the Steven Slate stuff too!

[iluvstrats]

I'm personally a fan of Groove Agent. Easiest drum software I know of. great for song writing.

[Nelson89]

Groove Agent is alright....not in the league of EZ drummer, Addictive, Superior, BFD, Stephen Slate...etc etc though. It's really good if all you wanna do is jam, probably one of the best for it...but i think its sounds are lacking a bit compared to some of these others...but i agree...when it comes to songwriting? Set it on a beat, and just wait for the ideas to come...

[Julia343]

I've been using Addictive Drums. Please note that they updated to version 1.5.2 recently and added some more beat loops with the update. I've got the Retro, Jazz Sticks, and Jazz Brush Paks, and have my eye on the Funk Pak. Plus they've got a bunch of Midi Paks that are beats made in certain styles for about $12 ea. Don't forget you can tune the kit.

I usually make copies of the instrument track and split the kits up into sections because I like to manipulate the portions of the kits more than the typical user. I pretty much always side chain the kick in front of the bass for rock, and side chain the snare behind the vocals in everything. Then add my own venue stereo convolution reverb to an AUX track and run everything through it. You mentioned jazz, so since you probably won't ever get to play in Birdland, wouldn't it be cool to have a recording sound like you did?

[meterman]

I've been using Addictive Drums. Please note that they updated to version 1.5.2 recently and added some more beat loops with the update. I've got the Retro, Jazz Sticks, and Jazz Brush Paks, and have my eye on the Funk Pak. Plus they've got a bunch of Midi Paks that are beats made in certain styles for about $12 ea. Don't forget you can tune the kit.

I usually make copies of the instrument track and split the kits up into sections because I like to manipulate the portions of the kits more than the typical user. I pretty much always side chain the kick in front of the bass for rock, and side chain the snare behind the vocals in everything. Then add my own venue stereo convolution reverb to an AUX track and run everything through it. You mentioned jazz, so since you probably won't ever get to play in Birdland, wouldn't it be cool to have a recording sound like you did?

is the update free to existing users?

Also, cool advice on sidechaining kick/bass and snare/vocals, I know I need to do this to make my mixes better but have yet to figure out how to do it. Just need to dig in and learn it....

[hucklebee]

I have EZ Drummer and Addictive Drums, I think AD blows EZ away in terms of sounds, flexibility, patterns and ease of use. Not sure about 2.0 but I think that gives you approximately the same amount of tweakability as AD. The one thing about EZ that I do like are the funk add ons, AD does have a funk pack which is OK but the EZ ones were done by James Brown's drummers, AD does not have anything that good. I do believe you can use the patterns from the EZ Funk Masters with the AD soundset, but I am not sure yet how to do that since AD uses a different MIDI mapping standard than the others...

try the free AD demo, it's very limited compared to the full version but enough to see how good the sounds and interface are...


agreed... I do like the classic rock expansion pack for EZ drummer, but AD is the one I use more often

[Julia343]

is the update free to existing users?

Also, cool advice on sidechaining kick/bass and snare/vocals, I know I need to do this to make my mixes better but have yet to figure out how to do it. Just need to dig in and learn it....

Yes it's a free update.

Just make sure you registered your product. Log in and your s/n will be displayed along with every single pack you own. This is cool because they allow you to download the software and make as many backups as you want of the installation files, and your s/n is stored onsite. So zero downtime on their end in case your HD crashes. Better than iLok.

I'll try to do this quick because I've got to go:

Side chaining the kick and the bass:

1) cut and paste the kick to a separate instrument track.
2) bus that track to audio (in PT) and make an audio track with just the kick
3) now put a bus on the kick audio track.
4) put a compressor on the bass track and link the key on it to the bus # used on the kick track.
5) adjust the compressor until it sounds right to you, usually hard knee, very fast attack and very fast release since it's a transient. Adjust the threshold as needed and set the ratio like 3:1 to start.
6) this should drop the bass behind the kick during the beater attack.

I think that's about it. I'm doing this from memory without my DAW open. I've got a session file that demonstrates this in case I forget.

[meterman]

awesome thanks!! I've got to try this :)

[KCWM]

agreed... I do like the classic rock expansion pack for EZ drummer, but AD is the one I use more often

I like this expansion too, but I find that it's limited to certain songs, at least to my ears. I laid down a scratch acoustic track last night to showcase a drum pattern I programmed using the Vintage Rock EZX to my friend that's helping me write and record some songs and it just didn't sit all that well. Maybe it will change when we actually record the guitars. That being said, the bass drum on the unEQ'd recording sounded big and fat in my car's stereo.

The good thing about EZ Drummer? If it doesn't work, it's easy to completely change the set/sound and then drop it into the song.

[meterman]

speaking of classic rock, the Retro pack for AD is really good! Big Bonham style drums, sounds very realistic to me.

My gripe about AD is that when I drag a loop into a track in Reaper it doesn't keep the pattern name, so it's really hard to go back and find it later. This could be my user error or a Reaper thing, anybody know? I'd love for it to automatically name the pattern in Reaper as "4/4 funk fill #3" or whatever it's called in AD....I guess I could do it manually but it slows me down a good bit when I'm trying to write something and trying all kinds of different patterns...

[Scott Whigham]

Thanks again to everyone - I went down and did a demo of EZD, SD, and AD. I ultimately settled on AD. I am getting a bundle price based on what I buy so I've got to go pick out which "Paks" to get. I'll get the Retro pack bundle now - that was one of my questions (so thanks, meterman!).

I'm excited - going to buy a Fender Jazz bass too this week and have a bit of fun!

[Nelson89]

Thanks again to everyone - I went down and did a demo of EZD, SD, and AD. I ultimately settled on AD. I am getting a bundle price based on what I buy so I've got to go pick out which "Paks" to get. I'll get the Retro pack bundle now - that was one of my questions (so thanks, meterman!).

I'm excited - going to buy a Fender Jazz bass too this week and have a bit of fun!

haha! merry christmas mr scott...you should have quite a bit of fun with all of that for sure