How do these drums sound?

TelePaul

Okay, feel free to rip into this, I'm giving you all carte blanche - I've just been messing about with some routing options in EZ Drummer. Apologies for the sloppiness, I'm no drummer.

'Drum Test' at www.soundclick.com/glasshouserecordings

ZV Yoda

Hi TP... fair play to you for posting the clips. I haven't used EZ drummer, but it sounds like it does the job sound-wise based on your clip. It's hard to really gauge the drum sound in isolation from the rest of the music, but for what it's worth, here's a few things that sprung to mind when i listened:

- Nice crack from the snare (which is good) but sounds very clinical/samey. Does EZ drummer have the option of random sample triggering (so you don't just get the same sample every time you hit the snare). I imagine this would have that machine gun effect if you played lots of snare rolls.
- For me the kick doesn't have enough punch/thump. This may be what you need depending on the bass guitar part, but I prefer a meatier kick.
- In general, the "ambient room" doesn't sound very natural. Maybe there's just too much of it on the mix. Again, depending on the rest of the music it may work.

Overall, do you plan on "playing" the drums using an ekit to trigger EZ drummer, or will you program them instead? As you pointed out, your drumming is sloppy ... and while it's possible to "quantize" the midi performance, in my experience that only works if you're already "pretty close" to being in time... I doubt the quantize button would be able to salvage that performance... or if it did, you'd spend a hell of a lot of time fixing mis-triggers.

If I were in your shoes, I'd either:
1. Get out the practice kit & work on nailing some simple rhythms so you can really "play" the performance. This is the only option if you really want your own playing style on your music
2. Go the programming option... plenty of ways to do that
3. Get some of those professionally recorded drummer midi files widely available

I'm an average drummer at best, so I'm no pro. The above is not intended to "rip into you" but more to give constructive criticism... no offence intended & really hope it helps.

TelePaul

Thanks for the comments! I think you were spot on in everything you said.

I'm with you on the snare sounding too 'bullety'. I think it's partly down to the fact that I can't control the kit dynamics very well, especially during a roll, and partly down to the e-drum/sample response. I can always adjust velocities by hand afterwards, which is a minor fix.

Listening now, I think the kit needs some more 'click'...it sounds big in all the wrong parts and I think it could actually sound fatter by EQing in some more top or EQing out some bottom...it's funny how that works sometimes.

As for the performance aspect, I'm trying to practice a bit more with a click - there wasn't a metronome used on that track (I think that much was probably obvious though!! ) I can actually make a decent enough go at a mid-tempo 4/4 as long as I'm playing to a scratch guitar track...I actually tracked 'live' with a guitarist yesterday and it sounded handy enough, so long as I kept my fills simple - I really need to tone down the frequency with which I hit the hats open though.

So in short I'm hoping to use the drums as a substitute for an acoustic kit (I was trying to get as close as possible tonally with this example, hence the heavy processing). This will involve using the triggers 'live', though hopefully a proper drummer will be playing, or I'll have practiced an awful lot more before I press the big red button

...does any of that make sense?

ZV Yoda

Yip, all makes sense... you really just need to figure out what you want from the drum side of things.

If the drums are just a means to an end for you as a songwriter/performer, then you might be better off either getting a drummer to lay down the drums on your tracks (either on an acoustic kit or EZ via an ekit). This saves you the hassle & let’s you get on with the other stuff. You could probably even get somebody to collaborate online.

If you actually want to play the drums on your own songs, then go with the old fashioned way & learn how to play. If you already have a good musical head/sense of timing then you should quickly get the the point where you can play an easy 4:4 in time. Record in sections if you need to. The added beauty of midi triggering is that you can then even go back & drop in fills as/when you like. Great for somebody in your position.

Now if I could only find a way to do that with my guitar playing... :rolleyes:

TelePaul

ZV Yoda wrote: »

Now if I could only find a way to do that with my guitar playing... :rolleyes:

If you play my drums parts, I'll play your guitar parts.




....that sounded a bit weird.

Rockshamrover

Sounds like a scene from a swedish movie.:D

Off subject but related. How easy is it to collaborate online? Are many people doing it?

MilanPan!c

TelePaul wrote: »

Okay, feel free to rip into this, I'm giving you all carte blanche - I've just been messing about with some routing options in EZ Drummer. Apologies for the sloppiness, I'm no drummer.

'Drum Test' at www.soundclick.com/glasshouserecordings

You might also try Superior Drummer.

Prolly better sounding v of ezdrummer.

I used it on a track which is one the last page of the share your music thread.

You can easily randomise velocity, etc.

I would def consider though trying a few reverbs other than any vst drums built in stuff.

Impulse stuff is pretty good, like altiverb or perfect space.

Even the lexicon bundle ain't bad.

busttropical

I think go into ez's mixer and take out a lot of the room sound, always think they sound much better that way.. also is your velocity up full or playing really hard or what??? it sounds like a big badass robot is laying into the kit!

TelePaul

busttropical wrote: »

I think go into ez's mixer and take out a lot of the room sound, always think they sound much better that way.. also is your velocity up full or playing really hard or what??? it sounds like a big badass robot is laying into the kit!

What velocity? Or rather, which velocity? I'm not editing velocity in the sequencer and I don't think it can be adjusted via the kit. I'm hitting the drums really the only way I know how to...badass robots are cool though.

MilanPan!c

TelePaul wrote: »

What velocity? Or rather, which velocity? I'm not editing velocity in the sequencer and I don't think it can be adjusted via the kit. I'm hitting the drums really the only way I know how to...badass robots are cool though.

Superior (and others) have velocity randomization settings and many DAWs do as well.

Or you can edit the velocities manually after the recording.

If it's MIDI data, there's prolly a tool to **** with it

busttropical

Exactly, open up your midi sequencer that you recorded the track into and there should be some sort of control for every note to lower the velocity.

But I was on about a velocity control on ezdrummer

http://addictdownload.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/ezdrummer_main.jpg

See to the right of the open grooves section and under the play button theres a velocity control that you can turn up or down.