I used to work with my lovely Alesis SR16, perfect for easily getting nice drum patterns to accompany my guitar playing. And the most perfect thing in it has the foot control allowing for super-easy switching between drum patterns (A, fill, B, B fill). Very VERY handy. Very intensively used for live jamming!!!!
And now I am very surprised to learn that the brilliant drum software EZDrummer does NOT have such facility. I then had put my hopes on Solo and Player, but despite their suggestive names, No such functionality is included.
Actually after checking the internet it appears to me that there are NO drum software available that provides for such easy one-click pattern switching!! Only Ableton Live seems to provide something that come close to this…. Completely amazing.
Why does Toontrack not provide a simple facility (like in the hardware SR16, check it out!!!) that allows for 4 pattern “baskets”/”pads” that can be filled with any of EZ’s great drum patterns (grooves/variations) and which pads/baskets can be selected through midi (incl. pedal) or at least through a key on the computer keyboard (e.g. spacebar).
Dear designers, this easy switching between grooves/variations MUST be an easy design thing for you and would immensely increase EZDrummer’s functionality in providing the drums to a live jam session!!! Of course one should also be allowed to save these choices of 4 patterns for the 4 pads so one can recall next time, and one should be able to record the grooves/variations/drum patterns automatically on the fly….
So for you to start: design a simple programme (like Solo and Player, or within these) with 4 “pads”/”baskets” that the user can fill with any of the grooves and variations in EZdrummer (drag&drop) and let the user assign a midi key (e.g. keyboard sustain pedal) to switching between pads (A > A fill > B > B fill > A etc). Remember that (like in SR16) the fill needs to come in ( read: replace the A or B pattern) immediately at the press of the assigned midi key and for the remainder of that pattern/variation! Also if the midi key remains pressed until after the end of the fill, the next pattern is again the previous pattern, so instead of A > A fill > B, one would get A > A fill > A… simple isn’t it. If you’re not sure, read the SR16 Reference Manual downloadable on the internet.
You would do a huge favour to many of us musicians!!!!
Wim Nairobi musician W7, Cubase 5, EZdrummer
