EZ Drummer 2 and Roland TD 25 match made in heaven

[Richard D Squires]

I started with a TD 9kv set up and was blissfully happy with my electronic kit having not played drums for years. However as you progress you do feel the need to expand so I bought a KD9 kick pad and the VH11 controller also a nice pearl pedal for the kick. But after seeing and playing the TD25 I decided on my 50th that an upgrade was again on the cards. I really liked it to begin with but there’s something about the way the cymbals rarely cut through and the hi hat that has always bugged me. I try for hours to get something I like but never seem to get past this. I feel it may be the fact my headphones don’t block out enough of the actual stick hitting rubber sound which dulls the ting of cymbals but I am onto that next.

So for a laugh I thought why don’t I try out triggering GarageBand’s drum sounds from my iPad. You can do this very easily with the camera connection kit and the Midi out via USB. And it was a revelation. Not perfect but wow this opened up some very interesting possibilities. It wasn’t long before I downloaded the demo of EZ Drummer 2 to check out what all the fuss was about…

Unbelievable. Just so good it makes me weep. Now all I do is drum, not worry about settings, just drum with expression and subtlety that I only thought was possible on the TD30. The HiHat set to curve 1 in the preferences is pretty much perfection for me, and subtly shifts though the sounds without any choppiness. It’s a joy. Cymbals sound pingy yet rich, and sustain beautifully. Latency feels like zero, it’s that good. Almost like the sound is triggering before I hit the pad, which is mental. This makes playing hugely more attractive. The kit sounds are just beautiful and the limited range of adjustment seems perfect really since these already sound mental out of the box.

So then I thought I love EZ Drummer 2 with the TD25 why not try the demos of Addictive2 and BFD3. They are far more customisable than EZ and the same price. There is no comparison. Just the fact that out of the box they both take so much tweaking to get nowhere near the smoothness of the HiHat was the kill switch for me. And as for customisation, EZ sounds full and rich and smooth, where both Addictive and BFD sound compressed and machine gunny.

So to get back to topic, I highly recommend without any hesitation pairing the TD25 with EZ Drummer2. Yes the drums aren’t as customisable but the sounds and atmos that comes out has been crafted to pure perfection, by a producer who knows what he is doing. I know next to nothing about recording and producing drums so the extra customisation of the others just leads you down the forever tweaking path instead of just playing. Which is what I do a lot of now! And it’s a joy not a chore.

Out of the box the TD25 is a very impressive piece of kit, but pair it with EZ Drummer 2 and it’s nirvana. What would make my life complete Toontrack would be an iPad version of EZ Drummer 2. I know it’s a lot of work and maybe your priorities are correct in sticking with a desktop version. But touch control, a far smaller footprint ( no computer needed next too your edrums) and the convenience of downloading new kits from the app store would be fantastic. I know there are many other Virtual Instrument manufacturers who are embracing the iPad as a serious music making machine, so if there’s a chance you would consider it that would be brilliant. You have a very eager beta tester too if ever you were to traverse this path.

All the best

Richard

Topic

[Damian Blunt]

Thanks a lot for the positive feedback!

Damian Blunt - Toontrack
Quality Assurance
Betatesting

[Pierre Germain]

This is exactly the post I was looking for!

I’ve loved EZDrummer 2 since I bought it, but I’m tired of programming drums with a keyboard, and I’ve been searching for a good electric drum kit to trigger EZD2. I was leaning towards an Alesis DM-10 or Crimson, but just tried the Crimson at Guitar Center and wasn’t impressed, so I tried the Roland TD 30, which is obviously awesome, as it should be for its price point. I don’t want to spend $7500, so how does the TD 25 compare?

What interface are you using? Any issues with setup and getting EZD2 to trigger?

Thanks
Pierre

[Richard D Squires]

@Pierre said:

This is exactly the post I was looking for!

I’ve loved EZDrummer 2 since I bought it, but I’m tired of programming drums with a keyboard, and I’ve been searching for a good electric drum kit to trigger EZD2. I was leaning towards an Alesis DM-10 or Crimson, but just tried the Crimson at Guitar Center and wasn’t impressed, so I tried the Roland TD 30, which is obviously awesome, as it should be for its price point. I don’t want to spend $7500, so how does the TD 25 compare?

What interface are you using? Any issues with setup and getting EZD2 to trigger?

Thanks
Pierre

Hi

The thing worth noting about the TD30 (which is awesome by the way) is that it is the kit I would love if money were no object. In terms of playability for a drummer it is peerless. And there are many better drummers than I who vouch for it’s quality in terms of sheer playability.

Which brings us to the TD25. It takes a lot of the playability of the TD30 and packs it in a very attractive smaller package. Playability is very good but after having teamed it with EZ Drummer 2 sonically it starts to really give the TD30 a run for its money. The TD 30 is very customizable soundwise, you have lots of options. By once you go down the route of using the interface as a midi trigger then those options become less important and in fact the built in Roland sounds have been occasionally criticized for their sometimes over synthetic sounds.

EZ Drummer 2 pairs so well with the TD 25. I was surprised to be honest. If you already love the sounds of it then I can’t recommend trying this paring out enough. As I said in my post, it comes with a Roland preset and the curve Hi Hat settings to adjust for playing style. The only criticism of EZDrummer 2 is that you can’t modify the triggering settings so some setups have drums that won’t be triggered by the default Roland midi CC set up or different drums that trigger the same sound. You would need the upgrade to Superior Drummer for that. However as I said you do go down the route of endless fiddling and to me it’s kind of counter productive. Beauty of EZ is if you get bored of the sounds or want to expand its fairly cheap to buy new libraries

Hope this has answered your questions

As to how I set up I have a MacBook Pro laptop connected by USB which allows me to trigger the drums. I monitor through the headphone output on the Mac Book. I also record directly to a HS5 Roland mixer by taking this same output and then monitoring through the HS5. It’s perfectly possible to record each drum seperately as well via midi, or just record midi in EZ and export that

[Pierre Germain]

Thanks! I have Superior Drummer also, so looks like I’m all set.

[CJ_17]

Appreciate the feedback OP.
Considering EZD is doing the bulk of the work is there any significant difference between running off your TD25, as opposed to a TD11 etc?

[Richard D Squires]

@CJ_17 said:

Appreciate the feedback OP.
Considering EZD is doing the bulk of the work is there any significant difference between running off your TD25, as opposed to a TD11 etc?

I had the TD 9 and it lacked the Supernatural tech that makes the TD25 so nice to play. So there is a benefit as the velocity and nuance from the TD25 translates to EZ But don’t take my word for it. I never tried TD9 with EZ, but it was much more “triggery” than the 25 which has a good feel especially on the snare

[Andrew Morris]

This is a super old post, I know, but is there really a big difference between say.. a TD25 and an Alesis DM10/DM10X if you’re using it with SD or EZ?

Just wondering as I’m looking at a DM10, but if it’s for whatever reason not as good as a TD25 when coupled with EZ then maybe I’m not looking at the right factors.

[Richard D Squires]

@Andrew Morris said:
This is a super old post, I know, but is there really a big difference between say.. a TD25 and an Alesis DM10/DM10X if you’re using it with SD or EZ?

Just wondering as I’m looking at a DM10, but if it’s for whatever reason not as good as a TD25 when coupled with EZ then maybe I’m not looking at the right factors.  

So I can’t say anything about the Alesis. Never played it at all. What makes the TD25 super good and much better than the previous TD9 I had was the Supernatural engine. It is way more subtle at detecting the nuances of playing than the earlier machines. If you just want something that triggers at fairly defined velocities then I am sure that most drum modules/pads will do the trick. What sets Roland ahead of the pack in my opinion is the Supernatural engine. That said recently I have been playing the Roland with EZ Drummer 2 and I have to say the subtlety actually is almost too much. When doing tom rolls it seemed to almost miss some of the subtler hits. I need to probably tune the drum triggering a bit to get it more how I want it, but it would be good to have it on the EZ Drummer side. I think this is very much easier in Superior Drummer 3 which does look absolutely amazing

[Author]

Replies