I’m sorry, but what is going on here?

[Tim Zurowski]

I have been involved with many companies and discussion forums in my 30+ years of recording, but this one takes the prize as the worst setup and managed site. I posted a topic saying that I cannot add percussion to my grooves in EZD2 and it did not show up. Then I see that it says “A topic of yours was moved to Can’t add percussion”. So I click on the link to see where it was moved to and see if there are any answers, and it says “Access Denied – you do not have permission to view this forum”. You gotta be kidding – they move my post for help to a forum that I cannot see and get help from. So then I try to use the contact link to email support and there is no email contact. All I can find on that page is FAQ’s. The make it sound like you can contact them, but there is no way. So after my first two days experience with Toontrack, my product is disappointing, there is no support, the forums do not work well. Is there anything positive or nice that anyone can say about the Toontrack company?

Topic

[Henrik]

Can you access it by manually going to EZdrummer Help section and scrolling to your post? This forum has recently been updated to a new one and we are constantly trying to fix bugs etc. but as in your case – we have some more bugs to fix!

Here is the reply I wrote to you on your post:

You have to do this in the Edit Play Style area. Double click on a MIDI block that you have placed on the track and you will go into Edit Play Style. There you can add percussion and a lot of other editing of the MIDI. If you select multiple blocks you can edit them all at once (by right clicking one of the selected blocks and choosing Edit Play Style from the menu). You can also access it by pressing the little arrow on the top left area of the block

Good luck!

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

[chris moffa]

I have the same problem and worse, I can’t even post messages to the forum.

My last post did succeed in getting moved to the support forum but when I go there it says “access denied” so I can’t see the reply.

This post is a test, I’m replying to an existing thread to see if this time my post actually makes it to the forum. If this shows up on the forum it will be my first post that made it.

[chris moffa]

Well that’s a start. I can reply to posts but can’t start my own.

Henrik, any way you can post the reply to my previous question, the one that is supposedly answered in the support form but i can’t view because i am denied access? the question is this:

got EZD2 up and running, looks and sounds great. many thanks toontrack for the enhancements.

the supplied map showing which keys on a piano keyboard trigger which sounds is helpful for the basic drum hits: basic snare, basic kick, basic crash, etc.

many of the keys on the piano keyboard are simply named “alias.” those keys are alternate hits of the drums and cymbals. for example, snare left hand hit, snare right hand hit, tom left hand hit, tom right hand hit, etc.

listening to some of the EZD2 grooves i can clearly hear alternate hits. some snare hits are clearly different than others, some tom hits are clearly different than others, etc. so i know different articulations exist inside EZD2.

question is, where are those alternate sounds triggered on the piano keyboard? does a complete keyboard map exist for EZD2 that shows all of the included articulations available on the piano roll? after i drag and drop a groove into a project i want to edit it to trigger left vs. right hits or other alternate articulations.

anyone know where to find a piano roll that names all of the alternate articulations available in EZD2? thanks very much.

[Tim Zurowski]

@Henrik said:

Can you access it by manually going to EZdrummer Help section and scrolling to your post? This forum has recently been updated to a new one and we are constantly trying to fix bugs etc. but as in your case – we have some more bugs to fix!

Here is the reply I wrote to you on your post:

You have to do this in the Edit Play Style area. Double click on a MIDI block that you have placed on the track and you will go into Edit Play Style. There you can add percussion and a lot of other editing of the MIDI. If you select multiple blocks you can edit them all at once (by right clicking one of the selected blocks and choosing Edit Play Style from the menu). You can also access it by pressing the little arrow on the top left area of the block

Good luck!

The only thing that is displayed in the “help” menu is “Show Plug-in Path”. There is nothing else in that menu.

How do I get to the Edit/Play area? My version only has “Drums” “Browser” “Search” and “Mixer” at the top. Is the Edit/Play area the song building section at the bottom? Anyway, I have been in all these areas and at no time is there a “little arrow on the top left area of the block”. I have watched YouTube tutorials that do have that arrow, but I can’t seem to get it to show on mine. I can’t even drag any percussion to my host software.

[Olof Westman]

>How do I get to the Edit/Play area?

This is a way to edit a MIDI loop. Start by dragging one
to the track and then double click it.

Olof Westman - Toontrack
Coder

[Tim Zurowski]

@Olle said:

This is a way to edit a MIDI loop. Start by dragging one
to the track and then double click it.

Thank you Finally some progress. So is that the only way to get into that area?

[Whitten]

Tim,
There are detailed and in depth help discussions in separate forums for each Toontrack product.
As was mentioned above, at the launch of EZD2, Toontrack have completely remade their Support Forum.
It all still works for me, but I admit it is a little confusing and disorienting.
On the old forum, you could read all general posts about each product, but had to have registered as the owner of a product to access the help forums.
Have you fully registered your Toon product online?

[Tim Zurowski]

Can you tell me where these forums are? All the forums in this Customer Service area, other than this one, are pre-sales forums, and I am not pre-sales.

I have no idea if I have fully registered my product online? This is what I am saying. I bought the product and have been left out in the cold from the start. There has been no indication from anyone that it had to be registered, nor any instructions on how to do it. For the first day, it even said EZD2 was unauthorized, but EZD1 was authorized. No idea how or why that was because I did not purchase EZD1, only 2. Now it says nothing at all for EZD2 but now says EZD1 is not authorized. In fact, My Products doesn;t even list an EZDrummer 2, rather it lists “EZDrummer 2 Upgrade”. I have no idea how I got an upgrade version as I never previously owned EZD1. I just purchased EZD2 outright from the start. Totally has been confusing. All I knew was that it is finally installed and appears to be working properly. Basically, there have been tons of issues with the whole thing from purchase to install to using the product, and I am having a hard time finding out where to get support and answers to these issues. If I could find a forum or the right forum for this, I would be one step closer.

[chris harbin]

I’ve asked many times in the last few days about “support” forum and all I see is this. I’m just going to assume this is support currently.

[John]

Yes, chris and Tim please go ahead and ask here. As Henrik said above, The move and update of the Forum apparently exposed a lot of bugs which are constantly being worked upon.
Normally, a registered user would see Product Support sections as well, which is where Support matters are taken care of.
If you click the FAQ and do not find an answer there or here, there is always the possibility to click ‘Contact Support’ at the bottom of each FAQ topic.

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Erik Phersson]

@Tim Zurowski said:

Thank you Finally some progress. So is that the only way to get into that area?

To edit a MIDI file by using Edit Play Style you must first Drag it to the Song Track, yes.

Erik Phersson - Toontrack
Head Of Development

[Tim Zurowski]

@John said:

Yes, chris and Tim please go ahead and ask here. As Henrik said above, The move and update of the Forum apparently exposed a lot of bugs which are constantly being worked upon.
Normally, a registered user would see Product Support sections as well, which is where Support matters are taken care of.
If you click the FAQ and do not find an answer there or here, there is always the possibility to click ‘Contact Support’ at the bottom of each FAQ topic.

Well, I have asked a ton of questions here and have yet to receive answers or responses to most of them. The way I see it, you guys made a huge mistake releasing EZD2 and rebuilding your website at the same time. The are so many bugs and confusing inconsistencies for a new user like me, that it makes me want to just give up, throw away EZD2 and accept the loss of $149.

[Erik Phersson]

@Tim Zurowski said:

The only thing that is displayed in the “help” menu is “Show Plug-in Path”. There is nothing else in that menu.

If you check the top right corner of the EZdrummer interface you can find a ‘Menu’ button. This is the place where you can find the Manual amongst many other things.

Erik Phersson - Toontrack
Head Of Development

[Erik Phersson]

@Tim Zurowski said:

Well, I have asked a ton of questions here and have yet to receive answers or responses to most of them.

Hi Tim

Yes, the website and back-end didn’t work as expected at launch. We apologize for this and we are still working to fix any outstanding issues.

I tried to sort out all you questions and concernes in this one answer. I’m sorry if I missed any of your questions but these are what I could find. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Can’t add percussion – answered here: http://www.toontrack.com/forum/requests-and-feedback/im-sorry-but-what-is-going-on-here/#p141643
You couldn’t access the EZdrummer support forum – You should have access to the support since May 8th if my records are straight.
You couldn’t contact support – When clicking the Contact Support / FAQ there’s instructions on how to contact support at the top of the page (this was changed after your original post)
In regards to this post: http://www.toontrack.com/forum/requests-and-feedback/im-sorry-but-what-is-going-on-here/#p141676 – You did in fact buy EZdrummer 1 and subequently got a free EZdrummer 2 Upgrade (including the new Pop/Rock EZX which is an updated version of the original EZdrummer 1 core library)

Regarding the thread below
http://www.toontrack.com/forum/requests-and-feedback/many-questions-about-ez-drummer-2-confused/#p141442:

“1) The whole purchase and download process was extremely confusing and very difficult to work through…”
I can understand that since what you bought was something different that what you thought. However, I don’t think you can blame Toontrack for that mistake since that purchase was made from a distributor that apparently failed to inform you properly.

“3) In my Account it lists three products for me…”
Again, I understand your confusion since you are new to this and bought somethinge else than what you expected. However, as above, you did in fact buy EZdrummer 1 with the included EZdrummer 2 Upgrade. Regarding the Pop/Rock EZX, This is not a program, only an EZX that contain sounds and MIDI so the 32-bit 64-bit doesn’t apply here. I think this would have been more clear if you had owned EZdrummer 1 before and was aware that you bought the upgrade.

Erik Phersson - Toontrack
Head Of Development

[Tim Zurowski]

Erik, thank you very much. Now we are getting somewhere! Yes, I did see all those replies an they are answering some of my questions. This latest response clarifies some of my other questions and confusion. So if you don’t mind here are some additional questions.

1) So are you saying that if I had purchased EZDrummer 2 (EZD2) directly from you at Toontrack, I would have received a download directly to EZD2 and not EZD with an upgrade to EZD2? Are you also saying that it was Kelly’s Computers that screwed up and sent me to the wrong link for the wrong product? I did contact them within minutes after purchasing and downloading and they responded saying that it was now a matter for me to deal directly with Toontrack and offered me little help.

2) So in My Account it lists three products. With only EZD2 appearing to be authorized and registered. Since it does not say “Authorized” can you please confirm that it is authorized and that I am properly registered for EZD2?

3) When I go to the Contact Support / FAQ page, there is no link that I can find to contact support. At the top it says:

” Please search for your question, the contact support button can be found at the bottom of each FAQ answer.
Due to the current increase in support volume, response times will be longer than normal. Replies to emails can take between 24 and 48 business hours. We apologize for the inconvenience and will try our best to attend to your inquiry as fast as we can. “

Then below that it has all the FAQ’s and then “select product”. Currently if I click on a product or a FAQ, it just hangs and doesn’t seem to connect. When it did connect, I do not remember any link or email address to contact support. But really though, why not just make it simple and have a direct contact support link at the top menu. You could make it a form email like many other companies do. By making it so elusive to get in touch with you, you are only hurting your clients trust.

4) Probably my biggest concern now, was the three choices at first install. I can;t go back and see them again now because I would have uninstall the whole thing again. The first choice was basically just to install the program, I cannot remember the second choice, but it was different, and the third choice was to assign the samples to a specific drive and folder. There was no instructions to know what order to do this, so I chose to just go with number one and install the program. Once I did that, it was not possible to go back and do the other two. I assume all the sample were stored somewhere on my SSD system drive and not where I wanted them. I wanted to install the program in the “Program Files” folder as that is for 64 bit applications and the samples on another 3 TB drive. So can I assume that I can find the samples folder and move it to another drive now? Will EZD2 recognize the new path and function as normal? There really needs to be a much clearer explanation of this part of the install process. Trust me, if someone with as much experience with computers and recording software stumbled at this point, many others are going to as well.

5) Regarding the Pop/Rock EZX, then why when I tried to install it did it ONLY offer me a 32 bit option? Plus it want to install it in “program Files (x86) which is the 32 bit folder and not where I have EZD2 installed. Do I just ignore that and install it anyway? Is it additional samples and grooves to what comes with EZD2? You should not assume that everyone purchasing this product has previously owned and is familiar with EZD1. You need to make all this stuff clear for new users as well. As it is, I am still leary about the installation of this EZX.

[Author]

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