What Im hating this time – about EZ Drummer 2

[David Levy]

I have a complete song written up in the song creator / sequencer …., and now all I want to do to it is add some fills here and there …. But in EZD2 thats almost impossible.

To do this I can listen to the individual selection of fills from song creator of from the browser etc ….. BUT …., the part that sucks is ………..,
– How I have to include them into my existing song .

* My Issues are ……,

ISSUE #1 – I need to drag the fill onto an empty section “past” the end of my built song to work on the fill, as in most cases the original fill is to long and must be shortend.
This place here is OK to do this , but ………………,

WHAT I HATE …….., Is when I want to see if my edited/shortened fill will actually work as intended within my existing song ………., because …………..,

Hate Issue # 1 – Is I then have to Drag that fill midi file (block) to its intended place (just to see if it even works out)……., is SOOO SLOWWWWWW ……., It takes forever .
– It would be great if the further to the left I dragged my fill – the bars would FLY BY at a faster accelerated pace the further “LEFT or RIGHT” I dragged them towards the edge of the GUI/Screen , then the slow single pace they do now …., ZZZZZZZZ YAWN

Hate Issue # 2 – Is If I drop that fill into a selected area , this may not be the right spot , and more often than not I have to toggle around by trial and error to find that right spot ……., BUT – If I do so that initial drop I just made is destructive …………., meaning the previous area beneath where I made the drop gets deleted – and now I am missing that section of MIDI leading up to my fill …., This THEN forces me to hit UNDO to restore the missing section of midi ………., thus taking me all the way back to hate issue # 1 all over again OMG – ZZZZZ .

Note; the only alternative to this is to copy and paste the fill , which does not solve anything in regards to finding the correct position , and leads me to …………………,

Hate Issue # 3 – I cant paste to anywhere I want . If I want to paste my fill , I can only do it at the start of a block. If I decide I want to paste it further up within the block , I must use the scissors to to cut that section in, so that it becomes the beginning of its own new block (ie; the only position where it “is” possible to paste to)

Now lets consider ……………………., At this stage – ALL we are still trying to achieve is just to find out if a fill we are trailing is suitable to use in our song !!! ………….,

ie; in context with being ‘
– firstly in the exact correct location with the other drum beats both leading into the fill , and after it
– to also check how it fits with what the rest of the other instruments are doing in the song.

Now we are aware of all theses massive time consuming P.I.T.A hurdles we have just to trial a single fill……………………………………………..,

– I now have the horrible task of going through all this all over again EACH TIME I want to trial the next possible 20 or more fills to see if they work or not – ARRRRGHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I want to edit the Midi , I have to export the files out of EZD2 to be dumped somewhere on my hard drive , and then imported into protools so I can access the midi editor window …, then after editing , bounce / export the midi file out of protools , and then manually import it back into EZD2
(Note; but really thats another issue outside of this posts intention, as in depth Midi editing is a complex task, and thats why DAWS have dedicated editors)
…., but EZD2 should simply allow dragging of any midi file into and out of EZD2 .

Summary – Wish List ………………………………….,

So other than wanting the ability to drag any midi file into and out of EZD2 …………,
– Id also like to be able to drag a midi block at an accelerated pace as described in Hate issue # 1
– Id also like to drag that midi block anywhere I want WITHOUT it being destructive , meaning whatever lied beneath it remains untouched , so I can jiggle my fill around to various places “on the fly” until I have found the best place that works
– Id like to be able to paste to anywhere I want without using the scizzor tool to cut in an opening , and as above be able to jiggle/shuffle the block if need be.

PS – I know an answer from Toontrack might suggest – it is more easier to construct the fills as you go by adding for example;
Intro – verse 1 (then cut it short, to allow space for a fill) – Then next select your fill (and then edit till 100% happy ) …, and finally – drop it into its spot …,
– Then , and only then – will you move on to the next part of your song …., but the BIG Problem with doing it this way is …………,

In reality is songs dont need many fills (if any) and less is always more …, and you really need to listen to the whole song, and take in the mood of the complete big picture to see if something is missing , and then work out if a fill it necessary to add interest at a given point, and by what amounts of change or tension you need to create with that fill ?

Im most cases – there is nothing worst than a drummer wanting to show off his talents (or lack of ) …, by irrelevant fills here and there …, quite often getting rid of the drums all together in that section say more than a big spastic keith moon drum fill …………., The difference between a good drummer and a bad one , is not what they CAN play , but knowing what NOT to play ………………….., and RE; EZD2 , in knowing this you first need to program the basic beats for the complete song before you consider the fills IMO.

Topic

[Jesper]

1

[David Levy]

@David Levy said:

If I want to edit the Midi , I have to export the files out of EZD2 to be dumped somewhere on my hard drive , and then imported into protools so I can access the midi editor window …,

adding missing info (in capital letters) to this quote abovem……………………………………….,

– If I want to edit the Midi , I have to export the files out of EZD2 to be dumped somewhere on my hard drive

>>> OR DRAG FROM EZD2 INTO A MIDI TRACK IN PRO TOOLS <<< …., , "TO" …….., import "THE MIDI FILES" into protools so I can access the midi editor window

[Henrik]

Thanks for sharing your problems and wishlist. Here is some feedback to it:

– Id also like to be able to drag a midi block at an accelerated pace as described in Hate issue # 1
That is something we will look into. However, you can while you drag around your clip on the track use your mouse wheel to zoom out, move the block to it’s place and zoom in again or just release it where it should be. This often works in zoomed out modes because the fill will snap to ends of blocks or bars. You can even use your mouse wheel and pressing Shift at the same time to fast scroll back and forth on your track.

– Id also like to drag that midi block anywhere I want WITHOUT it being destructive , meaning whatever lied beneath it remains untouched , so I can jiggle my fill around to various places “on the fly” until I have found the best place that works
This is a bit of a problem if you put a block that’s as big or bigger than the one that’s there to start with. If you place a fill at the end of a block it will often just shorten the original block, which means that you can drag it out again to its former length.

– Id like to be able to paste to anywhere I want without using the scizzor tool to cut in an opening , and as above be able to jiggle/shuffle the block if need be.
You can paste things either from the right click menu on the track (which selects the block that you hover), leading to the fill ending up in the beginning. You can also use the track menu (3 horizontal bars on the top right part of the track). If you use paste from that menu, the content will pasted where your time marker is placed.

Drag and drop to/from EZdrummer 2
EZdrummer 2 has full drag and drop support, both from and to EZdrummer 2. Some DAW:s doesn’t support this, so it’s unfortunately beyond our control to fix that. You can, for example, drag MIDI to your desktop, and directly from your desktop to EZdrummer 2’s track. Correct me if I am wrong, but you should be able to drag MIDI to ProTools from EZdrummer 2. Pro Tools 11 has removed the possibility to drag MIDI out from the DAW – however, I think it was possible in Pro Tools 10 and earlier.

Henrik Ekblom - User Experience Designer
Toontrack

[Chad]

@David Levy said:

If I want to edit the Midi , I have to export the files out of EZD2 to be dumped somewhere on my hard drive , and then imported into protools so I can access the midi editor window …, then after editing , bounce / export the midi file out of protools , and then manually import it back into EZD2
(Note; but really thats another issue outside of this posts intention, as in depth Midi editing is a complex task, and thats why DAWS have dedicated editors)
…., but EZD2 should simply allow dragging of any midi file into and out of EZD2 .

I have yet to use the Song Creator function in EZD2, so I can’t speak to that. But in Reaper, I’m easily able to just drag an EZD2 pattern into an empty track and edit the MIDI there. Are you using EZD2 in standalone mode?

In fact, since I started using EZD1, which didn’t have the Song Creator, I just always built my songs directly in Reaper by dragging patterns into the track and editing them or punching in different fills as necessary. Maybe the Song Creator would make this easier with its features, but it seems really easy to me the way I do it. Like I said, I haven’t tried the SC yet, but if you’re having as many problems as you are, maybe you should just try building the songs directly into your DAW?

[Scott Eshleman]

@Henrik said:
Thanks for sharing your problems and wishlist. Here is some feedback to it:

– Id also like to drag that midi block anywhere I want WITHOUT it being destructive , meaning whatever lied beneath it remains untouched , so I can jiggle my fill around to various places “on the fly” until I have found the best place that works
This is a bit of a problem if you put a block that’s as big or bigger than the one that’s there to start with. If you place a fill at the end of a block it will often just shorten the original block, which means that you can drag it out again to its former length.

Maybe Toontrack can explore adding more tracks to the EZDrummer2 timeline (like EZPlayer Pro) to enable block editing
and simultaneous groove auditioning in a multi-track style format.
Maybe the ability to mute an entire individual block on either timeline could also be enabled.

– Id like to be able to paste to anywhere I want without using the scizzor tool to cut in an opening , and as above be able to jiggle/shuffle the block if need be.
You can paste things either from the right click menu on the track (which selects the block that you hover), leading to the fill ending up in the beginning. You can also use the track menu (3 horizontal bars on the top right part of the track). If you use paste from that menu, the content will pasted where your time marker is placed.

Thanks for that tip!!! I didn’t realize that the 2 Paste commands functioned differently.

Drag and drop to/from EZdrummer 2
EZdrummer 2 has full drag and drop support, both from and to EZdrummer 2. Some DAW:s doesn’t support this, so it’s unfortunately beyond our control to fix that. You can, for example, drag MIDI to your desktop, and directly from your desktop to EZdrummer 2’s track. Correct me if I am wrong, but you should be able to drag MIDI to ProTools from EZdrummer 2. Pro Tools 11 has removed the possibility to drag MIDI out from the DAW – however, I think it was possible in Pro Tools 10 and earlier.

You are correct. I can drag grooves from EZDrummer2’s browser tab or timeline into Pro Tools 11 and Logic Pro X.
Neither of these DAWs seem to allow dragging MIDI out of their instrument tracks to Finder, Desktop or EZDrummer2.

[David Levy]

@gseshleman said:
e able to paste to anywhere I want without using the scizzor tool to cut in an opening , and as above be able to jiggle/shuffle the block if need be.
You can paste things either from the right click menu on the track (which selects the block that you hover), leading to the fill ending up in the beginning. You can also use the track menu (3 horizontal bars on the top right part of the track). If you use paste from that menu, the content will pasted where your time marker is placed.

This is an excellent idea …, I am often dragging my midi file/built song into different midi tracks on my DAW , and shuffling them around and doing lots of chopping and changing …., and I am always re-intoducing them back into EZD2 when I am happy .
After this thereis always more work to do trialling new fills etc and I will then push play on my DAW ( and the midi in EZD2 will play along , but what I like is I time when to hit play (on a fill in EZD2s list of fills) …, and when I do this mutes out what is playing (ie the main drum track) so I can hear how the fill sounds – I like this feature

…, but yes it would be great if I can do the basic building inside of ezd2 without dragging anything out unless it needs note editing

Thanks for that tip!!! I didn’t realize that the 2 Paste commands functioned differently.

….., Yes good tip thank you , I didnt know about the 2nd option either.

You are correct. I can drag grooves from EZDrummer2’s browser tab or timeline into Pro Tools 11 and Logic Pro X.
Neither of these DAWs seem to allow dragging MIDI out of their instrument tracks to Finder, Desktop or EZDrummer2.

………., correct .

– Another poster asked why dont I do everything manually in my Daw.
…, Dude ……, EZD2 is great , there are many groundbreaking features that we use to its limits , ie; until we are then limited by it …., then we go to our DAWS midi editor to do, fix, correct, create etc – what EZD2 cant …., its a tool , that does some things great , and some not at all

…., and thank you hendrik for your reply …, Id love to see you guys continue improving on what is already a good product …., cheers

[Author]

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