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[Bryan Block]

Hey Pook,
I understand that the feature “should be built in” but as of right now, it isn’t, maybe in an update. I was just trying to think about how to easily work around it. If I had to guess, I would think that (in the back end programming) every host provides information to VSTi’s in a different way, which might make UNIVERSALLY reading that info from a variety of hosts a tricky bit of programming for Toontrack. Maybe SD 3.0 will provide that feature, and will be one of the big differentiators between EZ and Superior.

Creativity is a Work Ethic.

[Bryan Block]

Just a thought, as a work around for you guys, couldn’t you run two MIDI tracks for the drums using two instances of EZ Drummer, one each track? One instance can be in one time signature and the other can be in the other. Neither would be playing at the same time. Just put the parts that correspond to each time signature on the corresponding track.

-b

Creativity is a Work Ethic.

[Bryan Block]

I have the GeForce M-Tron Pro and I think you would be hard pressed to find a more comprehensive Mellotron Library, they seem to really be dedicated to preserving all of the possibilities of the ‘tron and related instruments. The editing features really let you manipulate the original sounds quite a bit as well. The only other Mellotron I have ever used was a free VSTi called “nanotron”. Here is a list of free ones, but if you want more than a couple of sounds, you will need to invest in a full fledged ‘tron VSTi.

http://blog.wavosaur.com/5-free-mellotron-vst/

-b

Creativity is a Work Ethic.

[Bryan Block]

I have SD 2.0, but only use EZ Drummer. LOL. I would consider an even trade for one of the SD pack licenses I have if you are interested:
Custom & Vintage
New York (any of the three volumes)

Or let me know how to PM you.
hit me at bryanmichaelblock@gmail.com

Cheers!
-b

Creativity is a Work Ethic.

[Bryan Block]

In my experiments, a decent Pink Floyd sound can be achieved by the following:

1. Vintage Rock EZX on the “Semi Dry” Preset Mix setting.
2. Select the “Low Tuned Supraphonic” Snare drum for your snare
3. In the mixer, Bring the Snare Drum Bottom (SDB) fader down just a little bit from the default position in the Semi Dry preset.

4. Try using Rides that were struck with Brushes, rather than sticks, it gives it softer / floaty sound – The Vintage Rock EZX has 2 that are nice, but the I like the 20″ Constantinople with Brushes in the Americana EZX or the Ride Mikaelsson with Brushes included in the Cocktail Kit (a lot of people forget about the Cocktail Kit, but it’s got some great character) and the 21″ Sabian Vintage in the Pop/Rock kit (sticks) as alternatives.

And as mentioned, The Nashville MIDI has a lot of halftime grooves that work well for that slow Pink Floyd groove.

Add a little plate reverb after the fact.

.02
-b

Creativity is a Work Ethic.

[Bryan Block]

As far as playing rhythm patterns along with your project, the best “EZ Guitar” software VST that ever was, was Virtual Guitarist 2 which has LONG been discontinued. That said, the sample sets and VSTi’s today are FAR more realistic and offer lots of nuance…the big challenge is to play/program them well, which in many cases is NOT easy.

That said, the best ones I’ve tried recently have been Native Instrument’s FUNK GUITARIST and Impact Soundworks SHREDDAGE 2.

The thing to keep in mind is that you can’t always go by the name of a product and think “that’s not for me” – Funk Guitarist is simply a clean strat, but it has a huge library of chords and you can customize the chords and rhythms however you want. This makes it a good fit for pop, rock (if you run it through your favorite amp sim) or other styles – but it DOES take some WORK to get on with the interface. It’s an amazing instrument, but like most VSTi’s they are kind of designed for keyboard players (IMO) – and they require some concentrated MIDI editing on the back end for everyone else to make use of the keyswitches, velocity levels, and performance nuances that the instrument offers.

Shreddage offers DRY samples, so you can re-amp them any way you want. You want hard and heavy or clean and chorused? Just run it through your amp sim or effects chain of choice. Although Shreddage IS targeted for straight ahead heavy rock rhythm playing – you can adapt it to other styles as well…with enough work

Some very affordable solutions can be had at Indiginus Sample Libraries. Their acoustic guitars have “strum engines” and overall you can get some good results with them, but in place of keyswitches, they are velocity layer switches.

The bottom line is that you can take the SAME MIDI information and play 4 different guitar VSTi’s and get completely different results depending on how the instruments are programmed. There is no real “easy” solution for virtual guitars, all of the current solutions will require patience, MIDI programming, and time invested in understanding the features of the individual virtual instrument.

Bass would be a LITTLE easier, but real bass players (I am a bass player) do a lot of ghosting, mutes, sliding, slapping the fretboard when closing their hands, etc. And some virtual basses offer all of that – the Scarbee models for KONTAKT are exceptional…but you have to program them correctly to capture all of that. – it’s AVAILABLE in the instrument…but simply playing a line on a keyboard won’t give you that – notes have to overlap for slides and hammer ons, etc… velocities have to be right, etc… but for fundamental lines, an “ez bass” might be a possibility with the right sample set/vsti. Broomstick Bass USED to be a decent little VSTi for that sort of thing, but it was discontinued like Virtual Guitarist.

Creativity is a Work Ethic.

[Bryan Block]

I will add my voice here in saying that it would be nice to be able to preview the groove in original tempo, DAW Host Project Tempo, and 1/2 and 2x tempo quickly, on the fly without having to add it to the song or use a nested menu. As others have stated, “A Global half and double time solution” – I used that feature a lot in EZD1, and I have found myself missing the convenience of it.

PS- EZD2 is by far, one of the best updates to any software I have ever seen, so please take this as a humble suggestion, and not a complaint. (like those tambourine rolls)

-b

Creativity is a Work Ethic.

[Bryan Block]

KONTAKT “Drummer” Modules like “60’s Drummer” or “Vintage Drummer” also allow an option on their OPTION tabs that you can select the mapping you want – so if you are using an EZ Drummer MIDI file with KONTAKT “60’s Drummer” modules, just click on the OPTION tab in 60’s Drummer and use the drop down mapping menu and set it to EZ Drummer and you should be 90% there. I say 90% because special articulations like snare ghost notes, certain cymbal effects, and brush swirls and other special articulations can change from one EZX to the other depending on what is available in that EZX, or you might find that the velocity of the hits is not giving you the same effect in KONTAKT as it was in EZ Drummer, so you probably will have to do some dedicated MIDI editing to get the performance to work for you.

Creativity is a Work Ethic.

[Bryan Block]

Claustrophobic EZX has some of the tightest sounding snares, one of those might work. Check out the 8″ Yamaha Steve Jordan snare or the Leedy Piccolo snare from the Jazz kit – although those are a tad more ringy. Marching band drums have super tight heads, so my suggestion would be looking at Claustrophobic first, but you would probably need to mix and match a kit to get what you really want.

Creativity is a Work Ethic.

[Bryan Block]

I would like to add a note of thanks. EZD2 is very well thought out, and it incorporates so many “right” ideas that it is REFRESHING to see an update so well executed.

Cheers!

-B

Creativity is a Work Ethic.

[Author]

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