[Jdickson]

Since submitting my (somewhat harsh) review, and after speaking with my salesperson at Sweetwater, I  upgraded to Superior-3. I have not had a chance to fully explore yet, but on the surface, it appears that it will be much better suited to my purposes. I suppose that my biggest beef is, that from a user’s standpoint, I would have expected all global musical parameters, such as bar numbers, tempos, and time signatures to always be synced to the DAW, even on the less expensive EZ Drummer 2.  Maybe they will be one day. I hope that Toontrack will be a leader in this area, even if it requires designing a new plugin protocol. This would be very appealing in the professional world where time is money and mistakes can be unforgiveable. Since these apps function more like a DAW within a DAW, their timeline parameters should always be hard-linked (especially bar numbers!). If play is pressed on one or the other, everything should sync and go (unless intentionally un-linked). This is even more important when video, lighting control, etc. is part of the equation (I am a big fan of seamless integration…). The fun-factor would also go off the charts!

In your defense, the audio quality is beyond awesome! These samples are extremely well recorded and the degree of control is very impressive. Many of the features are useful, flexible and intuitive, and the availability of a wide variety of expansion add-ons is quite impressive. I look forward to having this type of power at my fingertips!

[Jdickson]

This reminds me of being charged extra for GM airbags. Had I known that EZDRUMMER 2 isn’t designed to link bar numbers or time signature changes with the host DAW, I would NEVER have purchased the “songwriter’s bundle” software.
Piano roll editing has also been intentionally left out. Midi grooves do not offer any NON-swing 3/4 time, and tempos in “1” are also omitted. Individual control over EFX/reverb is not adequate either.
This may be a fun toy for an amateur, but does NOT belong in a professional musician’s arsenal, since it is too cumbersome and lacks critical editing features. This is a big box of rubber stamps – it reminds me of the popular Guitar H*** video game – a monkey could load up a quick (and great sounding) groove with one finger, but that’s basically where the usefulness of EZDrummer 2 ends.
Without a true midi timeline link, you must export your midi data in order to obtain individualized results, and then you can’t necessarily move it back. EZDrummer 2 is obviously only intended as a “gateway” to the MUCH more expensive “Superior Drummer 3”, and as such, should probably be offered as freeware. I’m afraid to make the jump to Superior-3, since I suspect that it may be lacking as well. At this point, I’m not willing spend hundreds to find out – I’ll save my money for a microphone or something useful. I was excited at first, but these shortcomings have popped my balloon. If I could get a refund, I would.

• This post was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Jdickson.

[Author]

Replies