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[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.

[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.

[Tim Zurowski]

@Erik said:
Again, as Henrik pointed out earlier. If you click the ‘Show Web Shop MIDI’ in the Search tab you can preview every single MIDI file that you can buy from Toontrack. Some of them comes as separate MIDI Packs, some are included in EZX libraries. All information is in there, it’s just a matter of selecting tags and preview!

Yes, I got that, but my point was that if you don’t know that or if you do not own EZD2, they were hard to find. The only page I was originally able to find was the one I linked to, Now I know there are other ways. You can be sure if I missed it, many others will as well. I am trying to help Toontrack with these confusions. So I now know that they include midi.

Now if I can only get answers from Toontrack for all my other issues. I still have not heard a word from them and can find no way to contact them.

[Tim Zurowski]

@Whitten said:

I followed your link.
At the bottom of the page is a picture of each EZdrummer expansion (EZX).
If you click on any of those pictures (EZX’s) you go to their product page, and on the product page it says ‘midi included’.

Doesn’t do that here. If you click on the image it just plays the MP3. However, I did notice that if you click on the wording below the image then it does take you to the product page. Regardless, I now know that it includes midi, so thanks for that.

[Tim Zurowski]

@Whitten said:

But in short, it’s user error on your part somewhere, not a dereliction of duty on Toontrack’s part.
I don’t know Windows. I’m a Mac user.
Every Toontrack product I’ve downloaded and installed has been straightforward. Basically one or two clicks, and I’m using the product.

Definitely not! I have been a PC user since the mid 80’s. I build and repair machines and have installed hundreds of apps. In my case, there was definitely a flaw in the install and registration process, which I am trying to get answers or explanations for. It was not user error on my part.

[Tim Zurowski]

@Whitten said:

If you look at the ‘Feature Highlight’ part on each product page it says ‘midi library included’.
But if that isn’t obvious…. yes, all drum sample libraries (EZD2 and Superior and all expansions) have included midi grooves.

Well the page I was looking at the midi grooves and samples had nothing like that. it only had the option to click on the icon and listen. There was no info about the product. You must be at another page that I have not seen. Scroll down to the bottom of this page: http://www.toontrack.com/product/ezdrummer-2/ where I can see nothing that says the sample packs have midi grooves included. I guess my point is that there is a lot of confusing and conflicting things, especially for someone like me who is new with VSTi drum software. But thank you very much for the clarification.

Is there any way to audition all the midi grooves so you know what you are paying for? Or do you just put down your money and hope for the best?

[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.

[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?

[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.

[Tim Zurowski]

I have logged in and out a few times and I can now “see” a Support Forums mentioned at the top of the forums list, but when I click on it nothing happens. It seems to suggest that these forums are the support forums, but I do not see any specific forum for “support” I was going to post a screen shot of what I get, but I cannot see anyway to post an image here????

[Tim Zurowski]

@Henrik said:

You can check out all MIDI from Toontrack in EZdrummer 2 by clicking “Show Web Shop MIDI” button in the search tab. This will give you previews of the MIDI that’s available to purchase in the web shop. If you find a MIDI groove that you like, click the blue button at the left side of the file and it will tell you from what MIDI pack the MIDI file comes from.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I know that and you can also just go to the Toontrack site and demo them there. However, my point was that the demos are very limited and you cannot really get an idea of all the midi grooves that might be in there. So far I have not heard a product there that has what I am wishing for. Not saying they are not out there, I just need to find them. I hear guys demoing these products on YouTube that are doing great stuff on electronic kits. Why can’t we have stuff like they’re doing?

AND are there additional midi grooves provided the sample expansion packs, or are they JUST samples? I can find no info about this for any of the expansion packs?

[Tim Zurowski]

@Hoody said:

Check out Platinum Samples site for midi. “Real Jazz”, “Real Blues”, and the Steve Ferrone, and Stanton Moore artist packs might be what your looking for.
Toontrack have “Blues” and “Jazz” midi available as well, just read the descriptions carefully as some are the same as included in EZX expansions ( i.e.: “Blues” is unique midi, whilst “The Blues EZX” is the same as the one included with the expansion of the same name). Their are audio examples of the midi, but they can’t really cover all that the pack contains.
BRUSHES are in short supply, Roots, Nashville, Jazz midi and Jazz EZX (not available as standalone) are the only ones I’m aware of. But are they of any use? Brush technique relies a lot on interpretation of the music, and pretty hard to package up for universal use.

Thanks Man. I checked them out and they do appear a bit more promising. Can I assume if the product does not list EZDrummer it will not work in EZD2? Some list it and other do not.

[Tim Zurowski]

@Whitten said:
the core EZdrummer2 library is aimed at mainstream pop/rock/songwriting styles, not fusion like Colaiuta, Bozzio and Weckl.

There ya go. Problem is how is anyone supposed to know that when they do not offer any product demos to find out. All the YouTube demos and promo literature I could find on EZD2 “suggested” that they used top name drummers for their midi grooves and that it would be useful for all styles of music. The program and samples are decent, but unfortunately it stops there for me.

BUT what about all my other concerns? How do I get support for that stuff when there are no support forums here? The whole download and install process was VERY confusing and has left me wondering if my application is going to work correctly and is even authorized? What is “authorized” anyway? Also what about the whole download of EZD and no link at all to EZD2 at first? And what about the three choices at install, but it only allows you to choose one and then you are stuck with that choice? Way too many inconsistencies and confusion with this application. If I had the option, I would return this product and get my money back in a heartbeat, but because they offer no demo and it is a download purchase they got you once you have given them your $$$.

[Tim Zurowski]

I don’t seem to see any “support” forums either. All I cans see are the “Customer Service” and “Community” forums. Customer Service doesn’t appear to have any support within it.

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