Quote:
Originally posted by Diki:
This is my favorite so far, Larry. Great song. No overt Beatles 'flava' to distract, but still a great set of changes. Bravo!

The fills are still a BIT of an issue, but less than some others. I still feel that, if you picked two or three other S900 styles with a similar feel, and then just recorded the drums with all their fills and break fills, and got a little library of fills that WERE well programmed and consistent (as the S900's styles are), you could give yourself a bit more flexibility and variety than just using what comes with the main style you pick (or painting them in by hand). Another thing you might do is try to have maybe the guitar or bass get some of that fill 'action', so that when the drums fill, they are not quite so exposed...

You know, on this one the S900's drums work pretty well. Maybe the Ozone is helping them punch through a bit more (did you use the exciter on them a bit?). I still think that EZ Drummer CAN take things to another level (their demos show it CAN be pretty realistic), but as a demo or self produced CD, this one works very nicely.

If you are still having trouble getting a good sound with EZ Drummer, have a think about this... EZDrummer's samples are already compressed to a certain degree. I wouldn't mess too much with that, but concentrate on doing the bedding in by manipulating the MIDI notes it receives. It has an alternating sample function, so if things get too machine gun it can vary the timbre. It also has a library of MIDI grooves that are played on those particular samples. While they may not match what you need for the song, they may help point you in the right direction in regards to average velocity level for each drum, average range of velocity difference between hard and softer hits, that sort of thing...

The thing is, if you aren't that successful getting idiomatic drums out of an arranger by 'painting' notes in, doing the same on a better sample library isn't going to help. Have you looked into some of the drummer played MIDI libraries? Twiddley Bits, Drumcore, Drumtrax, that sort of thing? Starting out with grooves played by a drummer, and especially drummer fills, can give you a good jumping off point.

Another thing you can try is comparing the MIDI output of the S900 drum tracks with the EZ Drummer MIDI files, and see if there isn't a simple transformation (adding or subtracting velocity, scaling velocity by small amounts, that sort of thing on a drum by drum basis) that can make an S900 track play the EZ Drummer kit more naturally. Then, take a good look at where EZ Drummer paints in the 'ghost' snare notes, the ruffs and stick drops, the tom flam's and the like (there will be a greater selection of these compared to the S900's kit) and try to copy how they are used by the EZD MIDI files.

But, all that aside, I am very impressed with this song, Larry. You keep getting better every time...


Thanks so much for listening.

I did use a different kit on the S900, the Power Kit 1. The high hats, especially, are more realistic.

I did use the harmonic exciter on Ozone 4.

I took special care to add variety to the fills. I did use a few fills from other styles, but I painted most of them myself.

I should have put in more pizazz on the bass during the fills. I only did this once or twice during the song. Otherwise, I just kept the bass fill that came with the style. I made changes to the bass part that came with the style, but not many during the fills.

I hear what you are saying about real drums taking my mixes to another level. I would have to agree. The problem that I am having with EZDrummer is that when I translate my PSR mix into EZDrummer, it sounds too raw for my song. I am hearing too much coloration. A few non-musicians told me that the keyboard mix sounded better when I A/B'd "It's Like a Rocket."

I can't wait to someday hear some of my songs with 5 star production and real drums and an amazing vocalist singing. But in the meantime, I'm having fun.

Thanks for listening!

Beakybird



[This message has been edited by Beakybird (edited 06-05-2009).]