..

Well ..

After a couple of years chasing this, I finally got to the finish line. As you can see in the screenshot, it is extensive, and very nearly comprehensive. Ideally, I'd like to take *ALL* of what you see in the screenshot and *SNAP* it on to a computer that has only one function: Drums. And nothing else. The reason being. it's quite maddening at this level to keep everything "updated, patched and cross-program configured" with EZ Drummer 2 and EZ Drummer 3 as well as Superior Drummer 3. At this level, it's pretty much a non-stop, daily event to keep all the packs and libraries and MIDI and program updates found, downloaded and updated. And it's tiring. So, that's why I mention the "freeze" idea. It's a concept I devised and should you achieve a level that you are happy with of: -- creating the drums -- then move it to a dedicated machine with NO INTERNET ACCESS whatsoever. Get everything working flawlessly and then remove that machine from all connections to the web of any kind. And then dedicate that machine to nothing but writing and recording drums on that isolated machine. There's many, many reasons for this (not the least of which is the G*DD*MN Microsoft updates to Windows that BUST EVERYTHING every two weeks. It's like clockwork with these dorks. Why do they do that? And, of course, Toontrack has to come out with a patch or an update or a library update or a sound update or a patch or a MIDI update to fix what they just busted .. it's just on and on and on with these tech companies. It's total freakin' insanity is what it is and not sustainable. So, I devised that concept of *FREEZING* a computer in a perfect working state for drums to avoid The Dorks from Redmond and all the companies that make the necessary adjustments to said DORKNESS)

Here are a few notes to help people. Things I have learned traveling this long journey. And only being able to afford the cheapest, lowest tier of bandwidth service of my Internet access (can you say 'ACP?'), it was an excruciatingly slow and long route to this end. I bet with fiber optic Internet access, you could achieve this in a week or two. For me, it was about 18 months.

Overall view of the Toontrack Drum Programs

You don't need all this and don't think because you didn't chase that very last bizarre EZX pack and obtain it you are missing out. And don't stress about obtaining the 1.51 update you can't find anywhere because you think it is something you just have to have to consume the full experience these programs represent. What Toontrack doesn't really tell you, because they wish to sell you more and more, is that all these different add-ons really don't add that much. Here's what you *DO* need .. absolute and without doubt: There is an ISO floating around that is called "MIDI.iso" and "MIDI Duplicates.iso". This is a Database replacement for all the Toontrack drum programs (it would seem they draw all these "Grooves" from the same pool.) Now, when you pay $179 for one of these hulking 150 Gigabyte SDK's, they come with .. a few .. A FEW .. MIDI tracks for that particular expansion. It's a lot less than you would think for that size. But most of that size is just different drums sounds. Yes, it does, in fact, add "drums" that you can select and then place in your custom kits i.e., "Ludwig 1965 Snare", etc. And it includes the graphics that represent them in the first-page interface (but I'll tell ya what, a lot of the times, it DOESN'T come with the graphics of the drums .. I know this because of watching things like "The Making of The Rock Warehouse for Toontrack Superior Drummer" videos on YouTube. They will show the finished program at the end of the video and they too, the official version, will be missing a few graphical representations of cymbals, toms, etc.) These graphics are totally unimportant and not needed. Simply an aesthetic addition, not effecting the sound or the program performance in any way, shape, facet or form. The program will just place a "wired" placeholder there and then it's fine. So, don't feel like you are missing out on something if that shows up in your program. After a year and a half messing with this constantly (and a couple years more merely dabbling), I can tell you that with confidence. These graphics files are just window dressing and affect nothing. So, don't worry about that.

REALLY, really important and the lifeblood of all the programs is that comprehensive MIDI ISO. That contains *ALL* of the real drummers playing *ALL* of the real parts. When you spend a couple years compiling what you see in the screenshot attached, you'll realize what I am saying. You could achieve 99% of what I have with JUST .. JUST ... the Superior Drummer library and those MIDI ISOs I mentioned. Your tastes and styles may very. All you are really getting with all these different EZX and SDK packs are different drums. And most are weird and unusable. So, find some pack ... somewhere ... and audition a few of the Grooves that fit you and your style .. and when you find a drumset in that pack that sounds good with those Grooves .. and when you think to yourself, "Yeah, that's pretty good drums right there" .. that's it. You got it. You don't need some guy throwing a tray of silverware in the air or a gong or a West African bongo. If that's your particular style, then find the one with those in it and then that's all you need, really. For example, with my tastes and desires in drums, I could get by just fine with the main Superior Drummer library and probably .. Classic Rock_EZX (because of the Eddie Kramer production presets) and the Seventies_EZX (because those are the drums I want in my kit). And that's about it. What I have here in this screenshot is a silly waste of time that maybe you can avoid. Get your drumset you like from a pack. Get those MIDI ISOs and you got everything you need from Toontrack Drum Programs. Really, truly and honestly. Don't think you are missing out on anything. You will never use all this. It's just space and time wasting. A simple money grab by Toontrack. Don't fall for it.

PRODUCER PRESETS

Now, the ONE place I will go against what I just said is the producer "Presets" you can choose where producers like Bob Rock or Eddie Kramer or Hugh Padghham take those kits included in that pack and then create a "preset" for you to choose. These are INVALUABLE and MASSIVELY expand the professional drum sound you can achieve with all these programs. There is a torrent download somewhere, maybe it's just a Rapidgator download, that is called "Producer Presets". That's a good starting point. It has NOWHERE NEAR the amount of producers that are extensively available if you download all you see in the screenshot. But if somehow you could obtain those "PRODUCER PRESETS" in a massive compiling of all of these packs, you'd be set, And that's the point I am making here: If you get an EZX or SDK pack which you really like and is your style, whatever that may be .. from rap to Classic Rock, then *USE* those producer presets that are there. I have done so many songs where I thought I could .. set the mics and program the snare to have that reverb and have the kick drum with that compression and EQ'd the cymbals and .. then it all sounds like complete fake crap. Let these guys who are pros .. who MADE the expansion pack .. set all the mics and the effects and such ... AND THEN LEAVE IT ALONE. Because it then sounds like an album instead of a bedroom producer. When you listen to the drums by themselves, it may sound OK what you are doing. But, when you get your keys and electric and acoustic guitars and bass and vocals in there .. THEN .. THEN .. you'll figure out why they set the "mixing board" in that Toontrack drum program the way they did. That's when these presets really shine. Not when you are listening to the drums only. You'll just sound like a silly amateur teenager trying to record a song if you go messing with that stuff. So, the PRODUCER PRESETS in these programs are really, truly, vitally important. And what a wonderful thing it would be if somebody came along .. and just like they did with those MIDI isos where they extracted the Database of all the performances of every pack (and third party expansion packs) .. and they could extract all the "PRODUCER PRESETS" in to one downloadable file. That would REALLY serve the community. One caveat would be: some of these producer presets NEED what is in that particular pack to get it to sound like that. But not much. Mostly, it's just them setting the mic a certain way, adding the already-there effects in a certain way and then comprehensively mixing the entire drum set in to a pro, top-notch sound. I'm pretty sure you could just extract the producer presets from ALL the various add-ons and main programs and get 99% of the "sound". But .. then again .. I may be wrong about that. There's people much more well-versed than me in these Toontrack drum programs that could give me reasons why an extraction of presets would not work. And speaking of the experts in these programs:

UDEMY (or other) INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS

You might think, this is a really complex program and I've got to spend 15 hours watching some guy tweak the parameters on the Creative Filter on the Conga track. No, you don't. Just do it. Just get in to the program and start twisting knobs and going to the front page and altering the MIDI groove and start messing with the decay of the snare and the stacking of a bass drum with a tambourine .. or whatever .. just do it until you learn .. in about an hour of screwing things up .. of what to do and what not to do. As I said, just pick the "Producer Presets" .. do that and leave it alone, mostly. These are all just options that eat up your time and are unnecessary. You could be working on the chorus of your song or the lead break pattern during this time. The instructional videos, both paid for and on YouTube (or available for download in various places under "SKIP HENDERSON TEACHES SUPERIOR DRUMMER 3" or whatever), again .. this is mostly a time and money consuming robbery scene. You really DON'T NEED TO KNOW all that they explain .. and 60% of the video is just going over the most obvious, basic stuff you would know by opening the program anyways .. so, don't feel stupid if you don't watch any of these videos. Because I did and it just screwed me up because now I knew how to twiddle with things and lost the "OVERVIEW" of A.) my ENTIRE drum sound and B.) the overview of THE SONG itself because I just spent 45 minutes getting the compression on the snare drum to play nice with the EQ settings on the cymbals and then routing it all properly so that I could apply the Creative Filter on the BUSS 2 and set the LFO just right on that before I routed it out to the Ambient Mics, which have to be pulled back a bit .. *STOP* .. stop that shit. Jhees. Just do it. Just get in to it yourself. And if you're too lazy to do that, that's not terrible. Choose the Producer Presets and then move on to something more vital in your song.

EZ DRUMMER 3

I have been programming, deeply programming, drum machines since the mid-to-late EIGHTIES. Almost 50 years of writing drum tracks in a machine. And I have NEVER seen anything like EZ Drummer 3's A.I. When I experienced EZ Drummer 3's capability to write a drum track to such immense perfection, I knew that was:

The Dawn of the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
That was it, right there.
A Sea Change.

You record a part of your tune playing the guitar .. and it seems to not care if it's distorted or echoed or dry or on a recorded acoustic .. Toontrack does tell you to use a totally dry signal and that is probably best but .. DAMN, MAN .. that program *WILL* find a way to figure it out. It'll come up with something that .. is vaguely OK .. it's pretty doggone close. It won't be perfect, for the most part, but it ain't far off, I'll tell ya that. So, here's what you do .. just save that MIDI .. maybe tweak it just a little .. for example, tell it to add "More Snare" on the front page of the program or maybe a ride cymbal instead of a crash, something like that .. or if you like, go in to the Scroll Editor and take the little pencil they have there and physically write in a couple extra kick drums that are in time to your tune that you think it needs. All ya gotta do, really, is just get it fairly close, doesn't have to be perfect. *AND THEN* .. you take that MIDI file and drop it in the area of the program where it goes looking for other MIDI files "close to" the one you just dropped in there and .. BY GOD .. you'll *FIND* it. It'll be somewhere in those tens of thousands of drummer performances in those MIDI Isos I spoke of earlier. They'll be something that is so EXACTLY what you want, you'll be startled. Startled. *AND THEN* .. you just ask it to make that MIDI file you find in to "Song Creator" .. and now you got it, holmes. There it is. There's seven different variations on the Chorus to choose from, there's 5 different "Bridges" .. an Intro .. an Ending. Fills. It'll all be right there in Song Creator. Just figure out the structure of your song by sitting there with your guitar and playing it and say to yourself, "OK, this plays four times and on the fourth one I want a "Fill" .. which Fill? Well, audition all of them and eventually, guaranteed, you'll go, "OH COOL! THAT'S IT!" .. drag that fill and drop it in there where it's supposed to be, on the last half of the fourth time it plays that original Groove you found. And then, after the fill, you say .. "then it goes to this part after it does that fill" .. and then you go to, say, the "Bridge" section or the "Pre-Chorus" section and audition what is in there and 90% of the time you'll find exactly what you need. So, get it, drag it down and drop it in there to play twice. Get on your guitar, play along and you'll find the end of the track you are working on .. and then you will say, "OK, then the tune goes to the Chorus" So, audition files in Chorus or in Fills or in Verse .. or wherever .. you'll find the one that fits (and you'll probably have several options. But if you don't, get one that's 'not bad, close' and open up the Scroll Editor with a double-click .. it's real easy .. and just erase the big cymbal crash you don't want or make a tom roll, draw it in with the pencil, whatever it is you add or erase .. but sit there and make it YOUR SONG)

You get done with that .. AND THAT'S IT, MAN ...

You got yourself a drum track, a foundation to build the house of your song on. All in about 29 minutes, you got yourself a KILLER SOUNDING DRUM TRACK, holmes. It's done. You just achieved what it would have taken me 2 1/2 weeks to do on an Alesis SR-16 in 1994. AND IT SOUNDS WAY BETTER. With more "feel" (because it's a real drummer, not a machine .. UNLESS YOU WANT THAT .. it has drum machines in there too)

... AND ...

.. if you choose one of those producer presets I talked about .. HELLS BELLS, dude ... what do you want out of life, a poke in the eye with a blunt stick? I mean, JHEES, MAN. Think of the capabilities we now have to achieve an AMAZING sounding drum track that is for our songs .. in about a half-hour. Wow. It's un-bee-leave-ah-bull.

So, what are you waitin' for, man? Friggin' Do It. Ain't nobody stopping you. Except you. Isn't that what we always dreamed of? "Ain't nobody stopping me but me" It's here. The capabilities we have now to create music are {-MIND - NUMBINGLY-} good. It's truly The Golden Age for music creators. Because it's so EASY now. So, get on with it, man. It's not hard. You could show a chimp how to do it and he'd come up with the drum track for "La Villa Strangiato" in 24 minutes.

Well, maybe not quite that bad but you get the picture. Unfortunately, that picture includes this:

THE STOPS AND STARTS OF DRUMMING

For some reason, and I think this started with drum machines themselves and the proliferation of Rap and Hip-Hop and all of the derivatives of the style .. but .. somewhere .. at some time .. along the timeline of modern music creation .. somebody forgot to tell these people that drums SOMETIMES STOP. "Loops" are not valid and they are a pox upon modern music. What I'm saying is things like this:

Imagine Rush in "Limelight" (or really most any Rush tune but to explain my point, "Limelight") .. not only does Neil START the song with some really tasty fills that *STOP* while Alex is playing the riff to open the song BUT .. in the MIDDLE OF THE SONG ... ("to keep one's self in time" or "beyond the guilded cage", etc) .. Neil will go *POW* *POW* .. and then -stop- for a millisecond or two .. complete precision to accentuate the point. It's NOT some rolling loop that is repeated over and over and over again. These are REAL drums and it is EXTREMELY hard to find in all these Toontrack programs. Nigh impossible. Another example that *IS* included in a Toontrack program (Classic Rock) ... think of Black Sabbath on "War Pigs" when Ozzy starts singing .. *BUH-DUN* .. snick snicka snick snicka .. *BUH-DUN* ... yeah, you can't really achieve that with all these Toontrack songs. The BEST way, the trick, to work around this is .. go to the "Outro" section in "Song Creator" and where they are trying to END a song .. cut a piece of that out and then cut and paste it where you need. And this is a really crappy solution and doesn't work all the time, in fact, most of the time. Sometimes, you just gotta write it with a pencil in the Editor. And then it sounds stupid as hell and like a machine. Toontrack .. Alesis .. whatever company you wanna pick .. totally forgot or .. can't do it .. or .. doesn't want to take the time .. to create something like: Judas Priest on "Breaking the Law" ... think of the main phrase that starts the song. OK .. after the sirens wail and chaos is generally introduced, it all *SNAPS* back with a single snare hit. AND THE THERE ARE NO DRUMS IN THE SONG. Just the guitars playing the main phrase. *UNTIL* Dave Holland goes *POW .. *POW* ... *POW POW POW* .. and then it all comes together again for The Big Ending.

Drums are not a damn loop. Sometimes, THEY STOP. And these programs do a HORRIBLE job of that. They think it's all rap and you would never, ever, in your WILDEST DREAMS have the drums STOP for any reason. So, this is a MASSIVE DRAWBACK that has been totally ignored (there are a few, very few .. where you can squeeze and manipulate and rig it to SOUND-LIKE they stop .. but there's no real 'groove' ,, you lose The Feel of a Real Drummer doing this). So, this is the the EXTREME MAJOR DRAWBACK AND FAILING of these programs and I see no resolution in sight on this issue. If anybody can help me with this or agrees with me and can raise our voices about this MASSIVE ELEPHANT in the room that nobody talks about, please, add your comment. It's something I need help with and I think the entire community needs help with.

I get it .. I know that Rap is the Number One song in the nation right now. But here's my point: RAP WAS THE NUMBER ONE SONG IN THE NATION IN 1986. Why would you want to play a style your GREAT-GRANDFATHER already did 45 years ago? Wouldn't you want to .. you know .. MOVE ON? Find something that is "YOURS" .. that is YOUR generation, not your great-grandfather's music? I know when I was coming in to my twenties and making records and playing shows, it was Hippy Music and Disco. We wanted to get as far away from that "sound" and "style" as we POSSIBLY COULD. It was OUR TIME, OUR GENERATION and .. here's what that sounds like. But, I hear the same thing I heard 45 years ago being played as the "NUMBER ONE SONG IN THE NATION!" Seriously? A looped drum pattern that NEVER, EVER STOPS or changes and then .. TALKING POETRY over that machine playing the beat? OK .. not my thing but I do respect that as a style. FORTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. Aren't you guys embarrassed that you can't progress music farther than what your great-grandfather did? My great-grandfather's music was like .. Doris Day and Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby and I HATE THAT SHIT. Who would listen to that? (OK, at Christmastime but still) I mean, the last thing on my mind is "Gee, how can I recreate the way Doris Day sang "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window"?) I'm more interested in Floyd and old Genesis and Priest and Sabbath and Rush. That's about as far away from Doris Day as you can GET. Why do you people keep LOOPING the drum machines so that the subwoofer shakes the exhaust off the 2002 Toyota Celica you are driving? Does that "rumble" knock the rust off the thing or something? I guess I would have to ask your great-grandfather about that. Because he would know. Because it's his music. Do you have any of YOUR generation's music? No? Well, that's just pitiful. MAKE SOME. EXPRESS YOURSELF. Your great-grandfather did. Why can't you?

But the point being, SOMETIMES DRUMS STOP in songs. And all of these drum composition programs are wonderful at creating "Loops" over and over again .. even some with variations .. but they never *STOP* ... for precision .. or for dramatic effect or .. just to show that the drummer is REALLY kickass and a talented percussionist. And there is TALENT in this art. I mean, if they get actual people to literally play these MIDI files, then why did they make them sound like a Roland 808? What's the point of using humans? Have we reached the point in modern music where the best HUMAN musicians are the ones closest to emulating a MACHINE? If we have, we've gone terribly wrong somewhere. Think about this and not from a self-centered personal standpoint. Think about this in The Big Picture, the overview of ALL music.

In the unlikely event you've read this far ..

.. I have all these programs, updates, libraries and on and on and on. This is what I've learned constructing, compiling and using them. This is what my experience has been in obtaining them and the myriad of necessary updates and patches. They are Backed-Up, Compiled, Updated and Working in Windows 11. So, you can do it too. It can be done. Stay with it.

I'll leave you with an ethical question I ponder. I have no answer for this as I am not smart enough to come to an absolution. I'm poor as hell. I mean, I own a 1984 Gibson Flying V, a Marshall, a Martin and a 1989 Ovation but .. that's my wealth. I'm poor as hell. *BUT* .. I can play the solo from "Mr. Crowley" so .. I got that goin' for me. Which is nice. The point is this: There is NO WAY .. absolutely completely NO WAY .. I could afford to be a customer of Toontrack. Do you know why my hair is down to my shoulders? Because I'm a lead guitarist? NO. Because I don't *HAVE* $23 to get my HAIR CUT much less buy drums on a computer. I would never, ever be able to afford this.

So, if I could never be a customer, and I never sell this .. or trade it .. is it still pirating?

I don't see how the company of Toontrack is damaged in this. All I see is a tool that helps me make something that maybe somebody will extract some joy from some day. Make somebody smile at some .. time .. in the future. That's all I want it for. I don't sell my music. Not because it's an ethical thing .. because nobody wants to hear it. Which probably goes back to the point I was making before about Loops.

So, I often wonder about that. I've reached no conclusion.

I have some pretty extensive experience with this stuff and as you can see from the attached screenshot, I've spent a lot of time compiling it in to a perfectly working, vastly expansive conglomeration of the Toontrack Drum Experience in it's entirety.

I hope some of these words can help somebody out. If it's not here, message me or post it and if I know it .. or have it .. my desire is simply to help out other musicians and composers.

That was my motivation for writing this.

..

 

Last edited: Feb 7, 2023

To use sampled drums, or piano, or violin or anything, you have to know how the real instrument works and plays to get good results. It just be like that. You can make programed drums sound exactly like Neal Peart if you understand what he does. It will always be tough to cut loops and pre-made midi up into something that feels like it was played organically to a song. Anything is doable though, just depends how much time you're willing to spend micro editing, but you need to be able to create a mental picture of your musical destination.

As to ethical questions... it's too early for that here

 

Last edited: Feb 7, 2023

Yeah, one of the big things, the main philosophy behind Toontrack even doing a drum program at all was to make it so a file was created BY A HUMAN DRUMMER. With the feeling and the groove of a HUMAN drummer. And good ones at that.

So, when you go and you start making "micro edits" or cutting up MIDI ... then you lose the entire philosophy of why all of these programs were made anyways. I could even take it to the level of saying that it is ODD .. extremely odd .. that they are using the MIDI format. Hell, we've been using MIDI files since the early 1980s! Are you telling me you dudes can't come up with better technology than something that was created 40 YEARS ago on a Radio Shack TRS-80? Seriously?

It seems like the concept of MIDI itself cuts in to the philosophy of why they even made these programs .. the human FEEL .. the GROOVE. That's why I said a great deal about LOOPS. Loops are just some dumb janitor hitting "Start" on the drum machine and then it playing until it melts. The same thing. Over and over and over.

Exactly against the philosophy of what Toontrack was attempting to achieve with *ALL* of this. So, why not have the drums .. you know .. STOP sometimes. For dramatic effect. Or different parts of the song. Or to showcase the talent of the guy who played the file in the first place? The HUMAN that played it. Loops are for machines. We need more stop breaks.

I took drum lessons from a professional for six years. I can beat the hell out of the drums. I entirely understand what Neil Peart does. After six years of lessons, you kinda get that.

It's just ... see ... when I beat the hell out of my drums, there's usually a line that forms at my apartment door of people with baseball bats waiting to beat the hell out of me.

 

Last edited: Feb 7, 2023

Wait, what's this Midi.ISO?

 

It's pretty killer, bud. You need to find them. They contain every MIDI performance by a human released by Toontrack in every pack, SDK, expansion .. whatever. AND, it includes third party MIDI grooves that work with all the Toontrack programs like SP3, EZD3 and such/

It's ALL .. EVERYTHING .. that has been performed for every pack. Then, you compile a killer sounding drumset to your liking .. say .. with the "Classic Rock" or "The Rock Warehouse" EZX or SDK's and pick out the snare and the bass and the toms and the cymbals that YOU really think sound kickass ... assemble those in to "The Lantern Kit" and then ..

You just plug in these MIDI.iso files and you have the capability of EVERY SINGLE TOONTRACK PACK, EXPANSION OR SDK and many, many third-party MIDI files too. And they are all played on that kit you just assembled of your favorite sounding drums.

That's one of the reasons I wrote this .. to tell people .. they really don't need to spend $7,000 on ALL this stuff to get the full experience. Here's how to do that at a minimum cost. And then I explained why that was in the rest of the text.

The MIDI.iso and MIDI Duplicates.iso look like the attached screenshot. And then, you can see just a tiny portion of what is ON those ISO images. Those are just FOLDERS and there's 100's of files in each. And, again, that's just a tiny snippet of what I could fit on my screen to make a screenshot for you to show you what it is.

It is, fundamentally and basically, all you REALLY need for the Toontrack experience.

Here, look for yourself:

If I can help you with anything else, let me know. I'm happy to spread my knowledge, if I have it.

 

stopped reading at "You don't need all this". TLDR anyone ? too long, my ADHD won't allow me to finish.

 

What stopped me was "you need MIDI.iso" ... with no link or REAL name to find it
The only thing i found on sister site was :
Toontrack - Drums MIDI Pack Update 08/11/2021
2021 ? so it doesn't contain "everything"

 

Yeah, you're probably right. I just wasted 7 hours writing and editing this with the only payment being to help out other musicians and explain to them how and why to achieve this help.

I'll probably delete this thread.

If I don't, if an admin comes along and sees it, please delete this entire thread.

I just donated 7 hours and 4,400 words .. and I'm a professional journalist published worldwide for 27 years .. so, it's a pretty full work day for me.

So, just delete it so I don't have to endure the snark of "I'm not reading that".

I was just trying to help.

I don't need that kinda shit.

Delete this whole thread and I promise to never come back to this site again.

I had no idea this community was like this.

I thought it would be composed of musicians and artists.

Turns out .. it's trolls.

Sorry for the invasion.

Troll on to some other thread.

this one is dead

 

My point is that I don't think building drum tracks from someone's midi makes any more sense than building a piano track, or bass track, or anything else from midi or loops. No matter how good or human the feel, it's for something that had little or nothing to do with what one is trying to create. Rather than try to audition hours and hours of loops and midi for a groove... just learn to play or program it.

But that's me and everyone has their own flow. YMMV!

 

Last edited: Feb 7, 2023

Wow. Calm down. Just because you wrote a novel not everyone is obligated to read it. Give it time and wait for more responses. It's called discussion, not JB44 drops pearls before swine and waits for his adulation. The original post has garnered likes.

 

Area 33 is a great download and well worth the size.
As far as preset loops, They are great launching pads, ,,
And edit these unique per song
REAPER DAW.
Using Superior 3, Addictive 2, and Jamstix 4,,, independently and together for a great beat mangler
as well as RealiDrum, Battery 4, ReCycle, StylusRMX, MDrummer,
Reason Drum options would be great if one could export midi proper,,,

 

I didn't read your whole novel, but this part looks intersting. It also explains why you''ll need thousands of MIDI files. Interesting approach, even if I prefer to screw up the drumming myself.

Oh, and maybe you should rephrase the title so the people know better what this thread is about (basically, how to get the best fitting MIDI file for your track with ED & SD).

 

I have a working Superior Drummer 3 (SD3) along with a working EZ Drummer 2 (EZD2). I have just updated all the Superior Drummer 2 (SD2) libs I have to SD3 and have retired SD2 from the production machine. I have a crap load of EZX's that all seem to load and work OK in SD3. I have EZ Drummer 3 (EZD3) with all the updates and the core library(s). Just haven't installed it yet due to the fact there are "updates" that have to be ?? installed ?? in order for these EZX's to work with EZD3? These current EZX's work just fine with SD3 why wouldn't they work with EZD3 just the same? I have been hesitant to install EZD3 for this exact reason. Especially since I just got done updating a bunch of SD3 stuff FINALLY.

Has anyone had luck with getting EZD3 to load and use the slightly older EZX libraries without having difficulty in dealing with "update" b.s.?

 

At this point, it's just unhealthy hoarding. Why would you ever need so many?

I'm pretty sure that Superior Drummer 3 updates released by V.R. come with full, up-to-date MIDI packages. You pretty much only need to grab MIDI packs released in-between updates to have everything (or you can just wait for the next Superior Drummer 3 update and it will include them).

 

Last edited: Apr 10, 2023

I did a 300Gb SDX/EDX purge last month. It felt good. At this point too much choice is crippling.

 

Though tempting to have all of the Toontrack collection at hand for whenever you might need it, it's totally unlike a real-life drum-recording session. If you were to hire the best drummer you could get a hold of and your had the best set of drums and cymbals, you'd get one "pack," one drum sound and one style (or variety of styles): The drummer and their kit. If that one pack were good enough, you'd hire them for life for any clients that might come to your door. What I mean to say is that nobody really needs so much drum variety ever. However, I'd love to get Superior 3 and the basic kit it comes with. That'd be all on my wishlist. It's too bad they never go on sale.

 

Actually in hip hop they do drop and cut drums.... also do this on console mutes during a mix. Its not hard but you are mighty condescending. this is really great info sans your bias.