A Few EzDrummer Questions

[MikeFS]

Hi, I’m very very new at creating songs, I have been thinking about buying EzDrummer and I just have 2 questions:

I know this is unorthodox, but I feel it’s easier for me to start creating songs with a scrap guitar part first, add drums over that, then put in a finished guitar part so it sounds a bit better.  My question is: is it possible to have a guitar track going on in the background and add drums onto that track while it’s playing?  I’ve been looking at all the tutorials on youtube and found that everyone starts a song off with a drum track.  I also want to make some guitar medleys and I want my drums to match the medley’s drums (at least somewhat), if that’s possible.  I know that would put a lot of work on my ears if it is possible.

My other question is, if you are allowed to do that, what is the best audio software that I should use?  I’m planning on capturing my guitar stuff with a microphone near the amp, pods look pretty expensive and a bit complicated so I’m not really digging them as of yet.  Not sure if this would affect the audio software decision, but just in case I threw that in anyway.

Sorry if I rambled a bit 😛  Thanks in advance!

Topic

[Whitten]

To overdub drums after guitar, you would be best to record the guitar with a click track into a DAW. So that when you come to work on the drums with midi, the drums will be in time with the guitar.
A lot of professionals do this.
It just can be tricky because the drum sound has to work with the guitar sound and the drum part has to work with the guitar.
A lot of people like to know what their guitar groove is going to be, but commit the drum part and drum sound before committing the guitar.
Of course the beauty of Toontrack products is you can adjust drum parts and sounds as you go along.

[Juicy]

Absolutely everything he said.

Good Music is all about groove. people vibing together,Set up an eZ simple loop,the simpler the quicker the better.
Play a bit with it to see if you lock on to it with your idea intact.
If it’s working then forget drums for awhile ( let it loop)and record your GTR,then you will see the magic and power to finesse your drums after plus you put your GTR down with a groove and feel not just a click,I don t mind clicks,just sayin.
You also just got the best guy in town who will sit on tempo all day and night without needing to take a break even if you do ,he’s just waiting.
Virtual Reality in this case is truly a blessing,no fills no frills,no issues,you cant go wrong.
You then can totally deconstruct .redo,edit,mangle the drums into something completely better (or worse ) after .

[Whitten]

Yes, good idea – use a simple groove from EZdrummer as your click.

[Karl Sanders]

Hi Mike – I have been quite happily making song demos for about a year with SD2 –
at first I was doing the drums first ; but now quite successfully recording the guitar parts first.
I use a simple click in Sonar – and I make sure that the guitar track is recorded bang on the beat , with exactly the right feel I am going for.
When I want to add the midi grooves, the way I do it is to make a loop of whatever part of the song I am working on – like 2 bars or 4 bars of
a verse/chorus/whatever , and let that keep looping while I click on different midi grooves in the browser window.
It soon becomes super easy to tell which grooves will “feel” right with your guitar parts , and which fills are going to
be the right ones. This way its easy to make the drum part fit the guitar , instead of the other way around.
Cheers !

[ronnieg]

Yep …All they said.

Remeber. As a single musician you will need to maybe record/ substitue  parts quite a lot. It took me a long time to have the apithany that I’m doing the thinking and recording of maybe six to seven people. I’m entitled to swap and change and be a little indecisive!.

You need , maybe a basic DAW ( a “lite” version will do  ) 

My work flow after getting a chord pattern and melody in my head.

Audition a relatively plain EZ groove. Use it as the click but get it down on the daw.
Lay a scrach guitar and vocal on separate tracks. .
Start to build up and swap out parts as it develops in my head. (remember this is where you are doing the work and thinking of many muscians who would normally contribute ideas and arrangements, so it can ne confusing and a little fristrating)

Everything is in sync with the groove so adding midi or other guitars etc is easy.

Now as the song builds i go back into EZY and see if i can find a more appropriate groove.  I also drag down a few fills and overlay them onto the groove.  As it all comes together so does my thinking and decision making. 
It’s a fun process but like all creative processes a little frustrating too.

The beauty of EZD is that flexibilty to swap, change and add as the music develops.
Just switching a kit or maybe just a particular drum can also make the track come alive further.

Hope that helps

Ronnie

http://www.songramp.com/homepage.php?userid=16509

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