Buck SnelsonI am using EZdrummer with Digital Performer 7.2. Can someone explain how to route individual drums to different MIDI tracks rather than to one stereo track. I see that in EZD I can assign the kick to track 1, the snare to track 2 ,etc. I don’t know how to set up DP to capture these outputs independently. Regardless of everything I have tried, everything goes into one stereo channel. I have tried this both dragging in EZD grooves and by entering notes with a keyboard controller. Can’t make it work! Thanks.
rentadrummerAre you sure you want separate MIDI tracks, or do you mean separate Audio tracks? I’m asking because I use Digital Performer and don’t think separate MIDI tracks will be of any benefit, but not knowing what you’re trying to accomplish I could be wrong. You can always use the Split Notes feature to separate the MIDI track into individual tracks after the MIDI sequence is recorded, but I think you’re going to have problems triggering one instance of EZD if you do that. If you can explain what you want to do in a little more detail, it would be EZier to know what to suggest.
Buck SnelsonHi Ron
Thanks for getting back on this. First, I am new to MIDI, although I am up to speed on audio recording in DP. So bear with me if my MIDI ignorance shows. Second, I am not a drummer. I’m a guitar picker/singer trying to add some drum tracks to my recordings. I’m thinking there are two things I would like to do that might simplify my life.
Idea 1. I would like to be able to drag EZD drum grooves over to DP and have the notes broken out into different tracks, rather than all the notes going into one stereo track by default. For example, I would have the kick hits go into track 1, the snare hits go into track 2, etc. It seems to me that this would make editing notes, say for the kick drum only, much easier. EZD seems to offer this option if you select Multichannel output, but I don’t know how to make it work with DP. For example, if I select Multichannel in the Pop/Rock library of EZD, it assigns the different drum mics to 7 different tracks. How do I take advantage of that within DP? Can I feed the hits into 7 different tracks in DP?
Idea 2. If I plug in my MIDI keyboard and I want to record a simple kick/snare pattern by direct entry, how can I set up EZD and DP so that when I key the kick note I can have it recorded in track 1, when I key the snare note, the hit will be recorded in track 2. etc.? I see that EZD makes it possible for me to make custom assignments of drums to different output tracks, but I don’t know how to take advantage of that in DP.
So I guess my main idea in both cases is to have the drum kit hits spread out over several different tracks in DP simply to make editing or overdubbing easier. Right now, with all the drum kit hits in one stereo track, I have to spend lots of time scrolling up and down to find what I am looking, make sure I am on the right MIDI note, etc. Maybe this is a bad idea for one reason or another. If so, please set me straight. But if this is not the idea behind the Multichannel output option in EZD, what exactly does Multichannel do for me? The manual for EZD is very vague on this – only that it can be done and “your host has to be set up accordingly to capture these outputs”.
Thanks for any insight you can offer.
Buck
rentadrummerI don’t use EZDrummer very much since I started using Superior 2, so if I’m wrong about this, I’m sure someone else will chime in.
If I remember correctly, the individual outs are audio assignments, not MIDI. In other words, you can send kick, snare, toms, etc. to individual mono or stereo audio tracks, but not separate MIDI tracks. And even if you could send to MIDI tracks, it’s probably not necessary because there’s a simple way to edit the drums in one track using the Drum Editor in DP. It has all the tools available that you would need, and you can see the entire drum track in one grid. After you drag your grooves to DP, select the drum editor and you can arrange the individual instruments from top to bottom in the order you prefer. I’ve used it for so long that to me it’s like reading a drum chart, and I don’t think there’s a better tool available in DP for doing this.
If you don’t like the Drum Editor and still want to separate the notes into individual MIDI tracks, I think you’ll need to use the Split Notes feature, which is probably under the Region Menu. I don’t use it, so I’m that familiar with its features, but I’m sure you can find it in the manual. The problem I see when doing it this way is that then you’ll need to use multiple instances of EZDrummer, one per each MIDI track, and I don’t know if you want to go down that road.
As for routing to audio tracks, you need to set up a mono or stereo audio track in DP for each instrument, and assign the input of that track to a bus that corresponds with the output of EZDrummer. You’ll see all the EZD outputs listed in the pulldown menu for Input assignment in the Tracks window of DP. I used to use multiple instances of EZDrummer and route them to six separate audio tracks, but this was after I had completed recording and editing the MIDI track.
Buck SnelsonRon:
Thank you very much for this information. Split Notes does exactly what I want to do in splitting out EZD grooves into separate tracks. I’m sure I would never have discovered that feature on my own. I’m still amazed at the things DP will do and I have been using it for audio recording for 6 years. I’ll experiment with your suggestion to use the Drum Editor to do the same thing when I have a bit more time. It may be even more useful once I get the hang of it. I’ll report back in a few days.
Thanks again.
Buck
Buck SnelsonThanks again for your help, Ron. I worked with EZD and DP most of the weekend. Split Notes does exactly what I wanted to do, as you explained. I also worked with the Drum Editor and figured out many of the features available there. I can do most of what I might need to do – add a hit, delete a hit, change a velocity, or nudge a hit – right in Drum Editor without the need to use Split Notes at all. It took me a while to discover the Snap Information window and the settings needed to be able to nudge a hit, but once I got that, I was a happy camper. I’ve still got lots to learn about using the many MIDI features of DP, but you have given me a good start. Thanks again.
Buck
rentadrummerGlad I was able to help, and thanks for letting me know that my suggestion worked.
Most of what I do is drum track related, so I’m not an expert when it comes to all things DP. Having said that, I discovered the Drum Editor window long ago and have been preaching its benefits ever since.
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