DamirI have a need to add drums to an audio file song without drums.
What is the best way to do this?
I use LogicProX, i have EZD3 as a plugin, but i have not managed to get anywhere fast.
I have imported the audio file to BANDMATE and sucessfully created a basic drum beat which is in sync with the audio file and i can hear both nicely, but when i drag and drop the midi from bandmate to song grid editor to manipulate the midi pattern with precision i cant hear the imported audio file to know what i am doing, i only hear the drum pattern, what am i missing here?
Also if i now drag and drop this midi file from song editor that was in perfect sync in Bandmate and in to my DAW starting both at first bar just like in Bandmate the two are out of sync, so there is a tempo issue, what is going on there? I thought things were going to be really simple.
So issue one is i cant hear my audio track to finetune my song in grid editor.
second issue is i cant sync up my bandmte result in my DAW.
i was hoping EZD3 was going to make this EAZY.
ANY HELP GREATLY APPRECIATED
Guy RowlandQuick caveat before my answer – I don’t use Bandmate. Or Logic. But…
What you need is to get your audio file without drums in Logic as one track, and EZD with its midi as the other. Bandmate is designed to find you basic groove options that will fit, not (as far as I understand it) to actually gel the two throughout the entire song. In the Bandmate tab it will play both so you can hear how it works as a reference on one part of the song, but once found you need to then use the midi in the main part of the app. Then in Logic when you play, you’ll hear your original audio and – from EZD – just drums. You can then either tell EZD to follow your host and assemble all the grooves in the plugin timeline, or you can not follow host and drag and drop the midi in sections into the DAW. Using Song Creator in EZD is a good quick way to find variations on the main midi from Bandmate to assemble all the parts of the song.
The main question is whether or not your audio file has a fixed tempo – was it played to a click? If so, it’s going to be a whole lot easier, you just need to set the start of the audio file on the right place in the bar so Logic’s metronome tracks it. If the song was played wild, it’s going to be a lot more challenging. Logic hopefully has a way of making a tempo map so it can track the tempo of the song – you may need a Logic person to help with that though, it could be fiddly.
DamirThank you very much Guy, i appreciate your response and was hoping this was not going to be confirmed because i have then just wasted my money on EZD3 , i already have EZD2 and was hoping the so called new upgrade had something worthy of upgrade it seem like i was misled by the hype, i can already do what you suggest in Logic Pro X using its own drum facility, but its not really that easy to use either, i was hoping EZD3 gave me this option in a very nice simple way but it appears they dont.
I expected to simply load my drumless track in to stand alone EZD3 create a basic backing drum track, in which case yes it does this very easily, but then it becomes a useless peace of gear, if i use its fantastic grid editor i cant hear my audio track in the background so i can fine tune my drums as i am working through the song, so this is one big mistake by toontrack, and a bigger blunder of this software you cant mix down the end result and export as a final product.
So i believe i have wasted my money as i have plenty of simple drum sound modules that work with my DAW.
regards Damir
Julian VaklinovYou have to make sure the midi files on the toontrack editor are aligned in time with your DAW timeline and make sure you have it set to Follow host so the tempos/time signatures are linked. Hope this helps
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Thanked by: DamirGuy RowlandDamir – yes, I think you’ve misunderstood the nature of Bandmate. I can see it from your perspective even though it never occurred to me that someone might read the new feature that way.
As you probably now realise, the purpose of Bandmate is to take a small part of a track and find a groove to match. From there it can help create all the midi you need to add drums to the song in your DAW. It can’t in an single hit analyse an entire song, add drums to it with all the right variations for the different parts of the song, then provide a mix with the drums magically in place. Maybe such a product will appear one day, but it is probably a long way off.
It doesn’t stop EZD3 being a great product though – best in class (outside the bigger Superior Drummer brother). I hope you get on with it in time.
DamirThat’s really a very narrow minded thinking from Toontrack designers, they have a great interface fantastic sounds and patterns and it all works very nicely as seperate sections, but they missed the mark when putting it all together, I can successfully load a complicated 3 minute audio track and it does a great job to give me perfect alternative drum patters all the way through the song but then it doesn’t allow me to do anything with it, it’s such a shame it’s almost criminal that I can’t just drop this midi into the fantastic grid editor and keep on working with the the full song still in the background as a guide, then when the song is perfect I should be able to mix down to a complete finished product, or export separately as individual files, this then would make the software very useful for everyone even for those that only require sections of songs.
IT IS A TOTAL DISAPPOINTMENT and does nothing to increase my workflow I might as well just use my Logic Pro X and it’s clunky way to achieve my goal, which is a simple way to add drums to an audio file without one or just change to an alternate drum pattern.
What a great pitty, 😩
I have just discovered that I can export my alternative drum track from Bandmaster and it will be in sync with the audio track in my daw so this is very quick and works unfortunately it is the basic beat all the way through as I could not tidy it up in EZD3 , so I suppose if I do this a dozen times I could then have multiple drum audio tracks in the daw then I could chop and paste any preferred section in to a complete song, yes that’s possible but very time consuming something that could be so easily done within EZD3 grid editor if it allowed me to hear the backing track , Sooooo disappointing!
Bear-Faced CowI would agree with the others that you are attempting to use EZD3 beyond the capabilities of a drum plug-in. The kind of workflow that you are describing is more in line with a DAW such as Logic Pro X. Not to mention, from what you were describing, it doesn’t sound like Logic is clunky in this case, rather your workflow.
All things considered, considering that you are using Logic Pro X, why don’t you tie EZD3 into Logic’s Drummer and use that to follow your audio and create your song. Logic can be mapped to the audio and make playback rather seamless and Drummer can follow your audio a lot closer than EZD3’s Bandmate.
jord
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Thanked by: DamirDamirThanks Jord, EZD3 BandMaster actually does a very good job very simply placing a perfect beat behind a complex song its just you cant seem to do anything else with this end result, so what is the purpose of this add on, its easy but cant use this with grid editor as you cant hear the audio track you are synced to and then you cant export you finished result, WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS ? I always thought an upgrade offers something worthy i have all three EZD software and dont understand where EZD3 fits in, what does it offer us thats EASY i expect to use this as a stand alone drummer, i expect this software to be able to symply load an audio file add on drums and export the end result, otherwise why is it called EASY DRUMMER its a very nice combination of software that works individually but has no real outcome or purpose, unless you want to tinker around with little loop ideas.
I can do that on most daws.
Bear-Faced CowThat’s because EZD3 is not a DAW. Its primary function, whether it is standalone or plug-in, is drums. And, as far as drums go it is one of the best of breed as far as software goes.
What you want to do requires a DAW. EZ Drummer can help figure out the beats to use, but it is not going to do all of the work for you. You still need to put in some effort. It is called EZ Drummer and not Lazy Drummer.
That being said, EZD3 works very well (rather extremely well for that matter) with Logic Pro X (since you mentioned it). Drummer’s Follow Audio feature was introduced back in 2013 and is definitely a easier to use since you don’t need to bounce down any audio or MIDI track. Just have it follow and it works. Not to mention that you can build an entire song around it without having to leave the program, fills and all. Best of all, EZD3 is flexible enough to tie into Logic’s Drummer simply by loading a drum map… something EZD2 couldn’t do. I posted the map in another thread but if you need it here, I can put it in a cloud share.
No use bellyaching. You have tons of options.
jord
DamirI totally dissagre with you perspective of Eazy drummer 3, it is a great stand alone bit of gear that has not really put a lot of effort thinking of what it is trying to do, it seems as though it has been designed by a very narrow minded drummer, why would you have Bandmaster creating a drum pattern for you perfectly to an audio track you have created, but then if you place this midi end result in a great Grid editor to fine tune your end result, BUT NOT BE ABLE TO HEAR YOUR INNITIAL AUDIO GUIDE TRACK within the grid editor so you can actually edit your drums and use the audio track to hear the result immediately.
ITS A VERY NARROW MINDED DESIGN FLAW, unless i have missed something and there is a way of doing this but i havent discovered the function switch to allow me to do this yet.
So if anyone has achieved my simple request can they help please?
i dont need another DAW function i just want a simple drum pluggin that has a purpose and thats to put a nice drumbeat behind an audio track.
thanks again!
Julian VaklinovI suppose it depends on what DAW you are using… I use Ableton Live so Looping is easy to do… Combine this with EZ drummer 3. in the bottom part of the UI you have the area where you can drop midi tracks into it. There are numbers. if you click and drag over the numbers, you will highlight them and start a loop on EZ drummer 3. You must have “Follow Host” on, and with that being said, what ever MIDI you are working with must be aligned with the numbers that correspond to part of the song you are working on in your DAW. Have faith, and try not to get frustrated. That’s all I got for you. Agree or disagree, I tried.
John@Julian: the OP is asking for having audio backing track synching capabilities in the Standalone, so the Follow Host option isn’t a solution for him.
@Damir: I suggest you put in a Request for this feature in the ‘Requests & Feedback’ section of the Forum. It’s obvious that you wish to use the Standalone in another way that it is currently made for, not saying one or the other is right or wrong.
BR,
John
John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor
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Thanked by: DamirDamirThanks John, i have purchased all the recent toontrack software products, and was really looking forward to Easy drummer 3 because of its Bandmaster feature thinking it will give me a very fast way of adding fantastic sounding drums to all my songs , i am very new to the forum and have just started using these products. I am over complicated software that wastes my time so this was the reason for getting easy bass, drums 2, 3, superior, mix, keys, , i so far have used easy bass , and easy drummer 2 to some degree and was hoping Easy drummer 3 was my answer to a big need i always have had and that was to replace my drums on all my backing tracks i have created as a solo performer, all i need is great sounds with solid reasonably simple beats that i can replace my old shitty sounding drums and my amateur drumming , as i am a bass player, guitarist, keyboard player and then drummer LAST.
I love well designed software and i do like Easy Drummer 3 which can do so much more than i need but it doasnt cut the mustard with the very simple thing i need and i believe many other users, and thats to simply allow the audio track to be heard in sync with the grid editor so you can complete fine tuning of the drum track, and once you have achieved this goal to simply export as a total mix, or EZD3 audio drums only, or a midi file, this then completes this software to be a very worhy pluggin to own, as it does a great job in Bandmaster with an audio track, it has a fantastic grid editor, and yet it does a very poor job to marry these two wonderful features to complete something really worth while.
Its like driving a ferrary in a car race beating the crap of the competition then conking out 10 meters before the finish line.
I am not familiar with the feature request part of Toontracks website , i will try to request this but if you could also pass this on to the appropriate place i would appreciate it, i can guarantee you there are many more potential users with this need.
I noticed one of your great supporters that has a Utube video and talks about Bandmaster gets to a point where he loads his bass riff and creates and drops down a basic pattern from it but then wants to add a nice fill at the end so he drops down the fill he created, but then he mouths off an immagenary bass riff that is actually the audio file he cant hear, now thats a shame he should be easily able to hear the bass riff till the cows come home so he can then easily see if the new creation works and if not he should be able to go to the grid editor and sill hear the audio track so he can precisely edit till he is perfectly happy, once the whole thing is perfect hit export.
I normally judge software by my first impressions and this was the first thing i thought stood out like a sore thumb , i could not understand how this was not so obvious to the designers, it would just leave all other competition in the dust.
Cheers Damir
Michael BursteinIt would be very helpful if TT made the bandmate have a way to record directly into the software like on EZ Bass instead of importing audio from another source. Just saying… Thanx
How do you get a drummer to stop playing? Put a chart in front of him. ha ha ha
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Thanked by: DamirBear-Faced CowIts like driving a ferrary in a car race beating the crap of the competition then conking out 10 meters before the finish line.
Based on your workflow and response, it’s more like driving your car across the lake as fast you can thinking you don’t need a ferry, only to find yourself sunk at the bottom.
jord
DamirMy workfow is advance thinking not old school slow workflow my car would also be able to travel on water its an expensive well known brand that it should float as well as drive on the ground.You can wait for the ferry i just like to drive across without stopping.
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