ezdrummer not recording in pro tools 9

[74nautique]

I can not get pro tools 9 to record ezdrummer. I set up 8 stereo inst. tracks, select ez for multi tracks, set each pt output track as ez2, ez3, etc. Enable each track to record, enable pt transport to record, start the groove in ezdrummer hit play on each and nothing records, I hear everything the meters move in pt but no drum track records to pt.

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[Scott]

I don’t use ProTools but I don’t think you are supposed to set up 8 stereo inst. tracks.

See this video for multi out operation:

http://www.toontrack.com/helpdesk/issue_view_portal.asp?ID=804

I also don’t think you can record into PT from the groove browser in EZD. You need to drag and drop the MIDI onto your instrument track.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[74nautique]

I set up PT per the video you sent (thank you) and it still will not record on to PT. I tried the drag & drop in to the instrument tack and nothing happens, I drag & droped to the regions list and then drag to the inst track and I just get one 5-second boom-boom-shish. Am I going to have to add more and more drop ins to get a complete track? This could take weeks moving them back & forth to get them all to flow with my guitar track, I would like a whole loop.

[Scott]

I tried the drag & drop in to the instrument tack and nothing happens, I drag & droped to the regions list and then drag to the inst track and I just get one 5-second boom-boom-shish.

If you drag 1 file it will only play one time. You will need to look into your copy/paste/repeat options in Pro Tools.

Am I going to have to add more and more drop ins to get a complete track? This could take weeks moving them back & forth to get them all to flow with my guitar track, I would like a whole loop.

Yes, you need to drag the files you would like to use into Pro Tools. As you are creating your song, you will usually want different patterns playing at different times in your song. Maybe a closed hat pattern in the verse that opens up to a open hat or a ride in the choruses. You usually wouldn’t want one pattern looped for the whole song.

For a quick mock up of a song I working on I will drag a 2 or 3 variations of a verse pattern into my host (Cubase for me). Then I will copy those patterns to fill the verse. Next, I’ll do the same for the chorus and drag and drop a few chorus patterns and copy/paste to fill the chorus. Same for the middle 8 and the outro/end. Next, I’ll start to refine it by seeing where I want fills (in between the end of the verse going into the chorus for example). I’ll look through the groove patterns in EZdrummer and find a fill that fits the song and drag it to the host. I then continue to tweak until the drums sound like a drummer played it instead of a bunch of patterns cut and pasted together. This includes adding more fills, tweaking the velocities to ramp up the verse into the chorus, tweaking the velocities of individual kit pieces for variations or making sure the kick drum pattern matches the feel of the bass guitar. Stuff like that. That’s where the art happens.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Brad]

I do use PT on a daily basis although I am not sure what the OP is trying to accomplish. If you are trying to turn the output from EZDrummer into (8?) audio tracks then you will need to do the following;
Create 1 Instrument track and insert EZDrummer on it, setting EZDrummer into multi track.

Create 8 Stereo Audio Tracks and set the input for each audio track to an input ez1-8.
Drag and drop your grooves to the EZDrummer track, ctrl-D to duplicate grooves when it makes sense to do so, copy, paste, etc….

Set your cursor to the start of the first region, record arm each audio track and select record on the transport.

For the record, I never “record” this way with EZ drummer.

I setup 1 Instrument Track, set it to multi-track, create 8 aux tracks, insert any specific FXs on those tracks and route all the “drum” (kick, snare, hats, toms, etc..) tracks to another aux track thus combining the processed drums (drum SUM). I create another aux track (EZ FX) and route the OH, AMB and any FX tracks from EZDrummer to that. Now if I’m running out of CPU I’ll change drum SUM and EZ FX to audio tracks, record arm and essentially create 2 drum stems of audio. You can then make inactive the instrument track, and all the aux tracks.

As for matching the grooves up with any existing instrumentation, Scott covered that process very well.

Again for the record, I usually put a basic groove down and play my instrumentation along with it……

I am hoping this helps rather than confuses the issue.

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