Rendering Spikes

[Charles McGuyer]

When I render my song with EZ Drummer I get spikes. The other instruments will be about halfway up the timeline. But EZD will have spikes up to the very top, all through the song.

When I master the song I can get overall volume but the drums get squashed and I don’t get enough volume from them. . I’ve tried turning the instruments down while mixing hoping the drums will get more volume but I get the same results.

Anyone else have this problem? Any solutions or suggestions? Thanks.

Topic

[John]

Hi,

are you talking about volume peaks? I read your subject first as something to do with CPU spikes.
Try inserting a limiter on the EZdrummer output to shave off fast peaks.

Best Regards,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Mauri]

I sometimes have issues with spiking (volume) in EZdrummer, the problem usually is the ‘Random’ feature’, there should be an ability to adjust the amount of ‘randomness’.
It is too unpredictable (being random;)) the way it is now…although it can be turned off, but that is not a good solution.

Have a good Christmas, everyone at Toontrack,

Mauri.

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[Juicy]

I found my solution with combination of understand the last post plus doing what is suggest by John.
If you can use individual outs you will be able to set up limiters really well for each mic .
I Have found it is usually the Snare and Kik giving you this Spikey “trouble” or Character as part of the Great Random Feature.
I have checked this on really Expensive VU meters too,the Spikes seem bigger than the apparent volume increase which does make it difficult until you get your head around the solutions.
Using Limiters is a better way to work with it ,instead of turning off Humanization with the benefit of getting a nice loud Drum Track.

APart from that it does take a bit of time truly learning how to mix ITB and getting the Kind of Volume you need where and when you want.
You may also try using Sub Goups for Drums,Percussion,Keys,Backing Vocals,Gtrs and also treating these with fx.Mixing Compressed and Uncomressed elements can be handy lets you can smash the compressor and then blend the original uncompressed signal together for best of both.
Learning some stuff about side chaining,if you dont already know this stuff,Pardon me if you already do.

[Charles McGuyer]

Thanks for the replies, guys. Yes, the volume peaks are what I mean. The drums aren’t twice as loud as everything else but the volume peaks are. Before posting, I had already put a limiter on the drums but that didn’t really help. Just got lower volume. I’m not that familiar with limiters so I will play around with it. This, for me, is a real problem.

Oh, will also play around with the randomize feature as the kick and snare, at times, seem to be come out of left field and get obviously loud.

[Juicy]

Mate i hear you, i did sort of make a comment about this years ago,Yes the Volume differences in the sample pool of same velocities same drums in some occasions are a bit more natural then we may like.

Some of the older session players i know are experts and hitting a snare in a sweet spot and maintaing consistent tone even while each note is different,fills are another thing entirely and benfefit from some more variation.
If you turn off Humanise you will hear the problem go away as well get a machine like playback.
A trick is to open two or more instances of EZ and Assign/split your midi over to one with Humanise turned off for kik and snare ,it a matter of taste,using your ears and what sounds and looks right for you song sections.
Your limiter might not have automatic gain compensation.

[Author]

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