Should I Mix EZ DRUMMER OR NOT?

[Jeff Contreras]

Hey everyone! Should I mix the drums myself or just leave them plain the way they came? It sounds like when I listen to the SoundCloud Samples Toontrack posts the drums are not mixed at all and they sound great! I often go back and forth from mixing individual cymbals, kicks, snare etc. to just putting a simple EZ mix Drum Bus Preset on the drums.
What does everyone else do with Ez drummer as far as mixing the drums. I also feel like I can make the drums sound badass with all the ez mix presets however does that take away from my DAWS head room and maybe overkill? Is over processing the drums possible? Please someone help me! I would love to hear what everyone else does. I just heard the “Made of Metal Samples” and they sound amazing. Again…..Should I mix them or not?

Topic

[Michael]

This is kind of like asking should I eat an orange or an apple. You can choose which ever you like and neither will be “wrong.” You only need to do what you think the mix needs.

The sounds in EZDrummer 2 and EZX’s are “mixed” but they are NOT overly processed… this means that if your mix needs some additional processing on the drums you can do it.

“I also feel like I can make the drums sound badass with all the ez mix presets however does that take away from my DAWS head room and maybe overkill?”

Headroom is about gain staging. Making sure that you have proper levels in your DAW for all channels so that you are not clipping your busses or master channel. Ideally you want your tracks loud enough so that they are above the noise floor, but not clipping. This is called Nominal level. So If you are processing the drums with EZMix 2 make sure that you watch the input level meter in EZmix 2 and the output level meter in EZmix 2 (neither should be clipping), and finally the channel level in your DAW.

Michael Sanfilipp - Toontrack
Technical Marketing Coordinator

[Jeff Contreras]

Thank YOU SO MUCH MICHAEL I feel much more confident now in my mixing. I just got the new Made of Metal and have been doing all kinds of sound test for it! I love this program. Its the BEST! Michael can you please take a quick listen to this mix I did or anyone out there? Would love to hear some feed back.

Sound Cloud: https://soundcloud.com/jeff-scott-21/toontrack-sample-5-instrumental

“Toontrack Sample 5”
Using ” Made of Metal” EZX 2

[Codestation]

Right away I liked it, powerful and the guitar sounds great. Bass sounds a little distant to me. Not quiet, but indistinct – which may be what you were going for. The drums sound fantastic and have me second-guessing my decision to hold off on Made of Metal EZX…

http://www.soundcloud.com/codestation

[Author]

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