Goodrat I wanted to try EZ drummer to replace my drum machine.
I don’t want to add loops to my music, that is just lame. I want to create my own patterns and tie then together. You know, like a drum machine, or maybe like a songwriter or composer. Verse beat, fills, bridge, chorus… beat by beat in a drum machine environment. But it seems like I need to figure out how to do this and the help file does not have a clue. As if everyone writes club music nonsense like a DJ. So I guess I need to research software, midi mapping, and other nonsense to figure our how to create my own patterns and tie them together and figure out other things in Sonal 7 to create a song.
Someday I hope someone creates software that will let you create music.
tuxIt’s about as simple as it gets, Goodrat. I use my Boss DR-770 to trigger the sounds in Sonar with absolutely NO problems. If you want to create your own beats by yourself in Sonar step by step, then yes, you’ll actually have to learn how to use the software first. The MIDI knowledge you’ll need to just do that (the easy way in my book) is at a kindergarten level And trust me, I’m no MIDI wiz. I can guarantee you that ! I can try to explain the simple setup to you if you really want to know how it’s done.
I know what you mean about the loops. They’re pointless to me too. I don’t write dance/dj nonsense either.
It just stands to reason that in order to use software that’s MIDI based in a drum machine fashion (as I do), you HAVE to have a bit of MIDI knowledge. There’s no way around it. And like I said, it’s SO simple to do. No need to get in a hissy.
Everybody here can help you if you want it. You only have to buy 1 thing to get the ball rolling. The rest is cake, my friend.
Goodrat OK, so I’ll goo thought the thought process here.
I have an Alesis SR-16 drum machine. I can connect that to my Delta 2496 sound card midi input.
The goal is to tap out my patterns on the SR-16.
This is where it gets foggy. The term midi mapping caught my attention.
I think I need to record the drum machine in sonar (MIDI).
Not sure id I should record the song or individual patterns.
Then I have to get EZ drummer to trigger its own sounds instead.
I also have a Zoom 123 that I like to use for bass.
Or, hopefully, I don’t need to record any MIDI at all. Maybe I can just use my drum machine as usual, but instead of triggering it’s own sounds, I trigger EZ drummer and record an actual audio track in Sonar.
Goodrat Some success here.
I set up Sonar with a midi chanel to receive my drum machine. Then an audio channel to insert the EZD plugin.
I can record the audio once I set ins and outs etc. It plays back (had to turn off the plugin I found out to play back.)
All interesting. I can use the sounds in EZD. So I tried iDrum too and it worked. iDrum had a nice feature to auto map a key on my drum machine.
So basically, what I need is just sounds I can play with my drum machine. Sampler sofware triggered by my drum machine.
Maybe some bass too and record the audio.
So I don’t need EZD unless after some research it has the best sounds. Cymbols are usually the sounds that are hard to get sounding good. Also, I would think I should have the option of 24 bit. A sequencer that has sounds in wav would make sence too.
Hmmm.
tux I also go through a Delta 2496. I find it easiest to map the drum pads to the appropriate sounds and then record the full song (drum-wise) into Sonar. If I feel I need to fix things after that then I just pull up the piano roll in Sonar and move things around. That way, I’m not locked in to having an un-editable audio track if I keep the MIDI track to trigger EZ in real time.
You can still set up the song in Sonar to be 24bit, but the EZ sounds will be 16bit as you’ve noticed. That’s just how they were rendered. I had doubts as to the quality of 16bit until I really messed with it. There’s no way anybody (including you and me) would ever know the difference if we weren’t told.
I’m not sure exactly what you meant about wav, but the sound files in EZ are wav files.
Seems as if you have or almost have the hang of it. See, it’s no big deal once you mess with it. It won’t impede songwriting in any way.
Goodrat Oh, yes. They are wav. I was confused with the other program.
Yet I don’t see a way to pull up your own waves for any drum.
No way to navigate to other directories that I can see so far.
Also I noticed the EZD wav files will not play in Media player or a few others I’ve tried like Wavepad.
Probably a way to keep you buying add on’s maybe.
tux I would think the wav files wouldn’t play in other players just to somewhat protect the company’s product. I don’t really know. It may be something to do with a code used by EZ itself. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to me for a company to keep things to themselves in that way.
Also, as far as I know, you can only pull up other EZ directories on the EZ main construction page. There’s probably a way you could get your own sounds in there but that would be like hacking into the software in my opinion, which is something I’m not computer savvy enough to do. I wouldn’t consider that a good idea anyway and wouldn’t condone it.
So how’s it coming along though?
JohnHi,
a quick note on 2 things; you can not load any other sounds than EZdrummer EZX sounds in EZdrummer and the WAV files are packed in the Toontrack proprietary TPC format. This is for your convenience, to save disk space and system resources.
Best Regards,
John
John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor
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