TD-8 and Superior 2

[Davoe]

I’m looking to crossgrade from EZdrummer to S2, and I’m using a Roland TD-8 module. I’ve been pretty impressed by EZ so far, with the exception of the hi-hat mapping. I knew this going in, so I’m not complaining, but need some more info before I go S2.

The TD-8 internal Hi-Hat controllers are linked. Meaning, I can’t get to all the parameters. I change the note # for the open hi hat, and the rest of the hat notes move too. It also doesn’t appear that I can select the open hat, separately from the closed.

This concerns me, that if I buy S2, that I still won’t be able to “teach” S2 all the proper hi-hats, and get the full range. Has anyone used S2 with a TD-8 & mapped the hats fully?

I’m also using this on a Mac in Pro Tools 7 & 8, if this makes any difference.

Thanks for any info!

Topic

[Davoe]

OK nvm. I couldn’t help myself & pulled the trigger on S2 last night.

[peri]

Hello Davoe,
 
you will get the full range HH with TD-8. You only need to map Open and Closed Bow, Open and Closed Edge + the Pedal. The range is controlled by CC4 messages.
What pedal are you using? I bought a 2nd hand FD-7 that gives me better range control than my previously used FD-8.
It works quite good, but I am still trying to optimize the response playing with velocity ctrl in s2.1…
Have you got s2 now? What is your experience?
 
Regards,
Peter

[Davoe]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the reply! I have an FD-7 as well. My entire kit is a 2nd hand eBay kit. 😀 It’s been sitting here unused for the longest time, and these products have resurrected it.

I started with EZdrummer, and it’s a very cool product. I knew some of the limitations going in, but the reasons I felt like I really wanted the S2 upgrade were:

EZdrummer limitations:
1) The hat controls
2) The bleed controls – Without control of the bleed into the OH, sometimes I had to mute the hat channel, because there was so much going into the OH’s. And if you turn off the OH, you get no cymbals.

I did buy the downloadable S2 the other day. My initial reaction was “woah, there’s a REASON EZdrummer is named EZ”. 🙂 S2 is SO much deeper. It’s possible to pretty much plug in & go, but if I wanted to get a grasp on what was really going on and how to get the most out of it, there’s a lot to research.

I have to withhold most of my comments until I’ve really had a chance to dig in (I also only have 1.7G installed – the remainder hasn’t arrive on disks yet). I’ll say this so far though:

PRO:
– An absolute steal. Where else can you get this quality recordings alone? Top notch recordings of great drums.
– The engine – fantastic! Really well thought out. Clearly this was spearheaded by people that have tracked & mixed records, and have said to themselves 1000 times – “Man I wish I could just have this kick dry, but the rest of the drums bleeding”, just to name one feature.
– There are too many PRO’s to list – just look at the feature set. (Include this line, because I don’t want the “CON’s below to appear larger than the PRO’s” The PRO’s vastly outweigh the CON’s.)

CONS:
– So far, the only cons I find is in user data management. No doubt what I find mildly annoying, others might find a beneficial feature.
– I really don’t like the fact that, to share libraries, you have to use X-drums. I want to see every kick in the library, when I use the kick’s pull-down menu. There should certainly be some delimiter letting me know that “These kicks are from Avatar, these are from EZDrummer Pop/Rock, etc.” But to create an X-drum, then have to steal the trigger info etc., just isn’t the best user workflow IMO.
– I also don’t like that every library has it’s own collection of presets, combined presets, projects, etc.. Again, some will see this as a feature, and maybe I’ll grow to like this, but so far, I’m getting confused where I saved things. Especially if I’m sharing drums across libraries. At the very least, the should be an additional global “folder” that lets us see everything we’ve saved.
– I need to re-read the docs on the differences in combined presets & projects. This isn’t clear to me yet.
– I need to look at the mixer some more, but it appears to me that the bus and output channels are there, even if not being used. I know you can hide them, but then that hides the entire section. What if I’m using bus 1/2, in order to see that channel, I have to look at 3 -> 32 as well. I’m just not used to looking at channels that aren’t being used. I’m sure there’s some reason for this, but it’s distracting at first. I’d like to see a “Hide unused (or unassigned)” button.

I better stop there as I already risk getting ahead of myself, before I’ve fully learned the product.

[Author]

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