Neb
Participant
Topics Started: 23
Replies Created: 45
Has Thanked: 10
Been Thanked: 8
NebUPDATE: What’s interesting is that the stand alone EZ Metal Pack seems to be missing from the EZ Mix line. It has now been bundled with a 5 other packs.
It’s on the page you linked to, after the ‘metal bass beasts’ pack.
Are you running v2.1.5?
Did you try running the installer again?
Beginner-level Guitarist/Drummer/Mixer. EZD2|3 / EZKeys1|2 / EZMix3.
Desktop - Ryzen 5 4650G @ 3.7GHz | 16Gb DDR4 | 1TB SSD | Win10 Pro.
Reaper | Roland Rubix 4x4 interface | Arturia Minilab II controller.
NebJust a quick bump.
Beginner-level Guitarist/Drummer/Mixer. EZD2|3 / EZKeys1|2 / EZMix3.
Desktop - Ryzen 5 4650G @ 3.7GHz | 16Gb DDR4 | 1TB SSD | Win10 Pro.
Reaper | Roland Rubix 4x4 interface | Arturia Minilab II controller.
NebOK. Cheers.
Thanks for doing the YT tutorials. I’ll look at them when I’ve got time.
Beginner-level Guitarist/Drummer/Mixer. EZD2|3 / EZKeys1|2 / EZMix3.
Desktop - Ryzen 5 4650G @ 3.7GHz | 16Gb DDR4 | 1TB SSD | Win10 Pro.
Reaper | Roland Rubix 4x4 interface | Arturia Minilab II controller.
1
Thanked by: ShootieNebThanks.
So no real techniques or tools within EZD2 itself to start shaping the sound for mixing?
Beginner-level Guitarist/Drummer/Mixer. EZD2|3 / EZKeys1|2 / EZMix3.
Desktop - Ryzen 5 4650G @ 3.7GHz | 16Gb DDR4 | 1TB SSD | Win10 Pro.
Reaper | Roland Rubix 4x4 interface | Arturia Minilab II controller.
NebNot the answer you want, but you could save your favourite patches as empty project files.
This would result in a bunch of .ezkp files in a directory of your choosing, with a naming scheme of your choosing.
You can either double click them to open standalone and load that instrument/patch directly.
Or you can use ‘open project’ in the VST to browse your favourite patches (the ones you save as empty projects).
As EZKeys is getting quite old now (eight years), I don’t think it will get many more new features added the core program, instrument expansions for that matter – perhaps mostly only bug fixes and midi packs. It might make more sense for ToonTrack to start developing the next version of EZKeys instead.
Beginner-level Guitarist/Drummer/Mixer. EZD2|3 / EZKeys1|2 / EZMix3.
Desktop - Ryzen 5 4650G @ 3.7GHz | 16Gb DDR4 | 1TB SSD | Win10 Pro.
Reaper | Roland Rubix 4x4 interface | Arturia Minilab II controller.
NebOK, so the workaround is a hassle, but pretty simple.
Instead of exporting directly from EZD2, just drag the song into your DAW, open the piano roll and/or event viewer, select all the notes, change channel to 10, and then export the track (or ‘clip’ or ‘media item’) as a .mid file. Once you’ve done it once, it’ll take 30 seconds.
If EZD2 has an option to use channel 10 in the future, I think I’d probably use it.
Beginner-level Guitarist/Drummer/Mixer. EZD2|3 / EZKeys1|2 / EZMix3.
Desktop - Ryzen 5 4650G @ 3.7GHz | 16Gb DDR4 | 1TB SSD | Win10 Pro.
Reaper | Roland Rubix 4x4 interface | Arturia Minilab II controller.
NebDid you try the file I attached in MuseScore, John? Did it work the way you expected?
Beginner-level Guitarist/Drummer/Mixer. EZD2|3 / EZKeys1|2 / EZMix3.
Desktop - Ryzen 5 4650G @ 3.7GHz | 16Gb DDR4 | 1TB SSD | Win10 Pro.
Reaper | Roland Rubix 4x4 interface | Arturia Minilab II controller.
NebI don’t have a copy of Reaper to test this as it is not free
I used Reaper on and off for two years before paying for it. It is a full version with a 5 second nag screen and no copy protection.
When you install it, you can also choose a portable install. The install is small (100mb). It’s only 60$ if you do decide to buy it.
You shouldn’t need Reaper to do this anyway – any of the DAWs should be able to change the midi notes to channel 10 in their piano-roll / event viewer.
we should ask the programmers here just to change the channel to 10
Possibly. ‘Ch10 for percussion’ is in the ‘GM specification’, but it isn’t in the midi specification. So manufacturers of midi products have a choice of being fully GM compatible, partially compatible, or not at all. For software, GM compatibility doesn’t matter so much because the routing and editing is usually easy. EZD2 kits only loosely follow the GM specification anyway, which is probably why ToonTrack chose to ignore the channel 10 thing. I think some/most other DAWs also ignore it when exporting midi, unless you set your percussion notes manually to ch10.
The fact that you’re the first person to notice that EZD2 uses channel 1 tells us that it isn’t important anymore. I wonder if hard-coding it to ch10 might break a lot of old projects? So I think they might have to provide it as an option.
Beginner-level Guitarist/Drummer/Mixer. EZD2|3 / EZKeys1|2 / EZMix3.
Desktop - Ryzen 5 4650G @ 3.7GHz | 16Gb DDR4 | 1TB SSD | Win10 Pro.
Reaper | Roland Rubix 4x4 interface | Arturia Minilab II controller.
2
Thanked by: Shootie and RogueNebI took your EZD2 file into Reaper, and just changed the ‘channel’ (or ‘note channel’ or ‘event channel’) to 10.
It now imports into MuseScore just fine, I think.
Beginner-level Guitarist/Drummer/Mixer. EZD2|3 / EZKeys1|2 / EZMix3.
Desktop - Ryzen 5 4650G @ 3.7GHz | 16Gb DDR4 | 1TB SSD | Win10 Pro.
Reaper | Roland Rubix 4x4 interface | Arturia Minilab II controller.
NebJohn,
I only downloaded MuseScore ten minutes ago, so forgive me if I turn out to be wrong…
I think this problem is just the channel number. Nothing else is ‘special’ about a ‘drum midi file’.
Musescore expects drum midi to be on midi channel 10.
EZD2 ALWAYS uses channel 1 (so do many other DAWS/VSTs by the way).
Even if you use/import a .mid file with notes on channel 10 into EZD2, it will always leave EZD2 using channel 1. so even if you found a batch editor that could change the channel of your entire drum library files to ch10 in one go, it still wouldn’t do any good, because as soon as the file was imported into EZD2, all the notes would be switched to ch1.
MuseScore doesn’t allow you to change the channel either – it’s a known bug/limitation that users have asked to get fixed, I think.
Your DAW piano-roll probably can edit the channel though. So the work around is to drag your EZD2 pattern/song into your DAW, edit the notes to channel 10, and then export the .mid file from your DAW to insert into MuseScore.
Who is in the wrong? Probably MuseScore – ch10 for drums is a very old GM standard that no-one else really cares about now.
MuseScore should probably allow the opportunity to edit the midi channel on import, if it’s so important to this function. But there is basically zero reason why MuseScore should have ch10 hardwired into its programming, in order to apply a drum staff to imported midi.
Having said that, if you buy midi drum loop packs from GrooveMonkee and other such places, their midi notes are usually on ch10, mostly so that people can load them into vintage keyboards and gear, I think.
Unless I’m mistaken, the issue is as simple as that.
Beginner-level Guitarist/Drummer/Mixer. EZD2|3 / EZKeys1|2 / EZMix3.
Desktop - Ryzen 5 4650G @ 3.7GHz | 16Gb DDR4 | 1TB SSD | Win10 Pro.
Reaper | Roland Rubix 4x4 interface | Arturia Minilab II controller.
NebIn addition to what Jesus said, your computer keyboard does not have any sensitivity, so every note recorded will be at 127 velocity. If you don’t want it sounding like a 1980’s drum machine, you will probably have to edit and ‘humanise’ the velocities later.
Your controller on the other hand will allow you a dozen or more levels of sensitivity, and a choice of velocity curves (to adapt to your tapping). So your drums will sound much more natural when you play parts live.
This is not just a simple volume control of the same drum sample (1980’s!), but the articulation of a dozen ‘layered’ samples. Play softly and the drums will sound as though a real drummer is playing lightly. Play harder, and it will sound like the drummer is playing more forcefully. The drums actually change timbre, like a real kit. So it’s worth getting the feel right.
kick drum is F#1, the corresponding keyboard key is the “D” key, but piano roll is an “A”
The midi mapping to the computer keyboard is pre-mapped, and I don’t think you will be able to change that mapping (but it could depend on the DAW). So the other reason why you probably don’t want to use your computer keyboard is that you might not be able to trigger some of the drums from it – your chosen kit might be limited.
I don’t know why F#1 (30) is leaving EZD2 and triggering A1 (33) in your piano roll – that’s a DAW problem you need to look into. It shouldn’t do that.
Beginner-level Guitarist/Drummer/Mixer. EZD2|3 / EZKeys1|2 / EZMix3.
Desktop - Ryzen 5 4650G @ 3.7GHz | 16Gb DDR4 | 1TB SSD | Win10 Pro.
Reaper | Roland Rubix 4x4 interface | Arturia Minilab II controller.
NebHi David,
To be honest I never followed through with this completely. It’s still on my To-Do list.
The MKII controller comes with some software called ‘Midi Control Center’. It has two panes – one with eight memory ‘slots’, and the other with as many ‘local templates’ as you want to create. The idea is that you create a (mapping) template, save it, and then drag it to one of the memory slots to use it. Then on the controller itself, you can choose which of these eight memory templates you want to load. Actually it’s only six, because memory one and eight are reserved and read-only. Actually one thing that annoys me is that it defaults to memory 1 every time you power-up.
Anyway, mapping the pads is as easy as finding out what note you want to trigger, and choosing it from a list. You find out which note you want to trigger from the ‘midi layout’ pdf file that comes with each EZD2 drum kit. Most kit layouts overlap, so you only need to use one map. But it’s possible that you’ll have to make more than one to accommodate some kits.
You can also map the MKII’s pots to some of the other controls in EZD2, such as mixer elements like compression and reverb. I think there are 10 parameters you can map. However, I prefer to just use the mouse for adjusting the EZD2 mixer, so I didn’t set up midi mapping. For this task, rather than the procedure above for the pads in the Arturia software, I think it is easier to use the ‘midi learn’ feature in your DAW (this is where you right click on an element/parameter in the plugin, and choose ‘learn’ from a drop down menu, and then touch the controller you want to assign to it, so they become linked). To save these mappings permanently, you’d probably have to save the plugin-state as some kind of template in the DAW – it will differ in each one.
Another option I have in my DAW is to put a midi re-mapping plugin between the MKII controller and the EZD2 plugin. So that I could press C1/36 on my controller, but ‘re-route’ it to C#1/37 before it gets to EZD2, so instead of triggering the kick, the physical C1 note in this case would trigger a side-stick.
For me, though, all that re-mapping stuff is less important than just having the drum names displayed on my DAW’s piano roll, and then using the MKII’s black and white keys to trigger the drums instead of the pads. This is different from actual ‘mapping’; it’s just putting text on the keys, showing which drum each note triggers. In my DAW (Reaper) I was lucky enough to find someone who had already done it for most of the EZD2 kits and provided the text files. In Reaper’s case the file just looks like this:
76 Sidestick
75 Rimshot
74 Center
73 Rimshot
72 Center
The number is the midi note and the text is the designation which will display in the piano roll. Each DAW will have a different format for the name-files. EZD2 kits are not strictly GM (General Midi) mapped, and each kit may have it’s own individual differences too. So if you buy lots of kits, you might have to create several name-files so that you cover all the different kit layouts.
Although the layouts on the keyboard keys aren’t great for playing live beats, just showing the note names suffices for me. I got EZD2 to never have to program drums ever again, because I hate sequencing drums and think it is a gargantuan waste of time. So mostly I use the supplied drum patterns, and only have to add little edits to them, like extra cymbal hits or little rolls – very light live editing (which I usually need to go in and fix a bit in the piano roll anyway, so playing the edits live doesn’t even help that much).
If all this midi stuff seems overly-complicated, that’s because it is. I much prefer working with an audio signal.
Is the MinLab MKII any good? It’s ok. I maybe would have looked for a model that had proper mod/pitch wheels, and an expression-pedal jack. I thought all those pots would be more useful than they are, but I haven’t bothered linking them to anything in Reaper yet. I’m sure all the controllers in that price range are all about the same though. The Arturia Analog Lab4 synth software is good, but you need a powerful computer; I ended up having to use free synths like Helm and Synth1.
I noticed you’re using Win7 – you’ll need to ensure that whichever controller you buy, that there are drivers for it. I’m not sure any of the new controllers will support Win7 now?
Beginner-level Guitarist/Drummer/Mixer. EZD2|3 / EZKeys1|2 / EZMix3.
Desktop - Ryzen 5 4650G @ 3.7GHz | 16Gb DDR4 | 1TB SSD | Win10 Pro.
Reaper | Roland Rubix 4x4 interface | Arturia Minilab II controller.
Nebyou are not prompted by the Product Manager to update, right?
That’s right. I just saw it on the website in the ‘My Products’ section. I don’t particularly want to have the Product Manager installed.
IIRC, the changes made are in the installer packages only, not any content
OK, thanks.
Beginner-level Guitarist/Drummer/Mixer. EZD2|3 / EZKeys1|2 / EZMix3.
Desktop - Ryzen 5 4650G @ 3.7GHz | 16Gb DDR4 | 1TB SSD | Win10 Pro.
Reaper | Roland Rubix 4x4 interface | Arturia Minilab II controller.
NebBecause not all software audio processors are the same quality. The Overloud stuff is good, and very expensive. It’s nice to think that there is perhaps 1500€ worth of well-developed code from Overloud products powering EZMix2, and all that we’re missing is the GUI and access to the individual controls.
Beginner-level Guitarist/Drummer/Mixer. EZD2|3 / EZKeys1|2 / EZMix3.
Desktop - Ryzen 5 4650G @ 3.7GHz | 16Gb DDR4 | 1TB SSD | Win10 Pro.
Reaper | Roland Rubix 4x4 interface | Arturia Minilab II controller.
NebThat’s nice to know!
Do you know if the inner workings of EZMix2 uses, or is based on, the GEMS applications?
The amps, cabs and guitar pedals presets are based on TH-3?
Thanks.
Beginner-level Guitarist/Drummer/Mixer. EZD2|3 / EZKeys1|2 / EZMix3.
Desktop - Ryzen 5 4650G @ 3.7GHz | 16Gb DDR4 | 1TB SSD | Win10 Pro.
Reaper | Roland Rubix 4x4 interface | Arturia Minilab II controller.
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