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[Tom]

Had the same problem today when Pop EZX announcement arrived. Well, actually a complete hang of my Internet. Later the usual “an error has occurred”. This time with MS Internet Explorer. I have sent the details to the Toontrack Webmaster.

[Tom]

Sorry, I got a direct email request too. But have been away for family events …

I am using XP SP3 with Outlook 2010.

Edit: Browser has been Windows most recent. But I currently use Chrome (wonder if that is why it works now).

But the funny thing is that it looks like they are working now when I go back and find all your announcement mails in my deleted folder.

Tom

[Tom]

That thing with the chord wheel was one of my early complaints about EZK in this forum.

I suggest they make it possible to move the chordwheel with some arrow handles, by pressing control and dragging or even just have it automatically advance after entering a chord (perhaps as a setting in preferences). There are many possibilities. But I think the chord wheel is inspiring to have if they just fix this thing.

…. Other than that my main feature request is still having EZK remember the chord sequence I chose, so I don’t have to enter the same chords again with every new midi clip I audition. Until this has been implemented I won’t buy any add-on packs.

[Tom]

Here is the link I get when clicking “Read More” in the Randy Staub EZMix pack that I just found again in deleted items:

http://toontrack.cmail5.com/products.asp?item=150&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Randy+Staub+EZmix+Pack&utm_content=Randy+Staub+EZmix+Pack+CID_3361ad30441d8bf51205e1c6c65090e0&utm_source=Campaign+Monitor&utm_term=Click+here+to+read+more

… An Error has occured.

That’s how it always work.

…. Well, the strange thing now is that when I click the EZKeys PopRock today after having clicked the above one, it suddenly works. But it’s a fact that whenever I receive a new advertising email from Toontrack, the link won’t work.

[Tom]

ORIGINAL: ChazC

ORIGINAL: John
You get 12 Songs in different styles and Tempo with 4 Variations each of Intro, Verse, Pre Chorus, Chorus and Bridge. Plus a few Minor and Major Ballad Chords variations.

How hard is it to actually list that up on a details page for the pack?! Did you learn nothing from the complaints from EZMix pack customers?

+1

And while you are at it, improving info for customers, please, fix the links in your advertising email. They always take me to a dead end. So I have to go Toontrack.com and search for the new product myself. It’s been like that for a couple of years I guess.

[Tom]

+1

Libraries with “backing piano” various simple chords with chops and transitions would be fine. Not too different from the drum midi. Some basic grooves and some “fills”. I do, however, believe it would be somewhat genre dependent.

… but for this to work you will need to allow me to decide the chord sequence and lock it.

[Tom]

So here are my comments since I have been an active critic several times before:

1) Many, including myself were expecting more from this product.

I only expected it to be able to remember when I had changed chords for a bar so that the next clip I dragged down would adjust to that. I could have tried the demo, but when you see something looking like a bird (BiaB and other arrangers) you expect it can fly. But EZK proved to be an ostrich.

2) What EZ Keys does well, it seems to do very well.

Sure.

3) There are more then a handful of what seem like obvious no brainer editing options missing.

Yes. The locking of chord sequences. Maybe chord inversions.

4) The current “Extensive Midi Library” is in reality, very small and limited.

I don’t care. I can import midi from loads of songs on the net and this works well. I bought this primarily as an arranger.

5) The history of Toontrack products suggest that the release of EZ Keys was possibly rushed and doesn’t really stand up to the past standards of the company.

Seemingly not as programming goes. At least it is as bug free as most TT products are. They just forgot to look ahead. What will they do with the next product in this line, an organ, strings, whatever? Once you have composed the piano part, you can’t lock the chord sequence so it’s gonna be very difficult to fit the next instrument into the composition. So in this sence it was rushed. They didn’t realize EZK’s future needs if adding locking of chord sequences is such a difficult programming task. (They said elsewhere it is).

6) Having to purchase future expansions only to bring the current state of the product up to expectations, would be a let down.

I have started worrying that I have to buy more instruments I don’t need just to get some useful libraries. I hope they will separate between intruments and midi. And they probably will considering how this has worked with TT’s drum products.

7) Pre advertisements don’t seem to mesh totally with what the product actually does.

Seemingly yes, now that you know what it can and cannot do. But I was fooled by my preconceptions from arranger software to think it was more powerful than it actually was.

[Tom]

ORIGINAL: juicy

Tag the chords ?

Yes.

If you are not familiar with the Nashville notation system, it would go like this in the key of C:
I = C, IIm = Dm, IIIm = Em, IV = F, V = G, VIm = Am, VII = Bdim

As I said some clips sounded better in F than in C, that means you should either tag it F or more generally IV (fourth) to tell you where it sounds best. If you change the key to E then E would be I and A would be IV, meaning this particular clip sounds best in A when you play in the key of E. Or in whatever key you prefer for your base it would sound best as IV.

[Tom]

ORIGINAL: rgarber

IMO that this has been a good thread for helping some of us become better acquainted with EZ Keys, might we continue along that vein than get sidetracked on a review?

Okay, here we go …

Yesterday I played around with some e-piano riffs in a Fleetwood Mac song (You Make Loving Fun). I first fed it to RapidComposer (one of the several composer programs I have). But had serious trouble getting RapidComposer to recognize the chords. It insisted on C11 for the first bar that clearly sounded like something based on a G to me.

So I gave it to EZK, and it immediately recognized the same bar as Gm7 which is what it should be. I could also transpose the bar to other chords with reasonable results.

Now working on with other bars I found that it matters a lot what you transpose into. Let’s say your base is C (I), then it may not sound good in F (IV) or E (IIIm). So I decided to transpose to those chords in the C-scale where the clips sounded best and tag them accordingly.

Sorry, but at the moment I am not sure if EZK can do chord inversions. Forgot to check late last night. But in case it can, maybe that could make some of the transpositions sound better. If not: Well, then I have another request for the EZK updates.

[Tom]

ORIGINAL: Whitten

It’s like comparing Superior to Maschine. You could give Superior 2 stars for not coming with a hardware sequencer box, and not including a couple of gigs of hip-hop and techno samples.
This is the core of my issue with Tombur.
EZkeys didn’t turn out to be BIAB, so he gave it a bad rating instead of just reviewing it for what IT IS

I didn’t say it should be a BiaB with several instruments, styles etc. What I said was:

“I bought this assuming it worked like a piano instrument that could use midi and then adjust it to chords the user had entered. Not so. The midi comes with its own chords. You can change them, but as soon as you insert another midi clip your entered chords will be lost. Nothing special about the piano instrument. So before the composition tool is improved, it is not very useful. Once it can work like Band in a Box, but inside your DAW, I will raise my evaluation to 4 or 5 stars.”

I said: “… once it can work like BiaB …”. Meaning you can choose your desired chords in advance, not as currently where you have to enter the same chords time af time to hear what the midi clip will sound like in your composition.

At least on the surface it looks like a simple thing to add. I understand it is not, but TT have recognized the request. Which is fine.

It is possible my headline “Not a Band in a Box” can be misleading. But for headlines to be short, you sometimes have to make very general statements and then let the reader find the details in the text.

[Tom]

It will work smoother that way. It is not only a question of key clicks, it is also that fact that after closing the wheel you have to look once again and reorientate, now where was I …

But an alternative could be to move the wheel upwards (over the piano or browser) so that it doesn’t cover the track, but instead display the chosen chord in its center. Then it would be possible to click the next chord.

[Tom]

Well, my “issue” has been solved when I could not save my own progression. But what I have been asking for again and again here is exactly the same as you above: ability to type in your own chords and then have the progressions automatically adjust to your chords.

Toontrack has answered such a feature is high on their list. So now I am just waiting. Until implemented I have very little use for EZK (hence my two stars).

[Tom]

ORIGINAL: Scott

There isn’t a global Chord Selector. Once the chord sequence has been analyzed, each chord in the sequence has it’s own ‘Chord Selector’. To move from one chord to the next, you need to close one Chord Selector before opening the next one.

And that is exactly what bothers me. I don’t see why the same couldn’t be done by dragging the wheel to the next chord. Once the movement takes place the wheel nows a new analysis is due … right?

[Tom]

As I usually compare EZK to BiaB, I must admit that entering chords from the wheel is easier than having to type them.

… However, once you need to move to the next chord in the track the wheel covers it so that you have to close it and open again. May I suggest that the wheel is made moveable, either by some handles or by ctrl + drag.

[Tom]

ORIGINAL: Whitten

Hmm, shame Tombur gave it a two star review at T&S because it isn’t ‘BIAB’.

True, but I also wrote I would increase to 4-5 stars, once it could remember my chosen chord sequence.

Actually 4 stars for that, 5 stars when there is a direct midi out too so that it can drive my Kontakt instruments directly.

For me it is the composing part of EZKeys that count including more libraries to come. I don’t care about the instrument at all.

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Thanked by: Kenthany Kelly

[Author]

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