This results in less sample variance, so your snare (and kick etc.) sound more consistent. But there is a cost.Īnd the cost is - for most pre-EZd2 expansions, there are only two (yes, just 2) different samples per velocity layer. So if, like me, you're generally working on simple rock / pop music with a back-beat and using a snare centred on e.g. V=105, you're basically getting just 2 snare samples for your money.
And the resultant snare sounds "tick tock" as it alternates between those 2 samples. And further, snare (and tom) fills sound noticeably "machine-gun-y" because they're only working with those 2 samples in "Random" only mode (which means you have to dig in and edit the midi velocities in your drums fill to force "Random" to select samples from different layers). For Superior Drummer, this is less of an issue because there are more samples per layer - but it's still a problem. In fact, what I ended up doing in view of the overhead / room mic imaging problems and the above issues with the sample engine, was routing my SD channels to multi-outs, and bouncing the audio files for everything one kit item at a time. And then I'd do a bounce for the snare with "Random" only sample generation for the back-beat and "Everything On" randomisation for the fills, and cut and paste the bounced audio together. What a lot of work! I'm a patient guy, but it shouldn't be this much hassle really, should it? And then I'd get to work trying to get a timbrally and stereo-ly balanced set of overhead and room mics for the kick / snare. In the end, after it dawned on me that I was really only getting 2 (yes, just 2) usable snare samples every time I bought an EZd expansion, and neither the snare nor the kick would be centred in the overheads / room mic(s), I decided to buy Addictive Drums.
The snare / kick are for all practical purposes properly centred in both the overheads / room mics: you can build an entire sound just using the OHs if you wanted, or just the room mics, or any combination with the close mics, and it all works as it should do.įurther, the randomisation of the samples also works as it should do. You can have your kick and back-beat snare both at V=105 or whatever throughout the song, and the levels and timbre of the hits is similar but not identical - so it sounds realistic. And there is none of that somewhat naff "tick tock" sound you get with EZd as it alternates between the 2 different layer samples.Īnd extending this to another bugbear of fast semi-quaver hi hats, in Addictive Drums these sound very convincing programmed at a single velocity (the key is not to have them quantised as semi-quavers - but as e.g. 1/16SwingB - it's worth reading what Roger Linn has to say about the uselessness of slightly randomising the timing of semi-quaver hi-hats, and how getting realism is all down to swing. Try this in EZd and it sounds, well, artificial.
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