The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
  1. #1

    User Info Menu

    Anyone interested in seeing this software in action?

    I collaborate with my buddy Keith Forrest. We have guitars, bass guitar, keyboards, sax, flute, vocals, (and I'm probably forgetting something), we have all that covered and play those ourselves. But, neither of us plays the drums. So we use EZDrummer... yeah I know, but it's just a hobby, and the logistics of getting a real drummer and recording drums, no thanks.

    Song by Keith Forrest Instruments played by Keith Forrest except solo guitar by me EZDrummer sequence put together by me

    This mix is a bit hot on the drums and congas to highlight the EZDrummer2 parts. The mix is in progress.

    Drums, just a couple grooves. Added some opening hits, muted all but hi-hat for the bass guitar bit, added shaker for some variety, changed the snare articulation to side-stick for a section, sliced a 1/4 note section on the 2nd beat of the last measure, and added opening hit to get the crash at the very ending. Played around with the EZdrummer2 mixer a bit, mainly to bring down the volume of the shaker and increase the volume of the shaker ambiance to soften it a bit.

    Conga, just two different grooves. Thinned out the amount of strokes on the main groove as it was a bit busy for what I wanted.


  2.  

    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

    User Info Menu

    EX Drummer is good, you can get creative and musical with it. even their swing stuff is pretty good.

  4. #3

    User Info Menu

    I'm a superior drummer guy now, but got my start with ez drummer and it's dang good. You did a good job here.

    My only criticism is that the drums themselves are kinda underplayed with the fills and transitions and stuff. Which becomes an eye of the beholder thing between "I love this understated drumming" vs "a guitarist pasted some loops together". Even in the superior version, playing with the midi isn't hard, just tedious, and many of the included fills are of the "look, a drum fill" variety, which might not have fit your track.

    I always wondered about the Latin percussion pack but I was afraid it would be light on the cajon options, but the congas totally work. I don't really need much, but black Friday is coming up...

  5. #4

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by feet
    I'm a superior drummer guy now, but got my start with ez drummer and it's dang good. You did a good job here.

    My only criticism is that the drums themselves are kinda underplayed with the fills and transitions and stuff. Which becomes an eye of the beholder thing between "I love this understated drumming" vs "a guitarist pasted some loops together". Even in the superior version, playing with the midi isn't hard, just tedious, and many of the included fills are of the "look, a drum fill" variety, which might not have fit your track.

    I always wondered about the Latin percussion pack but I was afraid it would be light on the cajon options, but the congas totally work. I don't really need much, but black Friday is coming up...
    I hear what you say regarding the fills. Fills can eat up time and can be most of the work, so hard to find ones that fit. I got lazy on this regarding fills, haven't shared this tune yet so there still is time. Sometimes I'll search through the variation of the grooves in the song folder and borrow the last 1 or 2 measures of those and paste that in as opposed to the actual fills folder. Those might tend towards the understated side but they seem to fit better.

  6. #5

    User Info Menu

    Yeah, the trouble with the fills is that they are just that, fills. Devoid of context. I was/am a drummer and rarely ever played fills like that in any style. I preferred to freak the beat a little in context so you knew somebody was back there but you didn't have to stop dancing or whatever. That's kinda hard to pull off with these programs. Pick your spots and pick your poison.

    I run into the opposite problem, also, where I like a groove but it's a little too nuanced. That's usually easier to solve, but it's hard to find that middle ground. Maybe I'll just too particular a drummer.

    At any rate, it's more of a philosophical question. What you got here doesn't not work, and most of the time and focus should be on the guitars and stuff. Nobody's going to complain about the drums one way or the other unless they suck.