Problem Routing EZDrummer 2 to Audio Tracks

[Richard Strickland]

I have recorded a project and created my drum track within EZDrummer 2. Now I want to route each individual drum piece to their own separate audio tracks but I don't think I'm doing it right. 

I have created individual audio tracks for each piece and set the EZDrummer mixer channels to route to their respective track, but I'm getting a bad, lo-fi sound after recording the EZDrummer MIDI to audio (I'm literally arming each track to record and then hitting record to transpose the sound to audio). It also sounds out-of-phase.

Additionally, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be somehow including the EZDrummer effects (reverb, compression) with the audio recording of the drums or if I should leave that out and introduce these items during the mixing phase.

I appreciate any feedback. I also apologize if these things have been addressed already, but I was unable to find answers in the archives.

Thanks.

 

[reginaldStjohn]

You do not have to recourd the audio out of the EZDrummer2 if you do not want to. You can leave the midi as is and just treat the audio tracks like any other audio track. It just won't have a waveform on it.  Another thing to try is to "freeze" the track and it will bounce all the midi to audio without you having to record them.

[Richard Strickland]

2 hours ago, reginaldStjohn said:

You do not have to recourd the audio out of the EZDrummer2 if you do not want to. You can leave the midi as is and just treat the audio tracks like any other audio track. It just won't have a waveform on it.  Another thing to try is to "freeze" the track and it will bounce all the midi to audio without you having to record them.

Thanks, freezing was the answer for me. However, I'm still uncertain of how I'm supposed to route the effects. The reverb and compression are routed to their own tracks but is this really needed? There is a faint audible sound coming from these two tracks so I'm unclear of the purpose. 

[abacab]

 

[Terry Kelley]

2 hours ago, Richard Strickland said:

Thanks, freezing was the answer for me. However, I'm still uncertain of how I'm supposed to route the effects. The reverb and compression are routed to their own tracks but is this really needed? There is a faint audible sound coming from these two tracks so I'm unclear of the purpose. 

If you want to change the level of the reverb and compression signal you can do it in the EZD mixer if you are running single stereo output or via the CW tracks if you are running multichannel outputs. What you are hear on those are the compression and reverb signals before they are mixed back in.

I use EZD in Instrument track per output mode so I get all of the outputs in a separate track. Then I can add an effect to each one if I like. You can also select Multichannel in the mixer to point each one to a separate track.

Edited August 8, 2021 by Terry Kelley

[Richard Strickland]

Thanks abacab. I'll have to watch that a couple of times but it looks like there are concepts I can apply to EZDrummer.

Thanks Terry. I was always under the impression that all MIDI has to be converted to audio before mixing. 

[abacab]

3 minutes ago, Richard Strickland said:

Thanks abacab. I'll have to watch that a couple of times but it looks like there are concepts I can apply to EZDrummer.

The short version is that getting dry pre-fader individual audio outs for each kit piece, from any drum plugin, over to the Cakewalk mixer gives you the flexibility to mix the kit directly in the console, as if you were miking a real drum kit.

There are two important steps:

1. When you insert the drum plugin in Cakewalk, choose "instrument track per output", rather than "simple instrument track", and presto! You probably want to select mono for the kit pieces, although stereo is an option (that's really only good for the room, overhead, and busses).

2. Then go into the drum plugin and make adjustments as needed to assign what you want to send to Cakewalk on each output.

Then there is a bit of housekeeping as far as labeling channels and stuff so you can tell what's what. All covered nicely in the video!

[Richard Strickland]

I tried setting my instrument tracks to mono but my toms were barely audible. They are panned hard left and hard right within EZDrummer by default, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference. I deleted the mono tracks and reinstalled them as stereo and now my toms have the appropriate volume but neither my hi-hat or reverb channel are registering in the decibel meter. I can hear the hi-hat fine, and I think the reverb is audible, but there isn't a visual representation of the sound.

[abacab]

I have EZDrummer 2 also, and noticed the same thing.

Still tinkering with it... definitely different from AD2.

[abacab]

44 minutes ago, Richard Strickland said:

I tried setting my instrument tracks to mono but my toms were barely audible. They are panned hard left and hard right within EZDrummer by default, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference. I deleted the mono tracks and reinstalled them as stereo and now my toms have the appropriate volume but neither my hi-hat or reverb channel are registering in the decibel meter. I can hear the hi-hat fine, and I think the reverb is audible, but there isn't a visual representation of the sound.

OK, for EZD 2 here's what I've been able to figure out so far. I went with stereo tracks as well, and things seems to line up better.

It seems that the Cakewalk drum map for Session Drummer 2 matches up for the main EZD 2 kit pieces. I have not gone hunting for any unmapped items yet, but it seems workable. Clicking on the drum map labels in the piano roll will sound the respective kit pieces in EZD 2.

Choosing different drum kits in EZD 2 changes a few items in the EZD 2 mixer. So for now I am sticking with the EZD 2 Vintage basic kit.

It seems that only the kick and snare are individually "miked". The hats, cymbals, and toms only seem to come over on the "OH" (Overhead) and the "Amb" (ambient room) outputs, as well as the output labeled "Comp". That has some of the same sounds as the ambient output, but it's not clear to me yet what that is doing. Discovered this by alternately muting or soloing from the EZD 2 mixer while looping a MIDI drum pattern in Cakewalk to isolate what was routing to what.  The operation manual is fairly basic, and doesn't go into much detail on the mixer section.

[Richard Strickland]

I think for now I'll just use the freeze method. 

[abacab]

I think that EZD was intended for songwriting, not for detailed recording/mixing of drum kits. That's what Superior Drummer and others are for. But if you freeze the stereo audio output from the plugin, you will have an audio track with the EZD mixer "baked" in. So you will need to do your mixing in the plugin vs the Cakewalk console.

Just saying, but for songwriting that is not a bad approach. Keep it simple and have fun!