Mixing EZdrummer: The #1 EQ Secret For Pro Results
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- Опубліковано 28 тра 2024
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People tend to turn mixing EZdrummer tracks into rocket science....usually by using way too much EQ.
The truth is that EQ settings that you'd normally use when mixing live drums tracks rarely works well with Ezdrummer or other midi drum programs.
In this tutorial, I share the #1 EQ secret for mixing EZdrummer tracks for pro results.
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Do you add on drums bus any compression using EZDrummer knowing that this is already compressed in some way?
thank you man
You know what's crazy? I always thought Ez Drummer sounded great out of the box for our home recording releases, but I always thought "Well you're SUPPOSED to mix everything" and didn't trust my ears, ended up with more complicated mixes than necessary. Thanks for this video man, you're awesome.
Dude same, I’m like I’m mixing so I need to mix
Yep!
"Within your HEAVY production". Good specific description.
My secret is, write it in EZ drummer, export it in individual tracks, use just the OH from EZ drummer but all rest put my own no process drum samples from my actual drum set and mix it like a normal drum set, works amazing.
ive actually just done the opposite for my band, didnt record kick at all and the snare mic was almost unusable due to hat bleed.. had to replace both. kept OH and room mic. maybe next time i just close mic the shells and see which method sounds more natural. thanks for tip :)
I do that!
Great advice. What I love is that I'm NOT a heavy metal guy at all (in my 60s, more classic prog and melodic rock and soundtrack stuff, though I did have an early Black Sabbath LP in the early 70s), this common sense approach transcends music genre. One can learn from anyone who's good at what they do.
I have to keep reminding myself to not over think mixing the programmed drums, it's already sounds good so don't fuck with it. Great video Bobby 🤘
One thing I do besides a tiny EQ on EZ Drummer 2, is humanize a little, both with velocity and positioning of each hit, all by hand, because it makes the drums a lot more believable.. The thought process is that every drummer can't be as amazing as the perfect hit drums and timing that programmed drums do.. Also, I switch individual drums within the kits to give the kit more individuality. It really works when the drums don't sound like every programmed kit out there.. As always Bobby, another solid tutorial, thank you!
I think EZDrummer 2 has a humanise option in the settings, could've saved you a lot of time.
@@mattspence1337 If it worked well, you'd have a point. Humanizing by hand is pretty necessary for realism.
Out of everything I've learned about mixing in general over the years. Cutting frequencies instead of boosting everything was the biggest. When I 1st started, I thought boosting everything was how Mixers got a great sound. I found out real quick how wrong I was.
Literally started mixing my EZDrummer tracks today. You have saved me yet again!
I use EZ-drummer every day for writing and even composing beats(other genres). I've picked up many of my favorite drummer's MIDI packs and most of them already sound great. My big issue is trying to work with 30 additional orchestra tracks and not letting the main instruments disappear. Thanks for all that you do bro!
Ez drummer is amazing. My main source of inspiration. But I had a problem with the drums not fitting in correctly with the rest I was making. So I ended up 2 whole days tweaking the sound of the drumpack on top of a guitar sound to make it perfection. And am I glad I did that. The key things I did: the kick just didn't poke through enough. So I ended up clipping the kick. Sounds way better. Although it sounds less real when drums go super fast, but that might be editable. The snare I did a big eq boost and cut in the middle to make it way more aggresive. And I also put some stuff on the amb section I think of the mixxer by accident that I really liked. Guitarsolo's on vst's are difficult for me. I'm not a proffesional, but I am making a killer track right now. There is always something to learn in music🎸
I really appreciate this video because there are way too many other videos that show tracks getting over EQ’d and smashed to death.
Just all the that I needed. Thanks for this
Another excellent video Bobby! Thanks!!!
Great vid as always! I love EZ Drummer. As all My old Drummer Friends live hour's away, & I live in an apartment. Using Ableton 10, I've been using Parallel Compression on a Return track from the Drum Buss & slapping the Purple Audio M77 from Brainworx. Along with using Tokyo Dawn Nova EQ on the actual Drum Buss. Using the LPF & HPF and just minor moves with & a "Light" Limiter at the end, to make it "Punch" in the over all mix. I've been a bit lazy & haven't "Printed" to Audio yet.
Love the Metal Machine EZX as well. That & the Metal! EZX have been my "Go To" I've just recently started using the Progressive EZX, to flavor it up. Thanks for the great content, as always! 🎶🤘🎵
Thank you for the heads-up regarding the samples being pre-processed, I was going nuts with that stuff
Hi Bobby. I used to use ez drummer, then switched to superior. First wanted to mix all drums like real ones, then realized that is like ramming unlocked door; all is given to you on silver tray but slight tweaking. You have confirmed in this video that I was right, thank you. However I know that many professionals always want to mix stuff from scratch because they can hear their own sound in their heads and it's as though someone has done part of the work for you. I'm not such pro, so I am happy with effect of the way you showed. I like your videos about mixing soft amps and stuff because it's the only way for me, thank you for them, Bobby, great job.
Thanks a lot dude, I had this cuestion for a long time
Just want to add in ez drummer 3 I keep the grooves together and eq the whole kit and efx what have you and it sounds great, and it keeps my workflow down by a ton! It's like putting it on its own drum buss from the start when i record it to a instrument track in studio one 6.
EZ Drummer 2. The only thing I do is typically parallel compress (for "umph" on the shells), small EQ and reverb on the snare. I love the sounds overall. honestly, I think one of the best tracks I've done recently was a rock track where I didn't process them at all, just mixed
I noticed that with EZ Drummer right out of the box if you don't bring down MIDI Volume Control (far bottom right of the GUI) it will peak & sound distorted so i bring it down to -18dB. Did you mess around with the MIDI Volume Control at all for that mix?
I started off using Ezdrummer but then switched to Get Good Drums. I do slight EQing on the individual drum tracks just cutting certain frequencies. Really does the trick.
Sounds good. I have all of the EZD2 stuff but I like using SD3 because of the internal mixer. I can mix right within the built in mixer.
I've been using free drum VSTs like MT power drumkit and now the free version of Slate drums. Thanks for going into more detail about midi drums because until I get a real kit they're all I've got haha
Makes sense! That's secret revealed indeed! Thanks Bobby 😁👍
Can never thank you enough for this ❤
I prefer to use Ugirtone's drum programs since they have to be mixed and EQed more like real drums. They're raw samples and not premixed, so there's more room to shape how you want them to sound. Stuff like EZDrummer is definitely useful if you want something quick though.
Awesome video Bobby!
Yesterday I made a song with „made for Metal“ Pack from EZ D🔥🤟
Thanks for the vid. I've been trying to mix midi EZD and it's usually a mess. Time to render the individual tracks!!!
I agree with this. With exception for Superior drums .. as this also have dry raw drums without processing. In that case may need another direction how to process.
Thanks for these videos. I use superior 2.0. I'm off to my daw for a experimental session with drums!
Really basic but something i've not messed with bar a low and high cut. My snare always sounds a bit bright in the mix so i keep switching snares instead of eq'ing it. Thanks :)
amazing mixing, I really like the way it's mixed, do you need a sound monitor that can help stabilize the instrument
Superior Drummer 3 actually was actually an upgrade that i was surprised was worth it, I thought it was just going to have some more options, which is does, but the sounds and different channels and drums are actually better, I thought I was upgrading and got ready to be disappointed but I was very happy, just in case anyone was thinking about upgrading, oh and plus all your drums, midi, and extensions, and presets all still work, and just get automatically put in just saying
Thanks, Bobby! I know you've posted a video about this before, but still curious if you also bounce out the individual reverb and compression audio tracks for the drum sound setting in EZDrummer you use, or if you still leave those out of your individual track bounces. I've seen other mixers do this, and I guess it comes down to individual taste. Meaning, if I did this and feel its helpful, then by all means. But I can also process additional reverb and compression after the fact.
🤣🤣🤣 great vid and instruction! Yep this vid would have saved me about 2 or 3 yrs of ignorant amateur BS I was trying to do with EZ drummer.
Love your content! Thank u!
people have too many options these days so they think they have to do so much because of it. If you watched any of the Beatles recording sessions on netflix shows recently it makes you smile. Mics taped to mike stands 2 x 4 track tape machines kids playing in the room and their girl friends all there and then moving to the roof outside and recording that into an album. Its a lesson in less is often better . People watch this stuff and get a mind shift and focus off the massive amount of tools n options we have now. we drown in it.
I couldn't agree more!
Popular subject Bobby! I typically use Addictive Drums 2 and SSD5. Started with AD2. Then moved to SSD5. Now I switch back and forth or lately stacking them. I found they both have their strengths or weaknesses. I am forever searching for “that drum sound” though. Every mix I’ve done I’m never completely satisfied and just settle besides 1 song I think. Or if I am, I did so much along the way I forgot what all I did to get me there lol. This months song I’m releasing gave me pretty good results in a minimalist way. Not sure till it’s been a week or two of not hearing it then reevaluating it with fresh ears. I actually meant to submit it for your subscribers mix show. It’s just not very metal this time.
The eternal search, man! I've been obsessed with drums for years, always working on how to improve my sound...and I can say that atm I'm quite satisfied with what I have achieved, but I'm sure I won't settle with what I got.
I know the video is about drums, but this bass sounds killer!
I've been using Toontrack stuff on a regular basis since Drumkit From Hell, I've switched to the Superior Drummer 3 usually blending samples, nowadays I've been using the Death&Darkness pack, some very nice tones, I'm a fan of Tue Madsen and Mark Lewis, I like to tweak things my own way, but even the chance to see the "kind of approach" those guys usually make is awesome, and as usual they don't do much, it's all about some very soft eq moves and almost no comp at all.
I like to use Modo Drums and GGD from time to time just to keep things interesting, but I'm so used to Toontrack is hard to change.
Good video! Learned alot! I think I made most of the mistakes that u talked about! 😅
Awesome video as always, Bobby. I must ask though, why does the ‘Snare Bottom’ track have 5 reverb sends?
I currently use perfect drums. I have been enjoying it.
thanx dude!
Thought you were flipping us off in the thumbnail at first glance. 🤣🤣
Do you always use the original mix version of the drums from ezdrummer? Not all ez drummer presets have the same options for splitting out separately, sometime the the channels you can bounce out include things like ambience and compression or reverb. Do you make those audio tracks as well, or combine into a room file?
Hey dude great! video I have a question though... how do you split every single instruments from EZ Drummer to different channels in your DAW because the only way I can do it is if I record soloing every single instrument and I require them one by one in different tracks but that makes some phase issues there is a way to designate the output of each channel in easy Drummer to different tracks in your session?
Hey Bobby, have you ever used ugritone drums? IE Kult drums, ODSM drums or the new Drums Against Humanity? would be interested in a review or how you would mix them, as I exclusively use ugritone drums for my productions. Have a good day, keep producing good content
This video was sorely needed. Thank you for making it! I'm curious as to whether you would use Neutron on EZD? Bearing in mind it adds a saturation module and compression, too. I think it sounds good on bass, snare, and hi-hat, but I'm a bit of a newbie, so what I think sounds good might just be trashing the sound. Not sure if Neutron's algorithms are treating the sounds as they would live drums, which based on what you explained, wouldn't be ideal.
Guy makes it rain useful information, my metal has never sounded so good 👍 modern day Robinhood
What about an instance of Superior Drummer or SD Metal Foundry, where you load up the raw drums, but not one of the Presets? One band I used to be in, Utopia Denied, used the original EZDrummer, that is, not the new ones you guys have. I played bass in the band, and wrote 90% of the riffs The bass and guitar were all done on those old red PODs going DI. I remember when the singer, who also did the mixing and mastering (and also dead now) told me that he did no processing on the EZDrummer. I said really? And he said, this is all I do: He would run a cable out of his computer where EZdrummer was on some ancient version of Reaper. That cable was like the tiny cable, a 3.5 mm, as I recall, then went through a splitter into his ancient Roland mixer -- I don't even remember what model that Roland even was. If anyone wants to hear the tracks just look up Utopia Denied, songs: "Sinister Clown," "They Angry Master," and there was a 3rd song up, but for some reason it's not on the page, and the guy who put the songs up is dead, so we can't ask him. But yeah, those recordings were literally just the original EZDrummer, bass and guitar through a POD, and going into some Roland board. Also most REAL drums in recordings, even the most professional recordings ever, you will notice they sound very lacking in punch or velocity, so to speak, and that goes for kick, snare, and toms, because that's what a real human sounds like playing a real drum kit. The "more metal" you get, that is, the faster the drums are going, more complex and constant, and more drum pieces you get, then it is even harder to do. For example, if you got like 3 rack toms, 2 floor toms, a snare, kick, hats, ride, and 4+ cymbals and a crash, then it's way harder to play them all with the same velocity hits, and even harder to mix all that. Thats bleed in like 11 mics minimum, minus if you are putting a mic on hats and ride, snare bottom, or a room mic. If the snare or toms ring out then good luck trying to fix that. Or if you hit the kick drum and all the toms vibrate, good luck with that, or if the snare rattles when any tom or kick is hit, you got rattle going on nonstop that will muddy the mix up. Thats why for snare most people use an O-ring, Moongels, tape, or even detuning 1 lug, or 2 lugs, or even 3 lugs, and toms you can moongel them too, but I haven't had any success detuning lugs on them, any secret to that? I used to think, "If I just actually TUNE the snare or toms right, then that ring and resonation will go away." But after the first time I truly tuned my snare head bat and res to 311 Hz perfectly, and recorded, and heard this ppiiiiinnnnnggg piiiinnngggg, thats when I realized that even a tuned snare or tom will ring out, and it may ring out even worse -- but hey, at least the ringing is like 1 syncronized note, and not like 20 weird wobbly over toned of an untuned snare or toms. Some people even say to drop cotton balls in the floor tom, to reduce ringing, but I find it sounds so unnatural.. Supposedly there is a formula to tune the batter and resonant heads at intervals that will reduce their sympathetic resonation, and I've tried this, literally getting each lgu perfectly down the the exact hertz frequency... but it still rings out. Back in the "olden days" they actually removed the reso head from kick drums and toms and put mics inside them. That's what Hotel California is, or old Iron Maiden or old Metallica. I did a little bit of experimenting with this, but unfortunately at that time I didnt know how to tune each lug perfectly to a hertz frequency. Anyhow I would reccomend anyone who doesn't have a million dollars to play with to stay away from recording real drums. Oh and last thing I was gonna ask what velocity you usually program your MIDI drums in. Do you use 127 for all of them? Or do you actually use like 70 or 80 velocity? And I dont mean for a just a build up on snare.
So are the Overheads and Room tracks just getting sent to the submix or default output 1 and 2? Also I noticed that you made them hard panned mono tracks as opposed to making the OH & Room tracks stereo, is this better?
Could you do a video on how to make a dry sound for drums in EZ drummer and how to get a non ringy dampened sound to the snare? Thanks.
Great point with processing something that is already 'processed'... less is more! When you bounced the midi to audio, what was the initial input level audio?
(I see for example the 'kick' ~ -3, and 'snare' ~ -18.5 but not sure if this is measuring input level...)
Very useful. One question: what about mixing ezdrummer kick with live bass. Sidechain compression must be abadoned?
I used bfd3 if I want raw drums
Because these samples are great .
I prefer to work with premixed drums
Like panda sound or Steven Slate..
I need to try out ez drummer also
Thank you for information.
What about the original mix preset on ez drummer. Are those samples eq and compressed as well or raw samples? Thanks bobby. You rock 🤟
From Toontrack's web site: Original Mix gives you access to all mic channels that were used in the recording (rather than busses) and has NO PROCESSING. The Original Mix preset is useful for users who prefer to mix within their DAW
I use EZDrummer 2 and Metal Machine pack with a snare sound from the Metal! pack. I noticed that you exported all the drum parts in mono. If you route the different drum mics into to different midi and vst instrument tracks those tracks are stereo by default. Did you pan them to the center within the EZDrummer mix section before exporting? Great tips 👍
bro i keep the drums togehter and its less work and sounds awesome and you can still add efx and eq to the whole kit at once and it sounds great! just sayin.
I use Superior Drummer 3 with the various SDX suites ( Death & Darkness is probably my favorite for extreme stuff) I do NOT export to individual tracks in my DAW though. The mixer within SD3 is like it’s own separate DAW anyway. I use a a tiny bit of processing on my drum buss since SD3 has a ton of options.
Sure, but its internal plugins are pretty week compared to something like UA's 1176 plugin. There are huge advantages to mixing out to individual tracks.
How did you get the midi map to go away have have a sound wave for the drum tracks? I use reaper.. I have tried to figure that out and have had no success with it.
brush i shit you not im sitting here drinking coffee out of MY tmnt mug hahahaha
I use Ugritone Drums. It has awesome sounds that are alot more raw. Not expensive at all, suoer easy to use and route. Recommended 100%
I'm not recording Metal atm, just hard rock, and I'm using MT Power Drums. I routed them to individual tracks, and treated them as I would real drums. For the most part, they're sounding more realistic. However, when I exported my song with a limiter added to my usual soft compression on the master channel, the snare goes boing boing boing in some parts, too much realism! 😄
Hi man! Super interesting video! But I have a question: why should we export our drum tracks to our DAW? I mean, I send the different parts of my drums to different tracks in my DAW, no need to export it.
how do you transfer the files ,with effects or totally dry ,or do you bus out from the plug in ,to separate tracks in the DAW ,I know both EZD2 soon to be 3 and SD3 have these options. your raw track namely the kick and snare sounded like they had some processing (not the reverb) ,thats why i ask how your doing it. less seems to be more hopefully.
Great video - In EZ drummer have question for you how do you go about converting the midi to audio and bring onto to your daw grid - that would be a great video not to much on that I have had trouble in EZ drummer 3 doing that in superior it goes smoothly - click on track choose convert to audio create a folder bounce to folder then drag onto grid thats been working in superior 3 EZ drummer have been having trouble - thanks so much
dude just get your song together in the track in ez3 right the drum track i mean then hit record in your daws track it will record there i dont seperate the drum tracks i record them al together like from the song creator and that way bro i still can eq it to give it more bottom or what have you its that its like having the
drums all on one track like in a drum buss already! works great try it bro saves so much time on workflow!
Perfect drums are pretty killer as well, but there are many vsti's that are great
hi i use ez drummer 3 it fucking rocks! i also love to use one kit wonder from ggd use thr thrash metal pack and also use the ugritone thrash metal pck with the one kit wonder too! love my drumming software not only do i get amazing grooves but i slightly eq the drums to make them thunder in the mix!
In general, the original mix is already processed or less process with mix/comp by toontrack?
Is it the same for SD3 though? To my knowledge the Superior Drummer sounds are more raw and closer to an unprocessed sound
Hey Bobby. I watched your Mix Fix videos on EQ'ing drums and I'm having an issue in Reaper trying to replicate your EQs. I even type in the exact numbers you have but the wave lengths look way different and complicated. They don't look simple like yours and don't sound that good. For example, when I put the first high pass band at 38Hz, the dB jumps over 6. Not sure why, and I can't fix it without changing the Hz. I'm not sure if Reaper stock EQ just computes differently, or if I'm simply missing something. SOS to anyone. Thanks
Superior Drummer suffers from being the opposite to EZdrummer. you need to add the compression and eqing to the raw drum samples to get them to sound like that raw sample you played. This is where I have been going wrong for a long time when writing drums.... Believing Toontracks marketing bullshit.
I'm a Ugritone fan now. Those drums are super solid and far more affordable!
I am currently using the death metal add-on in ez drummer 3. Before getting the add -on I was able to rout each drum and cymbal as well as top/bottom snare and three different kick routs. I want to be able to do the same with the death metal pack but for some reason it's not the same process. Can you rout each drum and does anyone know how I can do this? Can't find any videos on this topic. Thanks
I understand the principle of "less is more", but in this case i really don't like have mellow and soft it sounds out of the box. To me it just doesn't sound good enough. doesn't punch through in the final mix when there's been no mixing done to the drums. Not saying that you need to process it to hell, but some extra work needs to be done to both get your own sound and for it to fit the mix as a whole. Just a personal preference at the end of the day.
I really love the idea of busing the shells alone. My question is do you pan your overheads L+R? Also is there any impulse response on the shells etc.?
I only use impulse responses on guitar sims. My overheads are almost always hard L & R.
What bass sim are you using for your intro? I just got Umansky bass and its an absolute beast.
I'm using the stock Sansamp plugin in Pro Tools for my bass tone.
@@FrightboxRecording dude i LOVE that plugin on bass, sooooooo underrated. Also couldnt agree more on people over processing their drum samples. I was a big fan of SD2 before switching over to GGD Invasion, neither need much processing if any at all. I think people get into habits and tend to mix via memory and not ears.
Not seeing it in comments but would you mind letting us know which snare / kicks you are using in this video in metal machine (I wanna say it’s Supra or black beauty snare )
Great video! Which EZX/Kit/Preset is this??
Metal Machine.
How do you take presets from a pack and then split it in your daw in 8 individual tracks and then convert it to audio.
That seems to make a lot of sense instead of just seeing a midi
using SD3, however i mix it on the plugin, so in the midi part, although the outputs in SD3 have each own channel...
Do you parallel compress with ezd3?
Until I can get the $$ together for something like EZDrummer, I’m currently going back and forth between two completely free drums VSTs: Steven Slate’s SSD5.5 Free and IK Multimedia’s Modo Drum CS. Both have their own stock “studio” kits that aren’t nearly as processed as any of the metal kits out there for plugins like EZDrummer. I’d love to see how you would go about mixing the drums of a 100% free drum VST like SSD5.5.
I use easy drummer three I don't really understand how you get each track to come up like snare Tom kick on different tracks
cant you split the ezdrummer stereo track into individual instrument tracks?
is superior drummer 3 as pre mixed as ezdrummer?
Perfect drums is what I use
At 5:16.... slow down dude! This is the good stuff!
Although I agree that the EZdrummer Metal Machine kit by itself is very well balanced and the individual drums are nicely compressed, it can hardly be “mixed” without being mixed with something.
"If there's one thing I can't stand, it's people being nit-picky and pedantic!"
"That's two things."
You didn't even mention whether you removed all of EZDrummer's built in plugin inserts. Did you come out of EZDrummer as clean and unprocessed as possible?
Do you use the EZdrummer reverb or your own (looks like your own on video)?
I use my own.
I go back and forth between EZD2 and GGD drums. I have a hard time committing to one for some reason
I have the One Kit Metal plugin but it is really unstable in the free version of Kontakt, which is the most overpriced Plugin i have ever come across. I cant justify £500 for Komplete just to get the full version of Kontakt
i use kvlt drums II and dieswitch drums. only to have something to play along while practicing guitar. they aren't bad but especially the dieswitch drums are just one sound and far from perfect
Ugritone are awesome
@@leongrinberg8758 they're my favorite drums by far! Raw and unprocessed, you have to actually mix them and I love that
Wizard advice my guy
You can add fx to ez drummer but just on original mix.
How are you turning the midi ezdrummer into audio tracks???
I share how in this video: ua-cam.com/video/RGqIBIbamNY/v-deo.html
I think Studio Drummer's stuff was not pre-eqed... if someone insterested in this kind of raw sound..? ;P
Wow! I thought SD3 libraries came with raw unprocessed samples... 😅😅😅
This approach works with rather finished material.
What daw is this?
Pro Tools
I asked him the same question on a video he posted yesterday. He said Reaper. I'm so glad i found him
@@justjeff600 Bobby uses both Reaper and Pro Tools, he's using the latter on this particular video
I'm using reaper as my DAW.
EzDrummer has the "out with no FX thing" Shouldn´t that be 100% raw? No processing