Review: Toontrack EZ Drummer 2 by Zach McNees

Do you remember 2006? Apple’s latest version of OS X was Tiger. Pro Tools users were salivating over version 7 and the newly released Mbox 2 Pro. Eight years is several lifetimes in the technology world!

2006 was also the year that Toontrack first released its EZ Drummer platform to the world.  EZ Drummer was a leap forward in software-based drum production tools – bringing true multi-track drum samples recorded by GRAMMY-winning engineers in world-class studios to an extremely affordable platform for songwriters and musicians.

Now, eight years later, Toontrack has reinvented the EZ Drummer platform to bring us yet another leap forward with the release of EZ Drummer 2, the first major update to the platform since its release. It arrives on May 6, 2014, and it is a BEAST. I was lucky enough to take a trip to London this past February to get an exclusive look and listen to the new EZ Drummer 2 and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

TECH SPECS: EZ Drummer 2 is a Native-only plug-in for use on MAC and PC and will retail for $179 (upgradable from EZ Drummer 1 for $99). Formats are RTAS, VST, AU, AAX 64 and as a standalone application.  Product authorization for EZ Drummer 2 is established via user account authorization code.

WHAT IT DOES: EZ Drummer 2 is songwriter and producer’s tool for quick and easy creation of drum tracks utilizing high quality multi-track drum samples recorded by the finest engineers in the world’s best studios.

WHAT’S NEW: Literally everything!  Toontrack has completely revitalized the EZ Drummer platform from the ground up – they’ve been working hard for the past four years doing it.  All of the graphics have been updated and they look gorgeous. But the improvements to EZ Drummer 2 go far deeper than what can be seen on first glance.

Here’s a short list of what’s new and improved:

• NEW AUDIO ENGINE – EZ Drummer 2 has a completely remodeled engine under the hood giving new life to every task.  Data loads faster and many tasks operate nearly seamlessly in real time.
• NEW SOUNDS – An all-new sound library featuring modern and vintage kits as well as a selection of percussion.  In total, five new drum kits and a wide array of alternatives for snares, kick drums and cymbals.  All recorded by Grammy award winning engineer and producer Chuck Ainlay at Mark Knopfler’s British Grove Studios in London.
• SONG CREATOR – Drop your Toontrack MIDI grooves or custom designed groove into the new “drop zone” and EZD2 will give you custom designed song sections or full song structures to quickly and easily create a full drum track instantly.
• EDIT PLAY STYLE – Users can now “communicate” with their drummer in real time via the power hand selector and the velocity and amount knobs allowing for stunning control over the intricacies of a performance
• NEW MIXER & PRESETS – EZD2 has a completely new mixer and set of FX which change based on the drum kit and preset loaded. 
• MIX & MATCH – Seamless auditioning of any instrument in your previously installed EZ Drummer expansion libraries (EZX). This means you can mix, match and build your own custom kits directly in EZ Drummer 2.
• THE OLD IS NEW – All previously released EZX libraries will be optimized for EZD2 with new graphics and preset content, giving users a fresh new spin on packs you already own

Check out some images from the London session at British Grove!

Chuck Ainlay miking the kit

The space: Drum kit setup in British Grove’s beautiful, two story live room

Ainlay running the session, at the console

THE SOUNDS: The drum kits look gorgeous, but it’s all about the sound right?  Well, EZD2 brings it in spades. The modern and vintage kits recorded at British Grove sound spectacular and incredibly life-like.

How good are these drums?  When I arrived at Mark Knopfler’s studio in London, I was led into the control room to watch a live demo in progress being led by Chuck Ainlay and session drummer Rich Cooper. Rich was playing a groove on the exact kit, mic’d up the exact same way as was sampled for EZ Drummer 2.

EZ Drummer 2 Arranger window (click to enlarge)

Things started to get crazy when it was revealed that the sound we were listening to was a seamless A/Bing between the live drums out in the studio and the sampled drums being played back by EZ Drummer 2.

Once we were told what was happening, my ears immediately starting tuning in to try to pick out the differences between the live drums and the EZD2 playback. Although I could tell that there were subtle differences between the two, I’d be lying if I told you I was 100% sure which was which!

So, believe me when I tell you that the drum sounds in EZ Drummer 2 are literally as close to the real thing as you’re ever going to get in a plug-in.

CREATING A DRUM TRACK: Getting a drum track at home in your DAW for songwriting and demos can be a difficult and time-consuming chore.

EZ Drummer 2 Search window

Toontrack already has in place one of the deepest and most diverse MIDI groove libraries on the market with packs for EZ Drummer and Superior Drummer that offer a seemingly endless supply of possibilities for every style of music imaginable.

EZ Drummer 2 capitalizes on Toontrack’s MIDI libraries and allows users to create a complete drum track literally within seconds. Let’s take a look at what’s possible with EZ Drummer 2 when creating a new drum track from scratch.

TAP 2 FIND: With EZD2, users have the option of either searching their existing libraries by almost any parameter imaginable such as Library, Genre, Power Hand (which we’ll discuss), Time Signature (sign) or hit type (beat, fill etc). These search terms can be highlighted and combined together to help narrow down exactly what groove in your library will work best for the track you’re working on.

In addition to searching your library, Toontrack has introduced a brand new feature for EZD2 called “TAP 2 FIND”.

First: set your DAW to your desired tempo and meter.  (I also recommend setting your HW/Buffer size to its lowest setting to avoid input delay.) Then, choose TAP 2 FIND under the Search tab.  EZD2 brings up a view of your drum kit along with an audible click.

Next, simply use your mouse or a MIDI controller to tap out the beat in your head! I recommend creating your groove one drum at a time rather than attempting to click out your beat in real time. TAP 2 FIND will layer each drum you click on top of the previous one for as long as it takes to build your loop.

Tap 2 Find

For instance I can start with my kick drum, then add my snare and maybe hi hat after that.  TAP 2 FIND will automatically quantize your taps in real time and is changeable between 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16th notes (regular and triplet)

Once you’ve tapped out your desired beat, simply select “Show Results” and EZD2 will analyze your custom creation and give you a list of every MIDI groove in your collection and a % number of how close EZD2 believes it is as a match to your custom beat.

Engaging the “Show Web Shop MIDI” will also include grooves users do not own but can preview in EZD2 and then elect to purchase with a direct link to Toontrack’s website.

Once you have your groove, select the “Song Creator” tab at the bottom of EZD2 to drag and drop your groove into the new EZD2 “MIDI drop zone”.  After quickly analyzing, EZD2 provides users with six variations of Intro, Verse, Pre Chorus, Chorus, Bridge, Fill, and Ending loops.

My favorite part of Song Creator, however, is the “Song Structures” section to the left, which provides ten complete song structures such as 12-Bar Basic, AABA (Long and Short), ABAB, ABCABC etc.  Simply choose your song form and select the down arrow to drop an entire song form worth of drums in the groove style you chose or created and you’ve got a newly created drum track!

Sounds complicated?  It’s really not.  Take a look at this quick real-time video that shows an idea for a beat go from concept to full drum track in under 60 seconds.  I was using an Axiom 25 MIDI controller to tap the beat, Pro Tools 11 on a 2.8 GHz Quad Core Mac Pro with 16 gb of ram.

EDIT PLAY STYLE: Without a doubt, my favorite new feature in EZ Drummer 2 is “Edit Play Style”.  Once you have a section or a song’s worth of MIDI loaded onto the EZD2 MIDI timeline, double click any section of MIDI to bring up the “Edit Play Style” window.  I recommend highlighting a looped section of the MIDI you’re going to be working with in the Edit Play Style Window.  To do so, select across the bar numbers and an orange bar will appear indicating a loop has been created.

Tip: For editing multiple sections at a time, users can hold the COMMAND key on Mac or ALT? key in Windows to highlight multiple sections of MIDI and then right click or control click and select “Edit Play Style” from the dropdown menu. 

Inside the Edit Play Style window, your loop plays animated in real time as if a ghost is playing the drum kit.  By selecting the “Power Hand” tool, users can switch from say the ride cymbal to the hi-hat as easily as dragging it over.  This instantaneously changes the MIDI written to any highlighted sections engaged in Edit Play Style! The Opening Hit tool will allow users to engage or disengage the first hit of the loop, typically a crash cymbal.  The two remaining controls are the Amount and Velocity knobs.

The Amount knob controls the amount of hits on a single drum or the whole kit (if selected) live, in real time.  This feature is truly remarkable to experience and is based on an algorithm that calculates the probabilities of where a real drummer would add or remove hits from the groove.  Toontrack explains that this means that changing the amount knob does not arbitrarily add or subtract hits from the groove block, it uses information garnered from several thousand real drum performances.

The Velocity knob is based on the same algorithm as the Amount knob and allows the users to adjust not the volume but the actual velocity of which the drum kit or a single drum was struck.  What you’re actually doing is calling up thousands of different samples of each individual drum struck at many different velocities allowing the final product to sound exactly like the drummer was playing louder or quieter.

Here’s an example of using the Edit Play Style feature in conjunction with a newly created drum track.

MIXER: EZD2 has a completely reimagined mixer interface which work hand in hand with a new collection of presets for both the modern and vintage setups.  The new preset engine is based around Toontrack’s popular EZmix 2 plugin.  Depending on the selected preset, the mixer displays various controls such as reverb, compression, tape saturation, mic bleed etc.  EZD2 presets cover a wide and diverse array of sounds from classic rock to disco, modern metal and everything in between to help you find the sound you’re looking for instantaneously.

EZ Drummer 2 mixer

MIX & MATCH: With EZD2, users can now seamlessly audition any instrument previously installed from any EZX Expansion pack they own.  This means that you can mix, match and built your own custom kids directly in EZ Drummer 2!  This is a really fun feature for users looking for an usual sound or an expanded palette of kick and snare drums.

EZ Drummer 2 is also a fantastic resource for engineers and mixers.  Using a drum to MIDI converter (such as Massey DRT), EZD2 sounds can be used to augment your existing drum tracks making your drums sweeter, crisper and crunchier.  I rely on the amazing dynamics of Toontrack’s drums in Superior Drummer 2 and EZD2 to give new life to my drum tracks when I’m mixing.  Used judiciously, drum sounds from EZD2 are a perfect compliment to live drum tracks from the studio or the stage.

IN CONCLUSION: Toontrack has really outdone themselves this time. It’s truly unfair to call the product “EZ” when you realize just how much work went into creating this stunning plug-in.  Everyone who’s gotten an early look at EZD2 has been absolutely floored.  My songwriter friends are salivating over just how easy it is to create a complete drum track in seconds.

EZ Drummer 2 is an incredibly powerful drum creation tool with unparalleled sound at a price point that’s affordable to everyone. Home run Toontrack!

Zach McNees is a Brooklyn-based producer/engineer/mixer and live recordist who’s worked with Björk, Rob Thomas, Julia Nunes, The Gregory Brothers, Pixies, Liars and Alice Cooper. Get in touch with Zach via http://www.zachmcnees.com. 

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