Guitars sound better with real drums

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Greg_L
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Guitars sound better with real drums

Post by Greg_L »

I've got a bunch of songs in demo phase to catch up on. "Demo phase" for me basically means I've got the jist of the song done with scratch tracks and fake drums from a basic stock 5 year old version of EZ Drummer. You know, a demo. I'm never happy with my guitar sounds in the demo phase, and I never really understood why....until today. It's EZ Drummer. Today I started tracking some real drums to all these songs, and with the same old junky scratch guitar tracks, they sound WAY better with the real drums in the mix. Like almost good enough to keep. Granted, I don't put much effort into scratch guitar tracks. I just throw down a mic anywhere on the cab and go. But even with that they sound so much more lively with the real drums. Bass too. There's more "space" around everything with real drums. EZ Drummer is doing something stupid that makes everything else sound worse. :facepalm:

There's no real point to this besides I had a minor "Aha!" moment today and real drums rule. :drums:
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Roman
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Re: Guitars sound better with real drums

Post by Roman »

The title of the thread says it all. :like:

You could of left it at that and just put a period in the body of the post.

But I guess some things need a bit more explanation to convey the message to the unwashed masses. :D


Speaking of which, I'm gonna take a shower. Fucking 108 degrees. Need to wash off some sweat and cool down. :lollers2:
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Greg_L
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Re: Guitars sound better with real drums

Post by Greg_L »

Roman wrote: Sat Aug 19, 2017 12:08 am The title of the thread says it all. :like:

You could of left it at that and just put a period in the body of the post.

But I guess some things need a bit more explanation to convey the message to the unwashed masses. :D
Lol. Right. It's not really for the unwashed masses though. I can't get everyone to just start using real drums. It's not that simple. I'm just surprised how much ez drummer colored and stomped all over the rest of the mix. I mean, how does ez drummer make guitar tracks sound fizzy? Then you do real drums and the same guitar tracks sound like normal punchy clear awesome guitar tracks? I know everything affects everything, I'm just surprised what a blanket effect ez drummer does to a simple demo mix that doesn't have much else going on anyway.
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WhiskeyJack
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Re: Guitars sound better with real drums

Post by WhiskeyJack »

If you are using the stock first run of ezdrummer then yes ill agree. It always did something weird when i used it. I think that it may be the efforts they went through to make them sound "too perfect" and i found they just sat there by themselves sticking out like a sore thumb. But on top of all that i think the ridid 'perfection' allows all the rogue fizz freqs of string tracks to come through a bit better thusly mKing it shit. Maybe it is because they dont share the same physical space of sound bouncing around and share the full spectrum of frequncys live sounds have?

The first round of EZD just sounded cold mettalic robotic and lifeless. Ezd2.0 distamced itself from that a little bit but still has its tell tale signs. Im happier with how it sits on some of my older songs ive stuck it into.
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JD01
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Re: Guitars sound better with real drums

Post by JD01 »

Greg, you probably don't give a shit about your scratch drum tracks to bother, but do you knock off all of the EZD effects (comps verbs and stuff) and process them in reaper with everything else?

I did notice everything sounded more lively with Frank drumming but I just assumed that was just the feel of a live drummer.
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Greg_L
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Re: Guitars sound better with real drums

Post by Greg_L »

JD01 wrote: Sat Aug 19, 2017 1:10 pm Greg, you probably don't give a shit about your scratch drum tracks to bother, but do you knock off all of the EZD effects (comps verbs and stuff) and process them in reaper with everything else?

I did notice everything sounded more lively with Frank drumming but I just assumed that was just the feel of a live drummer.
No, my usual ez routine is turn off the room track because it's fucking garbage. Turn off the bottom snare track. Turn off the hi-hat track. The rest is just as-is. I don't know how to turn off compression or reverb in ez drummer. I didn't even know you could. I don't explore ez drummer because it's just a placeholder for drum ideas before I do real drums. I pull up a "groove"...usually pop-rock #9 lol. And just loop it.
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JD01
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Re: Guitars sound better with real drums

Post by JD01 »

Greg_L wrote: Sat Aug 19, 2017 2:37 pm
JD01 wrote: Sat Aug 19, 2017 1:10 pm Greg, you probably don't give a shit about your scratch drum tracks to bother, but do you knock off all of the EZD effects (comps verbs and stuff) and process them in reaper with everything else?

I did notice everything sounded more lively with Frank drumming but I just assumed that was just the feel of a live drummer.
No, my usual ez routine is turn off the room track because it's fucking garbage. Turn off the bottom snare track. Turn off the hi-hat track. The rest is just as-is. I don't know how to turn off compression or reverb in ez drummer. I didn't even know you could. I don't explore ez drummer because it's just a placeholder for drum ideas before I do real drums. I pull up a "groove"...usually pop-rock #9 lol. And just loop it.
Fair enough. I have EZD2 too which is probably newer than yours. I turn everything off and have them going into Reaper as dry as possible.

I'm on the verge of upgrading to SD3. Will demo it first and see if I get on with the extra functionality. I don't want to just end up with option paralysis.
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Re: Guitars sound better with real drums

Post by Bubba »

EZ drummer probably EQs its tracks to sound good in the shop demo. This probably means it's stomping all over the same frequencies that sound good in your guitars when you apply it to a mix.
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rammer24
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Re: Guitars sound better with real drums

Post by rammer24 »

You know what else sounds better with real drums?

Drums. :D
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