Anyone ever use Ezdrummer live?

[WarMachine]

As bad as i hate to admit it, im starting to think that it really couldn't hurt to take my drum tracks i've recorded my CD with and use them live. We ALWAYS have shit luck with drummers, be it egos, life problems in general, whatever. The more i've thought about it the more it's not sounding too bad, so lemme ask you guys; how many of you do this (if any) and how does the crowd respond to it? I get the feeling most would be thinking "shit, these guys are just playing to a CD!" lol and i wouldn't blame them if they did honestly! The drums have ALWAYS been our biggest set back, no one around us has the chops to hang and me and the guys can work our magic but its hard to cover up sloppy drums. Im hoping you guys got some good stories for me, cuz i'm dying to get back at it and hoping this will be a band aid until a good drummer hears it and is like, "kick the cd out and put me in!" lol

 

[GunpointMetal]

If its jus the drums, I don't see a problem...see lots of bands doing this these days. We played with a band last weekend that is using Beatcraft for drums and it worked just fine....I WOULD NOT try and run EZDrummer off of a MIDI file live, though...just do stereo bounces onto an MP3 player or something

 

[WarMachine]

If its jus the drums, I don't see a problem...see lots of bands doing this these days. We played with a band last weekend that is using Beatcraft for drums and it worked just fine....I WOULD NOT try and run EZDrummer off of a MIDI file live, though...just do stereo bounces onto an MP3 player or something

Yeah dude, definitely lol. If we would even attempt this i would just make mp3's of my drum tracks and go from there. I've seen other bands do this and thought "meh", lol but then again they sucked too so it helped with the feeling lmao. I've really being weighing out the pro's and cons with it too. One the one hand i would think that people would look at that and be like "wtf is the drummer?!" but then again on the other hand i would think it would be better than having a drummer that wasn't worth shit either lol. You can cover up bass and even sometimes crap vocals, but when drums are crap, the band is crap! I may end up trying it dude, the sitting and not doing shit because of a drummer is killin me! we had shit lined up in cleveland, pittsburgh, new york, rhode island and now can't do shit! Its only been like a month and a half but damn! thanks for the input dude. how did the crowd respond to those bands you mentioned running drum tracks?

 

[VacantPlanet]

Hey man, I'm in Huntington, and I'm in the same quandary. If you try it, let me know how it works!

 

[iRaiseTheDead]

As long as it's just the drums, I feel like it could work

Which ezdrummer pack would you be using? The only thing I don't like is the snares sound super dry and some of the kicks do too

 

[WarMachine]

Hey man, I'm in Huntington, and I'm in the same quandary. If you try it, let me know how it works!

Will do dude!

 

[WarMachine]

As long as it's just the drums, I feel like it could work

Which ezdrummer pack would you be using? The only thing I don't like is the snares sound super dry and some of the kicks do too

I'd be using the DFH pack, and i agree without any EQ/Comp the set as a whole sound a little dry and hollow. If i would try this out, i would be compressing and EQ'ing the drums as i would on a finished track so that should take out all the harshness. Im still debating on it tho lol, its just hard to let go of the fact that there wouldn't be any drums up there and that awkward feeling of just jamming to a CD

 

[pestilentdecay]

I used EZ Drummer live, I put my drum tracks onto a cd player (I know, a little dumb live since it can skip), and ran it through the PA. Specifically, i was using DKFH and had a preset from EZ Mix along with it. Sounded good in my opinion.

 

[HUGH JAYNUS]

I've seen a band do this live. I was actually impressed they did it. Because they were resourceful enough to do a show short of a key member, and tight enough to play to a machine.

Actually started thinking of doing the same with the 2nd guitar track and bass track when our other guitarist and bassist left last year. I was sick of waiting and searching and teaching the songs all over again. Hell I wrote and recorded all the guitars on my band's album, so why not?

Red Seas Fire also did this when Nolly left to play for Periphery. They played his parts from a laptop running logic into the house PA

 

[WarMachine]

Thanks dudes, all these comments are making me feel a lot better actually! I know that my guys can rock with backing drum tracks, the next task may be to find out a way to switch from track to track without walking to the side of a stage, hitting play then running back to the mic lol.

@METAL_WIZARD - Another thing that makes be feel better about thinking this through. I'm just worried about reactions to just seeing 2 guitars and a bass lol. But it does beat not doing anything and it sure as shit beats having to struggle with a shit drummer too! Like i said earlier in the post, you can cover up sketchy bass or even guitar but you can't cover up crap drums. Thanks for all the input guys, if you do try this out i'll definitely necrobump this thread with results! We've all been there, got rolling really solid and strong then, you get your ass backed down to the start when a crucial piece of the band drops out. F'n sucks!

 

[HUGH JAYNUS]

Exactly why I was thinking of it. I think you can get a program to run it through track by track and u could use headphones and have the click for timing as far as starting the songs and changes. Maybe Logic?

 

[WarMachine]

Not really sure on that one dude, that's a new can of worms in and of itself lol. im thinking i could get away with running 1 big track on my laptop, with about a 10 second pause in between songs (if need be) and just have 2 hits on a hihat to kick off a song maybe. Then again we know most of the dudes that run sound at our local shows so maybe i could have like 2 or 3 tracks to play and just have them hit it when we need to. I play the leads and do vocals and im VERY vocal lol, i like interacting with the crowd and shit. I hate going to a show when a frontman just does his thing and goes on. People click a LOT better when you can relate with em ya know?

 

[GunpointMetal]

The band last weekend got a good response, as have others I've seen. We played with a band years ago that used a dvd player and projector. they had all of their drums mixed down one channel, rhythm guitar down the other which was output to the board, then a projector playing a video synced to the backing music...was pretty sick. The only time I've seen bands where this doesn't work is when the band relies on a single source for playback and it crashes so their set is over....always have a back-up for your backing tracks!

 

[HUGH JAYNUS]

Not really sure on that one dude, that's a new can of worms in and of itself lol. im thinking i could get away with running 1 big track on my laptop, with about a 10 second pause in between songs (if need be) and just have 2 hits on a hihat to kick off a song maybe. Then again we know most of the dudes that run sound at our local shows so maybe i could have like 2 or 3 tracks to play and just have them hit it when we need to. I play the leads and do vocals and im VERY vocal lol, i like interacting with the crowd and shit. I hate going to a show when a frontman just does his thing and goes on. People click a LOT better when you can relate with em ya know?

Have the bassist hit play on the next track for each song. He won't be as tied down as you. And like u said a little count off

 

[WarMachine]

Have the bassist hit play on the next track for each song. He won't be as tied down as you. And like u said a little count off

May just do that, he's not that busy anyways hahaha

 

[HUGH JAYNUS]

They typically aren't. Lol.

 

[Nykur_Myrkvi]

My band does this after going through numerous difficulties regarding drummers.

While there have been people who've been sceptical about using a drum machine it works great for us. We play prog metal with piano, violin, 8 string guitar, bass and three vocalists, having so many things going on might help us cover up the loss of a human drummer.

 

[WarMachine]

My band does this after going through numerous difficulties regarding drummers.

While there have been people who've been sceptical about using a drum machine it works great for us. We play prog metal with piano, violin, 8 string guitar, bass and three vocalists, having so many things going on might help us cover up the loss of a human drummer.

Im sure the extra people onstage help as you said. Without drums we are just a 3 piece, but i figure what the hell, only one way to find out if this will help us or hurt us ya know? It gets tiresome when you have a drummer that sucks or isnt on par with the rest of the band, then you get comments all night of "damn that guitarist is wicked" instead of "WHERE THE FAWK DID THESE GUYS COME FROM?!". Drums have really been the only setback i have had since the start, im not tooting my own horn but the way i play really overshadows the drummers i've had, so it really stands out like a sore thumb when things dont work out the way they should lol. I guess best case scenario, if we do this maybe a good drummer will be at the show or some other people there that know of good ones and spread the word along. The sad thing is, having said that about my previous drummers i'll probably have the best, tightest sounding show i've ever had just by loading my drum tracks through the PA

 

[VacantPlanet]

I'm hoping for your case and mine that if the remaining band members put on a good show, the audience won't notice. Most places have a house drum, so more than likely that would be sitting behind you guys. Since the audience doesn't much of the drummer anyway, as long as you guys can put on a good performance, I'd hope it'd be just fine. Good luck!

 

[WarMachine]

Thanks dude, yeah between the 3 of us we've got enough energy to fuel angus young lol. Im the least active of the 3 just because of vocals but when i not singing im looking like dimebag on crack with windmills and slam dancin' haha. Thanks man