First Attempt at Home Recording - Need EZ Drummer Midi Help

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BadSeed

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Decided to finally take the plunge into recording. I got all the gear this week, but was too busy with work to really dig in. Watched a bunch of videos on how to do certain things top get an idea.

Tonight, I dug in for a couple hours. I'm pretty happy with how things came out. All I did was record and set levels afterwards. Drums seem a little quiet now that I'm listening back.

Drums were all pre rendered pieces from EZdrummer2 that I chopped up for my needs. Haven't figured out how to do custom drums with my midi keyboard in Reaper just yet. Guitar tracks and bass were all through Amplitube 4.

I barely know how to use Reaper or any of it's built in plugins, so I have a lot to learn on that end. I didn't do any post eq, effects, anything like that. So these tracks are about as raw as it gets.

For EZdrummer, I selected the metal kit, turned the pitch of the snare up by 1.0, and then upped the overall velocity of the kit to make it sound like the drums were being hit a little harder. I also added a little more reverb than the stock settings.

For guitars and bass, I used Amplitube 4.
Left guitar was the Tube screamer into the SLO100 Overdrive channel. I believe I switched the cab to the M1 Metal cab, but I can't remember. Tweaked the eq setting to taste and went.
Right guitar was Tube Screamer in to the Triple Rectifier Orange Channel Modern setting. Whatever stock cab populates with that amp is what I used. Set my settings insanely close to how I'd set them in real life and went.
Bass was into the GK amp sim. No pedals out front. Turned the contour up quite a bit, gain up a good amount, hi mids up relatively high, and the rest of the eq was close to stock settings. Was good after that, changed nothing else.

I rendered to whatever Reaper's stock render settings were, 192kbps, 24 bit something or other, I don't know any of the technical jargon here.

The thing that's really irking me is I can not modify the drum midi at all, and it's driving me nuts. I've watched multiple videos on Recording EZdrummer to reaper so you can edit the midi within Reaper, and none of them are working. For some Reason, EZdrummer is not inputting the midi notes to reaper when I record with it. It's just a blank line. When I go into the actual midi track within reaper after I record with SD2, same deal. None of the midi notes show. So I have no way of editing the drums to be custom.

Let me know thoughts or critiques, I'm open to advice on this, as I'm brand new to it, and help with the EZdrummer midi issue would be very welcome

https://soundcloud.com/kyle-bull-760574723/final-few-song-1-demo
 

MSS

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Nice job! IDK about Reaper but in Logic I can drag the midi out into a drum track. I haven’t found the need to do this lately though as I create and edit right in EZ drummer.
 

BadSeed

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Nice job! IDK about Reaper but in Logic I can drag the midi out into a drum track. I haven’t found the need to do this lately though as I create and edit right in EZ drummer.
Is it possible to edit individual midi notes inside of ezdrummer 2?
 

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MSS

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Is it possible to edit individual midi notes inside of ezdrummer 2?

I don’t believe so. I edit midi in EZ drummer by adding and removing drum beats. You can select the snare for example and add or remove beats. You can also create your own drums by clicking each drum. Lately, I find that the midi packs are all I need. I just find a groove that matches my track then I add bass and re-record the guitars.
 

Descent

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I drag my EZDrummer loops into an instrument track in Studio One and can edit afterwards. I am using EZDrummer ver.1 though, not upgraded yet. I think the upgrade might have 2 versions, one is like the old where you can drag/drop and the other one you work on the loops inside EZD app. Don't quote me on that though, not really sure.
 

TedEH

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I've always found that recording MIDI off of a track has always been a little weird in Reaper - the input setting isn't what I expect it to be. Depending on what I'm doing, I have to set it to Record -> Force format -> MIDI. Then it seems to pick up on any MIDI I've routed into it. I tried this just now with SD2 and it doesn't appear that it sends MIDI output to the track. BUT, if EZ is anything like SD, you can just drag the midi clip you want onto your track and edit it from there.
 

Drew

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Is it possible to edit individual midi notes inside of ezdrummer 2?
I doubt it... But I program all my drums in the Reaper Piano Roll, and use the midi there to feed Toontrack. It's pretty straightforward.
 

Nonapod

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I drag my EZDrummer loops into an instrument track in Studio One and can edit afterwards. I am using EZDrummer ver.1 though, not upgraded yet. I think the upgrade might have 2 versions, one is like the old where you can drag/drop and the other one you work on the loops inside EZD app. Don't quote me on that though, not really sure.

Dragging and dropping from EZDrummer to the MIDI track works in Pro Tools too. Best to have it in either Grid or Spot mode so it aligns neatly.

You're kinda of limited with editing from within EZ. You can do things like remove entire kit pieces from a given clip (like remove all the high hats for example) from right clicking on the clip to bring up the menu of options. I believe you can also add to an existing drum pattern in a non-destructive way from within EZ, it's within "edit play style"
 

Descent

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On the DAW grid (not inside EZD) I've been able to write all my parts and change existing EZD parts on ver.1, I doubt they took out that functionality.
 

BadSeed

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Thanks for the input guys. I'm going to finally try to look deeper into it tonight and see what the issue is.
 

Guitarmiester

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EzDrummer2 has very limited editing capabilities within its own sequencer. I do the same thing others have mentioned by dragging and dropping any midi into my DAW for editing. That process works perfectly fine in Reason.
 

BananaDemocracy

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Decided to finally take the plunge into recording. I got all the gear this week, but was too busy with work to really dig in. Watched a bunch of videos on how to do certain things top get an idea.

Tonight, I dug in for a couple hours. I'm pretty happy with how things came out. All I did was record and set levels afterwards. Drums seem a little quiet now that I'm listening back.

Drums were all pre rendered pieces from EZdrummer2 that I chopped up for my needs. Haven't figured out how to do custom drums with my midi keyboard in Reaper just yet. Guitar tracks and bass were all through Amplitube 4.

I barely know how to use Reaper or any of it's built in plugins, so I have a lot to learn on that end. I didn't do any post eq, effects, anything like that. So these tracks are about as raw as it gets.

For EZdrummer, I selected the metal kit, turned the pitch of the snare up by 1.0, and then upped the overall velocity of the kit to make it sound like the drums were being hit a little harder. I also added a little more reverb than the stock settings.

For guitars and bass, I used Amplitube 4.
Left guitar was the Tube screamer into the SLO100 Overdrive channel. I believe I switched the cab to the M1 Metal cab, but I can't remember. Tweaked the eq setting to taste and went.
Right guitar was Tube Screamer in to the Triple Rectifier Orange Channel Modern setting. Whatever stock cab populates with that amp is what I used. Set my settings insanely close to how I'd set them in real life and went.
Bass was into the GK amp sim. No pedals out front. Turned the contour up quite a bit, gain up a good amount, hi mids up relatively high, and the rest of the eq was close to stock settings. Was good after that, changed nothing else.

I rendered to whatever Reaper's stock render settings were, 192kbps, 24 bit something or other, I don't know any of the technical jargon here.

The thing that's really irking me is I can not modify the drum midi at all, and it's driving me nuts. I've watched multiple videos on Recording EZdrummer to reaper so you can edit the midi within Reaper, and none of them are working. For some Reason, EZdrummer is not inputting the midi notes to reaper when I record with it. It's just a blank line. When I go into the actual midi track within reaper after I record with SD2, same deal. None of the midi notes show. So I have no way of editing the drums to be custom.

Let me know thoughts or critiques, I'm open to advice on this, as I'm brand new to it, and help with the EZdrummer midi issue would be very welcome

https://soundcloud.com/kyle-bull-760574723/final-few-song-1-demo
VERY IMPRESSIVE

Im haing the same problem: im not the sound guy/engineer so I don't know the best recording techniques...BUT I am the song writer and lead musician which is where my proficiency lies.....

Maybe you can hmu/we can chat PM about trading tutorial/tip/technique and maybe well throw each other drum tracks?

lmk
 
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