Has anyone tried EZ Drummer software by Toontrack? I've read a few things about it in magazines and it sounds like it would be pretty good.

Trust me Geo, if I knew a good drummer that wanted to play Surf I would never even contemplate using drum software. If I can get some decent demos of my songs recorded on my computer then I can give a disc to drummers in my area, ask them to listen to it and see if they would be interested in playing Surf. There aren't any Surf bands that I know of in Dayton (if there are any, they're keeping a VERY low profile) and good drummers are hard to find. Like I said, I want to record my originals so I can give other musicians an idea of what I'm trying to do.

If possible, whenever you make a demo copy of new songs including electronic drum parts, it would be a good idea to create a second version of the same songs without the drum tracks. I was given a couple of CD’s in 2005 of new songs we were supposed to record that year (which of course never happened), but now that we are finally going to record, I found those old discs and played them. I find the drum tracks to be distracting.

It would have been nice to have a second version of the songs that did not have the drum tracks on them. That way, the drummer could listen and play to the song without pre-conceived notions of what those drum parts should be (assuming you do not have something specific in mind). They can always listen to the disc with the programmed drum track later to see if that version sounds better than theirs.

I was sent a cassette tape in 2000 which contained eight songs that we subsequently recorded later that summer. The tape was worthless as a tool to learn the songs, although it was priceless in other regards, as it was funnier than any comedy album I ever heard. It did not contain complete versions of the songs played all the way through, but instead contained broken up sections of the song played over and over with the various guitar and bass parts.

That tape did contain a song called “Red Tide Sunset”, which Mark said should have a sparse drum part. However, when I heard it, it sounded like it should have Roto-Toms on it, which it ultimately did. Had I heard a copy of the song with a pre-programmed drum part on it, I never would have thought of using Roto-Toms, which is my favorite part of the song.

I can see how having a complete demo (drums and all) is valuable to spark someone’s interest in a project, but as a tool for learning a song, I prefer having the opportunity to let inspiration take over.

I've used both EZ Drummer and Addictive Drums with Digital Performer. The whole thing works nicely when you can't get a real drummer for whatever reason.

For loops, I found Groove Monkey has the best selection, Rock or Country series.

Something specific you'd like to know about? Feel free to ask.

Mel

Oh, also with EZDrummer you can use a midi keyboard and write your own beats with their samples. You can probably do this with most programs but EZ is light on the budget. I really want that new jazz expansion pack. I think I could have alot of fun with it.

GeologyRocksCA
as a tool for learning a song, I prefer having the opportunity to let inspiration take over.

Agree. Whenever I make demos of my songs I just have a drum machine doing the beat.

I have a great drummer and bass player in my band, that have FAR better drumming and bass playing ideas than I could ever come up with! Plus it's important to let them put a bit of their creativity into the song.

However, back on topic, I have sometimes wanted to record completed versions of my songs for other projects. I have also investigated drum software and the main shortcomings I have found is that they don't seem to have much of a library of fills, rolls etc to choose from.

You either seem to have to program those manually, hit by hit, in which case you have a problem getting them to sound real (varying the hit velocity etc) or choose from a few standard ones.

The other option seems to be using a MIDI keyboard and assigning drums to certain keys and "playing" the fills on the keyboard.

I'd be very interested to know how people who use drum software extensively achieve good results creating realistic sounding drum fills.

http://www.reverbnation.com/spaceparty4

I can not find a link for a free download trial of the EZ drummer software.. I would prefer to try this as opposed to my drum machine that is horrible to program.

thats it. im getting ez drummer.