EZDrummer vs Superior Drummer

Hello All,

I'm about to try and get back into home recording. I'm about to get Reaper for my DAW, and I'd like to get a drum plug-in too. Can anyone who has experience explain what the big difference between EZDrummer and Superior Drummer.

Thanks

I only have EZDrummer, so take this with a grain of salt.

EZ Drummer is basically a dumbed down version with slightly lower sound quality. The drum samples are largely pre-EQ'd for mixing, although you can adjust some basic settings, such as room size, levels on a mixer, etc, and you have some limited ability to switch drums within a set (most have alternate snare, tom and cymbal samples for example).

It also comes with a lot of beat packs... generally 8 or 16 bar beats that can be cut and paste into DAW to build a drum score.

Superior Drummer (to the best of my knowledge) lets you get right into the details, so you can treat each sample like a separate input on a recording console and edit accordingly. You can also record your own or download other people's samples and mix and match freely if I remember correctly. I'm sure there's a lot more to it and hopefully someone else will chime in.

I went for EZDrummer due to the simplicity. I like it and it serves my purpose well.

screamingdaisy said:

I only have EZDrummer, so take this with a grain of salt.

EZ Drummer is basically a dumbed down version with slightly lower sound quality. The drum samples are largely pre-EQ'd for mixing, although you can adjust some basic settings, such as room size, levels on a mixer, etc, and you have some limited ability to switch drums within a set (most have alternate snare, tom and cymbal samples for example).

It also comes with a lot of beat packs... generally 8 or 16 bar beats that can be cut and paste into DAW to build a drum score.

Superior Drummer (to the best of my knowledge) lets you get right into the details, so you can treat each sample like a separate input on a recording console and edit accordingly. You can also record your own or download other people's samples and mix and match freely if I remember correctly. I'm sure there's a lot more to it and hopefully someone else will chime in.

I went for EZDrummer due to the simplicity. I like it and it serves my purpose well.

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What do you use to "write" the drum parts (es. Guitar Pro)?

I have EZD as well, I recently got it. I like it a lot and I would agree with Screamingdaisy as far as comments. I typically drop the parts into my DAW and cut/paste to create a beat OR use my midi keyboard to do the same.

I think Superior you can do a whole lot more with but EZD serves its purposes well.

I "write" the parts in DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). I have a Mac so I use Garage Band or Logic. The score is printed in midi to a track. With EZDrummer I scroll through the samples until I find the one I need, then I cut and paste them into the track. Alternatively, (because the cut and paste method is painfully slow) I've done Google searches for drum scores on the internet and downloaded them. You can also write/edit the score from scratch using your mouse if you need to.

The fastest way is to use an electronic drum kit to record a midi track. I don't know much about this. There's a reason I went with EZDrummer. :lol:

Once the track is recorded DAW sends the track out to the plug-in for processing and it returns sounding like a drum kit. It's not that complicated once you get used to it.

Cool thanks for the replies! I've checked out some videos on YouTube and EZDrummer sounds good enough for what I need. The Metal Machine expansion sounds awesome!

Any idea why Amazon has EZDrummer for $65.99 and Musicians Friend $149...

2Below said:

Any idea why Amazon has EZDrummer for $65.99 and Musicians Friend $149...

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As I remember the price's $149, make sure you're not looking at an upgrade.

I actually got the one from Amazon weeks ago, same thing and works great! Came with the Cocktail Expansion pack... not sure if I will use it but hey I have it, metal expansion would have been nice for free

I'm going to go with EZDrummer for now, and get it from Amazon. The Metal Machine EZX pack is only $39.99 on amazon too!

Thanks for the input guys! I'm sure I'll have questions once I get the software installed... :shock:

Registration is a back and forth online, so make sure you are hooked up to the net etc

2Below said:

Hello All,

I'm about to try and get back into home recording. I'm about to get Reaper for my DAW, and I'd like to get a drum plug-in too. Can anyone who has experience explain what the big difference between EZDrummer and Superior Drummer.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Hi 2Below,

Superior Drummer is essentially the more sophisticated big brother of EZDrummer. Both are of course midi programmable software. EZDrummer has- in its own right- some really good sample libraries, which Superior can use, as well. The samples I got for EZDrummer were already processed, and a downside I suppose is that you can't tweak them to as great an extent from what I've tried to do thus far.

As I mentioned earlier, Superior Drummer is the more sophisticated counterpart, so I use more sample libraries with it such as Avatar, Metal Foundry, et. al. The samples unprocessed to me feel like I am dealing with raw drums after all, so to make the most of it, that's where I have do much more tinkering on my own- apart from tinkering around with various kit samples, I also route them on my DAW in a way where I can apply EQ, compression, parallel compression, and whatnot (tweaks such as EQ and compression can internally with both EZDrummer and SuperiorDrummer, which both have their own built in presets and stuff for that schtick, but I prefer to use some outside plug-ins as a personal preference to lend me a hand, but I digress! lol).

Bottom line, if you want something a bit easier to work with- I'd go with EZdrummer. If you feel like you could use loads of flexibility to sculpt out whatever you'd like, then go big with Superior. I can vouch for both products as being very nifty and helpful when recording.

I also have EZDrummer (never tried SD). I'm not sure if it's been pointed out, but you can separate each piece into separate tracks (up to eight) in your DAW. But like what's been said before it already has some eq'ing applied to it. I like separating the kit so I can somewhat treat each differently. Gives me somewhat of a control, eventhough not much.

superior drummer is......
superior.

gonzo said:

superior drummer is......
superior.

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I 'upgraded' a couple of months ago... and I echo this

Yes, Superior Drummer is amazing! I actually picked it up off Amazon for $89.00 about a year and a half ago. I'm not sure why prices for these tend to fluctuate so wildly (much like Waves plugin prices). I find it extremely useful to bus each part of the kit (kick, snare, hi-hat, etc.) to it's own track in order to plug away with compressors, etc. I use a Korg Triton to write them and it's pretty easy with Pro Tools' midi capabilities.

To the OP. Here is a pretty decent tutorial for programming drums from scratch.

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/sevenstring-org-workbench/24417-tech-how-program-drums.html

I've got an original rock instrumental using Superior in the "Rigs and Tones" forum, if you want to hear it in action....

i have superior and love it.....although there is still MUCH to learn about it!

Sorry guys....STEVEN SLATE FTW!