How to find THE RIGHT BEAT in EZdrummer 3

[@ShootieSchool]

If you're on Facebook, here's a bonus metal themed EZD3 video from me... facebook.com/groups/shootiesspeakeasy/posts/2278387722313504/

[@michaelneppel1748]

I don’t even have the words to describe my thanks here. This is the standard of communication to which any instructor should strive. Someone get this man a six figure salary. When an artist is also a good communicator, enlightenment follows. I’m looking forward to the next video, as always.

[@ShootieSchool]

What a fantastic comment! You made my day! Thank you.

[@BlackCanvasAudio]

Agreed!!!

[@RJS0507]

Your content is a blessing and so are you! Thank you sir!

[@ShootieSchool]

You got it, thank you for saying!

[@tomace6906]

Toontrack couldn’t have made better pick - best tutor ever! Thx Shawn

[@ShootieSchool]

Thank you for saying, Tom!

[@spyderyates4587]

Professor Shootie, You are a wealth of knowledge

[@ShootieSchool]

I appreciate you coming back and commenting every time, Spyder!!

[@Vagen_d]

Your videos really are the best. So much knowledge dropped here. And with maximum communication efficiency. You never make videos about you. Its all down to business. Thank you for respecting our time.

[@ShootieSchool]

I love your comment! Thank you so much for taking the time to post it!!!!!

[@danmenez]

Dude, this is one of the most professional KZbin channel I ever seen! They should pay you in gold!

[@ShootieSchool]

Thank you, Daniel!!

[@vovindequasahi]

Oh hell yeah! This is what I requested in the last one, a dream come true! The first method, using drum beats to come up with riffs, is the jamming aspect or way to come up with riffs, but more often you've already got yourself a riff and you just need to get those pesky drums out of the way so you can start recording, and THIS is it! Thanks bro! I'm adding this to my watch-list to go through again later. Oh, and Ola Englund also has a great video describing how he uses EZDrummer to find beats to his riffs that I highly recommend to complement this.

[@ShootieSchool]

Thank you, Richard. Glad you came back! Is the Ola Englund vid that old EZD2 vid, or does he have a new EZD3 one?

[@vovindequasahi]

@@ShootieSchool No it's still the old EZD2 version. Haven't found an updated one on how he uses it. I'll ask him if he can update it to EZD3 cause with the new features that would be fucking killer! Your video set is awesome, and is helping me actually using this beast. With Ola I just marveled how he manages to put together a freaking mini-song every week, especially with the drums using EZDrummer, so I still think it is a valid complement to your excellent videos. As you must know by now, going from fiddling around with this MOST EXCELLENT (air guitar section) tool to actually using it efficiently in your pipeline can be a hurdle. That is why videos like yours are really pushing the bar. Again thanks!

[@vovindequasahi]

@@ShootieSchool Anything to be able to bypass those pesky real-life drummers without midi fiddling, while you're composing right? ;-)

[@ShootieSchool]

@@vovindequasahi LOL, EXCELLENT! I sure he'll get around to it when he's ready. Thank you so much for saying, Richard!!

[@ShootieSchool]

@@vovindequasahi Let's say it's a fantastic option!

[@AaronMoline]

This information is EXTREAMLY helpful. While this video is centered around EZdrummer 3, the tips and tricks have gone over have truly inspired me. They will surely help me tell the story I'm trying to create. Thank you!

[@ShootieSchool]

Great to hear, Aaron!

[@subaquariamusic]

Thanks for all the valuable info as always!

[@ShootieSchool]

Thank you so much for supporting Shootie School and my endeavors with the channel, Subaquaria! This helps out a lot!

[@bluzedogg]

I've watched so many of your videos so many times and just a while ago I'm asking myself why am I watching this one again and you mentioned ‘filler riff.’ I've heard you say that many times cuz I've watched this video many times and this time it landed and it's going to change my entire approach. thanks, shootie.

[@ShootieSchool]

I love it!

[@teashea1]

Very nicely done ----- and Reaper and EZD3 --- most excellent combo

[@ShootieSchool]

Thank you, Thomas!

[@TimE_5150]

Great job Shawn, looking forward to the rest of the series! The intro hack is a great one!

[@ShootieSchool]

Thanks for taking the time, Tim!!!

[@joelacina386]

Hell yea Shootie!! Keep up the great work brother! Anxiously waiting for the next vid

[@ShootieSchool]

Thank you for saying, Joe!

[@mikebubeck2880]

Hey Shawn (Sean?) - love your EZD3 videos. They are so helpful. I really appreciate your teaching style and organization. I've learned a lot from you. EZD3 is so much fun when you know how to use it! Thanks man!

[@ShootieSchool]

Thank you for saying, Mike!! -Shawn

[@EZRockman]

Right on target as usual. Thanks Shootie.

[@ShootieSchool]

It makes my day that you approve. You are one of my number one supporters. Thank you, Rocky!

[@TheMovieMassacreShow]

Dude, you're awesome. I'm getting EZ Drunmer 3 this weekend, the bandmate option sounds phenomenal

[@ShootieSchool]

Awesome, enjoy \m/

[@PlectrumShorts]

The song structure “viewport” trick is *awesome*. I’ve always fought the FX window because it’s “in the way”, but that makes it a killer feature when when paired with the loops. Great lesson, man!

[@ShootieSchool]

Thank you, Scott! Yes, it's really a workflow worth practicing, it saves a ton of time when you have it down.

[@jean-marcsuter1715]

excellent stuff, keep it coming

[@ShootieSchool]

Jean-marc!! Thank you.

[@toontrack]

Good stuff!

[@ShootieSchool]

[@joefoster5793]

Ok, your awesome. Thought process is spot on. Advice is exactly on the money. Cheers.

[@ShootieSchool]

Great to hear!

[@woodlandercoppice9986]

Brilliant thank you so much...have a good weekend mate......Rock Hard, Rock heavy, ROOOOOCCKKKK AAAANNNNIIIIMMMMALLL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@ShootieSchool]

You got it!

[@razhua]

A lot of work went into this video/editing. you cover quite a bit in different aspects from playing, creating, where ideas come from to the use of ez drummer in different ways. if broken down into bite sizes there is a huge amount of well presented info here. wish I could subscribe twice at least!

[@ShootieSchool]

You're the best Eduardo. Thank you!

[@jfloyd2919]

This dude is killin it ✊ Getcha Pull ☝

[@ShootieSchool]

[@ThompaThelin]

Thx for another good video. I discover you channel when I first bought EZD2 and you channel is the reason I use Toontracks products :) every time I stumble upon a problem I just go to your videos and there is the tips/solution/turtorial ;) thx Sean ROCK ON !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@ShootieSchool]

Thompa, you've been so encouraging this past year. Thank you for your support!

[@boogybass]

As a person whose written lots of songs and know all kinds of song formats, I found your best advice was to listen to all kinds of different music. Just yesterday, I was stumped for an idea and I heard a Katy Perry song, who I never listen to, but the beat in the song got me going on a new tune right away. I wish more musicians would do this, as it opens up their choices and helps develop their own style. Kudos to you Shawn!

[@ShootieSchool]

Thank you for saying, Ron. You're the best!

[@justinbaker6222]

Super helpful - already used the tips today and made things a lot easier!

[@ShootieSchool]

Great to hear, Justin. Thanks for saying!

[@davidhaolai]

I have been watching your videos continously since last night......youre using Reaper today.... Cool dude.... Subbed.

[@ShootieSchool]

Awesome, welcome!

[@francescocarosone5943]

Another great video, your songwriting advices and, somewhere else, also personality advices are really unique. Thanks for saying how to save to user midi, it's trivial when you know it but I couldn't find it in the manual up to pag. 99 and I wrote it in the forum to make other users' life easier. Bandmate is magic, and with the song creator video you made me feel like studying existing songs structures and put them in an archive to populate with new ideas

[@ShootieSchool]

Francesco, thank you so much for taking the time to say that!!!!

[@spyderyates4587]

I had to rewarch this one. So many great suggestions

[@ShootieSchool]

Great to hear. The main auditioning method in this video is the most valuable workflow for me.

[@martingraf1338]

This is really cool and fun. I love educational videos like this and you're helping me in my own songwriting process. Thanks so much, bud! 😁🤘🏻

[@ShootieSchool]

Thank you for commenting, Martin! Welcome.

[@martingraf1338]

@@ShootieSchool Not a problem at all 😁

[@Rich-NH]

Thanks!

[@ShootieSchool]

Thank you so much, Rich. Very helpful!

[@myguitardiary666]

Great workflow tips, thanks!

[@ShootieSchool]

You got it, thank you!

[@bpr154]

Dude great video and excellent tips! Can you please tell me how you have set the different takes as separate colours on the same track?

[@ShootieSchool]

Thank you! In Reaper: Right click>Item Take and Colors... In EZD: Right Click>Song Parts

[@DS-wi3bk]

Thanks man, you are the best ❤

[@ShootieSchool]

You got it!

[@rjstrange]

Picked up Ezdrummer 3 upgrade for 20% off with a special personal code. Pretty impressed with what the Bandmate feature does as a better version of tap2find with some dynamically generated parts that are a lot easier to work with than my own homebrewed neural networks that I trained on toontrack midi packs. I just hope they add more styles with generated parts, as I've noticed I don't get generated parts for hip-hop and Latin, but pop/rock, jazz and metal will have generated parts.

[@ShootieSchool]

I’m not sure what triggers generated parts. I wonder if it has to do with what midi the user lacks in their library. I’ll have to test it out.

[@rjstrange]

@@ShootieSchool Yeah. I have a pretty extensive drum midi library, including hip-hop and Latin, so I'm not sure that's the case. I imagine Toontrack has their own models pre-installed that generate the parts.

[@ShootieSchool]

@@rjstrange Are you into software? We were chatting about a year back?

[@rjstrange]

@@ShootieSchool I've dabbled in a few coding languages, enough to repurpose open source code to my needs, but Ezdrummer 3 really came up with a better solution that is more controllable in terms of how many kick/snare/power hand hits in both generated and existing midi loops. Google's magenta studio requires the premium suite edition of Ableton Live, and for each midi you use to generate a drum part, you only get to control how chaotic and random it is with a temperature slider, and you have to use computing power for several hours to create models for varying bar lengths. In short, it's not user friendly or intuitive on many levels. I'm excited how it's working now, and even more excited how they will improve upon it.

[@ShootieSchool]

@@rjstrange Quite interesting!

[@Kathayne636]

Great video.

[@ShootieSchool]

Thank you, D!

[@ericlivers254]

Yo! Bro, there was a track that you was working on the you put it through something, that you wasn't intending to use. But I heard it, and sampled it. Hope you don't mind?? But it was Dope Broski!!

[@Demolition2024]

I'm trying to do some covers based on what Leo Moracchioli does. I know he has used Toontracks for some of his work. I guess doing a cover song would require a different approach to adding drums and bass tracks. Maybe writing them from scratch on the grid editor? Not being a drummer I find it hard to know whats going on in a song and trying to write that 3 second fill can even take awhile. I guess you just get a ear for it after awhile or people are only using EZ Drummer for cover songs with simple drums.

[@ShootieSchool]

Experience drumming and using the grid editor is certainly a big advantage. If it’s a popular enough song, maybe someone using Guitar Pro could get you the midi if it exists. I do privates and I’m a work for hire. Details on my site. You could probably find someone less expensive than me on toontrack communities though if you want that route.

[@drewdemaio4162]

Great video man! I just downloaded EZ Drummer 3 and it looks a bit complicated to me. My hope is that your videos help. If you happen to have any recommendations for more tutorials for beginners, hook me up!

[@ShootieSchool]

I'm working on my beginner series right now, which should have a very different pace. So do subscribe and get notifications. Until them, use the Toontrack tutorials directly from their channel.

[@drewdemaio4162]

@@ShootieSchool Awesome! Looking forward!

[@ShootieSchool]

@@drewdemaio4162 Coming soon. Just wrapping up the first one in the new series now.

[@2giantmonsters]

Good stuff thank you. How would you personally arrange a proggier song?

[@ShootieSchool]

Thank you, Wayne! Honestly hard to answer, especially in a KZbin reply.

[@2giantmonsters]

@@ShootieSchool I’ve just have a ‘notepad’ on on my desktop to keep track of what parts I’m using. I wasn’t sure if there’s a better way. Thanks.

[@ShootieSchool]

Check out my Song Creator Series, I use the Boneyard workflow for keeping track of beats.

[@ericlivers254]

and what other words can I use in the search bar window. You told me about the word, "Pick up""?

[@ShootieSchool]

There’s no reference for them. It’s whatever metadata the midi has over the generations of Toontrack.

[@kkgenk7007]

I don't know if there is a feature to preview grooves without stopping when switching to another folder. In Ezdrummer 1 , playback preview of grooves was automatic even when switching between folders.

[@ShootieSchool]

It seems they pulled that feature out. EZkeys1 still has the feature as well.

[@Demolition2024]

Just one question before I order all this stuff. Can I make a drum track from scratch? Like make my own songs or do covers.

[@ShootieSchool]

4 things come to mind. There's a basic step sequencer in EZD3 called Tap2Find. There a way more advanced Grid Editor you can draw beats out with a Pen Tool, if you use a DAW you can control EZD3 with a Piano Roll, and if you have a Keyboard/FindgerPad/E-Drumkit, you can just record your performance (and click on the drums in real-time with your mouse).

[@spyderyates4587]

Shawn, I'm working on a new song and used band mate to create/select all the beats.. I noticed an odd thing. The velocity and articulations for the drums became drastically inconsistent from one Grove to the next. I had to go into the grid editor to level things out. Has anyone had this issue using bandmate. It was like wow the drums sound great here but then became thin sounding in other sorts of the song. It took awhile to see what happened. This is my first time really making use of bandmate.

[@ShootieSchool]

I would have to see you using Bandmate to understand exactly where to correct this. Two thoughts though. Bandmate does have a Global Velocity Know under the Edit box. Adjust that before dragging your Groove out of Bandmate. Or in your Song Track, as you compare one beat to the next, use Edit Play Style with "All Instruments" selected. A fast wat to tame velocity of an entire beat quickly. I would use Grid Editor to fix single hits and for small details in this case. Hope that helps.

[@spyderyates4587]

I believe bandmate created a couple of groves that fit the song ut dint include snare rimshots. That where core the the rest of the song. So it sounded like a different snare in the context of the whole song.

[@ShootieSchool]

@@spyderyates4587 I see. So simply fix for just switching the instrument them, right?

[@spyderyates4587]

It was an easy fix. Just unexpected. In the past I used tap to find and the song creator and everything works together. With bandmate is finds or creates a groove in a vacuum. So each song segment that gets loaded in band mate is analyzed without context to what bandmate selected previously. It was just unexpected and probably an overuse or misused of bandmate on my part. But I think bandmata and song creator will be my ho to workflow

[@bluzedogg]

So many of my favorite drum fills are at the end of drum loops. So, I cut them all off and put them in user midi. How do I delete them? If I right click to delete it says delete from Disc. does that mean they're gone for good?

[@ShootieSchool]

When you put a file into User Midi, it gets written to you local User Midi Folder. So when you delete something from user midi, that fill snippet is gone forever. Right click on your User Midi Folder and select Open In Finder/Explorer to get a better idea of what I mean. Welcome back Bluze!

[@bluzedogg]

@@ShootieSchool thanks, man. you like duh shit and stuff.

[@amitabhaelliott]

Your voice reminds me of Gary Garipoli of Giam's Beginner Qigong practice. Maybe it's because you have similar kamma.

[@ShootieSchool]

I'll take that!!

[@woodlandercoppice9986]

Hi Shootie Dude....here's a question for ya, if I have an exisitng drum groove already in my arrange window of my DAW, can I copy and paste it back into EZ3???

[@ShootieSchool]

Depends on the permissions of the DAW. I might know. Which DAW.

[@woodlandercoppice9986]

@@ShootieSchool Its Logic Pro9

[@ShootieSchool]

@@woodlandercoppice9986 The answer is No. You can manually export midi from Logic and reimport it to EZ. Or better, as a user from my Facebook group has suggested (link in description), enable record in EZ, and record the midi into EZ's Song Track from Logic.

[@Agent36]

I can use ez drummer 3 stand-alone but in reason 12 I only see ezdrummer 2. Any suggestions?

[@Agent36]

Mac

[@ShootieSchool]

EZD3 is a VST3. Here's what came up in Google. "Does Reason 12 support VST3? from June 2022: Having fixed the issues in Reason 12, we are now working full throttle on VST3 support. Our VST3 hosting can already load and play instruments and effects, but many refinements are left, and we are expecting it to reach your hands end of year." You should ask Reason support or a Reason community at this point for the details about VST3 plugins.

[@Agent36]

@@ShootieSchool thanks. I’ll probably go back to pro tools and using reason as a plug in lol.

[@ShootieSchool]

@@Agent36 Sure. Hopefully you won't have to wait too long. I saw another post today confirming VST3 is not supported yet.

[@Agent36]

@@ShootieSchool just received an email that reason 12 released a vst3 beta. I thought I’d share that since you were kind enough to respond.

[@CarlosSaulRodriguezA]

the flat 5th was never frowned upon anywhere... it was commonly used... religious music all around the world used tritones...

[@ShootieSchool]

I must have run into some fake news at some point.

[@bobbydolan]

Sadly, superior 3 doesn't have band mate. Someday, maybe?

[@ShootieSchool]

I'm sure when SD4 comes out.

[@bobbydolan]

@@ShootieSchool whenever THAT is! Keep up the great work. You are a treasure.

[@ShootieSchool]

Thanks!!