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Part Writing Q&A

Lesson 7 from: Digital Drums with EZDrummer

Eyal Levi

Part Writing Q&A

Lesson 7 from: Digital Drums with EZDrummer

Eyal Levi

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Lesson Info

7. Part Writing Q&A

Next Lesson: Intro to Grooves

Lesson Info

Part Writing Q&A

You're doing this totally manually by punching him all in but couldn't shoo in theory take the high hat pounding from the first beat and just change the symbol definitely could um your time of this pattern right here yeah yes you could but since the velocities are already they're completely different then what I wanted it's for me personally it's faster to do this way there's not to say that I couldn't do that yeah, I could definitely just drive that down and then alter the velocities but I was also wanting to make sure that I had the right subdivision in mind, you know? So yes where you're saying could be done um it would be as easy as just bringing it down to there and then you have your velocities here and so then you just go according that's an opposite pattern and then when you're doing this well, yeah, it wouldn't work, yeah, so it's you know, you can definitely do stuff like that it's just faster for me in cases like this to just we are going to get into phil writing pretty exte...

nsively um in the next segment and that's basically just about what's left on this sort of you guys want to go to a q and a I'm totally cool with that if you ask, you know, if you feel like the point's been made about how fast you can put together a song with this that's what this was all about it's like you see that within on our or so uh less than an hour because the first showed you guys how the plug in is laid out and then show you what I already had ridden starting from scratch already kind of have a song going with the drums and that's fast that's not that's not like the days of yeah that's really really fast is still getting all that variation in there that makes it son rial yeah, totally and you saw how quickly I got that going as well um this is not something that should take you all day long like for a song should take you maybe an hour and to have drums that's a really good like about this good. So sure, yeah well, if this is a natural break let's just do q and a and then we'll go to break. I think ellen has a question in our studio audience. Yes when you come to an end a problem of like trying to find that perfect symbol or like whatever the tone maybe we break out into a different completely different drum kit and just like supplement um one of those tones or do you try to keep it within that same trump kid that goes back to what I said earlier about instead shooting a different instance of the plug in if the symbols from one drum set just aren't working for you and but the drums are you know, like say you really like the kick thomas near from this you think the summer's sound like crap and thank you yeah yeah open another version of easy drummer and um in the mixer basically hear allah do you personally do that a lot and you're when you're creating a beat or you know, stick with the scene well see, the thing is I use easy drummer primarily for writing so I just liketo I just like to fly cnn superior drummer there's something called extra me's where you can they show up kind of like where these guys are these graphics are and they you can assign them tio drums from other kits so you khun totally totally frankenstein it within the single instance however one instance of superior drummer is going to be way more of a cpu hog than multiple instances of easy drummer. So if cp use an issue, just get multiple instances of this going and then just in the mixer uh mute you know meet all the drums on one and your god hopefully all right, a question from ivan as fan is there a general rule of thumb as to where to place symbol hits or is it simply based on what a part needs it's just what the part needs okay? I mean there there's some basics like crashes are often used tio open up a section hi hats and rides or used to supply a pulse know things like that splashes are used for effects in the middle of beats things like that so you should probably listen to drummers that you like and figure out what they do and use that as your yeah I would definitely spend some time like make a list of your ten favorite drummers and analyze what it is that they're doing and how they're using their symbols and maybe even and not maybe even because I've done this go the length of programming they're parts on easy drummer velocities and all but really try to analyze what it is that they're doing when they go toe which symbols and why and how it effects the song how it works in context with the other instruments yeah there's no there's no rules for this besides some basic guidelines that I just mentioned another question from kool aid olio uh uh may be related to the cornhole leo what sounds better within easy drummer and horse period drummer velocity very double bass patterns or one kick or using two kicks both uh I like to use I like to use if possible to different kick drums um and then definitely very the velocity so you can get away with one kick drum because I believe that on the middie you have left foot right foot so you know, if you wantto get really nuts with it, no drummer has the strength the same strengthen their left and right feet so you can decide which hits would be with the left foot with their weaker foot and assign a lower velocity of those you want to get really detailed with our really you're going to go on this? Do you do actually do that? Like so, you know, I mean, yeah, you don't use really kicks on pretty much any mental record you buried the velocities like that or they protest consistent, I do absolutely I mean, justcause it's a sample doesn't mean that we don't treat it like a bass drum. Now, mind you, there's some things about a real bass drum that absolutely sucked for metal like when a guy starts going super fast, they play a really light and it just sounds like a rumble and you can't hear anything, so uh, yeah, we have to create a situation that isn't actually what would happen, but within that there are some things about double pace that we do like to keep our least I like to keep that left foot and right foot our have different strengths and left and right will be different pitches it's impossible to get the two bass drums to have the same pitch so I like to have one hire one lower I mean, we're talking very fine amounts of of difference but over the course of thirty second notes going through an entire part that variation in my opinion is the difference between someone tuning in and tuning out mentally well so so that's pretty that's pretty advanced stuff yeah, we'll do that as any of that apply is there something anyone can take away from that for easy drummer absolutely turned on humanize er's or something more than that always have human eyes on um look right here this is your kick that's your kick as well and um let's consult mr question real quick just tow make sure that what left and right is so it doesn't say so so sorry I can't I can't really speak to what it actually is within this but I know it could be well it's a single pedal so that's all it is but in metal machine for instance you have wait they make drum machine they make drum kits with only one kick kick pedal believe believe or not if you look at aa metal machine uh you got the right seeing the kick you get that you're right and the left so if this was ah double bass pattern in metal machine the way to make it work say say you're going from scratch um, would be says one, thea other, and they will sound different. Is not gonna sound different now because the same kick butt like this left, right, left, right, left, right and then, and then obviously alter the ah the velocities. But the variation in tone between these two, plus the variation of velocity. Yes, you can totally do that. How about not do that? All right.

Class Materials

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EZ Drummer Keynote.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

I could tell as soon as I watched the promo that I seriously wanted to check this course out, and when I did I wasn't disappointed. Eyal's EZdrummer tutorial is totally worth the purchase price. He is extremely knowledgeable and informative. He explains things very well, and offers many means of contact (Twitter, Tumblr, etc) by which one could ask any follow-up questions they may have that weren't covered in the initial session. I couldn't view the original session since I was working my regular gig when it was happening live, so the anytime access has been quite useful - I've been checking it out all weekend. I've already learned more for this than I did many times more hours of watching random YouTube tutorials on the subject. I would and have recommended this course already!

a Creativelive Student
 

This course literally changed the way I work with digital drums. Before this course I had a hard time programming drums in my DAW and now it's become totally natural. My workflow has been greatly improved and so has my work. If you are new to the game, this will give you a MAYOR head start. Thank you.

Professor Pizza
 

Eyal's instruction opened up a new world for my songwriting. Can't recommend this enough for working musicians that prefer to capture their song ideas in a high-fidelity way.

Student Work

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