Let's talk about Drum Plug-ins baby...

For my own use I find Studio Drummer at the top of the heap. Oddly one of the things I like is especially the ride cymbal. But the snare is on the money. I have EZ Drummer 2 and Superior as well as BFD Eco and the Zildjian Cymbal Vault.

My finished projects may start with EZ for ideas then convert to a mixture of Superior and Studio using the drums from Superior with the snare and ride cymbal from Studio and throw in some cymbals from the zildjian vault.
 
I have SSD4 and BFD 1, 2 & 3. The GUI for SSD is terrible although the sounds are very good. I strongly prefer BFD. There are expansion kits for BFD3 (especially Andy Johns, Joe Barressi, Jim Scott) that are very, very good. Here is the problem. If you work with midi grooves, EZDrummer2 is by far the most innovative and easy program devised to date to create songs from grooves. This is particularly so because of the ease by which the grooves can be modified. The problem I have run into is that after the song is completed, exporting the song as a midi track and for use with BFD3 is extremely difficult because of the incorrect mapping. I have way too much money invested in BFD at this point to change; but, if I was starting over, I would strongly look at Superior Drummer in hopes that the translation from EZD to SD would be seamless. I would use EZD to create the tracks and then export to SD for the final track for better sounds.
 
Mesaholic said:
...I would strongly look at Superior Drummer in hopes that the translation from EZD to SD would be seamless. I would use EZD to create the tracks and then export to SD for the final track for better sounds.
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This is the ticket if you want to work in the Toontrack product line. The transition to Superior is seamless. EZ Drummer is an awesome creative tool to get a groove started. I won't say you can't finish a project with it because it sounds good BUT one of the primary differences is EZ Drummer is 16 bit. Superior is 24 bit.
 
That's the exact workflow I'm thinking of. I really appreciate the tap to find and then song creator thing. Though I've found it not as random as I thought and it'll pretty much just select the same loops for each groove you place in the creator which is a bit of a shame. I'd like a "randomise" option.
If I buy SD outright then I just don't get EZ so buying EZ and then upgrading to SD is the way to go I think.
How do the preset kits transfer over or is it a case of having to tweak SD from scratch?
 
I've never really had to tweak SD from scratch. The preset kits have a good sound. I sometimes work on the snare as I think some have too much compression. EZ Drummer is a great drawing board. I like them both together but IMHO, for my workflow, I use EZ for the rough draft and SD for the final version.

On the flip side SD is as configurable as you want. My drummer friend tweaks room mics and all kinds of crap and get some awesome sounds. I usually take over with EQ and layering or replacement experiments.
 
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