Toontrack EZDrummer 3

Full Description

Expert drum sounds

This flagship drum library needed a sound to match the functionality and this is exactly what EZDrummer 3 boasts. Recorded by award-winning engineer Michael Ilbert (Coldplay, Adele, The Weeknd) at the world-famous Hansa Studios in Berlin, Germany, EZDrummer 3 is armed with 15GB of sounds to explore. Comprised of seven full handpicked kits, you can explore a huge palette of sounds covering everything from mellow and vintage to bright and heavy. A stunning collection of premium and boutique instruments is made up of 14 kicks, 24 snares, 30 toms, six hi-hats, six rides, 16 crashes, three splashes, two chinas and one clap stack from world-renown manufacturers.

Making use of all three live rooms within Hansa Studios EZDummer 3 includes kits recorded in all three rooms for maximum versatility and ambience. The main room is spacious but not overpowering, ideal for anything from laid-back singer-songwriter to modern pop. Two kits have been recorded in the main room including the Studio Kit and Singer-Songwriter Kit, offering transparent, detailed and elegant sounds ideal for a huge range of genres from pop, rock and funk.

The Bright room features marble walls contrasted by hardwood floorings, presenting a bright punch and ambience. Two kits were recorded in this room including the Modern Rock Kit and Vintage Rock kit. The added brightness and definition from the room ambience make these the perfect solution for powerful rock sounds.

Lastly, the Tight room is a highly-compact room, filled with sound-absorbing materials for a dry and precise sound. Three further kits were recorded in this room including the Tight and Punchy Kit, Classic Pop Kit and Hip-Hop/R&B kit. Fat and snappy, these kits have been recorded with a mix of tea towel shell coverings for that classic vintage and dry tone making them perfect for rhythm-based genres from R&B, jazz, Latin and much more.

In traditional Toontrack fashion, EZDrummer 3 comes loaded with a plethora of artist and signature presets for users of all abilities to explore the sonic landscapes possible or to dive into production-ready tones for your composition.

Got a riff? Let Bandmate do the rest

New for EZDrummer 3 is the Bandmate function, an AI-powered rhythm generator that crafts customised beats to your audio or MIDI files. The perfect starting point for writing your music, Bandmate allows you to input any melodic instrument from bass, keys or guitars and be presented with musically accurate drum grooves that fit your riff. Using smart analysis tools, Bandmate listens to transient information to match kick drum patterns, making it incredibly accurate to your audio or MIDI riff. Generating a plethora of matching grooves with a different feel, power hand and even genre, you can match virtually any style of guitar riff, bass groove or even key melody to find something that fits your composition in seconds.

Once you have found a groove that suits your track, you can customise it further using the three knobs to musically refine the number of snare hits, kick hits and the power hand. Ideal for adding everything from subtle snare ghost notes, extra kick drums for up-tempo rock or metal and more articulations on your power hand for extra flair. Alongside these, Bandmate provides global controls for velocity and swing, letting you change the intensity and groove of your track.

When working with MIDI files as your source, Bandmate will automatically provide a selection of sound banks from synths, keys, bass and guitars to give you an audio representation of how your AI-generated drum groove matches with your composition.

Tap it in with Tap2Find

Finding the right groove in EZDrummer 3 is now interactive and faster than ever. Redefined for a more efficient workflow, Tap2Find lets you record either a full groove or only the accents that you want in your performance. This is ideal for gathering inspiration in your search results or for highlighting specific fills which match the rhythm of your track. Should you need to record more than just the accents for a more specific search, the Record Groove option lets you record either a full or part of a performance to find something that more closely matches with the onboard MIDI files.

Within the step sequencer, you have a wide range of customisation to find the right groove, from the beat length and tempo along with the ability to add notes manually into the step sequencer. Your MIDI file options are then filtered for you based on likeness to your Tap2find groove, allowing you to quickly audition grooves to find the perfect one for your track.

Write it in with Grid Editor

Taken from the Superior Drummer line, EZDrummer 3 now features a fully-functional Grid Editor with improvements dedicated or songwriting. Making it easier to compose grooves from scratch, EZDrummer 3 now features a humanise engine. This uses machine learning to analyse the hundreds of thousands of MIDI grooves which Toontrack have recorded with real drummers, drawing on micro-tempo and velocity information to make your performances as realistic as possible. Ideal for transforming static, quantised grooves into lively and exciting patterns that enhance the rhythm of your track.

Applied to either individual instruments or entire grooves, this is ideal for adding humanisation to newly-written drum parts on top of an existing groove. With half-time, double-time and blast beat formats, no matter what kind of groove you have, you can ensure maximum authenticity throughout. Micro timing parameters make very small adjustments to the performance on the grid, mimicking the natural performance as possible, with modes for push and pull as well as laid-back style micro-timings.

Intuitive browser folder

EZDrummer 3 adopts the new streamlined browser, with integrated search filters, making sorting through the 2,500+ included drums fast and efficient. Designed to excel in all popular music genres and to this end, EZDrummer 3 includes more time signatures, feels and genres than any other library, from hip-hop, metal, Latin and much more. There's also a dedicated MIDI library for EZDrummer 3 percussion to fully take advantage of these styles. You can search through playing style, genre, signature and power-hand to find a selection of grooves that match your requirements, or can manually search for a specific style, saving this as a custom filter for future sessions.

Talk to your drummer

Released for EZDrummer 2, the Edit Play Style function changed the way users customise MIDI performances. Refined for EZDrummer 3, you can now employ AI-based stylistic alternatives for your performance. This isn't simply changing the drum hit articulation, but instead provides with you completely unique playing styles for your groove. These are tuned to each instrument, ensuring that no-two playing styles are the same.

You can change the feel of the accents, just like a real drummer would with feedback from the band or conductor. This allows you to complete complex editing tasks which would typically take a significant amount of time if done manually!

Transform your grooves into songs

The song Song Creator in EZDrummer 3 provides you with a selection of pre-made templates to craft a song from a groove in seconds. Simply drag a MIDI groove into your Song Creator and let EZDrummer 3 take care of the rest. Providing you with a selection of arrangements based on intelligent AI processing, you are presented with musically similar grooves and parts to craft full compositions. Each section within your structure can be swapped out for an alternative groove to better match your track and style with ease. Designed for songwriters, this is the perfect solution for quickly and easily getting your ideas recorded into full song structures to remain in the creative groove without getting bogged down by manual drum programming.

The MIDI library

Over 2,500+ MIDI files are included with Toontrack EZDrummer 3 spanning a huge range of genres and styles from soul, Latin, funk, metal, hip-hop, EDM and much more. Arranged in a song structure format with smart filtering abilities, the grooves onboard cover everything from the subtle to extreme to cover your musical needs. Whether you're crafting experimental prog rock and need a multitude of time signatures or classic EDM four-to-the-floor, EZDrummer 3 can accommodate your needs. Each MIDI file has been performed by a real drummer to ensure maximum authenticity and realism for your projects, meaning you won't need to spend any time editing micro-timing and velocity parameters and can instead dive into high-quality drum production.

Newly introduced in EZDrummer 3 is the Groove Parts menu. This allows you to customise, refine, slice and dice every file within the MIDI library. Combine individual instruments from each groove to create custom grooves without any tedious editing, simply drag and drop the parts you want into your Song Creator tab and make fresh and new beats perfectly fit your music.

Perform freely

For home-studio musicians with access to an E-kit, EZDrummer 3 offers unrivalled integration of your kit for a natural feel and sound. Multiple preset maps allow you to map your E-kit to EZDrummer 3 at the click of a button, meaning no matter what brand or model you use, you will always be able to match your hits to the correct drum. Comprehensive velocity control is presented to let you dial in the perfect curve that matches the dynamics of your playing to capture each hit as accurately as possible. Whether you're playing the softest of ghost notes, or the hardest of hits, EZDrummer 3 will keep up with your playing. The built-in MIDI recording engine allows you to record entire performances directly within the plug-in to lay down your drum tracks without the need for any external plug-ins or software.

Features

• Newly-designed Bandmate function creates AI-generated drum grooves from imported audio or MIDI files
• Tap2Find lets you search through over 2,500+ onboard grooves and performances to find the right fit for your track
• Fully-functional Grid Editor lets you program beats from scratch faster than ever with control over micro-timing parameters
• New streamlined browser with integrated search filters allows you to navigate through the onboard MIDI grooves and files easily
• Comprehensive beat customisation with instrument-specific AI-based stylistic options for changing articulation, power-hand and alternative playing styles
• Includes staple set of percussion instruments to seamlessly add to your grooves with the click of a button
• Smart Song Creator harnesses a selection of song templates with intelligent, musically-related automatic arrangements based on your current groove or beat
• Slice, dice and re-arrange groove parts to create customised grooves for your projects
• Over 2,500 onboard MIDI files performed by real drummers with song structure format and a range of tempos and signatures
• Perfectly suited for all styles of music from jazz, blues, metal, hip-hop and EDM
• Seven full kits with over 15GB of files, recorded by award-winning producer/engineer Michael Ilbert
• Recorded in three different rooms at world-famous Hansa Studios in Berlin, Germany
• Comprised of 14 kicks, 24 snares, 30 toms, 6 hi-hats, 6 rides, 16 crashes, 3 splashes, 2 chinas and a clap stack
• Huge range of onboard presets including custom presets from head mixing engineer Michael Ilbert
• Immaculate integration with E-kits offers customisation of mapping, velocity curve, flexible hi-hat control and direct MIDI recording into EZDrummer 3
• Fully resizable and scalable interface fits all screen sizes

Specifications

System requirements

• Operating system:
  • Mac: 64-bit macOS 10.10 or higher, Intel or Apple silicon processor
  • Windows: 64-bit Windows 7 or newer
• Format:
  • Mac: VST3, AU, AAX, Standalone
  • Windows: VST3, AAX, Standalone
• Disk space: 18GB
• RAM: 8GB or more recommended
• Product code: TT528