Good morning, and thanks for joining me on Midnightdrummer.com today!
In this blog post, I will talk about drum recordings and how to record drums without drums.
What? 
Yes, these days that is easily possible, and you won't believe how affordable it is as well!
Check out for yourself:
Here's your studio drummer!
Toontrack Ezdrummer 3 is probably the best and elaborate drum sampler available at the moment!
>> On Sweetwater.com you will get the best price for this amazing piece of software.
Throughout this Toontrack Ezdrummer 3 review I will show you how the plugin works, how much you have to pay for your own “studio drummer” and what it all can do for you in the studio.
Sounds good?
Let's go!
What is Ezdrummer 3?
Ezdrummer 3 is the latest drum sampler VST made by the Swedish company Toontrack. This virtual drum software is made for songwriters and studios who aim for the best sounding drum recordings without having to hire any human drummers to do the job.
Ezdrummer 3 is packed with 15 gigabytes of drum sounds and more than 2.500 drum grooves from several music genres: Rock | Pop | Metal | Blues | Fusion | Latin | Soul etc.
Finding the perfect drum groove is easy; there are numerous filters to narrow down your search. You can filter by music genre, tempo, drumming styles etc.
There are 3 virtual recording rooms which create completely different drum sounds. This is a helpful starting point from where you can dive deeper and find the ideal sound for your project.
Quality
The sound quality of the drum samples and of the rooms are excellent.
Contents
Ezdrummer 3 is equipped with 15 gigabytes of drum samples, more than 2.500 MIDI drum grooves and a new developed interface which makes it easy to create the drum tracks you dream of.
If you buy Ezdrummer here, you will also get the Bitwig Studio 8 DAW as a bonus.
Cost
For new customers, Ezdrummer 3 costs $179,-.
An upgrade version including Bitwig Studio 8 (DAW) is available for $99,- here.
Compare that with the price of a pro-drummer you have hired for a studio session!
Summary
Ezdrummer 3 by Toontrack is a fantastic drum sampler VST, which every songwriter, producer, and studio owner should consider buying!
If you don't own the drum kit microphones or a great sounding room to record drums, Ezdrummer 3 is a great alternative with high quality samples and an easy-to-understand interface for quick and professional results.
Pros
Cons
Toontrack Ezdrummer 3 review
Recording a drum set isn't easy at all.
You need quite some space in a good sounding recording room, several (expensive) microphones, stands, cables, an audio interface with the right amount of inputs and a drummer who is able to deliver the grooves you want for your song.
Yamaha drum set with microphones
Despite fast computers and modern digital audio workstations, recording drums is still one of the more complicated things in a studio which require all the things mentioned above and also the know how on how to record drums.
Acquiring that knowledge takes time, hundreds of recording sessions, patience, talent and – yes, quite some money.
All that hassle falls away with Ezdrummer 3!
Let's see what it can do for you.
The Ezdrummer 3 interface
The Ezdrummer 3 interface has a clean design and I would describe it as quite intuitive. With a few clicks you can switch between 3 recording rooms which are called “main”, “bright” and “tight”.
The Main Room
This is the Toontrack Ezdrummer 3 Main Room with a 6-piece drum set.
In the “main room” there's a 6-piece drum set miced up and here's what it sounds like:
The Bright Room
The Bright Room is ideal for stadium rock, metal and for drum recordings which need to be a little more airy.
Ezdrummer 3 Bright Room
This is what it sounds like:
The Tight Room
The Tight Room is the perfect setup for Soul, Funk, Fusion and music with a nice nostalgic touch.
This is the Toontrack Ezdrummer 3 Tight Room with a muffled drum kit.
This is what it sounds like:
Of course, switching the recording room isn't all you can do to manipulate and change the sound of the drum kits.
Inside every single room, you can choose from several presets which can be selected by a dropdown menu:
This is how to select the Drum Sets in Toontrack Ezdrummer 3.
This is another great way to find the ideal sound as quick as possible.
Still, there's more to fine-tune your selected drum set.
By selecting an instrument – for example snare drum – it is possible to replace it and pick another from the menu:
This is how to replace single instruments in Ezdrummer 3
You can also upload your own samples if you want to create a very individually sounding drum kit.
Let there be Grooves
Ezdrummer 3 makes is easy to find grooves, drum-fills, intros and endings which perfectly fit any song and music genre.
Finding the right Drum Groove is easy in Ezdrummer 3.
Under the “Grooves” tab, you will find more than 2.500 MIDI files which you can drag into your song project.
Tap2Find
Tap2Find is another fantastic way to get your drum groove fast.
Simply tap in what's on your mind the Tap2Find feature will search for the pertaining grooves in its repertoire.
Use the Tap2Find function to find a Drum Groove even faster.
The Grid Editor
In the Grid Editor, you can change the details of your groove.
Add a ghost note on the snare or another kick drum. Change the loudness of a note or create a groove, nobody with 2 arms and 2 feet could ever play at the same time.
The Grid Editor helps to fine tune any drum sound, add or delete notes etc.
Your best friend – the Bandmate
The Bandmate feature is very useful if you need to find the perfect groove for your guitar lick idea or bass line.
The Ezdrummer 3 Bandmate helps you find the perfect groove for your guitar lick, bass line etc.
You just have to drag an audio or MIDI file into the Bandmate, and it will do its search for the ideal drum pattern.
Of course, you can still modify the groove so that it will perfectly fit your needs.
The Mixer
The Mixer is another great feature to customize the sound of any drum grooves and drum fills you created in Ezdrummer 3.
This is the Mixer Window in Ezdrummer 3
Here, you can mix every single microphone and put any instrument into perspective of the next.
There are several overhead microphones which you can bleed into the mix, and of course you can solo or mute single instruments and investigate further how to create the sound you are looking for.
Upgrade your (old) electronic drum set with Ezdrummer 3
If you are looking for an upgrade of your (old) electric drum set, Ezdrummer 3 is exactly what you are looking for!
Here you find a great step-by-step guide on how that upgrade of your sound library works.
I also tried that using the Donner DED 200 and the Donner DED 400, and it works perfectly fine. Within a few minutes any limited drum sound library will get a boost of sounds, and you will love it!
My final thoughts and conclusion
As a professional drummer, I am very impressed by software tools like Ezdrummer 3, which probably is the most sophisticated at the moment.
Years ago, drum beats, created by people who don't play drums, often sounded unnatural. Important elements like ghost notes were missing, or the whole groove was impossible to play for a real drummer.
That will not be the case anymore – no matter who's in charge of creating the drums for any production!
Even someone who has never played an instrument in his or hers life will be able to work with Ezdrummer 3!
Yes, I am a bit confused.
Why would any music producer (on a budget) hire a real (human) drummer if it only costs $179,- to buy Ezdrummer 3?
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments and if this Ezdrummer 3 review was helpful for you.
Thanks in advance and talk soon!
Very good article and excellent "how to" on how to use it. Thanks
Thanks for your comment, Eric!
Have you bought a copy already?
Enjoy and talk soon!
Keno