Help needed - Roland TD-12 > EzDrummer?

[dill_the_devil]

Okay guys - I have a feeling this is probably going to garner a response akin to 'RTFM', but I figure maybe someone can help me out.

I've been in a band for the last six months playing rhythm guitar, and we've got a few songs that we reckon we're ready to record. Problem is, up to now our demos have consisted pretty much of me playing rhythm guitar and bass through Guitar Rig 2, Voxengo Boogex and Ampeg SVX and programming the drums in leafdrums. Due to our band's relative poverty, we can't afford much else.

Now, my housemate is also in a band, and his drummer has a set of Roland TD-12 electronic drums, which he will very kindly lend us the use of for recording purposes.

My question is: can anybody point me in the direction of any tutorials or guides which will show me how to:

1) Set up Cubase/EzDrummer to record the output from the drums in such a way that it triggers EzDrummer samples,

2) Export the resultant output from each of the EzDrummer kit parts as WAVs for further mixing/processing on seperate tracks in Cubase.

I'm a total newb with EzDrummer, so any help would be greatly appreciated. My equipment/software consists of:

Soundcard: Creative X-Fi Elite Pro soundcard, including a breakout box with two instrument inputs and MIDI IN and OUT ports.

Cables: Various guitar leads, MIDI leads.

Cubase SX3

EzDrummer

Roland TD-12

Like I say, I imagine this will probably end up being a RTFM jobbie, but I just wondered whether there were any more total-newb-friendly guides out there, or even the experiences of anyone else on the forum who has recorded in the same/a similar manner.

Cheers!

 

[006]

Easy.

Take the MIDI cable and connect the TD-12 to the MIDI input on your sound card's breakout box. In Cubase, make sure your sound card is the selected I/O device. Load EZDrummer in your VST Instruments panel. Create a MIDI track and select the sound card's MIDI input as the track's input, direct the output to EZDrummer (it should be there). In the VST Instruments panel, there should be a button you can click to "Enable all outputs", then open EZDrummer and go the mixer view within the GUI. Right-click on the Track 1 on the KD and go to "multi-channel" so that each track has it's own output. When you do that, Cubase should automatically create 8 tracks for you. Then record-enable the MIDI track and then hit record. Play the drums. It should record the MIDI and also play back EZDrummer samples in real time. With those 8 tracks that should have popped up, you can eq, compress, add verb, etc. the drums in real time without having to bounce them down into WAVs and importing those.

I have used an e-kit with both DFHS and EZDrummer in the past this way and it works great. Not too great for metal if you have a lower end e-kit, but anything else will be fine. If you have a nice e-kit then it should be able to handle any style.

~006

 

[Sloan]

i've dicked with my friend's Roland TD-7 v-drum kit like this and it seemed to work pretty good. Great for getting down basic tracks so you can go back in and tweak it to make it sound like you kickass on drums. lol. I actually didn't have an interface at the time with MIDI so I used an edirol MIDI to USB converter and it worked.

 

[006]

Yeah, I used an Edirol UM-1ex MIDI->USB converter myself.

~006

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I was going to pitch in but 006 explained it perfectly.

 

[006]

Yar

~006

 

[dill_the_devil]

Thanks 006, that's awesome - as soon as I've got the recording done, I'll post the results up here for everyone's amusement. Just one further question - I read somewhere that it's possible to get EzDrummer to use the TD-12's in-built samples rather than using EzDrummer's sample library - is that true? I assume EzDrummer's samples are better than the TD-12's anyway, but it's always nice to have the choice.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Yep just set the output on the midi track to the soundcard instead of the ez drummer VST.

Got to connect the midi out on the soundcard to the TD-12 though.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

This is what toontrack says on their forum:

There are no specific support for triggering edrums with EZdrummer as a sound source.

Drum modules that adhere to the GM specifications should trigger the appropriate sounds in most cases or with very little setup but the sampler is completely unoptimized for specialist triggering such as electronic drums.

You may however couple EZdrummer with Toontrack solo to improve the EZdrummer response to your Edrum, you may nonetheless be required to adjust some triggers inside your module but hihat response should be significantly smoother.

If you require comprehensive edrum support as well as tailored templates, complete with careful tweaks for your brand and model of controller, please refer to the Superior product page which was designed to perform in that capacity and is a mature and acclaimed platform for that purpose.