Thoughts on EZX Metalheads

So after a week of playing with them, I like them. Here's a sort clip from the meshuggah midis. It's processed [allot].
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5072151/kourampies.mp3

The "trigger"channels are weird. At first I thought they would be just that, a sample blender, but basically it's the core sound, the other channels sound like different/or low volume mike positions and are useless on their own, just as Calippo said.

Did you mix in the other channels as well in your clip or used the trigger channels only on this one?

I did a mix of both in this small clip I made:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/970622/metalheads%2019dec.mp3

Overall a bit too thin imo, although I start liking the kick, still not a fan of the snare, but I'm sure this kit is very useful for blending.
 
Yeah I had all the channels, from you clip (nice one by the way!) it sounds to me like you have the DW kicks, I used the Haake ones.

It's definitely nice for blending. The thing is that the samples are preprocessed as it is, with a certain sound (very reminiscent of Swedish producers actually - no surprise there) and you can't really coax anything much different from them. The kicks are good if you like their sound, but I can't get them to make that more aggressive death metal type "klats" sound :p They go "doop" and "click" :p

It's a good base kit, but it needs a little more (samples or mixing aptitude) depending on taste.
 
Nice guitar tone! It does sound better with blending. How did you use AD? Did you double the midi track and mute the other parts of the kit? I ordered Slate EX and I was wondering how to blend the two :)

The cymbals have real weight in them, they are definitely the best part of the package! I used very light compression on the overheads and the room with DensityII. Brings them forward in a nice way.

I'm coming around to the DW kicks myself they cut better, I found that SonEQ works great on them!

Here's a clip with the previous settings (Ludwig snare and Sonor kicks)
 
Yes, I copy the midi track and delete everything except kick and snare.
After that I bring the levels down on the metalheads snare and kick so the cymbals and hihat don't get overwhelmed. And just try to see which volume levels of each kit make a nice blend.

You have a pretty good mix over there, but very thin drums like expected.
Good luck with the blending, I'm sure it'll make your kit much better and more useful for in the future.
If you blended them with Slate EX give me a shout, like to hear it.
 
When on earth did this come out?
I thought I had all the expansions.

Not a fan of the snares either.
 
I'm toying around with the aptrigga demo and some samples that are floating around here on the forum. It makes a huge difference.

I agree that the snares and the DW kicks are thin sounding. Not DfH thin, but yeah...

When I get SSD I'll try a combination and see how it goes. That fucking kick from the metallica kit sounds monstrous ;)
 
exactly! that bell is awesome, even on both rides, they sound quite different but are both very nice imo.

well, this is just a little 'test' track, not an actual song, I was trying to get a 'tight' sound, fear factory in the back of my head. the Krank amp was actually used on the Transgression album, I bought it from ex FF member Christian Olde Wolbers, it's a Krankenstein prototype and it sure works good for tight stuff, I even like it more than my Mesa boogie for that and putting aside my mesa doesn't happen a lot.

I might write a full song with this mixing setup in the future and use it as a promo song to show my mixing/mastering skills on my website.

Is there anything you'd like to see different in the mix?
 
Oh and yes, they even sound thin on the toontrack site,
but they were smart enough to choose the right artists and tracks that fit nice with this drums.
The My Dear Addiction song they show off sounds really nice imo, metalheads fits nice for that.
 
Funny you say that cause I was trying blending them with some Fear Factory kicks I found here. I'm still trying to find a nice snare to augment the ones on the package.

How do you like the toms? I think they are a bit flabby with that low ressonace I hate on toms...

Your mix sounds grate to me man, apart from the sorta thin snares and kicks ;)

Excactly. The drums fit in "that" sound (on toontrack's site) and they also sound pretty good and full bodied on their own, but with heavier stuff in a mix they have a "thinness". They worth it for that fucking bell! I swear I wanna put all my cymbal hits on the bell :p
 
The toms are quite okay, but I don't know if you got Superior? I tryed the envelope in Superior on the metalheads toms and they really help making them shorter realistically and they become punchier by this as well.