Recording - January 2015 - 56

Toontrack Reggae EZX and Made Of Metal EZX for EZdrummer 2
B Y M I K E M E T L AY

Toontrack's EZdrummer 2 (reviewed June
2014) is popular for its ease of use and great
sound, but it's also much loved for its expandability via EZX Sound Expansions. If you want
to work in a particular style that isn't well suited to the core pop/rock library that comes
with EZdrummer 2, it's a cinch to download
an EZX to suit what you're trying to play.
Each EZX comes with new drum and cymbal
sounds, new mix signal-processing
options, and a library of styleappropriate MIDI grooves to
get you started (extra MIDI
grooves are often available as
a separate purchase).
For this issue on rockin'
rhythms, we're going to take
a very quick look (and listen)
to the two newest EZX options
from Toontrack: Reggae EZX
and Made Of Metal EZX.
Reggae EZX was recorded
at Rub-a-Dub Studios in
Stockholm-maybe not what
you'd expect for a genre that
started in Jamaica! But the
sound of the two kits recorded
here, Rub-a-Dub's famed Premier
kit from the 1970s and drummer Axel
Andersson's customized Yamaha Stage
Custom kit (with a choice of tunings and
damping for each drum), is all about the
real thing. The drum room is warm and the
ambience is convincing, and the kits are
rounded out with a nice selection of Ludwig
and Tama snares, cymbals by Paiste,
Zildjian, Sabian, Meinl, and Ufip, and a
cool selection of hand drums and optional
percussion. You can choose from binghi,
clay drum, octobans (remember those?),
timbale, wood blocks, and even a
vibraslap. Gotta have vibraslap....

The five preset kits
include mixes with genreappropriate processing,
from a thick phaser on the
overheads in the Flanged
Roots kit to the classic dubby
echo on the Wet Roots and
Dampened Spring kits.
Another nice touch is a separate mix channel for an
overdriven mono stem to add grit. The
library is rounded out with straight and
shuffle MIDI grooves for six different song
arrangements from 100 to 125 BPM. Song
structures are simple-beats, fills, and intro
fills for four of the songs, and simple handdrum beats for the other two-but they
have great feel and dynamics and fit beautifully into the reggae space.
If you're a user of Toontrack's top-line
virtual drum software Superior Drummer
and were hungry for content in this
genre, rejoice-Reggae EZX works with
Superior Drummer 2.4.0 and later. And if
that's not enough for you, Toontrack also
offers a Reggae Beats MIDI groove

Audix D6 Anniversary Edition
Introduced in 2002, the Audix D6 has helped to
define the modern kick drum sound and has become
one of those rare modern microphones that has
already achieved classic status. To celebrate its 30th
year in business, Audix is releasing a limited edition
run of 750 D6 mics with a special finish. This finish is
a five-layer hand-dipped anodized process which
looks like a retro multi-layered paint splatter (see the
photo); no two finishes will be exactly alike.
The D6 is a dynamic microphone with a VLM cardioid
capsule housed in a machined aluminum body. At 45/8"
long with a 2" diameter, the D6 is one of the more compact
56

RECORDING January 2015

library and a collection of Reggaeinspired presets for EZmix, so you can
keep it irie from start to finish.
Made Of Metal EZX showcases the production chops of Colin Richardson, known
for his work with bands like Slipknot and
Machine Head. (Just as we went to press,
a companion EZmix Pack was released,
offering complementary effects presets for
this material.) Drummer Jason Bowld was
recorded by Richardson and engineer Carl
Bown in the cavernous, glorious-sounding
main room at Galaxy Studios in Belgium.
Jason plays the living crap out of four beautiful kits (DW, Tama, Truth, and Mapex)
with a variety of Paiste, Zildjian A and K,
and Sabian cymbals, plus alternate drums
like a gorgeous Brady jarrah (Australian
eucalyptus wood) snare. The five preset
kits/mixes provide a nice range of tones,
with slick ride work, tight and machine-gunaccurate kick, and a variety of monstrous
snare tones... even without the simple oneknob compression and the absolutely
vicious gated reverb on the snare.
The library comes with four sets of MIDI
arrangements ranging from 150 BPM to
an ear-bleeding 240 BPM, with intro,
verse, prechorus, chorus, bridge, and fill
variations. The kick work alone is enough
to make you headbang, especially at the
higher tempo settings; layer in a flatpicked bass with the mids tweaked to
bring out upper harmonics and attack,
then add a downtuned rhythm guitar and
a screaming lead, and you're ready to
set the planet on fire. And yes, I think that
is a bullet hole in the kick drum head.
Prices: $89 each
More from: Toontrack, www.toontrack.com

B Y PA U L V N U K J R .

kick drum mics on the market. That makes it one of the easiest to place, especially stuffed through a sound hole.
It has a 30 Hz to 15 kHz frequency response, a 0.8 mV
/ Pa @ 80 Hz sensitivity, and a max SPL handling of 144
dB. It comes with a mic clip and an Audix cloth pouch.
The D6 is sonically contoured with a 2 dB low end
bump centering on 60 Hz. This slopes smoothly down
into an 8 dB mid cut between 300 Hz and 1.25 kHz,
after which it climbs up to a 5 to 10 dB high end boost
from 3 kHz to 18 kHz. Why would a kick-centric mic like
the D6 boast such an impressive top boost? It's all about
the beater click, baby!

http://www.toontrack.com

Recording - January 2015

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