
Hello everyone! I'm Yuki Kito, a guitar instructor. Recently, I went to Ikea to look around and see what I could find to make my room more comfortable, but in the end I decided to spend the money I had saved on a plug-in, so I came home empty-handed. I guess that's why my room will never be stylish…
This time, I'd like to introduce some plugins that will greatly help you with your composition! There are lots of plugins that will help you improve the “quality” of your composition, such as Serum and Avenger synths, Addictive Drums 2 and other drum sound sources, and so on.
As the title suggests, this time I'll be introducing plugins that will help you with the fundamentals of composition and arrangement.
I've actually bought and used it after hearing from the arrangers and composers around me that it's really useful and convenient, and it really is.
1. TOONTRACK / EZ KEYS - GRAND PIANO Download delivery
The first one we'll introduce is EZ KEYS, which is released by TOONTRACK. At first glance, it looks like a normal piano sound source, but EZ KEYS is a little different.
In short, this is a piano sound source that “creates piano accompaniment patterns by specifying the genre and tempo”.
It makes detailed suggestions about accompaniment patterns for different tempos in genres such as jazz and pop. Ever since I started doing DTM, I've regretted about 500 times how I wish I could play the piano. And I'm sure that piano-related problems are particularly common among string players.
EZ KEYS is a great support tool for times like this.
In terms of operability, it is very easy to use even for first-time users.
There are also shortcut keys, so once you get used to operating it, you can use it at lightning speed. The main ways to use it are as follows.
- Write MIDI with the code typed in
- Export the written MIDI
- Open EZ KEYS and import the exported MIDI file
- Combine sections
- Find and apply your favorite accompaniment pattern while playing back the song in the DAW
- When you have decided on your favorite accompaniment, drag and drop
- Just plug in the piano or electric piano plug-in you want to play, and you're done!
When you buy EZ KEYS, you automatically get a lot of accompaniment presets, but there are also a wide variety of MIDI patterns available to suit your own musical genre. Purchasing additional MIDI will make it even easier to use, and will make you even happier.
→ TOONTRACK / EZKEY MIDI 6PACK / BOX
2. TOONTRACK / EZ BASS/BOX
Next, I'll introduce EZ BASS, the bass version of TOONTRACK, just like EZ KEYS! Like EZ KEYS, this is also a very convenient plug-in.
Just select a genre and enter the chord progression, and you'll get lots of easy-to-use bass patterns for that genre, so just select and drag & drop like you do with EZ KEYS!
Another nice feature of EZ BASS is that you can easily play slide-in, slide-out, hammering, slap and ghost notes, which are all unique to the bass.
MIDI packs are also sold separately for EZ BASS. You can choose from a wide variety of patterns, from 80s pop to modern R&B, jazz and rock!
There is another convenient feature called Audio Tracker, which suggests a bass line that matches the rhythm of the audio source when you play a wav audio file.
When you're having trouble writing a song, when you can't decide on the arrangement for the bass part, when you need to save time by simplifying things... This is an excellent plug-in that can handle everything from everyday use to rush jobs.
→ TOONTRACK / EZBASS MIDI 6 PACK Download delivery
3. TOONTRACK / EZ DRUMMER 3 Download delivery
The last plugin I'd like to introduce is one that I'm currently very interested in.
It has a collection of 7 different drum kits, so it should be fun to find the sound you like for simply playing rhythms by hand.
Naturally, it has a large number of drum patterns built in as an EZ product.
When drumming is done with a fixed velocity, it tends to give the impression that the drums have been “programmed”. If you write in the velocity in detail, it can take quite a long time...
EZ DRUMMER 3 has a humanize function that automatically adjusts the randomness of subtle velocity, as if it were being played by a human.
For this reason, even if you use the rhythm patterns from EZ DRUMMER 3 in your music by dragging and dropping them, it will be difficult to achieve the “programmed” feel mentioned above. As a result, it will improve the quality of your music.
Just like with EZ BASS and KEYS, you can make rhythm patterns that match your specific genre by purchasing additional MIDI packs.
→ TOONTRACK / DRUM MIDI 6PACK / BOX
In this article, I have introduced three types of the EZ series from TOONTRACK as plug-ins that help with the fundamentals of composition!
There is also a plugin called EZ MIX2 that has been released, and it seems to create sounds that suit each genre, so I'm very interested in it.
Did you find any plugins that interest you? I hope this will be helpful for you when choosing plugins.
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