EZdrummer 3 for Metal: Does It Actually Work?

Toontrack’s EZdrummer 3 is a beast of a songwriting tool. It's fast, the core library sounds great out of the box, and features like Bandmate can turn a simple guitar riff into a fully-fleshed-out song idea in minutes. But when it comes to producing a final, mix-ready metal track, a common complaint pops up: it can sound fake.

We've all heard it. Programmed drums that sound like plastic toys in a vacuum. Blast beats that sound like a machine gun firing the exact same, sterile snare sample over and over. Your brain just checks out.

Here’s the thing, though: many of the most massive, modern metal albums you love are packed with samples and editing. The problem isn’t that we're using tools like EZdrummer 3; it’s how we’re using them. A real drummer is never perfect. They hit with varying velocity, their timing has a human feel, and where the stick lands on the head changes with every hit. That imperfection is what makes a drum performance feel alive.

So, can you get a crushing, realistic metal drum sound from EZdrummer 3? Absolutely. But you have to be willing to get under the hood and mess things up a little. Let’s break down the pros, the cons, and the actionable steps to make EZdrummer 3 sound less like a robot and more like a monster behind the kit.

The Pros: Why EZdrummer 3 Kicks Ass for Metal

EZdrummer 3 has some serious advantages, especially for workflow and getting ideas down fast.

Killer Core Library & Expansions

The stock kits in EZdrummer 3 are genuinely well-recorded and versatile. Toontrack's sampling quality is top-tier. But the real power for metal producers lies in the EZX expansions. Grabbing something like the Modern Metal EZX or the Death Metal EZX gives you mix-ready kits specifically processed and tailored for heavy genres. These aren’t just raw samples; they’re curated sounds designed to punch through a wall of distorted guitars.

The Built-in Grid Editor is Your Best Friend

The internal MIDI grid editor is intuitive and powerful. It’s where you’ll spend most of your time turning a stock groove into a unique performance. You can quickly edit velocities, nudge notes, add ghost notes, and build fills from scratch without ever leaving the plugin. This is crucial for breaking away from the canned feel of pre-made loops.

Insanely Fast Workflow

This is maybe EZdrummer’s biggest strength. Need a drum part for that new riff? Drag the audio into Bandmate and let it generate a beat. Want to find a similar groove? Use the Tap2Find feature. The entire interface is designed to keep you in a creative flow state, which is invaluable during a writing session.

The Cons: Where EZdrummer 3 Can Fall Short (and How to Fix It)

Out of the box, EZdrummer 3 can present a few challenges for a polished metal production.

The "Too Perfect" Problem

This is the number one killer of programmed drum vibes. When every snare hit is quantized to 100% on the grid and hits at the exact same velocity (like a machine), it sounds lifeless. The default grooves can sometimes feel a bit stiff, and simply copy-pasting them will instantly scream "programmed."

Limited Built-in Mixing

The mixer inside EZdrummer 3 is great for balancing the kit and adding some basic effects. But for a pro metal mix, it’s not enough. You’re missing the ability to use your go-to EQs, compressors, and saturators on individual drum shells. The internal processing is good, but it’s not going to replace a dedicated plugin chain with something like a FabFilter Pro-Q 3 or a Slate Digital VMR.

Cymbal Realism

While the drums themselves are fantastic, virtual cymbals can sometimes lack the complex wash and overtones of the real thing. Without careful processing, they can come across as a bit thin or "papery" in a dense mix, especially when you start stacking hi-gain guitars.

Pro Tips for Making EZdrummer 3 Brutal and Realistic

This is where the magic happens. Turning EZdrummer 3 from a great songwriting tool into a mix-ready weapon requires a hands-on approach.

Escape the Grid: Humanize Your MIDI

The key to realism is imperfection. You need to manually program in the human element that makes a live drummer sound so good.

Velocity is Everything

This is non-negotiable. Velocity doesn’t just control volume; in a multi-sampled instrument like EZdrummer 3, it triggers entirely different samples. A snare hit at a velocity of 90 sounds fundamentally different than one at 127.

Think about a real drummer playing a blast beat. They have to play lighter to maintain that speed. Their snare hits are physically weaker than a massive backbeat on two and four. To replicate this:

1. Select the snare notes in the blast beat section within the EZdrummer Grid Editor.
2. Lower their velocities significantly. You'll hear the sample change to a lighter, less aggressive hit—this is what you want.
3. Manually add variation. Go through and nudge the velocity of every other hit up or down by a few values. No two hits should be identical. This subtle change makes a world of difference.

Quantize with Feel (Not to 100%)

Never snap everything perfectly to the grid. A 100% quantized performance is a robotic performance. Instead, aim for something like 85-95% quantization. This tightens up the performance so it doesn't sound sloppy, but it leaves just enough of the original timing variation to give it a human push and pull. Your DAW’s quantize function will have a "strength" or "percentage" setting—use it.

Multi-Outs are Non-Negotiable

To truly shape your drum sound, you must route each part of the kit to its own track in your DAW. In the EZdrummer 3 mixer, change the output of each channel (Kick, Snare, Toms, etc.) to a separate stereo or mono output.

Once you do this, you can:

• Process each drum individually. Now you can put your favorite compressor on the snare to shape its transient. Getting the kick and bass to sit right is way easier when you can apply surgical EQ to each track.
• Use sample reinforcement. Add a punchy one-shot kick sample from a pack like Slate Drums or Joey Sturgis Tones underneath your EZdrummer kick for extra attack and consistency.
• Apply bus processing. Send all your shells to a "Drum Bus" and use some heavy-handed metal compression to glue them together and create that explosive, powerful sound.

Build a Better Room

The "drums in a vacuum" sound often comes from a lack of a cohesive room tone. Instead of relying solely on the EZdrummer room mics, create an aux track in your DAW and put a high-quality reverb on it, like Valhalla VintageVerb or Slate's Verbsuite Classics. Send a bit of each drum (especially the snare and toms) to this reverb bus. This will place all the drums in the same virtual space, making the kit sound like a single, unified instrument.

The Verdict: So, Is EZdrummer 3 Good for Metal?

Yes, absolutely. EZdrummer 3 is an incredible tool for modern metal production, from initial songwriting to the final product. But it’s not a one-click solution. Its power is unlocked when you treat it like a real drum recording—by focusing on the performance, editing with a human touch, and leveraging your own mixing tools to shape the sound.

Programming drums with this level of detail—tweaking velocities, nudging timing, layering samples, and dialing in bus compression—is a craft. It’s what separates an amateur-sounding demo from a professional, hard-hitting track.

Of course, seeing these concepts applied in a real mix is the fastest way to master them. Imagine watching world-class producers like Will Putney, Jens Bogren, or Nolly Getgood (just a few of our Nail The Mix instructors) build a drum sound from the ground up, explaining every single plugin, setting, and decision. That's exactly what we do.

If you’re ready to see how the pros transform programmed drums into a force of nature that can carry a dense metal mix, check out the full catalog of Nail The Mix sessions.