I almost never use Explode. I prefer to have a single MIDI clip that contains all the drum parts. The primary reason for this is so I can easily see where all the different drum hits land relative to each other, which is useful when I want to make manual adjustments to the MIDI notes. When I use Explode, I have to work on each drum part in isolation without an overall picture of what the other drums in the kit are doing.sepulchre wrote:I haven't had a chance to try exactly what you said yet, I work nights. But I'm wondering, do you have to use explode? I generally do individual drum mixing right in EZD.
The one situation where Explode makes sense is if you want to use a different sound source for some of the drum parts. In that case, the individual MIDI clips could be used to drive an NNXT, Kong, Redrum, or some other device besides EZD.
In terms of mixing, you can use EZD's mixer to mix the drums, or you can route the audio from each drum to individual Reason mixer channels (see previous messages in this topic for details on how to do that). I definitely prefer the latter because it allows me to apply my favorite effects to the drums, and each drum is accessible in Reason's mixer along with the rest of the tracks in my song. From a workflow standpoint, it's better to have the entire song mixed from one location - at least for me.
But there's absolutely nothing wrong with using EZD's mixer and simply taking the stereo mix from EZD - it becomes the equivalent of using a drum loop at that point, albeit a highly configurable drum loop, which is fine. But if you want more detailed control over the drum mix and tighter integration with Reason's workflow, then you should route the audio from each drum to Reason's mixer.
Hope that helps.