When I start writing a song, one of the first things I do is make a good drum groove. That gets me in the mood to start playing my guitar and write some inspirational music.

The problem is that there are so many drum products on the market that you have to make a decision right away on the want you want to use for that song. BFD2 has its own drum kits and groove libraries, as does DrumCore, Superior Drummer, Ocean Way Drums, Steven Slate Drums, and Addictive Drums. I have them all.

Toontrack's $49 EZplayer pro solves this problem by changing the MIDI notes of a drum groove or fill on the fly. That means I can use a groove made for Superior Drummer with any of the other products. Brilliant.

I looked back at some of my projects and EZplayer pro is on every single one of them. It's that useful for me. Typically, I'll pick the drum sampler I'm going to use and then put EZplayer on a separate instrument track.