The best way to route EZDrummer & Superior Drummer in Logic Pro

Let's face it: As good as Logic Pro's included virtual drummer might be, Toontrack's EZDrummer and Superior Drummer are still the way to go for programming drums. The only thing that always bugged me is that Logic only let's you create 16 outputs for each virtual instruments - even if the instrument itself would give you more output channels and therefore more flexibility when it comes to processing the individual parts of the kit. You know what I'm talking about, this little plus sign next to the fader on the mixer:

But as it turns out, there is a better way to route the outputs from EZDrummer and Superior Drummer not only to as many Aux tracks as the respective instrument allows (in case of EZDrummer: 32), but also to split the stereo output channels into two mono tracks. That way you could feed up to 64 tracks in Logic with the signals coming from the instrument.

Furthermore, you can easily route the aux tracks to audio tracks and therefore record whole performances as audio files within Logic Pro and then treat them as if they were regular drum recordings.

How to this? Well, the short version goes as follows:

First: Load EZDrummer or Superior Drummer as a Multi-Out instrument.

Then change the routing so that Out 3/4 is carrying the signal from Kick In and Kick Out, Out 5/6 the signal from Kick Sub and Snare Top, Out 7/8 the signal from Snare Bottom and Rack Tom 1 and so on.

Then make sure to pan the two parts of the kit either fully to the left or to the right so that Kick In for example will only play on the left side (therefore output 3) while Kick Out plays on the right side (output 4). Stereo mics like OH should always share a output pair like 15/16 as seen in the picture above.

Next go to Logic Pro's mixer and create an Aux channel for each part of the kit that you want to treat as an individual track. To do that, go to the mixer menu and chose Options --> Create New Auxiliary Channel or use the shortcut CTRL + N. Then select all the aux tracks by clicking on the furthest on the left and on the furthest on the right while holding Shift. Hit the shortcut CTRL + T to create tracks from the aux channels.

Last but not least, add Logic's gain plugin (Plugins --> Utility --> Gain --> Stereo) to every channel that's supposed to be a mono track. Set the plugin as follows for outputs that play on the left (odd numbers like 3, 5 and 7):

For even numbers, dial Input Balance all the way to the right.

If you pull up the faders and play a groove in EZDrummer, you should no be hearing all the elements of the kit coming out on individual channels. Hooray!

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial with more tipps and tricks for recording the outputs and saving them as a template, watch this video I made: