On the subject of "real" sounding drums...
So I'm channel surfing just now and there's the MJ "This Is It" documentary showing the rehearsals he was doing for the tour right before he died....and the song they were rehearsing when I tuned in was " Billie Jean".
Now I was never a big MJ fan...but one can't deny that he had a HUGE following and he was talented....weird, but talented.
Anyway...I figure I would watch it just until that song ended, and what immediately catches my ear is the sound of the Snare drum.
Man...it sounds like someone hitting a large paper bag with a rolled up newspaper.
There is no bottom-end, no "crack"...just that papery thwack.
Point being...if I was flipping through drum samples and came upon that kind of Snare sample, I wouldn't even give it a second thought because it just wouldn't sound "real" to me...yet there he was, a *real" drummer, playing a *real" drum kit on stage.
I can't say what was done to the drums with processing and what have you....but it just wouldn't be the kind of Snare that I would consider a "real" Snare sound that I would want to use....yet for that song, it just seemed to be the right choice and it was a "real" drum.
If you want to check it out...it's the last rehearsal song in the movie, about 5 minutes before the end.
So I think people sometimes make too much about "real" drums when talking about drum sample, as though there are only certain drum sounds that would qualify as real, when in fact there's all kinds, they just have to fit the song.
Keep in mind that every drum sample came from a real drum being played by a real drummer.