synthetic beats

[satch_luver]

i have been playing the guitar for a long time, but i am a fairly new musician if you know what i mean. took a long time to get my head on straight. well anyway, i am starting to sample some of the newer music and it seems like everything or atleast almost everything in the rock and metal genre had this techno hip-hop beat to it. ok i can dig that, but how are they doing it? i know they are loops, but how do they make them?

i do know a little bit about computers and i know of midi, but i just have no idea how it works for anything other than piano. i understand about midi triggers that control an electronic console with drum sounds programmed in it. the sound that i am talking about is the same sounds found in rap. the bass and the real hard and deep sounding kick drum sound.

the only way that i can reproduce those sounds right now are with a program which i have to control from my computer's keyboard. but then i have to sit there with a metronome and create the whole drum track before i can get started with my guitar. i have no piano type keyboard, so the only source of midi that i have are the fore mentioned programs.

there would be no problem with this if i were a drummer, or if i could even keep a beat on them. any idea on what might help me off the ground short of a real live drummer?